Well, mystery fans, the nominees have been announced for this year's Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Best Mystery and Best First Mystery Novel, and I am stunned to see that James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown didn't receive a nomination. I saw it on the list of books submitted by their publishers, but apparently it didn't make the final cut. I really have no idea why.

Anyway, of this year's nominees, I've read two of the Best Novel nominees (Christine Falls and The Yiddish Policemen's Union) and none of the Best First Novel nominees. I will be reading them and churning out book reviews for you as soon as possible.

This year's Edgar nominees for Best Novel:

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black. A pathologist in 1930s Dublin, Ireland investigates a young woman's suspicious death. This quest will take him from Ireland to the United States and unearth terrible secrets in both his family and involving the Catholic Church.

Priest by Ken Bruen. An alcoholic Irish cop gets released from a mental institution in Galway, Ireland and finds himself launching an unofficial investigation into the beheading of a child-molesting priest. This is the fifth book in the Jack Taylor series.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. In an alternate-history timeline, the post-Holocaust Jews were unable to make their homeland in Palestine, and instead had to settle in Alaska where their culture is East-European and their national language is Yiddish. Now, 60 years later, Alaska is about to revert to the control of the United States, and the Jews may be homeless once more. Against this backdrop of unrest, a troubled cop must work with his long-suffering partner and his ex-wife, now his supervisor, to solve the murder of a mysterious man who has ties to the Hasidic Jews and organized crime.

Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman. In 1980s New York, private investigator Moe Prager receives a strange clue from his friend Larry McDonald, an NYPD detective. It's a tape containing evidence on the unsolved murder of a notorious drug dealer. When McDonald turns up dead, Moe realizes he needs to solve this case even as his marriage is falling apart. This is the fourth book in the Moe Prager series.

Down River by John Hart. A man reluctantly returns to his North Carolina hometown at a friend's request: five years earlier, he got acquitted of a murder charge, but the entire town, including his stepmother who testified against him at the trial, still thinks he's guilty. When his friend disappears and others begin to suffer the same fate, he must solve the mystery to clear his name.

This year's Edgar nominees for Best First Novel:

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell. In Phoenix AZ, A young lawyer and his hard-drinking mentor become embroiled in a high-profile murder case of a wealthy rancher who may have been shot by either his glamorous wife or his unbalanced 12 year-old daughter.

In the Woods by Tana French. Two Irish cops in Dublin, Ireland must solve the murder of a 12 year-old girl from a troubled family. Soon they find that her case has disturbing connections with the unsolved disappearances of two childhood friends of theirs from 20 years ago.

Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard. Benny, a dishwasher in a southern California bar, is really an informer for the police. When he forms an unlikely friendship with a psychopath Vietnam veteran, he soon finds himself unjustly under suspicion for a double-homicide in this darkly comic novel.

Head Games by Craig McDonald. In 1957, a novelist travels to Mexico to retrieve the severed head of Pancho Villa for a senator who wants to use it in a secret ceremony of Yale University's Skull and Bones Society. Along the way, the novelist meets Dashiell Hammett, Marlene Dietrich, Orson Wells, and other larger-than-life historical figures.

Pyres by Derek Nikitas. When a troubled Goth teenager witnesses a gunman murder her father in the parking lot of the local mall, her emotional stability unravels and her mother tries to commit suicide. A police detective who has her own tragic past must take this wrenching case.

You can find The Yiddish Policemen's Union on Amazon.com through this link: The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel and you can also find Snitch Jacket as well as all the other nominees on Amazon through this link: Snitch Jacket