The State of the Crime Novel in 2021: A Roundtable With the Edgar Awards Nominees

As the Mystery Writers of America prepare to hand out the year’s top honors, nominees discuss the crime fiction world.

After a very, very long year, the Edgar Awards are once again upon us. 2021 marks the 75th year that Mystery Writers of America will celebrate the best crime and mystery writing, and while 2020 was an abysmal year by any other metric, it was a stellar year for great new books. In what’s become a tradition here at CrimeReads, our editors partnered with MWA to organize a giant roundtable discussion between the Edgar nominees, and we received responses from over 30 authors, each with their own fascinating take on our beloved genre. The Edgar Awards Ceremony begins at 1 PM EST on Thursday, the 29th, via Zoom. You can read the second part of this discussion, focused on the challenges and silver linings of writing during a pandemic, on Thursday morning. Read the roundtable discussion at Crime Reads.