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The Agatha Awards celebrate the TRADITIONAL MYSTERY, best typified by the works of AGATHA CHRISTIE. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence, and would not be classified as "hard-boiled."
The
Agatha Award categories are:
- Best Contemporary Novel
- Best Historical Novel
- Best
First Novel
- Best Nonfiction
- Best Short Story
- Best Children's/Young Adult Novel
(For more information about the Agatha Award process, see: Agatha Award Process | Malice Domestic Ltd.)
Voices of the Elysian Fields—my debut novel—is one of five finalists
in the running for an Agatha as Best First Novel. Here is a short description
of the story:
Two
days before Christmas, Jonathan Gray, M. D., Chief Deputy Coroner for Orleans
Parish, receives shocking news. Robby O’Malley—Jonathan’s mentor for nearly
forty years—has died under mysterious circumstances. Within hours after Robby’s
death, Gray takes the oath of office as Coroner and participates in autopsies
of an elderly couple murdered in their Garden District home. After mass on
Christmas morning, Archbishop Phillip Fontenot asks Gray to investigate the
sexual assault of one of his parishioners, as well as the disappearance of her
sister—without involving the police. As Jonathan winds his way through what
appear to be separate incidents, he uncovers connections and secrets that
members of the city’s power elite would just as soon remain hidden.
Malice Domestic formally
opens on the morning of Friday, April 24, 2026. (There’s early registration, as well as some preliminary activities, on Thursday evening.) The conference ends on Sunday
afternoon (April 26th) around 3:00 p.m. The final session is the annual
Agatha Tea Party and, this year, the Theater of the Air presentation,
“Vengeance in Vegas.”
I believe registration
is still open. For more information, see Home |
Malice Domestic Ltd.
If you’re at Malice this
year, please drop by and say “Hi.” If you’d like to learn more about Voices
of the Elysian Fields (whether you are attending Malice or not), I have a
book trailer and have arranged for the Advance Review Copy (ARC) to be
available on NetGalley for the next few weeks. Of course, you can always check
out the product page on Amazon.com, read a sample and, hopefully, buy a copy.
Relevant links are:
Book
Trailer: "Voices of
the Elysian Fields: A Jonathan Gray, M.D. Mystery" - by Michael Rigg -
BOOK TRAILER
NetGalley:
Voices of the Elysian
Fields | Michael Rigg | 9781685129248 | NetGalley
Amazon
Book Link: Amazon.com:
Voices of the Elysian Fields: A Jonathan Gray, M.D. Mystery: 9781685129248:
Rigg, Michael: Books
I look
forward to seeing you in Bethesda and hope I will earn your vote.
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