The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City, USA. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theater published or produced in the previous year.
On the nominees’ list for 2015 announced recently for Best Paperback Original is a name some of you are familiar with, Nigerian born Chris Abani. The book that earned him his nomination is The Secret History of Las Vegas about a Las Vegas detective Salazar is determined to solve a recent spate of murders before he can retire.
As our friends from Amazon state, “When he encounters a pair of conjoined twins with a container of blood near their car, he’s sure he has apprehended the killers, and enlists the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in the study of psychopaths. As Sunil tries to crack the twins, the implications of his research grow darker. Haunted by his betrayal of loved ones back home during apartheid, he seeks solace in the love of Asia, a prostitute with hopes of escaping that life. But Sunil’s own troubled past is fast on his heels in the form of a would-be assassin.”
Abani has some previous honours already. He won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. , Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and a raft of others that you can read on his wiki page. It’s a serious resume right there. This is why we wouldn’t be too shocked if our brother wins the award.
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