Winners of the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America and announced last night, are:
- Best Novel: Down River by John Hart (St. Martin's Minotaur)
- Best First Novel by an American Author: In the Woods by Tana French (Viking)
- Best Paperback Original: Queenpin by Megan Abbott (S&S)
- Best Fact Crime: Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi (Norton)
- Best Critical/Biographical: Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (Penguin Press)
- Best Short Story: "The Golden Gopher" in Los Angeles Noir by Susan Straight (Akashic Books)
- Best Juvenile: The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion Books for Young Readers)
- Best Young Adult: Rat Life by Tedd Arnold (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin)
- Best Play: Panic by Joseph Goodrich (International Mystery Writers' Festival)
- Best TV Episode Teleplay: "Pilot" for Burn Notice, teleplay by Matt Nix (USA Network/Fox Television Studios)
- Best Motion Picture Screenplay: Michael Clayton, screenplay by Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros. Pictures)
- Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: "The Catch," in Still Waters by Mark Ammons (Level Best Books)
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Richard Morgan's novel Black Man, "a science fiction thriller, which follows a black, genetically-modified assassin, or Variant Thirteen, in pursuit of a serial killer," has won the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction.
According to the Guardian, Morgan "was thrilled at the award, greeting the winner's . . . cheque with the words 'holy shit.'"
"There has been a lot of controversy about this year's shortlist," he said later. "It's nice to have won against the mainstream contenders because it shows the genre has tremendous self-confidence."
The shortlist included The Red Men by Matthew de Albuitia, The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter, The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall and The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod.