Here’s some news that got us off to a great start this week–The Agatha Award nominees for 2021 were announced this weekend.  For more than three decades the annual honor has recognized nominees like familiar names John Grisham, Anne Perry, Max Allan Collins, Sue Grafton, Mary Higgins Clark, Charlaine Harris, Janet Evanovich, Ann Cleeves, Rhys Bowen, Charlotte MacLeod, and many more, as well as celebrated those significantly contributing to the mystery genre, like Angela Lansbury and David Suchet.  Nominees are announced early each year and winners awarded at the summer mystery convention Malice Domestic.  The annual list commemorates traditional mystery works typified by the novels of mystery author Agatha Christie (pictured above).  And who was nominated for the 2021 Agatha Award?  Our own borg contributor Elizabeth C. Bunce, for her novel Premeditated Myrtle!  As we mentioned back in January here at borg, Elizabeth and Premeditated Myrtle were previously nominated for the 2021 Edgar Award, in addition to being named to Amazon’s Top 20 Children’s Books of 2020.  The second book in her mystery series, How to Get Away with Myrtle, was a #1 Amazon New Release.  Online webzines Netflix Life and Fansided included the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery Series on its list of “7 Books to Read if You Like Enola Holmes on Netflix.”  The third novel in the mystery series, Cold-Blooded Myrtle, is now available for pre-order here at Amazon, arriving in bookstores in October. In Premeditated Myrtle, readers meet the quick-witted and fearless Myrtle Hardcastle, a twelve-year-old girl with an unseemly obsession with forensic science and criminology.  When Myrtle’s wealthy neighbor dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle is the first to notice anything amiss.  With the help of her unflappable governess and opinionated cat Peony, Myrtle takes it upon herself to follow the clues investigators overlooked.  As more evidence emerges, she begins to believe that the town prosecutor, her own father, is pursuing the wrong man.  Myrtle pores over toxicology textbooks, interrogates suspects, and does the one thing no Young Lady of Quality is ever supposed to do: she Goes Outside Alone After Dark.  Myrtle Hardcastle may be just a twelve-year-old girl, but she is not the type to sit by while grown men botch a murder investigation.  Elizabeth completed her eighth novel and third novel in the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery Series, Cold-Blooded Myrtle, in October and is currently writing the fourth novel in the series.  Learn more about the series and industry reviews of Elizabeth’s books here.  The series is published by Algonquin Young Readers, a division of Workman Publishing Company.  Artwork and design for the series is created by Brett Helquist (A Series of Unfortunate Events), Laura Williams, and Carla Weise.  Check out Elizabeth’s reviews of books and movies at borg here. This year the Malice Domestic mystery genre conference is virtual and renamed More Than Malice.  It will be held July 14-17, 2021.  Read the full list of nominations for the 2021 Agatha Awards at its website here. Congratulations, Elizabeth!