The Mystery and Thriller Book Awards Committee

The Mystery and Thriller Book Awards are chosen by a distinguished committee of professionals drawn from the publishing industry. In order to preserve the integrity of the awards, the committee members will remain anonymous. However, the composition of the committee is as follows:

• A New York Times bestselling author who has multiple awards nominations, including the Edgar, Barry and Anthony.
• An editor at a top New York publishing house who has worked with a distinguished lineup of authors, including two of today's top-selling thriller writers.
• An agent who works with a selection of acclaimed writers, including a winner of the Edgar Award.
• A series author who has been nominated for both the Agatha and Anthony Awards multiple times.
• A retired editor who once had two books simultaneously atop the bestseller lists, one fiction and one non-fiction.
• An author published in multiple genres with over two dozen novels in print.
• A New York-based playwright and essayist whose work has appeared Off-Broadway and in major newspapers and magazines across the country.
  

The awards we present won't always be based on a unanimous vote by all seven judges. But each judge will have input and nothing will be decided without a healthy majority decision.

Announcing the Mystery and Thriller Book Awards

We're a group of industry professionals who, like you, are tired of all the awards in the mystery & thriller genre. The Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Barry, Thriller, Gumshoe, Shamus, Nero, Macavity, Hammett, the list goes on ad nauseum. We all know how they are chosen and by whom, and we all know the popularity, cronyism and favoritism inherent in those and all such awards.

That is why we have created the Mystery and Thriller Book Awards -- the Only Real Book Awards. ORBA's for short, because we think it's cute. Selected by an elite committee of professionals (we really are) the ORBA's will not only celebrate the things that are truly important, but will do so with an unbiased and objective eye never before seen in this industry.

We have been behind the curtain of all the traditional awards and we are tired of what we have seen. So, we're doing something about it; offering an alternative.

Welcome, mystery & thriller fans. You are home.