It seems to me that a series writer has a tougher time winning awards that a writer of stand-alone novels, and not just in the mystery field -- just look at how Laura Ingalls Wilder never won a Newbery, and Beverly Cleary had to wait for hers until she wrote a stand-alone "problem novel." Since I greatly enjoy watching characters develop through a series, I'm always disappointed when a favorite is nominated but doesn't get the final prize.

I picked up Winter and Night at a used book sale some time ago and left it on the shelf until I reached it in the progression of Edgar Best Novel winners. Normally I like to begin at the beginning of a series but for this reading project I decided to go in "cold" if the author was new to me.

First, Winter and Night was certainly deserving of the 2003 Edgar Best Novel award. Oddly, (and I gather the judges change regularly so this may be the reason), three of the four nominees who were runners-up were also series entries, which is somewhat unusual. I enjoyed the two I've read, and I would have had a hard time choosing between Manda Scott's No Good Deed and the winner, but I would find it hard to quibble with the judges' choice in this case.

Rozan set herself a difficult task in this book. She artfully mingles "ripped-from-the-headlines" topics (to tell what they are would introduce too many spoilers), a decades-old case whose resolution is in doubt, one of the most complicated revenge stories I've ever encountered, and a major revelation by one of her protagonists, private investigator Bill Smith, about his past. I was riveted from beginning to end. The secondary characters are well-drawn and nuanced even when they at first seem to be stereotypes. And of course, the relationship -- whatever it is! -- between Bill and his younger partner, Lydia Chin, is intriguing. I will definitely need to read the remainder of the series and hope it continues for a long time. Highly recommended.