Walter’s ‘Citizen Vince’ wins top mystery award

Spokane author Jess Walter was the surprised winner of an Edgar award Thursday night in New York for his third novel, “Citizen Vince.”

“One of the judges asked me what I thought my odds were, and I said, ‘I don’t think they go that low,’ ” Walter said in an interview from his hotel room.

Walter said he was so confident one of the other nominees would get the award for best mystery fiction that he almost didn’t go to the ceremony.

“I had some frequent-flyer tickets for the kids, so I thought, ‘Oh, we’ll go, anyway,’ ” he said.

But he didn’t prepare a speech, and he didn’t remember much of the one he wound up giving.

“I said I was glad they didn’t let us bet on these things because I would have lost some money,” Walter said.

Since 1954, the Mystery Writers of America have given the awards to honor the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction produced the previous year. Previous Edgar award winners include Raymond Chandler, Tony Hillerman, Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke.

At the ceremony, Walter thanked his publisher and his wife, Anne Windishar, a former Spokesman-Review assistant city editor, “who has been so supportive and such a good editor of the books.” After that, he said, “it was kind of a blur.”

Walter said his Edgar award reminded him of his own days as a Spokesman-Review reporter. The statue of Edgar Allen Poe “looks strangely like Chris Peck,” a former editor of the newspaper.

Aside from the trophy, he said, “people shake your hand and hopefully a few more books sell, but I’m not sure what you get.”

One thing he got was an opportunity to hand out some advance copies of his new novel, “The Zero,” scheduled for release in September, to movie producers and directors in the audience.

Judges who read more than 500 books said they like the unpredictability and freshness of Walter’s “Citizen Vince” about a doughnut-dusting Spokane resident with civic ambitions and an unsavory past that catches up with him.

Although not actually a mystery, the suspenseful tale fell within the broad net that the Mystery Writers of America cast for the award. Other nominees were “The Lincoln Lawyer,” by Michael Connelly; “Red Leaves,” by Thomas H. Cook; “Vanish,” by Tess Gerritsen; and “Drama City,” by George Pelecanos.

Although “Citizen Vince” hasn’t made national best-seller lists, it has appeared on some regional lists and has been praised by numerous critics.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book as compulsively, indeed greedily, as I read ‘Citizen Vince,’ ” wrote Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool.”