Criminal Plots Reading Challenge III

This challenge is hosted by Criminal-plots. You'll be reading six books between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. One book (or in one case two short stories) should be read that fits into each of the following categories:

1. Novel with an animal in the title (examples: Hose Monkey, As the Crow Flies, Ink Flamingos, The Monkey's Raincoat)

2. Two short stories written by two different authors who are new to you - you can take these from magazines, anthologies, ezines. Your choice! If you're not sure where to start try The Best American Mystery Stories anthology. It's a yearly anthology and you'll find plenty to choose from.

3. Book written by more than one person. This can be a book written by a duo, like Tania Carver, Michael Stanley, Charles Todd. Or it can be a collaborate novel like No Rest for the Dead. And for the short story enthusiasts out there, this can be an anthology; however, if you choose to use an anthology for #2, this should be a different anthology.

4. A YA crime novel. This is an area where I've been wanting to read more, so it's a category this year. Several notable adult authors are writing YA these days: Sophie Littlefield, Harlan Coben, John Grisham, Kathy Reichs, but feel free to spread your wings and try out any YA crime/mystery novel.

5. A book from a series optioned for televsion.   This can be a series with a show that already exists: Bones, Rizzoli and Isles,Longmire, or it can be a series that's been optioned but hasn't been made yet: Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series, Louise Penny's Three Pines series, Marcia Clark's Rachel Knight series, Michael Koryta's Lincoln Perry series.

6. A novel that's been nominated for an Edgar® in the last five years. This should be a book you haven't read before. You can use any of the full book categories (fiction or non-fiction): best novel, best paperback original, best first novel, etc. You can check out their database to see what might strike your fancy.

Other Important Details:

• You can read the books in any format you choose: print, audio, e-book, etc.
• You can read books from any sub-genre of crime fiction: hardboiled, P.I., police procedural, cozy, thriller, etc.
• You do not need to have a blog to participate.
• You can use the books for other challenges but one book cannot count for more than one category in THIS challenge.
• Books do not need to be pre-determined. You can choose them at any time throughout the year. And you can read them in whatever order you choose.

I will come back and post the books and link to the reviews when I've read them