Macavity

2024 Macavity Awards

Leave a Comment / Bestselling Author, Book List, Featured, Historical, Mystery, Nominated for Award, Short Stories/Collection, Suspense

The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries from the previous year.  Presenting the nominees:

Best Mystery
Dark Ride by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
Hide by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth)
Murder Book by Thomas Perry (Mysterious)
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) 

Best First Mystery
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria)
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Minotaur)
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books)
Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)
Dutch Threat by Josh Pachter (Genius Book Publishing)
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (William. Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story
“Real Courage” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Oct. 2023)
“Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
“Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, (Happiness is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, ed. Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books)
“Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand” by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Original Stories)
“One Night in 1965” by Stacy Woodson (More Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, ed. Michael Bracken, Down & Out Books)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
Time’s Undoing by Cheryl Head (Dutton)
Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Our Lying Kin by Claudia Hagadus Long (Kasva Press)
The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead Books)

Congratulations to all! 

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2022 – Macavity Awards

Leave a Comment / Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Crime, Debut Author, Featured, Historical, Magazine, Mystery, Short Stories/Collection, Suspense

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members and friends of Mystery Readers International, and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. The winners were announced in September at BoucherCon in. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, indicated in red. Mystery Readers International, Mystery Readers Journal, and the Macavity Awards, were created by Anthony Award winner, Janet Rudolph.

 

Best Mystery Novel

  • Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours
  • S.A. Cosby: Razorblade Tears
  • Val McDermid: 1979
  • Alan Parks: Bobby March Will Live Forever
  • Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End
  • Colson Whitehead: Harlem Shuffle

Best First Mystery Novel

  • Alexandra Andrews: Who is Maude Dixon?
  • Abigail Dean: Girl A
  • Erin Flanagan: Deer Season
  • Mia P. Manansala: Arsenic and Adobo
  • Wanda M. Morris: All Her Little Secrets

Best Short Mystery  

  • Tracy Clark: “Lucky Thirteen” (Midnight Hour, Crooked Lane Books)
  • Richard Helms: “Sweeps Week” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
  • Steve Hockensmith: “Curious Incidents” (EQMM, January/February 2021)
  • R.T. Lawton: “The Road to Hana” (AHMM, May/June 2021)
  • G.M. Malliet: “The White Star” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
  • Gigi Pandian: “The Locked Room Library” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
  • Dave Zeltserman: “Julius Katz and the Two Cousins” (EQMM, July/August 2021)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 

  • Rhys Bowen: The Venice Sketchbook
  • Naomi Hirahara: Clark and Division
  • Susan Elia MacNeal: The Hollywood Spy
  • Sujata Massey: The Bombay Prince
  • Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Velvet was the Night
  • Lori Rader-Day: Death at Greenway                                                                                                                                                                     

2022 – Macavity Awards Read More »

Macavity Awards – 2021

Award Winner, Bestselling Author, Cozy, Crime, Debut Author, Featured, Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Short Stories/Collection, Suspense

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members and friends of Mystery Readers International, and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. Normally presented at BoucherCon, the 2021 Macavity winners were announced prior to the virtual presentation in late August, due to Covid. BoucherCon New Orleans is being postponed until 2025.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners (indicated in red).

Mystery Readers International, Mystery Readers Journal, and the Macavity Awards, were created by Anthony Award winner, the fabulous Janet Rudolph.

Best Novel 
“Before She Was Helen” by Caroline B. Cooney
“Blacktop Wasteland” by S.A. Cosby
“Blind Vigil” by Matt Coyle  
“All the Devils Are Here” by Louise Penny
“These Women” by Ivy Pochoda  
“When She Was Good” by Michael Robotham

 

Best First 
“Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line” by Deepa Anappara  
“Murder in Old Bombay” by Nev March  
“The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman  
“Winter Counts” by David Heska Wanbli Weider  
“Darling Rose Gold” by Stephanie Wrobel

 

Best Short Story 
“Dear Emily Etiquette” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2020) 
“The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2020) 
“Elysian Fields” by Gabriel Valjan (California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press) 
“Dog Eat Dog” by Elaine Viets (The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads Publishing) 
“The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King; Pegasus Crime)

 

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 
“The Last Mrs. Summers” by Rhys Bowen  
“The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne” by Elsa Hart
“The Turning Tide” by Catriona McPherson
“Mortal Music” by Ann Parker  
“The Mimosa Tree Mystery” by Ovidia Yu
“Turn to Stone” by James Ziskin

Macavity Awards – 2021 Read More »

Macavity Awards – 2020

Leave a Comment / Bestselling Author, Crime, Debut Author, Fiction, Historical, Magazine, Mystery, Non-fiction, Quaker, Short Stories/Collection, Suspense

Each year the members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers of Mystery Readers Journal (and friends of MRI) nominate their favorite mysteries in five categories from the previous year for the Macavity Awards. The winners of this coveted award were announced at opening ceremonies at the Virtual Sacramento Bouchercon, in October, 2020, and are indicated in red.

Mystery Readers International, Mystery Readers Journal, and the Macavity Awards, were created by Anthony Award winner, Janet Rudolph.

 

Best Mystery Novel 
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
The Murder List by Hank Philippi Ryan
Sarah Jane by James Sallis

 

Best First Mystery 
The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

 

Best Mystery Short Story 
“West Texas Barbecue” by Michael Chandos (The Eyes of Texas, edited by Michael Bracken—Down & Out Books)
“Alex’s Choice” by Barb Goffman (Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman—Wildside Press)
“The Cardboard Box” by Terence Faherty (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2019)
“Whiteout” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2019)
“Brother’s Keeper” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, May/June 2019)
“Better Days,” by Art Taylor (EQMM, May/June 2019)

 

Best Mystery Nonfiction/Critical
Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell
Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan
Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan
The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, by Mo Moulton
Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin

 

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins
The Pearl Dagger by L.A. Chandlar
A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman
Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey
Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

 

Congratulations to all for writing such a marvelous group of works from which to choose!

 

Macavity Awards – 2020 Read More »

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