Friday, July 10, 2026
Thursday, July 9, 2026
The Chelsea Detective News
I am so looking forward to this season!
Season 4 sees DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough, Falling, Killing Eve, 1917) and DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme, Dublin Murders, Three Families) return to tackle new murder cases within the elite world of Chelsea. The detective duo, together with their team, delve once more into the darker side of Chelsea that lurks beneath its glossy façade.
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Macavity Award Nominations 2026
Macavity Award Nominations 2026
(for works published in 2025)
The Macavity Award is named after Macavity: The Mystery Cat, in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats! Scroll down to read the poem.
The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congratulations to all!
Ballots will be sent out next week to members of MRI, subscribers to MRJ, and to friends of MRI. Look for it in your email. Winners will be announced this Fall.
Want to be a member/subscriber, go here. Mystery Readers Journal themes for 2026: Fairs, Fetes, and Festivals; Mysteries set in France; Cross-Genre Mysteries; and Mysteries set in India.
Macavity Nominations 2026 (for works published in 2025)
Best Mystery Novel
Crooks by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
Clown Town by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
River of Lies by James L'Etoile (Oceanview Publishing)
The White Crow by Michael Robotham (Scribner)
All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur Books)
Best First Mystery
Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Minotaur Books)
Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (Bantam Books)
Voices of the Elysian Fields by Michael Rigg (Level Best Books)
Stillwater by Tanya Scott (Grove Atlantic)
History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook (Soho Press)
Best Mystery Nonfiction
Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide to New England by Dawn M. Barclay (Level Best Books)
Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation by Michael Cannell (Minotaur Books)
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (Penguin Press)
V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie's Chemicals of Death by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)
Edgar Allan Poe: A Life by Richard Kopley (University of Virginia Press)
Cooler than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins (Mariner Books)
Best Mystery Short Story
“Six-Armed Robbery” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (in Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous, edited by John Betancourt, Carla Coupe, and Michael Bracken, Wildside Press)
“Hollywood Prometheus” by Christa Faust (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)
“Finding Jimmy Baldwin” by Cheryl Head (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)
“The Devil Himself” by Vaseem Khan (in Double Crossing Van Dine, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor, Crippen & Landru Publishers)
“The Skies Are Red” by Richie Narvaez (in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press)
“Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush” by Dave Zeltserman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2025)
Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
Bye Bye Blackbird by Elizabeth Crowens (Level Best Books)
A Daughter's Guide to Mothers and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington Books)
City Lights by Claire M. Johnson (Level Best Books)
The Case of the Christie Conspiracy by Kelly Oliver (Boldwood Books)
The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler (Kensington Books)
No. 10 Doyers Street by Radha Vatsal (Level Best Books)
***
Macavity: The Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air—
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air—
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!
Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.
Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square—
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square—
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!
He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair—
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair—
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!
And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty’s gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair—
But it’s useless to investigate—Macavity’s not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
‘It must have been Macavity!’—but he’s a mile away.
You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs;
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair—
But it’s useless to investigate—Macavity’s not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
‘It must have been Macavity!’—but he’s a mile away.
You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs;
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.
Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place—MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place—MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!
Monday, July 6, 2026
BRITISH CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION (CWA) 2026 DAGGER AWARD WINNERS
The British Crime Writers' Association. (CWA) announced the winners of the 2026 Dagger Awards. Congratulations to All.
KAA Gold Dagger:
• The Death of Us, by Abigail Dean (Hemlock Press)Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
• That Dark Spring, by Susannah Stapleton (Picador)
Historical Dagger:
• A Granite Silence, by Nina Allan (Riverrun)
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:
• The Winter Job, by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston (Orenda)
Whodunnit Dagger (for “cosy crime, traditional mysteries, and Golden Age crime” stories):
• A Murder for Miss Hortense, by Mel Pennant (Baskerville)
Twisted Dagger (for “psychological and suspense thrillers”):
• We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough (Orion)
ILP John Creasey (First Novel) Dagger:
• The Peak, by Sam Guthrie (HarperCollins)
Short Story Dagger:
• “The Apple Falls Not Far,” by Ambrose Perry (Canongate)
Emerging Author (for unpublished novels):
• Blind Side of the Sun, by Michael Nikitin
Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”):
• Tim Sullivan
Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”):
• Bitter Lemon Press
Diamond Dagger:
Mark Billingham
Saturday, July 4, 2026
May the Fourth be with You: Vintage Fireworks Fourth of July Postcards!
Fireworks have been a part of Independence Day celebrations for 250 years. Fireworks, though, can be dangerous, especially for children. That's why I find these Vintage Postcards so odd. Today this would be considered "child endangerment." Have a safe Fourth of July... with Liberty and Justice for All!
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