The 2025 Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award Finalists. Named after the popular pocket pistol, this award recognizes outstanding stories published during 2024. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2025.FLASH
Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell
(Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile
(Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman
(Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone
(Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson
(Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)
SHORT STORY
"Skeeter's Bar and Grill" by Julie Hastrup
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
"The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
"The Heist" by Bill Pronzini
(Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
"The Last Chance Coalition" by Judy Penz Sheluk
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
"The Kratz Gambit" by Mark Thielman
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
LONG STORY
"How Mary’s Garden Grew" by Elizabeth Elwood
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
"Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano
(Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)
"Putting Things Right" by Peter W. J. Hayes
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
"Motive Factor X" by Joseph Andre Thomas
(Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
"Cold Comfort" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
NOVELETTE
"A Band of Scheming Women" by Joslyn Chase
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
"Christmas Dinner" by Robert Lopresti
(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
"Barracuda Backfire" by Tom Milani
(Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
"Her Dangerously Clever Hands" by Karen Odden
(Crimeucopia - Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
"The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson
(Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024
ANTHOLOGY
(Previously Announced)
Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024
Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books
Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead
Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books
Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense
Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press
Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology
Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books
New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6
Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books
The 13th Letter
Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing
