MACAVITY AWARD NOMINATIONS 2025

The Macavity Award Nominations 2025
(for works published in 2024)

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 in September.

Want to be a member/subscriber, go here. Mystery Readers Journal themes for 2025: London Mysteries II; Retail Murder; Northern California Mysteries; Cross-Genre Mysteries. MRJ is available in print copy (mailed) and PDF download. 

Macavity Award Nominations 2025

For works published in 2024

Best Mystery Novel

Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Crime)

Served Cold by James L’Etoile (Level Best Books)

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead)

California Bear by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Doubleday)

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Crown)

Best First Mystery

Outraged by Brian Copeland (Dutton)

A Reluctant Spy by David Goodman (Headline)

Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita (Crooked Lane)

You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen (Dutton)

The Expat by Hansen Shi (Pegasus Crime)

Holy City by Henry Wise (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Best Mystery Short Story

“Home Game” by Craig Faustus Buck (in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024)

“The Postman Always Flirts Twice” by Barb Goffman (in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy)

“Curse of the Supertaster” by Leslie Karst (in Black Cat Weekly, Feb 23, 2024)

“Two for One” by Art Taylor (in Murder, Neat)

“Satan’s Spit” by Gabriel Valjan (in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem)

“Reynisfjara” by Kristopher Zgorski (in Mystery Most International)

Best Historical Mystery

The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)

An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)

Fog City by Claire Johnson (Level Best Books)

The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan (Soho Crime)

The Bootlegger’s Daughter by Nadine Nettmann (Lake Union)

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)

Best Nonfiction/Critical

Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland)

Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)

Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis (Pegasus Crime)

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson  (Crown)

On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson  (Ohio State University Press)

Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press)

***

Macavity: The Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot

Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw—
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!

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.

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!

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 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.

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!

2023 MACAVITY AWARDS: Mystery Readers International

The Macavity Nominations 2023 
(for works published in 2022)

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Stay tuned for your ballot. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the San Diego Bouchercon in late August. 

Congratulations to all.

 

Best Mystery Novel
 
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (MCD)
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)
 
 

Best First Mystery

 
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/EmilyBestler) 
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)
The Verifiers by Jane Pek (Vintage Books)
The Maid by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
 
 
Best Mystery Short Story
 
“The Landscaper’s Wife” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, Aug/Sep 2022)
“Beauty and the Beyotch” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Jan 2022)
“First You Dream, Then You Die” by Donna Moore (in Black is the Night, Titan Books)
“Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mar/Apr 2022) 
“Stockholm” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories)
“The Angel of Rome” by Jess Walter (in The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, Harper)
“My Two-Legs” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2022)
 
 
Best Mystery Critical/Biographical
 
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie edited by Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin (McFarland)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)
 
 
Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
 
The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
The Secret in the Wall by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen (Forge)

 

MACAVITY AWARD NOMINATIONS 2022

The Macavity Award Nominees 2022
(for works published in 2021)

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the Minneapolis Bouchercon. 

Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI, a subscriber to MRJ, or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot later this week, so get reading. Ballots will be due by August 15.

MACAVITY NOMINEES 2022 

 

BEST MYSTERY NOVEL

 

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Co.) 

 

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books) 

 

1979 by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly) 

 

Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks (World Noir)

 

We Begin at the End, Chris Whitaker (Henry Holt) 

 

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

 

 

BEST FIRST MYSTERY NOVEL

 

Who is Maude Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown) 

 

Girl A, Abigail Dean (Viking)

 

Deer Season by Erin Flanagan (University of Nebraska Press)

 

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)

 

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)

 

 

BEST MYSTERY SHORT STORY

 

“Lucky Thirteen,” by Tracy Clark (Midnight Hour, Crooked Lane Books)

 

“Sweeps Week,” by Richard Helms (EQMM, July/August 2021)

 

“Curious Incidents,” by Steve Hockensmith (EQMM, January/February 2021)

 

“The Road to Hana,” by R.T. Lawton (AHMM, May/June 2021)

 

“The White Star,” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, July/August 2021)

 

“The Locked Room Library,” by Gigi Pandian (EQMM, July/August 2021)

 

“Julius Katz and the Two Cousins,” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, July/August 2021) 

 

BEST NONFICTION/CRITICAL

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins)

 

How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King (Scribner)

 

The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most 

Remarkable Escape in History by Margalit Fox (Random House)

 

The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene (W.W. Norton) 

 

Tony Hillerman: A Life by James McGrath Morris (University of Oklahoma) 

 

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 

 

The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White (W.W. Norton)

 

BEST HISTORICAL MYSTERY: Sue Feder Memorial Award

 

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)

 

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime) 

 

The Hollywood Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)

 

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

 

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey) 

 

Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day (William Morrow)

MACAVITY AWARD NOMINEES 2020

The Macavity Award Nominees 2020
(for works published in 2019)

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the Virtual Sacramento Bouchercon. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI, a subscriber to MRJ, or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot by August 1, so get reading.

Best Mystery Novel 
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Ecco)
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (Wm. Morrow)
The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Mulholland)
The Murder List by Hank Philippi Ryan (Forge)
Sarah Jane by James Sallis (Soho Crime)

Best First Mystery 
The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge (Agora Books)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (Penguin)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (Sarah Crichton Books)
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (Random House)

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 (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 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 (University Press of Kentucky)
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan (Bloomsbury)
Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan (Counterpoint)
The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin (Counterpoint Press)

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

Links to the Macavity Award Short Story Nominees

Thanks to Paul D. Marks for collating the links to the Macavity Award Nominated Short Stories.
 
Macavity ballots will come out on August 1st. Here's your chance to read the nominated short stories. They're listed below, alphabetically by author’s last name. Just an FYI: The stories by Craig Faustus Buck, Paul D. Marks, and Art Taylor are free to read. The others are links to books in which they appear.

Lawrence Block, “Autumn at the Automat”: http://amzn.to/2vsnyBP

Craig Faustus Buck, “Blank Shot”: http://tinyurl.com/BlankShot-Buck

Greg Herren, “Survivor’s Guilt”: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Bayou-Bouchercon-…/…/1943402345

Paul D. Marks, “Ghosts of Bunker Hill”: http://pauldmarks.com/stories/

Joyce Carol Oates, “The Crawl Space”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6INC6I

Art Taylor’s, “Parallel Play”: http://www.arttaylorwriter.com/books/6715-2/

Macavity Award Nominations 2017

The Macavity Award Nominees 2017

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Toronto, Thursday, October 12. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI or a subscriber to MRJ or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot on August 1, so get reading. To check if you're eligible to vote, leave a comment below with your email.

Best Novel 
• You Will Know Me, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)
• Dark Fissures, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
• Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (UK, Hodder & Stoughton; US, Grand Central Publishing)
• Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (UK, John Murray; US, Soho)
• Wilde Lake, by Laura Lippman (Wm. Morrow)
• A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best First Novel 
• The Widow, by Fiona Barton (UK, Bantam; US, NAL)
• Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry (Penguin)
• Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Mulholland Books)
• Design for Dying, by Renee Patrick (Forge)

Best Short Story 
• “Autumn at the Automat,” by Lawrence Block (In Sunlight or in Shadow, Pegasus Books)
• “Blank Shot,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Black Coffee, Darkhouse Books)
• “Survivor’s Guilt,” by Greg Herren (Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016, Down & Out Books)
• “Ghosts of Bunker Hill,” by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Dec. 2016)
• “The Crawl Space,” by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sep.–Oct. 2016)
• “Parallel Play,” by Art Taylor (Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning, Wildside Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Novel 
• A Death Along the River Fleet, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
• Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (UK: Headline Review; US, G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Delivering The Truth, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
• The Reek of Red Herrings, by Catriona McPherson (US: Minotaur; UK: Houghton Stodder)
• What Gold Buys, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Heart of Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Best Nonfiction 
• Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats, by Jane K. Cleland (Writer's Digest Books)
• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright Publishing)
• Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, Margaret Kinsman (McFarland)
• Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright Publishing)
• The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin)

Macavity Award Nominees 2016

The Macavity Award Nominees 2016

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in New Orleans in September. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI or a subscriber to MRJ or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot on August 1, so get reading. To check if you're eligible to vote, leave a comment below with your email.

Best Mystery
Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton (Minotaur)
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney  (Morrow)
The Hot Countries by Tim Hallinan (Soho)
The Child Garden by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
Life or Death by Michael Robotham (Mulholland)
The Cartel by Don Winslow (Knopf)

Best First Mystery
Concrete Angel by Patricia Abbott (Polis)
Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)
The Killing Kind by Chris Holm (Mulholland)
Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy  (Putnam)
The Unquiet Dead  by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur)
On the Road with Del and Louise by Art Taylor (Henery)

Best Critical/Biographical
The Golden Age of Murder: The Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)
A Is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)
Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald, edited by Suzanne Marrs & Tom Nolan (Arcade)
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid (Grove)
The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury)

Best Short Story
"The Little Men" by Megan Abbott (MysteriousPress.com/Open Road)
"On Borrowed Time" by Mat Coward (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 2015)
"Sob Sister" by Loren D. Estleman (Detroit Is Our Beat: Tales of the Four Horsemen, Tyrus)
"A Year Without Santa Claus" by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2015)
"Quack and Dwight" by Travis Richardson (Jewish Noir, ed. Kenneth Wishnia, PM Press)
"A Joy Forever" by B.K. Stevens (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March 2015)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award
The Masque of a Murderer by Susanna Calkins  (Minotaur)
A Gilded Grave by Shelley Freydont (Berkley Prime Crime)
Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo by C. Joseph Greaves (Bloomsbury)
The Lady from Zagreb by Philip Kerr (Marian Wood/Putnam)
Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe (Seventh Street)
Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

Macavity Award Nominees 2015

The Macavity Awards are nominated on and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends and supporters of MRI. The nominations below have been published in 2014. Awards will be presented at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, in Raleigh at the opening ceremonies in October. Congratulations to all.

Macavity Award Nominations 2015 (for works published in 2014)

Best Mystery Novel
The Lewis Man, by Peter May (Quercus)
The Last Death of Jack Harbin, by Terry Shames (Seventh Street)
The Killer Next Door, by Alex Marwood (Penguin)
The Day She Died, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
The Missing Place, by Sophie Littlefield (Gallery)
The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best First Mystery Novel
Invisible City, by Julia Dahl (Minotaur)
The Black Hour, by Lori Rader-Day (Seventh Street)
Someone Else’s Skin, by Sarah Hilary (Penguin)
Dear Daughter, by Elizabeth Little (Viking)
Blessed Are the Dead, by Kristi Belcamino (Witness Impulse)
Dry Bones in the Valley, by Tom Bouman (W. W. Norton)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction
Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer's Journey, edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Henery Press)
The Figure of the Detective: A Literary History and Analysis, by Charles Brownson (McFarland)
Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, by J. W. Ocker (Countryman)
400 Things Cops Know: Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman, by Adam Plantinga (Quill Driver)

Best Mystery Short Story
“Honeymoon Sweet” by Craig Faustus Buck, in Murder at the Beach: The Bouchercon Anthology 2014, edited by Dana Cameron (Down & Out)
“The Shadow Knows” by Barb Goffman, in Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley (Wildside)
“Howling at the Moon” by Paul D. Marks, in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014
“The Proxy” by Travis Richardson, in Thuglit #13, Sept./Oct. 2014.
“The Odds Are Against Us” by Art Taylor, in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014

Sue Feder Memorial Award: Best Historical Mystery
Queen of Hearts, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)
Present Darkness, by Malla Nunn (Atria)
A Deadly Measure of Brimstone, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur)
An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris (Knopf)
Hunting Shadows, by Charles Todd (Wm. Morrow)
Things Half in Shadow, by Alan Finn (Gallery)

Macavity Award Nominations 2014

MACAVITY AWARD NOMINATIONS

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members and friends of Mystery Readers International and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. Nominations are for works published in the U.S. in 2013. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention in Long Beach (CA) on November 13. Congratulations to all!

Best Mystery Novel
Sandrine’s Case by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press)
Dead Lions by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)
The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood (Penguin Books)
How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur Books)

Best First Mystery 
Yesterday’s Echo by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing)
Rage Against the Dying by Becky Masterman (Minotaur Books)
Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine Books)
Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames (Seventh Street Books)

Best Mystery Short Story 
“The Terminal” by Reed Farrel Coleman (Kwik Krimes, edited by Otto Penzler; Thomas & Mercer)
“The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository” by John Connolly (Bibliomysteries: Short Tales about Deadly Books, edited by Otto Penzler; Bookspan)
“The Dragon’s Tail” by Martin Limon (Nightmare Range: The Collected Sueno and Bascom Short Stories, Soho Books)
“The Hindi Houdini” by Gigi Pandian (Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside Press)
“Incident on the 405” by Travis Richardson (The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey; Macmillan)
 “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)

Best Nonfiction
The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley's Masterpiece by Roseanne Montillo (William Morrow)
Being Cool: The Work of Elmore Leonard by Charles J. Rzepka (Johns Hopkins University Press)
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award 
A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur Books)
Saving Lincoln by Robert Kresge (ABQ Press)
Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur Books)
Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell (Little, Brown)
Ratlines by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

Macavity Award Nominations

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International.  Mystery Readers Journal is MRI's publication. The winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention. Bouchercon will be held in St. Louis in September. This award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats).

Congratulations to all!

Macavity Award Nominees:

Best Mystery Novel
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins-William Morrow)
Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer (Grove Atlantic)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)

Best First Mystery Novel
The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson (Forge)
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Forge-Tom Doherty Associates)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)
Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill (Wildside)
A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic (Viking)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (Penguin)
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction edited by Maxim Jakubowski (New Holland)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank W Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

Best Mystery Short Story
“The Scent of Lilacs” by Doug Allyn (EQMM)
“Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron in Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side (Berkley)
“Devil’s Pocket” by Keith Gilman in Philadelphia Noir (Akashic)
“The Gods for Vengeance Cry” by Richard Helms (EQMM)
“Bookworm” by G.M. Malliet in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ (Wildside)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton (Berkley)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Random House)
City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)
The Red Door by Charles Todd (HarperCollins- William Morrow)
The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia (HarperCollins-William Morrow)

Macavity Award Nominations

MACAVITY NOMINATIONS. Mystery Readers International awards the Macavity for works published in 2008. The awards will be presented in October at Bouchercon in Indianapolis.

Best Mystery Novel
Trigger City by Sean Chercover (Wm. Morrow)
Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie (Wm. Morrow)
The Dying Breed (UK)/ The Price of Blood (US) by Declan Hughes (John Murray/ Wm. Morrow)
The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur)
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure (Minotaur)

Best First Mystery
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)
Calumet City by Charlie Newton (Simon & Schuster)
An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt (Onyx)
A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (Harper; Headline)
The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell (Minotaur)

Best Nonfiction/Critical
African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland)
Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories by Leonard Cassuto (Columbia Univ.)
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson (Perseverance Press)
Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction by David Geherin (McFarland)
Edgar Allan Poe : An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Harry Lee Poe (Metro)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale (Walker)

Best Mystery Short Story
"The Night Things Changed" by Dana Cameron (Wolfsbane & Mistletoe, ed. by Harris & Kelner, Penguin)
"A Sleep Not Unlike Death" by Sean Chercover (Hardcore Hardboiled, ed. by Todd Robinson, Kensington)
"Keeping Watch Over His Flock" by Toni L. P. Kelner (Wolfsbane & Mistletoe, ed. by Harris & Kelner, Penguin)
"Scratch a Woman" by Laura Lippman (Hardly Knew Her, Wm. Morrow)
"Between the Dark and the Daylight" by Tom Piccirilli (EQMM, Sep/Oct 2008)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)
Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen (Oceanview)
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss (Thorndike/ Random House UK)
Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland (Michael Joseph/ Delacorte)
Nox Dormienda by Kelli Stanley (Five Star)

Congratulations to all!