Macavity Award Nominations 2026
(for works published in 2025)
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)
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)
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)
“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)
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)
***
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
