The 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)
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!
