Macavity Magic

Winners of the annual Macavity Awards were announced in five categories: Best Mystery; Best First Mystery; Best Mystery Short Story; Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery; and Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical. The awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Mystery: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Also nominated:

• Dark Ride by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
• Hide by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth)
• Murder Book by Thomas Perry (Mysterious)
• Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House - Doubleday) 
  

Best First Mystery: The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria)

Also nominated:

• The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Macmillan Publishing - Minotaur)
• Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books)
• Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster) 
• Dutch Threat by Josh Pachter (Genius Book Publishing) 
• Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (William Morrow)
  

Best Mystery Short Story: “Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, (Happiness is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, ed. Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books)

Also nominated:

• “Real Courage” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Oct. 2023)
• “Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
• “Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand” by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Original Stories) 
• “One Night in 1965” by Stacy Woodson (More Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, ed. Michael Bracken, Down & Out Books)
  

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery: The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated:

• Time's Undoing by Cheryl Head (Dutton)
• Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster-Atria Books) 
• Our Lying Kin by Claudia Hagadus Long (Kasva Press)
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
  

Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical:  Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated:

• Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Mysterious Press/Penzler Publishers) 
• A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press) 
• Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux (Crown Currency) 
• Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)