In Reference to Research

In keeping with the original focus of this blog, I decided to highlight the nonfiction books nominated for major mystery awards during 2025 (with winners indicated by an asterisk). Tomorrow, I'll focus more on those books that garnered the most accolades during the year, but I encourage readers and fans of true crime and crime reference to dig into this list and support these authors and their painstaking research. I haven't personally read all of them (yet), but this is a fine list of some of the best recent fact crime and nonfiction studies, all of which are available from most bookstores and libraries. (Winners are denoted with an asterisk.)

AGATHA AWARDS 2025

Best Non-fiction

• * Writing The Cozy Mystery: Authors' Perspectives On Their Craft Edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland) 
• Abingdon's Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lill (The History Press) 
• Agatha Christie, Marple: Expert On Wickedness by Mark Aldridg (HarperCollins) 
• Some Of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing The Columbo Killers by Chris Cha (Level Best Books) 
• The Bookshop: A History Of The American Bookstore by Evan Fris (Viking)
  

ANTHONY AWARDS 2025

Best Critical/Non-fiction:

• * The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, by Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman (Crime Ink) 
• 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) 
• 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)
  

BAD SYDNEY CRIME FESTIVAL DANGER AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Best Crime Nonfiction

• * Black Witness by Amy McQuire (UQP)
• In the Dead of Night by Greg Haddrick (Allen & Unwin)
• The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin)
• Dark City by John Silvester (Pan Macmillan)
• The Outback Court Reporter by Jamelle Wells (HarperCollins)

CAPITAL CRIME FINGERPRINT AWARDS 2025

True Crime Book of the Year

• * Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre) 
• The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World, by Ben Macintyre (Crown) by Ben Macintyre (Crown) 
• The Murder Of Judith Roberts: The Mark Of Peter Sutcliffe, by Chris Clark & Tanita Matthews (Pen and Sword True Crime) 
• The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin Press) 
• The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Cold War's Most Notorious Killer by Ulrik Skotte (WH Allen)

CRIMEFEST AWARDS 2025

H.R.F. Keating award

• * Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins) 
• Allusion in Detective Fiction by Jem Bloomfield (Palgrave Macmillan) 
• Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 by Ashley Bowden (Fabula Mysterium Press) 
• Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction by Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst (Dead Ink) 
• The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female by Sara Lodge (Yale University Press) 
• Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)

CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA AWARDS 2025

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book

• * (tie) Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, by
•  Denise Chong (Random House Canada)
  * (tie) The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.) 
• Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, by Nate Hendley (Dundurn Press) 
• The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, by John L. Hill (AOS Publishing) 
• A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, by Dean Jobb, (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.)

CWA DAGGER AWARDS 2025

Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction

• * The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus) 
• Unmasking Lucy Let by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz (Seven Dials)    
• The Lady in the Lake by Jeremy Craddock (Mirror Books)    
• Framed by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey (Hodder & Stoughton)   
• The Criminal Mind by Duncan Harding (PRH/Michael Joseph)    
• Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming (Quercus)   

DAVITT AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Nonfiction books

• * The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate GB) 
• In Bad Faith:Inside a secret ultra-Orthodox sect and the brutal betrayal it tried to hide by Dassi Erlich (Hachette Australia)- 
• Crimes of the Cross: The Anglican Paedophile Network of Newcastle, Its Protectors and the Man
• Who Fought for Justice by Anne Manne (Black Inc.)
  

EDGARS 2025

Best Critical/Biographical Work

• * James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)
  
• American Film Noir: From the Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) 
• Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing) 
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press) 
• Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins)
  

Best Fact Crime

• * The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown) 
• Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins - Mariner Books) 
• A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books - Pegasus Crime)                       
• The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing - Thomas & Mercer)                           
• Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second
• Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins - Mariner Books) 
• The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co)

KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION AWARDS 2025

Best Nonfiction 

• * Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman And The Woman Who Inspired Him by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss (TwoDot) 
• There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari (Grand Central Publishing) 
• Lovers In Auschwitz: A True Story by Keren Blankfeld (Little, Brown and Company) 
• Ask Not: The Kennedys And The Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan (Little, Brown and Company)

MACAVITY AWARDS 2025

Best Mystery Critical/Biographical

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

NED KELLY AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Best True Crime:

• * A Thousand Miles from Care: The Hunt for My Brother’s Killer – A Thirty-Year True-Crime Quest for Justice , by Steve Johnson (William Collins)
•  They’ll Never Hold Me: The life and crimes of Kevin John Simmonds, Australia's most daring fugitive, by Michael Adams (Affirm Press)
• The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin) 
• Meadow’s Law: The life and crimes of Kevin John Simmonds, Australia's most daring fugitive , by Quentin McDermott (HarperCollins) 
• * The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate GB), by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (HarperCollins)

NGAIO MARSH AWARD (New Zealand) 2025

Best Nonfiction

• * The Crewe Murders: Inside New Zealand's most infamous cold case by Kirsty Johnstone & James Hollings (Massey Uni Press)
•  The Trials Of Nurse Kerr: The anatomy of a secret poisoner by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman Books)
• The Survivors: Stories of Death and Desperation by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)
• The Last Secret Agent: The untold story of my life as a spy behind Nazi enemy lines by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)
• Gangster’s Paradise by Jared Savage (HarperCollins)
• Far North by David White & Angus Gillies (Upstart Press)