2019 Macavity Awards Nominees

Mystery Readers International announced the finalists for the 2019 Macavity Awards on July 25.

The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in five categories.

Best Novel:

  • Lou Berney: November Road (William Morrow)
  • Alison Gaylin: If I Die Tonight (William Morrow)
  • Jane Harper: The Lost Man (Flat Iron Books)
  • Jennifer Hillier: Jar of Hearts (Minotaur Books)
  • Naomi Hirahara: Hiroshima Boy (Prospect Park Books)
  • Lisa Unger: Under My Skin (Harlequin – Park Row Books)

Best First Novel:

  • Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer (Doubleday)
  • John Copenhaver: Dodging and Burning (Pegasus Books)
  • Delia Owens: Where the Crawdads Sing (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  • Catherine Steadman: Something in the Water (Ballantine)
  • C.J. Tudor: The Chalk Man (Crown)

Best Nonfiction:

  • Laird R. Blackwell: The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction (McFarland)
  • Margalit Fox: Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer (Random House)
  • Leslie S. Klinger: Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s (Pegasus Books)
  • Michelle McNamara: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (HarperCollins)
  • Laura Thompson: Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life (Pegasus Books)
  • Sarah Weinman: The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World (HarperCollins)

Best Short Story:

  • Craig Faustus Buck: “Race to Judgment” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)
  • Leslie Budewitz: “All God’s Sparrows” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/Jun 2018)
  • Barb Goffman: “Bug Appétit” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)
  • Barry Lancet: “Three-Star Sushi” (Down & Out: The Magazine, Vol.1, No. 3)
  • Gigi Pandian: “The Cambodian Curse” (The Cambodian Curse and Other Stories)
  • Art Taylor: “English 398: Fiction Workshop” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jul/Aug 2018)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:

  • Dianne Freeman: A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder (Kensington)
  • Elsa Hart: City of Ink (Minotaur)
  • Laurie R. King: Island of the Mad (Bantam)
  • Sujata Massey: The Widows of Malabar Hill (Soho Crime)
  • Ann Parker: A Dying Note (Poisoned Pen)
  • Charles Todd: A Forgotten Place (William Morrow)