Mystery Readers International announced the finalists for the 2020 Macavity Awards on July 16.

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 Mystery Novel

• Steph Cha: Your House Will Pay (Ecco)
• William Kent Krueger: This Tender Land (Atria)
• Laura Lippman: Lady in the Lake (Wm. Morrow)
• Adrian McKinty: The Chain (Mulholland)
• Hank Philippi Ryan: The Murder List (Forge)
• James Sallis: Sarah Jane (Soho Crime)

Best First Mystery

• Tori Eldridge: The Ninja Daughter (Agora Books)
• Samantha Downing: My Lovely Wife (Penguin)
• Angie Kim: Miracle Creek (Sarah Crichton Books)
• Tara Laskowski: One Night Gone (Graydon House)
• J.P. Pomare: Call Me Evie (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Lauren Wilkinson: American Spy (Random House)

Best Mystery Short Story

• Michael Chandos: “West Texas Barbecue” (The Eyes of Texas, edited by Michael Bracken—Down & Out Books)
• Barb Goffman: “Alex’s Choice” (Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman—Wildside Press)
• Terence Faherty: “The Cardboard Box” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2019)
• G.M. Malliet: “Whiteout” (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2019)
• Dave Zeltserman: “Brother’s Keeper” (EQMM, May/June 2019)
• Art Taylor: “Better Days” (EQMM, May/June 2019)

Best Mystery Nonfiction/Critical

• John Billheimer: Hitchcock and the Censors (University Press of Kentucky)
• Laird R. Blackwell: Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story (McFarland)
• Ursula Buchan: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan (Bloomsbury)
• Peter Houlahan: Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History (Counterpoint)
• Mo Moulton: The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women (Basic Books)
• James Polchin: Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall (Counterpoint Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery

• Susanna Calkins: Murder Knocks Twice (Minotaur)
• L.A. Chandlar: The Pearl Dagger (Kensington)
• Dianne Freeman: A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder (Kensington)
• Sujata Massey: The Satapur Moonstone (Soho Crime)
• Edith Maxwell: Charity’s Burden (Midnight Ink)
• Lara Prescott: The Secrets We Kept (Vintage)