The Private Eye Writers of America announced the 2020 Shamus Awards finalists on June 3. The juried award is given for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2019.

 Best PI Hardcover

• The Tower of Songs by Casey Barrett (Kensington)
• Lost Tomorrows by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
• The Shadows by Matt Goldman (Forge)
• Below the Line by Michael Gould (Dutton)
• Cold Way by Julia Keller (Minotaur)

Best First PI Paperback Original

• The Skin Game by JD Allen (Midnight Ink)
• Behind the Wall of Sleep by James DF Hannah (author)
• Paid in Spades by Richard Helms (Clay Stafford Books)
• Ration of Lies by M. Ruth Myers (author)
• The Bird Boys by Lisa Sandlin (Cinco Puntos Press)

Best PI Short Story

• “The Smoking Bandit of Lakeside Terrace” by Chad Baker (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine May/June)
• “Sac-A-Lait Man” by O’Neil De Noux (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Sept/Oct)
• “The Dunes of Saulkrasti” by William Burton McCormick (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Sept/Oct)
• “The Fourteenth Floor” by Adam Meyer (Crime Travel anthology, Wildside Press)
• “Weathering the Storm” by Michael Pool (The Eyes of Texas anthology, Down & Out Books)

Judges:  John Wessel, John Hegenberger, Mark Keliikoa, Stephen Rogers, Michael Pool, Virginia Welker, Matt Coyle, Michael Bracken, Kristen Lepionka, Colleen Collins, Matt Goldman and Alan Orloff

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]