Mystery Readers International has announced the finalists for the 2018 Macavity Awards.
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
- Karen Dionne: The Marsh King’s Daughter (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
- Anthony Horowitz: Magpie Murders (Harper)
- Attica Locke: Bluebird, Bluebird (Mulholland)
- Louise Penny: Glass Houses (Minotaur)
- Thomas Perry: The Old Man (Mysterious Press)
- Don Winslow: The Force (Wm. Morrow)
Best First Novel
- Kellye Garrett: Hollywood Homicide (Midnight Ink)
- Jane Harper: The Dry (Flatiron)
- Jordan Harper: She Rides Shotgun(Ecco)
- Sheena Kamal: The Lost Ones (Wm. Morrow)
- Kristen Lepionka: The Last Place You Look (Minotaur)
- Wendall Thomas: Lost Luggage (Poisoned Pen)
Best Nonfiction
- Mattias Bostrom: From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon (Mysterious Press)
- Martin Edwards: The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (Poisoned Pen/British Library)
- Lawrence P. Jackson: Chester B. Himes: A Biography (W.W. Norton)
- Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James: The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery (Scribner)
- Michael Sims: Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes(Bloomsbury)
- Tori Telfer: Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History (Harper Perennial)
Best Short Story
- Craig Faustus Buck: “As Ye Sow” (Passport to Murder: Bouchercon Anthology 2017, Down and Out Books)
- Matt Coyle: “The #2 Pencil” (Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, Down & Out Books)
- Terence Faherty: “Infinite Uticas” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017)
- Barb Goffman: “Whose Wine is it Anyway?” (50 Shades of Cabernet, Koehler Books)
- Paul D. Marks: “Windward” (Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, Down & Out Books)
- Art Taylor: “A Necessary Ingredient” (Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, Down & Out Books)
Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Novel
- Renee Patrick: Dangerous to Know (Forge)
- James R. Benn: The Devouring (Soho Crime)
- Rhys Bowen: In Farleigh Field (Lake Union Publishing)
- James W. Ziskin: Cast the First Stone (Seventh Street Books)
- Charles Todd: Racing the Devil (Wm. Morrow)
- Abir Mukherjee: A Rising Man (Pegasus)
[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]
