Mystery Readers International announced the finalists for the 2022 Macavity Awards on July 20.

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, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and “friends of MRI” nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in five categories.

BEST MYSTERY NOVEL

• Laurie R. King: Back to the Garden (Bantam)
• Chris Pavone: Two Nights in Lisbon (MCD)
• Louise Penny: A World of Curiosities (Minotaur)
• Ian Rankin: A Heart Full of Headstones (Little, Brown)
• Deanna Raybourn: Killers of a Certain Age (Berkley)
• Alex Segura: Secret Identity (Flatiron Books)

BEST FIRST MYSTERY

• Jacqueline Bublitz: Before You Knew My Name  (Atria/EmilyBestler)
• A.J. Devlin: Five Moves of Doom (NeWest Press)
• Ramona Emerson: Shutter (Soho Crime)
• Rob Osler: Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books)
• Jane Pek: The Verifiers (Vintage Books)
• Nita Prose: The Maid (Ballantine)

BEST MYSTERY SHORT STORY

• Brendan DuBois: “The Landscaper’s Wife” (Mystery Tribune, Aug/Sep 2022)
• Barb Goffman: “Beauty and the Beyotch” (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Jan 2022)
• Donna Moore: “First You Dream, Then You Die” (Black is the Night, Titan Books)
• Anna Scotti: “Schrödinger, Cat” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mar/Apr 2022)
• Catherine Steadman: “Stockholm” (Amazon Original Stories)
• Jess Walter: “The Angel of Rome” (in The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, Harper)
• Melissa Yi: “My Two-Legs” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2022)

BEST NONFICTION/CRITICAL

• Martin Edwards: The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators (Collins Crime Club)
• Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal, editors: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie (Bloomsbury Academic)
• David Geherin: The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations (McFarland)
• Lucy Worsley: Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman (Pegasus Crime)

SUE FEDER MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST HISTORICAL MYSTERY

• Mariah Fredericks: The Lindbergh Nanny (Minotaur)
• Catriona McPherson: In Place of Fear (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Wanda M. Morris: Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
• Ann Parker: The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Gary Phillips: One-Shot Harry (Soho Crime)
• Lev A.C. Rosen: Lavender House (Forge)