The Lefty Award winners, the Derringer Award finalists, the Dove Award, and Nero Award winners have all been announced.

LEFTY AWARDS

The Lefty Awards were presented at Left Coast Crime 2025 on March 15.

BEST HUMOROUS MYSTERY NOVEL

• Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books)

BEST HISTORICAL MYSTERY NOVEL
(Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970

• John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime)

BEST DEBUT MYSTERY NOVEL

• Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane Books)

BEST MYSTERY NOVEL
(not in other categories)

• James L’Etoile, Served Cold (Level Best Books)

DERRINGER AWARDS

The Short Mystery Fiction Society revealed the 2025 Derringer Award finalists on April 1. The winners will be posted on May 1.

FLASH

• Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell; (Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
•  Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile; (Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
•  La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman; (Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
•  Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone; (Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
•  Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson; (Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)

SHORT STORY 

• “Skeeter’s Bar and Grill” by Julie Hastrup; (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• “The Wind Phone” by Josh Pachter; (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
• “The Heist” by Bill Pronzini; (Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
• “The Last Chance Coalition” by Judy Penz Sheluk; (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• “The Kratz Gambit” by Mark Thielman; (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

LONG STORY

• “How Mary’s Garden Grew” by Elizabeth Elwood; (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
• “Heart of Darkness” by Tammy Euliano; (Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)
• “Putting Things Right” by Peter W. J. Hayes; (Thrill Ride – The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
• “Motive Factor X” by Joseph Andre Thomas; (Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
• “Cold Comfort” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins; (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

 NOVELETTE

• “A Band of Scheming Women” by Joslyn Chase; (Thrill Ride – The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
• “Christmas Dinner” by Robert Lopresti; (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
• “Barracuda Backfire” by Tom Milani; (Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
• “Her Dangerously Clever Hands” by Karen Odden; (Crimeucopia – Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
• “The Cadillac Job” by Stacy Woodson (Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024)

ANTHOLOGY

• Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024, Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books
• Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books
• Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press
• Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology; Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books
• New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6, Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books
• The 13th Letter, Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing

DOVE AWARD

The Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Assocation has named the 2025 Dove Award recipient. The Dove Award is named for mystery-fiction scholar George N. Dove and given to “individuals who have contributed to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction.”

Dove Awardee: David Geherin, professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University, who is an Edgar nominee in the Best Critical/Biographical category this year for Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows. He received earlier Edgar nominations for The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations (2022), Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction (2008; also nominated for a Macavity Award), and The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction (1985). His other books include Carl Hiaasen: Sunshine State Satirist (2019), Funny Thing About Murder: Modes of Humor in Crime Fiction and Films (2017), Small Towns in Recent American Crime Fiction (2015), and Elmore Leonard (1989).   

NERO AWARD

In December, The Wolfe Pack announced the Nero Award and Black Orchid Novella Award winners.

Nero Award for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories: 

• Ariel Lawhon — The Frozen River

The Black Orchid Novella Award, presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, celebrates the novella format popularized by Stout

• T. M. Bradshaw: “Double Take.” It will be published in the July 2025 issue of AHMM. 

Honorable mentions for the Black Orchid Novella Award include Peter Hoppock’s “Precipice”; Andrew Kass’s “Deadline”; Jenny Ramaley’s “Workplace Rules for a Fire-Breathing Dragon”; and Ella Rutledge’s “Murder at the Y.T.D.”