Handing Out the Macavitys

During tonight’s opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Toronto, Ontario, the winners of the 2017 Macavity Awards were announced.

Best Novel: A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Also nominated: You Will Know Me, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown); Dark Fissures, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (Grand Central); Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); and Wilde Lake, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel: IQ, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Widow, by Fiona Barton (NAL); Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry (Penguin); Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press); and Design for Dying, by Renee Patrick (Forge)

Best Short Story: “Parallel Play,” by Art Taylor (from Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press)

Also nominated: “Autumn at the Automat,” by Lawrence Block (from In Sunlight or in Shadow, edited by Lawrence Block; Pegasus); “Blank Shot,” by Craig Faustus Buck (from Black Coffee, edited by Andrew MacRae; Darkhouse); “Survivor’s Guilt,” by Greg Herren (from Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016, edited by Greg Herren; Down & Out); “Ghosts of Bunker Hill,” by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], December 2016); and “The Crawl Space,” by Joyce Carol Oates (EQMM, September-October 2016)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Novel: Heart of Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Also nominated: A Death Along the River Fleet, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur); Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam); Delivering the Truth, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink); The Reek of Red Herrings, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur); and What Gold Buys, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)

Best Non-fiction: Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Margaret Kinsman (McFarland)

Also nominated: Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats, by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest); Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright); Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright); and The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin)

Contenders for the annual Macavity Awards are selected by members of Mystery Readers International, the subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and “friends of MRI.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!