Private Eyes on Public Display

On Friday night in Dallas—where this year’s Bouchercon is currently taking place—the Private Eye Writers of America organization hosted a banquet in the city’s Bishop Arts District during which the 2019 Shamus Awards were handed out. There were four prizes up for grabs, but so far I’ve only been able to suss out three of the winners. Even PWA founder and current executive director Robert J. Randisi, communicating from a hotel computer station, wasn’t able to supply me with the recipient of this year’s prize for Best First Private Eye Novel when I contacted him via e-mail yesterday; I’ll just have to add that information to this post later.

For now, here are the other three victors.

Best Private Eye Novel:
What You Want to See, by Kristen Lepionka (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Wrong Light, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime); Baby’s First Felony, by John Straley (Soho Crime); and Cut You Down, by Sam Wiebe (Quercus)

Best Original Private Eye Paperback: The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss, by Max Wirestone (Redhook)

Also nominated: She Talks to Angels, by James D.F. Hannah (Independently published); No Quarter, by John Jantunen (ECW Press); Shark Bait, by Paul Kemprecos (Independently published); and Second Story Man, by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out)

Best Private Eye Short Story:
“Chin Yong-Yun Helps a Fool,” by S.J. Rozan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September-October 2018)

Also nominated: “Fear of the Secular,” by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November-December 2018); “Three-Star Sushi,” by Barry Lancet (Down & Out: The Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 3); “The Big Creep,” by Elizabeth McKenzie (from Santa Cruz Noir, edited by Susie Bright; Akashic); and “Game,” by Twist Phelan (EQMM, September-October 2018)

Congratulations to all of the contenders!

UPDATE: Katrina Carrasco’s The Best Bad Things (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) apparently won the 2019 Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel. Learn more by clicking here.