All Eyes on P.I.s

I was just getting ready to shut down my office for the day, when I learned that the Private Eye Writers of America organization has announced the winners of its 2020 Shamus Awards.

Best Original Private Eye Paperback: Behind the Wall of Sleep, by James D.F. Hannah (Self-published)

Also nominated: The Skin Game, by J.D. Allen (Midnight Ink); Paid in Spades, by Richard Helms (Clay Stafford); Ration of Lies, by M. Ruth Myers (Self-published); and The Bird Boys, by Lisa Sandlin (Cinco Puntos Press)

Best Private Eye Short Story: “Sac-A-Lait Man” by O’Neil De Noux (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], September/October 2019)

Also nominated: “The Smoking Bandit of Lakeside Terrace,” by Chad Baker (EQMM, May/June 2019); “The Dunes of Saulkrasti,” by William Burton McCormick (EQMM, September/October 2019); “The Fourteenth Floor,” by Adam Meyer (from Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman; Wildside Press); and “Weathering the Storm” by Michael Pool (from The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes from the Panhandle to the Piney Woods, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out)

Best Private Eye Novel: Lost Tomorrows, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)

Also nominated: The Tower of Songs, by Casey Barrett (Kensington); The Shallows, by Matt Goldman (Forge); Below the Line, by Michael Gould (Dutton); and The Cold Way Home, by Julia Keller (Minotaur)

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)