Rolling Out the Macavity Hopefuls

My work on a rewarding piece for another publication has lately deprived me of the free time I would otherwise have spent updating The Rap Sheet. But with that other responsibility almost behind me now, I should be able to devote more energies to this page.

Let me begin this transition back to blogging by announcing the nominees for this year’s Macavity Awards, which will be given out as usual by Mystery Readers International (MRI). The winners will be chosen by members of MRI, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and assorted friends of MRI. Those people should all receive ballots by the end of this week, with their votes due by August 15.

Best Mystery Novel:
• The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• 1979, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Bobby March Will Live Forever, by Alan Parks (World Noir)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Henry Holt)
• Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Best First Mystery Novel:
• Who is Maude Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown)
• Girl A, by Abigail Dean (Viking)
• Deer Season, by Erin Flanagan (University of Nebraska Press)
• Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)
• All Her Little Secrets, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story:
• “Lucky Thirteen,” by Tracy Clark (from Midnight Hour, edited by Abby L. Vandiver; Crooked Lane)
• “Sweeps Week,” by Richard Helms (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], July/August 2021)
• “Curious Incidents,” by Steve Hockensmith (EQMM, January/February 2021)
• “The Road to Hana,” by R.T. Lawton (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2021)
• “The White Star,” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, July/August 2021)
• “The Locked Room Library,” by Gigi Pandian (EQMM,
July/August 2021)
• “Julius Katz and the Two Cousins,” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, July/August 2021)

Best Non-fiction/Critical:
• Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World, by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins)
• How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King (Scribner)
• The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History, by Margalit Fox (Random House)
• The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene,
by Richard Greene (Norton)
• Tony Hillerman: A Life, by James McGrath Morris
(University of Oklahoma)
• The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science, by John Tresch (Farrar, Straus
and Giroux)
• The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense, by Edward White (Norton)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
• The Venice Sketchbook, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)
• Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• The Hollywood Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
• The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• Velvet Was the Night, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
• Death at Greenway, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)

Recipients of these prizes will be announced on Thursday, September 9, during opening ceremonies at the 2022 Bouchercon in Minneapolis.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)