The Strand Selects Its Stars

I wasn’t available to watch last evening, when The Strand Magazine’s 2022 Critics Award winners were announced on Zoom. But Mystery Fanfare carried the news this morning. It seems fortune was determined to shine fondly once again on Virginia author S.A. Cosby, whose 2021 tale, Razorblade Tears, recently also picked up the Anthony Award for Best Novel, plus the Barry and Macavity awards for Best Mystery Novel. Below are this year’s Strand critics’ picks.

Best Mystery Debut: Bullet Train, by Kōtarō Isaka;
translated by Sam Malissa (Abrams)

Also nominated: Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown); The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria); Lightseekers, by Femi Kayode (Mulholland); Velvet Was the Night, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey); and All Her Little Secrets, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)

Best Mystery Novel: Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Also nominated: The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); The Low Desert, by Tod Goldberg (Counterpoint); These Toxic Things, by Rachel Howzell Hall (Thomas & Mercer); Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman (Morrow); and 1979, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly)

Publisher of the Year: Morgan Entrekin, president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic in New York City

Lifetime Achievement Awards: Sandra Brown and Nelson DeMille

Congratulations to every one of the 2022 nominees!