A Bit Tardy, but Still Welcome

Those of us who attended this year’s Bouchercon in San Diego were surprised to hear that no announcement of the 2023 Macavity Award winners would be made during the convention, even as several other types of prizes were dispensed. This was because Janet Rudolph, the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and director of Mystery Readers International, which sponsor those annual honors, could not make it to San Diego due to illness. We were told, instead, that the latest Macavity recipients would be named at a future date.

Well, apparently that date is today, and the 2023 winners are ...

Best Mystery Novel:
A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Back to the Garden, by Laurie R. King (Bantam); Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone (MCD); A Heart Full of Headstones, by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown); Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley); and Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best First Mystery:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler); Five Moves of Doom, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane); and The Verifiers, by Jane Pek (Vintage)

Best Mystery Short Story: “Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, January 2022)

Also nominated: “The Landscaper’s Wife,” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, August/September 2022); “First You Dream, Then You Die,” by Donna Moore (from Black Is the Night: Stories Inspired by Cornell Woolrich, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Titan); “Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2022); “Stockholm,” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories); “The Angel of Rome,” by Jess Walter (from The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, by Jess Walter; Harper); and “My Two-Legs,” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2022)

Best Mystery Critical/Biographical:
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Also nominated: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, edited by Mary Anna Evans and J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic); The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations, by David Geherin (McFarland); and Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

Also nominated: The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton); Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow); The Secret in the Wall, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press); and One-Shot Harry, by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)

As the Mystery Readers International Web site explains, “The Macavity Award derives its name from the ‘mystery cat’ of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats).”