Mustering Macavity Seekers

Mystery Readers International (MRI) has announced its contenders for the 2024 Macavity Awards, in five different categories.

Best Mystery:
• Dark Ride, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• Hide, by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Happiness Falls, by Angie Kim (Hogarth)
• Murder Book, by Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press)
• Crook Manifesto, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Best First Mystery:
• The Peacock and the Sparrow, by I.S. Berry (Atria)
• The Golden Gate, by Amy Chua (Minotaur)
• Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy (Zando/Gillian Flynn)
• Murder by Degrees, by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)
• Dutch Threat, by Josh Pachter (Genius)
• Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story:
• “Real Courage,” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, October 2023)
• “Green and California Bound,” by Curtis Ippolito (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2023)
• “Ticket to Ride,” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, (from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)
• “Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand,” by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Originals)
• “One Night in 1965,” by Stacy Woodson (from More Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
• Time's Undoing, by Cheryl Head (Dutton)
• Evergreen, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• The River We Remember, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
• Our Lying Kin, by Claudia Hagadus Long (Kasva Press)
• The Mistress of Bhatia House, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (Riverhead)

Best Mystery-related Non-fiction/Critical:
• Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)
• Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction, by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Mysterious Press)
• A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe,
by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press)
• Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall,
by Zeke Faux (Crown Currency)
• Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert
Morgan (LSU Press)

The Macavity Awards are named for T.S. Eliot’s “mystery cat” (in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats), with winners selected by MRI members and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. The prize recipients are usually announced at Bouchercon, which will take place this year in Nashville, Tennessee, from August 28 to September 1.

Congratulations to all of the nominees!