Macavitys Hunt for Homes

Nominees were announced today for the 2026 Macavity Awards, sponsored by Mystery Readers International.

Best Mystery Novel:
• Crooks, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• King of Ashes, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Clown Town, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• River of Lies, by James L’Etoile (Oceanview)
• The White Crow, by Michael Robotham (Scribner)
• All This Could Be Yours, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur)

Best First Mystery:
• Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Minotaur)
• Dead Money, by Jakob Kerr (Bantam)
• Voices of the Elysian Fields, by Michael Rigg (Level Best)
• Stillwater, by Tanya Scott (Grove Atlantic)
• History Lessons, by Zoe B. Wallbrook (Soho Press)

Best Mystery Non-fiction:
• Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide to New England, by Dawn M. Barclay (Level Best)
• Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation, by Michael Cannell (Minotaur)
• Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, by Caroline Fraser (Penguin Press)
• V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie’s Chemicals of Death, by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)
• Edgar Allan Poe: A Life, by Richard Kopley (University of
Virginia Press)
• Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard, by C.M. Kushins (Mariner)

Best Mystery Short Story:
• “Six-Armed Robbery,” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (from Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous, edited by John Betancourt, Carla Coupe, and Michael Bracken; Wildside Press)
• “Hollywood Prometheus,” by Christa Faust (from Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West; Bywater)
• “Finding Jimmy Baldwin,” by Cheryl Head (from Crime Ink: Iconic)
• “The Devil Himself,” by Vaseem Khan (from Double Crossing Van Dine, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor;
Crippen & Landru)
• “The Skies Are Red,” by Richie Narvaez (from On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, edited by Curtis Ippolito; Rock and a Hard Place Press)
• “Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush,” by Dave Zeltserman (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2025)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery:
• Bye Bye Blackbird, by Elizabeth Crowens (Level Best)
• A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder, by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
• City Lights, by Claire M. Johnson (Level Best)
• The Case of the Christie Conspiracy, by Kelly Oliver (Boldwood)
• The Case of the Missing Maid, by Rob Osler (Kensington)
• No. 10 Doyers Street, by Radha Vatsal (Level Best)

The Macavitys are named after Macavity the Mystery Cat, a character in T.S. Eliot’s 1939 poetry book, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Ballots for this year’s prize will be cast by a members of MRI, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and “friends of MRI.” Winners are to be announced sometime this coming fall.