A Warm Reception for “Frozen”

Last evening brought the news that British crime novelist Elly Griffiths (aka Domenica de Rosa) has won this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for The Frozen People (Quercus).

Also contending for that prize were The Midnight King, by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper); The Death of Us, by Abigail Dean (Hemlock Press); Beautiful Ugly, by Alice Feeney (Pan); Clown Town, by Mick Herron (Baskerville); and Quantum of Menace, by Vaseem Khan (Zaffre).

The announcement of Griffiths’ victory was delivered on the opening night of the 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Revue of Reviewers: 7-23-26

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

Awaiting the Falchions and Scribes

The organizers of this year’s Killer Nashville conference, scheduled to take place in the Tennessee capital from August 20 to 23, have announced the finalists for their Silver Falchion Awards. There are 18 categories of nominees in all, but two that might be of particular interest to Rap Sheet readers are featured below.

Best Mystery:
• The Demonologists’ Legacy, by K. Scott Culpepper (Scotland)
• A Dead Draw, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
• Rule One, by Michael Lucker (Wordeee)
• Hard Town, by Adam Plantinga (Grand Central)
• Damage Control, by Kirsten Shuford (Kirsten Shuford)
• Broke Road, by Matthew Spencer (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Thriller:
• Welcome to Cottonmouth, by Jay S. Bell (Blackstone)
• Line of Succession, by David Bruns and J.R. Olson (Severn River)
• Seraph, by Cheryl Fallin (Waterfowl)
• The Forbidden Strain, by Brian Montross (Independently published)
• The Butcher and the Liar, by S.L. Woeppel (Books Fluent)
• All That Lies Beneath, by D.L. Wood (Independently published)

Click here to see the full rundown of 2026 Silver Falchion candidates. The winners will be revealed on Saturday, August 22.

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Meanwhile, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has released its contenders for the 2026 Scribe Awards. A press release on Facebook says these prizes are meant to acknowledge and promote authors “working in this often overlooked and underrepresented facet of publishing and the entertainment industry.”

In the General Fiction category are several crime-fiction titles:

• Murder, She Wrote: Snowy With a Chance of Murder, by
Barbara Early (Berkley)
• Cwej: The Midas Touch, by James Hornby (Independently published)
• Return of the Maltese Falcon, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• The Hook and the Eye, by Raymond Benson (Ian Fleming)
• Thunder’s Edge: Echoes of Memory, by Sarah Cawkwell (Aconyte)
• Murder, She Wrote: The Body in the Trees, by Terrie Farley
Moran (Berkley)

The recipient of this and other Scribe Awards will be made known later this month during the 2026 San Diego ComicCon.

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.

Revue of Reviewers: 7-6-26

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.