Checking for Macavitys

Mystery Readers International today announced its nominees for the 2019 Macavity Awards. The winners are to be declared on October 31 during the opening ceremonies of Bouchercon 2019 in Dallas, Texas.

Best Novel:
• November Road, by Lou Berney (Morrow)
• If I Die Tonight, by Alison Gaylin (Morrow)
• The Lost Man, by Jane Harper (Flatiron)
• Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur)
• Hiroshima Boy, by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park)
• Under My Skin, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)

Best First Novel:
• My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
• Dodging and Burning, by John Copenhaver (Pegasus)
• Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens (Putnam)
• Something in the Water, by Catherine Steadman (Ballantine)
• The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor (Crown)

Best Non-fiction:
• The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction, by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
• Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer, by Margalit Fox
(Random House)
• Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s, annotated by Leslie S.
Klinger (Pegasus)
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)
• Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life, by Laura Thompson (Pegasus)
• The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World, by Sarah Weinman (HarperCollins)

Best Short Story:
• “Race to Judgment,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], November/December 2018)
• “All God’s Sparrows,” by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2018)
• “Bug Appétit,” by Barb Goffman (EQMM, November/December 2018)
• “Three-Star Sushi,” by Barry Lancet (Down & Out:
The Magazine, Vol.1, No. 3)
• “The Cambodian Curse,” by Gigi Pandian (from The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories, by Gigi Pandian; Henery Press)
• “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” by Art Taylor (EQMM,
July/August 2018)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
• A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
• City of Ink, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)
• Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
• The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• A Dying Note, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
• A Forgotten Place, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

The Macavitys take their name from the “mystery cat” in T.S. Eliot’s 1939 poetry collection, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Members of Mystery Readers International and its periodical, Mystery Readers Journal, are eligible to vote in this competition; they should receive their ballots by August 15.