So Who Won This Year’s Anthonys?

Amid comments spilling forth from readers and fans who had tuned in for the announcements on YouTube; and with celebrity presenters (including Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, and Dennis Lehane) testing their skills with self-filming technology, the winners of the 2021 Anthony Awards were declared earlier this evening. These prizes were to have been handed out during Bouchercon 2021 in New Orleans, but that in-person convention was “postponed” until 2025.

Click here to watch the Anthony Awards feature, plus videos focusing on recipients of this year’s Macavity, Barry, and Derringer awards.

And the winners of the 2021 Anthonys are ...

Best Hardcover Novel:
Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Also nominated: What You Don’t See, by Tracy Clark (Kensington); Little Secrets, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur); And Now She’s Gone, by Rachel Howzell Hall (Forge); The First to Lie, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Novel: Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)

Also nominated: Derailed, by Mary Keliikoa (Camel Press); Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington); and The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)

Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel:
Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated: The Fate of a Flapper, by Susanna Calkins (Griffin); When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow); The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow); and Dirty Old Town, by Gabriel Valjan
(Level Best)

Best Short Story:
“90 Miles,” by Alex Segura (from Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino Iglesias; Agora)

Also nominated: “Dear Emily Etiquette,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October); “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74,” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February); “Elysian Fields,” by Gabriel Valjan (from California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press); and “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (from In League with Sherlock Holmes, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Pegasus Crime)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult:
Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, by Richie Narvaez (Piñata)

Also nominated: Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers); Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); From the Desk of Zoe Washington, by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen); Star Wars Poe: Dameron: Free Fall, by Alex Segura (Disney Lucasfilm Press)

Best Critical or Non-fiction Work:
Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)

Also nominated: Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press); American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI, by Kate Winkler Dawson (Putnam); Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club); The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (Hachette); Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)

Best Anthology or Collection:
Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Press Anthology, edited by Heather Graham (Nasty Woman Press)

Also nominated: Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino
Iglesias (Agora); Noiryorican, by Richie Narvaez (Down & Out); The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter (Untreed Reads); California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor (Wildside Press); and Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle (Polis)

David Thompson Memorial Special Service Award:
Janet Rudolph, blogger and editor of Mystery Readers Journal

Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Connelly

Cheers to each and every one of this year’s nominees!

READ MORE: “A Bouchercon 2021 Postmortem—Also Link to Barry Award Presentation,” by George Easter (Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine).