Gratitude for Gumshoes

John Shepphird, chairperson of the Private Eye Writers of America, has announced the nominees for this year’s Shamus Awards.

Best P.I. Hardcover:
• The Wheel of Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Mulholland)
• The Big Bundle, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• The Goodbye Coast, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)
• Holmes Coming, by Kenneth Johnson (Blackstone)
• The Blackmail, by M. Ravenel (Chikara Press)

Best P.I. Paperback:
• Quarry’s Blood, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• DoubleBlind, by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Red Herrings Press)
• Canary in a Coal Mine, by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out)
• Dead-Bang Fall, by J.R. Sanders (Level Best)
• Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia/Level Best)

Best First P.I. Novel:
• Big Fat F@!k-up, by Lawrence Allan (M.S. Wooten Press)
• Pay Dirt Road, by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur)
• Foote, by Tom Bredehoft (West Virginia University Press)
• What Meets the Eye, by Alex Kenna (Crooked Lane)
• The Goldenacre, by Philip Miller (Soho Crime)

Best P.I. Short Story:
• “No Place for a Dame,” by Lori Armstrong (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection from the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer; Down & Out)
• “Charlie’s Medicine,” by Libby Cudmore (from Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor; Down & Out)
• “A Jelly of Intrigue,” by O’Neil De Noux (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden)
• “The Pearl of Antilles,” by Caroline Garcia-Aguilera (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden)
• “Bad Actor,” by Elliot Sweeney (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2022)

Word of the winners is expected in late summer.

(Hat tip to Kevin Burton Smith.)