B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 7
June 30, 2025
Media Murder for Monday
[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
After a bidding war, Amazon has bought the rights to Collision, a short novel in Don Winslow’s upcoming story collection, The Final Score, for Jake Gyllenhaal to star in and produce with his Nine Stories partner, Josh McLaughlin, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno. Collision tells the harrowing story of a devoted husband and father with a great life who makes one terrible mistake that sends him to prison, where he must learn how to survive. But that’s only the beginning: When he finally becomes free, he learns why he was protected in prison and is a sent on a mission that will change him forever. Winslow and Amazon are also partnering on Crime 101, based on another Winslow short work, to be released President’s Day weekend 2026, starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists and Scott Stuber have optioned Freida McFadden's psychological thriller, The Tenant, for the big screen. The project follows Blake Porter, a marketing executive whose life spirals after losing his job and struggling to make mortgage payments on his brownstone. When he takes in the seemingly perfect tenant, Whitney, he discovers that danger lives closer to home than he ever imagined, as neighbors turn hostile, mysterious odors plague his house, and someone appears to know his darkest secrets. The novel, published by Poisoned Pen Press, explores themes of revenge, privilege, and the deadly consequences when secrets turn sour.
Matt and Ross Duffer (Stranger Things) are developing a series adaptation of the novel, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne, for Netflix. The book's author, Ron Currie, as well as his writing partner, Joshua Mohr, will serve as both writers and executive producers on the series. The crime thriller follows Babs Dionne, a vicious crime matriarch who rules over her small town of Waterville, Maine, and controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada. But her operation is threatened when her youngest daughter, Sis, goes missing around the same time a drug kingpin realizes that his numbers are down and sends one of his lackeys, known only as The Man, to investigate. After Sis is found dead, Babs goes on the warpath.
Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists and Scott Stuber are developing The Seventh Man, a new action-thriller written by T.J. Fixman. Plot details are unknown, but the film is described as a throwback action-thriller with a twisty narrative in the vein of Carry On, Speed, Die Hard, and Inside Man. There's no word yet on casting.
The next 007 movie just drew a step closer with Amazon MGM bringing Denis Villeneuve on board to direct. Villeneuve's previous action projects (including Dune, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival) seem to make him a good fit. There's still no word on casting or a production timeline, although since Villeneuve will be tied up for some time with his third and final Dune film for Warner Bros (shooting this summer and slated for release December 2026), those details are unlikely to be revealed any time soon.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Paramount+ has handed a Season 2 renewal to the breakout new drama, MobLand, starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren. The news comes three weeks after the series wrapped its freshman run on the streaming platform. In MobLand, two mob families clash in a war that threatens to topple empires and lives. The cast also includes Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Lara Pulver, Anson Boon, Mandeep Dhillon, Jasmine Jobson, Geoff Bell, Daniel Betts, Lisa Dwan, and Emily Barber.
Grosse Point Garden Society has been canceled by NBC after one season, with previous plans to move the series to Peacock on hold. In the drama, Aja Naomi King, Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb, and Ben Rappaport star as friends united by a suburban gardening club who get mixed up in murder when a formal gala goes awry. The Season 1 finale, which aired in May, will be leaving its audience on a cliffhanger.
A trailer for the crime drama Bookish has dropped. The cozy crime show "with an edge" is set in post-WWII London and stars Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) as bookstore owner Gabriel Book who helps the police solve their knottiest cases. He is a gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal, and in a lavender marriage to childhood friend Trottie, played by Polly Walker (Bridgerton). Bookish will air on UKTV in the UK and on PBS in the U.S.
MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS released a trailer for the all-new contemporary adaptation of Georges Simenon's Maigret drama, which premieres Sunday, October 5th at 9/8c. Benjamin Wainwright stars as the title character of Inspector Jules Maigret, a fictional French police detective, a commissaire of the Paris Brigade Criminelle. Stefanie Martini (Emerald City) also stars as Madame Louise Maigret.
A trailer also dropped for the new Acorn TV crime drama, Irish Blood. Divorce lawyer Fiona Sharpe (played by Alicia Silverstone) receives a message from her estranged father, embarking on a journey to Ireland. She uncovers family truths and her father's dark past, realizing her life's abandonment story was a protective lie.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
Debbi Mack's latest guest on The Crime Cafe was crime writer and media entrepreneur, Clay Stafford, the brains behind Killer Nashville.
Authors on the Air welcomed bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer to discus her new psychological suspense novel, A Mother Always Knows.
On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester recommended some of their favorite mystery and thriller titles for Audiobook Month.
Crime Time FM host, Paul Burke, reviewed a dozen new crime fiction titles for the latest episode of the podcast.
On Pick Your Poison, Dr. Jen Prosser investigated what eating meat has to do with doping and drug testing in the Olympics and what medicine used to treat asthma in horses is abused by humans for weight loss.
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June 28, 2025
June 27, 2025
Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Moving Toyshop
[image error]Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) set out to be a professional musician and had a successful career writing vocal and choral music. He composed music for the cinema, too, close to 50 films including the scores for many British comedies of the 1950s. That comedy link isn't surprising considering Montgomery also wrote comic mystery novels under the pen name of Edmund Crispin, the first of which, The Case of the Gilded Fly, was published in 1944. Crispin didn't write many novels, but those he did featured the eccentric, absent-minded Oxford don and professor of English and Literature, Gervase Fen.
[image error]The third of these books is perhaps his best. Titled The Moving Toyshop, P.D. James named it as one of the best five mysteries of all time and critic and mystery writer H.R.F. Keating included it among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. Keating added, "The word to describe The Moving Toyshop is 'rococo'. It possesses in splendid abundance the ebullient charm of the works of art thus labelled. It is alive with flourishes. Its mainspring the actual disappearance of a toyshop visited in midnight Oxford, has all the right fancifulness, and at the end it is explained with perfect plausibility."
The plot centers on poet Richard Cadogan, who stumbles on the dead body of an old lady in an Oxford toyshop late one night right before a blow from an unseen assailant knocks him unconscious. But when he recovers, not only has the woman disappeared, the entire toyshop has vanished, replaced by a grocery store. When the police not surprisingly refuse to believe Cadogan's story, he turns to the only person he thinks can help, his former colleague Gervase Fen. Fen's response is a typical Crisin ploy, a breaking of the fourth-wall illusion, "It's somewhat unusual business, isn't it." And, "So unusual," replies the poet, "that no one in his sense would invent it." (At another point, Fen dreams up book titles "for Crispin.") Fen sets about solving the impossible crime via his intuition, wits and wit, tossing in various literary references and quotations along the way, including clues based on Edward Lear limericks.
Crispin unfortunately suffered from a problem with alcoholism, and it was his drinking that eventually made into an invalid and semi-recluse, too weak to write. It's a shame, for it would have been interesting to see where his imagination and whimsical take on the genre would have led him, had he had full use of his faculties. The Fen books are witty, clever and entertaining, and filled with wonderfully eccentric characters.
Open Read Media has recently reprinted several titles in the Fen series. Collins Crime Club also produced a new edition of The Moving Toyshop in 2015, and Bloomsbury Reader in 2018. As a side note, Crispin was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1947.
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June 26, 2025
Mystery Melange
Goldsboro Books announced the longlist for the 2025 Glass Bell Award, celebrating the very best storytelling across all genres of contemporary fiction. Now in its ninth year, the Glass Bell Award "continues to champion compelling narratives, vivid settings, and unforgettable characters, regardless of where they sit on the shelf." The longlist contains a few crime fiction-related titles such as Hunted by Abir Mukherjee, The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet, All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, and The List of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey. A shortlist is expected later this summer, with the winner to be announced in September. (HT to The Rap Sheet)
The MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival returns to the University of Toronto this Friday, June 27, through Sunday, June 29. Special guests include Gregg Hurwitz (the Orphan X series, Lisa Unger (Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten), Uzma Jalaluddin (Detective Aunty), Jonathan Whitelaw (The Garden Club Murders), and Linwood Barclay (Whistle). There will also be other talks and panels, including some on the craft of writing crime fiction and also forensic science; Toronto Crime Tours; and an immersive murder mystery featuring live music and a full bar.
The Toledo, Ohio Public Library, which hosts the Jennifer Fisher Nancy Drew Collection, posted videos from the April 2025 Nancy Drew 95th Anniversary Convention, including such presentations as "Collecting Nancy Drew" and a talk by Stacia Deutsch, who has written under the Nancy Drew pseudonym Carolyn Keene. (HT to The Bunburyist)
It seems that almost week, there's a news story making the headlines of a woman who's gone missing and the huge manhunt to find her. What those headlines don't reveal is that those individuals are almost always white. Yet, according to the FBI, in 2020, 40% of all women and girls reported missing were people of color (Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous), despite making up just 19% of the population. This week, Via Bantam profiled six novels for CrimeReads that draw attention to the ongoing epidemic of missing women of color.
If you're a fan of MC Beaton, Hachette is offering a summer sweepstakes where you can enter for a chance to win a bundle of the first three Hamish Macbeth books plus a tote bag. There will be three prize winners in all.
On the Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph posted a list of summer crime fiction that exudes the heat and accompanying crime of summertime (omitting most Fourth of July and Labor Day Mysteries from this list because she'll update those specific lists later thiis summer).
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 is "Trump Rehires Fired Federal Workers: The Voice of Truth" by Robert Cooperman.
In the Q&A roundup, Karin Slaughter (of the Will Trent series) spoke with The Express about the real life murders that helped inspire her thrilling new crime novel, We Are All Guilty Here; also in The Express, Mark Billingham revealed the George Floyd moment that forced him to reassess his approach to the cops in his new book... and the twist that will astonish readers; in an interview with People Magazine, Laura Lippman and Megan Abbott discussed their documentary obsessions, writing about money in crime fiction, and how much of their characters come from real life; and Writers Who Kill chatted with Molly MacRae about There’ll Be Shell To Pay, the second book in MacRae’s Haunted Shell Shop mystery series.
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June 23, 2025
Media Murder for Monday
[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
In a competitive situation, Amazon MGM Studios has secured film rights to Code Black, a new short story by Harrison Query, a deal believed to be one of the biggest of all time for a short story. Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories will develop the political thriller as a starring vehicle for the Oscar nominee, under its first-look deal with the studio. In Code Black, the country’s top heart surgeon is flown to D.C. to perform a high-stakes operation, finding himself led into a trap where his guile and genius become the only way to stop a plot that threatens both his family and the nation. Query will adapt the screenplay.
Carla Gugino is the latest to come aboard as a co-star opposite Brad Pitt in Netflix's The Adventures of Cliff Booth, directed by David Fincher. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Elizabeth Debicki, and Scott Caan have also boarded the project, from a script by Quentin Tarantino. Plot details are vague, but sources say the film will follow one of Tarantino’s most iconic characters as he serves as a Hollywood fixer in a follow-up to Pitt’s Oscar-winning turn in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is unknown who Gugino will be playing in the new film, which is expected to begin production later this year.
Theo Rossi, Billy Campbell, and Rosaline Elbay have joined the feature thriller, A Better Place, from Virgo Films. Written and directed by Anton Sigurdsson (Women), the pic follows a disgraced deputy, his anxious partner, and a sharp-tongued female prisoner who cover up a hit-and-run, only to spiral into paranoia, greed, and buried secrets that tear them apart.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Tommy and Tuppence, Agatha Christie's crime-fighting couple, are returning to the screen. BritBox has greenlit a six-part series that will reimagine Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in the modern world, more than a century after they first appeared together in Christie’s The Secret Adversary. Casting is underway with filming expected to begin later this year, set in Hampstead, a leafy and affluent corner of north London. Tommy and Tuppence have appeared in numerous adaptations over the years, most recently being played by David Walliams and Jessica Raine in Partners in Crime, the 2015 BBC series. A 1983 series, titled Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime, aired on ITV, starring James Warwick and Francesca Annis in the title roles.
Paramount+ UK & Ireland has commissioned a UK thriller series, The Revenge Club (w/t), with Slow Horses and Peaky Blinders star Aimée-Ffion Edwards and Line Of Duty's Martin Compston in the lead roles of Emily and Calum. Based on the upcoming debut novel, The Othello Club, by J.D. Pennington, the series follows six strangers brought together by a divorce support group who quickly transform from therapy-seeking victims into architects of retribution. With little in common beyond their pain, they form an unlikely bond, and what began as a cathartic outlet quickly spirals into something far more dangerous. Joining Edwards and Compston as the other members of the club are BAFTA and Emmy winner Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me) as Rita, Sharon Rooney (Barbie) as Rachel, Douglas Henshall (Shetland) as Steve, Chaneil Kular (Sex Education) as Tej, and Amit Shah (Mr Bates vs. The Post Office) as Malcolm.
Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo's return to television and a spinoff of the NCIS franchise, Tony & Ziva, now has a premiere date of September 4, with three episodes exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and a number of territories. Following the premiere, new episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays, with the season finale October 23. In the offshoot, former NCIS agents Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva (de Pablo) had been raising their daughter in Paris when an attack on Tony’s security company sends them on the run across Europe, trying to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after. Tony & Ziva is the first series in the NCIS franchise not to air on CBS, and it's unclear yet whether the show will get a special airing on the network.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
Mark Billingham chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new thriller, What the Night Brings, donuts, longevity, opening scenes, and "please don't do spoilers."
On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Frank Zafiro spoke with author Colleen Coble about her Tupelo Grove mysteries series and much more.
Murder Junction featured a Capital Crime special featuring authors Jón Atli Jónasson, Ruth Mancini, and Anna Bailey, and festival organizers David Headley and Lizzie Curle.
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June 22, 2025
A Thrill a Minute
The International Thriller Writers unveiled the winners for the 2025 Thriller Awards at a ceremony last evening at the New York Hilton Midtown, New York City. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!
BEST STANDALONE THRILLER NOVEL: Jason Rekulak — THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING (Flatiron Books)
Other finalists:
Kimberly Belle — THE PARIS WIDOW (Harlequin – Park Row)
Will Dean — THE CHAMBER (Emily Bestler Books)
T.J. Newman — WORST CASE SCENARIO (Little, Brown & Co.)
Lisa Scottoline — THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS (Penguin/Putnam)
BEST STANDALONE MYSTERY NOVEL: Kellye Garrett — MISSING WHITE WOMAN (Mulholland Books)
Other finalists:
Libby Cudmore — NEGATIVE GIRL (Datura Books)
Laura Dave — THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM (Simon & Schuster)
Harry Hunsicker — THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROSE DOUCETTE (Oceanview Publishing)
Dervla McTiernan — WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? (William Morrow)
Lori Roy — LAKE COUNTY (Thomas & Mercer)
BEST SERIES NOVEL: David Baldacci — TO DIE FOR (Grand Central Publishing)
Other finalists:
Eric Beetner — THE LAST FEW MILES OF ROAD (Level Best Books)
Ann Cleeves — THE DARK WIVES (Minotaur)
Meg Gardiner — SHADOWHEART (Blackstone Publishing)
Iris Johansen, Roy Johansen — FLASHBACK (Grand Central Publishing)
Isabella Maldonado — A FORGOTTEN KILL (Thomas & Mercer)
BEST FIRST NOVEL: Marie Tierney — DEADLY ANIMALS (Henry Holt & Co.)
Other finalists:
Kate Brody — RABBIT HOLE (Soho Crime)
Jaime deBlanc — AFTER IMAGE (Thomas & Mercer)
Carinn Jade — THE ASTROLOGY HOUSE (Atria)
Alejandro Nodarse —BLOOD IN THE CUT (Flatiron Books)
BEST AUDIOBOOK: Kate Alice Marshall — NO ONE CAN KNOW (Macmillan Audio), Narrated by Karissa Vacker
Other finalists:
Sally Hepworth — DARLING GIRLS (Macmillan), Narrated by Jessica Clarke
Jon Lindstrom — HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE (Dreamscape Media), Narrated by Jon Lindstrom
Hilton Reed — BEYOND ALL DOUBT (Dreamscape Media), Narrated by George Newbern
Amy Tintera — LISTEN FOR THE LIE (Macmillan), Narrated by January LaVoy and Will Damron
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL: Marisha Pessl — DARKLY (Delacorte)
Other finalists:
Adam Cesare — INFLUENCER (Union Square & Co., LLC)
Ripley Jones — THE OTHER LOLA (Wednesday Books)
Natalie Richards — 49 MILES ALONE (Sourcebooks Fire)
Melanie Sumrow — GIRLS LIKE HER (Balzer + Bray)
BEST SHORT STORY: Ivy Pochoda — Jackrabbit Skin (Amazon Original Stories)
Other finalists:
Stefanie Leder — "Not a Dinner Party Person" (Soho Crime)
Twist Phelan — "Double Parked" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Lisa Unger — The Doll's House (Amazon Original Stories)
Joseph S. Walker — "And Now, an Inspiring Story of Tragedy Overcome" (Wildside Press)
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June 21, 2025
June 20, 2025
Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Singing Spider
Angus MacVicar (1908-2001) was a Scottish author of crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction and nonfiction. His first novel, The Purple Rock, was a bestseller, but his career was interrupted by an illness and then service in World War II with the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He also later turned his hand to screenwriting, and his young-adult sci-fi novel series The Lost Planet was made into television and radio versions. (A side note: MacVicar's father was a Presbyterian minister in the Church of Scotland and the author's books often had snippets of Christianity in them, so it's interesting that The Lost Planet was the first science fiction series ever translated to Hebrew, and allegedly had considerable impact on the development of that genre in Israel.)
MacVicar's suspense novel The Singing Spider from 1938 was set against the backdrop of Mussolini and impending war with Italy. It follows young Archie Campbell, an intelligent, scrupulously honest and brave young man who is offered a job as a secret agent by Sir Robert Vanburgh, who is the Secretary for Diplomatic Affairs and also a friend of Archie's dead father. Archie's job is to visit the quiet little fishing port of Bennachie in order to uncover the secret that was discovered by another murdered agent, known as D7—who was also Sir Robert's son.
Archie takes the job hoping to find redemption following a scandalous love affair that left him a broken man and a drunkard, and soon finds himself immersed in the picturesque village of Bennachie playing the not-too-far-off role of a recovering invalid. Archie tries to uncover the identity of the Singing Spider—an Italian spy and master of disguise thought to be behind D7's murder—with the help of an American Professor, a local rogue who's also seeking redemption, and a lovely young minister's daughter. But first Archie has to find out how the Singing Spider is tied to a puzzling phrase that translates as "The Pit of Baal" and the mysterious red lights at the Bennachie stone, an artifact the Professor believes dates back to the ancient Phoenicians.
It's definitely a novel of its time, thematically and stylistically, but there's a good rendering of the Scottish setting that was so similar to areas MacVicar knew well, and to its characters. There's also a bit of naive sweetness to it that you don't often find in spy-themed suspense novels, no doubt a nod to the author's Presbyterian roots and his young-adult writings. It's definitely a G- or PG+ type of plot. The Singing Spider was made into a radio program for BBC Scotland in 1950, although I doubt any traces of it exist.
Several of Angus MacVicar's books have been recently re-released by Lume Books (formerly Endeavour Media). The titles include his crime fiction books featuring Rev. P J. MacFarlane; MacVicar's two-book private investigator Bruce McLintock series; and several standalone suspense novels.
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June 19, 2025
Mystery Melange
The shortlist was announced (in a membership newsletter from J. Madison Davis) for the 2024 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing. Canadian and United States residents are eligible for this eminent award sponsored by International Association of Crime Writers, North American Branch, given in recognition of exceptional writing. The "Hammett" has been awarded annually since 1991. Congratulations to the finalists, which include: The Long-Shot Trial by William Deverell (ECW Press); The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead); Crooked by Dietrich Kalteis (ECW Press); Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (MCD Books) and Broiler by Eli Cranor (Soho).
Congratulations to The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, which was named the Best Independent Bookstore in America by USA Today's 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards. As USA Today noted, not only does the store sell a variety of crime fiction books, but it also produces its own Bibliomystery series of novellas by some of the biggest authors in the genre.
Entries are now open for the 2025 Sisters in Crime Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers. The award offers $2,000 grant for unpublished crime fiction, 2,500-5,000 words, by an emerging writer in the LGBTQIA+ community who has not published more than ten pieces of short fiction or two books, with preference is given to previously unpublished authors. Entries may be aimed at readers of all ages, from children's chapter books through adults. The winner may be asked to share thoughts on their win and the impact the award has made as well as serve as a member of next year's award selection committee. Applicants should send a short story or first chapter(s) of a manuscript-in-progress, a resume, and a cover letter describing how the applicant is emerging in the genre and how the grant money would be used. The deadline is July 31.
Lee Child, the author behind the global phenomenon, Jack Reacher, will headline the inaugural Whitby Lit Fest in the UK, in conversation with the TV personality, Rob Rinder. Lee will be discussing the new Reacher book, Exit Strategy, co-written with his brother, Andrew Child, and will also discuss his first ever autobiographical collection, The Stories Behind the Stories. Over 40 authors are expected to descend on the coastal town for the inaugural festival, which runs from Thursday November 6 to Sunday November 9. A major theme of the first festival will celebrate Whitby’s dramatic coastline and landscapes, while other themes include crime fiction, gothic horror, and working-class writing.
Simon & Schuster Books UK has entered into an official collaboration with the Conan Doyle Estate on a program of new and backlist titles following on from their recent collaboration, Holmes & Moriarty by Gareth Rubin, The upcoming projects will include a short story collection and new biography of the Sherlock Holmes creator ahead of the centenary of his death in 2030.
A month after the 35th-anniversary British Book Awards, the "Nibbies," another contest has been announced for audiobooks recorded in the English language and available in the United Kingdom. The British Audio Awards will release a shortlist in September, with winners are expected to be presented for a first time on November 24. They mirror the "Audies" awarded in the U.S., produced by the Audio Publishers Association. The British Audio Awards are nicknaming themselves the "Speakies," and will encompass various categories including Fiction and Crime & Thriller.
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 is "Silent Judgment" by Amy Grech.
In the Q&A roundup, Laura Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan series and many standalone crime novels, applied the Page 69 Test to her latest work, Murder Takes a Vacation; and Charlie Kondek took "The First Two Pages" test for Art Taylor's blog about his contribution to the forthcoming anthology, Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers.
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June 17, 2025
Macavity Magic
The finalists for the 2025 Macavity Awards have been announced. The honor, named after "Macavity: The Mystery Cat," in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Winners will be voted on by the membership and revealed in September. Congratulations to all!
Best Mystery Novel
Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Crime)
Served Cold by James L’Etoile (Level Best Books)
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead)
California Bear by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)
The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Doubleday)
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Crown)
Best First Mystery
Outraged by Brian Copeland (Dutton)
A Reluctant Spy by David Goodman (Headline)
Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita (Crooked Lane)
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen (Dutton)
The Expatby Hansen Shi (Pegasus Crime)
Holy City by Henry Wise (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Best Mystery Short Story
“Home Game” by Craig Faustus Buck (in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024)
“The Postman Always Flirts Twice” by Barb Goffman (in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy)
“Curse of the Super Taster” by Leslie Karst (in Black Cat Weekly, Feb 23, 2024)
“Two for One” by Art Taylor (in Murder, Neat)
“Satan’s Spit” by Gabriel Valjan (in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem)
“Reynisfjara” by Kristopher Zgorski (in Mystery Most International)
Best Historical Mystery
The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
Fog City by Claire Johnson (Level Best Books)
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan (Soho Crime)
The Bootlegger’s Daughter by Nadine Nettmann (Lake Union)
A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
Best Nonfiction/Critical
Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland)
Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)
Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis (Pegasus Crime)
The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Crown)
On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (Ohio State University Press)
Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press)
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