Macavity Magic

 

The winners of this year's Macavity Awards were handed out yesterday during the opening festivities of the annual Bouchercon Mystery Convention. The award is voted on by members of Mystery Readers International and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

Best Mystery Novel:  Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)



Other finalists:



• The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

• 1979, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Bobby March Will Live Forever, by Alan Parks (World Noir)

• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Henry Holt)

• Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)



Best First Mystery Novel:  Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)



Other finalists:



• Who is Maude Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown)

• Girl A, by Abigail Dean (Viking)

• Deer Season, by Erin Flanagan (University of Nebraska Press)

• All Her Little Secrets, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)



Best Mystery Short Story:  “Sweeps Week,” by Richard Helms (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], July/August 2021)



Other finalists:



• “Lucky Thirteen,” by Tracy Clark (from Midnight Hour, edited by Abby L. Vandiver; Crooked Lane)

• “Curious Incidents,” by Steve Hockensmith (EQMM, January/February 2021)

• “The Road to Hana,” by R.T. Lawton (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2021)

• “The White Star,” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, July/August 2021)

• “The Locked Room Library,” by Gigi Pandian (EQMM,

July/August 2021)

• “Julius Katz and the Two Cousins,” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, July/August 2021)



Best Non-fiction/Critical:  How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King (Scribner)



Other finalists:



• Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World, by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins)

• The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History, by Margalit Fox (Random House)

• The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene,

by Richard Greene (Norton)

• Tony Hillerman: A Life, by James McGrath Morris

(University of Oklahoma)

• The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science, by John Tresch (Farrar, Straus

and Giroux)

• The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense, by Edward White (Norton)



Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:  Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)



Other finalists:



• The Venice Sketchbook, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)

• The Hollywood Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)

• The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

• Velvet Was the Night, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

• Death at Greenway, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)