Macavity Award Nominations 2026 (for works published in 2025)

 The Macavity Award is named after Macavity: The Mystery Cat, in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats! 

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congratulations to all!

Ballots will be sent out next week to members of MRI, subscribers to MRJ, and to friends of MRI. Look for it in your email. Winners will be announced this Fall.

Want to be a member/subscriber, go here. Mystery Readers Journal themes for 2026: Fairs, Fetes, and Festivals; Mysteries set in France; Cross-Genre Mysteries; and Mysteries set in India. 

Macavity Nominations 2026 (for works published in 2025)

Best Mystery Novel

Crooks by Lou Berney (William Morrow)

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Clown Town by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

River of Lies by James L'Etoile (Oceanview Publishing)

The White Crow by Michael Robotham (Scribner)

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur Books)

Best First Mystery 

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Minotaur Books)

Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (Bantam Books)

Voices of the Elysian Fields by Michael Rigg (Level Best Books)

Stillwater by Tanya Scott (Grove Atlantic)

History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook (Soho Press)

Best Mystery Non-fiction

Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide to New England by Dawn M. Barclay (Level Best Books)

Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation by Michael Cannell (Minotaur Books)

Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (Penguin Press)

V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie's Chemicals of Death by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)

Edgar Allan Poe: A Life by Richard Kopley (University of Virginia Press)

Cooler than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins (Mariner Books)

Best Mystery Short Story

“Six-Armed Robbery” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (in Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous, edited by John Betancourt, Carla Coupe, and Michael Bracken, Wildside Press)

“Hollywood Prometheus” by Christa Faust (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)

“Finding Jimmy Baldwin” by Cheryl Head (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)

“The Devil Himself” by Vaseem Khan (in Double Crossing Van Dine, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor, Crippen & Landru Publishers)

“The Skies Are Red” by Richie Narvaez (in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press)

“Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush” by Dave Zeltserman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2025)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery

Bye Bye Blackbird by Elizabeth Crowens (Level Best Books)

A Daughter's Guide to Mothers and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington Books)

City Lights by Claire M. Johnson (Level Best Books)

The Case of the Christie Conspiracy by Kelly Oliver (Boldwood Books)

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler (Kensington Books)

No. 10 Doyers Street by Radha Vatsal (Level Best Books)

MACAVITY AWARDS 2022

 MACAVITY AWARDS 2022 Winners

For works published in 2021

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI.

The winners were announced at the opening ceremonies at the Minneapolis Bouchercon. 

Best Mystery Novel

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Best First Mystery Novel

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)

Best Mystery Short Story

“Sweeps Week,” by Richard Helms (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)

Best Historical Mystery: Sue Feder Memorial Award

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors

The Macavity Award Nominees 2021

 

The Macavity Award Nominees 2021 (for works published in 2020) have been announced.

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the Bouchercon in New Orleans.

Best Novel 

Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Poisoned Pen Press)

Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Blind Vigil, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing)

All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco Press)

When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Scribner)

Best First

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara (Random House)

Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur)

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books)

Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weider (Ecco Press)

Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley)

Best Critical/Biographical

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press)

Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins)

Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland)

H R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best Books)

Southern Cross Crime: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand by Craig Sisterson (Oldcastle Books)

Best Short Story

“Dear Emily Etiquette" by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2020)

“The Boy Detective & The Summer of ‘74” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2020)

"Elysian Fields" by Gabriel Valjan (California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press)

“Dog Eat Dog” by Elaine Viets (The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads Publishing)

“The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King; Pegasus Crime)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery

The Last Mrs. Summers by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley)

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)

The Turning Tide by Catriona McPherson (Quercus)

Mortal Music by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)

The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Constable)

Turn to Stone by James Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Congratulations to all the nominated authors.

Memories of Margaret (Maron) by Mike Ripley

 

Margaret Maron 1938-2021

I first encountered Margaret Maron in 1989 when I naively applied to become an associate member of the Mystery Writers of America (not realising you were expected to be published there to qualify). I must have included some biographical background - at the time I was involved in exporting British beer to the US - as Margaret wrote to me asking if I would mind answering a few technical questions for her husband Joe, a keen (and very talented) home brewer.

It sounded like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and it was.

When I learned she was due to attend the 1990 Bouchercon in London, I hastened round to Murder One and stocked up on Margaret’s ‘Sigrid Harald’ mysteries, then published here by Headline.

Debuting with One Coffee With in 1982, New York police detective Harald was to feature in nine novels and the series drew praise from veteran British critic Anthony Lejeune as examples of  the ‘cleanly, even classically, drawn detective problem and  neatly turned solution.’ I found they offered not just a good murder mysteries, but interesting character studies as Sigrid, whilst certainly not a strident feminist, was having to make her way in the very male world of police work.

Just as, in fact, Margaret Maron was having to make her way in the male-dominated world of American  crime-writing, hence her involvement in the formation and success of the Sisters In Crime organisation, one of the subjects she was to speak on at the London Bouchercon.

In London, we finally met. I arranged  a private tour of the House of Commons for her and she gave me a t-shirt, which I still have, to induct me as an associate Sister In Crime - an honour I think only Robert Barnard and I held at the time.

It was the start of a friendship which was to span more than thirty years.

Margaret Brown Maron was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, growing up on her mother’s family farm. Aged 20, she was working in the Pentagon for the Joint Chiefs of Staff when she met young US naval officer Joseph Maron. They married and relocated to Italy on a three-year tour of duty. When they returned to the US it was to Joe’s home town of Brooklyn, which was to provide much of the background for her Sigrid Harald stories.

Margaret Maron in 1960

In 1972, the Marons with their young son John, moved to Willow Spring, North Carolina where Margaret was to write all her novels and many short stories including her most successful series featuring Judge Debora Knott, beginning with Bootlegger’s Daughter in 1992. In this, she pioneered the ‘regional mystery’ taking the action away from the ‘mean streets’ of urban settings.

Her twenty Deborah Knott books were to win her a staggering number of Agatha and Macavity awards, as well as an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America, of which she served as President and was made a Grand Master in 2013. Her early involvement in the Sisters In Crime movement resulted in her becoming its third president and in 2016 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina. 

Over the years I would receive, every Christmas,  a new Margaret Maron book, invariably accompanied by a parcel of salted pecan nuts from her garden, which was home to a ridiculous number of plastic pink flamingos, the result of a prank by fellow mystery writers which got laughably out of hand.

My wife and I hosted Margaret and Joe and their son and his wife whenever they visited England and in 2004, as I was recovering from a stroke, the Marons invited our entire family over to stay with them and I was invited to speak to the North Carolina Mystery Writers as Margaret’s guest of honour.

 My daughter Felicity (‘Fliss’) had already been immortalised as a character in Margaret’s novel Uncommon Clay, which she suitable inscribed.

As I was unable to attend the 2015 Bouchercon, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, I arranged a surprise presentation to her which was carried out by undercover agent and roving Shots reporter Ali Karim.

As I was unable to attend the 2015 Bouchercon, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, I arranged a surprise presentation to her which was carried out by undercover agent and roving Shots reporter Ali Karim.

Margaret died on 23rd February after complications following a stroke she suffered in December. My last contact with her, at Christmas, was to send her an advance proof of my forthcoming novel which is dedicated to her and her husband Joe and which opens on Harkers Island, North Carolina, where, in 2004, we sat out a hurricane together.

Her passing is a great loss to so many; her family, other authors and of course readers.  She will be sorely missed.

The Macavity Award Winners 2018

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners were announced at opening ceremonies on Thursday 6 September at Bouchercon in St Petersburg, FL. Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors.

Best Mystery Novel
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Harper)

Best First Mystery Novel
The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal (Wm. Morrow)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen/British Library)

Best Mystery Short Story
“Windward,” by Paul D. Marks, in Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea (Down & Out Books)

Sue Feder Memorial Award: Best Historical Mystery
In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union Publishing)

Macavity Award Nominations 2017

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Toronto on Thursday 12^th October 2017.

Best Novel 
You Will Know Me, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)
Dark Fissures, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (UK, Hodder & Stoughton; US, Grand Central Publishing)
Real Tigers, by Mick Herron (UK, John Murray; US, Soho)
Wilde Lake, by Laura Lippman (Wm. Morrow)
A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Best First Novel 
The Widow, by Fiona Barton (UK, Bantam; US, NAL)
Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry (Penguin)
Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (No Exit Press)
IQ, by Joe Ide (Mulholland Books)
Design for Dying, by Renee Patrick (Forge)

Best Short Story 
“Autumn at the Automat,” by Lawrence Block (In Sunlight or in Shadow, Pegasus Books)
“Blank Shot,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Black Coffee, Darkhouse Books)
“Survivor’s Guilt,” by Greg Herren (Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016, Down & Out Books)
“Ghosts of Bunker Hill,” by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Dec. 2016)
“The Crawl Space,” by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sep.–Oct. 2016)
“Parallel Play,” by Art Taylor (Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning, Wildside Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Novel 
A Death Along the River Fleet, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (UK: Headline Review; US, G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Delivering The Truth, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
The Reek of Red Herrings, by Catriona McPherson (US: Minotaur; UK: Hodder & Stoughton)
What Gold Buys, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
Heart of Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Best Nonfiction 
Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats, by Jane K. Cleland (Writer's Digest Books)
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright Publishing)
Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Margaret Kinsman (McFarland)
Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright Publishing)
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin)

Congratulations to all.

Lisa Lutz on Hate Mail

Lisa Lutz is best known for her series of comedic crime novels featuring the Spellman’s a family of private investigators. The first novel in the series The Spellman Files was in 2008 nominate for three Best novel awards – an Anthony Award, a Barry Award, a Macavity Award.  It was also nominated for a Dilys Award. The second novel in the series Curse of the Spellmans was nominated for an Edgar Award.  The Passenger is her third standalone novel.

I never got hate mail until I wrote a novel. Anger from strangers is a small price to pay for the luxury of writing books for a living. When I first built my author website and offered up my email for anyone to see, I was essentially inviting some kind of relationship with my readers. My general rule is to respond kindly to the positive notes and ignore the negative ones. But I still read them and take them in, and as much as I want to pretend that they have no effect on my writing or what I do, that is simply untrue.

My first book has a lot of footnotes, as do many thereafter. This was—and is—relatively uncommon for fiction, and especially for something shelved in the mystery section. Some people loved the footnotes; others, not so much. It’s fair to say my footnotes got hate mail. I recall my reaction to my first hostile missive on this front. Wow, this person is really angry, I thought. And maybe for the briefest moment I felt bad. But then something shifted internally and I thought the same thing, but with more delight. It’s so cool that I made this person so angry.  As a novelist, you hope for some kind of emotional response from the reader. Why does it have to be positive?

Some readers suggested removing the footnotes completely. Others, adopting the delicate tone of a person concerned about a loved one’s drinking, suggested that I simply cut back. Still others issued direct threats: If I refused to give up the footnotes, they would never read another book of mine again.

I never took any of these messages under advisement. But I can’t claim that they had no effect on my future work. Now there will be more footnotes! I remember thinking, with glee. And indeed, there were. Sometimes when you stand your ground, you have to take a little more ground. At least that was my thinking back then.

I’ve also had letters pleading for a certain relationship between two characters to intensify. I responded promptly, breaking them up permanently. I wasn’t deliberately trying to antagonise my readers, but it concerned me that I was writing a book about a woman asserting her independence and finding her place in the world, and my readers just wanted her to find love. That’s not what I’m about.

I quit the series when I knew I couldn’t write another good Spellman book. I shifted gears and began trying new things. Last year, How to Start a Fire was published. It’s straight fiction, but like everything I write it shares some common ground with the trajectory of crime novels. This year, with The Passenger, I fully embraced the genre. It’s a crime novel, plain and simple.

The letters (or, more frequently these days, comments on social media) still come through. The response has been generally good, but I have noticed a few interesting trends. Some readers just want the same old, same old. And I get that. Others, however, have suggested that my writing has reached a new level; that my more recent books, which are tonally darker, are also more substantial. This, I take issue with. True comedy has as much meat and as strong a point of view as any other fiction. The jokes just make it easier to digest.

Years ago I met a man at a party. He asked what I did for a living. I told him I wrote comedic novels and gave him the general premise. He was not impressed. Later, he asked me if I ever aspired to write something more serious. I felt myself go cold inside. I contained my urge to sling insults at him and just answered the question.

“No, my literary aspiration is the spit-take.”

I meant it. Even now, if I can say or write something funny enough to make a person choke (in a non-lethal manner) on his or her beverage, I feel perhaps overly satisfied by that accomplishment. At its essence, a joke is about the surprise of seeing a situation from an unexpected angle. Even the grittiest crime writer has the same goal. The end result might be a gasp instead of a laugh, but you want to keep your readers off-balance. You want to show them a new way of looking at the world.

 The Passenger by Lisa Lutz (£7.99 Titan Books)

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, I DIDN'T DO IT.  I DON'T HAVE AN ALIBI, SO YOU'LL HAVE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT...With her husband's dead body still warm, Tanya Dubois has only one option: run. When the police figure out that she doesn't officially exist, they'll start asking questions she can't answer. Desperate to keep the past buried, she adopts and sheds identities as she flees.  Along the way she meets a cop with unknown motives and a troubled woman who sees through her disguise-and who may be friend or foe.  But ultimately she is alone, and the past can no longer be ignored...

You can find more information about Lisa Lutz on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @lisalutz and find her on Facebook.