The winners of this year’s Macavity Awards have been announced. The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in five categories.
 

2024 Winners

Best Mystery Novel

• ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Best First Mystery

• THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW by I.S. Berry (Atria Books)

Best Mystery Short Story

• “Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski from HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out Books)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery

• THE MISTRESS OF BHATIA HOUSE: A Mystery of 1920s India, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical

• FINDERS: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)
   

2024 Finalists

Best Mystery Novel

• DARK RIDE by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
• HIDE by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
• HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim (Hogarth)
• MURDER BOOK by Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press)
• CROOK MANIFESTO by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

Best First Mystery

• THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW by I.S. Berry (Atria Books)
• THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua (Minotaur Books)
• SCORCHED GRACE: A Sister Holiday Mystery, by Margot Douaihy (Gillian Flynn Books)
• MURDER BY DEGREES by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)
• DUTCH THREAT by Josh Pachter (Genius Book Publishing)
• MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT by Nina Simon (William Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story

• “Real Courage” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Oct. 2023)
• “Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
• “Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski from HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out Books)
• “Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand” by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Original Stories)
• “One Night in 1965” by Stacy Woodson from MORE GROOVY GUMSHOES: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, edited by Michael Bracken (Down & Out Books)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery

• TIME'S UNDOING by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)
• EVERGREEN: A Japantown Mystery, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• THE RIVER WE REMEMBER by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)
• OUR LYING KIN by Claudia Hagadus Long (Kasva Press)
• THE MISTRESS OF BHATIA HOUSE: A Mystery of 1920s India, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride (Riverhead Books)

Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical

• FINDERS: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)
• SPILLANE: King of Pulp Fiction, by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor (Mysterious Press)
• A MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press)
• NUMBER GO UP: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, by Zeke Faux (Crown Currency)
• FALLEN ANGEL: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)