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Amy Neff Book Group Event

Macavity Awards 2025

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.

Jane Hamilton, author of The Phoebe Variations

Seventeen-year-old Phoebe was never interested in her birth family. But on the cusp of her high school graduation, her adoptive mother, Greta, insists on a visit to meet her biological parents and siblings. The encounter is a jolt, a revelation that derails Phoebe. With the help of her best friend, Luna, Phoebe runs away --- as far as their friend Patrick O’Connor’s chaotic home, where she hopes to go unnoticed among his 13 siblings. But when Phoebe asks Patrick to chop off her hip-length hair, she’s suddenly transformed. Patrick’s older brothers can’t help but notice the striking, Peter Pan–like stranger who suddenly has appeared in their midst. What starts as an adolescent rebellion soon spirals into a whirlwind of self-discovery and unexpected connections.

Walter Mosley, author of Gray Dawn: An Easy Rawlins Mystery

The name Easy Rawlins stirs excitement in the hearts of readers and fear in the hearts of his foes. His success has bought him a thriving detective agency, with its first female detective; a remote home, shared with children and pets and lovers, high atop the hills overlooking gritty Los Angeles; and more trouble, more problems and more threats to those whom he loves. In other words, he’s still beset on all sides. A number of below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman --- Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.

Alexander McCall Smith, author of In the Time of Five Pumpkins: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (26)

Mma Ramotswe can sense the rain long before it comes. It’s been a long, dry summer, but the first downpour of the season tends to bring with it new growth. In this case, it also brings a new client, who suspects his wife of having an affair. Mma Ramotswe is on the case, and she decides to bring Charlie along. But as they look further into the matter, they begin to suspect their client may not have been entirely truthful in explaining his predicament. Meanwhile, Mr. J.L.B.’s Matekoni has struck up a new friendship with a man named Mr. Mogorosi, a prominent figure in the motor trade business. Mma Ramotswe is concerned that Mr. Mogorosi may have ulterior motives for his attentions. When the two go on a fishing trip in waters teeming with dangerous crocodiles, she begins to worry for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s safety.

Richard Osman, author of The Impossible Fortune: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles. And Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favorite criminal. But when Elizabeth meets Nick, a wedding guest asking for her help, she finds that the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. And when Nick disappears without a trace, his cagey business partner becomes the gang’s next stop. It seems the duo has something valuable --- something worth killing for. Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, jumps into the fray to help the gang as they seek answers. Has someone kidnapped Nick? And what’s this uncrackable code they keep hearing about? Plunged back into action once more, can the four friends solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

Virginia Evans, author of The Correspondent

Throughout her life, Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past 10, Sybil sits down to write letters --- to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Editorial Content for Other People's Houses

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

There are so many reasons to recommend OTHER PEOPLE’S HOUSES by Clare Mackintosh. When a mystery novel features characters who are so likable and relatable that their situation and relationships become equally as important as the actual mystery, you know it's going to be a winner. And on top of that, I did not feel that I was missing anything having not read the first two installments in the series. Read More

Teaser

The Hill is the kind of place where everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects that the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular. Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead --- and why? As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover that people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.

Promo

The Hill is the kind of place where everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects that the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular. Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead --- and why? As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover that people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.

About the Book

New York Times bestselling author Clare Mackintosh is back with another unputdownable installment in the DC Morgan series.

You want what they have, but what price would you pay?

The Hill is the kind of place where everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects that the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.

Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead --- and why?

As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover that people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.

Audiobook available; read by Chloe Angharad Davies, Joe Eyre and Penelope Rawlins 

Editorial Content for Fiend

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Alma Katsu has one of the most unique pedigrees of writers working today, having spent 35 years as a senior intelligence analyst for such agencies as the CIA and NSA. She has exhibited her knowledge of these areas in the espionage novels RED WIDOW and RED LONDON. However, considering that it is Halloween season, I prefer it when she displays her talent for horror that earned her a Bram Stoker Award nomination for THE HUNGER. Read More

Teaser

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed. At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Promo

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed. At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

About the Book

Historical horror maven Alma Katsu turns her talents to the modern world for the first time, in this terrifying tale about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil under its thumb.

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family. Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets; Maris’ most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically; and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Audiobook available, read by Barrie Kreinik 

Editorial Content for The Mad Wife

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Meagan Church, author of THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY and THE LAST CAROLINA GIRL, returns with yet another emotionally charged trip into one of the darkest corners of America’s history: its subjugation of women. In THE MAD WIFE, readers are invited into a quiet, picturesque 1950s neighborhood where one woman --- despite the Good Housekeeping schedule posted responsibly to her kitchen wall --- has started to unravel. Read More

Teaser

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife, despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew --- and others soon begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?

Promo

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife, despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew --- and others soon begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?

About the Book

From bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build --- and the lies we live.

They called it hysteria. She called it survival.

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel.

When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew --- and others soon begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?

In the vein of THE BELL JAR and THE HOURS, THE MAD WIFE weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense so poignant and immersive that you won't want to put it down. 

Audiobook available, read by Susan Bennett