The 2022 Left Coast Crime Convention presented the Lefty Awards at their 32nd annual convention banquet. This is an annual event (ignoring stuff like COVID) for readers and writers of mysteries. The LCC held their 2022 meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their next convention in 2023 will be in Tucson, Arizona where J. A. Jance is scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nominations for the ‘Lefty Awards’ are presented by people registered for the convention and the prior one. Ballots are given to attendees and final voting takes place at the convention.
This year’s winners include:
For Best Humorous Mystery Novel Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane Books)
For Best Debut Mystery Novel All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
The Bill Gottfried Memorial Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (for books set before 1970)
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
For Best Mystery Novel (Not in any other categories.)
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)
The Importance of Awards
I like to highlight the winners of awards given by the difference conferences and conventions as a way to highlight books we should be aware of. There are so many crime-fiction books coming out each year, it is easy to miss a story or character we may like. Just because a book wins an award doesn’t mean it is better than the others, or even that you will like it. But it does mean judges have vetted and selected the stories. And if you want to add more diversity to your reading, whatever that means to you, this is a good way to start.
I plan to post the winners of the other major mystery awards. If there are any other awards you think I should post or be aware of, please send me a link.
Here is a link to all the winners and nominees for the Lefty Awards.
As always, I would love for you to share this post and let’s help get these authors’ names out there.
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Congratulations to The Left Coast Crime Convention Lefty Awards Winners. You can find the list of winners @OpeningaMystery #Mysteries #LeftyAward @leftcoastcrime #crimereaders Click To Tweet