I don’t know about you, but 2025 has come and it’s flying by way too fast. I’m happy to say that ‘am still working on my resolutions. That they’re from 2023, well, we can just overlook that.
I’m already looking forward to the writing conferences I’ll be attending this year. And for readers who are looking for a new favorite book or author, watching the books up for awards is a great place to start.
On January 15, 2025, Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announced the recipients of its special awards. For its 2025 Grand Masters, the board selected Laura Lippman and John Sandford.
Laura Lippman is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels. Her novels have won an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, an Edgar Award, a Gumshoe Award and a Nero Award among others. She writes a series featuring Tess Monaghan, a private Eye in Baltimore, Maryland. She lives in South Baltimore and often writes in the neighborhood coffee shop.
John Sandford, pseudonym of John Roswell Camp, is an American New York Times bestselling author, novelist, former Journalist, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. One of his series is known as the Prey Series, featuring US Marshal Lucas Davenport.
Previous Grand Masters include Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Erle Stanley Gardner, Alfred Hitchcock, Mickey Spillane, Dick Francis, and Stephen King. The recipients for 2024 were Katherine Hall Page and R. L. Stine.
The 2025 Raven Award recipient was Face in a Book in El Dorado Hills, CA. The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. Face in a Book is an independent bookstore that opened in 2012 and is a neighborhood gathering spot.
The 2025 Ellery Queen Award went to Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Wolverton is VP, Executive Editor for over thirty years. The Ellery Queen award honors outstanding writing teams and people in the mystery-publishing industry. The award began in 1983.
The @MysteryWritersofAmerica Special Award winners and the Left Coast Lefty Awards nominees @TimSuddeth @OpeningaMystery, #mystery, #Awards, @LeftCoastCrime Share on X
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Also, this week the Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Award nominees were announced. The “Lefty” Awards are nominated and voted on by the Left
Coast Crime attendees who are made up of mystery fans, both readers and writers. The 2025 Lefty Awards will be presented at their convention on March 15, 2025, in Denver, Colorado.
The awards and nominees are:
Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel
A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron
Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow
Bronco Buster by A.J. Devlin
Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson
Cirque Du Slay by Rob Osler
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel
(Bill Gottfried Memorial, covering events before 1970)
Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver
A Killing on the Hill by Robert Dugoni
An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman
The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King
Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker
Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel
Blue Ridge by Peter Malone Elliott
Obey All Laws by Cindy Goyette
The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee
Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita
You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
Lefty for Best Mystery Novel
Home Fires by Charles Booth
Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy
Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
Molten Death by Leslie Karst
Served Cold by James L’Etoile
California Bear by Duane Swierczynski
Congratulations and best of luck to all the nominees.