Category: Awards (Page 1 of 2)

The 2022 Shamus Awards Nominees

06/07/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 1 Comment

The Private Eye Writers of America has released the finalists for the 2022 Shamus Awards. The finalists were announced by PWA Awards Chairperson John Shepphird.

According to the PWA website:

“A Private Eye is defined as a private citizen (not a member of the military, federal agency, or civic state police force) who is paid to investigate crimes. A PI can be a traditional private eye, a TV or magazine reporter, an insurance investigator, an employee of an investigative service or agency, or similar character.”

The PWA was founded in 1981 by Robert J. Randisi, who also created the Shamus Awards. The aim of the organization is to support and further the private eye genre.

The finalists for the 2022 Shamus Awards are: Continue reading

The 2022 Derringer Awards

05/19/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

If you wish to read a mystery but don’t have much time to climb into a novel, maybe you’d rather read a shorter type of mystery. And for

2022 Derringer Awards Wimmers

suggestions on the crème de le crème of the little crop, you can turn to the Derringer Awards. These awards are given by the Short Mystery Fiction Society (SFMS) and are announced annually on May 1.

2022 Derringer Awards Winners Continue reading

2022 Edgar Awards Winners

05/02/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 1 Comment

Five Decembers by James Kestral

On April 28, the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 76^th annual Edgar Awards in New York City. The awards, the Edgars, honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theatre published or produced in the previous year.

This year’s winners were: Continue reading

2022 Left Coast Crime Award Winners

04/14/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

The Left Coast Crime Convention

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

2022 Left Coast Crime Awards (The Lefties)

01/25/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

The Left Coast Crime Awards (Isn’t that a great name?) announced the nominees for their 2022 awards. The nominees were made by people registered for this year’s and last year’s conventions. The finalists will be selected at the convention.

The convention selects the best mystery novels in four categories: humorous, historical, debut, and best mystery. The winners will be presented at the awards banquet on Saturday, April 9, 2022, at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque.

This list is a great place to find the cream of today’s mysteries. Is one of your favorites listed here?

2022 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominees

01/20/2022 / Tim Suddeth / 1 Comment

One of the goals of this blog is to help mystery readers find different writers they may want to read. This week, the Mystery Writers of America announced their 2022 awards and the nominees for the 2022 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. The Edgar award is one of the highest awards given for the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television.

If you are like me, first, I hope you recover. Second, following the nominees for awards like these help us discover the cream of the crop in the mystery field. And I always like seeing who the debut authors are, so I can learn what authors I should be on the lookout for. They also introduce us to different genres in mystery we may want to try.

You can find the link for the 2022 Edgar Allan Poe Awards nominees here.

The board of the Mystery Writers of America also announced their 2022 Grand Master, and the winners of the Raven and The Ellery Queen awards, The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside creative writing. The Ellery Queen Award, established in 1983, honors outstanding writing teams and people in the mystery-publishing business. I’ve posted the link here.

Congratulations to the recipients. These are well-deserved honors for all the work they have done.

2021 Anthony Awards Winners

09/02/2021 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

by Tim Suddeth

This year’s Anthony Awards were announced at the virtual Bouchercon this past weekend. The Anthony Awards are presented by members attending the annual event and honor the year’s best in mystery and crime fiction.

The Awards were to be announced at their dinner in New Orleans, but the conference was cancelled due to an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid. Over the weekend, we watched Hurricane Ida batter New Orleans.

The winners were announced at a virtual ceremony. Congratulations to the winners. And prayers for New Orleans for a quick recovery. Continue reading

2021 Killer Nashville Awards

08/24/2021 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

The 2021 Killer Nashville awards were announced this past Saturday. They seek to find and honor the best books of 2020 that incorporate the elements of mystery, thriller, and suspense. Here are the honorees. Congratulations to everyone who participated. (Here is the link to Killer Nashville.)

The Silver Falchion Awards

Book of the Year Continue reading

2021 Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award Nominees.

08/02/2021 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

On July 30, Clay Stafford announced the Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award nominees. The Silver Falchion Awards are handed out at the Killer Nashville Conference to recognize and honor the Best Book published in the previous year. The books are chosen by how they incorporate the elements of mystery, thriller, and suspense.

The awards will be given out on August 21 at their Awards Dinner. You can find a link to the finalists here.

The finalists were placed in the following categories: Best Action Adventure, Best Comedy, Best historical, Best Investigator, Best Juvenile/YA, Best Mystery, Best Nonfiction, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Best Short Story Collection/Anthology, Best Supernatural, Best Suspense, and Best Thriller.

Author’s note: A falchion is a one-handed, single-edged sword similar to a machete. They were used as early as the thirteenth century.

The 2021 Agatha Awards Winners

07/22/2021 / Tim Suddeth / 0 Comments

On July 17, the 2021 Agatha Awards were announced July 17 at the More Than Malice, the Virtual Malice Domestic Festival. For the second year, the award ceremony was virtual and not in person.

From the Malice Domestic website, the Agatha Awards “celebrate the traditional mystery, best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence, and would not be classified as ‘hard-boiled’.”

The nominees are suggested by everyone who has registered for or became a Friend of Malice Domestic by the end of the previous years. The five finalists in the six categories are chosen, then the attendees vote for the winners. Continue reading