Mystery Readers International announced the finalists for the organization’s annual Macavity Awards, with Steph Cha, Laura Lippman, Lauren Wilkinson, and Angie Kim among the authors so honored.
Cha’s Your House Will Pay and Lippman’s Lady in the Lake both made the shortlist for the Best Novel prize. They’re joined by fellow finalists William Kent Krueger for This Tender Land, Adrian McKinty for The Chain, Hank Philippi Ryan for The Murder List, and James Sallis for Sarah Jane.
Wilkinson’s American Spy and Kim’s Miracle Creek were both nominated for the Best First Mystery award, along with Tori Eldridge’s The Ninja Daughter, Samantha Downing’s My Lovely Wife, Tara Laskowski’s One Night Gone, and J.P. Pomare’s Call Me Evie.
Other finalists for awards include Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan and Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin in the Best Mystery Nonfiction/Critical category. Lara Prescott’s buzzy The Secrets We Kept and Edith Maxwell’s Charity’s Burden both made the shortlist for the Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery.
The Macavity Awards, which date back to 1987, are voted on by Mystery Readers International members and subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal. The winners will be announced on Oct. 16, the first day of Virtual Bouchercon 2020.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
