Book News: Mystery Readers International Announces Macavity Award Nominees

Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 7/16/2008 9:08:00 AM

• Selection by Mystery Readers International
• Nominees in five categories
• Winners to be named during October’s Bouchercon Mystery Convention

Mystery Readers International (publishers of the Mystery Readers Journal) has announced the nominees for its annual Macavity Awards for works published in 2007. Vying for the prizes are:

Best Mystery Novel
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House)
The Unquiet by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton/Atria)
Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Ballantine Mortalis)
Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie (HarperCollins)
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Mystery
In the Woods by Tana French (Hodder & Stoughton/Viking)
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)
Stealing the Dragon by Tim Maleeny (Midnight Ink)
The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees (Soho)

Best Mystery Short Story
“A Rat’s Tale” by Donna Andrews (EQMM, Sep-Oct 2007)
 “Please Watch Your Step” by Rhys Bowen (The Strand Magazine, Spring 2007)
“The Missing Elevator Puzzle” by Jon L. Breen (EQMM, Feb 2007)
“Brimstone P.I.” by Beverle Graves Myers (AHMM, May 2007)
“The Old Wife’s Tale” by Gillian Roberts (EQMM, Mar-Apr 2007)

Best Mystery Non-Fiction
Rough Guide to Crime Fiction by Barry Forshaw (Penguin Rough Guides)
Chester Gould: A Daughter’s Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy by Jean Gould O’Connell (McFarland)
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower & Charles Foley (HarperPress/Penguin)
Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers by Lee Lofland (Howdunit Series, Writers Digest Books)
The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians, compiled and edited by Roger Sobin (Poisoned Pen Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen (Penguin)
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (Putnam)
The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin (Faber & Faber/Farrar)
Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne (Viking/Penguin)
The Gravediggers Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (HarperCollins Ecco)

The awards will be presented during opening ceremonies at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention (http://www.bouchercon.info) in Baltimore this October.