Members of Mystery Readers International (MRI) named 19 nominees for 2003 Macavity Awards. The Macavity Award is named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year MRI members nominate and vote for their mystery-related favorites published during the previous calendar year in four categories: Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Critical/Biographical Work, Best Short Story.
This year’s nominees are:
Best Novel:
Nine by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster) Winter and Night by S.J. Rozan (St. Martin’s Minotaur) Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews (Harper Collins) City of Bones by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) Jolie Blon’s Bounce by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Best First Novel;
A Valley To Die For by Radine Trees Nehring (St. Kitts Press) The Blue Edge of Midnight by Jonathon King (Dutton) In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming (St. Martin’s Minotaur) The Distance by Eddie Muller (Scribner)
Best Critical/Biographical:
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Crime Fiction edited by Mike Ashley (Carroll & Graf) The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller (Overlook Press) They Died In Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels, edited by Jim Huang (Crum Creek Press) Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel by Jeff Marks (Deadly Alibi Press)
Best Short Story:
Boot Scoot by Diana Deverell (AHMM, October 2002) The Adventure of the Rara Avis by Carolyn Wheat (Murder, My Dear Watson, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon Lellenberg & Daniel Stashower; Carrol & Graf) Voice Mail by Janet Dawson (Scam and Eggs, Five Star) An Empire’s Reach by Brendan DuBois (AHMM, Nov 2002) Too Many Cooks by Marcia Talley (Much Ado About Murder, edited by Anne Perry, Berkley Prime Crime) Bible Belt by Toni L.P. Kelner (EQMM, June 2002)