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Macavity Awards

Macavity Awards

Best First Mystery

2020s

WINNER

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski

FINALISTS

  • The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge

  • My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

  • Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

  • Call Me Evie by J. P. Pomare

  • American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson




WINNER

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

FINALISTS

  • Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

  • Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

  • The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

  • Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel




WINNER

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

FINALISTS

  • Who is Maude Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

  • Girl A by Abigail Dean

  • Deer Season by Erin Flanagan

  • All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

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WINNER

The Maid by Nita Prose

FINALISTS

  • Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

  • Five Moves of Doom by A. J. Devlin

  • Shutter by Ramona Emerson

  • Devil's Chew Toy by Rob Osler

  • The Verifiers by Jane Pek

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1980s-2010s

The Macavity Award for Best First Novel has been awarded since 1987.

1987  (tie)

The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman

A Case of Loyalties by Marilyn Wallace

1988

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais

1989

The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham

1990

Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill

1991

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

1992  (tie)

Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry

Zero at the Bone by Mary Willis Walker

 

1993

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

1994

Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman

1995

Do Unto Others by Jeff Abbott

1996

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones by Dianne Day

1997

Death in Little Tokyo by Dale Furutani

1998

Dead Body Language by Penny Warner

1999

Sympathy for the Devil by Jerrilyn Farmer

2000

Inner City Blues by Paula L. Woods

2001

A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss

2002

Open Season by C. J. Box

2003

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

2004

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

2005

Dating Dead Men by Harley Jan Kozak

2006

Immoral by Brian Freeman

2007

Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone

2008

In the Woods by Tana French

2009

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2010

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

2011

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva

2012

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

2013

Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman

2014

A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames

2015

Invisible City by Julia Dahl

2016

Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton

2017

IQ by Joe Ide

2018

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

2019

Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver