LibGuides: Macavity Awards: Best Nonfiction

Macavity Awards

Best Nonfiction / Critical

(formerly known as "Best Critical/Biographical Mystery Work)

2020s

WINNER

Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer

Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer
Call Number: 791.4302 H674b (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780813177427
Publication Date: 2019-06-14
Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock had to deal with a wide variety of censors attuned to the slightest suggestion of sexual innuendo, undue violence, toilet humor, religious disrespect, and all forms of indecency, real or imagined.

FINALISTS

Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell
Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps : a Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan
Norco '80 : the True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan
The Mutual Admiration Society : How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton
Indecent Advances : a Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin

Frederick Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell
Call Number: 813.52 B532f (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781476676524
Publication Date: 2019-02-25
Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) was--with his partner Manfred Bennington Lee--the creator of the Ellery Queen detective novels and short stories, a literary historian and critic, and the editor of the renowned Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. This book presents the first critical study of Ellery Queen's role in the preservation of the detective short story.

Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps : a life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan
Call Number: 823.912 B918b (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781408870815
Publication Date: 2019-04-18
John Buchan's name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the past hundred years the classic thriller has never been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film, television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by Alfred Hitchcock. Yet there was vastly more to 'JB'. He wrote more than a hundred books - fiction and non-fiction - and a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and imperial proconsul - given a state funeral when he died, a deeply admired and loved Governor-General of Canada. His teenage years in Glasgow's Gorbals, where his father was the Free Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors, fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life contains, at its heart, an enduring love story.

Norco '80 by Peter Houlahan
Call Number: 364.15 H838n (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9781640092129
Publication Date: 2019-06-11
Southern California, the 1970s. Five heavily armed young men-- led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian-- attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history. Houlahan explains how a group of landscapers transformed into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turned the surrounding towns into war zones. When it was over, three were dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter was forced down from the sky, and thirty-two police vehicles were destroyed by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trial raised many issues that continue to plague society today: from the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.

The Mutual Admiration Society : how Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford cicle remade the world for women by Mo Moulton
Call Number: 823.912 S274m (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9781541644472
Publication Date: 2019-11-05
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was a renowned crime novelist who achieved fame and fortune during a period that historian Mo Moulton calls 'the day after the revolution.' In a time when just as many doors were closed to women as open, Sayers found professional success with her Lord Peter Wimsey novels. Yet she never could have done it without the cohort of remarkable women she met at university -- all of whom would go on to challenge societal norms and fight for equality of opportunity in their own way. In 1912, Dorothy L. Sayers and five friends founded a writing group at Somerville College, Oxford; they called themselves the 'Mutual Admiration Society.' Smart, bold, serious, and funny, these women were also sheltered and chaperoned, barred from receiving degrees despite taking classes and passing exams. Mutual Admiration Society follows these six women as they navigate the complexities of adulthood, work, intimacy, and sex in Interwar England. Bringing these women to vivid life, Moulton reveals how Dorothy L. Sayers was intimately intertwined with the members of the MAS -- and how, together, they fought their way into modernity

Indecent Advances by James Polchin
Call Number: 070.449 P762i (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781640091894
Publication Date: 2019-06-04
A skillful hybrid of true crime and social history that examines the relationship between the media and popular culture in the portrayal of crimes against gay men in the decades before Stonewall. Stories of murder have never been just about killers and victims. Instead, crime stories take the shape of their times and reflect cultural notions and prejudices. In Indecent Advances, James Polchin recovers and recounts queer stories from the crime pages--often lurid and euphemistic--that reveal the hidden history of violence against gay men. What was left unsaid in the crime pages provides insight into the figure of the queer man as both criminal and victim, offering readers tales of vice and violence that aligned gender and sexual deviance with tragic, gruesome endings. Victims were often reported as having made "indecent advances," forcing the accused's hands in self-defense and reducing murder charges to manslaughter. Published in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969, Indecent Advances investigates how queer men navigated a society that criminalized them and displayed little compassion for the violence they endured. Polchin shows, with masterful insight, how this discrimination was ultimately transformed by activists to help shape the burgeoning gay rights movement in the years leading up to Stonewall.

WINNER

H.R.F. Keating : a Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell

FINALISTS

Sometimes You Have to Lie : the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
Howdunit : a Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards
Ian Rankin : a Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Erin E. MacDonald
Southern Cross Crime : the Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand by Craig Sisterson

WINNER

How to Write a Mystery: a Handbook from Mystery Writers of America edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King.

How to Write a Mystery : a handbook from Mystery Writers of America by Mystery Writers of America; Lee Child (Editor); Laurie R. King (Editor)
Call Number: 808.3872 M998h (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781982149437
Publication Date: 2021-04-27
From some of the most successful mystery writers in the business, an invaluable guide to crafting mysteries, from character development and plot to procedurals and thrillers.

FINALISTS

Agatha Christie's Poirot: the Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge
The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History by Margalit Fox
The Unquiet Englishman: a Life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene
Tony Hillerman: a Life by James McGratth Morris
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch
The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: an Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White

Agatha Christie's Poirot : the greatest detective in the world by Mark Aldridge
Call Number: 823.912 C555a (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780008296612
Publication Date: 2020-11-12
Poirot has had near-permanent presence in the public eye ever since the 1920 publication of "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". From character development, publication history and private discussion concerning the original stories themselves, to early forays on to the stage and screen, the story of Poirot is as fascinating as it is enduring. Based on the author's original research, review excerpts and original Agatha Christie correspondence, "Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World" is a lively and accessible history of the character, offering new information and helpful pieces of context, that will delight all Agatha Christie fans.

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The Confidence Men : how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history by Margalit Fox
Call Number: 940.4 F793c (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9781984853844
Publication Date: 2021-06-01
Imprisoned in a remote Turkish prison camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate sýeances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around camp, and one day, a Turkish officer approaches Jones with a query: Could Jones contact the spirit world to find a vast treasure rumored to be buried nearby? Jones, a trained lawyer, and Hill, a brilliant magician, use the Ouija board--and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception--to build a trap for the Turkish officers that will ultimately lead them to freedom. The Confidence Men is the story of the only known con game played for a good cause--and of a profound but unlikely friendship. Had it not been for "the Great War," Jones, the Oxford-educated son of a British lord, and Hill, a mechanic from an Australian sheep farm, would never have met. But in pain, loneliness, hunger, and isolation, they formed a powerful emotional and intellectual alliance that saved both of their lives.

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The Unquiet Englishman : a life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene
Call Number: BIO GREEN GRA G (Adult biography)
ISBN: 9780393084320
Publication Date: 2021-01-12
A vivid, deeply researched account of the tumultuous life of one of the twentieth century's greatest novelists, the author of The End of the Affair. Graham Greene lived a life as strange and compelling as those in his brilliant novels. A journalist and MI6 officer, Greene sought out the inner narratives of war and politics across the world; he witnessed the Second World War, the Vietnam War, the Mau Mau Rebellion, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the guerrilla wars of Central America. His classic novels, including The Heart of the Matter and The Quiet American, are only pieces of a career that reads like a primer on the twentieth century itself. With wit, keen understanding, and compassion informed by recently surfaced letters and new memoirs from Graham Greene's contemporaries, Richard Greene creates a nuanced portrait of a complicated man. An Unquiet Englishman delves into the conflicts that defined Greene-marriage, promiscuity, faith, and mental illness-to bring fresh insights to his work.

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Tony Hillerman : a life by James McGrath Morris
Call Number: BIO HILLE TON M (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780806175980
Publication Date: 2021-10-14
Full-length biography of mystery writer, Tony Hillerman (1925-2008), whose Leaphorn/Chee novels introduced non-Native Americans to the mysteries of Navajo culture.

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The Reason for the Darkness of the Night : Edgar Allan Poe and the forging of American science by John Tresch
Call Number: BIO POE EDGA T (Adult biograophy)
ISBN: 9780374247850
Publication Date: 2021-06-15
Tresch reveals Poe's obsession with science and lifelong ambition to advance and question human knowledge. Even as he composed dazzling works of fiction, he remained an avid and often combative commentator on new discoveries, publishing and hustling in literary scenes that also hosted the era's most prominent scientists, semi-scientists, and pseudo-intellectual rogues. In showing that Poe lived, thought, and suffered surrounded by science, Tresch shows that many of his most renowned and imaginative works can best be understood in its company.

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The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock : ananatomy of the master of suspense by Edward White
Call Number: BIO HITCH ALF W (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781324002390
Publication Date: 2021-04-13
Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon--what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world.

NOMINEES

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie edited by Mary Anna Evans & J. C. Bernthal
The Crime World of Michael Connelly: a Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin
Agatha Christie: an Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

The Life of Crime : detecting the history of mysteries and their creators by Martin Edwards
Call Number: 809.3872 E26L (Adult nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780008192426
Publication Date: 2022-05-26
In the first major history of crime fiction in fifty years, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators traces the evolution of the genre from the eighteenth century to the present, offering brand-new perspective on the world's most popular form of fiction.

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The Crime World of Michael Connelly : a study of his works and their adaptations by David Geherin
Call Number: 813.54 CONNE ZG
ISBN: 9781476687018
Publication Date: 2022-11-10
Since the publication of his first novel in 1992, Michael Connelly has become one of America's most popular and critically acclaimed crime writers. He is best known as the author of a long-running series featuring LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, one of the most compelling figures in contemporary crime fiction. He also created several additional series featuring a criminal defense attorney (Mickey Haller, known as the Lincoln Lawyer), an FBI profiler (Terry McCaleb), a newspaper reporter (Jack McEvoy), and an LAPD policewoman (Renee Ballard) who works the night shift. When he began incorporating all his characters into the Bosch mega-series, he expanded the notion of what a crime series can accomplish. This work takes an in-depth look at all of Connelly's work, including the thirty-four novels that comprise the Bosch mega-series, the film adaptations of his books, the popular "Bosch" TV series, and his standalone novels, short stories, and podcasts. It also includes chapters on his novelistic artistry and his portraits of Los Angeles and its police department.

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Agatha Christie : an elusive woman by Lucy Worsley
Call Number: BIO CHRIS AGA W
ISBN: 9781639362523
Publication Date: 2022-09-06
She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Lucy Worsley’s biography is not just of a massively, internationally successful writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley’s biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realize what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was—truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

1980s-2010s

The Macavity Awards for Best Nonfiction has been awarded since 1987. The award was called "Best Critical/Biographical Mystery Work" from 1987-2004. From 2005 to the present it was given its current name.

1987

1001 Midnights by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini

1988

Son of a Gun in Cheek by Bill Pronzini

1989

Silk Stalkings by Victoria Nichols & Susan Thompson

1990

The Bedside Companion to Crime by H. R> F> Keating

1991

Agatha Christie : the Woman and Her Mysteries by Gillian Gill

1992

Talking Mysteries : a conversation with Tony Hillerman by Tony Hillerman & Ernie Bulow

1993

Doubleday Crime Club by Ellen Nehr

1994

The Fine Art of Murder edited by Ed Gorman

1995

By a Woman's Hand by Dean James & Jean Swanson

1996

Detecting Women by Willetta Heising

1997

Detecting Wome 2 by Willetta Heising

1998

Deadly Women by Jan Grape, Dean James, & Ellen Nehr

1999

Killer Books by Jean Swanson & Dean James

2000

Ross Macdonald by Tom Nolan

2001

The American Regional Mystery by Marvin Lachman

2002

Writing the Mystery : a Start to Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional by G. Miki Hayden

2003

They Died in Vain : Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels edited by Jim Huang

2004

Make Mine a Mystery : a Reader's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction by Gary Warren Niebuhr

2005

Forensics for Dummies by D. P. Lyle

Forensics for Dummies by Douglas P. Lyle
Call Number: 363.25 L985f (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780764555800
Publication Date: 2004-04-30
Inside you'll find out why people commit crime, how psychology helps in the investigative process, the ways psychologists work with criminals behind bars - and how you too can become a forensic psychologist. You'll discover what a typical day is like for a forensic psychologist, how they work with the police to build offender profiles, interview suspects or witnesses, and detect lies!

2006

Girl Sleuth : Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

Girl Sleuth : Nancy Drew and the women who created her by Melanie Rehak
Call Number: 813.52 R345g (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780151010417
Publication Date: 2005-09-12
In 1930 a plucky girl detective stepped out of her shiny blue roadster, dressed in a smart tweed suit. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties, and emerged as beloved by girls today as by their grandmothers. Rehak tells the behind-the-scenes history of Nancy and her groundbreaking creators. Both Nancy and her "author," Carolyn Keene, were invented by Edward Stratemeyer, who also created the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy Boys. But Nancy Drew was brought to life by two remarkable women: original author Mildred Wirt Benson, a convention-flouting Midwestern journalist, and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, a wife and mother who ran her father's company after he died. Together, Benson and Adams created a character that has inspired generations of girls to be as strong-willed and as bold as they were.

2007

Mystery Muses : 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers edited by Jim Juang and Austin Lugar

2008

The Essential Mystery Lists : For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians edited by Roger Sobin

2009

African American Mystery Writers : a Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey

2010

Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James

Talking about Detective Fiction by P. D. James
Call Number: 823.8 J28t (Adtul Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780307592828
Publication Date: 2009-12-01
P. D. James, the undisputed queen of mystery, gives us an intriguing, inspiring and idiosyncratic look at the genre she has spent her life perfecting. Examining mystery from top to bottom, beginning with such classics as Charles Dickens's Bleak House and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and then looking at such contemporary masters as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell, P. D. James goes right to the heart of the genre. Along the way she traces the lives and writing styles of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and many more. Here is P.D. James discussing detective fiction as social history, explaining its stylistic components, revealing her own writing process, and commenting on the recent resurgence of detective fiction in modern culture. It is a must have for the mystery connoisseur and casual fan alike.

2011

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks : Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

2012

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris (Editor)
Call Number: Fiction H312c (Adult Fiction)
ISBN: 9780441019717
Publication Date: 2011-08-30
Fans of Charlaine Harris' number-one New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels will find much to enjoy in this companion to the immensely popular series. Included are a never-before-published novella and an exclusive interview with Alan Ball, creator of HBO's True Blood. Sookie herself guides listeners on a behind-the-scenes tour of Bon Temps, gives them a peek at the werewolf and werepanther communities, provides a glimpse through the racks of her best friend Tara's dress shop, and offers a look at Merlotte's - the bar where Sookie earns her living.

2013

Books to Die For : the World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke

2014

The Hour of Peril : the Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower

2015

Writes of Passage : Adventures on the Writer's Journey edited by Hank Philippi Ryan

2016

The Golden Age of Murder : the Mystery of the Writers Who Invented the Modern Detective Story by Martin Edwards

2017

Sara Paretsky : a Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Margaret Kinsman

2018

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards

2019

The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman

The Real Lolita : the kidnapping of Sally Horner and the novel that scandalized the world by Sarah Weinman
Call Number: 362.88 W424r (Adult Nonfiction)
ISBN: 9780062661920
Publication Date: 2018-09-11
In 1948, Sally Horner was just eleven years old when she was kidnapped by a man claiming to be an FBI agent. Seven years later, Vladimir Nabokov published Lolita, perhaps the most seminal novel of the twentieth century. Sarah Weinman's investigation into how the two are connected is a thrilling, heartbreaking mix of literary scholarship and true-crime writing.

Macavity Awards

2020s

WINNER

Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer

FINALISTS

Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell

Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps : a Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan

Norco '80 : the True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan

The Mutual Admiration Society : How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton

Indecent Advances : a Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin

WINNER

H.R.F. Keating : a Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell

FINALISTS

Sometimes You Have to Lie : the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody

Howdunit : a Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards

Ian Rankin : a Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Erin E. MacDonald

Southern Cross Crime : the Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand by Craig Sisterson

WINNER

How to Write a Mystery: a Handbook from Mystery Writers of America edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King.

FINALISTS

Agatha Christie's Poirot: the Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge

The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History by Margalit Fox

The Unquiet Englishman: a Life of Graham Greene by Richard Greene

Tony Hillerman: a Life by James McGratth Morris

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch

The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: an Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White

NOMINEES

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards

The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie edited by Mary Anna Evans & J. C. Bernthal

The Crime World of Michael Connelly: a Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin

Agatha Christie: an Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

1980s-2010s

1987

1001 Midnights by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini

1988

Son of a Gun in Cheek by Bill Pronzini

1989

Silk Stalkings by Victoria Nichols & Susan Thompson

1990

The Bedside Companion to Crime by H. R> F> Keating

1991

Agatha Christie : the Woman and Her Mysteries by Gillian Gill

1992

Talking Mysteries : a conversation with Tony Hillerman by Tony Hillerman & Ernie Bulow

1993

Doubleday Crime Club by Ellen Nehr

1994

The Fine Art of Murder edited by Ed Gorman

1995

By a Woman's Hand by Dean James & Jean Swanson

1996

Detecting Women by Willetta Heising

1997

Detecting Wome 2 by Willetta Heising

1998

Deadly Women by Jan Grape, Dean James, & Ellen Nehr

1999

Killer Books by Jean Swanson & Dean James

2000

Ross Macdonald by Tom Nolan

2001

The American Regional Mystery by Marvin Lachman

2002

Writing the Mystery : a Start to Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional by G. Miki Hayden

2003

They Died in Vain : Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels edited by Jim Huang

2004

Make Mine a Mystery : a Reader's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction by Gary Warren Niebuhr

2005

Forensics for Dummies by D. P. Lyle

2006

Girl Sleuth : Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

2007

Mystery Muses : 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers edited by Jim Juang and Austin Lugar

2008

The Essential Mystery Lists : For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians edited by Roger Sobin

2009

African American Mystery Writers : a Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey

2010

Talking About Detective Fiction by P. D. James