SMFS Official Announcement: 2019 Derringer Award Finalists

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The awards recognize outstanding stories published during 2018. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2019.

As posted by 2019 Derringer Awards Coordinator Tony Rudzki to Shortmystery earlier this week, these are the official 2019 Derringer Award Finalists:

For Best Flash Story (ranges up to 1,000 words)

• "The Bicycle Thief" by James Blakey, The Norwegian American, Sept. 21, 2018
• "Listen Up" by Peter DiChellis, Flash Bang Mysteries, (Winter 2018)
• "Sonny the Wonder Beast" by Nick Kolakowski, The Flash Fiction Offensive, Sept. 16, 2018
• "Don't Text and Drive" by Robert Petyo, Flash Bang Mysteries, (Spring 2018)
• "A Misunderstanding" by Travis Richardson, The Flash Fiction Offensive, May 27, 2018

For Best Short Story (ranges from 1,001 to 4,000 words)

• "The Belle Hope" by Peter DiChellis, Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical, Wildside Press, April 2018
• "The Crucial Game" by Janice Law, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (January-February 2018)
• "Dying in Dokesville" by Alan Orloff, Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical, Wildside Press, April 2018
• "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Murder" by Josh Pachter, Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical, Wildside Press, April 2018
• "The Cabin in the Woods" by Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Malice Domestic 13: Mystery Most Geographical, Wildside Press, April 2018

For Best Long Story (ranges from 4,001 to 8,000 words)

• "With My Eyes" by Leslie Budewitz, Suspense Magazine, January/February 2018
• "Mercy Find Me" by Diana Deverell, Fiction River: Justice ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, WMG Publishing Inc., January 2018
• "The Case of the Missing Pot Roast" by Barb Goffman, Florida Happens ed. Greg Herren, Three Rooms Press, September 2018
• "Till Murder Do Us Part" by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies ed. Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley, Wildside Press, March 2018
• "The Vanishing Volume" by Janet Raye Stevens, Shhhh...Murder! Cozy Crimes in Libraries, ed. Andrew MacRae, Darkhouse Books, September 2018

For Best Novelette (ranges from 8,001 to 20,000 words)

• "The Adventure of the Manhunting Marshal" by Peter Basile (pseud. of Jim Doherty), Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Volume 11, Airship 27, March 2018
• "Three-Star Sushi" by Barry Lancet, Down & Out The Magazine, Vol. 3, Issue 3, Down & Out Books, March 2018
• "The Cambodian Curse" by Gigi Pandian, Henery Press, October 2018
• "Oil Down" by Brian Silverman, Mystery Tribune (Winter 2018)
• "I’ve Got to Get Me a Gun" by Vincent Zandri, The Black Car Business: Vol. 1 ed. Lawrence Kelter, Down & Out Books, January 2018

A vote of the SMFS membership will determine the winner in each category. Results will be announced in May 2019.

For more on the Derringers and the rules, please see the Derringer Awards Policy post.

4/5/19--- A big thank you to Gerald So who added the publishing info on each finalist.