SMFS Official Announcement: 2024 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 2023. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2024.

 

The full listing of our nominees and the markets that published the finalist stories has been compiled and supplied by Derringer Coordinator Joseph S. Walker.

 

FLASH

 

SLEEP ROUGH by Brandon Barrows

(Shotgun Honey, September 19, 2023)

 

THE REFEREE by C. W. Blackwell

(Shotgun Honey, October 12, 2023)

 

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN by Serena Jayne

(Shotgun Honey, January 9, 2023)

 

TEDDY’S FAVORITE THING by Paul Ryan O’Connor

(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)

 

SUPPLY CHAINS by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

(Black Cat Weekly #89)

 

 

SHORT STORY 

 

DENIM MINING by Michael Bracken

(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)

 

DOGS OF WAR by Michael Bracken & Stacy Woodson

(Mickey Finn: 21^st Century Noir Volume Four, Down & Out Books)

 

LAST DAY AT THE JACKRABBIT by John Floyd

(The Strand, May 2023)

 

I DON’T LIKE MONDAYS by Josh Pachter

(Mystery Magazine, July 2023)

 

JUDGE NOT by Twist Phelan

(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)

 

A TAIL OF JUSTICE by Shannon Taft

(Black Cat Weekly #114)

LONG STORY

 

HARD RAIN ON BEACH STREET by C. W. Blackwell

(Killin’ Time in San Diego, Down & Out Books)

 

REVERSION by Marcelle Dubé

(Mystery Magazine, April 2023)

 

BACK TO HELL HOUSE by Nick Kolakowski

(Vautrin, Fall 2023)

 

TROUBLED WATER by donalee Moulton

(Black Cat Weekly #75)

 

IT’S NOT EVEN PAST by Anna Scotti

(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)

 

GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY by Bonnar Spring

(Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories, Crime Spell Books)

 

IGNATIUS RUM-AND-COLA by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2023)

 

 

NOVELETTE

 

VENGEANCE WEAPON by James R. Benn

(The Refusal Camp: Stories by James R. Benn, Soho Press)

 

MRS. HYDE by David Dean

(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2023)

 

THE CASE OF THE BOGUS CINDERELLAS by Jacqueline Freimor

(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/Aug 2023)

 

MADAM TOMAHAWK by Nick Kolakowski

(A Grifter’s Song, Down & Out Books, 2023)

 

CATHERINE THE GREAT by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

(WMG 2023 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories)