SMFS Member Nominees for 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award

The SMFS is proud to announce that again this year members of the SMFS have been nominated for the 2024 Silver Falchion Award. As stated on their homepage, winners will be announced in mid-August at the conference. The complete list of nominees is on the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalists site. The nominated SMFS list members are: 

 

Best Cozy

Peggy Rothschild with Playing Dead: A Novel (Berkley).

 

Best Historical

Richard Helms for Vicar Brekonridge: A Vicar Brekonridge Novel (Level Best – Historia).

Jessica Sly for The Art of Misdirection: Isles of Illusion Book 2 (Mountain Brook Ink). 

Nina Wachsman for The Courtesan's Secret: A Venice Beauties Mystery (Level Best Books).

Best Investigator (Includes Procedural, Serious P. I., Detective, And Noir)

Mark Troy for Splintered Loyalty: An Ava Rome Mystery (Down & Out Books)

Best Nonfiction

Judy Penz Sheluk for Finding YOUR Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide (Superior Shores Press).

 

Best Anthology (Awarded To Individual Author Or Collection Editor)

Richard Helms for Paper Walls / Glass Houses (Black Arch Books).

Art Taylor for The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions  (Crippen & Landru Publishers).

 

Best Thriller

Cathi Stoler for With a Twist: A Murder on the Rocks Mystery (Level Best Books).

2024 SMFS Member Shamus Award Nominees

Earlier this week, The Private Eye Writers of America announced their Shamus Award nominees for the 2024 Shamus Awards. There are three categories for awards given for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2023. The nominated SMFS list members:

 

Best Original PI Paperback 

Gabriel Valjan for, Liar’s Dice, published by Level Best Books.

 

Best PI Short Story 

Libby Cudmore for, Beyond Belief, online at TOUGH (May 2023). 

Joesph S. Walker for, Making The Bad Guys Nervous, in Black Cat Weekly #102.

 

SMFS congratulates our member nominees as well as all the nominated authors.

 

Per the website:  The winners for Shamus Awards will be announced at the Bouchercon Opening Ceremonies in Nashville, Tennessee Thursday, August 29th 6:30 to 8:00pm (Delta Ballroom A, floor 2) Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center  

2024 SMFS Member Anthony Award Nominees

Earlier this week, several SMFS list members were nominated for the 2024 Anthony Awards in various categories. The winners will be announced at Bouchercon: Nashville on Saturday evening, August 31, 2024. The full list of nominees and more information can be found on the Facebook announcement. The SMFS list members that reported on the SMFS list their nominated books and short stories are:

 

Best Anthology

Here in the Dark: Stories by Megan Lucas (Shotgun Honey Books, July 2023)

 

Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, Editor Josh Pachter (Down & Out Books, October 2023).

 

The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions by Art Taylor (Crippen and Landru, February 2023).

 

School of Hard Knox: Stories That Break Father Ronald Knox's Commandments for Crime Fiction. Edited by SMFS list members Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor (Crippen and Landru, August 2023).

 

Best Short Story

Barb Goffman for “Real Courage” (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Wildside Press, October 2023).

 

James D.F. Hannah for “Knock” (Playing Games, Editor Lawrence Block, Subterranean Press, July 2023)

 

Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski for “Ticket To Ride.” (Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, Editor Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books,  October 2023).  

 

Best Hardcover Novel

James L'Etoile for Face of Greed: A Novel (Oceanview Publishing, November 2023)

 

Best Paperback Original

James D.F. Hannah for Because the Night: A Henry Malone Novel (Down & Out Books, June 2023)

 

SMFS Member Nominees for Killer Nashville’s 2023 Silver Falchion Award

The SMFS is proud to announce that again this year members of the SMFS have been nominated for the 2023 Silver Falchion Awards. As stated on their homepage, winners will be announced in mid-August at the conference. The complete list of nominees is on the 2023 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalists site. The nominated SMFS list members are: 

 

Best Cozy 

Debra H. Goldstein for Five Belles Too Many (Kensington). 

Lori Robbins for Murder in Third Position (Level Best Books). 

Peggy Rothschild for A Deadly Bone to Pick (Berkley Prime Crime).

 

 

Best Historical 

Richard Helms for A Kind and Savage Place (Level Best Books). 

Nina Wachsman for The Gallery of Beauties: A Venice Beauties Mystery  (Level Best Books).

 

 

Best Investigator 

James L'Etoile for Dead Drop: A Detective Nathan Parker Novel (Level Best Books). 

Emilya Naymark for Behind the Lie (Crooked Lane Books).

 

 

Best Mainstream/Commercial

Vinnie Hansen with One Gun (Misterio Press).

 

 

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy 

Elle Hartford for Beauty and the Alchemist (Phoenix & Kelpie Press).

 

 

Best Western 

Gerald Elias with Roundtree Days: A Jefferson Dance Western Mystery (Level Best Books). 

 

Additionally, An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales of Intrigue (Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC.) is a Silver Falchion Award finalist in the Best Short Story Collection / Anthology category. SMFS list member Debra H. Goldstein’s short story, Death in the Hand of the Tongue, is included.

2023 SMFS Member Shamus Award Nominees

Earlier this week, The Private Eye Writers of America announced their Shamus Award nominees for the 2023 Shamus Awards. There are four categories for awards given for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2022. SMFS list members are nominated in two of the four categories. The categories and members nominated are:

 

Best Original PI Paperback

Gabriel Valjan for, Hush Hush, published by Level Best Books.

 

Best PI Short Story

Libby Cudmore for, Charlie’s Medicine, in Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, published by Down & Out Books. Edited by SMFS list members Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor.

O’Neil De Noux for, A Jelly of Intrigue, in Edgar & Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection from the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond, published by Down & Out Books. Edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer.

 

SMFS congratulates our member nominees as well as all the nominated authors.

SMFS Members Nominated for the 2023 The Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence

  

Several SMFS list members were nominated earlier this week for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. There are ten categories with five finalists in each category. SMFS members are finalists in two categories. Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 25^th. The SMFS members who reported their presence as finalists are:

 

Best Short Story

Blair Keetch for "To Catch a Kumiho” in In the Spirit of 13: A spirited crime anthology. (Carrick Publishing)

Sylvia Warsh for "The Natural Order of Things" in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: May/June 2022

M. H. Callway for "Must Love Dogs - or You're Gone" in GONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CRIME STORIES. (Red Dog Press)

 

Best Novella

M. H. Callway for “Amdur's Ghost” in In the Spirit of 13: A spirited crime anthology. (Carrick Publishing)

 

For the full list of nominees and other information, please see the Crime Writers of Canada website.

2023 SMFS Lefty Award Nominees

Two SMFS list members are up for the 2023 Lefty Awards. Both members are nominated in the Best Mystery Novel Category. Winners will be announced Saturday evening, March 18, 2023, as noted on the Left Coast Crime #33 website. The nominated SMFS members and their books are:  

 

James L’Etoile for Dead Drop (published by Level Best Books).

 

Gigi Pandian for Under Lock & Skeleton Key (published by Minotaur Books).

SMFS Member Nominees for Killer Nashville’s 2022 Silver Falchion Award

The SMFS is proud to announce that again this year members of the SMFS have been nominated for the 2022 Silver Falchion Awards. As stated on their homepage, winners will be announced in mid-August at the conference. The complete list of nominees is on the 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalists site. The nominated SMFS list members are: 

 

Best Comedy

Chris Chan for Sherlock's Secretary (MX Publishing, December  2021)

 

Best Investigator

Emilya Naymark for Hide in Place (Crooked Lane Books, February 2021)

 

Best Juvenile / YA

William Burton McCormick for A Stranger From the Storm (Independently Published, October 2021)

 

Best Nonfiction

Chris Chan for Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter (Level Best Books, September 2021)

 

Best Suspense

Jeffrey James Higgins for Furious: Sailing into Terror (Black Rose Writing, May 2021)

 

Best Attendee Thriller Finalists

James L’Etoile for Black Label (Level Best Books, July 2021)

 

Additionally, Lies Along the Mississippi: A Memphis Mysteries Anthology (Malice in Memphis, A Killer Writing Group, July 2021) is a Silver Falchion Award finalist in the Best Short Story Collection / Anthology category. SMFS list members Jackie Ross Flaum and Lynn Maples have short stories in the book. 

SMFS Members Nominated for the 2021 Edgar Awards

The nominees for 2021 Edgar Awards, so named to honor Edgar Allen Poe, have been announced by the Mystery Writers Of America. Winners will be announced on April 29, 2021. There are twelve categories in fiction and nonfiction and SMFS list members have been nominated this year in two categories.

 

The nominated members and their categories are:

 

Best Short Story 

Leslie Elman for “The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay," published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine: January/February 2020 issue. 

Joseph S. Walker for "Etta at the End of the World," published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: May/June 2020 issue. 

James W. Ziskin for “The Twenty-Five-Year Engagement,” in the anthology, In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon.

 

 

The G. P. Putnam’s Son Sue Grafton Memorial Award

James W. Ziskin with Turn To Stone: An Ellie Stone Novel published by Seventh Street Books. The book is also under consideration for a Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel.

 

 

SMFS salutes our list members in this accomplishment and wish them all the best as they represent the SMFS. The full list of all the nominees can be found on the MWA website.

2021 SMFS Lefty Award Nominees

Several SMFS list members are up for the 2021 Lefty Awards. There are four categories in total with 23 books. SMFS list members are competing in two different categories regarding books first published in 2020. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the winners will be announced online on April 10, 2021. The SMFS list members and their books in the respective categories are:

 

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Jennifer J. Chow, Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (Berkley Prime Crime)

Cynthia Kuhn, The Study of Secrets (Henery Press) 

 

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bruce Alexander Memorial for books covering events before 1970)

James W. Ziskin, Turn to Stone (Seventh Street Books)

 

For a full list of all the books and their authors under award consideration, go to the official Left Coast site at 2021 Lefty Awards: The Unconvention

SMFS Members Nominated for the 2020 Edgar Awards

The nominees for 20209 Edgar Awards, so named to honor Edgar Allen Poe, have been announced in the Mystery Writers Of America. Winners will receive their awards on the evening of April 30, 2020 at the  74^th Gala Banquet in New York City. There are twelve categories in fiction and nonfiction and SMFS list members have been nominated this year in three categories.

The nominated members and their categories are:

Susan Bickford for Dread of Winter (Kensington Publishing) in the category of  “Best Paperback Original.”

Tara Laskowski for One Night Gone (Graydon House) in the category of  “The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award.”

Gigi Pandian for The Alchemist’s Illusion in the category of “G. P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award.”

The SMFS salutes our list members in this accomplishment and wish them all the best as they represent the SMFS. The full list of all the nominees can be found on the MWA website.