SMFS Official Announcement: 2025 Derringer Award Winners

  

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—named after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The Short Mystery Fiction Society is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Derringer Awards for works published in 2024.

 As reported by Derringer Coordinator Paula Messina…

FLASH

"Kargin the Necromancer" by Mike McHone
(Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)

SHORT STORY

"The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)

LONG STORY

"Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano
(Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)

NOVELETTE

"The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson
(Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024)

ANTHOLOGY

Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology
Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books

The complete list of 2025 finalists can be found here.

SMFS Official Announcement: 2024 Derringer Award Winners

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The Short Mystery Fiction Society is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Derringer Awards for works published in 2023.

 

As reported by Derringer Coordinator Joseph S. Walker…. 

 

FLASH

 

THE REFEREE by C. W. Blackwell

(Shotgun Honey, October 12, 2023)

 

 

SHORT STORY

 

LAST DAY AT THE JACKRABBIT by John Floyd

(The Strand, May 2023)

 

LONG STORY

 

GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY by Bonnar Spring

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

 

 

NOVELETTE (TIE)

 

MRS. HYDE by David Dean

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

 

CATHERINE THE GREAT by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

(WMG 2023 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories)

 

The complete list of finalists can be found here.

EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER

 

Barb Goffman

 

HALL OF FAME

 

Rex Stout