The winners have usually been announced at Bouchercon, but Janet Rudolph hasn’t attended for the last few years and just announces the winners on the MRI website/blog.

The Macavity Award is named after Macavity: The Mystery Cat, in T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats! Scroll down to read the poem. 

The Macavity Awards are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congratulations to all!

 

Macavity Award Winners 2025

For works published in 2024

Best Mystery Novel 

California Bear by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

Best First Mystery

Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita (Crooked Lane)

Best Mystery Short Story

“Home Game” by Craig Faustus Buck (in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024)

Best Historical Mystery

Fog City by Claire Johnson (Level Best Books)

Best Nonfiction/Critical

Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press)