McCAVITY AWARDS
In T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Cats, the mystery cat was named McCavity. The Mystery Reader's International organization adopted that moniker for their annual awards recognizing the best in mystery publications. The awards were first given in 1987.
Categories include best novel, best first novel, best bio/critical work, and best short story.
Winners
Year |
Award |
Title |
Author |
2004 |
Novel | The House Sitter | Peter Lovesy |
| First novel | Maisie Dobbs | Jacqueline Winspear | |
| Bio/Critical | Make Mine a Mystery | Gary Warren Niebuhr | |
| Short Story | The Grass is Always Greener | Sandy Balzo | |
2003 |
Novel | Winter and Night | S.J. Rozan |
| First novel | In the Bleak Midwinter | Julia Spencer-Fleming | |
| Bio/Critical | They Died in Vain | Jim Huang | |
| Short Story | Voice Mail | Janet Dawson | |
2002 |
Novel | Folly | Laurie King |
| First novel | Open Season | C.J. Box | |
| Bio/Critical | Writing the Mystery | G. Miki Hayden | |
| Short Story | The Abbey Ghosts | Jan Burke | |
2001 |
Novel | A Place of Execution | Val McDermid |
| First novel | A Conspiracy of Paper | David Liss | |
| Bio/Critical | The American Regional Mystery | Marvin Lachman | |
| Short Story | A Candle for Christmas | Reginald Hill | |
2000 |
Novel | The Flower Master | Sujata Massey |
| First novel | Inner City Blues | Paula Woods | |
| Bio/Critical | Ross MacDonald | Tom Nolan | |
| Short Story | Maubi and the Jumbies | Kate Grilley | |
1999 |
Novel | Blood Work | Michael Connelly |
| First novel | Sympathy for the Devil | Jerrilyn Farmer | |
| Bio/Critical | Killer Books | Jean Swanson and Dean James | |
| Short Story | You Know that Chocolate is a Vegetable | Barbara d'Amato | |
1998 |
Novel | Dreaming of the Bones | Deborah Crombie |
| First novel | Dead Body Language | Penny Warner | |
| Bio/Critical | Deadly Women | J Grape, D James, and E Nehr | |
| Short Story | Two Ladies of Rose Cottage | Peter Robinson | |
1997 |
Novel | Bloodhounds | Peter Lovesy |
| First novel | Death in Little Toyko | Dale Furutani | |
| Bio/Critical | Detecting Women 2 | Wiletta Heising | |
| Short Story | Cruel and Unusual | Carolyn Wheat | |
1996 |
Novel | Under the Beetle's Cellar | Mary Willis Walker |
| First novel | The Strange Files of Fremont Jones | Dianne Day | |
| Bio/Critical | Detecting Women | Wiletta Heising | |
| Short Story | Evans Tries an O-Level | Colin Dexter | |
1995 |
Novel | She Walks These Hills | Sharyn McCrumb |
| First novel | Do Unto Others | Jeff Abbott | |
| Bio/Critical | By a Woman's Hands | Dean James and Jean Swanson | |
| Short Story | Cast Your Fate to the Wind | Deborah Adams | |
| Short Story | Unharmed | Jan Burke | |
1994 |
Novel | The Sculptress | Minette Walters |
| First novel | Death Comes as an Epiphany | Sharan Newman | |
| Bio/Critical | The Fine Art of Murder | Ed Gorman | |
| Short Story | Checkout | Susan Dunlap | |
1993 |
Novel | Bootlegger's Daughter | Margaret Maron |
| First novel | Blanche on the Lam | Barbara Neely | |
| Bio/Critical | Doubleday Crime Club Compendium | Ellen Nehr | |
| Short Story | Henrie O's Holiday | Carolyn Hart | |
1992 |
Novel | I.O.U. | Nancy Pickard |
| First novel | Murder on the Iditarod Trail | Sue Henry | |
| First novel | Zero at the Bone | Mary Willis Walker | |
| Bio/Critical | Talking Mysteries | Tony Hillerman and Ernie Bulow | |
| Short Story | Deborah's Judgment | Margaret Maron | |
1991 |
Novel | If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy-O | Sharyn McCrumb |
| First novel | Postmortem | Patricia Cornwell | |
| Bio/Critical | Agatha Christie | Gillian Gill | |
| Short Story | Too Much to Bare | Joan Hess | |
1990 |
Novel | A Little Class on Murder | Carolyn Hart |
| First novel | Grime and Punishment | Jill Churchill | |
| Bio/Critical | The Bedside Companion to Crime | H.R.F. Keating | |
| Short Story | Afraid All the Time | Nancy Pickard | |
1989 |
Novel | A Thief of Time | Tony Hillerman |
| First novel | The Killings at Badger's Drift | Caroline Graham | |
| Bio/Critical | Silk Stalkings | Victoria Nichols & S Thompson | |
| Short Story | Déjà vu | Doug Allyn | |
1988 |
Novel | Marriage is Murder | Nancy Pickard |
| First novel | The Monkey's Raincoat | Robert Crais | |
| Bio/Critical | Son of a Gun in Cheek | Bill Pronzini | |
| Short Story | The Woman in the Wardrobe | Robert Barnard | |
1987 |
Novel | A Taste for Death | P.D. James |
| First novel | The Ritual Bath | Faye Kellerman | |
| First novel | A Case of Loyalties | Marilyn Wallace | |
| Bio/Critical | 1001 Midnights | Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini | |
| Short Story | The Parker Shotgun | Sue Grafton |
