Macavity Award Nomination: “When Duty Calls”

My story “When Duty Calls” has been very good to me—as have the members and supporters of Mystery Readers International and the subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, who have just named the story a finalist for this year’s Macavity Award for Best Short Story. I’m stunned, thrilled, and humbled by the honor—and by the generous response overall to this story, which earlier this year won a Derringer Award and was a finalist for the Agatha. And so nice to see fellow Agatha nominees Barb Goffman and B.K. Stevens joining me on the same ballot again, along with Jeffrey Deaver, Jim Fusilli, and Karin Slaughter. Good luck to all!

Here’s the complete list of this year’s nominees:

Best Mystery Novel: 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown)
The Black House by Peter May (Silver Oak)
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Other Woman by Hank Philippi Ryan (Forge)
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro (Algonquin Books)
The Twenty Year Death by Ariel S. Winter (Hard Case Crime)

Best Mystery First Novel: 

Low Country Boil by Susan M. Boyer (Henery Press)
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman (Minotaur Books-Thomas Dunn) 
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (Random House -Bantam)
The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown)
The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)

Best Mystery Non-Fiction: 

Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke (Simon & Schuster – Atria/Emily Bestler)
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin)
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero, edited by Otto Penzler (BenBella/Smart Pop)

Best Mystery Short Story: 

“The Lord Is My Shamus” by Barb Goffman in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder (Wildside)
“The Unremarkable Heart” by Karin Slaughter in Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance (Little, Brown – Mulholland Books)
“Thea’s First Husband” by B.K. Stevens in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2012
“When Duty Calls” by Art Taylor in Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder (Wildside Press)
“Blind Justice” by Jim Fusilli in Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance (Little, Brown – Mulholland Books)
“The Sequel” (a novella) by Jeffrey Deaver in The Strand Magazine, November-February 2012-2013

Sue Feder Historical Memorial Award: 

A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge)
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal (Random House-Bantam)
The Confession by Charles Todd (HarperCollins)
An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd (HarperCollins)
Elegy For Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear (HarperCollins) – See more at: http://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2013/07/macavity-award-nominees-2013.html#sthash.UijDskcU.dpuf

And the awards will be presented during the opening ceremonies of this year’s Bouchercon in Albany, NY. — Art Taylor

0 thoughts on “Macavity Award Nomination: “When Duty Calls”

  1. davidrobindean@comcast.net

    Way to go, Art!  Congrats and a very happy Fourth!

    David and Robin