2025 Anthony Award Nominees Announced!

Bouchercon has released the nominees for the 2025 Anthony Awards!

The awards consist of the categories of: Best Hardcover Novel, Best First Novel, Best Paperback, Best Children’s/YA, Best Critical/Non-Fiction, Best Anthology, Best Historical, Best Short Story, Best Paranormal, and Best Cozy/Humorous.

The winners will be revealed during the Bouchercon 2025 convention September 3rd through 7th in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The 2025 Anthony Award nominees are below:

Best Hardcover Mystery Novel

• Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• Alter Ego by Alex Segura
• California Bear by Duane Swierczynski

Best First Mystery

• The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee
• Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer Morita
• You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen
• Good-Looking Ugly by Rob Smith
• Holy City by Henry Wise

Best Historical Mystery

• The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King
• The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson
• The Bootlegger’s Daughter by Nadine Nettmann
• The Murder of Mr. Ma by S.J. Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee
• The Courtesan’s Pirate by Nina Wachsman

Best Paperback Original

• The Last Few Miles of Road by Eric Beetner
• Echo by Tracy Clark
• Served Cold by James L’Etoile
• Late Checkout by Alan Orloff
• The Big Lie by Gabriel Valjan

Best Children’s/YA Novel

• The Sasquatch of Harriman Lake by K.B. Jackson
• The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui by K.B. Jackson
• First Week Free at the Roomy Toilet by Josh Pachter
• The Sherlock Society by James Ponti
• When Mimi Went Missing by Suja Sukumar

Best Paranormal Mystery

• A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke
• Five Furry Familiars by Lynn Cahoon
• Exposure by Ramona Emerson
• Lights, Camera, Bones by Carolyn Haines
• Death in a Ghostly Hue by Susan Van Kirk

Best Cozy/Humorous Mystery

• A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death by Valerie Burns
• A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron
• Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer Chow
• Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson
• Cirque du Slay by Rob Osler
• Dominoes, Danzón, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes

Best Non-Fiction Book

• Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft by Phyllis Betz
• Some of My Best Friends are Murders by Chris Chan
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson
• Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly
• The Serial Killer’s Apprentice by Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman

Best Anthology/Collection

• Murder, Neat by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman
• Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson
• Eight Very Bad Nights by Tod Goldberg
• Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024 by Heather Graham
• Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead by Josh Pachter

Best Short Story

• A Matter of Trust by Barb Goffman
• Eight Very Bad Nights by James Hannah
• Something to Hold Onto by Curtis Ippolito
• Satan’s Spit by Gabriel Valjan
• Reynisfjara by Kristopher Zgorski

Congratulations go out to all of the nominees!

For more information on the Anthonys and Bouchercon 2025, please visit Bouchercon2025.com.