Shamus Awards

About the Shamus Awards

Year is the award year PWA uses: the "2019 Shamus Awards" honor books first published in the US in 2018, presented that fall at Bouchercon. Finalist slates for 2013-2022, 2024 and 2025 come from archive.org snapshots of PWA's old news page (privateeyewriters.com/news.html). PWA's current site lists winners only, and privateeyewriters.com has no captures before August 2013, so 2006-2012 and 2023 cite Stop, You're Killing Me (SYKM). Those years were cross-checked against an archived copy of Thrilling Detective's Shamus list (kept by PWA's webmaster) and its 2023 finalists page. All winners were checked against PWA's winners page and Wikipedia. Book categories kept: Best P.I. Hardcover (PWA also calls it Best P.I. Novel), Best First P.I. Novel, Best P.I. Paperback Original, and Best Indie P.I. Novel (self-published novels, given 2013-2015 only). Dropped: Best P.I. Short Story, The Eye, The Hammer. No Best First P.I. Novel was given in 2020 (too few eligible books) or 2024. PWA called the slates finalists in most years and nominees in some; all non-winners are Finalist here. Repairs to SYKM text: Swierczynski, Reed Farrel Coleman, Philip Miller (not Phillip), The Shortcut Man, Subcomandante Marcos added as co-author of The Uncomfortable Dead, title case on a few titles, and Philip Marlowe/Mile High Noir subtitles dropped as PWA does.

Organization: Private Eye Writers of America. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)