Private Eye Writers of America · award year

Shamus Awards 2019

The 2019 Shamus Awards went to The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco (Best First P.I. Novel), What You Want to See by Kristen Lepionka (Best P.I. Hardcover) and The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone (Best P.I. Paperback Original). 15 books were finalists across 3 categories.

Winners

Best First P.I. Novel

  1. The Best Bad Thingssource (opens in a new tab)

Best P.I. Hardcover

  1. What You Want to Seesource (opens in a new tab)

Best P.I. Paperback Original

  1. The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Mosssource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

Best First P.I. Novel

  1. Broken Placessource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Last Lookssource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Only to Sleepsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. What Doesn’t Kill Yousource (opens in a new tab)

Best P.I. Hardcover

  1. Baby’s First Felonysource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Cut You Downsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. The Widows of Malabar Hillsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Wrong Lightsource (opens in a new tab)

Best P.I. Paperback Original

  1. No Quartersource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Second Story Mansource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Shark Baitsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. She Talks to Angelssource (opens in a new tab)

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)

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