Shamus Award
Best First Private-Eye Novel
1986 Hardcover by Wayne Warga
When Jeffrey Dean journalist and rare book collector finds a forged Steinbeck autograph on a copy of "Sweet Thursday," he uncovers a plot of intrigue and espionage that is connected to a ring of Libyan-financed assassins.
1990 Katwalk by Karen Kijewski
When private eye Kat Colorado accept a routine assignment investigating one man's finances, she never dreams that she will become embroiled in the elaborate, illegal, and dangerous scheming of a madman.
1991 Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
It's 1948 in Los Angeles, and Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins needs to make a mortgage payment. Too bad all he has in his pocket is lint. Along comes a savior, looking like a devil and talking like a devil, but offering Easy the precious cash he needs. The man has one simple request: find the woman wearing the blue dress in a photograph. But Easy knows that you get what you pay for in this world, and the man wouldn't be paying so much if it were that easy. Life is tough. But so are Easy Rawlins and his wild helpmate, Mouse.
1993 The Woman Who Married a Bear by John Straley
State politics, family feuds, and Native American mythology all figure in the murder of Louis Victor, prominent Alaskan businessman and big-game hunter. But only a hard-drinking private eye named Cecil Younger can solve the crime and lay old ghosts to rest in this atmospheric and engrossing novel set in the Alaskan frontier.
1994 A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
Two PIs bite off more than they can chew when the agree to help find a missing woman. This is the first volume of a series.
1996 The Innocents by Richard Barre
There are seven of them. Children--innocents--whose long-buried remains are uncovered by a flash-flood. No one knows who could have committed such a crime. Clues are scarce, and with the media turning the story into a law enforcement nightmare, time is short. Only Wil Hardesty, a private eye who has more in common with the case than anyone knows, is willing to push hard enough--and dig deep enough--to find the cruelest of killers. The killer of The Innocents...
1997 This Dog for Hire by Carol Lea Benjamin
Rachel Alexander and her pit bull, Dashiell, must solve a homicide whose only witness is a dog named Magritte.
1998 Big Red Tequila by Rick Riordan
Everything in Texas is bigger...even murder.Meet Tres Navarre...tequila drinker, Tai Chi master, unlicensed P.I., with a penchant for Texas-size trouble.Jackson "Tres" Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull into San Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre lefttown and the memory of his fathers murder behind him. Now hes back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, thefresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians games all conspire to ruin his homecoming.Its obvious Tres has stirred up a hornets nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird--and his old girlfriend, the one hewants back, turns up missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father's murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catchesup to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo....
Best Paperback Original Private Eye Novel
1986 Poverty Bay by Earl W. Emerson
"Emerson is at the top of his game, and very few are better."--Mostly MurderAs sole heir to his beloved granddaddys fortune, noble and naive Lance Tyner wants to use the money for the good of mankind. But some not-so-good specimens of the species--including Lance's conniving father, sleazy brother, and spoiled sister--have much more selfish plans in mind.Now Lance has vanished. And P.I. Thomas Black must follow his trail into the sad and scary places where the dregs of humanity struggle to stay alive--and where men like Lance and Black too often end up dead. . . ."Emerson is carving his own special niche among a new generation of private eye writers."--The Washington Post Book World
1988 Wild Night by Livia Reasoner
A private detective in 1920's Hollywood tries to prove that Elton Forbes, founder of the Holiness Temple of Faith, is innocent of murder.
1993 The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado by Marele Day1994 Brothers and Sinners by Rodman Philbrick
Partners in a Boston detective agency, brothers Michael and Jack Fitzroy share a passion for Miriam, Michael's wife and the daughter of Boston's legendary political kingmaker, Sugar McKane. Original.
1995 Served Cold by Ed Goldberg
Meet Lenny Schneider who calls himself "the Hebrew Gumshoe, the Shylock of Sherlocks." He gets his hotdogs from the cart and his jazz from the bars. He likes his jobs clean and muscle free -- serving papers, watching buildings, and trying to stay awake. But when he's hired to prevent an aging Jewish Holocaust survivor from killing his former prison camp guard, music and food take a backseat to danger. The good guys get bad, the bad guys get worse -- and Schneider is bait in a madcap scheme that could only be masterminded by old men. Not Jewish enough for one side, too Jewish for the other, Schneider is captured, tortured and made to watch 'Old Yeller . . . '
1996 Native Angels by William Jaspersohn
Searching for a missing teenager, private eye Peter Boone finds his curiosity piqued when the girl's father and brother appear unconcerned at her disappearance and comes to wonder if bringing her back is the right thing to do. Original.
1997 Fade Away by Harlan Coben
Former pro-basketball-player turned sports agent, Myron Bolitar, has a chance to get back in the game--sort of. The owner of the New Jersey Dragons wants him to use the skills he developed working for the FBI to find a missing star player. Winner of the 1997 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original.
1998 Charm City by Laura Lippman
Former reporter and Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan is hired by the "Baltimore Beacon-Light" to find the unknown hacker who sneaked a muck-raking story about local business tycoon "Wink" Wynkowski onto the front page, triggering his apparent suicide. But she soon realizes the full story deals with murder--and she may be next on the hit list.
Best Private Eye Novel
1983 Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block
Matthew Scudder looks into the murder of a prostitute who was just about to go on the straight and narrow. Was it a john? Her pimp? Scudder's investigation puts his own life on the line as he tries to exact justice for a brave woman who dreamed of a better life.
1984 True Detective by Max Allan Collins
Nate Heller, an honest young plainclothes cop on the corrupt Chicago police force, turns in his badge and becomes a private detective, only to find himself entangled with such varied characters as Al Capone and President Franklin Roosevelt.
1985 Sugartown by Loren D. Estleman1986 B Is for Burglar by Sue Grafton
When a wealthy widow disappears, Kinsey Millhone must follow a trail of arson and theft to track down a killer who has plans on finding her first.
1987 Staked Goat by Jeremiah F. Healy
When the mutilated body of his Vietnam buddy Al Sachs is found near his Boston apartment, private eye John Francis Cuddy, who suspects the murderer's motives originated in Vietnam, takes on the case.
1989 Kiss by John Lutz
A "natural death" at the Sunhaven Retirement Home may be murder, and private eye Fred Carver must outwit a smooth-talking administrator, a menacing head nurse, and a host of others determined to stop him.
1990 Extenuating Circumstances
Private Investigator Harry Stoner must solve the disappearance of Ira Lessing, a wealthy pillar of the Cincinnati community.
1991 G Is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton1993 The Man Who Was Taller Than God by Harold Adams
Carl Wilcox really does try to stay out of trouble - he's had enough of it over the years - but the times being what they are, the choice isn't always his. For now, though, he's taken a job painting signs for the town of Hope, South Dakota. It beats hanging around his folk's hotel in Corden and gives him the chance to earn an honest dollar. Then, late one July day, the McGillacuddy kid rides up on his bike and tells him that there's a body in the sandpit outside of town. Nothing about the death was natural. Everyone knew Felton Edwards, but there didn't seem to be many who liked him, except for some of the women. And while the local police were willing to let matters just go their own way - without any help from Carl - the mayor had a different idea. It seems that Edwards left town about fifteen years ago and his last known location was Edenberg, but before he left, he'd had his way with some of the women in town, never giving any thought to whether they were married. Now, if Carl would just do some investigating on the mayor's behalf, well, there just might be some other work available around town. One of the first things Carl discovers in Edenberg is that Felton Edwards's reputation was deserved. The second thing he discovers is another body - and another warning to steer clear of doing any investigating on his own. Still, most of the people Carl will have to talk to are women, and there was the promise of more work . . . There were lots of people with cause to kill the man who was taller than God, but only one of them did it. There were also some people taking potshots at Carl Wilcox. But a puzzle or a fight just broke up the tedium of a long summer day. . . .
1994 The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block
The 11th novel featuring Matthew Scudder, an unlicensed private detective in Hell's Kitchen who is also a recovering alcoholic. Scudder investigates the case of a deranged, homeless man accused of killing a young lawyer in an act of random violence.
1995 K Is for Killer by Sue Grafton
Private detective Kinsey Millhone is hired by a grieving mother whose daughter was killed under mysterious circumstances. When the police are unable to locate suspects, Kinsey's search takes her from the mansions of the wealthy to the dens of prostitutes.
1996 Concourse by S. J. Rozan
A murder at a nursing home in the Bronx's once stately, now decayed, Grand Concourse sends Bill Smith and his Asian-American partner, Lydia Chin on a hunt for a brutal killer. By the author of China Trade.
1997 Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Did the police plant the weapon that killed Susan Martin in her husband's shrubbery? That's what Teddy Martin's slick defense lawyer, Jonathan Green, says. Furthermore, he has a lead on two thugs who were reputedly planning the murder of Susan Martin. But when private investigator Elvis Cole checks out the story, the thugs are conveniently dead. Who is telling the truth? Cole intends to find out.
1998 Come Back Dead by Terence Faherty
Hollywood sleuth Scott Elliott is at it again, this time trying to unravel the story behind Carson Drury and his failed film "The Imperial Albertsons". Drury was the film's writer, director, and star, and he claims that it flopped at the box office only because his studio changed the ending. With the advent of the television age, the studio is facing serious financial troubles, and it plans to sell off its films to regain some of the recent losses. Drury sees the sale of his movie as the perfect opportunity to buy it back and reshoot the ending. But someone doesn't want Drury to resurrect the film, and whoever it is may be willing to kill to stop him.
Best Short Story
1994 Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes
Everything from the earliest published mystery by a black author to an original short work by contemporary best-selling author Walter Mosely.