Usually, around this time of year, the Left Coast Crime conference would be meeting, celebrating, and presenting the Lefty Awards to deserving winners. Usually. Things being how they are, a few changes had to be made this year, and the awarding of the 2021 Leftys were presented this evening to a Zoom Webcast broadcast to many of the people who would have been at this year's conference and still managed to nominate and vote for their favorites. And it was quite a group, too.
So here are the award winners and the runners-up winners of the 2021 Leftys - for it is said with both confidence and truth that anyone nominated for this award is on the list of winners as well. The award winner leads off the list(s) of nominees below. May I have a fanfare or two and a drum roll?
Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel
- ***David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Winter Counts
- Daisy Bateman, Murder Goes to Market
- Mary Kelliikoa, Derailed
- Erica Ruth Neubauer, Murder at the Mena House
- Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club
- Halley Sutton, The Lady Upstairs
Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery Novel
- ***Ellen Byron, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard
- Jennifer J. Chow, Mimi Lee Gets a Clue
- Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me
- Cynthia Kuhn, The Study of Secrets
- J. Michael Orenduff, The Pot Thief Who Studied the Woman at Otowi Crossing
- Sung J. Woo, Skin Deep
Lefty Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial) for books covering events before 1970
- ***Catriona McPherson, The Turning Tide
- Susanna Calkins, The Fate of a Flapper
- Dianne Freeman, A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder
- Laurie R. King, Riviera Gold
- Ann Parker, Mortal Music
- James W. Ziskin, Turn to Stone
Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel
- ***Louise Penny, All the Devils Are Here
- Tracy Clark, What You Don't See
- S. A. Cosby, Blacktop Wasteland
- Matt Coyle, Blind Vigil
- Rachel Howzell Hall, And Now She's Gone
As LCC explains it, "The 2021 Lefty Award Nominees have been selected by registrants for the last in-person convention in San Diego and the next one scheduled for Albuquerque in April 2022."The awards were voted on virtually and presented April 10."
Comments