Desert Sleuths Chapter Awards/Member Appreciation Potluck
On Saturday, December 14th, the Desert Sleuths Board of Directors proudly announced its member awardees for two Volunteer of the Year Awards and the Silver Dagger Award. When you see one of these members in your travels, remember to congratulate them.
Volunteeer of the Year: Donis Casey — Donis has been the membership chair for several years, giving unfailingly of her time to welcome returning and new members and send relevant information to other chapter volunteers who need the information to do their part of the process.
When the chapter moved from a spreadsheet to a CRM, Donis quickly learned how to use MonkeyPod and trained others to manage records in it.
Volunteeer of the Year: Karen Odden — For several years, Karen has provided month after month of programming in the areas of Craft, Community/Marketing, the Business of Writing, and Specialized Topics.
Karen brings us our speakers, researches their backgrounds and writing, hosts their presentations, and fills in with questions when there’s a gap during the Q&A.
Silver Dagger Award: Susan Budavari — The Silver Dagger Award is given to members for longtime service in multiple roles to acknowledge their contributions to Desert Sleuths.
Susan has served on the board, worked on WriteNOW! conferences, and been one our anthology editors multiple times. She contributes a monthly column to The Savvy Sleuth, proofreads the final version, and helps wherever asked to contribute her skills.
2024 Desert Sleuths Nominees and Winners
Each year, the mystery community celebrates with Best of awards to authors for books published the previous year. Major mystery conferences and other venues have varying selection criteria and categories leading to a slew of opportunities for Desert Sleuths to be nominated and win.
In 2024, we added this page to recognize Desert Sleuths nominees and winners. At the end of each competition, we will update the list to note the winners. If you are elibible to nominate and/or vote in any of these, please keep your Desert Sleuths siblings in mind.
“Lefty” Award, Left Coast Crime (LCC): Bellevue, WA, April 11-14, 2024.
The “Lefty” Awards are fan awards chosen by registered members of the Left Coast Crime conventions. LCC members have already received the nomination forms and can nominate any Desert Sleuth with a book published in 2023 from the list below.
1/15/24: “Lefty” Award nominees are below. There are no Desert Sleuths in any category.
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Best Humorous Mystery Novel
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- Jennifer J. Chow, Hot Pot Murder (Berkely Prime Crime)
- Lee Matthew Goldberg, The Great Gimmelmans (Level Best Books)
- Leslie Karst, A Sense for Murder (Severn House)
- Catriona McPherson, Hop Scot (Severn House)
- Cindy Sample, Dying for a Decoration (Cindy Sample Books)
- Wendall Thomas, Cheap Trills (Beyond the Page Books)
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Best Historical Mystery Novel for books covering events before 1970 (the Bill Gottfried Memorial)
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- Cara Black, Night Flight to Paris (Soho Crime)
- Bruce Borgos, The Bitter Past (Minotaur Books)
- Susanna Calkins, Death Among the Ruins (Severn House)
- Dianne Freeman, A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder (Kensington)
- Cheryl A. Head, Time’s Undoing (Dutton)
- Naomi Hirahara, Evergreen (Soho Crime)
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Best Mystery Novel
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- Tracy Clark, Hide (Thomas & Mercer)
- S.A. Cosby, All the Sinners Bleed (Flatiron Books)
- Matt Coyle, Odyssey’s End (Oceanview Publishing)
- Jordan Harper, Everybody Knows (Mullholland Books)
- James L’Etoile, Face of Greed (Oceanview Publishing)
- Gigi Pandian, The Raven Thief (Minotaur Books)
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- Best Debut Mystery Novel
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- Lina Chern, Play the Foot (Bantam)
- Margot Douaihy, Scorched Grace (Gillian Flynn Books)
- Josh Pachter, Dutch Threat (Genius Book Publishing)
- Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines (Dutton)
- Nina Simon, Mother-Daugher Murder Night (William Morrow)
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We will update this list with the Desert Sleuths finalists after they’re announced on January 15th. Winners will be noted after they are voted on and announced at Left Coast Crime on April 13, 2024.
Derringer Awards: by the Short Mystery Fiction Society
The Short Mystery Fiction Society (SMFS) awards the annual Derringers—named after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories and individuals / persons / writers who have greatly advanced or supported the form. SMFS members can nominate and vote on the stories in each category.
Derringer nominations are due by Tuesday, January 30th! Finalists will be announced on April 1, 2024, and added to this list shortly after. Winners will be announced on May 1, 2024 and the Derringer Awards presented at Bouchercon 2024 (August 28 – September 1, 2024).
The 2024 DS Nominee Finalists are: (to be posted after they’re announced on 4/1/24)
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Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words)
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Best Short Story (up to 1,001 – 4,000 words)
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Best Long Short Story (4,001 – 8,000 words)
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Best Novelette (8,001 – 20,000 words)
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Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer
This award may be presented to someone for Lifetime Achievement in the short mystery story field. The Goden Derringer is not necessarily awarded each year.
We will update this list to mark any DS winners after they are announced on the SMFS Blog (5/1/24).
We’ll add more awards as the various conventions and programs announce them.