The awards were given during the Bouchercon world mystery convention in Dallas on Friday, Nov. 1.

Author Katrina Carrasco won a Shamus Award for Best First Private Eye Novel for The Best Bad Things.  The Shamus for Best Private Eye Novel went to Kristen Lepionka for What You Want to See. The Shamus for Best Private Eye Short Story was awarded to S. J. Rozan for “Chin Yong-Yun Helps a Fool.”

PWA was founded in 1981 to raise the private eye story from a subgroup of mysteries into a genre of its own. The organization defines a private investigator as “a private citizen (not a member of the military, federal agency or civic of state police force) who is paid to investigate crimes. A privte investigator can be a traditional private eye, a television or newspaper reporter, an insurance investigator, an employee of an investigative service or agency (think Pinkerton), or similar character.