Nominations for the annual Shamus Awards, given by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA), are out now.

Winners will be announced Nov. 1 in Dallas at the PWA Shamus Awards Banquet during Bouchercon, the world mystery convention.

Shamus Awards are given to the best novels and short stories about private investigators first published in the United States during the prior year.

While I can’t say I’m always swept away by award-winning books, I do find winners and nominee lists to be a good way to discover new authors and books for my reading list. So here, by category, are this year’s Shamus Award nominees.

Best Hardcover PI Novel

• Wrong Light by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing)
• What You Want to See by Kristen Lepionka (Minotaur Books)
• The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• Baby’s First Felony by John Straley (Soho Crime)
• Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe (Quercus)

Best Original Paperback PI Novel

• She Talks to Angels by James D. F. Hannah (Hannah)
• No Quarter by John Jantunen (ECW Press)
• Shark Bait by Paul Kemprecos (Suspense Publishing)
• Second Story Man by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out Books)
• The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone (Redhook Books)

Best First PI Novel

• The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco (MCD Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
• Broken Places by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould (Dutton)
• What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)
• Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth)

Best Original Paperback PI Novel

• She Talks to Angels by James D. F. Hannah (Hannah)
• No Quarter by John Jantunen (ECW Press)
• Shark Bait by Paul Kemprecos (Suspense Publishing)
• Second Story Man by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out Books)
• The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone (Redhook Books)

Best PI Short Story

• “Fear of the Secular” by Mitch Alderman (AHMM )
• “Three-Star Sushi” by Barry Lancet (Down & Out Magazine)
• “The Big Creep” by Elizabeth McKenzie (Santa Cruz Noir)
• “Game” by Twist Phelan (EQMM)
• “Chin Yong-Yun Helps a Fool” by S.J. Rozan (EQMM)

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 or state police force) who is paid to investigate crimes. A private investigator can be a traditional private eye, a TV  or newspaper reporter, an insurance investigator, an employee of an investigative service or agency (think Pinkerton), or similar character.”