The Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Awards are fan awards chosen by registered members of the Left Coast Crime conventions since 1996. Nominations for awards to be presented at each annual convention are made by people registered for that convention and also the immediately prior convention. A ballot listing the official nominees is given to each registrant when they check in at the convention, and final voting takes place at the convention. The ballots are tabulated and that year’s Lefty Awards are presented at the Awards Celebration.
2025 Lefty Awards: Denver, Colorado
Left Coast Crime 2025 — Rocky Mountain High Hinks— will
be presenting four Lefty Awards at the convention
in Denver, Colorado. Registrants of the Left Coast Crime
Conventions in Denver and Seattle will be able to nominate three titles in
each category. The 2025 Lefty Awards will be voted
on at the convention and presented at the Awards Banquet
on Saturday, March 15, 2025, at the Westin Denver Downtown.
The nominees are…
| Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel |
| ° |
Ellen Byron, A Very Woodsy Murder (Kensington Books) |
| ° |
Jennifer J. Chow, Ill-Fated Fortune (St. Martin’s Paperbacks) |
| ° |
A.J. Devlin, Bronco Buster (NeWest Press) |
| ° |
Catriona McPherson, Scotzilla (Severn House) |
| ° |
Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books) |
| ° |
Richard Osman, We Solve Murders (Pamela Dorman Books / Viking) |
Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel
(Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970 |
| ° |
John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime) |
| ° |
Robert Dugoni, A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer) |
| ° |
Dianne Freeman, An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder (Kensington Books) |
| ° |
Laurie R. King, The Lantern’s Dance (Bantam Books) |
| ° |
Laura Jensen Walker, Death of a Flying Nightingale (Level Best Books / Historia) |
| Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel |
| ° |
Peter Malone Elliott, Blue Ridge (Level Best Books) |
| ° |
Cindy Goyette, Obey All Laws (Level Best Books) |
| ° |
Audrey Lee, The Mechanics of Memory (CamCat Books) |
| ° |
Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane Books) |
| ° |
K.T. Nguyen, You Know What You Did (Dutton) |
| Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel |
| ° |
Claire Booth, Home Fires (Severn House) |
| ° |
Margot Douaihy, Blessed Water (Zando, Gillian Flynn Books) |
| ° |
Rob Hart, Assassins Anonymous (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) |
| ° |
Leslie Karst, Molten Death (Severn House) |
| ° |
James L’Etoile, Served Cold (Level Best Books) |
| ° |
Duane Swierczynski, California Bear (Mulholland Books) |
To be eligible for the 2025 Lefty Awards, the mystery/crime/thriller novels must have been published for the first time in the United States or Canada during 2024, in book or ebook format. (If published in other countries before 2024, a book is still eligible if it meets the US or Canadian publication requirement.)
Triage note: Debut books go into the Debut Mystery Novel category, regardless of other factors. Funny books that are not debuts, go into the Humorous Mystery Novel category, even if historical. Historicals set before 1970 go into the Historical Mystery Novel category. Anything else goes into the final Best Mystery Novel category.
Questions about the Lefty Awards? Email Awards Co-Chairs Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich
History of the Left Coast Crime Awards |
