Previous Winners of the Beltie Prize

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The Beltie Mystery Prize is our annual award given to the best mystery book of the year. Pete Mock, McIntyre's lead buyer and resident Mystery Guru, is the sole judge and jury. Previous winners and nominees are on the list below! If you're looking for the current list and Beltie Bundle for 2023 click here

Books: 
Staff Pick Badge
Safe: A Novel By Ryan Gattis Cover Image
$21.00
ISBN: 9781250183606
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
This title is a nonreturnable book, so please make sure it is the right one!
Published: Picador - August 7th, 2018

Ryan Gattis' gritty, fast-paced thriller, Safe, hurtles readers toward a shocking conclusion that asks the toughest question of all: how far would you go to protect the ones you love?


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Paper Son: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Novel (Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mysteries) By S. J. Rozan Cover Image
Email books@fearrington.com or call for price (919) 542-3030
ISBN: 9781643136127
Published: Pegasus Crime - December 8th, 2020

The latest Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery takes the acclaimed detective duo into the Deep South to investigate a murder within the Chinese community.

The Most Southern Place on Earth: that’s what they call the Mississippi Delta. It’s not a place Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese private detective from Chinatown, NYC, ever thought she’d have reason to go.


Lullaby Road: A Novel By James Anderson Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101906552
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Crown - October 16th, 2018

Winter has come to Route 117, a remote road through the high desert of Utah trafficked only by eccentrics, fugitives, and those looking to escape the world. Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident.


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Invisible Girl: A Novel By Lisa Jewell Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781982137342
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Published: Atria Books - June 1st, 2021

I love a good psychological thriller now and then and this one certainly fits the bill. It is a serious head scratcher that had me guessing all the through about a crime that may, or may not, have happened. I mean we know something happened but what? And why did it have to almost ruin more than one life? This is the perfect example of is a crime really a crime if there is no evidence. Also, it has a nice ending which is such a rarity that I almost didn’t believe it. I even re-read the last chapter over again to make sure I didn’t miss a body or two. - Pete


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Razorblade Tears: A Novel By S. A. Cosby Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250252715
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Flatiron Books - April 5th, 2022

*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* One of Barack Obama's Recommended Reads for Summer New York Times Notable Book • NPR’s Best Books of 2021 • Washington Post’s Best Thriller and Mystery Books of the Year • TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 • New York Public Library’s Best Books of the Year • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee • Book


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Breathing Through the Wound: A Novel By Víctor del Árbol, Lisa Dillman (Translated by) Cover Image
By Víctor del Árbol, Lisa Dillman (Translated by)
$19.99
ISBN: 9781590518434
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Published: Other Press - July 7th, 2020

Think about this; a 700 page novel you don’t want to end even though it doesn’t contain a single redeemable character (well, maybe one, but you’d have to have a pretty big heart to stretch out that argument). Set in Madrid this is one of those Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation deals where everyone is connected somehow, starting with an artist and his first commission in 13 years and ending with a scandal of epic proportions. What drives the novel, though, is the luminous prose and the depth of character which will have you turning 700 pages and wishing for more. - Pete


Flowers over the Inferno (A Teresa Battaglia Novel #1) By Ilaria Tuti, Ekin Oklap (Translated by) Cover Image
By Ilaria Tuti, Ekin Oklap (Translated by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781641291255
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Soho Crime - March 24th, 2020

In this thrilling series debut set in the Italian Alps, an instinct-driven detective won't let her aging body and mind prevent her from tracking a brutal killer.


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The Sleeping Nymph (A Teresa Battaglia Novel #2) By Ilaria Tuti, Ekin Oklap (Translated by) Cover Image
By Ilaria Tuti, Ekin Oklap (Translated by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781641292894
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Soho Crime - August 3rd, 2021

Originally I was going to nominate the 1st in the series, Flowers Over the Inferno, featuring Teresa Battaglia, a 60 year old chief inspector in the Italian police force, coping with early onset Alzheimers and doing the best to hide it. This was an excellent debut, great characters, smart plot, beautiful setting and deserved to be nominated but then I read The Sleeping Nymph and everything changed. This was one hell of a doozey! It built upon everything good about the first and only added to its future allure with a plot that you just can’t forget, starting with a portrait painted on April 22, 1945 in the very blood of its subject, an ethereal beauty long missing from her isolated mountain village and considered a casualty of the war. Yowza! And to think it only gets better from there. - Pete


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Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel By S. A. Cosby Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781250252692
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Published: Flatiron Books - June 1st, 2021

This is great Southern Noir set in Virginia and Sean is an author we will be hearing more from in the future. Fast paced with a plot that doesn’t quit this is a book that sucks you in and won’t let go. But what really won me over was the empathy he had for Beauregard “Bug” Montage, his main character, a former getaway driver trying to leave the life to raise his family (also beautifully rendered) but who keeps getting sucked back in. - Pete


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The Shadows: A Novel By Alex North Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250318046
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Published: Celadon Books - September 28th, 2021

Oh wow, this was creepy good! Four friends, deep dark woods, and a desire to share dreams leads to a
horrific death and one mysterious disappearance. 25 years later it seems that the cycle is beginning
again. I read this late into the night, partly because I didn't want to go to sleep because I knew I'd dream
about what I had read and I didn't want to go there. Brrrrr. A perfect blend of psychological horror and
mystery. A great read for anyone who likes a good shiver! - Pete


Staff Pick Badge
The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery #1) By Richard Osman Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984880987
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Penguin Books - August 3rd, 2021

This was a pleasant surprise. Not the usual cup of tea for this hardboiled cynic but I needed something to read and my sales rep had just sent me a copy. I took it home and got completely sucked into the plot featuring 4 very disparate retiree’s and the club they had formed solving cold cases their original member, a homicide detective, had squirreled away. Then an honest to god real life murder takes place involving their community and now it’s up to them to piece together the threads and point the police in the right direction, while digging up even more dirt than intended. Fun, fast, and utterly charming, I’ll be looking for more from Mr. Osman in the future. - Pete


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The Mountains Wild: A Mystery (Maggie D'arcy Mysteries #1) By Sarah Stewart Taylor Cover Image
$12.00
ISBN: 9781250796141
Availability: Usually Ships Within a Week
Published: Minotaur Books - June 15th, 2021

I almost didn’t read this one because of the crummy jacket (I admit it, I’m a snob) but I’m glad I did because this is a really solid police procedural that takes place in both Ireland and Long Island. Set over the course of 20 years it is the story of two cousins, best friends growing up but drifting apart in their teens until one (Erin) goes missing in Dublin. Maggie goes over to assist the Gardia in any way she can but leaves dejected. 20 years later, now a homicide cop, she gets a call saying some evidence has been found… And that’s all I’m going to tell you. Suffice it to say, this was one that kept me guessing all the way to the end. - Pete


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Winter Counts: A Novel By David Heska Wanbli Weiden Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062968951
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Published: Ecco - July 6th, 2021

I love a good story that can inform as well as it can entertain. By that I mean opening our eyes to social, historical, or other issues that illuminate a people or place. Dickens was the king of the social novel and, while I’m not putting this up there with Dickens, this is of that ilk. Set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota this is the story of Virgil Wounded Horse. He’s the local enforcer, the muscle the elders turn to when justice hasn’t been found through the courts though the guilt is strong. Now heroin is invading the Reservation and things are beginning to get personal when his nephew becomes hooked. This is a story that is almost universal in this day and age but Virgil gives it a face that says “enough!” A novel of corruption and grit; this is not Zane Gray’s West anymore. This is the new Americana. Harsh yet with hope. -Pete


Staff Pick Badge
Midnight, Water City (The Water City Trilogy #1) By Chris Mckinney Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781641293686
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Published: Soho Crime - June 14th, 2022

Hawai‘i author Chris McKinney’s first entry in a brilliant new sci-fi noir trilogy explores the sordid past of a murdered scientist, deified in death, through the eyes of a man who once committed unspeakable crimes for her.


Staff Pick Badge
Damascus Station: A Novel By David McCloskey Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781324036135
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Published: W. W. Norton & Company - October 25th, 2022

Finalist for the 2022 ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel

"Damascus Station is simply marvelous storytelling.…[A] stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." —Financial Times


Staff Pick Badge
The Gods of Green County By Mary Elizabeth Pope Cover Image
$25.95
ISBN: 9781949467710
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Blair - October 5th, 2021

Coralee Harper struggles for justice for her dead brother and her own sanity in Depression-era rural Arkansas.


Staff Pick Badge
The House on Vesper Sands By Paraic O'Donnell Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781951142988
Availability: Usually Ships Within a Week
Published: Tin House Books - January 11th, 2022

An Oprah Daily and CrimeReads Best Historical Novel of 2021

Named a Library Reads Pick, Apple Books' Best Book, Amazon Fiction & Literature's “Best of the Month,” and a Powell's Pick

The Millions' Top Ten Book of the Month


Staff Pick Badge
The Savage Kind: A Mystery By John Copenhaver Cover Image
$25.95
ISBN: 9781643138091
Availability: Usually Ships Within a Week
Published: Pegasus Crime - October 5th, 2021

2022 Lambda Literary Award WINNER in LGBTQ Mystery

Two lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes—and an even greater desire to commit them—in the new mystery novel by Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver.

Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled seventeen-year-old, has just moved to Washin


Staff Pick Badge
Lightseekers (A Philip Taiwo Mystery #1) By Femi Kayode Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780316536615
Availability: Usually Ships Within a Week
Published: Mulholland Books - March 2nd, 2021

A Nigerian psychologist travels to a remote southern border town to uncover the truth about the murder of three university students in this "original and fast-paced thriller" (Lauren Wilkinson, author of American Spy).
 
When Dr.


Staff Pick Badge
One Half Truth By Eva Dolan Cover Image
$27.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781408886557
Published: Raven Books - July 6th, 2021

'EVERYONE should read Eva Dolan' Mark Billingham

When the police are called to the report of a late-night shooting, they expect it to be drugs or gang-related. They don't expect to find a young student executed on his way home.


Five Decembers By James Kestrel Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781789098679
Availability: On Our Shelves Now. We will contact you when your order is ready. Closed Mon & Tues.
Published: Hard Case Crime - September 13th, 2022

Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Novel
 
“War, imprisonment, torture, romance…The novel has an almost operatic symmetry, and Kestrel turns a beautiful phrase.”
New York Times