Louise Penny's The Black Wolf Wins Best Hardcover at the 2026 Anthony Awards

Louise Penny's The Black Wolf has won the 2026 Anthony Award for Best Hardcover Novel. The Anthony Awards, the readers' awards of Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, were presented at a live ceremony in Calgary, Alberta, on Saturday, October 24. Bouchercon 2026 posted the full list of winners on its awards page.

The winners

• Best Hardcover Novel: The Black Wolf by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
• Best First Novel: Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove (Berkley Books)
• Best Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook Original Novel: Edge by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• Best Children's/Young Adult Novel: Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala (Delacorte Press)
• Best Critical/Non-Fiction: Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide to New England by Dawn M. Barclay
• Best Anthology/Collection: On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology (Rock and a Hard Place Press)
• Best Short Story: "AITA for Using My Husband's Hobby to Teach Him a Lesson" by Mindy Carlson, from Myopic Duplicity: Do the Ends Ever Justify the Means?

A tough hardcover field

Penny's win came over a strong shortlist. According to Bouchercon's nominee list, the other Best Hardcover finalists were Crooks by Lou Berney (William Morrow), King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books), Death of an Ex by Delia Pitts (Minotaur Books) and All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur Books).

In Best First Novel, Dove's Mask of the Deer Woman beat Whiskey Business by Adrian Andover, The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs, Voices of the Elysian Fields by Michael Rigg, History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook and Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang.

The nonfiction category was crowded with well-known true crime. Barclay's travel guide won against Anne Soon Choi's L.A. Coroner, Caroline Fraser's Murderland, Pagan Kennedy's The Secret History of the Rape Kit and Gilbert King's Bone Valley.

How the Anthonys work

The Anthonys are named for Anthony Boucher, the critic and writer for whom the convention is named. They are a fan award: according to Bouchercon, only people attending the convention can vote on the final ballot. That makes them one of the clearest signals of what crime readers themselves are excited about.

Why it matters for writers

The 2026 list shows how many doors lead to a major genre award. The paperback-original winner was published by Thomas & Mercer, Amazon Publishing's mystery and thriller imprint. The anthology winner came from Rock and a Hard Place Press, a small independent. The short story winner appeared in a collection the nominee list describes as published through Kindle and Audible. For crime writers working outside the big houses, the Anthonys remain one of the genre honors within real reach.

Sources

• Bouchercon 2026: The Anthony Awards, winners and nominees