Minotaur Books, part of St Martin’s Press which in turn, is part of the mammoth McMillan publishing empire, specializes in crime fiction, and is home to authors like Louise Penny, Rhys Bowen, M.C. Beaton, Nevada Barr and Lindsey Davis.
Established in 1999, Minotaur is a premier publisher in the bestselling category of crime fiction. Garnering domestic and international awards from the Edgar to the Gold Dagger, the list encompasses the entire genre from cozies to historicals to thrillers. Minotaur is dedicated to nurturing rising new talent as well as cultivating the fullest potential of its popular genre mainstays.
As part of their nurturing rising new talent, they join with writers’ groups to identify and award publishing contracts to winners in four different annual competitions.
First Crime Novel Competition Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America.
Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story.
Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition
Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story. Whatever violence is necessarily involved should be neither excessive nor gratuitously detailed, nor is there to be explicit sex. The suspects and the victims should know each other. There are a limited number of suspects, each of whom has a credible motive and reasonable opportunity to have committed the crime. The person who solves the crime is the central character. The “detective” is an amateur, or, if a professional (private investigator, police officer) is not hardboiled and is as fully developed as the other characters. The detective may find him or herself in serious peril, but he or she does not get beaten up to any serious extent. All of the cast represent themselves as individuals, rather than large impersonal institutions like a national government, the mafia, the CIA, etc.Best Private Eye Novel Competition Sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) and Minotaur Books
A novel in which the main character is an independent investigator who is not a member of any law enforcement or government agency, and who receives a fee for his or her investigative services. (There are no other restrictions as to plot or subject matter. The decision of the competition's judges as to whether a manuscript qualifies as a "private eye" novel will be final.)
HILLERMAN MYSTERY CONTEST Sponsored by the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference (THWC) and St. Martin's Press, LLC
Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story, and emphasis is on the solution rather than the details of the crime.
The story’s primary setting is the Southwestern United States, including at least one of the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.
Tonight’s mystery is from Susan Cox, and is the winner of the 2014 First Crime Novel Award from Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America.