SHAMUS Awards from the PWA include Lori G. Armstrong

The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) was founded in 1981 by Robert J. Randisi to recognize the private eye genre and its writers, and is probably best known for its annual Shamus Awards. Membership is open to fans, writers, and publishing professionals. There are three levels of membership: Active, Associate, and International.

In general, the PWA defines a "private eye" as any mystery protagonist who is a
professional investigator, but not a police officer or government agent. The
full definition is, and I quote, "a person paid for investigative work but not
employed by a unit of government. Thus books and stories about private
investigators (licensed and unlicensed), lawyers and reporters who do their own
legwork, and other hired agents are eligible; works centering on law enforcement
officers or amateur sleuths are not."

The Shamus Awards

Previous winners include Lawrence Block, Rob Kantner, Ken Bruen, Harlan Coben,
Max Allan Collins, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Brendan DuBois, Loren D.
Estleman, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Sue Grafton, James W. Hall, Steve Hamilton,
Jeremiah Healy, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, John Lutz, Bill Pronzini, S.J.
Rozan, Sandra Scoppettone and Don Winslow.

2009 SHAMUS Winners

The awards were given out at a banquet on October 19, 2009, during Bouchercon in Indianapolis.

THE EYE

A new annual prize celebrating a memorable private eye character or a series. Named after Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, of course.

• Matt Scudder by Lawrence Block

BEST HARDCOVER

• Empty Ever After by Reed Farrel Coleman (Moe Prager)

BEST FIRST P.I. NOVEL

• In the Heat by Ian Vasquez (Miles Young)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

• Snow Blind by Lori Armstrong (Julie Collins)

BEST SHORT STORY

• "Family Values" by Mitch Alderman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 2008; Bubba Simms)