• The best nonfiction books on international capers
• The best fiction and non books on real people, real jobs, real lives
• The best historical fiction books on the Cold War, Nazi hunting, and growing up with spies in your house i.e. your parents
• The best books that capture the essence of the Civil War
• The best noir books that are great films
• The most engaging page-turner novels with female-centered humorous plots
• The best comic crime novels that inspired the best comic crime movies
• The best crime fiction sagas with cops in pursuit of the bad guys
• The best American noir fiction that takes you to the dark end of a one-way street
• The best books of philosophical fiction
• The best crime novels set in Argentina
• The best narrative non-fiction books that interweave crime and history
• The best books from the golden age of American crime and noir
• The most poignant coming-of-age novels about boys