Mystery Bytes

If you have a hankering for some international flavor to add to your crime fiction diet, the Boston Globe online has some suggestions for Nordic novels from Leif GW Persson ("Persson’s sardonic depiction of how both uniformed and secret police operate is devastating and, at times, acidly funny") and Arnaldur Indridason. The Kansas City Star offers up some titles with plots based in the former Soviet Union or modern-day Russia. Regarding the setting, author Martin Cruz Smith says "If Russia didn't exist, crime writers would have had to invent it."

Crime fiction author Peter Robinson is this year's recipient of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize given by the International Festival of Authors, "based on the merits of his own published work and the time he has invested in nurturing the next generation of literary talent."

Patti Abbott has a flash fiction challenge up on her blog, titled La Ronde, or "round," in which she'll write the first 1,000 or so words about a character who is jealous of someone else. The next writer would centers their story on the person Patti's character is jealous of and the object of his/her jealousy, with the reason for the jealousy changing from one story to the next. Get it? If so, she needs eight or so players, with the series starting on October 5 and a weekly segment following each Tuesday thereafter.

Murder, Mystery and Mayhem celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month with a list of crime fiction written by Hispanic authors or featuring Hispanic themes, covering the gamut from humorous mysteries to political thrillers.

The National Book Festival is this Saturday, September 25th, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post has an annotated schedule for the Fiction and Mystery tent.

Comments

[Patti Abbott]

Whew. Glad you got it. It's difficult to explain but you did it perfectly.