Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by Bronia Sawyer

Italian novelist Andrea Camilleri was awarded the prestigious Pepe Carvalho prize for lifetime work, at the BCNegra noir literary festival in Barcelona last week. Previous winners include Michael Connelly, P.D. James, and Henning Mankell.

The just-held Love is Murder Conference handed out the annual Lovey Awards in several categories, including Best Series: Trickster's Point by William Kent Krueger and Best First Novel: Perfidy by M.E. May.

Editor Janet Rudolph has announced a call for essays on Canadian-themed mysteries for the Mystery Readers Journal. She's seking Author! Author! essays (500-1500 words- first person, upclose and personal about yourself, your books, and the Canada connection), with a deadline of March 15th.

For the second year in a row, Thrillerfest is adding the pre-conference workshop, "Today’s FBI: Crime Essentials For Writers." The event is an all-day event on July 7 at the FBI Headquarters in New York City, featuring FBI experts in cyber crime, international terrorism, criminal investigations and more. If you are already registered for ThrillerFest or CraftFest, you can add your registration for that workshop by sending an email to Dennis Kennett at [email protected].

In honor of the 75th anniversary of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, The Guardian published an essay about Chandler's legacy and a quiz about the author so you can test your knowledge of his life and work.

The winners of the 2013 Florida Book Awards were announced, including the Gold Award in General Fiction given to Randy Wayne White for his second Hannah Smith mystery, Deceived. In the Popular Fiction category, the Silver award went to Brad Meltzer for his second Beecher White thriller, The Fifth Assassin, and the Bronze to Alex Kava for her latest Maggie O'Dell mystery, Stranded. (Hat tip to Janet Rudolph.)

Last week saw the official launch of Chalk Line Books, a publisher specializing in republishing vintage crime fiction classics as ebooks (in the same vein as the old Black Lizard Books). The company's first efforts include digital editions of two great crime fiction authors, Jim Thompson with Sharecropper Hell and David Goodis with The Secret Squad. Upcoming authors include Charles Williams, Ed McBain, Peter Rabe, and many more.  

Vanda Symon has been chosen to give the annual Ngaio Marsh Memorial Lecture on Sunday, April 13 at Christ's College Old Boy's Theatre in New Zealand.

This week's featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Beyond the Sea" by Shotgun Honey's Chris Lirvin; and the featured weekly crime poem at the 5-2 is "Glossy" by Scott T. Hutchison.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Tana French, from an interview posted on her publisher's page, in which she talks about her writing, flawed heroes and her fifth book (in progress), with a working title of The Secret Place.

In the mood for some Valentine's Day mysteries? Janet Rudolph compiled a listing for the Mystery Fanfare blog.

A Scottish osteopath believes he has discovered the real-life inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Dr John Watson: William Smith, a pioneer of British osteopathy and student companion of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1880s.