Mystery Melange

Skull book sculpture by Souverein

Congratulations to Peter May, recently given the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year award for his novel Entry Island.

Meet the creative team behind Big Pulp this weekend at the Baltimore Book Festival, which also features hundreds of authors and booksellers, readings and workshops, panel discussions, walking tours, and more. Among the other crime fiction highlights are a panel on "Page-Turning Suspense" with Denny S. Bryce, Joya Fields, Shelley N. Greene, Laura Kaye, Nancy Weeks, and Rebecca York. Plus, there will be a trivia contest about Tess Monaghan with the PI's author-creator, Laura Lippman.

Author Ruth Rendell will join Saga Sapphire’s Baltic Treasures cruise next May for an event that coincides with the 50th anniversary of her crime writing career. The best-selling creator of the Chief Inspector Wexford series will take part in a question and answer session with passengers, who will each receive a copy of her new novel, The Girl Next Door.

Last year, Specsavers and Penguin crowd-sourced a novella via the Twitter hashtag #youdunnit. Following on the heels of that success, this year brings a new project where crime fans will steer the story through Facebook and on a dedicated website, and crime authors Christopher Fowler, James Oswald and Jane Casey will be challenged to write their chapter based on the decision made by readers. The new endeavor uses the hashtag #ChooseThePlot and starts this week.

Thanks to Ed Gorman for the tip that the latest issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is out. This global-themed issue is coedited by Stewart King (Monash University) and Stephen Knight (University of Melbourne) and includes articles and essays on Swedish authors Arne Dahl and Stieg Larsson;  Argentine author Claudia Piniero; Australian author Cory E. Player; French author Leo Malet; Spanish author Maria-Antonia Oliver; Italian authors Giorgio Scerbanenco and Massimo Carlotto; and Japanese author Seishi Yokomizo. King also provides an essay on "crime fiction as world literature." 

Also coming soon is the latest edition of Pulp Literature, with new stories from Susanna Kearsley, Ace Baker, Karlo Yeager, Susan Pieters, Richard Gropp, K.L. Mabbs, K.G. McAbee, J.M. Landels, and Kimberleigh Roseblade.

Issue #4 of All Due Respect was released for the Kindle, with new stories from Hilary Davidson, Christopher Irvin, Michael Pool, William E. Wallace, Stephen D. Rogers, Michael Cebula, Joe Clifford, Travis Richardson, and C.T. McNeely. Plus there's an interview with One Eye Press Publisher Ron Earl Phillips and loads of reviews.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "First Grade Criminal" by Anne Graue, and the featured Pulp of the Week at Beat to a Pulp is "The Debutante Ball" by Clare Toohey.

Although several cities lay claim to Edgar Allan Poe, he was born in Boston in 1809, and Bean Town is set to unveil two new statues in honor of the author. The first is “Poe Returning to Boston,” by Stefanie Rocknak, to be dedicated October 5 at Boylston Street and Charles Street South, otherwise known as Edgar Allan Poe Square. The second, funded on Kickstarter, is a bust by Bryan Moore whose new home is the Boston Public Library where the dedication will take place on October 30.

The Q&A roundup this week includes an interview with British crime writer Steve Mosby over at Kiwi Crime; The Mystery People welcomes Reed Farrel Coleman, who chatted about taking over Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series; Ken Kuhlken stops by Omnimystery News to talk about the seventh mystery in his California Century series, The Good Know Nothing.