Mystery Melange

At CrimeFest this past weekend, the CWA announced the shortlists for the International Dagger Award, the Short Story Dagger, the Non Fiction Dagger, the Endeavour Historical Dagger and the Debut Dagger. For the complete lists of all honorees, check out the official CWA website.

The CrimeFest conference also hosts several awards of its own, with winners announced this past Saturday. The Audible Sounds of Crime Award went to Robert Galbraith for The Silkworm, read by Robert Glenister; the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award was handed out to L. C. Tyler for Crooked Herring; the eDUNNIT AWARD (for best crime fiction ebook first published in the British Isles) went to Charles Cumming for A Colder War; and the H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biography or critical book was awarded to Clare Clarke for Late Victorian Crime Fiction in the Shadows of Sherlock. (Hat tip to Crimespree Magazine.)

One of the more recent honors in the crime fiction community, the Petrona Award, was established in 2013 in memory of the late reviewer and crime fiction advocate Maxine Clarke to honor the best in Scandinavian crime novels. This year's winner is The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (tr. Victoria Crib).

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers revealed their finalists for the 2015 Scribe Awards. In the Best Original Novel - General, category, the finalists included Murder She Wrote:  Death of a Blue Blood by Don Bain; Mike Hammer: King of the Weeds by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; Homeland:  Saul’s Game by Andrew Kaplan; and The Killing:  Uncommon Denominator by Karen Dionne. (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)

Happy 10th Anniversary to the online publication Mysterical-E, founded by editor Joe DeMarco! (Via its media columnist, Gerald So.)

The Deadly Ink Conference taking place in New Brunswick, New Jersey in August, released more details about this year's program, which includes Guest of Honor, Brad Parks, Toastmaster E. F. Watkins (winner of last year's David award), and fan Guest of Honor, Ilene Schneider. Other authors scheduled to attend include Jane Cleland, Roberta Rogow, Patricia Morin, Jane Kelly, Alice Orr, S.W. Hubbard, Annamaria Alfieri, Tim Hall, Mary Perry, R.G. Belsky, S.A. Solomon, with additional panelists Les Blatt (Classic Mysteries blog), Leslie Blatt, Tricia Vanderhoof, Rebecca Mears, In addition, Allison Cohen of The Gersh Agency and other agents will be on hand.

Oldcastle Books is launching a new short story competition for its crime fiction imprint No Exit Press. The competition launches on May 25 and is open to any unpublished writer with a passion for crime fiction of any genre. There is a £5 entry fee and stories must be no longer than 3,000 words and written in English.

Simon & Schuster is partnering with mobile content distribution platform Foli to help deliver specific books or chapters from books to readers on mobile devices in specific locations. The initial push will be to deliver sample chapters to users in hotels, airports, or museums. The first such offering will be David McCullough’s new biography The Wright Brothers, which will be available at National Air and Space Museum and at more than 50 major airports nationwide.

Salon took a look at the crime fiction of Ross Macdonald (the pen name of Kenneth Millar, whose wife was mystery writer Margaret Millar), and the new release from The Library of America, Four Novels of the 1950s, edited by Macdonald biographer Tom Nolan.  

CNN had a slide show of Los Angeles crime scenes from 1953 in conjunction with a new book by James Ellroy, LAPD 53, which Ellroy created in partnership with the Las Angeles Police Museum.

Document forensics of the oldest kind: new X-ray technology scans can read letters on documents blackened by Vesuvius from a library at Herculaneum.

The Washington Post looked at "Why the ancient art of poisoning appears to be making a killer comeback," especially in places like Russia. But is there really such a thing as untraceable poison in light of modern technological advances?

You can call him "Dr. MacBride" next month when crime author Stuart MacBride is one of ten leading figures from the worlds of literature, cinema, science and the media who will be honored by the University of Dundee next month with the degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD).

Mental Floss posted a fun list of 17 behind-the-scenes secrets of bookstores, noting that "For book lovers, there's no more magical place than the local bookstore. And while most of us have probably spent a significant amount of time wandering the aisles, few of us know what goes on behind the scenes."

Via Atlas Obscura: "The strange afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe's hair."

From the "Seems a Fitting End" department, Italian police are opening a headquarters in a former mafia hideout that once housed Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore “Totò” Riina.

The new crime poem over at the 5-2 is "Ghoul in the Crowd" by Matthew Wilson.

Barbara Fister spoke with Diane Kovacs, founder of the online Dorothy-L crime fiction fan group, which continues to host conversations among over 2,500 members. Kovacs talked about the history of Dorothy-L as well as where she might like to see it head in the future.

The Q&A roundup includes author John Carenen stopping by Omnimystery News to talk about his debut novel; ON also welcomed author Eric Beetner to promote his new crime novel Rumrunners; the Irish Examiner hosted Dennis Lehane, talking about his adaptation of Love/Hate for an American audience; Craig Johnson got roped in by the Mystery People; Huffpo interviewed Alex Grecian, the author of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad novels; and the Mrs. Peabody Investigates blog had a wrap-up of the Q&A between Maj Sjowall and Lee Child at the recent Crimefest.