Mystery Melange

The ebook service Kobo launched its inaugural Kobo Emerging Writer Awards for Canadian authors this year, and the names on the mystery shortlist include A Quiet Kill by Janet Brons; The Monarch, a thriller by Jack Soren; Cipher by John Jantunen; A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows; and The Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe. (HT to Crime Fiction Lover.)

The American Bar Association's ABA Journal and the University of Alabama Law School announced the finalists for the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, handed out to “a book-length fictional work that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society, and their power to effect change."  The honorees include: My Sister’s Grave, by Robert Dugoni; Terminal City, by Linda Fairstein; and The Secret of Magic, by Deborah Johnson. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.) The public is invited to cast their vote for their favorite, with the audience vote counting as a "fifth judge" in addition to the four judges on the awards panel.

This year's Deadly Ink Conference in New Jersey will include a one-day Deadly Ink Academy, held on Friday August 7th in New Brunswick. Instructors will include S.W. Hubbard, leading a workshop title "Plot Your Way to Success," in the morning, and in the afternoon, Kathryn Johnson will talk about "The Extreme Novelist: The No-Time-To-Write Method for Drafting your Novel in 8 Weeks." The public is welcome to register for the workshop as an add-on to the conference or can attend the conference on its own.

If you happen to be in delightful Dublin tomorrow (May 28), author Dennis Lehane will join Declan Burke in conversation at the Irish Writers Centre.

A "major collection" of letters, photos and publications of the late crime fiction author Dashiell Hammett has been acquired by the University of South Carolina, with the institution planning on making the materials available to students and scholars within the coming year. The collection includes hundreds of family letters, photographs, personal effects and documents from Hammett's daughter Josephine, 89, and two of his grandchildren, 300+ Hammett books and rare first editions, and dozens of screenplays, files, documents and serialized magazines compiled by Hammett biographer and Columbia publisher Richard Layman.

Mysterious Press announced the release of two new short story collections in paperback and eBook from two masters of the crime genre: The Complete Crime Stories of James M. Cain, and The Last Drive and Other Stories by Rex Stout.

The Malice Domestic Conference announced a change to their William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers. The award will now be given to one individual instead of two, but the grant will increase to $2,500 plus a comprehensive registration for the upcoming convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel. Applicants can send along a plot synopsis of no more than 300 words and three consecutive chapters of the writer’s Malice Domestic genre work-in-progress before the deadline of November.

Thuglit has a revamped website and has upped the payment for accepted stories. As always, they're seeking short crime fiction between 3,000-6,000 words.

Author Sophie Hannah (who published a Hercule Poirot continuation novel) wrote an essay for The Guardian titled "No one should condescend to Agatha Christie – she's a genius." Hannah notes that while Christie is consistently dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries, she's "so much more than that."

The Guardian also profiled Agatha Christie's "forgotten" Syrian memoir that recounts travels with her archaeologist husband after the second world war and features little-seen photographs. HarperCollins will publish the memoir, title Come, Tell Me How You Live, this August.

Agatha Christie was known for using poisons in her mystery novels, and WaPo rcently took a look at the ancient art of poisoning, which seems to be making a comeback.

David Prestidge at the Crime Fiction Lover blog posted some of the latest crime fiction titles including Mr. Campion’s Fox by Mike Ripley. Ripley has been commissioned by the Margery Allingham estate to continue Allingham's popular Albert Campion series with a brand new case set in the world of London’s diplomatic circles. Ripley previously completed Allingham’s Mr. Campion’s Farewell, left unfinished at the time of her death in 1966.

The Daily Beast re-published an article by Ross Macdonald on "How America Fell for the Private Eye," where the late author talks about the origins of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and his own Lew Archer.

Students at a primary school in Donnybrook, Dublin, have written and published their very own mystery novel to benefit charity. Each student wrote a chapter, complete with illustrations, to create the 140-page book, and regular votes were taken to decide the direction the story should take. All proceeds raised with go to the Irish Cancer Society and Down Syndrome Ireland.

Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine (FMAM) was founded by Babs Lakey, who published many excellent crime fiction short stories during the magazine's tenure, and received an award for “Supporting the Writing and Publishing of Works of Fiction in their community" from the city of Minneapolis in 2002. But Lakey developed serious health and financial problems and is now in danger of losing her senior housing, something that has prompted a Go Fund Me campaign. If you'd like to contribute, you can do so by name or anonymously.

In the Q&A roundup, journalist and author Ace Atkins chats with Huffpo about continuing Robert B. Parker's Spenser series; Omnimystery News wecomed author Rio Ramirez to discuss his new crime series featuring small town hitman Tommy Darlington; Peter James got the Q&A rubber-hose treatment from Declan Burke; Craig Faustus Buck talks with the Examiner about novel Go Down Hard and other works; Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Quentin Bates about writing and living in Iceland; and the Mystery People spoke with George Wier about his pulp-influenced stories and grilled Joseph Kanon about his spy novels.