Mystery Melange

The Bloody Scotland festival announced finalists for this year's Crime Book of the Year:  Paths of the Dead by Lin Anderson; DM For Murder by Matt Bendoris;  Dead Girl Walking by Brookmyre; Thin Air by Ann Cleeves; The Ghosts of Altona by Craig Russell; and Death Is A Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh.

The Romance Writers of America chose the winners of this year's RITA Awards, including Best Romantic Suspense title, Concealed in Death by J.D. Robb, and 2015 Golden Heart Award (for an unpublished novel): Romantic Suspense, A Shot Worth Taking by Tracy Poole.

In September, the Theatre Royal in Waterford, Ireland will present "125 Years of Agatha Christie." Agatha Christie expert and lifelong fan Dr. John Curran will survey the output over half a century of the world’s favorite detective novelist, and there will be a screening of the 1945 film adaptation of Christie's novel And Then There Were None. (HT to Crime Fiction Ireland.)

Over in Turkey, one of the world’s oldest luxury hotels will host the “Black Week Turkey” event in October in honor of Agatha Christie’s 125th birthday. Christie wrote one of her most beloved books, Murder on the Orient Express, in the Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah in Istanbul in 1934, and the resort will host Christie's grandson and several crime fiction authors during the event.

The latest issue of Pulp Modern, edited by Alec Cizak, is available via Kindle and Createspace and features stories on the theme of "Dangerous Women." As the 'zine notes, "from little girls luring old perverts to their deaths to shape-shifting women in the wild west, your appetite for new, engaging fiction will be thoroughly satisfied." Authors included in the issue are Math Bird, Monica Clark, Jen Conley, Janna Darkovich, Christopher Davis, Coy Hall, Michael McNichols, David Rachels, Melody Reams, Mike Sheedy, Max Sheridan, Deborah Sheldon, Parnell Stultz, Liam Sweeny, and John Teel.   

True Detective fans on Reddit have been comparing notes to answer the question "Is True Detective season 2 a James Ellroy rip-off?" drawing attention to similarities in storylines by James Ellroy and True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto. (Note that the Telegraph article contains some spoilers for the season.)

Author Kris Calvin picked her list of "Top 10 Political Crime Fiction Thrillers" for The Strand Magazine.

A.S. Byatt penned an essay for The Guardian about Margery Allingham's Traitor’s Purse, which the author wrote in fragments in 1940 in-between air raids and "created a wartime masterpiece."

Author Laura Lippman talks about the "Books That Changed Me" with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Think you know your Agatha Christie trivia? Here's a quiz to see just how big a fan you are.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Predator and Prey" by Joseph D'Agnese.

In the Q&A roundup, bestselling UK crime writer, Peter May, tackles the Crime Files quiz; author Joanne Phillips stopped by Omnimystery News today to discuss her cozy series featuring amateur sleuth Flora Lively; the Mystery People grilled debut author Alexandra Burt about her domestic thriller Remember Mia and also talked with Linwood Barclay about his latest thriller, Broken Promise; former private eye-turned author Michael Koryta talked about how his work with the Innocence Project inspired his new novel, Last Words; and Sara Paretsky spoke with the Huffington Post about her latest V.I. Warshawski novel, Brushback.