Mystery Melange

Jeffery Deaver has been elected as the new president of the Mystery Writers of America, and if you're in the area of New York City on January 13 from 6-8 p.m., you can attend the MWA’s National Board of Directors for its annual party at Mysterious Bookshop and meet Deaver and fellow authors. Currently, those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Frankie Y. Bailey, Laura K. Curtis, Hannah Dennison, Laura Durham, Lyndsay Faye, Daniel Hale, Thomas Hopp, Harry Hunsicker, Laurie R. King, Allison Leotta, Larry Light, Elizabeth Little, Jeffrey Marks, Tony Perona, Lori Rader-Day, Manuel Ramos, J.M. Redmann, Mark Stevens, Charles Todd, Maggie Toussaint, and Mo Walsh.

From Martin Edwards blog, I learned of a new event in the UK: Alibis in the Archives, which will be held at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Flintshire,  June 9-11. The event will celebrate the launching of the Crime Writing Archive at Gladstone's Library, which is actually two separate but distinct archives, one for the Crime Writers' Association and the other for the Detection Club.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned the possibility of an Inspector Rebus festival, thanks to the efforts of his creator, author Ian Rankin. It appears the speculation has become reality, with RebusFest now scheduled for June 30 to July 2 in Edinburgh. With Rankin himself serving as curator, there will be interactive events, tours of the city, live music, and talks on Edinburgh’s history and its influence on the author.

Gerald So, editor of the Five-Two Weekly blog focusing on crime-themed poetry, is seeking more unpublished poems for the February 2017 Valentine's/passion/love theme, with a deadline of Saturday, January 21. He's also accepting regular submissions at the same time.

Submissions opened January 1 for the annual Al Blanchard Award for short crime fiction. Sponsored by the New England Crime Bake conference, the award winner receives a cash prize, Publication in Level Best Books’ Crime Fiction anthology, and admission to the conference. For contest guidelines and submission information, head on over to the Crime Bake website.

Mike Ripley has published his latest monthly "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine, with both a look forward (with New Year's "Resolutions") and a look back to 20 years ago when he was commissioned to write two "Crime Guide columns for the Daily Telegraph with book recommendations.

Literary detective Heather Wolfe, who author James Shapiro called the "Sherlock of the library," thinks she's cracked the case of Shakespeare’s identity, thanks to her passion for manuscripts that helped unravel mystery of who the bard really was. Of course, many other claims, such as this, this, and this have different opinions on the subject.

Speaking of Sherlock The British Newspaper Archive blog looks at Sherlock Holmes in newspapers, including a peek into the re-creation of 221B Baker Street in London's Sherlock Holmes pub, and Arthur Conan Doyle discussing the fallout following publication of "The Final Problem."  (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

Also, the BBC is launching #SherlockLive, an interactive mystery that you can play along with on Twitter.

The British Library Crime Classics Series, which has recently published re-releases of several neglected and mostly-forgotten mystery novels, has proven to be quite popular with some rather impressive sales numbers. Martin Edwards, who is an editor for the series, has mentioned the series on his blog, and the UK Bear Alley Books blog also highlights the series this week, noting that the series may stand out with "a selection of delightfully old-fashioned covers and with no Poirot or Marple on the TV at the moment, maybe readers who enjoy a cosy murder mystery are looking elsewhere for their devilishly clever murders and drawing room revelations."

While we're still on the other side of The Pond, check out this list of "10 Irish Crime Fiction Novels You Didn't Know You Needed in Your Life."

Although the infamous Black Dahlia cases in California grabbed all the headlines in 1947, there was another case a month later, the "Lipstick Murder," which was equally shocking but remains unsolved, a "mere footnote in the annals of L.A. noir," as the LA Weekly reports.

In the UK, one used-bookseller is charging customers to browse in his shop as a way of fighting back against online shopping with the traditional weapon of his trade - misanthropy. The Guardian's Stephen Moss explains why that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you loved the supernatural and psychological twist on the FBI/law enforcement crime theme in The X-Files television series, then Book Riot has a list of ten books just for you.

Otto Penzler selected his five crime and mystery picks for January, including Sandrone Dazieri, Peter Swanson, Agatha Christie, and more.

Perhaps you are more of a fan of unreliable narrators? If so, here are ten books that will tickle your psychological fancy.

Did you ever catch yourself thinking that the whole gun-in-a-violin case cliche was so passé? Well, maybe not so much:  a woman walking in the woods near the Boathouse at Fletcher’s Cove along the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C.  found a violin case containing at least one firearm, and police said they discovered other weapons nearby.

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Broken Window Theory" by Peter M. Gordon.

In the Q&A roundup, thiller author Lesley Welsh took Paul D. Brazill's "Short Sharp Interview" challenge; the Mystery People held a Q&A with Ed Lin about his Taipei night market mysteries; and Ragnar Jónasson stopped by Shots Ezine to answer questions about his new book, Rupture.