Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) announced that Ann Cleeves is to receive the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing, which recognizes authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence.  Ann Cleeves is internationally renowned as the author of the series on which the TV series Vera and Shetland are based, and she is also the author of other crime novels and short stories and is a tireless advocate for libraries.

The Mystery Writers of America announced this year's Edgar Award nominations. The Best Novel category includes The Ex by Alafair Burke; Where It Hurts by Reed Farrel Coleman; Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye; What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin; and Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. You can read all the nominees in the various categories via the MWA website, including a Best Paperback Original nod to fellow blogger and Friday's Forgotten Books originator, Patti Abbott (for Shot in Detroit).

The Deutscher Krimi Preis, which purports to be the oldest German mystery-book prize, announced the winners (and the two runners-up) in two categories. The best German mystery category was won by Die Mauer (The Wall), by Max Annas, while the international mystery category was won by a translation from the English, The Heavenly Table, by Donald Ray Pollock. Books by Liza Cody and Garry Disher came in second and third.

Thursday, January 26, is International Mystery Night at the Mystery Readers NorCal Literary Salon in Berkeley, California. Featured authors scheduled to appear include Jeff Siger (Greece), Cara Black (Paris), and Lisa Alber (Ireland). The event is open to all, but you must RSVP to attend, and space is limited.

A £20,000 literary prize is being launched by Amazon for new work by authors releasing their work on Kindle’s self-publishing platform in the UK. The Kindle Storyteller award is open to authors writing in English across any genre, fiction or non-fiction, for books launched on Kindle Direct Publishing between February 20 and May 19, 2017.

An eclectic batch of items from spy novelist Tom Clancy (Hunt for Red October) is being sold by an auction house in Alexandria, Virginia. Clancy was actually a native of Maryland, and when he died in 2013 at the age of 66, he was still living at his 80-acre estate on the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, from which most of the auction items originate. The auction will take place January 31, but bidding is already underway online.

The Arthur Conan Doyle estate has debuted a new website with texts, correspondence, photos, memorabilia, and films about the creator of Sherlock Holmes and his many roles, including author, physician, advocate, and spiritualist. One interesting account is his less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward the knighthood offered to him in 1902. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) is considered one of the classic writers of the so-called "Golden Age" mysteries, perhaps best known for his locked-room tales. But his output is more than just that, and the Classic Mystery Blog lists ten books to get you started.

Interested in diving into some chilly noir but don't know where to start? Here's a list of "10 Scandinavian Crime Novels to Read While Getting Your 'Hygge' On." For those who don't know, "hygge" has been in the news lately after it made the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 word of the year shortlist and went viral. Pronounced hoo-guh, it's a Danish term loosely defined as "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being." (Doesn't seem particularly well-suited for crime fiction, but there you go.)

For fans of legal thrillers, the ABA Journal asked ten lawyer-authors to choose the top 10 law novels in the past 10 years, with Alifair Burke starting off the list.

It appears that there are even astrophysical whodunnits on a galactic scale:  across the universe, galaxies are being killed and the question scientists want answered is, what’s killing them?

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Never See Morning" by Jennifer Lagier.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People chatted with Melissa Lenhardt about her new book The Fisher King, as well as nostalgia vs. progress in a small Texas Town; the MP also sat down with Terry Shames to discuss the latest installment in her Samuel Craddock series.