Mystery Melange

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate announced that Scottish author Chris Brookmyre had won the Crime Novel of the Year Award for his novel, Black Widow. Other finalists included Lie With Me, by Sabine Durrant; Out of Bounds, by Val McDermid; After You Die, by Eva Dolan; Real Tigers, by Mick Herron; and Missing, Presumed, by Susie Steiner.

The winners of the Dead Good Reader Awards 2017 were also announced at the Theakston crime festival, including the The Kathy Reichs Award for Fearless Female Character:
Helen Grace by M J Arlidge; The Case Closed Award for Best Police Procedural: The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly; The Hidden Depths Award for Most Unreliable Narrator: The Escape by C L Taylor; The Page to Screen Award for Best Adapted Book: Never Go Back by Lee Child; and The Cat Amongst The Pigeons Award for Most Exceptional Debut: Baby Doll by Hollie Overton. 

David Llorente has won the Dashiell Hammett Award for Madrid: frontera, awarded last week at Semana Negra (crime week) in Gijon, Spain. The Hammett Award is given by AIEP (Asociación Internacional de Escritores Policíaco) for the best crime novel in Spanish. In addition, journalist and writer Miguel Barrero won the Rodolfo Walsh award for works based on real events with La tinta del calamar, which deals with the still unclarified murder of a homosexual in 1976 in Gijón; and the Silverio Memorial Award for the best debut novel was awarded to José María Espinar Mesa for The Weight of the Soul, featuring Detective Milton Vertebra. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Melbourne’s second Noir at the Bar will take place on Tuesday, August 15, at Grub Street Bookshop in Fitzroy. Some of Melbourne’s best noiristas will be on hand to read their crime fiction including Des Barry, Annie Hauxwell (author of the Catherine Berlin crime books), Jessica Curry, Ian Rogers (The Student) and Laura Elizabeth Woollett, whose short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man, has been published by Scribe. Author and Pulp Curry blogger Andrew Nette will be doing MC duties on the night.

Ohio State University's Thompson Library Gallery is presenting the exhibit "Hot on the Trail of Iconic Detectives," through September 17. The exhibition features detectives from dime novels, young adult books, comic books, films, and manga, including the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Dick Tracy, Coffin Ed Johnson, and Grave Digger Jones. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

This October, Faber will publish Sleep No More, a new collection of short stories from the late "Queen of Crime" P D James. The six murderous short stories all have the "dark motive of revenge" at the heart of them and feature bullying schoolmasters, unhappy marriages, a murder in the small hours of Christmas Day, and an octogenarian exerting "exquisite" retribution from the safety of his nursing home.

The New York Times reported on what will likely be a more common type of crime fiction in the future, the interactive digital novel by David Wise, The Atlas Pursuit. The puzzle-story involves Nazi cryptography and a blackmail plot that could have changed the course of World War II and challenges readers to figure out rhyming riddles to unlock the password-protected chapters. Part of its storyline centers on actress Patricia Neal and author/spy Roald Dahl and sends readers across New York City to solve the story's riddles.

Will an author's next creative partner be a robot?

In honor of Raymond Chandler's birthday this past weekend (July 23), Flavorwire featured many of the snappy one-liners that made him — and his most famous character, private detective Philip Marlowe — a pulp fiction icon.

There's a mystery surrounding a famous letter allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln.

Author Kristen Lepionka chose her picks for "The Top Ten Female Detectives in Fiction" for The Guardian.

Via Strand Magazine: "Five of the Best Villains and Victims in Sherlock Holmes Stories."

Just in case you can't get enough of "listicles," The Telegraph also compiled their list of "The 50 best TV detectives and sleuths." (Your mileage may vary.)

This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Downfall of Duncan Scott Ford" by Tracey Ikerd.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People's Crime Fiction Coordinator Scott Montgomery chatted with Jordan Harper about his debut novel, She Rides Shotgun, which follows an ex-con on a crime spree road trip with his eleven-year-old-daughter; Criminal Element welcomed Kaye George, editor of the anthology Day of the Dark, a new collection of short crime-themed stories inspired by the total eclipse that will occur on August 21st; Sterling and Stone spoke with New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons; the Mystery People spoke with Rob Hart about The Woman From Prague, his latest novel to feature series character Ash Mckenna; and C.J. Box stopped by the Star-Telegram to chat about his new standalone novel, Paradise Valley.