The finalists of the Los Angeles Book Prizes were announced, including those in the Mystery/Thriller category:
Bestselling authors John Grisham and John Hart will be featured in conversation about the imagination and creativity of writing thrillers, hosted by D.G. Martin of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, on February 23 at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh. Hart was the first to win two consecutive Edgar Awards for Best Mystery Novel, and Grisham's legal thrillers have sold more than 300 million copies, with nine of his novels adapted into feature films.
According to a recent announcement by the Theakston Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, Grisham will also be one of the headliners at this year's conference, chatting with fellow bestselling author Lee Child. The other previously-announced special guest is Don Winslow, with the full lineup set to be released in April.
The "Orenda Roadshow," the series of author events sponsored by UK's Orenda publishing company, has three additional dates for the remainder of this month. Seven Orenda authors will travel to Granite Noir on February 23-25 in Aberdeen, followed by events at the Waterstones Bookstore Liverpool on Monday the 26th, Waterstones in Nottingham on February 27th, and Northgate Methodist Church in Warwick on Wednesday, February 28th. Authors scheduled to appear at these events include Louise Beech, Su Bristow, Steph Broadribb, Simone Buchholz, Thomas Enger, Johana Gustawsson, Lucy Hay, Matt Johnson, Doug Johnstone, Michael Malone, Lilja Sigurdardottir, Sarah Stovell, Antti Tuomainen, Louise Voss, and Matt Wesolowski.
NoirCon is celebrating the 101st Birthday Celebration of David Goodis on March 3rd with the annual carpool tour of David Goodis' Philadelphia. This is a special year, as festival organizers will also be remembering Andy Kevorkian, a friend of David's and a devoted supporter of NoirCon, who passed away in 2017. The car tour leaves from Port Richmond Books and visits the places Goodis lived in Philadelphia and the sites that inspired his novels.
The Guardian's latest Crime Fiction Masterclass May 19 in London will offer participants an opportunity to learn how to craft a gripping story for film, fiction or TV. The headliners leading the coursework include bestselling author Erin Kelly, former chief superintendent Graham Bartlett, CSI Kate Bendeow. and lawyer and author Neil White.
Mystery Scene Magazine's winter issue profiles Jane Harper, whose debut novel The Dry was an international bestseller; there's a tribute by Michael Mallory to Anthony Boucher, the crime fiction reviewer and uber-fan whose name is honored each year via the Bouchercon conference; Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor show how Mickey Spillane is still a cultural icon on the centenary of his birth; plus many more interviews, reviews, and features.
In less happy magazine news, Pulp Metal announced it was closing down, probably permanently. Jason Michel has been running the monthly ezine since 2009, which has recently featured such authors as Alex S. Johnson, Simon Maltman, Eric Westerlind, Frank Quinn, Jason Beech, Paul D. Brazill, Vincent Zandri, Jen Hughes, and many more.
Crime fiction has truly become a global phenomenon, with authors and books spanning the globe. Crime Fiction Lover introduces you to some of the French contingent.
Not to be outdone, Sam Wiebe notes several Vancouver crime novels worth a read.
And if you're in Leipzig on March 17, check out Night of the French-speaking Crime during the Leipzig Book Fair, as crime writers Louise Mey, Emmanuel Grand, Jérémy Fel, Grégoire Hervier, Joseph Incardona, and Antonin Varenne alternate round tables around themes characteristic of the current trends of the French thriller.
Laura Lippman was the latest author to take the Page 69 test for her new novel, Sunburn.
Writing for Mental Floss, Sonya Vatomsky profiles a mysterious case that has captivated Iceland for almost 200 years and spawned several books and an upcoming movie (Burial Rites) starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Another contemporary interesting case offers up an interesting legal conundrum: when a prisoner gets a book deal, should the state take the proceeds to help pay for his incarceration, or does the prisoner have rights to pass along the money to his children?
Crime writers have a hard time keeping up with modern technology to incorporate into their novels, but sometimes the news provides storylines and simultaneous cautions for the public at large. Case in point: bitcoin holders who have amassed large sums of the cryptocurrency are becoming victims of an increasing number of crimes, including kidnapping, identity theft, cellphone number hijacking, scams, and extortion. Can murder be far behind?
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Bluff" by Chad Haskins.
In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Joanna Schaffhausen, whose debut crime book The Vanishing Season won the Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award in 2016; Screen Anarchy snagged Spanish-born German actor Daniel Brühl, the star of The Alienist, the new period drama based on the book by Caleb Carr, to discuss 19th-Century psychology and classic crime fiction; Omnimystery News welcomed author Saralyn Richards, whose new mystery, Murder in the One Percent, features the young African-American detective Oliver Parrott; and authors Alex Segura and Gregg Hurwitz stopped by Boing Boing to discuss cults and the cult of personality in crime fiction.
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