Left Coast Crime 2018, "Crime on the Comstock," awarded four Lefty awards at the 28th annual LCC convention at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno/Sparks, Nevada. The Leftys are for books published in 2017:
- Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Ellen Byron, A Cajun Christmas
- Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial) for books covering events before 1960: Rhys Bowen, In Farleigh Field
- Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Kellye Garrett, Hollywood Homicide
- Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): William Kent Krueger, Sulfur Springs
The winner of the annual Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award this year is Brendan DuBois for his short story "Flowing Waters." In second place was Doug Allyn, with his story "Tombstone," and Dave Zeltserman took third with a new entry in his Shamus and Derringer Award winning Julius Katz and Archie series (a Nero Wolfe homage), "Cramer in Trouble." (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
We've been losing too many bright lights in the crime fiction community recently, and there was another sad milestone this past week as we mourned the loss of Philip Kerr, author of the historical crime fiction series featuring Bernie Gunther, an investigator with the Kriminalpolizei who must carry out his work during the political turbulence of 1930s Germany. Kerr wrote thirteen Gunther books, eventually evolving the character into a private detective in post-War Germany. Kerr's bestselling and beloved novels won many crime fiction honors during his too-short career, including the British Crime Writers' Association's Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award. Several sites are offering up tributes, including Shots Magazine, Crime Fiction Lover, and The Guardian.
Join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, on April 3 at New York City's KGB Bar for another thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by some of the chapter's talented members. The lineup includes R.G. Belsky, Laura K. Curtis, L.R. Hieber, Tim O’Mara, Thomas Pluck, Alex Segura, Carrie Smith, and Walllace Stroby. Hosted by Scott Adlerberg, this event is free and open to the public.
A few days later, on April 6, Missoula, Montana's indie bookstore Shakespeare & Company will present an evening of crime fiction featuring readings from authors Gwen Florio, Alec Cizak, and Russell Thayer.
On April 10, Portland, Maine's Rising Tide Brewing will host a "Cozy Mystery Author Palooza" featuring twelve authors talking about and signing books. The event is co-sponsored by Print: A Bookstore and Kensington Publishing.
The one-day symposium "Crime and the City" at the University of London on Friday, June 22, has put out a call for papers. The urban city is one of the most characteristic settings of crime fiction, from nineteenth-century Newgate Novels to late-Victorian detective stories, from twentieth-century noir and hard-boiled fiction to recent police procedurals. This one-day symposium brings together crime fiction critics and writers to examine the relationship between crime writing and the city, and organizers are seeking proposals for 20-minute papers or for conference panels on any aspect of urban crime writing from any period.
In addition to Mystery Fanfare's annual list of Easter-themed crime fiction, the blog also has a list of Passover-themed crime stories. This year, the two observations coincide on the calendar, with Passover spanning March 30-April 7, and Easter falling on April 1.
The latest issue of Noir City, the publication of the Film Noir Foundation, has a "blonde" themed issue, with a "troika of fair-haired silver screen goddesses for you to (re)consider."
Pittsburgh's NPR affiliate, WESA-FM, profiled Gloria Stoll Karn, a 94-year-old Pittsburgh artist who was one of the few women – let alone teenagers – in the field of pulp novel illustrators in the 1940s. Stoll went on to create more than 100 full-color covers for both romance and mystery magazines.
While we're on the subject of pulp fiction, did you know there is a database for the genre? Open Culture took readers into the Pulp Magazine Archive featuring over 11,000 digitized Issues of classic sci-fi, fantasy, and detective fiction.
Just in time for all those summer vacation trips to Florida, Crime Reads has a "guide to the madness" that often characterizes Sunshine State crime fiction.
Also great for beach vacations are quick reads, and the Crime Reads blog has a listing of "25 classic crime books you can read in an afternoon."
My own bucket list of travel destinations keeps growing longer, and this DreamTrip of Malmo and Southern Sweden notes that among the many other highlights of the tour, you can "Use your free time in Ystad to walk the streets of this town that helped put Nordic Noir crime fiction on the map."
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Working Backwards" by Charles Cline.
In the Q&A roundup, Alex Segura took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview," talking about prepping for the launch of Blackout, his fourth Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery; Tripwire returned the favor, interviewing Brazill about his writing career and what it’s like being a Brit in Poland; and Ruth Downie chatted with Ruth Downie, the author of the new mystery novel Memento Mori, the latest in her Gaius Ruso series set during the Roman Empire.
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