News of crime fiction awards have been coming so fast, it's almost impossible to keep up, but here are a few of the most recent:
The UK's CrimeFest conference announced the winners of its annual awards at a ceremony held this past weekend. The eDunnit Award for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hard copy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2017 went to Michael Connelly for The Late Show; the Audible Sounds of Crime (for audiobooks) winner was J.P. Delaney, The Girl Before, read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams & Lise Aagaard Knudse; the Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel was handed out to Mick Herron for Spook Street; the H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book was won by Mike Ripley, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; the Best Children's Novel winner was Helena Duggan, A Place Called Perfect; and the Best Young Adult novel winner was Patrice Lawrence, Indigo Donut.
Also at the Gala Dinner at CrimeFest, Petrona Award judges Barry Forshaw and Sarah Ward announced the winner of the 2018 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The winner is Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles and published by Simon & Schuster. Malin Persson Giolito and Rachel Willson-Broyles will also receive a cash prize. (HT to the Rap Sheet, which also lists the other finalists.)
The Crime Writers Association announced the longlists for this year's Dagger Awards for the Gold, Ian Fleming, John Creasey, International, Historical and Short Story Daggers plus the Dagger in the Library. Shortlists for the Daggers will be released in July and the winners announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London in late October. If you'd like a quick at-a-glance summary of the lists, Karen Meeks at EuroCrime has a rundown.
We also now know this year’s longlist of ten titles for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel written by a New Zealand author. The finalists will be announced in July, along with the finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, and the winners announced as part of a special event at the WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 29 to September 2.
The ABA Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction announced the shortlist of three novels and has opened up voting by the public who serve as a collective "fifth juror" for determining the winner. This year's finalists are Proof by CE Tobisman; Testimony by Scott Turow; and Exposed by Lisa Scottoline.
In other crime fiction and book world news:
Join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, for a "thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by our talented members" next month. The lineup includes Jill Block, Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Brown, P.D. Halt, Michael O'Keefe, and Jeff Soloway. Hosted by Jeff Markowitz, this event, to be held June 7 at the KGB Bar, is free and open to the public.
It was only a week or two ago that I noted the most recent RT Book Review Award announcements, which included both career achievement and the annual yearly winner nods for crime fiction works. Unfortunately, last week came news that RT Book Reviews parent company Romantic Times is shutting down after 37 years, which will mean the end to those two endeavors plus the RT VIP Salon. It would also mean the end to the annual RT Booklovers Convention, but according to Shelf Awareness, at least one of the people behind the RT conventions plans to launch a successor convention called "BookLoversCon" next year. Let's hope someone comes through for the review end of the company, as well, since book review and discovery outlets are continuing to rapidly shrink in number.
Ambient Lit is an ambitious project that hopes to redesign fiction for phones by customizing a reader's experience by using their location, weather, and season. Will it take off or just be another interesting but passing experiment? And what would it mean for writers?
The Conversation magazine profiled the interesting history behind an Agatha Christie anomaly: When the ancient Egyptian priest Heqanakhte wrote a series of letters to his family during the 12th Dynasty (1991-1802BC), he couldn't have imagined he was creating the framework around which the British crime writer Agatha Christie would weave one of the world’s first historical crime novels, some 4,000 years later.
If you want to own a literal piece of Agatha Christie's world, the seaside home overlooking the island where Agatha Christie wrote And Then There Were None is on the market. All you need is £2million ($2.7 million U.S.). Onnalea is a four-bedroom abode in the Devon area with views over Burgh Island where the author penned her 1939 crime fiction masterpiece.
You've probably heard of the phrase "bats in the belfrey," but you probably haven't heard about bats in the library. And it's all for a good cause.
Speaking of libraries, the Guardian reported on "Bacon, cheese slices and sawblades: the strangest bookmarks left at libraries."
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Consensual Crime" by J.H. Johns.
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