Liam McIlvanney has won the Scottish crime fiction award named in honor of his father, William McIlvanney, the late "godfather of tartan noir," with his novel The Quaker, based on the Bible John murders. McIlvanney won over the other shortlisted writers including Lin Anderson and former winners Chris Brookmyre and Charles Cumming.
The annual ThrillerFest conference announced that early bird registration is open for next year's event and also that Harlan Coben will be the 2019 recipient of the Silver Bullet Award. For more info and to keep track of all the special guests and participating authors as they are posted, check out the official conference website.
Mystery Writers of America NorCal and Lit Quake are sponsoring a Noir at the Bar on October 20 as part of MWANorCal's Mystery Week. Authors scheduled to appear include moderator Laurie R. King, Heather Haven, Terry Shames, Mary O’Shaughnessy, Pamela O’Shaughnessy, Gigi Pandian, Kirk Russell, Sheldon Siegel, and Jacqueline Winspear.
On Sunday October 21st, the historic Courtrooms above Browns Restaurant in Covent Garden will be the site of a series of panels devoted to crime novels, crime audio, crime television, and true crime, for the Killer Women Festival 2018. In addition to bestselling authors, events will include true crime documentaries and podcasts, a live CSI, and talking to police experts, forensic scientists and criminologists.
Terry Gilman and Maryelizabeth Yturralde, longtime owners of Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, have put the 25-year-old store up for sale to "pass the torch to a new owner, someone who can write the next chapter of Mysterious Galaxy's story." They reassured customers there was no threat of store closure, and they will be available to help the new owner through the transition. Gilman and Yturralde plan to focus on their other main venture, an events business and bookstore in Redondo Beach that brings books and authors to various community and corporate venues. (HT to Shelf Awareness)
London’s newly launched crime and thriller festival Capital Crime is preparing a new social outreach initiative to provide school students with insights into how they might be able to pursue careers in writing or publishing. In early 2019 Capital Crime will ask ten London comprehensive schools to each select two sixth-form students with "some recognised ability in creative writing." In spring 2019, those 20 students will then be invited to attend a seminar evening in central London where they will have the opportunity to hear from authors and publishing professionals and be given an insight into how they might be able to pursue writing/publishing careers.
Being a forensic pathologist can be very rewarding work and is a much-needed service for the community and families of victims, but the UK's Richard Shepherd points out the darker side, noting that his career let him to a diagnosis of PTSD. During his 30 years of work on some of the most high-profile cases, he says it's hard to describe the steady buildup of emotional damage from putting 23,000 dead bodies under the knife.
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Terracide" by Gerard Sarnat.
In the Q&A roundup, Felix Francis, son of legendary crime writer Dick Francis, spoke with the Daily Record about the "daunting task" to keep his father's crime legacy alive; Craig Johnson chatted with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle about how he's not all that far removed from his his character Walt Longmire; Liam McIlvanney, the newly-crowned winner of the Bloody Scotland festival's McIlvanney Prize (named after the author's father), stopped by the Live and Deadly blog to talk about his prize-winning book, The Quaker; and the Mystery People welcomed Sara Gran to chat about her latest Claire DeWit novel, The Infinite Blacktop.
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