The UK Crime Writers Association announced winners of the annual Dagger Awards for excellence in crime fiction, including:
Diamond Dagger, Lifetime Achievement: Michael Connelly
Gold Dagger: The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
John Creasey Dagger: Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love
International Dagger: After the Fire, by Henning Mankell, translated by Marlaine Delargy
Historical Dagger: Nucleus, by Rory Clements
Short Story Dagger: “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” by Denise Mina (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction: Blood on the Page, by Thomas Harding
Dagger in the Library: Martin Edwards
Debut Dagger (unpublished writers): The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon, by Bill Crotty
The finalists in the AN Post's Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year were also announced this past weekend. The public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the Irish Book Awards website - voting runs until Friday, November 23rd. The finalists include:
Skin Deep – Liz Nugent
A House of Ghosts – W. C. Ryan
The Confession – Jo Spain
One Click – Andrea Mara
The Ruin – Dervla McTiernan
Thirteen – Steve Cavanagh
Publishers Weekly announced their "Best Of 2018" lists including mysteries and thrillers. For a slideshow of all 12 of the selected books, follow this link.
Award-winning author Ann Cleeves will be featured in an exhibition launch tonight in North Shields in the UK. Cleeves won crime-writing’s Gold Dagger award for her novel Raven Black in 2006, and has seen her books transformed into hit series with ITV shows Vera and Shetland. She'll kick off the Find Your Voice exhibition, which features pictures of female crime writers taken by local professional photographer Donna-Lisa Healy, as well as excerpts from the authors’ novels. Cleeves will take to the stage to talk about her writing exploits and take questions from crime fans.
The Noir at the Bar series is heading to Boston on Thursday, November 8, at the Trident Booksellers & Cafe. The evening's lineup of readings and signings will be hosted by Rusty Barnes and include doungjai gam, Ed Kurtz, Rick Ollerman, Clea Simon, E.F. Sweetman, and JM Taylor.
Three of Chicago's "Mavens of Crime Fiction," Sara Paretsky (Shell Game), Libby Fischer-Hellman (High Crimes) and Lori Rader-Day (Under a Dark Sky), will read from and discuss their most recent books on Wednesday, November 14, at Women & Children First.
There were two conference headliner news items this past week: It was announced that bestselling writer Jeffery Deaver, author of the popular Lincoln Rhyme series that includes The Bone Collector and The Cutting Edge, will deliver the keynote address at the 2019 Washington Writers Conference. Also, top US thriller writer James Patterson has been signed to headline next year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Patterson has sold more than 375 million books and has been the most-borrowed author of adult fiction in UK libraries for the past 11 years.
The Captivating Criminality Network announced its sixth conference will be held in Abruzzo, Italy, from June 12 to 15, 2019. Metamorphoses of Crime: Facts and Fictions will examine the ways in which Crime Fiction as a genre incorporates elements of real-life cases and, in turn, influences society by conveying thought-provoking ideas of deviance, criminal activity, investigation and punishment. Scholars, practitioners and fans of crime writing are invited to participate in this conference that will address these key elements of crime fiction and real crime, from the early modern to the present day. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots)
A crowdfunding campaign by Texas public defender Amalia Beckner has been raising money to buy books for inmates at the Harris County Jail in Houston. For years, Beckner had been bringing her clients books from her own collection but the jail would only allow five books at a time per “pod” of more than two dozen inmates. The Harris County Jail and others have been in the news lately for a crackdown down on access to books, although public outcry and efforts like Beckner's have led to changes in some of those policies.
The CBC posted a list of "25 things you might not know about Lee Child and his bestselling Jack Reacher series."
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Thank You, Mr. K" by Nancy Scott.
In the Q&A roundup, Craig Sisterson chatted with British-Australian thriller writer LA (Louisa) Larkin, whose storytelling has been likened to Michael Crichton by The Guardian and Alistair MacLean by The Times; the Mysteristas welcomed Mark Stevens, author of the Allison Coil mysteries, the latest of which is The Melancholy Howl; Lynda La Plante spoke with the Irish Independent about her rookie days mixing with gangsters and her four-decade career in crime fiction; and the latest victim of Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Shart Interview" challenge is Tom Pitts, whose new book about the Northern California pot business is titled 101.
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