Awards season is in full swing, as we saw with Tuesday's announcement of the Edgars. But here are a few more to report:
The winners of this year's German Mystery Prize (Deutscher Krimi Preis 2019) were announced, including German-language winner, Mexikoring, by Simone Buchholz, which is the sixth in her state prosecutor Chastity Riley series. The international category was won by Yokoyama Hideo's novel, Six Four.
Congratulations also go to Grand Master and Cartier Diamond Dagger Winner (CWA) Sara Paretsky for being given the prestigious Fuller Award by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. The award was created to acknowledge Chicago's greatest living writers. Paretsky will be officially honored on at a reception on Thursday, May 9 at Ruggles Hall
Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine announced the Barry Award Nominees for 2019. Winners will be handed out on October 31 at the Dallas Bouchercon Opening Ceremonies. The Best Novel contenders include Lou Berney, November Road; Michael Connelly, Dark Sacred Night; Allen Eskens, The Shadow We Hide; Craig Johnson, Depth of Winter; Mindy Mejia, Leave No Trace; and Abir Mukherjee, A Necessary Evil. For all the finalists for Best First Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Thriller, head on over to Mystery Fanfare's report.
Crimean author Jesper Stein has won the Harald Mogensen Award, which the Danish Criminal Academy awards for best crime book of the year, for Stein's novel Solo, the sixth volume in his popular and critically acclaimed series with police officer Axel Steen. The Academy's debut award goes this year to Søren Sveistrup for the thriller novel Kastanjemanden (The Chestnut Man). The Academy also awarded Michael Connelly the Palle Rosenkrantz Award for best foreign thriller novel for Two Kinds of Truth.
In other news:
Librarians deserve a lot of love, and if you're a librarian in the UK, London's new crime and thriller festival Capital Crime will offer librarians (and people on low incomes) discounted tickets. Capital Crime co-founder David Headley said: “We’re acutely aware of the important role librarians play in supporting authors and promoting books and this is our way of saying thanks and giving something back to the community at a time when libraries are under real pressure.”
The American Booksellers Association reported that unit sales at indie stores grew in 2018 by nearly 5% over 2017, and that sales in the holiday period were up at a similar level - with many stores having some of the best sales days ever. (HT to Shelf Awareness)
The anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday was January 19th, and PBS Newshour Online profiled the author's greatest mystery ... his own death.
With Rapid DNA machines, which provide results in 90 minutes can be operated by police themselves, genetic fingerprinting could become as routine as the old-fashioned kind. But forensic experts see a potential for misuse.
In the 1800s, Johann Maelzel created a robot ("automoton") that could play chess. Although it was later outed as a hoax, it did give one enterprising young journalist an opportunity to make a name for himself by writing an expose about the fraud. The young man's name was Edgar Allan Poe, and his essay that allowed him to play detective and investigative reporter turned out to be a precursor to Poe’s later detective stories featuring amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin.
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "I Heard a Copter" by Annette Gagliardi.
And in more good poetry news from The Guardian, poetry sales soared in the UK as political millennials "search for clarity." A record £12m sales last year were driven by younger readers, with experts saying hunger for nuance amid conflict and disaster were fueling the boom.
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