Noir at the Bar moves to Seattle tonight at the Alibi Room from 8-10pm. The lineup features Renee Patrick (Design for Dying), Bethany Maines (Bulletproof Mascara), Reb MacRath (The Big Bopper), Ashley Erwin (A Ballad Concerning Black Betty), Brian Thornton (Suicide Blonde), G.G. Silverman (The Redvale Zombie Prom series), Scotti Andrews (Blind Date), and Nick Feldman (Asshole Yakuza Boyfriend).
Stuart Turton has won the Costa First Novel Award for his debut, The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle. The crime novel has been sold in 20 territories to date and has been optioned for TV. The Costa Book Awards honor some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
In association with the Newcastle Noir Festival, bestselling thriller author LJ Ross has established The Lindisfarne Prize, a crime writing award worth £2,500 to celebrate the North East region of the UK. Recognizing outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction, the award is open to all new writers who are from, or whose work celebrates, the North East, and who have not previously had their work published in any form. Entrants must submit a short story of up to 10,000 words or the first two chapters and a synopsis of their work in progress, to be considered. Entries close on March 31.
There's a bit of sad news this week as we say goodbye to crime writer Brian Garfield, who began writing westerns then switched to contemporary crime fiction with a western flavor. His best-known books include Death Wish, which was adapted into a film starring Charles Bronson, and Hopscotch, a Cold War espionage thriller that won the Edgar for Best Mystery Novel and was adapted for a film starring Walter Matthau. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
Writing for Forbes, Adam Rowe took a look back at publishing industry insights from 2018 revealed by a list of the U.K.'s top 100 print bestsellers and based on data from The Guardian's John Dugdale and analysis from author Chris McCrudden. McCrudden noted that "In fiction in 2018 there were crime thrillers, and then there was everything else." As the article notes, the analysis only extends to print sales in the UK since the data didn't cover the extensive ebook market.
Now that 2018 is history, it's time for a look ahead. Crime Fiction Lover, The Real Book Spy, Dead Good, and The Rap Sheet all offer up their takes on the most hotly awaited crime novels of 2019.
Author and Polis Books founder Jason Pinter discussed his publishing company's new crime imprint, Agora Books, with The New York Post. Agora Books was established to promote diversity in crime fiction, and the first three titles will come out in fall 2019 under the direction of editor Chantelle Aimée Osman, former editor-in-chief of RT Book Reviews Magazine. As Pinter stated, "There are authors out there who don’t feel welcome because of a lack of representation in the crime-fiction genre. And with this [new imprint] we’re saying, ‘Not only are you welcome, you are needed.'"
Adding a bit more to the topic of diversity, Writers Digest took a look at the changing face of crime fiction, profiling "6 Writers of Color on Writing Mysteries, Crime Novels and Thrillers."
Publishers are trying new marketing ploys to lure in readers, with one example being #taken by Tony Parsons. The sixth and final installment in the author's DC Max Wolfe detective series is being serialized online by British GQ ahead of the novel's publication with Century in April 2019.
Writing for the Washington Post, thriller author Brad Meltzer examined how a deadly plot against George Washington merely became a historical footnote.
Agatha Christie's missing 11 days in December 1926 are being made into a new film commissioned by Britain's Channel 5, and author Andrew Wilson took a look at other projects (including his own novel) that have taken on the subject of Dame Agatha's real-life mystery.
Wondering how to become a bestselling crime writer? Val McDermid, Sophie Hannah, and Stella Duffy weighed in on the topic for Marie Claire magazine.
It may be too late for Christmas, but anytime is a good time to try out some of these crime fiction board game recommendations from Criminal Element.
The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Borderline: An Elegy" by Robert Weibezahl.
In the Q&A roundup, James Lee Burke was one of the latest "By the Book" subjects for the New York Times; Louise Penny was taped speaking before a live audience at Sandwich High School and chatted about her new book, Kingdom of the Blind and other books in the Inspector Gamache series; and Publishers Weekly interviewed Harlan Coben about his new novel, Run Away, which he calls "the classic Hitchcockian dilemma of the “ordinary man/woman in an extraordinary situation."
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