Amazon announced its choices for "Best Books" of 2019, including those in the Mystery & Thriller category. For a listing of all of the top twenty crime titles, follow this link.
A week after winning the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction at Bouchercon 2019, Joseph S. Walker won the 2019 Al Blanchard Award presented at New England Crime Bake. The Al Blanchard Award, named after Al Blanchard, honors the best crime short story by a New England writer or with a New England setting. Mr. Walker’s winning short story, "Haven" is published in Seascape: Best New England Crime Stories. (HT to Kevin Tipple)
Sisters in Crime, New Orleans chapter, is sponsoring a one-day conference for writers and readers of crime fiction titled "A Journey into the Mystery of the Criminal Mind." Keynote speaker Hank Phillipi Ryan will be joined by local authors BJ Bourg, O'Neil De Noux, Jean M. Redmann, and Erica Spindler for disucssions such as "Mastering the Art of Addictive Suspense" and "Crafting the Dark Side: Creating Criminal Characters."
As one of the first initiatives under the leadership of new CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble has announced the shortlist for a new Book of the Year award. Books are nominated by B&N booksellers, who will also choose the winner, and represent "the title for which they are most proud to be selling," said Daunt. The prize replicates a similar prize offered by Waterstones in the U.K., which was launched in 2012. The shortlist for the inaugural award includes the crime novel, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, as well as The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, based on a true story about a violent and torturous reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow era.
Fifty years ago, CWA Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award-winner, Peter Lovesey, published his first mystery novel, Wobble to Death, after winning a first novel contest he stumbled across in an English newspaper. To celebrate Lovesey's incredible career and its unusual beginnings, Soho Crime has created the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest, in which one debut crime/mystery author will be awarded a publication contract with Soho Crime. All submissions must be received by 11:59pm EST on April 1, 2020. (HT to Mystery Fanfare, which has more info and links.)
I recently reported on The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, which bills itself as "the richest prize for a single short story in the English language" (the winner receives £30,000). However, on Victoria Strauss's Writer Beware blog, she notes something that authors should take into account: by agreeing to the terms and conditions, you are essentially granting a sweeping, non-expiring license not just to Times Newspapers Limited (The Sunday Times' parent company), but also to Audible to use your story or any part of it in any way they want, anywhere in the world, without payment to or permission from you.
There is a call for papers for the upcoming conference, The Golden Age of Crime: A Re-Evaluation. As well as interrogating the staples of Golden Age crime (the work of Agatha Christie and/or Ellery Queen, the puzzle format, comparisons to "the psychological turn"), this conference will look at under-explored elements of the publishing phenomenon. Organizers invite proposals for 20-minute papers or panel presentations of one hour. If you're interested, email your 200-word proposal and short biographical note to goldenageofcrime@gmail.com no later than 15th December. (HT to Shots Magazine)
Speaking of Golden Age authors: do you agree with The Guardian's list of the "Top 10 Golden Age Detective Novels?"
Sotheby's is selling an "extraordinary stash of letters" (160 plus) between James Bond creator, Ian Fleming, and his wife, Ann, that shine a light on the tangled relationship between them—from their intense and secret affair to the bitter end of their marriage. Gabriel Heaton, a specialist in books and manuscripts at the auction house, said the letters in their scope and scale provided what "must surely be an unmatchable record of the life of the author as his fortunes changed." They also provide insight into the rise of the iconic James Bond character.
Planet Word, a new Washington, D.C. language museum, is set to open in May 2020. The project has been spearheaded by Ann Friedman, who describes it as an interactive museum “that will bring language to life," now under construction at the historic Franklin School on the corner of 13th and K streets NW in downtown Washington. The museum is expected to open May 31 with 10 immersive galleries that will explore language in novel and entertaining ways. Visitors will be invited to solve puzzles, listen to poetry and paint pictures with words and encouraged to try their skills at delivering famous speeches and creating a marketing pitch. Planet Word will also have an auditorium, classrooms, a restaurant and gift shop, and admission will be free.
Finland has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, so of course, they'd build something incredible like this.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Sometimes I Think About Murder" by Terry Dawley.
In the Q&A roundup, Ivy Pochoda interviewed Alex Segura for the LA Review of Books about his series featuring private eye, Pete Fernandez; WAToday chatted with Garry Disher, "Australian crime fiction's quiet giant"; Shots Magazine had a Q&A with Atticka Locke, the author of five award-wining novels including Bluebird, Bluebird (2017) that won an Edgar Award, Anthony Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award; and Lena Gregory stopped by the Writers Who Kill blog to chat about her All-Day Breakfast Cafe Series.
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