Shortlists have been released for the 2020 Davitt Awards, presented by Sisters in Crime to recognize the best crime books by Australian women. The winners in the six categories of adult novel, YA novel, children's novel, nonfiction book, debut, and Readers' Choice awards will be announced at a September awards ceremony live on Zoom. Check out the complete Davitt Award shortlists here.
Also from downunder comes the longlist for this year’s Ngaio Marsh Award for excellence in New Zealand crime fiction:
- Shadow of Doubt (S L Beaumont, Paperback Writers)
- Trust Me, I’m Dead (Sherryl Clark, Oldcastle Books)
- Whatever it Takes (Paul Cleave, Upstart Press)
- One Single Thing (Tina Clough, Lightpool Publishing)
- Girl from the Tree House (Gudrun Frerichs, self-published)
- Auē (Becky Manawatu, Makaro Press)
- The Nancys (R W R McDonald, A&U)
- Hide (S J Morgan, MidnightSun)
- The Great Divide (L J M Owen, Echo)
- In the Clearing (J P Pomare, Hachette)
- The Wild Card (Renée, Cuba Press)
- A Madness of Sunshine (Nalini Singh, Berkley)
Acknowledging excellence in the field of tie-in writing, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers also announced the winners of the 2020 Scribe Awards. Among special interest to the crime fiction community is the award for Best Original General Novel, which was given to The Bitterest Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)
The virtual Harrogate Festival, "HIF Weekender" will be available for free this weekend. Events will include interviews with Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham; a panel celebrating debut authors; the live-streaming of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year Award, and much more.
Author Terrie Farley Moran, who penned the "Read 'Em and Eat" mystery series solo and co-authored the Scrapbooking Mystery Series with Laura Childs, announced on Facebook that she has been handed the baton by Jon Land to take over the Murder She Wrote tie-in novels. Land's latest book with Jessica Fletcher will be released in November and Moran's first book will be on shelves next spring.
The summer issue of Mystery Scene Magazine is out, with articles and interviews about Ivy Pochoda, Lawrence Block, Val McDermid, Small Town Detectives, Grand Dame Guignol, and much more.
Need some more reading to add to your TBR pile? Poisoned Pen press is giving away a bundle of books to help entertain you during Covid-19 quarantines.
Although this isn't technically related to crime fiction, I found this bit of news kind of fun. Due to the social distancing requirements of Covid-19, drive-in movies are popular once again, and some comedians and art galleries have even been experimenting with "drive in" events of one kind or another. The Appledore book festival in the UK this September is planning on its own drive-in event, where audience members will need to submit questions in advance, and flash their car lights to alert writers to their presence.
The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Quiet" by Mehnaz Sahibzada.
In the Q&A roundup, The Guardian interviewed Jasper Fforde, author of inventive and idiosyncratic books like The Eyre Affair and his recent The Constant Rabbit, about everything from rabbits to racism to writing fiction in order "to slightly improve a flawed world"; Writers Who Kill had an interview with Agatha winning author, Leslie Budewitz, about The Solace of Bay Leaves, the fifth book in her Spice Shop Mystery series; and Criminal Element welcomed John Glatt, author of The Perfect Father.
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