In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

Here's one crime-themed conference I had overlooked:  The Perfect Crime Writing Festival 2021 will be held on Saturday, November 13th in Liverpool, UK. The in-person event will feature panels including Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Mel Sherratt, M W Craven, David Jackson, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Caz Finlay, Rhiannon Ward, Susanna Beard, Amanda Brooke, Heather Burnside, Barry Forshaw, and Prof James Grieve. There will also be a chance to mix with fellow attendees and author guests, buy the latest crime fiction releases from the featured authors, and have your books signed. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Also, the BAD Sydney Festival is featuring some online events this month ahead of the in-person conference in December. Coming up soon are Scottish author Val McDermid, dubbed the Queen of Crime, who will discuss her latest novel, 1979, with Sydney Morning Herald crime fiction reviewer, Sue Turnbull, on September 15; U.S. author Karin Slaughter discusses her latest thriller, False Witness, with fellow author Andy Muir on September 22; and Ann Cleeves, whose works have been adapted into hit TV shows Vera and Shetland, will join Turnbull online to talk about The Heron’s Cry on the 29th.

Collins Crime Club has scooped a new book by Martin Edwards, billed as the first major history of crime fiction in 50 years. Scheduled for publication in May 2022, the book traces the evolution of the crime fiction genre from the 18th century to the present. Publisher David Brawn noted: "In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative – and readable – study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors – from the tales of E T A Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell – into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading."

A rarely seen picture of Agatha Christie and her second husband on their honeymoon forms part of a new exhibition opening in Torre Abbey, Devon, this month. This latest exhibition uses her own words, photographs, letters and poetry to tell the story of her second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan. Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson said: "What better place to launch a new Agatha Christie exhibition than at Torquay during the Agatha Christie festival?...This new exhibition covers the years after 1930 and my grandmother's second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan." The exhibit, titled Agatha Christie: Destination Unknown includes poetry, pictures, and archaeology and runs from September 11 to November 28, while the International Agatha Christie Festival runs from September 11 to September 18.

It's nice to see community "one read" events popping up around the globe. The 15th One Book One Valley community read program this month in Conway, New Hampshire, will be featuring Paul Doiron, who writes the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels.

If you're in the St. Louis, Missouri, area this weekend, check out this interactive murder mystery for a good cause.

In an essay for The Bulwark, Bill Ryan profiled the late, great Donald Westlake (a/k/a Richard Stark), who had far more to offer than just his stories featuring Parker, the sociopathic thief.

Writing for CrimeReads, Nick Rennison took at look at the "American rivals of Sherlock Holmes": the early days of American detective fiction and the sleuths who competed with Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Holmes for mystery readers.

On Creative Boom, Emily Gosling discussed an illustrated Chinese edition of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye from artist Klaus Kremmerz. The work draws on 1950's "hard-boiled crime" and Californian artist Ken Price, known for his abstract ceramic sculptures resembling blobs, geodes, and surreal take on crockery. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Apparently, September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. I still maintain there's no better value in the universe than a free library card, the true portal to other worlds.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Robbin' Hoodie" by Jim George.

In the Q&A roundup, the NYT spoke with S.A. Cosby, author of noir crime novels, who "claims the rural South as his own"; the NYT also interviewed Colson Whitehead who won back-to-back Pulitzers for The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys and takes a detour with his new crime novel, Harlem Shuffle; Scottish author Ian Rankin explained to The Express about how the frustrations of being a special needs parent fuel his writing; and the Nerd Daily spoke with Australian attorney-turned-author Lisa Ellery about her debut thriller, Private Prosecution.

Author R&R with Lorie Lewis Ham

Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was thirteen, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper and publish six mystery novels. For the past eleven years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she also produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast.

Her latest novel, One of Us, is the first in the new Tower District Mystery Series set in Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub. It centers on children’s book author, Roxi Carlucci, who finds herself starting over again after her publisher drops her book series. With no income, she has to pack up her life on the California Coast, along with her pet rat Merlin, and move in with her cousin, P.I. Stephen Carlucci, who lives in Fresno. 

Stephen talks Roxi into helping out with a community theatre production, which is also a fundraiser for a local animal rescue. Little did she know that someone would be murdered during a rehearsal, and that she and Stephen would be hired to find the killer. The culprit has to be one of Roxi’s new acquaintances, since the theatre was locked at the time of the murder, but no one seems to have a motive. Could the local gossip website hold any clues? Can Roxi and Stephen stop the killer before he strikes again?

Lorie stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching her novels:
 

My books tend to rely heavily on the old adage “write what you know.” A lot of that comes from the fact that I prefer to sit down and write the first draft without doing a lot of research and editing—then later do what research is needed to fill in the gaps. Writing what I know makes that possible. I am very much a pantser! The only real exception is information I need for the murder.

My first book series was published in the early 2000s and featured a gospel singing amateur sleuth named Alexandra Walters. I spent over 20 years singing gospel music with my family. It was set in a fictional version of my hometown. The new book, One of Us, is set in one of my favorite local places to hang out in, the Tower District of Fresno, CA.

When I first decided to start a new series, I was going to have my main character Roxi Carlucci run a small animal rescue—I ran one out of my home for over 10 years. But by the time I actually got around to working seriously on the first book, the mystery book world had been flooded with books involving animal rescue, so I decided to change things up a bit—although there is an animal rescue connection in the book. The plot of the book involves community theatre—something else I have a connection to. And by the end of the book, Roxi becomes a podcaster—something I have been doing for the past three years with my podcast, Mysteryrat’s Maze.

Roxi also works as a part time P.I. with her cousin Stephen, which isn’t something I have done, but it is something I did a lot of research on for my first series in which Stephen also appears. The Carlucci family has ties to the Mafia, something I also did a great deal of research on for my first series. Now saying I did research into those things may seem to contradict what I first said, but the difference is that they were things I already had an interest in and already knew something about.

When it comes to the mystery side of things there is still a certain amount of “write what you know” as well. As soon as I was old enough that I didn’t need my parent’s permission, I went on several ride-alongs with the local police department—partially because I wanted to be a mystery writer, but also because I considered becoming a cop. For those same reasons, I took some Criminal Justice classes at community college—funny enough I knew enough from all of my mystery TV watching and reading that the classes were a breeze.

For the rest of the details of the crime I have a wonderful library of How Dunnit Books and a couple of great resources I can go to and say—“Hey if this happened how do you…?” One is a former chief of police, and the other many of you may know, mystery author D.P. Lyle.

For any other little things along the way, I am thankful for the internet! Especially during a pandemic. While finishing One of Us I went online several times to double check details about the Tower District like street names and business names, since I couldn’t go there in person. So for me, research is mostly what I know and what I already love!
 

You can learn more about Lorie and her book One of Us on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Twitter and Facebook. One of Us is available on Amazon; for the Nook and paperback on Barnes and Noble.com; and on Kobo. You can also hear an excerpt from One of Us read on the Mysteryrat's Maze podcast via this link.

Author R&R with Larry (and Rosemary) Mild

Rosemary Mild (a graduate of Smith College and former assistant editor of Harper's) and Larry Mild (digital systems and instrument designer for major Government contractors in the signal analysis field), are cheerful partners in crime who recently released Death Rules the Night, their fourth Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery Series. The Milds are also coauthors of the popular Paco & Molly Mysteries; Hawaii adventure/thrillers Cry Ohana and Honolulu Heat; and three volumes of short stories, many of which appear in anthologies.

Making use of his past creativity and problem-solving abilities, Larry naturally drifted into the realm of mystery writing, where he also claims to be more devious than his partner-in-crime and best love, Rosemary. So he conjures up their plots and writes the first drafts, leaving Rosemary to breath life into their characters and sizzle into their scenes. A perfect marriage of their talents.

In Death Rules the Night, reluctant sleuths Dan and Rivka yearn for a tranquil life as owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore in Annapolis, Maryland. When copies of a tell-all book on the prominent Atkins family go missing from the bookstore, from all the local libraries, and even from the author's bookshelves, Dan wants to know why. But the price of "why" brings threats, stalking, break-ins—and a brutal murder. He and Rivka fear for their lives.  

The Atkins family secrets are weaving a sinister web. Tom Dwyer, a retired truck driver, is ready to confess to a crime that he and Frank Mulhaney, another driver, committed twenty years ago. Frank plots revenge on Tom. Bookstore clerk, Ivy, hears ugly gossip aimed at derailing her wedding. Will the family secrets finally see the light of day? And will the killer ever be caught?

Larry stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R on researching and writing mysteries:

 

A Little Research Goes a Long Way

Researching for a novel can be fun. Who doesn’t like to learn a little something every day? An era of history, a science fact, a bit of poetry, a touch of foreign language, a dash of art, a part of the anatomy—endless tidbits that can enhance and add credibility to what we authors write.

But beware of the consequences that I fell victim to by researching too much. You ask: How much is too much? In my earliest attempts at novel writing, I got so wrapped up in the research, showing off my erudition, that I allowed it to deteriorate my plot. I took the research so far, adding fact after fact, that I had to keep modifying the plot, molding it to the research until I was unsure whether I was writing fiction or nonfiction. My first and second attempts at a novel went south. Did I learn my lesson? Finally, yes. Now I include only the relevant research that fortifies the plot, engages the reader, and moves the story forward.

For years the general guideline has been “Write about what you know”—so you don’t have to delve deeply into a subject where only genuine scholars mine.

Rosemary, my wife and coauthor, and I draw heavily on our own personal experience, but only as a starting point. We’ve published short stories set in countries where we’ve traveled: Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, England, and Italy. But we’ve also ventured into the future with a sci-fi novella. Aside from personal experience, where do we get our research? Like most authors, often we rely on the Internet, the dictionary, and thesaurus. Local newspapers are filled with police beats and extensive accounts of crimes. For a particular setting, the local papers can provide authentic flavor.

Six of our seven mystery novels are set in Maryland, where we lived for most of our married lives. Our newest, just out, is Death Rules the Night, our fourth Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery. Reluctant sleuths Dan and Rivka, owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore, find themselves stymied. Copies of a tell-all book about a famous Annapolis family have disappeared from the bookstore, from all libraries, and even from the dead author’s bookshelves. Dan wants to know why. But the price of “why” brings threats, stalking, break-ins—and a brutal murder. He and Rivka fear for their lives. The prominent Atkins family—and their eighteenth-century house—harbor secrets unknown even to the three unhappy sisters living there. As I invented the story, I gave it credibility by incorporating historical research: the fictional Atkins family’s “role” in the American Revolution, the Underground Railroad, and Prohibition, as well as eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture relating to the family house.

How do we keep from going overboard in our research? In Hot Grudge Sunday, our second Paco & Molly Mystery, our detective and gourmet cook are on their honeymoon at the national parks out West. They’d rather smooch than sleuth, but conspirators and thieves disrupt their bliss. Rosemary and I took this fabulous tour ourselves and drew on our own photos, maps, and tour brochures to be accurate. But we had to rein in our research to keep from sounding like a travelogue instead of an edge-of-your-seat mystery. For accuracy, we called a park ranger at Yellowstone and she allowed us to send her a copy of some of our dramatic scenes. In one, we had a suspect’s wrists handcuffed in front of her on the bus. The ranger wrote back, “No way” and corrected other details as well.

My inspirations come from unexpected places. In Death Goes Postal, our first Dan & Rivka Sherman Mystery, I focused the plot on rare fifteenth-century printing artifacts that led to a trail of hair-raising violence. I chose that subject because, in my seventh-grade shop class, I learned about Printing. But as I did the research I needed, I worked hard to build a strong, suspenseful plot and fresh, realistic characters. We created Dan and Rivka as a Jewish couple in their mid-fifties, very much like us in personality. So I wove together what we knew about Historic Annapolis and Bath, England, plus some esoteric research that gave depth to the story. But we took off from there, with a plot involving stalking, kidnapping—and murder.

Of course, I wound up with a pile of factual data I couldn’t possibly squeeze in. Was the time wasted? Yes, in terms of that particular novel. No, in terms of making me a more rounded person. Whatever research I do, it now depends on two words: credibility and enhancement. Will it add either to a gripping plot or to fleshing out the characters?

 

You can learn about the Milds and their books via their website, or follow them on Facebook or LinkedIn. Death Rules the Night is available in print to order from all major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Billy Bob Thornton, Robin Wright, and Hopper Penn are set to star in Where All Light Tends to Go, which will be directed by Ben Young (Hounds of Love; Extinction). The screenplay was written by Robert Knott and is based on the novel by David Joy. Set in the Appalachian Mountains, Where All Light Tends to Go is described as "a tense thriller about a family dominated by a crime lord who controls his family and his business with his fists. When his son meets the girl of his dreams, desperately wanting to escape the life he is expected to lead and freeing himself from the clutches of his father, he is forced to go head to head with the terrifying man who will stop at nothing to ensure loyalty from all of those around him."

Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver are attached as the leads in Master Gardener, a crime thriller that Paul Schrader (The Card Counter) is directing from his original screenplay. It follows a meticulous horticulturist (Edgerton) who is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate and pandering to his employer, a wealthy dowager (Weaver). When she demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece, it unlocks dark secrets from a buried violent past.

Tom Berenger and Cam Gigandet are set to lead the cast of the action thriller, Black Warrant, directed by Tibor Takács. Based on a story by Michael Paré and D. Glase Lomond, the project follows a semi-retired special ops assassin (Berenger) and a DEA agent (Gigandet) who cross paths on separate missions to stop a cyberterrorist group in possession of a dangerous machine that could attack the power grid and threaten global catastrophe. Jeff Fahey also co-stars in the film, which heads into production next month.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Alfred Molina is set to star in Amazon's police drama series, Three Pines, which comes from The Crown producer, Left Bank Pictures. The project is based on Louise Penny's novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec (played by Molina), who investigates a spate of murders in Three Pines, a seemingly idyllic village where he discovers long-buried secrets and faces a few of his own ghosts. The cast also includes Rossif Sutherland, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tantoo Cardinal, Clare Coulter, Sarah Booth, Anna Tierney, Julian Bailey, Frédéric-Antoine Guimond, Pierre Simpson, Tamara Brown, Marie-France Lambert, Frank Schorpion, Marcel Jeannin, Georgina Lynn Lightning, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson, and Anna Lambe.

HBO Max has given a pilot order to Dead Boy Detectives, a series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman, from The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey, Doom Patrol creator Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Brothers TV. Written by Yockey, the one-hour series would follow the Dead Boy Detectives (Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine) who decided not to enter the afterlife in order to stay on earth and investigate crimes involving the supernatural.

Joseph Russo has been tapped to play "Crazy" Joe Gallo opposite Miles Teller and Matthew Goode in The Offer, Paramount+’s upcoming limited series about the making of The Godfather. The project is based on Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s (Teller) experience of making the iconic 1972 film that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo from Puzo’s bestselling novel. The movie starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire; it was nominated for 11 Oscars and won three, including Best Picture for Ruddy.

Rainn Wilson is set as a lead opposite Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon in Dark Winds, AMC’s Western noir thriller series based on Tony Hillerman’s popular Leaphorn & Chee book series. Dark Winds, which has a six-episode order, is a psychological thriller that follows two Navajo police officers, Leaphorn (McClarnon) and Chee (Gordon), in the 1970s Southwest as their search for clues in a grisly double-murder case forces them to challenge their own spiritual beliefs and come to terms with the trauma of their pasts. Wilson will play Devoted Dan, a "pious" missionary who recruits followers to the gates of his used-car lot—all the while being a degenerate practitioner of every biblical sin he decries.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features the mystery short story, "Water Fall," written by Merrilee Robson and read by actor Teya Juarez.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer, Samantha Downing, for the Crime Cafe podcast. Downing's third novel, For Your Own Good, was recently optioned by a production company.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Karen Cleveland to discuss her new thriller, You Can Run, which follows a CIA analyst who makes a split-second decision that endangers her country but saves her son—and must now team up with an investigative journalist she’s not sure she can trust.

Suspense Radio chatted with Chuck Wendig about his latest novel, The Book of Accidents. Wendig also writes the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, the Wanderers series and more.

Matthew FitzSimmons stopped by Meet the Thriller Author. He pens the bestselling Gibson Vaughn series, which includes The Short Drop and Poisonfeather.

Criminal Mischief: Episode #47, hosted by Dr. DP Lyle, tackled the topic of "Amnesia and Trauma Amnesia," used in such novels as The Bourne Identity, and which may have even affected Agatha Christie...or not.

This month's Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast offered something new: A reading by Canadian journalist, author, and professor Dean Jobb of his true crime piece "Arthur Conan Doyle and the Mutineers," which was published in the September/October 2020 issue.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with award-winning author, C. L. Brees, who holds degrees in Police Studies and Cyber Forensics and writes the DS Anderson series.

Crime Time FM chatted with Simone Buchholz about Hotel Cartagena, featuring Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley who's dropped unwittingly into the middle of a tense hostage situation.

The Red Hot Chili Writers podcast welcomed indie publisher Orenda Books, along with founder Karen Sullivan and authors Awais Khan, Will Carver, and Lilja Sigurdardottir chatting about their terrific new novels.

The Cozy Ink podcast featured a look at cozy mysteries that include cats. 😼

FFB: She Shall Have Murder

Delano Ames (1906-1987) was born in Ohio to a newspaperman father. In 1929 Ames married Maysie Grieg, who later became a highly successful author of lighthearted romances, and the duo settled in Greenwich Village where Ames published his first novel, a philosophical look at the Greek gods entitled A Double Bed on Olympus. When the couple divorced, Ames moved to England where he remarried and worked for British intelligence during the second World War.

After the war, according to his tongue-in-cheek autobiography, he "translated an erudite history of keyboard instruments from the French, and believes that at least 100 copies were sold." Fortunately, his later efforts were more successful, beginning with in 1948 with She Shall Have Murder, the first in what was to become a 12-book series featuring the British husband-and-wife sleuthing team of Jane and Dagobert Brown. Ames produced a Brown book every year until 1959 when he moved to Spain and switched to writing a four-book
series featuring Juan Llorca of the Spanish Civil Guard.

She Shall Have Murder, made into a movie on British television in 1950, introduces Jane Hamish, a pretty young executive in the law firm Daniel Playfair and Son, and Dagobert Brown, Jane's lover and a researcher/writer who is so absorbed in the thriller he and Jane are concocting around the law firm's staff, that he is astonished when the wrong victim dies. Said victim is Mrs. Robjohn, the least favorite client of the firm, thanks to her frequent calls, letters and visits and unwavering paranoid belief that the mysterious "they" are out to get her.

She Shall Have Murder was labeled as "Detection with Wit" when first published in 1948, an apt description of the characters of Jane, always the common-sense, down-to-earth narrator, and her other half Dagobert, whose eccentricities and passing fads often leave Jane alternatively delighted and driven to despair ("Dagobert is my hero, but he persistently refuses to behave like one"). One of Dagobert's primary pursuits is amateur sleuthing that he puts to good use as he resorts to bluffs, disguises, charm, and insightful detection in his efforts to prove Mrs. Robjohn was murdered.

Jane makes a delightful narrator, as in this bit about her thoughts on her potential novel-writing career at the start of the story:

"On the other hand, thrillers have nowadays become an accepted art-forom; bishops and minor poets read practically nothing else, and the New Statesman reviews them....The beginning of a book is always the tricky part. It should arrest. A shot should ring out in the night, or if you prefer, a rod should cough or a Roscoe belch forth destruction. Personally, I like to meeet my corpse on page one, and I like him (or her) to be very dead."

In Peter Walker's foreword to the Black Dagger edition of She Shall Have Murder, he notes that the novel is a time capsule of post-World War II life, with utility clothing, conscription, rationing, listening to the wireless, putting lavender in the clothes closet, feeding gas meters with shillings, and girls who resemble Rita Hayworth. But the writing sparkles over 60 years later and is far from dated in its ability to entertain.

Mystery Melange

The Australia Crime Writers Association announced the 2021 winners of the Ned Kelly Awards, handed out annually since 1995 for excellence in crime fiction by Aussie authors. Best Crime Fiction was awarded to Consolation, by Garry Disher; Best Debut Crime Fiction: The Second Son, by Loraine Peck; Best True Crime: Stalking Claremont: Inside the Hunt for a Serial Killer, by Bret Christian; and Best International Crime Fiction: We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker.

The other major Aussie crime fiction awards, the Davitts, were also handed out this past weekend. Sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia and named after author Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) the ceremony was once again virtual this year via Facebook due to the ongoing pandemic. Best Adult Novel went to Sally Hepworth’s domestic thriller, The Good Sister; Best Young Adult Crime Novel: Where We Begin, by Christie Nieman; Best Children’s Crime Novel: A Clue for Clara, by Lian Tanner; Best Non-fiction Crime Book: Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice, by Louise Milligan; Best Debut Crime Book: Sheerwater, by Leah Swann; and Readers Choice Award: The Shifting Landscape, by Katherine Kovacic.

The upcoming Bloody Scotland conference revealed the shortlist for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021. They include The Silent Daughter by Emma Christie; The Coffin Maker’s Garden by Stuart MacBride; Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison; The April Dead by Alan Parks; and Hyde by Craig Russell. The winners of both the McIlvanney Prize and the Scottish Crime Debut of the Year will be revealed in person on September 17 and also broadcast live online. Both events require tickets in advance, but they're free and open to the public worldwide.

Some sad news for mystery fans: Caroline Todd, one-half of the mother-son writing team that went by the name Charles Todd, passed away this weekend. Son Charles posted on Facebook that the duo had "Caroline left the world a better place and was immensely happy to have met and gotten to know so many readers, authors and booksellers. She was to the very end a class act." He also noted the team had completed A Game of Fear, the latest installment in the historical mystery series featuring Ian Rutledge, and the next book in the Bess Crawford series. The tributes are pouring in, as in this remembrance from Martin Edwards, and another from Janet Rudolph. A memorial service will be held at a later date, and the family has designated Faithful Friends for memorial contributions.

Agatha Christie’s beloved amateur sleuth is set to return in a new authorized collection. Miss Marple was last seen in 1976, solving a "perfect" crime committed years earlier in Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder. Now, twelve authors, including Val McDermid, Naomi Alderman, Kate Mosse, Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, and Dreda Say Mitchell, will continue the adventures of the elderly amateur sleuth, with the first ever "new" Agatha Christie short story collection out next year. The authors are all Christie devotees, said publisher HarperCollins, and will reimagine Miss Marple "through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery."

Cozy Mystery fans will also want to take note of this sweepstakes courtesy of Criminal Element. You can enter through September 12 to win ten different print copies of cozies from Ellie Alexander, Donna Andrews, MC Beaton, Sheila Connolly and more.

Is the new Barnes and Noble CEO, James Daunt, finally turning the fortunes of the bookseller around? He credits his staff for B&N sales being up about 5% to 6% so far this year compared to 2019, with book sales up by double digits.

Meanwhile, there's apparently a mystery afoot about the lag in sales of thriller and suspense titles, traditionally the top-selling genre.

The topic of the evolution of language has always been a fascinating one for me. After all, why are humans the only Earth creatures sitting down reading this blog post today? According to linguistics expert Sverker Johansson, you can thank Neanderthals and women for helping to create language.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ella Watson" by John D. Nesbitt.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Towles spoke with The Writers' Fun Zone about her new thriller, Ninety-Five; Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Carol J. Perry about her new paranormal mystery novel, Be My Ghost; and Megan Abbott spoke with CrimeReads about how to create an atmosphere of dread, anxiety, and obsession.