The Audio Publishers Association announced the finalists for its annual Audie Awards, with plans to name the winners in a virtual ceremony on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET / 14:00 GMT. The Best Audio Drama category included two crime dramas, The Coldest Case: A Black Book Audio Drama (written by James Patterson, Aaron Tracy, and Ryan Silbert) and Sherlock Holmes – The Seamstress of Peckham Rye (written by Jonathan Barnes). Best Mystery included The Bucket List by Peter Mohlin and Peter Nystrom; Later by Stephen King; Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March; The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie; and The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell. The Thriller and Suspense nominees include The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave; Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica; Never Far Away by Michael Koryta; Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell; and Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby
The Minnesota Book Award finalists were also announced, including those in the Genre Fiction category. Three crime fiction titles made that list, including Insurrection by Tom Combs; Lightning Strike: A Novel by William Kent Krueger; and The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens. The winners in all categories will be announced on Tuesday, April 26 at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts in Saint Paul.
Submissions are now open for Sisters in Crime's Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, an annual grant of $2,000 for an emerging writer of color. This grant is intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The grantee may choose to use the grant for activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work. For more information about requirements and application materials, follow this link.
The Henri Peyre French Institute and the Ph.D. Program in French at The Graduate Center of CUNY are hosting the virtual roundtable, Eclectic Detective & Noir Fiction in French, on Friday February 11th from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Featured presentations include Antoine Dechêne, talking about "What’s Left of the Metaphysical Detective Story?"; Alice Jacquelin, "Country Noir: Transnational and Intermedial Circulation between France and the USA"; Ciara Gorman, "Gender and Genre: Representing the criminal woman in crime fiction, with particular reference to the work of Fred Vargas"; and Iziar De Miguel, "Metaphysical Noir Fiction: from the hard-boiled classics to the French roman noir."
Hilary Davidson will be leading a reading group at the Center for Fiction this spring, titled, "Agatha Christie’s Heirs: Modern Mysteries Inspired by the Queen of Crime Fiction." Discussions will include an eclectic, diverse array of authors and books, including The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji; The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey Sujata Massey; Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz; They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall; and The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. The sessions are via Zoom, and the first will be on Thursday, March 10th, from 7pm to 8:30pm EST. You can sign up via the Center's Facebook page.
The conference, Golden Age of Crime: A Reappraisal, will be held June 22-23 at Bournemouth University in the UK. As well as interrogating the staples of "Golden Age" crime (the work of Agatha Christie and/or Ellery Queen), this conference will look at under-explored elements of the publishing phenomenon. Keynotes will be given by Shedunnit creator, Caroline Crampton, and Alistair Rolls of the University of Newcastle. This is a hybrid event, taking place both at Bournemouth University and online. Conference organizers are inviting proposals for 20-minute papers or panel presentations of one hour. You can email your 200-word proposal and short biographical note to [email protected] no later than April 18.
Three mystery-themed exhibitions just opened at the Toronto Public Library: "Meddling Kids: A Children's Mystery Book Exhibit" that runs through April 16; "Cracking the Case: Sleuths in Speculative Fiction", which runs through April 2; and "A Study in Sherlock and His Creator: 50 Years of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection." (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist blog.)
Don Blyly, owner of Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore in Minneapolis, which were burned in 2020 during the protests after George Floyd's murder, has found a new site for the stores. The new building is about two miles east of the old location and a short block and a half from Moon Palace Books. Blyly noted that "the Moon Palace people and I believe that having two bookstores with such different selections so close will do good things for both stores." Blyly sold the stores' destroyed old site and has some insurance money. In addition, the stores' GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $191,000. Blyly hopes to open for business in June. (HT to Shelf Awareness)
This is the Year of the Tiger, and to celebrate the Chinese New Year, Janet Rudolph put together a list of mysteries that take place during that annual event.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Santa Monica Scares" by Joel Bush.
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