Winners of the Irish Book Awards were unveiled, including the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year: A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press). The other finalists in that category include Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh (Headline); Where They Lie by Claire Coughlan (Simon & Schuster); Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara (Bantam, Transworld); Somebody Knows by Michelle McDonagh (Hachette Books Ireland); and When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips (Bantam, Transworld).
The Saltire Society presented the Scottish Book Awards last week, including the winner for Fiction Book of the Year, which went to What Doesn’t Kill Us by Ajay Close. The novel is a police procedural inspired by the real-life Yorkshire Ripper murders during the late 1970s and early '80s and the subsequent feminist arson campaign that targeted pornography stores. The judges called the novel, "Superb, evocative and enraging, with brilliant characterisation, humour, and a huge sense of tension from the ever-present threat of violence."
Joffe Books announced that the winner of the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2024 is Rupa Mahadevan, for her addictive and atmospheric psychological thriller, The Goddess of Death. She receives a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize and a £25,000 audiobook deal from Audible for the first book. This is Britain’s biggest crime prize and was established in 2021 to actively seek out writers from communities that are underrepresented in crime fiction and support them in building sustainable careers, while simultaneously discovering brilliant new talent. (HT to Shots Magazine)
Since 2008, the annual CrimeFest conference has brought crime fiction writers and fans together in Bristol, UK, showcasing approximately 150 authors on some 50+ panels, interviews and events over a four day period each year, as well as presenting the CrimeFest Awards and offering an annual bursary for crime fiction authors of color. Sadly, CrimeFest co-hosts Donna Moore and Adrian Muller posted a notice that the next conference, which takes place from May 15th-18th, 2025, will be the final one. Although the statement didn't point to a specific reason per se, the event has been primarily supported by gate proceeds, donations, and volunteers, and run by a small dedicated staff with few corporate supporters aside from Specsavers. With all the good that CrimeFest has done for the crime fiction community, here's hoping some funding entity will step up to keep the conference going.
South Florida Sun Sentinel book critic, Oline Cogdill chose her best mystery book selections for 2024. Her 31 choices are split between general releases, debut novels, and compilations of short mystery and crime fiction. (HT to The Rap Sheet)
The "best" lists keep coming: New York Times thriller critic, Sarah Lyall, picked her list of the top 10 "Best Thrillers of 2024,"while critic Sarah Weinman chose her ten favorite Crime Novels of 2024. Plus, The Guardian's Laura Wilson compiled her own choices for "The best crime and thrillers of 2024."
The largest archive of Raymond Chandler’s unpublished works to come to auction will go under the hammer at Doyle tomorrow, December 6, including first editions, letters, poems, manuscripts, such as an extensive archive of Raymond Chandler's unpublished drafts of fantasy stories, the original typed manuscript for Chandler's only opera, and Chandler's Olivetti Studio 44 Typewriter (the current estimate for that one is $10-20,000, is you happen to have some spare change lying around). The items are from the Jean Vounder-Davis Collection of Raymond Chandler. Vounder-Davis (then Fracasse) was Chandler's personal secretary as well as fiancé and muse.
Writing for The Dial, Julia Webster Ayuso took a look at how forensic linguists are using grammar, syntax, and vocabulary to help crack cold cases.
In the Q&A roundup, novelist GC Brown chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new crime thriller, Sniff: Book 1 of The Sniff, Smoke, Shoot series; Haselton also spoke with mystery author Leonard H. Orr about his new family drama mystery, Entitled; and Catriona McPherson applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Scotzilla, about a wickedly funny cozy about a wedding that becomes a crime scene.
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