In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

The Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans announced this year's winners of the Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction. The award was established in 2012 for women writers to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley (1952-2012), a longtime crime fiction columnist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune, and her passion for mysteries. The Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work goes to C.S. Harris ( aka C.S. Graham and Candace Procter), while the Pinckley Prize for Debut Fiction goes to Angie Kim for her Edgar winning novel, Miracle Creek. New this year is the Pinckley Prize for True Crime Writing, won by Emma Copley Eisenberg for The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia. The prizes will be presented during the 2021 Bouchercon which takes place in New Orleans in August.

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the finalists for this year's Derringer Awards for excellence in short crime fiction (Flash Fiction; Short Story; Long Story; Novelette). The announcement was made in the group's membership forum and as of the press time for this blog post hadn't been posted on the SMFS website just yet. But you can follow this link to my list of Recent Awards for the details.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) announced finalists in the prestigious IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award program, the association’s flagship book award program recognizing excellence and innovation in independent publishing. In the Mystery/Thriller category, the three finalists include: A Child Lost: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel by Michelle Cox (She Writes Press); Hanging Falls: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane); and Things to Do When You'd Rather Be Dead by Michael Guillebeau (Madison Press). One finalist in each of the various categories will be named a Gold winner during a set of four online ceremonies the evenings of May 11-14, 2021. The remaining finalists in each category will become Silver winners.

Mystery Readers Journal: Historical Mysteries is now available as a PDF and hardcopy. There are numerous Author! Author! essays, including two available online, "Why I Write Historical Mystery" by Rhys Bowen and "Quo Vadis, Mr. Saylor?" by Steven Saylor; articles including "Thomas Pynchon’s Take on 1970s California Noir" by Sean Day and "Crimes of Authority in Pious 19th Century Poland" by Jay Gertzman; and columns such as "Just the Facts: History’s First Detectives" by Jim Doherty.

Writing for the New York Times, Edmund White discussed the "Talented Mr. Ripley: a Shape-Shifting Protagonist Who’s Up to No Good," and how author Patricia Highsmith embedding her own repression, snobbery and sense of chaos into her psychological thrillers. This essay is part of T’s Book Club, a series of articles and events dedicated to classic works of American literature and will include a virtual conversation about "The Talented Mr. Ripley," to be led by Edmund White on April 22.

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog has seasonally themed mysteries for Passover (this year, March 27-April 4) and Easter (April 4).

Criminals are getting more creative all the time it seems; now they can pick your locks just by listening.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Wheelie Queen" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Allison Brennan chatted with the Wishful Endings blog about her latest thriller, Tell No Lies, centering on an edgy young female LAPD detective and an ambitious special agent, both part of a mobile FBI unit that is brought in to investigate the unsolved murder of a college activist and its alleged ties to high stakes crime in the desert Southwest; and Stephen Mack Jones was the latest 9mm interview for Craig Sisterson's blog, talking about his award-winning series featuring former marine sniper and Detroit cop, August Snow.

Mystery Melange

The nominees for the 2022 Strand Critics Awards were announced today. The finalists for Best Mystery Debut include: Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews; The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris; Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka, Translated by Sam Malissa; Lightseekers by Femi Kayode; Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; and All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris. The finalists for Best Mystery Novel are The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly; Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby; The Low Desert by Tod Goldberg; These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall; Dream Girl by Laura Lippman; and 1979 by Val McDermid. This year's Strand Magazine Publisher of the Year Award, which recognizes excellence in publishing, goes to Sandra Brown and Nelson DeMille. The winners will be presented in early September.

Organizers of this year’s Bloody Scotland international crime-writing festival, to be held from September 15-18, announced the shortlist for the Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2022. The shortlisted titles will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland in the period between the announcement, and the presentation of the winner (as well as the winner of the 2022 McIlvanney Prize) will be on Thursday, September 15 at the conference in Stirling. The finalists include Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani; Meantime by Frankie Boyle; The Wolf Hunters by Amanda Mitchison; The Girl, The Crow, The Writer and The Fighter by George Paterson; Hear No Evil by Sarah Smith.

Amazon posted a list of twenty of the "Best mysteries and thrillers of 2022 so far," according to Amazon's editorial staff. The top pick for best mystery and thriller of the year went to Nita Prose for The Maid. (FYI for those concerned that Amazon's own crime imprint, Thomas & Mercer, might dominate the list, I actually saw no T&M titles included.)

The latest Noir at the Bar Dallas returns to the Wild Detectives tomorrow night at 7pm. The "Hap and Leonard" edition will feature Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Keith Lansdale, Jim Nesbitt, Mike McCrary, V.P. Chandler, Williams Dylan Powell, Scott Montgomery, Eryk Pruitt, Kevin R. Tipple, Kathleen Kent, and Henry Hunsicker reading from their work. The event will also include a spoken word/musical duet performance by local artists Trang Vu & Patrick Pombuena.

Orion’s immersive events space, the Incident Room, is returning to Harrogate on July 22 as part of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Running in tandem with the festival’s main program, the line-up includes a UK signing with festival headliner, Michael Connelly; panels with former Met Police officer John Sutherland, authors Sharon Bolton, and Anna Mazzola; and an event on representation in crime fiction with Mari Hannah, Robin Morgan-Bentley, and Winnie M Li. Orion will also be working with podcasts Blood Brothers and CrimeTimeFM to provide two Orion-exclusive Incident Room episodes featuring interviews with authors such as Steve Cavanagh, Joanne Harris, Joe Ide, and M J Arlidge. Clemence Roux, festival manager, added, "We are thrilled to welcome the Orion Incident Room for the sixth year. It’s such a fabulous feeling to bring the festival back to full capacity after an incredibly difficult last two years for our arts charity." 

Sisters in Crime (SinC) recently opened up submissions for their 2022 Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, a $2,000 grant awarded to one-up-and-coming writer who identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. CrimeReads spoke with two of the 2022 award judges, Leslie Karst and Brenda Buchanan, to find out why the Pride Award is so important and the benefits of applying. They noted that publishers have often refused to take a chance on books with queer protagonists. But as Buchanan said, "Old habits are hard to break and some folks in the industry still haven’t adjusted to reality."

Also on CrimeReads, Molly Odintz wrote that, in light of the recent Supreme Court decision, we need more crime novels in which women make choices about reproduction.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Total Immersion" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed Barbara Ross for the Writers Who Kill blog about Muddled Through, the tenth book in her Maine Clambake mystery series; and Lisa Haselton interviewed Robert Creekmore about his new dark thriller, Prophet’s Debt.

Mystery Melange

S.A. Crosby's Razorblade Tears has won the 2022 Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers, North America. The other finalists this year included: Stung by William Deverell; Five Decembers by James Kestrell; Harlem Shuffle by Coleman Whitehead; and The Sacrifice of Lester Yates by Robin Yocum. Crosby's novel was also an Edgar Award finalist and won the Thriller Writers Awards for Best Audiobook and Best Hardcover Novel.

Foreword Reviews announced their Indie Awards 2022 winners. The Gold Winner in the Mystery Category was Shadow Music by Helaine Mario; the Silver Winner was Murder at Greysbridge by Andrea Carter; and the Bronze Winner was Death of a Messenger by Robert McCaw. Honorable Mentions were also handed out to 10 Days by Jule Selbo and Windfall by Bryan TD Smith. In the Thriller Category, the Gold Winner was The Quiet People by Paul Cleave; the Silver Winner was Paradise, WV by Rob Rufus; and the Bronze Winner was The Necklace by Matt Witten. Honorable Mention for thrillers went to Crickets by Lee Chappel.

The longlist was announced for the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. The award is made for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident, published in New Zealand during the previous year. Decided by a panel of local and international judges, it is named after New Zealand’s most successful crime writer, Dame Ngaio Marsh. Last year's winner was Sprigs by Brannavan Gnanalingam. You can check out all twelve longlisted titles via this link.

Mystery Writers of America announced the establishment of the Lilian Jackson Braun Award for the best full-length, contemporary cozy mystery published by an MWA-approved publisher. This annual award comes with a $2,000 prize as the result of a generous endowment to MWA by the late Lilian Jackson Braun, who died in 2011 at the age of 97. Braun was the New York Times bestselling author of the "The Cat Who…" series of amateur sleuth mysteries which spanned 29 books published between 1966 and 2007. "Lilian Jackson Braun is a legend in the mystery community," stated Greg Herren, the Executive Vice-President of Mystery Writers of America. "Her incredibly generous bequest to MWA was a very pleasant surprise and will enable us to fund some exciting new projects and programs to benefit our membership. It felt appropriate to honor her career and her legacy in this way."

After a hiatus due to the pandemic, the biennial NoirCon is back this year, and it's going virtual from Friday, October 21 through Sunday, October 23. The three-day symposium celebrates noir in all its artistic incarnations with live and pre-recorded events, including panel discussions, award ceremonies, author talks, art exhibitions, movie screenings, and more. "Noir is truly a global phenomenon," said NoirCon co-founder and president, Lou Boxer. "By going fully virtual this year, we can connect with authors and fans from around the world. We’re very excited for what the digital experience can offer." NoirCon 2022 will celebrate the honorees that were unable to receive their awards in 2018, as well as this year’s recipients, including the 2018 David Goodis Award winner, Walter Mosley, and this year's Goodis winner, Megan Abbott. There's also the Anne Friedberg Award for Contributions to Noir and its Preservation (Dana Plan; Sarah Weinman) and the Kogan Award For Excellence (Geoffrey O’Brien and Max Rudin; Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini). Register now via this link.

Mystery Readers Journal: New England Mysteries II is now available as PDF and hardcopy. Editor, Janet Rudolph, had so many articles, reviews, and author essays that she spread the topic out into two issues. (Mystery Readers Journal: New England Mysteries I is also still available.) You can read a few free articles online including, "An Unlikely Home to Criminal Debuts" by Gabriel Valjan; "The Boston Infrastructure Blues: Or How Geography Is Ruining My Writing Life" by Hank Phillippi Ryan; and "The Dark Side of Boston’s Music Scene" by Clea Simon

The New York Times reported on "How Paintings Lost in a Small-Town Art Heist Were Recovered 50 Years Later" as two sleuths—a curator and a librarian—in New Paltz, N.Y., helped the F.B.I. track down 200-year-old paintings that were stolen from a historical society in 1972. (If you're not a subscriber, you can read more about the story here.)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Her Shadow" by Kelly Sargent.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton Interviewed Canadian author. Nathalie Guilbeault. about her psychological thriller, Inhaled; over at Writers Who Kill, E. B. Davis spoke with Debra H. Goldstein about Five Belles Too Many, Goldstein’s fifth book in the Sarah Blair mystery series; and novelist Mark Rubinstein chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new suspense thriller, Assassin’s Lullaby.

Mystery Melange

Sisters in Crime announced that Shizuka Otake of Jackson Heights, New York, has been named the winner of the 2022 Eleanor Taylor Bland Emerging Crime Writers of Color Award. Her submission, Murder in Tokyo, is a story of a Japanese American teen's life which is shattered when her boyfriend is arrested as the prime suspect in a classmate's murder. The five runners-up include: Danielle Arceneaux (Brooklyn, NY), Amber Boothe (Crowthorne, England), Jennifer K. Morita (Sacramento, CA), Valerie Kemp (Ann Arbor, MI), and Kathy A. Norris (Los Angeles, CA).

Lambda Literary, the nation’s oldest and largest literary arts organization advancing LGBTQ literature, announced the winners of the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards, or the "Lammys." This year's winner of the LGBTQ Mystery/Thriller category was The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver. The other finalists include Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon; Finding the Vein by Jennifer Hanlon Wilde; Lies With Man by Michael Nava; and Murder Under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood.

The organizers of the annual Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year have announced the 2022 shortlists: The Night Hawks, by Elly Griffiths; True Crime Story, by Joseph Knox; Daughters of Night, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson; Slough House, by Mick Herron; Midnight at Malabar House, by Vaseem Khan; and The Last Thing to Burn, by Will Dean. Readers can now vote on the shortlisted titles through Friday July 8, with the winner being crowned at the launch of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on July 21.

Goldsboro Books announced the twelve titles longlisted for the 2022 Glass Bell Award, including some crime fiction titles. Now in its sixth year, the Glass Bell Award celebrates the best storytelling across contemporary fiction, regardless of genre and is awarded annually to "a compelling novel with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised." The shortlist of six will be announced on July 28th with the winner, who will receive both £2,000, and a beautiful, handmade glass bell, to be announced on September 8th. Last year, debut author Clare Whitfield was announced as the fifth winner of the prize for her historical thriller, People of Abandoned Character, an atmospheric take on the Jack the Ripper story.

Writer's Digest announced that the opening keynote for this year's WD Novel Writing Conference October 20-23 in Pasadena, California, is Attica Locke. Locke's novels have been nominated or won the Edgar Awards, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence; Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Women's Prize for Fiction, and the NAACP Image Award. A former fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmaker's Lab, Locke works as a screenwriter as well, most recently on Netflix's When They See Us and the Hulu adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere. 

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Art Mysteries, and editor, Janet Rudolph, is seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays. Reviews are 50-250 words; articles: 250-1000 words; and Author! Author! essays: 500-1000 words. As Rudolph added, "Author Author! Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and your unique take on Art Mysteries...Think of it as chatting with friends and other writers in the bar or cafe or on Zoom about your work and your 'Art Mystery' connection."

The New Yorker reported on "Why We’re Living Through an Agatha Christie Renaissance." As the article states, "It is easy to feel that today’s challenges, large and small, offer a surplus of murder-mystery-esque dread without the necessary doses of humanity, nor the vital pleasures of resolution. How reassuring—how resoundingly enjoyable—it is to spend time in Christie’s world, where complexity can be held with confidence, and where even the darkest turns serve only to draw us deeper into the game." The article also references the latest adaptation of Christie's work, Why Didn't They Ask Evans? starring Hugh Laurie, which is streaming now on BritBox.

Speaking of Dame Agatha, The Wall Street Journal noted how young people are discovering a hot new writer...Agatha Christie. "Agatha is sparking with younger readers, and I don’t see that with any other writer from her period," said Devin Abraham, owner of the Once Upon A Crime mystery bookstore in Minneapolis. (HT to The Passive Voice)

Unseen works by the "queen of gothic fiction," Shirley Jackson, have been published in Strand Magazine. In "Charlie Roberts," a couple are planning a dinner party, but beneath their familiar banter is palpable but unexpressed tension. The title refers to the owner of a pocket-knife left behind at the couple’s home, and it’s clear that something has happened to him. The other short, "Only Stand and Wait," touches on isolation, insight and denial – themes found in Jackson’s novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. A previously unpublished story, "Adventure on a Bad Night," was published in 2020 after being discovered by Jackson’s son in boxes of his mother’s papers donated to the Library of Congress.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Nothing is Normal Here" by Jennifer Lagier.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis at the Writers Who Kill blog interviewed Ellen Byron about Bayou Book Thief, the first installment in the new Vintage Cookbook cozy mystery series; Harini Nagrenda spoke with Sujata Massey about her series featuring The Bangalore Detectives Club; and Indie Crime Scene chatted with Stephen G. Eoannou, whose novel Rook, which is based on the true story of Al Nussbaum, a bank robbing genius from Buffalo, New York, has its debut on June 28.

Mystery Melange

The longlist for the McIlvanney Prize 2022, awarded to the best Scottish crime book of the year, was announced this week (with the Debut Prize Shortlist to be announced in July). The McIlvanney Prize shortlist will then be revealed in early September, with the winner unveiled on September 15 at the 10th annual Bloody Scotland conference in Stirling. You can check out the ten longlisted titles via this link and also learn more about conference registration and the schedule.

A new crime fiction program is coming to Ledbury in the UK. Titled Ledburied, the schedule will see crime-reading events featuring top crime authors taking place throughout the year. The inaugural event on June 16 will feature award-winning Ledbury-based author Sarah Hilary talking with Fiona Cummins (When I Was Ten, Into The Dark) and CM Ewan (The Interview, A Window Breaks) about the enduring lure of dark thrillers. Sarah is also one of the brains behind the festival, working alongside Ledbury Books and Maps and Ledbury Places to bring the idea to life.

The Dead Good Reader Awards are back to celebrate the very best in crime fiction, with six new categories. Readers can nominate their favorites using the form via this link. The books with the most nominations will form the shortlists and go to a public vote, with winners announced at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this July. You'll also be entered into a prize drawing for the chance to win £100 worth of thrilling crime books.

Although many conferences have returned to in-person events this year, a few are still offering virtual events you can attend if you're uncomfortable traveling. One such event is Mystery in the Midlands, scheduled for July 16. For a very minimal charge, you can hear the keynote event with David Heska Wanbli Weiden interviewed by Hank Phillippi Ryan; plus there will be a panel on crime short fiction with Alan Orloff, Shawn Reilly Simmons, and Joseph S. Walker; a discussion of cozy mysteries with recipes with Daryl Wood Gerber, Raquel V. Reyes, and Abby L. Vandiver; and a look at "Sweltering Settings and Suspense" with Hallie Ephron, John Hart, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

A crime writer and a crime fighter have been honored by the Queen as part of her Platinum Jubilee weekend. Inpector Rebus author, Ian Rankin, and Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone have both been handed knighthoods. The Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honors List celebrates the public service of individuals across the UK. This year's recipients have been awarded for their outstanding contributions across all sectors, but in particular for sustained public service, the environment and sustainability, and youth engagement. Sir Ian said: "It is amazing to be honoured in this way as we celebrate Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee...It may not make writing my next book any easier but it is gratifying to be recognised both for my crime novels and the work I do for charity."

The Big Think magazine's Tim Brinkhof discussed how detective fiction reveals the way a particular society or time period looks at crime and criminal justice, in his article "From Poe to Mao: piecing together the evolution of detective stories."

Three of Britain's bestselling crime writers – including Ann Cleeves, Sam Blake and Robin Stevens – shared their literary inspirations with The Telegraph.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "A Modern Frankenstein" by Tony Dawson.

In the Q&A roundup, Writers Who Kill welcomed Donnell Ann Bell to chat about Until Dead, the second novel in her "A Cold Case Suspense" series; Ellen Byron stopped by Lesa's Book Critiques to discuss launching a brand new series set in New Orleans with Bayou Book Thief; Indie Crime Scene interviewed L.M. Weeks, whose novel Bottled Lightning debuts June 14; and The Millions spoke with Katie Gutierrez about her debut crime novel, More Than You’ll Ever Know.

Mystery Melange

The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance announced the winners of the 2022 Maine Literary Awards in various categories from over 400 entries. In the Best Crime Fiction category, Paul Doiron took top honors for Dead by Dawn. The other finalists include Jule Selbo for 10 Days: A Dee Rommel Mystery and Caitlin Wahrer for The Damage. Doiron previously won for his novel, Trespasser, in 2012.

The shortlist was announced for the 2022 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, culled from a panel of UK librarians and library staff. These six titles are now with a judging panel and over the summer months, readers will be invited to participate in the Reader's Vote, which equates to one seat on the judge's panel. The finalists include The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield; Where Blood Runs Cold by Giles Kristian; The Vacation by John Marrs; The Plant Hunter by T.L. Mogford; Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo; and Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter by Lizzie Pook. (HT to Shots Magazine)

If you live in or plan to visit the UK, June is National Crime Reading Month, sponsored by the Crime Writers’ Association in partnership with national charity The Reading Agency. The festival aims to promote and celebrate crime reading across the genre through exciting events and activities in bookshops, libraries, museums, theatres and online, culminating in the prestigious CWA Daggers ceremony at the end of the month. You can check for events throughout the UK and Ireland via this link.

The Back Room, "An Evening of Cocktails and Conversations with Your Favorite Authors," announced its lineup for the summer. Starting June 12, there will be two events each summer month hosted by Karen Dionne and Hank Phillippi Ryan. Each online event starts with a short introduction to a panel of 4 authors, and the audience is then divided into 4 breakout rooms where they remain for the rest of the program while the authors visit each room in turn. Everyone’s video is turned on and their mics are unmuted, allowing for informal, face-to-face discussion. Panels will include topics like "Summer Books!" and "Crime and Legal Thrillers" and feature several noted crime fiction authors. Registration is free, but space is limited.

Sisters in Crime is accepting applications for its second annual Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, a $2,000 grant awarded to an up-and-coming writer who identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Candidates must apply by July 31. The award was established as the legacy project of former Sisters in Crime president, Sherry Harris, and is intended for a crime writer beginning their career and will support activities related to career development including workshops, seminars, conferences, retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of his, her, or their work. Complete guidelines and the application can be found at sistersincrime.org/page/Pride.

The deadline for submissions to the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction is growing closer. The literary prize recognizes outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction, sponsored by the author L J Ross through her publishing imprint, Dark Skies Publishing, in association with the Newcastle Noir Crime Writing Festival and Newcastle Libraries. It is open to all writers who are from, or whose work celebrates the North East of England, and who have not previously had their submission published in any form. The winning entry will be awarded a prize of £2500 to support the completion of their work and funding towards a year’s membership of both the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors, with smaller financial awards to shortlisted candidates. Entries are open through June 30, 2022.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Black-Eyed Susan" by Sharon Waller Knutson.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with author Stephen Zimmerman about his new crime thriller, The Missing; and over at Writers Who Kill, E. B. Davis spoke with Krista Davis, who is back for the fifteenth book in the Domestic Diva mysteries series, The Diva Says Cheesecake.

Mystery Melange

In its annual awards ceremony held this week, the British Book Awards, a/k/a "The Nibbies," announced winners in the various categories. The top book in the Crime & Thriller category went to the late William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin for The Dark Remains. Rebus creator Rankin finished the incomplete novel, a prequel to McIlvanney's Laidlaw mysteries, left by the revered Scottish crime writer upon his death in 2015. Also making the shortlist this year were 1979 by Val McDermid; A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins; Girl A by Abigail Dean; The Appeal by Janice Hallett; and The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced the winners of the 57th Annual Nebula Awards. The Nebula Award for Best Novel went to A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark, which follows an agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities who has to investigate the gruesome mass murder of members of a secret society dedicated to "uncovering the wisdom" of a missing wizard. The Nebula for Best Novella was won by Premee Mohamed's And What Can We Offer You Tonight, about a woman who's shaken when her friend is murdered by a client, but somehow comes back to life, leading the duo to get revenge by confronting the limits of loyalty, guilt, and justice. For all this year's winners, follow this link.

In a virtual awards ceremony held the afternoon of May 24, Publishers Weekly editorial director, Jim Milliot, named The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas as PW Bookstore of the Year. Authors, booksellers, and publishing professionals testified how The Raven supported authors and books during the pandemic and that their actions helped sustain the indie bookstore industry itself. The Raven Book Store was founded in 1987 as a mystery-specialty store, and it retains a strong mystery section to this day, with additional specialties in fiction, poetry, current events, and environmental writing.

If you're a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels and the Reacher Amazon Prime television series, here's a rare opportunity for you: Lee Lofland announced that the Writers’ Police Academy is offering the chance via auction for one lucky person to win "the opportunity to join Lee Child on the set for Amazon’s Reacher Season Two, sometime in the fall, and (hopefully!) show up as a background extra in the show." You do not have to attend the Writers’ Police Academy event to enter your bid. To submit your bid by email, enter REACHER BID in the subject line and in the body of the email include your bid (in U.S. dollar amount), your name, address, and phone number. Then send the email to Lee at lofland32@msn.com. Bidding ends on June 19, 2022 at midnight EST, and the winner will be notified on June 21, 2022. (Sealed bids will also be accepted in-person at the June 2-5, 2022 Writers’ Police Academy conference.)

Fans of thriller author, Karin Slaughter, will be happy to hear that her "Slaughterfest" is back for 2022 on Wednesday, June 22 at Waterstones, London - Piccadilly. Slaughter, herself, who is known for her Will Trent series currently being developed as an ABC pilot, will be in conversation with bestselling thriller writer, Simon Toyne. There will also be a panel with some of crime writing’s rising stars (Nadine Matheson, Sam Holland, Rahul Raina, and Robert Gold), as well a panel titled "Destination: Murder" with bestsellers Erin Kelly, Lucy Clarke, Adele Parks and Lucy Foley.

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. Following her passing, the blog series relocated to Art Taylor's website, with the latest guest, Sarah M. Chen, joining in to continue a series of essays celebrating the release earlier this month of Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3. Edited by Mysti Berry, this new volume centers on the theme "The Color of My Vote" and features contributions from 22 authors. Proceeds will benefit Democracy Docket, "an organization that is successfully fighting against voter suppression in the United States." 

Every week, the Library of America publishes a selection from one of their collections on their website. This week's offering is "Creeping Siamese" from Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories and Other Writings. Published originally in the March 1926 issue of The Black Mask, this was the last Hammett story to appear under the editorship of Philip C. Cody. In the wake of the box-office success of the 1941 adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, King Features licensed several early Hammett stories for republication, hence the collection. The illustration accompanying the story online is by Stuart Hamilton for the reprint edition distributed by King Features Syndicate to newspapers for their Sunday supplements in 1942 (provided by Davy Crockett’s Almanack).

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Take No Prisoners" by Tad Tuleja.

In the Q&A roundup, Alex Segura spoke with Hilary Davidson on the Criminal Element blog about his new novel, Secret Identity, a rollicking literary mystery set in the world of comic books; also at Criminal Element, J.B. Stevens interviewed Peter Farris, author of The Devil Himself, a southern noir novel first published in France with enormous critical acclaim and which has won multiple literary awards; Rose Kerr stopped by The Stiletto Gang to discuss her new book, Death on the Set, the first book in the Brenna Flynn Mystery Series; and Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis chatted with Annette Dashofy about Fatal Reunion, the eleventh book in Dashofy’s Zoe Chambers mystery series.

Mystery Melange

Morten Hesseldahl's thriller, Mørket under isen (The Darkness Under the Ice), has won this year's Harald Mogensen Prize, a Danish literary award for detective novels awarded by the Danish Criminal Academy (Det danske Kriminalakademi, or DKA). The prize was founded in 2006, first awarded in 2007, and is named after Danish author, editor, journalist, and critic Harald Mogensen, who was awarded The Danish Criminal Academy diploma in 1993.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announced this year’s Bram Stoker Awards winners at its first in-person ceremony since before the pandemic. Stephen Graham Jones won the award for Superior Achievement in a Novel for My Heart is a Chainsaw, a story of murder in small-town America where a broken young girl uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. The title was also named named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR. Check out all of this year's Bram Stoker winners here.

In celebration of Pride, hosts Jeffrey Round and Hope Thompson will present Queer Noir at the Bar, an evening of queer crime fiction readings on June 8 in Toronto. Authors include Nairne Holtz, Jared Mitchell, Caro Soles, Felice Picano, Doug Schmidt, and a reading by actor Greg Campbell of Greg Kramer’s bestselling mystery novel, The Pursemonger of Fugu. Books will also be available for purchase and signing.

Kate Mosse, Richard Osman, and Dorothy Koomson are among authors appearing at the UK's Capital Crime Festival from September 29th to October 1st in Battersea Park. The program launched this week at Goldsboro Books, and was co-organized by bookshop owner and agent David Headley. Also confirmed to appear are Peter James, Mark Billingham, Robert Harris, S A Cosby, Jeffrey Archer, Anthony Horowitz, Charlie Higson, Jeffery Deaver, Lucy Foley, Bella Mackie, Ragnar Jónasson, Paula Hawkins, Reverend Richard Coles, Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, Ben Aaronovitch, and former President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Judge Lady Hale, in conversation with Harriet Tyce. A full schedule of panel talks will be announced later in the summer. As part of the event, the Fingerprint Awards – which recognizes the best titles in the genre, voted for by readers – will be announced, with nine awards presented.

International Literary Properties (ILP) has acquired three new literary estates including majority interests in the estates of Dame Ngaio Marsh and Ann Rule. Marsh was one of the four original "Queens of Crime" writers who dominated the genre in the 1920s and 30s (along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers) and is best known for her series with Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Rule was a true crime writer known for her bestselling debut book on serial killer Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, published in 1980, the year of his conviction. ILP works with managers of literary estates and individual heirs to help realize the value from book and play-based intellectual property, working closely with award-winning TV, film and stage producers across the world.

The Summer issue of Mystery Scene is out, with a cover feature on Deon Meyer, often called the King of South African Crime Writing; Oline Cogdill provided a guide to mystery-themed cookbooks, as well as a tasting menu of ten delicious new culinary crime novels; Hank Phillippi Ryan assembled a panel of authors, screenwriters, agents, and showrunners to give insights into the fascinating Hollywood process of how an adaptation successfully goes from the page to the screen; Craig Sisterson interviewed author Tara Moss about her historical WWII-era novels, as well as her work as an award-winning human rights and disability advocate; plus Ellen Byron, Susan Van Kirk, Kathleen Kaska, and Gary Lovisi offered "My Book" essays on their new work.

The May edition of Mike Ripley’s Shots column, "Getting Away with Murder," profiled new releases from Tom Bradby (Yesterday’s Spy); Anthony Horowitz (With a Mind to Kill); Peter Morfoot (Essence Of Murder); Chris Pavon (Two Nights In Lisbon); William Shaw a/k/a G.W. Shaw (Dead Rich); and Jo Spain (The Last to Disappear). He also focused a spotlight on his current televisual binge watch, "an utterly delightful, thoughtful and light-hearted crime drama set in sun-drenched Sicily," about a Palermo family in 1979 who come to realize, mostly through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, just how much of a grip the local mafia has on all aspects of everyday life.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Conversion" by Pamela Hobart Carter.

In the Q&A roundup, Indie Crime Scene interviewed Michael D. Graves, author of the Pete Stone Private Investigator series; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with David Adams Cleveland about his historical espionage novel, Gods of Deception, which has the judge in the notorious Alger Hiss case asking his grandson years later to help him figure out if Hiss was really guilty or innocent; and Nicola Upson, author of Dear Little Corpses, shared seven things she'd like her readers to know with Female First magazine.

Mystery Melange

Warren Easley was announced as this year's recipient of the annual Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award, for his book, No Witness (Poisoned Pen Press). The Spotted Owl Award was established in 1995 and is given to the best mystery novel of the year by an author who lives in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, British Columbia, Canada, Idaho, Oregon or Washington). Previous winners have included Bill Cameron, Robert Dugoni, Earl Emerson, G.M. Ford, Dana Haynes, Mike Lawson, Phil Margolin, and Jon Talton. The other finalists this year were (in order) Robert Dugoni, Martin Limon, Dana Haynes, John Straley, Valerie Geary, Michael Niemann, Marc Cameron, Dana Stabenow, and Amy Stewart.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has announced the list of finalists for the 2022 Maine Literary Awards. This list was derived from over 400 submissions featuring the work of Maine authors, either full-time or part-time seasonal residents. The winners will be announced at a ceremony held at 7 p.m. on May 24 at SPACE in Portland. The contenders in the Crime Fiction category this year include Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn; Jule Selbo,10 Days: A Dee Rommel Mystery; and Caitlin Wahrer, The Damage.

If you happen to be in Dallas tonight, check out Dallas Noir Fest, which kicks off with a panel discussion tonight, moderated by Robert Wilonsky and featuring authors Johnathan Brownlee, Harry Hunsicker, Steve Stodghill, and Paul Coggins. There will also be showings of iconic noir films like Chinatown, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and more, including Reservoir Dogs with special guest Michael Madsen, who played the unforgettable sadistic ex-con in the film but is also a talented producer, director, writer, photographer, and poet.

Capitol Crimes is sponsoring an in-person Killer Workshop this Saturday, May 14 in Rancho Cordova, California. The keynote speaker is Gregg Hurwitz. Other special guests include: authors Dr. Ellen Kirschman, Cara Black, Simon Wood, Eileen Rendahl, Claire Booth, Kris Calvin, James L'Etoile, and Quan Huynh; Ryan Nickel, Crime Scene Lead from the Sacramento Crime Lab; Cover Artist Karen Phillips from Phillips Covers; and District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who will be live streaming about closing the groundbreaking 40-year-old Golden State Killer case using genetic genealogy. The registration deadline for this event is today, which you can do so via this link.

On May 21 from 6.30pm-8pm, Barnet Libraries Literary Festival in the UK will present an evening with four bestselling female crime fiction authors including Erin Kelly (The Poison Tree); Heidi Amsinck (My Name is Jensen); Caz Frear (Sweet Little Lies); and C J Tudor (The Chalk Man) discussing their most recent books. There will also be a Q&A session and book signing to follow.

In honor of the Crime Writers Association's National Crime Reading Month in the UK, Louise Phillips, Dublin’s CWA National Crime Reading Month Ambassador, will be in conversation on June 1 with bestselling author of the Lottie Parker series, Patricia Gibney. There will also be readings from Fiona Sherlock, EV Kelly, and Paul McNeive.

Dean Street Press is republishing the works of golden age crime novelist, Alice Campbell, beginning June 6th. They'll be reissuing the first ten of her mysteries initially, with the remainder to follow next year. As the publisher noted, the novels are "not merely excellent detective stories, but atmospheric works of suspense, many set in France." This is their first time these novels have been in print for over seventy years, and are prefaced by an introduction from crime fiction historian, Curtis Evans. Campbell (1887-1955) came originally from Atlanta, Georgia, where she was part of the socially prominent Ormond family, before she moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and quickly became a socialist and women’s suffragist. She later moved to Paris, marrying the American-born artist and writer, James Lawrence Campbell, and ultimately to England just before World War One. Campbell wrote crime fiction until 1950, though many of her novels continued to have French settings. She published her first work (Juggernaut) in 1928 and published nineteen detective novels during her career.

Climate change is bringing a whole host of problems that countries and local jurisdictions will have to deal with, but there's another strange side effect: as water levels drop to historic levels in Lake Mead near Las Vegas, bodies in barrels are being found in the reservoir. Geoff Schumacher with The Mob Museum in Las Vegas predicts more bodies will be found and some may be linked to organized crime. "A barrel has a signature of a mob hit," he said.

Speaking of crime, this is the definition of karma.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "The Purge" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, Connie Berry spoke with E. B. Davis about her fourth Kate Hamilton mystery, where American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton uncovers a dark secret buried in Victorian England; Kirstyn Petras chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new political thriller, The Next Witness; Joanna Penn interviewed Angela Marsons about writing a successful crime thriller series; Chris Holm, author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, the Michael Hendricks thrillers, and thirty-odd short stories in a variety of genres, stopped by Author Interviews to talk about his new standalone biological thriller, Child Zero; and D V Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo series set in Florence (shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and longlisted for both the CWA Gold Dagger and Historical Dagger), spoke with Shots Magazine's Ayo Ontade.

Mystery Melange

 

The Welsh crime fiction conference, Crime Cymru, announced the winners of the inaugural Crime Cymru First Novel Prize in English and in Welsh. Writers were asked to submit the first 5,000 words of a crime novel with an accompanying synopsis of the complete plot. Gwyneth Steddy won top honors for her novel, Do Sleeping Dogs Lie. The other finalists were Dyffryn ap Gwilym for A Mortal Occupation and Joanna Masters for Secrets. Steddy wins a year of mentoring from a Crime Cymru member plus a four-night stay in Nant, the writing retreat on the grounds of Ty Newydd, Wales’s national writing centre.

Bestselling writers Thomas King, Shari Lapena, and Kathy Reichs are set to headline the inaugural Motive Crime & Mystery Festival, a new Toronto-based literary event for crime and mystery writing. Run by the Toronto International Festival of Author, Motive takes place June 3 to 5, 2022 at Harbourfront Centre. Nearly 100 writers will be featured at the event, including English novelist Mark Billingham, Norwegian writer Thomas Enger, American authors Kellye Garrett and E. Lockhart, Scottish writer Val McDermid, Canada's former chief justice Beverley McLachlin, Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings, and debut Toronto novelist Nita Prose. Some authors, including American authors Harlan Coben, Walter Mosley and others, will be joining at virtual events. (HT to the CBC)

This year, PulpFest will celebrate its 50th anniversary from August 4 - 7, 2022, in Pittsburgh, PA. Fifty years ago, there were no organized gatherings specifically geared toward pulp fiction and the magazines in which it appeared. That all changed when Ed Kessell, Earl Kussman, and Nils Hardin founded Pulpcon in 1972, now called PulpFest. This year's special guest will be Robert J. Randisi, whom Booklist call  "one of the last true pulp writers." PulpFest 50 will also honor the centennial of Fiction House, the pulp magazine and comic book publisher. Additionally, PulpFest will salute the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Publications’ "Dime" line of pulp magazines, particularly Dime Western and Dime Mystery. Both magazines debuted in 1932 and played a major role in the evolution of popular fiction.

On her Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph compiled a list of books for Cinco de Mayo, which is traditionally celebrated on the 5th Of May, and commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. She's supplement the list with Mexican mystery writers and books set in Mexico and on the Mexican-American border. 

A previously unpublished script for Ian Fleming’s James Bond screenplay, Moonraker, reveals a very different 007, as well as no Moneypenny, and no "M." As The Guardian reported, the finished movie could not be more different from the author’s own version of the film. The undeveloped screenplay has come to light as part of a major collection of Bond material amassed by two leading antiquarian bookshops in London, Peter Harrington and Adrian Harrington Rare Books, where Jon Gilbert is the resident Fleming expert. Gilbert noted that the screenplay is "much more serious" than the 1979 film, which reflects the time when it was created with Cold War and nuclear threats.

A study from Clever Real Estate analyzed publicly available data from Libraries.org, IndieBound, the National Center for Education Statistics, Publishers Weekly, and Google Trends to rank the 50 most populous metro areas in the U.S. from the best to the worst cities for book-lovers. Did your city make the list?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Duper's Delight" by Carolynn Kingyens.

In the Q&A roundup, Writers Who Kill spoke with Linda Norlander about her Cabin by the Lake Mystery series and her soon-to-be-released book, Death of a Snow Ghost; Tom Mead chatted with Publishers Weekly about his new novel, In Death and the Conjuror, in which he gives magician sleuth Joseph Spector three impossible crimes to solve; and Esquire sat down with Lauren Beukes, who novel The Shining Girls is now an Apple TV+ series, to discuss why she no longer believes in "the fairy tale of justice," and the murder that haunts her.

Mystery Melange

The Los Angeles Times announced winners of their annual book awards this past weekend. The top title in the Mystery/Thriller category went to Megan Abbott for The Turnout. Other finalists included Alison Gaylin for The Collective; Michael Connelly for The Dark Hours; S.A. Cosby for Razorblade Tears; and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for Velvet Was the Night.

Mystery Writers of America will announce the 2022 Edgar Award winners tonight at 8:30pm ET at a gala banquet in New York City. But if you can't make it to the gala, MWA will be live-streaming the awards via their YouTube channel.

Jacqueline West was awarded the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for Middle Grade Literature for her atmospheric and eerie mystery, Long Lost. Although a romantic comedy won the Best Genre Novel award, the finalists included three crime novels, Insurrection by Tom Combs; Lightning Strike: A Novel by William Kent Krueger; and The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens.

In addition to the recently announced Dagger longlists from the Crime Writers Association, the list of ten books for the 2022 Debut Dagger 2022 has been announced. The Debut Dagger is a competition for the opening of a crime novel by a writer who isn’t represented by an agent by the time the competition closes, and who has never had a traditional contract for any novel of any length, or who has never self-published any novel of any length in the last five years. Last year's winner was Hannah Redding for Deception.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has also announced the winners of their annual Readers Awards. Taking the top spot this year is Karen Harrington with her story, "Boo Radley College Prep."

The 10th anniversary of Scotland's Crime & Thrillers Weekend from the Cromarty Arts Trust is back in person after recent cancellations due to Covid. The event will be held May 6-8, with talks, booksignings, Q&A sessions, writing workshops, and gala entertainment. The panels and discussion will be led by Ian Rankin, Elly Griffiths, Alex Walters, Nicola White, Mary Paulson-Ellis, Matt Johnson, and Jonathan Whitelaw.

The full program was announced for this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival set for July 21-24. Curated by Festival Chair and award-winning crime writer Denise Mina, the 2022 program features familiar faces including Rev. Richard Coles, Frankie Boyle, Bella Mackie, Charlie Higson, and Rosemary Shrager - alongside crime fiction titans such as Ann Cleeves, Lynda La Plante, Adele Parks, Michael Connolly, Val McDermid, Mick Herron, Sophie Hannah, and Abir Mukherjee among others. This year’s lineup will also feature two author dinners attended by popular crime and thriller writers.

Walter Mosley will be the speaker for the Knox College 2022 Commencement on Sunday, June 5. Mosley is the author of more than sixty critically acclaimed books including his acclaimed series of novels featuring the detective Easy Rawlins. "I am absolutely delighted that Walter Mosley has agreed to speak at Commencement for the Knox College Class of 2022 and to receive an honorary degree. I congratulate him, and our other two honorary degree recipients; all three all have done truly extraordinary work in their fields of expertise to drive inclusivity and equity in our world," said Knox College President C. Andrew McGadney.

CrimeReads held an online roundtable with this year's Edgar Award nominees on the state of the novel and how the pandemic has changed their writing lives. You can read part one of that discussion here, and part two is here.

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. Art Taylor took over the torch after B.K.'s passing, and the latest guests are Denver Noir contributors Francelia Belton and Mario Acevedo, and editor Cynthia Swanson.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Red on Silver" by Harris Coverley.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Bonnar Spring, who writes eclectic and stylish mystery-suspense novels with an international flavor; E. B. Davis spoke with Carol J. Perry about ‘Til Death, Carol J. Perry’s twelfth book in the Witch City Mystery series; Anne Trager, founder of Le French Books, talked with international bestselling author Frédérique Molay, who won France’s most prestigious crime fiction award; South Dakota Public Broadcasting chatted with Winter Counts author David Heska Wanbli Weiden; Michael Connelly spoke with California Book Club host John Freeman about his career and writing; and Don Winslow, currently on a book tour, had several interviews including one with Rolling Stone magazine and another with Parade Magazine about his new mob thriller, City on Fire.