In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

The longlist for the third annual Warwick Prize for Women in Translation was announced, including the literary murder mystery, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tocarczu, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

On Saturday, October 26, the Texas Book Festival is sponsoring a Lit Crawl Austin, which includes events such as a Noir at the Bar at Cheer Up Charlies. The MysteryPeople will present a "round of hip, hard-boiled, nitty-gritty noir readings" by crime fiction authors Steph Cha, May Cobb, Gabino Iglesias, Joe Lansdale, Craig Johnson, Mike McCrary, and Alex Segura. Scott Montgomery will be taking on hosting duties for the evening.

The annual mystery fan conference Boucheron is coming up later this month in Dallas, but If you missed the inaugural Capital Crime conference in London recently, Ali Karim has a wrap-up for The Rap Sheet. Capital Crime is a celebration of books, films, and TV with a line-up that focuses on a mix of world class talent, rising stars, and newcomers. This year's headliners included David Baldacci, John Connolly, Ian Rankin, Anne Cleeves, and Anthony Horowitz.

If you're going to Bouchercon, you won't want to miss The Ghost Town Mortuary, a radio play by Anthony Boucher, performed by members of Mystery Writers of America NorCal, Friday, November 1, 11 am, at the Landmark Ballroom in the Hyatt Regency. Authors scheduled to participate include Laurie R. King, David Corbett, Kelli Stanley, Reece Hirsch, Randal Brands, Dale Berry, Gigi Pandian, James L'Etoile, and Terry Shames.

The Left Coast Crime National Committee is offering five scholarships to Left Coast Crime #30 in San Diego, California, March 12-15, 2020. The LCC Scholarships include a free registration to the convention in San Diego (currently $215) plus $500 expense money. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Serpent's Tail senior commissioning editor, Miranda Jewess, will launch a new crime imprint, Viper, at a launch party in London on November 7th. The 20 titles planned for its inaugural year include the very first title, the "haunting police procedural" A Famished Heart by Irish author Nicola White (due February 2020). Others in the pipeline include The Plague Letters by NPR senior editor Vikki Valentine, writing under her pen name V L Valentine, and David Jackson's standalone thriller, The Resident. Jewess, the former acquisitions and managing editor at Titan Books, joined the company as senior commissioning editor for Serpent’s Tail Crime in February to commission titles across the crime, thriller, and suspense genres.

The British Library has just issued its catalogue for the first half of next year, including half a dozen Crime Classics. Stand-out titles, according to editor Martin Edwards, will be The Woman in the Wardrobe by Peter Shaffer; John Dickson Carr's atmospheric Castle Skull, set in the Rhineland; Mary Kelly's The Spoilt Kill, which won her the CWA Gold Dagger when she was still in her early thirties, and many other upcoming mystery goodies.

The Fall/October issue of Flash Bang Mysteries, edited by B.J. and Brandon Bourg, is up and available online. I am thrilled and honored that my flash piece, "The Barbecue Pot" was chosen as the cover story and Editor's Choice, joining the talented company of authors Alan Orloff, Bruce Harris, and Herschel Cozine in the issue.

In a restored recording from 1954, Ngaio Marsh speaks about her first novel, A Man Lay Dead (1934); relates her "odd" (in her view) process of writing detective fiction; and provides her eyewitness account of the eventful inauguration of E. C. Bentley as Detection Club president in 1936 with Dorothy L. Sayers and John Rhode. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist)

Georgia Public Broadcasting snagged Amaryllis Fox for a recent profile. Fox's book, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA, is a memoir about the author's time as a spy and is especially helpful for those of you who write spy thrillers (tip: eateries are key to spycraft).

What makes reading a good mystery so satisfying? Vulture collected thoughts and tips from thirteen crime novelists.

Do you like a little bit of the supernatural with your crime fiction? Author John Connolly offered up a defense of cross-genre writing (which includes his own latest work, A Book of Bones) for CrimeReads. And he didn't have to look too far, since Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and even Arthur Conan Doyle had some supernatural literary connections.

In honor of the new Nancy Drew series on the CW network, Book Riot has a "Which Nancy Drew Sidekick are You?" quiz and a list of Nancy Drew computer games for "every mood."

I have to admit it: I'm a closeted pun fan. And apparently, I'm not the only one, as these grammar puns will attest. (I'm sorry, and you're welcome.)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Nocturne" by John Oughton.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's Scott Adlerberg chatted with Jake Hinkson about his new novel, Dry County, as well as the influences of film noir in Jake's books and thoughts about the origins of evil; GQ's Writer of the Year, James Ellroy, spoke with the magazine about his latest Los Angeles-based noir thriller, reconciling with his second ex-wife, how his mother's murder shaped his writing and finding the "happy gene" via the twin mediums of coffee and "scantily clad young women; spy thriller author John le Carré spoke with The Guardian about Britain, Boris and Brexit; Joy Kluver interviewed William Ryan about his latest novel, A House of Ghosts; and CrimeReads featured one interview with William Kent Krueger on "Writing a New American Epic for the Mississippi River" and another with Lee Child about "Mortality, Sales, Rivals, and Successors."

Mystery Melange

The Texas Book Festival tweeted this morning that the 2019 Texas Writer Award Winner is Attica Locke. Locke's latest novel, Heaven, My Home, is the sequel to the Edgar Award-winning Bluebird, Bluebird. Her third novel Pleasantville was the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was also long-listed for the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction. Locke will receive the award on Saturday, October 26, at the festival in Austin.

The Mystery Writers of America's Northern California chapter is sponsoring a weeklong celebration of crime and mystery fiction at various locations in California from October 19 through 26. The events kick off in San Francisco with a Noir at the Bar featuring Laurie R. King as emcee and authors David Corbett, Alan Jacobson, Claire Johnson, Eileen Rendahl, Kelli Stanley. All the events are free and open to the public.

This week saw the 170th anniversary of the death of Edgar Allan Poe and the arrival of the first International Edgar Allan Poe Festival and Awards, held in Baltimore. At the Saturday evening banquet, the award for Best Adaptations of E.A. Poe’s Life or Works went to The Raven, by Damien Draven; The Tale Telling Heart, by Nicholas Schleif and A Midnight Visit, by Broad Encounters Productions. The Best Original Works Inspired by E.A. Poe’s Life and Writing were Bury Me Like Poe, by Kandy S. Alameda; The Raven Nutcracker, by Tracy Dentico; and The Assassination Of Edgar Allan Poe, by Devon Armstrong and John Armstrong. Also celebrating the Poe milestone in Richmond, Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch put together a montage of Poe-related articles and photos from their archives, and Richmond's WWBT-TV looked into the enduring mystery behind the author's death. And now might also be a good time to pay a visit to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.


On Saturday, November 9 at 5:00 p.m., the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse in Pasadena will host the panel ON THE RUN: Australian Crime Writers in America. Pasadena author Désirée Zamorano moderates this discussion with visiting authors Sulari Gentill (the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries); Robert Gott (historical crime novels); Jock Serong (Quota; Preservation), and Emma Viskic (Resurrection Bay). ON THE RUN is a group of four award-winning Australian crime writers, who recently received a grant by the Australia Council for the Arts to tour the United States.

The Beacon Society is sponsoring an essay contest for US and Canadian students in 4th to 12th grades that focuses on the Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League," "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," and "The Greek Interpreter." There are cash prizes for first to third place, and the submission deadline is February 1, 2020. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

The Fall 2019 issue of Suspense Magazine is out, featuring interviews of Doug Preston and Lincoln Child; Karin Slaughter; Iris Johansen; David Baldacci; Adrian McKinty; Chris Bauer; Karen Katchur, and Leslie Meier. Daryl Wood Gerber has a feature "On Writing" and Dennis Palumbo has had "Enough" and lets you know why. There are also dozen of pages of reviews, short stories and much more.

Hodder & Stoughton has commissioned a major new book about Agatha Christie from historian and biographer Lucy Worsley, promising a new perspective on the crime master. Worsley said she wanted to place Christie as a female author in the wider context of "a troubled 20th century." The historian has previously written a history of the detective fiction genre, A Very British Murder, and a biography of another successful female author, Jane Austen.

Sarah Weinman penned a profile for Crimereads of "How Mary Roberts Rinehart, Queen of the Mystery Novel, Was Very Nearly Murdered."

For you authors out there: over at the Killzone blog, John Gilstrap talked about using guns in crime fiction, while Sue Coletta wondered if writers (and others) can lose their fingerprints.

In the "truth is often stranger than fiction" department, the FBI is calling Samuel Little America's "most prolific serial killer," confessing to 93 murders, of which 50 have been verified.


This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Shut-Off" by Wayne R. Burke. And the 5-2 editor, Gerald So, also made note of 5-2 "best" poems of the year that will be submitted to Sundress Publications' Best of the Net anthology.

In the Q&A roundup, the Daily journal spoke with J.A. Jance about her early setbacks and later successes; New Zealand's Stuff Magazine chatted with author Adrian McKinty on going from being an Uber driver to selling a crime novel to Hollywood; Star2 interviewed John Connolly about his Charlie Parker series and the settings involved in the latest installment, A Book of Bones; Canberra journalist and author, Chris Hammer, sat down with Riotact about how crime does pay with the publication of his second novel, Silver; and the Dark Phantom Review snagged true crime writer Caitlin Rother to discuss her research and writing, including her latest book about the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawks.

Mystery Melange

Jonathan Lethem has been chosen as the recipient of the 2019 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for his novel, The Feral Detective, as announced at the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Awards luncheon. The other finalists this year were The Good Detective, by John McMahon, and The Border, by Don Winslow. At the event, SCIBA also announced the organization was dissolving with the hope that California booksellers could become part of a single independent booksellers association. Although there was no word specifically regarding how this will affect the SCIBA book awards going forward, (including the T. Jefferson Parker award), the SCIBA website is already soliciting nominations for 2020.

Ashley Harrison has won the Capital Crime New Voices Award at the recent inaugural Capital Crime Festival in London. Harrison won for The Dysconnect, with Victoria Goldman and Patti Buff were named runner-up at the festival’s opening night cocktail party. The 2019 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards were also awarded on Saturday night, with Ian Rankin winning both Best Mystery and Best Crime Novel with In A House of Lies. Other winners included Best Thriller: Mick Herron's London Rules; Best e-Book: C.L. Taylor's Sleep; Independent Voice: Will Dean's Red Snow; Best Audiobook: Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, read by Jot Davies; Best Television Show: Killing Eve; and Best Feature Film: BlacKkKlansman. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Happy birthday to the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, which turns 30 years old today. To celebrate, owner Barbara Peters and her staff will host a cake and champagne party featuring author Joe Hill (NOS4A2) in conversation with attorney and editor, Leslie Klinger. Other guests include John Sandford, author of the Prey series; James Rollins, author of the Sigma Force series; and Anne Perry, author of the Thomas Pitt and William Monk series. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Washington D.C.'s Tenth Annual Noir at the Bar is headed to The Wonderland Ballroom on October 12. The event will be hosted by Ed Aymar and feature several crime authors reading from their work, including Kathleen Barber, John Copenhaver, James Grady, Cheryl Head, Alan Orloff, David Swinson, Art Taylor, and Erica Wright. The event is free and open to the public beginning at 6 p.m. for some brewskis and criminally good story-telling.

The Rap Sheet's Jeff Pierce urges you to "step up your reading pace," offering up a long list of some of the many upcoming crime novels through the end of the year in both the U.S. and the U.K. (And maybe a good speed-reading course might be in order!)

In another look at why libraries and librarians (even amateur ones) can help save the world, the NYT reported that in 2013 in the war-ravaged Syrian town of Daraya, people collected books after shelling and wrapped them in blankets to take them to a secret basement location. "The self-appointed chief librarian, a 14-year-old named Amjad, would write down in a large file the names of people who borrowed the books, and then return to his seat to continue reading. … The library hosted a weekly book club, as well as classes on English, math and world history, and debates over literature and religion."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Secret Messages" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, thriller writer Lee Child offered up some "inside scoop" about his billion-dollar Jack Reacher brand, for Forbes; Craig Sisterson's latest "9mm Interview" featured Kiwi storyteller Michael Botur, who has published five short story collections, as well as dozens of other stories often about crime, lowlifes, petty thieves, and other such characters; and Criminal Element chatted with Laura Childs and Terrie Farley Moran, about their collaborative New Orleans Scrapbooking series, featuring the upcoming Mumbo Gumbo Murder.

Mystery Melange

Manda Scott has won the 2019 McIlvanney Prize, making her the second woman in its eight year history to win the award. Scott was honored for her thriller, A Treachery of Spies, in a ceremony at the recent Bloody Scotland crime festival. The McIlvanney Prize recognizes excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000, and nationwide promotion in Waterstones. This year also saw the inaugural McIlvanney Debut Prize, which went to All the Hidden Truths by Claire Askew.

Noir Nation established the Golden Fedora Prize as a means to reward noir crime writing short forms, with the inaugural award in 2018 for poetry and this year's prize for short stories (the prize will alternate each form every other year). The 2019 Golden Fedora Prize winners are Erika Nichols-Frazer, BV Lawson, and Anne Swardson. Honorable Mentions include James Chesky, Jennifer Giacalone, A.M. Gregori, Mark Moran, Tyler Real, Gita Smith, and JMP Zute. (On a personal note: I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to have been honored with this award and grateful to the judges for their selection of my story "Alien Nation" for this accolade)

A Noir at the Bar event is headed to Hillsborough, North Carolina, tonight as an early spooky treat for the Halloween season. The event, which brings together independent crime authors to read from and sell their books, originated in St. Louis and was replicated in other cities across the country. Eryk Pruitt will host the Hillsborough event at the Yonder bar, with other contributors including James Maxey (Bitterwood), Suzanne Adair (Deadly Occupation), and Shawn Cosby (My Darkest Prayer).


The Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press are collaborating for the Library of Congress Crime Classics series, which "will feature a rich and diverse selection of books originally published between the 1860s and the 1960s," according to the Library. Titles will be drawn from the LOC's collection of hard-to-find and out-of-print books, with cover designs inspired by images from the library's collections. The series launches next spring with the publication of three books: That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green (1897), The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C.W. Grafton (1943) and Case Pending by Dell Shannon (1960). (HT to Shelf Awareness)

The latest issue of Mystery Scene magazine features a cover story about Ruth Ware's latest novel, a idiosyncratic updating of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw; Michael Mallory profiles fictional detective, Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, who was popular between the two world wars in books and on film; in a new annual feature, Oline Cogdill takes a look at terrific current books from six up-and-coming writers; plus many more articles, essays, news, and reviews.

October 1 is the deadline to submit to the Clues themed issue on "Genre-Bending: Crime's Hybrid Forms" that will be guest edited by Maurizio Ascari (the University of Bologna). Throughout its long history, crime writing has inspired and been inspired by other genres such as the gothic, sensation fiction, horror, romance, film noir, science fiction, and true crime. Papers and extracts should "explore the richness of these generic contact zones and the acts of cross-pollination they engendered, ultimately contributing to the overall development of this galaxy of literary forms."

Abu Dhabi's The National publication reported on one of literature's enduring heroes, Inspector Maigret. All of George Simenon's Maigret novels will be available in English via new translations soon to be completed, a process that has involved the work of as many as 11 translators. Between 1931 and 1972, Belgian author Simenon wrote more than 70 novels in his Inspector Maigret series, and Penguin Books has been commissioning the new translations, releasing one story a month over the last six years.

Auction house Christies' online blog featured a profile of Dashiell Hammett, with a side look at the author's collectible books from auctions past.

I've mentioned before how the late author, Stieg Larsson, became involved with the unsolved assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. A recent Guardian article also talked about how Larsson put several references to it in his novels, taking that one step further to ask "Do his secret files contain vital clues?"

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Paradise Costs" by Barry Ergang.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Reads spoke with Craig Johnson, author of the popular Longmire series that was made into a TV series, about his latest novel, Land Of Wolves, which puts his Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire in a new place; Lesa Holstein chatted with Ann Cleves, author of the Vera Stanhope and Shetland Island mystery series that have been made into TV programs in the UK; and There's Been a Murder sat down with Val Penny, an American author living and writing in southwest Scotland.

Mystery Melange

 

The winners of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, which celebrate the best of New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, have been announced:  Best Novel went to This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman; Best First Novel was won by Call Me Evie by JP Pomare; and Best Non-Fiction went to The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Jane Furlong by Kelly Dennett. Check out all the other finalists here.

The UK Kindle Storyteller Award shortlist was revealed and includes the crime novels, I Have Sinned by Caimh McDonnell; Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel by Emily Organ; and The Picture On The Fridge by Ian W Sainsbury. The UK Kindle Storyteller Award recognizes newly published work in the English language across any genre and was open to all authors who published their book through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.co.uk between May 1 and August 31 2019. The winner will be announced by at a ceremony in London in October, and awarded the cash prize, a marketing campaign to support the book on Amazon.co.uk, and the opportunity to have their book translated.

The York Literature Festival in the UK starts off its series of events tonight with international best-selling author Peter Robinson as he launches Many Rivers to Cross, the 26th instalment of the DCI Banks series. Other upcoming events will include Mischa Glenny, creator of the hit BBC series, McMafia, on October 7; and Poirot actor David Suchet on October 10 "behind the lens," showcasing his wonderfully evocative photographs with commentary.

The Terror Australis Readers and Writers Festival is Tasmania’s newest biennial literary festival, and this year's theme is "Murder She Wrote," inspired by Agatha Christie, the Queen of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Murder She Wrote will begin on Halloween this year and run for four days from Thursday October 31 to Sunday November 3, followed by two days of a food and wine trail, the "Trail of Writers’ Tears." The four-day book spree includes Masterclasses, Workshops, incisive literary discussions and a Murder Mystery Party set in 1920s’ Cairo.

On Sunday, November 10, the 6th Annual Ladies of Intrigue returns to the Mesa Verde Country Club, at Costa Mesa, California. This year's headliners include J.A. Janice and Laurie King, with panelists to include Barbara DeMarco Barrett, Greta Boris, Steph Cha, Mary Anna Evans, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kaira Rouda, Laurie Stevens, Betty Webb, and others TBA. Register at ocsistersincrime.org or mysteryink.com.

The 7th Annual Conference of the International Crime Fiction Association, in association with Bath Spa University, will be titled "Captivating Criminality 7: Crime Fiction: Memory, History and Revaluation." Slated for July 2-4, 2020, organizers have put out a call for papers that examine changing notions of criminality, punishment, deviance, and policing. What they're seeking: "Abstracts dealing with crime fiction past and present, true crime narratives, television and film studies, and other forms of new media such as blogs, computer games, websites and podcasts are welcome, as are papers adopting a range of theoretical, sociological and historical approaches."

A 12-year-old mystery enthusiast and scholar-in-residence by the name of Joseph has curated the exhibition, "A Century of Mystery and Intrigue," at Florida State University Library's Special Collections and Archives. The exhibit includes trains and works such as Freeman Wills Crofts's Inspector French and the Starvel Hollow Tragedy (1927) and will remain on view until December 20, 2019. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

A copy of Graham Greene’s novel, Brighton Rock, more than doubled its estimate when it sold for $93,750, including buyer’s premium, to claim top-lot honors in Heritage Auctions’ Rare Books Auction featuring the Otto Penzler Collection of Mystery Fiction Part II on September 5. The volume is a first edition so rare that only one other copy is known to have made it to the auction block, and that one had a restored jacket. The novel effectively secured Greene’s place in Twentieth Century literature, was adapted multiple times for television and film and appears on the Haycraft Queen Cornerstone list, which is billed as “the definitive library of mystery fiction.”

Writing for Crime Reads, Martin Edwards looked at the renaissance of Golden Age crime fiction, specifically how Agatha Christie and her cohorts came back into fashion and helped to revive the traditional mystery.

Crime Reads's Susan Elia MacNeal looked at "10 novels that explore the world of women spies in the World Wars."

It apears that a woman once described as "Kenya's Sherlock Holmes," private investigator Jane Wawira Mugo, is in a spot of trouble. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has placed her on the country's Most Wanted list for "a list of alleged crimes she has masterminded read out like a paragraph from a crime thriller novel."

Want to spend the night in a library? If you travel to Wales, you're in luck. The Gladstone Library, the only residential library in Great Britain, houses 150,000 written works, including 32,000 books that were part of the collection of four-term Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, for whom the library is named. Established in 1906, the library’s onsite 26-room B&B still draws guests from around the United Kingdom, Europe, and United States.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Post-Enlistment Trail" by David S. Pointer.

In the Q&A roundup, David Lagercrantz spoke with Parade Magazine about saying good-bye to Lisbeth Salander, as he moves on to other literary endeavors; Anthony O’Neill chatted about his new novel, The Devil Upstairs, an allegorical thriller set in modern-day Edinburgh; and the Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Marilyn Levinson, a/k/a Allison Brook, about her Haunted Library mystery series and also chatted with Ellen Byron about her Cajun Country series.

Mystery Melange

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced this year's winners of the Ned Kelly Awards:  2019 Best Fiction, The Lost Man by Jane Harper; 2019 Best True Crime, Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee; and 2019 Best First Fiction, The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan. For all of this year's shortlisted winners, head on over to the ACWA website.

This year's recipients of the 2019 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction are Megan Abbott (for Distinguished Body of Work) and Sarah St. Vincent (Debut Novel). The awards, which will be presented October 10 at the Louisiana Humanities Center in New Orleans, were established 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. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

The four finalists were revealed for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year:  Breakers by Doug Johnstone; A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott; Conviction by Denise Mina; and The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry. The winner will be presented at the opening reception of Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling on September 20. (HT to Shots Magazine)

In conjunction with the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity (C3) Con in Columbia, Maryland, ten authors will read from their work at the latest Noir at the Bar event this Friday, September 13, which is free and open to the public. Hosted by E.A. Aymar, the event will include readings from Debbi Mack, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, Ellen Butler, Austin S. Camacho, David Mack, S.A. Cosby, Matty Dalrymple, and Weldon Burge - all of whom are competing for an engraved trophy, with attendees choosing the winner.

Gallery 88 in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, is hosting an exhibit by Chris Cote, titled "Neo Noir Philadelphia," and there will be an opening reception this Friday from 6-9 pm. Chris Cote is an art director and graphic designer by day and street photographer by night, who is known for his cover art and production design for Philadelphia area comic book publisher Zenescope Entertainment, as well as his street photography project inspired by the neo-noir genre.

Speaking of things noir-ish and pulp-ish, Pulp Adventurecon is coming up on November 2 in Bordentown, New Jersey. Pulp Adventurecon (a one-day show held annually in two locations: Fort Lauderdale in February and Bordentown in November), hosts collectors and vendors of rare pulp magazines, vintage paperbacks, golden age comic books, movie memorabilia, and related paper collectibles.

Kirkus Reviews's mystery correspondent, Radha Vatsal, took at look at how Sisters in Crime is helping to diversify crime fiction by supporting and promoting under-represented voices.

In a plot straight out of a crime novel, Richard Danney, the son of author Frederic Dannay (who, along with his cousin penned the Ellery Queen mystery series), discovered his late mystery-novelist father’s signed books had been stolen, after seeing them go up for auction at Soetheby’s. Richard Danney claims 33 of his dad’s signed books were stolen by his step-mom Rose, passed to her son Terry Koppel and eventually given to Sotheby’s for auctioning, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed last week. After Frederic died in 1982, his third wife, Rose, allegedly fought his will but ultimately gave her right to Frederic’s literary works and agreed to turn over property from their house including "all Literary papers," the court documents claim. Sotheby’s is safeguarding the books and agreed to suspend any sales until the dispute was worked out.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Hunt" by Larry Chavis.

In the Q&A roundup, Hallie Ephron interviewed Lee McIntyre, an author best known for his nonfiction books, about his first work of crime fiction, The Sin Eater; Hank Phillippi Ryan and Paddy Hirsch sat down for a conversation on journalism and writing fiction; Alexander McCall Smith chatted with Event about his writing routine and the "value of civilisation"; and the Mystery People interviewed Reed Farrel Coleman about The Bitterest Pill, his latest continuation of Robert B. Parker’s character, Paradise Massachusetts Police Chief Jesse Stone.

Mystery Melange

Congrats to this year's winner of the Davitt Award for Best Crime Novel by Australian women (presented by Sisters in Crime), Dervla McTiernan’s novel, The Ruin. The winners in the other categories include:

Young Adult Novel: Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
Children’s Novel: Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell
Nonfiction: The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper
Debut: Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
Readers’ Choice: The Lost Man by Jane Harper

See all the shortlisted titles here.

The shortlist has been announced for the inaugural CWA Dagger for the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year. The award is the first new Dagger category created in over a decade. The finalists include:

Faber & Faber
Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)
HQ (HarperCollins)
No Exit Press (Oldcastle Books)
Orenda Books
Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin)
Raven (Bloomsbury)

Congrats also to the 2019 Munsey Award Winner, which I missed last month (while on vacation), that was presented at PulpFest in Pittsburgh on August 17 to George Vanderburgh. Named for Frank A. Munsey, publisher of the first pulp magazine, the award recognizes someone who has "contributed to the betterment of the pulp community through disseminating knowledge, publishing, or other efforts to preserve and to foster interest pulp magazines."

The Celtic Noir Crime Writing Festival is set to hit Dunedin Saturday, October 12, and Sunday, October 13. Presented by the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies (CISS), Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival, Dunedin Public Libraries, and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, the event will features workshops, master classes, and Q&As led by Liam McIlvaney, Fiona Kidman, Majella Cullinane, Adrian McKinty, Vanda Symon, Liz Nugent, and Val McDermid.


The Popular Culture Association invites proposals for their upcoming annual conference to be held in Philadephia, Wednesday, April 15 – Saturday, April 18, 2020. The event's theme is "Mystery & Detective Fiction," and organizers welcome academic discussions on all aspects and periods of mystery and detective fiction, including history, criticism, and theory, as well as explorations of social justice, diversity, inclusivity, and other current trends in scholarship. Abtracts of 100 to 250 words outlining both your object of analysis and your primary argument are due by November 1, 2019. (HT to Shots Magazine)

The volume 37, no. 2 (2019) issue of Clues: The Journal of Detection has been published, which is a themed issue on interwar mysteries guest edited by Victoria Stewart (University of Leicester, UK). Articles include such topics as "Detecting Histories, Detecting Genealogies: The Origins of Golden Age Detective Fiction" and "Capital Punishment and Women in the British Police Procedural."

Do you think you an craft a crime-fiction plot in only half a dozen words? That’s the challenge in the third annual Six-Word Mystery Contest, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Entries must be received by midnight, October 31, 2019, and six-word novels can be entered in one or all five of the following categories: Hard-boiled or Noir; Cozy Mystery; Thriller Mystery; Police Procedural Mystery; and/or a mystery with Romance or Lust. If you need a hint, here's last year's winning entry (by Matthew Porter): "She took his name. For starters." (Hat to The Rap Sheet)

Writing for CrimeReads, Olivia Rutigliano remembered the "Gilded Age's Long-Lost Lady Detectives." In an era which restricted women's advancement, a handful of women beat the odds and became investigators.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is was contributed by Lauren Reynolds, and the most recent Beat to a Pulp story (which I'm also a little late noting), is "Scot" by Garnett Elliott.

In the Q&A roundup, Lesa Holstine interviewed Sara E. Johnson as they chatted about her first mystery, Molten Mud Murder, which is set in New Zealand; the Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis chatted with police officer-turned author, Bernard Schaffer, about his latest thriller, An Unsettled Grave; CrimeReads spoke with Lisa Lutz, author of The Spellman Files; Ali Karim snagged debut novelist Gareth Rubin for the Shots Magazine blog to discuss alternate history novels and his book, Liberation Square; and Rob Hart talked with CrimeReads's Lisa Levy about ending his private eye series featuring PI Ash McKenna, as well as the juggernaut that his new book,The Warehouse, has become.

Mystery Melange

The 25th Annual Colorado Independent Book Publishers Association EVVY Awards Banquet took place in Denver, Colorado. 1st Place Mystery/Crime/Detective Fiction went to To Paint A Murder by E.J. Gandolfo; the Merit Award for Mystery/Crime/Detective Fiction was won by And Come Day’s End by Gabriel F.W. Koch; and the Merit Award for Suspense/Thrillers Fiction was awarded to The Paymaster by Adeed Dawisha.

Tomorrow night, an Oxford Crime Evening will feature authors Cara Hunter, JP Delaney, and Mick Herron at the The Cherwell Boathouse in Oxford, UK. Hunter is the author of a bestselling series featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team; Delaney's The Girl Before is being adapted for film by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment; and Herron's various novels have won or been a finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger,CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, and Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

The New York Writers Workshop in NYC is presenting an Evening of Crime hosted by Christina Chiu on October 3 from 7-9 p.m. Authors scheduled to participate include Charles Salzberg, Puja Guha, Ed Lin, and Nish Amaranth. Charles Salzberg is author of the Shamus Award nominated Swann series and teaches writing the New York Writers Workshop; Puja Guha is the author of The Ahriman Legacy series; Ed Lin writes the Robert Chow crime series and is the recipient of win three Asian American Literary Awards; Nish Amarnath's crime thriller, Victims for Sale, was nominated for the Bombay Film Festival Awards.

There's still time to catch an art exhibition based on Hitchcock films that will be on view at San Diego's Subterranean Coffee Boutique until September 6. (HT to The Bunburyist)

Heads up to folks near Hillsborough, North Carolina: Noir at the Bar is heading to Yonder: Southern Cocktails & Brew on September 26. Hosted by Tracey Reynolds, authors scheduled to appear and read from their works include Judy Marie, James Maxey, Eryk Pruitt, Nesha Maren, JG Hetherton, Suzanne Adair, Thomas Fenske, and Philip Kimbrough.

There's a call for papers for a special issue of The Journal of Popular Culture, "Place, Space, and the Detective Narrative." Articles may come from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary practice on topics such as Detectives, Borders, and Migrations, Settings in Crime Narrative, Locked-Room Mysteries, and more. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are due no later than Jan 1, 2020, with selected manuscripts (of 5,000-7,500 words) expected by June 1, 2020. (HT to Shots Magazine)

In October 2019, Dean Street Press will continue their series of great golden age crime fiction, this time in the form of Brian Flynn's first ten Anthony Bathurst mysteries. Originally published in the late twenties and early thirties, they have not been reissued for over sixty years. All the ingeniously plotted novels are in the classic mold of English country house mysteries with titles like The Billiard Room Mystery and The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye. Each edition installment will feature new artwork and new introductions by crime fiction historian Steve Barge.

Writing for Crime Reads, the Rap Sheet's J. Kingston Pierce took a look at the rise of "regional" noir during the 1970s and how other regional cities became the new capitals of crime fiction.

Rob Hart also took a stab at answering the question "what is a crime book, anyway?" as he compiled a listing of "10 great books that defy all genre labels."

Have women always enjoyed reading thrillers? Book Riot investigates.

Fans of the iconic Clue board game take note: the game is getting a makeover and you can help choose the design. Hasbro is renovating the Clue mansion for the first time since the murder mystery game’s 1949 release, and fans have until September 9 to cast their vote for the winning design.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Thread Bare" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, Tami Hoag dicussed her new book, The Boy, her writing process, and why she has set so many of her books in Louisiana; and David Lagercrantz, the author who continued Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" book series following Larsson's death, chatted with Deutsche Welle about exiting that series as well as his new projects.

Mystery Melange

The Australian Crime Writers Association has announced the shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards 2019. Now in its 24th year, the awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious crime writing awards, with past winners including Jon Cleary, Peter Corris, Adrian McKinty, Jane Harper, Helen Garner, Peter Temple, and Michael Robotham. Here are the lists:

Best Fiction

Killshot by Garry Disher
Gone By Midnight by Candice Fox
The Spotted Dog by Kerry Greenwood
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
The Other Wife by Michael Robotham
Live and Let Fry by Sue Williams

Best first fiction

The Portrait of Molly Dean by Katherine Kovacic
The Yellow House by Emily O'Grady
The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan
Greenlight by Ben Stevenson

Best true crime

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper
Siege: Inside the Lindt Cafe by Deborah Snow
Waiting for Elijah by Kate Wild

The winners will be announced Friday, September 6, in Sydney.

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has announced finalists for its 2019 book awards, winners of which will be celebrated at SCIBA's annual trade show, to be held September 27-28 in San Gabriel (HT to Shelf Awareness). The finalists in the T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award category include:

The Feral Detective, by Jonathan Lethem
The Good Detective, by John McMahon
The Border, by Don Winslow

The Capital Crime festival will host the inaugural New Voices Awards to champion the next generation of talent in the crime and thriller community. Entries will be uploaded to Capital Crime’s website, where festival pass holders can read and vote for their favorite entries. The authors of the ten highest placed entries will be revealed on September 19, and the winner, judged by the Capital Crime team from the top ten entries, will be announced at Capital Crime’s opening night cocktail party on September 26. Submissions close at midnight on September 18.

Investigative journalist and author Dylan Howard has formed a new true-crime imprint for Skyhorse and Start called Front Page Detectives. Its first title will be Howard's Diana: Case Solved, which the publisher calls "the definitive account" of Princess Diana's death that "proves what really happened" and will "smash wide open the conspiracy of silence." Howard is also creator and narrator of the recent podcast Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood. Start Publishing will publish e-book versions of Front Page Detectives books. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Crime writer and criminal attorney Olly Jarvis is launching a new true-crime website on September 9, thecrimehub.com. Content will include a series of podcast stories recorded in Los Angeles, including Murder at the Palace by Gyles Brandreth, narrated by Stephen Fry, and The Plater by Ann Cleeves, narrated by Alfred Molina. The site will also bring readers true crime interviews with leading figures from the criminal justice system. Olly’s aim is to create a place online for audio crime content: "We wanted to create something that showcased the best thriller writers, but also gave a real insight into the real world of crime detection, evidence, and jury trials and the people who work within this fascinating world," he says. (HT to Crime Fiction Lover)

For fans of real-life criminal drama, Bookriot compiled a list of "Eighteen of the Best International True Crime Books You’ve Never Heard Of."

Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times arts critic, is throwing her hat into the ring of crime fiction news and reviews for the newspaper, joining long-time columnist Adam Woog who has compiled book reviews for several years. Macdonald's first column of “The Plot Thickens" shares a few of her favorite recent reads including bestselling titles from Attica Locke, Denise Mina, and Casey Cep.

The LA Review of Books profiled Anthony Horowitz, screenwriter and author of stand-alone mystery novels and YA series as well as his new "meta detective" series in which Horowitz himself becomes a character. Or as the article says about the second installment in that series, "There’s a reality television component to his story that’s oddly reassuring and agreeable."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Investment Banking" by Richard Spillman.

In the Q&A roundup, Karin Slaughter spoke with Parade Magazine about "Why We Really Love True Crime Thrillers; Australian crime writer Sarah Bailey, author of the bestselling The Dark Lake and Into the Night, chatted with the Sydney Morning Herald about books that "changed me"; and the New York Times Magazine snagged James Ellroy to chat about his life in crime, his imaginary dog, and the need to provoke.

Mystery Melange

Another batch of titles from Otto Penzler's famous private collection is going up for auction today via Phillip Weiss Gallery, featuring Ross MacDonald, Walter Brown, Gaston Leroux, and many others. Browse the collection here and be sure to bid online at 5 pm (this is an internet and absentee bid auction only). The second Heritage sale of Otto’s amazing collection, mostly British authors, will be held on Thursday, September 5th, including copies of Christie, Sayers, several Haycraft-Queen titles, and rare Queen’s Quorum titles.

William Morrow Paperbacks will release The Last Seance next month, a brand new collection of supernatural tales from Agatha Christie, the Queen of Mystery. The book collects Christie’s "spookiest and most sinister stories," including one that has never before been published in the United States. The Last Séance gathers twenty stories, some featuring Christie’s beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, in one haunting compendium that explores all things occult and paranormal, including one Christie story never before published in the USA, "The Wife of Kenite!"

The next Literary Salon in Berkeley, California, will feature author Hallie Ephron on August 21. Ephron is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven suspense novels that reviewers call "deliciously creepy" and "Hitchcockian," including her latest, Careful What You Wish For, about a professional organizer married to a man who can’t pass a yard sale without stopping. This is a free event but you must RSVP to attend, as space is limited.

Lee Child has received an invitation to join the judging panel for the 2020 Booker Prize. Andy Martin, who has written a book about his time with the author called With Child: Lee Child and the Readers of Jack Reacher, told the Sunday Times: "Lee received an invitation to be part of next year’s judging panel and he has said he would like to, as long as he could do most of it from his homes in New York and Wyoming." The Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the United Kingdom.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will take to the stage with Ian Rankin to interview the author at Bloody Scotland next month. A self-confessed crime fiction fan, the First Minister was last seen at the Harrogate Crime Festival singing backing vocals with the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers following their appearance at Glastonbury. Other author special guests scheduled to appear at Bloody Scotland include Lin Anderson, Chris Brookmyre, Michael Robotham, Alexander McCall Smith, Denise Mina, Mark Billingham, and more.

Kary Antholis, who stepped down as President of HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming in June after more than 25 years, has launched his new venture, Crime Story, a news and storytelling website dedicated to crime and justice stories. The website will feature original reporting on headline-making and lesser known court cases, with a special section about Los Angeles crime stories; columns by contributors, starting with exoneree Amanda Knox with her co-writer Christopher Robinson; crime news aggregation; as well as an interview podcast by Antholis. 

Janet Rudolph posted a sad bit of news over at Mystery Fanfare:  Lea Wait, best-selling author of the Mainely Needlepoint Mysteries series, the Shadows Antique Print mysteries, and the Maine Murder Mystery series, has passed away after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Jessamyn West, a librarian who lives in central Vermont and serves on the board of the Vermont Humanities Council, reported for CNN Online about the fight surrounding e-book lending rights for libraries - and how readers will be the ultimate losers.

Author and mystery correspondent for Kirkus, Radha Vatsa, penned an essay titled, "Yes, Crime Fiction is Literature (and Other Observations on the Genre)," using Argentinian writer Jorge Louis Borges's essays on detective fiction as a launching point. He concludes that "when crime fiction is at its best, the distinction between it and literature vanishes."

Dwyer Murphy shared his appreciation for the work of Dorothy B. Hughes, the "queen of noir," and how she conjured up a "terrible, ineffable sense of dread."

Crime Reads offered up a list of the best books, essays, and films about the Charles Manson murders on the fiftieth anniversary of the infamous killings.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Whitey on the Lam" by Etta Abrahams.

In the Q&A roundup, Tana French spoke with The New Yorker about unreliable narrators, real-world sources, and the breakdown of genre boundaries in her work; John Parker interviewed John Connolly, who's promoting the Spanish version of his novel, A Game of Ghosts (El Frio de la Muerte) at the Celsius 232 festival; Jason Beech over at Out of the Gutter Magazine chatted with Paul D. Brazill about launching Punk Noir Magazine, as well as some of his own stories including one featuring aging long-time violent hitman, Tommy Bennett, in the new anthology, A Time for Violence; Alex Segura talked up "Miami, Music, and Celebrating Contemporary Crime Fiction" for Crimereads; and authors Steve Cavanagh and Adrian McKinty told Salon how growing up during "the troubles" in Northern Ireland shaped them and their writing.