In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

The Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists were announced this week. The nominees in the Mystery/Thriller category include A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen; Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby; And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall; Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier; and These Women by Ivy Pochoda. Winners will be announced on April 16 via a live-streamed virtual ceremony on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. (The article is sheltered behind a paywall, but HT to Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph for this report.)

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival has announced it will go ahead with in-person events later this year, after the UK government unveiled its roadmap out of lockdown. Taking place in Harrogate July 22-25, the Festival will celebrate with a range of author talks, panels, and special guests, as well as some hybrid events to ensure that audiences who are unable to travel can access the Festival. The full author lineup and ticket on-sale dates will be announced in the coming months. More information can be found at the official website which will be updated regularly. (HT to Shots Magazine blog)

The Bloody Scotland Crime Festival is taking a different approach, with a virtual international book club to be broadcast via Facebook Live. The club, being hosted in the absence of most physical literary festivals this spring, will launch on March 31 at 7 p.m. Thereafter, it will take place on the last Wednesday of every month, with rotating hosts from the board of Bloody Scotland and a variety of journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and booksellers.

Two more crime festivals in the UK are also going to be virtual this month and next. Hull Noir has a series of panels and events planned for March 18-21, kicked off by Peter Robinson in Conversation with Nick Quantrill, although the bulk of the activites will take place in a one-day festival on Saturday, March 21. Wales’s First Crime Fiction Festival, Gwyl Crime Cymru, will also hold free online events April 26-May 2, featuring a Q&A with CWA Diamond Dagger winner, Martin Edwards, and more events to be announced soon.

Some good news from the world of books and booksellers, as Bookshop.org announced it had raised one million for UK bookstores (after raising a similar amount for stores in the U.S.). The funds have been a lifeline for many indie shops, so if you're looking to help out your local indies but they don't have their own website, this is a stopgap measure.

More sad news to report from the crime fiction world: author Paul D. Marks has passed away after a brief bout with cancer. His novel White Heat, a mystery-thriller set during the Rodney King riots of 1992, won the first Shamus Award for Independent Private Eye Novel from the Private Eye Writers of America. He also penned numerous short stories that have appeared in dozens of publications and been award finalists. In addition, he served on the boards of the Los Angeles chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America and was a blogger for Seven Criminal Minds and SleuthSayers. His passing was reported on Facebook by Josh Pachter.

NPR reported on how Bellingcat's online sleuths are solving global crimes using open source information on the internet.

Here's a real-life literary mystery solved by modern forensic technology.

The Wall Street Journal magazine wondered if it's time to kill the book blurb.

Oops. A Canada spy agency recruiting ad that used a line from a John Le Carré spy thriller probably should have vetted that quote first.

Last weekend's Saturday Night Live program on NBC had a fun little parody that crime fans might find amusing.

The latest flash fiction offering at Pulp Modern Flash is "The Shovel" by Alan Orloff.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "I Should've Known by Jess Chua."

In the Q&A roundup, CWA Diamond Dagger winner, Robert Goddard, chatted with Shots Magazine's Ali Karim about his latest book, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection, which follows a widowed middle-aged Japanese female detective; Craig Sisterson's latest 9mm Interview featured award-winning the Uruguayan lawyer, journalist, and author, Mercedes Rosende; and E.B. Davis chatted with Maria DiRico (a/k/a Ellen Byron) about her latest Catering Hall Mystery over at the Writers Who Kill blog.

Mystery Melange

Martina Cole is the latest recipient of the highest honor in British crime writing, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger. The long-reigning Queen of Crime Drama has written 25 novels and become Britain’s bestselling female crime writer and the first British female adult audience novelist to break the £50 million sales mark. Her books have been translated into 31 languages and adapted for multiple stage plays and television series. Previous Diamond Dagger winners include Ruth Rendell, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, PD James, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, Lindsey Davies, Peter Lovesey, and John Le Carré.

The nominees for the 2021 Norwegian Silver Knife for outstanding crime fiction have been announced. The contenders include The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl; So It Got Cold by Frode Eie Larsen; and Fate Stone by Sven Petter Næss. The winner will be announced on 16 March 2021. (HT to Shots Magazine) Previous winners include Lars Helle (2018), Kurt Aust and Kin Wessel (2019) and Agnes Matre (2020).

In an email this week, the Malice Board of Directors announced they'd decided to postpone Malice 32/33 to 2022. Instead of a live event in 2021, they will be sponsoring MORE THAN MALICE, a virtual (online) festival to be held on July 14 - 17, 2021. The event will feature special guests, unique panels, the Agatha Awards, and much more. Agatha Award nomination forms will also be sent out this week to everyone who is currently registered for Malice Domestic.

Hillary Clinton is teaming up with award-winning author, Louise Penny, to write an international political thriller in which a secretary of state joins the administration of "a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage." The book will be published in the UK and worldwide by Pan Macmillan, and by Simon & Schuster and St Martin’s Press in the US. In a statement, Clinton described writing with Penny as "a dream come true." The move follows a partnership between President Bill Clinton and James Patterson to pen the thriller, The President is Missing.

Scotland's Granite Noir conference just wrapped up February 19-21, and organizers have put online several of the virtual author events, with sign language included for the hearing impaired. Participating authors include Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, Attica Locke, Jo Nesbo, David Baldacci, and more.

On Al-Fanar Media, M. Lynx Qualey chatted with Nadia Ghanem, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University of London's SOAS, about the evolution of crime fiction in the Maghreb (discussing, for example, works by authors from Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Mystery Writers of America shared the sad news that Margaret Maron (1938-2021), a past president, former Grand Master, Edgar winner, and a truly kind and generous writer, has passed away from a stroke. Maron is the author of numerous short stories and more than twenty mystery novels, including the Judge Deborah Knott series and another series with Sigrid Harald, a loner lieutenant in the NYPD whose policeman father was killed in the line of duty when she was a toddler. Maron was also one of the founders of Sisters in Crime and the American Crime Writers' League.

Featured at the Page 69 Test was The Missing Passenger by Jack Heath. From the publisher: Jarli only narrowly escaped death after his world-shattering app made him infamous. Now there’s a new foe afoot and Jarli is far from safe in this thrilling sequel to The Truth App.

If you're like moi and many others, the pandemic lockdowns have led to quite a bit of comfort-food noshing. So it's probably appropriate that Criminal Element's Amy Pershing took on the topic of mysteries in which food, both for good and evil, features so prominently that it’s virtually a character itself—or at least a character witness. Perhaps it’s because food (the cooking of it, the eating of it, the sharing of it) offers so many lovely options for the mystery writer. Apparently, classic crime fiction was also obsessed with fashion.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "The Snap" by James Lilley.

In the Q&A roundup, Dana Stabenow chatted with Criminal Element about her long-running Kate Shugak series and also a series with Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell; the Sons of Spade blog welcomed Alexandra Amor, a podcaster and author of the Freddie Lark series, to chat about her work and PI fiction in general; and Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis spoke with Barbara Ross about Shucked Apart, the ninth book in the Maine Clambake mystery series.

Mystery Melange

Will Rogers was a respected writer and cowboy entertainer whose work embodied the traditions of the American cowboy. The Will Rogers Medallion Award was originally created to recognize quality works of cowboy poetry that honored the Will Rogers heritage, but has expanded to include other works of Western literature and film. Winners of the 2020 awards include fiction winner, Land of Wolves: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson; a second place tie for The Last Warrior: The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, by W. Michael Farmer, and Blood-Soaked Earth: The Trial of Oliver Lee, by W. Michael Farmer; third place to Death Stalks Apache Oro by Sam Judd Fadala; fourth place to Cut Nose by Ron Schwab; and fifth place to Promised Land: Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey by Mark Warren. For all the finalists in the various categories, click on over here.

On February 22, the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut will offer the virtual "Script in Hand: A Sherlock Carol," a reading of a play by Mark Shanahan in which Tiny Tim asks the Great Detective to look into the death of Ebenezer Scrooge. If you can't make the live event, you catch the show on-demand from February 23 through February 28. (Ht to Elizabeth Foxwell)

On February 27, Left Coast Crime will present four virtual panels to introduce the 2021 Lefty Award Nominees and their books. This Zoom Webinar is free, but advance registration is required. Participating authors will include nominees for the Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel, Best Novel, Best Historical Novel, and Best Humorous Novel.
 

Hosted by NY Times bestselling author, Lisa Black, a virtual Noir at the Bar on March 12 will showcase ten Sisters in Crime authors offering readings from the darker side of crime fiction. Noir a the Bar is presented by the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime chapter as a Main Stage event of Southwest Florida Reading Festival, hosted by Lee County Library System.

After a thirty-three year run (1988-2021) as crime fiction critic for the New York Times, Marilyn Stasio is stepping down. Blogger, reviewer, and nonfiction author/editor, Sarah Weinman, is taking the reins from Stasio with her first column reviewing new releases by Walter Mosley, Belinda Bauer, Catie DiSabato, and Elle Cosimano. The column will run every other week. Stasio said in her email newsletter "The Crime Lady" that "There isn’t enough gratitude to express, stepping in the shoes of Stasio (who will still write for the paper after an iconic 3-decade-plus run with the column), 'Newgate Callendar' (aka Harold C. Schonberg), Allen Hubin, and Anthony Boucher, the original 'Criminals At Large' columnist."

Over at the Venetian Vase blog, James Ellroy aficionado, Jason Carter, continued his fascinating series exploring the connections between Ellroy and the true crime history of Wisconsin.

In honor of President's Day, Janet Rudolph compiled a listing of Presidential Crime Fiction, and also a list of mysteries for the Chinese New Year, while the Indie Crime Scene put together a roundup of "Indie Mardi Gras Mysteries."

The latest "victim" of the Page 69 test is Emilya Naymark, author of Hide in Place. The story follows a former NYPD undercover cop who escaped the Big Apple when her cover was blown only to land in a small town where she takes on a case that could expose her identity to her old enemies.

Experts have devised a novel approach to selecting photos for police lineups that helps witnesses identify culprits more reliably.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "I Want a Film Noir Femme Fatale" by Peter M. Gordon. The 5-2 Weekly editor, Gerald So, is also seeking new poems and poem critiques to help celebrate National Poetry Month coming up in April.

In the Q&A roundup, NPR spoke with law professor and human rights activist, Rosa Brooks, whose new memoir, Tangled Up in Blue: Policing The American City, details how she volunteered to join the police force in order to understand police reform; Author Interviews chatted with Allison Epstein about her Elizabethan mystery, A Tip for the Hangman; Author Interviews also welcomed Gwen Florio about her new book, Best Laid Plans, the first installment of a new mystery series featuring Nora Best as she flees her old life and cheating husband and takes to the road with an Airstream trailer; Lida Sideris was interviewed by Grace Topping for Writers Who Kill to discuss her book, Slightly Murderous Intent: A Southern California Mystery; Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of the award-winning debut novel, Blood & Sugar, stopped by the Shots Magazine blog to talk about her latest book, Daughters of the Night; and Scottish crime writer, Val McDermid, told The Guardian why "To survive, you had to be twice as good as the guys."

Mystery Melange

 

Registration is open for the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival, which goes all digital this year for the all-day event on March 6. There will be live panels on topics from "Humor Has It: Keeping the Fun in Mystery" to "A Song of Ice and Fire: Writing Strong Women," with close to forty authors participating.

Submissions for the McIlvanney Prize / Scottish Crime Book of the Year are also now open, with a deadline of Friday, April 9. The winner of Crime Book of the Year will receive £1,000, while the winner the Debut of the Year will receive £500. Entries come from full length novels first published in the United Kingdom between August 1 2020 and July 31, 2021. When considering the entries the judges will take into account quality of writing, originality of plot and potential durability in the crime genre.

Take the upcoming long weekend to apply to PEN America's Writing for Justice Fellowship, which commissions writers to create written works of lasting merit that illuminate critical issues related to mass incarceration and catalyze public debate. Submissions close on February 15.

Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies has a call for papers on the topic of "Giallo! The Long History of Italian Television Crime Drama." The special issue will be edited by Luca Barra (Università di Bologna) and Valentina Re (Link Campus, Rome) who are seeking abstract submissions through April 30. There's more info on the Shots Magazine blog, including some suggested topics for consideration.

Shots also took a look ahead at the Chester Himes - Harlem Detective Series being released by Penguin Modern Classics on March 25, 2021. The stories of the pathbreaking Himes, one of crime fiction’s most overlooked writers, take the reader through the criminal underbelly of New York alongside hardboiled Harlem detectives "Coffin" Ed Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones.

Valentine's Day isn't always about love, as Janet Rudolph's updated Valentine's Day Crime Fiction list will attest.

Writing for The Guardian, Alison Flood investigated "Why Sherlock Holmes Has Become One Of Our Most Enduring Literary Characters." She takes note of some of the more recent entries, including Anthony Horowitz’s sequels; Andrew Lane’s tales of a teenage Holmes; basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's novels about Holmes’s older brother Mycroft; Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books, giving Holmes and Mycroft a younger sibling; James Lovegrove's combining the worlds of Holmes and HP Lovecraft in the Cthulhu Casebooks; Nicholas Meyer’s forthcoming The Return of the Pharaoh, drawn "from the Reminiscences of John H Watson, MD"; and Bonnie MacBird’s The Three Locks, a new Holmes adventure, which is out in March.

In Valerie Stivers’s Eat Your Words series for the Paris Review, she cooks up recipes drawn from the works of various writers. In her latest installment, she tackles Inspector Montalbano, the creation of one of Italy’s best-loved contemporary authors, Andrea Camilleri (1925–2019).

Over at the Venetian Vase blog, Steven Powell continued his series examining the musical influences in James Ellroy’s work, this time focusing on a single novel, Because the Night, Ellroy’s second novel in his Lloyd Hopkins trilogy.

Allison Epstein applied the Page 69 Test to her debut historical thriller, A Tip for the Hangman, which centers on Christopher Marlowe, a brilliant aspiring playwright, who is pulled into the duplicitous world of international espionage on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I; and Gwen Florio also applied the same test to Best Laid Plans, the first installment of a new mystery series.

The trend of celebrities writing crime fiction seems to have no end in sight, it seems. Even astronauts are jumping into the act.

If you're a fan of Nordic Noir novels, check out this list from Forbes on "Nordic Noir Travel: Scandinavia’s Top Crime Fiction Locations."

Here's a little throwback for you spy fans: a new phishing attack uses Morse code to allow hackers to hide malicious URLs.

Speaking of spying, one man learned the hard way that if you're going to commit a crime, you might be a little more aware of the apps you load onto your cellphone.

Ever wonder about where the term "bookworm" came from?

Will artificial intelligence ever take over the jobs of authors?

The latest flash fiction story at Shotgun Honey is "Remittences" by Pamela Ebel

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Anything Goes" by Tom Barlow.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews's Marshal Zeringue spoke with Jeri Westerson, the author of fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels, and also chatted with former teacher and linguist, Carol Wyer, about her new novel, An Eye for an Eye, which introduces DI Kate Young; and Walter Mosley offered up some background on his first thriller and how he went from working as a computer programmer in 1980's New York City to writing the iconic Devil in a Blue Dress.

Mystery Melange

The organizers of Granite Noir have announced that Aberdeen’s crime fiction festival will return between February 19-21, 2021 as an online celebration of the very best of home grown and international crime writing. The lineup includes Jo Nesbo and Camilla Lackberg who will lead the Nordic contingent, as well as Scottish authors Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride and Peter May, and American authors David Baldacci from Virginia and Attica Locke in Los Angeles. There will be additional authors, bloggers, and podcasters joining in, and a Bold New Voices Panel featuring the ones to watch. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Also on February 19, a panel called "Criminal Minds" (part of the 2021 Auckland Fringe Festival) will present 10 crime writers in 100 thrilling minutes on Facebook Live. Covering a criminally large range of small town crime to international espionage and finishing with a sliver of paranormal tension, these ten authors represent some of New Zealand’s best crime writers. Those scheduled to appear include John Ling, Ngaio Marsh Award finalists Nathan Blackwell and Nikki Crutchley, ex Police Officer Ian Austein, Amazon bestseller Kirsten McKenzie, emerging author Madeleine Eskedahl, comic horror author Andrene Low, serving police officer Angus McLean, award winner Michael Bennett, and more.

The Romantic Novelists’ Association announced the shortlists for their prestigious 2021 Romantic Novel Awards. The winners of the awards will be presented by actor and presenter Larry Lamb in a digital event on Monday 8th March. Among the nominees are those in the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award:

The Forgotten Sister, Nicola Cornick, HQ
The House by the Sea, Louise Douglas, Boldwood Books
Death Comes to Cornwall, Kate Johnson, Dash Digital, Orion
The Twins, Jane Lark, One More Chapter, HarperCollins
Escape to the Little Chateau, Marie Laval, Choc Lit

Combined print book and e-book sales hit 942 million units in 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan (for the US market), a 9% increase over 2019 and the most unit sales recorded in a single year by BookScan since the service was created in 2004. In a webinar held last week, Kristen McLean, executive director of NPD Books, said the gain was due to a combination of strong sales of both print and digital books. While this is good news for some publishers due to online sales, the news for shuttered and/or partially opened brick-and-mortar bookstores hasn't been as rosy.

For those fans of U.S. football, Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog gets ready for the "big game" with a list of "Murder at the Super Bowl and other Football Mysteries."

Sara Driscoll, the pen name of Jen J. Danna and Ann Vanderlaan who co-author the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries and the FBI K-9s series, applied the Page 69 Test to their latest FBI K-9s novel, Leave No Trace.

Via the Spybusters blog, "The Darwin Award for spying goes to..."

From the mysteries of science department comes this bit of fun news: Meet YInMn, the first new blue pigment in two centuries, created accidentally in 2009 by chemists at Oregon State University.

The featured monthly story at All Due Respect is "Any Deadly Thing" by Emily Bay Moore.

There's also a new story up at Punk Noir Magazine, "Shattered Delusions" by John Patrick Robbins.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Five Lips Kissing Back" by B. Frederick Foley.

In the Q&A spotlight, Joanna Schaffhausen, who holds a doctorate in psychology, stopped by Writer Interviews to reflect on her long-standing interest in the brain and to discuss her new novel, the fourth book in her Ellery Hathaway mystery series, Every Waking Hour.

Mystery Melange

On February 8, the Dallas Museum of Art will be hosting a virtual event with Walter Mosley in connection with his new novel, Blood Grove, the latest Easy Rawlins installment set among the sun-soaked streets of Southern California.

On Friday, March 5, NoirCon and The Projection Booth Podcast are teaming up to celebrate the birthday of noir icon David Goodis with a virtual watch party, celebrating the cinematic legacy of Goodis with a selection of films adapted from his books (and maybe a few TV shows, too).

On Tuesday, March 9, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, C.J. Box, heads to The Music Hall Loft's virtual stage as part of the Writers on in The Loft series, now being presented in an intimate, online format. Box will discuss his new mystery novel, Dark Sky, the latest adventure for Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett.

As part of the virtual SleuthFest conference this year, there will be a Noir at the Bar on March 19. Co-hosts E.A. Aymar and Raquel V. Reyes will be joined by authors JD Allen, Kellye Garrett, Catriona McPherson, and Alex Segura who will share readings from their works.

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Patricia Highsmith at 100 (1921-1995), several essays and articles have been pouring in, including Crime Reads's look at Highsmith and the women who inspired The Talented Mr. Ripley; LitHub's take on Patricia Highsmith’s confessions and rebellions at Yaddo, the legendary writers' retreat; and Bookmarks' study of classic and contemporary reviews of five iconic thrillers by Highsmith. The Guardian had three different articles, the first on the author's "twisted brilliance," the second on the best film adaptations of Highsmith's works, and the third, a review of the new biography, Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith, by Richard Bradford.

Do you know what really happens inside a crime lab? In "Blood, Powder, and Residue," Beth A. Bechky offers an ethnography of the world of criminalists, who sort through the evidence from crime scenes.

Author Jeannie Mobley took the "Page 69 Test" for her novel, The Jewel Thief, which centers on the only daughter of the King's crown jeweler, Juliette, who is accused by Louis XIV of stealing his most precious diamond, the large blue stone known as The French Blue.

Kings River Life Magazine featured "Crime writers of color coming attractions," a list of new releases from January through March.

America Reads profiled "Top 10 Female Assassin Books," while Book Riot compiled a list of "15 of the best feminist mystery novels."

Several bloggers are participating in "Short Story Wednesday"; this week, they include Jerry House's take on "The Red Face of Feerish Ali" by James Francis Dwyer (from Collier's, March 9, 1912; and Patti Abbott's feature of "A Short Guide to the City" by Peter Straub. Award-winning short author and editor, Art Taylor, also put together a list of recommended short-story collections (which includes several crime fiction titles) for a new course he's teaching at George Mason University.

Meet the book club that's helping to vaccinate its town.

As Lesa Holstein reported, last week we lost Sharon Kay Penman, bestselling historical novelist and mystery author, after a bout with cancer. She's perhaps best known as the author of nine critically acclaimed historical novels, but she also penned four medieval mysteries including The Queen’s Man, a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Taserman" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with British-born Allie Reynolds, a former freestyle snowboarder and English teacher, about her debut crime novel, Shiver; and 5 thriller and mystery writers — Michael Connelly, John Lescroart, Lee Goldberg, Penny Warner, and Catriona McPherson — weighed in California’s murderous appeal.

Mystery Melange

The Writers Police Academy is launching an online program with classes and workshops for writers featuring law enforcement and forensic procedures and the craft of storytelling. The first up will be on January 23, "Criminal Investigations: Writing Believable Make-Believe." This daylong live and interactive seminar features detailed instruction in cyber crime and security, crime scene mapping using lasers and drones, and sexual assault investigations. As a bonus, USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Lisa Regan, tells how to use the elements of fiction to craft a gripping crime novel. You can register for than and other upcoming courses via this link.

Exactly a 100 years ago, on January 21, 1921, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first novel by Agatha Christie was published in the UK. There have been many tributes and essays penned about the centennary, but if you're a fan of Christie and geography, you might check out this article by Sebastian Beck and Dominique Jeannerod on the International Crime Fiction blog. It takes a closer look at the different dimensions of space in the 45 novels featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and how the places where homicides were committed evolved over the course of Christie’s career.

If you're looking forward to staying inside with some good reading, the Rap Sheet blog has you covered with lists of new releases in the U.S. and UK for the first three months of 2021.

Netflix debuted its chilling true-crime documentary series, Night Stalker, on January 13, which tells the story of the law-enforcement officers who caught and apprehended Richard Ramirez, a serial killer and rapist who was active in California during the 1980s. As an adjunct to the series, The Wrap took a closer look at Frank Salerno, the detective who helped snag Ramirez in 1985.

Amazon.com and the "Big Five" publishers (Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster) have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago. The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York a week ago by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers "co-conspirators." It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as "Most Favored Nations" to keep ebook prices artificially high by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.

A couple of new essays at CrimeReads tackle the topics of mental illness, including Josh Stallings's piece on the need for "neurodiversity" in crime fiction since the human brain works in fascinating, diverse ways; and Frederick Weisel's deep dive into what the intersection of detective fiction and Alzheimer’s can tell us about the paths of mysteries and the course of this tragic disease.

Did you ever wonder where the tradition of bookplates came from? Wonder no more.

A new flash fiction story is up at Shotgun Honey, "Denied," by karen Harrington.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "January 6, 2021" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Murder Books welcomed Boston-based crime novelist Gabriel Valjan, author of the Roma Series, The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary mystery series, and a finalist for the Agatha and Anthony Awards; over at CrimeReads, Lee Child and Paraic O'Donnell discussed the history and significance of Jack Reacher in the context of "Moral Codes, Punching Nazis, and Human Evolution"; Lisa Haselton inverviewed cozy mystery author, G.P. Gottlieb, about her new culinary cozy novel, Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery; and Ace Atkins, the author who has continued Robert B. Parker's series featuring the iconic P.I., Spencer, talked true crime and Spenser’s hidden Auburn connection with Alabama Life & Culture.

Mystery Melange

Tonight, you can join in a webinar titled ''Murder for Sale: Raymond Chandler & James M. Cain Novels to Films," which begins at 8pm ET. Hosted by documentarian and author Steven C. Smith, the virtual experience will travel to sun-drenched California in the 1930s and '40s to explore the sinister origins of Cain and Chandler’s stories, which pitted Hollywood studio chiefs, screenwriters, and censors against one another over how to translate these explosive novels to the screen.

HarperFiction is launching Killing It: The Killer Reads Competition for Undiscovered Writers. The competition aims to open doors to crime writers who need a way into the publishing industry, and encourages submissions from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic writers in particular. Entrants are being asked to send the first 10,000 words of their crime, thriller or suspense novel, a short synopsis, and a bio by April 7, 2021. Three winners will be chosen to receive editorial reports from HarperFiction crime editors on their full manuscripts plus editorial mentoring (up to three one-hour sessions).

We lost crime fiction author, John Lutz, last week. John Lutz died at the age of 81 following a struggle will Lewy body dementia before he succumbed to Covid. Lutz was President of the Mystery Writers of America and the Private Eye Writers and won an Edgar winner for his short story, "Ride the Lightning." He also penned some fifty novels of political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur sleuth, thriller and just about every mystery sub-genre. His book, SWF Seeks Same was adapted for the film, Single White Female, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh). Another novel, The Ex, became an HBO movie. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

We also mark the passing of Eric Jerome Dickey, the bestselling novelist who blended crime, romance, and eroticism in Sister, Sister, Waking With Enemies, and dozens of other stories about contemporary Black life, who has died at age 59. Dickey was an aspiring actor and stand-up comic who began writing fiction in his mid-30s and became known for his witty, conversational, and sometimes graphic prose style, which brought him a wide readership, including his Gideon crime fiction series such as Sleeping With Strangers and Resurrecting Midnight.

Publishers Weekly has launched a new US publishing trade fair, following the retirement of BookExpo at the end of 2020. The US Book Show will debut virtually from 26th to 28th May this year, with attendees to include booksellers, librarians, publishers and literary agents from the US and internationally. There will be around five hours of programmed content a day to facilitate networking and parties as well as to accommodate those tuning in across different time zones.

A lovely old cinema in Devon that once reserved a balcony for the crime writer Agatha Christie – and a second one for her butler – is to be restored to its former glory. The Paignton Picture House on the English Riviera has been awarded a £200,000 grant from Historic England to refurbish intricate stonework and stained glass windows. Christie, who was born in Devon and kept a holiday home in the area, watched films from her special seat as her butler served her drinks and is believed to have used a thinly veiled version of the cinema in her fiction, calling it The Gaiety.

A rare second-edition novel written by one of the most popular writers of the 18th century has mysteriously appeared at a Perth library. Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) was described as a pioneer of gothic fiction and was one of the most popular writers of her time. A copy of her book, The Mysteries Udolpho, had a rather stranger and mysterious journey.

Writing for The Guardian, Carmen Maria Machado examined the "Twisted brilliance: Patricia Highsmith at 100," and the dark allure of the writer behind Ripley.

Writing for the Sunday Times, author Val McDermid explained why "Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage was my gateway drug."

In case you missed it, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting-rights advocate, Stacy Abrams, has a thriller being published in May. Abrams has already had romance novels published, but this will be her first crime fiction title, a Supreme Court thriller titled While Justice Sleeps, which is due out May 11.

Carolyn A. Conley, who spent her academic career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a focus on criminal violence in the British Isles, applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913. The book is the first empirical, quantitatively- as well as qualitatively-based study of women and homicide from the seventeenth century to the twentieth.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Free Delivery" by Max Thrax.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Monica Rodden about her debut, Monsters Among Us, and also spoke with Molly MacRae about her latest Highland Bookshop Mystery, Heather and Homicide; and over at the Writers Who Kill blog, E. B. Davis interviewed Jane Willan about Abide with Me, the third book in her Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn mysteries series.

Mystery Melange

The winner of the 2020 Staunch Prize is Heaven My Home by Attica Locke. Now in its third year, the prize is awarded to a novel in the thriller genre in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered. The other finalists include The Coldest Warrior by Paul Vidich; The Burning Island by Jock Serong; Glorious Boy by Aimee Liu; Death in Her Hands by Otessa Moshfegh; and The Chemical Reaction by Fiona Erskine.

The latest issue of Suspense Magazine is out, featuring interviews with Vanessa Lillie, Victoria Thompson, and Lisa Gardner; the usual enlightening book reviews and essays; and also the annual “Best of” list, including the Crimson Scribe award winner for the best book of the year.

This is a fascinating story. Writing for CrimeReads, Kathy Peiss recounted learning that her uncle, a Harvard librarian, was quietly recruited by the OSS during World War II to save the scattered books of Europe.

The Telegraph celebrated "100 years of Hercule Poirot," raising a glass to Agatha Christie's immortal mustachioed detective, as Dame Agatha's first book celebrates its centenary.

The latest story up at Beat to a Pulp is "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town," by Jeff Esterholm.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Driving Past the Oliver House" by Frederick Shiels.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Monica Rodden to talk about her new thriller, Monsters Among Us, about a survivor of dating violence who uses her newfound awareness of everyday evil to hunt for a killer; Rich Leder stopped by the Indie Crime Scene blog to discuss his book, Cooking for Cannibals, which he describes as a "wild ride for Sci Fi fans and thriller fans and readers who love humour that crosses the line—or totally obliterates it."; Deborah Kalb interviewed Robert McCaw to discuss Death of a Messenger, the latest installment of Hawaii-set Koa Kane series; and CrimeTime UK's Paul Burke spoke with ex-US Special Forces Colonel-turned author Brad Taylor about American Traitor, the new Taskforce thriller featuring Pike Logan and his team.

Mystery Melange

The Wolfe Pack organization announced the winners for the 2020 Nero Award and the Black Orchid Novella Award. The Nero Award is presented each year to an author for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories, and this year goes to David Baldacci's One Good Deed, the first in a new series featuring WWII veteran, Aloysius Archer. The Black Orchid Novella Award is presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout. This year's winner is Tom Larsen, whose story, "El Cuerpo en el Barril" ("The Body in the Barrel") will be published in the July issue of AHMM.

They've announced the winner and two runners-up in each of the two categories of the German Mystery Prize, awarded for the thirty-seventh time this year. The German winner is Zoë Beck's Paradise City, and the runners-up are Max Annas with Morduntersuchungskommission (Murder Investigation Commission) and Frank Göhre's Verdammte Liebe Amsterdam. The international winner is Denise Mina's Gods and Beasts, with Garry Disher's Hope Hill Drive and Kim Young-ha's Diary of a Murderer the runners-up.

Somehow, these deadlines slipped past me until now, but there are a couple of contests seeking submissions for first novelists due soon if you just happen to have an unpublished manuscript in your desk drawer. The St. Martin's Press Tony Hillerman Prize is accepting submissions for a debut mystery novel set in the American Southwest, with a prize of $10,000 advance against royalties and publication. The deadline for that one is January 2, 2021. Also, the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America Best First Crime Novel Competition is taking submissions from the author of any unpublished novel who is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel (except that authors of self-published works may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work). That one also has a prize of $10,000 advance, with a deadline of 11:59pm EST on January 1, 2021. Fortunately, you have more time to enter the CWA's Debut Dagger competition, with a deadline of February 26th.

Richard Osman became the first debut author to land the Christmas No 1 title on the bestseller lists in Britain with his book, The Thursday Murder Club, a cozy mystery about elderly sleuths. The book nudged out Barack Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land, and David Walliams's latest children's novel, Code Name Bananas, for the top slot.

Although many bookstores didn't survive the lockdowns and business stresses of pandemic 2020, the year turned out to be pretty good for publishers, thanks to so many folks stuck at home with time on their hands.

If you'd like to start off 2021 right, check out Mystery Fanfare's list of "New Year's Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, and Movies that take place at the New Year."

A couple of new essays up at CrimeReads take a look at "Why Classic Crime Fiction Was Obsessed With Fashion" and "The Best Loved Detective Agencies in Fiction."

I'm not sure how to feel about this, except to shake my head and agree with the hubster that "humans just aren't ready for prime time yet."

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Last Day, 1966" by Diana Powell Lukoff.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb chatted with Edwin Hill, author of the new mystery novel Watch Her, the third in his Hester Thursby series following Little Comfort and The Missing Ones; Punk Noir Magazine's John Wisniewski interviewed Dan Flanigan about his crime suspense novel, The Big Tilt, and his other writings; Irish crime writer Anthony J. Quinn discussed the real life inspiration behind his new thriller, Turncoat; and Author Interviews spoke with Edwin Hill, the Edgar- and Agatha-award nominated author of Little Comfort, The Missing Ones, and Watch Her.

Mystery Melange, Christmas Edition

 

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog featured its annual (and growing) list of Christmas-themed crime fiction, a list that's so large it's now split into several parts. You can check the list of novels and Christmas-themed short stories and novellas here.

Writing for The Guardian, Peter Swanson compiled a list of "Top 10 Christmas crime stories," from Dashiell Hammett to Agatha Christie and PD James, when the festive season has inspired some of fiction’s finest criminal minds.

What's it like to have to write Christmas books, including Christmas-themed mysteries year 'round? Just how do you get in the spirit outside December, even when writing during heatwaves? By drinking sherry, bingeing Downton Abbey, and more.

The authors at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have quite a few holiday recipe suggestions for you, including Apple Blueberry Holiday Scones from Daryl Wood Gerber; Chocolate Pecan Turtle Bars from Leslie Budewitz; Maw Maw’s Fudge (with Candy Cane Sprinkles) by Amy Pershing; Crinkled Chocolate Espresso Cookies with a Kick via Mary Jane Maffini and much more.

Writing for the Murder is Everywhere blog, Zoe Sharp discussed a celebration in Iceland that I've mentioned before, and one that I think we should start celebrating everywhere, namely, the Christmas book flood (Icelandic: Jólabókaflóðið). But all is not sugar and spice in that country ...check out this "Wicked Feline Murder Floof, a Yule Cat Story."

Was one of the best-loved and most iconic Christmas writings actually plagiarized? Over on the Sleuthsayers blog, Joseph D'Agnese notes that Clement Moore quite possibly did indeed steal the famous poem, "The Night Before Christmas" from a man named Henry Livingston Jr.

The Kings River Life MysteryRats Maze podcast had a couple of Christmas stories up, including the first chapter of the mystery novel, A Merry Christmas Anniversary Mystery, by Anna Celeste Burke as read by Julia Reimer and the story, "Dog’s Only Son" by Neil Plakcy, read by actor Thomas Nance. Also, KRL also had an online print story, "Lady Barbara’s Christmas Miracle: A Christmas Mystery Short Story" by Connie Berry.

Writers Who Kill also featured the story, "A Christmas Near Miss: Santa-Fairy and the Tooth Claus" by Tammy Euliano.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured Fei Wu's clever Christmas tale, "Beijingle All the Way," from the January/February 2020 issue, read by the translator of the story—and longtime contributor to EQMM—Josh Pachter.

If you'd like a little homicide with your holiday, Volume 2, issue 2 of Down & Out magazine has been released. Editor Rick Ollerman state that "We are fortunate to feature some of the correspondence between two legends of crime fiction, Walter Satterthwait and Bill Crider, both of whom recently passed away. For those who knew Walter and Bill, or were just fans of their work, there is a touch of their personalities that comes through in these exchanges and, at least for a moment, gives us an opportunity to experience their unique voices just a little bit, just one more time." There are also new original stories by James O. Born, Michael Cahlin, John M. Floyd, Arthur Klepchukov & Kyle Stout, Ken Luer, Stephen Marlowe, Steven Nester, Rick Ollerman, Josh Pachter, Walter Satterthwait, John Shepphird, Don Stoll, and Jeff Vorzimmer.

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is as close as Arthur Conan Doyle ever came to a Sherlock Holmes Christmas special, and Book Riot has a list of some of the most successful screen adaptations through the years.

From the real-life mystery department, The Guardian took a deep dive into the "tome raiders": an audacious book heist at Feltham in 2017 in which around 240 books and manuscripts were taken, including works by Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci and the 18th-century Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. The total value was estimated at more than £2.5m. According to Ellis, book theft has undergone an evolution over the past 10 to 15 years. "Prior to that, the theft of manuscripts and rare books was unusual, and quite often committed by people who had access." But it was only a matter of time before organized criminals spotted an opportunity.

From the real-life mystery department, part two, comes the question: Why are scammers conning famous (and even indie) authors into sending them unpublished manuscripts?

Unfortunately, there will be many sad news items this holiday season, including deaths from Covid-19. One such recent loss in the mystery community was mystery author Parnell Hall. Hall was the creator of a series with ambulance-chasing New York City private investigator Stanley Hastings and the "Puzzle Lady" Cora Felton series, as well as the screeenwriter for the 1984 cult classic, C.H.U.D. (HT to Mystery Fanfare) ZDF Enterprises bought the rights to the Puzzle Lady series in September for development as a TV series, with VP Robert Franke adding, "Parnell Hall has created, in The Puzzle Lady, a delightful character that has been described as 'Miss Marple on steroids.'"

Ever wonder what patrons are searching for in library catalogs? Proquest investigated and compiled a list of the top 2020 book searches, aggregated from all the public libraries that use Syndetics Unbound in the U.S. UK, Australia, and Canada.

Looking for some last-minute stocking stuffers? These phone cases for book lovers might fill the bill.