In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mystery Melange

Winners of the British Book Awards were announced this week, including the Crime and Thriller category, with Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker) snagging the top prize. The other finalists include All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Orion Fiction); Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (Zaffre); Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster); The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas (Penguin Michael Joseph); and We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Viking);

There are three crime excellent fiction conferences taking place this weekend. In addition to what is sadly the final installment of CrimeFest in the UK, which we've previously mentioned, there's also Sleuthfest in St. Petersburg, Florida. Although CrimeFest is geared as much toward readers and fans as authors, Sleuthfest is more of a writer's festival, which, as they note, "provides writers at any point in their publishing journey with techniques to improve their craft, information on publishing, marketing, and the business of writing, along with insight from best-selling authors, industry professionals, and forensics experts." Special guests this year include authors Lisa Unger, Michael Koryta, and Isabella Maldonado, and forensics expert, Dr. Katherine Ramsland. CrimeCon in Stamford, Connecticut, splits the difference, with a "Crime & Punishment" theme this year, where crime writers and experts look at the law from every angle. Featured authors include Lauren Willig, Hallie Ephron, Reed Farrel Coleman, Alex Segura, and more.

Noir at the Bar returns to Elaine's, 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, VA, Friday, June 6, from 6-9 pm EDT. Doors open at 5pm. There will be a meet-and-greet followed by readings from authors S.J. Rozan, Jeffrey Marks, Tom Milani, Elysia Whisler, Peter W.J. Hayes, Chris L. Robinson, Deb Merino, and Mark Bergin, moderated by thriller author and Elaine's owner, Jeffrey James Higgins. This is on the eve of ShortCon, the premier short-crime-fiction writer's conference. Attendance is free.

Author Don Winslow is "pausing" his retirement to write a new collection of short novels titled The Final Score. The deal was made quietly a few months ago, and it is now up for pre-orders on Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble prior to the official release on September 16. Winslow noted that "I don’t know if I am back for one more book or more...One day I just started writing again and I couldn’t stop. I wrote all of these stories in secret and for the first time in decades without a deadline. It felt good and I feel that two of these stories, Collision and The Final Score, are among the best work I’ve ever done." In addition to shopping those titles for film and TV deals, the author spent the past year reacquiring his backlist from various studios and streamers on adaptations of his film-friendly crime fiction projects that languished. That includes his Cartel book trilogy, the Godfather-like tale of the drug trade told in the global bestsellers The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border.

A short ghost story by Graham Greene described as "an eerie gem" was published for the first time in the 75th issue of Strand Magazine, a New York literary quarterly that has built a reputation for finding and publishing "lost" writings of well-known authors. Graham's tale, "Reading at Night," is a bit of a departure from his psychological and political thrillers including The Third Man and Our Man in Havana, and delves into a resurrection of "childhood fears and imagined horrors" experienced by a terrified solo male traveler as he reads supernatural stories in bed on a stormy night on the French Riviera. This same issue also makes widely available for the first time a previously little-known short story, "The Shameful Dream," by spy novelist Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series.

In more of the crime fiction-inspired summer travel ideas vein, K.W. Colyard traveled around the world via novels for BookRiot.

In the Q&A roundup, in a Q&A with Crime Reads, co-authors Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti discussed the art of collaborative writing, or "What Happens When a Journalist and a Psychotherapist Write a Mystery Together?"; Brendan Slocumb spoke with Deborah Kalb about his new novel The Dark Maestro; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with former journalist Andrew Lowe about writing his Creepy Crawly and the Jake Sawyer series; and Nerd Daily spoke with author Mia P. Manansala about Death in the Cards, her first YA mystery.

Mystery Melange

Book art by Thomas Wightman

The San Marino Public Library Foundation is hosting "A Conversation with Michael Connelly" on Friday, May 30, at 7 p.m. at the San Marino Community Center. Attendees will dive into the world of crime fiction with Connelly, the best-selling author of the "Harry Bosch" and "Lincoln Lawyer" series, as Connelly shares insights into his writing process and the inspiration behind his novels. Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning mystery author, will be the interviewer for the foundation. Connelly will also be signing copies of his latest novel following the talk. Proceeds from the event, which will have limited seating, benefits the Crowell Public Library. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, Surrey Libraries will feature an "Evening with Mark Billingham and Abir Mukherjee" as they discuss crime and thrillers and the long and often difficult road of writing, on Wednesday, June 25. Billingham is best known for his series with Tom Thorne and Detective Miller, and Mukherjee for his Wyndham & Banerjee novels. Book will be available for purchase, via Waterstones. Tickets are available via this link.

Noir at the Bar heads to Knoll's Bar in Laguna Niguel, California on Sunday, May 8, from 6:30-8:30pm. Authors currently scheduled to appear and read from their works include Eric Beetner, Matt Coyle, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Rachel Howzell Hall, Gary Phillips, and Halley Sutton, with Arvida Book Company on hand for sales.

There will be another Noir at the Bar at the Shade Bar in New York City on June 1st. Authors currently scheduled to appear include Christa Faust, Rob Hart, Alex Segura, K.T. Nguyen, Joshua Chaplinsky, Jordan Harper, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden, with Todd Robinson (aka "Big Daddy Thug") serving as host.

Some good news from journalist Barry Forshaw: Penguin is reissuing novels by one of the greatest of American crime fiction practitioners, the iconic Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), as part of the Penguin Modern Classics Crime series. The first three titles are set to publish on June 5 of this year, including Swag, The Switch, and Rum Punch, which Quentin Tarantino filmed as Jackie Brown. As Forshaw rightly notes, the centenary of Elmore Leonard’s birth takes place later this year, making this the perfect opportunity to revisit the "unmatched brilliance of the king of crime."

As part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer in Alaska Life, Reamer investigated how famous hard-boiled crime author Dashiell Hammett ended up stationed on Adak during World War II.

It's that time of year when many folks start thinking about travel plans, and Paul French takes us Down Under for a look at contemporary crime fiction in Perth and Western Australia.

Writing for India Today, Aditya Mani Jha reported on "India's Crime Fiction Wave," with a look at some recent books and conferences.

If you're a crime fiction fan and live in the UK, you might want to check out the magazine, "Cozy Crime Puzzles." (HT to Cross Examining Crime)

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover welcomed Croatian crime writer Jurica Pavičic, whose work will appear in English translation for the first time with Red Water; and Publishers Weekly chatted with historical mystery author, Antonia Hodgson, about The Raven Scholar, the first volume of the Eternal Path trilogy, and how she plans like a raven and writes like a fox.

Mystery Melange

Book art by Emma Taylor

The Los Angeles Times Book Awards were presented at the annual LA Times Festival of Books this past weekend during a ceremony at the University of Southern California’s Bovard Auditorium. The 2025 winner of the Mystery/Thriller category was Danielle Trussoni for The Puzzle Box. The other finalists include: Christopher Bollen, Havoc; Michael Connelly, The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel; Attica Locke, Guide Me Home: A Highway 59 Novel; and Liz Moore, The God of the Woods.

A longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year was also revealed last weekend. Harrogate International Festivals announced the 18 titles competing for the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award, now in its twenty-first year. The longlist, selected by an academy of journalists, reviewers, booksellers, bloggers, an podcasters and representatives from within the industry, "showcases innovative, original and entertaining stories, with global bestsellers and new talent vying for the coveted award." Readers are now encouraged to vote for their favorite novels to reach the shortlist, with the winner crowned on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday, July 17.

Kensington's Cozy Con heads to Marietta, Georgia on Sunday, May 4, from 10am to 4pm at the Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center. Authors Ellery Adams, Valerie Burns, Lynn Cahoon, Kemper Donovan, Dianne Freeman, Debra H. Goldstein, Traci Hall, Molly Macrae, Roz Noonan, and Allie Pleite will be on hand for talks and book signings. Refreshments and swag bags will also be available for attendees. You can register via the following link.

National Crime Reading Month in the UK (held throughout June) will kick off with a free online panel event, "The Lives of Crime," on June 4, featuring bestselling authors Vaseem Khan, Adele Parks, Fiona Cummins, and Penny Batchelor. The panel will explore the genre’s universal appeal – from psychological thrillers to cozy mysteries – and how it creates accessible pathways to reading for audiences who might otherwise never discover the joy of books. You can register for this free event by following this link.
 

Although this one will be a bit pricey for most of us, the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival, held from May 2-4 in San Francisco, will include appearances by best-selling authors Isabel Allende, Michael Connelly, Percival Everett, and many more, using a "TED Talk" style format that includes the main tent and breakout sessions. Passes for the three-day event start at $1,500.

On May 5, the popular literary event Noir at the Bar comes to Buffalo, New York, at Charlie’s Boatyard, located at 1111 Fuhrmann Boulevard. This event brings together crime fiction fans and authors for an unforgettable evening of live readings, cocktails, and conversation. Hosted by Jim Creahan and Tom McDonnell, this installment of Noir at the Bar will include Gary Earl Ross, Sandra Block, Stephen G. Eoannou, A.M. Loweecey, John Schreier, Lissa Marie Redmond, Jeff Schober, Bill Metzger and special guest, poet Kate McGreevy.

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of British broadcaster BBC, and the Agatha Christie estate have teamed up to launch a writing course on the educational streaming service BBC Maestro taught by Christie herself—although to be fair, it's actually actress Vivien Keene aided by AI, using the author’s own words. (The actress was chosen primarily by considering the biometrics of her face for the visuals, and for the audio, Christie’s and the actress’ voices were put together). The project's creators used meticulously restored archival interviews, private letters, and writings researched by a team of Christie experts for the pioneering course, which reconstructs Christie’s own voice and insights, guiding you through the art of suspense, plot twists and unforgettable characters. Nicki Sheard, CEO of brands and licensing at BBC Studios, added, “Agatha Christie was an icon of British storytelling, and to be able to deploy this technology in a way that is ethical and thoughtful, to both honor her legacy and bring her genius to a new generation in a fresh and different way, is a great thing to be able to do."

This is a fun event I'd like to see more of: the 16th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF) at the Expo Centre Sharjah, in the UAE, includes the Sherlock Holmes Exhibition, recreating iconic scenes from Sherlock’s world and encouraging children to solve clues and crack mysteries just like the legendary detective. Through hands-on exploration, kids build critical thinking skills while enjoying an exciting adventure and hopefully developing an appreciation for the mystery genre.

It seems a little early to start with the "best" lists, but Irenie Forshaw at The Week, Jamie Canaves at Book Riot, and editors at The Times compiled lists of their picks for the best crime fiction "so far" in 2025.

Happy anniversary to Stark House Press, celebrating 25 years of bringing many authors and their work back into print, particularly from the hardboiled and noir era of the fifties and sixties.

In the Q&A roundup, thriller author Kay Sparling chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new feminist cold war spy thriller, Mission THAW; Karen Rose Smith (Daisy’s Tea Garden Mysteries, Caprice De Luca Home-Staging Mysteries, and the Tomes & Tea Mystery Series) applied the Page 69 Test to her latest Tomes & Tea mystery, Booked for Revenge; U.S. playwright, Ken Ludwig, spoke with The Guardian about adapting Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile; S. A. Kazlo was interviewed by E. B. Davis over at the Writers Who Kill blog about A Pawsome Summer For Murder, the seventh book in the Samantha Davies mystery series; and Anne Hillerman spoke with Cowboys & Indians about her father's legacy, finding her own voice, and Dark Winds.

Mystery Melange

Book art by Emma Taylor

The 37th Annual Publishing Triangle Awards were held at The New School in New York City last week with a celebration of LGBTQ+ literary excellence. With ten categories, this year’s ceremony spotlighted some of the most powerful voices in queer literature published in the previous year, including Margot Douaihy, winner of the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ Crime Writing. Previous winners of the Hansen Award (established in 2023), recognizing an outstanding work of crime fiction or nonfiction, include Val McDermid in 2023 and J.M. Redmann in 2024.

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards Contest is accepting submissions. The awards are a way to offer encouragement and opportunity to all writers in a variety of ways and also to support diverse and marginalized voices. If you are an unpublished writer of commercial novel-length fiction, this is your chance to win a prize, get quality feedback, and have your work seen by literary agents and editors. The submission deadline is May 19. Last year's Mystery/Thriller winner was The Almost Death of Silla Foster by Becky Munyon.

A quartet of great crime fiction conferences will happen this weekend on both sides of the Atlantic. On the European side, we have the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival in Aberystwyth, Wales, with various panels, a Noir at the Bar, and the presentation of the CRIME CYMRU First Novel Prize in both English and Welsh; plus Skulduggery in Stowmarket in the UK will feature talks by six best-selling and award-winning crime and thriller novelists. On the U.S. side, the West Coast hosts the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books with several crime fiction-themed panels and the announcement of the 2025 Book Awards winners; while the East Coast has Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, with a weekend of author panels and the unveiling of the Agatha Award winners.

Our Friday, June 13th, a Women In Noir event will be held at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, New York, featuring an immersive multimedia program with readings by acclaimed bestselling crime and thriller fiction writers Margot Douaihy, Jode Millman, and Julia Dahl, in conversation with NYC Writers Studio’s Cynthia Weiner, and TownSquare Media’s Jackie Corley.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby turns 100, Chistopher Chambers makes the case for reading Gatsby as noir crime fiction.

This week, we celebrated Earth Day, and Janet Rudolph posted some environmental/ecological mysteries on the Mystery Fanfare blog.

An exhibition is on display in the Upper Reading Room of New College Library in Oxford, UK, about a leading figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and one of New College’s most popular authors, Cyril Hare (1900–1958).

If you find yourself in Paris, France, the Galerie du Montparnasse is hosting the rather macabre Serial Killer Exhibition (although in addition to exploring the workings of crime, there is an effort to pay tribute to the memory of the victims). Billed as "the world's largest collection of original artifacts belonging to serial killers," the exhibition includes over 1,000 original artifacts - such as Jeffrey Dahmer's glasses and Armin Meiwes's refrigerator - as well as recreations of infamous crime scenes like those of Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer and documents and drawings of the most famous killers made by themselves.

Also in the true-crime realm, the True CRIME Museum in White Rock, Hastings in the UK is featuring a talk on May 11 by the Curator, Joel Griggs. The True CRIME Museum is dedicated to the history of crime and punishment with even more macabre artifacts from the criminal world (and yes, more serial killers), including a step back into Victorian London with stories of Jack the Ripper, and a glimpse into the mind of a killer through Richard Ramirez’s haunting love letters.

Was Edgar Allan Poe a time traveler?

In the Q&A roundup, Julie Mae Cohen took the Page 69 Test to her new romantic thriller, Eat, Slay, Love; the Seattle Times interviewed Matthew Sullivan about his latest novel, Midnight in Soap Lake, set in a small Washington town; and Norwegian crime fiction author Jo Nesbø reflected on writing, characters, and the shadow of Harry Hole with The Iceland Monitor.

Mystery Melange

It's been a sad time recently in the crime fiction community. As I previously noted, we lost Irish author Ken Bruen (the Jack Taylor series) on March 29 and Australian author Kerry Greenwood (the Miss Phryne Fisher series) on March 26. This past week we lost another crime fiction icon when British author Peter Lovesey passed away at the age of 88. Lovesey published over 40 novels and short story collections, including a series featuring Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London; a series with Bertie, the Prince of Wales, as an inept amateur sleuth; a series with Hen Mallin, a female Chief Inspector; and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. The long-running Diamond series has won two Silver Daggers and a number of other awards, including the Anthony, the Barry and the Macavity, and Lovesey's work has been adapted for radio, TV and film. We also saw the loss of another bestselling crime fiction writer, Andrew Gross, who had been battling from cancer for some time, at age 72. Best known for his collaborations with suspense writer James Patterson, Gross also penned several bestselling solo novels, including the Ty Hauck series. And last but not least, Kathy Harig has passed away. Kathy and her husband Tom have been tireless supports of the mystery community via their Maryland bookshop, Mystery Loves Company, which was the 2007 recipient of the Raven Award, presented by MWA for "outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing."

The British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) this week announced the longlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, honoring the best in the crime-writing genre in eleven categories. The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced later in the year on May 29, with the winners revealed at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 3. Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: "Once again our independent and rotating judging panels have come up with surprises galore, highlighting the impressive efforts of both major authors and newcomers, with a convincing demonstration of how diverse and talented the crime, mystery and thriller field is at present. A wonderful embarrassment of outstanding titles."

Winners were announced for the The Florida Book Awards, an annual award since 2006 that honors and celebrates the literature by Florida authors and books about Florida published in the previous year. The four winners in the Popular Fiction category were all crime-themed novels, including the Gold winner, Terra Incognita by Steph Post; Silver winner, Edison’s Last Breath by Patrick Kendrick; Bronze winner, Diamond Cut by Thomas B. Cavanagh; and Honorable Mention, Murder of a Dead Man by Holly Newman.

The winners of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Readers Choice Award were announced via the Short Mystery Fiction Society's newsgroup and were also published in the May/June 2025 print edition. The top three included "Shall I Be Mother?" by David Dean; "Jennifer's Daughter" by Doug Allyn; and "Double Parked" by Twist Phelan.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) announced the finalists for the 37th annual IBPA Book Award, honoring the best independently published books of 2024. The three finalists in the Mystery/Thriller category include Bone Pendant Girls by Terry S. Friedman (CamCat Books); Hazardous Lies by Stephen J. Wallace (River Grove Books); and Sing for the Red Dress: Smokey River Suspense Series by Joseph M. Marshall III (Lucid House Publishing). Gold winners will be revealed on May 16, 2025, during the IBPA Book Award ceremony at the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Independent publisher Joffe Books has acquired publisher The Book Folks from previous owner Erik Empson. Founded in 2014, The Book Folks specializes in crime fiction, and Joffe will be taking over the list of around 400 books and 40 authors, as well as continuing to publish existing authors under The Book Folks imprint. In good news for staffers, all members of The Book Folks personnel will be retained.

Iceland has its Christmas Book Flood, but Norway has its own celebration for Easter called Påskekrim, or Easter Crime, a long-standing and uniquely Norwegian tradition that goes back almost 100 years. During the Easter holiday break, Norwegians love to consume crime fiction in books, TV, movies, and even radio. I say we adopt both of those literary traditions around the world!


In the Q&A roundup, Suspense Radio host Tracey Devlyn sat down with New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose to chat about her new cozy mystery, The Maid's Secret; and Lisa Haselton spoke with mystery author Laury A. Egan about her new crime fiction novel, Fair Haven.

Mystery Melange

Australian author Kerry Greenwood, who wrote the Phryne Fisher historical detective series, has died following an illness at age 70. Greenwood published the first Phryne Fisher novel, Cocaine Blues, in 1989 and went on to write 22 novels featuring the glamorous 1920s detective. An ABC TV adaptation of the series, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012), starred Essie Davis in the lead role and ran for three seasons. A spin-off set in the 1960s, Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries, and a 2020 feature film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears, followed. Greenwood, who was also known for the Corinna Chapman mysteries, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2020. Greenwood's latest novel, Murder in the Cathedral — number 23 in the Phryne Fisher series — is due out late in 2025.

On Thursday, April 24, a "Not-Just-Noir at the Bar" hits Elaine's, at 208 Queen Street in Alexandria, Virginia. Get ready for a night of dark, mysterious and sometimes funny live storytelling from a group of talented crime fiction writers: E.A. Aymar, Chris Chambers, Tara Laskowski, Adam Meyer, Tom Milani, K.T. Nguyen, Art Taylor, and Stacy Woodson, hosted by Alan Orloff. This event is free and open to the public.

Between 2013 and 2020 Penguin (UK) published new translations of the 75 Maigret-novels by Georges Simenon, as well as some of the romans durs, with many also made available in the US market. Now Picador is bringing out the whole Maigret set in US editions. As Publishers Weekly noted, Picador (the paperback imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux) will largely use the translations published by Penguin, though some titles will receive new translations. Reissues of thirty of his standalone psychological noirs — which Simenon himself called romans durs, or "hard novels" — will follow beginning in winter 2026. Picador is working closely with John Simenon, the late author’s son, whom FSG president and publisher Mitzi Angel called "a wonderful partner with us in thinking about how we might present the work, who we might involve, how to describe the work." Simenon, who died in 1989 at the age of 86, is one of the bestselling authors of the 20th century, and was extraordinarily prolific in his lifetime. His oeuvre, consisting of more than 200 novels, has been translated into dozens of languages, with some estimates placing worldwide sales of his books at around 600 million print copies. (HT to M.A.Orthofer at the Literary Saloon)

In honor of National Library Week in the U.S., Janet Rudolph compiled a listing of library-themed mysteries for her Mystery Fanfare blog. (Since my mother was a librarian, this is a topic near and dear to my heart.)

Although I'm always a bit skeptical of such studies, researchers at Cloudwards scoured Google Trends data to determine which genres captivate readers most across different states, showing a geographical breakdown for each state's #1 most popular genre. According to their tally, romance tops the list in 22 states, while mystery fiction is only king in one single state—California.

In the Q&A roundup, Leslie Karst applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Waters of Destruction, the second in the Orchid Isle mystery series; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Nick Quantrill, author of the Joe Geraghty novels, about his new title with a new protagonist – a young journalist called Yaz Moy; and Writers Who Kill interviewed Michael Rigg, whose debut novel, Voices of the Elysian Fields, features Jonathan Gray, M. D., Chief Deputy Coroner for Orleans Parish.

Mystery Melange

Very sad news this week, via the Connacht Tribune in Galway, noting the passing of Irish crime writer Ken Bruen, who has died at the age of 74. Bruen wrote some 50 books in total including the Jack Taylor crime series, was a past winner of the Shamus Award for best crime novel of the year, and also won the Macavity Award, the Barry Award, and the Edgar Award. His 2001 novel, London Boulevard, became a 2010 film starring Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell, and nine of Bruen's other novels were adapted into a long-running TV series in 2010, starring Iain Glen and Killian Scott.

Marion Brunet has won the 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), a prestigious honor bestowed by the Swedish government and named after Astrid Lindgren, who passed away in 2002, to increase interest in children's and young adult literature worldwide. Brunet has previously won the crime fiction prize Grand prix de littérature policière (2018), and her novel, Summer of Reckoning, translated by Katherine Gregor and published by Bitter Lemon Press, was shortlisted for the 2020 CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger. Ironically, the French author's books have been translated into English, Spanish, Catalan, and Russian, but not Swedish.

Spring brings the cherry blossoms to the D.C. area, but it also marks the flowering of the crime fiction conference season. Coming up this weekend is Southern Fried Con in Eatonton GA (presented in partnership with the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and the Georgia Writers Museum), with Keynote Speaker, Wanda Morris. On the other side of the Atlantic, the 21st Quais du Polar returns to Lyon, France, with panels and talks by 100+ international authors, including Linwood Barclay, James Ellroy, Lisa Gardner, Paula Hawkins, Arnaldur Indriðason, Attica Locke, Deon Meyer, Bernard Minier, Douglas Preston, and more.

The London crime fiction conference, Capital Crime, has announced the full program for 2025, returning to the Leonardo Royal Hotel, on June 13th and 14th June, with the Fingerprint Awards revealed on the 12th. Authors scheduled to attend include Michael Connelly, Adele Parks, Vaseem Khan, Andrew Child, Steph McGovern, Louise Minchin, AA Dhand, Linwood Barclay, Karin Slaughter, Richard Armitage, Dorothy Koomson, Ruth Ware, Chris Chibnall, Lisa Jewell and Nick Harkaway.

Noir at the Bar returns to Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Fine Wine, located at 114 W King Street in the heart of historic Hillsborough, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on April 10th. Hosted by Tracey Reynolds, the event will feature eight celebrated crime authors reading short excerpts from their work: Eryk Pruitt, Robert Gipe, Wes Browne, Morgan Sullivan, Sarah Smith, Meagan Lucas, Russell Johnson, and Chris Holaday. Noir at the Bar events are free to attend and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to arrive early for optimal seating, as these events typically draw a standing-room-only crowd.

Crime fiction fans in India had a reason to celebrate recently with the debut Kolkata Crime Writers’ Festival, an event that flew under my radar until now. The idea of the festival was conceived by Storyteller Bookstore owner Mayura Misra and author Amrita Mukherjee, when they realized there isn’t anything happening in the city specifically dedicated to this genre. Leading up to the festival, they also organized an online short story competition in the crime-thriller genre for young authors. Here's hoping the event returns again next year.

Mystery Readers Journal received so many articles and reviews for its London-themed submission call, they had to divide the material into two issues. The second of those editions, London Mysteries II is now available as a PDF and hardcopy. There also two contributions you can read online, including an article by Aubrey Nye Hamilton, "The Lost Rivers of London," and the Author Author essay, "Why I Write About London" by Rhys Bowen.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Bryan Gruley, the Edgar-nominated author of six novels, who is also a journalist, sharing in The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks; and mystery author Lee Upton chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new novel, Wrongful, about a famous novelist goes missing at the festival devoted to celebrating her work.

Mystery Melange

The bidding for items in the Crime Writers for Trans Rights 2025 auction opened yesterday and continues through April 1. You can bid on a wonderful range of items, including from some of the most celebrated voices in crime and crime-adjacent fiction, with all proceeds given to the Transgender Law Center to help further their important work. Items include everything from a manuscript critique by William Kent Krueger, to various signed books and book club appearances by bestselling authors, to conference admissions, and much more.

CrimeFest has announced DG Coutinho as the recipient of its 2025 bursary for a crime-fiction writer of color. The bursary covers the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, plus Coutinho will appear on a panel at the conference. Coutinho has also won the Bloody Scotland Harvill Secker Crime Writing Competition for under-represented writers, and is the author of The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin (Harvill Secker), a darkly comic thriller exploring toxic work culture. Last year, the organizers announced that this year’s convention will be the last to be hosted in Bristol after 16 years, and will feature a lineup of authors including Lee and Andrew Child, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis and Martin Edwards, among others.

To mark the end of Britain’s long-standing crime fiction convention, CrimeFest organizers have compiled a new anthology, with proceeds of its sale going the Royal National Institute of Blind (RNIB) library. CrimeFest: Leaving the Scene will feature short stories by authors who have had a close relationship with CrimeFest over the years, including Jeffrey Deaver, Lindsey Davis, Simon Brett, Martin Edwards, Cathy Ace, Vaseem Khan, Maxim Jakubowski, and Donna Moore. The foreword is by Lee Child, who attended the very first convention and was a Featured Guest at the fifth and tenth anniversaries of CrimeFest. The book will be available for general sale on August 28, 2025, with an early copy exclusively gifted to each of the first 450 registered Full Pass Holders at the final CrimeFest, which is hosted in Bristol from May 15 to 18.

The Broward, Florida Public Library Foundation is holding the LitLive! event in the Horvitz Auditorium at the NSU Art Museum on Friday, March 28 from 5:30-8:30 pm. A mystery panel will be moderated by Oline Cogdill and feature authors Jeffery Deaver (Fatal Intrusion), Wanda M. Morris (What You Leave Behind), Alex Segura (Alter Ego), and Lauren Willig (The Girl from Greenwich Street). The event is free and open to the public, with a percentage of all book sales benefiting the Library Foundation.

The Avon Public Library is hosting a "Murder, Mayhem, and Mystery" writers panel on Tuesday April 8th at 6:30 pm to celebrate National Library Week. Authors Sarah P Blanchard, Addison McKnight (Nicole Moleti and Krista Wells), Glen Ebisch, and Chris Knopf will discuss here their ideas come from, how they plot the twists and turns, and how they develop their characters.

Over at the Rap Sheet, Jeff Pierce has a handy list of some new crime fiction titles being released in March and April in the U.S. and UK.

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. Art Taylor has continued the series on his blog following the death of Stevens, with the latest essay featuring Fleur Bradley. The author, who has published several novels for younger readers, including Midnight at the Barclay Hotel and Daybreak on Raven Island, discusses her new story, "Sunday in the Park with George," for the anthology, Every Day A Little Death: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Stephen Sondheim, edited by Josh Pachter.

In the Q&A roundup, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, author of 10 mystery novels and two nonfiction books and editor of a short-story anthology, applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, The Mailman, a Library Journal pick of the month; and Crime Fiction Lover welcomed Fiona Forsyth to discuss historical crime fiction and her latest novel, Death and the Poet, in we slip back to 14AD to meet the Roman poet Ovid who is tasked with solving the murder of Dokimos, the vegetable seller.

Mystery Melange

The Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Association announced its latest Dove Awardee: David Geherin, professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University, who is an Edgar nominee in the Best Critical/Biographical category this year for Organized Crime on Page and Screen. He received earlier Edgar nominations for The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations (2022); Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction (2008; also nominated for a Macavity Award), and The American Private Eye: The Image in Fiction (1985). The award, given to individuals who have contributed to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction, honors well-known mystery scholar George N. Dove. Past recipients include Frankie Y. Bailey, Martin Edwards, Barry Forshaw, Douglas G. Greene, P.D. James, Christine Jackson, H. R. F. Keating, Margaret Kinsman, Maureen Reddy, Janet Rudolph, J. K. Van Dover, and Elizabeth Foxwell. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog)

C.J. Box, the award-winning author of over 30 novels including the highly acclaimed Joe Pickett series, will be the featured speaker at Jefferson County Public Library’s Spring Author Event from noon to 4 p.m., March 29 at Mile Hi Church, 9077 W. Alameda Ave. in Lakewood, Colorado. Box, a recipient of Edgar, Anthony, Macavity Award, and the Barry Awards, is known for his gripping crime fiction and compelling portrayals of the American West, and has also served as an executive producer for two television adaptations of his work. His latest novel, Battle Mountain, was released in February. The Spring Author Event will also include an author panel featuring Barbara Nickless, Manuel Ramos, Emily Littlejohn, Erika T. Wurth, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden, with Carter Wilson serving as the emcee.
 

Noir at the Bar returns March 22nd, 7pm, to the Los Angeles area at the Book Jewel in Westchester, 6259 W. 87th Street. The event will include readings from Adam Sikes, Caitlin Rother, Sean Jacques, DC Frost, John McMahon, Jeffrey Messineo and Eric Beetner, as well as celebrating the release of Eric's new book, Real Bad, Real Soon.

The next Mystery Writers of America's MWA University is scheduled for Tuesday, March 25 at 8 p.m. EDT via Zoom. The time is "Crime Is Kid’s Stuff," writing mysteries for middle-grade and YA. Join authors Michael Thomas Ford, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, and Fleur Bradley Visscher for a discussion about the ins and outs of writing YA/Juvenile mysteries, how to pick your crime, navigate difficult topics, and hone that elusive voice. There will also be time for Q&A with these award-winning MWA authors. Registration for the event is free for MWA members and $20 for non-members.

A two-part event on Tuesday, March 25th at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland, will feature crime fiction experts and novelists discussing the knotty issue of translation and influence. The first event, from 4-5pm, is "Translating the American Hardboiled Greats: Raymond Chandler, David Goodis and Horace McCoy," and includes Benoît Tadié in conversation with QUB’s Dominique Jeannerod and Andrew Pepper. Professor Tadié is the French translator of Raymond Chandler’s Le Grand Sommeil / The Big Sleep and a collection of Horace McCoy’s Black Mask short stories, Les Rangers du Ciel, for Gallimard’s world renowned Série noire, where he has also worked on some of the greatest US hard-boiled novels. From 5:30-7pm, Gerard Brennan, Sharon Dempsey, Brian McGilloway, and Anthony Quinn will discuss the current state of Irish / Northern Irish crime fiction, about how well and far their work travels to other places and cultures, and about the nature of their own reading tastes and influences.

On Saturday, March 29 at 2pm, in the UK's Wolfson Centre, Library of Birmingham, there will be a panel discussion with top crime and thriller authors, including former policeman Paul Finch and authors Andy Conway, AA Abbott, and Ryan Stark, who share how they craft page-turning mysteries, build suspense, and create unforgettable characters that keep readers hooked.

Leading up the Ngaio Marsh Awards are a couple of events featuring various aspects of crime/thriller writing. The first event takes place Thursday, April 3, at Old Masonic Hall, in Warkworth, New Zealand and includes Swedish-born bestselling author Madeleine Eskedahl (who sets her popular mysteries in the Matakana wine region) in conversation by past Ngaio Marsh Awards winner Fiona Sussman, TV producer and true crime writer Angus Gillies, and Hibiscus Coast author and first-time crime writer Robyn Cotton. The second event is April 10 at the Davis Library, in Whanganui, New Zealand, where Ngaio Best Novel winner Charity Norman will chair a fascinating panel discussion with pathologist and past Ngaio Best Non-Fiction finalist, Cynric Temple-Camp; Manawatū mystery writer and Queer Indie Award nominee, GB Ralph; and TV producer and past Ngaio Best First Novel finalist, Stephen Johnson.

A collaboration between researchers at Monash University and the University of Newcastle, Australia, in association with the Australian Research Council, is inviting crime fiction academics, authors, and fans to participate in a project on world crime fiction by completing a survey on the development of different crime fiction traditions. The project aims to produce an online map of the historical development of the genre around the world. This map will be publicly available and be a future resource for researchers and fans of this popular genre. The survey is anonymous and will take between 30 minutes and 1 hour to complete. You can answer as many or as few questions as you wish. You may also be offered the opportunity to take part in an optional follow-up interview.

Florida State University's London Study Centre is sponsoring a "Golden Age Crime Fiction and Trauma Conference" in London from September 12-13. They have placed a call for papers on the theme, "Silent Echoes: Golden Age Crime Fiction and Trauma." Papers should examine how, to what extent, and with what implications – textual, literary, sociocultural, political, medical, legal, and historical – the concept of trauma shaped crime writing between the 1910s and the 1950s. The conferences hopes to explore the influence of trauma on a variety of aspects (daily life, mental health, gender roles and relations, the environment, levels of violence, cultural memory, national identity, medical theory, and legal practice), examining how Golden Age crime fiction articulates the spatial, temporal, and psychic echoes of trauma.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover welcomed Miles Joyner, a new crime author based in Washington, DC, who is about to release his debut techno thriller, Bazaar, the first in a a proposed series; and Deborah Kalb chatted with Tess Gerritsen, author of the new novel, The Summer Guests, featuring retired CIA operative Maggie Bird.

Mystery Melange

Mount Rushmore Made From Old Phone Books by Long-bin Chen

Wyoming's Craig Johnson, author of the "Longmire" series, is the 2025 winner of the Owen Wister Award, the highest honor given by Western Writers of America in recognition of lifetime contributions to the genre. Originally given for "best book of the year," it was expanded in 1967 to include anyone advancing Western literature. Previous winners include Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, and Loren D. Estleman.

Foreword Book Reviews announced the finalists for the INDIES Book of the Year Awards, including the dozen titles in both the Mystery and Thriller categories. Winners in each genre, along with Editor’s Choice Prize winners and Foreword’s Indie Publisher of the Year, will be announced in June 2025.

Several crime writers are putting together an auction for trans rights, with all proceeds going to the Transgender Law Center, an organization providing legal protections for trans adults and youth in the United States. The auction runs March 26-April 1, and includes writers like David Baldacci, Gillian Flynn, Roxane Gay, Ann Cleaves, S.A. Cosby, Megan Abbott, Kellye Garrett, Louise Penny, Alex Segura, Robyn Gigl, Gigi Pandian, and a lot more donating prizes for the cause. Check out all of the participating writers (as well as agents, organizations, bookstores, and more) and prizes via this link.

Alex Mattingly (aka Craig Francis Coates) is establishing a new crime/mystery publication for short fiction. Cold Caller is currently seeking stories of 2-6,000 words about "bad decisions and worse consequences; unlucky losers who can't catch a break; grifters and con men convinced they're about to score big; good men and women who have very good reasons to do terrible things." For more information, follow this link.

Mystery Readers Journal is seeking articles, reviews, and author essays about mysteries that focus on retail sales (shops, stores, and retail sales settings). Author Essays (500-1,000 words) are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "Retail Sales" connection, while articles on the topic should also be 500-1,000 words, and reviews 50-250 words.

Janet Rudolph posted a list of St. Patrick's Day themed Crime Fiction and mysteries.

This is almost more of a Media Murder for Monday item, but The John Wick Experience, based on the $1 billion-grossing "John Wick" movie franchise, is now open to the public. The 12,000-square-foot an immersive attraction is located at AREA15 (where Universal will soon open a year-round horror experience) and includes more than a dozen highly themed cinematic rooms, live interactions and interactive gameplay, two themed bars, and a retail shop.


In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Clea Simon, author of three nonfiction books and 32 cozy mysteries and suspense novels, most recently the psychological suspense title, The Butterfly Trap; mystery author Darlene Dziomba chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new cozy release, Assault & Gobblery; Tessa Wegert, author of the Shana Merchant series, stopped by Promoting Crime Fiction to discuss her writing and her latest book, The Coldest Case; and David Ellis, a Judge and an Edgar-award-winning author of ten novels of crime fiction, as well as eight books co-authored with James Patterson, stopped by WGN radio to talk about his writing style and how he goes about writing crime novels.