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

Mystery Writers of America announced that the 2022 Grand Master will be Laurie R. King, bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories. MWA also announced that the Raven Award recipient, recognizing achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing, is librarian, blogger, and book reviewer, Lesa Holstine. The Ellery Queen Award recipient, which honors "outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry," is Juliet Grames, Associate Publisher at Soho Press, where she has curated the award-winning Soho Crime imprint since 2011. The honorees will accept their awards at the 76th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony on April 28, 2022, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

Aspiring crime novelists have until the end of February to enter the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Debut Dagger, sponsored by ProWritingAid. Shortlisted authors often get representation by literary agents, with a number going on to get publication deals. Budding authors are invited to submit the opening 3,000 words and a synopsis of the full novel of up to 1,500 words before the competition deadline of 6pm GMT on Monday, February 28, 2022. The competition is only open to writers who have never had a novel or novella published in any genre, or self-published one within the last 5 years. However authors of published short stories are eligible, as are authors of published non-fiction. For full rules, and to enter, go to Competitions on the CWA website.

The lists of crime fiction titles to look forward to in the new year continue to grow, including Jeff Pierce's annual tally over at The Rap Sheet blog, with new-release lists through February for both the U.S. and U.K.

As the Northern Hemisphere shivers in the throes of a January deep-freeze, it seems like the perfect time to take a look at Crime Fiction set in Antarctica, courtesy of CrimeReads.

In a previous Mystery Melange post, I noted that the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects" opens at New York's Grolier Club on January 21, 2022. It features items from the collection of Cathy and Glen Miranker, including artwork, books, correspondence, and manuscripts about the iconic literary detective. As the New York Times added this week, there is one puzzling exhibit among the collection; why did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—who famously denounced pirate publishers since they cranked out cheap editions and didn't pay him royalties—sign a pirated edition of The Sign of the Four (the second of the four Sherlock Holmes novels)? (Paywall for non-NYT subscribers, alas)

Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, a bronze statue of Agatha Christie is to go up in Wallingford town centre in a bid to attract fans of the author to her former hometown. Town councillors approved the use of Arts funding for the Agatha Christie Project Committee plan for the statue and town "mystery trail." Details of the trail are also yet to be confirmed, but it is hoped that it will take visitors around points of interest connected with the writer’s life, including her former home and her burial site.

The novel world of bibliotherapy: Studies over the past few years have indicated that reading improves empathy and encourages understanding and has a whole host of other positive benefits. Now, new research also shows how literature is helping people navigate mental health issues.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Unresolved Story on the Butt End of Avenue B" by Saira Viola.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews checked in with Alafair Burke, a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include The Wife, optioned for a feature film by Amazon, and The Ex, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel; Writers Who Kill welcomed Amy Pershing to chat about An Eggnog to Die For, the second book in Amy Pershing’s Cape Cod Foodie mystery series; and Murder Books spoke with novelist, short story author, and former newspaper editor Richard McGonegal about his writing and newest mystery novel, Ghoul Duty, the second in his Sheriff Francis Hood series.

Mystery Melange

British crime author Ann Cleeves was one of the individuals named in the UK's official New Year Honours List. Creator of the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Veyn series, Cleeves has been recognized for her services to reading and libraries and joins the list "due to her extensive contribution to the crime fiction genre."

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore will present a virtual evening with four bestselling thriller authors: Debbie Babitt (Saving Grace); Lynne Constantine (The Stranger in the Mirror); Wendy Walker (Don’t Look for Me); and Hank Phillippi Ryan (Her Perfect Life). Register for this free online event on Wednesday, January 12 at 7pm via this link.

The Baker Street Irregulars is planning to conduct its 2022 January events in person in New York City beginning January 13, 2022. Many events will be open to all Sherlockians with special tax-free group rates for hotel lodgings. Official BSI events that will be open to the public include the BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture (Thursday), the Merchants Room (Saturday), and the BSI Luncheon Reception (Saturday).

If you happen to be Down Under on February 2, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is sponsoring the Summer of Mystery literary crime exhibition celebrating women crime writers and fictional crime fighters. Participants can join in an immersive recreation of mystery and mayhem in the historical setting of The Heights with a display featuring costumes and props from the world of Miss Phryne Fisher, as well as scenes recreated from well-known crime novels. There will also be a Trust Trail of Mystery to keep the kids busy.

Crime Reads welcomed Robert Miklitsch to talk about his latest book, I Died a Million Times: Gangster Noir in Midcentury America, and how the Senate Kefauver Committee investigation, which was broadcast on television, sparked an insatiable appetite for crime stories in 1950s America.


If you're looking for new crime fiction books to start off the new year, CrimeReads's Molly Odintz has ten suggestions for you. Over at the Shots Magazine blog, Ayo Onatade also has some upcoming titles to seek out, with an emphasis on British and European titles.

Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg was recently released. It's the eleventh volume in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series edited by Elizabeth Foxwell and is a comprehensive guide to the mystery work of the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey, with info on some of Sayers's religious-related works.

It appears that at least part of a real-life publishing mystery has been solved. For the past few years, someone has been stealing unpublished manscripts from lesser-known authors and bestsellers like Margaret Atwood. The perpetrator would use a phishing scheme pretending to be affiliated with legitimate publishing houses in order to have authors send him their works. However, the pilfered books never appeared as pirated copies nor was there ever any ransom, making the crime even more baffling. But yesterday, the FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old publishing professional who worked as a rights coordinator for a major international publisher in London (in his Twitter bio, he added that he worked for Simon & Schuster U.K. which wasn't named officially in the arrest warrant). There's no word on a motive yet, although knowing what’s coming, who is buying what, and how much they’re paying, could give publishing companies an edge.

On Jan. 1, works that were first published in 1926 entered the public domain, which means they will become available for free at sites such as Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. Among the books included this year: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne; Soldiers’ Pay, the first novel published by William Faulkner; and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

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, and after her death, the feature was relocated to Art Taylor's website. For the initial First Two Pages of 2022, Art welcomes E.A. Aymar, who is a gifted and dedicated author, a thoughtful and provocative essayist, a tirelessly generous supporter of other writers, and a friend to the entire community. Ed has also established himself as an extraordinary short fiction writer and talks about his latest story, "The Search for Eric Garcia," which is in the anthology, Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color, edited by Abby L. Vandiver.

Teresa Dovalpage, a college professor and author of three theater plays and twelve novels, including the Havana Mystery series published by Soho Crime, applied the Page 69 Test to Death under the Perseids, the most recent novel in the series.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Epiphany 2021" by Tad Tuleja.

In the Q&A roundup, Robert McCaw stopped by Deborah Kalb's blog to talk about Treachery Times Two, the fourth in his Koa Kane series, set in Hawaii; E. B. Davis interviewed Jennifer J. Chow for the Writers Who Kill blog about her latest Sassy Cat cozy mystery , Mimi Lee Cracks the Code; and Author Interviews welcomed Karen Odden, whose novels A Dangerous Duet and A Trace of Deceit have won awards for historical mystery and historical fiction, about her latest work, Down a Dark River.

Mystery Melange - New Year's Eve Edition

 

The winners have been announced for this year's German Mystery Prize. In the German language category, Die Experten by Merle Kröger took top honors. This is the second such nod for Kröger, who previously won in 2013, and he was also runner-up in 2016. In the International category, Tokyo Redux, the final volume in David Peace's trilogy, took the top prize. (HT to The Literary Saloon.)

The recent Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were dominated once again by women, with Martha Wells taking the best novel prize for Network Effect. That work is the latest in her "Murderbot Diaries" series, which also won the Hugo for Best Series this year. The Murderbot Diaries follow "Murderbot," the self-chosen name of a particular SecUnit, an intelligent partly-organic robot rented out by the company that owns it for security purposes. Murderbot has secretly hacked its governor module, but none of the members of the planetary survey team it’s working for have any idea.

Award-winning novelist Walter Mosley has been named the recipient of the 2022 Sankofa Freedom Award, presented by Tulsa City-County Library’s African-American Resource Center and the Tulsa Library Trust. Mosley has published more than 60 works of fiction and non-fiction and is best known among the crime fiction community for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, the Fearless Jones mysteries, the Leonid McGill mysteries, and the Socrates Fortlow novels. Along the way, he's also tried "to help readers understand and appreciate Black life in America, particularly segregated inner-city experiences." The Sankofa Freedom Award is handed out biennially in February during Black History Month to a nationally acclaimed individual who has dedicated his or her life to educating and improving the greater African-American community.

On January 21, 2022, the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects" opens at New York's Grolier Club. It features items from the collection of Cathy and Glen Miranker, including artwork, books, correspondence, and manuscripts about the iconic literary detective. The items include letters and an "idea book" from Arthur Conan Doyle; a handwritten speech with Conan Doyle's explanation for killing off Holmes; original artwork of Holmes by British and US illustrators; and a pirated edition of The Sign of the Four. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist blog)

Janet Rudolph has an updated list via her Mystery Fanfare blog of mysteries, crime fiction, thrillers, and movies that take place at the New Year.

And you can enjoy reading those titles with help from the libation recipes via the authors at Mystery Lovers Kitchen including an Eggnog Kahlúa Cocktail, courtesy of Cleo Coyle, and Rosemary Metal Press Gin Fizz by Mia P. Manansala.

A new detective culture periodical has launched in Turkey. 221B Crime Culture Magazine will cover the fields of detective literature, TV series, cinema, academic research, and comics every two months in both print and digital. The first issue can be downloaded from e-magazine platforms such as Mazgter, Amazon, Zinio, PressReader.

Suspense Magazine is out with its Best of 2021 issue, which is apparently going to be its last magazine edition. The editors announced they will no longer be producing a digital magazine, instead using the website to post all reviews, interviews, stories and much more. "Everything you see in the magazine will now be online, with the website being updated once a week."

CrimeFest is offering a bursary (scholarship) for a writer of color to attend the festival in May 2022 and appear on a panel. The deadline to apply for the bursary is January 30, 2022. To be eligible, authors must have had at least one English language book in traditional print published by a British commercial publisher. The winning entry will be chosen in collaboration with CrimeFest organizers and judges Vaseem Khan and critic Ayo Onatade. Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, with around 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days. (HT to Shots Magazine)

It's common for horror, science fiction, and romance writers to make the novella the bulk of their output, but crime fiction authors are far more hesitant to embrace the form. Mystery and Suspense hosted a panel discussion about the crime fiction novella where six experts—Michael Bracken, Martin Edwards, Christina Hoag, Linda Landrigan, Steve Liskow, and Christoffer Peterson—discussed the form's creativity, craft, and market with moderator, William Burton McCormick.

Writing for Aeon, Vera Tobin, an associate professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, discussed the art of the plot twist. Tobin is also the author of Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Case Closed" by Tony Dawson.

Mystery Melange - Christmas Edition

Over at the Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph has added to her annual roundup of Christmas Crime Fiction lists, which has grown so large, it has to be divided into segments. You can check out Authors A-E here; F-L here; and M-Z here. Plus, there's a separate listing for Christmas Mystery Short Story Anthologies and Novellas A-Z and another for Winter Solstice Mysteries.

The December issue of Mystery Magazine has several holiday themed stories including "Cajun State" by O’Neil De Noux, where there is not much crime at Cajun State University … until someone steals the big Christmas tree from campus; "The Christmas Caper" by Sharon Hart Addy, where even a Grinch’s best laid plans get tripped up; "A Hungarian Christmas" by Vicki Weisfeld, in which Veronika convinces her young fiancé, Bert, that every Hungarian girl must have a present on Hungarian Christmas; "Santa Walks Into A Bar" by Frank Oreto, where wearing the Santa suit to Drake's Bar and Grill had been a joke, but after that night Officer Paul Drazdzinski wouldn't laugh for years; "The X In Xmas" by Robert Jeschonek, in which to solve the murder of a Mafia boss at Christmastime, Detective Charlie Collins joins forces with a female detective who has plenty of mob connections; plus more from Maura Yzmore, Brandon Barrows, Joseph Goodrich, Steve Beresford, and Eric B Ruark.

Also out with their Christmas issue is The Strand, where it's the holiday season for ghosts, small town rivalries, Holmes on the hunt, and suspense in Amish country, with stories by Meg Gardiner, Linda Castillo, Joe Giordano, Carla Kaessinger Coupe, and John Floyd.

Kings River Life has a free online Christmas story for you, "Aunt Jewel and the Christmas Spirits: A Christmas Mystery Short Story," by Bobbi A. Chukran. The magazine's Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast also featured the Christmas mystery short story, "Lady Barbara's Christmas Miracle," written by Connie Berry, read by local actor Ariel Linn, plus an excerpt from the mystery novel, Ghosts of Painting Past, by Sybil Johnson as read by actor Karina C Balfour.

The pandemic led to the delay of the online mystery ezine, Mysterical-E, but they're back with a holiday-themed issue that includes some great features, reviews, and stories, including one by the prolific, award-winning short story master, John M. Floyd.

On the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast, former radio worker Bonnie Hearn Hill, who is also author of sixteen suspense novels, read her seasonally appropriate story "Feliz Navidead," from the January/February 2020 issue of EQMM and first-place winner of Writer's Digest Magazine's genre short story award.

The Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast featured an episode on "What We Are Reading: Christmas Cozy Mysteries."

A Christmas Carol’s lesser-known successor is getting its moment in the spotlight thanks to the Charles Dickens Museum, which is hoping to attract new attention to the festive story, "The Cricket on the Hearth," with the first display of some of its illustrations. The tale, which was published in 1846, is the third of Dickens’ five Christmas books and tells the story of John Peerybingle and his wife Dot, who have a cricket in their home that brings happiness to the family. The toy-maker Tackleton, a malicious old man who "despised all toys [and] wouldn’t have bought one for the world," convinces Peerybingle that Dot has cheated on him, but all finally ends well.

Mystery Lover's Kitchen has an array of holiday recipes for you, including Gingerbread Cookie Sticks via Cleo Coyle; Armenian White Christmas Cookies from Tina Kashian; Lucy Burdette's Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies; and many more.

If you've been wondering what is the most-searched Christmas cookie in your state, look no further.

How well do you know Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas?" Sarah S. Davis created a trivia quiz over at Bookriot so you can find out.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "White Christmas" by Joseph Donato.

Mystery Melange

Tonight at 7pm PT (10pm ET), the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore will host a virtual panel featuring Callie Browning, Vera Chan, Tracy Clark, Christopher Chambers, and Faye Snowden, celebrating the new publication, Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color. Click here to register for this free event.

Simon Bewick and Victoria Watson, the team behind Virtual Noir at the Bar, have released tickets for their first physical event in Whitley Bay. Bay Tales Live, a one-day crime fiction festival for readers and writers, will be held at Whitley Bay Playhouse on Saturday, February 12, 2022 and will feature several successful UK crime writers, as well as introducing audience members to the brightest rising stars. The program will feature six panels with award-winning authors Louise Candlish, Vaseem Khan, Ann Cleeves, Trevor Wood, and Dr. Richard Shepherd, forensic pathologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Unnatural Causes.

Award-winning crime writer, Martin Edwards, has partnered with editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback to offer a different kind of crime-writing course. Crafting Crime is aimed at serious writers who wish to study independently yet also receive a critique of their work, and will be accessed online with modules mainly drawn from Martin’s extensive experience of conducting writing workshops. The modules will also include podcasts with Dea Parkin, Editor-in-chief at Fiction Feedback and Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association, as well as tips from crime writers such as Elly Griffiths, Michael Robotham, Steve Cavanagh, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Soji Shimada.

The Writers’ Police Academy announced that the 2022 Guest of Honor is to be bestselling author Robert Dugoni, creator of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels. The Special Guest Speaker for next year's event will be Steven Spingola, known to his colleagues as "the sleuth with the proof" and an investigator for Cold Justice, a popular Oxygen Channel true crime program.

News from The Rap Sheet alerts us to a change in the Spencer "universe." Spencer is the wisecracking Boston private eye introduced in 1973’s The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker, a series continued after the author's death by Ace Atkins. Atkins announced recently that he's putting aside his Spencer pen to work on his own works, including his series about Mississippi sheriff Quinn Colson. The Spencer books will continue via sportswriter and novelist Mike Lupica, who has already written books featuring one of Parker's other protagonists, the small-town police chief Jesse Stone, as well as another of Parker's characters, the gumshoe Sunny Randall. However, the Sunny Randall series is also getting a change: author Alison Gaylin has been tapped to write a new installment, becoming the first woman to take over a Robert Parker series.

CrimeReads featured an online African Crime Fiction Round Table with authors chatting about their books, what it means to be an "African" crime writer, and indeed whether such a thing should bear a label. The participants also discussed cultural influences and who they write for, and offered some reading recommendations.

The UK's Richard & Judy Book Club announced their picks for this winter, with all the choices written by women. Among those included are Lisa Jewell's psychological thriller, The Night She Disappeared; Karin Slaughter's False Witness; Tana French's The Searcher; and Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me. WH Smith stores will also make exclusive special editions of the book club titles with bonus content available for purchase.

Writing for The Guardian, S.J. Bennett compiled a listing of Top 10 cozy crime novels. From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, "these books are not without seriousness but they are all set in warm and human worlds we might prefer to our own."

Bookstores help save the world (again): A bookstore is helping Mosul recover from three years under ISIS. The Mosul Book Forum, which offers concerts and events along with books, opened three months after the city was liberated. Said cofounder Fahad Sabah, "If we have to rebuild our city, we need to rebuild our minds as well as our buildings and streets."

After being sidetracked for 46 years, the famed Orient Express railway, featured in the iconic Agatha Christie novel and subsequent movie adaptations, will return to Italy in 2023 with 6 luxurious new routes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Thankful to Survive" by Joseph B. Haggery, Sr.

Mystery Melange

Dettie Gould has won the Harvill Secker Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award with her "deliciously dark thriller," The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin. The prize, which aims to discover exciting new crime fiction by writers of color, was judged by winner of the inaugural competition, Ajay Chowdhury; journalist and public speaker, Paula Akpan; creative producer at Words of Colour, Heather Marks; and Harvill Secker publisher, Liz Foley. Gould will have her book published under the Harvill Secker imprint, in a publishing deal with an advance of £5,000. She will also appear on a panel at the Bloody Scotland festival and receive a guest pass for the weekend’s events. (HT to The Bookseller)

Christie J Newport has won the inaugural Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour with the "enormously promising" first installment in a police procedural series. The competition aims to champion authors from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are particularly underrepresented in crime fiction publishing, and is open to debut, previously published, or self-published writers. The prize will now be an annual event, with the next submissions period opening in May 2022.

The 2021 Nero Award, given by the Wolfe Pack for "the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories," has been won by Stephen Spotswood for Fortune Favors the Dead. The Black Orchid Novella Award, presented jointly by the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and honoring the novella format popularized by Rex Stout, was won by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson for "The Man Who Went Down Under." The novella will be published in the July 2022 issue of AHMM. Honorable mentions for the Black Orchid Novella Award went to: "Bad Apples" by Kathleen Marple Kalb (writing as Nikki Knight); "The Inside Shake" by Jason Koontz; "House of Tigers" by William Burton McCormick; "The Mystery of the Missing Woman" by Regina M. Sestak; and "Lovely As" by Jacqueline Vick.

Goodreads announced its Choice Awards today, including the winner of the Mystery & Thriller category, The Last Thing He Told me by Laura Dave. For the other nineteen finalist books, follow this link.

The Crime Fiction Lover online magazine/blog announced the winners of its inaugural Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021 for Best Crime Novel, Best Debut, Best Novel in Translation, Best Indie Novel, and Best Crime Show. Check out the winners (both readers' choices and editors' choices) here.

Canberra pharmacist, Hayley Young, has won Sisters in Crime Australia’s 28th Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Awards for her police procedural tale, "Monster Hunters." That story also picked up the 2021 ScriptWorks’s Great Film Idea Award. This year, 241 short stories competed for a record $11,910 in prize money and benefits. The Simon & Schuster Second Prize went to Jaclyn Riley-Smith, while the Sun Bookshop & Wild Dingo Press Third Prize was won by Ellen Coates. For all the various awards in several additional categories, click on over here.

Left Coast Crime announced the special guests for the next conference, which is currently slated to be held as an in-person event April 7-10, 2022, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Guests of Honor include Mick Herron and Catriona McPherson; Fan Guest of Honor: Kristopher Zgorski; Toastmaster: Kellye Garrett; and Ghost of Honor: Tony Hillerman. Event organizers also noted that LCC attendees will be required to provide proof of full vaccination before check-in.  (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Mystery Readers Journal: Cold Case Mysteries (Volume 37:4// Winter 2021/2022) is now available as PDF and hardcopy. You can also check out a few free online articles including, "Cold Cases and Deep Waters" by Martin Edwards; "A Snitch in Time" by James L’Etoile; and "An Old San Francisco Mystery Is Unburied, and Inspiration Strikes" by Ann Parker.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ear Witness" by Tom Barlow.

Mystery Melange

 

The Historical Writers' Association has announced the winners of this year's HWA Crown Awards, "celebrating the best historical writing of the year, fiction and non-fiction." This year's winner was The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd, the first in a new crime fiction series featuring Paris police detective, Eddie Giral, set in WWII during the German occupation.

As part of the Barnes and Noble Midday Mystery Virtual Event Series, author Patricia Cornwell will be in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis to celebrate the publication of Cornwell's latest thriller, Autopsy. The book marks the 25th installment in Cornwell's series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. For ticket information about the event, which will air as a Zoom Webinar tomorrow, Thursday, December 2, at 3 PM ET, follow this link.

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore will offer a free online event on December 9th featuring the authors from the Jungle Red Writers blog. This Special Holiday Cheer Celebration will include Rhys Bowen, Lucy Burdette, Deborah Crombie, Hallie Ephron, Jenn McKinlay, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Julia Spencer-Fleming.

The deadline is fast approaching for submissions to the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest Competition, sponsored by St. Martin’s Press. This is for a debut novel of unpublished crime fiction, and all entrants must be at least 18 years of age and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, or Canada (excluding Quebec). To be considered for the 2021 competition, all manuscripts must be received by 11:59 pm on January 1, 2022. The Grand Prize consists of an offer to have the winner’s manuscript published with an advance against future royalties in the amount of $10,000.

The Washington Post's Maureen Corrigan and Richard Lipez compiled their list of the "Best thriller and mystery books of 2021."

The anthology, Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression, edited by S. A. Cosby for Rock and a Hard Place, is now available for Kindle at Amazon. Rock and a Hard Place Press is a lit-noir publisher, focused on stories of struggle, tales of the powerless and marginalized, characters on the fringes of society … and what they do next. Proceeds from this latest collection go to the New Jersey branch of Black Lives Matter.

The late B.K. Stevens hosted "The First Two Pages" on her blog, with craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to Art Taylor's website, and among the latest offerings is the first essay in a series from contributors to the new holiday anthology, Festive Mayhem 2, edited by Marla Bradeen. This week's feature comes via "Last Bite," written by Rhoda Berlin—a family therapist as well as a crime writer—that offers all levels of perspective on the story and the holiday and families in general.

Janet Rudolph compiled a list of Chanukah (a/k/a Hanukah, Hanukkah) themed crime fiction titles for adults and children, both novels and short stories (and a few games).

Janet Rudolph is also the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and announced that the first issue of the 2022 will focus on New England Mysteries. They're looking for reviews (50-250 words), articles (250-1000 words), and Author! Author! essays (500-1500 words). Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "New England" connection. The deadline is January 15, 2022. For more information, check out the guidelines here.

Cain’s Jawbone continues to fascinate readers even after 87 years. Only four readers have solved the fiendish murder mystery, devised by former Observer crossword setter, Edward Powys Mathers, and now thanks to a series of TikTok postings by a young documentary assistant in San Francisco, the book has sold out in bookshops around the world.

The Cross Examining Crime blog made a clever online classic crime version of the National Book Token Hidden Book Game. The illustrated village is reminiscent of Midsomer and contains 36 clues, each for a classic crime title, (many of which feature a village in them).

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Neal's Torment: The Villanelle of the Pontiac" by Cynthia Steele.

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

 

The Irish books of the year were announced yesterday, including Crime Fiction Book of the Year, which was awarded to 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard. The other finalists in that category include All Her Fault by Andrea Mara; April in Spain by John Banville; The Dark Room by Sam Blake; The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh; and The Killing Kind by Jane Casey.

Another award, however, doesn't have similar good news to share as word comes that the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been put on indefinite hold. The honor, sponsored by the University of Alabama School of Law, was created in 2010 and had been "awarded annually to a published work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change." (HT to The Rap Sheet)

D.C. Noir at the Bar returns on December 5 in a virtual event online hosted by E.A. Aymar. Authors scheduled to participate with readings from their books include Yasin Angoe, Amy Grech, Silvio Moreno-Garcia, Glen Erik Hamilton, Eliza Nellums, with music via Sara Jones and a custom cocktail from Chantal Tseng. The event is in support of partner store, One More Page Books.

Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the National Centre for the Written Word in South Shields, England, is offering an online version of its exhibition, "Investigating Detectives," (which will be on display until March 2022). The virtual exhibit investigates the greatest fictional detectives and their authors, profiles the best known on-screen detectives, studies crime-busting techniques, and examines the enduring appeal of literary and on-screen detective stories. Some of the sleuths included are Inspector Bucket, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple. Also included are children's mysteries, subgenres such as hardboiled and Nordic noir, and forensic history. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The Winter Issue #170 of Mystery Scene Magazine is out with Kevin Burton Smith's annual "Mystery Scene Gift Guide"; a cover feature of Patricia Cornwell, whose debut Postmortem first appeared in 1990; Craig Sisterson makes the case that the origins of the current gritty Golden Age of television started before The Sopranos with NYPD Blue; John B. Valeri talks to Rhys Bowen about her historical mysteries; Jon L. Breen takes a look at an unlikely sleuth: Edna Ferber, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Showboat and Giant among other works, who's been reimagined by author Ed Ifkovic as solver of mysteries; and Oline Cogdill interviews writer-director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and many more).

The Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast has a bonus Thanksgiving mystery short story, "The Chicken Pot Pie Fiasco," written by Sandra Murphy and read by actor Duncan Hoge.

Kings River Life has some food mysteries for your Thanksgiving feast and a chance to enter to win a copy of all 5 books.


Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog has an updated list of crime fiction with a Thanksgiving theme.

The writers over at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog have shared some Thanksgiving recipe ideas for you including No-Churn Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream, courtesy of Peg Cochran; Libby Dodd's Fresh Cranberry Relish; Cornish Hen via Maya Corrigan; and much more.

This is something law enforcement are probably thankful about this year: a hire-a-hitman website that isn't exactly what it seems.

And I would be personally astonished, if not grateful, to discover a secret passageway in a 500-year-old house, like Freddy Goodall of Brighton, England did recently.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Devil Has Gone Home" by Sharon Waller Knutson.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Joy Castro, the award-winning author of the post-Katrina New Orleans literary thriller, Hell or High Water, which received the Nebraska Book Award; Indie Crime Scene interviewed Bobby Nash, author of the SNOW series and more; and NPR's Fresh Air spoke with Ryan Busse, a former gun industry insider who explains why he left to fight for the other side, in his new book, Gunfight.

Mystery Melange

The 6th Annual 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize honoring mid-career authors in fiction announced the longlist last week in a private virtual ceremony. The $50,000 prize will be awarded to an author of fiction in the middle of a burgeoning career. Finalists are expected to be named in early March 2022, followed by a winner named in April 2022. Among the thirty-seven author finalists are several who write crime and suspense fiction, including Megan Abbott (The Turnout), Dan Chaon (Sleepwalk), Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Plot), and Jonathan Lethem (Feral Detective).

Hannah Brown has won the 2021 Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award for her historical suspense novel, My Name Is Emma. Each year, editors at Sphere choose the best novel by a graduating student, with the winner receiving £3,000. For the first time, judges also awarded a highly commended prize to Duality – a Russian in Osaka by Denise Kuehl, a Japanese-set procedural with near-future touches. The 2020 winner was Emma Styles, whose No Country for Girls will be published by Sphere.

At the recent New England Crime Bake conference in Dedham, Massachusetts, Joseph S. Walker was awarded the annual Al Blanchard Prize for his story, "Herb Ecks Goes Underground," which will be published in Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories.

The Crime Fiction Lover website solicited nominations for its first ever Crime Fiction Lover Awards and have announced the finalists in the various categories. Readers can vote on their favorites via this link.

The end-of-the-year "best" lists keep coming, including Kirkus Reviews, where editors have chosen their favorite mysteries and thrillers of the year; and Amazon, which also compiled a list of its picks for best mysteries and thrillers of 2021.

Martin Edwards offered up a tribute to John Malcolm (the pen name of John Malcolm Andrews), who passed away recently. John wrote an antiques-themed mystery series as well as nonfiction works and also served as Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.

I think this should be the model for river towns everywhere: the legendary Bouquinistes boxes that have been lining the banks of the River Seine in Paris since the 16th century. (Booksellers take note: it seems there are some vacancies.) (HT to Shelf Awareness)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "In Midair" by Toby Widdicombe.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Lori Rader-Day about her new novel, Death at Greenway, which is based on the true events of a group of children evacuated out of the Blitz during World War II—to Agatha Christie's holiday estate, Greenway House; Mystery Tribune chatted with Nick Kolakowski, whose newest work, Love & Bullets, is being released by Shotgun Honey books on November 26; Lisa Haselton interviewed Weldon Burge about his debut thriller, Harvester of Sorry, the first in the planned Ezekial Marrs series; and Indie Crime Scene spoke with J.L. Doucette, author of Unknown Assailant (Book 3 of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries).

Mystery Melange - Veteran's Day Edition

Today is Veteran's Day in the U.S., and Janet Rudolph has some resources for crime fiction related to veteran themes. (Note that she references an older post of mine on the topic, which you can find here.) Even more poignantly, today marks the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

The An Post Irish Book Awards announced the 2021 shortlisted titles, including those in the running for Crime Fiction Book of the Year:  56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard; All Her Fault by Andrea Mara; April in Spain by John Banville; The Dark Room by Sam Blake; The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh; and The Killing Kind by Jane Casey.

Some of the UK’s top thriller, mystery and crime fiction authors have contributed to an anthology timed with World Kindness Day on November 13 to raise money for charity. All proceeds will go to Shelter, a charity that campaigns to end homelessness and support those affected. Everyday Kindness: A collection of uplifting tales to brighten your day, edited by LJ Ross, is being published via Dark Skies Publishing.

The Guardian profiled a new book by mortuary technician, Carla Valentine, which examines how advances in crime-fighting made their way into Agatha Christie’s novels.

CrimeReads held an online roundtable on the topic of class and social division in crime fiction, with participating authors Adrian McKinty, Laura McHugh, Angel Luis Colón, Julia Dahl, Joe Ide, and Lisa Levy.

The Wordsworth Edition website feautured the latest in an occasional series on profiles of classic crime authors, including detective fiction pioneer, Wilkie Collins, and Irish author, J.S. Le Fanu, who is credited with inventing the "locked-room mystery" with his story, "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess," published in 1838 (three years before Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"). (HT to The Bunburyist)

The Page 69 Test blog featured two crime fiction authors this week: Tara Laskowski, whose debut suspense novel, One Night Gone, won the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award and was a finalist for the Lefty, the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark, the Strand Critics, and the Library of VA Literary awards; and Alison Gaylin, an Edgar and Shamus Award winner. Laskowski's new novel is The Mother Next Door, while Gaylin's latest is The Collective.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "State Prison, 1976" by Henry Stimpson.

In the Q&A roundup, Rachel Howzell Hall talked with CrimeReads about longhand, loves, office supplies, and one magical story about a lost manuscript; Deborah Kalb chatted with author Jean Hanff Korelitz about her new thriller novel, The Plot; Kalb also spoke with Gabrielle St. George about her new novel How to Murder a Marriage, the first in her Ex-Whisperer Files series; plus E. B. Davis interviewed Susan Van Kirk about The Witch’s Child, her fourth Endurance mystery, and chatted with V. M. Burns about Killer Words, her seventh Mystery Bookshop Mystery; and Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Tony J Forder about his latest novel, The Huntsmen.