In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange, Valentine's Edition

Murder Mystery Texas is holding its upcoming gala in Dallas, TX on February 16, 2019. Titled St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the event is described as a "360 degree immersive theatrical experience, designed especially for amateur sleuths with a twisted sense of humor." The themed gala consists of an evening of delicious cuisine, enlivened with a despicable crime enacted by professional stage, TV, and film actors. The company said that it is up to guests to figure out who carried out the grisly murders.

Dead men are heavier than broken hearts, according to Raymond Chandler and also Matthew Coleman Turbeville, writing for Crime Reads, who offers up some tips on "How To Use Crime Fiction to Recover from Heartbreak."

Barbour Publishing is launching a new fiction series titled True Colors, which will explore true, riveting stories of American criminal activity layered in historical romantic suspense. This six-book series will kick off in March 2019 with the release of The White City by debut author Grace Hitchcock, involving disappearances during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (and based on crimes of infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes).

It's not too late to celebrate your Valentine's Day with some Valentine's themed mysteries, courtesy of this list from Janet Rudolph over at Mystery Fanfare.

The Mystery Lovers' Kitchen had some yummy Valentine's Day treats for mystery fans, including this Happy Valentine's Cake from Krista Davis and Pretty in Pink Coffeehouse Cookies via Cleo Coyle.

The Brandeis National Committee, Tucson Chapter, is presenting its 23rd annual Book & Author event on February 27 and 28 with four acclaimed authors: internationally best-selling mystery writer Elizabeth George, author of the Inspector Lynley series; Reed Farrel Coleman, called the "noir poet laureate" by the Huffington Post; Lauren Grossman, writing her third mystery featuring a globe-trotting author-turned-sleuth; and trailblazing television sitcom writer Susan Silver, author of a candid Hollywood memoir.

On February 22, 2019, mystery author Laurie R. King and journalist Wallace Baine will be featured in conversation during an evening of food, drinks, and music at the Food Lounge in Santa Cruz, CA to raise money for the Young Writers Program. The writers initiative began in 2012 and has worked steadily to support students in their writing with projects that culminate in a publication of student work or a public reading.

Belfast’s NOIRELAND crime fiction festival returns March 8-10, with a line-up of international and domestic writers that includes Belinda Bauer, Stuart Neville, Ann Cleeves, Adrian McKinty, Eoin McNamee, Andrea Carter, Anthony Horowitz, Olivia Kiernan, Stuart MacBride, Denise Mina, Jo Spain, William Ryan, Steve Cavanagh, and many more. A new addition to NOIRELAND this year is Jack-A-Noir-Y, billed as a "bedtime story for grown-ups," in which Irish actor Adrian Dunbar will be reading an exclusive except from A Book of Bones, the forthcoming new novel from best-selling author John Connolly. (HT to Declan Burke via Crime Always Pays)

The Leonardslee Crime Festival in the UK on March 2-3 still has tickets for some of its events, although they are selling out quickly (including the Killer Women Murder Mystery tea). The weekend-long affair, created by the Book Lovers’ Supper Club, combines the exceptional food of Leonardslee’s award-winning chefs with the talents of local crime writers. Authors scheduled to participate include Erin Kelly, Dorothy Koomson, Graham Bartlett, Simon Brett, Debbie Howells and Julie Corbin.

The Mystery Writers of America's annual Edgar Awards Symposium is now open for registration. It's to be held in conjunction with the awards ceremony and is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. The day-long event will feature panels on topics like "Suspicion: The Shady Characters of Crime Fiction," with an all-star author lineup of Meg Gardiner, Mike Lawson, Sujata Massey, Alex Segura, Lisa Unger, Paul Doiron, and many more.

Hat tip to The Rap Sheet for a bit of sad news this week: William E. Butterworth III—better known as military thriller writer "W.E.B. Griffin"—has died at age 89, following a lengthy battle with cancer. The author's bibliography includes more than 250 books published under more than a dozen pseudonyms, all of which have made The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and other best-seller lists. More than fifty million of the books are in print in more than ten languages, including Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Hungarian.

Amazon Crossing, the translation imprint of Amazon Publishing, has announced its purchase of The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson’s Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin by Jan Stocklassa. The work is translated by Tara F. Chace and is scheduled for release on October 1. Ten years after Larsson’s 2004 death at age 50, Stocklassa, a journalist, gained exclusive access to Larsson’s private archive, uncovering an unknown project by the late author investigating the unsolved 1986 assassination of the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. The author also executive-produced a documentary on Larsson’s research into extreme right-wing groups, which was was directed by Henrik Georgsson and premiered at Sundance last month.

A landmark mystery fiction collection owned by editor and Mysterious Bookshop owner Otto Penzler will be offered by Heritage Auctions. The initial offering includes 231 lots, including rare volumes such as the 1845 first printing of "Tales" by Edgar Allan Poe and James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, a coveted 1934 first edition association copy, inscribed by the author. Other highlights include Penzler's 1929 first edition copy of Hammett's Red Harvest, which may sell for at least $60,000, and a first edition of The Big Sleep, signed by Chandler himself, may sell for more than $30,000. The entire collection on offer March 6 is now open for preview and bidding.

The Winter 2018/2019 issue of Mystery Readers Journal, with the theme "Mystery in the American South," is now available as a PDF and and soon-to-be hardcopy. Editor Janet Rudolph said they had so many articles, reviews, and author essays, the themed issue had to be split into two, and the second volume, Mystery in the American South II, will be available later this year. Online articles from the first edition include "Making Peace with the 'Southern Writer' Label" by Donna Andrews; "Over the River and Through the Woods" by J.T. Ellison; and "On a Sunny Sea Island" by Carolyn Hart.

The latest edition of Occult Detective is out, with new tales by Tim Waggoner, Brandon Barrows, Cliff Biggers, Cody Shroeder, Megan Taylor, Loren Rhodes and many more including new book reviews. (HT to Sandra Seamans)

A new book, A Lie Too Big to Fail, alleges that the CIA may have used a contractor who inspired Mission: Impossible to kill RFK. The book's author, Lisa Pease, spent 25 years researching her book that posits Howard Hughes aide Robert Maheu was such a colorful character, the television show Mission: Impossible was based on him and his private investigative agency—and the CIA tasked him with jobs it wanted to steer clear of, including the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Writing for Mystery Tribune, Nick Kolakowski made the case for why "Real Serial Killers Are Dumber Than Their Fictional Equivalents."

Laura Benedict, the Edgar- and Thriller-nominated author of The Stranger Inside, profiled "The Best Unreliable Narrators in Suspense Novels" for Novel Suspects.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Tomcat" by Ben Szakovits.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sacramento Bee snagged Greg Hurwitz to talk about his writing and his quirky hero, the Nowhere Man; the Mystery People welcomed David Swinson to chat about, Trigger, the final installment of David Swinson’s trilogy featuring Frank Marr, a private detective who is also a drug addict.

Mystery Melange

The Audio Publishers Association announced the Audie Award finalists for 2019.

The Mystery category includes:

• Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, narrated by Robert Glenister
• The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah, narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt
• The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, narrated by Simon Vance
• The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen, narrated by Jonathan Keeble and Katy Sobey
• Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves, narrated by Kenny Blyth.

The Thriller/Suspense nods include:

• Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, narrated by Euan Morton
• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, narrated by Imogen Church
• Macbeth by Jo Nesbo, narrated by Euan Morton
• The Outsider by Stephen King, narrated by Will Patton
• The Terminal List by Jack Carr, narrated by Ray Porter
• Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis, narrated by Richard Armitage.

University lecturer Claire Gradidge has won the Richard and Judy "Search for a Bestseller" competition for her World War Two crime novel The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox. The competition for first-time unpublished writers was launched in April 2018 by television stars Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan in association with WH Smith and Bonnier Zaffre.

Former police officer turned author and consultant Lee Lofland is also the founder of the annual Writers Police Academy conference. He recently announced that this year's event will be a special event titled MurderCon to be held at the Sirchie Compound in Raleigh, North Carolina, August 1-4. Special Guest Speaker is Graham Hetrick, the star and host of Investigation Discovery's hit television series, The Coroner: I Speak for the Dead. The Sirchie Compound instructors educate and advise investigators from state prison systems, airport security, FBI agents whose focus is on counter terrorism, Treasury and Secret Service agents, and other law enforcement personnel from around the world.


On February 19, join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, at the KGB Bar for another thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by talented members including include P.D. Halt, Mary Jo Robertiello, James Robertson, A.J. Sidransky, and Victoria Weisfel.

Mike Ripley's latest "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine has a tribute to the late Brian Garfield; reviews of books by Douglas Lindsay, Dan Fesperman, C.J. Tudor, Jane Harper, and more; and a funny take on the mysteries of eBay.

Just who were the Pinkertons? A video game portraying the Wild West’s famous Pinkertons detective agency as violent enforcers of order was sued by the  modern-day company. The 167-year-old company, now owned by the Swedish security firm Securitas AB and called Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations Inc., disagrees with the game's description and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., owner of Rockstar Games, the creator of Red Dead 2.

Book Riot continued its lists of Sherlock Holmes film adaptations from around the world, with six more Sherlock Holmes adaptations with an international flavor.

Would you like to spend your vacation surrounded by books? Gladstone’s Library in Northern Wales, UK, is a 130-year-old library that also serves as a charming bed and breakfast. The library describes itself as a “residential library and meeting place which is dedicated to dialogue, debate and learning for open-minded individuals and groups, who are looking to explore pressing questions and to pursue study and research in an age of distraction and easy solutions.”

Do you have a literary tattoo? Then this convention is for you!

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Island of Misfit Toys" by Peter M. Gordon. 

In the Q&A roundup, Jane Harper, author of the award-winning crime novel, The Dry, spoke with the New York Times about her mysteries set in Australia, including her latest, The Lost Man; Criminal Element welcomed Laura Benedict, author of the new standalone thriller, The Stranger Inside; and mystery author and judge, Debra H. Goldstein, chatted with The Dark Phantom about One Taste Too Many, the first of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series.

Mystery Melange

Otto Penzler, editor and founder of the mystery and crime house Penzler Publishing, is teaming with Pegasus Books to launch Scarlet, a joint publishing venture specializing in psychological suspense aimed at female readers. Scarlet has tabbed Luisa Smith (longtime buying director at Book Passage bookstore), to be Scarlet editor-in-chief for the imprint which will launch in winter 2020 with six to eight titles to be distributed by W.W. Norton. Penzler added that "Psychological suspense that features complex women is one of the most dynamic categories in popular fiction right now, so the time is right for an imprint dedicated to this genre."

The annual Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday, and Janet Rudolph has compiled a listing of crime fiction themed around the Super Bowl and American-style football.

On February 5 in the UK, there will be a Killer Women Panel on "The Unstoppable Appeal of Crime Fiction - What is it about crime that makes so many people choose to read and watch it?" A panel of authors including Alison Joseph, Mel McGrath, Kate Rhodes, and Laura Wilson, will discuss the huge, unstoppable appeal of crime fiction and the role that jeopardy so often plays in good storytelling.

The 2019 Eudora Welty Conference, hosted by the College of Charleston on February 21–23, will include the February 22 panel "Welty and Mystery," with presentations on "Eudora Welty's Career in Mystery Fiction"; "Chester Himes, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty: The Civil Rights Movement on a Crime Fiction Continuum"; "Murder, Mystery, and Motivation: Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter and Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library"; "Wanted Dead Or Alive: Last Years’ Dead Branches"; and "The Writer as Detective Hero”: Eudora Welty and Her Late Fiction." (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

The 2019 St. Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend, to be held August 16-18, has announced the featured guests including Natasha Cooper as Chair and Denise Mina as Guest of Honor. The theme of the conference this year is "Gamechangers: writers who have transformed the genre," and will feature a host of presenters including Sarah Hilary, Val McDermid, Nicci French, Mick Herron, and more.There will also be a PD James Conference Dinner, with proceeds benefiting the PD James Fund to support the work of the English School and students at St Hilda’s College.

The Minnesota Book Award finalists were announced, including titles in the Genre Fiction category. Those nods include crime novels Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia; The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens; and The Voice Inside by Brian Freeman.

The UK's New Readings announced a call for submissions on the topic of "Fictions of Organized Crime" and invites articles of between 7,000 and 10,000 words on the cultural representation of organized crime across a range of art forms (including, but not limited to, film, TV, literature, comics/graphic novels, popular music).

The Guardian reported on the death of Diana Athill, writer and editor, at the age of 101. During her fifty years in publishing, Athill helped found the publishing companies Allan Wingate and André Deutsch, where she worked closely with many Deutsch authors, including Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Mordecai Richler, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Rhys, Gitta Sereny, Brian Moore, V. S. Naipaul, Molly Keane, Stevie Smith, Jack Kerouac, Charles Gidley Wheeler, Margaret Atwood, and David Gurr. She also won acclaim for her own stories, novels, and memoirs.

HarperCollins has pledged £20,000 in grants for independent bookstores as part of its ongoing commitment to The Literacy Project. The grants will fund up to 10 Literacy Project initiatives around the UK and Ireland, devised and led locally by independent bookshops,

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Orange Julius" by Jim George.

Mystery Melange

Awards season is in full swing, as we saw with Tuesday's announcement of the Edgars. But here are a few more to report:

The winners of this year's German Mystery Prize (Deutscher Krimi Preis 2019) were announced, including German-language winner, Mexikoring, by Simone Buchholz, which is the sixth in her state prosecutor Chastity Riley series. The international category was won by Yokoyama Hideo's novel, Six Four.

Congratulations also go to Grand Master and Cartier Diamond Dagger Winner (CWA) Sara Paretsky for being given the prestigious Fuller Award by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. The award was created to acknowledge Chicago's greatest living writers. Paretsky will be officially honored on at a reception on Thursday, May 9 at Ruggles Hall

Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine announced the Barry Award Nominees for 2019. Winners will be handed out on October 31 at the Dallas Bouchercon Opening Ceremonies. The Best Novel contenders include Lou Berney, November Road; Michael Connelly, Dark Sacred Night; Allen Eskens, The Shadow We Hide; Craig Johnson, Depth of Winter; Mindy Mejia, Leave No Trace; and Abir Mukherjee, A Necessary Evil. For all the finalists for Best First Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Thriller, head on over to Mystery Fanfare's report.

Crimean author Jesper Stein has won the Harald Mogensen Award, which the Danish Criminal Academy awards for best crime book of the year, for Stein's novel Solo, the sixth volume in his popular and critically acclaimed series with police officer Axel Steen. The Academy's debut award goes this year to Søren Sveistrup for the thriller novel Kastanjemanden (The Chestnut Man). The Academy also awarded Michael Connelly the Palle Rosenkrantz Award for best foreign thriller novel for Two Kinds of Truth.

In other news:

Librarians deserve a lot of love, and if you're a librarian in the UK, London's new crime and thriller festival Capital Crime will offer librarians (and people on low incomes) discounted tickets. Capital Crime co-founder David Headley said: “We’re acutely aware of the important role librarians play in supporting authors and promoting books and this is our way of saying thanks and giving something back to the community at a time when libraries are under real pressure.”

The American Booksellers Association reported that unit sales at indie stores grew in 2018 by nearly 5% over 2017, and that sales in the holiday period were up at a similar level - with many stores having some of the best sales days ever. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

The anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday was January 19th, and PBS Newshour Online profiled the author's greatest mystery ... his own death.

With Rapid DNA machines, which provide results in 90 minutes can be operated by police themselves, genetic fingerprinting could become as routine as the old-fashioned kind. But forensic experts see a potential for misuse.

In the 1800s, Johann Maelzel created a robot ("automoton") that could play chess. Although it was later outed as a hoax, it did give one enterprising young journalist an opportunity to make a name for himself by writing an expose about the fraud. The young man's name was Edgar Allan Poe, and his essay that allowed him to play detective and investigative reporter turned out to be a precursor to Poe’s later detective stories featuring amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "I Heard a Copter" by Annette Gagliardi.
 

And in more good poetry news from The Guardian, poetry sales soared in the UK as political millennials "search for clarity." A record £12m sales last year were driven by younger readers, with experts saying hunger for nuance amid conflict and disaster were fueling the boom.

Mystery Melange

The Left Coast Crime conference announced the nominees for the annual Lefty Awards, to be presented on March 30, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron
Hollywood Ending by Kellye Garrett
Nighttown by Timothy Hallinan
Death al Fresco by Leslie Karst
The Spirit in Question by Cynthia Kuhn
Scot Free by Catriona McPherson

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday by David Corbett
Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
A Dying Note by Ann Parker
It Begins in Betrayal by Iona Whishaw

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Broken Places by Tracy Clark
Cobra Clutch by A.J. Devlin
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman
What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix
Deadly Solution by Keenan Powell
Give Out Creek by J.G. Toews

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel

November Road by Lou Berney
Wrong Light by Matt Coyle
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day
A Reckoning in the Back Country by Terry Shames
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin

Forensic anthropologist and thriller writer Kathy Reichs was named an honorary member of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her academic work and her 19 novels featuring anthropologist/sleuth Temperance Brennan. Reichs, an American citizen, lives in Montreal and in North Carolina.

The New Edinburgh University Press issued a call for papers for the first issue of their brand-new journal, Crime Fiction Studies. The editors are seeking abstract submissions of 400 words (with finished articles of 7,500 words) that provide thought-provoking, innovative answers to the question "why crime fiction today?" The deadline is July 1. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

Another call for papers was issued by the Solent University, Southampton UK conference on Agatha Christie, to be held September 5-6, 2019. The conference will investigate the significance of the Queen of Crime and her writings within academia and popular culture and further extend Christie Studies as an academic discipline, across and beyond the humanities. Organizers are inviting 300-word proposals for 20 minute papers, as well as creative presentations and panel proposals. The deadline is March 31. (HT also to Shots)

The latest issue of Flash Bang Mysteries is out, which you can read online via this link. Edited by B.J. Bourg, the January edition features new flash crime stories from Jacqueline Seewald, Barb Goffman, R. T. Lawton, Patricia Dusenbury, and yours truly.

J. Kingston Pierce shared his appreciation for Dell's Murder Ink and Scene of the Crime line of paperbacks that made mysteries into jigsaw puzzles. (An editorial note: I took this same inspiration for my Elegy in Scarlet book cover.)

If you're a book cover geek, check out Paul D. Marks' posting on the 7 Criminal Minds blog. Wondering if you *can* judge a book by its cover, he compared different covers of classic crime fiction titles from the 20th century.

Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction: The New Yorker's Jake Halpern profiled the French burglar who pulled off one of the greatest art heists of all time. Skilled climber and thief Vjeran Tomic, whom the French press have dubbed "Spider-Man," has described robbery as "an act of imagination," spurred on by Tomic's aesthetic desire.

Art Taylor made the case for reading books that "make you uncomfortable."


The power of the bestselling author in action: When the largest daily newspaper in Maine decided it was going to stop publishing regional book reviews, it caused an uproar among local writers — including Stephen King, who complained about the move on Twitter. The newspaper, The Portland Press Herald, promptly responded with a challenge: If Mr. King could get his followers to buy 100 digital subscriptions, it would bring back the local reviews.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Wie Viel ist Genug?" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Niklas Natt Och Dag about his debut, The Wolf and the Watchman, which centers on a hideous murder in 1793 Stockholm; The Killing creator Soren Sveistrup chatted with iNews about his first novel,The Chestnut Man, and the enduring success of Scandi Noir; Vera writer Ann Cleeves opened up to Chronicle Live about bringing her hit novel series to life on TV.

Mystery Melange

Noir at the Bar moves to Seattle tonight at the Alibi Room from 8-10pm. The lineup features Renee Patrick (Design for Dying), Bethany Maines (Bulletproof Mascara), Reb MacRath (The Big Bopper), Ashley Erwin (A Ballad Concerning Black Betty), Brian Thornton (Suicide Blonde), G.G. Silverman (The Redvale Zombie Prom series), Scotti Andrews (Blind Date), and Nick Feldman (Asshole Yakuza Boyfriend).

Stuart Turton has won the Costa First Novel Award for his debut, The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle. The crime novel has been sold in 20 territories to date and has been optioned for TV. The Costa Book Awards honor some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.

In association with the Newcastle Noir Festival, bestselling thriller author LJ Ross has established The Lindisfarne Prize, a crime writing award worth £2,500 to celebrate the North East region of the UK. Recognizing outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction, the award is open to all new writers who are from, or whose work celebrates, the North East, and who have not previously had their work published in any form. Entrants must submit a short story of up to 10,000 words or the first two chapters and a synopsis of their work in progress, to be considered. Entries close on March 31.

There's a bit of sad news this week as we say goodbye to crime writer Brian Garfield, who began writing westerns then switched to contemporary crime fiction with a western flavor. His best-known books include Death Wish, which was adapted into a film starring Charles Bronson, and Hopscotch, a Cold War espionage thriller that won the Edgar for Best Mystery Novel and was adapted for a film starring Walter Matthau. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Writing for Forbes, Adam Rowe took a look back at publishing industry insights from 2018 revealed by a list of the U.K.'s top 100 print bestsellers and based on data from The Guardian's John Dugdale and analysis from author Chris McCrudden. McCrudden noted that "In fiction in 2018 there were crime thrillers, and then there was everything else." As the article notes, the analysis only extends to print sales in the UK since the data didn't cover the extensive ebook market.

Now that 2018 is history, it's time for a look ahead. Crime Fiction Lover, The Real Book Spy, Dead Good, and The Rap Sheet all offer up their takes on the most hotly awaited crime novels of 2019.

Author and Polis Books founder Jason Pinter discussed his publishing company's new crime imprint, Agora Books, with The New York Post. Agora Books was established to promote diversity in crime fiction, and the first three titles will come out in fall 2019 under the direction of editor Chantelle Aimée Osman, former editor-in-chief of RT Book Reviews Magazine. As Pinter stated, "There are authors out there who don’t feel welcome because of a lack of representation in the crime-fiction genre. And with this [new imprint] we’re saying, ‘Not only are you welcome, you are needed.'"

Adding a bit more to the topic of diversity, Writers Digest took a look at the changing face of crime fiction, profiling "6 Writers of Color on Writing Mysteries, Crime Novels and Thrillers."

Publishers are trying new marketing ploys to lure in readers, with one example being #taken by Tony Parsons. The sixth and final installment in the author's DC Max Wolfe detective series is being serialized online by British GQ ahead of the novel's publication with Century in April 2019.

Writing for the Washington Post, thriller author Brad Meltzer examined how a deadly plot against George Washington merely became a historical footnote.

Agatha Christie's missing 11 days in December 1926 are being made into a new film commissioned by Britain's Channel 5, and author Andrew Wilson took a look at other projects (including his own novel) that have taken on the subject of Dame Agatha's real-life mystery.

Wondering how to become a bestselling crime writer? Val McDermid, Sophie Hannah, and Stella Duffy weighed in on the topic for Marie Claire magazine.

It may be too late for Christmas, but anytime is a good time to try out some of these crime fiction board game recommendations from Criminal Element.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Borderline: An Elegy" by Robert Weibezahl.

In the Q&A roundup, James Lee Burke was one of the latest "By the Book" subjects for the New York Times; Louise Penny was taped speaking before a live audience at Sandwich High School and chatted about her new book, Kingdom of the Blind and other books in the Inspector Gamache series; and Publishers Weekly interviewed Harlan Coben about his new novel, Run Away, which he calls "the classic Hitchcockian dilemma of the “ordinary man/woman in an extraordinary situation."

Mystery Melange

The Mystery Writers of America noted the loss of Jane Langton, a 2017 MWA Grand Master, who passed away on December 22, 2018 at the age of 95. In a writing career that spanned over four decades, Langton wrote and illustrated multiple mystery series for children and also penned adult mysteries including Emily Dickinson is Dead, which was an Edgar nominee and received a Nero Wolfe award. In addition to her Grand Master status, Langton was also winner of the Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. 

There's a new crime fiction event in the UK next spring. Book Lovers' Supper Club has announced the first Leonardslee Crime Festival celebrating the best of crime writing in the south-east of England, which will be held March 2-3. The Crime Festival will open with a whodunnit Murder Mystery afternoon tea presented by the Killer Women, featuring crime writers presenting an hour-long puzzle for the audience to solve. Melanie Whitehouse, founder of The Book Lovers' Supper Club, added that “Misleading everyone will be authors Elly Griffiths, Colette McBeth, Mel McGrath and Julia Crouch, plus top cop Graham Bartlett."

2018 has seen the rise of the niche independent bookstore including Knights Of, the publisher of minority-centered books that opened a pop-up bookstore which sold out of all its stock in a matter of days, and Troubador (who run self-publishing imprint Matador) and their Festival Bookshop housed in the back of a repurposed van. It only stocks Matador titles, and will tour festivals in the UK throughout the summer. Meanwhile, independent bookstore sales in the U.S. rose by 5% in 2018, according to the American Booksellers Association.

Shelf Awareness, an online organization focused on publishing industry news and trends, also has a newsletter for readers with book reviews, author interviews, quizzes, and more. Right now, they have a giveaway that also supports indie bookstores; if you signup for their twice-weekly reader newsletter, you'll be entered to win a $500 gift card to the indie bookstore of your choice.

Happy 20th anniversary to the world's first spy museum, which opened its doors in Tampere, Finland in 1998 with a vast collection of original and functional artifacts and documentation ranging from the First World War through the end of the Cold War. A sister museum opened in Washington, D.C., two years later, and the most recent member of the "family," the KGB Spy Museum in New York City, just recently opened its doors to the public.

There has been a big push for diversity in crime fiction lately, including Polis Books founder Jason Pinter launching Agora Books, a diversity-focused imprint. Writing for the Canada-based Quill & Quire, Wayne Arthurson focused on how white voices overwhelm Indigenous crime fiction, while author Sam Wiebe (who was the subject of an Author R&R a while back) urged his crime fiction colleagues and the genre at large to reckon with inclusion.


Hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell for noting the Digital Cartographies of Spanish Detective Fiction at Grinnell College where assistant professor of Spanish Nick Phillips and undergraduate student Margaret Giles have created visual representations of investigations in Spanish detective fiction via the mapmaking program Carto. Authors covered include Carme Riera, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Juan José Millás, and Julio Muñoz Gijón.

Fun for book geeks: the New York Public LIbrary posted an (extremely unscientific) online quiz to determine which of Dewey Decimal System heading you fall under. Are you a 060, a lover of rules and guidelines? Are you an 818 joker? How about an 031 perfectionist or maybe a 629.8, possibly a robot?

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Very Secret Santa" by John Kaprielian.

Writing for the LA Review of Books, Robert Allen Papinchak profiled Golden Age author Dorothy B. Hughes’s debut hard-boiled novel, The So Blue Marble (first published in 1940), which is being reissued by Penzler Press as the first in a series of American Mystery Classics.

In the Q&A roundup, Scottish crime author Ian Rankin is the latest "By the Book" interviewee at the New York Times; the LA Review of Books spoke with Erica Wright about The Blue Kingfisher, her latest novel featuring Kathleen Stone, a former NYPD undercover officer turned private investigator; and Irish author Tana French, best known for her Dublin Murder Squad series, also chatted with the LA Review of Books, discussing her latest work, a standalone psychological thriller, The Witch Elm.

Mystery Melange, Christmas Edition

Over at the Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph has compiled her annual - and growing- list of Christmas-themed or Christmas-set crime fiction. The list has grown so long, she's had to split it into several lists. You can find all the various links (by alphabet) to the novels, as well as Christmas mystery short stories and novellas, right here.

Several authors, including crime writer Laura Lippman, are auctioning the chance to name a character in an upcoming book. Proceeds benefit Immigrant Families Together. But you'd better hurry since the auction ends tonight at 11 eastern time.

Many of us in the crime community are still mourning the death of Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and many short stories, as well as being a longtime supporter and promoter of the genre. Next year, the 50th Boucheron conference, to be held in Dallas, will be celebrating that anniversary with a commemoration of Crider via the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction. They're looking for short mystery/crime stories of 3500 to 5000 words using the theme Deep in the Heart (relating to Texas with an element of mystery or crime), with a deadline of March 1. (Hat tip to Sandra Seamans.)

As part of his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program, James Patterson is once again partnering with the American Booksellers Association to distribute grants of $750 to 333 booksellers. The winners were nominated by customers, booksellers, publishing industry colleagues and others, who were invited to answer the grant application's one question: "Why does this bookseller deserve a holiday bonus?" To see if your local bookstore was a lucky recipient, you can check out the list from ABA.

In a Christmas present of sorts for crime fiction readers, Sourcebooks announced it has acquired most of the assets of award-winning crime and mystery publisher Poisoned Pen Press that will become Sourcebooks' mystery imprint. Sourcebooks senior editor Anna Michels will oversee the new Poisoned Press imprint and acquire some of its titles, while Poisoned Pen editor-in-chief Barbara Peters will continue in that role and acquire front list titles for the new Poisoned Pen Press imprint.

The latest issue of Black Mama is out with lots of "holiday noir" stories to act as an antidote to all those sugary treats you're having and the syrupy Christmas muzak in the stores. In a reprint of Mark David Kevlock’s Spinetingler award-nominated “The Present,” suspected incest drives a teen crazy on the year’s holiest night. In Morgan Boyd’s “Red Christmas,” crooks learn that the mob never takes a day off. Luke Walters’ “Christmas Eve Blow and Doll Houses” features a thief who is forced to play Santa. Mandi Rose’s “Holly, Jolly” gives us a pedophile Kris Kringle. BAM’s “Samurai Santa” carries a big sword. And in Kenneth James Crist’s futuristic “Badass Ted’s Christmas Adventure,” a notorious serial killer gets whacked before he reaches his prime.

King's River Life magazine has a couple of holiday-themed short stories online for your holiday reading pleasure, including "The Engagement Ring Miracle" by Elaine Faber and "Snowdog" by Maryetta Ackenbom.

Classic Mysteries offered up The Twelve Reading Days of Christmas, with "a list of twelve mysteries that may help instill a bit of the Christmas spirit into the stoutest Grinch."

It's hard to imagine Christmases past and present without Charles Dickens' beloved and iconic Christmas Carol, but the author was apparently never quite happy with it, revising it over and over through the years.

Mystery Lovers Kitchen had several holiday offerings of both books and recipes, including Christmas Cinnamon Wreath Bread from Daryl Wood Gerber; Pecan Praline Sauce from Peg Cochran; and festive Layered Holiday Drinks from Cleo Coyle to make your "spirits" even brighter. Daryl Wood Gerber even has a Raspberry Coffee Cake for folks who have to eat gluten-free.

The end of the year lists continue with The Boston Globe out with its "Best Books of 2018" choices, including the paper’s 16 crime fiction favorites.

If you're looking for more good gift books ideas, Bustle rounded up eleven mystery and thriller authors to recommend their best reads of 2018.

Wondering how to get your family to read this holiday season? Here are some tips.

Kittling: Books has some favorite "Cozy Holiday Cover Love."

Former police officer turned author, conference organizer, and writing consultant Lee Lofland, offered up his humorous holiday tradition of "The Twelve Knights of Graveyard."

Writer's Digest took advantage of the holiday to propose "4 Writing Techniques to Borrow from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol."

The Write Practice has regular writing prompts for authors to hone their skills. This week's is "Build Your Own Alien Holiday."

Sue Coletta posted her "Crime Writer’s Version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.'"

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Ice Cream Uber Alles" by Jeff Bagato.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with author J. Lee about his new novel The Hubley Case; and the American Booksellers Association spoke with Lisa Jewell, author the murder mystery Watching You, January’s ABA #1 Indie Next List Pick.

Mystery Melange

Tom Nolan picked his favorite mystery novels of 2018 for the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Likewise, CrimeReads contributing editors compiled "Our Favorite Crime Books of 2018."

Best selling crime writer Val McDermid admitted being "very moved and very touched" as she had an honorary degree conferred upon her at St. Andrews University. McDermid has sold more than 15 million books which have been translated into 40 languages and has been awarded the coveted Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger for outstanding achievement.

UK's Cambridge University will offer a Masters course in Crime and Thriller Writing, the institution's first genre-specific creative writing course. From October 2019, the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of English will offer an MSt (Master of Studies, a Master of Arts equivalent) in Crime and Thriller Writing including creating a portfolio of creative essays or compositions, alongside a thesis consisting of 20,000 words of creative prose.

Some sad news, especially for younger readers:  Barbara Brooks Wallace, a children’s author best known for award-winning novels including the Peppermints in the Parlor mystery series, passed away November 27 at a hospice center in Arlington, Va. She was 95.

In an interview with The Real Book Spy, Eric Van Lustbader indicated that he'd reached the decision to step away from the Jason Bourne series, a franchise he’s anchored since 2002. The author said that after eleven Bourne novels in sixteen years, "I had pretty much said everything that I wanted to say with Bourne, and that I wanted to do something different."

Writing for the London Review of Books, John Lanchester compared Agatha Christie to the works of other Golden Age authors such as Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers, trying to find out the core reason for Christie’s appeal to so many readers in so many different times and places.

Lisa Scottoline has been chosen as the 2019 All Henrico Reads author, an annual reading program in which the entire community is encouraged to read the same book. Scottoline is the bestselling author of 32 novels, including After Anna, her 2018 thriller that will be the subject of the all-reads program.

Mysterious Press has released Mystery Stories by Elizabeth Peters, three shorts from the late author best known for her beloved Amelia Peabody series, in both paperback and digital formats. The stories, which include a Christmas slaying, an Egyptian puzzle, and a night in the home of a stranger, are being made available for the first time in a single volume.

Joanne Sinchuk, who founded Murder on the Beach bookstore in Florida's Delray Beach in 1996, told the Palm Beach Post that "We used to sell books, now we sell entertainment." That inludes author signings, internet sales, and independently published authors who are selling as well as the traditional New York published authors. (HT to Shelf Awareness)


Kate Jackson has rounded up vintage crime book bloggers who will offer up their opinions on the "Best Vintage Crime Reprint of the Year." Bloggers such as JF Norris of Pretty Sinister Books will be showcasing their favorites and on December 22, Kate will set up a poll for readers to vote from among all the blogger-chosen titles. The Reprint of the Year winner will be posted on December 29th.

Japan Times had a brief profile of "Japan’s modern crime literature: Centuries in the making."

Scott Alderbert checked out "Literary Stoner Noir" over on Do Some Damage.

Jason Carter, blogger and James Ellroy aficionado, penned an essay on "James Ellroy’s Lonely Places: a Retrospective" for The Venetian Vase.

In a surprise to virtually no one, thriller author James Patterson once again topped the list of the highest paid authors in the world. The top five also included J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series as well as a crime series under the name Robert Galbraith, and Stephen King, who writes in both horror and crime genres.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Maybelle" by Teresa J. Wong.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Ian Andrew, who won the 2017 BookLife Prize for his thriller, Face Value; Writer Interviews welcomed Wallace Stroby, an award-winning journalist and the author of eight novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone, whom Kirkus Reviews named "Crime fiction's best bad girl ever"; and the Mystery People chatted with noir author Ken Bruen about his latest Jack Taylor novel, In the Galway Silence.

Mystery Melange

August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones is the winner of the 2018 Nero Award from the Wolfe Pack. The honor, bestowed upon the best crime novel in the style of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, was handed out Saturday at the 41st Black Orchid Weekend. Past winners of the award have included Fred Harris, Martha Grimes, Dennis Lehane, and Sharyn McCrumb. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards, voted on by readers and fans on the book recommendation website, were announced in several categories. The top nod in the mystery/thriller category goes to Stephen King's The Outsider. For all of the other nineteen finalists, click on over to this link.

The "best" lists keep coming, with NPR picking a list of 24 titles for its choices for "Best mysteries and thrillers" of 2018, and Oline Cogdill of the South Florida Times choosing her "best mystery novels of 2018," which includes her top 16 plus 8 noteworthy debuts.

Polis Books is launching Agora Books, a diversity-focused imprint devoted to crime and noir fiction. The new imprint will be headed by Chantelle Aimée Osmanand will launch with three titles in fall 2019 and eventually publish six to 10 titles a year. Those first three titles include Three-Fifths by John Vercher, the story of a biracial man who discovers a childhood friend has become a neo-nazi; Remember by Patricia Smith, about a woman forced to reconcile with a painful past; and The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge, the tale of a woman who dedicates herself to becoming a modern day ninja after the murder of her sister.

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on mysteries featuring crime fiction set in the American South. Editor Janet Rudolph is seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays, with a deadline of December 30.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Magazine has news of the new paperback crime imprint, Blackthorn; reviews of Ripley's best of the month and best of the year crime titles; a look at international crime fiction from Laplan, South Korea, and New Zealand; and much more.

Crime writer Ian Rankin, who penned the best-selling Inspector Rebus novels, is auctioning two bottles of whisky created in tribute to the detective. Rankin will sell a 20-year-old bottle and a 30-year-old bottle at auction, to raise cash for a charity which helps Edinburgh’s homeless population, Streetwork.

Has the mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearace for eleven days in 1926 finally been solved? A new theory that's part of a Channel 5 drama, Agatha And The Truth of Murder, suggests the crime writer was investigating a real-life murder in 92-year-old mystery that could have leapt from the pages of one of her novels.

I'm always in the mood for good literacy news, and this report caught my eye. According to studies by the UK's National Literacy Trust, the gender gap in the number of children who say they enjoy reading has narrowed, with boys aged 11 lagging only 9 percentage points behind girls of the same age.

It's time once again for the annual Bad Sex in Fiction awards. The list, which is compiled by the Literary Review, features an all-male roster this year, including Haruki Murakami, for passages from his latest novel Killing Commendatore, and also controversial US novelist James Frey for a scene in his novel Katerina described by judges as “almost like wish fulfilment”. But ultimately, it was Frey who prevailed as the worst of the worst.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Ballad of Annie Crudup" by Roger Netzer.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover chatted with former journalist John Marrs, who has enjoyed an interesting journey as an author of standalone psychological thrillers, including The One, which is now being adapted for the small screen by Netflix; and Criminal Element spoke with Bryan Gruley, a journalist who shared in the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Wall Street Journal in 2002, and is also the author of the popular Starvation Lake trilogy