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

Minotaur Books announced that Christina Estes’s novel, Off the Air, has won the 2020 Tony Hillerman Prize for a best first mystery novel. Minotaur Books is planning to publish Estes’s debut in 2023. Estes is an Emmy award-winning reporter who lives in Phoenix, and is also a founding member of Sisters in Crime Grand Canyon Writers. Off the Air is the story of a local TV news reporter who gets the scoop of a lifetime while investigating the murder of a popular radio talk show host—but the killer is determined to keep her silent.

Capital Crime has announced that London-based journalist and writer, Darren Boyle, has won the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award for his thriller, The Black Pool. He will receive a £1,000 cash prize, a trophy, and a potential offer of publication from Thomas & Mercer, the mystery and thriller imprint of prize sponsor Amazon Publishing, whose authors include Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, Dreda Say Mitchell, and Damien Boyd. The Black Pool is set is set in contemporary Dublin and features a journalist protagonist who ventures deep into the murky world of organized tiger raids gang—but how much is he willing to risk for the ultimate story? The Amazon New Voices Award is open annually to unpublished mystery, thriller, and crime fiction manuscripts in English from writers around the world.

The million euro literary Planeta prize has lured three Spanish men out of anonymity to reveal that they are behind ultra-violent Spanish crime thrillers marketed as the work of female author, Carmen Mola, which roughly translates as "Carmen’s cool." When one of their books won the lucrative award, the trio went public to pick up the check at a glitzy ceremony attended by the Spanish king. However, not everyone was thrilled with the unveiling. Beatriz Gimeno, a feminist, writer, activist—and former head of one of Spain’s national equality bodies, the Women’s Institute—attacked the men for creating a female persona in their publicity for Carmen Mola books over several years. "Quite apart from using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing interviews. It’s not just the name—it’s the fake profile that they’ve used to take in readers and journalists. They are scammers."

Tomorrow, the New York Adventure Club is offering the virtual webinar, "Agatha Christie: Unraveling the Mystery Behind the Queen of Crime," with tour guide Simon Whitehouse. It will include London locales of Christie's works and life, including where the royal premieres of film adaptations were held, as well as background on her career and 1926 disappearance. Tickets are $10, with access to the webinar available for a limited time after the event. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The final Inspector Montalbano novel, finished years ago by author Andrea Camilleri, has been published in the UK. Camilleri was determined that his crime series not be continued by another writer and left his concluding novel with his publisher long before his death in 2019. The series, following the food-loving Sicilian detective as he solves crimes against the backdrop of a changing Italy, has been translated into 32 languages, with more than 65 million copies sold around the world. Camilleri wrote the first book about Salvo Montalbano in 1994 at the age of almost 70; he began writing the 28th in 2004, depositing the manuscript at his publishing house in Palermo on the promise that it would be kept in a locked safe and only published after his death.

The year's "best of" book lists are already starting to pop up, including Barnes & Noble, which compiled an overall list as well as one specific to Mysteries and Thrillers. You can find those top ten crime fiction titles here.


The Rap Sheet offered up a tribute to "A Steward of Hammett’s Digs, Now Gone." William P. "Bill" Arney, who is said to have reclaimed the apartment at 891 Post Street in San Francisco (once occupied by Dashiell Hammett and his private-eye creation, Sam Spade), passed away this last September 28. Arney’s studio became a periodic stop on literary historian Don Herron’s popular Dashiell Hammett Tour.

Here's a pandemic surprise: there's been a mini-indie bookstore boom.

Cross-Examining Crime has a fun classic crime quiz this week on the theme of Sherlock Holmes, in particular the artwork used to accompany the short stories. The quiz uses images from the short stories, most of them drawn by Sidney Paget.

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

In the Q&A roundup, S.A. Cosby chatted with CrimeReads' Eli Cranor about his latest novel, Razorblade Tears, but as Cranor noted, Cosby was a bit late to the interview thanks to some real "dead bodies"; Writers Who Kill spoke with Lorie Lewis Ham about her debut novel, One of Us, and also M. E. Browning about her latest book, Mercy Creek; and the Indie Crime Scene interviewed Kathleen Kaska, author of Murder at the Galvez (A Sydney Lockhart Mystery).

Mystery Melange

Sisters in Crime Australia announced that 26 stories by 23 authors have been shortlisted for its 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories written by Australian women. This year 241 stories – equal to last year’s record – are competing for a record $11,910 in prize money. Awards are presented in the following categories: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Young Writer (under 19), and Emerging Writer (19-25); Art and Crime; Best Environmental Mystery "Body in The Library" (including runner-up); Most Satisfying Retribution; Mystery with History; Malice Domestic; Cross-Genre; Thriller; Great Film Idea; and Best Disabled Protagonist. The winners will be revealed in an online ceremony, Saturday, November 27, on YouTube and on Facebook.

In more news from Australia, the Aussie publishing news website Books + Publishing (and The Society of Women Writers NSW) reported that the Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) is sponsoring a new flash fiction crime writing prize, the Louie Award. Sponsored by ACT president of the Australian Medical Association Antonio Di Dio, the annual award celebrates his late father Luigi who was an avid crime fiction reader. The award is open to Australian crime writers and will seek short story submissions of up to 500 words. The winner will receive $750. Entries for the inaugural award is expected to open this month on the ACWA website, although there is no information listed there just yet.

Tomorrow, October 14, the Atwater Library in Montreal will host an Online Panel Discussion with Delvin Chatterson and other Montreal-area members of Crime Writers of Canada discussing the pleasures of reading and writing crime fiction.To register and get the Zoom link, click on over here.

On October 27, you can book your free ticket for an evening with Danish crime authors Heidi Amsinck and Katrine Engberg in conversation with broadcaster, journalist, and writer, Lone Theils. The event is sponsored by Barnet Libraries and will also be offered online.

Looking ahead to November 8th, pencil in the date for the online Murder One 21: Murder in the Library. The event is offered in conjunction with the Dublin Book Festival and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and is also free (with required registration). Adele Parks and Jane Casey will be in conversation with Vaseem Khan. But wait, there's more! Check out the registration link for additional Murder One free online events scheduled throughout November,

Liverpool’s First Ever Crime Fiction Day, Perfect Crime UK, is slated for November 13. Featured authors include Ann Cleves, Elly Griffiths, Sophie Hannah, Mel Sherratt, Martin Edwards, M.W. Craven, and more, participating in a variety of panels. Note that this is an in-person event only. For tickets, head on over to this link.

The latest issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection has been published. The new executive editor, Caroline Reitz, has included essays profling authors such as Lois Austen-Leigh, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Didier Daeninckx, Fergus Hume, Philip Kerr, Peter Robinson, and Arthur Upfield.

In a couple of posts last week, I highlighted several newish anthologies (some for charity, others more general), and I don't want to just repeat the work Richie Naravez had already done with his list of "Latinx Crime Fiction Anthologies" for CrimeReads, but do head over there and check them out.

Washington Post book critic, Ron Charles, reviewed State of Terror, the political thriller written by Hillary Clinton with Louise Penny, calling it "a thinly veiled jab at a Very Stable Genius."

Meanwhile, The Guardian's Anthony Cummins reviewed John le Carré's posthumous and final full-length book, "a precision-tooled cat and mouse chase from a bookshop in East Anglia to the old eastern bloc." As Cummins notes, however, "If we’re left dangling by the end, there’s an added tease of sorts in the novel’s billing as le Carré’s 'last complete masterwork' – on the strong side, no doubt, but a tag that nonetheless holds out the prospect of rougher treasures still awaiting the light."

Writing for The Economist, C.T. Scott profiled the story of Sherlock Holmes's "real-life secretary." Chris Bazlinton had a shock when he was offered a public relations job at Abbey National, a British building society, and learned that as part of his duties, he would "also have to act as secretary to Sherlock Holmes, answering the mail that comes in for him." It all started in 1932, when Abbey opened its grand, white-marbled headquarters on Baker Street. The art-deco building was so large that it had been assigned ten street numbers, from 219 to 229. Overnight, one of the most famous literary addresses in history – 221b Baker Street, home of Holmes and his partner, John H. Watson – became a real place for the first time. Bazlinton, was the seventh secretary to Holmes, serving until 1982, and during his tenure, he estimated he received nearly 6,000 pieces of mail and replied to each one.

It seems like every single celebrity on the planet these days (from TV actors and presenters to astronauts to politicans) is dipping their quill into the crime fiction well these days. It appears the latest will be Britney Spears.

How much time should you give a devastatingly boring book? Crime novelist, Mark Billingham, advises readers to angrily launch a book across the room after 20 non-gripping pages, but studies show that almost 40% of people will keep going right to the end.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Nocturne" by J.M. Jordan.

In the Q&A roundup, Indie Crime Scene interviewed Harry Navinski, author of The Duty: A not so Scottish Murder, which is the second novel in the DCI Suzanna McLeod series; Deborah Kalb chatted with Ashley Elliott, the co-author (with Michael J. Coffino), of the new true crime book The Demon in Disguise: Murder, Kidnapping, and the Banty Rooster, which focuses on the murder of Elliott's father in 2002; Nowegian author Jo Nesbo (creator of the Harry Hole series), spoke with The O.C. Register about his new work, The Jealousy Man, a collection of dark short stories and novellas that reveal the worst in human nature; Lori Rader-Day sat down The Nerd Daily about her latest book release, Death At Greenway, which she calls "Agatha Christie noir"; and the Vancouver publication, George Straight, had a Q&A with Linwood Barclay about being influenced by Ross Macdonald, inspired by Stephen King, and shaped by deadlines.

Mystery Melange

Debut author Clare Whitfield has been awarded the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2021 for People of Abandoned Character, a thrilling and atmospheric take on the Jack the Ripper story (published by Head of Zeus). It follows the perspective of the newly married Susannah, who begins to wonder whether her abusive and volatile husband might be responsible for the Whitechapel Murders. Whitfield won praise from the judging team, calling her story "a thoughtful and compelling exploration of the endless violence faced by women of all walks of life."

During an online live event this week, The Strand Magazine announced the winners of the 2021 Strand Critics Awards, recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing. The winners include Best Mystery Novel: Snow, by John Banville; Best Debut Novel: When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole; and Lifetime Achievement Awards: Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Alexander McCall Smith. Josh Stanton of Blackstone Publishing was chosen to receive the 2021 Publisher of the Year Award.

The Bloody Scotland hybrid festival, which ran from September 17-30, had a record-breaking attendance this year, with 16,000 visitors (both in person and online) from over 30 countries. Organizers are so encouraged by this, they are already making plans for Bloody Scotland 2022, the event's 10th anniversary, increasing the in-person event to run for four consecutive days. Founding chair, Jenny Brown, is stepping down and handing over the reins to publisher and TV presenter, James Crawford, who added "This is a festival that has a very strong identity and a clear and ambitious vision for the future, and I am very much looking forward to helping shape the plans for its 10th anniversary in 2022." There's no word yet on whether next year's event will be once again a hybrid affair, but I'm assuming more word on that will be forthcoming, depending upon the state of the pandemic at that time.

New England Crime Bake is scheduled to take place live at the Hilton in Dedham, Massachusetts from November 12-14. The planning committee is weighing many considerations right now, but the good news is that Crime Bake 2021 will happen no matter what. A subcommittee has planned a virtual event, Crime Bake: Online, Plugged-In and Exclusive, that will take place from November 14 – 19, even if the live event does not happen as planned. Registration is separate from the in-person event, and folks from far-flung locations will be able to join in from the comfort of home. It will offer different programming from the in-person Crime Bake, which is currently still on. (HT to Brenda Buchanan)

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal, with a theme of Lone Star Mysteries, is out and available in print. You can catch some sneak previews online with the essays, "The Basis for The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale"; "My Grandfather and Samuel Craddock" by Terry Shames; and "Just the Facts: A Ranger Hall of Fame" by Jim Doherty.

The American Comparative Literature Association has issued a call for papers for their upcoming meeting in June of 2022. The symposium is titled "Global Histories of Crime Fiction: Redefining a Popular Genre," and organizers would like to see papers dealing with any aspects of world crime fiction and the historiographical challenges it presents. Abstracts must be received by Sunday, October 31.

The Melville House blog reminded us that a recent study at Yale University, which was reported on in a Washington Post article, showed "book readers experienced a 20 percent reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow-up compared to non-book readers." The data was obtained from a longitudinal Health and Retirement Study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. The study looked at 3,635 subjects, all older than 50, whom the researchers divided into three groups: those who didn’t read books, those who read up to 3.5 hours a week and those who read more than 3.5 hours a week. The findings were remarkable: Book readers survived almost two years longer than those who didn’t crack open a book.

A team of more than 40 retired and amateur investigators claim they have identified the Zodiac Killer, up to this point an unnamed serial killer that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s. The team, calling themselves The Case Breakers, which consists of former law enforcement officials, DNA experts, and journalists, believe they have identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. But the FBI and police in California say, "Not so fast."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Private Enterprise" by Harris Coverley.

Mystery Melange

The shortlist for the 2021 Petrona Award for Best Translated Scandinavian Crime Novel was announced today (with the winner to be presented on November 4). The six titles from Iceland, Norway, and Sweden include:

• A Necessary Death by Anne Holt, tr. Anne Bruce (Corvus; Norway)
• Death Deserved by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, tr. Anne Bruce (Orenda Books; Norway)
• The Secret Life Of Mr. Roos by Håkan Nesser, tr. Sarah Death (Mantle; Sweden)
• To Cook A Bear by Mikael Niemi, tr. Deborah Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press; Sweden)
• The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn, tr. Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books; Norway)
• Gallows Rock by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton; Iceland)

Romance, crime, and science fiction novels are among the five shortlisted books for the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award, which this year received a record number of submissions. The two crime fiction titles include JD Kirk's An Isolated Incident, the 11th installment in his DCI Jack Logan series, and Rachel McLean's The Corfe Castle Murders. You can see the full list of finalists here. The winner will be announced in October.

Tomorrow is the last day to bid on items in the Authors for Voices of Color auction, which is raising money for racial-justice non-profits in the publishing, education, and literacy arenas. Authors, editors, and other publishing professionals are donating items and services to raise funds for organizations that amplify voices of color. The inaugural auction, which ended in August 2020, raised more than $14,000. There are several genres included, and you can check out the thriller offerings via this link.

Join award-winning mystery authors Naomi Hirahara and Walter Mosley for an online discussion October 3 about their critically acclaimed novels. Hirahara’s latest mystery, Clark and Division, revolves around a Japanese American family building a new life in 1940s Chicago after their release from mass incarceration during World War II. Mosley’s indefatigable detective, Easy Rawlins, returns in Blood Grove, solving a new mystery on the streets of Southern California in 1969. The talk is sponsored by the Brooklyn Book Festival and will be moderated by Dwyer Murphy, editor in chief of CrimeReads.

There are a few more Noir at the Bar events coming up soon, starting off with Noir at the Bar Edinburgh at the Rose St Theatre Café with authors Alison Belsham (Her Last Breath), Sharon Bairden (Sins of the Father), Alex Nye (Arguing with the Dead), Sandra Ireland (Bone Deep), and Jackie MacLean (DI Donna Davenport series). Columbia, South Carolina, will be holding its first Noir at the Bar event on October 27 (lineup here); and the next Noir at the Bar Dallas is set for November 7 (lineup here) at the Wild Detectives bookstore.

Titan Books is releasing a new collaboration with editor Maxim Jakubowski for the first retrospective of the Crime Writer Association's Dagger Award-winning short stories. The 19 tales in Daggers Drawn bring together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dealers and master forgers. To coincide with the release, contributors Larry Beinhart, Danuta Kot, Lauren Henderson, and Martin Edwards will join Jakubowski for a live panel on Saturday, October 2, 2021, which will be streamed via Facebook Live.

To celebrate the launch of David Marcum's Sherlock Holmes and The Eye of Heka, Mystery Scene magazine readers are being invited to a chance to win $100 worth of Sherlockian tales from MX Publishing, the home of the largest Sherlock Holmes catalog in the world, with more than 400 Sherlock Holmes novels, biographies, graphic novels and short story collections. To enter, simply sign up for the magazine's free newsletter on the bottom of their home page.

There is some sad news to report following the loss of another mystery author: Frank Wheeler Jr. has passed away only a few months following a surprise cancer diagnosis at the age of 43. Jed Ayres has a personal tribute up at Hardboiled Wonderland.

The Black Cat web site has been around for almost four years now, serving up a weekly buffet of new and classic mysteries—and more recently science fiction—to thousands of readers each week. Rather than continue to release all these novels and stories as individual ebooks, they have decided to bundle them up into a convenient weekly e-magazine beginning with Black Cat Weekly #1, the September 5, 2021 issue. To celebrate, they're including double the usual word count, with three complete novels, seven short stories, and even a "true crime" feature by Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason. The subgenres cover the gamut, from traditional mysteries to contemporary detectives, to psychic detectives (in the case of Frank Lovell Nelson’s story, a telepathic detective, the first of 12 stories featuring Carlton Clarke from 1908, all of which will run in the Black Cat’s pages).


Cross-Examining Crime published the transcription of a talk recently given at the Paignton Zoo as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival, featuring some of the ways in which animals have made themselves at home with classic crime writers and in the mysteries their owners created. The roster has several books from the Golden Age, including the Queen of Crime herself, Agatha Christie, with a few more contemporary takes. The stories include a variety of titles, all of which included animals used as pets, muses, plot devices, or even murder weapons.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Would You Like Fries With That" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's J.B. Stevens interviewed Mark Westmoreland, author of the debut book, A Violent Gospel; the Stiletto Gang's Lynn McPherson interviewed fellow "Gangster," Cathy Perkins about her books, being a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, and writing through chemotherapy; and Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis chatted with Rhys Bowen about God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen, which is Bowen’s fifteenth Royal Spyness mystery.

Mystery Melange

Congratulations to Robbie Morrison, who won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Edge of the Grave. Craig Russell also won the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Hyde. The latter prize was named for the late William McIlvanney, whose last book, The Dark Remains, has just been published posthumously with the help of bestselling Scottish crime writer, Ian Rankin.

HarperFiction has revealed the three winners of the Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers, launched in January of this year. The competition is designed to find unpublished writers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and was judged by editorial director Phoebe Morgan, commissioning editor Kathryn Cheshire, assistant editor Sophie Churcher, and guest judge Ayo Onatade. Each winner will receive a comprehensive editorial report and mentoring. The winners include Rama Varma, for The Banana Leaf Murder; Stacey Thomas for The Revels; and Shabnam Grewal for Secrets and Shame.

Gillian Flynn, the author of acclaimed psychological thriller, Gone Girl, is to launch her own imprint with new US indie press Zando. Along with actor and producer Lena Waithe, Flynn is a founding partner of the press, which aims to collaborate with creators, authors, and platforms to obtain and publish titles. Flynn will be involved in every stage of the publishing process for her imprint, including acquisition, editing and publication. She will publish her Zando list under the name Gillian Flynn Books, releasing four to six titles over three years. Gillian Flynn Books is expected to include both fiction and non-fiction, featuring narrative non-fiction and true crime.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, has extended the submission deadline for the upcoming issue on "Cold Case Mysteries." Interested authors still have time to submit their proposed reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays by October 10.
 

The Atlantic's Alyse Burnside profiled the "dark reality behind cozy mysteries," and how the genre’s popularity can feel like a relic of a bygone era—but these books share DNA with today’s bloodier thrillers.

The New York Times took a look ahead to "20 New Works of Fiction to Read This Season," a list that includes State of Terror, a political thriller by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny; the Korean murder mystery, Lemon; and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.

The novel that is thought to have inspired Agatha Christie is getting a UK publication date in October by Dean Street Press. The Invisible Host, a 1930 murder mystery by two US journalists, has remarkable parallels with Christie’s most successful work. Dean Street Press describes The Invisible Host as "the widely suspected inspiration" for And Then There Were None, and an "innovative and most unusual mystery from the golden age of crime fiction."

Just a reminder that censorship and book banning is alive and well in the 21st century: a southern Pennsylvania school district was forced to reverse a wide-ranging ban on books following protests and criticism that every author on that list involved a Black voice or subject. Crime fiction author, Brad Meltzer, whose picture book I am Rosa Parks was one of the banned titles, said he sat in the virtual Central York school board meeting "to stop this book ban," and read the board his titles including both I am Rosa Parks and I am Dr King to the board. "When you’re banning Dr King and Rosa Parks, you’re on the wrong side of history," said Meltzer.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Or So It Seemed" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, Sara Gran talked with CrimeReads about "Publishing, Sex Magic, and Ownership for Authors" and starting her own publishing company; Craig Johnson also stopped by CrimeReads to discuss spirituality, the West, and the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women, one of whom was the inspiration for the newest Longmire novel, Daughter of the Morning Star; and the BBC spoke with LJ Ross, a successful self-published author of 18 books including the DCI Ryan series, and a series with forensic psychologist Dr Alexander Gregory.

Mystery Melange

This year's shortlists were revealed for the Ngaio Marsh Awards that honor the best crime, mystery, or thriller novels written by a New Zealand citizen or resident and published in New Zealand during the previous year. The winners will be announced at a special streaming event on Saturday October 30, held in association with the WORD Christchurch festival.

Best novel:

The Murder Club (Nikki Crutchley, Oak House Press)
Sprigs (Brannavan Gnanalingam, Lawrence and Gibson)
The Tally Stick (Carl Nixon, RHNZ Vintage)
The Secrets of Strangers (Charity Norman, A&U)
Tell Me Lies (J P Pomare, Hachette)

Best first novel:

The Girl in the Mirror (Rose Carlyle, A&U)
The Beautiful Dead (Kim Hunt)
Where the Truth Lies (Karina Kilmore, S&S)
For Reasons of Their Own (Chris Stuart, Original Sin)
While the Fantail Lives (Alan Titchall, Devon Media)

Best nonfiction (biennial):

Weed: A New Zealand story (James Borrowdale, Penguin)
Rock College: An unofficial history of Mount Eden Prison (Mark Derby, Massey University Press)
From Dog Collar to Dog Collar (Bruce Howat)
Gangland (Jared Savage, HarperCollins NZ)
Black Hands: Inside the Bain family murders (Martin Van Beynen, PRHNZ).

Best YA novel:

Katipo Joe (Brian Falkner, Scholastic NZ)
Red Edge (Des Hunt, Scholastic NZ)
A Trio of Sophies (Eileen Merriman, Penguin)
Deadhead (Glenn Wood, OneTree House).

 

The ten finalists were announced for the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award. The Capital Crime advisory board along with Amazon Publishing editor, Victoria Haslam, and Thomas & Mercer author, Tariq Ashkanani, will decide on the winner in the coming weeks.

The San Francisco Public Library, in partnership with the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, hosted a panel last evening with Michael Nava curating a panel of Latinx authors discussing their books, writing, and their inspirations. Participating authors included Alex Segura, Raquel V. Reyes, Richie Narvaez, and Lucha Corpi. You can catch a replay of that event here.

The Guardian's Dalya Alberge recently made note of Dutch author Willem Frederik Hermans, a writer of spy thrillers during the mid twentieth century. His novel, The Darkroom of Damocles, was published before John le Carré's iconic work, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Hermans long maintained that le Carré plagiarized from his work.

Janet Rudolph posted an updated short list of mysteries that take place on Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe, and/or Yom Kippur.

In honor of Dame Agatha's birthday, Liberty Hardy compiled some of the best references to Agatha Christie in contemporary literature and pop culture.

And you thought humans were the only ones on this planet to commit crimes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Susan Smith's Dream" by Sally Weston Ziph.

In the Q&A roundup, Colson Whitehead spoke with CrimeReads about why he wrote a heist novel to tell the story of New York; the Stiletto Gang chatted with Debra Sennefelder, author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series, both published by Kensington; Writers Who Kill chatted with Nupur Tustin about her Celine Skye Psychic Mysteries and her Joseph Haydn Mysteries; Frances Hight stopped by CrimeScene to discuss her short crime fiction and her debut novel, West Texas Dead; and J.B. Stevens interviewed Tori Eldridge, author of The Ninja Betrayed, the third book in her Lily Wong series, for Criminal Element.

Mystery Melange

Here's one crime-themed conference I had overlooked:  The Perfect Crime Writing Festival 2021 will be held on Saturday, November 13th in Liverpool, UK. The in-person event will feature panels including Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Mel Sherratt, M W Craven, David Jackson, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Caz Finlay, Rhiannon Ward, Susanna Beard, Amanda Brooke, Heather Burnside, Barry Forshaw, and Prof James Grieve. There will also be a chance to mix with fellow attendees and author guests, buy the latest crime fiction releases from the featured authors, and have your books signed. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Also, the BAD Sydney Festival is featuring some online events this month ahead of the in-person conference in December. Coming up soon are Scottish author Val McDermid, dubbed the Queen of Crime, who will discuss her latest novel, 1979, with Sydney Morning Herald crime fiction reviewer, Sue Turnbull, on September 15; U.S. author Karin Slaughter discusses her latest thriller, False Witness, with fellow author Andy Muir on September 22; and Ann Cleeves, whose works have been adapted into hit TV shows Vera and Shetland, will join Turnbull online to talk about The Heron’s Cry on the 29th.

Collins Crime Club has scooped a new book by Martin Edwards, billed as the first major history of crime fiction in 50 years. Scheduled for publication in May 2022, the book traces the evolution of the crime fiction genre from the 18th century to the present. Publisher David Brawn noted: "In what will surely be regarded as his magnum opus, Martin Edwards has thrown himself undaunted into the breadth and complexity of the genre to write an authoritative – and readable – study of its development and evolution. With crime fiction being read more widely than ever around the world, and with individual authors increasingly the subject of extensive academic study, his expert distillation of more than two centuries of extraordinary books and authors – from the tales of E T A Hoffmann to the novels of Patricia Cornwell – into one coherent history is an extraordinary feat and makes for compelling reading."

A rarely seen picture of Agatha Christie and her second husband on their honeymoon forms part of a new exhibition opening in Torre Abbey, Devon, this month. This latest exhibition uses her own words, photographs, letters and poetry to tell the story of her second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan. Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson said: "What better place to launch a new Agatha Christie exhibition than at Torquay during the Agatha Christie festival?...This new exhibition covers the years after 1930 and my grandmother's second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan." The exhibit, titled Agatha Christie: Destination Unknown includes poetry, pictures, and archaeology and runs from September 11 to November 28, while the International Agatha Christie Festival runs from September 11 to September 18.

It's nice to see community "one read" events popping up around the globe. The 15th One Book One Valley community read program this month in Conway, New Hampshire, will be featuring Paul Doiron, who writes the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels.

If you're in the St. Louis, Missouri, area this weekend, check out this interactive murder mystery for a good cause.

In an essay for The Bulwark, Bill Ryan profiled the late, great Donald Westlake (a/k/a Richard Stark), who had far more to offer than just his stories featuring Parker, the sociopathic thief.

Writing for CrimeReads, Nick Rennison took at look at the "American rivals of Sherlock Holmes": the early days of American detective fiction and the sleuths who competed with Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Holmes for mystery readers.

On Creative Boom, Emily Gosling discussed an illustrated Chinese edition of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye from artist Klaus Kremmerz. The work draws on 1950's "hard-boiled crime" and Californian artist Ken Price, known for his abstract ceramic sculptures resembling blobs, geodes, and surreal take on crockery. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Apparently, September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. I still maintain there's no better value in the universe than a free library card, the true portal to other worlds.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Robbin' Hoodie" by Jim George.

In the Q&A roundup, the NYT spoke with S.A. Cosby, author of noir crime novels, who "claims the rural South as his own"; the NYT also interviewed Colson Whitehead who won back-to-back Pulitzers for The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys and takes a detour with his new crime novel, Harlem Shuffle; Scottish author Ian Rankin explained to The Express about how the frustrations of being a special needs parent fuel his writing; and the Nerd Daily spoke with Australian attorney-turned-author Lisa Ellery about her debut thriller, Private Prosecution.

Mystery Melange

The Australia Crime Writers Association announced the 2021 winners of the Ned Kelly Awards, handed out annually since 1995 for excellence in crime fiction by Aussie authors. Best Crime Fiction was awarded to Consolation, by Garry Disher; Best Debut Crime Fiction: The Second Son, by Loraine Peck; Best True Crime: Stalking Claremont: Inside the Hunt for a Serial Killer, by Bret Christian; and Best International Crime Fiction: We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker.

The other major Aussie crime fiction awards, the Davitts, were also handed out this past weekend. Sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia and named after author Ellen Davitt (1812-1879) the ceremony was once again virtual this year via Facebook due to the ongoing pandemic. Best Adult Novel went to Sally Hepworth’s domestic thriller, The Good Sister; Best Young Adult Crime Novel: Where We Begin, by Christie Nieman; Best Children’s Crime Novel: A Clue for Clara, by Lian Tanner; Best Non-fiction Crime Book: Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice, by Louise Milligan; Best Debut Crime Book: Sheerwater, by Leah Swann; and Readers Choice Award: The Shifting Landscape, by Katherine Kovacic.

The upcoming Bloody Scotland conference revealed the shortlist for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021. They include The Silent Daughter by Emma Christie; The Coffin Maker’s Garden by Stuart MacBride; Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison; The April Dead by Alan Parks; and Hyde by Craig Russell. The winners of both the McIlvanney Prize and the Scottish Crime Debut of the Year will be revealed in person on September 17 and also broadcast live online. Both events require tickets in advance, but they're free and open to the public worldwide.

Some sad news for mystery fans: Caroline Todd, one-half of the mother-son writing team that went by the name Charles Todd, passed away this weekend. Son Charles posted on Facebook that the duo had "Caroline left the world a better place and was immensely happy to have met and gotten to know so many readers, authors and booksellers. She was to the very end a class act." He also noted the team had completed A Game of Fear, the latest installment in the historical mystery series featuring Ian Rutledge, and the next book in the Bess Crawford series. The tributes are pouring in, as in this remembrance from Martin Edwards, and another from Janet Rudolph. A memorial service will be held at a later date, and the family has designated Faithful Friends for memorial contributions.

Agatha Christie’s beloved amateur sleuth is set to return in a new authorized collection. Miss Marple was last seen in 1976, solving a "perfect" crime committed years earlier in Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder. Now, twelve authors, including Val McDermid, Naomi Alderman, Kate Mosse, Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, and Dreda Say Mitchell, will continue the adventures of the elderly amateur sleuth, with the first ever "new" Agatha Christie short story collection out next year. The authors are all Christie devotees, said publisher HarperCollins, and will reimagine Miss Marple "through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery."

Cozy Mystery fans will also want to take note of this sweepstakes courtesy of Criminal Element. You can enter through September 12 to win ten different print copies of cozies from Ellie Alexander, Donna Andrews, MC Beaton, Sheila Connolly and more.

Is the new Barnes and Noble CEO, James Daunt, finally turning the fortunes of the bookseller around? He credits his staff for B&N sales being up about 5% to 6% so far this year compared to 2019, with book sales up by double digits.

Meanwhile, there's apparently a mystery afoot about the lag in sales of thriller and suspense titles, traditionally the top-selling genre.

The topic of the evolution of language has always been a fascinating one for me. After all, why are humans the only Earth creatures sitting down reading this blog post today? According to linguistics expert Sverker Johansson, you can thank Neanderthals and women for helping to create language.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ella Watson" by John D. Nesbitt.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Towles spoke with The Writers' Fun Zone about her new thriller, Ninety-Five; Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Carol J. Perry about her new paranormal mystery novel, Be My Ghost; and Megan Abbott spoke with CrimeReads about how to create an atmosphere of dread, anxiety, and obsession.

Mystery Melange

Yesterday brought the announcement of the 2021 Macavity Awards, which are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Best Novel went to Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby; Best First Novel: Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden; Best Critical/Biographical: H R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime by Sheila Mitchell; Best Short Story: "Elysian Fields" by Gabriel Valjan (California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; and the Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery: Turn to Stone by James W. Ziskin.

Also this week in a virtual ceremony on Facebook, the Australian Crime Writers' Association announced the winners of the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards. They include: Best Debut Crime Fiction - The Second Son by Loraine Peck; Best True Crime - Stalking Claremont by Bret Christian; Best International Crime Fiction - We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker; and Best Crime Fiction - Consolation by Garry Disher.

Author Martin Walker, whose novels feature police chief Bruno Courrèges and are set in the Perigord region of France, has been named this year's winner of the Prix Charbonnier, awarded by the Federation of Alliances Françaises in the USA to those making a special contribution to French culture. He follows in the footsteps of Leonard Slatkin, Francois Truffaut, Pierre Cardin, Julia Child, Andre Cointreau, and many more.

D. Ann Williams has won the 2021 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, sponsored by Sisters in Crime. Williams's novel in progress, titled Murder at the Freeman Hotel, is set in 1920s California and features Minnie Freeman, a woman on a mission to move to a new city, open a hotel, and stay independently wealthy. Her plan is hindered by the dead body found at the bottom of the new automatic elevator shaft and a sigil linking it to other deaths. SinC also announced the honorable mention winners: Hiawatha Bray, Lily Meade, Robin Page, Catherine Tucker, and Zoe B. Wallbrook.

Unpublished crime writers in Wales have a little over a week left to enter the Crime Cymru First Novel Prize sponsored by the Crime Cymru crime writing collective. Send along the first 5,000 words of your crime novel plus a one-page synopsis by September 3. The two winners (one each of an English-language manuscript and another in Welsh) will receive a four-night stay in Nant and a writing retreat generously donated by Lit Wales, as well as a year's mentoring from a Crime Cymru member.

Writers who can boil down a mystery into a half-dozen words are encouraged to enter the fifth annual Six-Word Mystery Contest sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (RMMWA). The contest opens September 1, 2021, and entries must be received by midnight, Oct. 8, 2021, MST. Six-word "whodunits" can be entered in one or all five of the following categories: Hard Boiled or Noir; Cozy Mystery; Thriller Mystery; Police Procedural Mystery; and/or a mystery with Romance or Lust. The Six-Word Mystery Contest is open to all adults 18 and over, with no residency requirements.

Registration is open for ITW's 8th annual Online Thriller School. Ten weeks of intensive craft lessons will begin on September 14, with a bonus "Ask Me Anything" panel. Authors scheduled to instruct include Liv Constantine, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Alexia Gordon, Adam Hamdy, Cate Holahan, Anthony Horowitz, Steven James, Tosca Lee, Jaime Levine, David Morrell, Samuel Octavius, Alex Segura, and Jerri Williams. Topics include Pacing; World Building; Building Suspense; Villains – Beyond the Cardboard Cutout; How to Edit Like a Pro; Creating Depth of Character; The G-Woman: An Insider’s Look at the FBI; How to Write a Killer Twist; Creating Realistic Dialogue; and Developing and Honing Your Voice.

Many people have the mistaken notion that forensic science provides an iron-clad form of evidence for criminal convictions. However, as recent cases such as the Washington, DC Crime Lab show, it's definitely not without its pitfalls. Then, there's the controversy surrounding ScatterShot, an AI-based tech that is problematic at best and has already landed a man in jail for nearly a year despite scant evidence. As artificial intelligence slowly creeps into every aspect of culture, it's good to be reminded that it's often as fallible as its creators.

For years, a mysterious figure has been stealing books before their release. Is it espionage? Revenge? Or a complete waste of time?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "My Eyes Are Blue, His Are Brown, But They're The Same" by Terry Dawley.

In the Q&A roundup, William Kent Krueger spoke with the New York Times about his love of stories, handed out some great book recommendations, and described his writing process (subscription required); and Megan Abbott was interviewed by Lithub's Maris Review podcast to discuss her new novel, The Turnout, and the dark underworld of ballet.

Mystery Melange

Although the Crime Cologne festival won't be held this year, its "Crime Cologne Award 2021" will still be awarded, and the festival recently announced the six finalists whittled down from the original fifteen-book longlist. They include: Orkun Ertener - Was bisher gescha (What Happened So Far); Marcel Huwyler - Frau Morgenstern und der Verrat (Ms. Morgenstern and the Betrayal); Merle Kröger - Die Experten (The Experts); Ben Riffko - Grünes Öl (Green Oil); Joachim B. Schmidt - Kalmann; and Matthias Wittekindt - Vor Gericht (In Court). As Literary Saloon noted, we'll likely see some of these in English translation, certainly Joachim B. Schmidt's Kalmann, which is forthcoming from Bitter Lemon Press.

Bloody Scotland announced the full program for this year's hybrid festival that will give festival goers in Stirling the full-on festival experience while allowing authors and readers who can’t be there in person the opportunity to join in the fun. Running from September 17-19, highlights include Q&As with Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child and Stephen King; panels with Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, Alan Parks, Mark Billingham, Kia Abdullah and Louise Candlish; Pitch Perfect and Crime in the Spotlight events; a performance by the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers and a cabaret twist on the normal Quiz which will see each quizzer (Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnston, Mark Billingham, Luca Veste and Stuart Neville) performing a musical number; a live version of the Red Hot Chili Writers popular crime podcast; an A-Z of Crime starting with Megan Abbott and concluding with Anne Zouroudi; and Around the World in 80 Deaths featuring authors from Argentina, the Sicangu Lakota Nation, Russia, and Nigeria, chaired by Craig Sisterson.

As part of their Sizzling Summer Series, three chapters of Sisters in Crime are presenting a free virtual panel on August 22 that gives you a taste of three authors' different takes on the mystery genre. With moderator Maddie Margarita, the authors will talk about how they write and the differences in their approaches in their latest books. Currently scheduled to appear on the panel are Anthony Award-nominated E.A. Aymar, whose most recent thriller, They're Gone, was published in 2020 under his pseudonym E.A. Barres; Alma Katsu, whose debut spy thriller, Red Widow, is the logical marriage of her love of storytelling with her 30+ year career in intelligence; and Tara Laskowski, whose debut suspense novel, One Night Gone, won the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award. For more information and to order books, you can visit co-sponsor Book Carnival's website.

Meanwhile, the national Sisters in Crime organization is also offering a free series of talks for members and the general public on writing crime short stories. In the first of four sessions on the craft of writing short mystery fiction (Wednesday, September 22), Art Taylor walks you through the basics of writing short stories: what is a short story, what is its history, and what you can expect when you read one. He’ll be joined by Steph Cha, editor of The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021, who will talk to Art about what’s going on in the world of short mystery fiction right now. Also coming up in later months, Plot and Structure with Barb Goffman (January 2022); Prose with E.A. Aymar/E.A. Barres (April 2022); and Endings with Toni L.P. Kelner (July 2022).

The new Arthur Conan Doyle Society (spearheaded by George Mason University's Ross Davies) is devoted to the study and enjoyment of the works of Conan Doyle. It is accepting nominations until November 1, 2021, for the best scholarly writing on Conan Doyle's works or life that was published in 2020–21. (HT to The Bunburyist.) Doylean Honorees receive:  An invitation to an event in their honor to be held at The Mysterious Bookshop in NYC during the week of January 10, 2022 (exact date TBD); a $250 Bookshop credit and a lovely certificate; and "a justifiable sense of pleasure and pride for impressing Doyleans of good taste and high integrity."

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Cold Case Mysteries. Editor Janet Rudolph is seeking reviews (50-250 words), articles (250-1,000 words), and Author! Author! essays (500-1,000 words). Author Author! Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and your unique take on "Cold Case Mysteries." Submissions are due September 15.

One more nasty side effect of COVID: since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a rise in instances of government censorship of books around the world. In October 2020, the International Publishers Association released a 106-page report, "Freedom to Publish: Challenges, Violations and Countries of Concern," that outlined 847 instances of censorship in a host of countries, including France, Iran, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States. According to the report, in 55% of those instances, the censorship was undertaken by government authorities. 

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is celebrating their eightieth anniversary with an EQMM anniversary tradition, a trivia contest. The first reader to e-mail them with the correct answers by October 15 will win a choice of five free EQMM anthologies from the archives. Five runners-up will each receive one anthology.

It's Bulwer-Lytton time again! The contest that celebrates deliberately bad writing is back with this year's winners. There are various categories such as the Crime & Detective division (including the winner, Paul Scheeler, Buffalo, NY), that are definitely worth checking out for a good chuckle.


This latest featured poem at the 5-2 Crime Poem Weekly is "An Open Letter from a Funeral Director to the Anxi-Vaxxers" by Robert Cooperman. And 5-2 editor, Gerald So, is seeking more submissions for the online crime poetry 'zine by August 31st. If you have something you've tucked away in a drawer, dust it off and send it along.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element chatted with Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot, about a family obsessed with true crime who becomes the center of a true crime themselves; and CrimeReads spoke with Aya de Leon, Lauren Wilkinson, and Rosalie Knecht, three authors driving the evolution of feminist espionage fiction.