In Reference to Murder

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

Mystery Melange

[One late-breaking addendum to the following news item: The MWA Board has decided to rescind the award to Linda Fairstein. "MWA cannot move forward with an award that lacks the support of such a large percentage of our members," the group said in a statement that also pledged to re-evaluate its process for selecting honorees.]

Mystery Writers of America has chosen its annual Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen awards. Linda Fairstein and Martin Cruz Smith will be the 2019 Grand Masters, an award that acknowledges important contributions to this genre and a body of work. The Raven Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement outside the realm of creative writing, goes to Marilyn Stasio, the mystery critic for the New York Times Book Review (and other magazines). The Ellery Queen Award, honoring people in the mystery-publishing industry, goes to Linda Landrigan, editor of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. There is one bit of controvery this year, however; Edgar Award winner Attica Locke has taken exception (as Danny Gardner explains) to the selection of Linda Fairstein as Grand Master due to her involvement with the notorious Central Park Five case. In reply, the Mystery Writers of America Board of Directors posted on Facebook that "We are taking seriously the issues raised by Attica Locke. Our Board is going to discuss these concerns as soon as possible and make a further statement soon."

The winners of the annual Irish Book Awards were announced, including Crime Fiction Book of the Year which was won by Skin Deep from author Liz Nugent.

The inaugural Staunch Prize for crime fiction works that don't feature violence against women has been won by Australian author Jock Serong for his novel On the Java Ridge, in which a group of surfers tries to rescue a refugee boat from a storm.

The Sisters in Crime Chesapeake Chapter is holding its annual Mystery Author Extravaganza in Virginia on December 1. Some 27 chapter authors will be on hand to talk about their new mystery/crime books and short stories published this year. Participating authors include William Ade, Donna Andrews, E.A. Aymar, Karen Cantwell, Maya Corrigan, Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Libby Klein, Maureen Klovers, Tara Laskowski, Eileen McIntire, Adam Meyer, Melinda Mullett, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Shari Randall, Susan Reiss, Verena Rose, Harriette Sackler, Colleen Shogan, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Lane Stone, Art Taylor, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley, and Stacy Woodson. Booksellers from Mystery Loves Company will be there to sell these authors’ works, and the authors will be happy to sign them.

Noir at the Bar returns to the Shade Bar in New York City on December 2. Authors scheduled to be on hand for readings and signings include Kellye Garrett, Kelby Losack, Albert Tucher, Michael J. Seidlinger, Jason Starr, Casey Barrett, and hosts Scott Adlerberg and Jen Conley.

London’s new crime and thriller festival, Capital Crime, is launching a new year-round digital crime and thriller festival, Capital Crime Digital. The online festival will feature interviews, profiles and discussions with authors and other crime and thriller creatives, with a planned launch in September 2019, to coincide with Capital Crime, which takes place in London September 26th to 28th. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

The Financial Times added its contribution to the end-of-the-year lists with its choice of "The Year's Best Crime Fiction." You have to be a subscriber to read the article, but Crimetime UK has a recap.

The LA Review of Books featured a roundtable discussion with crime writers of color hosted by Gar Anthony Haywood. The participants, including Walter Mosley, Kellye Garrett, Barbara Neely, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Kyra Davis joined in an enlightening and inside look at what it’s like to be a black mystery writer today.

The latest issue of Noir City, published by the Film Noir Foundation, focuses on international noir, including the long history of Mexican noir, the crime dramas of Japan’s Yoshitarô Nomura, Iranian genre films, the Canadian noir The Silent Partner, and much more.

Buzzfeed contributor Kristen Evans took at look at novels that prove women make fascinating fictional killers, too.

The third issue of Mystery Readers Journal: Mystery in Asia (Volume 34: 3) is available now as a PDF and will be shortly available in hardcopy. Online articles also include "Digging into the Thai Underbelly" by Colin Cotterill and "Darkness in the Land of Smiles" by Timothy Hallinan.

Another mystery bookstore may be in jeopardy of closing. Once Upon a Time, an independent mystery bookstore in Minneapolis for 31 years, has launched a Go Fund Me page after suffering financial difficulties. For more details and to make a contribution, head on over to this link.

Criminal Element posted a holiday sweepstakes for mass market copies of each of Sue Grafton's "alphabet mystery series" books (U.S. only). The deadline for entries is December 8th.

Over at the Passing Tramp blog, Curtis Evans profiled the unexpected convergence of violent criminal Whitey Bulger and cozy author Charlotte Macleod.

Writing for The Guardian, Sarah Crompton explored why a new generation is falling for Agatha Christie.

For all you authors, a New York Times article profiled the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBN) and how its database of more than three million detailed images of spent shell casings from firearms, which have unique sets of scratches, grooves and dents, to help solve crimes.


The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Induration" by Sanjeev Sethi.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element chatted with Ben Aaronovitch, author of Lies Sleeping; and Brooke Hunter interviewed Australian Emily Webb, a journalist and author specializing in true crime, about her collection of shocking cases each of which has occurred in suburban Australia, titled Suburban Nightmare.

Mystery Melange, Thanksgiving Edition

The end of the year "best" lists keep on coming. Kirkus shared the thirteen books it has chosen for "Best mystery and thrillers of 2018" and Strand Magazine compiled its list of twenty "best" books.

Meanwhile, the Goodreads Readers Choice Awards has narrowed it longlists down to finalists including ten Mystery/Thriller titles. Voting continues through November 26 with winners announced on December 4.

Janet Rudolph has updated her annual list of Thanksgiving-themed mysteries over at the Mystery Fanfare blog.

The Mystery Lovers Kitchen crew have several Thanksgiving recipes for you, including dressing, brussels sprouts with bacon, pumpkin crisp streusel, cranberry pie, and more.

The holiday issue of Mystery Scene Magazine is out, with a profile of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin mystery series and the UK television show based on the novels with Ashley Jensen played Agatha. Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke talk about their collaboration and the ins and outs of co-writing; Oline H. Cogdill catches up with Lou Berney to chat about his new book November Road, the follow-on to his Edgar Award-winning The Long and Faraway Gone; Craig Sisterson talks with Mindy Mejia, a rising star who has a real talent for evoking rural life in her home state of Minnesota; Kevin Burton Smith has scoured the retail landscape again to gather a bundle of holiday gifts for mystery lovers; plus more news and reviews.

Kings River Life has two Thanksgiving mystery short stories online for your reading pleasure, one by Gail Farrelly titled "Ya Never Know: A Thanksgiving Tale," and the other titled "Justice For Elijah: A Thanksgiving Mystery Short Story" by Earl Staggs.

Switchblade: Stiletto Heeled, the all female issue, is now available on Kindle. It's the first publication in the new Switchblade addition to their publishing lineup, with Lisa Douglass, the newest member of the editorial team, serving as Managing Editor.

The Washington Post's Michael Dirda took an affectionate look at the pleasures of classic whodunnits from the Golden Era, stilted dialogue, ludicrous plots, and all.

The Age profiled some of Australia's "deadliest female writers."

Something not to be thankful for: book banning is alive and well in Kuwait. The Information ministry blacklist said that the Kuwait international literary festival had banned 948 books including Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The information ministry has blacklisted more than 4,000 books over the past five years, including Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

The Wall Street Journal has gotten into the gift-giving spirit early with some recommendations of collections of 1920s crime fiction, female-detective stories and more.

What do you get for the crime fiction lover who has everything? Look no further than the album "Just the Clothes on My Back" by the American roots rock band Naked Blue, which is full of tracks about Lee Child’s wide-roaming ex-forces crime buster Jack Reacher.

For those of you in the U.S. who are planning on sitting around watching TV while digesting that huge Thanksgiving dinner, there are several marathons to choose from the entire weekend, including the NCIS series (all three), Forensic Files, Criminal Minds, and CSI, among many, many more.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "The Man Who Stole Poetry" by Anne Graue.

In the Q&A roundup John Sanford is the latest "By the Book" interview for the New York Times; and the Mystery People's Scott Butkis interviewed Alafair Burke, who has joined forces again with Mary Higgins Clark for a new book in their Under Suspicion series, You Don’t Own Me.

Mystery Melange

Maureen Corrigan of The Washington Post picked her list of "The 10 best thrillers and mysteries of 2018." Check out all of the ten titles via this link.

Amazon announced its editors’ picks of the best books of 2018 this past weekend. To check out all of the top 20 honorees, hop on over here.

Scots crime writer Val McDermid has been appointed as the new patron of the Scottish Book Trust, an organization that tries to transform lives through reading and writing. Val will lend her support to Trust to help inspire and support the people of Scotland to read and write for pleasure through programs and outreach work.

Prometheus Books, which is nearing its 50th anniversary, has decided to refocus on nonfiction titles and sold its two genre imprints to Start Publishing. One of those, the crime fiction imprint Seventh Street Books, currently has a backlist of about ninety titles including award-winning books by Allen Eskins, Adrian McKinty, Lori Rader-Day, and Terry Shames. Start Publishing began has an exclusively digital publisher but has expanded to include print editions as well. Start will publish both print and digital editions of the newly acquired Seventh Street titles.

A new book suggests that Arthur Conan Doyle based Moriarty on the real-life mathematician, George Boole.

The Guardian profiled Endless Night, one of Agatha Christie's favorite of her works that "still has shock factor." As the article author, Sam Jordison, notes, the 1967 novel isn’t so much a "whodunnit," as a "who gonna get done."

The latest issue of Mysterical-E is available online for your reading pleasure, with eleven new crime stories; Gerald So's regular column takes a look at the Cloak and Dagger TV series and more media crime notables, while Anita Page looked back at the 1997 classic, Wag the Dog; plus new book reviews from Christine Verstraete and new interviews and more.

More fun with amazing bookstores to put on your bucket list: "Living 11 Of The Dreamiest Bookstores To Get Lost In Across Canada"

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "I Believe Her" by John Kaprielian.

In the Q&A roundup, Alexander McCall Smith (author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series) sat down for a chat with the Globe & Mail about his writing and how, at age 70, he has no desire to slow down; the Sudbury Star spoke with Sam Wiebe who edited the latest addition to the Akashic Books noir series titles, Vancouver Noir; and Writers Tell All welcomed Jeff Abbott talking about his novel The Three Beths and what it was like trying to contine to write after his house burned down.

Mystery Melange

The shortlist was announced for a controversial new prize which recognizes thriller novels in which no women are beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered. The Staunch Book Prize was founded by Bridget Lawless in order to create an alternative to the “overload of violence towards women in fiction.” The six nominations include Anna Porter’s The Appraisal; If I Die Tonight by A L Gaylin; East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman; On the Java Ridge by Jock Serong; The Kennedy Moment by Peter Adamson; and Cops and Queens by Joyce Thompson, who is currently seeking a publisher.

Ruth McIver has won the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers for her "atmospheric and chillingly entertaining" crime novel, I Shot the Devil. The Richell Prize, supported by Hachette Australia, Guardian Australia and the Emerging Writers’ festival, was established in 2015 and is open to emerging writers of both fiction and narrative non-fiction. The winner receives $10,000 and a 12-month mentorship with publisher Hachette Australia.

The 10th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards have announced the contenders, including the twenty semifinalists for Best Mystery & Thriller. Readers can vote during the process to weed the lists down to semifinalists and the finalists, who will be announced on December 4. To see the list of all fifteen books and to vote, hop on over to this Goodreads link.

Several authors are auctioning character names in upcoming books in an effort to raise funds for the charity Freedom from Torture. Along with Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, and others, thriller writer Lee Child is also offering a chance to name a character in his next book, with money raised from the auction used to help survivors of torture rebuild their lives. "Torture victims are the most damaged and demoralised people among us, so any move to embrace, console and help them is to be applauded and supported," Child said of his decision to choose this above other charity requests he receives.

Suspense Magazine is dedicating the fall issue to the late Anthony Bourdain, who was not only a travel and food journalist but also a crime fiction author. The magazine speaks with Joel Rose, Bourdain's co-writer and long time friend, on the graphic novel, "Hungry Ghosts." The issue also has an interview with former Federal Prosecutor and author Allison Leotta; Dennis Palumbo offers up, "When your writing doesn't love you back"; plus, Kaye George, J.B. Toner, Phillip Frey and John Sims-Jones share exclusive short stories.

Thriller writer James Patterson has launched an interactive novel titled The Chef in the UK with Facebook's Creative Shop and experiential content producer 1stAveMachine. Designed for use on mobile and social media, the adapted novel's narrative unravels in a series of interactive audio and visuals in Facebook Messenger. It reads like a chat conversation, but at key moments, the narrative switches to a video, image, or audio recording.

Dr. Rachel Franks, an instructor with a Ph.D in crime fiction, created a brief primer on Australian Crime Fiction for the blog Punk Noir Magazine.

Rare-book theft has been in the news a lot lately, but Raptis Rare Books in Palm Beach, Florida, is the first bookseller in the United States to employ a new loss prevention technology known as synthetic DNA. The technology comes from SelectaDNA, whose vice president Joe Maltese, explained, "Each application of Synthetic DNA generates a unique code, providing clients with the ability to identify and recover lost or stolen rare books." Raptis places a letter R in each of their books, "stamped" in the synthetic DNA serum, which helps them identify each unique item. The serum stamp can last five years inside of a book and can also be incorporated into an alarm system that sprays attempted burglars, leaving a trace on their skin that can be identified up to six weeks later.

As if you didn't need more reasons to like Canada's personable Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, he dressed up as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved character Sherlock Holmes for Halloween, donning the fictional detective's signature deerstalker hat, pipe, and clue-hunting magnifying glass.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Trump and the Mail Bombs" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Promoting Crime Fiction blog host Lizzie Hayes chatted with TV journalist and women's fiction author Kate Helm about first crime novel, The Secrets You Hide; Criminal Element spoke with Julie Hyzy about her latest novel, Virtual Sabotage, which marks her transition from cozies to thrillers; and the Mystery People welcomed Timothy Hallinan, promoting the release of Nighttown, the latest book in his Junior Bender series.

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The UK Crime Writers Association announced winners of the annual Dagger Awards for excellence in crime fiction, including:

Diamond Dagger, Lifetime Achievement: Michael Connelly
Gold Dagger: The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
John Creasey Dagger: Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love
International Dagger: After the Fire, by Henning Mankell, translated by Marlaine Delargy
Historical Dagger: Nucleus, by Rory Clements
Short Story Dagger: “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” by Denise Mina (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction: Blood on the Page, by Thomas Harding
Dagger in the Library: Martin Edwards
Debut Dagger (unpublished writers): The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon, by Bill Crotty

The finalists in the AN Post's Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year were also announced this past weekend. The public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the Irish Book Awards website - voting runs until Friday, November 23rd. The finalists include:

Skin Deep – Liz Nugent
A House of Ghosts – W. C. Ryan
The Confession – Jo Spain 
One Click – Andrea Mara 
The Ruin – Dervla McTiernan 
Thirteen – Steve Cavanagh

Publishers Weekly announced their "Best Of 2018" lists including mysteries and thrillers. For a slideshow of all 12 of the selected books, follow this link.

Award-winning author Ann Cleeves will be featured in an exhibition launch tonight in North Shields in the UK. Cleeves won crime-writing’s Gold Dagger award for her novel Raven Black in 2006, and has seen her books transformed into hit series with ITV shows Vera and Shetland. She'll kick off the Find Your Voice exhibition, which features pictures of female crime writers taken by local professional photographer Donna-Lisa Healy, as well as excerpts from the authors’ novels. Cleeves will take to the stage to talk about her writing exploits and take questions from crime fans.

The Noir at the Bar series is heading to Boston on Thursday, November 8, at the Trident Booksellers & Cafe. The evening's lineup of readings and signings will be hosted by Rusty Barnes and include doungjai gam, Ed Kurtz, Rick Ollerman, Clea Simon, E.F. Sweetman, and JM Taylor.

Three of Chicago's "Mavens of Crime Fiction," Sara Paretsky (Shell Game), Libby Fischer-Hellman (High Crimes) and Lori Rader-Day (Under a Dark Sky), will read from and discuss their most recent books on Wednesday, November 14, at Women & Children First.

There were two conference headliner news items this past week: It was announced that bestselling writer Jeffery Deaver, author of the popular Lincoln Rhyme series that includes The Bone Collector and The Cutting Edge, will deliver the keynote address at the 2019 Washington Writers Conference. Also, top US thriller writer James Patterson has been signed to headline next year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Patterson has sold more than 375 million books and has been the most-borrowed author of adult fiction in UK libraries for the past 11 years.

The Captivating Criminality Network announced its sixth conference will be held in Abruzzo, Italy, from June 12 to 15, 2019. Metamorphoses of Crime: Facts and Fictions will examine the ways in which Crime Fiction as a genre incorporates elements of real-life cases and, in turn, influences society by conveying thought-provoking ideas of deviance, criminal activity, investigation and punishment. Scholars, practitioners and fans of crime writing are invited to participate in this conference that will address these key elements of crime fiction and real crime, from the early modern to the present day. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots)

A crowdfunding campaign by Texas public defender Amalia Beckner has been raising money to buy books for inmates at the Harris County Jail in Houston. For years, Beckner had been bringing her clients books from her own collection but the jail would only allow five books at a time per “pod” of more than two dozen inmates. The Harris County Jail and others have been in the news lately for a crackdown down on access to books, although public outcry and efforts like Beckner's have led to changes in some of those policies.

The CBC posted a list of "25 things you might not know about Lee Child and his bestselling Jack Reacher series."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Thank You, Mr. K" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, Craig Sisterson chatted with British-Australian thriller writer LA (Louisa) Larkin, whose storytelling has been likened to Michael Crichton by The Guardian and Alistair MacLean by The Times; the Mysteristas welcomed Mark Stevens, author of the Allison Coil mysteries, the latest of which is The Melancholy Howl; Lynda La Plante spoke with the Irish Independent about her rookie days mixing with gangsters and her four-decade career in crime fiction; and the latest victim of Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Shart Interview" challenge is Tom Pitts, whose new book about the Northern California pot business is titled 101.

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University of East Anglia creative writing student Femi Kayode has won the £3,000 Little, Brown Award for crime fiction for his "shocking and emotional story, Lightseekers. It’s the second year the publisher has run the award in partnership with the UEA Creative Writing crime fiction MA. Last year's winner, Merle Nygate, won the award with the novel, A Righteous Spy.

The International Crime Fiction Association has announced a new annual book prize to recognize ingenuity, innovation, and scholarship in the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its widest sense. Monographs and edited collections can be nominated by publishers, members of the association, and authors. There will be one winner who will receive £100 plus a write-up from the independent judges which can be used for publicity purposes. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

For a very Halloween-y literary conference, try the Bram Stoker festival in Dublin, Ireland, from October 26-29. Stoker, the author who gave us Dracula, is celebrated through performances, workshops, theater, live music, podcasts, audio tours, film screenings, and parades. One of the most inventive events of the weekend may be the festival’s NYsferatu: Symphony of a Century. Taking place at St. Anne’s Church – the Church where Stoker married Florence Balcombe in 1878 – this reimagining of the classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu is instead an animated interpretation, accompanied by a live score that was specially composed for the festival by Irish musician Matthew Nolan.

The deadline for the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers is fast approaching, on November 1. Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form. Candidates must submit a letter of application, short bio and short synopsis and three consecutive chapters of the writer’s Malice Domestic genre work-in-progress. Each grant may be used to offset registration, travel, or other expenses related to attendance at a writers' conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award. You can read all the details here.

A "Mystery Author Extravaganza" rolls into Maryland's Howard County Library (Miller Branch) on Saturday, November 3rd, where sixteen authors from the Sisters in Crime Chessie Chapter will be speaking about their new books and short stories published this year. Those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Mary Ann Corrigan (Maya Corrigan), Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Mary Ellen Hughes, Maureen Klovers, Sujata Massey, Alan S. Orloff, Susan Reiss, Colleen Shogan, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Karen Neary, Lane Stone, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley Stegmaier, and Rebecca York.

The Bible in Crime Fiction and Drama one-day conference heads to the University of Edinburgh on January 8, 2019. This conference brings together multi-disciplinary scholarship from the fields of biblical interpretation, literary criticism, criminology, and studies in film and television to discuss international texts and media spanning the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The Keynote Speaker is Professor Liam McIlvanney, University of Otago and author of The Quaker, winner of the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018.

The Morgan Library and Museum in NYC is commemorating all things Frankenstein on this 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's classic tale. Exhibits include a digital interactive version of Shelley’s annotated book, as well as the actual physical manuscript; Gothic artifacts that inspired the horror elements, including paintings and illustrations; movie and theater posters; comic books; and even what are possibly fragments of P. B. Shelley’s skull. If you can't make it in time for Halloween, don't despair - the exhibit runs through January 27, 2019. (HT to Book Riot)

Criminal Element is sponsoring a Halloween sweepstakes to enter for a chance to win a copy of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, plus a bookplate signed by the author. Entries will be accepted through October 31st.

Continuing a long tradition begun with the publication of Ian Fleming's short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity," in the March 1960 issue, James Bond will again appear in the pages of Playboy Magazine this fall. The brand new short story—in comic book form—is written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Bob Q. It takes place in March 1941 when "James is dropped off the coast of Belgium to help a Resistance cell take out a supply train that's important to the Nazis."

We marked another passing this week, as the Rap Sheet noted: author Tom Kakonis, who published six crime novels before retiring for over a decade, then resumed fiction writing with the novel Treasure Coast, has died. He was often called the heir-apparent to Elmore Leonard and the “master of the low-life novel," and Kirkus Reviews lauded his "exhilaratingly tough yet deeply humane storytelling."

As the Express notes, Agatha Christie learned about the properties of everything from cyanide to strychnine by working in a hospital dispensary in wartime, as her newly released volunteer service card reveals.

Writing for the Daily Beast, Allison McNearney looked at the "haunting mystery" of Edwin Drood that Charles Dickens left behind, and how various authors and productions have tackled the unfinished novel through the years.

Speak of the Dickens, here are some "Spooky Charles Dickens Quotes for Halloween."

Erica Wickerson delves into the reasons people still love a good whodunnit.

Kings River Life ezine has a couple of online Halloween mystery short story for you, "The House of Screams" by Guy Belleranti, and "The Yard Police Meet Their End."

Although I mentioned it last work, Mystery Fanfare's list of Halloween-themed crime fiction bears repeating, because have you seriously been able to read all of those books in just one week?

Mystery Lovers Kitchen has holiday-themed recipes for you, including Spider Donuts, via author Daryl Wood Gerber, and Pumpkin Apple Cake from Krista Davis.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "He Likes His Beer" by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozabal.

In the Q&A roundup, The Daily Mail profiled John Grisham and got his take on the death penalty, Hollywood, and writing in the era of Trump; Deborah Kalb interviewed Webb Hubbell about the latest in his Jack Patterson thriller series, The Eighteenth Green; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lyndsay Faye discussed Arthur Conan Doyle, Mycroft, and the world of Holmes pastiches for Crimereads; and Karin Slaughter spoke with Molly Odnitz of Crimereads on the evolution of the thriller genre and its treatment of women.

Mystery Melange

The musical crime fiction 'supergroup', The Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, will perform in Belfast on November 2 as special guests of the NOIReland International Crime Fiction Festival. Group members, which include Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Christopher Brookmyre, Luca Veste, Doug Johnstone, and Stuart Neville, will perform a set of crime-themed hits at Oh Yeah preceded by a Q&A with Belfast author Steve Cavanagh, who will probe the players on their careers, musical passions and latest books.

Midnight Ink Acquisitions Editor Terri Bischoff posted on her Facebook page that the publisher will be shutting its doors after the Spring/Summer 2019 season. Since its launch in 2005, the company has released crime fiction in all subgenres by authors such as Jess Lourey, Brendan DuBois, G.M. Malliet, Steve Hockensmith, Catriona McPherson, E.J. Cooperman and Jeff Cohen, Sue Ann Jaffarian, Kellye Garrett, Keith Raffel, J.D. Allen, Gwen Florio, Leonard Goldberg, Patricia Smiley, and Bill Cameron. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

Mystery Fanfare has a list of Halloween-themed crime fiction to give you all the thrills and chills you want to celebrate the holiday.

The latest issue of Yellow Mama is up on the web, filled with gruesome tales, creepy poetry, and plenty of Halloween noir fitting for October.


Last week marked the passing of author Evelyn Anthony at the age of 92. A prolific author of more than 50 novels, including The Tamarind Seed, which was turned into a hit film in 1974, Anthony also wrote spy thrillers, having spotted a gap in the market for such books. She was aided by contacts made through her father, Lt Commander Henry Stephens, the inventor of a top-secret anti-aircraft gunnery simulator, who'd worked with British intelligence officers in the war. Among them was Desmond Bristow, who, with Kim Philby, had recruited one of the most important double agents of the war, and his stories inspired Anthony's books The Rendezvous (1967) and The Poellenberg Inheritance (1972).

We also lost writer Margaret Hinxman, who has died aged 94. She was one of the influential band of female critics who did much to encourage film in postwar Britain then turned her hand to crime novels at the age of 60. Between 1976 and 1991 she published, under the Collins Crime Club imprint, nine thrillers, including One-way Cemetery (1977), The Night They Murdered Chelsea (1984) and Nightmare in Dreamland (1991).

A group of murder-mystery enthusiasts in Canada's Charlottetown is inviting folks to retrace the steps taken by two men convicted for murdering an elderly shopkeeper in 1941. The group, calling themselves the Mystery Gang, has organized a walk based on the route taken by the two men the night of the murder of Peter Trainor. Earl Lund and Fred Phillips were charged and hanged at the Queens County Jail — also called the 1911 jail — for Trainor's murder. Both men went to the gallows denying they did it. The group will be doing two walks on Oct. 28, with money raised to go toward more research into Peter Trainor's murder and shedding light on other Island mysteries. 

 

As the New York Times reported, law enforcement has a new tool in the rapidly expanding use of DNA testing services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com, with data poured into a database called GEDmatch. Within two or three years, 90 percent of Americans of European descent will be identifiable from their DNA tied to relatives who have used the services even if the individual has not. While this revolution has led to the solving of fifteen murder and sexual assault cases, the privacy questions are numerous and troubling.

I don't think this is surprising at all, but parents take note: a new study reveals that growing up in a home filled with books makes kids smarter.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Nonbeliever, as the Dark of the Year Approaches" by Clarinda Harriss.

In the Q&A roundup, the Los Angeles Review of Books spoke with Sarah Schulman about her new crime novel, Maggie Terry, which follows Maggie, an addict, an alcoholic, and a former police officer who has lost custody of her daughter, as she moves through her first five days back on the job as a private investigator; the Mystery People chatted with Helen Currie Foster about her latest mystery to feature Texas lawyer Alice MacDonald Greer, Ghost Next Door; and the Houston Chronicle interviewed Walter Mosley about his writing, his latest novel, and neighborhood heroes.

Mystery Melange

The Wonderland Ballroom in Washington, D.C., will host an event as part of the "Chilled to the Marrow" Noir at the Bar series on October 27 from 5-6:30. Author Duane Swierczynski is a beloved member of the crime fiction community, and his daughter Evie is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia, which has taken a financial toll. So, Philadelphia crime writer Jon McGoran came up with an idea to have a series of Noir at the Bars as fundraisers, with all the proceeds going to the "Team Evie" GoFundMe. E.A. Aymar will host and wrangle a team of authors including Kathleen Barber, Tara Campbell, Aimee Hix, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Angie Kim, Adam Meyer, Deb Shutika, Erica Wright, and Jenny Yacovissi for readings and book signings. This event will be FREE to attend, but they are asking for donations for Team Evie throughout the night, and all of the book sales will go to that cause.

Also helping out the Swierczynski family is a charity auction thanks to the crime fiction festival Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee. This year's charity auction will raise money for The Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee and make a donation in honor of their daughter "who has been facing her health crisis like a superhero." They're looking for signed books, character names from authors willing to put winners in their next book or anything else you think people might want to bid on. For more information, check out this info from Crimespree Magazine.

Georgia Fancett has been awarded a £20,000 publishing contract with Century for her police procedural The Fifth Girl, her prize after winning the Daily Mail and Penguin Random House's First Novel Competition, now in its third year. The Fifth Girl is described as "a hard-hitting police procedural novel in which four girls have been found murdered in similarly gruesome circumstances" by the Daily Mail, featuring a gay detective, DI Alice Warnes, who is paired with "a lazy, Trump-loving bigot" for her fellow detective partner.

The inaugural Capital Crime festival in London, scheduled to take place September 26-28 of 2019, will begin selling a limited number of specially priced early bird weekend and day passes next week, on October 15. Founded by David Headley and Adam Hamdy, Capital Crime is a new festival dedicated to all things crime and thriller, from book to screen. (HT to Ayo Ontade at Shots)

A bit of sad news this week, as reported by Mystery Fanfare: MaryAlice Gorman, founder and longtime owner of the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Pittsburgh, PA, has passed away. She was a great supporter of the mystery community, and she and her husband Richard Goldman were honored with the Raven Award, handed out annually by The Mystery Writers of America for outstanding achievements and leadership contributions to the mystery genre.

The Five Minute Library blog posted a list of 100 reasons libraries are better than Amazon or Starbucks.

Here are some sites to put on your bucket list: ten of the oldest libraries in the world. Or, maybe you'd prefer some of the "weirdest libraries around the world."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Lesson Plan" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, UK Climbing magazine chatted with 94-year-old Gwen Moffat about her climbing- and mountain-themed crime novels, which are now being released in electronic form (I featured one of Moffat's books as an FFB); Tana French spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her latest novel, The Witch Elm, and why she loves writing mysteries; Tana French was also interviewed on Crimereads, where she made the case that "we're all unreliable narrators"; and the Mystery People spoke with Reavis Wortham about the latest in his Red River mystery series, Gold Dust, which heads off in different directions with plots involving a CIA experiment, modern cattle rustles, and a fake gold rush.