Killer Nashville Distinction

The 2026 Killer Nashville Conference announced the finalists for the annual Silver Falchion Award for works published in the previous year. The finalists for the Claymore Award for unpublished manuscripts can be found via this link. Winners will be revealed at an awards dinner during the conference on Saturday, August 22.

Best Action Adventure

• The Terror of Roan by Jodi Bowersox
• Boiling Point by Ley Esses
• No Easy Way Back by Josh Jensen
• Unstoppable by Michael Maloof
• The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt
• Eight Minutes by Gregory N Whitis

Best Comedy (includes comedic P.I. and crime caper)

• Blame It On Paris by Helen Aitken
• Love At First Spark by Helen Aitken
• Bye Bye Blackbird by Elizabeth Crowens
• All’s Faire In Love and Murder by Cindy Sample
• In$Urance Blues (A John Smith Mystery) by Charlotte Stuart
• Seams Like The Perfect Crime by Lois Winston

Best Cozy

• Killer Cache by Michelle Bennington
• Tough Fluff - Fluff and Flowers Mystery 1 by Sheryl C.D. Ickes
• Death By  Mistake: A Josiah Reynolds Mystery by Abigail Keam
• Murder On The Green by Christine Knapp
• Airplane, Atlanta & An Assassin by Mary Seifert
• Seven For A Secret Never To Be Told by Derek Wheeless

Best Historical

• Traitor In The Lake by Carol Amorosi
• Time Agents: Alterations by Jodi Bowersox
• No Mercy For The Innocent by Nancy Herriman
• Shroud of Ice by Sharon Krasny
• Needle and Bone by Tonya Mitchell
• Treasures In Time by Susan Reiss

Best Investigator (includes procedural, serious P.I., detective, and noir)

• Chase Harlem by Elise Burke Brown
• Proof by Jon Cowan
• After Pearl by Stephen Eoannou
• Those Who Chose Evil by Kate Flora
• Blood On The Wire by Candace Irving
• Justice For The Forgotten by R. Weir

Best Juvenile / Y.A.

• Knights In Manhattan by Kay DiBianca
• Doppelgänger Jumper by Judy Lyn Gregg
• The Nascent Bloom by Evie Kelley
• Missing Mom by Lynn Slaughter
• Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias
• Risky Pursuit by Nancy G. West

Best Literary

• Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History by Chris Chan
• The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst
• Eye of The Storm by Charles Gomez
• The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley
• Women Like Us by Katia Lief

Best Mainstream / Commercial

• The Miner's Myth by Russell Johnson
• The Cold Winter: Battle of Niagara Falls by Chris Underwood
• The Butcher and The Liar by SL Woeppel

Best Mystery

• The Demonologists' Legacy by K. Scott Culpepper
• A Dead Draw by Robert Dugoni
• Rule One by Michael Lucker
• Hard Town by Adam Plantinga
• Damage Control by Kirsten Shuford
• Broke Road by Matthew Spencer

Best Nonfiction

• The Villain's Journey-How To Create Villains Readers Love To Hate by Debbie Burke
• Nether Land: High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and Murder by Kem Hinton
• Beach Blanket Bedlam by John Lamb
• Earthbound: The Obstacles To Human Space Exploration and The Promise of Artificial Intelligence by Dennis Meredith
• Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family and Forgiveness From Tennessee To Texas by Kathy Turner

Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy

• Touch of The Elegrian by Cheryl Arko
• Broken Alliance by David E Graham
• Wizard of Most Wicked Ways by Charlie N. Holmberg
• The Moorwitch by Jessica Khoury
• The Violence of Sound by Jeff Wheeler

Best Short Story Collection / Anthology (awarded to individual author or collection editor)

• Shadows of Trust by Traci Abramson
• The Not So Frail Detective Agency by Sandra J Cady
• With Our Bellies Full and The Fire Dying by Debra H. Goldstein
• Gone Fishin': Crime Takes A Holiday by James M. Jackson 
• The Conjurer's Wife by Sarah Penner
• For Every Evil Under The Sun by Zoe Fay-Stindt

Best Southern Gothic

• Ghosts In The Glades by Staci andrea
• The Pilgrim: A Tale of The 3M Detective Agency by Thomas Burns
• Unbroken Circle by C. S. Devereaux
• The Education of Asa Paxton: Coming of Age In The Heart of Dixie by Gary Minder
• The Battle of The Smokehouse by Ashley Thomas Sheikh
• The Wretched and Undone by J. E. Weiner

Best Supernatural

• Haunted By  A Broken Oath by Dee Armstrong
• A Walking Shadow by Teel James Glenn
• Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher
• A Love This Grim by Elora Morgan
• Dead Weight by Richard Rybicki
• Too Cursed To Kiss by J. Morgyn White

Best Suspense

• The Peeper by John Bukowski
• Last Seen by JT Ellison
• The Forbidden Heiress by Gledé Browne Kabongo
• Wyoming Double Jeopardy by Juno Rushdan
• Big Sky Slayer by Juno Rushdan
• Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver

Best Thriller

• Welcome To Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell
• Line of Succession by David Bruns
• Seraph by Cheryl Fallin
• The Forbidden Strain by Brian Montross
• The Butcher and The Liar by S.L. Woeppel
• All That Lies Beneath by D.L. Wood

Best True Crime

• Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide To New England by Dawn Barclay
• Junior: A Son of The Gulf Cartel by Mike Chavarria
• The Killing Fields of East New York by Stacy Horn
• Speak Her Name: Stories From A Life In True Crime by Mary Jumbelic
• Down To The Bone by Caitlin Rother

Best Western

• Cut Them Down by T.G. Brown
• The Thunder Head by Dwight Holing

 

Mystery Melange

I missed this bit of news earlier, but the shortlist for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize was announced. This year's finalists include: Frances Crawford, A Bad, Bad Place (Transworld); Linda Duncan McLaughlin, Original Sins (Into Books); Kirsty Lockwood, We Know What You Did (Orion); Zoë Rankin, The Vanishing Place (Viper); and May Rinaldi, Liar Thief (Black Spring).


The winner of the 2026 The Louie Award for fast fiction crime writing is Richard Morton for his story, "Low Tide." The Louie Award complements the Australian Crime Writers Association’s long standing and internationally recognized Ned Kelly Awards, Australia’s premier awards for crime writing and is sponsored by Dr. Antonio Di Dio in celebration of his late father Luigi. Submissions are limited to 500 words and must be centered around the theme of the year, which in 2026 was "bubble."


There will be a Noir at the Bar at the Kensington Club on Adams Avenue in San Diego, California, on July 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Mystery and thriller authors currently scheduled to read from their works include Marc Carlos, Jonathan Maberry, David Putnam, Caitlin Rother, Terry Shames, Michael A Stetz, and Jaime Parker Stickle.


There will also be a Noir at the Bar in association with the upcoming Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, UK, on Thursday, July 23, starting at 4pm. Authors taking part include D.V. Bishop, Elle Blair, Heather Fitt, Helen Jones, Theresa Loughrey, Shane McGinley, Cationa McPherson, T.H. Murdock, Nell Pattison, Kay Wilson, and Cat Yaffe.

A new interactive exhibit, Sherlock Holmes: The Exhibition, is currently on view in Prague at the Bílá Labuť Gallery in Florenc. Visitors can explore original manuscripts, historical documents and numerous exhibits, as well as try a range of interactive stations. Instead of a traditional exhibition guide, they receive a notebook full of clues and become investigators themselves. Among the highlights is a recreation of the legendary apartment of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson at 221B Baker Street in London. Other sections of the exhibition focus on the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the development of forensic science, and the historical background that inspired the author to create his world-famous stories. A dedicated area also explores Sherlock Holmes' influence on popular culture, with historic games, comics, magazines, radio scripts, and original film props and costumes from productions by Warner Bros. and the successful television series Sherlock (BBC) and Elementary (CBS). The exhibition continues until January 10, 2027


Level Best Books announced the formation of Level Best Books UK, a wholly owned subsidiary based in London to be led by Shawn Reilly Simmons, Publisher and CEO of Level Best Books, and internationally acclaimed mystery author Martin Edwards, who will serve together as Co-Directors. Edwards is author of twenty-five novels and numerous works of nonfiction and has received many of the mystery world's highest honors, including the Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Association, as well as serving as President of the legendary Detection Club. As Co-Director, Edwards will help strengthen relationships with British authors, booksellers, reviewers, literary organizations, festivals, and readers while assisting in identifying opportunities to expand Level Best's presence throughout the UK mystery market.


The Maine Crime Writers blog celebrated a milestone this past week. Fifteen years ago, in July, 2011, a group crime fiction authors based in Maine banded together to talk about all things mystery. In commemoration of the anniversary, they posted a conversation held back in the beginning about crime writers and research with contributing authors that include: Kate Flora, Sarah Graves, Gerry Boyle, James Hayman , Barbara Ross, Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson, Vicki Doudera, and Paul Doiron.


Registration is open for the International Thriller Writers (ITW) 3th Annual Online Thriller School, September-October. The program includes sixteen sessions spread over eight weeks taught by bestselling authors and industry professionals who will give insights into setting, suspense, structure, editing, characters, point of view, voice, promo and publicity, and more. Participating authors include Oyinkan Braithwaite, Eli Cranor, Benjamin Dreyer, Robert Dugoni, Rob Hart, Gregg Hurwitz, Steven James, Donald Maass, John Marrs, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Orna Ross, John Russell, and Stacey Willingham.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Tax Exempt" by David Anson Lee.


In the Q&A roundup, author and journalist, Bryan Gruley, Edgar-nominated author of seven novels and one award-winning work of nonfiction, applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, River Deep, featuring Bitterfrost Detective Garth Klimmek; Gregg Hurwitz stopped by NPR to discuss his new thriller, The Delivery, about a family who gains a humanoid personal assistant who knows too much and not enough; James Ellroy chatted with The Radio Times about his latest novel, Red Sheet, somewhat tongue-in-cheek referring to himself as the "King of American crime fiction and the greatest American crime writer ever"; and Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus series) spoke with The Irish Examiner about aging, West Cork, Rory Gallagher, and his favorite books of all time.

Macavity Magic

The 2026 Macavity Award finalists were announced today. The award is named after "Macavity: The Mystery Cat," in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, and is nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Winners will be announced in the Fall. Congratulations to all!

Best Mystery Novel

• Crooks by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
• King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
• Clown Town by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• River of Lies by James L'Etoile (Oceanview Publishing)
• The White Crow by Michael Robotham (Scribner)
• All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur Books)

Best First Mystery

• Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Minotaur Books)
• Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (Bantam Books)
• Voices of the Elysian Fields by Michael Rigg (Level Best Books)
• Stillwater by Tanya Scott (Grove Atlantic)
• History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook (Soho Press)

Best Mystery Nonfiction

• Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover's Travel Guide to New England by Dawn M. Barclay (Level Best Books)
• Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation by Michael Cannell (Minotaur Books)
• Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (Penguin Press)
• V Is for Venom: Agatha Christie's Chemicals of Death by Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)
• Edgar Allan Poe: A Life by Richard Kopley (University of Virginia Press)
• Cooler than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard by C.M. Kushins (Mariner Books)

Best Mystery Short Story

•  “Six-Armed Robbery” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (in Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous, edited by John Betancourt, Carla Coupe, and Michael Bracken, Wildside Press)
• “Hollywood Prometheus” by Christa Faust (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)
• “Finding Jimmy Baldwin” by Cheryl Head (in Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons, edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West, Bywater Books)
• “The Devil Himself” by Vaseem Khan (in Double Crossing Van Dine, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor, Crippen & Landru Publishers)
• “The Skies Are Red” by Richie Narvaez (in On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press)
• “Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush” by Dave Zeltserman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2025)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery

• Bye Bye Blackbird by Elizabeth Crowens (Level Best Books)
• A Daughter's Guide to Mothers and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington Books)
• City Lights by Claire M. Johnson (Level Best Books)
• The Case of the Christie Conspiracy by Kelly Oliver (Boldwood Books)
• The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler (Kensington Books)
• No. 10 Doyers Street by Radha Vatsal (Level Best Books)

 

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:


THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

After a year of negotiations, Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio are set to star in Michael Mann’s Heat 2 sequel, which will start shooting in November. Bale will play Vincent Hanna, the dogged LAPD Robbery Homicide detective played by Al Pacino in the original film, while DiCaprio will play Chris Shiherlis, who was played by Val Kilmer. Mann will return to write and direct the sequel, which originated as a novel written by Mann and Meg Gardiner, released in 2022. Heat 2 serves as both a prequel and a sequel, taking place both before and after the events of Mann’s seminal 1995 film. TheWrap also reported that Adam Driver is in negotiations to play the villain, Wardell, and Stephen Graham is in talks to play Neil McCauley, the Robert De Niro role from the first film. A number of actresses are vying for the role of Sharlene, originated by Ashley Judd, while other A-list names are allegedly circling the project.


Josh Gad (Frozen) has been added to the cast of Warner Bros.’ upcoming Ocean’s Eleven prequel film, joining Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper and the recently announced Monica Barbaro. The actor is said to be taking on a significant role in the heist film, which will also be directed by Cooper. The screenplay was written by Cooper based on characters created by George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell. Robbie teased the plot at CinemaCon, sharing that she and Cooper were set to portray the parents of Danny Ocean (portrayed in the Steven Soderbergh Ocean’s trilogy by George Clooney). The film is currently set to release on June 25, 2027.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Netflix is developing a TV adaptation of The Castaways author Lucy Clarke’s thriller, The Surf House, directed by Ed Lilly (Tell Me Lies). The Surf House is set high on the cliffs of Morocco and is based in a sanctuary for surfers and travelers chasing sunshine and waves. But the idyll hides a dark mystery, and when Bea washes in, seeking refuge after a dangerous encounter in Marrakesh, she soon gets caught in the current. A woman her age – who stayed in the same area, walked the same beaches, met the same guests – disappeared one year earlier, vanishing without trace, and her last known whereabouts was The Surf House.


A first look was revealed and a release date announced for Prime Videos' Reacher spinoff, Neagley. Starring Maria Sten in a reprisal of her fan-favorite character from the mothership series, Neagley will premiere with all episodes Wednesday, September 16 following the Reacher Season 4 finale. In the spinoff, Sten stars as Frances Neagley, a private investigator in Chicago and former military protégé of Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) in the Army’s 110th Special Investigations Unit. When she learns that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident, she becomes hell-bent on justice. Using everything she’s learned from Jack Reacher and her time as a member of the 110 Special Investigators, Neagley puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil. The ensemble cast includes Greyston Holt as Detective Hudson Riley, Adeline Rudolph as Renee Birdwhistle, Jasper Jones as Keno, Matthew Del Negro as Pierce Woodrow, and Damon Herriman as Lawrence Cole. Ritchson guest stars as Jack Reacher.

 
Mark Harmon is returning to NCIS: Origins for a season-long arc. Harmon, who previously starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs for 18 seasons on NCIS, will appear in all episodes of Season 3 as part of a present-day mystery tied to his '90s Camp Pendleton days. This marks his third appearance on the spinoff series, though it’ll be the first time his character is part of the entire story. That story seemingly kicked off when he appeared in Season 2 for a Veterans Day crossover between NCIS and Origins featuring the younger Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and his team investigating the small-town death of a naval officer in the '90s on Origins – a case that was unexpectedly reopened in the present day on NCIS. NCIS: Origins follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Stowell) in the early '90s, years prior to the events of the flagship series. The series also stars Kyle Schmid, Mariel Molino, Tyla Abercrumbie, Diany Rodriguez, and Caleb Foote. Season 3 of NCIS: Origins will air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT in the fall on CBS.


In more NCIS news, Michael Weatherly is returning as Tony DiNozzo in CBS's NCIS this fall for a season-long arc. The news arrives 6 months after NCIS: Tony & Ziva was canceled after one season at Paramount+. The spinoff reunited Weatherly with Cote de Pablo, who played Tony’s partner in life and in fighting crime, Ziva, on the original series. CBS declined to comment regarding whether de Pablo will also return to NCIS, nor if they plan to retcon the events from Tony & Ziva. Season 24 of NCIS will air Tuesdays at 8:00 PM, ET/PT this fall on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.


After recent behind-the-scenes drama and reports that Tom Hardy would be leaving MobLand, it appears any conflicts have been settled enough for the actor to return to the series alongside Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. In the end, the show proved too big and too important to mess with the lead characters’ dynamic that had won over fans, and the actor also got support from Mirren on social media. In MobLand, Hardy plays Harry Da Souza, a fixer working for the Harrigan crime family led by Conrad and Maeve Harrigan (Brosnan and Mirren).


Joely Richardson (The Gentleman) is set as a series regular opposite Stellan Skarsgård in Apple TV‘s untitled thriller drama series from Alex Cary (Homeland) and Sony Pictures Television. The series is headlined and executive produced by Dakota Fanning. In the series, Fanning stars as an undercover Treasury agent in a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, with world-changing political and criminal tentacles, who becomes conflicted between her mission and a belief that her principal target, the heir apparent to all that corrupt power, is at his core a good man and worthy of her love. Richardson will play Syd, Brant’s (Skarsgård) wife.


Disney+ has renewed the Polish drama, Breslau, for a second season and is ordering two more shows. After an unexpected release from prison, the second season continues to follow Franz Podolsky, who is reluctantly dragged into an investigation of a murdered woman that appears to be connected to a case he failed to solve years ago. The show stars Tomasz Schuchardt, Adam Bobik, Agata Kulesza, Ireneusz Czop, and Przemyslaw Bluszcz.


After 13 seasons, original cast member LaRoyce Hawkins is leaving the NBC police procedural, Chicago PD, as a series regular and will return to wrap up his character, Kevin Atwater’s, storyline in the first two or three episodes of the upcoming Season 14. The series is currently casting a new series regular, "a Black cop who is an agent of chaos." Hawkins debuted as Atwater in the Chicago P.D. series premiere in 2014 and has been a constant fan favorite across the show’s thirteen seasons. As part of Hank Voight’s (Jason Beghe) Intelligence Unit, Atwater served alongside fellow elite officers.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, Ayesha Rascoe talked with Gregg Hurwitz about his new thriller, The Delivery.

On the latest Spybrary, Shane Whaley was joined by fellow Spybrarian and Head of Boston Station, Joe Modzelewski, to welcome bestselling espionage author Charles Cumming back to the show.


On Murder Junction, Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with Terry Deary, creator of the bestselling Horrible Histories books, now turned crime fiction writer, about his latest novel, Actually, I'm a Corpse.


Meet the Thriller Author welcomed award-winner author Amy Shojai, whose career spans more than three decades of writing about pets and suspense. Amy is the author of more than 35 pet-care books and a series of unique pet-centric suspense thrillers, where dogs and cats play an integral role in the story.


International bestseller J.D. Barker stopped by Elaine’s Literary Salon to discuss his new novel, The Probability of Murder (co-written with Patrick Logan). It features brilliant math professor, Ivy Reeves, who becomes embroiled in a murder case involving complex puzzles, as she assists Detective Vaughn Ryan in the investigation.


On the Air with Florenza chatted with Caitlin Rother about her new novel, Staged, in which investigative reporter, Katrina Chopin, is chasing two dangerous truths—her family's haunted past and a string of suspicious deaths that point to something far more sinister.