Thursday, June 4, 2026

Mystery Melange

The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance announced the winners of the annual Maine Literary Awards last week. The 2026 top spot in the Crime Fiction category went to Sara Sligar for Vantage Point. The other finalists included Claire Ackroyd for Body in the Blueberry Barrens; Robert T. Kelley for Raven; and Kathryn Lasky for A Slant of Light.

Sisters in Crime announced that the winner of the 2026 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Writer of Color Award is Jackie Yap, from Gadigal Country (Sydney), Australia. Her winning submission, Isabelle Gomez is Innocent, She Swears!,  is a YA cozy murder mystery set in Manila. The story is part-murder mystery, part-fish-out-of-water, part coming-of-age—with universal themes of humor, heart, and belonging. The judges--Delia C. Pitts, Victor Manibo, and last year's ETB winner Tina Ehsanipour--said that their "panel reviewed an abundance of compelling crime fiction from emerging writers of diverse backgrounds, and Ms. Yap's novel excerpt is an excellent representation of the caliber of this year's entries. With a distinctly refreshing voice, Isabelle Gomez is Innocent, She Swears! stood out for its humor, heart, and assured writing. It also introduced us to characters and locales not often seen in crime writing, which made us even more excited for the future of this novel and of our field as a whole." Five runners-up were also chosen: Uju Asika of London, United Kingdom; Billie Hanson-Dupree of Oakland, CA; Nina Michiko Tam of Houston, Texas; D. S. Mori of Orange County, California; and DeAnna Yvette of Chicago, IL.


Speaking of Sisters in Crime, if you or a writing friend has been thinking about joining, now is a good time since membership dues for the rest of 2026 have been discounted 50% to $30. Membership grants you access to webinars and other online events including member online write-ins and discounts for crime fiction magazines and resources. Sisters in Crime emerged in the mid-1980s, with its primary goals to establish camaraderie and support and address imbalances in reviews while getting the organization going. From the beginning, membership was not restricted to published writers and has included unpublished authors as well as readers, librarians, booksellers, and women in publishing, who have all taken an active role in building the organization through the years. For more information about membership, follow this link.


There are a couple of great conferences coming up this week, including the MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival at Victoria University in the University of Toronto. The three-day event, from June 5-7, will feature more than 55 events, author talks, and immersive workshops. Special guests include Shari Lapena, Olivier Norek, Nicholas Shakespeare, and Clare Mackintosh. One-day and three-day passes are still available for the event. For more information, follow this link. Also this weekend, ShortCon is taking place in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday. ShortCon is a one-day conference emphasizing crime fiction short stories—how to write them, how to get them published, and how to sustain a long-term career as a short-story writer.Although this event is currently sold out, you can add your name to the wait list or make plans to attend next year's conference.


Noir at the Bar: Dead of Summer heads to Glasgow, Scotland at Daydreams Bookshop in Milngavie on 10 June, hosted by authors Daniel Sellers and Emma Christie. There will be live readings, a Q&A and a book signing, with participating authors including Louise Welsh, Denise Mina, DV Bishop, RD McLean, Heather Critchlow, Douglas Skelton, Caro Ramsay, Andrew Raymond, and Eva Macrae/Lynne McEwan. For ticket information, follow this link.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Andrew Welsh-Huggins to talk about his story, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” included in the the anthology Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson and published by Level Best Books.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Carny" by Peter M. Gordon.


In the Q&A roundup, Lizzie Sirett interviewed Hannah Dennison, author of the Honeychurch Hall Mysteries and the Vicky Hill Mysteries; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Lee Goldberg about his new novel Murder by Design, and also with Christine Carbo, author of the lacier Mystery Series, about her new thriller, The Confession Artist.                                           

Monday, June 1, 2026

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

Brian Geraghty has joined the cast of Matt Ross’s crime thriller, Kockroach, as it starts filming in Australia. He joins an ensemble cast featuring previously announced Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz, Alec Baldwin, and Rachel Sennott. The film is based on William Lashner’s 2007 novel and follows a mysterious outsider who rises through New York’s criminal underworld to become a powerful crime boss. Ross is directing from a screenplay by Jonathan Ames. Geraghty most recently was seen in Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series 1923, opposite Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.


Ravi V. Patel (Animal Control) has joined the cast of the action-thriller Best Pancakes In The County, starring alongside Nicholas Cage (Longlegs), Justin Long, (Barbarian), and Shelley Hennig (Unfriended). The film, written and directed by Ken Sanzel (Kill Chain), is set over the course of a single night in a small-town diner that becomes the stage of a deadly standoff involving rogue federal agents, a fast-talking con man with a dangerous past (Cage), known as “the Son of a Bitch,” and a waitress (Hennig) harboring secrets of her own. As loyalties blur and tensions erupt, survival depends on who can out-think and outgun everyone else. Patel will portray Ryder, the quietly authoritative leader of the Son of a Bitch’s hired security detail.  


Mark O’Brien (Ready or Not) is set to topline Good in the Room, an indie crime thriller that he co-wrote with Canadian filmmaker Pat Kiely, who will direct. Laysla De Oliveira (Lioness), Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor (The Babysitter), and Eric Bruneau (Fanny) are also set for key roles, with Maia Jae (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come), and Juliette Gariepy (Mile End Kicks) rounding out the cast. Currently in production in Montreal, Good in the Room follows former hockey player Charlie (O’Brien), who partners with ex-teammate Julius (Bachelor) to rob the sport’s biggest star and Charlie’s best friend, JP (Bruneau). Shooting entirely on 16mm, the film channels ’70s crime thrillers such as The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Straight Time, and Thief


Netflix released a trailer for Enola Holmes 3, which will finally land on Netflix July 1, after a four-year wait. The new adventure sees Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) head to Malta where her personal and professional dreams collide in her most treacherous case to date. Amid her crime-solving antics, she has to deal with the next stages of her relationship with Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), where wedding bells are on the horizon. In the first trailer, we see Enola's world rocked by both a surprise proposal from Tewkesbury, and the news that her brother Sherlock, (Henry Cavill), has been kidnapped. The latest installment brings back Helena Bonham Carter as Enola and Sherlock's mother Eudoria, while Himesh Patel reprises his role as Dr John Watson. Though we don't see her in the trailer, Sharon Duncan-Brewster is also back as the villainous Moriarty, who may have something to do with Sherlock's kidnapping.


A trailer was released for Uwe Boll’s upcoming action thriller, Citizen Vigilante, starring Armie Hammer as Sanders, a 21st century vigilante who decides to take matters of public justice into his own hands and start hunting down criminals and corrupt officials that he believes the government is failing to hold accountable. The more acts of vigilantism he commits, the more his profile grows—earning him both public support as a hero for the underdog and the attention of an Interpol chief (Costas Mandylor) who views him as a menace to society. Boll wrote and directed the new thriller, which is set to hit theaters, digital, and on demand on June 19.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

David E. Kelley is set to adapt another Michael Connelly crime novel for television, the 2024 bestseller Nightshade. The project, titled Welcome To Catalina, is in development at HBO Max. Written by Kelley, Welcome To Catalina centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell who has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor.


The Sherlock Holmes franchise continues its expansion with a series focusing on his arch nemesis James Moriarty. The project is said to be a "modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the most famous villain in all of detective fiction." Moriarty is a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University but leads a secret double life as the mastermind behind every crime of sophistication in the North of England. When a rival criminal begins an assault on his underground empire, Moriarty will have only one choice: to join the police as a consultant, using the law as a weapon to dismantle his foe while keeping his true identity hidden from the police. Paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a stoic Yorkshire detective, they’ll form a fearsome team, but Moriarty will soon realize that the real threat isn’t the rival criminal faction he’s dismantling. No casting has been announced yet, but Andrew Scott famously played him in Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’s hit BBC drama, Sherlock.


Popular YA novel writer Tom Ryan’s first adult murder mystery, The Treasure Hunters Club, has been optioned by indie producer Skywild Pictures for a TV adaptation. The Simon and Schuster book title features three strangers converging on the remote seaside town of Maple Bay to uncover lost pirate treasure, only for fresh bodies to pile up as they collide with one another and a local mysterious legend. The Toronto-based Skywild has also optioned two other novels for its TV series development slate: the thriller Our Little Secret by Edward Kay and Mikhael Klassen-Kay, and The Affinities by Hugo Award–winning author Robert Charles Wilson.


The CBC has greenlit a third season of the cop drama, Saint-Pierre, which stars Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle) and Joséphine Jobert (Death in Paradise). The twelve-part run will begin filming in Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon in July. Hawco and Jobert star as Arch and Fitz, with Benz Antoine (Four Brothers), Erika Prevost (The Boys) and Jean-Michel Le Gal (Paris Paris) rounding out the main cast. It follows Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Inspector Donald Fitzpatrick (Fitz), who has been exiled to the French territory Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon nestled in the North Atlantic ocean and is partnered with Deputy Chief Geneviève Archambault (Arch), a Parisian transplant there for her own reason. Though the islands seem like quaint tourist destinations, the idyllic façade conceals the worst kind of criminal activity.


Tony Shalhoub (Monk, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) has been set as a recurring guest star on the upcoming CBS series, Einstein. The role will reunite Shalhoub with the creator and executive producer of the hit USA Network series Monk, Andy Breckman, and executive producer Randy Zisk. Einstein follows Lewis Einstein (Matthew Gray Gubler), the brilliant but directionless great-grandson of Albert Einstein. He spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law, and he is pressed into service helping Teri (Melissa Fumero), a local police detective, solve her most puzzling cases. Shalhoub joins the series as Jack Einstein, Lewis Einstein’s father. The series regular cast also includes Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Capt. Frost.


Sebastian De Souza (The Great) and Adam Godley (Down Cemetery Road) have inked deals for series regular roles in Conviction, Hulu's new legal drama series starring Elisabeth Moss, although his role hasn't been disclosed. Written by House and The Good Doctor creator David Shore, the show follows criminal defense attorney Neve Harper (Moss), a confident lawyer who finally has her shot at a career-making case: a high-profile murder where the husband is accused of killing his wife by setting their home on fire. But when a mysterious stranger begins blackmailing Neve, she is forced to compromise every legal, moral, and ethical obligation to gain an acquittal—or else risk her dark secrets being exposed. The series is based on the 2023 book of the same name by Jack Jordan, who also has series adaptations of his novels Redemption (2024) and Deception (2026) in the works, under a development deal with 20th TV.  


Cooper Hoffman has been cast as the lead of the new Hulu drama pilot Durango from writer Eliza Clark (FX’s Y: The Last Man), 20th Television, and Media Res. The pilot follows Hoffman’s character Mikey, a ski bum townie chasing a buzz, who teams up with Bunny, a homeschooled runaway working as a greasy-spoon waitress. Together they’re riding an avalanche of bad decisions and falling in love while running from cops, criminals, and Mikey’s wife in pursuit of their own American dream.


BritBox announced a release date for Tommy & Tuppence, the Agatha Christie adaptation. Written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell, the series follows a married couple who appear in several of Christie’s novels and short stories, taking up detective work for both fun and profit. Imelda Staunton, Antonia Thomas, and Josh Dylan will headline the six-part contemporary adaptation of the Christie novels, bringing the duo into the 21st century. Also joining the cast are Saffron Burrows, Sean Pertwee, Alice Krige, and Alex Jennings. The six-part series will premiere on September 15 on BritBox.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO


The CBC spoke with forensic thriller writer Patricia Cornwell, discussing her memoir, True Crime, on Bookends with Mattea Roach


NPR's Fresh Air profiled two translated novels that have just come out from Bitter Lemon Press, a small London publisher that specializes in translated mysteries. The End of the Sahara is a kaleidoscopic murder mystery by the Algerian writer Saïd Khatibi, a rising star who just won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. An Enigma by the Sea is a new edition of the 1991 novel by the legendary Italian team of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini.


Killer Women welcomed Danielle Postel-Vinay, the French alter ego of bestselling author Danielle Trussoni, whose fiction has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Prix Bête Noir des Libraires 2025 and has been translated into over thirty languages; and they also chatted with Lori Rader-Day about her country music thriller, Wreck Your Heart.


House of Mystery Radio spoke with Karen Odden about An Artful Dodge, in which Victorian London comes to vivid life in this heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman’s heroic plan to escape a life of crime.


On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Aaron Philip Clark returned to the show to discuss the continuing adventures of Trevor Finnegan.


On the latest episode of Spybrary, Shane Whaley spoke with historian Rory Cormac about his book Fakers: A Top Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Line and the extraordinary true story of the Information Research Department—Britain’s secret propaganda and forgery machine.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser profiled an animal that can cause pain and toxicity without ever biting or stinging and has been used as an aphrodisiac and even for murder.


VIDEO GAMES


While Amazon is busy casting the next James Bond for its live-action movies, the franchise has enlisted Patrick Gibson to take on the iconic role in the new video game, 007 First Light. The Dexter: Original Sin actor stars as a younger Bond in this origin story about the secret agent’s early days in an elite MI6 training program. In the game, players step into the shoes of 26-year-old James Bond, a promising yet sometimes reckless Royal Navy air crewman recruited into MI6’s rigorous training program for the
once revered and newly resurrected, elite 00-Programme. The rest of the cast includes Lennie James, Priyanga Burford, Alastair McKenzie, Kiera Lester, Noemie Nakai, Gemma Chan, and Lenny Kravitz.


Sunday, May 31, 2026

Sunday Music Treat

Hurricane season is approaching, which puts me in a rather stormy frame of mind, so I thought it was appropriate to feature the "Storm" section from Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes (extracted from the opera Peter Grimes). I think it has to be the best musical representation of a storm in all of classical music. This performance is by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi:


 


Friday, May 29, 2026

Capital Canadians

 


Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the winners of the 2026 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. The CWC had previously revealed that the winner of the 2026 Grand Master Award, for a writer with a substantial body of work who has garnered significant national and international acclaim while demonstrating a steadfast commitment to the crime-writing community, is Rick Mofina. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime NovelLouise Penny, The Black Wolf, Minotaur Books

With a $1000 prize

  • Sue Hincenbergs, The Retirement Plan, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
  • Jen Sookfong Lee, The Hunger We Pass Down, McClelland & Stewart
  • Tamara L. Miller, Into the Fall, Thomas and Mercer
  • Eddy Boudel Tan, The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, Viking Canada

Best Crime First Novel Ray Critch, The Beltane Massacre, Breakwater Books

Sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize

  • Jan Field, Yesterday’s Lies, La Cloche Publishing
  • Joel Nedecky, The Broken Detective, Run Amok Crime
  • David L. Tucker, A Painting to Die For, Otter & Osprey Press
  • A.L. Wahdel, Too Dark For the Light, Butterfly 80 Publishing

Best Crime Novel Set in CanadaC.S. Porter, Salt on Her Tongue, Vagrant Press

Sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize

  • Lis Angus, That Other Family, Next Chapter
  • Angela Douglas, Every Fall, Rising Action Publishing Co.
  • Uzma Jalaluddin, Detective Aunty, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
  • Chevy Stevens, The Hitchhikers, St. Martin’s Press

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional MysteryIona Whishaw, The Cost of a Hostage, TouchWood Editions

Sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize

  • Shelley Adina, The Engineer’s Nemesis, Moonshell Books
  • Mel Anastasiou, Stella Ryman and the Search for Thelma Hu, Pulp Literature Press
  • Alice Fitzpatrick, A Dark Death, Stonehouse Publishing
  • Laury Silvers, Some Justice: A Ghazi Ammar Medieval Mystery, Independently Published

Best Crime Short StorySylvia Maultash Warsh, "Polly Wants a Freakin’ Cracker," Malice Domestic: Murder Most Humorous, Wildside Press

Sponsored by Crime Writers of Canada with a $200 prize

  • Lis Angus, "Under the Circumstances," A Capital Mystery Anthology, Ottawa Press and Publishing
  • Madeleine Harris Callway, "The Lost Diner," Pulp Literature Press (story on p.115)
  • Barbara Fradkin, "Cold Shock," A Capital Mystery Anthology, Ottawa Press and Publishing
  • Billie Livingstone, "The Headache," Dark Yonder (story on p.31)

Best French Language Crime BookMaureen Martineau, Une nuit d’été à Littlebrook, Héliotrope

Sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $500 prize

  • Chrystine Brouillet, Le regard des autres, Druide
  • André Jacques, Jeux d’ombres, Druide
  • Steve Laflamme, La mémoire du labyrinthe, Libre Expression
  • Martin Michaud, Delta Zéro, Libre Expression

Best Juvenile / YA Crime BookCharis Cotter The Mystery of the Haunted Dancehall, Tundra Books

Sponsored by Superior Shores Press with a $250 prize

  • Vicki Grant, Death by Whoopee Cushion, Tundra Books
  • Claire Hatcher-Smith, The Mizzy Mysteries: A Skeleton in the Closet, Tundra Books
  • Tanya Lloyd Kyi, The City of Lost Cats, Tundra Books
  • John Lekich, Bark Twice for Murder, Orca Book Publishers

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime BookJulian Sher & Lisa Fitterman, Hitman: The Untold Story of Canada’s Deadliest Assassin, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize

  • Robert Cree with Therese Greenwood, The Many Names of Robert Cree: How a First Nations Chief, Brought Ancient Wisdom to Big Business and Prosperity to His People, ECW Press
  • John L. Hill, Acts of Darkness: Notorious Criminals, Their Defenders, Prosecutors, and Jailers, Durvile & UpRoute
  • Kathleen Lippa, Arctic Predator: The Crimes of Edward Horne Against Children in Canada’s North, Dundurn Press
  • Lorna Poplak, On the Lam: Great (and Not So Great) Escapes from Prison, Dundurn Press

Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished authorAnne Burlakoff, Val's Story

Sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize

  • William Hall, The Less You Know
  • Francis K. Lalumière, Lens Flare
  • Barbara Stokes, Death Scent
  • Isabelle Zimmermann, Blistered 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Blood Lines

Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) is an author who needs very little introduction, having created the popular Chief Inspector Reginald "Reg" Wexford series under her own name and many other books under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, as well as having been nominated numerous times for Dagger and Edgar Awards. But the very first Edgar she ever won was in 1975 for a short story, "The Fallen Curtain" from a book by the same name (she won another short-story Edgar in 1984). Following that success, she had nine short story collections published, the latest a compilation in 2008.

One of her collections, Blood Lines, dates from 1995 and includes ten shorter stories and one novella. Most of the stories are familiar Rendell territory including the villages of Kingsmarkham and Stowerton, which are the stomping grounds of Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant Mike Burden. The duo is featured in the initial story. "Blood Lines" which finds Wexford and Burden solving a bludgeoning death that Wexford doggedly pursues despite the fact everyone else thinks it's a mere robbery gone bad. In the end, they piece together a picture of infidelity, spousal abuse, and betrayal.

"Lizzie's Lover" takes a new and literal twist on a Browning poem that comes to life; "Burning End" explores the difficult relationships between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law and what it takes to push someone over the edge; the accidental discovery of a poisonous mushroom in a garden leads to a game of culinary Russian Roulette by a mad man in a supermarket, in "Shreds and Shivers"; "Clothes" is the only story not to deal with death but rather peers inside an unusual obsession that drives a woman to emotional collapse.

The longest story, the novella, "The Strawberry Tree," was one of seventeen televised feature-length adaptations of Rendell's work which aired on ITV in the UK and on some PBS stations between 1987 and 2000, under the title Ruth Rendell Mysteries, which Acorn Media later released in a DVD boxed set. It was apparently intended as a sketch for a Barbara Vine novel, a foreboding and atmospheric tale of lost innocence embedded in a lonely young woman's deep desire for love and friendship on the island of Majorca.

Rendell (and alter ego Vine) is known for her exploration of the darker human impulses forged out of society’s moral codes. Passion, jealousy, anxiety, guilt, shame, rage are the colors she uses to paint psychological portraits as she allows the reader to delve into the minds of her characters. If you haven't read a Rendell novel (and you should!), stories such as these make for a fine introduction.

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Mystery Melange

The typewriter of celebrated murder mystery author Dame Agatha Christie will be featured in a new exhibition celebrating her life later this year at the British Library. Marking 50 years since her death, "Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery," will showcase personal items, many of which have never been publicly displayed. The exhibition aims to explore how the author’s life, travels, and interests inspired her work and the creation of iconic characters, including detective Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. In addition to the typewriter, exhibits will include personal and professional correspondence with other writers, family photographs, and original notebooks and scripts for her novels. The London exhibition opens on October 30 and will run until June 20 next year.


The National Crime Reading Month annual campaign, taking place each June in the UK, will launch on May 30 at Criminally Good Books, an independent crime-only bookshop in York. Sponsored by the Crime Writers' Association, the event will include a Noir at the Bar and the announcement of the Margery Allingham Winner. There will also be a free virtual launch on June 7, with the theme of "Reading and Writing Crime in Difficult Times." Scottish thriller author, Emma Christie, will lead a conversation with fellow leading crime authors Victoria Dowd, Penny Batchelor, Heather Critchlow, and top forensic scientist Professor Jim Fraser about why people love to read crime in a dangerous world. You can learn more and check out all the other various events throughout the month via the official link.


CrimeReads profiled Elaine’s Restaurant and Literary Salon in Alexandria, Virginia, owned by Jeffrey James Higgins and his wife, Cynthia Higgins. The venue hosts book launches, author events, and signings, and conducts author interviews before a live audience for a future podcast. Several crime fiction authors have been hosted there, including Mark Greaney, Hank Philippi Ryan, John Gilstrap, S. A. Cosby, Tom Straw, and I.S. Berry. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America has held numerous events at Elaine’s including an F. Scott Fitzgerald festival in 2025 on the 100th anniversary on the publication of The Great Gatsby. Coming up on June 5 there will be a Noir at the Bar the night before ShortCon. Authors scheduled to participate include Art Taylor, Chris Dreith, Debra H. Goldstein, Jeffrey James Higgins, Avram Lavinsky,  Liza Parfomak, Gary Phillips, Ed Ridgley, Brayden Whisler.



The 2026 Maine Crime Wave will happen on Saturday, May 30 at Mechanics’ Hall in Portland, and on Friday night beforehand, there will be a Noir at the Bar hosted by Matt Cost and Jule Selbo. The criminally phenomenal line up of writers will include Tess Gerritsen, Allison Keeton, Travis Kennedy, Robert Kelley, Joanna Schaffhausen, James Ziskin, Zakariah Johnson, Gabriela Stiteler, Mo Drammeh, and Rebecca Turkewitz.


Newcastle Noir International Crime Writing Festival, one of the North East UK’s longest-running crime fiction events, announced a "time out" for 2026, with a return planned for May 2027. Festival organizers noted this pause will "allow time to develop a renewed future vision, while maintaining the continued appeal of the festival." Established in 2014 by academic and crime fiction aficionado Dr Jacky Collins (aka Dr. Noir), Newcastle Noir has brought together writers, readers, publishers and volunteers for a vibrant program celebrating all things crime fiction. Authors who had agreed to appear at the 2026 event will be given first refusal for 2027.


Good Housekeeping magazine listed twenty-one cozy crime novels, or "heirs to Agatha Christie," a round-up of the best comforting mystery novels to read right now.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Susan Alice Bickford discussing another of her stories from The Saturday Evening Post, entitled "Trust."


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Donald Trumpsky" by Charles Rammelkamp.


In the Q&A roundup, CrimeReads spoke with Howard A. Rodman about his historical adventure-thriller,  The Great Eastern, which pits Melville’s Captain Ahab and Verne’s Captain pitted together on a collision course across the Atlantic; Author Interviews chatted with K.M. Colley about hew debut mystery novel, The Roaring Ridleys, set in Jazz Age New York where a shocking murder shatters the privileged life of the city’s most elite family; Scottish crime fiction author Andrew Raymond spoke with Crime Fiction Lover about his new novel, The Long Isle; John Connolly was interviewed by John Parker for Shots Magazine about his writing and his latest novel, A River Red With Blood; Deborah Kalb spoke with Paul A. Barra, author of the new novel Quo Vadis, Deputy?; John Katzenbachm, reporter and author of such novels as the Edgar Award-nominated In the Heat of the Summer, adapted for the screen as The Mean Season, applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Architect; and E. B. Davis interviewed Krista Davis for Writers Who Kill, to talk about her Domestic Diva mystery series.