Sunday Music Treat

Sadly, we lost musician Keith Emerson ten years ago this month when the founder/keyboardist of Emerson Lake and Palmer took his own life after a series of illnesses and depression. Most fans know of Emerson for his work with the ELP band, but did you also know he had a classical bent? Including composing a piano concerto that he recorded in 1974 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Critical reception was mixed, but the third movement is fun and exuberant. Here's a performance with Jeffrey Biegel as the piano soloist:

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: First Cases

Before they were stars, everyone's favorite literary private eyes had to start somewhere. Many jumped to life fully-formed in novels, but others began their lives in short stories. Robert Randisi, a lifelong champion of P.I. fiction and founder of the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) in addition to being an author himself, put together a collection of First Cases: First Appearances of Classic Private Eyes in 1996. Fortunately, that volume was successful enough that Randisi was able to compile three additional collections, the last in 2002.

The 1996 volume (and the one that started it all) includes stories in which now-beloved protagonists first saw the light of day, such as Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective in "It’s  a Lousy World," first published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in 1968; Joe Gores's Dan Kearny and company in "File #1: The Mayfield Case," printed in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1968 (a banner year, it seems); Linda Barnes's Carlotta Carlyle in "Lucky Penny," published in New Black Mask in 1986; and Robert Randisi's own ex-boxer Miles Jacoby in "The Steinway Collection," first published in Mystery Monthly in 1977.

Other entries are the first short story appearances of detectives who had already made a splash in a novel, such as Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder in "Out of the Window,"  Sara Paretsky' V.I. Warshawski  in "The Takamoku Joseki," and Max Allan Collins's Nathan Heller in "The Strawberry Teardrop," all three of which were published just barely one year after each character’s debut novel.

Most of these authors and their detectives went on to win major awards, including several Shamus nods—awards Randisi initiated as part of the PWA. In this book and the following volumes, the stories and characters include hard-boiled and soft-boiled, covering a range of settings (Block's Manhattan, Jeremiah Healy's Boston, Gores's San Francisco), but the most interesting aspect, as Randisi says, "It's interesting to go back and read an early story about a series character. In some cases the character you meet is very different from the character as he or she appears in later stories." In some cases, these include a switch of POVs from third to first, or major life changes as with Block's pre-AA Scudder who still drinks bourbon with his coffee.

These collections should be both inspiration and caveat to contemporary writers of crime fiction short stories. If you're fortunate enough to produce a long-lived private eye series after having auditioned the character first in the short format, you might just wind up in a future Randisi anthology. So make it good and make it count.

Mystery Melange

The Southwest Festival Reading Festival returns this Saturday, March 7, to downtown Fort Myers, Florida, sponsored by the Fort Myers Regional Library. Crime fiction authors taking part include Bruce Borgos, Ward Larsen, Sarah Pekkanen, Spencer Quinn, David Rosenfelt, Brad Thor, and more. The event is free and open to the public.

Noir at the Bar returns to San Diego at the Kensington Club this Saturday from 5:30-7:30pm. Authors scheduled to appear and read from their works include Eric Beetner, Matt Coyle, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Debby Holt Larkin, Caitline Rother, and Carl Vonderau. Books and drinks will be available for purchase. Rother is handling hosting duties, and you can RVSP via her website.


The UK's Capital Crime festival announced its 2026 headliners, including Lee and Andrew Child, Jane Harper, Claire Douglas, Andrea Mara, Clare Mackintosh, Peter James, Lucy Foley, Abir Mukherje, and more. The event returns to London's Leonardo Royal Hotel, St Paul’s, on from June 18th-20th and includes the announcement of the Fingerprint Award winners and various panels with a full schedule to be unveiled in March. Capital Crime will also be participating in the National Year of Reading, a nationwide campaign designed to help people rediscover the joy of reading. (HT to Shots Magazine.)


The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre is hosting an Agatha Christie Festival April through June, a citywide celebration of Agatha Christie and her enduring legacy centered around the final two plays of the 2025/26 Season, Mrs. Christie and And Then There Were None. There will also be a Dame Agatha display at the center; a March 31 screening of Death on the Nile (1978); a free April 7 event, "The Enduring Mystery of Agatha Christie from Page to Stage," at Boswell Book Co. with Christopher Chan of Agatha Christie Ltd. and Laura Braza, director of the Rep production of And Then There Were None; Whodunit Wednesdays, a reading series in April and May at Milwaukee Public Libraries; events for young people; a costume party, trivia night, high tea, and more. (HT to The Bunburyist)


Yale University's Lillian Goldman Law Library is hosting the rare-book exhibit, "Queens of Crime: Four Authors and the Pulp Detective," (Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library houses one of the largest rare book collections in the world), which follows four women mystery writers working in England and the English literary market from the aftermath of World War I through the later 20th century. The four authors included in the exhibit include Agatha Christie and her iconic Hercule Poirot detective; Dorothy Sayers (the aristocratic Peter Wimsey); Margery Allingham (Albert Campion); and Ngaio Marsh (Robert Alleyn). The exhibit will be on view at the Rare Book Room, Library Lower Level 2, through April 29, 2026.


True crime books, podcasts, and television programs are all the rage right now, and there's a new exhibition to capitalize on that, "Mind of a Serial Killer," which is headed to New York City on April 17th. It's currently showing in Atlanta where it made its American debut after traveling to Berlin, London, Dublin, and Paris. In includes more than 2,100 original artifacts from serial killers from all over the world like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jack the Ripper, along with older and less well-known cases including some women. Photographs, testimonies, and victim biographies, Jeffrey Dahmer’s glasses, Robert Berdella’s saw, original materials linked to John Wayne Gacy, and a freezer used by a cannibal killer, alongside reconstructions of infamous crime scenes, including those of Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer. The exhibit is not recommended for children under the age of 14.


On the other side of the Atlantic, the upcoming exhibition, "Londoners on Trial: Crime, Courts and the Public 1244-1924," heads to the London Archives from March 9, 2026 to February 27, 2027. This free exhibition explores the history of law and order in London, uncovering the stories of London’s criminals, victims and law enforcers from the medieval period to modern times. Drawing on the Archives' extensive collections, it examines how the growing city was governed and Londoners’ enduring fascination with true crime through cases involving figures such as Moll Cutpurse, Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Oscar Wilde, and Sylvia Pankhurst.


For crime fiction enthusiasts more into the academic side of things, there are a couple of new calls for papers:  "White-Coat Stories: Medicine, Criminality, and Murder," part of the International Conference of the English Department at the University of Bucharest, June 5-6 2026, with a submission deadline of March 15; and “Popular Literature: Culture, Power, and the Politics of the Popular," sponsored by New Literaria: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Humanities, with a deadline for submissions of June 30.


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb interviewed Wendy Gee, author of the new novel Side Hustle, the second in her Carolina Crossfire series; and Gin Phillips applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Ruby Falls, a historical mystery set almost entirely underground during the Great Depression about a waterfall in the middle of a mountain and the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves.

The Audies Have It

 

The Audio Publishers Association announced the winner for the annual Audie Awards for audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment, including mysteries and thrillers. You can check out all of the finalists and winners here, which have some crime-related titles sprinkled throughout the various categories. Winners (indicated in bold below) were celebrated at the 2026 Audies Gala at Pier 60 in New York City on Monday, March 2, 2026. 

Mysteries

• Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, narrated by Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Peter Ganim, Saskia Maarleveld, and James Fouhey (Hachette Audio)
• Gray Dawn by Walter Mosley, narrated by Michael Boatman and Walter Mosley (Hachette Audio)
• The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict, narrated by Bessie Carter (Macmillan Audio)
• Secret Sister by Sarah A. Denzil, narrated by Jessica Gunning, Sacha Dhawan, Joanne Froggatt, Nathaniel Curtis, and Hopi Grace (Audible Originals)
• Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto, narrated by Eunice Wong (Penguin Ranndom House Audio)

Thrillers

• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton (Macmillan Audio)
• Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell, narrated by Richard Armitage, Joanne Froggatt, Tamaryn Payne, Gemma Whelan, Louise Brealey, and Patience Tomlinson (Simon & Schuster Audio)
• Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza, narrated by Rachel F. Hirsch, Sarah Reny, Vas Eli and Saskia Maarleveld (Penguin Random House Audio)
• Havoc by Christopher Bollen, narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed (HarperAudio)
• To Die For by David Baldacci, narrated by Zach Villa, Mela Lee, Cassandra Morris, Rena Marie Villano, Christine Lakin, Will Collyer, Kiff Vandenheuvel, and Erin Bennett (Hachette Audio)

Author R&R with Paul Coggins

Paul Coggins is a prominent criminal defense attorney in Dallas and the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.  After his BA from Yale, he earned law degrees from Harvard and Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He has traveled widely and lives in the high stakes world portrayed in the Cash McCahill novels.

Chasing the Chameleon is the third book in the Cash McCahill series. His prior Cash novels were Sting Like a Butterfly and The Eye of the Tigress. He is working on the fourth installment in the series: Canary in the Courthouse.

In Chameleon, a drug cartel gives Dallas defense lawyer Cash McCahill an ultimatum: betray his client or face death. He refuses to turn on his client, prompting the cartel to put out a hit on him. Instead of going on the run, Cash hides in plain sight by surgically altering his face and stealing the identity of a dead cop twenty years his senior. Only two people know Cash’s secret: the surgeon who gave him a new face and Tina Campos, a trans woman who introduced Cash to the surgeon and who works as a paralegal in Cash’s law firm.

Burrowed deep underground, Cash remains safe and secluded until a killer stalks and kills several trans women. The victims all have links to Tina, and the killer closes in on her. Protecting Tina forces Cash out of hiding and into the open, where he faces not one but two deadly threats.

Coggins stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching this book:

 

On why writing legal fiction makes me a better lawyer and vice versa:

Whenever appearing on a panel at a writers’ conference or book festival, I am often asked whether I’m a writer who practices law or a lawyer who writes on the side. The question stops me every time, because I cannot conceive of being one but not the other.

I have known since junior high school that I would pursue dual careers as a lawyer and writer. Or author and attorney. Which course receives top billing depends on my mood that day and hour.

My parents, both of whom were teachers, blamed my choice of careers on too many hours in my youth spent watching black-and-white reruns of Perry Mason and reading scores of Erle Stanley Gardner’s eighty-two Perry Mason mysteries.

Indeed, Cash McCahill, the lawyer protagonist of my Cash series, could be the offspring of Mason. He shares Mason’s trial skills and flair for drama, but Cash has hit a few more bumps in the road, including doing a stint in federal prison for jury tampering.

To me, writing legal novels and trying criminal cases are two sides of the same coin. At Harvard Law School, my constitutional law professor said that 99% of being a good lawyer is picking the right word at the right time. Well, that is 100% of being a good writer. Thus, the overlap between my two cherished occupations is almost complete.

The thirst to pursue both careers has led me down many interesting paths. I made it an early goal to learn as much as possible about all facets of criminal justice, including the workings of courts, cops, and corrections.

My desire to explore every bright light and dark corner of criminal justice led me from the lecture halls and libraries of Oxford University to the meanest cellblocks in the toughest prisons in the country. I have also clerked for an appellate judge and anchored a legal call-in radio show.

The mother lode of all experiences has been my twelve years in the Department of Justice: four as a front-line federal prosecutor and eight as the U.S. Attorney in North Texas, overseeing scores of prosecutors in a vast district that spanned one hundred counties and stretched from Dallas-Fort Worth to Lubbock and Amarillo.

At the Justice Department, I had the privilege of working with hundreds of local, state, and federal prosecutors and thousands of cops and agents. I could mine their stories for a century and never do more than scratch the surface.

Chasing the Chameleon is my third book in the Cash McCahill series. Only seventy-nine more Cash novels to reach Erle Stanley Gardner’s Herculean output of eighty-two Perry Mason mysteries.

You can learn more about Paul Coggins on his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Chasing the Chameleon is now available via all major booksellers.

Leftys Rule

 

Left Coast Crime 2026 revealed the winners of four Lefty Awards at the 36th annual convention on Saturday, February 28, at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero.  Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!


Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel:  Catriona McPherson, Scot’s Eggs (Severn House)

Also nominated:

Ellen Byron, Solid Gold Murder (Kensington)
Jennifer J. Chow, Star-Crossed Egg Tarts (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
Elizabeth Crowens, Bye Bye Blackbird (Level Best Books)
Cindy Sample, All’s Faire in Love and Murder (Cindy Sample Books)


Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel:  Rob Osler, The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington)
(The Bill Gottfried Memorial)

Also nominated: 

Cara Black, Huguette (Soho Crime)
Mariah Fredericks, The Girl in the Green Dress (Minotaur Books)
Dianne Freeman, A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder (Kensington)
Claire M. Johnson, City Lights (Level Best Books)
Laurie R. King, Knave of Diamonds (Bantam)


Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Adrian Andover, Whiskey Business (Chestnut Avenue Press)

Also nominated: 

Kristen L. Berry, We Don’t Talk About Carol (Bantam)
Laurie L. Dove, Mask of the Deer Woman (Berkley)
Sue Hincenbergs, The Retirement Plan (William Morrow)
Marisa Kashino, Best Offer Wins (Celadon Books)
Diane Schaffer, Mortal Zin (Sibylline Press)


Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): James L’Etoile, River of Lies (Oceanview Publishing)

Also nominated: 

Lou Berney, Crooks (William Morrow)
Claire Booth, Throwing Shadows (Severn House)
Tracy Clark, Edge (Thomas & Mercer)
Leslie Karst, Waters of Destruction (Severn House)
Gigi Pandian, The Library Game (Minotaur Books)