Mystery Melange

Tomorrow night, the Eight Cousins bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts, presents International Crime Night with with book talks, free books, and other giveaways. The lineup includes Featuring Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis's The Boy in the Suitcase (Denmark), Colin Cotteril's The Coroner's Lunch (Laos), Cara Black's Murder in the Marais (Paris), Timothy Hallinan's Crashed (Hollywood, CA), Peter Lovesey's The Last Detective (Bath, England), and Stuart Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast (Belfast, NI).

The Strand Magazine Critics Awards announced last week went to The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes for Best Novel; Ghostman by Roger Hobbs for Best First Novel; and the Lifetime Achievement Awards were handed out to R.L. Stine and Peter Lovesey.

The Thriller Awards were also announced at this past weekend's Thriller Fest, including:

• Best Hardcover Novel – The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper  
• Best First Novel – Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews  
• Best Paperback Original Novel – The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon  
• Best Short Story – “Footprints in the Water” by Twist Phelan  
• Best Young Adult Novel – All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill  
• Best E-Book Original Novel – The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell 

The upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego isn't just for films, TV and graphic novels. There are other interesting panels on writing, including "101 Ways to Kill a Man," on Friday, July 25 at 1p.m. Taking place in the discussion are thriller authors Tobias Buckell (Hurricane Fever), Alex Hughes (Marked), M. A. Lawson (Rosarito Beach), Stephen Blackmoore (Broken Souls), Gregg Hurwitz (Don't Look Back), and moderator Jeff Ayers (Long Overdue). Gregg Hurwitz will also be interviewed by Howard Chaykin on Thursday.

On July 31, the Pasadena, California Central Library will present a panel of experts discussing 20th century crime fiction set in California. The panel guests include Denise Hamilton (editor, L.A. Noir), who leads a conversation between Julie M. Rivett (Dashiell Hammett scholar and granddaughter, editor of The Hunger & Other Stories), Kim Cooper (Esotouric crime historian, author of The Kept Girl) and Tom Nolan (author of Ross Macdonald: A Biography).

Norwich was named a UNESCO City of Literature, and now the city is holding its first-ever Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, with plans to celebrate noir and crime writing over five days of events, film screenings and writing workshops. The event features authors John Curran, Tom Benn, Eva Dolan, Oliver Harris, Sophie Hannah, Val McDermid, Simon Brett, John Harvey, and Megan Abbott and is scheduled for September 10-14. (Hat tip to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine.)

The summer issue of Mystery Scene Magazine features a look at Ben Winters and the final book in his highly praised Last Policeman triology featuring detective Hank Palace and his lone crusade to bring order to the apocalypse; a look at the historical mystery writer Lillian de la Torre; Sarah Weinman's profile of mystery author Dorothy Salisbury Davis, popular during the '60s and '70s; Ed Gorman's interview with Katherine Hall Page; a Lynn Kaczmarek profile of Maine author Paul Doiron, and much more.

Deborah Halber stopped by the Omnivoracious blog to discuss her new nonfiction book The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases. The book profiles the network of self-made detectives who work to solve mysteries of unidentified human remains and the various modern tools they use in their quest.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Alphabet of Murder" by Nancy Scott, and the featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "The Angry Guns" by Jason Duke.

Another sad farewell this week, to Canadian mystery author Lou Allin, who lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. Allin wrote the Belle Palmer series, featuring a realtor and her German shepherd, and another series with RCMP Corporal Holly Martin. Janet Rudoloph at Mystery Fanfare has a remembrance.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Brad Taylor, chatting with the Minneapolis StarTribune about how he draws on his own special operations experience in the Mideast for his Pike Logan novels; Michael Connelly spoke with The Huffington Post about his series with Harry Bosch ad Mickey Haller; and Chris Culver, author of the Ash Rashid series of mysteries, spoke with the Crime Thriller Girl.