Mystery Melange

If you're near Suffolk, Virginia, this Saturday, check out the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Authors schedule to appear include Ellery Adams; Maggie Sefton; LynDee Walker; Mollie Cox Bryan; Wendy Lyn Watson (who also writes as Annie Knox); Mary Burton; Linda O. Johnston; Gayle Trent (who also writes as Amanda Lee); Erika Chase; Vicki Delany (who also writes as Eva Gates); and Joyce and Jim Lavene (who also write as J.J. Cook and Ellie Grant).

The just wrapped-up NoirCon handed out its biannual awards as part of the festivities. Bronwen Hruska received the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Constant Excellence in the Field, thanks to her tireless dedication to the advancement of crime/mystery fiction as publisher of Soho Press; Fuminori Nakamura of Tokyo, Japan, received the David Goodis Award for excellence in writing; and "The Czar of Noir," Eddie Muller, received the Anne Friedberg Award for his contribution to noir education and preservation. (HT to Janet Rudolph.)

The Irish Book Award finalists were announced last week, including the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award Shortlist:

Can Anybody Help Me? by Sinéad Crowley
Last Kiss by Louise Phillips
The Final Silence by Stuart Neville
The Kill by Jane Casey
The Secret Place by Tana French
Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent

The public is encouraged to vote for their favorites through November 21st.

Speaking of voting, it's time once again for the Goodreads Best Books of the Year polls, including the Mystery/Thriller Category. If you're a Goodreads member, log in and cast your vote for your favorite of the 15 nominated titles.

Mike Ripley's latest "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Ezine includes a look at crime fiction themed around soccer (a/k/a football in the UK); musings about the "East Anglian crime-writing Bermuda triangle" that hosted the likes of Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Jonathan Gash and, for a portion of the 1960s, Patricia Highsmith; and also profiles of “frenemy thrillers," new historical crime titles, and the new anthology Bodies in the Bookshop edited by L. C. Tyler and Ayo Onatade.

The first edition of Jack Hardway's new Crime Magazine is available online. In addition to new crime stories from Kaye George, Jack Bates, Nick Sweeney, John H. Dromey, Stephen D. Rogers, and Jack Hardway, you can read Elliott Chaze's legendary noir masterpiece Black Wings Has My Angel, hear the second-most famous radio drama of all time, and watch a film noir classic you might not be familiar with.

The latest issue of Yellow Mama online includes new stories by Salvatore Ritchie, Justin Swartz, Roy Dorman and more.

The new ThugLit (Issue Fourteen) for the Kindle features new short crime fiction from Neil Krolicki, Albert Tucher, Eddie McNamara, S.A. Cosby, Blair Kroeber, CT McNeely, Scott Loring Sanders, and Dan J. Fiore.

November's Big Click magazine takes at a look at "Crime in Oakland: A Personal History" by Lori Selke; has three new short fiction pieces this month, and offers up the latest book reviews.

Syndicate Books has reached an agreement with the estate of Margaret Millar to publish the MWA Grandmaster’s complete works in North America. Millar (1915-1994) was the author of 27 books, a pioneer of the modern psychological thriller, and was honored with an Edgar Award for Best Novel and the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award.

Daniel Miller of the LA Times went on a search for the possible inspiration for Philip Marlowe, the the city’s first licensed black private detective, Samuel B. Marlowe.

Michael Kaminer compiled a list of "6 Jewish Crime Novels With Female Protagonists Everyone Should Read."

Publisher Le French Book announced its new book release line-up of top mysteries and thrillers in translation for 2015, "with a full range of different styles, from mysteries set in France to international thrillers." Le French Book is dedicated to bringing commercial fiction from France to a wider audience.

Ronald Tierney profiled some of the new and relatively new independent publishers that are bringing out some exciting crime fiction titles.

The Los Angeles Daily news featured "Six Great Crime Novels Set in Southern California."

Biography TV Online examined the curious relationship between Arthur Conan Doyle and magician Harry Houdini.

If you are already thinking to Christmas, look no further than the Paddington Bear designed by Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch. He joins several other actors who had the chance to help craft the bears based on characters they play.

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Kevin" by Matt Hohner. Also, Editor Gerald So has compiled The Five-Two Vol. 3 for Amazon Kindle, featuring all 52 poems from the third year of the 5-2 in one anthology.

The Q&A roundup includes Kim Zupan, chatting with the Mystery People about his debut, The Ploughmen, which is also the MysteryPeople blog's Pick of the Month for October; JA Jance was another Mysterious People guest, discussing her J.P. Beaumont, Johanna Brady and Ali Reynolds series; Jeffrey Siger stopped by Omnimystery News for a Q&A to discuss his sixth mystery in his Andreas Kaldis series, Sons of Sparta; Otto Penzler talks about how he selected the stories for the anthology The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor; and Michael Connelly chats with Newsday about his new Harry Bosch installment, The Burning Room.