Mystery Melange

The twentieth annual Friends of Mystery Spotted Awards were handed out to Chelsea Cain (for One Kick) and Johnny Shaw (Plaster City). The Spotted Owl award was established in 1995 and is given to the best mystery novel of the year by an author who lives in the Pacific Northwest – or in this case, two authors, thanks to a tie.

Crime Writers of Canada announced the 2015 Arthur Ellis Awards Shortlists for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. In addition to nominees in the novel, novella, short story and nonfiction categories, the CWC announced that the 2015 Derrick Murdoch Award for special contributions to the crime genre is Sylvia McConnell, founder of RendezVous Crime.

The next Noir at the Bar event heads to Austin, Texas, with authors Jamie Kornegay, Bruce Rehburg, George Weir, and Jesse Sublett on hand to read from their works and hang around for mingling and autographs. The festivities start at 7 p.m. on May 4 at Opal Divine’s on 3601 South Congress.

Later this year, Cinemax will debut Quarry, a drama series based on the novels by Max Collins. In advance of the series premiere, Hard Case Crime is publishing new editions of Collins's five original Quarry novels with covers by legendary illustrator Robert McGinnis (the first editions to appear in stores in almost 30 years). Hard Case Crime has been publishing new books in the Quarry series since 2006, and publisher Charles Ardai notes that "Quarry is our most popular series character."

Walter Mosley, best-selling author of the Easy Rawlins series, wrote an essay about "The Future of Reading" for the Wall Street Journal, noting that in the near future books will be more on electronic screens than on paper. "This is good because it’ll save the lives of many trees and because access to the Libraries of History will be open to everyone." He added, "Books will still be published. Writers will still complain about their publishers. Stories will continue to be told, and readers will still hanker after them."

The estate of Agatha Christie has launched a public poll to find the best-loved novel by the queen of crime in honor of the 125th anniversary of the crime writer’s birth. Authors Val McDermid and Sophie Hannah and actor David Suchet are among those who are championing their own favorites from the 80+ novels in the running. Suchet's favorite is the ABC Murders, while McDermid is backing The Murder at the Vicarage, and Hannah voted for After the Funeral. The winner of the public poll will be announced in September, the month of Christie’s birth.

The Guardian's Moira Redmond takes a journey through her favorite crime fiction written to the "rhythm of the rails," inspired by the buzz surrounding Paula Hawkins' Girl on a Train.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 is "Con Man" by Joe Barnes.

RIP to Charlene Weir who died at the age of 77 in El Cerrito, California. The former nurse started writing after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and went on to write mystery short stories and novels, winning the St. Martin’s Malice Domestic contest for The Winter Widow in 1992.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Olen Steinhauer, who chatted with the New York Times about how the best espionage stories “not only ask questions about how spying is performed, but they also question the value of the job itself"; James Ellroy is his usual quirky self in an interview with The Guardian; debut novelist Renee Knight talked with The Age about her thriller Disclaimer, which has already lined up a Hollywood deal; Attica Locke sat down with the Los Angeles Magazine to discuss her new novel Pleasantville; the Mystery People welcomed George Wier’s to talk about his latest, Murder In Elysium; and Omnimystery News featured a Q&A with legal thriller author Hubert Crouch.