Mystery Melange

If you're anywhere near Durham, North Carolina, catch the latest Noir at the Bar event tomorrow evening, featuring writers Steve Weddle (Country Hardball), Greg Barth (Selena), Eryk Pruitt (Dirtbags, Hashtag), S.A. Cosby (The Brotherhood of the Blade), David Terrenoire (Beneath a Panamanian Moon), Eric Beetner (Rumrunners), and Geraud Staton (Beyond Darkness).

The Australian Crime Writers Association, which hands out Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes for crime writing, announced the shortlists for the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards for the best crime fiction and true crime works published in 2014. Winners will be announced at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Saturday August 2.

The crime writing themed edition of the Human Journal includes a lengthy interview with Michael Connelly and articles on a variety of topics, from an article about John P. Marquand's Mr. Moto series to a look at Japanese Women’s Detective Fiction and a study of the evolving culture surrounding Sherlock Holmes.

Michael Dirda of The Washington Post reviewed the book Meanwhile There Are Letters, edited by Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan. The book focuses on the rich friendship between Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald through their correspondence through the years, as they discussed writing, books, and topics of a more personal nature. As Dirda notes, this book, along with a recent Library of America volume, "may help renew interest in Ross Macdonald’s novels, which have been somewhat overshadowed lately by those of his more noirish contemporaries such as David Goodis and Jim Thompson. At the very least it’s certainly time to reread The Galton Case and The Chill."

Mystery Readers Journal editor Janet Rudolph notes that the next issue will focus on crime fiction set in Scotland, and she's seeking articles, reviews, and Author! Author! essays on the theme.

As part of conducting research for an upcoming article, Katharina Hall, a/k/a Mrs. Peabody, is compiling a list of Nazi-themed novels that focus extensively on the theme of post-war justice. You can read the titles she's collected to date, and if you have suggestions, she'd welcome those in the comments section on her blog.

Are you good at solving puzzles? If so, the British Library needs your help in solving a real-life mystery: a 13th century sword with a hidden message.

Buzzfeed asked, "Can You Identify The Classic Novel From Its Original Title?"

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 is "Boo Coo" by Charles Rammelkamp, and the new featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Me and Creature" by Evan V. Corder.

In the Q&A roundup, Tom Larsen takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview; Craig Sisterson's latest 9mm Interview is Brazilian novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Patricia Melo, whose latest book translated into English is The Body Snatcher (Bitter Lemon, 2015); the Mystery People snagged Lori Rader-Day to talk about her second novel, Little Pretty Things and also screenwriter Jordan Harper to talk about his crime fiction; and Linda Fairstein was interviewed by Crimespree Magazine about her life as a full-time prosecutor in the Manhattan D.A.'s Office and how it informs her crime fiction.