Mystery Melange

Voting in the Goodreads Choice Awards kicked off this week and continues over three rounds through November 23, 2015, with 300 nominees across 20 different categories. For the complete list of nominees in the mystery and thriller category, check out this link.

If you’re in London on November 10, you can check out a free German crime fiction event at the Goethe Institut London. Titled "In the library with the lead piping," it will feature two German authors, Mechtild Borrmann and Mario Giordano, and two British authors, Michael Ridpath and Louise Welsh.

Editor Kim Idol is seeking essays for a publication titled The Butterfly Effect: Tracking Chaos Theory in Detective Fiction. In this view of chaos theory, villains bring disruptions that cause pain, but that also root out what is already rotting inside the social structures that had existed previous to the murder; and detectives are seekers who may not understand or be able to articulate what they know, but who understand disaster as a cause and effect of stability. Submissions should be abstracts of 200-250 words in length and should a brief author biography. Submit to detectivesandchaos@gmail.com.

Many articles recently have focused on Agatha Christie and how her knowledge of poisons was central to her mystery plots, but Mental Floss takes a look at one instance when a hysterical news media, and even the author herself, became alarmed she may have taken things too far. It all centered around a group of contract killers using an obscure poison that was virtually unknown before the Christie used it in a book.

Lyndsay Faye snagged Otto Penzler for a discussion about the enduring appeal of Sherlock Holmes, on a recent Criminal Element blog feature. Plus, you can enter for a chance to win a copy of The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories edited by Penzler.

For another chance to win a copy of Penzler's new comprehensive collection of Sherlockian tales, you can write a Sherlock Holmes story of your very own with this fill-in-the-black game to create your own unique mystery.  

Issue #20 of ThugLit is out in ebook and print formats, with "eight brand spankin' new stories of darkest crime to infect your mind."

The Spectator examined John le Carré's novels and how the real subject at the heart of the author's work may be his conman father Ronnie.

What would Sherlock Holmes do without Dr. Watson at his side? Or Rizzoli without Isles? The Weekly Lizard focused their magnifying glass on five "power duos" of mystery and thriller fiction.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Financial I.V." by Dennis Weiser, and the most recent story at Beat to a Pulp is "Little Troubles" by Steve Weddle.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People lassoed Jason Starr to talk about his modern tales, including his latest, Savage Lane; Greg Rucka spoke with Comics Alliance about his new supernatural crime drama graphic novel, Black Magick; Julie Mulhern stopped by Omnimystery News to dicsuss the second mystery in her Country Club Murders series Guaranteed To Bleed; and the latest author to take the 9mm Interview Challenge at KiwiCrime is Tom Bouman, discussing his latest novel, Dry Bones in the Valley.