Mystery Melange

Since I was AWOL last week, I almost missed some award news. Here's the latest wrap-up of crime fiction honorees:

The winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced, including a Best Mystery/Fiction title nod to The Cartel by Don Winslow. The other finalists were Lou Berney, The Long and Faraway Gone; Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer; Brian Panowich, Bull Mountain; and Richard Price, The Whites.

The longlist was also released for the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel, which sees "giants of the genre pitted against a clutch of new voices," with eighteen total nominees, including several repeat honorees.

Crime novels from Finland, Norway and Sweden have made the shortlist for the 2016 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year: The Drowned Boy by Karin Fossum; The Defenceless by Kati Hiekkapelto; The Caveman by Jorn Lier Horst; The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz; Satellite People by Hans Olav Lahlum; and Dark as My Heart by Antti Tuomainen.

The Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (a/k/a the Bony Blithe Award), which celebrates humorous Canadian crime fiction announced the finalists for 2016:  Victoria Abbott, The Marsh Madness; Elizabeth J. Duncan, Untimely Death; Eva Gates, Booked for Trouble; Victoria Hamilton, White Colander Crime; and Alexis Koetting, Encore.

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers announced the Scribe Award Nominees for 2016, honoring licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books. The shortlist in the Best Original Novel category include, Elementary:The Ghost Line by Adam Christopher; Kill Me, Darling by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins; Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: Desert Falcons by Michael A. Black; and 24: Rogue by David Mack.

The Minnesota Book Award for 2016 in the Genre Fiction category went to Ellen Hart for The Grave Soul.

Author B.J. Bourg won the 2016 EPIC (Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition) e-book Award in the category of Mystery for his novel James 516. Also nominated for that prize were Murder on Edisto, by C. Hope Clark; Secrets, Lies, and Homicide, by Patricia Dusenbury; Shadows on Iron Mountain, by Chuck Walsh; and The Old Inn at Punta de Sangre, by Theresa Donovan Brown.

In other crime fiction-related news:

The sixth biennial Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award is open for submissions, with a deadline of June 15. The editors are looking for short stories in the genres of mystery, horror, fantasy, and science fiction of under 5,000 words. Although there is a normal entry fee is $15, if you write the code PXRTM on the memo line of your check, you will receive a $5 discount. For more information, check out the website.

The spring Issue #144 of Mystery Scene magazine features a Q&A with Catriona McPherson, who credits the wildly popular TV series Downton Abbey for persuading a US publisher to take on her 1920s-era Dandy Gilver novels; a profile of pioneering scriptwriter Rita Lakin, one of the few women screenwriters in the 1960s; a chat with Adrian McKinty, the author behind the very funny and very dark Sean Duffy series about a Belfast cop during The Troubles (1969-1997), who discusses his own childhood memories of that tumultuous period in Irish history; author Judith Flanders, formerly a book editor, talks about using her expertise and experience on her series character, Samantha "Sam" Clair, who works in a London publishing company; Megan Abbott's essay, "Girls Like Us," takes a look at the rise of ordinary women in current crime fiction such as The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl; plus other takes on new books and reviews.

The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival has launched its annual Big Read, with readers invited to celebrate the life and work of one of the world’s greatest writers, PD James, by reading the author's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Although the Big Read event is aimed at libraries and reading groups in the North of England, it's not a bad place to start for any reader new to the works of the late, great crime fiction master.

Fans of the recently retired, long-running crime series CSI (the original), can take home a piece of the show for real. Over 600 props, including a desk phone seen in Ted Danson's office, a pair of Sara Sidle's sunglasses, and a briefcase belonging to Grissom will be auctioned. But you'd better hurry, as the auction closes on April 22.

The Huffington Post took a look at new and renovated community library spaces awarded AIA’s annual Library Building Award that show us the "future of book lending."

Writing for the Strand Magazine, Mike Dellosso compiled a list of the "Top 10 CIA novels" that give us a peek into the dark world of espionage and double agents and counter-terrorism.

Not to be outdone, Alex Segura picked his choices for "Ten of the Best Private Eyes."

The Classic Mystery blog has been celebrating Agatha Christie's 125th anniversary with a poll to establish the Best Miss Marple Novel and the Best Miss Marple Portrayal, and the final results are in.

Continuing National Poetry Month, this week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "I Walked Into My Own Trap" by Alan P. Marcus. And be sure and check out all the other entries at the 5-2 celebrating National Poetry Month.

The new story-of-the-month from Beat to a Pulp is "The Larcenists" by Kieran Shea.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People spoke with Jessica Knoll to discuss her debut
novel, Luckiest Girl Alive (soon to be made into a feature film), and also Michael Robotham to chat about the latest in his Joe O’Loughlin series; Mayhem and Magic welcomed Steven Saylor to chat about his historical whodunits; former journalist Tim Weaver was the latest victim of the Crime Watch 9mm Interview Challenge to talk about his series featuring missing persons expert David Raker; Omnimystery News spoke with Denison Hatch about his debut thriller, Flash Crash; Chris Rhatigan chatted with Criminal Element about his short stories and his new novel Squeeze, as well as how he ended up living in India; and The Killing Times roped in Harlan Coben for a Q&A about his books and the new British TV show The Five, which is based on his story in collaboration with producing partner Nicola Shindler.