Mystery Melange

Former British police officer turned author Clare Mackintosh won the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for her thriller I Let You Go. The announcement was made during the opening-night event at the 14th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. Also shortlisted for the award were Time of Death, by Mark Billingham; Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith; Tell No Tales, by Eva Dolan; Disclaimer, by Renée Knight; and Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty. In addition, Scottish writer Val McDermid became the seventh winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, following in the footsteps of Sara Paretsky, Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, and Reginald Hill.

The 2016 Dashiell Hammett Prize—awarded each year by the International Crime Fiction Festival, la Semana Negra de Gijón—has been bestowed on the novel Subsuelo, by the Argentine writer Marcelo Luján. (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet and Jose Ignacio Escribano.)

The UK crime fiction website Dead Good announced the winners of the 2016 Dead Good Reader Awards. Winners were announced on July 22 at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.  (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The winners of the 2016 Scribe Awards, given out by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, included Best Original Novel (General) that was handed out to a TV thriller-oriented tie-in novel, 24: Rogue, by David Mack (Forge). In addition, the 2016 Best Short Story prize went to "Fallout," a Mike Hammer tale by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, originally printed in The Strand Magazine (November 2014-February 2015).

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced the shortlists for the 2016 Ned Kelly Awards for the best in Australian crime writing. The roster inludes five former winners and two multiple winners, Garry Disher and Candice Fox, who is aiming to win for her third award in a row. 

Meanwhile, Sisters in Crime Australia also announced the shortlists for this year’s Davitt Awards, celebrating the best in crime writing by Australian women. Australian crime writer Liane Moriarty will present the awards at a gala dinner at Melbourne’s Thornbury Theatre on August 27.

Many of you probably know of Texas author Bill Crider (the Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery series), whose 75th birthday is coming up on July 28. He reported in his blog last week that he has an aggressive form of cancer, which Janet Rudolph updated on her Mystery Fanfare blog. Crider has entertained many of us via his books and online presence (Facebook and his blog), and I hope you will join me in sending him warm thoughts and hopes for better days ahead.

The Detection Club will publish in November a new collection of short stories, Motives for Murder, to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of the Club's most distinguished members, Peter Lovesey. The book will be published in Britain as a paperback original by Little, Brown and in the US (with a limited hardback edition as well) by Crippen & Landru. Each of the nineteen stories and one sonnet was written specially for the book, with each prefaced by a few words from the author about Peter's contribution to the genre. Contributors include Ann Cleeves, Andrew Taylor, Len Tyler, Michael Ridpath, Liza Cody, and more, and a foreword by the legendary Len Deighton. (Hat tip to Martin Edwards.)

Elizabeth Foxwell announced that the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series she edits is bringing out a book on Sara Paretsky penned by Margaret Kinsman, former executive editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection. The publication date is slated for this fall.The Killers of the Week blog wrapped up a two-week celebration of John D. MacDonald's centennial with a gallery of 76 vintage covers from his novels.

The new world of publishing allows for almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to concepts, genre mashups, and creative ways of looking at the business. Andrez Bergen is a case in point, taking a 12-issue comic book run of his Bullet Gal series and bundling it into a dystopian and "vaguely traditional kind of noir/crime/sci-fi novel."  Bullet Gal will be published in print and eBook by Roundfire Fiction in the UK in November.

Writing for Flavorwire, Alison Nastasi noted "10 Times Television’s Female Detectives Shamelessly Put Men in Their Place."

There are many things I will do as an author in writing and promoting my books, but getting a tattoo inspired by my books probably isn't one of them. That hasn't stopped these ten authors, though (and more power to 'em).

For your next animal-related mystery novel idea:  "When a crow dies, other crows investigate."

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Miscalculated" by Michael A. Arnzen.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People welcomed Andrew Hilbert to talk about his latest novella, Bangface And the Gloryhole, which starts out as a hard-boiled if absurdist private eye novel; the MPs also sat down for an interview with Amy Gentry about her debut thriller, Good as Gone; author Alex Clare stopped by Omnimystery News to discuss her debut novel of suspense, the first in a new series; and the Book Fan quizzed Megan Abbott about her new gymnastics-themed suspense novel, You Will Know Me.