Mystery Melange

For the second year in a row, the Deadly Ink Conference's David Award, presented to the best mystery published in 2015, ended in a tie: Jack Getze, for Big Shoes, and A. J. Sidransky, for Forgiving Mariela Camacho. The runners-up included Jane K. Cleland, for Ornaments of Death, Hank Phillippi Ryan, for What You See, and Karin Slaughter, for Pretty Girls. (Hat tip to Classic Mysteries)

A group of 15+ women mystery writers are set to participate in the third annual Ladies of Intrigue event on Sunday, October 2, in Huntington Beach, California. The list of attending authors special guests Agatha Award winner Carolyn Hart (interviewed by Rhys Bowen) and Robin Burcell, the author of The Last Good Place, a 2015 work continuing the Al Krug/Casey Kellog police procedural series created by Carolyn Weston. Also appearing will be Kathy Aaron, Lisa Brackmann, Ellen Byron, Kate Carlisle, Donis  Casey, Hannah Dennison, Kate Dyer-Seeley, Earlene Fowler, Daryl Wood Gerber, Naomi Hirahara, Linda O. Johnston, Carlene O'Neil,  Laurie Stevens. and Pamela Samuels Young.

With the 2016 Summer Olympics in full swing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare blog has a listing of Olympics-themed mysteries.

New imprint Syndicate Books is publishing the complete works of MWA Grandmaster Margaret Millar, with a special offer for readers: you can pre-order the series and receive each book one month before its on-sale date. Order now and receive one book every two months, or order at any point later and receive all released volumes and then the rest as they publish.

Mike Ripley’s August "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine includes his wrap-up of the recent Heffers of Cambridge crime-fiction summer party; a look at classic works by Fergus Hume and Anna K. Green; news about Ostara Publishing’s reprints of Frank McAuliffe's classic novels; and reviews of new releases from Rod Reynolds, Ray Celestin, Steven Price, Paul Doherty, and more.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Klavan penned an essay titled "The Unblinking Private Eye" on the literary private eye novels of Ross Macdonald, who refined the genre to the point where it became a rich commentary upon itself. (Subscription)

Ahead of the Bouchercon Conference, you can read online all of the Macavity Award-nominated short stories via these links.

For authors writing on books on skip tracing and private eye techniques, Sarah Weinman has a timely article about a woman who faked her own death and wound up writing a book about it, Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. The book also features a "motley cast of Ponzi schemers, insurance fraudsters, celebrity hoaxers and the people who love them, believe in them, or hunt for them, in various straits of desperation and skepticism."

Forget the gym, just read books! According to a new report, researchers used data on 3,635 people over 50 participating in a larger health study who had answered questions about reading. The scientists found that folks who read for up to three and a half hours a week were 17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. Book readers lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all.

Got a spare £1million? The Chelsea Art Deco apartment where Agatha Christie set her Poirot novel Third Girl is on the market. The legendary crime author also penned other famous works including The Mousetrap during her 28 years living there.

Want to know what the "most beautiful" library is in your state? Tech Insider compiled a listing of all 50 states.

The featured crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Pied Piper" by Jonel Abellanosa, and this month's featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Back Then Our Stories Were Real ..." by Gary Dobbs.

In the Q&A roundup, David Swinson chatted with the Mystery People about his new books featuring private detective and drug addict Frank Marr; the MP also snagged author Shaun Harris, to discuss his recently released debut crime novel, The Hemingway Thief; Lisa Alber stopped by Omnimystery News to give more details about the second mystery in her County Clare series, Whispers in the Mist; and Criminal Element sat down with Donna Andrews to talk about her 20 Meg Lanslow mysteries and how she comes up with her "punny" titles.