Mystery Melange

The Killer Nashville conference announced the finalists for the Silver Falchion Peer Choice and Judges Choice Awards in various categories. Winners will be announced at the Guest of Honor & Awards Dinner at the conference this Saturday. The event starts Thursday and is headlined by special guests Janet Evanovich, Kevin O'Brien, Robert Randisi, Anne Perry, William Kent Krueger, and Charles Todd. (A personal note: I'm thrilled to be included in the Best Mystery/Crime category and honored to be in such good company.)

Otto Penzler, president and publisher of Mysterious Press and owner of New York City's Mysterious Bookshop, announced finalists for the inaugural $25,000 Mysterious Press Award. The contest was open to novels by established authors and first-time novelists (submitted through accredited literary agents only). The winner will be announced at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. The finalists include Alibi by Lee Goodman, The Downside by Mike Cooper, and Bright Like Blood by Leigh C. Rourks.

If you're a fan of Sue Grafton and her mystery series featuring Kinsey Milhone, Panmacmillan and ClassicFM have a contest just for you. To celebrate the release of Sue Grafton's book X, they're offering a chance to win the entire Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series so far plus a fantastic tech bundle including a Kindle Voyage if you enter by Sunday August 21. It's also a nice plug for ClassicFM, by the way - while you're there, take some time to look around (although note that live-streaming is only available in the UK).

Martin Edwards posted a review of a new book that will appeal to fans of Victorian mystery novels. Titled The A-Z of Victorian Crime, the project was compiled by four historians of crime - Neil R.A. Bell, Trevor N. Bond, Kate Clarke, and M.W. Oldridge.  

Book Riot took a look at another type of mystery, creating a list of "23 Favorite Missing Person Mysteries."

"Tartan Noir" is the phrase often used to classify Scottish crime fiction, and as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins, Stuart Macbride (author of the Logan McRae novels) tries to explain "what lies behind this publishing phenomenon, and whether it really exists at all."

The national Sisters in Crime organization recently released its annual Report for Change, this year on the subject of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Mystery Community.” Rather than point any fingers of blame, the object of the study is to bring the issues "to consciousness and bringing the membership of this organization and others out of that shade and into the light of open discussion," as Publishing Perspectives noted.

It's not too late to squeeze in that last summer read. To help you out, New York Times readers listed their favorite thrillers. And if you wondered what was on President Obama's summer reading list, he included one crime fiction title.

Want to learn how to be a spy? Or at least live and travel like one? Atlas Obscura compiled a map of all the places "where 007 drank, killed and shagged." (HT to Bill Crider)

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Short Lived" by Bill Baber.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mysterious People chat with Chris Grabenstein, former standup comedian and author of comedic crime novels as well as co-author of a number of books with author James Patterson; Michael Koryta spoke with the Portland Press Herald about his latest thriller, Rise the Dark, his writing in general, and using Maine as a setting in his books; Nick Kolakowski takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview challenge; the Mystery People snagged James Ziskin to talk about the latest in his series featuring early 1960s "girl reporter" Ellie Stone; and Crime Watch welcomed Argentina's bestselling crime writer, Claudia Piñeiro.