Mystery Melange

Over at the Sleuthsayers blog, some of the authors nominated in the Best First Novel category for the Macavity and Anthony Awards talk about their books, what their favorite first novel is, and how that book has influenced their writing.

From the department of "it pays authors to set up a Literary Trust," Canelo imprint Abandoned Bookshop is on a quest to locate the surviving relatives of crime author Clifton Robbins as it prepares to republish two of his books which have been out of print for over 80 years. Dusty Death and The Man Without a Face are the first of five successful novels by Robbins from the 1930s featuring Clay Harrison, a London barrister-turned-detective, and his clerk, Henry.

Christopher Irvin's short story collection Safe Inside the Violence and Tara Laskowski’s collection Bystanders both came out within the last year, with one considered crime fiction and the other literary fiction. But when Laskowski started reading Irvin’s stories and realized there were many similarities in the ways they explored violence, the two authors started a discussion and exploration about the challenges of writing about crime, the weird and delightful, which was published in the LA Review of Books.

The rate and sheer number of technological changes in police procedures and forensics isn't that only thing giving contemporary crime fiction authors nightmares. In Scotland, changes to the structure of law enforcement has left many authors scrambling to keep up, something the Police Scotland chief addressed at a recent meeting of that nation's top crime writers. As bestselling author Ian Rankin noted, Chief Philip Gormley tried to "reassure" them over changes to force that had left them "horrified" about the future of their characters including Rankin's own Inspector Rebus whom the author feared might become a figure whose methods are increasingly outdated. (Another reason many top authors are beginning to set their novels in historical time periods.)

Twitter can be a harsh environment for many celebrities, but when internationally bestselling crime author Val McDermid was the victim of a sexist troll, she shut him down in "the best possible way," as Mashable notes, with other top authors Michael Connelly and JK Rowling coming to her defense. (The original poster's Twitter account has since been deleted.)

Another reason to go visit your local indie bookstore: Lit Hub wrote a piece about "the birth of a small town bookstore" and a behind-the-scenes look at what it took for a former nurse to bring Black Dog Books to Newton, New Jersey.

Scholars have spent their lives puzzling over one of the world's most mysterious books, the Voynich Manuscript, an intriguing mix of elegant writing and drawings of strange plants and naked women that some believe holds "magical powers." The book has been locked away in a vault at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, but now a small publishing house in Spain has secured the right to clone the document. The publisher's director explains that "Touching the Voynich is an experience...It’s a book that has such an aura of mystery that when you see it for the first time ... it fills you with an emotion that is very hard to describe."

Amazon’s Book Editors have rounded up their most anticipated books of the fall season, which includes several crime fiction titles from the likes of Carl Hiaasen, J.D. Robb, Harlan Coben, John Grisham, and many more.

"Independent bookstores are a great way to find new reading material while supporting local businesses," the Bluegrass Situation wrote, in compiling a listing of seven of their favorite independent bookstores in the U.S.

In one of The Strand's latest "best" lists, Jason Miller chose the "Top Ten Detective Duos,"  but as always, your mileage may vary.

New Zealand's Invercargill City Libraries and Archives decided that there was one important sport missing from the 2016 Olympics in Rio: synchronized shelving. The tongue-in-cheek effort wants to petition the IOC to recognize the event so that they can "send our boys to Tokyo 2020!" (Hat tip to Shelf Awareness.)

From the department of "life is stranger than fiction" comes a story of the mummified train robber who became a circus prop. (HT to Bill Crider.)

The new issue of Yellow Mama is out with new poetry and stories such as "The Hero" in Roy Dorman’s Walter Mitty-inspired tale; Liz McAdams’s "On the Ridge" with a likeable killer who preys on coworkers in a mental hospital; Kenneth James Crist’s "Tony Boy," where a biker outrider snakes the gang president’s girl with unforeseen consequences; and Steven M. Lerner’s "Jury Pool," where a blast from the past haunts a member of the jury.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Professions" by Sanjeev Sethi.

In the Q&A roundup, author Sandra Brown spoke with the Star Telegram about her new thriller and how she was able to turn a hit man into a hero; JR Lindermuth takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview Challenge"; Megan Abbott chatted with the Boston Globe about her new thriller You Will Know Me and about crime writing in general; and Judy Penz Sheluk stopped by Omnimystery News to discuss her new mystery series that starts off with Skeletons in the Attic.