Mystery Melange

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers announced that Lisa Sandlin's The Do-Right has won the 2016 Hammett Prize, which recognizes a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing.

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) has awarded the 2016 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award to Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. The other nominated novels included Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz and The Promise by Robert Crais. The Parker Award recognizes excellence in books that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle from authors living within the SCIBA region.  (HT to the Gumshoe.)

The Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 has announced the finalists in various categories, including Mystery/Thriller. Members can vote for their favorites during the opening round (including write-in candidates) which will narrow the list to the top ten books in each category with one last chance to vote for the winner.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Magazine lets us live vicariously through two recent book launches on the other side of the Pond for authors Anthony Horowitz and Martina Cole; there's also a look at vintage crime, thanks to a rare showing of the film The Tiger in the Smoke based on Margery Allingham's book and a new reissue of Lady Winifred Peck's Arrest the Bishop; plus new Italian and Nordic crime fiction, a tribute to the late Ed Gorman, and more.

Philadelphia has chosen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon as the featured selection for its "one book" program in 2017. Celebrating its 15th anniversary next year, One Book, One Philadelphia is a signature event of the Free Library of Philadelphia that promotes literacy, library usage, and citywide conversation by encouraging the entire greater Philadelphia area to come together through reading and discussing a single book. From January 25 to March 23, nearly 100 events and programs will center around Haddon's novel.

The Washington Post reviewed a new anthology of four "perfectly drawn" short stories by the late P.D. James, two of which feature James' stalwart Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The London-based Killer Women' Writers Collective is trying to steer the genre away from misogyny in books and sexism in book reviews. The group started a few years ago as a way for writers to combat the loneliness that comes from the isolation of fiction writing but has grown into something much bigger since: a 16-strong group of writers including The Girl on the Train's Paula Hawkins.

Author Amy Gentry took a closer look at domestic thrillers at the cinema that foreshadowed the current similar trend in fiction in an article titled "Breast-feeding Noir" for The Paris Review.

The Washington Post investigated "Blue lives: Pop culture’s minority cops," a look at how non-white officers have been portrayed on TV and film and how they "show us the camaraderie and job satisfaction black or female cops get from buying into institutions that previously barred them. But they don’t tend to inquire deeply into the limits of the citizenship that come with being a police officer or the compromises minority officers must make for that citizenship."

If you can find a copy of the latest issue of Medical Humanities, there's an article titled "Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource."

"The Gone Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the Train":  Five-Thirty-Eight did an analysis of fiction titles and concluded that we're not done yet with the recent "Girl" titled suspense novels, using statistics and insights from the industry such as a bookseller who noted five different galleys on the shelf with "girl" in the title pubbing this fall.

Writing for the BBC, Martha Kearney wonders why so many crime fiction titles have been inspired by the East Anglia region, where the crime rate there is so low.

Ever wonder how chloroform evolved from a beloved sedative to a crime-fiction trope?

The spy who couldn’t spell: how the biggest heist in the history of US espionage was foiled.

Might want to start looking for a new line of work, 007.

It's a bit early for folks like me to be thinking about Christmas, but you might want to pick up tickets soon for the second annual Murder Under the Mistletoe, the Christmas party at Heffers' bookstore in London on December 8th. Although participating authors haven't been announced yet, last year's guests included Susan Grossey, Charlot King, Mike Ripley, Nicola Upson, Mandy Morton, Suzette Hill, Mark Ellis, Miranda Carter, Alison Bruce, Michelle Spring and Kate Rhodes.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Costume" by David Rachels.

In the Q&A roundup John DeDakis chatted with Blog Critics about his Lark Chadwick mystery series; Otto Penzler, crime fiction editor and owner of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press spoke with the New York Times and says the last book that surprised him was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; Big Issue North snagged Ann Cleeves for a Q&A about her series set in the Shetland region that was brought to life on BBC One’s Shetland; Eric Beetner discussed his new novel Rumrunners and Midwestern settings with Steph Post; and Crime Watch's latest "9MM Interview" target was British author Jessica Mann who recently brought back her archaeological sleuth Tamara Hoyland, a former secret agent who appeared in six adventures between 1981 and 1991.