Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers Association have announced the finalists for the 2017 Dagger in the Library Award, given to a body of work by a crime writer in the UK that users of libraries particularly admire. This year's shortlists include Andrew Taylor, CJ Sansom, James Oswald, Kate Ellis, Mari Hannah, and Tana French.

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the Scribe Award Nominees for 2017. The awards, which honor licensed works that tie in with other media such as television, movies, gaming, or comic books, include nods to such crime fiction titles as 24: Trial by Fire by Dayton Ward; Don Pendleton’s The Executioner: Missile Intercept by Michael Black; Murder Never Knocks by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn by Ace Atkins; and Tom Clancy’s True Faith and Allegiance by Mark Greaney.

Booklist has released its annual editors' choices for the best books of the year (i.e., from May 1, 2016, through April 15, 2017). They include the Best Crime Novels, the Best Crime Fiction Audiobooks, and the Best Crime Fiction for Youth.

On 15 May, Dean Street Press will be reissuing six golden age crime novels by Peter Drax, originally published between 1936 and 1944 that have been out of print and unavailable for decades. As the publisher notes, "His approach is somewhat different from many of the well-known authors of the time, vividly evoking London street life of the 1930s and the patient and untiring means by which Scotland Yard detectives got their man – or woman."

May 25 at Hatchards of Piccadily in London is the date and place for the book launch for Taking Detective Stories Seriously, the collected crime fiction reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers. Martin Edwards, who wrote the introduction, has more information about the collection on his blog, noting that "the reviews are a wonderfully informative resource for mystery fiction fans."

Penguin Random House Ireland announced its inaugural crime writing festival, Dead in Dún Laoghaire, in partnership with The Irish Times. The festival will take place over one day on Saturday, July 22nd at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, with featured authors Paula Hawkins, Kathy Reichs, John Banville, Stuart Neville, Liz Nugent, and Karen Perry.

Dr. Mary Brown, writing for The Scotsman, made the case for neglected author John Buchan, only known today because of his First World War adventure story, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and his great character, Major-General Sir Richard Hannay. However, Edinburgh-based publisher ­Polygon recently announced plans for a new installment, with Dundee-born author Robert J ­Harris penning the continuation novel The Thirty-One Kings, the first new Hannay book for more than 80 years. If successful, a series featuring Major-General Hannay could follow.

While we're on the subject of continuation novels, New Zealand author Stella Duffy talked about the tricky art of completing an abandoned Ngaio Marsh mystery novel.

James Patterson has certainly had a variety of co-authors through the years, and now he's taking it all the way to the White House. He'll be teaming up former President Bill Clinton to write a new novel, The President Is Missing, that will be co-published by two of the Big Five trade houses.

Following the success of his novel The Martian, made into a popular movie starring Matt Damon, author Andy Weir's next book, Artemis, will be a crime thriller set on the Moon with plans already underway to adapt the work for film.

Dashiell Hammett’s granddaughter Julie Rivett recently visited the Stillwater Public Library in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, to share her grandfather’s legacy and some background on the settings and characters of one of his most famous novels, The Maltese Falcon. She also discussed the author's political activism that landed him in jail for a time.

Writing for The Guardian, Kathryn Harkup used to believe Dorothy L Sayers’ 1930 novel Strong Poison wouldn’t stand up to modern science, until modern genetic research just proved her wrong.

Reader's Digest compiled a listing of "10 True Crime Books That Are So Chilling, You Shouldn’t Read Them at Night."

And speaking of true crime, this Listverse compilation takes a look at "Top 10 Bloody 20th-Century Mysteries We’ll Probably Never Solve."

For a really strange take on true crime, or art-imitating-life or vice versa, there's this story of a TV producer who's accused of hiring hitmen to kill his wealthy partner and tells police he was just "writing a murder mystery novel" after being arrested naked in bed with his 28-year-old mistress.

Author Dan Brown needs your help choosing the book cover for a limited edition of his new novel, Origin, and you may win a limited edition, signed copy of the book with the winning cover design jacket.

Is this the world's first homicide?

If you're looking for a creepy mystery, look no further than this odd real estate posting in South Carolina via Zillow.

This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "I'm a Rabbit Girl" by Amy Holman.
 
In the Q&A roundup, Authors Interviews spoke with Greg Barth about his writing and his latest book Everglade, the fifth and final book in the Selena series, and also chatted with Robert Crawford, whose latest thriller is Tatterdemalion; and Stuart MacBride visited Hawley Reviews to discuss his new book, A Dark So Deadly.