Mystery Melange

The finalists for the 2017 Anthony Awards were announced today by the Bouchercon Chairs, Helen Nelson and Janet Costello, with winners to be presented during the annual conference on October 15. For the the categories and nominees, follow this link. (FYI, I'm pleased to see that an anthology I participated in, Blood on the Bayou: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 edited by Greg Herren for Down & Out books, is a finalist in the Best Anthology category.)

Finalists for the seventh annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction were announced. The prize is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change. This year's finalists include Gone Again, by James Grippando; The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore; and Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult. You can help vote for the winner, as audience voting will account for one-fifth of the decision-making process.

The Waterstones bookstore at Piccadilly in London will host an evening of international crime fiction for the Orenda Books Roadshow tonight. Fifteen authors will be on hand to talk about and read from their novels, answer questions, and participate in book signings.

Of the many panels to be featured at this year's CrimeFest event coming up this weekend is the first-ever look at German crime fiction sponsored by Goethe-Institut London. The panel will be moderated by Kat Hall and include top German crime writers Mario Giordano, Merle Kröger, Volker Kutscher, and Melanie Raabe.

Bestselling thriller authors Robert Dugoni, Mike Lawson, Kevin O'Brien, and Ingrid Thoft will talk about murder and mayhem in a lively panel discussion May 20 from 2-4:30 pm at BARN in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

On May 31, New York City's Mysterious Bookshop is sponsoring a Mysterious Women panel featuring authors Jenny Milchman, Triss Stein, Kathleen Kaska, and Cathi Stoler. Attendees will have a chance to win Writer's Wish List items including a chapter critique, query writing lesson, or thirty minute coaching session.

There are several crime fiction related events at this year's Belfast Book Festival, including actor and author Ciarán McMenamin who kicks off this year’s festivities on June 7 discussing his debut novel Skintown. Crime novelist and journalist Declan Burke will host a conversation between fellow Irish crime writers Louise Phillips, Julie Parsons and Stuart Neville in "Trouble Is Our Business" on Saturday 10, and more panels will follow. For more information, head on over to the Crescent Arts website.  (HT to Declan Burke.)

It's Mystery Month at Booklist, and the RA for All blog has a summary of some of the events of particular interest.

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on crime fiction during Wartime, and editor Janet Rudolph is seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays, which are first person accounts of yourself, your books, and the 'Wartime' connection.
 
The new American Writers Museum opened in Chicago yesterday. Some of the features include interactive touch screens and high-tech multimedia installations such as the Word Waterfall, cozy couches in the children's literature gallery and even the occasional smell of cookies when a visitor pushes the plaque for Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Writing for Johns Hopkins University Arts and Sciences Magazine, Richard Byrne takes a look at a new biography of Chester Himes, best known for his Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson hard-boiled cop series, battling crime in mid-20th-century Harlem. The book places Himes in the context of other brilliant, mid-20th-century black writers and how they navigated "the crisis of day-to-day life" faced by African-American authors at that time.

California bookstore chain Book Passage and co-owner Bill Petrocelli have filed suit against a state law that the plaintiffs say "will make it extremely risky, if not impossible, for stores to sell autographed books or host author events." The new law was passed by the California legislature last year and expanded the state's autograph law, which originally applied only to sports memorabilia, to cover any signed commodity worth more than $5, including books.

Hollywood is snapping up film rights to books by self-published authors, one of the latest being thriller author Mark Dawson.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is on tour this summer with its ninth Big Read, hosting free reading group events across the UK that will feature Ian Rankin's breakthrough Rebus novel, Black and Blue.

Newly-elected French President Macon has named a man who has served as a mayor, attorney - and an author of psychological thrillers - as his Prime Minister.

While I happen to think that any library is beautiful, these are rather spectacular.

Ever wonder how writers in days of yore made a living (other than writing)?

Turns out, it's hard to give away a copy of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code these days.

Although I'm almost always in a bookish mood, if you need a little help getting there, these candles might help.

This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Early Dismissal at Burncoat High" by Kristina England.
 
In the Q&A roundup, Marcie Rendon joined The Mystery People to chat about her new book, Murder On The Red River, featuring an American Indian girl, Cash; The Dorset Book Detective welcomed Peter James, who admits he never imagined the global success his protagonist Roy Grace would have; Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis chatted with Rhys Bowen about her first  standalone mystery, Farleigh Field; Craig Johnson sat down with the Dallas News to discuss "ghosts, humor and realism": Dale Phillips welcomed Dave Zeltserman to his blog to talk about his latest works and the major film being made from his book Small Crimes; and the New York Times' latest By the Book guest was Jo Nesbo.