Mystery Melange

 

The Deadly Ink conference handed out its annual David Award (named for David Sasher, Sr.) to the novel Yom Killer, by Ilene Schneider. The other finalists for the award, given to the best mystery published in 2016, included Blonde Ice, by R. G. Belsky; Written Off, by E. J. Copperman; Death of a Toy Soldier, by Barbara Early; and Seconds to Live, by Melinda Leigh. (HT to Classic Mysteries)

The Lambda Awards for LGBT fiction announced its annual winners, including Best Lesbian Mystery to Pathogen by Jessica L. Webb, and Best Gay Mystery to Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery by J. Aaron Sanders.

Bloody Scotland revealed the longlist for the 2017 McIlvanney Prize Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award, which has crime-fiction heavyweights such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid competing with debuts writers like Helen Fields, Claire MacLeary and Owen Mullen. The twelve longlisted books will be whittled down to a list of five finalists at the beginning of September, with the winner announced at the festival's Opening Gala reception on September 8th.

This past week, the longlist for the 2017 Ngaio Marsh award for best New Zealand crime fiction was also announced. A panel of seven crime fiction experts from five countries will choose the shortlist, to be announced alongside the finalists for the best first novel and the inaugural best true-crime book. The winner will be announced at a WORD Christchurch event in October.

Carleton University recently conferred a Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, on Louise Penny in recognition of her career as an award-winning broadcaster and author of detective fiction.

The Lilly Library of Indiana University has created an online version of its 1973 exhibition "The First Hundred Years of Detective Fiction, 1841–1941," which provides a useful history of the genre through the works selected. You'll find the usual items by Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle, but there are hidden gems by less well-known authors in both England and the U.S. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell).

Veteran Nordic Noir writer Kjell Ola Dahl, whose latest novel Faithless came out earlier this year, outlined seven essential reads for any fan of the genre.

Why do some people believe so strongly they've committed a murder even when they haven't? The New Yorker investigated the perils of relying on memory and false confessions in criminal cases.

It's summer and that means vacation time (at least, for some of you!). If you need some inspiration as to where to travel, here are a few "vacation ideas for book lovers."

The June issue of Yellow Mama is out with new fiction from J. Brooke featuring a lesbian P.I./bounty hunter; Part 1 of Kenneth James Crist’s “Run, Robby, Run"; and other shorts by Kip Hanson, Gary Lovisi, Sean Daly, Liz McAdams, Rick McQuiston, and Paul Beckman. There's also new poetry and illustrations.

This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Silencers" by Robert Cooperman, and the new short fiction at Beat to a Pulp is "Closing Time" by William E. Wallace.

In the Q&A roundup, the LA Review of Books spoke with noir author Lisa Brackmann about her latest book, Hour of the Rat; Olen Steinhauer interviewed fellow author Mark Mills about his new historical crime novel Where Dead Men Meet set in Europe on the cusp of World War Two; and thriller writer Paula Hawkins revealed what book she'd take to a desert island in a chat with the Daily Mail.