Mystery Melange

The next Noir at the Bar in Edinburgh will take place September 26 at Canon’s Gait. Authors scheduled to participate include Ann Bloxwich, Neil Broadfoot, Tana Collins, Jessica Fairfax, Carol Walker, Andrew Ferguson, Amanda Fleet, Les Wood, Robert Parker, Mac Logan, and the addition of wildcard picks.

The 2nd Annual Miss Fisher Con (celebrating the 1920s-set TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) will be held June 28-30, 2018 in Portland, Oregon at the Embassy Suites Downtown. The committee is working out the specifics, including special room rates for con attendees. More information will be coming soon, including how to register. ​(HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

The Crime Fiction Lover blog "rediscovered" the crime novels of Desmond Bagley, who was arguably the hottest thriller writer in the UK during the 1970s. Five of his novels were made into films and TV series, the best known being The Mackintosh Man (1973) starring Paul Newman.

The Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America is sponsoring the inaugural Six-Word Mystery Contest. To win a $10 bet, Ernest Hemingway allegedly wrote the first six-word novel in the 1920s, which read: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Though its origins are disputed, the story is one of the most famous, and shortest, examples of flash fiction. The contest will open Oct. 1 and continue through Nov. 26. Writers 18 and older can submit stories for one or all five categories: hard-boiled/noir, cozy mysteries, thriller mysteries, police-procedural mysteries, and romance and lust.

Mystery Writers of America is unveiling a new "brand" titled MWA Presents Classics. The introductory volume of the MWA Presents Classics line is A Hot and Sultry Night for Crime, a 2003 collection chosen and edited by current MWA President, Jeffery Deaver. MWA has produced anthologies since its earliest days, starting with Murder Cavalcade in 1946; now, the MWA Publications Committee, working with general editor John Helfers, intends to re-introduce the world to a series of these great out-of-print anthologies at the rate of four per year both for their first time as e-books and in new paperback editions.

Speaking of classics, over at Mystery Scene Magazine, Gary Lovisi profiled the Dell Map Backs of the 1940s and 1950s, which were special not just for their content but also because quite simply, they were beautiful books.

Musician and author Gerald Alias took the Page 69 Test for his latest crime novel, Spring Break.

The New York Times investigated the medical examiner's office in the city, which has been a pioneer in analyzing complex DNA samples. However, two methods that were recently discontinued are raising questions about thousands of cases from scientists and courts alike.

Marin Cogan profiled a group of "real life Nancy Drews" at the University of Pittsburgh, where a student club run by young women devoted to solving crimes is being taken seriously by law enforcement.

Gloria Fickling, who helped create Honey West, TV’s first female detective, recently celebrated her 91st birthday, and the Orange County Register had a retrospective about her pathbreaking series.

Sometimes criminal justice can be much stranger than fiction, as these "5 Police Cases That Basically Solved Crimes Using Magic" can attest. (HT to Bill Crider)

Think you know detective fiction? Check out these "Top 10 facts about crime-solvers and their stories."

John Keyse-Walker took at look at "Second Acts: The Second Novels of Six Great Crime Writers."

Writing for Strand Magazine, Eric Rickstad picked a list of the "Top 10 Springsteen Crime Songs."

Things to add to your reading list if you loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

If you're a fan of psychological thrillers, here's a list to help you pick out your next read.

On what would have been the 127th birthday of the queen of crime, David Barnett investigates why we still love Agatha Christie's "cozy crime" novels.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Helper" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People's Director of Suspense Molly Odintz interviewed Stephanie Gayle about her latest Detective Thomas Lynch novel, Idyll Fears; and Crime by the Book chatted with Jane Robins about her latest psychological thriller, White Bodies.