Mystery Melange

The International Thriller Writers have announced the 2018 Thriller Award finalists, including those for Best Hardcover Novel:  Dan Chaon — Ill Will; Denise Mina — The Long Drop; B.A. Paris — The Breakdown; Gin Phillips — Fierce Kingdom; and Riley Sager — Final Girls. For all the various category nods, including Best First Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story, Best Young Adult Novel, and Best E-Book Original Novel, follow this link to the official ITW website.

Likewise, the Strand Magazine Critics Award nominees were announced this past weekend. The finalists include:

Nominees for Best Novel

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré
The Late Show by Michael Connelly
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My Darling Detective by Howard Norman 
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 
Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda 

Nominees for Best First Novel

My Sister’s Bones: A Novel of Suspense by Nuala Ellwood 
Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito 
August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones
The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal 
Lola: A Novel by Melissa Scrivner Love
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt 

The Lifetime Achievement Award winners this year are J.A. Jance, whose four-decade career has a firm reputation among millions of fans as one of the finest practitioners of the suspenseful thriller, and also English author and Lovejoy creator Jonathan Gash. In addition, the Publisher of the Year Award goes to Tom Doherty, publisher of Tor/Forge books. The awards will be presented at an invitation-only cocktail party in New York City, hosted by The Strand Magazine, on July 11, 2018.

The Independent Book Publishers Association announced the winners of its annual Ben Franklin Awards, including those in the Mystery/Thriller category. The Gold Winner was Full Service Blonde: A Copper Jack Mystery by Megan Edwards; the Silver Winners were The Old Cape Hollywood Secret by Barbara Eppich Struna, and The Ploy by Marilyn Jax.

Bookriot is celebrating "a surge in the number of excellent mysteries and thrillers being published by diverse authors" by offering to give away all 15 titles in their "best of" list to one lucky reader. To enter, hop on over to this link and fill out the entry form through May 9th.

Shakespeare & Co. in New York City plans to open three new bookstores, two in New York City, and one in Philadelphia, and a stand-alone café in what the company, which currently operates a Lexington Avenue store across from Hunter College, describes as "the initial phase of a larger planned expansion." Each bookstore will be about 3,000 square feet and feature "well-stocked and exquisitely curated" book inventory, a literary café with seating and wi-fi, and Espresso Book Machine. (HT to Shelf Awareness)
 

If you're stuck trying to create an "elevator pitch" for a book, Electric Literature has a handy (and very tongue-in-cheek) chart that should help. (HT to Sisters in Crime)

Here's a bucket list for book lovers: "25 Libraries Every Voracious Reader Must Absolutely Visit."
 

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "The Sirens Never Sleep" by John Darling.
 

In the Q&A roundup, the Baltimore Fish Bowl queried Sujata Massey about her latest mystery novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill; Scottish crime writer Ed James chatted with The Edinburgh Reporter about James' Scott Cullen crime fiction series, which features an Edinburgh detective; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Becky Clark, author of the new mystery novel Fiction Can Be Murder.