Mystery Melange

Tom Nolan picked his favorite mystery novels of 2018 for the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Likewise, CrimeReads contributing editors compiled "Our Favorite Crime Books of 2018."

Best selling crime writer Val McDermid admitted being "very moved and very touched" as she had an honorary degree conferred upon her at St. Andrews University. McDermid has sold more than 15 million books which have been translated into 40 languages and has been awarded the coveted Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger for outstanding achievement.

UK's Cambridge University will offer a Masters course in Crime and Thriller Writing, the institution's first genre-specific creative writing course. From October 2019, the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of English will offer an MSt (Master of Studies, a Master of Arts equivalent) in Crime and Thriller Writing including creating a portfolio of creative essays or compositions, alongside a thesis consisting of 20,000 words of creative prose.

Some sad news, especially for younger readers:  Barbara Brooks Wallace, a children’s author best known for award-winning novels including the Peppermints in the Parlor mystery series, passed away November 27 at a hospice center in Arlington, Va. She was 95.

In an interview with The Real Book Spy, Eric Van Lustbader indicated that he'd reached the decision to step away from the Jason Bourne series, a franchise he’s anchored since 2002. The author said that after eleven Bourne novels in sixteen years, "I had pretty much said everything that I wanted to say with Bourne, and that I wanted to do something different."

Writing for the London Review of Books, John Lanchester compared Agatha Christie to the works of other Golden Age authors such as Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers, trying to find out the core reason for Christie’s appeal to so many readers in so many different times and places.

Lisa Scottoline has been chosen as the 2019 All Henrico Reads author, an annual reading program in which the entire community is encouraged to read the same book. Scottoline is the bestselling author of 32 novels, including After Anna, her 2018 thriller that will be the subject of the all-reads program.

Mysterious Press has released Mystery Stories by Elizabeth Peters, three shorts from the late author best known for her beloved Amelia Peabody series, in both paperback and digital formats. The stories, which include a Christmas slaying, an Egyptian puzzle, and a night in the home of a stranger, are being made available for the first time in a single volume.

Joanne Sinchuk, who founded Murder on the Beach bookstore in Florida's Delray Beach in 1996, told the Palm Beach Post that "We used to sell books, now we sell entertainment." That inludes author signings, internet sales, and independently published authors who are selling as well as the traditional New York published authors. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Kate Jackson has rounded up vintage crime book bloggers who will offer up their opinions on the "Best Vintage Crime Reprint of the Year." Bloggers such as JF Norris of Pretty Sinister Books will be showcasing their favorites and on December 22, Kate will set up a poll for readers to vote from among all the blogger-chosen titles. The Reprint of the Year winner will be posted on December 29th.

Japan Times had a brief profile of "Japan’s modern crime literature: Centuries in the making."

Scott Alderbert checked out "Literary Stoner Noir" over on Do Some Damage.

Jason Carter, blogger and James Ellroy aficionado, penned an essay on "James Ellroy’s Lonely Places: a Retrospective" for The Venetian Vase.

In a surprise to virtually no one, thriller author James Patterson once again topped the list of the highest paid authors in the world. The top five also included J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series as well as a crime series under the name Robert Galbraith, and Stephen King, who writes in both horror and crime genres.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Maybelle" by Teresa J. Wong.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Ian Andrew, who won the 2017 BookLife Prize for his thriller, Face Value; Writer Interviews welcomed Wallace Stroby, an award-winning journalist and the author of eight novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone, whom Kirkus Reviews named "Crime fiction's best bad girl ever"; and the Mystery People chatted with noir author Ken Bruen about his latest Jack Taylor novel, In the Galway Silence.