Mystery Melange

 

The Australian Crime Writers Association have announced the winners of this year's Ned Kelly Awards virtually via social media. The winner for Best Crime Fiction went to Christian White for his novel, The Wife and the Widow; Adrian McKinty became a three-time winner of the Best International Crime Fiction Award, this year for his novel, The Chain; Natalie Conyer won Best Debut Crime Fiction for her novel, Present Tense; and Dan Box won Best True Crime for Bowraville. For all the shortlisted titles as well as previous award winners, follow this link.
 

The Capital Crime conference announced the winners of the 2020 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards as voted on by the public. Crime Book of the Year goes to Without a Trace by Mari Hannah; Mystery Book of the Year, The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson; Thriller Book of the Year, Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton; Debut Book of the Year, Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi; Ebook of the Year, Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee; and Independent Voice Book of the Year, Beast by Matt Wesolowski. The award for Best Crime Movie was won by Knives Out, and Crime TV Show, The Liar.

The shortlist was announced for Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize, established in 1994 to honor a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection. This year, it includes a couple of titles of interest to crime fiction fans, including Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson, which is part literary Western and part historical mystery, and The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, a psychological mystery inspired by Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of the Book will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with several online events spread out over four weeks starting Sunday. Coming up on Friday, October 23, from 6:00pm - 7:00pm, there will be a panel moderated by James Queally on "Crime Fiction: The Dark Side," featuring authors Attica Locke, Ivy Pochoda, and Rachel Howzell Hall.

Next weekend, it's the Toronto International Festival of Authors' turn, with several events online from October 22-November 1. Q&As of interest to crime fiction fans will include Scott Turow on October 24; Val McDermid on October 25; Harlan Coben in conversation with Linwood Barclay on October 29; Carl Hiaasen on October 30; and Ann Cleves and Ian Rankin on November 1.

MWA NorCal Mystery Week is going all-virtual this year with free online events for writers and readers. The seven-day event from October 24-30 will include various panels on topics like "Crime Through Time: Writing the Historical Mystery"; "A Highly Suitable Job for a Woman: The Female Sleuth in Mystery Fiction:; and "A Bit of This, a Lot of That: Mixing Up Genre." The 40+ authors participating include Cara Black, Rhys Bowen, Laurie King, Jacqueline Winspear, and more. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The full program for the 2020 Bad Sydney Crime Writers Festival, which will run in-person on 7–8 November at the State Library of NSW, has been announced. Festival guests appearing in front of a live audience include journalists Jess Hill, Gary Jubelin, Kate McClymont and Mark Morri; novelists Tom Keneally, Garry Disher, Caroline Overington and Chris Hammer; and Jana Wendt in conversation with former NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas. Other sessions include "The Crime of Modern Slavery" with Justine Nolan, Martijn Boersma and Jennifer Burn, and "Auschwitz in Fiction after 75 Years" with Alan Gold, Suzanne Leal, Diane Armstrong and Michaela Kalowski. New trends in crime writing will also be examined by Benjamin Stevenson, Greg Woodland and Petronella McGovern in Fresh Blood, New Writing."

Novelist James Ellroy’s handwritten manuscript of his 1992 book, White Jazz, is heading to auction for the first time. The fourth and final installment in the so-called L.A. Quartet is being sold off from the collection of Otto Penzler, along with over two dozen more of Penzler's rare books, via Heritage Auctions October 15-16. Among the crime fiction items are a signed presentation copy of PD James' Cover Her Face and first editions of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books, Fer-De-Lance and The Red Box.

Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has revealed that she is planning on branching out into the world of fiction writing. In an interview with RÚV last week, Katrín and best selling author Ragnar Jónsson talked about their planned collaboration on an upcoming crime novel.

While we're on the topic of politicians as authors, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, will release a thriller novel about the Supreme Court next year. The book, While Justice Sleeps, is set for release May 25, and follows a clerk for a Supreme Court justice who uncovers evidence of a possible conspiracy involving Washington, D.C.’s "highest power corridors."

The latest issue of Switchblade is out, with new short fiction from Robert Ragan, David Harry Moss, Gene Breaznell, Serena Jayne, Brian Beatty, Elliot F. Sweeney, Stanton McCafferey, Danny Sophabmisay, Andrew Bourelle, George Garnet, David Rachels, Elliot F. Sweeney, and Alec Cizak.

This week's new crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Unanswered Asked Question" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Avery Bishop, the pseudonym for a USA Today bestselling author of over a dozen novels, about Bishop's new thriller, Girl Gone Mad; Elizabeth White spoke with Libby Fischer Hellman about her latest, A Bend in the River, which follows the saga of two Vietnamese sisters as they struggle to cope with the Vietnam War and its aftermath; and mystery author Margi Preus discussed her new middle grade novel, The Silver Box, part of the Enchantment Lake mystery series, with Lisa Haselton.