Mystery Melange

The Maltese Falcon Society of Japan has announced that C.J. Box is the winner of the 2021 Maltese Falcon Award for Breaking Point, the 13th in the Joe Pickett series, as the best hardboiled/private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year. Mr. Box will receive a wood-crafted Falcon statuette. (HT to The Gumshoe Site) Previous winners have included Walter Mosley, Don Winslow, Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, and more.

Musician-turned-mystery-writer Corey Lynn Fayman took top honors in the 2021 San Diego Book Awards for Ballast Point Breakdown, a wisecracking novel that features a guitar-playing detective, Navy SEALs, and trained dolphins. This is the fourth book by Fayman, who has also worked day jobs as a keyboard player, sound-designer, and college instructor. All the stories feature Rolly Waters, an eccentric detective the author created out of "boredom and a warped sense of literary ambition."

The long-running Colorado Authors League (CAL) writing competition announced finalists this week in various categories. Those of interest to the crime fiction community include:

Best Novel: Mystery (Cozy)

Judilee Butler and GaGa Gabardi: The Last Hurrah: A Phoebe Korneal Mystery
Kate M. Lansing: Killer Chardonnay
Irv Sternberg: The Mervin Gardens Murders

Bets Novel: Mystery (Crime, Suspense)

Margaret Mizushima: Hanging Falls: A Timber Creek Mystery
Barbara Nickless: Gone to Darkness
Sheri Cobb South: Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?

Best Novel: Action, Adventure

Jodi Bowersox: The Diamond Diva Vendetta
Sheri Cobb South: Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?
Robert G. Williscroft: Operation Ice Breaker: A Mac McDowell Mission

 

Comma Press is calling for submissions to the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction, an award run in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire. The competition is open to both published and unpublished writers in the UK, and aims to seek out the best established or up and coming voices in the form. This year's theme is crime stories. The winning writer will receive £500 and will have their story published online by Northern Soul, while all shortlisted authors will be featured in an e-book anthology, published by Comma Press and sold online.

Sad news in the publishing world: Perseverance Press is closing its doors after long run. In a statement by Meredith Phillips, originally sent to the Dorothy-L Listserv, she announced that "Perseverance Press/John Daniel & Co. will be going out of business soon, with the recent sad demise of John Daniel [in December 2020]. We ended our 22-year publishing history this spring on a high note: the starred PW review for Lev Raphael’s DEPARTMENT OF DEATH.
In the last two decades we’ve published over 80 books by more than 30 authors. Some of them continued longstanding series; others started new ones or wrote stand-alones; two were nonfiction writing guides. Several were award-nominated (Edgar, Shamus, Ellis, Anthony), and some of them won awards as well (Agatha, Barry, Willa). In every case, our relationships with our authors have been rich and rewarding. John and Susan Daniel’s motto for their publishing company (which was almost twice as old as the Perseverance division) was always 'Our authors are our friends' and PP/JD has maintained that. We’ve also continued the high standards and visual quality of the books, largely due to Eric Larson, our designer/typesetter/ebook magician. Susan Daniel will gradually close down the company throughout this year, but Lev’s new book will be obtainable from the usual retail venues and via our website through Dec. 31. The remaining books will be returned to their authors, along with their publishing rights...so anyone who wants to purchase should contact them directly." (HT to Sisters in Crime)

The modernist landmark Isokon Building, aka London's Lawn Road Flats—which served as Agatha Christie's wartime flat—offers a short film on Agatha Christie's residence there from 1941 to 1947. It also is presenting an exhibition on Christie in its gallery. Christie lived and wrote there while her second husband, Max Mallowan, was on assignment in the Middle East and while she was working in the dispensary of University College Hospital. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist blog)

Speaking of Dame Agatha, since it's summer, CrimeReads has an appropriate article on how the author helped popularize surfing. Cowabunga, dame!

The Spectator also took a look at "How a mysterious Harrogate hotel became a Mecca for crime fiction fans." (Hint: Agatha Christie again)

Wondering what the "most bookish" cities in the world are these days? This list might surprise you.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Heloise's Epistle" by Jennifer Lagier.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb chatted with Hilary Davidson, author of the Lily Moore series, about her new novel, Her Last Breath; Deborah also featured interviews with Susan Elia MacNeal, author of the new mystery novel, The Hollywood Spy, the 10th in her World War II-era Maggie Hope series, and Carol Goodman, author of the new thriller, The Stranger Behind You.