Mystery Melange

 

Congratulations to Robbie Morrison, who won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Edge of the Grave. Craig Russell also won the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Hyde. The latter prize was named for the late William McIlvanney, whose last book, The Dark Remains, has just been published posthumously with the help of bestselling Scottish crime writer, Ian Rankin.

HarperFiction has revealed the three winners of the Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers, launched in January of this year. The competition is designed to find unpublished writers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and was judged by editorial director Phoebe Morgan, commissioning editor Kathryn Cheshire, assistant editor Sophie Churcher, and guest judge Ayo Onatade. Each winner will receive a comprehensive editorial report and mentoring. The winners include Rama Varma, for The Banana Leaf Murder; Stacey Thomas for The Revels; and Shabnam Grewal for Secrets and Shame.

Gillian Flynn, the author of acclaimed psychological thriller, Gone Girl, is to launch her own imprint with new US indie press Zando. Along with actor and producer Lena Waithe, Flynn is a founding partner of the press, which aims to collaborate with creators, authors, and platforms to obtain and publish titles. Flynn will be involved in every stage of the publishing process for her imprint, including acquisition, editing and publication. She will publish her Zando list under the name Gillian Flynn Books, releasing four to six titles over three years. Gillian Flynn Books is expected to include both fiction and non-fiction, featuring narrative non-fiction and true crime.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, has extended the submission deadline for the upcoming issue on "Cold Case Mysteries." Interested authors still have time to submit their proposed reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays by October 10.
 

The Atlantic's Alyse Burnside profiled the "dark reality behind cozy mysteries," and how the genre’s popularity can feel like a relic of a bygone era—but these books share DNA with today’s bloodier thrillers.

The New York Times took a look ahead to "20 New Works of Fiction to Read This Season," a list that includes State of Terror, a political thriller by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny; the Korean murder mystery, Lemon; and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.

The novel that is thought to have inspired Agatha Christie is getting a UK publication date in October by Dean Street Press. The Invisible Host, a 1930 murder mystery by two US journalists, has remarkable parallels with Christie’s most successful work. Dean Street Press describes The Invisible Host as "the widely suspected inspiration" for And Then There Were None, and an "innovative and most unusual mystery from the golden age of crime fiction."

Just a reminder that censorship and book banning is alive and well in the 21st century: a southern Pennsylvania school district was forced to reverse a wide-ranging ban on books following protests and criticism that every author on that list involved a Black voice or subject. Crime fiction author, Brad Meltzer, whose picture book I am Rosa Parks was one of the banned titles, said he sat in the virtual Central York school board meeting "to stop this book ban," and read the board his titles including both I am Rosa Parks and I am Dr King to the board. "When you’re banning Dr King and Rosa Parks, you’re on the wrong side of history," said Meltzer.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Or So It Seemed" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, Sara Gran talked with CrimeReads about "Publishing, Sex Magic, and Ownership for Authors" and starting her own publishing company; Craig Johnson also stopped by CrimeReads to discuss spirituality, the West, and the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women, one of whom was the inspiration for the newest Longmire novel, Daughter of the Morning Star; and the BBC spoke with LJ Ross, a successful self-published author of 18 books including the DCI Ryan series, and a series with forensic psychologist Dr Alexander Gregory.