Mystery Melange

The 6th Annual 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize honoring mid-career authors in fiction announced the longlist last week in a private virtual ceremony. The $50,000 prize will be awarded to an author of fiction in the middle of a burgeoning career. Finalists are expected to be named in early March 2022, followed by a winner named in April 2022. Among the thirty-seven author finalists are several who write crime and suspense fiction, including Megan Abbott (The Turnout), Dan Chaon (Sleepwalk), Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Plot), and Jonathan Lethem (Feral Detective).

Hannah Brown has won the 2021 Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award for her historical suspense novel, My Name Is Emma. Each year, editors at Sphere choose the best novel by a graduating student, with the winner receiving £3,000. For the first time, judges also awarded a highly commended prize to Duality – a Russian in Osaka by Denise Kuehl, a Japanese-set procedural with near-future touches. The 2020 winner was Emma Styles, whose No Country for Girls will be published by Sphere.

At the recent New England Crime Bake conference in Dedham, Massachusetts, Joseph S. Walker was awarded the annual Al Blanchard Prize for his story, "Herb Ecks Goes Underground," which will be published in Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories.

The Crime Fiction Lover website solicited nominations for its first ever Crime Fiction Lover Awards and have announced the finalists in the various categories. Readers can vote on their favorites via this link.

The end-of-the-year "best" lists keep coming, including Kirkus Reviews, where editors have chosen their favorite mysteries and thrillers of the year; and Amazon, which also compiled a list of its picks for best mysteries and thrillers of 2021.

Martin Edwards offered up a tribute to John Malcolm (the pen name of John Malcolm Andrews), who passed away recently. John wrote an antiques-themed mystery series as well as nonfiction works and also served as Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.

I think this should be the model for river towns everywhere: the legendary Bouquinistes boxes that have been lining the banks of the River Seine in Paris since the 16th century. (Booksellers take note: it seems there are some vacancies.) (HT to Shelf Awareness)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "In Midair" by Toby Widdicombe.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Lori Rader-Day about her new novel, Death at Greenway, which is based on the true events of a group of children evacuated out of the Blitz during World War II—to Agatha Christie's holiday estate, Greenway House; Mystery Tribune chatted with Nick Kolakowski, whose newest work, Love & Bullets, is being released by Shotgun Honey books on November 26; Lisa Haselton interviewed Weldon Burge about his debut thriller, Harvester of Sorry, the first in the planned Ezekial Marrs series; and Indie Crime Scene spoke with J.L. Doucette, author of Unknown Assailant (Book 3 of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries).