Mystery Melange

Dettie Gould has won the Harvill Secker Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award with her "deliciously dark thriller," The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin. The prize, which aims to discover exciting new crime fiction by writers of color, was judged by winner of the inaugural competition, Ajay Chowdhury; journalist and public speaker, Paula Akpan; creative producer at Words of Colour, Heather Marks; and Harvill Secker publisher, Liz Foley. Gould will have her book published under the Harvill Secker imprint, in a publishing deal with an advance of £5,000. She will also appear on a panel at the Bloody Scotland festival and receive a guest pass for the weekend’s events. (HT to The Bookseller)

Christie J Newport has won the inaugural Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour with the "enormously promising" first installment in a police procedural series. The competition aims to champion authors from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are particularly underrepresented in crime fiction publishing, and is open to debut, previously published, or self-published writers. The prize will now be an annual event, with the next submissions period opening in May 2022.

The 2021 Nero Award, given by the Wolfe Pack for "the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories," has been won by Stephen Spotswood for Fortune Favors the Dead. The Black Orchid Novella Award, presented jointly by the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and honoring the novella format popularized by Rex Stout, was won by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson for "The Man Who Went Down Under." The novella will be published in the July 2022 issue of AHMM. Honorable mentions for the Black Orchid Novella Award went to: "Bad Apples" by Kathleen Marple Kalb (writing as Nikki Knight); "The Inside Shake" by Jason Koontz; "House of Tigers" by William Burton McCormick; "The Mystery of the Missing Woman" by Regina M. Sestak; and "Lovely As" by Jacqueline Vick.

Goodreads announced its Choice Awards today, including the winner of the Mystery & Thriller category, The Last Thing He Told me by Laura Dave. For the other nineteen finalist books, follow this link.

The Crime Fiction Lover online magazine/blog announced the winners of its inaugural Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021 for Best Crime Novel, Best Debut, Best Novel in Translation, Best Indie Novel, and Best Crime Show. Check out the winners (both readers' choices and editors' choices) here.

Canberra pharmacist, Hayley Young, has won Sisters in Crime Australia’s 28th Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Awards for her police procedural tale, "Monster Hunters." That story also picked up the 2021 ScriptWorks’s Great Film Idea Award. This year, 241 short stories competed for a record $11,910 in prize money and benefits. The Simon & Schuster Second Prize went to Jaclyn Riley-Smith, while the Sun Bookshop & Wild Dingo Press Third Prize was won by Ellen Coates. For all the various awards in several additional categories, click on over here.

Left Coast Crime announced the special guests for the next conference, which is currently slated to be held as an in-person event April 7-10, 2022, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Guests of Honor include Mick Herron and Catriona McPherson; Fan Guest of Honor: Kristopher Zgorski; Toastmaster: Kellye Garrett; and Ghost of Honor: Tony Hillerman. Event organizers also noted that LCC attendees will be required to provide proof of full vaccination before check-in.  (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Mystery Readers Journal: Cold Case Mysteries (Volume 37:4// Winter 2021/2022) is now available as PDF and hardcopy. You can also check out a few free online articles including, "Cold Cases and Deep Waters" by Martin Edwards; "A Snitch in Time" by James L’Etoile; and "An Old San Francisco Mystery Is Unburied, and Inspiration Strikes" by Ann Parker.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ear Witness" by Tom Barlow.