Mystery Melange

 

CJ Sansom has been announced as the recipient of the highest honor in British crime writing, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger. He combined both history and law in his debut novel, Dissolution, a darkly fascinating novel of monastic murder and politics. This success sparked the bestselling Shardlake series, set in the reign of Henry VIII and following the sixteenth-century lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak. Sansom joins icons of the genre who have been recognized with the accolade, including Ruth Rendell, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, PD James, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, Lindsey Davis, Peter Lovesey, John Le Carré and Martina Cole.

Saima Mir was announced as the first recipient of the Crimefest bursary for a crime fiction author of colour. Saima Mir’s debut novel, The Khan, was a Times and Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year in 2021 and has been longlisted for The Portico Prize. This year, three runners-up were also chosen to receive complementary passes to this year’s convention: Elizabeth Chakrabarty, Amita Murray, and Stella Oni. Hosted in Bristol, Crimefest is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days.

To celebrate the opening of Lee Child's Archive at the University of East Anglia and twenty-five years since the publication of the first Jack Reacher novel, the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing and the British Archive for Contemporary Writing are hosting two landmark events on March 31 to explore Child's legacy and the evolution of the crime thriller. You can find out more about the events and get your tickets via this link. (HT to Shots Magazine.)

Iceland Noir 2022, which will take place in person in Reykjavik November 16-19, has opened up a limited number of Early Bird tickets that are on sale now. Event organizers also announced the first two headliners, Richard Osman, the internationally bestselling author of the Thursday Murder Club books, and veteran crime writer, Mark Billingham. Iceland's Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdóttir and Iceland's First Lady, Eliza Reid, will also be participating in two of the headline events.

The Upper Hudson Chapter of Sisters in Crime, The Mavens of Mayhem, are presenting the online event, Murderous March, on Friday, March 4. Catriona McPherson and Hank Phillippi Ryan will serve as the Guests of Honor for the one-day crime writing festival. Other panelists include Tina deBellegarde, Alexia Gordon, Terrie Farley Moran, Ovidia Yu, Carol Pouliot, Connie Berry, Jessica Ellicott, Marni Graff, Clara McKenna, Frankie Bailey, Bruce Coffin, Mary Keliikoa, Bob Knightly, Gabriel Valjan, L.A. Chandlar, Erica Ruth Neubauer, Kelly Oliver, Lori Rader-Day, Eleanor Kuhns, Mally Becker, Tori Eldridge, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Alex Segura.

Over at the Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph has updated her Valentine's Day Crime Fiction list with novels that take place on or around Valentine's Day.

Over at CrimeReads, Molly Odintz featured "Bad Love, Good Sex: The Best Thirst Traps in Crime Fiction," or an anti-Valentine's Day round-up of the sexiest mysteries to read with your "friends with benefits."

The authors over at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have offered up many Valentine's recipes through the years, including Cleo Coyle’s Pretty in Pink Coffeehouse Cookies; Ellie Alexander's Valentine’s Day Chocolate Heart Cookies; and Valentine’s Chocolate Cake – two ways, via Mary Jane Maffini.

The Guardian urged us to "Forget Wordle!" and take a hand at cracking the Dickens Code, as apparently an IT worker from California just did. Although you might not want to chuck Wordle just yet, as it apparently helped save an 80-year-old woman from a home invasion.

What's not to love about a story like this: An 8-year-old surreptitiously slid his handwritten book onto a library shelf. It now has a years-long waitlist.

Some clever folks have created little book covers to use as wrappers for Hershey's miniature candies, which you can check out here and here. If you'd something a little larger for your literary Valentine, this company has you covered.

Here's a tool from Clive Thompson that is goofy, enjoyable, and can suck you down a rabbit hole pretty quickly: the Weird Old Book Finder. Thompson explains how to use it here. (HT to Jane Friedman) When I typed in "Valentine," it turned up first Valentines in America: 1644-1874 by T.W. Valentine. The second was Valentine's Manual of the City of New York for 1916-1917 edited by Henry Collins Brown. The third was a little more on the mark for the holiday, namely, Kemmish's Annual and Universal Valentine Writer; or, The Lover's Instructor, and Whole Art of Courtship for 1805. (It has a much longer title than that, but it's too hysterically and accidentally NSFW.) As for the poetry? Well, it's pretty much what you'd expect, but fun.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Dark Sparrow Winter" by John D. Nesbitt.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Brendan Slocumb, a musician and author of the debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy; Kalb also pinned down Wendy Corsi Staub, author of the Lily Dale Mystery series, to discuss her latest novel, The Other Family; Gregg Hurwitz, author of the Orphan X series, chatted with Criminal Element about his inspiration for Orphan X, his research, his latest book, Dark Horse, and more; Writers Who Kill's Grace Topping chatted with Ellen Byerrum about her Crime of Fashion mystery series; and William McGinnis stopped by Lisa Haselton's blog to chat about his newest action-adventure novel, Slay the Dragon: An Adam Weldon Thriller.