Mystery Melange

 

The organizers of Crimefest have announced the shortlists of nominees for awards in seven different categories of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction, including the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award; Audible Sounds of Crime Award; eDunnit Award; H.R.F. Keating Award (for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction); Last Laugh Award (for the best humorous crime novel); Best Crime Fiction Novel for Children (aged 8-12); and Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults (aged 12-16). The winner of this year’s Specsavers Debut Crime Novel will receive a £1,000 prize, while a £1,000 prize fund is also awarded to the Audible Sounds of Crime Award, sponsored by Audible. The winners will be presented at the CrimeFest conference on Saturday, May 14.

The Western Writers of America announced the winners of the annual Spur Awards. There are some crossover mystery stories among them, including C.J. Box’s Dark Sky: A Joe Pickett Novel, which won Best Contemporary Novel, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden's short story, "Skin," published in Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color, which won Best Short Fiction. Check out all the finalists via this link.

The Lambda Literary organization announced the finalists for their annual book awards. The finalists this year in the LGBTQ Mystery category include Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon; Finding the Vein by Jennifer Hanlon Wilde; Lies With Man by Michael Nava; Murder Under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood; and The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver.

The Glencairn Glass, which has celebrated Scottish crime writing talent over the past two years as headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prizes, announced the winners of its inaugural short story competition. The contest invited writers from around the blog to submit stories based on the theme "A Crystal-Clear Crime" in no more than 2000 words. The winner is "Halmeoni’s Wisdom" by Brid Cummings of South Australia, with the runners up including "Teardrops" by Jennifer Harvey, a Scottish author based in Denmark, and "Auld Bride" by Judith O’Reilly of the UK. The winning entry will be published in the May issue of Scottish Field Magazine, and the runners’ up stories on the magazine's website. (HT to Shots Magazine.)

St. Patrick's Day figures in many mysteries, and Janet Rudolph has accordingly updated her ever-growing St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction list.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column reported on two debut crime novels—published on the same day—by former UK Chief Superintendents of Police, John Sutherland and Graham Bartlett; looked at French spy novelist Pierre Boulle (1912-1994), best known for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Monkey Planet; noted a new statue of statue of Dick Francis, champion jockey and champion thriller writer; highlighted a symposium on the development of the thriller taking place March 31st at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and more.

In 2013, the British Library recruited novelist and crime fiction historian Martin Edwards to consult on an exhibition titled "Murder in the Library: An A–Z of Crime Fiction," and as a result of that effort, British Library Crime Classics launched in the U.K. in 2014 (and the following year, Poisoned Pen Press brought the line to the U.S.). As Publishers Weekly noted in a profile, to date, there are nearly 100 books in the series. Forthcoming releases include the 1944 locked-room mystery Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr (Aug.); 1962’s Due to a Death, a work of suspense by Mary Kelly (May); and the anthology Guilty Creatures (June), a golden age showcase of mysteries involving animals.

Writer Valerie Stivers set out to make the four-course dinner from Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers and reported her results in The Paris Review.

Speaking of poison, Kathryn Harkup of Chemistry World Magazine took a look at how Agatha Christie used her chemical training in her detective novels.

Books against bombs: The Guardian reported on how Ukrainians are using literature to fight back. Meanwhile, the literary auction to raise funds for Ukrainian relief is still open through March 20.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Ready, Aim" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Judy Foreman, author of the medical thriller, CRISPR'd; Kate Parker stopped by the I Read What You Write blog to discuss Deadly Broadcast, the eighth in the Deadly Series, which revolves around the world of the BBC Broadcasting House in the winter of 1939/1940; and Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery author, Norm Harris, about his Spider Green Mystery Thriller series.