Mystery Melange

 he Capital Crime Festival handed out its Fingerprint Awards this past weekend. Winner of Crime Book of the Year was Sarah Pearse for The Sanatorium; winner of Thriller Book of the Year was S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears; Laura Purcell took home the prize for Historical Crime Book of the Year for Shape of Darkness; and Abigail Dean’s Girl A won Debut Book of the Year. The Industry Award of the Year was won by HarperCollins for Girl A by Abigail Dean, and the Lifetime Achievement Award was posthumously awarded to editor, Thalia Proctor, who passed away earlier this year. For all the finalists in the various categories, follow this link.

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, the Shirley Jackson Awards were established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics in the categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. The 2022 finalists for Outstanding Novel include All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter; Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer; My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones; No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull; and Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw. For all the finalists in the various categories, click on over here.

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Legal/Law Mysteries, and editor Janet Rudolph has put out a call for reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays. Reviews should be 50-250 words; articles, 250-1000 words; and Author! Author! Essays, which are first person pieces about yourself, your books, and your unique take on legal/law mysteries, should be 500-1000 words. Check out the full details here.

Did you know that Sherlock Holmes's creator opened a psychic bookstore? Despite Holmes's devotion to logic and reason in his detection, Sir Arthur Conan Boyle had a personal lifelong fascination with spiritualism and psychic phenomena.

Think you're an expert on all things James Bond? Try your hand at this quiz.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Insanity" by Teel James Glenn.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton welcomed authors Charles Breakfield and Rox Burkey to chat about their new techno-thriller, The Enigma Threat (book 12 of their Enigma Series), and also spoke with mystery author, Leah Cupps, about her new thriller, Never Play Fair.