Mystery Melange

Six crime novels have been shortlisted for the 2022 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year in translation (either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia) published in the UK in the previous calendar year. The winning title will be announced on Thursday, December 8, and both author and translator of the winning title will receive a cash prize. This year's shortlist includes: Maria Adolfsson (Sweden) - Fatal Isles tr. Agnes Broomé; Helene Flood (Norway) - The Therapist tr. Alison Cullough; Ruth Lillegraven (Norway) - Everything is Mine tr. Diane Oatley; Anders Roslund (Sweden) - Knock Knock tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel; Lilja Sigurðardóttir (Iceland) - Cold as Hell tr. Quentin Bates; and Antti Tuomainen (Finland) - The Rabbit Factor tr. David Hackston.

The Crime Bake conference in Maine held this past weekend awarded the annual Al Blanchard Short Story Award to "The Bookings" by Jason Allison. The Honorable Mentions were "Robin's Hope" by Avram Lavinsky; "Steer Clear of the Devil" by Kim Keeline; "The Tattletale Tattoo" by Karen Whalen; and "Seven Women" by Eleanor Ingbretson. (HT to Joseph S. Walker, one of the judges of this year's contest.) The Award is named after Blanchard, who in addition to being a writer himself served as President of MWA-NE Sisters in Crime and co-created the Crime Bake conference.

Over on the other side of the Atlantic on November 27, there's a crime wave in Torquay (the home of Agatha Christie) via Crime at the Coast: A SW Crime Writers’ Convention. Authors from the Crime Writers’ Association South West Chapter, will be talking about crime writing and the secrets of getting published at a special day-long event in support of the Torquay Museum. Participating athors will include Stephanie Austin, Margaret Barnes, Sam Carrington, Jane Corry, Helena Dixon, Elizabeth Ducie, Richard D Handy, S M Hardy, Michael Jecks, K J Maitland. Special guests also making an appearance include Ian Hobbs of the Devon Book Club, and the book blogger Cherry Smith of the Crimepedia podcast.

As we near the end of 2022, it's time for the inevitable "best of the year" lists to start bubbling up. One of the earliest is Amazon's Best mysteries and thrillers of 2022, with Don Winslow's City on Fire chosen as the best of the best. To check out the list of all twenty selected titles, click on over here.

Mystery Readers Journal has a call for articles (500-1,000 word), reviews (50-250 words), and author essays (500-1,000 words) about mysteries set in Africa. Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "African Mystery" connection. The deadline is January 5, 2023: Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor, janet@mysteryreaders.org.

The Guardian reported on The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, the next installment in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series and the first written by a woman. Swedish author Karin Smirnoff takes the reins from David Lagercrantz in continuing the late author's vision for a 10-book series. The first three books — The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest — were written by Larsson and published posthumously after his sudden death in 2004. The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, which continues the adventures of hacker Lisbeth Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, was published in Swedish as Havsörnens Skrik last week, but Sarah Death’s English translation will not be out until August of next year.

The former New Forest retreat of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has come on the market for just under £3-million. Bignell Wood, a sprawling rural mansion just outside of Cadnam, was owned by Sir Arthur until his death in 1930, and was a birthday present for his wife Jean. Sir Arthur is buried in nearby Minstead, which also featured in his 1891 historical series set in the 14th century, the White Company. The current owner, interior designer Jane McIntyre of Jane McIntyre Design, bought Bignell Wood in 2006 and has restyled the interior.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "It's the Husband" by Sharon Waller Knutson.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Benjamin Stevenson about his novel, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, where members of a family of killers gather at an Australian ski resort; and Jane Harper, bestselling author of The Dry, was interviewed by Australia's ABC News about exiles, writing in a pandemic, and the rural noir renaissance.