Mystery Melange

 

When Women Kill by Chilean author, Alia Trabucco Zerán (translated by Sophie Hughes), has won the 2022 British Academy Book Prize. Novelist Zerán has long been fascinated not only with the root causes of violence against women, but by those women who have violently rejected the domestic and passive roles they were meant by their culture to inhabit. Choosing as her subject four iconic homicides perpetrated by Chilean women in the twentieth century—intertwining true crime, critical essays, and research diaries—she spent years researching this complex work of narrative nonfiction detailing not only the troubling tales of the murders themselves, but the story of how society, the media, and men in power reacted to these killings, painting their perpetrators as witches, hysterics, or femmes fatales.

The Japanese government said Wednesday that it will give the Medal of Honor to 717 people and 29 organizations this autumn, including novelist Arimasa Osawa. Osawa, 66, will be awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon, which is given to those with accomplishments in arts, education or sports. The author is known for his "Shinjukuzame" (Shinjuku Shark) mystery novel series, for which he won the Naoki Prize in 1994, but has also penned the private detective Ko Sakuma series as well as the Arbeit detective series. He has entertained readers for more than four decades with his various writing styles and publications.

On Saturday, November 5, the Chester NJ Library will hold a day of book talks and workshops with 25 or more local authors. Mally Baumel Becker will moderate the panel on mystery and suspense fiction with authors Andrew Anselmi, Liz Alterman, Carlotta Holton, Charles Levin, Lori Robbins, and Kris Waldherr, discussing what it is about murder, spies, and supernatural thrills that keeps them writing.

On November 19th at 1pm, the San Bernardino Public Library will present a Mystery Panel featuring authors Lance Charnes, Travis Richardson, Jeri Westerson, and Pamela Samuels Young. They'll discuss what it takes to write a novel and get it published as well as talking about their personal craft when it comes to writing mysteries.

From now through December 6, you can enter the 2022 MASTERPIECE Mystery! Sweepstakes via PBS. The Grand Prize consists of an original costume sketch from Miss Scarlet and The Duke autographed by actor Kate Phillips, costume designer Momirka Bailovic, and Rachael New (the show's creator, writer, and Executive Producer); a hardcover Magpie Murders book autographed by author Anthony Horowitz; DVDs of Miss Scarlet and The Duke, Magpie Murders, and Annika; and one pair of socks featuring Edward Gorey artwork from the MASTERPIECE Mystery! opening credits. In addition, nine runners-up will receive program DVDs.

Last month, Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore and Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore, the Minneapolis icons that burned down in May 2020, reopened, but with somewhat reduced stock. However, it appears that proprietor Don Blyly is getting close to having all the used mystery trade paperbacks listed on Abebooks.com on their shelves. It will be a lot longer before used mystery hardcovers return, but they're still accepting donations. (HT to the Rap Sheet.)

I suppose I may have known this fact at one time, but Minnesota is home to the world's largest Sherlock Holmes collection. The University of Minnesota's Elmer L. Andersen Library has more than 60,000 individual pieces related to Sherlock Holmes and the fictional detective’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The university amassed the treasures by acquiring several personal collections, as well as through donations. Works range from concept art for the many Sherlock Holmes films to book illustrations and cover art. Although public tours of the collection are not generally available, individual items are occasionally displayed at the Andersen Library or other sites, such as the Minnesota History Center. You may also request to view certain items through the collection’s catalog system.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Aldebaran: Ghost" by S.B. Watson.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap and Leonard series, about his writing and his upcoming collection of 19 short stories entitled Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Stories of Joe R Lansdale; The Guardian interviewed Iceland’s PM, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, a long-time crime fiction fan who has just published her first crime novel with the assistance of bestselling Icelandic author, Ragnar Jónasson; and Writers Digest interviewed bestselling author Robert Crais who discussed how he started from scratch with his new crime novel, Racing the Light.