Mystery Melange, Christmas Edition

Several bloggers banded together to create a poll for readers to vote on the best reprint nominations of the year. The Kate Jackson, aka Armchair Reviewer over at Cross Examining Crime has posted the poll which includes the 23 nominations, 3 of which were randomly selected from the nominations put forward by blog readers. The list reflects a variety of writing styles from the mysteries, most of which were originally published in the 1930s and 1940s. Three authors managed to get two books into the poll: John Dickson Carr, Erle Stanley Gardner (one under the pen name of A. A. Fair). and Clifford Witting. You can add your vote now for up to 3 titles.

Janet Rudolph has been busy updating her ever-growing list of Christmas mysteries over at her Mystery Fanfare blog. In fact, the list is so long, it's broken down into alphabetical chunks, starting with Authors A-E; followed by Authors F-L; and finally, Authors M-Z. She's even compiled a roster of Christmas mystery novellas and short story anthologies and has a Winter Solstice list, to boot.

This is one holiday tradition we simply must start in the United States. It's time once again for Jolabokaflod, which roughly translates from Icelandic as "Christmas book flood." In this decades-old tradition, friends and loved ones in Iceland give each other a book on the night before Christmas and then spend the rest of the night curled up with that book, ideally with a cup of hot cocoa (or something stronger). But that's to be expected, I suppose from a literary country: the island nation has the most authors per capita in the world and publishes the most books per capita in the world (with five titles published for every 1,000 Icelanders). Some have even called reading a "national sport" in the country, as over half the population finishes eight or more titles a year. Even Katrin Jakobsdottir, the country’s current prime minister, literally published a crime fiction novel while in office.

"Reindeer noir" is the name given for the Finnish crime sub-genre influenced by Santa’s home town. As reported in The Guardian, books, films, and plays set in Lapland often have a "hint of dark humour" where the landscape is a looming presence.

A little bit south of Finland and Iceland, Atlas Obscura zooms in on "How Christmas Murder Mysteries Became a U.K. Holiday Tradition," with tales in which Santa has a very low survival rate.

Writing for The New York Times, Isabella Kwai says to forget Halloween and bring ghost stories back to Christmas, adding that "If your idea of festive joy is being haunted by past memories or driven insane by mysterious specters, have we got the tradition for you."

To further darken your Yuletide spirit, if you happen to be in New York tonight, head on over to Oakland's historic Grand Lake Theatre for NOIR CITY XMAS. The Film Noir Foundation is presenting in 35mm Cover Up, a 1949 noir film recently restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, starring William Bendix, Dennis O'Keefe, and Barbara Britton. Starting off the evening is a book signing by Eddie Muller with three of his latest works: Kid Noir: Kitty Feral and the Case of the Marshmallow Monkey; Eddie Muller's NOIR BAR: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir; and Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir.

Most Christmas movies are more in the family-friendly vein, and a former church in Ohio houses what's believed to be the world's largest privately owned collection of Christmas movie memorabilia.

The murder mystery puzzle book, Murdle, has topped the UK Christmas bestseller chart. GT Karber’s book of challenges beat out Richard Osman’s mystery novel, The Last Devil to Die, as well as Guinness World Records to notch the top spot. Murdle is based on the daily puzzle website Karber developed in 2021, and across the book’s 100 challenges, readers must use codes and maps to decipher who the killers are. It has sold more than 200,000 copies since its publication in June.

The UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has released what has become an annual Christmas Codebreaking Challenge. Although it's aimed at young people and designed to test skills such as codebreaking, math, and analysis, adults might have some fun with it, too.

The authors at Mystery Lovers Kitchen are celebrating the season with a host of recipes and reads. You can check out a Gluten-Free Jelly Donuts recipe by Libby Klein; Cleo Coyle's Eggnog Shorbread Cookies; Apricot Pinwheels by Leslie Budewitz; Stained Glass Window Cookies via Peg Cochran; Pumpkin Chiffon Pie from Ellen Byron; and Rack of Lamb by Maya Corrigan.

The Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast has two holiday offerings. The first is the initial chapter of "Peppermint Barked" by Leslie Budewitz, a Christmas mystery read by actor Ariel Linn. The other features the Christmas mystery short story, "Santa's Helper," by John M. Floyd, read by Ren Burley.

In the Q&A roundup, Catriona McPherson, author of Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, set in California, and a strand of contemporary standalone novels, took the Page 69 Test for her novel, Hop Scot; and Lisa Haselton chatted with Tony Brenna about his new thriller, Honey Trap.

Mystery Melange

I apologize for the slight delay with this week's Mystery Melange, but we're dealing with a bit of family Covid right now. But without further ado:

The Crime Fiction Lover blog announced the winners of the third annual Crime Fiction Lover Awards, culled from shortlists nominated by readers, who also voted for the winners. Within each of the six categories, the team also selected an Editor’s Choice Award and this year added a lifetime achievement award, the "Life of Crime Award," which was bestowed upon James Ellroy. The Book of the Year was The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. Book of the Year Editor’s Choice: Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. Best Debut Winner: You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace. Best Debut Editor’s Choice: City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita. Best in Translation Winner: Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan E Turney. Best in Translation Editor’s Choice: The Sins of our Fathers by Åsa Larsson, translated by Frank Perry. Best Indie Novel Winner: Scratching the Flint by Vern Smith. Best Indie Novel Editor’s Choice: The Associate by Victoria Goldman. Best Crime Show Winner: Only Murders in the Building S3. Best Crime Show Editor’s Choice: Happy Valley S3. Best Crime Author Winner: Michael Connelly. Best Crime Author Editor’s Choice: Mick Herron.

After two separate rounds of voting, the Goodreads Choice Awards announced the winners for 2023 in various categories. The Mystery & Thriller category winner was The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden, which collected 86,468 votes. You can see the full list of Mystery & Thriller nominees via the above link and winners in all the other categories here.

If you're an unpublished crime fiction author, you have one day left to submit a manuscript to the 2024 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition, sponsored by Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Entrants should complete an online entry form and upload an electronic file of your manuscript by 11:59pm EST on December 15, 2023. The winner will receive an offer from Minotaur Books for publication and an advance against future royalties of $10,000.

Harrogate International Festivals has announced that international bestselling novelist, Ruth Ware, will serve as Festival Programming Chair in 2024, when the world’s largest and most prestigious celebration of crime fiction, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, returns with a world class line-up of authors and special guests. The acclaimed crime writer will follow in the footsteps of such stellar predessors as Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Elly Griffiths, Denise Mina, Lee Child, and Vaseem Khan.

A literary magazine is printing a previously unpublished work by the novelist Raymond Chandler, and it's not a hard-boiled detective story. Strand Magazine announced that its latest issue will include a poem by Chandler written around 1955 that shows the "softer, sensitive side" of the writer known for his pulp fiction hits such as The Big Sleep. Andrew Gulli, managing editor of Strand, explained, "He wrote the poem after his wife had passed away and this poem also serves as a love letter to her," noting it was the first time Chandler wrote a poem as an adult. Chandler's wife, Cissy, died in 1954, after which the author grew depressed and attempted suicide one year later.

Chanukah (aka Hanukah or Hanukkah) began December 7 and continues through December 15. Over at Mystery Fanfare, Janet Rudolph has updated her lists of Chanukah-themed crime fiction titles.

Did you ever wonder where the word "shamus" comes from?

In the Q&A roundup, Jacqueline Seewald spoke with Kathleen Marple Kalb, an award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, who also pens novels including The Stuff of Murder and the upcoming Ella Shane mystery, A Fatal Reception; Publishers Weekly spoke with Laurie R. King and how the latest entry in her Mary Russell series mines new corners of Sherlockian lore and offers glimpses into the author’s own life; and Catherine Ryan Hyde took the Page 69 Test for her new novel, A Different Kind of Gone, in which the truth behind a teenage girl’s disappearance becomes something to conceal "in a gripping novel about justice, lies, and impossible choices."

Mystery Melange

Renita D’Silva’s psychological thriller, The Neighbour, has won the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2023. The prize was established in response to "the paucity of diverse voices being published in crime fiction," with an aim to seek out writers from communities that are underrepresented in the genre and support them in building sustainable careers. The judges, including author Nadine Matheson, literary agent Nelle Andrew, and Joffe Books editorial director, Emma Grundy Haigh, praised D'Silva's book for its "wide ranging, ambitious cast of characters and stories that interlock but don’t overwhelm."

This past weekend, at the annual Black Orchid Banquet held in New York City, the Wolfe Pack (the official Nero Wolfe literary society), announced that The Day He Left, by Frederick Weisel won the 2023 Nero Award for best crime novel. "Alibi in Ice," by Libby Cudmore, also received the 2023 Black Orchid Novella Award and will be published in the July 2024 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Honorable mentions for the Black Orchid Novella Award include Paul A. Barra's "Death of a Papist," Lawrence Coates's "Jimtown," and Tom Larsen's "El Cazador."(HT to The Rap Sheet)

The end of the year "best" lists just keep coming, with the latest being from several newspaper compilations. Oline H. Cogdill's list for The Sun-Sentinel narrowed down her 120 reads to 18, noting that major trends in the genre continued to be diversity, regional stories, veterans and domestic suspense. Over at The Guardian, Laura Wilson curated her list of the best, which unsurprisingly tilted more toward European crime fiction authors, while Alison Flood picked five of her own. New York Times writer-at-large, Sarah Lyall, chose six titles for her Best Thrillers list, including an espionage caper, the tale of a murderous librarian and a high-stakes adventure that takes place inside the various stomachs of a whale. NYT regular crime columnist, Sarah Weinman, chose a mix of traditional mysteries and thrillers, from the U.S. to Scandinavia, as her picks for "The Best Crime Novels of 2023." And the Washington Post's Karen MacPherson shone the spotlight on her top 10 best mystery novels of 2023.

Kate Jackson, a/k/a the "Armchair Sleuth" also put together a list of her picks for the best Classic Crime Reprints of 2023 by publishers such as American Mystery Classics, British Library Crime Classics, and Galileo Publishing. The recommendations range from titles like The Wheel Spins (1936) by Ethel Lina White to Suddenly at His Residence (1947) by Christianna Brand, to Four Days Wonder (1933) by A. A. Milne (also known as the creator of Winnie the Pooh).

Writing for Mental Floss, April Snellings profiled the iconic UK institution, The Detection Club, from its founding in 1930 through the evolution of the mystery novel. But the article notes some of the lesser-known tidbits such as the club’s headquarters being originally located between an oyster bar and a brothel, and a group of members enlisting the head of Scotland Yard’s Criminal Investigation Department to help them break into the club’s headquarters to retrieve materials for a new member induction after they'd all forgotten their keys. While the club initially formed as a social group for writers of detective fiction, it did have an official purpose: to uphold a rigid set of standards for crime fiction, and weed out any potential members who wouldn’t agree to meet them.

As historian Lucy Worsley notes, Arthur Conan Doyle secretly hated his creation Sherlock Holmes and blamed the cerebral detective character for denying him recognition as the author of highbrow historical fiction, which laid around unread. "Arthur must have hated himself. And he would have hated the fact that today, 93 years after his death, his historical novels lie unread, while his ‘cheap’ – but beloved – detective lives forever on our screens."

In the Q&A roundup, spy novelist Mick Herron spoke with The Daily Mail about his latest book, The Secret Hours, and the TV adaptation of his successful "Slough House" series set in a place where MI5 puts "failed" spies; and SJ Rozan, who has won practically every major award for Best Novel and the Best Short Story (and is also the recipient of the Japanese Maltese Falcon Award and Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America), applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Mayors of New York.

Author R&R with Michael J. Cooper

MICHAEL J. COOPER emigrated to Israel in 1966 and lived in Jerusalem during the last year the city was divided between Israel and Jordan. He studied and traveled in the region for eleven years and graduated from medical school in Tel Aviv. Now in retirement after a forty year practice of pediatric cardiology, Cooper lives in Northern California and is able to devote more time to volunteer missions and to writing.

His debut novel, Foxes in the Vineyard, set in 1948 Jerusalem, won the grand prize in the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest. His second novel, The Rabbi’s Knight, set in the Holy Land at the twilight of the Crusades in 1290, was finalist for the Chaucer Award for historical fiction. His just-completed third novel, Wages of Empire, is set in Europe and the Middle East during WWI and won the 2022 CIBA Rossetti Award for YA fiction along with first-place honors for the 2022 CIBA Hemingway award for wartime historical fiction. All three novels stand-alone, though they’re connected by the common threads of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the St. Clair/Sinclair bloodline and the subversive notions of coexistence and peace.

Wages of Empire begins in the summer of 1914, when sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine, since it's from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy Roman Emperor. Filled with such historical figures as Gertrude Bell, T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Faisal bin Hussein and Chaim Weizmann, Wages of Empire follows Evan through the killing fields of the Western Front where he will help turn the tide of a war that is just beginning, and become part of a story that never ends.

Michael Cooper stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing his books:

 

For writers of historical fiction, research is a paramount. To be sure, writing any type of fiction requires research, but with a historical, and especially one set in a remote time and place, the writer must be positioned to inform the reader about every detail of the setting and time period. To “get things right,” or even close to “right,” a massive amount of research is required. And to make things even more challenging, the research shouldn’t show; the weaving of historical detail into the story should be so subtle as to be invisible. Nothing wakes the reader more rudely from the dream of a good story than a ham-handed display of detail. Or, to put it simply, the writer must be able to show without showing off.   

In referring to requisite research as “massive,” the task appears exhausting and thoroughly unpleasant. Clearly, if one only follows the adage of “write what you know,” only minimal research might be required. However, if we are drawn to write outside of ourselves, outside of the confines of our known world, we have no choice but to do a prodigious amount of research. But the secret of doing this, and actually enjoying it, can be encapsulated in an alternate adage: “Write what you love.”

And that’s been my joy in researching and writing my series—having spent my formative years living in Israel, I actually look forward to returning there in my mind, to a land where history waits for you around every corner— remembering the quality of light in early morning and toward evening, tasting the freshness of mountain air and the sun-heated warmth of the desert, or the joy of floating in the Sea of Galilee at night beneath a sky crowded with stars. 

Likewise, it’s been invigorating to select interesting historical characters and to create compelling fictional characters—for their nobility, humor, and brilliance; for their passions, human failings, and for their interesting, ingenious, and sometimes evil designs. And then, there are those wondrous times when a historical or fictional character takes over, dictating the action and dialogue, and all one has to do is sit back and transcribe. 

The other thing about writing in this genre is the wonderful way that historical events and, indeed the historical characters provide the scaffolding for stories that are, at once, very old, and still being written. Also, as I researched and wrote all my books, I was often astonished by fascinating elements of hidden history, unsolved mysteries, and unbelievably engaging and bizarre characters that insisted on being included in the final draft. In this genre, storylines arise organically from the historical timeline, and from the historical characters themselves—creating a portrait that is enhanced by the fictional characters who allow for additional surprises, plot twists, betrayals, loves and alliances. And, as each book progresses, I love watching the weave tighten as storylines are drawn together.

And historical novels set in wartime offer the writer an even richer buffet—with all the elements for compelling stories; drama, heroism, conflict, tension, intrigue, action, heartbreak, and perhaps romance. And the effect of armed conflict on history is itself dramatic since war is an accelerant to history, and often with dramatic changes in human and natural topography.

Lastly, as writers of history, we also seek out the compelling tension between knowing and unknowing—to engage with our historical characters in the grip of their threatening present, infused with their anxiety at the uncertainty of outcome, the unknowable future. And we, knowing their future, are touched by the poignancy of their ignorance.

But now, it’s our turn to be anxious in our ignorance in a time of great uncertainty—with war in Ukraine, the Middle East, and in a time of civil strife in our own country bordering, it often seems, on civil war. Now it’s our turn to share the anxiety of having no idea as to the outcome of all this conflict.

Clearly, Wages of Empire is a novel about war in a time of war, holding up a mirror to time past that reflects on present uncertainties and current wars. And so we ask the obvious questions—what do present wars have to do with the past? What do our present travails have to do with history? In a word? Everything. 

 

You can read more about Michael Cooper and his writing via his website and follow him on Goodreads. Wages of Empire is now available via Koehler Books and all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

The 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners were announced this past weekend following a special presentation in Christ Church, New Zealand, which included a pub quiz hosted by Kiwi crime author, Vanda Symon. This year's winners are Best Novel: Remember Me by Charity Norman; Best Non-Fiction: Missing Persons by Steve Braunias; and Best First Novel: Better the Blood by Michael Bennett. For all the finalists, check out this link.

In an unprecedented and unanimous decision, Nicole Prewitt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin has won the 2023 Sisters in Crime-sponsored PRIDE Award for emerging LGBTQIA+ writers. Prewitt’s win duplicated her win of the SinC-sponsored Eleanor Taylor Bland Award celebrating emerging writers of color earlier in 2023. Prewitt’s winning submission, Harts Divided, follows Neema Hart, a black, bisexual thief-turned-P.I., who owns a detective agency and therapy office with her estranged wife, Genie Hart. Prewitt will receive a $2,000 grant intended for a beginning crime writer to support activities related to career development, including workshops, seminars, conferences, retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of their work. Five runners-up were also chosen: Chloë Belle, Chicago, Illinois; Melissa Berry, Canton, Ohio; Kim Hunt, Wellington, New Zealand; Linda Krug, Duluth, Minnesota; and Emmy McCarthy, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Publishers Weekly released the finalists for its 2023 Booklife Prize for fiction in various categories. In the Mystery/Thriller, the finalists were Deep Fake Double Down by Debbie Burke; Death in the City of Bridges: A Miles Jordan Mystery Thriller by J.C. Ceron; Funeral Daze by Dorian Box; A Measure of Rhyme by Lloyd Jeffries; and The One by Audrey J. Cole. Burke was the top vote-getter in the category and will be pitted against finalists from the other categories for a chance to be named overall winner on December 11, 2023.

Washington, D.C.'s next Noir at the Bar is going virtual and will take place on Sunday, December 10, at 7 pm ET. The lineup of writers includes Amina Akhtar (author of #Fashionvictim and the upcoming Almost Surely Dead); Sara Divello (author of The Broadway Butterfly); Tara Laskowski (author of One Night Gone and The Mother Next Door); James Grady (author of Six Days of the Condor); Jennifer Anne Gordon (multiple award-winning author and co-host of the popular podcast, Vox Vomitus); and Sandra SG Wong (Anthony award-finalist of In the Dark We Forget, and former national president of Sisters in Crime). The event will also feature a custom cocktail demonstration from mixologist Chantal Tseng.

The British Crime Writing Archives are held at Gladstone's Library, in Hawarden, North Wales, a collection that includes the archives of both the Crime Writers' Association and the Detection Club. As honorary archivist Martin Edwards notes, new loan agreements will help ensure the library can continue on sound footing for years to come. Recent donations include works from the family of E.R. Punshon (a former Secretary of the Detection Club), Peter Lovesey, the estates of Robert and Louise Barnard, and Edwards himself. Tickets are set to go on sale shortly for the annual Alibis in the Archive to be held (both virtually and in person) at the library on June 9, 2024. Although the lineup has yet to be announced, Edwards hinted that "some wonderful speakers lined up for Alibis, including an international bestseller and the creator of a very famous TV crime series." Proceeds from ticket sales will help support the library and the archives project.

It’s well known that Quentin Tarantino has been heavily influenced by other acclaimed filmmakers when it comes to his creative vision. But in a feature with The Telegraph, the director highlighted his passion for the writer Elmore Leonard. The iconic crime novelist was known for such novels and short stories as those featuring Raylan Givens, which were adapted as the Justified TV series, and Get Shorty, adapted for both film and the small screen. "He was probably the biggest influence on my life: I have been reading Leonard since I was 14 and got caught stealing his novel The Switch from K-Mart." Tarantino said. Tarantino would later make the film Jackie Brown, based on Leonard's Rum Punch.

A bit of sad news this week: Florida author Tim Dorsey has died at 62. Dorsey was author of twenty-six satirical crime capers about a unique Florida Man and serial killer named Serge Storms and his heavily self-medicated sidekick, Coleman. The most recent title, The Maltese Iguana, was published in February. Fellow Florida author Carl Hiaasen, said that "Tim wrote about Florida as if it was a rollicking, free-range paradise for lunatics, which of course it is. The unforgettable characters he created fit in perfectly. He rose to the challenge of satirizing a place where true life is routinely weirder than fiction."

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton interviewed thriller author JP McLean about her new supernatural thriller, Scorch Mark, Dark Dreams Novel #3; bestselling novelist Patricia Cornwell chatted with The Telegraph about how to avoid being a crime victim, adding that she can point out "things that can kill you everywhere" and she always has her radar going; and Nita Prose spoke with the American Booksellers Association about The Mystery Guest, chosen as the top pick for the ABA's December Indie Next List, which has Molly the maid returning to solve another mysterious death in the Regency Grand Hotel.

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

The Irish Book Awards today announced the winners of the various categories including Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year, awarded to Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. The other finalists included The Lock-Up by John Banville; The Close by Jane Casey; Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh; No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara; and The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard.

NPR compiled a listing of "Books We Love" for 2023, including mystery and thriller titles. You can check out the forty-plus novels on that list via this link.

Janet Rudolph has updated her growing list of Thanksgiving crime novel and short stories, which includes a wide-ranging mixture of cozy, noir, and traditional whodunits.

That list can only help with Jenn over at Jenn's Book Shelves, where she is hosting her annual Thankfully Reading day, or innstead of braving the crowds and shopping this weekend, spend time curled up with a book. Anyone wanting to participate can tag her on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using the #thankfullyreading hashtag.

The Black Friday sales in the U.S. will be hitting the stores on Friday, and book lovers should have their pick of items to choose from. You can add volumes in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series to that list. Editor Elizabeth Foxwell notes that there's a 40-percent off sale on all McFarland books running through November 27, 2023 (use coupon code HOLIDAY23).

This weekend also sees the annual Small Business Saturday celebration in the U.S., a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. When you're doing your holiday shopping this weekend, be sure and stop by your local indie bookstore. To help, Indie Bound has a handy store locator for your zip code.

Kings River Life posted a free Thanksgiving mystery short story, "It’s Only Fair," by Jane Limprecht.

The authors over at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have some Thanksgiving recipes and reads for you, including Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes with Butter Pecan Syrup from Cleo Coyle; Butternut Squash and Fried Sage Casserole from Lucy Burdette; Green Beans with Toasted Almonds and Oranges by way of Leslie Budewitz; Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Syrup-Brown Butter Glaze by Leslie Karst; Pumpkin Streusel Muffins via Peg Cochran (aka Margaret Loudon); Gluten-Free Cannoli, courtesy of Libby Klein; and the notorious Turducken by Maya Corrigan.

Have you ever wondered about the mystery of how the astronauts on board the space station make Thanksgiving dinner? NASA sent up cosmic culinary delights on an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, including oranges, apples, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. Dana Weigel, NASA's deputy manager for the space station, added, "Because we're in the holiday season, we've got some fun holiday treats for the crew like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccinos, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce, and mochi." Starbucks? Yep, and the crew even has a special sci-fi space cup for drinking them.

It's hard to believe, but A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving turns 50 this year.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with cozy mystery novelist, Catherine Dilts, about her new amateur sleuth title, The Body in the Cornfield; Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Annette Dashofy about her new mystery, Keep Your Family Close; and The New York Times spoke with spy thriller author, Mick Herron (the Slow Horses series), about why he relates more with failures, but after millions of his books sold and the third season of the series airing next month, how he may have to wrap his head around success.

Author R&R with Thomas Locke & Jyoti Guptara

Thomas Locke is an award-winning novelist whose works have sold over eight million copies in twenty-six languages. Locke divides his time between Florida and the UK, where he is Writer-In-Residence at Oxford University. Jyoti Guptara dropped out of school at age 15 to write his first bestseller. An executive coach and business storytelling strategist, Jyoti has helped leaders on five continents experience more success with less stress. Together, they are as international, inter-generational, inter-racial writing duo and recently released their first mystery novel, Roulette.

About Roulette: When a new and dangerous substance suddenly appears on the rave scene in Gainesville, Florida, former special agent Eric Bannon is sent to investigate. The inquiry must be kept quiet, but why are senior government officials turning a blind eye to such a dangerous drug? The drug is called Roulette because there’s no way of knowing what kind of ecstasy awaits—a rollercoaster ride through any one of seven heavens—or straight to hell. Along with county hospital senior ER nurse, Carol Steen, and snobbish new doctor, Stacie Swann, Eric pinpoints the drug’s origin to clandestine operations within a university's student body and uncovers a terrifying truth: these young people both finance the production and facilitate the human trials of the world’s most exciting new high, with a purpose so heinous it will rewrite not just history, but the human genome.

Locke & Guptara stop by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about the new book. In this conversation, Jyoti gleans invaluable insights from seasoned master storyteller Thomas Locke, who is four decades his senior. Thomas reveals one of his secrets to penning four books every year: the right kind of research.

 

JYOTI GUPTARA:

Thomas, Roulette is the second mystery you and I co-authored. I’ve always been impressed with how quickly you write great first drafts – right down to the details that would take me ages to get right. How did you develop your approach to research, especially in genres that need a lot, like your historical fiction (published under ‘Davis Bunn’) and your technothrillers?

THOMAS LOCKE:

My first mystery was also my first breakout opportunity.  I was offered the chance to move to a major house, have a big event-style release, if I had an idea big enough to fit the bill:  To The Ends Of The Earth was my response - a murder mystery taking place in the fourth century, a few weeks after the death of Emperor Constantine, six months before civil war broke out.

My wife was doing her doctorate at Oxford University.  I fearfully approached the head of her college and asked if I might get some help with the research.  After being quizzed about my concept, the head granted me a one-year position as Visiting Member of the Senior Commons Room, which is something normally handed out to visiting professors.  He also arranged for me to be tutored by a friend of his, the head of Oxford's theology department, a world-renowned specialist in late Roman empire, and the Orthodox Bishop of England.

No pressure.

We met, the Bishop and I, and he assigned me a ton of reading, plus two classes I needed to take.  A week later, when we next met, I admitted defeat.  To say I was overwhelmed didn't go far enough.  I felt like the minnow swimming in a tank of whales.

The Bishop responded with advice I still apply to this day.  My job is not to become an expert.  My research task, with this book and all those to come, is twofold.  First, I have to determine which questions are necessary in order to write a good story.  Second, I must find one answer to each question.  No more.  Soon as I reach that singular milestone, I move on.  Everything else must wait.

The most important lesson garnered here is just how easy research can become an excuse for not actually writing.  Added to that is the risk is how extra research can become a barrier to the story's flow.  The temptation is to write what might impress an expert.  This in turn can damage and, at times, destroy the novel's appeal to a more general readership. 

Determine the right questions.  Find the one good and necessary answer. 

Write the story.

JYOTI GUPTARA:

This approach is so liberating! I wish I’d learned this lesson sooner.

When you and I started working on our first joint thriller, I was serving as writer-in-residence at a United Nations partner organization in Geneva. I had unparalleled access to experts from the UN, WEF, WTO, UNESCO and other prestigious institutions. It was a goldmine for a writer…

And goldmines can be deadly if you get lost.

In Geneva, the potential for research was boundless. But with every expert I met, every piece of insider information I gathered, I found myself being pulled in a new direction. The allure of having such access was intoxicating. I envisioned a novel that would weave in intricate details from these global institutions, a story that would be both enlightening and thrilling.

I failed.

To use Thomas’s words, it was too easy for research to become an excuse for not actually writing. My biggest challenge was not having a clear vision for the story. That’s where a different kind of research comes into play: reading, travel and dialogue for inspiration. Say, your next book. Not the one you’re actively writing.

We could say there are two very different types of research: farming versus hunting.

Farming: This is the phase of exploration and discovery. A farmer tills the soil, plants various seeds, and waits to see what grows. Similarly, in the farming phase of research, we allow ourselves the freedom to meander. We dive into topics without a clear agenda, seeking inspiration and letting our curiosity guide us. It’s a time of soaking in information and seeing what resonates. An open-ended process. There's a certain beauty in not knowing exactly what you’ll find.

Hunting: After the season of exploration comes the phase of targeted pursuit. This is the hunting phase. Here, we’re no longer wandering aimlessly. We are going after known information holes with the focus and intentionality of an Inuit spearfishing through a hole in the ice. There are a million other fish under your frozen feet, but your only concern are the ones that swim under your hole. That’s what you, Thomas, described so vividly.

THOMAS LOCKE:

Well put, Jyoti. The trap is to confuse these two very different categories.

One tip is, don’t even think of the ‘farming’ phase as research. You’re simply looking for ideas and inspiration.

Again, the goal is to lock into a solid concept. And start writing.

 

You can learn more about the authors and the book via their website and Down & Out Books. Roulette is now available via all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

Capital Crime, the crime and thriller festival led by Goldsboro Books’ co-founder and managing director David Headley, has announced that it will be returning in 2024 to its new home of the Leonardo Royal Hotel in London, May 30-June 1 2024. Authors and speakers confirmed so far include Ian Rankin, creator of Inspector Rebus; Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh; Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera and Shetland series; author and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz; U.S. crime fiction author, Kellye Garrett; author and barrister, Rob Rinder; Elly Griffiths, creator of the Ruth Galloway series; Silo creator, Hugh Howey; Alex Michaelides, author of the global bestseller, The Silent Patient; and Paula Sutton, the "queen of cottage-core" and the face behind Hill House Vintage. Also returning are the festival’s Fingerprint Awards and the social outreach initiative, which aims to demystify the industry for young state-school Londoners considering a career in publishing. Early bird weekend tickets for next year are on sale now at www.capitalcrime.org. (HT to Shots Magazine)

As part of the Texas Book Festival Lit Crawl, the Vintage Bookstore & Wine Bar in Austin is hosting a Noir at the Bar on Saturday, November 11, with a round of hip, hard-boiled, nitty-gritty noir readings by crime fiction authors. Participants will include Chandler Baker, David McCloskey, Mike McCrary, Amanda Moore, James Wade, and Ashley Winstead.

The Real Book Spy founder and author of the Matthew Redd thriller series, Ryan Steck, has signed a two-book deal with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, to continue the Lord Alexander Hawke series following the sudden passing of author Ted Bell earlier this year. Bell, the famed, award-winning adman who conquered the world of advertising before retiring in his 50s and launching a career as a novelist, published Hawke, the first of twelve globe-trotting adventures starring MI6 super agent Alex Hawke, back in 2003. An instant New York Times bestseller, Hawke—who was described as "a secret agent who takes you into the danger zone with a ballsy wit" by author Vince Flynn and as "the new James Bond" by James Patterson—quickly became one of the genre’s most recognizable names, read by millions around the world. Steck, who was close friends with Bell, will release the first new Hawke thriller, Monarch, in 2025.

After a spate of bookstore closings, it's always welcome news to hear of a new store opening. Criminally Good Books is headed to York, Pennsylvania, next year and will stock all kinds of crime fiction, such as historical crime, cozy crime, thriller, mystery, police procedural, and detective fiction, as well as true crime books, special editions, book-related gifts and mystery-themed items. In addition to stocking crime books, Criminally Good Books will have special themed events like author signings and fingerprint classes, as well as incorporating a recording studio for podcasters. Owner Isla Coole said that "York has a proud history linked to books, printing, and publishing. We want to continue and support the tradition of books in York, promote literacy, and support our community."

In less happier news, another bestseller list bites the dust. Book coverage in the mainstream media has been on the decline for the past several years, and the latest to fall is the Wall Street Journal's weekly bestseller lists. The paper ran a total of six fiction and nonfiction lists, as well as a hardcover business list, all powered by Circana BookScan. Paul Gigot, editorial page editor at the WSJ said that all other aspects of the paper’s book coverage will "continue as usual," although with literary and arts coverage declining at a rapid rate, it remains to be seen how long that will last.

Good kitty! In a bit of fun forensic news, it turns out almost every cat has a unique DNA mutation detectable in their hair, which is offering CSI detectives an almost sure-fire way to put criminals at the scene of their crimes or their homes, provided there was a cat there.

In the Q&A roundup, Jacqueline Seewald Interviewed author Daniella Bernett about Betrayed By The Truth, the latest book in her Emmeline Kirby-Gregory Longdon mystery series set in London and Switzerland; Lisa Haselton chatted with cozy mystery author Catherine C. Hall about her latest novel, Secrets Laid to Rest, which she describes as "the Golden Girls meet the Ghostbusters in small-town Sutter, Georgia"; and Tess Gerritsen spoke with Parade Magazine about her new book, The Spy Coast, and living among spies in Maine.

Mystery Melange - Halloween Edition

Gold medallion recipients of the 2023 Will Rogers Medallion Awards (WRMA) were announced during the organization’s annual awards banquet in Fort Worth’s fabled Stockyard District this past weekend. Among the highest honors was the Golden Lariat, awarded to Craig Johnson for outstanding service and dedication to the art of storytelling about the American West through his Walt Longmire mystery novels. Also, in the Western Mystery category, the Gold Winner was The Secret in the Wall by Ann Parker (Sourcebooks); the Silver went to Funeral Train by Laurie Loewenstein (Akashic Books); and the Bronze was awarded to Hardly Any Shooting Stars Left by B.K. Froman (Iron Stream Media).

The shortlists have been announced for this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards. There are half a dozen candidates for the 2023 Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year, including the finalists The Lock-Up, by John Banville; The Close, by Jane Casey; Kill for Me, Kill for You, by Steve Cavanagh; No One Saw a Thing, by Andrea Mara; Strange Sally Diamond, by Liz Nugent; and The Trap, by Catherine Ryan Howard. The books now go to a public vote, with winners announced at The Convention Centre Dublin on November 22.

The Midwest Mystery Conference is back for a one-day, in-person event on November 11, from 9-5 at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. With a single track of panels, keynote conversations, plus opening remarks from conference organizers Dana Kaye, Lori Rader-Day, and Tracy Clark, the Midwest Mystery Conference is a great opportunity to connect with your favorite authors, and meet a few new ones. The venue is fully accessible and registration includes a tote bag full of books and goodies.

HarperFiction publisher Julia Wisdom is to lead a new imprint, Hemlock Press, to "intrigue the mind and thrill the senses," featuring A J Finn and Abigail Dean alongside new voices in mystery fiction. Hemlock will showcase espionage fiction, literary crime thrillers and historical suspense, with the logo being unveiled at the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair this week. Launching in spring 2024, the list will be headed by Wisdom with a newly promoted commissioning team including senior commissioning editor Kathryn Cheshire and assistant editor Lizz Burrell. HarperFiction said: "Hemlock Press is a curated list for those seeking literary quality alongside intriguing plots, vividly realized worlds and characters that live with you long after the final page."

El Pais profiled the new book, El monstruo y el asesino en serie. De Frankenstein a Hannibal Lecter, by co-authors Vicente Garrido (a criminology professor) and Virgilio Latorre, (a criminal lawyer), which explores how 19th century Gothic literature helped scientists identify the characteristics of a serial killer.

Is Taylor Swift a secret spy novelist? Her fans are convinced she's the mysterious author who wrote the book Argylle (attributed to "Elly Conway"), which is perplexing the literary world and being made into a film by Matthew Vaughan.

Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog brings word of "Edgar Allan Poe: The Exhibit," an art exhibition inspired by the author's stories, quotes, and passages from his many literary works, which opens on November 16 at Orlando's City Arts venue and runs through December 17. Poe’s exploration of all aspects of the human psyche has appealed to modern artists through the present day, including those associated with the Symbolist movement, German Expressionism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. In that vein, the exhibit features art works created for the event with prizes handed out to four winning artists.

Foxwell is an editor for McFarlane books and also noted a sale on horror books via the publisher's website using coupon code HALLOWEEN2023 through October 31.

Janet Rudolph has expanded her Mystery Fanfare blog's Halloween-themed crime fiction list, which you can check out here. She'll have a separate Day of the Dead list, and while you're waiting, you can check out the titles from last year.

The authors at Mystery Lover's Kitchen are offering up some mysteriously good Halloween recipes, including Leslie Karst's Pumpkin Soup with Brown Butter and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds; Two-Ingredient Chocolate Fudge Halloween Cookies from author Cleo Coyle; Vampire Cake, courtesy of Peg Cochran, and more.


In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis over at Writers Who Kill interviewed Heather Weidner about her cozy mystery, Christmas Lights and Cat Fights; Martin Patience spoke with Crime Time about his latest novel, The Darker the Night, a dark political thriller set during a referendum on Scottish independence; and Russell Wate, author of the DCI McFarlane Crime Series, chatted with Indie Crime Scene about the third and latest installment in that series, Death at Chateau Peveril.

Mystery Melange

Emma Styles won the £10,000 Wilbur Smith adventure writing prize with her "impressive" and "adrenaline-fuelled" debut novel, No Country for Girls. The Thelma and Louise-styled adventure thriller was also shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel, and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. The annual Prize has three distinct categories designed to provide opportunities to published, unpublished and young writers. It is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. Across the categories, the Prize received over 1,000 submissions from 67 different countries. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Texas Monthly profiled Houston's Murder by the Book, one of the nation's oldest and largest mystery specialty bookstores, established in 1980 by Martha Farrington and purchased by McKenna Jordan in 2009. The store also hosts bestselling authors on book tours, such as Don Winslow and Lou Berney and has a book subscription service. McKenna Jordan has a theory about the current popularity of crime fiction, or at least of “cozies,” mystery novels that tend to be less explicit and more old-fashioned, in which the nasty stuff occurs off the page. “Sales uptick in more difficult times, when maybe the overall climate that you’re living in is more stressful,” she says.

Speaking of cozies, Jane Sullivan, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, offered up another opinion piece about whether Richard Osman’s cozy books a boon or disaster for crime fiction (after a BBC editorial expressed the same reservations, which I noted back in September), but the subgenre has been steadily gaining new fans over the past several years. The Critic magazine argued that the cozy side of crime fiction, as reflected in the Golden Age of "traditional" crime stories, was actually more authentic than its “gritty” successors. Meanwhile, Forbes Magazine recently offered up a list of "5 Cozy Mystery Series To Satisfy Your Wanderlust."

A new anthology of crime fiction is raising funds for polio eradication. The idea for the anthology of short stories, published in July 2023 as An Unnecessary Assassin, came to former librarian Lorraine Stevens last year at a literary festival in Yorkshire, England. The project includes stories by Ann Cleeves, Lee Child, David Penny, G.L. Waring, Chris McGeorge, Robert Scragg, F.D. Quinn, Judith O’Reilly, and Jim Taylor. Proceeds will be matched 2-to-1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


In the Q&A roundup, The Express chatted with Scottish author Val McDermid about her latest novel featuring cold case investigator Karen Pirie; the roots of her tabloid nickname; why Big Daddy might have regretted taking her on; and the vile abuse of women in the public eye. Lisa Haselton interviewed co-authors Breakfield and Burkey (Charles Breakfield and Rox Burkey) about their new technothriller, Enigma Tracer, the first of a planned trilogy in the "Enigma Heirs" series. Victoria Dowd spoke with Crime Time about her novel, Murder Most Cold, inspired by Golden Age Detective novels, Agatha Christie, and locked room mysteries. And The Real Book Spy welcomed New York Times bestselling author Simon Gervais to discuss The Last Guardian, his latest thriller featuring former secret service agent, Clayton White.

Mystery Melange

The winner of the Petrona Award 2024, announced today, goes to Pascal Engman for Femicide tr. Michael Gallagher (Sweden). The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who died in December 2012. Maxine, whose online persona and blog was called Petrona, was passionate about translated crime fiction but in particular that from the Scandinavian countries. The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia, and published in the UK in the previous calendar year. The other shortlisted authors and titles include Anne Mette Hancock – The Corpse Flower tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark); Håkan Nesser – The Axe Woman tr. Sarah Death (Sweden); Petra Rautiainen – Land of Snow and Ashes tr. David Hackston (Finland); Joachim B Schmidt – Kalmann tr. Jamie Lee Searle (Switzerland); Lilja Sigurðardóttir – Red as Blood tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland); and Gunnar Staalesen – Bitter Flowers tr. Don Bartlett (Norway).

The New England Clam Bake, one of the last mystery writer/fan conferences of the year, is headed to Boston November 10-12. The Guest of Honor this year is Deborah Crombie, with other featured authors to include EA Aymar, Kate Flora, Hallie Ephron, Doug Grad, Naomi Hirahara, Gabino Iglesias, BJ Magnani, Paula Munie, Cythina Pelayo, Barb Ross, and Hank Phillippi Ryan. The interviews and panels will include a mix of virtual online events and in-person events. For more information or to register, follow this link.

A few other one-day conferences of note in November: Men of Mystery returns to Long Beach, California on November 4, with special guests Matthew Quirk, Marc Cameron, Joe Ide, Leslie S. Klinger, and Matt Coyle; and the Midwest Mystery Conference (formerly Murder and Mayhem in Chicago) arrives in the Windy City on November 11. Plus Iceland Noir heads to Reykjavík November 15-18, with a special appearance by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (co-authors of State of Terror) on November 19.

CrimeFest, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, is offering a bursary for a crime fiction writer of color to attend its festival next May. The bursary will cover the cost of a full weekend pass to the convention, a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance. Eligible authors must have published at least one English language book in traditional print by a British commercial publisher. CrimeFest launched the bursary in 2021 with the first award going to Saima Mir to attend the 2022 convention, for her debut novel, The Khan, which was a Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year.

James Patterson is once again supporting independent booksellers through his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program. This year the bestselling author has increased his contribution, pledging $300,000 to be distributed in $500 increments to 600 booksellers from ABA member bookstores. Nominations can be made through an online nomination form that asks the question: "In 250 words or less, why does this bookseller deserve a holiday bonus?" Booksellers can self-nominate to be considered for a bonus, or they can be nominated by bookstore customers, owners, employees, managers, fellow booksellers, publishing professionals, or authors. The deadline to nominate is November 15, with bonuses to be distributed in December.


In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton interviewed thriller author Austin S. Camacho about his new Hannibal Jones Mystery, Subtle Felonies; and Agatha Award-nominee Allison Brook spoke with Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis about her Haunted Library mysteries.

Author R&R with Lyn Squire

Lyn Squire was born in Cardiff, South Wales and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wales, his master’s at the London School of Economics, and his doctorate at Cambridge University. During a twenty-five year career at the World Bank, Lyn published over thirty articles and several books within his area of expertise. Lyn also served as editor of the Middle East Development Journal for over a decade and was the founding president of the Global Development Network, an organization dedicated to supporting promising scholars from the developing world. Lyn has always been an avid reader of whodunits and has reviewed scores of mysteries for the City Book Review (Sacramento, CA), but it was the thrill of solving Charles Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood that convinced him to put aside his development pen and turn to fiction. His first novel is Immortalised to Death, the first installment in a planned trilogy.

In Immortalised to Death, death strikes England’s foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’s murderer lies in the book's missing denouement, Dickens’s nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle’s half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s greatest novelist, and exposes the author’s long-held secret.

Lyn Squire stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

 

The research an author undertakes depends, of course, on the subject matter of his novel.  In my case, my debut novel, Immortalised to Death, is a mystery set in 1870 England.  In brief, the story opens with Charles Dickens, dead at his desk, his latest tale, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, only half told. My protagonist, a middle-aged, retired bookkeeper (hardly detective material) has to complete the half-finished novel to solve a broader mystery surrounding the legendary author himself.  With this in mind, here are the three modes of research I used.

Online Research:   

Consider this example:

Hugo sat alone at a table outside a small brasserie in the Place des Charmes drinking his coffee. He watched the white-aproned waiters scurrying from table to table, trays held head-high on upturned hands.  He studied the cafe’s customers seated under the sun-shading awning – businessmen, couples, friends – but not her.  Would Nicolette come?

The question is this: Will the reader think that this scene is set in a French square?  Probably.  But the fact of the matter is that I just made up Place des Charmes. 

The example illustrates a point that is perfectly general.  All the novelist has to do is make the reader believe the character is situated in whatever environment suits the author’s purpose.  The key word is, of course, believe.  The writer must conjure up enough of the flavor of a place or time to be convincing.  If, however, he slips too far into factual inaccuracies, readers can be jarred out of their enjoyment of the story, and, if noticeable errors pop up too often, become sufficiently annoyed to quit reading.

My novels are set in nineteenth century England.  To avoid any ‘jarring’ possibilities, I researched Victorian dress, furniture, architecture, and so on at a general level. It is relatively easy these days to research all these aspects of Victorian life online.  I suspect the same holds true for other places and other times.  Being ‘believable’ for scene-setting and general background, then, should be a routine task for any serious author and is one that can be accomplished relatively easily.     

Bibliographical Research:

Matters become more complicated when a famous person features prominently in a story (Charles Dickens in my case).  The same principle – be believable but do not jar – still applies.  But, unlike the easily-swallowed Place des Charmes, all readers will know something about Charles Dickens and many people will know a great deal.  In consequence, authors must be much more thorough in their research to avoid crossing the red-line between believable and jarring.  Ensuring historical accuracy in everything related to Dickens, then, was a top priority for me.

I started my research with several biographies of the author (including John Forster’s 900-page monster, the first biography to appear) and several other biographies of secondary characters including Georgina Hogarth, his sister-in-law, and Ellen Ternan, his mistress.  This provided all I needed to know about Dickens and gave me a solid foundation for some of the main characters in the book. 

I also read all of his novels.  Not a requirement in most cases, I imagine, but I had a specific reason: I wanted to make sure that when Dunston Burnett, my protagonist, wrote his continuation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, he stayed true to the literary tendencies of the master storyteller himself.  The following two characteristics of Dickens’s writing proved particularly important.

The first can be found in many of his novels.  Dickens delighted in revealing on virtually the last page some unexpected connection among the story’s characters that allowed him to deliver that final surprise so loved by readers… and authors.  For example: That Esther Summerson is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon, the secret that ultimately drove her ladyship to suicide, is only disclosed towards the conclusion of Bleak House.  The pattern is repeated time and time again.  The second is unique to David Copperfield.  Dickens grew up in poverty and was so ashamed of his upbringing he rarely mentioned it, but he still wanted some way of telling his story.  David Copperfield’s early life was the vehicle he chose for that purpose.  I make use of both of these literary devices in crafting Dunston Burnett’s solution to The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Physical Research:

Finally. I visited Gadshill Place, Dickens’s home in Kent, less than an hour’s train ride from central London, to make sure that the book’s description of the house was as faithful to the original as possible.  I actually stood in his study where the murder in my novel is supposedly perpetrated.  I also walked down the drive and crossed Gravesend Road for a glass of ale in The Falstaff Inn, the scene of another incident in my book.  And I surveyed the house’s surroundings, especially the route via Forge Lane to Higham railway station, the link to London used by several of my characters.  By the time I’d finished my one-day visit, I felt comfortable that what I wrote about the novelist’s home and its setting would be close to one hundred percent accurate and would be accepted without question by most readers, even those who have toured Gadshill Place themselves. 

A Personal Perspective:

The above may sound like a lot of work for one novel, but to my mind it was required to render my story believable, and it was an opportunity to learn about a truly fascinating man who accomplished so much in his fifty-eight years.  I’m following the same strategy in the subsequent two books in The Dunston Burnett Trilogy.  After Immortalised to Death (to be published by Level Best Books on September 26 of this year), book number two, Fatally Inferior (forthcoming in September 2024), is set against the furor generated by the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and the third, The Séance of Murder (forthcoming in September 2025), has as its backdrop the spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian England.

I’ve already read a mass of material on Darwin’s theory of evolution with its magnificent general law governing the evolution of all organic beings – multiply; vary; let the strongest live; let the weakest die.  And I am now in the midst of reading up on the great mediums of the nineteenth century and the famous converts to the spiritualist movement ranging from Queen Victoria to Arthur Conan Doyle.  This reading serves as a means of checking for factual accuracy but it also provides ideas for plots… and I learn a lot.

 

You can read more about Lyn Squire and his writing via his website. Immortalised to Death is published today by Level Best Books and is available via all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

Karys Frank's Stone Cold Truth has won the 2023 Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction. The literary prize, now in its fifth year, aims to celebrate the outstanding crime and thriller storytelling of those who are from, or whose work celebrates, the North East England. Frank's winning thriller novel tell the story of a daughter who flees her narcissistic mother’s suffocating love, only to run into her mother’s net from which she can’t escape. As the winner of the prize, Karys will receive a £2,500 cash prize to support the development of her work, alongside funding for membership of the Society of Authors (SoA) and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers announced the 2023 Colorado Gold Rush Winners, including the Mystery/Thriller Category, which was won by What Survives the Fire by Maria St Louis Sanchez. The other finalists were Speaking in Tongues by D Gonzales Montano and Killing Every Alice by JV Reed.

Six books have been chosen as Richard and Judy (Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan) picks for the autumn Book Club in the UK, including three crime fiction titles. Mystery writer Janice Hallett’s The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels features on the list, a book that Finnegan describes as "creepy and complicated" and lays out a new story in the author’s "inimitable cosy style of dossiers, emails, texts and recorded phone calls." Also chosen was the thriller, The Traitor, by former crime reporter and civil servant, Ava Glass, and Gregg Hurwitz's thriller, The Last Orphan, marking the author's third time on the list. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Elaine's in Alexandria, Virginia, will host its inaugural Noir at the Bar this evening, September 21, at 7:00 pm. Authors schedule to read from their writing include E.A. Aymar, S.A. Cosby, Adam Meyer, Eliza Nellums, Kathryn O'Sullivan/Paul Awad, Josh Pachter, and Stacy Woodson.

And yet more authors are suing ChapGPT. In a grievance filed with the Authors Guild, the authors accuse the A.I. company of infringing on authors’ copyrights, claiming it used their books to train its ChatGPT chatbot. Some of the high-profile crime fiction authors involved with the Authors Guild suit include Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, Douglas Preston, and John Grisham.

Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation by Bruce Dorsey was featured at the Page 99 Test. About the book, from the publisher: a master storyteller presents a riveting drama of America's first "crime of the century," from murder investigation to a church sex scandal to celebrity trial, and its aftermath.

Jessica would be proud. A "Murder, She Wrote" picket from the WGA is planned for Fox today, which actually makes a lot of sense considering Jessica Fletcher was a professional writer. It’s the brainchild of strike captain Tyler Ruggeri, who surveyed his followers on Twitter about the possibility before making it a reality. He’s also asking members to wear their best J-Fletch outfits to walk the line.

In the Q&A roundup, mystery novelist Nancy M Bell chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new historical novel, Discarded, set in Winnepeg in the 1800s; over at the Writers Who Kill blog, E. B. Davis interviewed author Kait Carson about Death Dive, the third book in the Hayden Kent mystery series set in the Florida Keys; and Lou Berney spoke with The Orange County Register about his new thriller, Dark Ride, which centers around a theme park scare actor and cannabis-consuming twentysomething underachiever named Hardy “Hardly” Reed.

Author R&R with Maggie Giles

Canadian author Maggie Giles developed an interest in writing while backpacking in Europe and began writing historical fiction from the Tudor era in England. She later turned her hand to thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy, including the 2022 novel, The Things We Lost. She has been a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association since 2014 where she volunteers as their Social Media Director. Her latest thriller novel, Twisted, is being released via Rising Action Publishing today.

In Twisted, Detective Ryan Boone thought the simple jewelry heist was an open and shut case. That is until he discovers an unknown drug, and the minor crime he was investigating may be tied to a string of seemingly unconnected murders. Meanwhile, Mel Parker, unscrupulous leader of a high-end escort service, stumbles across the same pills. On top of protecting her "investment," she has her own reasons for attempting to unravel the mystery behind the medication. Ryan knows someone has the answers he seeks, and Mel can’t come forward. To complicate things further, five other women are implicated in the murders despite most having never met. As the trail turns up as many mysteries as resolutions, Ryan and Mel must discover the twisted connection before someone else ends up dead.

Maggie Giles stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching the book:

 

Research has always been a tricky thing. Authors want to make sure we get the facts right but we also don’t want our stories to be too rooted in reality. We want some suspension of belief and some escapism.

Most readers, when they think of research, they think historical fiction as this is a genre that requires the upmost care and precision to stay true to the times written. However, it is often overlooked how much research can go into a contemporary novel. This includes specifics about jobs, procedures, places, and people of importance. The opportunities for research are endless.

When it comes to my research, I find my focus is on the more finite details. In my debut novel, The Things We Lost, one of my characters is arrested.  I was lucky enough to chat with an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Officer to nail down some of the details surrounding the police procedure and arrest. I wanted to make sure my character’s experiences were authentic and believable. In my upcoming novel, Twisted, I have a point of view that follows a Toronto detective on the case of his life. For this I chatted with an Ontario Provincial Police Officer to ensure I represented him correctly.

Both officers were super helpful in talking me through the different scenarios that I hoped to portray. While I didn’t feel the scenes needed to be 100% accurate to the real-life processes, having close friends in law enforcement has allowed me to experience their frustration with poor representation of procedure in some fiction and that was something I wanted to make sure I got right in my books.

I’ve set both my works in the Toronto area, which has been a huge bonus as it was somewhere I spent a lot of time growing up. I was able to pull from my own experience (verified with online research) and bring the city alive.

In 2024 my third novel, Wicked, will be released and this one presented more of a challenge. I opted to set the book in Ottawa, a well-known city but one I’ve only spent a few days in. To make sure I got the correct details, I spent hours going through the different neighbourhoods in Ottawa and learned about the different types of publications I could tie into my work. While I still took some liberties, I wanted the things I mentioned to come across as authentic as possible.

I make use of a lot of online imagery to get the descriptions and visuals of places, people, and things correct. I have something called aphantasia which basically means I do not have a visual imagination. Due to this I can sometimes struggle to describe things in the amount of depth a reader would enjoy. To combat this struggle, I will often use visual aids to help me properly explain what my readers may see in their minds.

Writing groups are another great way to find the resources you need. While online research can be stellar and heading to the library archives can provide you with an abundance of knowledge, I’ve found my ability to learn and retain information this way hasn’t always stuck. For me, it’s real-life people that can answer my real time, specific questions that have helped the most.

The Women’s Fiction Writers Association, which I am a member of, offers a toolbox for emerging authors which includes a list of member experts. I’ve consulted this list a few times when dealing with a specific industry or profession I don’t have any knowledge of.

My upcoming duology, Twisted and Wicked, revolve around a new medication and the consequences of it. To properly understand the intricacies of medication creation, I spoke to a former FDA employee to learn the ins and outs of how a medication gets to market. While I continued to take my creative liberties, I wanted to fully understand how such a thing could happen, so I could properly apply it to my novel.

While too much research can stifle creativity (or distract us from writing entirely!), I find that going into a story with a better sense of how things should be makes it easier for me to craft my storyline and allow for some creative changes.

 

You can read more about Maggie and her books via her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and TikTok. Twisted is now available via Rising Action Publishing and via all major booksellers.