Mystery Melange

The 2023 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded this week, including the Biography category, which was won by G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage (Viking). The committee deemed the work "a deeply researched and nuanced look at one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. history that depicts the longtime FBI director in all his complexity, with monumental achievements and crippling flaws." (HT to NPR)

The 35th annual Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association were announced this week. The Gold Medal Winner was Heroes Ever Die by J.A. Crawford (CamCat Books); the Silver Medal Winner was The Registration: A Novel by Madison Lawson (CamCat Books); and the Bronze Winner was Running to Fall: A Novel by Kalisha Buckhanon (AALBC Aspire).

Friends of Mystery, a fan group based in Portland, Oregon, announced that Robert Dugoni's The Silent Sisters was the winner of this year's Spotted Owl Award, which highlights the "best mystery written by an author whose primary residence is in the Pacific Northwest." The other finalists included books by Elizabeth George, Tyrell Johnson, Marc Cameron, Phillip Margolin, Sam Wiebe, Marc Cameron, J.A. Jance, and Danya Kukafka. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

On Thursday, June 8, leading crime writers Ian Rankin, Louise Penny, and Michael Connelly will pay tribute to Peter Robinson’s life and body of work in a free online event to mark the publication day of the twenty-eighth and final book in the Banks series, Standing in the Shadows. Robinson's career spanned over three decades, and his critically acclaimed crime novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the US, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world. His books were also made into the major ITV drama series DCI Banks. (HT to SHOTS Magazine)

As part of the upcoming National Crime Reading Month in the UK, run by the Crime Writers’ Association in partnership with national charity The Reading Agency, Karin Slaughter, Janice Hallett and Abir Mukherjee are among those scheduled to take part in various events and celebrations. Maxim Jakubowski, chair of the CWA, said: "National Crime Reading Month is all about bringing new books to readers and new readers to this richly varied genre. We want everyone to #PickUpAPageTurner this June."

Here's a conference that flew under my radar (several of these did during peak Covid, alas) but Alibis in the Archive is headed to Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden in North Wales, June 9-11. Authors scheduled to appear include Martin Edwards, Christine Poulson, Len Tyler, Bonnie MacBird, Peter Guttridge, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Tim Sullivan and Felix Francis.

Mystery Readers Journal has extended its submission deadlines for contributions to the upcoming "Animals in Mysteries" issues. Editor Janet Rudolph is seeking articles (500-1,000 words), reviews (50-250 words), and author essays (500-1,000 words) using the theme of animals (as a topic, protagonist, partner, etc). The new deadline is July 5th. For more information, head on over to the Mystery Fanfare blog.

Writing for CrimeReads, Nick Kolakowski profiled "The Finest Noir Poet You’ve Never Heard Of," Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976), who spent much of his life toiling in literary obscurity.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "The Worm in the Rose" by Tony Dawson.

In the Q&A roundup, SHOTS Magazine spoke with Dennis Lehane, who answered a few questions following their recent review of his novel, Small Mercies; and Deborah Kalb chatted with Patrick H. Moore, a private investigator and sentencing mitigation specialist, who is also the author of the new novel, 27 Days.