Mystery Melange

 

I'm a little late posting this week's "Mystery Melange," but unfortunately Typepad has been down. And thus it is with online services these days.

Anyway, without further ado, the Bouchercon conference in San Diego wasn't the only hotspot for crime fiction awards this past week, with the Anthony, Shamus, and Barry Awards. Australia was a close second, with winners named for the 2023 Davitt Awards (from Sisters in Crime Australia for best crime books by Australian women), and the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards (given by the Australian Crime Writers Association).

Ned Kelly winners:

• Best debut crime fiction: Wake by Shelley Burr (Hachette)
• Best crime fiction: Exiles by Jane Harper (Macmillan)
• Best true crime: Betrayed by Sandi Logan (Hachette)
• Best international crime fiction: The Lemon Man by Keith Bruton (Cutting Edge)

Davitt Award winners:

• Adult novel: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien (HQ Fiction)
• Young adult novel: Seven Days by Fleur Ferris (PRH)
• Children’s novel: The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat by Charlie Archbold (Text)
• Nonfiction book: Out of the Ashes by Megan Norris (Big Sky)
• Debut book: Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor (Macmillan)
• Readers’ choice: The Unbelieved by Vikki Petraitis (A&U)

 

The shortlist for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize for Scotland's prestigious annual crime writing award was also announced. The Prize is named in memory of the "Godfather of Tartan Noir," the late William McIlvanney. The finalists and authors shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize will lead a torchlit procession from Stirling Castle to the Albert Halls on Friday, September 15, when winner will be revealed. This year's finalists include:

• Squeaky Clean by Callum McSorley (Pushkin)
• The Second Murderer by Denise Mina (Vintage)
• Cast a Cold Eye by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)
• The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell (Little, Brown)
  
  

Seven crime novels from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland have been shortlisted for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The winning title will be announced on 5th October 2023. The Petrona 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. Here are this year's contenders:

• Femicide by Pascal Engman tr. Michael Gallagher (Sweden, Legend Press)
• The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)
• The Axe Woman by Håkan Nesser tr. Sarah Death (Sweden, Mantle)
• Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen tr. David Hackston (Finland, Pushkin Press)
• Kalmann by Joachim B Schmidt tr. Jamie Lee Searle (Switzerland, Bitter Lemon Press)
• Red as Blood by Lilja Sigurðardóttir tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Orenda Books)
• Bitter Flowers by Gunnar Staalesen tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)
   

But wait, there's more! The Capital Crime conference revealed winners of its Fingerprint Awards at Capital Crime 2023 in London. 

• Crime Novel of the Year: Elly Griffiths for Bleeding Heart Yard
• Thriller Book of the Year: Gillian McAllister for Wrong Place Wrong Time
• Historical Crime Book of the Year: Tom Hindle for A Fatal Crossing
• Genre-Busting Book of the Year: Erin Keely for The Skeleton Key
• Debut Book of the Year: Nita Prose for The Maid
• Audiobook of the Year: Adele Parks, narrated by Kristin Atherton for One Last Secret
• The Thalia Proctor Lifetime Achievement Award for her invaluable contribution to fiction publishing: Jane Wood
• Publishing Campaign of the Year 2023: Viking BooksUK for The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman.
   

Mystery Fanfare reported on the sad news that crime writer, Les Edgerton, passed away this past week at the age of 77. Les Edgerton published 23 books, including Adrenaline Junkie and the comedy crime novel, The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping (both from Down&Out Press) and Bomb! (Gutter Press). One of his most popular books is the writer's text, Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go. Les taught creative writing for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program, Trine University, St. Francis University, the New York Writer's Workshop, and was Writer-in-Residence for the University of Toledo. Before turning his hand to writing, Edgerton had an unusual background that included a stint in the U.S. Navy as a cryptographer but also two years in prison for burglary. Edgerton's fiction has been nominated for or won the Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Award, Edgar short story award, and more.


Featured at the Page 69 Test recently was Rusted Souls: A Tom Harper Mystery (#11) by Chris Nickson, set in 1920 Leeds. About the book, from the publisher: Retirement beckons for Chief Constable Tom Harper. Can he stop a spiraling crime spree involving love letters, robbery, and murder before he hangs up his boots for good?

Forensic science is turning to bees for inspiration. George Mason University Professor Mary Ellen O’Toole, who worked as an FBI profiler for twenty-eight years on cases including the Unabomber, Natalee Holloway, the Green River Killer, Golden State Killer, Zodiac Killer, and more, is the lead researcher on a project that will test a theory that bees can help find decomposing bodies.


Crime fiction fans planning a trip to Savannah, Georgia, might want to head to the North Historic District and check out at Agatha’s Coffee and Tea House. After decades of dreaming and coordinating, the cafe is an homage to the work of best-selling author Agatha Christie, complete with books, antiques, jazz, and employees dressed in period costumes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Something Fishy" by J.H. Johns.

In the Q&A roundup, Indie Crime Scene interviewed Mark Pawlosky, whose novel Friendly Fire, the second novel in the Nik Byron Investigation series, was released in March; Lynda La Plante spoke with The Guardian about learning to read with dyslexia, the book that made her want to be a writer, and how Raymond Chandler's books made her laugh out loud; Lee Goldberg, who's penned many TV shows as well as the Eve Ronin mystery book series, chatted with Deborah Kalb about his new novel, Malibu Burning; and Author Interviews spoke with James R. Benn, author of Proud Sorrows, the eighteenth installment in the Billy Boyle World War II historical mysteries set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War.