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.