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.