Mystery Melange

 The 2024 recipient of the George N. Dove Award for contributions to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction is British author, editor of Crime Time magazine, essayist, journalist, and commentator Barry Forshaw. The Dove Award, named for mystery fiction scholar George N. Dove, is presented by the Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Association. Past Dove recipients include Frankie Y. Bailey, Martin Edwards, Douglas G. Greene, P. D. James, Christine Jackson, H. R. F. Keating, Maureen Reddy, Janet Rudolph, J. K. Van Dover, and Elizabeth Foxwell. (HT to Foxwell's The Bunburyist blog)

Lambda Liberary announced the finalists in 26 categories for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, the "Lammys." The finalists were selected by more than 70 avid readers, critics, and literary professionals from more than 1,300 submissions and represent outstanding LGBTQ+ literature from 2023. Those finalists in the Mystery Category include: Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes Books); Don't Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark); The Good Ones by Polly Stewart (HarperCollins Publishers); Transitory by J. M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books); and Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling (Poisoned Pen Press). The 2024 Lammy Awards ceremony will be held the evening of June 11, 2024 at New York City’s Sony Hall.

Mystery Writers of America is making the 2024 Symposium Panels featuring the 2024 Edgar Nominees available via ZOOM. All panels are also live-streamed via the MWA YouTube channel and will be archived there. The 78th Annual Edgar® Awards banquet with the announcement of winners will be celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

Janet Rudolph has posted her updated annual listing of Easter Crime Fiction, along with some Good Friday mysteries. And Mystery Lovers Kitchen has shared some Easter recipes and reads, including Fancy Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows by Libby Klein; Armenian Sweet Bread via Tina Kashian. 

Iceland has its Jólabókaflóð or "Christmas book flood," in which publishers release new titles in time for the holidays so people can give books as gifts and spend Christmas Eve reading. Not to be outdone, Norway has its own book tradition of celebrating crime fiction books over the Easter holiday. As Science Norway explains, to understand why, we need to go back to the 1920s.

The Guardian reviewed The Russian Detective by Carol Adlam, a new "exquisitely illustrated celebration of early crime fiction." The project results from work that Adlam, an associate professor in the Nottingham School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University, and Claire Whitehead, a reader in modern languages at the University of St Andrew’s, have been doing together on the Lost Detective Project: a collaboration that draws on the work of long-forgotten writers of crime fiction who were contemporaries of Dostoevsky.

The latest Mystery Readers Journal features Southern California Mysteries, with articles, reviews, and author essays on the topic, as well as the usual columns and other mystery related material. The issue is now available for purchase, and you can catch some samples via the online features, "Los Angeles Ninja Lily Wong" by Tori Eldridge, "Los Angeles: City of Dreams" by Lee Goldberg, and "Through a Lens Brightly" by Gary Phillips.

In the Q&A roundup, Paul Burke welcomed Neil Lancaster to Crime Time to discuss The Devil You Know, the third Max Cragie installment of the gritty police procedural series set in Scotland; Author Interviews chatted with Heather Gudenkauf, the Edgar Award nominated author of ten novels including Everyone Is Watching; and Lisa Haselton spoke with thriller author Matt Cost about the new installment in his Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Mysteries series, Pirate Trap.

Mystery Melange

The shortlists for the British Book Awards were announced, including those in the category of Best Crime and Thriller: The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas; The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman; None of This is True by Lisa Jewell; Damascus Station by David McCloskey; The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith; and The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. The British Book Awards, also called the Nibbies, "celebrate the intimate connection between the books, their makers and their audience." Winners will be honored on May 13, 2024 through both a livestream and at Grosvenor House in London. You can see all the finalists here, which include a few extra crime titles in the Best Audiobook Fiction and Best Children's Fiction categories.

Winners of the inaugural Libby Book Awards, chosen by a vote from over 1,700 librarians and library workers across North America, have been announced, including winners in categories of interest to crime fiction fans: Best Mystery, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto; Best Thriller, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; Best Debut Author, The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes; and Best Audio Book, I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makka.

Submissions have opened for a new honor sponsored by the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the McDermid Debut Award for new writers. Named in recognition of world-famous crime writer, Val McDermid, who co-founded the Festival in 2003 and whose dedication to fostering new voices in crime fiction through the New Blood panel is legendary, this new award seeks to continue her legacy, celebrating and platforming the best debut crime writers in the UK. The McDermid Debut Award is open to full-length debut crime novels by UK and Irish authors published for the first time in hardback or paperback original between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024, with submissions closing on March 21. A shortlist of six titles will be announced on June 13, and the winner presented at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Awards event on Thursday, July 18.

International Thriller Writers announced the 2024 scholarship winners, who will each receive a full-access pass to ThrillerFest in addition to $1,000 for travel expenses: Gabbie Hanks, Emi Macuaga, and Karabi Mitra. Their entries stood out amongst the many accomplished submissions and were made possible by the Scholarship Program sponsors, including Douglas Preston, Michael Mayo, Vicki Montet, and Karin Slaughter. ThrillerFest is a five-day conference made up of five different events—a Master Class (May 28), CraftFest (May 29-30), QueryFest (May 29-31), PitchFest (May 30), and ThrillerFest (May 31-June 1), which culminates with a fun-filled Awards Banquet on the evening of June 1.

The inaugural Montreal Mystery/Montréal Mystère Festival takes place March 24-25, bringing together English and French language writers for a weekend dedicated to the mystery and thriller genres in celebration of the blend of languages, cultures, and the timeless appeal of mystery fiction. Authors scheduled to take part include Lilja Sigurðardóttir, J. L. Blanchard, Robyn Harding, Catherine Lafrance, Shari Lapena, Nicole Lundrigan, Catherine McKenzie, Marcie R. Rendon, Robert Rotenberg, Amy Stuart, Steve Urszenyi, and Tessa Wegert.

Writers of short crime fiction are often overlooked at the various festivals and workshops, and a new conference hopes to rectify that. ShortCon, billing itself as "The Premier Conference for Short Crime Fiction Writers," is scheduled to be held in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday, June 22, 2024. It will offer the opportunity to join acclaimed and award-winning crime fiction professionals for an immersive, one-day event and learn how to write short crime fiction, get your stories published, and develop and sustain a long-term career writing short. It includes three hours of in-depth instruction on how to craft short crime fiction from New York Times bestselling novelist and multiple-award-winning short-fiction author, Brendan DuBois; an insider look at the world’s leading mystery magazines by Senior Managing Editor Jackie Sherbow of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; career lessons from short-fiction legend and author of more than twelve-hundred short stories, Michael Bracken; and a wrap-up discussion led by short crime fiction rising star, Stacy Woodson.

Speaking of Michael Bracken, he was recently elected to the Texas Institute of Letters, a distinguished honor society established in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievement. The membership includes winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prizes in drama, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as prizes awarded by PEN, and dozens of other regional and national award and grant-giving institutions.

When Art Taylor took over "The First Two Pages" blog after the passing of its founder, B.K. Stevens in 2017, his first guest was Robert Lopresti, who wrote about his story, "The Chair Thief," in the November/December 2017 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Seven years later, Rob returns to the blog with a story that came out a few weeks ago in Black Cat Weekly, the cover story of that issue. "The First Two Pages" hosts craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work.

The Clues: Journal of Detection's Teaching Forum is seeking submissions of short essays that address the uses of crime fiction to teach both foreign languages and cultures in the classroom. Contributions of 750 to 1,000 words are sought for vol. 43, no. 1 (2025), and accounts from all classroom spaces (high schools, post-secondary institutions, prisons, etc.) and instructors at all stages of their careers are welcome. Submissions are due September 1, 2024.

In the Q&A roundup, Chris Nickson, a music journalist and author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and six Simon Westow mysteries, applied the Page 69 Test to The Scream of Sins, the newest Simon Westow mystery; and Tana French spoke with Crime Reads about embracing discomfort, Irish wit, and "chosen family" in her new thriller, The Hunter.

Mystery Melange

Janet Rudolph has updated her list of St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction over at Mystery Fanfare, and you can enjoy reading those titles while showing down on recipes from Mystery Lovers Kitchen, including Fully-Loaded Irish Colcannon from Cleo Coyle; Bubble and Squeak, Santa Cruz Style via Leslie Karst; and Gluten-Free Cinnamon Irish Soda Bread by Libby Klein.

The Spur Award winners from Western Writers of America were announced this past weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books. The Longmire Defense (Viking), Johnson’s 19th installment of his Walt Longmire mystery series, won for Best Contemporary Western Novel. The other finalists include: Calico by Lee Goldberg (Severn House) and Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane Books).

With an announcement coinciding with Women's History Month, the longlist for this year's Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was announced. The honor rewards "creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States." Of the fifteen titles under review are two books that may be of interest to crime fiction fans, the psychological thrillers, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, and I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makka. The shortlist will be announced on April 9, and the winner on May 13. The unusually well-endowed contest will offer the winner $150,000 and a residency at Fogo Island Inn, with the four finalists each receiving $12,500.

Congratulations to Philip Wilson, winner, ("A Recipe for Stovies") and also to runner-up Elisabeth Ingram Wallace ("The Strange Sheep of Greshonish"), in the annual Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story Competition. Glencairn Crystal, the maker of Glencairn Whiskey Glass and sponsor of the McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime writing awards, also sponsors this contest that seeks crime short stories in collaboration with Bloody Scotland and Scottish Field Magazine. This year’s theme was "A Crime Set In Scotland."

Mystery Writers of America-New York are hosting the panel discussion, "Criminal Tendencies: What makes a 'good' villain?" at Harlem Public Library in New York City, March 21, 2024. Moderator Elizabeth Mannion will be joined by panelists Catherine Maiorisi (the NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mystery series), Charles Salzberg (Swann's Last Song), and Cathi Stoler (Murder On the Rocks Series).

Virginians are fortunate to have two crime fiction conferences coming up: The Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival this Saturday, featuring special guest Donna Andrews interviewed by Art Taylor, as well as author panels and signings, and the Virginia Book Festival Crime Wave held in Charlottesville next weekend, March 22-23, with authors Sarah Weinman, Aggie Blum Thompson, Steve Weddle, Meagan Jennett, Polly Stewart, Peter Malone Elliott, Patti McCracken, Jennifer Sutherland, Yasmin Angoe, Cara Black, Alma Katsu, Victoria Gilbert, Laura Sims, and Ashley Winstead.

In forensics news that's out of this world, a new study by Staffordshire University and the University of Hull highlighted the behavior of blood in microgravity and the unique challenges of bloodstain pattern analysis aboard spacecraft. Bloodstain expert Zack Kowalske is a Crime Scene Investigator based in Atlanta, USA, and led the study as part his PhD research. He added, "Studying bloodstain patterns can provide valuable reconstructive information about a crime or accident. However, little is known about how liquid blood behaves in an altered gravity environment. This is an area of study that, while novel, has implications for forensic investigations in space."

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series relocated to Art Taylor's website after B.K.'s passing in 2017, and Art's latest guest is Charles Ardai, the Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author and founder of Hard Case Crime. Ardai is publishing the first collection of his short stories, Death Comes Too Late, and his contribution to First Two Pages is an essay on his Edgar Award-winning story, "The Home Front." 

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with thriller author Liz Crowe about her new domestic suspense, Cul-de-Sac, and also with Jack Lowe-Carbell about his new thriller, Arlya; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Loreth Anne White, author of the new novel, The Unquiet Bones, inspired by the true-life 1976 murder of 16-year-old Rhona Duncan.

Mystery Melange

This week, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners of the 2024 Audie Awards during a ceremony in Los Angeles for the 27 categories of prizes. Best Mystery went to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto, narrated by Eunice Wong (Penguin Random House Audio). The Best Thriller/Suspense honor was snagged by All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby, narrated by Adam Lazarre-White (Macmillan Audio). You can check out all the finalists in those categories as well as the other genres via this link.

If you're in the Washington, DC, area this Saturday, March 9, join global bestselling Icelandic authors Ragnar Jónasson and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, known as the Queen and King of Icelandic crime fiction, for a conversation at the Beverly Snow about their novels and the literature festival they run as a side hustle. Ragnar Jónasson will be discussing Reykjavík, a crime novel he co-authored with Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir will discuss The Legacy, the first book in the Huldar and Freyja series.

It's always good news to hear about the advent of a new bookstore, and this week it was Criminally Good Books, an independent book store specializing in crime writing that opened its doors for the first time in Colliergate, York, in the UK. Owner Isla Coole said she "hoped to promote the best of the genre but also help publicise great books which perhaps did not benefit from a publisher's marketing budget and so might fall under the radar of readers." A range of events are already planned for the store including author book talks and signings.

The last major appearance of Dick Tracy in other media outside of comic books was the 1990 Dick Tracy feature film directed by and starring Warren Beatty. This year, Alex Segura, Michael Moreci, and Chantelle Aimée Osman, the holders of the Dick Tracy comic book rights, are looking to change all that with the launch of an all-new, ongoing Dick Tracy series from Mad Cave Studios. The book, written by Segura and Moreci and featuring art by Geraldo Borges, launches in April and will be a noir-tinged "Year One" approach to the famous trench coat-clad, fedora-wearing, intrepid police detective. Moreci noted, "This Dick Tracy is more complex, more modern, and a bit darker than what he's been before. But, and this goes to my second point, longtime Tracy readers will find plenty to love here."

Speaking of Alex Segura, he'll be joined by fellow authors Cassandra Khaw (The Salt Grows Heavy) and Cynthia Pelayo (Forgotten Sisters) for the genre author panel, "Mystery! Horror! Mayhem!" on Thursday, March 21 at Kew and Willow Books in Kew Gardens, New York.

Short Story Wednesday is a loosely organized group of bloggers who feature classic short stories each week (something I've been wanting to participate in, but haven't found the time just yet). Among this week's offerings are "Scab Painting" by Yoka Ogawa via Patti Abbott; The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories: Part XXXVII, via George Kelley; "Black Winter," by Ellen Gilchrist, via Todd Mason; and three Captain Leopold stories by Edward D. Hoch via Tracy K.

Jeff Pierce over at The Rap Sheet blog has an embarrassment of riches with a list of crime fiction titles being published March through May of this year in both the U.S. and the U.K. I'm still waiting for my reading clone to help me get through all of these, but they're certainly going to make a lot of ereaders and bookstores very happy.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton interviewed thriller author Piper Bayard about her new thriller co-authored with Jay Holmes, The Caiman of Iquitos, the second full-length novel in the Apex Predator series featuring retired CIA officer John Viera and his network of former military and intelligence operatives; and Cara Black, author of the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series and two World War II-set novels featuring American markswoman Kate Rees, spoke with Writers Read about what's on her reading list right now.

Author R&R with Brianne Sommerville

Canadian author Brianne Sommerville studied English literature and theatre at Queen’s University before entering the world of public relations and marketing. She writes news releases and key messages by day, and fiction by night after her three kiddos under five have gone to sleep. Brianne has always been drawn to mysteries and suspense, particularly domestic suspense and psychological thrillers. In 2018, while on maternity leave with her eldest child, Brianne was feverishly scribbling in her notebook, confiding in its pages about her darkest fears as a new mother. It was the infinite days and sleepless nights fraught with anxiety that ended up laying the groundwork for her debut novel. What began as her sleep-deprived stream of consciousness evolved into If I Lose Her, a universal story of a new mother whose mind may or may not be unraveling

About If I Lose Her: The pregnancy podcasts warned Joanna Baker about the baby blues, but when a near-fatal mistake places the first-time mom under the watchful eye of Child Protective Services, she receives a serious diagnosis: postpartum depression. Jo hears the words, yet they don’t make sense. Nothing does. Her blackouts are increasing, and she can’t recall events she’s been accused of. As she fights to keep her daughter, she discovers cracks in her neighborhood, family, and her own home. With the support of her sisters, she attempts to piece together her traumatic past and uncover who is truly in control. Jo must battle her faltering mind to save what’s most important—her daughter.

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

With a communications background, sharing the truth is always top of mind but I gravitate towards writing fiction where I can use my imagination and provide escapism for my readers. While my works are largely fictional, I still want my stories to be believable and as authentic as possible, which is why research is still important to my process.

Research usually doesn’t come until I have a strong understanding of where I’d like to take my story. I often begin with my personal experience (write what you know, they say), which was the case with my debut novel.

During the first few months of new motherhood, I was experiencing postpartum anxiety. We had a scare during delivery and a code pink was issued due to my daughter’s slow heart rate. After that, I had a hard time shaking concerns about her health. I found solace in confiding in my journal about the fears I was hesitant to share with friends and family. Those diary entries ended up inspiring the novel and I think it helped with the relatability of my main character Joanna Baker. I wrote the first drafts during the early days of motherhood over two maternity leaves, so my experiences were fresh and uninhibited. Research was easy when I could draw from my own immediate experiences. I’m taking a similar approach with my sophomore novel What She Left Behind, which features a sixteen-year-old diary point of view. I dug out my old teenage journal to help create an authentic teen voice.

Once I have my story shaped (I’m a plotter versus a pantser), then the drafting begins. If I encounter something in the plot that I want to learn more about, I usually put a placeholder in or I’ll take some time to do initial internet research. Like most thriller writers, my search history is alarming. I’d share some examples here but then I would be giving away major spoilers!

I consider myself a visual learner, so sometimes reading about a subject doesn’t cut it. Recently, I spent an hour watching YouTube videos of a dashcam in a snow plough so I could experience what it is like to drive one as I have a character in What She Left Behind who clears snow. That same novel involves renovations of a century home. To prepare, I watched many episodes of This Old House, a longstanding home-improvement show. It is on those days that my writing progress looks minimal but really, spending the time on that research helps ensure I am creating authentic characters and a realistic situation.

I also lean on friends and family who have experience or backgrounds in areas that I want to tap into. For example, I recently picked my sister’s brain who studied art therapy, to ensure a scene depicting a dementia patient’s therapy session was realistic. If I Lose Her references pharmaceuticals, so I consulted my father-in-law who has a pharma background.

A lot of the themes I explore involve mental health and other sensitive topics that require a level of research to ensure characters and their situations are represented appropriately. For If I Lose Her, I drew on my own experience with postpartum anxiety so that the additional research I engaged in complemented my firsthand experience.

 

Connect with Brianne on Instagram, Twitter/X, Goodreads, and TikTok, or visit her website to learn more about If I Lose Her, which arrives on March 5 in e-book, paperback and audio, wherever books are sold.