CrimeReads contributor Molly Odintz asked dozens of crime fiction writers to contribute to an annual roundtable discussion on the state of the genre. This year’s roundtable, like in previous years, is divided into two parts: the first is focused on craft advice and the writing life, while the second addresses issues in the genre and the future of crime writing. The participants include James Lee Burke, William Kent Krueger, Katherine Hall Page, Susan Isaacs, April Henry, Tracy Clark, and others who have been nominated for various categories for Edgar Awards. You can see the finalists and winners of the 2024 Edgars in this previous blog post.
International Thriller Writer's Breakout Series will feature Lee Child and Andrew Child (authors of the Jack Reacher series) in conversation with Joseph Finder on May 9th, 2024, at 8pm ET, on the topic of "Power Storytelling." This is a free zoom webinar series open to all writers, but you must register using this link. Child (the pen name of Jim Grant) began the Reacher novels with 1997's Killing Floor, which won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the series has since sold over a million copies and been adapted for film and television. In 2020, Lee Child announced that his younger brother Andrew Grant would take over as writer of the Jack Reacher novels, writing under the pen name of Andrew Child.
CJ Sansom, author of the Shardlake novels, has died at the age of 71, just days before Shardlake, the TV adaptation of Sansom's novel, Dissolution, starring Arthur Hughes and Sean Bean, was released on Disney+ on May 1. Sansom had suffered from multiple myeloma, a rare cancer that affects bone marrow, since 2012. Sansom was one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists, known in particular for his mystery novels featuring barrister Matthew Shardlake, set in Tudor England. His longtime editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, said Sansom "wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare. But he always took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic responses to his novels and worked tirelessly on each book, never wanting to disappoint a single reader."
This week, we also lost author Paul Auster, who passed away at the age of 77. Auster’s breakthrough came with the 1985 publication of City of Glass, the first novel in his New York trilogy. As The Guardian notes, "while the books are ostensibly mystery stories, Auster wielded the form to ask existential questions about identity." Auster was better known in Europe than in his native United States, and was awarded Spain’s Prince of Asturias prize for literature and France's Prix Médicis Étranger. He was also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honor that recognizes significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields.
Crime fiction from Scotland is often dubbed as "tartan noir," featuring such bestselling authors as Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. But The Daily Mail rightfully noted that Scotland's secret king of crime has been unfortunately overshadowed by these more recent authors. Bill Knox, a journalist from Glasgow, covered untold crimes, hosted STV's Crime Desk program appealing for help from the public – always signing off with the promise that any calls to the police "can be in confidence" – and had abundant contacts in the police force. But he was also the author of many police procedurals and thrillers, most notably a series that follows the excitable Chief Inspector Thane and his calmer deputy, Moss.
Digging out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Egypt is putting prized assets up for sale. Among these is the historic Old Cataract Hotel, perched on a rocky outcrop on the Nile River’s eastern bank, which has welcomed the likes of Winston Churchill, Jimmy Carter, Tsar Nicholas II, and Agatha Christie. Dame Agatha checked into the Old Cataract in 1937 and remained there for most of that year, where she would sit for hours and write the novel inspired by her surroundings, Death on the Nile. Her suite has been available for overnight stays (for upwards of $8,000 a night), although it will remain to be seen if any new owners keep the suite with its period furnishings intact.
In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Ava January about her latest novel, The Mayfair Dagger, a witty, feminist mystery set in the heart of nineteenth-century London; I.S. Berry spoke with CrimeReads about her career as a case officer for the CIA and her debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow; and Shots Magazine interviewed author John Connolly about his new Charlie Parker detective thriller, The Instruments of Darkness.
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