Mystery Melange

Each year, the Bouchercon Crime Fiction Conference Board selects a recipient of the 2024 David Thompson Special Service Award to honor the memory and contributions to the crime fiction community of David Thompson, a much beloved Houston bookseller who passed away in 2010. Winners are lauded for their "extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the crime fiction field." This year's recipient(s) are Crime Writers of Color, and its founders, Kellye Garett, Walter Mosley, and Gigi Pandian. The award presentation will be part of the Bouchercon 2024 Opening Ceremony in Nashville August 28-September 1, 2024.

Winners of the 2024 Colorado Book Awards were announced, including those in the Mystery and Thriller categories. Best mystery was won by Blood Betrayal: A Detective Inaya Rahman Novel by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur Books). The other finalists were Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane Books) and Take the Honey and Run: A Beekeeping Mystery by Jennie Marts (Crooked Lane Books). The thriller winner was No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes (Sourcebooks). The other thriller finalists include Once Upon a Lie by Rebecca Taylor (Ophelia House) and The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens (Joffe Books).

Applications are open for Sisters in Crime's SinC Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, which includes a grant of $2,000. Interested applicants need to submit an unpublished work of crime fiction that may be a short story or first chapter of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words, a resume or biographical statement, and a cover letter that gives a sense of the applicant as an emerging writer in the genre and briefly states how the award money would be used. (Writers submitting work should have published not more than ten pieces of short fiction or up to two self-published or traditionally published books.) One year after their win, the award winner will be asked to share thoughts on the impact the award has made, and also will be asked to serve as a member of the award selection committee for the year after their win, alongside volunteer judges. For more information, check out the official SinC award website.

The crime fiction festival "Murder Most Yorkshire" is headed to Harrogate in the UK from July 4-6. This is a free event with author panels, interviews, book signings, writing workshops, open mic, and writing challenges. Over a dozen authors are scheduled to attend and participate in such panels as "Tea and Trenchcoats," "Crime by Degree," "Not so Line of Duty," and more.

Kronos Records has scheduled a July release of the soundtrack to the film noir, Cop Hater (1958), the film based on the first 87th Precinct novel by Ed McBain (1956) featuring Robert Loggia, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, and Vincent Gardenia. The music was written by composer Albert Glasser (Motorcycle Gang; The Big Caper; The Cisko Kid Returns, and various others), and is rich in both big orchestral moments and jazzy and big band swing style tunes. The CD is strictly limited to 300 copies. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

Craig Sisterson offers up "13 fresh, exciting antipodean crime writers to try" if you're interested in checking out crime fiction from Aussie and New Zealand authors.

If you're a fan of both science fiction and crime fiction, Reactor Mag has one list of "5 Underrated Weird Mysteries" and another titled "Five Murder Mysteries Featuring SFF Authors and Fans."

Think you're an expert at femme fatales in crime fiction? Then try your hand at this quiz via Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

In April 2015, B.K. (Bonnie) 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. After Bonnie's death in November 2017, the blog series relocated to Art Taylor's website. This week and next, he'll be hosting Julie Hastrup and Kevin Tipple, both contributors to the new anthology, Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery and Suspense, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, which was published this past week.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed Molly MacRae for Writers Who Kill, about Come Shell or High Water, the first book in MacRae’s Haunted Shell Shop mystery series; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with British author Tracy Buchanan about her latest crime novel, Venom in the Blood, which features the forensic entomologist Dr. Vanessa Marwood; and Shots Magazine spoke with Kia Abdullah, whose 2019 debut crime novel, Take It Back, was critically acclaimed, and whose third novel, Next of Kin, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.

Author R&R with Chris Coppel

Chris Coppel was born in California and has since split his time between the USA and Europe, living in California, Washington DC, Utah, Spain, France, Switzerland and England. Chris has held senior operations positions for both Warner Bros. and Universal Studios. Chris also held the position of Director of Operations for UCLA’s Film School where he also taught advanced screenwriting. Chris and his wife Clare spent many years helping animal rescue with Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Before joining Best Friends, Chris was President and Managing Director of the Home Entertainment Division of Testronics in Los Angeles. Following in his father’s footsteps (Alec Coppel wrote Vertigo among many other successful movies) Chris has written numerous screenplays as well as the novels Lifetimes, Lingering, Logistics, Double Down (as C.J. Axelrod), Liner, Lucy, Lakebed, Legacy, Lodge, and Luck. Chris is also an accomplished drummer and guitarist.

His new book, Latency, just released today, is a riveting blend of police procedural and supernatural thriller. Up until now, the only monsters the LAPD had ever seen were of the human variety. When two down-on-their-luck detectives are forced to work together on a series of cold cases, they slowly begin to uncover a common thread that may hold the key to solving some of their town’s grizzliest unsolved murders. Little do they know that the same key will unlock secrets from a different dimension; one filled with monstrous creatures that should never be disturbed…

Chris stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about his writing process:

First, a little about me and my writing.

I wrote my first book, Lucy, thirty years ago, then managed to not write another word for over twenty-five years. Now I write a minimum of one book a year. While my original novel was a gentle tale (or tail) revolving around a Golden Retriever that gets stolen and has to, along with other fine hounds, escape their capturers and find a way home, most of my other works have been in the horror – ghost genres. Why do I choose to weave tapestries of dark and cloying fear? I have no idea. What I can say for certain is that I have always enjoyed a good horror story. Before I go on, I think I need to point out the sort of tale that I DO NOT define as good horror. I am not a fan of gratuitous orgies of blood and gore that start on page one and maintain that same sordid level until the very end without any benefit to the story or the setting. I find that type of horror to be the genre-equivalent of the bottom shelf romance novels that are all written according to a preordained script that dictates content, romantic interaction timeline and conclusion. Having said that, those books sell in the billions every year, so that just shows how much I know.

Horror for me must be original. I don’t find an axe wielding psychopath targeting young sorority girls to be clever or worthy of even a sample read on Amazon. I like subtlety in my horror. I also like a dash of humour, a drop of pathos and most importantly, I want the feeling of discombobulation. I want the reader to feel the same emotions as the characters. To date, I feel that my books have encompassed all those criteria.

I was questioned about how I deal with research. Firstly, the need for in depth research beyond what my imagination can provide, varies from book to book. In Lucy and in Lingering, for example, I didn’t see the need for any research at all except for a little Google map work seeking out a few locations in Southampton. In Luck and Legacy, I needed quite a lot of science, armament knowledge, Native American lore etc. I found that the internet was all the tool I needed. I also learned not to grab the first data chunk from the landing page and then think that I was, at that point, highly knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Look deeper! For example, I needed to know about sniper rifles from the 1990s. I found that by digging deeply in the Google mine then branching into YouTube for some hands-on visualisations, I was able to get a good understanding of the weapon I needed for the story.

The only book I have written that required in-person research was the one I am editing at this moment. Titled Lusas Naturae, it is set in a small coastal town in England that is close to what was one of the biggest coal mines in England. In addition, the town sits atop a plethora of subterranean tunnels that were used by pirates and smuggles hundreds of years earlier. As my knowledge of tunnels and mines is on a par with my knowledge of quantum physics, I chose to meet local historians as well as volunteer tour guides at the local mine museum. The depth (literally) and breadth of knowledge that these individuals were able to impart to me was priceless and enabled me to add a layer of texture that couldn’t have been achieved otherwise.

You can read more about Chris and his writing via his website and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Latency is now available via all major booksellers and via publisher Cranthorpe Millner.

Mystery Melange

Since 1986, the Netherlands has awarded an annual "Gouden Strop" ("Golden Noose") to the year's best Dutch-language crime novel and the "Schaduwprijs" ("Shadow Prize") to the best debut crime novel. Three years ago, they also introduced the "Zilveren Strop" ("Silver Noose") for the best Dutch-language short story, and last year that award was renamed the Goeken Prize (after Paul Goeken, who wrote six novels under his own name and nine as Suzanne Vermeer before he passed on in 2011). This year's winners of the Golden Strop and the Shadow Prize were announced late last month at the Neude Library in Utrecht, including Mathijs Deen, who won the Golden Strop 2024 with The Diver, and Lex Noteboom, who was awarded the Shadow Prize 2024 for his thriller, The Man with a Thousand Faces. The Silver Noose winner was revealed online yesterday as "Doodweer" ("Dead Weather") by Jolanda Treffers. The other four finalists (with titles translated into English) were "The Execution" by Marius van Bruggen; "A Short Frenzy" by Josh Pachter; "Walk with Premeditation" by Mark Posma; and "Mise-en-scene" by Patricia Bouwhuis-Ooyevaar. (HT to Josh Pachter via social media)

Noir at the Bar heads to Elaine's, 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, VA, this Friday, June 21, at 7:00 pm. The event will feature award-winning authors reading their eight-minute short stories, including Brendan DuBois, Jackie Sherbow, LynDee Walker, Joe Walker, Stacy Woodson, Adam Meyer, and Tom Milani. On the other side of the Pond, Noir At the Bar, Edinburgh celebrates National Crime Reading Month on Thursday, June 27, at Canons' Gait Pub, with a lineup featuring Guy Hale, Ann Bloxwich, Cristine Tait, Adrian Searle, Rob Briggs, Fiona Quinn, Sandra Ireland, Gillian Duff, and Daniel Aubury.

As part of Dallas-Forth Worth Smith Public Library's summer theme of Only Murders in the Library, there will be a Crime Time Author Panel & Book Signing this Saturday at 2 pm. You can hear mystery and thriller authors talk about the howdunit in whodunits, ask your burning questions about the life of a writer, and help out the library at the same time, with book sale proceeds to benefit the Friends of the Library. The event also includes giveaways and a book signing afterwards with in-person authors Sara Rosett, L. A. Starks, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, and Leanne Kale Sparks. Other authors appearing "virtually" are Carolyn Haines and Carmen Amato.

Details about the upcoming UK Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in July continue to be rolled out, with Orion announcing that its immersive events space, The Incident Room, will be returning to the festival on Friday, July 19th for its eighth year. The space will deliver exclusive events for festival attendees including a celebration of the publication of Murder in Harrogate, a collection of crime short stories edited by Vaseem Khan, publishing with Orion in July. There will also be an Agatha Christie quiz, a live Crime Writers Room and an in-conversation event with Julian Clary about his crime fiction debut, Curtain Call to Murder. The line-up will also include M J Arlidge, Julia Crouch, Steph Broadribb, Vaseem Khan, Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, M W Craven and Mark Billingham, alongside other Orion authors. Orion will also provide a limited Harrogate at Home exclusive package for those unable to attend The Incident Room in-person.

Bookselling giant Barnes & Noble is set to become the next owner of Denver bookstore Tattered Cover, marking the end of its 53-year run as an independent business. Tattered Cover filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October and was due to hold an auction last Wednesday to hear bids to buy the bookstore and its assets, but it canceled the event at the last minute. A source familiar with the matter told Denverite last week that Tattered Cover has received three serious bids of varying amounts, but Barnes & Noble won with a bid of $1.8 million to obtain Tattered Cover’s five existing locations and its inventory. Under the agreement, Barnes & Noble will continue to operate the stores under the Tattered Cover moniker and will continue to employ "substantially all" of its current employees. The store has hosted and supported many crime fiction authors through the years, including most recently, Craig Johnson and Elin Hilderbrand.

"Murder Takes a Holiday," the latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal, is out on virtual newsstands. Each quarterly thematic review contains articles, reviews, and author essays on a specific theme, as well as special columns and other mystery related material. You can read the table of contents and learn about subscriptions via this link. There are also a couple of free sample articles from the issue there, including "Please Proceed to Your Gate—To Begin Your (Murderous) Journey" by Cathy Ace; "How I Learned to Write More Than Thirty Pages" by Simon Brett; and "Have Pen, Will Travel" by Tom Straw.

Writing for CrimeReads, James Queally has a retrospective on the late, great crime fiction magazine, ThugLit, and its founder, Todd "Big Daddy Thug" Robinson. The 'zine, self-described as "best damn crime fiction on the planet," lasted for eleven years and was the launching pad for some of the biggest names in crime fiction today.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Justine Pucella Winans about her YA mysteries; Author Interviews also spoke with Rob Hart, author of the Ash McKenna crime series, a novella with James Patterson, and more, about his latest novel, Assassins Anonymous; E.J. Copperman (aka Jeff Cohen), applied the Page 69 Test to the second installment of his light-hearted cozy mystery series, Same Difference, which sees private investigators Fran and Ken Stein on the trail of a missing nineteen-year-old trans woman; Alex Michaelides chatted with the Hindustan Times about his books, screenwriting, and crime fiction in general; and the Irish Examiner interviewed Jo Spain about her latest novel, The Trial, a big-pharma medical thriller with a different kind of trial.

Mystery Melange

The winners of the Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys," were announced at Sony Hall in New York City, including the winner of the LGBTQ+ Mystery category, A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes Books). The other finalists include: 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). Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, and established the Lambda Literary Awards, which recognize the best LGBTQ books published in a given year across dozens of categories, in 1989

Registration is open for the International Thriller Writers' Online School. Participants will learn from the masters, bestselling authors and industry professionals, and gain insights into pacing, dialogue, character development, setting, twists, and more. The court covers seven weeks and 13 individual sessions (nine classes, three Spotlight Interviews and one bonus panel) during a live Zoom session and will offer live Q&A with the attending students. Featured presenters include Sara DiVello, K.J. Howe, Steven James, Andrea Johnson, Angie Kim, Mary Kubica, Jean Kwok, Tosca Lee and Nina Sadowsky. Spotlight interviews will include Lisa Gardner, Heather Graham, Charlaine Harris, Gregg Hurwitz, and Jerri Williams, with Bonus panel discussion via Jeneva Rose, Karen Dionne, and Wanda Morris, as moderated by Sam Octavius. For more information and to register, follow this link.

Mystery Writers of America also has an online learning opportunity via MWA-U 2024, to consist of six online classes taught by top-notch crime writers with live Q & A. Take your writing to the next level by attending these informative classes – free to MWA members (offered to nonmembers for $20/session). Tracy Clark will discuss writing characters; Meg Gardiner will tackle plot; Donna Andrews, dialogue; Daniel Stashower, setting; Jeffery Deaver, writing a commercial thriller; and Sheri Lewis-Wohl will speak on forensics.

Mystery Fanfare has a list of crime fiction and mysteries themed around Father's Day (Sunday, June 16th in the U.S.).

Can you identify these opening lines of classic mystery and crime novels? Test your knowledge with this quiz via Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Catriona McPherson, author of the Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, and contemporary standalone novels, about her new release, Deep Beneath Us; James Lee Burke chatted with CrimeReads about Hemingway, Orwell, and a new chapter in the American battle against fascism; and Ruth Ware was also interviewed by CrimeReads, talking about her new thriller set on a tropical Indonesian paradise that quickly turns into nightmare, One Perfect Couple.

Mystery Melange

At the recent Maine Literary Awards presentation, bestselling author Tess Gerritsen (author of the Rizzoli & Isles series) received an award for distinguished achievement for "exceptional and steadfast contributions to the Maine literary arts." Katherine Hall Page also won the Crime Fiction category for her novel, The Body in the Web. The other finalists in that same category included Barbara Burt for Dissonance: A Novel of Music & Murder; and Bryan Wiggins (with Lee Thibodeau) for The Corpse Bloom.

On June 8, both in-person and online, the Friends of the Ferguson Library and the Mystery Writers of America's New York Chapter are sponsoring CrimeCONN, Connecticut's annual mystery writer and mystery fan conference. This year's theme is History, Headlines and Heroes, and Reed Farrel Coleman will start off the proceedings with a writing workshop and also appear later in the day in a conversation with Megan Abbott. In addition to other writing panels, forensic scientist Michelle Clark and Detective Tammy Murray will explain how real-life cold cases are tracked down and solved. Follow this link for more information and registration.

Goldsboro Books is launching a crime-themed subscription service, the Goldsboro Crime Collective, in September. The London-based shop, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, said of its latest subscription box: "Goldsboro Crime Collective introduces an original concept, offering subscribers meticulously curated selections of beautifully designed, signed first-edition crime novels." Priced at £20 a month, members will receive exclusive access to upcoming releases, chapter previews, giveaways, and a discount on crime fiction books at Goldsboro. Each monthly pick, chosen by the store’s team of booksellers, will also be accompanied by exclusive author content.

As posted on CrimeReads, Curtis Evans, who wrote the introduction to S.S. Murder by Q. Patrick (American Mystery Classics), profiled one of the great, underappreciated writers of the Golden Age, "Q. Patrick," who was not just one author, but four. The pen name was launched in 1931 by thirty-year-old Philadelphia pharmaceutical executive Richard “Rickie” Wilson Webb, who also partnered with Hugh Wheeler to write under three pseudonyms, Q. Patrick, Patrick Quentin and Jonathan Stagge, producing "some of mystery fiction’s finest crime novels."

In Sarah Weinman's latest crime fiction column for The New York Times, she made note of two legendary fictional detectives taking their final cases, with Jacqueline Winspear retiring Maisie Dobbs, and Susan Elia MacNeal bidding farewell to Maggie Hope. The Comfort of Ghosts is the 18th outing for Dobbs, the "plucky and resourceful British investigator and psychologist" whom Jacqueline Winspear introduced in 2003, and The Last Hope is the 11th installment for Maggie Hope, once Winston Churchill’s secretary and now "a capable and shrewd spy." Winspear also paid tribute to her literary creation in her newsletter on her website.

In the Q&A roundup, Catriona McPherson, author of the Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, and more, applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Deep Beneath Us; Deborah Kalb interviewed author Lori Roy about her new novel, Lake County; Jill Amadio chatted with Michael Finkel, author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa; debut crime fiction author Angela van Breemen spoke with Lisa Haselton about her new paranormal novel, Past Life’s Revenge, the first book in the David Harris and Emma Jackson mystery series; Crime Time interviewed Mark Billingham about leaving Tom Thorne behind – albeit temporarily – and starting a new series; and crime writer Paul Cleave chatted with the New Zealand Herald about taking part in Cunard’s inaugural Literature Festival at Sea voyage.

Author R&R with John David Bethel

John David Bethel was a speechwriter to Cabinet Secretaries at the Departments of Commerce and Education during the Bush 41 and 43 administrations. He also served as a press secretary and speechwriter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Additionally, Bethel worked as a communications strategist for a number of national and international public relations firms, including Burson Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. Bethel is also an award-winning author whose novels include Evil Town, Hotel Hell, Unheard Of, Holding Back the Dark, and A Washington Trilogy, and he's been published in popular consumer magazines and respected political journals.

His latest crime novel is Mapping the Night, in which FBI Special Agents Eileen Prado and Ira Fisher are inserted into the investigation of the Upper East Side serial murders at the instigation of forces working within government who want the identity of one of the victims kept quiet. Their partners in the NYPD have their own agenda: they are hiding the true identity of the man known as The Uptown Savage.

John David Bethel stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

 

My novels are drawn from true crime.

Mapping the Night is introduced with the scene of a boy kneeling beside the body of his mother, trying to revive her by applying a bag of frozen vegetables across her forehead. He explains to the police officers who discover him that this is how “she made me feel better when I was sick.” That haunting scene came straight from a New York City police report of the murder of a single mother. It was the first of many victims of the same killer.

The modus operandi of the perpetrator was consistent – as was his choice of victims. All were single mothers of young boys; all raped and strangled; all the murder scenes were immaculately cleaned beyond what would be necessary to erase evidence.

Having written about serial murderers in other novels, for which I did extensive research, I had a handle on the antagonist in Mapping the Night; however, I had not written about this particular type of offender. There are four types of serial killers: thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary killers and power/control seekers. In this novel, the offender is mission-oriented, meaning he justifies his murders as necessary to rid the world of people he considers undesirable. I went to work researching this particular deviant behavior and found that mission-oriented serial killers are organized, stable and clear thinkers. They can hold jobs, sometimes very coveted positions in respected fields, and they plan and commit their crimes quickly and efficiently.

With these details worked out, I needed a protagonist – other than law enforcement – who would enable the reader to identify with a “citizen” central to the action. Someone with a reason to be in the right place at the right time, meaning on the streets of New York in the middle of the night. That became Warren Winston who suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum. Translated it means he is allergic to light.

Winston lives in the dark, only leaving his apartment in the Plaza Residences on the toney side of town in the middle of the night. He wanders the upper East and West sides of the city, as well as Central Park, and knows the history and geography of these neighborhoods intricately – a vehicle to introduce and educate the reader about Uptown New York. It also puts Winston in a position to encounter the Uptown Savage.

After establishing the location for the novel, I also had to do some research on how and who from law enforcement would be handling events. That required understanding how the city is divided into precincts, who directs these precincts, and how the detectives operate within them. Special agents from the FBI would also have a role which meant research was needed to understand their involvement. There is also a political element in Mapping the Night that allowed me to mine my career in politics to add a dash of realism to that aspect of the plot.

I do my research as needed when I am writing. I do not write from an outline nor do I prepare background on the characters until I create them. Many writers work from an intricately prepared outline and prepare elaborate backstories for their characters. This provides a strong foundation that takes them from the first sentence of their novel to the final one knowing where they are going and how they are going to get there. I tried that approach but found it took the fun out of writing for me. I want to be write the way I read; being surprised about what is around the corner; how characters will react to the situations they encounter.

Long story short, I write by the seat of my pants and conduct research when it is needed to inform the plot. In some ways, this is easier and more efficient than information gathering in anticipation of what might be required to write a believable story. Oftentimes, I think writers who deep dive on research feel the need to include every bit of what they find in the novel. That can take the life out of the story. I am a minimalist.

I jump into my writing without a parachute but manage a soft landing.

 

You can learn more about J. David Bethel and his writing on his website and follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Mapping the Night is available for now via Amazon.