Mystery Melange

Wyoming's Craig Johnson, author of the "Longmire" series, is the 2025 winner of the Owen Wister Award, the highest honor given by Western Writers of America in recognition of lifetime contributions to the genre. Originally given for "best book of the year," it was expanded in 1967 to include anyone advancing Western literature. Previous winners include Tony Hillerman, Elmore Leonard, and Loren D. Estleman.

Foreword Book Reviews announced the finalists for the INDIES Book of the Year Awards, including the dozen titles in both the Mystery and Thriller categories. Winners in each genre, along with Editor’s Choice Prize winners and Foreword’s Indie Publisher of the Year, will be announced in June 2025.

Several crime writers are putting together an auction for trans rights, with all proceeds going to the Transgender Law Center, an organization providing legal protections for trans adults and youth in the United States. The auction runs March 26-April 1, and includes writers like David Baldacci, Gillian Flynn, Roxane Gay, Ann Cleaves, S.A. Cosby, Megan Abbott, Kellye Garrett, Louise Penny, Alex Segura, Robyn Gigl, Gigi Pandian, and a lot more donating prizes for the cause. Check out all of the participating writers (as well as agents, organizations, bookstores, and more) and prizes via this link.

Alex Mattingly (aka Craig Francis Coates) is establishing a new crime/mystery publication for short fiction. Cold Caller is currently seeking stories of 2-6,000 words about "bad decisions and worse consequences; unlucky losers who can't catch a break; grifters and con men convinced they're about to score big; good men and women who have very good reasons to do terrible things." For more information, follow this link.

Mystery Readers Journal is seeking articles, reviews, and author essays about mysteries that focus on retail sales (shops, stores, and retail sales settings). Author Essays (500-1,000 words) are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "Retail Sales" connection, while articles on the topic should also be 500-1,000 words, and reviews 50-250 words.

Janet Rudolph posted a list of St. Patrick's Day themed Crime Fiction and mysteries.

This is almost more of a Media Murder for Monday item, but The John Wick Experience, based on the $1 billion-grossing "John Wick" movie franchise, is now open to the public. The 12,000-square-foot an immersive attraction is located at AREA15 (where Universal will soon open a year-round horror experience) and includes more than a dozen highly themed cinematic rooms, live interactions and interactive gameplay, two themed bars, and a retail shop.


In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Clea Simon, author of three nonfiction books and 32 cozy mysteries and suspense novels, most recently the psychological suspense title, The Butterfly Trap; mystery author Darlene Dziomba chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new cozy release, Assault & Gobblery; Tessa Wegert, author of the Shana Merchant series, stopped by Promoting Crime Fiction to discuss her writing and her latest book, The Coldest Case; and David Ellis, a Judge and an Edgar-award-winning author of ten novels of crime fiction, as well as eight books co-authored with James Patterson, stopped by WGN radio to talk about his writing style and how he goes about writing crime novels.