Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Midnight Plumber

 

British author Maurice Procter (1906–1973) worked faithfully as a Police Constable in Yorkshire for nineteen years, with part of his time spent on motorcycle patrol. He was also involved in the investigation of the Halifax Slasher in 1938. All during his time on the force, however, he harbored a secret desire to write crime novels and kept his hobby hidden from his colleagues until his first book was due to be published, when he promptly resigned.

Being the first British author to specialize in police procedurals would have been enough to make him stand out in the crowd, but Procter's background led an air of credibility and authority to his works that made them popular. His first series didn't appear until 1951 with two back-to-back titles featuring Chief Inspector Philip Hunter, but he reached his peak with a fourteen-book series begun in 1954 with Hell Is a City and ending with Hideaway in 1968, all featuring Chief Inspector Martineau.

Procter invented cities and towns for settings, chiefly the city of Granchester, likely a stand-in for Manchester or Liverpool. Granchester is an inland port called the "Metropolis of the North," a police force 1,100 strong with its own forensic experts that believes they can hold their own with Scotland Yard. Martineau's superintendent realizes his man is a born detective better at solving cases than merely supervising others, something Martineau puts to the test most of the time.

The Midnight Plumber is the second outing with Inspector Martineau and puts Martineau and his men, including the normally-stalwart Detective Sergeant Devery, in the position of having to track down a swift and ruthless gang of burglars whose leader is known only as "The Plumber." But the police have a problem finding leads among the usual police informants who don't want to get involved for fear of getting killed for their troubles, something The Plumber has already demonstrated he's more than willing to do. Martineau's substantial skills are put to the test, and his patience, too, as he deals with Devery's affair with a criminal's wife on top of everything else.

Procter uses his work background to good effect in his novels, weaving in procedural tips and insights (from a 1950s UK point of view), although his methods may seem unusual at times, like going undercover as a gypsy. In his foreword to the Black Dagger reprint, Martin Edwards notes that although this may seem outlandish at first, Procter is careful to point out in the story that Martineau is taking his cues from the police handbook by Dr. Hans Gross, Criminal Investigation. Procter also manages to maintain a tight pace even after the identity of The Plumber is revealed by using a technique he'd turn to often, the POV reversal: switching back and forth between criminal in flight and the police, leading to what Martin Edwards called "a splendid, savage irony" in the very last sentence of the novel.

Although this particular novel wasn't made into a movie or TV program, a few of Procter's novels were, including the first Martineau work, Hell is a City, released in 1960 and starring Stanley Baker, Billie Whitelaw and Donald Pleasence. Interestingly Procter's works are collected and available for inspection at the Howard B. Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Massachusetts, as part of the Sam Wanamaker Collection that contains the actor/director's manuscripts, correspondence, and production files.

2025 CWA Daggers Shortlists

The UK's Crime Writers’ Association  announced the shortlists for the annual Dagger Awards, one of the most prestigious honors in the world of crime writing. The 2025 awards include two new categories: The Twisted Dagger, which celebrates "psychological thrillers and dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail"; and The Whodunnit Dagger, for books that "focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery, including cozy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age-inspired mysteries." The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 3. Congrats to all the finalists!

 

GOLD DAGGER

• A Divine Fury by D V Bishop (Macmillan)
• The Bell Tower by R J Ellory (Orion)
• The Hunter by Tana French (Penguin Books Ltd)
• Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Profile Books Ltd)
• Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola (Orion)
• I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel (Bedford Square Publishers)
  
  

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

• Dark Ride by Lou Berney (Hemlock Press/ HarperCollins)
• Nobody's Hero by M W Craven (Constable/Little Brown, Hachette)
• Sanctuary by Garry Disher (Viper/Profile Books)
• Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill & Secker/ Penguin Random House)
• Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville (Simon & Schuster)
• City in Ruins by Don Winslow (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)
  
  

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

 

• Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull (Penguin Random House/ Michael Joseph)
• Knife River by Justine Champine (Bonnier Books UK/ Manilla Press)
• Three Burials by Anders Lustgarten (Penguin Random House/ Hamish Hamilton) 
• A Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder by Gay Marris (Bedford Square Publishers)         
• All Us Sinners by Katy Massey (Little, Brown /Sphere)
• Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books UK/ Zaffre)

 

HISTORICAL DAGGER

• A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)
• Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)
• The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)
• The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West  (Orenda Books)
• Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield (Aries / Head of Zeus)

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

• Dogs and Wolves by Hervé Le Corre (Europa Editions UK) tr. Howard Curtis
• Going to the Dogs by Pierre Lemaitre (Maclehose Press) tr. Frank Wynne
• The Night of Baby Yaga by Akira Otani (Faber & Faber) tr. Sam Bett
• The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Rämö (Zaffre) tr.  Kristian London  
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate) tr. Polly Barton
• Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán (4th Estate) tr. Sophie Hughes

 

GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

• Unmasking Lucy Let by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz (Seven Dials)   
• The Lady in the Lake by Jeremy Craddock (Mirror Books)   
• Framed by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey (Hodder & Stoughton)  
• The Criminal Mind by Duncan Harding (PRH/Michael Joseph)   
• Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming (Quercus)   
• The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus)

 

SHORT STORY DAGGER

• "The Glorious Twelfth" by S.J Bennett in Midsummer Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)
• "A Date on Yarmouth Pier" by J.C Bernthal in Midsummer Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)
• "Why Harrogate?" by Janice Hallett in Murder in Harrogate, edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)
• "City Without Shadows" by William Burton McCormick in Midsummer Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)
• "A Ruby Sun" by Meeti Shroff-Shah in Midsummer Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)
• "Murder at the Turkish Baths" by Ruth Ware in Murder in Harrogate, edited by Vaseem Khan, (Orion Publishing Group/ Orion Fiction)

 

WHODUNNIT DAGGER

• A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett, (Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)
• Murder at the Christmas Emporium by Andreina Cordani,(Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)
• The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall, (Hera Hera)
• A Good Place to Hide a Body by Laura Marshall, (Hodder & Stoughton )
• A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah, (Joffe Books)
• Murder at the Matinee, by Jamie West, (Brabinger Publishing)

 

TWISTED DAGGER

• Emma, Disappeared by Andrew Hughes (Hachette Books Ireland)
• Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings (HarperCollins/ HQ FICTION)
• The Stranger In Her House by John Marrs (Amazon Publishing/ Thomas & Mercer)
• The Trials Of Marjorie Crowe by CS Robertson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra: (PRH/ Viking)
• Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman (Quercus)

 

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

• Kate Atkinson
• Robert Galbraith
• Janice Hallett
• Lisa Jewell
• Edward Marston
• Richard Osman

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

• Bitter Lemon Press
• Faber & Faber
• Orenda Books
• Pan Macmillan
• Simon & Schuster
  
  

EMERGING AUTHOR DAGGER

• Bahadur Is My Name by Loftus Brown, 
• Funeral Games by Shannon Chamberlain
• Soho Love, Soho Blood by Hywel Davies
• Ashland by Joe Eurell
• The Fifth by Shannon Falkson,
• Murder Under Wraps by Catherine Lovering

Mystery Melange

 The Romantic Novelists Association announced the winners of their 2025 awards in various categories, including Romantic Thriller, won by Whatever it Takes by Joy Wood (Self Published). The other finalists in the category include Cold Fury by Toni Anderson (Self Published); The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins (Aria/Head of Zeus); Freja Born by Jessi A. Charles (Austin McCauley); and Deadly Treasures by Jane McParkes (Self Published).

The longlist was announced for the 2025 Davitt Awards, an honor bestowed by Sisters in Crime Australia, which has celebrated Aussie women’s crime writing since 1991. Judges whittled down 129 eligible books to compile the longlist of 29 titles in four categories. The shortlist will be revealed in July, with winners announced at the Davitt Awards Gala Ceremony in August or September. At the gala, two additional awards will be revealed: Best Debut Book (any category) and Readers’ Choice (as voted the 600+ members of Sisters in Crime Australia). The Davitts are named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865.

This Saturday, May 31st, the 2025 Sacramento Book Festival will include a Thriller Panel, featuring Simon Wood, James L’Etoile, Terry Shames, Richard Meredith, and Anne Da Vigo, along with moderator, Robin Burcell. Burcell will also serve as moderator for a second panel on Mystery & Crime, featuring Karen Phillips, Jennifer Morita, Cara Black, Cindy Sample, and Claire Booth. The luncheon keynote address speaker is James Rollins, the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, whose writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books.

Noir at the Bookstore will hit One More Page Books on June 12th in Arlington, Virginia, with E.A. Aymar moderating. Authors scheduled to read from their works include John Copenhaver (Hall of MIrrors) Libby Klein (Vice and Virtue); Vera Kurian (A Step Past Darkness); KT Nguyen (You Know What You Did); Brendan Slocumb (The Dark Maestro); and Aggie Blum Thompson (You Deserve to Know). In addition to also regularly hosting D.C. Noir at the Bar, author E.A. Aymar (When She Left) is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, former member of the national board of the International Thriller Writers, and an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime.

The ghostwriters and editing firm Kevin Anderson & Associates are the new sponsors of the coveted Crime Writers’ Association’s (CWA) Gold Dagger, which recognizes the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK during the judging period. The award has been given annually since 1960 (between 1955 and 1959, it was called the Crossed Red Herring Award). Previous honorees have include John le Carré, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, Mick Herron, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, and Chris Whitaker. (HT to Promoting Crime Fiction)

Malden, Massachusetts, honored its native son, author-attorney Erle Stanley Gardner, by unveiling a mural by Fred Seager on May 19 that pays tribute to Gardner's iconic Perry Mason mysteries.  Gardner was born in Malden in 1889, moving to California with his family when he was 10 years old. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 is "Red Vase" by Kenneth Pobo.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly interviewed Denise Mina about her books and their police detectives, forensic scientists, a reporter, a psychiatric patient—all who have one thing in common with their creator: they are all imperfect or messy in one way or another; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Andrew Raymond, author of the Novak and Mitchell political thriller series, and the Duncan Grant spy thriller series as well as a newer series featuring DCI Lomond, a Glasgow detective; husband-and-wife writing duo Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski stopped by The Stiletto Gang blog to talk about their writing; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Timothy Jay Smith about his latest thriller set in Greece, Fire on the Island; Megan Abbott was interviewed by The Washington Post about her new novel, El Dorado Drive, and what keeps her motivated; and People Magazine spoke with Gillian Flynn, author of bestsellers like Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, about her writing and her new imprint, Gillian Flynn Books.

The Romantic Novelists Association announced the winners of their 2025 awards in various categories, including Romantic Thriller, won by Whatever it Takes by Joy Wood (Self Published). The other finalists in the category include Cold Fury by Toni Anderson (Self Published); The Memory of Us by Dani Atkins (Aria/Head of Zeus); Freja Born by Jessi A. Charles (Austin McCauley); and Deadly Treasures by Jane McParkes (Self Published).

The longlist was announced for the 2025 Davitt Awards, an honor bestowed by Sisters in Crime Australia, which has celebrated Aussie women’s crime writing since 1991. Judges whittled down 129 eligible books to compile the longlist of 29 titles in four categories. The shortlist will be revealed in July, with winners announced at the Davitt Awards Gala Ceremony in August or September. At the gala, two additional awards will be revealed: Best Debut Book (any category) and Readers’ Choice (as voted the 600+ members of Sisters in Crime Australia). The Davitts are named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865.

This Saturday, May 31st, the 2025 Sacramento Book Festival will include a Thriller Panel, featuring Simon Wood, James L’Etoile, Terry Shames, Richard Meredith, and Anne Da Vigo, along with moderator, Robin Burcell. Burcell will also serve as moderator for a second panel on Mystery & Crime, featuring Karen Phillips, Jennifer Morita, Cara Black, Cindy Sample, and Claire Booth. The luncheon keynote address speaker is James Rollins, the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, whose writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books.

Noir at the Bookstore will hit One More Page Books on June 12th in Arlington, Virginia, with E.A. Aymar moderating. Authors scheduled to read from their works include John Copenhaver (Hall of MIrrors) Libby Klein (Vice and Virtue); Vera Kurian (A Step Past Darkness); KT Nguyen (You Know What You Did); Brendan Slocumb (The Dark Maestro); and Aggie Blum Thompson (You Deserve to Know). In addition to also regularly hosting D.C. Noir at the Bar, author E.A. Aymar (When She Left) is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, former member of the national board of the International Thriller Writers, and an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime.

The ghostwriters and editing firm Kevin Anderson & Associates are the new sponsors of the coveted Crime Writers’ Association’s (CWA) Gold Dagger, which recognizes the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK during the judging period. The award has been given annually since 1960 (between 1955 and 1959, it was called the Crossed Red Herring Award). Previous honorees have include John le Carré, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, Mick Herron, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, and Chris Whitaker. (HT to Promoting Crime Fiction)

Malden, Massachusetts, honored its native son, author-attorney Erle Stanley Gardner, by unveiling a mural by Fred Seager on May 19 that pays tribute to Gardner's iconic Perry Mason mysteries.  Gardner was born in Malden in 1889, moving to California with his family when he was 10 years old. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 is "Red Vase" by Kenneth Pobo.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly interviewed Denise Mina about her books and their police detectives, forensic scientists, a reporter, a psychiatric patient—all who have one thing in common with their creator: they are all imperfect or messy in one way or another; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Andrew Raymond, author of the Novak and Mitchell political thriller series, and the Duncan Grant spy thriller series as well as a newer series featuring DCI Lomond, a Glasgow detective; husband-and-wife writing duo Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski stopped by The Stiletto Gang blog to talk about their writing; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Timothy Jay Smith about his latest thriller set in Greece, Fire on the Island; Megan Abbott was interviewed by The Washington Post about her new novel, El Dorado Drive, and what keeps her motivated; and People Magazine spoke with Gillian Flynn, author of bestsellers like Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, about her writing and her new imprint, Gillian Flynn Books.

Agatha Award Accolades

Winners of the annual Agatha Awards were announced at the Agatha Awards Banquet on Saturday night during the Malice Domestic Conference, held in Bethesda, MD. The  awards celebrate the traditional mystery, best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence, and would not be classified as "hard-boiled." ​Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Contemporary Novel:  A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian

Also nominated:

• A Collection Of Lies by Connie Berry
•  Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron
• Fondue Or Die by Korina Moss
• The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves

Best Historical Novel:  To Slip The Bonds Of Earth by Amanda Flower

Also nominated:

• Hall Of Mirrors by John Copenhaver
• The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
• The Paris Mistress by Mally Becker
• The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks

Best First Novel:  You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen

Also nominated:

• A Deadly Endeavor by Jenny Adams
• Ghosts Of WaikīkĪ by Jennifer K. Morita
• Hounds Of The Hollywood Baskervilles by Elizabeth Crowens
• Threads Of Deception by Elle Jauffret

Best Short Story:  "The Postman Always Flirts Twice" by Barb Goffman, Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy

Also nominated:

• "A Matter Of Trust" by Barb Goffman, Three Strikes—You're Dead
• "Reynisfjara" by Kristopher Zgorski, Mystery Most International
• "Satan’s Spit" by Gabriel Valjan, Tales of Music, Murder and Mayhem: Bouchercon 2024
• "Sins Of The Father" by Kerry Hammond, Mystery Most International

Best Non-fiction:  Writing The Cozy Mystery: Authors' Perspectives On Their Craft Edited by Phyllis M. Betz

Also nominated:

• Abingdon's Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly
• Agatha Christie, Marple: Expert On Wickedness by Mark Aldridge
• Some Of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing The Columbo Killers by Chris Chan
• The Bookshop: A History Of The American Bookstore by Evan Friss

Best Children's/YA:  The Big Grey Man Of Ben Macdhui by K.B. Jackson

Also nominated:

• First Week Free At The Roomy Toilet: A June Knight Mystery by Josh Pachter
• Sasquatch of Harriman Lake by K.B. Jackson
• Sid Johnson & The Well-Intended Conspiracy by Frances Schoonmaker
• he Sherlock Society by James Ponti

Author R&R with N.L. Holmes

N.L. Holmes is the pen name of a professional archaeologist who attended The University of Texas but dropped out midway to enter into the antiques business. Two years later, she entered the Discalced Carmelite convent in Texas. She left the convent twenty years later and returned to school to get her B.A. in Classical Studies and then a doctorate from Bryn Mawr College. She has since excavated in Greece and Israel and conducted archaeological artwork for excavations from Lebanon. She also taught ancient history and humanities at Stockton University in New Jersey and the University of South Florida for many years. Her fourteen published novels embrace two series of historical fiction: the Lord Hani Mysteries, set in the Egypt of Akhenaten, and the Empire at Twilight series, featuring life in the Hittite Empire in the 13th century BCE.

The Lord Hani Mysteries center on Neferet, a young woman physician of ancient Egypt, and Bener-ib, the woman of her heart, who just want to help the people of a working class neighborhood of Thebes. But murder victims keep showing up. With the help of Neferet's father Hani and their teenaged apprentice, the two women find themselves launched on a whole new career. In the latest installment, Melody of Evil, a corpse washes up on the riverbank at Lord Hani’s country house, and Neferet, Bener-ib, and apprentice Mut-tuy head for the local village to try to identify it. But they find themselves entangled in a web of murder and lies in the heart of a family of weavers. Can the perseverance of three determined women and the bonds of parental love win out, or will Neferet herself become the next victim?

N.L. Holmes stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the series:

 

The thing that makes historical novels so wonderful to read — and to write — is the amount of research it necessarily takes to bring a time and place in the past vividly to life. The author needs to have a deep and broad picture of her world in all its details, even if she never uses them, in order for that world to come across as natural and believable and not just a parade of half digested factoids. I've read books (and I'm sure you have too) that crammed such facts down the reader's throat in an inorganic way that seemed to say "Look how much I know." Ugh!

My books are set in the Bronze Age Near East, either in Egypt or in the Hittite Empire. As an archaeologist and professor of ancient history, I had a fair amount of background knowledge before I ever started writing, but I prepped for each series by reading heavily about the time, its historical lead-up, any characters who were real people, and anything I could learn about daily life in all its aspects. The size of my research library testifies to my obsessiveness about this! My principle is that anything we know for certain about a person or period must be observed. If I make any exceptions to this rule (and I have made one or two for the sake of the story), then I'm sure to inform the reader up front. People take seriously what we tell them about the past, and they should be able to trust us. Just because we write fiction doesn't absolve us from being accurate. That being said, there's a lot we don't know about "way back then", and that's a legitimate field for filling in with plausible reconstructions of life. However, the judgment about what's plausible is best made from a place of extreme familiarity with the culture.

Almost all my books are based on real historical events and people. I had to read all references to those folks that turn up in documents  and everything sources tell us about how events went down. Then, armed with those few solid facts, I asked, "What actually happened to produce this result? What would the human cost have been? Why might this person have made the choices he did?" I think boring down on the human aspect of history is what make it interesting. I you only know  dates and treaties and battles, it's sterile and boring, much the way it's often taught in middle school. Lord Hani, for example, is a real historical diplomat who is mentioned frequently over many years in the Amarna Letters, a happily preserved set of diplomatic correspondences chronicling the reigns of Amenhotep IV and his son Akhenaten, the "Heretic pharaoh." I practically memorized the various references to Hani, then I considered what sort of man he must have been to be entrusted with important missions over twenty years. The king said of him, "Everybody's happy when Hani comes," and that tells us something very important about his human side. This is how research underlies every choice the writer makes about plot and character.

After this initial layer of research, I find there are just little specialized sorts of details to learn about. For instance, each of the Hani's Daughter Mysteries deals with a different profession in ancient Egypt, so I find out whatever we know about each of these worlds to provide the story with lifelike details. There's always the danger that doing more and more and MORE research can  take the place of actually writing. It's fun and low-stakes and can become a distraction from ever really getting started on the book. My rule of thumb is do a lot of general background, then just-start-the-heck-writing. Don't wait till you feel sure you know everything. Additional details can be researched as you come to them.

 

You can learn more about N.L. Holmes via her website and follow her on  LinkedIn and Facebook. The Melody of Evil is now available via all major booksellers.

Crimefest Names Its Final Winners

After sixteen successful years, Bristol’s iconic crime fiction convention, CrimeFest, will come to an end in 2025. But they went out with a bang, including the annual CrimeFest Awards, with winners revealed at a Gala Awards Dinner yesterday evening. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD:  Akira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) for The Night of Baba Yaga (Faber & Faber)

Other finalists include:

• Tom Baragwanath for Paper Cage (Baskerville)
• Tasha Coryell for Love Letters to a Serial Killer (Orion Fiction)
• C. L. Miller for The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (Pan Macmillan)
• Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching (Viking)
• Claire Wilson for Five by Five (Michael Joseph)

eDUNNIT AWARD:  Jean Hanff Korelitz for The Sequel (Faber & Faber)

Other finalists include:

• Martin Edwards for Hemlock Bay (Head of Zeus)
• Laurie R. King for The Lantern’s Dance (Allison & Busby)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Liz Moore for The God of the Woods (The Borough Press)
• Peter Swanson for A Talent for Murder (Faber & Faber)

LAST LAUGH AWARD:  Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Christmas (Severn House) 

Other finalists include:

• Cathy Ace for The Case of the Secretive Secretary (Four Tails Publishing Ltd.)
• DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin (Harvill Secker)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Orlando Murrin for Knife Skills for Beginners (Transworld)
• Antti Tuomianen (and translator David Hackston) for The Burning Stones (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD:  Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness (HarperCollins) 

Other finalists include:

• Jem Bloomfield for Allusion in Detective Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Ashley Bowden for Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 (Fabula Mysterium Press)
• Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction (Dead Ink)
• Sara Lodge for The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female (Yale University Press)
• Lynda La Plante for Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen (Zaffre)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA: Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)

Other finalists include:

• Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen (Apple TV+)
• Dalgliesh (series 3), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
• Lady in the Lake based on the book by Laura Lippman (Apple TV+)
• Moonflower Murders based on the book by Anthony Horowitz (BBC)
• The Turkish Detective, based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel (BBC)

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR CHILDREN:  Sufiya Ahmed for Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker (Bloomsbury Education)

Other finalists include:

• Natasha Farrant for The Secret of Golden Island (Faber & Faber)
• A.M. Howell for Mysteries at Sea: The Hollywood Kidnap Case (Usborne Publishing)
• M. G. Leonard for The Twitchers: Feather (Walker Books)
• Beth Lincoln for The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Nicki Thornton for The Floating Witch Mystery (Faber & Faber)

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS:  Kayvion Lewis for Heist Royale (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)

Other finalists include:

• H.F. Askwith for A Cruel Twist of Fate (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Denise Brown for It All Started With a Lie (Hashtag Press)
• A.J. Clack for Lie or Die (Firefly Press)
• Amie  Jordan for All the Hidden Monsters (Chicken House)
• Karen M. McManus for Such Charming Liars (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)

Author R&R with Mike Cobb

A native of Georgia, Mike Cobb splits his time between Midtown Atlanta and Blue Ridge, a tiny lake town tucked in the North Georgia mountains where Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina intersect. His body of literary work includes both fiction and nonfiction, short-form and long-form, as well as articles and blogs. He is the author of four published novels, Dead Beckoning, The Devil You Knew, its sequel You Will Know Me by My Deeds, and Muzzle the Black Dog. While he is comfortable playing across a broad range of topics, much of his focus is on true crime, crime fiction, and historical fiction. Rigorous research is foundational to his writing. He gets that honestly, having spent much of his professional career as a scientist. In his spare time, Mike enjoys reading, cooking, boating, and spending time with his family, including four granddaughters.

In Muzzle the Black Dog, when a mysterious stranger appears at Jack Pate’s isolated cabin door, his life is forever changed. The stranger’s cryptic message sets off a chain of events that lead Jack on a harrowing journey to uncover the true meaning of his own existence. As a series of unexplained fires threaten to consume everything he holds dear, Jack is forced to confront his deepest fears and question everything he thought he knew about himself. Set in the aftermath of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, Jack’s search for the truth takes him to the edge of sanity and puts him on a collision course with a dark and powerful force that has been lurking in the shadows. Readers will join Jack on a gripping and thought-provoking quest for answers in this tale of self-discovery and redemption.

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

I was a scientist before I became a writer, and while the tools have changed, the instincts and rigor remain the same. Curiosity still drives me, and research is where I feel at home—whether I’m digging through archives or reconstructing a vanished world on the page.

When I set out to write Muzzle the Black Dog, I knew the story would brush up against real, painful events that I remember well. The novel draws in part on the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, Eric Rudolph, and his brother Daniel. To get it right, I immersed myself in newspaper coverage from the time, sifting through headlines, timelines, and firsthand accounts. I combed archives for details that had long since slipped from public memory—what streets looked like, how events unfolded minute by minute, what the air might’ve felt like that day in the park.

It wasn’t just about facts—it was also about feel. I spent time in the places I was writing about, trying to capture the texture of the environment, the cadence of speech, the lingering tension in the aftermath of trauma. And because the book is fundamentally a work of fiction, I let my fictional characters speak to me and help me interweave their story around the panoply of historical events.

Just as I once studied data in a lab and scientific journals, I now study people, places, and moments—hoping to translate that understanding into fiction that feels true.

This deep-dive approach to research isn’t unique to Muzzle the Black Dog. It’s something I’ve brought to every book I’ve written and published. Whether I’m writing about a historical moment or a fictional crime, I ground my stories in real places, real people, and the real-world forces that shape them. I’ve spent countless hours in libraries, archives, on city streets, and in quiet corners of the internet, chasing down the smallest details—a street name, a weather report, the scent of a room—because those are the threads that help a story come alive. Research, for me, isn’t just a step in the process—it’s the heartbeat of the work.

 

You can learn more about Mike Cobb and his books at his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Goodreads. Muzzle the Black Dog and Mike’s other books are available from Amazon and all major booksellers.

Anthony Accolades

 The organizers of this year's Bouchercon Crime Fiction Conference, "Blood on the Bayou: Case Closed," announced the finalists for the annual Anthony Awards, with winners to be revealed during the convention in New Orleans, September 3-7. Congrats to all the finalists! (With a special hat tip and thanks to Jeff Pierce at The Rap Sheet.)

Best Hardcover Novel:

• Missing White Woman, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland)
• The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore (Riverhead)
• The Grey Wolf, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• Alter Ego, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)
• California Bear, by Duane Swiercynski (Mulholland)

Best First Novel:

• The Mechanics of Memory, by Audrey Lee (CamCat)
• Ghosts of Waikiki, by Jennifer K. Morita (Crooked Lane)
• You Know What You Did, by K.T. Nguyen (Dutton)
• Good-Looking Ugly, by Rob D. Smith (Shotgun Honey)
• Holy City, by Henry Wise (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Best Paperback/E-book/Audiobook:

• The Last Few Miles of Road, by Eric Beetner (Level Best)
• Echo, by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
• Served Cold, by James L’Etoile (Level Best)
• Late Checkout, by Alan Orloff (Level Best)
• The Big Lie, by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best/Historia)

Best Historical:

• The Lantern’s Dance, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
• The Witching Hour, by Catriona McPherson (Mobius)
• The Bootlegger’s Daughter, by Nadine Nettmann (Lake Union)
• The Murder of Mr. Ma, by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan (Soho Crime)
• The Courtesan’s Pirate, by Nina Wachsman (Level Best/Historia)

Best Paranormal:

• A New Lease on Death, by Olivia Blacke (Minotaur)
• Five Furry Familiars, by Lynn Cahoon (Kensington Cozies)
• Exposure, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
• Lights, Cameras, Bones, by Carolyn Haines (Minotaur)
• Death in Ghostly Hue, by Susan Van Kirk (Level Best)

Best Cozy/Humorous:

• A Cup of Flour, a Pinch of Death, by Valerie Burns (Kensington Cozies)
• A Very Woodsy Murder, by Ellen Byron (Kensington Cozies)
• Ill-Fated Fortune, by Jennifer J. Chow (Minotaur)
• Scotzilla, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House)
• Cirque du Slay, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)
• Dominoes, Danzón, and Death, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel:

• The Big Grey Men of Ben MacDhui, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)
• The Sasquatch of Harriman Lake, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)
• First Week Free at the Roomy Toilet, by Josh Proctor (Level Elevate)
• The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti (Aladdin Paperbacks)
• When Mimi Went Missing, by Suja Sukumar (Soho Teen)

Best Critical/Non-fiction:

• Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft, edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland)
• Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers, by Chris Chan (Level Best)
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett, by Ashley Lawson (Ohio State University Press)
• Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder, by Greg Lilly (History Press)
• The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, by Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman (Crime Ink)

Best Anthology/Collection:

• Murder, Neat: A Sleuthslayer’s Anthology, edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman (Level Short)
• Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson (Down & Out)
• Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg (Soho Crime)
• Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024, edited by Heather Graham (Down & Out)
• Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out)

Best Short Story:

• “A Matter of Trust,” by Barb Goffman (from Three Strikes—You’re Dead, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley (Wildside Press)
• “Twenty Centuries,” by James D.F. Hannah (from Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, edited by Tod Goldberg; Soho Crime)
• “Something to Hold Onto,” by Curtis Ippolito (from Dark Yonder, Issue 6, edited by Katy Munger and Eryk Pruitt; Thalia Press)
• “Satan’s Spit,” by Gabriel Valjan (from Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024, edited by Heather Graham; Down & Out)
• “Reynisfjara,” by Kristopher Zgorski (from Mystery Most International, edited by Rita Owen, Verena Rose, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Level Short)

Author R&R with Jeremy D. Baker

Jeremy D. Baker grew up in Italy, Florida, and Maryland. After dropping out of college at 19, he joined the US Army as a counterintelligence agent and HUMINT collector. He is a combat veteran and PTSD survivor. For the last 20 years he’s worked in national security, with a focus on intelligence, counterterrorism, and transnational organized crime. He lives with his wonderful family in Maryland, where he keeps a little garden and writes about the things that keep him up at night.

His debut novel, The Guilty Sleep, follows veteran Dexter Grant, who is suffering from PTSD and on the verge of divorce when he is approached by his former Army buddies to help save the life of their interpreter in Afghanistan. It means robbing a lot of money from a vicious queen pin. But not to worry. They have it all worked out, and if anyone can pull it off, it's Dexter's former team lead Staff Sergeant Saenz. Tempted by an easy score that could make his own problems disappear and imbued with new purpose, Dex agrees to play his part. But as in combat, the best laid plans don't survive first contact, and when the heist goes off the rails, Dex's wife and daughter become targets for bloody revenge. Dex must call on all his strength and training to save them, and in his quest he will learn there was much more to this robbery than he ever imagined.

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

 

Disclaimer:  As with all writing experience and advice, my take here is very subjective to my own personal experience.  And now that that is out of the way, let me lay down a gold-plated, iron-clad, tungsten-hearted absolute maxim of writing:  have some freaking fun with it.  If what you’re writing doesn’t bring you at least a modicum of enjoyment or entertainment, what are you even doing?  Yeah, sometimes we’re going to write about dark, challenging, hurtful stuff—this is a key to compelling fiction, right?  But you should also be enjoying the act of writing, the act of creation, the act of telling your story as only you can.

For me, one of the main elements of my personality that has directly translated into enjoying my writing, is that I am a fundamentally curious person.  I always like to learn more about the world we live in, how it works, where we came from, and where we’re going.  This inherent curiosity made me a decent interrogator an adequate intelligence analyst, and a good investigator.  And it’s made me an author who loves to research!

My novel, The Guilty Sleep, is about an Afghanistan vet and former Army Counterintelligence Agent, Dexter Grant, who’s broke, reeling from PTSD, and on the verge of divorce when his old Army crew approaches him to help save the life of their former interpreter.  To do that, they need to rip off a vicious drug lord’s illicit proceeds.  Things, as they do in these scenarios, go very south very quickly, placing Dex’s family squarely in the crosshairs. 

Now, I’m a former Army Counterintelligence Agent and combat veteran of the war in Afghanistan.  I battled PTSD for years, and my life was once saved by one of our interpreters.  And for the last 20 years I’ve worked in law enforcement, intelligence, and national security.  In other words, writing The Guilty Sleep was squarely in my wheelhouse of personal knowledge and experience.  That said, I never personally ripped off a drug lord, engaged in money laundering, got in a shootout with corrupt cops, or many of the other things that happen in my novel.

Which meant I had plenty of things I needed to research, even for such a personal novel:  Maryland divorce law, for starters, plus things like vehicle kill switches, anti-listening device technology, the geography of west Africa, cargo ship transatlantic travel timetables, and successful bank heists.  These were just a few of the things I dove into.  Why?  Well, partly because I wanted to tell a good story, and good stories have an underlying current of absolute truth, even if they’re fictional.  Readers, I think, want believability and verisimilitude in crime thrillers.  They want to know that the way you describe, say, a criminal enterprise’s operations, at least roughly corresponds to how a criminal enterprise operates in the real world.  Just as important to my way of writing, the other reason I dove into these issues was that good ol’ curiosity.  Is there such as thing as a little box the size of a deck of cards which, when switched on, automatically create a 20-foot buffer that subsumes listening devices, wi-fi and cell signals, and video surveillance?  Is there such a thing as a chip that can be plugged into a vehicle’s on-board diagnostic port that allows remote access via phone app?  How would I pull off a bank heist with three teammates, an unmarked van, and 30 miles of country roads, going up against a feckless bank manager and some very annoyed drug dealers?  (The answer to those questions is—maybe, not yet that I could find, and with extreme caution.)  Taking the time to dive into those details through extensive research (internet, interviews, and the library were my friends) brought an extra level of detail and believability to my novel that wouldn’t exist if I’d just winged it!

Here's the other great thing about curiosity and research in my writing experience.  I could be looking for one particular piece of information and follow my yen to learn new and interesting things down a series of research rabbit holes that uncover completely unrelated stuff that either fits into the current story, or sparks a completely new idea.  I write in both the crime/thriller and speculative fiction genres.  In researching the idea of a vehicle kill switch that plugs into the on-board diagnostic port, my research trail directly led to point-to-point encrypted communication phone apps used in furtherance of crime (which makes an appearance in my novel), then somehow onward to a discussion of the old Silk Road caravan route in Central Asia, which led to a comparison of Ummayad versus Abbasid caliphates, which led to a deep dive into the Umayyad state of Córdoba circa 800 CE and the fascinating Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas, the DaVinci of the Islamic world, who may have been the first person to achieve (unpowered) flight…which led to the idea for a short story that I’m still unraveling!

What I’m getting at is, for me, curiosity begets research begets knowledge begets verisimilitude begets writing, and a curious writer is a happy writer.  Give your curiosity free rein, because you never know where it’s going to take you.

Now, about that Andalusian polymath…

 

You can learn more about Jeremy D. Baker via his website and follow him on BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook. The Guilty Sleep is now available via Diversion Books and can be purchased from all major booksellers.

2025 Canadian Awards of Excellence Winners

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the winners of the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. This year, the CWC is also sponsoring a very special presentation of the Derrick Murdoch Award, which is celebrated every two years, honoring those who have contributed greatly to the development of crime writing in Canada through their work as writers, editors, producers, publicists, and organizers. The 2025 recipient is William H. Deverell, a distinguished Canadian novelist, activist, and criminal lawyer.
 

The Miller-Martin Award for Best Crime Novel:  Conor Kerr, Prairie Edge (Strange Light, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada)

Other finalists:

• Colin Barrett, Wild Houses (McClelland & Stewart)
• Jaima Fixsen, The Specimen (Poisoned Pen Pressed Pen Press)
• John MacLachlan Gray, Mr. Good-Evening (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf (Minotaur Books)

Best Crime First Novel:  Ashley Tate, Twenty-Seven Minutes (Doubleday Books Canada)

Other finalists:

• Suzan Denoncourt, The Burden of Truth (Suzan Denoncourt)
• Peter Holloway, The Roaring Game Murders (Bonspiel Books)
• Jim McDonald, Altered Boy (Amalit Books)
• Marianne K. Miller, We Were the Bullfighter (Dundurn Press)

Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:  Shane Peacock, As We Forgive Others (Cormorant Books)

Other finalists:

• Brenda Chapman, Fatal Harvest (Ivy Bay Press)
• Barry W. Levy, The War Machine (Double Dagger Books)
• Greg Rhyno, Who By Fire (Cormorant Books)
• Kerry Wilkinson, The Call (Bookouture)

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery:  Thomas King, Black Ice (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.)

Other finalists:

• Cathy Ace, The Corpse with the Pearly Smile (Four Tails Publishing Ltd.)
• Raye Anderson, The Dead Shall Inherit (Signature Editions)
• Susan Juby, A Meditation on Murder (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.)
• Jonathan Whitelaw, Concert Hall Killer (HarperNorth/ HarperCollins Canada)

Best Crime Novella: Pamela Jones, The Windmill Mystery, Austin Macauley Publishers

Other finalists:

• Marcelle Dubé, Chuck Berry is Missing, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
• Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper, Kensington
• A.J. McCarthy, A Rock, Black Rose Writing
• Twist Phelan, Aim, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best Crime Short Story:  Therese Greenwood, "Hatcheck Bingo," from The 13th Letter, Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem, Carrick Publishing

Other finalists:

• Catherine Astolfo, "Farmer Knudson," from Auntie Beers: A Book of Connected Short Stories, Carrick Publishing
• Billie Livingston, "Houdini Act," Saturday Evening Post
• Linda Sanche, "The Electrician," from Crime Waves, Dangerous Games, A Canada West Anthology
• Melissa Yi, "The Longest Night of the Year," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction):  Guillaume Morrissette, Une mémoire de lion (Saint-Jean)

Other finalists:

• L. Blanchard, La femme papillon (Fides)
• Lavallée, Le crime du garçon exquis (Fides)
• Jean Lemieux, L’Affaire des montants (Québec Amérique)
• Johanne Seymour, Fracture (Libre Expression)

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book:  Sigmund Brouwer, Shock Wave, Orca Book Publishers

Other finalists:

• Meagan Mahoney, The Time Keeper, DCB Young Readers
• Twist Phelan, Snowed, Bronzeville Books, LLC
• David A. Poulsen, The Dark Won't Wait, Red Deer Press
• Melissa Yi, The Red Rock Killer, Windtree Press

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime:  (tie) Denise Chong, Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, Random House Canada and Tanya Talaga, The Knowing, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Other finalists:

• Nate Hendley, Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, Dundurn Press
• John L. Hill, The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, AOS Publishing
• Dean Jobb, A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Best Unpublished Crime Novel:   Luke Devlin, Govern Yourself Accordingly

Other finalists:

• Robert Bowerman, The Man in The Black Hat
• Delee Fromm, Dark Waters
• Lorrie Potvin, A Trail's Tears
• William Watt, Predators in the Shadows

The Excellence of Edgar

Mystery Writers of America revealed the winners of the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2024. The 78th Annual Edgar® Awards were celebrated last night at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

BEST NOVEL: The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

Other finalists:

• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Penguin Random House – Random House Worlds/Del Rey
• Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD)
• Things Don’t Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins (Penguin Random House – Crown)
• My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Press – Soho Crime)
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)
• Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Macmillan Publishers – Celadon Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR:  Holy City by Henry Wise (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

Other finalists:

• Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton (Crooked Lane Books)
• Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda (Crooked Lane Books)
• The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee (CamCat Books)
• A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis (Kensington Books – A John Scognamiglio Book)
• The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL:  The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row Books)

Other finalists:

• The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House)
• Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler (HarperCollins – Harper Paperbacks)
• A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
• The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (Dundurn Press Ltd.) 

BEST FACT CRIME:  The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown)

Other finalists: 

• Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)
•  Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)
• The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
• Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America’s Second Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)
• The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co.)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL:  James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)

Other finalists:  

• American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
• Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing)
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press)
• Ian Fleming; The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins – Harper)

BEST SHORT STORY:  “Eat My Moose,” Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse (Bard College)

Other finalists:  

• “Cut and Thirst,” Amazon Original Stories by Margaret Atwood (Amazon Publishing)
• “Everywhere You Look,” Amazon Original Stories by Liv Constantine (Amazon Publishing)
• Barriers to Entry,” Amazon Original Stories by Ariel Lawhon (Amazon Publishing)
• “The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July-August 2024 by Steven Sheil (Dell Magazine)

BEST JUVENILE:  Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix (HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)

Other finalists: 

• The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
• Mystery of Mystic Mountain by Janet Fox (Simon & Schuster BFYR)
• The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
• Find Her by Ginger Reno (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT:  49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)

Other finalists:

• Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (HarperCollins – Heartdrum)
• The Bitter End by Alexa Donne (Random House Books for Young Readers)
• A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
• Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Teen)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY:  “Episode One” – Monsieur Spade, Written by Tom Fontana & Scott Frank (AMC)

Other finalists:

• “Episode Five” – Rebus, Written by Gregory Burke (Viaplay)
• Episode One” – Moonflower Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece PBS)
• “Mirror” – Murderesses, Written by Wiktor Piatkowski, Joanna Kozłowska, Katarzyna Kaczmarek (Viaplay)
• “Episode Two” – The Marlow Murder Club, Written by Robert Thorogood (Masterpiece PBS)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the family of Robert L. Fish.

• “The Jews on Elm Street,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Anna Stolley Persky (Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

• The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

• The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

• The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

SPECIAL AWARDS – PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED IN JANUARY 2025

Grand Master

• Laura Lippman
  
• John Sandford
  

Raven Award

• Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts

Ellery Queen Award

• Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group

 

Crimefest Awards Shortlists

After sixteen successful years, Bristol’s iconic crime fiction convention, CrimeFest, will come to an end in 2025. But they're going out with a bang, including the annual CrimeFest Awards, with shortlists revealed this week. Winners will be presented at the convention Gala Awards Dinner on May 17. Congrats to all the finalists!

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD

In association with headline sponsor, the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award is for debut authors first published in the United Kingdom in 2023. The winning author receives a £1,000 prize.

• Tom Baragwanath for Paper Cage (Baskerville)
• Tasha Coryell for Love Letters to a Serial Killer (Orion Fiction)
• C. L. Miller for The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder (Pan Macmillan)
• Akira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) for The Night of Baba Yaga (Faber & Faber)
• Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching (Viking)
• Claire Wilson for Five by Five (Michael Joseph)

eDUNNIT AWARD

For the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the United Kingdom in 2024.

• Martin Edwards for Hemlock Bay (Head of Zeus)
• Laurie R. King for The Lantern’s Dance (Allison & Busby)
• Jean Hanff Korelitz for The Sequel (Faber & Faber)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Liz Moore for The God of the Woods (The Borough Press)
• Peter Swanson for A Talent for Murder (Faber & Faber)

LAST LAUGH AWARD

The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.

• Cathy Ace for The Case of the Secretive Secretary (Four Tails Publishing Ltd.)
• DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin (Harvill Secker)
• Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)
• Orlando Murrin for Knife Skills for Beginners (Transworld)
• Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Christmas (Severn House)
• Antti Tuomianen (and translator David Hackston) for The Burning Stones (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD

The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the United Kingdom in 2024. The award is named after H.R.F. ‘Harry’ Keating, one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, crime reviewers and writer of books about crime fiction.

• Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness (HarperCollins)
• Jem Bloomfield for Allusion in Detective Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Ashley Bowden for Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 (Fabula Mysterium Press)
• Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction (Dead Ink)
• Sara Lodge for The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female (Yale University Press)
• Lynda La Plante for Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen (Zaffre)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA

This award is for the best television crime drama based on a book, and first screened in the UK in 2024. Eligible titles were collated from the Radio Times, and CrimeFest newsletter readers establish the shortlist and the winning title. The winning author and production company each receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

• Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen (Apple TV+)
• Dalgliesh (series 3), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
• Lady in the Lake based on the book by Laura Lippman (Apple TV+)
• Moonflower Murders based on the book by Anthony Horowitz (BBC)
• Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)
• The Turkish Detective, based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel (BBC)

CRIMEFEST AWARDS FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Eligible titles are submitted by publishers, and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults vote alongside volunteering members of the School Library Association (SLA) to establish the shortlist and the winning title. The winners receive a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass award.

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR CHILDREN

This award is for the best crime novel for children (aged 8-12) first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.

• Sufiya Ahmed for Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker (Bloomsbury Education)
• Natasha Farrant for The Secret of Golden Island (Faber & Faber)
• A.M. Howell for Mysteries at Sea: The Hollywood Kidnap Case (Usborne Publishing)
• M. G. Leonard for The Twitchers: Feather (Walker Books)
• Beth Lincoln for The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Nicki Thornton for The Floating Witch Mystery (Faber & Faber)

BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR YOUNG ADULTS

This award is for the best crime novel for young adults (aged 12-16) first published in the United Kingdom in 2024.

• H.F. Askwith for A Cruel Twist of Fate (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Denise Brown for It All Started With a Lie (Hashtag Press)
• A.J. Clack for Lie or Die (Firefly Press)
• Amie  Jordan for All the Hidden Monsters (Chicken House)
• Kayvion Lewis for Heist Royale (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
• Karen M. McManus for Such Charming Liars (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)

Derringer Delights

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—named after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories during the previous year. Derringer Coordinator, Paula Messina, revealed the winners today via the organization's newsgroup. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

 

THE SILVER DERRINGER FOR EDITORIAL EXCELLENCE:   Janet Hutchings

 

EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:  Art Taylor

 

HALL OF FAME:  O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)

 

FLASH:   Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone (Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)

Other finalists:

• Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell (Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
• Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile (Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
• La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman (Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
• Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson (Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)

 

SHORT STORY: "The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)

Other finalists:

• "Skeeter's Bar and Grill" by Julie Hastrup (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• "The Heist" by Bill Pronzini (Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
• "The Last Chance Coalition" by Judy Penz Sheluk (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• "The Kratz Gambit" by Mark Thielman (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

 

LONG STORY: "Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano (Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)

Other finalists:

• "How Mary’s Garden Grew" by Elizabeth Elwood (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
• "Putting Things Right" by Peter W. J. Hayes (Thrill Ride - The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
• "Motive Factor X" by Joseph Andre Thomas (Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
• "Cold Comfort" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

 

NOVELETTE: "The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson (Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024)

Other finalists:

• "A Band of Scheming Women" by Joslyn Chase (Thrill Ride - The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
• "Christmas Dinner" by Robert Lopresti (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
• "Barracuda Backfire" by Tom Milani (Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
• "Her Dangerously Clever Hands" by Karen Odden (Crimeucopia - Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)

 

ANTHOLOGY: Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books

Other finalists:

• Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024 Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books
• Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books
• Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press
• New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6 Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books
• The 13th Letter Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing