It's been a sad time recently in the crime fiction community. As I previously noted, we lost Irish author Ken Bruen (the Jack Taylor series) on March 29 and Australian author Kerry Greenwood (the Miss Phryne Fisher series) on March 26. This past week we lost another crime fiction icon when British author Peter Lovesey passed away at the age of 88. Lovesey published over 40 novels and short story collections, including a series featuring Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London; a series with Bertie, the Prince of Wales, as an inept amateur sleuth; a series with Hen Mallin, a female Chief Inspector; and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. The long-running Diamond series has won two Silver Daggers and a number of other awards, including the Anthony, the Barry and the Macavity, and Lovesey's work has been adapted for radio, TV and film. We also saw the loss of another bestselling crime fiction writer, Andrew Gross, who had been battling from cancer for some time, at age 72. Best known for his collaborations with suspense writer James Patterson, Gross also penned several bestselling solo novels, including the Ty Hauck series. And last but not least, Kathy Harig has passed away. Kathy and her husband Tom have been tireless supports of the mystery community via their Maryland bookshop, Mystery Loves Company, which was the 2007 recipient of the Raven Award, presented by MWA for "outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing."
The British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) this week announced the longlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, honoring the best in the crime-writing genre in eleven categories. The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced later in the year on May 29, with the winners revealed at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 3. Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: "Once again our independent and rotating judging panels have come up with surprises galore, highlighting the impressive efforts of both major authors and newcomers, with a convincing demonstration of how diverse and talented the crime, mystery and thriller field is at present. A wonderful embarrassment of outstanding titles."
Winners were announced for the The Florida Book Awards, an annual award since 2006 that honors and celebrates the literature by Florida authors and books about Florida published in the previous year. The four winners in the Popular Fiction category were all crime-themed novels, including the Gold winner, Terra Incognita by Steph Post; Silver winner, Edison’s Last Breath by Patrick Kendrick; Bronze winner, Diamond Cut by Thomas B. Cavanagh; and Honorable Mention, Murder of a Dead Man by Holly Newman.
The winners of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Readers Choice Award were announced via the Short Mystery Fiction Society's newsgroup and were also published in the May/June 2025 print edition. The top three included "Shall I Be Mother?" by David Dean; "Jennifer's Daughter" by Doug Allyn; and "Double Parked" by Twist Phelan.
The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) announced the finalists for the 37th annual IBPA Book Award, honoring the best independently published books of 2024. The three finalists in the Mystery/Thriller category include Bone Pendant Girls by Terry S. Friedman (CamCat Books); Hazardous Lies by Stephen J. Wallace (River Grove Books); and Sing for the Red Dress: Smokey River Suspense Series by Joseph M. Marshall III (Lucid House Publishing). Gold winners will be revealed on May 16, 2025, during the IBPA Book Award ceremony at the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Independent publisher Joffe Books has acquired publisher The Book Folks from previous owner Erik Empson. Founded in 2014, The Book Folks specializes in crime fiction, and Joffe will be taking over the list of around 400 books and 40 authors, as well as continuing to publish existing authors under The Book Folks imprint. In good news for staffers, all members of The Book Folks personnel will be retained.
Iceland has its Christmas Book Flood, but Norway has its own celebration for Easter called Påskekrim, or Easter Crime, a long-standing and uniquely Norwegian tradition that goes back almost 100 years. During the Easter holiday break, Norwegians love to consume crime fiction in books, TV, movies, and even radio. I say we adopt both of those literary traditions around the world!
In the Q&A roundup, Suspense Radio host Tracey Devlyn sat down with New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose to chat about her new cozy mystery, The Maid's Secret; and Lisa Haselton spoke with mystery author Laury A. Egan about her new crime fiction novel, Fair Haven.
