Mystery Melange

Foreword Reviews announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards, celebrating outstanding books published in 2025 by small, independent, and university presses, including mysteries and thrillers. The Gold Medal Winner in the Adult Mystery category was A Murder in Zion by Nicole Maggi (Oceanview Publishing). The other finalists include: Silver Medal to Garbage Town by Ravi Gupta (Greenleaf Book Group Press); Bronze Medal to Killer Tracks by Mary Keliikoa (Level Best Books); and Honorable Mention to Dying Cry by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane). The Gold Medal Winner in the Adult Thriller category was The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Creature Publishing); Silver Medal to The Art of Greed by Hans Peter Brunner (Greenleaf Book Group Press); Bronze to Novel Threat by Traci Hunter Abramson (Shadow Mountain Publishing); and Honorable Mention to The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor (Severn House).


Submissions for the 2026 PRIDE Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers are open from June 1 to July 31. Any crime writer can submit their work as long as you have not published more than ten short pieces of fiction OR two novels and you do not use generative AI to write, research, or brainstorm the work. Submissions should include an unpublished work of crime fiction, aimed at readers from children’s chapter books through adults, which may be a short story or first chapter(s) of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words. For more information, follow this link.


On their YouTube channel, Crime Fiction Lover recommended 10 cozy mystery series to read for people who love The Thursday Murder Club, and now they're offering a chance to win the first book from each of these series. The entry form is located here. You’ll need to subscribe to their weekly newsletter and answer a cryptic clue question. You can enter until midnight BST on June 30, 2026, with the drawing taking place on July 1.  


If you'll be in the area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 10th, mark your calendar for Hillsborough, North Carolina’s Noir at the Bar, hosted by Tracey Reynolds. Yonder Bar will be the setting for raffles, drinks, and short readings from Eryk Pruitt and more.


Moonstone Press has reissued the books of UK author Dorothy Bowers, once donned the "Queen of the Detective Novel," who published five acclaimed novels before her untimely death from tuberculosis aged 46 in 1948. A Moonstone spokesperson said: “Despite being the only author inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1948, and seen by many contemporary critics as the logical successor to Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy Bowers’ early death resulted in her books becoming out of print for decades. We are delighted to reissue them.” Writing in The Independent in its Forgotten Authors series, modern critic Christopher Fowler described her as "one of the most skillful wielders of the red herring."


Houstonia Magazine profiled the Houston, Texas independent bookstore, Murder by the Book, which has hosted some of the biggest names in crime fiction for more than forty years. Current owner McKenna Jordan says she never planned to buy a bookstore, but “Both my parents were Houston police officers, so crime was kind of all around” and reading was big in her family. Jordan purchased the store in 2009 and in the 17 years since, she and her team have weathered hurricanes, a pandemic, the rise and fall (and rise) of big-box bookstores like Barnes & Noble, the e-reader craze, and Amazon.


Speaking of "weathering," it's heartening to see the people of Ukraine rallying to go about their normal lives as best they can under the constant threat of air raids and bombs. As The Guardian reported, this includes Kyiv's recent literary festival. Visitors flocked to the Kyiv Book Arsenal, and "dressed in their considerable best, they clutched their bags of books bought directly from publishers’ stalls and stopped to hug their friends." Patrons were encouraged to donate books to soldiers, where a donation box had offerings including Ukrainian translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, plus a volume by the contemporary poet Halyna Kruk and a recent work about life on the frontline, Please Don’t Be Afraid, by Pavlo “Pashtet” Belyanskiy.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Tom Milani discussing “The Briar Patch,” from the new anthology Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Ice Solves the Line Delay Dilemma at Major Airports" by Robert Cooperman.


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb interviewed Danielle Postel-Vinay (who has written previous books under the name Danielle Trussoni, including The Puzzle Box) about her new novel Murder Most Delicious; Howard Lovy spoke with Michael Maloof about turning his global adventure and tech experience Into award-winning thrillers, including the  Kate Preacher series; Deborah Kalb chatted with Kate Khavari, author of the new novel A Botanist's Guide to Tradition and Treachery, the latest in her Saffron Everleigh mystery series; Writers Who Kill talked to  M. A. (Mary) Monnin, author of the Traveler Mystery series, with books set in Greece, Italy, Bermuda, and soon, Egypt; and Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Robbie Munroe about his series of legal thrillers featuring retired Scottish criminal defense lawyer, William McIntyre.