Mystery Melange

Bloody Scotland revealed the shortlist for the 2026 McIlvanney Prize. The finalist titles will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland until the Friday, September 18, when the winner will be announced on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival. This year's finalists include The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper); 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell (S&S); A Bad, Bad, Place by Frances Crawford (Bantam); The Diary of Lies by Philip Miller (Polygon); and The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Viper). (HT to Shotsmag Confidential)

The longlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction books was recently announced. Several crime-themed titles were among the honorees, including Murder in Paris ’68: A True Story of Death and Glamour by Edward Chisholm (Bloomsbury); The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World by Bojan Pancevski (Penguin Random House); Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre (Penguin Random House); London Falling: and A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe (Penguin Random House). The winner will receive £50,000, with the shortlist of six announced on October 1, and the winner on November 4.

The California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) presents the Golden Poppy Awards in recognition of the most distinguished books written and illustrated by creators who have made California their home. Committees for each category are made up of booksellers throughout the state tasked with developing a list of five finalists and one winner. This year's finalists in the Mystery category include A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper (Mulholland Books); Get Lost by Justin Halpern (Cardinal); The Cormorant Hunt by Michael Idov (Scribner); The Tree of Light and Flowers by Thomas Perry (The Mysterious Press); and The Haul by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime).


This weekend, from September 12-13, Herne Bay in southeast England will host its first-ever literary festival, Crime by the Sea, bringing renowned authors, lively discussions and literary events to venues across the town. Presented by The Herne Bay Literary Festival and The Little Green Bookshop, Crime by the Sea will celebrate crime, mystery and thriller writing with special guests including Sophie Hannah (continuation author of Agatha Christie's Poirot series); Jess Kidd (Nora Breen Investigates series); Ian Moore (the Follet Valley cozy crime series); Louise Doughty (Apple Tree Yard and Platform Seven); Cathy Rentzenbrink (The Agatha Christie Cure); Julie Wassmer (Whitstable Pearl mysteries); and Lucy Strange (the Mulberry Hill Murders series). More information, including registration, can be found here.


Also opening this week, from September 12-26, is the annual International Agatha Christie Festival, in Torquay, UK. Highlights will include a special event benefiting the British Red Cross and the Agatha Christie Festival Charity entitled, "What Agatha Did in the Great War." It offers a rare opportunity to step inside the historic Assembly Rooms at Torquay Town Hall, where Agatha Christie served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment for the British Red Cross during WWI. Plus, there will be a performance of The Mousetrap as part of the play's 75th Anniversary Tour, with other events focused on "The Forensic Fashion of Agatha Christie"; "A Century of Agatha Christie on Screen"; "Agatha the Photographer"; Roger Ackroyd Day, in celebration of 100 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's classic novel; and lots more.

The Desert Sleuths chapter of Sisters in Crime is presenting WriteNOW! 2026, Friday-Saturday, September 18 & 19. This virtual mystery/crime writers conference for authors, readers, and enthusiasts welcomes writers from all genres. Registration for the CraftNOW! workshop with Clay Stafford, the EditNOW! workshop with Terri Bischoff, Jay Hartman and Anne Rainbow, and the PitchNOW! sessions with Elizabeth Guthrie and Gina Panettieri closes on September 16, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.


Clues: A Journal of Detection has a call for papers on mid-twentieth century American women's crime writing. Guest editors Erin A. Smith (University of Texas at Dallas) and Clare Rolens (Palomar College) welcome proposals for the themed issues that focuses on fostering scholarship on the lesser-known women writers from the 1940s to the 1960s. Potential authors might include (but are by no means limited to) Charlotte Armstrong, Leigh Brackett, Vera Caspary, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Dorothy Cameron Disney, Doris Miles Disney, Helen Eustis, Leslie Ford, Patricia Highsmith, Dolores Hitchens, Dorothy B. Hughes, Shirley Jackson, Margaret Millar, Helen Nielsen, Ann Petry, Evelyn Piper, Craig Rice, and Elisabeth Sanxay. Of interest are inter-sectional analyses of how gender/sexuality, social class, and race/ethnicity are represented in these works. Also welcome are explorations of how these writers navigated various historical traditions of crime writing (noir, the cozy, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century domestic detective fiction, the gothic, etc.) and how they remade or reworked these forms. Proposals are due January 15, 2027, with full essays of 5,000 to 6,000 words due August 1, 2027. Elizabeth Foxwell over at The Bunburyist has more information.


For more news about the latest in short mystery fiction this week, check out Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats blog, the Short Mystery Fiction Society blog, and also Art Taylor's The First Two Pages blog, which includes the latest features from Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley. Plus, catch the latest crime poem, "But Was It Murder?" by Robert Donohue, over at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly.


In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover had three recent interviews: they spoke with DS Butler about Lie to Me, that latest in her series featuring Karen Hart, a detective sergeant with the Lincolnshire Police; they also chatted with Christopher Harris about his new novel, Pound Foolish, his second novel to feature Mouse Morrison, an NFL pro who is now a detective; and they interviewed Teresa Solana, whose newly translated crime novel, The Butterfly House, featuring the half-Catalan, half-British police detective, Norma Forester, will be released on September 12. Plus, Promoting Crime Fiction welcomed British author Dave Sivers, whose books include the Archer and Baines contemporary crime novels, the DI Nathan Quarrel series, and the Lowmar Dashiel crime fantasy novels.