The Indie Mystery/Thriller Bestseller List

The American Booksellers Association’s specialty bestseller lists provide a current snapshot of what’s selling in indie bookstores nationwide. Here is the Indie Mystery/Thriller Bestseller List, based on sales for the eight-week period ending August 2, 2026. It's interesting to me how many of these were actually published last year or even much earlier, as is the case with 2021's The Silent Patient, although the New York Times' recent list of the "Fifty Best Thrillers of the 21st Century" might have something to do with that.

1. Angel Down by Daniel Kraus, Atria Books

2. The Divorce by Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press

3. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth, St. Martin's Press

4. It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell, Atria Books

5. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

6. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

7. Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press

8. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Celadon Books

9. Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson, Bantam

10. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk (Ed.), Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Ed.), Vintage

11. Heather by Caitlin Mullen, Celadon Books

12. The Keeper by Tana French, Viking

13. Strange Houses by Uketsu, Jim Rion (Transl.), HarperVia

14. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Penguin

15. Gone Before Goodbye by Harlan Coben, Reese Witherspoon, Grand Central Publishing,

16. Death on the Lanai (Golden Girls Cozy Mystery Series) by Rachel Ekstrom Courage, Hyperion Avenue

17. Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell, Atria Books

18. Strange Buildings by Uketsu, HarperVia

19. Never Flinch by Stephen King, Scribner

20. My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney, Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar

21. Strange Pictures by Uketsu, HarperVia

22. Want to Know a Secret? by Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press

23. Ironwood by Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company

24. The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke, Harper

25. The Housemaid's Wedding by Freida McFadden

Give the Gift of Literacy

Literacy programs have always been near and dear to my heart, and the holiday season is a great time to think about the fantastic work literacy organizations do in helping produce lifelong readers among young people. Being able to read isn't just important for the sheer joy of it; reading is important for success in education, which in turn is important in the job world and for career advancement and success. Studies have shown that people who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty. Other studies also show that reading helps reduce stress, prevents cognitive decline, and helps make people more compassionate.

So this holiday season, why not consider the gift of literacy to give youngsters a positive leg up in life? There are several organizations that are working hard in this area, but here are three of the most notable:

First Book, the children’s literacy organization, has launched a holiday campaign called Give a Million. From now through Dec. 31, every $1 donated will provide one new book to a child in need. Since its founding in 1992, First Book has distributed more than 200 million books. But as the organization notes, the need is still great since 60 percent of underserved children still don’t own a single book. First Book won the Library of Congress’s $150,000 David M. Rubenstein Prize in recognition of its "outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy." 

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books each month to children from birth to age five, free of charge, through funding shared by Dolly and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income. Together, Dolly Parton and her book gifting organization have received honors and awards for their dedication to enriching the lives of children everywhere, including the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, Best Practices award from the Library of Congress Literacy Awards and recognition in Reading Psychology. In 2018 the organization's 100th million book was dedicated to the Library of Congress (it's since gone on to give away over 150 million globally).

Reading Is Fundamental is committed to a literate America by inspiring a passion for reading among all children, providing quality content to make an impact, and engaging communities in the solution to give every child the fundamentals for success. As the nation’s largest children’s literacy non-profit, Reading Is Fundamental maximizes every contribution to ensure all children have the ability to read and succeed. RIF believes every child deserves an opportunity to own books, learn how to read, and obtain the fundamental building blocks to achieve their highest potential. Throughout its 55-year history, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) has been a champion of racial justice and equity through literacy. RIF adds, "During this time of national unrest, we join with many others to lean in and accelerate our commitment through our Race, Equity, and Inclusion initiative to leverage the power of books for positive impact and change."

An Idea for What to Do While You're "Social Distancing" Lybs-logo1

 

Since many folks are staying home as part of efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus, there's one fantastic and relatively inexpensive way to while away the time and escape from the news:  books! The virus is taking its toll not only on people but also on businesses, and many indie bookstores were already struggling before this latest roadblock came along. The potential long-term effects for book retailers are sobering and possibly even devastating.

Josh Cook from Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noted ways on Twitter to support one’s local bookstore when no one is leaving the house. Suggestions from him and others include:

• Sign up for a store’s newsletter
• Follow your local stores on social media
• Sign up with Libro.fm, and not only will you get two audiobooks for the price of one, 100% of your payment will go to your local bookstore(s)
• Order books from your local stores' online shops, where available, to be delivered straight to your home or, as my local One More Page bookstore has available, curbside pickup
• Buy ebooks (and other bookstore offerings like puzzles, games, food, and clothing) through the same online shops, with instant delivery to your phone, ereader, or tablet, or laptop; and don't forget your elderly neighbors - pick up a few books for them, too
• Pre-order books that are being published later this year
• Buy a bookstore gift card
• If your local bookstore is offering something like Ally Kirkpatrick is, of Old Town Books in Alexandria, VA and its virtual classes from writers, signup for a class (they also have a new-book subscription service)
• Donate to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which helps booksellers impacted by natural disasters, health problems, higher education, etc.

If you want to locate the indie bookstores near you, Indiebound has a handy store locator for stores in the U.S. If you're in Europe or other parts of the world, you can still help out your bookstores via most of the measure above, and some of the stores are even offering free deliveries via bicycle or skateboard. Bookstores everywhere are trying to help customers and their communities during this difficult time; one store in the UK offers staff recommendations over the phone, but also "a simple chat if anyone is isolating and feeling lonely" and holding a fundraiser for the local food bank.

Also, If you live in the UK or Ireland, No Alibis Bookstore has teamed up with a group of local authors to give away a #CrimeCarePackage to ten people each day this week, fifty packages in total, containing a selection of great books hand chosen for each recipient. If you or someone you know is facing isolation in the coming days, they would like to send you a curated selection of books to the value of £25, free of charge. 

Buying books will also help support your favorite authors, including many who have had to cancel book launches, tours, and other events, in addition to all the conferences and festivals that have been canceled.

Banned Books Week

 

Today is the start of the annual Banned Books Week, launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship, which is why this year's theme is "Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark." The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. In 2018, The ALA tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2018, which included 483 different book titles.

Just as a reminder, more than 4,000 books were banned and burned in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. If you'd like to learn more about ways you can help stem the tide of censorship in the U.S., the American Library Association has some suggestions.

 

Library Love

 It's National Library Week in the U.S, and 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the first such celebration. Today's specific theme is "Take Action for Libraries Day," a national library advocacy effort observed for the first time in 2017 in response to proposed cuts to federal funds for libraries. The American Library Association has some steps you can take to help online, but such efforts also start at the local level. Look around your community and see if there are ways you can support your public and school libraries through volunteering, civic action, or participating in local programs. Here are some ideas to get you started.

RIP, Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone

I was so sorry to hear about the death of Sue Grafton, best known for her private eye crime fiction series featuring Kinsey Millhone. Grafton passed away Thursday at the age of 77 after a two-year battle with cancer. Her "alphabet" books with Millhone (beginning with A is for Alibi) have been published in 28 countries and translated into 26 languages with a readership in the millions. The recipient of the first two Anthony Awards for Best Novel (1986, 1987), Grafton has also won three Shamus Awards, two more Anthonys, and also received the highest achievement in U.S. crime fiction, the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 2009. In addition, she was presented with Bouchercon's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

Grafton's latest installment in her Millhone series was Y is for Yesterday, and she had plans for the final installment, to be titled Z is for Zero. However, her daughter Jamie wrote on Facebook that Kinsey's crime-solving days are over. "Sue always said that she would continue writing as long as she had the juice...Many of you also know that she was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows, and in that same vein, she would never allow a ghost writer to write in her name. Because of all of those things, and out of the deep abiding love and respect for our dear sweet Sue, as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y."

Here are some of the latest tributes from the New York Times, Mystery Fanfare, The Washington Post, and Ruth Jordan (Crimespree Magazine).

 

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

I came across some articles recently containing fascinating tales from historical crime blotters, and since true crime dramas are popular right now, I thought I'd share:

Ireland’s Eye mystery - A murder that gripped Victorian Dublin as the small, picturesque island off Howth was once synonymous with "one of the foulest and strangest murders that have ever been perpetrated" (according to The Weekly Irish Times in 1904), in a case involving infidelity and a secret double life.

Edgar Allan Poe's death is still his greatest unsolved mystery. The author's death was devoid of answers and filled with disturbing possibilities, with literary theorists and experts blaming everything from alcohol to carbon monoxide poisoning and even one doctor posthumously diagnosing Poe with rabies.

The Mystery Behind the Missing Corpse of one of the richest men ever: In the mid-19th century, Alexander Stewart ran a vast business of factories and stores selling clothing and dry goods in New York City, leaving behind a fortune worth $46 billion dollars in today's money. when he died in 1876. Two years later, the grave was unearthed by unknown persons, and Stewart's corpse was missing.   

 

 

 

Banned Books Week

Sunday marked the beginning of the annual Banned Books Week in the U.S., a project created by "a national alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read." The program was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. In case you may wonder if it's still relevant today, more than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association.

Because it's estimated that over half of all banned books are by authors of color or contain events and issues concerning diverse communities, this year Banned Books Week will celebrate literature written by diverse writers that has been banned or challenged, as well as explore why diverse books are being disproportionately singled out in the first place.

Individual books showcased during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read, most of these books still remained available.

If you would like to participate, there are events spread through the country. Check this listing for one near you or participate in one of the online webcasts. For further reading and resources, you can also visit the ALA's website.

Blood on the Bayou - for a Good Cause

Bouchercon 2016 starts just three weeks from now, and this year’s anthology — BLOOD ON THE BAYOU — is a stellar collection of stories set in and around New Orleans, the host city for this year’s convention.

If you’re attending Bouchercon, you can pre-order the book and pick it up there; if you’re not attending, you can still pre-order the book and have it shipped to your home after it is published on September 15th.

Or if you prefer to read it on your favorite ereader, it is available to pre-order from all major vendors: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.

And remember, all proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the New Orleans Public Libraries.

Here’s the synopsis from the back of the book …

Bestselling novelists David Morrell, Alison Gaylin and Elaine Viets headline a new anthology of 22 tales exploring the unique aura of mystery of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou country.

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is being held in New Orleans in 2016. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad canopy across a wide variety of crime writers from across the country and around the world — including both veteran writers and the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field. These stories range from the light-hearted and fun to the darker side of crime, just as New Orleans and the bayou country can show both to the unsuspecting.

All participants contributed their efforts to support our charity — the New Orleans Public Libraries — and by extension readers and writers everywhere. ALL PROFITS GO TO THE LIBRARY.

Edited by Greg Herren with an Introduction by Heather Graham. Stories by Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O’Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Mike Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey, and Elaine Viets.

(Reblogging from Down and Out Books)

11 Facts About Crime Fiction To Impress Your Friends

Next time you're at a dinner party or need some quickie facts to show how cool crime fiction really is (as if you really needed an excuse), maybe these will come in handy:

 

1. Agatha Christie (1890–1976) is the world’s best-selling fiction writer, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Her seventy some-odd crime novels and short story collections have sold an estimated 2 billion copies (although some estimates peg it at up to 4 billion).
   
   
2. Agatha Christie is also the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. (Source: Index Translationum)
   
   
3. The most prolific mystery author was John Creasey, who wrote over 600 books under 28 different pseudonyms. Coming in a close second is Georges Simenon, with 500+ books. (Brazilian author Ryoki Inoue created Portuguese-language pulp fiction to the tune of nearly 1,100 books, but many of those were romances.) (Source: Guinness book of World Records)
   
   
4. The first literary detective is widely considered to be C. Auguste Dupin, who first appeared in "The Murders In the Rue Morgue" in 1841, written by Edgar Allan Poe.
   
   
5. The earliest known crime novel is The Rector of Veilbye by the Danish author Steen Steensen Blicher, published in 1829. Although one could make the argument that the earliest known example of a crime story was "The Three Apples," one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade from Arabian Nights.
   
   
6. The earliest locked-room mystery may well be from the 5th century BC, when Herodotus told the tale of the robber whose headless body was found in a sealed stone chamber with only one guarded exit. But the first of the true modern example of that genre is generally said to be Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."
   
   
7. The first detective film is often cited as Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a very short Mutoscope reel created between 1900 and 1903 by Arthur Marvin.
   
   
8. The highest circulating crime fiction subgenre titles in 2013 in the U.S. were police procedurals at 29%, according to the Library Journal Mystery Survey. Cozies were a close second place at 24%, with Amateur Detectives third at 19%.  
   
   
9. In that same Library Journal survey, crime fiction was the most-frequently borrowed genre, at a whopping 78% (mysteries, 55%, thrillers, 23%).
   
   
10. The very first Edgar Awards Grand Master honor was given in 1955 to Agatha Christie - but most people probably don't know Alfred Hitchcock was given that title in 1978 (the only non-mystery-author to be so honored).
    
    
11. Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake hold the record for total Edgar Award honors, with 11 nominations and 5 wins (including the Grand Master Award) for Block and 11 nominations and 4 wins for Westlake. Westlake was also one of only three writers (along with Joe Gores and William L. DeAndrea) to win Edgars in three different categories (Best Novel, Best Short Story, Best Motion Picture Screenplay). (Source: Edgar Awards database)

The Mysteries of Pinterest

Pinterest isn't all just recipes and fashion - it can be a treasure trove of research for crime fiction authors. I have boards there for my Scott Drayco series research and another for Drayco's world, but also ones for Writing Prompts, Mystery Research, and some "just for fun" boards.

Other authors use Pinterest boards to post images related to their books, like Debbi Mack and her board for her character Sam McRae, Kristi Belcamino with a board on casting her novels, and Laurie R. King on various aspects of her Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series.

 If you're interested in historical fiction, you can search for information on style and culture of, say, the 1920s or conduct a search on World War II and find images of people, documents, posters, aircraft, even games. Researching archaeology turns up fascinating artifacts and dig sites from around the world, helpful if you're writing a novel on that theme.

Searching for noir novels or pulp fiction novels provides a virtual library of hundreds (thousands?) of classic and not-so-classic covers spanning the history of those genres. Or pick an iconic author like Edgar Allan Poe or Raymond Chandler and there will be quotes, gravesites, childhood photos, movie posters, and the occasional video (and yes, scads of merchandising).

Want to know more about serial killers, past and recent? Or other aspects of true crime? Perhaps you want photos of settings in Edinburgh, from the underground vaults to Edinburgh Castle to pubs. There's also plenty of information, photos, and links about various weapons like Glocks or daggers.

Lest you also think Pinterest is only for women with children (which started out being the social network's core base), the number of U.S. men on Pinterest increased 73% in 2014, and the company says that more men are using Pinterest in the U.S. than read Sports Illustrated and GQ combined (via TechCrunch). Check out these boards from crime fiction authors Ed Lynskey, Lee Goldberg, T.E. Avery, and tech rockstar author Guy Kawasaki.

Plus, Pinterest is the second-largest growing major social network, with a jump of 7% in the past year (just behind Instagram at 9%). So there will continue to be plenty of research opportunities for writers and readers of all stripes. Just be sure and set a timer, because it's easy to fall into the Pinterest universe and get sucked in for hours.

Michael Connelly's Advice for Young Writers

 

This is one of the Mystery Author Interviews I've been adding to my YouTube Channel.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town

I watched a little gem of an animated feature-length movie on TCM the other night titled Mr. Bug Goes to Town. Never heard of it? I hadn't either, and as it turns out, very few people have any inkling the film ever existed. Why is that, you say? The film was plagued with production problems from the outset, but the real problem was that it was released on December 5, 1941 - two days before Pearl Harbor.

After untold hours of painstaking animation (this was way back before computers, remember), and all the loving touches that are so evident in the film, it's a little heartbreaking to think that it became another casualty, of sorts, of World War II. It was re-released in 1946 as Hoppity Goes to Town by Paramount, but was deemed a box-office failure and relegated to deep in the film archives.

The heart of the story has a little bit of crime in it, with a happy and innocent band of insects living in the "lowlands" of a garden near Broadway in NYC until a broken fence leads to The Humans tromping on their territory and disrupting their community. Our plucky protagonist, Hoppity (a grasshopper, natch), is in love with the beautiful Honey (Bee), but he's not the only resident of Buggsville who has his eyes on Honey - so does the rich and evil C. Bagley Beetle.

The plot piles layer after layer of trouble and mayhem onto the Buggsville residents that Mr. Beetle happily fosters (with the help of his hapless henchmen Swat and Smack) because it all ties into his plot to make Honey's father Mr. Bumble so destitute that he's forced to have Honey marry the rich shyster to save both their home and their little "town."

Fleischer Studios is the creative force behind Mr. Bug Goes to Town, headed by the often-quarreling brothers Dave and Max. (The Fleischers were forced to sell their studio to Paramount mid-way through production on Mr. Bug due to financial problems). Max Fleischer was one of the pioneers of animation, creating Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, with the Fleischer studio also behind the popular Popeye cartoons in the 1930s and the better-known animated feature film Gulliver's Travels.

Under the reissue title, Hoppity had multiple re-releases on home video with inferior quality throughout the 1970s and had a more recent DVD release by Legend Films, re-titled as Bugville. The film has now become a cult favorite with a younger generation of animation buffs and was transferred from an original 35mm Technicolor release print owned by the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. That version was shown in 2012 for the first time on television in a special hosted by Robert Osborne and Jerry Beck dedicated to rare animated films, including Gulliver's Travels.

Todd Mason has a regular Tuesday "Forgotten Films" feature on his blog, and you can check out more neglected masterpieces via this link.

A Database on European Crime Fiction, You Say?

Crime fiction is growing in popularity around the world, and the recent burst of Scandinavian crime fiction on the bestseller lists is yet another marker of that growth. So it only makes sense that the academic world is taking notice, spearheaded in Europe by the International Crime Fiction Group based at Queen’s University of Belfast. The group brings together scholars from disciplines such as literature, film studies and cultural history in a series of initiatives to study various aspect of the genre.

Recently, they sponsored a symposium at the British Library titled "Towards a Digital Atlas of European Crime Fiction?", investigating how to harvest the catalogs of the 48 European national libraries to analyze the transnational spread of crime fiction (including books, covers, authors, films, etc.)  with the help of maps and graphs. Hopefully, this will not only help the libraries involved create virtual as well as physical exhibitions based on their collections, including book covers and illustrations, it will benefit crime fiction authors, too, thanks to online resources coming soon.

There's already a strong scholarly crime fiction presence in Europe, including such institutions as the Library of Crime Literature (Bilipo) a Parisian public library exclusively concerned with crime-themed publications (which journalist Brad Spurgeon discusses in this blog post). And, if you happen to be in London early this summer, check out the London exhibition "Forensics: The anatomy of crime" at the Wellcome Collection through June 21.

The Little Free Libraries Need You!

There are more than 25,000 Little Free Libraries in all 50 states and in 75 other countries around the globe. What are Little Free Libraries, you ask? They are neighborhood book exchanges, where free books are housed in small containers and made available to members of the local community (much as the picture above demonstrates).

The Little Free Library concept was begun by Wisconsin's Todd Bol, who mounted a wooden container designed to look like a school house on a post on his lawn as a tribute to his mother, a book lover and school teacher. And now, as the movement celebrates its third birthday, the Little Free Library project has organized a Kickstarter project to help raise funds "to double and deepen our impact and build 50,000 Little Free Libraries by 2017."

With the Kickstarter funds, the group's goals include the following:

• Install hundreds more Little Free Libraries that 'kick start" brighter futures for thousands of children through the power of literacy.
• Water book deserts – rural or urban areas where books are difficult to access or afford.
• Help teachers provide books to their students that they can take home to enjoy and build their reading skills during summer and year-round.
• Provide police departments with Libraries of Understanding that will help them engage with youths and encourage them to read.
• Positively impact at least 100 communities through the power of reading.

The Kickstarter campaign only has eight days left to go and as of this writing, has funded less than half of its relatively modest $50,000 goal. You can make a contribution as little as $3 to help, of if you happen to have a lot of cash on hand, a pledge of $5,000 or more will help sponsor 20 libraries and get your name/logo on plaques on 10 Little Free Libraries.

Got News?

I'm going to be writing a News column for the quarterly Prose 'n Cons magazine, so now's your chance to send along any news that would interest the wider community of crime fiction fans and readers. If you know of newsworthy crime-themed TV shows or movies, new/special releases or reissues, author appearances, fan conferences, special events — feel free to send them along to bv@bvlawson.com. I won't be able to include everything in a 750-word column, but I'll do my best to include items that will appeal to mystery fans in the U.S. Canada, and around the globe.

FYI, hop on over to check out the latest highlights from the magazine, and you can enter the monthly contest to win a free digital subscription!

Valentine’s Gifts for Crime Fiction Lovers

If you're struggling with ideas for Valentine's Day gifts for your sweetie, and said sweetie happens to be a fan of crime fiction, here are some ideas that just might help. After all, who needs plain, boring chocolate?

Nothing says love like a handgun, or at least a chocolate one. The website chocolateweapons.com has several models to choose from, like this one based on the classic 1911 Colt .45 ACP, a full pound of milk chocolate in its own little carrying case. And if you want, you can add some chocolate ammo.

Or maybe you prefer chocolate handcuffs from The Chocolate Delicacy, boxed with foil wrapped hearts. Because Fifty Shades of Grey, right?

If your beloved is allergic to chocolate, and you have a lot more to spend, why not give a 18k gold plated or rhodium plated curb chain with 18mm rivoli swarovski crystal and a handcuff clasp?

For the budget-minded, this coffee mug will have your lover ready to share a cup of latte with you and possibly quite a bit more.

For a gift that's even a mystery to you, try the Love is Blind Valentine's Day Mystery Box. According to the merchant, it contains a "seriously romantic selection of gifts that are guaranteed to extend your relationship for another 365 days, but it also absolves you of any responsibility because even you don't know what's inside."

For Sherlock fans, you can get a "Sherlock Fan Club Certificate Microscope 221B Baker Street Personalized Sherlock Holmes London England Fan Art Detective Mystery Geekery." Your sweetie's very own certificate to the 221B Fan Club to let everyone know they're Sher-locked.

What Makes a Good Mystery Author?

That was the question asked by the agent behind the Mysterious Matters blog (run by a publishing insider) a few years ago after attending one Malice Domestic Conference and being asked—probably for the thousandth time—how to get published, deciding that a better question was how to improve your writing. Toward that end, seven tips that deal more with the attitude end of things were offered up, to wit:

1. A good mystery writer thinks first and foremost about the reader's experience.
2. A good mystery writer balances character and plot.
3. A good mystery writer thinks about the future.
4. A good mystery writer listens to and synthesizes the advice of agents, editors, and readers
5. A good mystery writer takes him/herself seriously, but not too seriously.
6. A good mystery writer pushes and challenges him/herself.
7. A good mystery writer understands the competitive landscape

The annotations provided on the blog flesh out the skeletal list with meaty tidbits, which you can read more about here, and are still as true today in the new publishing landscape as they were then.

On the more creative end of things, the Guide to Literary Agents blog once listed The Top 10 Reasons agents stop reading a manuscript and/or throw it across the room (this time in reverse order):

10. Overdone description that doesn’t move the story forward
9.   Spoon-feeding the reader what the character is thinking
8.   Having the characters address each other repeatedly by name, as in, "John, let’s go!"
7.   Introducing a character with first and last name, as in, “John Smith entered the room.”
6.   Beginning a story with dialogue
5.   Opening with a cliché
4.   Yanking the reader out of the action with backstory
3.   Not giving the reader a sense of place or where the story is going
2.   Characters are MIA until bottom of the second page
1.   Telling instead of showing

 

Do you agree with the lists above? I think the reasons people stop reading a manuscript sometimes differ quite a bit from agents and editors to readers, so your mileage may vary.

Meet My Character Blog Hop: From Pianist to Crime Fighter

I've been tagged and invited by my friend and fellow blogger, Patti Abbott, to join the Meet My Character Blog Tour. Each author participant writes about their character on their blog, then tags authors to join. I'm offering up Scott Drayco from Played to Death, my new novel and the first in a series, as part of the tour. (Since I'm a bit late in catching up with the meme, I'm posting links to other authors in the blog hop instead of tagging additional authors.)

What is the name of your character?

Scott Ian Drayco

Is he a fictional or historic person?

Drayco is purely fictional and not based on anyone I've ever known. He is an amalgam of many different people and maybe even certain aspects of my own personality. He's a lot taller, though, a foot taller, to be exact (6'4").

What should we know about Drayco?

Scott Drayco was a promising piano prodigy until a violent brush with crime ended his career and left his right arm scarred. Seeing this as a chance to find justice for other victims, he decided to follow in the footsteps of his formerly-estranged father with a storied career in the FBI, followed by private consulting. But he didn't leave music behind entirely and finds that the complex counterpoint of J.S. Bach helps him puzzle through thorny investigations. He also has chromasthesia, a form of synesthesia, where he sees all sounds and voices as colors, shapes, and textures. Although he's the first to say this doesn't make him a "Super Detective," his unusual perceptions of the world often work their way into cases.

When and where is the story set?

Played to Death is set in the present day on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the fictional town of Cape Unity (and fictional Prince of Wales County). Although the town is a creation of my imagination, it is based on several small towns on the Delmarva Peninsula and incorporates various aspects of each. Sandwiched between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, there are definite nautical ties that underlie the action. But it's the tension of old versus new that drives the story, tension you can see there today, between the old timers and the D.C. weekenders and growing Wallops Island rocket launch facility.

What is the main conflict? What messes up Drayco's life?

Drayco is still haunted by nightmares and self-doubts from his last case that saw the deaths of two innocent children, so much so that he's considering retiring from crime solving altogether. To add insult to injury, he's bequeathed a crumbling Opera House in Cape Unity by a grateful former client. So he heads to the Shore hoping for a quick sale and a chance to nurse his battered psyche in a peaceful coastal setting. What he didn't count on was finding a body on the stage of the Opera House, with a mysterious "G" carved into the man's chest. Finding himself a suspect in the murder, he has to deal with a wary Sheriff, conflicts over coastal development, and the seductive wife of a Town Councilman as he gets pulled into a web of music, madness, and murder.

What is Drayco's personal goal in this book?

Drayco primarily wants to clear his name and keep the violence from spreading. But he also finds he's growing attached to the town and its residents and is conflicted over the Opera House and its potential as a catalyst for change. Will he sell the building? Will he find the resolution he needs to stay with law enforcement as a career? And can he find the killer before there are more murders and Drayco himself becomes the next victim?

What is his general attitude toward life?

Life is a fugue – voices entering, leaving, forwards, backwards, upside down, connecting at certain points, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes dissonantly – life is like being in the middle of a composition as it is being written, being a leitmotif that operates here or there, representing your voice, your music, even if for just a short time; each composition (person) is unique, some you like, some you don’t – we’re all just small notes in the greater symphony of the vast universe (or universes).

For more on Played to Death and future Drayco installments, check out my website.

Here are some of the many other authors who are participating:

Craig Faustus Buck

Teresa Burrell

Paul D. Marks

G.B. Pool

L.J. Sellers

Michael W. Sherer

Tina Whittle

And there are many dozens more. Just conduct a web search on "Meet My Character Blog Hop" and have fun learning about some interesting new literary creations.

This Joint is A-Hoppin’

Do women authors get overlooked for the major crime fiction awards? Are they less likely to be reviewed by the most prestigious media outlets? Those questions prompted Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, Betty Francis, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Sara Paretsky, Nancy Pickard and Susan Dunlap to form Sisters in Crime (SinC) at the annual Edgars Week in 1987. The original aim was to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry, but the organization now includes a few "brothers in crime," too.

SinC continues its original mission but also has added newsletters, regional chapters, conference support, annual reports, networking, and mentoring. They also like to have a little fun, which is why this month there is a Sisters in Crime Blog Hop, where authors pick from a few questions and go from there. A couple of those questions intrigued me in particular, so I thought I'd take a stab at them. (Yes, a crime fiction author using "stab" is an intended pun, but no blogs were harmed in the making of this post. I think.)

First, "Which male authors write great women characters? Which female authors write great male characters?"

I never ceased to be amazed at how some readers (maybe a few authors, too), think that it's impossible to write the POV of the opposite gender well. An author spends his/her entire creative experience using their powers of observation and hopping into the minds of good guys and bad guys alike. So why should writing an opposite-gender character be an impossible task? I must admit this question is near and dear to my writing heart, because one of my main protagonists is Scott Drayco, a former pianist turned FBI agent/consultant. I'll also admit there is a wide range of effectiveness in this realm, but good examples aren't hard to find. Here are a few:

Women writing men? Back in the Golden Age, Ngaio Marsh started a series with Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. P.D. James has had tremendous success with her Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series, as has Martha Grimes with Inspector Richard Jury, and Ruth Rendell with Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford. More recently, Tana French created memorable characters via her Dublin Murder Squad Detectives Frank Mackey and Stephen Moran, and Karin Slaughter with her GBI Special Agent Will Trent series. Not surprisingly, many of these do tend to be procedurals, where the detective ranks have often been the purview of men.

Men writing women? These are a bit harder to find. Steig Larsson featured Lizabeth Salander in his Millennium Trilogy, although some might argue her character was hardly a typical female role. John Sandford wrote a series with the noirish Clara Rinker, an assassin for hire. Jeffery Deaver penned three novels featuring California Bureau of Investigations body language expert Agent Kathryn Dance. Christopher Darden and Dick Lochte teamed up for books featuring Nicolette (Nikki) Hill, a 30-something black prosecutor in Los Angeles, California. There does seem to be a bit of a pattern here, too – the women characters men write often tend to be of the "kick ass" variety.

Second question, "Do you listen to music while writing? What's on your playlist?"

I'll add what I included in a Q&A with D.A. Bale. My protagonist, Scott Drayco, is a former classical pianist whose career was cut short by violence, which is what steered him toward law enforcement instead. Why make him a pianist? I started out with violin lessons at age 3, piano at age 7 (studied for 12 years), and after various other instruments and voice lessons later, I’d earned two music degrees. You’d think such a background means I listen to music when I write, but I find it impossible. To me, music is a foreground experience, especially with classical forms, and listening while writing is too distracting. I often listen *before* I write, though! Not surprisingly, I enjoy music-themed mysteries, and if you're a fan of the subgenre, too, check out this Mystery Readers Journal issue with some examples.

Part of the SinC blog hop is to "tag" other authors you might be interested in, so I thought I'd include some fellow Friday's Forgotten Books folks, namely:

Patti Abbott, who just signed a contract with Polis Books for her upcoming novel Concrete Angel and blogs here.

Hilary Davidson, author of the Lily Moore series and recent standalone thriller, Blood Always Tells, and who maintains an author blog.

Terrie Farley Moran, whose debut novel Well Read, Then Dead was published this July by Berkeley Prime Crime, and who blogs at both Women of Mystery and Criminal Element.