B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 30

Anthony Award Accolades

[image error]

 

Bouchercon, an annual convention of mystery readers, fans, writers, and enthusiasts, announced the finalists for the 2024 Anthony Awards on Facebook today. Winners will be revealed at the event, being held August 28 - September 1 in Nashville. Congrats to all the finalists!

 

Best Hardcover Novel:

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
Time's Undoing by Cheryl A. Head
Face of Greed by James L'Etoile
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Best Paperback Novel:

No Home for Killers by E.A. Aymar
Hide by Tracy Clark
Because the Night by James D.F. Hannah
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey
Magic City Blues by Bobby Matthews
Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak

Best First Novel:

The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry
Play the Fool by Lina Chern
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

Best Children's/YA:

Finney and the Secret Tunnel by Jamie Lane Barber
Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity by Elizabeth C. Bunch
The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson
The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle by Taryn Souders
Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose by Nancy Springer

Best Critical/Nonfiction:

Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar
Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan
Agatha Christie, She Watched: One Woman's Plot to Watch 201 Christie Adaptations Without Murdering the Director, Screenwriter, Cast, or Her Husband by Teresa Peschel
Love Me Fierce In Danger - The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell

Best Anthology/Collection:

School of Hard Knox, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor
Here in the Dark: Stories by Meagan Luca
Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter
The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions by Art Taylor
Killin’ Time in San Diego: Bouchercon Anthology 2023, edited by Holly West

Best Short Story:

"Real Courage" by Barb Goffman
"Knock" by James D.F. Hannah
"Green and California Bound" by Curtis Ippolito
"Ticket to Ride" by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski
"Tell Me No Lies" by Holly West

         Related StoriesHammett's Literary HeirsDerringer DelightsAgatha Ascendance 

Mystery Melange

[image error]

The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance announced the finalists for the 2024 Maine Literary Awards, including those in the Crime Fiction category: Barbara Burt, Dissonance: A Novel of Music & Murder; Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Web; and Bryan Wiggins with Lee Thibodeau, The Corpse Bloom. The winners in all categories will be revealed on May 30.

Janet Rudolph of Mystery Fanfare alerted us to the passing of Camille Minichino. In addition to penning over twenty-five mystery novels, Camille was Past President and a member of NorCal Mystery Writers of America, NorCal Sisters in Crime, and the California Writers Club. She had originally received her Ph.D. in physics and served on the faculty of Golden Gate University, also working as a scientific editor in the Engineering Department of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her mysteries often had a science theme, such as the Periodic Table Mystery Series, but she also wrote the Miniature Mystery Series (as Margaret Grace), the Postmistress Mystery Series (as Jean Flowers), the Sophie Knowles Mystery Series (as Ada Madison), and the Alaskan Diner Mystery Series (as Elizabeth Logan).

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is presenting the exhibition "Mystery and Wonder: Highlights From The Illustration Collection" through June 16, 2024, drawing from the museum's permanent collection, which now holds almost 25,000 illustrations by prominent artists working across genres and time periods. Specific selections include Teresa Fasolino’s colorful, clue-filled mystery novel cover illustrations (e.g. the illustration for Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh); Thomas Woodruff’s ethereal book jacket art for best-selling novels by Anne Tyler and Gabriel García Márquez; steamy pulp illustrations by Everett Raymond Kinstler and Mort Kunstler; mystical three-dimensional illustrations for books and magazines by Joan Hall; fictional American histories by Julian Allen; a fun and engaging Rockwell Who-Dun-It; and a brand new Rockwell acquisition that offers mysteries of its own.

At the recent Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland, the special guests for the 2025 event, April 26-28, were announced including: Lifetime Achievement Recipient, Elaine Viets; Guest of Honor, Sujata Massey; Toastmaster, Lori Rader-Day; Fan Guest of Honor, Joni Langevoort; and Amelia Honoree, Kristopher Zgorski (with a special remembrance of Tony Hillerman). Likewise, the Left Coast Crime Conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado, March 13-16, 2025, revealed its special guests, to include Guests of Honor, Sara Paretsky and Manuel Ramos; Fan of Honor, Grace Koshida; and Toastmaster, John Copenhaver. Be sure and mark your calendars with the dates.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with Kevin R. Doyle, author of the Sam Quinton mystery series and several standalone crime and horror thrillers; Clea Simon, author or over three dozen mysteries, applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Bad Boy Beat, which kicks off a fast-paced amateur sleuth series starring Em Kelton, a Boston crime reporter with a nose for news; and E.B. Davis interviewed Annette Dashofy for the Writers Who Kill blog about her latest novel, What Comes Around.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Author R&R with Peter Colt

[image error]Peter Colt is a 1996 graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a BA in Political Science and a 24-year veteran of the Army Reserve, with deployments to Kosovo and Iraq as an Army Civil Affairs officer. He is currently a police officer in Rhode Island and married with two sons and two perpetually feuding cats. He is the author of the Andy Roark mysteries: The Off-Islander, Back Bay Blues, Death at Fort Devens, The Ambassador, and the latest installment, The Judge.

[image error]The Judge is set in Boston, December 1985. Judge Ambrose Messer, who’s overseeing the bench trial of a chemical company accused of knowingly dumping chemical waste—causing birth defects and cancer—becomes the target of blackmail. The judge doesn’t want a threat to corrupt his judgement, but he also has secrets of his own he doesn’t want revealed. Ex-military operative turned private investigator, Andy Roark, is sent on the blackmailer’s trail, but the disturbing, unexpected revelations he uncovers make him a target of some very dangerous people, who seem determined not only to wreck the life of his client, but to destroy Roark's too.

Peter Colt stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching his books:

 

The Off Islander was born out of two things, Facebook and John Plaster's excellent book Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG. In 2008 my wife introduced me to Facebook, and I started to reconnect with old friends from my hometown of Nantucket Island. I was also reading Plaster’s outstanding account of Green Berets conducting extremely hazardous reconnaissance missions on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam war. 

One night after the duty day was done, I started to write the type of detective novel that I liked to read. I wanted to set the book in a time period that was pre-Google, pre-GPS, pre-Air Tag and pre-internet, but I didn’t want it to be so far in the past that I was going to be in danger of getting the day-to-day details wrong. I settled on 1982 and I made my protagonist a veteran of the U.S. Army’s ultra-secret Special Forces element in Vietnam, known as the Studies and Observation Group (SOG). I had taken Raymond Chandler’s advice about private detectives having to be loners, and what could be more secluded than being a survivor of an elite unit within the Army’s elite?

I was very lucky to end up with an agent and a book deal which led to five Andy Roark books (I am working on number six now). The Off Islander was something that evolved with the bare idea of a plot and the final gunfight, whereas my next book, Back Bay Blues, was a much more heavily plotted and researched book. Back Bay Blues was set in 1985 and dealt with the experience of Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. The mothballed fleet of Navy vessels in Suisun Bay, California, figured heavily in the story.

My first book had received good reviews and positive feedback from Vietnam veterans. I was very much aware of the fact there were veterans from SOG still alive, as well as other Vietnam veterans, and I had this nightmarish vision of them, or any reader for that matter, throwing the book down in disgust because I got the details wrong. The only thing I could do was research, the type of research my professors in college wished I had done for any paper.

My approach to research is two-fold:  first and foremost, I spent time and money building up a library of books by and about the men of SOG. I practically stopped reading fiction because most of my time was taken up reading the history, learning about the tactics, the weapons, and the kit they used. For instance, if I had my guy at a certain camp in Vietnam, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t some generic description but the most accurate one I could offer.

Many of the scenes and missions that Andy Roark relays to the reader are drawn from the research done in books. This posed another challenge, to make sure any scenes in Vietnam weren’t too similar to the first-person accounts. The best way to ensure I didn’t commit that sin was by meticulously researching the events. In Back Bay Blues, Andy Roark and two of his friends are at a real event that took place when enemy sappers attacked the Special Forces camp in Nha Trang. It led to the single largest loss of Army Special Forces soldiers in the Vietnam War. I wanted to make sure that I got those details right.

Death at Fort Devens, the third Andy Roark book, takes place at Fort Devens and Boston’s infamous Combat Zone (the city's adult entertainment district). I had been going to Fort Devens for various types of reasons since 1991, when it was still an Active Duty post, and later after it was closed leaving a small Reserve/National Guard training area in its place. I had on many occasions cut through the Combat Zone as a kid going from the Greyhound bus station to eat in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, but I didn’t trust my memory of either place. Fortunately, I was able to find books about both and relied upon them heavily to get the details right.

The other major tool I use to research my books is the Internet. Google is a fantastic tool. When I was writing Back Bay Blues, I was able to use Google Earth to give me an idea of the approximate location of the U.S. Navy’s mothball fleet. Now when I was writing about Andy Roark swimming from one of the boats, I was able to approximate the distance. I was able to accurately describe where he came ashore versus just inventing it. I was also able to use it to give me an idea of what the roads and businesses were like in the area in 1985.

In Death at Fort Devens, I also wanted to use the taillights of a 1975 Ford Maverick as a plot point. A quick image search showed me the many different variations of the taillights that were used on the Maverick, but I was able to match the image to the year model and accurately describe. Why go to all the trouble, one might ask? Simple, because out there, somewhere is a fan of the books who is a "car guy." If I get an easily researched detail wrong, it takes a little something away from the story for them.

In The Ambassador, a portion of the book is set in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and I wanted to create a seedy, waterfront area. It wouldn’t do if my fictional area turned out to be in a nice neighborhood or a state park. It might not be important to a reader in Arizona or Wisconsin, but it probably means a lot to a reader in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

I remember reading a Robert B. Parker novel when I was a teenager. Parker’s Spenser was on a case that took him to a brothel in my other hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. Imagine my surprise when the building in question wasn’t just in my city, my neighborhood, my block, but was either my apartment building or the one across the street! Parker’s description was good enough that I knew he had been on my street and so accurate that I could tell which building it was. But, boy oh boy, I was somehow living in a Spenser novel!

My latest book, The Judge, opens with Andy Roark waiting in the world famous restaurant/bar, Jacob Wirths, a Boston institution with a long history. My dad had taken me there as a kid a couple of times, but I couldn’t describe it from memory. If I had tried and gotten it wrong, then my story’s credibility would have gone down the drain with any readers in Boston who know Wirths. But a search of the internet for images and a look at Wikipedia for the history allowed me to accurately describe it.

Why go to the trouble? Why spend hundreds of dollars on books and hundreds of hours researching small details? Yes, I am that guy who will research the headlines, what was on the Billboard Top 100, even the weather the days that I imagine the story taking place. Why go to all that trouble? The short answer is for the reader. They are paying good money or going to the library for my books. They are investing their time. There is a wealth of books out there, but if someone picks up my book, I want them to get their money’s worth. I want them to enjoy it and when they close the book, I want them to miss the characters and the story. All of that can be ruined in a flash by getting easily researched details wrong. The reader deserves better than that.

 

You can learn more about Peter Colt and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Goodreads. The Judge is now available via Severn House and all major booksellers.

 

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Thomas R. WeaverAuthor R&R with Larry and Rosemary MildAuthor R&R with Brianne Sommerville 

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Producers Esmail Corp (Mr. Robot) and K Period Media (Manchester By The Sea) are teaming up with Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon (The Age Of Shadows) on an English and Korean-language movie adaptation of the psychological thriller, The Hole, by Korean author Hye-Young Pyun. The story follows Ogi, who wakes from a coma after causing a major car accident that took his wife’s life and left him paralyzed. His caretaker is his mother-in-law, a widow grieving the loss of her only child. Ogi is neglected and left alone in his bed but soon notices his mother-in-law in their abandoned garden, uprooting what his wife had worked so hard to plant, and obsessively digging larger and larger holes. When asked, she answers only that she is finishing what her daughter started. As he tries to escape, Ogi discovers more about his wife and his own role in the troubled state of their relationship.

Victoria Asare-Archer (lead writer on Netflix’s Harlan Coben adaptation, Missing You) has been tapped to adapt C.M. Ewan’s thriller novel, The House Hunt, for Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleventh Hour Films. The House Hunt centers on the story of an everyday young couple, Lucy and Sam, who are selling their recently renovated dream house, but one viewing turns into a nightmare and events spiral beyond their control.

Noomi Rapace is set to star in the psychological thriller, Reckoner, written and helmed by Nissar Modi (writer of feature Z For Zachariah) who will be making his movie directorial debut. Rapace is replacing Christina Hendricks who is no longer attached due to scheduling conflicts. The project centers on an affluent woman (Rapace) and her carefully constructed life as it's disrupted by a young man connected to a tightly held secret from her past.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Jessica Biel (The Sinner) and Elizabeth Banks (Call Jane) will exec produce and star in The Better Sister, a thriller based on the novel by Alafair Burke. In a competitive situation, the project has landed at Prime Video with a series order. The plot line follows the story of Chloe (Biel), who moves through the world with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) struggles to stay clean and hustles to make ends meet. When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, laying bare long-buried secrets.

Even before the debut of the new crime drama series, Cross, based on the best-selling Alex Cross book series by James Patterson, Amazon Prime Video is already planning for a second season. The drama stars Aldis Hodge as a detective and forensic psychologist uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims in order to identify — and ultimately capture — the murderers. Being added to the second season are Jeanine Mason, playing a brilliant, ambitious, and vengeful judge; Matthew Lillard, playing a ruthless, self-made business tycoon; and Wes Chatham, playing a hard-edged military veteran turned farmer with far-right political views and sensitive heart.

All Creatures Great and Small writer, Jamie Crichton, is taking on a series for ITV, I Fought the Law, about the fight to repeal the notorious 800-year-old double jeopardy law in the UK. Based on Ann Ming’s book, For the Love of Julie, the series tells the heart-breaking story of Ming’s 15-year-long battle for her daughter Julie’s murderer to face justice. Ming’s daughter was found in the bathroom of her house in 1990, 80 days after she had disappeared, and the man who killed her was twice acquitted following mistrials before eventually admitting to the murder. The archaic double jeopardy law meant he couldn’t be tried twice for the same crime and it is this law that Ming and her family successfully overturned.

Emily The Criminal, the 2022 crime thriller starring Aubrey Plaza, is the latest movie to be turned into a television series. Legendary Television is developing a series based on the film, which was written and directed by John Patton Ford with Plaza, who will not star in the TV version. The film followed Emily (Plaza), who is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record. Desperate for income, she takes a shady gig as a "dummy shopper," buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a handsome and charismatic middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi). Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism, and increasingly interested in her mentor Youcef. Together, they hatch a plan to bring their business to the next level in Los Angeles.

CBS became the first broadcast network to present its fall schedule, and even announced the lineup for the entire 2024-25 season. Returning crime dramas include NCIS and NCIS: Sydney; the FBI-themed trio (FBI, FBI: International, and FBI: Most Wanted); Elspeth; S.W.A.T.; The Equalizer; Tracker; and Blue Bloods, although the network also confirmed this would be that series' last, wrapping up in December. The new crime dramas include Matlock, a reimagining of the classic TV series of the same name, which stars Kathy Bates as the brilliant septuagenarian attorney, Madeline "Matty" Matlock; NCIS: Origins, which follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) in 1991, years before the events of NCIS; and Watson, starring Morris Chestnut as Dr. John Watson from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series.

CBS also ordered its first new series for the 2025-26 broadcast season, giving a green light to Fire Country spinoff, Sheriff Country, headlined by Morena Baccarin. Baccarin stars as straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox, the stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone (Diane Farr of Fire Country), who investigates criminal activity as she patrols the streets of small-town Edgewater while contending with her ex-con father and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Chris Harding Thornton chatted with Paul Burke about her new novel, Little Underworld; being a seventh generation Nebraskan; noir; Pickard County Atlas; and music.

This week's episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Charles Salzberg, author of the Henry Swann Detective series.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books about cults.

The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured multiple O. Henry Award winner, Sheila Kohler, reading her suspenseful, evocative tale, "The Changing Room," from the January/February 2021 issue.

The Pick Your Poison podcast looked at a toxin that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, been associated with the Salem Witch Trials, and is the source of modern hallucinogens.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for MondayMedia Murder for Murder 

Hammett's Literary Heirs

[image error]

Since 1991, the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers has presented the Hammett Prize trophy to the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing. The reading committee for books published in 2023 has announced the top five books to be submitted to the distinguished finalist judges, with a decision on the winner to come later this summer. Congratulations to all!

 

Night Letter by Sterling Watson, Akashic Books
The Almost Widow by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Harper Avenue
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead, Doubleday
Stealing by Margaret Verble, Mariner Books
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon, Alfred A. Knopf

 

         Related StoriesDerringer DelightsAgatha AscendanceCrème de la CrimeFest 

Edgar Exaltations

[image error]

Mystery Writers of America revealed the winners for the 78th Annual Edgar® Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2023, in a ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Novel:   Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic)

Other finalists:

ll the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster – Simon Element – Marysue Rucci Books)
An Honest Man by Michael Koryta (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

Best First Novel by an American Author :   The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

Other finalists:

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Macmillan Publishing – Minotaur Books)
Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski (Macmillan Publishing – Henry Holt and Co.)
The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)

Best Paperback Original:   Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

Other finalists:

Boomtown by A.F. Carter (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
Hide by Tracy Clark (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime)

Best Fact Crime:  Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group)

Other finalists:

In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America’s Child by Kim Cross (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing)
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux (Penguin Random House – Crown Currency)
Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt (Macmillan Publishers – St. Martin’s Press)
 Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever by Barbara Rae-Venter (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
The Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy by Joe Sexton (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)

Best Critical/Biographica l:  Love Me Fierce in Danger – The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury Academic)

Other finalists:

Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak (Macmillan Publishing – St. Martin’s Press)
Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

Best Short Story :   “Hallowed Ground,” by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Other finalists:

“Thriller,” Thriller by Heather Graham (Blackstone Publishing)
“Miss Direction,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2023 by Rob Osler (Dell Magazines)
“The Rise,” Amazon Original Stories by Ian Rankin (Amazon Publishing)
“Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand,” Amazon Original Stories by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Publishing)

Best Juvenile:  The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas (Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)

Other finalists:

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Hachette Book Group – Workman Publishing – Algonquin Young Readers)
pic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Publishers – Versify)
The Jules Verne Prophecy by Larry Schwarz & Iva-Marie Palmer (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)

Best Young Adult:  Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Other finalists:

Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)
The Sharp Edge of Silence by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)
My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books)
Just Do This One Thing for Me by Laura Zimmerman (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)

Best Television Episode Teleplay:  “Escape from Shit Mountain” – Poker Face, Written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman (Peacock)

Other finalists:

“Time of the Monkey” – Poker Face, Written by Wyatt Cain & Charlie Peppers (Peacock)
“I’m a Pretty Observant Guy” – Will Trent, Written by Liz Heldens (ABC)
“Dead Man’s Hand” – Poker Face, Written by Rian Johnson (Peacock)
“Hózhó Náhásdlii (Beauty is Restore)” – Dark Winds, Written by Graham Roland & John Wirth (AMC)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: “The Body in Cell Two,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2023 by Kate Hohl (Dell Magazines)

Other finalists:

“Errand for a Neighbor,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January-February 2023 by Bill Bassman (Dell Magazines)
“The Soiled Dove of Shallow Hollow,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January-February 2023 by Sean McCluskey (Dell Magazines)
“It’s Half Your Fault,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July-August 2023 by Meghan Leigh Paulk (Dell Magazines)
“Two Hours West of Nothing,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2023 by Gabriela Stiteler (Dell Magazines)

The Simon & Schuster Mary HIggins Clark Award :  Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House – Bantam)

Other finalists:

The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard by Kate Robards (Crooked Lane Books)
Murder in Postscript by Mary Winters (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

The G.P. Putman's Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award :  An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Other finalists:

Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
Bad, Bad Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
Past Lying by Val McDermid (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
A Stolen Child by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award :  Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

Other finalists:

Misfortune Cookie by Vivien Chien (Macmillan – St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
Hot Pot Murder by Jennifer J. Chow (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns (Crooked Lane Books)
The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell (Crooked Lane Books)

SPECIAL AWARDS – PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED IN JANUARY 2024 

Grand Master

Katherine Hall Page
R.L. Stine

Ellery Queen Award

Michaela Hamilton, Kensington Books

 

 

          

Mystery Melange

[image error]
Photo credit via PRRINT Art Shop

 

CrimeReads contributor Molly Odintz asked dozens of crime fiction writers to contribute to an annual roundtable discussion on the state of the genre. This year’s roundtable, like in previous years, is divided into two parts: the first is focused on craft advice and the writing life, while the second addresses issues in the genre and the future of crime writing. The participants include James Lee Burke, William Kent Krueger, Katherine Hall Page, Susan Isaacs, April Henry, Tracy Clark, and others who have been nominated for various categories for Edgar Awards. You can see the finalists and winners of the 2024 Edgars in this previous blog post.

International Thriller Writer's Breakout Series will feature Lee Child and Andrew Child (authors of the Jack Reacher series) in conversation with Joseph Finder on May 9th, 2024, at 8pm ET, on the topic of "Power Storytelling." This is a free zoom webinar series open to all writers, but you must register using this link. Child (the pen name of Jim Grant) began the Reacher novels with 1997's Killing Floor, which won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the series has since sold over a million copies and been adapted for film and television. In 2020, Lee Child announced that his younger brother Andrew Grant would take over as writer of the Jack Reacher novels, writing under the pen name of Andrew Child.

CJ Sansom, author of the Shardlake novels, has died at the age of 71, just days before Shardlake, the TV adaptation of Sansom's novel, Dissolution, starring Arthur Hughes and Sean Bean, was released on Disney+ on May 1. Sansom had suffered from multiple myeloma, a rare cancer that affects bone marrow, since 2012. Sansom was one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists, known in particular for his mystery novels featuring barrister Matthew Shardlake, set in Tudor England. His longtime editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, said Sansom "wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare. But he always took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic responses to his novels and worked tirelessly on each book, never wanting to disappoint a single reader."

This week, we also lost author Paul Auster, who passed away at the age of 77. Auster’s breakthrough came with the 1985 publication of City of Glass, the first novel in his New York trilogy. As The Guardian notes, "while the books are ostensibly mystery stories, Auster wielded the form to ask existential questions about identity." Auster was better known in Europe than in his native United States, and was awarded Spain’s Prince of Asturias prize for literature and France's Prix Médicis Étranger. He was also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honor that recognizes significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields. 

Crime fiction from Scotland is often dubbed as "tartan noir," featuring such bestselling authors as Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. But The Daily Mail rightfully noted that Scotland's secret king of crime has been unfortunately overshadowed by these more recent authors. Bill Knox, a journalist from Glasgow, covered untold crimes, hosted STV's Crime Desk program appealing for help from the public – always signing off with the promise that any calls to the police "can be in confidence" – and had abundant contacts in the police force. But he was also the author of many police procedurals and thrillers, most notably a series that follows the excitable Chief Inspector Thane and his calmer deputy, Moss.

Digging out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Egypt is putting prized assets up for sale. Among these is the historic Old Cataract Hotel, perched on a rocky outcrop on the Nile River’s eastern bank, which has welcomed the likes of Winston Churchill, Jimmy Carter, Tsar Nicholas II, and Agatha Christie. Dame Agatha checked into the Old Cataract in 1937 and remained there for most of that year, where she would sit for hours and write the novel inspired by her surroundings, Death on the Nile. Her suite has been available for overnight stays (for upwards of $8,000 a night), although it will remain to be seen if any new owners keep the suite with its period furnishings intact.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Ava January about her latest novel, The Mayfair Dagger, a witty, feminist mystery set in the heart of nineteenth-century London; I.S. Berry spoke with CrimeReads about her career as a case officer for the CIA and her debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow; and Shots Magazine interviewed author John Connolly about his new Charlie Parker detective thriller, The Instruments of Darkness.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Derringer Delights

[image error]

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the winners of this year Derringer Awards. Since 1998, the SMFS has awarded the annual Derringers—after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The awards recognize outstanding stories published during 2023. Congratulations to this year's winners and finalists!

 

FLASH:  “The Referee” by C. W. Blackwell (Shotgun Honey, October 12, 2023)

Other finalists:

“Sleep Rough” by Brandon Barrows (Shotgun Honey, September 19, 2023)
“To Whom It May Concern by Serena Jayne” (Shotgun Honey, January 9, 2023)
“Teddy’s Favorite Thing” by Paul Ryan O’Connor (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
“Supply Chains” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Black Cat Weekly #89)

 

SHORT STORY: “Last Day At The Jackrabbit” by John Floyd (The Strand, May 2023)

Other finalists:

“Denim Mining” by Michael Bracken (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)
“Dogs Of War” by Michael Bracken & Stacy Woodson (Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir Volume Four, Down & Out Books)
“I Don’t Like Mondays” by Josh Pachter (Mystery Magazine, July 2023)
“Judge Not” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)
“A Tail Of Justice” by Shannon Taft (Black Cat Weekly #114)

 

LONG STORY:  “Good Deed For The Day” by Bonnar Spring (Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories, Crime Spell Books)

Other finalists:

“Hard Rain On Beach Street” by C. W. Blackwell (Killin’ Time in San Diego, Down & Out Books)
“Reversion” by Marcelle Dubé (Mystery Magazine, April 2023)
“Back To Hell House” by Nick Kolakowski (Vautrin, Fall 2023)
“Troubled Water” by Donalee Moulton (Black Cat Weekly #75)
“It’s Not Even Past” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
“Ignatius Rum-And-Cola” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2023)

 

NOVELETTE:  “Mrs. Hyde” by David Dean (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2023)

Other finalists:

“Vengeance Weapon” by James R. Benn (The Refusal Camp: Stories by James R. Benn, Soho Press)
“The Case Of The Bogus Cinderellas” by Jacqueline Freimor (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/Aug 2023)
“Madam Tomahawk” by Nick Kolakowski (A Grifter’s Song, Down & Out Books, 2023)
“Catherine The Great” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (WMG 2023 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories)

         Related StoriesAgatha AscendanceCrème de la CrimeFestLefties Lead the Way 

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Ben Kingsley are set to star in The Thursday Murder Club, with Chris Columbus attached to write and direct. The film is an adaptation of British TV host and producer Richard Osman's novel of the same name from Steven Spielberg‘s production house, Amblin Entertainment. The story follows a group of geriatric friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren will play ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley will play ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Brosnan will play former union activist Ron. Negotiations for an actress to play the fourth member of the group, Joyce, are ongoing.

Pierce Brosnan has also signed to star in the romantic thriller, In The Wind, from Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures. The production is the feature directorial debut of Simon Barry, whose previous credits include creator and showrunner on the Netflix fantasy show Warrior Nun as well as Syfy show Ghost Wars. The film (fka A Spy’s Guide To Survival) centers around a reclusive, retired spy who is brought out of hiding by his enigmatic new neighbor, digging up both of their secrets in the process.

Clue is set to get another remake after Sony Pictures landed the TV and film rights to the board game that was turned into the iconic 1985 movie. Starring Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, the film centered around a group of strangers invited to a secluded mansion where things go wrong and also featured Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Colleen Camp as French maid Yvette, and Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy. Produced by Debra Hill, it infamously featured a number of different endings. Other potential film and TV adaptations have come and gone in the years since, but none has yet seen the light of day.

Emmy nominee Adam Scott (Severance) is set to star in and direct his first feature, Double Booked, alongside Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), and Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus). The story follows a successful self-help writer (Scott) and his heavily pregnant wife (Beetz) who organize a weekend away at a secluded lodge, only to encounter another couple (Brown and Daddario) at their cabin when they arrive. With a blizzard moving in they are forced to spend the night together, and what seems like an innocent system error turns into a chilling battle of deceit with deadly consequences.

A trailer was released for Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut, Blink Twice, a thriller about a waitress (Naomi Acke) being invited to the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), which is a far more sinister trip than it first appears. Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, and Kyle MacLachlan also star. Blink Twice is in theaters from August 23.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Adler Entertainment Trust (AET), the production company dedicated to adapting the works of Warren Adler, is partnering with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Todd Lieberman (The Fighter) and his production company, Hidden Pictures, on an initial two-project production deal: an untitled Fiona Fitzgerald Detective Series, based on Adler's eight-book Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery books set in the streets of Washington DC and its political backrooms, where Fiona Fitzgerald, born into an illustrious family of DC insiders, abandoned her obvious path in favor of becoming a full-time detective within the DC Metro PD; and Trans Siberian Express, an epic cold-war thriller based on Adler’s best-selling book by the same name, which follows an American cancer specialist secretly sent to Moscow to save the Soviet Politburo Chief, where he overhears a sinister plan to nuke China.

ITV's longest-running drama series, Vera, is coming to an end after 14 seasons. Based on the crime novels by Ann Cleeves, the drama stars Brenda Blethyn as the retired detective who plods along in a disheveled state but has a calculating mind, and, despite her irascible personality, cares deeply about her work and colleagues. Blethyn won the Rose d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award for her portrayal of the detective in 2021. 

Deadline reported that CBS has picked up a fifth season of The Equalizer, starring and executive produced by Queen Latifah, for 2024-25. But fans of another CBS crime drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, aren't so lucky, as the network canceled the franchise’s first female-led (Vanessa Lachey) series after three seasons. It will also be the first series in the franchise not to get a proper sendoff after a brief run, compared to its predecessors.

NBC's Law & Order: Organized Crime, is finalizing a deal for a 10-episode Season 5 renewal, relocating from NBC to sibling Peacock, with the new season streaming exclusively on the platform. The move gives the NBCUniversal streamer an original Dick Wolf drama series to go with the Wolf library and next-day runs of the company’s remaining NBC series Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, which are among the platform’s most viewed titles. Organized Crime follows SVU's Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in his return to the NYPD to work on the Organized Crime Task Force.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with journalist, broadcaster, and crime writer, Stig Abell, about his new novel, Death in a Lonely Place; working at the Press Complaints Commission; and the phenomenon of bits falling off satellites and back to Earth.

On Crime Time FM, author David Hewson chatted with Paul Burke about Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall; Venice; Shakespeare; Audible; writing the official prequel to a hit television show, and more.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers nominated for the 2024 Edgar Awards.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for MondayMedia Murder for Murder 

Agatha Ascendancy

[image error]

At the awards banquet held as part of the annual Malice Domestic conference last night, the winners were announced for the 2024 Agatha Awards in six categories. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Contemporary Mystery Novel: The Weekend Retreat, by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)

Also nominated:

Wined and Died in New Orleans, by Ellen Byron (Berkley)
Helpless, by Annette Dashofy (Level Best)
A Case of the Bleus, by Korina Moss (St. Martin’s Press)
The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)

Best Historical Mystery Novel: The Mistress of Bhatia House, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated:

Death Among the Ruins, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House)
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, by Celeste Connally (Minotaur)
I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)
Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

Best First Mystery Novel: Crime and Parchment, by Daphne Silver (Level Best)

Also nominated:

Glory Be, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus)
The Hint of Light, by Kristin Kisska (Lake Union)
Dutch Treat, by Josh Pachter (Genius)
Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery Novel: The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)

Also nominated:

Myrtle, Means and Opportunity, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
Araña and Spiderman, by Alex Segura (Marvel Press)
The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle, by Taryn Sounders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)
Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Best Mystery Short Story: "Ticket to Ride," by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski (from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)

Also nominated:

"The Knife Sharpener," by Shelley Costa (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2023)
"A Good Judge of Character," by Tina deBellegarde (from Malice Domestic 17: Murder Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press)
"Real Courage," by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2023)
"Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective," by Richie Narvaez (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out)

Best Mystery Non-fiction :  Finders: Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated:

Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder, by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press)
Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

         Related StoriesCrème de la CrimeFestLefties Lead the WayTops in Thrillers