B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 57

Edgar Excellence

 
As Mystery Writers of America celebrates the 214th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, MWA announced the nominees for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television published or produced in 2022. The 77th Annual Edgar Awards will be celebrated on April 27, 2023, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.
 

BEST NOVEL



Devil House by John Darnielle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux - MCD)

Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)

Gangland by Chuck Hogan (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing)

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

The Maid by Nita Prose (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)



BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

 

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Penguin Random House - Bantam)

Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li (Penguin Random House – Tiny Reparations Books)



BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

 

Quarry’s Blood by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)

On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House
Or Else by Joe Hart (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Cleopatra’s Dagger by Carole Lawrence (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
A Familiar Stranger by A.R. Torre (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
 
BEST FACT CRIME



Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)

Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse (Flatiron Books)

Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles (Hachette Book Group – Workman Publishing – Algonquin Books)

American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, D.C. by Shahan Mufti (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)
 
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

 

The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins – Collins Crime Club)

The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie by Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury – Bloomsbury Academic)

The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin (McFarland)

The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story by Andrew Neiderman (Simon & Schuster – Gallery Books)

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

 

BEST SHORT STORY



"Red Flag," Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Gregory Fallis (Dell Magazines)

"Backstory," Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Charles John Harper (Dell Magazines)

"Locked-In," Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by William Burton McCormick (Dell Magazines)

“The Amnesty Box," Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms by Tim McLoughlin (Akashic Books)
“First You Dream, Then You Die," Black is the Night by Donna Moore (Titan Books)
 
BEST JUVENILE



The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef by Michael D. Beil (Holiday House – Pixel+Ink)

The Area 51 Files by Julie Buxbaum (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Press)

Aggie Morton Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse by Marthe Jocelyn (Penguin Random House Canada - Tundra Books)
Adventures on Trains: Murder on the Safari Star by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman (Macmillan Children's Publishing - Feiwel & Friends)

Chester Keene Cracks the Code by Kekla Magoon (Random House Children's Books - Wendy Lamb Books)

 

BEST YOUNG ADULT

 

Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne (Random House Children’s Books – Crown BFYR)

Frightmares by Eva V. Gibson (Random House Children’s Books - Underlined)

The Black Girls Left Standing by Juliana Goodman (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)

The Red Palace by June Hur (Macmillan Children’s Books – Feiwel & Friends)

Lock the Doors by Vincent Ralph (Sourcebooks - Fire)



BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY



“One Mighty and Strong" - Under the Banner of Heaven, Written by Brandon Boyce (Hulu/FX)

“Episode 1” – Magpie Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece/PBS)

“Episode 1" - Karen Pirie, Written by Emer Kenny (BritBox)

“When Harry Met Fergus" - Harry Wild, Written by David Logan (Acorn TV)

“The Reagan Way" - Blue Bloods, Written by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS)
"Eighteen Wheels A Predator" - Law & Order: SVU, Written by Brianna Yellen & Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC Universal)
 

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD



"Dogs in the Canyon," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Mark Harrison (Dell Magazines)
 
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

 

Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower (Penguin Random House - Berkley)
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

Never Name the Dead by D.M. Rowell (Crooked Lane Books)

 

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD

 

Secret Lives by Mark de Castrique (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
An Unforgiving Place by Claire Kells (Crooked Lane Books)
Hideout by Louisa Luna (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – Doubleday)
Behind the Lie by Emilya Naymark (Crooked Lane Books)
Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood (Knopf Doubleday Publishing – Doubleday)
 
THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD
 
The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane Books)
Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
Desert Getaway by Michael Craft (Brash Books)
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
 


SPECIAL AWARDS
 
GRAND MASTER
 
Michael Connelly
Joanne Fluke
 
RAVEN AWARD
 
Crime Writers of Color
Eddie Muller for Noir Alley and The Noir Foundation
 
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
 
The Strand Magazine
          

Mystery Melange

Joffe Books announced the shortlist for the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2022. This year's pool of entries covered the gamut of gritty police procedurals to wrenching domestic suspense, evocative historical mysteries to page-turning cosies. Out of the longlist of twenty, five stood out, forming the official shortlist: The Labelled Bones by FQ Yeoh; Everyone Is Going To Know by Kingsley Pearson; The Smiling Mandarin by Mai Le Dinh; Red Obsession by Rose Lorimer; and Savage Territory by Sam Genever. The winner will be announced in January 2023.

More sad news for fans of mystery-themed bookstores, as Toronto’s Sleuth of Baker Street, announced it is closing. After forty years, owners Marian Misters and J.D. Singh have decided to retire from both work and bookselling. As Marian noted, "Spending forty years doing something we love has been a great pleasure, but the time has come for other things. There will be a transition period, naturally. What the transition will look like exactly, or how long the transition period will be, is not perfectly clear in our minds—there are a few moving parts and after forty years, it’s with considerable trepidation that we undertake this last, final, turn to our bookselling career—but our need and desire to do this is quite clear. We’ll stumble through this and make decisions as they need to be made."

The 15th year of Writers' Police Academy will once again offer hands-on training classes and sessions taught by leading law enforcement and forensics experts, scientists, and other industry professionals. This year's they've also added a special focus on homicide investigations that includes classes taught by top homicide and crime scene investigators, a coroner who’s also a flight nurse and author, evidence experts, SWAT team members, narcotics experts, behavioral health professionals, use of force and tactical response experts. This year's Guest of Honor is Hank Phillippi Ryan, and the special guest presenters include photojournalist Mike De Sisti, homicide detective/TV personality Steven Spingola (Cold Justice), and renowned serial killer expert Dr. Katherine Ramsland. Registration for the 2023 Writers’ Police Academy is scheduled to open February 1, 2023. 

There will be an exhibition featuring Sherlock Holmes materials from Occidental College's Ned Guymon Collection of Mystery and Detective Fiction during the 55th California International Antiquarian Book Fair held February 10–12 in Pasadena. The collection, one of the world's largest in the genre, is composed of some 16,000 items including such Holmesian treasures as an 1887 copy of A Study in Scarlet and other first edition books, magazines, and rare, fascinating ephemera.  (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

As crime fiction continues to dominate sales and its critical reception grows, it has become an increasingly important part of Creative Writing courses. Clues: A Journal of Detection is looking for 500-750 word contributions for a new regular feature for the journal, a forum on teaching. Accounts from all classroom spaces (college, high school, graduate school, prisons, etc.) and teachers at all stages of their careers are welcome, as well as student voices.  Submissions are due February 1, 2023. For more information or to submit essays, please contact Jamie Bernthal- Hooker (j.bernthal-hooker@uos.ac.uk).

On January 26, Penguin Modern Classics will publish three well-regarded novels from the father of the spy thriller, Eric Ambler (1909-1998), including Passage of Arms, The Light of Day, and A Kind of Anger. Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel, and his disciples include John le Carré, Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene, and Len Deighton. (HT to Shots Magazine) 

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "George Santos, Republican Representative-Elect From New York's Third Congressional District" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, thriller author MHR Geer joined Lisa Haselton to talk about Geer's new suspense novel, Assumed; Grace Topping chatted with Kait Carson at Writers Who Kill to discuss the reissue of her book, Death by Blue Water; and Thomas Perry took the Page 69 test about his latest thriller, Murder Book.

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Lefty Love

Left Coast Crime 2023 — Trouble in Tucson— will be presenting four Lefty Awards at the convention in Tucson, Arizona. Registrants of the Left Coast Crime Conventions in Tucson and Albuquerque were able to nominate three titles in each category. The 2023 Lefty awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at the Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 18, 2023, at the El Conquistador Tucson.

 

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Ellen Byron, Bayou Book Thief (Berkley Prime Crime)
Jennifer J. Chow, Death by Bubble Tea (Berkley Prime Crime)
A.J. Devlin, Five Moves of Doom (NeWest Press)
T.G. Herren, A Streetcar Named Murder (Crooked Lane Books)
Catriona McPherson, Scot in a Trap (Severn House)

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel

The Bill Gottfried Memorial for books covering events before 1970

Dianne Freeman, A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder (Kensington Books)
Catriona McPherson, In Place of Fear (Mobius)
Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
Karen Odden, Under a Veiled Moon (Crooked Lane Books)
Ann Parker, The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press)
Iona Whishaw, Framed in Fire (Touchwood Editions)

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Erin E. Adams, Jackal (Bantam Books)
Eli Cranor, Don’t Know Tough (Soho Crime)
Ramona Emerson, Shutter (Soho Crme)
Meredith Hambrock, Other People’s Secrets (Crooked Lane Books)
Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club (Pegasus Crime)
Rob Osler, Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books)
Jane Pek, The Verifiers (Vintage Books)

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel

Kellye Garrett, Like a Sister (Mulholland Books)
Laurie R. King, Back to the Garden (Bantam Books)
James L’Etoile, Dead Drop (Level Best Books)
Gigi Pandian, Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Minotaur Books)
Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities (Minotaur Books)
Alex Segura, Secret Identity (Flatiron Books)

 

To be eligible for the 2023 Lefty Awards, titles must have been published for the first time in the United States or Canada during 2022, in book or ebook format. (If published in other countries before 2022, a book is still eligible if it meets the US or Canadian publication requirement.)

          

Media Murder for Monday

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

Alona Tal (SEAL Team), Jake Busey (Predators), and Craig Sheffer (A River Runs Through It) have joined Mark Feuerstein, Neal McDonough, Dermot Mulroney, and Christopher Lloyd in Man in the Long Black Coat, from director Salvador Litvak. The film tells the story of a troubled teen accused of a shocking murder, and the unlikely detective who seeks to prove his innocence and expose a far more sinister truth.

Paul Ben-Victor (Plane) and Mercedes Varnado (The Mandalorian) are the newest additions to the cast of the action-thriller, The Collective, which follows a group of righteous assassins. The members take aim at a highly sophisticated human trafficking ring backed by a network of untouchable billionaires. With their backs against the wall, The Collective has no choice but to put their most important mission in the hands of rookie assassin, Sam Alexander (Lucas Till). What he lacks in experience he makes up for in savvy, grit, and a keen ability to improvise in the most dangerous situations. He is aided on his journey by Hugo (Tyrese Gibson) and Liam (Don Johnson), former CIA operatives turned rogue vigilantes.

The first trailer was released for Marlowe, the upcoming film starring Liam Neeson as Raymond Chandler's iconic detective, which premieres on February 15. Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) adapted the project, with Neil Jordan (The Brave One) directing. The noir crime thriller is set in late 1930’s Los Angeles and centers around a street-wise, down-on-his-luck detective, Philip Marlowe, who is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger), daughter of a well-known movie star (Jessica Lange). The disappearance unearths a web of lies, and soon Marlowe is involved in a dangerous, deadly investigation where everyone involved has something to hide.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

AMC Networks has acquired the rights to John Maxim’s Bannerman spy book series for development as a potential television series. In the first of the books, The Bannerman Solution, Paul Bannerman was once his nation’s deadliest weapon – a top covert operative heading up the most lethal group of contract agents and network specialists in all of Europe. Now Bannerman is a liability, so the agency makes the decision that Bannerman and his people must be quietly eliminated. But Bannerman has other plans.

MGM+, formerly Epix, unveiled its programming lineup and development slate. The newly rebranded streaming service will launch on January 15 in conjunction with the season three premiere of Godfather of Harlem starring and executive produced by Forest Whitaker. Among the new projects are The Emperor of Ocean Park, a suspenseful take on Stephen L. Carter’s best-selling novel that centers around the death of a Black judge, whose daughter believes was actually murdered; Hoodlum, based on the 1997 MGM film written by Chris Brancato and based on the true story of 1930s Harlem numbers queen, Stephanie St. Clair, and her rise to prominence; and the docuseries, Wonderland Murders & the Secret History of Hollywood, a project executive produced by Bosch novelist, Michael Connelly.

In a competitive situation, veteran producer Clark Peterson (Monster, Rampart) and his Story and Film, Inc, has optioned Sara Foster’s thriller novel, The Hush, for development as a television series. Set in a near-future, surveillance-state London, The Hush follows a group of women who join forces with a midwife to save her daughter, who is the latest in a string of pregnant teens that have mysteriously disappeared. In the six months since the first case of a terrifying new epidemic, the government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens, and young pregnant women are vanishing without a trace.

Independent studio, wiip, has preemptively acquired An Honest Man, an upcoming novel by Michael Koryta, to develop as a television drama series, with Koryta attached to pen the adaptation. An Honest Man tells the story of Israel Pike, a man just released from prison for killing his own father, who returns to his ancestral island home in northern Maine and quickly becomes the primary suspect when seven men, including two Senate rivals and the prosecutor who sent Pike to prison, are found dead aboard a yacht drifting offshore. Lt. Jenn Salazar of the Maine State Police takes the lead in the investigation on Salvation Point Island, operating with secrets of her own to protect.

Nicholas Logan and Jeri Ryan have joined the cast of Dark Winds, AMC’s Western noir thriller series based on Tony Hillerman’s popular Leaphorn & Chee books. Set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley, Dark Winds follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and officer Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) of the Tribal Police as they are besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. Logan plays Colton Wolf, a twisted assassin with a secret that puts him on a collision course with Leaphorn. Ryan portrays Rosemary Vines, a femme fatale whose physical frailties hide her naked ambition as she leaves a trail of bodies in her wake. Jessica Matten, Deanna Allison, and Elva Guerra also star.

As part of a press tour, actor Timothy Olyphant talked about returning to Justified amid controversy surrounding police misconduct in the U.S. Based on the books by Elmore Leonard and his character of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, Justified ended in 2015, but the crime drama is returning in the form of Justified: City Primeval, expected to premiere in summer 2023. Olyphant noted that "We’re not a show that’s a cheerleader for law enforcement" and that the storylines won’t gloss over the topic of police brutality and inequality. Set ten years after the finale of the original Justified, the new crime drama finds Givens juggling work with raising his teenage daughter Willa (Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian), with the action moving from Kentucky to the city of Detroit, where Givens joins the police department’s investigation into "The Oklahoma Wildman," known as Clement Mansel (Boyd Holbrook).

AMC announced that the premiere date for the second season of Dalgliesh (an Acorn TV Original) will be in April of this year. The new season is based on three more P.D. James novels, Death of an Expert Witness, A Certain Justice, and The Murder Room, with Bertie Carvel reprising his role as the enigmatic chief investigator.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Good Morning America spoke with James Patterson and Mike Lupica, authors of The House of Wolves, the story of a father’s murder and the family feud over his billion-dollar empire that follows.

The first Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode of 2023 is up featuring the mystery short story, "Owl Be Damned," written by Nikki Knight and read by actor Ariel Linn.

On Crime Time FM, Steve Cavanagh (Eddie Flynn series) and Imran Mahmood (All I Said Was True) discussed courtroom thrillers with Victoria Selman; why we all love Atticus Finch; the courtroom as a cathedral; and having a pint with Rumpole.

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Problem of Cell 13

Jacques Heath Futrelle (1875-1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer who worked for the Atlanta Journal, where he began their sports section and met his great love and fellow writer, Lily May ("May") Peel. Soon after, Futrelle was off to Boston to join the editorial staff the Boston Post, but he missed Peel too much to stay. Before taking a job with the New York Herald, Jacques and May married in Georgia in July 1895, and after their honeymoon, the couple settled in to enjoy the New York literary life, including neighbors such as Edith Wharton and O. Henry. Inspired by his love of mysteries, especially the Sherlock Homes stories, Futrelle turned his own hand to penning short crime fiction in his spare time.



After emotional exhaustion following a period covering the Spanish-American War, Futrelle took a break from journalism to work as a two-year contract as a theatrical manager. He and May moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Jacques traveled for the small repertory company and tried his hand at dramatic writing. At the end of his stint with the theater, Jacques took a job at the Boston American newspaper, although he also continued to write short stories.



In 1906 Futrelle decided to leave journalism to turned his hand to writing fiction full time and became especially known for his series of stories featuring the "Thinking Machine," Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen ("a Ph.D., an LL.D., an F.R.S., an M.D., and an M.D.S."), who first appeared in 1905 in a serialized version of "The Problem of Cell 13." That was to be followed by The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906), The Simple Case of Susan (1908), The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908), The Diamond Master (1909), Elusive Isabel (1909), and The High Hand (1911).



In April of 1912, after celebrating his birthday in London following a publishing deal, Futrelle and his wife began their return journey from Europe to New York, booking their trip on the RMS Titanic. Though May made it into a life boat after the ship struck an iceberg on April 15, Jacques Futrelle died in the sinking. As the legend goes, after Futrelle ensured that his wife got on a lifeboat, he was last seen speaking on deck and smoking cigars with philanthropist John Jacob Astor, who also perished in the tragedy. Two more Thinking Machine novels were published posthumously, My Lady’s Garter in 1912 (which his widow inscribed "to the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate my husband's book") and Blind Man’s Bluff in 1914. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine also published some uncollected stories in 1949 and 1950.



"The Problem of Cell 13" is a short story by Jacques Futrelle, first published in 1905 and later collected in The Thinking Machine (1907), which was featured in crime writer H. R. F. Keating's list of the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. The story was also selected by science fiction author Harlan Ellison for Lawrence Block's Best Mysteries of the Century. It's seen by some crime fiction historians as a forerunner of the "locked room" detective story, and like many others of Futrelle's work, deals with an "impossible" scenario.



"The Problem of Cell 13" features Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen as the protagonist, although part of the story is seen through the POV of a prison warden. The story is set in motion after a scientific debate with two men, Dr. Charles Ransome and Alfred Fielding, which leads Van Dusen to insist that nothing is impossible when the human mind is properly applied. To prove it, he agrees to take part in an experiment where he'll be incarcerated in a prison for one week and escape on his own devices. He enters cell No. 13 with only three special requests: that his shoes should be polished, that he be provided with tooth-powder, and that he also be given 25 dollars (2 notes of 10 dollars and 1 note of 5 dollars). The only escape routes are a window with iron bars or having to walk through seven different doors to freedom.



Needless to say, mission is ultimately accomplished (with a little bit of aid from his confederate, newspaper reporter Hutchinson Hatch, and some rats), and Van Dusen also indirectly manages to get an inmate to confess to a crime he committed, something the police detectives hadn't even been able to do. When the warden wonders what would have happened if key elements of Van Dusen's escape hadn't been available, the "Thinking Machine" simply states there were also two other ways he could have done it - leaving those details to the speculation of the police and the reader.



The story was adapted for U.S. television by Arthur A. Ross in 1962 as part of the Kraft Mystery Theater series and won the 1963 Edgar Award for Best Episode in a TV Series. Other adaptations included "Cell 13" in 1973 for the British series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes featuring Douglas Wilmer (known for playing Sherlock Holmes in 1960s BBC productions), as well as couple of radio plays and a 2011 stage version.



Although not terribly well known today, Futrelle's work is still well regarded as part of the early Golden Age of crime fiction. His work has influenced many writers since, including John Dickson Carr, who referenced him in 1938's The Crooked Hinge, and Max Allan Collins, whose 1999 novel The Titanic Murders had Futrelle investigating a series of murders taking place the doomed ship. Jon Jermey and Mike Grost have more details on Futrelle and the scientific side of his writing over on the GA Detection website.

          

Edgar Royalty

 

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announced the recipients of its special awards, including Michael Connelly and Joanne Fluke as the 2023 Grand Masters. The honor represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality.

The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. For 2023, Mystery Writers of America selected Crime Writers of Color (CWoC), "an association of authors seeking to present a strong and united voice for members who self-identify as crime/mystery writers from traditionally underrepresented racial, cultural and ethnic backgrounds," and Eddie Muller, host of the Turner Classic Movies series Noir Alley and founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation.

The Strand Magazine will receive the Ellery Queen Award. The award was established in 1983 to honor "outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry." The Strand Magazine, a bimonthly periodical known as much for its incisive articles about the mystery world and its practitioners and penetrating interviews with top authors like James Patterson and Lee Child, as for unearthing lost short stories penned by now-dead literary greats, such as a 600-word short story by Raymond Chandler, written in the 1950s toward the end of his life, as well as the forgotten fiction of such giants as Dashiell Hammett, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and H.G. Wells.

All of this year's honorees will accept their awards at the 77th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will be held on April 27, 2023 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

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Mystery Melange

ITW is awarding two separate scholarships for ThrillerFest 2023: One scholarship to a BIPOC author writing a thriller manuscript featuring a BIPOC protagonist and one scholarship to an unpublished author who is writing a mystery/thriller novel (80-100k words). Each scholarship recipient will receive a $1000 (USD) stipend and a free pass to attend ThrillerFest XVIII, which takes place May 30 - June 3, 2023 in New York City. A panel of esteemed judges will review the submissions. Applications must be submitted by March 20, 2023 by 11:59pm EST.

From Friday, April 21 to Sunday, April 23, fans of crime fiction from around the world will finally be able to join international bestselling crime authors at the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival, the first in-real-life gathering since it was launched online in 2021. Due to the Covid pandemic and social distancing restrictions, a second online event took place in 2022, featuring more than a dozen panels with more than 30 authors, over six crime fiction-filled evenings.

Murderous March 2023 is scheduled for March 10-11, sponsored by The Uppder Hudson Chapter of Sisters in Crime. In addition to a Master Class by Guest of Honor, bestselling author Deborah Crombie, there will be a Pitch Workshop with Edwin Hill, a Master Class with Bruce Robert Coffin, plus various panels. All panels are live and will be offered virtually online only.

Although every year brings hope for new beginnings, goals, and dreams, the end of a year is time to reflect on those who have left the stage. Jeff Pierce over at The Rap Sheet blog has a list of notable deaths specifically within the crime-fiction community with the note that "Our lives and world were improved by the presence of the people mentioned below, and have been diminished by their loss."

Mystery Readers Journal has a call for articles on the upcoming themed issue, "Mysteries Set in Africa." Editor Janet Rudolph is seeking articles, reviews and Author! Author! essays (500-1,000 words) about mysteries set in Africa. The deadline is January 15, 2023, and materials (including title and 2-3 sentence bio/tagline) can be sent to janet@mysteryreaders.org.

Issue 36 of the Film Noir Foundation’s magazine, Noir City, sees the passing of the torch as editor Vince Keenan hangs up his editing pencils. The issues has the usual fine essays, reviews, film reviews, and more—including the farewell edition of Keeenan's Cocktails & Crime column, with one last libation for the road.

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, when the blog series relocated to Art Taylors website. The latest offering is via "Scars of Love" by Brendan DuBois.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Getting Even and Getting Ahead" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Sherry Harris about Rum and Choke, the fourth book in the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mystery series. Davis also spoke with V. M. (Valerie) Burns about Bookclubbed to Death, the eighth book in her Mystery Bookshop Mystery series.

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Author R&R with Michael Kaufman

Michael Kaufman holds a PhD in political science and has worked in fifty countries with the United Nations, governments, companies, and NGOs engaging men to promote women’s rights, support diversity and inclusion, and to positively transform the lives of men. He also turned his hand to writing crime fiction in 2021 with The Last Exit, which introduced Police Detective Jen B. Lu and her "partner," Chandler, a SIM implant in her brain and her instant link to the Internet and police records, as well as being a constant voice inside her head. Kaufman's latest installment in that series is The Last Resort, which the author describes as "Margaret Atwood meets Raymond Chandler meets Greta Thunberg."

It’s March 2034 in Washington, D.C., when environmental lawyer and media darling, Patty Garcia, dies in a truly bizarre accident on a golf course. Of the eight billion people on the planet, only D.C. Detective Jen Lu thinks she was murdered. After all, Garcia just won a case for massive climate change reparations to be paid by oil, gas, and coal companies.

Soon Jen is in the crosshairs of those who will ensure the truth never comes to light. Is the culprit an oil and gas big shot? Or Garcia’s abusive ex-husband? Whoever it is, Jen has to move quickly before she’s marked as the next victim on the killer’s hit list.

Today, Michael stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching The Last Resort:

 

How do you research and write a mystery set in 2034? 

The easy way would be to claim (since this is the second book of my Jen Lu/Chandler series) that I’m now the world’s expert on what’s happening in Washington D.C. eleven years from now.

So, it was easy?

Sorry, I couldn’t do that. For one thing, I hate reading a book where the details are wrong. For another, years ago while a graduate student and later writing a number of non-fiction books, I pummeled my brain with a clear message: know everything that you can.

Can an author do too much research?

No, but you can show off your research too much. One of the cardinal sins of fiction is showing your research. We’ve all seen this. The bits with way too much detail about technical facts.  Or the author who is so fascinated by the place they just visited that they write a travelogue. Or perhaps they don’t want all that research to “go to waste”.  I’m lucky that I get to write both fiction and non-fiction. When I want to educate and explain things, I write non-fiction. When I want to entertain, thrill, amuse and just perhaps enlighten, I write fiction.

Was it fun doing research for The Last Resort?

Totally! To the annoyance of my wife and kids, I’m one of those people who constantly talks to strangers, asking them about, well, whatever. Doing research gives me permission to do just that.

For this one, I spoke to librarians and archivists in the Library of Congress and the National Archives and got to ask questions like, “How would a bad guy go about stealing something from you?”  

Since there’s a theme about resistance by Big Oil to climate change reparations (which, as you’ll find out in a few years, will be a very big deal) and because one of the suspects is a chemical-engineer-turned-executive, I spoke at length to a chemical engineer. It turned out that not a single question was directly relevant, but by talking to this person, I understood my character much better.

I got to wander around some of my DC faves, including the always-inspiring Library of Congress and the glass conservatory at the US Botanic Garden.

I invented the ultra-exclusive golf course where the story begins, but I tromped around the existing low-budget public course to see the land on which the private course will be built in a few years. Similarly, I walked and ran along the surrounding pathways of Rock Creek Park.

And the challenges actually writing the book?

The first big challenge is that The Last Resort is set in the near future. Climate change is hitting hard and economic and social inequality are worsening. Yet, I didn’t want this series to be another grim dystopia. The Last Resort is fun to read and, in spite of crappy things going on, there’s a sense of hope and optimism about our capacity as humans to create a better future.

The second challenge is that each book of this series engages one or more social issues. This one has themes around the oil and gas industries and also violence against women. However, these books aren’t political theory. They’re entertainment. So the big trick is to tell a page-turning story that also mentally engages readers. I really believe that my readers are smart people who are engaged in the world, but also want a place they can escape into. It’s a fun balance that takes hard work, but in the end, it’s story-telling that wins out.

Another big one was the specific challenge when writing a series. I wanted this book to be completely stand alone, but also to build on what’s come before. That required a lot of rewriting and tough choices, both about which characters and which storylines from the first of the series (The Last Exit) to include. Turns out that many of the main characters are with us again, but the storyline is totally new.

Finally, was it hard to find your narrative voice for this series?

There are actually two narrative voices. Half the book is a third person narration, but half the book is narrated by the bio-computer named Chandler who is implanted into the brain of D.C. Detective Jen B. Lu.  Chandler is a wannabe tough guy, but has a hard time pulling it off since he’s only three years old. Readers and reviewers keep saying they love him which, as a writer, is really gratifying.

What was really interesting to me is how Chandler’s voice came instantly to me. But what I didn’t know until I was half-way into the first book, was how much Chandler would become a complex character who evolves both within each book and from one book to the next.  

 

You can find out more about the author and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon. The Last Resort is now available via all major booksellers, your favorite indie store, Penguin Random House, and Crooked Lane Books.

          

Media Murder for Monday

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

Jason Clarke will star opposite Kiefer Sutherland in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial from Paramount Global and Showtime, playing the character of Lieutenant Barney Greenwald, a defense attorney who begrudgingly represents Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy). While the USS Caine was engulfed in a deadly typhoon off the coast of Iran, Maryk invoked Article 184 of Naval Regulations to relieve his superior, Lt. Commander Phillip Francis Queeg (Sutherland), of duty. Maryk, self-righteous and insistent that his extreme actions were justified, argued Queeg was mentally unstable and that his paranoid delusions were endangering the ship and crew. As a result, Maryk took command and in doing so, steered the Caine directly into the storm. Fortunately, the ship and her entire crew survived, giving Maryk a deep belief that his actions were warranted. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was originally written in 1951 by Herman Wouk and will reportedly be retold for modern times. Other recently added cast members include Monica Raymund, Lance Reddick, Griffin Dunne, Elizabeth Anweis, Lewis Pullman, Francois Battiste, and Gabe Kessler.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Oscar and Tony-nominated Ruth Negga has been tapped to star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+’s upcoming limited series from David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV. Inspired by Scott Turow’s courtroom thriller novel, Presumed Innocent is the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The book was published in 1987 and was turned into a 1990 feature starring Harrison Ford in the role Gyllenhaal is taking on. Negga will play Barbara Sabich, the role played by Bonnie Bedelia in the film. Barbara is an artist, gallerist, mother, and wife whose life is upended when her husband, Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal), is accused of murdering his mistress. Barbara fights to keep her family intact as she tends to her broken heart and broken marriage, and contends with her husband’s highly publicized trial. 

Nicole Kidman is set as a lead alongside Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira on Taylor Sheridan’s CIA drama series, Lioness, at Paramount+. Lioness is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing, and leading her female undercover operatives. Kidman will play Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA’s senior supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game. The cast also includes series regulars Jill Wagner, Dave Annable, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Hannah Love Lanier, Stephanie Nur, and Jonah Wharton.

Peacock is developing the mystery series Freeman, set in a small, picturesque town in Georgia. Peacock reportedly won the project in a highly competitive battle and has set up a mini writers’ room. The story follows a family, which moves to a small, picturesque town in Georgia after acquiring a lucrative inheritance, including the mysterious house known as Freeman Manor. It’s soon discovered that there are mysteries and darkness hidden within the walls—and the town at large—that go back generations. 

Disney+ is ready to give the greenlight to an adaptation of CJ Sansom’s bestselling Shardlake novels, depicting an unlikely detective working under Henry VIII’s reign. With a working title of Shardlake, the series will shoot in the UK this year and sources said it could comprise four episodes, although if it's successful, it might lead to further seasons. The first book in Sansom's series, Dissolution, introduces readers to Dr. Matthew Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer-turned-detective in Tudor England. He is sent by Thomas Cromwell, the ultimate Tudor powerbroker, to investigate the beheading of Robin Singleton, a commissioner responsible for disbanding monasteries after Henry VIII declared himself supreme head of the Church of England. The BBC explored adapting the Shardlake novels for television in 2007 and even cast Sir Kenneth Branagh to play the detective. The project never made it to air, however, and Branagh eventually signed up to star in Wallander for the BBC.

There will no second season for the mystery thriller series, 1899, which was canceled by Netflix. 1899 was a series about the mysterious happenings on the deck of a migrant steamship heading west to leave the old continent. The passengers, a mixed bag of European origins, are united by their hopes and dreams for the new century and their future abroad. But their journey takes an unexpected turn when they discover another migrant ship adrift on open sea. What they will find on board, will turn their passage to the promised land into a horrifying nightmare. The series starred Emily Beecham, Aneurin Barnard, Andreas Pietschmann, and Miguel Bernardeau. Production of 1899 took place on a newly-built, state of the art virtual production stage housed at Babelsberg Studios in Germany—the largest such facility in Europe.

Meanwhile, The Nurse, a Danish thriller TV series adapted from the book by Kristian Corfixen, will make its debut on Netflix later this year. The project is based on the true story of nurse Christina Aistrup Hansen, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for four counts of attempted murder of patients at Nykøbing Falster Hospital. Produced by SAM Productions and directed by Kasper Barfoed, The Nurse stars Josephine Park as Hansen and Fanny Louise Bernth as her colleague, Pernille Kurzmann Larsen. 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Spybrary podcast welcomed journalist Adam Brookes, author of the espionage novels, Night Heron, Spy Games, and The Spy’s Daughter. 

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Lynn Slaughter about her crime writing and her young adult fiction.

CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Winner, Robert Goddard, spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about This is the Night They Come for You and The Fine Art of Invisible Detection.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with thriller author, Lisa Jewell; discussed a cunning plan to meet your New Year's resolutions; talked about books to look out for in 2023; and revealed 101 recipes using chickpeas that no one really wants to eat.

Katie Tallo stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to speak with John Hoda about her thrillers Dark August and Poison Lilies, featuring amateur sleuth Augusta (Gus) Monet.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured a thrilling tale of art forgery and lofty aspirations that go awry in "What Kind of Criminal," read by author LaToya Jovena.

THEATRE

If you haven't already seen The Ohio State Murders on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre, you don't have much longer, as the play is scheduled to close January 15. The play made history by being the first Broadway production of acclaimed 91-year-old playwright Adrienne Kennedy works and stars Audra McDonald as a writer and lecturer coming to terms with a horrific incident from her past: the murders of her two infant daughters.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Tangle

Meg Elizabeth Atkins (1932-2013) was raised in Manchester in the U.K. and had a variety of careers from stable hand to secretary, before her first novel, The Gemini, was published in 1964. After the debut she published one novel roughly every five years, either standalones or installments in her two series, one featuring Inspector Sheldon Hunter and the other, Manchester C.I. Henry Beaumont. Most of Atkins's books are set in the stereotypical English village, filled with psychological studies spurred by what Tangled Web UK called "the almost demonic undercurrents beneath the polite and genteel surface of English middle-class life." The type of life where repressions tamped down by daily life often lead to violence and murder.



At the start of her novel Tangle, Arnold Peabody visits local medium Madame Lily after his mother dies to see if he can contact her from beyond the grave. Not long afterward, he takes up with a mysterious lady friend and things are looking up — until he drowns himself. Six months later, wealthy widow and "nerve-racking snob," Mildred Hewitt, falls to her death on a snowy night. Hewitt's son Gilbert also decides to visit Madame Lily and soon he, too, has a mysterious lady friend . . . and slowly begins a descent into insanity.



C.I. Henry Beaumont has often visited Avenridge, the town where the deaths take place, ever since he was sent there as a child, a wartime evacuee who stayed with the wealthy Dash family. His knowledge of the area and its people leads him to suspect the deaths weren't accidental. With the assistance of the quirky young Emmeline Dash, Henry starts to piece together the threads of hate that tie the crime together, but not in time to save a lost soul who comes to him for help. With three deaths now to solve, Henry knows he's running out of time before his cunning, malevolent quarry strikes again.

Although a little slow getting started, the prose tends to liven up when we're seeing the world through Henry's eyes instead of the third-person omniscient POV. The characterizations are sound for the most part, with some nice touches regarding setting, such as the following two excerpts:

Here long-vanished men, philoprogenitive, prosperous, had built their houses amongst tree-shaded roads and curving lanes...And the people who could afford to live in the houses could afford to maintain them with discretion: a renovation here, an improvement there, did so little to interrupt he continuity that a century and a half of domestic architecture stood preserved in all its minutely recorded evolutions, in an atmosphere of tender melancholy.

and

After a late breakfast they took the dogs and went out, walking through the rain to the old hotel where Emmeline had her workshop. Henry wore his hooded anorak, Emmeline something that looked like a groundsheet, her hair pushed under a W.A.A.F. officer's cap. Scarcely anyone was about, rivulets rushed along the gutters of the up and down streets and the greyness of Avenridge, its changing textures, came back with love and wonder to Henry. The sky phosphorescent before snow; the chiffon veils of mist; the autumn grey of woodsmoke, and in this downpour, the stone buildings shining like old pewter.

This is the fourth and last of the C.I. Harry Beaumont novels, which is a shame because the character has a lot of room for growth and development. Some of Atkins' other novels start to dip a bit into the horror/supernatural realm, perhaps inspired by the author's nonfiction work, Haunted Warwickshire: A Gazetteer of Ghosts and Legends. Her books were mostly out of print until recently when Endeavour Media reprinted several of her titles, including Tangle. Martin Edwards has a brief remembrance of Atkins .