Raise a Glass to the McIlvanney Finalists

Back in mid-June, the organizers of this year’s Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival released their longlist of distinguished candidates for the 2021 McIlvanney Prize. Those 13 works and authors have now been trimmed to the following five, and include Craig Russell, the 2015 recipient of what was then known simply as the Scottish Crime Book of the Year award.

• The Silent Daughter, by Emma Christie (Welbeck)
• The Coffinmaker’s Garden, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• Edge of the Grave, by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)
• The April Dead, by Alan Parks (Canongate)
• Hyde, by Craig Russell (Constable)

A shortlist of contenders for the 2021 Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year prize was previously delivered:

• The Silent Daughter, by Emma Christie (Welbeck)
• Edge of the Grave, by Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)
• Waking the Tiger, by Mark Wightman (Hobeck)
• No Harm Done, by Alistair Liddle (Self-published)

Note that the first couple of books on the Debut roster also number among the rivals for the McIlvanney Prize.

The winners of both these commendations will be revealed during an online broadcast scheduled for Friday, September 17. That happens to be the opening night of next month’s two-day, hybrid version of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling. According to a news release, “This year, the prize ceremony will be free but ticketed to watch or attend! Get your free ticket for in-person attendance or online viewing.”

A Charming, Gracious Lady Gone Too Soon

It was late yesterday afternoon, shortly before the start of Bouchercon’s Anthony Awards presentation, when I heard that Caroline Todd—who, with her son Charles Todd, was supposed to present this year’s Best Critical or Non-fiction Work commendation—had passed away. As most Rap Sheet readers will know, the Todds together penned dozens of mysteries, primarily those starring early 20th-century Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge (A Fatal Lie) and World War I-era battlefield nurse Bess Crawford (An Irish Hostage).

Charles Todd brought the sad news via Facebook:

It is with a heavy heart that I along with my sister Linda [Watjen] and Caroline’s sister Martha must tell you we lost Caroline this morning, 8-27-21, at 10 a.m. She passed peacefully and was with Linda at the end. Caroline left the world a better place and was immensely happy to have met and gotten to know so many readers, authors and booksellers. She was to the very end a class act. More information will follow. I am delighted we have completed A Game of Fear featuring Ian Rutledge and the next in the Bess Crawford [series]. Caroline will always be alive in the hearts of all she touched. Everyone’s notes have been greatly appreciated. Charles

The tributes have since been pouring in. In a post on his blog, fellow novelist Martin Edwards calls Caroline Todd “a woman of charm, intelligence, and kindliness,” and adds:

I first became aware of the name of Charles Todd (the name under which the mother and son duo wrote) twenty-five years ago, when I delighted in their first historical mystery featuring Inspector Rutledge, A Test of Wills. The popularity of that book paved the way for a long and successful career. Their love of England shone through in their writing: it's not easy to capture the sense of a foreign country in a long series of novels, but they achieved this thanks to meticulous research and a great deal of empathy. …

Four years ago, when I agreed to give a talk in [the English village of] Grasmere to a group of Americans visiting the Lake District, I was surprised and delighted to find that their number included Caroline and Charles, who were on another research trip—as I say, they researched expertly and extensively together. I've also had the pleasure of including their stories in anthologies; their contributions were always entertaining and highly professional.

Blogger and editor Janet Rudolph describes Caroline as “one of the most gracious, warm, and charming members of the mystery community.” She offers these memories:

I first met Caroline many years ago when I was seated next to her at her publisher dinner at the Baltimore Bouchercon. She was the perfect dining companion. She shared so many wonderful and interesting personal stories. Since that meeting, we always made sure to have coffee or a short talk at every Left Coast Crime, Malice [Domestic], and Bouchercon. She was so very special and someone I counted as a friend.

Over the years she was on several panels that I moderated, but my last “meeting” with her was this summer at More Than Malice, the virtual Malice Domestic. She was on a panel I moderated on “Past as Prologue.” She was animated and interested, not just in her own writing and role on the panel, but in that of the other newer authors. The panelists all had such a good discussion that I was able to step back and enjoy, too. Caroline valued the younger new additions to the mystery world. And that's how I will remember her—always so gracious and welcoming.

I didn’t know Caroline Todd well, but like so many others, I had opportunities to meet and speak with her at Bouchercons, notably in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2015 (click here and scroll down to see a photo) and in New Orleans in 2016. I was also fortunate enough to interview her and her son in 2002 on behalf of January Magazine, at a time when they were still hiding behind their joint “Charles Todd” pseudonym. Caroline reminded me very much of my British maternal grandmother, which is a compliment, indeed.

So far, I haven’t spotted any obituaries of Caroline Todd, nor have I found out so much as how old she was at the time of her demise. Word has also not got around as to whether her son Charles will continue writing their series in his mother’s absence (though I presume he will). But I shall update this post as I hear more.

FOLLOW-UP: Jiro Kimura has a nice obit of Caroline Todd in The Gumshoe Site, which includes her age at passing:

Caroline Todd, one-half of the mother-and-son writing team that authors under the joint pseudonym Charles Todd, died peacefully on August 27 in Delaware. The former Associated Press reporter started to co-write (with her son, Charles Todd, the former corporate trouble-shooter) [by producing] A Test of Wills (St. Martin’s, 1986), introducing Inspector Ian Rutledge, a Scotland Yard inspector with shell shock from World War One. This historical novel won the 1997 Barry Award and was nominated for the Edgar Award in the first novel category, resulting in their continuing to produce almost one Rutledge book every year. In addition, they started another historical mystery series featuring Bess Crawford, a British army nurse in World War One, starting [with] A Duty to the Dead (Morrow, 2009). An Unmarked Grave (Crawford #4, 2012), A Question of Honor (Crawford #5, 2013) and The Shattered Tree (Crawford #8, 2016) won the 2013 Macavity, the 2013 Agatha and the 2017 Mary Higgins Clark Awards, respectively. The 24th Rutledge book, A Game of Fear, and the 13th, not-yet-titled Crawford book will be published in 2022 from Morrow. To my surprise, I have found out the real names of Caroline Todd and Charles Todd are Carolyn Teachey Watjen and David Wheaton Watjen, respectively. She was 86.

READ MORE: “We Have Lost One of the Great Writers of Our Era—Caroline Todd,” by George Easter (Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine); “Remembering the Late Caroline Todd,” by Oline H. Cogdill (Mystery Scene); “Caroline Todd, A Celebration” (Jungle Red Writers).

So Who Won This Year’s Anthonys?

Amid comments spilling forth from readers and fans who had tuned in for the announcements on YouTube; and with celebrity presenters (including Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, and Dennis Lehane) testing their skills with self-filming technology, the winners of the 2021 Anthony Awards were declared earlier this evening. These prizes were to have been handed out during Bouchercon 2021 in New Orleans, but that in-person convention was “postponed” until 2025.

Click here to watch the Anthony Awards feature, plus videos focusing on recipients of this year’s Macavity, Barry, and Derringer awards.

And the winners of the 2021 Anthonys are ...

Best Hardcover Novel:
Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Also nominated: What You Don’t See, by Tracy Clark (Kensington); Little Secrets, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur); And Now She’s Gone, by Rachel Howzell Hall (Forge); The First to Lie, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Novel: Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)

Also nominated: Derailed, by Mary Keliikoa (Camel Press); Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington); and The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)

Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel:
Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated: The Fate of a Flapper, by Susanna Calkins (Griffin); When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow); The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow); and Dirty Old Town, by Gabriel Valjan
(Level Best)

Best Short Story:
“90 Miles,” by Alex Segura (from Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino Iglesias; Agora)

Also nominated: “Dear Emily Etiquette,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October); “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74,” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February); “Elysian Fields,” by Gabriel Valjan (from California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press); and “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (from In League with Sherlock Holmes, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Pegasus Crime)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult:
Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, by Richie Narvaez (Piñata)

Also nominated: Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers); Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); From the Desk of Zoe Washington, by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen); Star Wars Poe: Dameron: Free Fall, by Alex Segura (Disney Lucasfilm Press)

Best Critical or Non-fiction Work:
Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)

Also nominated: Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press); American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI, by Kate Winkler Dawson (Putnam); Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club); The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (Hachette); Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)

Best Anthology or Collection:
Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Press Anthology, edited by Heather Graham (Nasty Woman Press)

Also nominated: Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino
Iglesias (Agora); Noiryorican, by Richie Narvaez (Down & Out); The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter (Untreed Reads); California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor (Wildside Press); and Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle (Polis)

David Thompson Memorial Special Service Award:
Janet Rudolph, blogger and editor of Mystery Readers Journal

Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Connelly

Cheers to each and every one of this year’s nominees!

READ MORE: “A Bouchercon 2021 Postmortem—Also Link to Barry Award Presentation,” by George Easter (Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine).

A Digital Delivery of Davitts

For the second year in a row, Sisters in Crime Australia announced the winners of its annual Davitt Awards exclusively online. That news was carried last evening (Australia time) via Facebook, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make in-person gatherings hazardous. Recipients of the 2021 Davitts—named for Ellen Davitt (1812-1879), Australia’s first crime novelist—are as follows.

Best Adult Crime Novel:
The Good Sister, by Sally Hepworth (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Also nominated: Death Beyond the Limit, by B.M. Allsopp (Coconut Press); Deadman’s Track, by Sarah Barrie (HQ Fiction); Gathering Dark, by Candice Fox (Penguin Random House Australia); A Testament of Character, by Sulari Gentill (Pantera Press); Where the Truth Lies, by Karina Kilmore (Simon & Schuster Australia); The Deceptions, by Suzanne Leal (Allen & Unwin); Stone Sky Gold Mountain, by Mirandi Riwoe (University of Queensland Press); and Torched, by Kimberley Starr (Pantera Press)

Best Young Adult Crime Novel:
Where We Begin, by Christie Nieman (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Also nominated: The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love, by Davina Bell (Text); Deep Water, by Sarah Epstein (Allen & Unwin Children’s); None Shall Sleep, by Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin Children’s); and The Girl with the Gold Bikini, by Lisa Walker (Wakefield Press)

Best Children’s Crime Novel:
A Clue for Clara, by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin Children’s)

Also nominated: The Ghost of Howlers Beach, by Jackie French (HarperCollins Australia); The Grandest Bookshop in the World, by Amelia Mellor (Affirm Press); The Secret Library of Hummingbird House, by Julianne Negri (Affirm Press); The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin Castle, by Pamela Rushby (Walker Australia); and The Book of Chance, by Sue Whiting (Walker Australia)

Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
Witness: An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice, by Louise Milligan (Hachette Australia)

Also nominated: After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne, by Stephanie Convery (Viking); The Case of George Pell: Reckoning with Child Sexual Abuse, by Melissa Davey (Scribe); Missing William Tyrrell, by Caroline Overington (HarperCollins Australia); and Snakes and Ladders: A Memoir, by Angela Williams, (Affirm Press)

Best Debut Crime Book:
Sheerwater, by Leah Swann (4th Estate)

Also nominated: Inheritance of Secrets, by Sonya Bates (HarperCollins Australia); The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love, by Davina Bell (Text); The Case of George Pell: Reckoning with Child Sexual Abuse, by Melissa Davey (Scribe); The Safe Place, by Anna Downes (Affirm Press); Troubled Waters, by Mary Jones (Green Olive Press); Where the Truth Lies, by Karina Kilmore (Simon & Schuster Australia); The Grandest Bookshop in the World, by Amelia Mellor (Affirm Press); The Mother Fault, by Kate Mildenhall (Simon & Schuster Australia); The Secret Library of Hummingbird House, by Julianne Negri (Affirm Press); A Clue for Clara, by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin Children’s); and The Girl with the Gold Bikini, by Lisa Walker (Wakefield Press)

Winner of the Readers Choice Award:
The Shifting Landscape, by Katherine Kovacic (Bonnier Echo)

Three cheers to all of this year’s contenders!

(Hat tip to Shotsmag Confidential.)

Your Free Pass to Bouchercon

Click on this graphic for an enlargement.

News at the beginning of this month that the 2021 Bouchercon, which had been scheduled to take place in New Orleans from August 25 to 29, was being cancelled due to the fast-spreading COVID-19 delta variant disappointed more than a few crime-fiction fans. Bouchercon organizers quickly crafted alternative plans—a two-day, online-only program—which will go into motion this coming weekend.

These events—outlined in the enlargeable graphic above—will be “free to everyone, whether you were signed up to go to Bouchercon or not,” explains a news release issued by convention co-chairs Mike Bursaw, Heather Graham, and Connie Perry. “If you have not attended Bouchercon before, you will get a taste of what the Opening Ceremonies are like—and an added bonus of an interview with James Lee Burke conducted by his daughter Alafair.”

The Friday and Saturday events both commence at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on YouTube. Here’s the link you need in order to watch:

https://bit.ly/Bcon2021

If you’ve forgotten which works and authors are contending for the 2021 Anthonys, click here to refresh your memory.

Since (much to my disappointment) I couldn’t be in the Crescent City for this month’s originally scheduled festivities, I’m pleased to know I can now participate from afar. But I will miss the camaraderie and extracurricular delights that go with attending a conference—in person—in Louisiana’s largest, liveliest burg. Current expectations are that Bouchercon won’t return to New Orleans until 2025.

The Sequel Is Afoot!

One of the television offerings that helped me weather the early months of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was the Netflix flick Enola Holmes. While not a perfect picture, that historical mystery featuring Sherlock Holmes’ previously unknown younger sister was unquestionably entertaining, with teenage star Millie Bobby Brown utterly charming in the protagonist’s role. So I’m pleased to hear that a sequel is actually in the works.

According to Hull Daily Mail, Enola Holmes 2 will be shot, at least in part, in the English port city of Kingston upon Hull, aka simply Hull. “Residents living on city-centre streets,” the paper reports, “were informed over the weekend [in early August] that roads in the area will be closed in October” to make way for movie crews. “The production company, Matchsticks Productions, said the filming will take place on Tuesday, October 5, and Wednesday, October 6, later this year.”

Hull’s High Street is to be restored to a late-19th-century version of itself. “With permission from Hull City Council, location manager Esther Aja said, modern street furnishings and signage will be temporarily removed and the street will be dressed in a Victorian fashion,” the Daily Mail says. “High Street, Scale Lane, Bishops Lane and Chapel Lane will be closed off to traffic, but pedestrians would still be able to cross when the cameras are not rolling.”

Radio Times points out that Netflix has not yet announced a release date for this sequel. “The first film in the franchise began production in July 2019 before arriving on Netflix in September 2020,” it explains, “so working on the basis that the sequel will follow the same timeline, the earliest we predict Enola Holmes 2 getting released is summer 2022.” It adds that “as the franchise is based on Nancy Springer’s book series, The Enola Holmes Mysteries, it’s likely that Enola Holmes 2 will follow the events of the second book—The Case of the Left-Handed Lady [2007], which sees Enola search for a missing young girl with a talent for drawing.” The previous picture was, of course, based on Springer’s 2006 book, The Case of the Missing Marquess.

Folks who would prefer not to wait for another year before hearing more from the sprightly, perspicacious Miss Holmes should note that a seventh installment in Springer’s series, Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche, is due out from Wednesday Books on August 31.

READ MORE: “Mystery Minus Murder with Nancy Springer,” by Nancy Springer (Criminal Element).

Colorado’s Homage to Chan’s Father

Earl Derr Biggers, the creator of Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, was born in Ohio 137 years ago today, on August 26, 1884, and died 48 years later in California. Yet it’s in Colorado that you’ll find one of the most enduring tributes to his literary legacy.

As Chan expert Lou Armagno tells us in this blog post, Seven Keys Lodge—recently given a grand reopening in Estes Park, a summer resort town in north-central Colorado—was built in 1917 by Gordon and Ethel Mace as The Baldpate Inn. No, that’s not a reference to one of the half-dozen Charlie Chan novels; the name instead tipped its hat to Biggers’ first book, a 1933 standalone thriller titled Seven Keys to Baldpate. “The lodge became highly renowned,” Armagno writes, “so much so that Biggers actually visited! He gave it his stamp of approval, declaring it so much like his imaginary inn that it well deserved the title. It stayed in the Mace family through three generations. Then around 1986 Lois Smith and family took over the lodge for another three-plus decades.”

In December 2020, Mark and Meredith Powell purchased the property, rechristening it Seven Keys Lodge, again a clear allusion to Biggers’ book. “Only the third owners of this unique property on the National Register of Historic Places,” explains Armagno, “the Powells are the first owners to live on the property in 104 years!” He goes on to say:

The lodge itself is a gorgeous step back in time. And besides its famous “Key Room,” recognized as [having] the world’s largest key collection (it boasts some 30,000-plus keys from around the world, including: The Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart’s wine cellar, Frankenstein Castle), it offers gorgeous mountain views, great food, hiking trails and quaint sites nearby to visit.

I could kick myself, as I lived for a time in Colorado, but never took the opportunity to drop by this retreat. Maybe it’s worth a trip after the COVID-19 pandemic eases a bit more. While in Estes Park, I could also check out The Stanley Hotel, which was Stephen King’s model for the Overlook Hotel in his 1977 best-seller, The Shining.

Pulling Out the Macavitys

This week is shaping up to be a big one as far as crime-fiction awards are concerned. We’ve already announced the recipients of this year’s Silver Falchion and Claymore prizes, and of Australia’s Ned Kelly Awards. Saturday is set to bring an online declaration of which books and authors have won the Anthony Awards. And below, we have the victors in the competition for the 2021 Macavity Awards.

Best Novel:
Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Also nominated: Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Ecco); Blind Vigil, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Poisoned Pen Press); and When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Scribner)

Best First Novel:
Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weider (Ecco)

Also nominated: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara (Random House); Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); and Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley)

Best Critical/Biographical:
H R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell (Level Best)

Also nominated: Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press); Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (HarperCollins); Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland); and Southern Cross Crime: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand, by Craig Sisterson (Oldcastle)

Best Short Story:
“Elysian Fields,” by Gabriel Valjan (from California Schemin’: The 2020 Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Art Taylor; Wildside Press)

Also nominated: “Dear Emily Etiquette,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2020); “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74,” by Art Taylor (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2020); “Dog Eat Dog,” by Elaine Viets (from The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads); and “The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” by James W. Ziskin (from In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King; Pegasus Crime)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
Turn to Stone, by James Ziskin (Seventh Street)

Also nominated: The Last Mrs. Summers, by Rhys Bowen (Berkeley); The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur); The Turning Tide, by Catriona McPherson (Quercus); Mortal Music, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press); and The Mimosa Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)

As a press notice explains, “Macavity candidates are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI.”

A round of applause, please, for all of this year’s nominees!

Saluting the Best Australia Offers

Earlier this year, the Australian Crime Writers Association received 149 entries to its 2021 Ned Kelly Awards competition, “almost double the entries of the previous year,” according to a press release. It has now announced the winners, in four categories.

Best Crime Fiction: Consolation, by Garry Disher (Text)

Also nominated: Gathering Dark, by Candice Fox (Penguin Random House); A Testament of Character, by Sulari Gentill (Pantera Press); The Survivors, by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan); The Good Turn, by Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins); Tell Me Lies, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette); When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Hachette); and White Throat, by Sarah Thornton (Text)

Best Debut Crime Fiction: The Second Son, by Loraine Peck (Text)

Also nominated: The Good Mother, by Rae Cairns (Bandrui); The Bluffs, by Kyle Perry (Penguin Random House); and The Night Whistler, by Greg Woodland (Text)

Best True Crime: Stalking Claremont: Inside the Hunt for a Serial Killer, by Bret Christian (HarperCollins)

Also nominated: The Husband Poisoner, by Tanya Bretherton (Hachette); Public Enemies, by Mark Dapin (Allen & Unwin); Hazelwood, by Tom Doig (Penguin Random House); and Witness, by Louise Milligan (Hachette)

Best International Crime Fiction: We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Allen & Unwin)

Also nominated: The Guest List, by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins); The Secrets of Strangers, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin); Take Me Apart, by Sara Sligar (Text); and Broken, by Don Winslow (HarperCollins)

I’ve only read a smattering of these works, including Whitaker’s wonderful We Begin at the End. But McTiernan’s The Good Turn (due out in the States on August 31) is tucked into my to-be-read pile, and I have my eye on a couple more titles. It’s sometimes the case that I don’t know I really need a book until it receives award nominations. (Yes, even I can be swayed by public acclaim.)

Congratulations to all of this year’s contenders!

Revue of Reviewers: 8-24-21

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

I Could Use a Little Help Here

I’m trying to reach the anonymous author of The Stiletto Gumshoe, an excellent blog that seems to have suddenly disappeared from the Internet. I don’t know whether he (or she?) is a regular reader of The Rap Sheet, but I am guessing the odds are in my favor. If Mr./Ms. Stiletto Gumshoe could please make contact with me via e-mail, I’d be most grateful. Or if anybody else reading this post knows how to reach that writer, I hope you will drop me a line.

UPDATE: Success! Stiletto Gumshoe blogger “C.J. Thomas,” who describes himself (and I now know it is himself) as “a loyal fan of The Rap Sheet,” has connected with me via e-mail.

Brevity Counts

How talented are you at condensing an entire crime novel into a mere half-dozen words? If that’s a challenge you’re ready to accept, then the fifth-annual Six-Word Mystery Contest—sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America—is just the thing for you. As an RMMWA news release explains,

The contest opens September 1, 2021, with instructions posted at www.rmmwa.org. Entries must be received by midnight, Oct. 8, 2021 MST. Six-word “whodunits” can be entered in one or all five of the following categories: Hard-boiled or Noir; Cozy Mystery; Thriller Mystery; Police Procedural Mystery; and/or a mystery with Romance or Lust. The Six-Word Mystery Contest is open to all adults 18 and over. No residency requirements.

Award-winning author and RMMWA Chapter President Margaret Mizushima said, “Follow the tradition set by [Ernest] Hemingway in the 1920s with your own boiled-down intriguing mystery, written in just six words and be judged by professional writers, editors, and agents. Writers from across the nation as well as Europe, Asia and Australia have entered our previous contests. We’re excited to see what big and fun story ideas are revealed this year.” …

The contest entry fee is $6 for one entry (just $1 per word); or $10 to enter six-word mysteries in all five categories. The grand prize winner will receive $100 in cold, hard cash. Winners in all other categories will receive $25 gift certificates, and all winners and finalists will be featured in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, on our RMMWA website, and in our popular monthly newsletter, Deadlines.

Previous Six-Word Mystery Contest winners are here.

Scarface’s Last Big Haul

I didn’t know that Al Capone’s granddaughters lived in the San Francisco Bay area—where he was imprisoned (on Alcatraz Island) for four and a half years—much less that they remain in possession of a trove of “Scarface’s” belongings. But I learned all of that this week from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Notorious gangster Al Capone’s granddaughters, who’ve lived quietly in the Bay Area and Auburn area for decades, are preparing to action off much of their grandfather’s personal possessions, including his favorite .45 automatic, hand-tinted photographs with family and “associates,” and a letter sent from Alcatraz to his only child, son Sonny.

Also up for sale in the Oct. 8 auction in Sacramento are several other firearms owned by Al and Sonny; a gold money clip from the mobster; his platinum-and-diamond pocket-watch; Dresden figurines; fancy furniture, including a decorative cigar humidor; china, silver and jewelry; and a home-movie reel “featuring Al Capone and associates.”

The auction catalog for what’s being called “A Century of Notoriety: the Estate of Al Capone” lists 174 items.

Diane Capone, 77, one of three living granddaughters of the infamous mob boss known as Scarface, said they decided to sell the estate because they’re all in their 70s. They also worried about having to hurriedly pack up and save the collection if a wildfire threatened their foothill homes.

“We decided it was time to deal with this and to let the public have it,” she said.

Chronicle reporter Michael Cabanatuan goes on to quote Diane Capone saying “she hopes the memorabilia will also help show what she considers the kinder and gentler side of the man dubbed Public Enemy Number One,” and that she finds it difficult “to reconcile stories of her grandfather’s violent gangster life with the gentle grandfather she knew. ‘It was very much like a double life,’ she said. ‘I really don’t know anything about his public life other than what I’ve read. It’s a riddle, a conundrum. It’s hard to believe that some of things we’ve been told about his public life could have been done by the same person we knew as this loving, gentle grandfather figure. It’s a riddle I’ll have to figure out when I go to heaven—I hope.’”

(Hat tip to Randal S. Brandt.)

READ MORE: “Al Capone’s Personal Items, Kept Within His Family for Decades, Head to Auction,” by Fang Block (Barron’s); “What Cigars Did Al Capone Smoke?” by Dan Stevenson (Cigar Cigar).

A Date with the Falchions

After seeing its 2020 convention cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Killer Nashville returned this last weekend (August 19-22) with an in-person gathering in Franklin, Tennessee. Among the festivities was the presentation of several annual commendations.

Let’s start with winners of the 2021 Silver Falchion Awards, recognizing “the best stories from the previous year told through various media utilizing the elements of mystery, thriller, and/or suspense.” There are 13 Silver Falchion winners, but two of particular interest.

Best Mystery: Code Gray, by Benny Sims (Pandamoon)

Also nominated: Every Kind of Wicked, by Lisa Black (Kensington); Dark Secrets of the Bayou, by Kim Carter (Raven South); Travels of Quinn, by Sasscer Hill (Independently published); Three Houses on a Hill, by Nicholas Holloway (JPM); Relative Silence, by Carrie Stuart Parks (Thomas Nelson); Calling for the Money, by Cathy Perkins (Red Mountain e-book); Love Power, by Martha Reed (Buccaneer); Murder, Forgotten, by Deb Richardson-Moore (Lion); and Murder at Lolly Beach, by Jane Suen (Jane Suen)

Best Thriller: The Divine Devils, by R. Weir (Independently published)

Also nominated: Collateral, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Bonefrog Press); Bakersfield Boys Club, by Anne Da Vigo (Quill Driver Press); Blind Edge, by Candace Irving (Blind Edge Press); The Venezuelan, by Bill King (Independently published); Fall, by Leslie McCauley (Ingram Sparks); Percentages of Guilt, by Michael Niemann (Coffeetown Press); Ripple in the Sea, by Charley Pearson (CEP); Hot Ice, Cold Blood, by Holly Spofford (HSS); and Scorpion Scheme, by Melissa Yi (Olo)

A complete list of Silver Falchion recipients is available here.

There was also a Silver Falchion given out for Best Attending Author. That went to R.G. Belsky, author of Below the Fold (Oceanview).

On top of all that, there were 20 nominees for the 2021 Claymore Award, which is given for the “best first fifty pages of an unpublished [mystery or thriller] manuscript.” The winner was Crooked, by Mary Bush. First runner-up for that same prize was Choosing Guilt, by Frances Aylor, while the second runner-up was The Forget-Me-Knot, by Richard McGonegal. Click here to see the other contenders.

Finally, Missouri author Luis E. Rosas (A Savage Joy) walked away with this year’s C. Auguste Dupin Detective Award, for having best interpreted a convention-staged homicide scene.

Congratulations to all!

Preserving and Promoting the Pulps

PulpFest 2021—celebrating pulp magazines, genre fiction, and a wide range of popular culture—has been going on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since Thursday, and events will continue into tomorrow, August 22. (William Lampkin has been posting photographs from the convention in his Yellow Perils blog—here, here, and here.)

Among the highlights was last evening’s presentation of the 2021 Munsey Award. Named after America’s first pulp magazine publisher, Frank A. Munsey, this commendation “recognizes an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community, be it through disseminating knowledge about the pulps or through publishing or other efforts to preserve and foster interest in the pulp magazines we all love and enjoy.” Gary Phillips, a friend of The Rap Sheet as well as the creator of Los Angeles private eye Ivan Monk and the author of last year’s Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, ranked among a dozen contenders for this year’s Munsey. However, he didn’t take home that prize. Instead, it went to Rich Harvey. Here’s PulpFest’s description of his accomplishments:

[Harvey] was one of the first small publishers to get the pulp reprint movement off the ground. He started in the pages of Pulp Adventures—a fanzine that he launched in 1992—where he published stories from Complete Northwest Novel, Dime Detective, .44 Western Magazine, New Detective Magazine, and other pulps. Two of the highlights were two short stories by Norvell Page, offering the first two adventures of the popular pulp hero The Spider. Rich—along with his onetime partner, Cat Jaster—would go on to reprint two dozen of The Spider’s adventures in stand-alone volumes.

As [founder of] Bold Venture Press, Rich has published a six-volume series reprinting the complete run of Johnston McCulley’s Zorro tales; reprinted unique tales from one of the longest-lived pulp magazines, Railroad Stories; published “new pulp” adventures in Awesome Tales and other publications; and pulp old and new in the continuing Pulp Adventures. In 2020, he was the publisher of Zorro: The Daring Escapades, an anthology of sixteen all-new adventures from multiple authors, based on the legendary character created by Johnston McCulley. More recently, he published Zorro and the Irish Colonel and The Promise of Zorro, the story of Don Diego de la Vega’s path to becoming the daring, masked swashbuckler.

Along with his current partner, Audrey Parente, Rich manages the twice-a-year Pulp AdventureCon in two locations, New Jersey and Florida. These one-day events help to bring the world of pulp to a wider geographic range of fans. Rich is also great at personally communicating with fans one-on-one, whether by e-mail or through social media.

Congratulations to Harvey and all of this year’s nominees!

READ MORE: “Con Report: PulpFest 2021,” by Walker Martin (Mystery*File).

Bullet Points: Oddments and Endings Edition

• First it was former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Now country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton is collaborating with best-seller James Patterson to produce a work of fiction. Titled Run, Rose, Run, and due out from Little, Brown in March 2022, this will be Parton’s first novel. As Literary Hub explains, the yarn follows “a young woman who moves to Nashville to fulfill her dreams of becoming a star while simultaneously hiding from her past … An accompanying Dolly Parton album containing 12 original songs inspired by the book will be released simultaneously on Parton’s label Butterfly Records. ‘The mind-blowing thing about this project is that reading the novel is enhanced by listening to the album and vice versa,’ Patterson told People. ‘It’s a really unique experience that I know readers (and listeners) will love.’” We’ll just have to see about that.

• Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman have worked on and off over the last seven years—ever since they founded their publishing imprint, Brash Books—to convince South Dakota author William J. Reynolds that he should let them republish his once-popular novels starring an Omaha-based private investigator-turned-writer known only as Nebraska. The effort finally paid off. “We have licensed all six novels in the Nebraska series,” Goldberg tells me. “Our intention is to release them all at once in October in e-book and trade paperback.” The Nebraska Quotient (1984) is the opening entry in that series, but Goldberg sent me the cover art for its 1986 sequel, Moving Targets, displayed on the right. I, for one, look forward to re-reading the whole set!

• Good for Charles Ardai! From Mystery Tribune:

Gun Honey, the new 4-part [Titan] comic book series launching in September 2021 by Charles Ardai, the Edgar and Shamus award winning author and co-founder of Hard Case Crime, is being developed for television by Piller/Segan, producers of Private Eyes, Haven, Greek, Wildfire, and The Dead Zone, and Malaysia-based Double Vision, the production arm of the Vision New Media Group and the award-winning producers behind the acclaimed Asian adaptation of The Bridge.

Featuring interior art by Malaysian illustrator Ang Hor Kheng as well as two covers by legendary movie-poster painter Robert McGinnis (creator of the posters for the original James Bond films), Gun Honey tells the story of Singapore-born weapons expert Joanna Tan, the best in the world at providing her clients with the perfect weapon at the perfect moment. When her new assignment leads to the escape of a brutal criminal from a high-security prison, Joanna is forced to track him down—and to confront secrets about her own past that will challenge her sense of who she is.

Gun Honey will be the second television collaboration between Hard Case Crime and Piller/Segan, who previously worked together to produce Haven, based on the first of three bestselling novels written for Hard Case Crime by Stephen King. Haven ran for six years on SyFy in the U.S. and was distributed in 185 territories worldwide.

• Well, it’s about damn time! After witnessing its release date delayed five times over the last two years—three of those due to the spread of COVID-19—the 25th James Bond picture, No Time to Die, looks to finally be rolling out on September 30 in the UK, and on October 8 in the States. Eon Productions has already announced the film’s world premiere will come on September 28, at London’s Royal Albert Hall. But Bill Koenig of The Spy Command notes that the Bond Web site MI6 HQ “tweeted out that Australia has postponed No Time to Die to Nov. 11 from Oct. 8. Theater lists like this one from an IMAX​ theater carry the Nov. 11 date. Later, MI6 HQ tweeted that New Zealand is also delayed to Nov. 11.” It seems even 007 is powerless against this persistent pandemic.

• Word from In Reference to Murder is that, “Following a highly competitive auction, Amazon Studios has acquired a star vehicle that will have Emily Blunt playing Kate Warne, the first woman to become a detective at the Pinkerton Agency. Based on a script by Gustin Nash, the movie is a propulsive action adventure built around Warne, a real-life female Sherlock Holmes in a male-dominated industry whose singular sleuthing skills paved the way for future women in law enforcement and forever changed how detective work was done.” Writer and producer Nile Cappello supplies interesting background on Warne in this 2019 piece for CrimeReads.

• I mentioned not long ago that Season 6 of Grantchester is scheduled to begin broadcasting in the States on Sunday, October 3, as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! lineup. British viewers, though, won’t have such a lengthy wait. According to The Killing Times, that historical whodunit will debut in the UK on September 3.

• British actor Martin Clunes is returning for a second series of Manhunt, the ITV-TV crime drama he headlined back in 2019. As before, he’ll portray real-life Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton of London’s Metropolitan Police. Radio Times provides this plot synopsis for Manhunt II: The Night Stalker: “Based on a true story, Manhunt series two will see … Sutton pursue a notorious southeast London serial rapist whose 17-year reign of terror left thousands of elderly people fearing for their lives.” Digital Spy says Manhunt II will reach TV screens across the pond sometime this fall.

• Here’s a story I missed earlier in the month: The Showtime network is “in its early stages” of developing a TV series about Depression-era Chicago gangster Al Capone and his most ardent pursuer, Prohibition agent Eliot Ness. “The show will delve into Prohibition-era politics, industrialization, mass media, the immigrant experience, law enforcement and the birth of organized crime,” according to Deadline. “It will show how Al Capone corporatized crime on a level never before imagined, and how Eliot Ness, one of the most revolutionary cops in American history, fought an uphill battle to reform law enforcement, a battle that continues to this day.” This potential drama finds its inspiration in 2018’s Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago, by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz. While that all sounds promising, Collins cautions in his blog that Scarface has only been “optioned” for adaptation: “[R]esist holding your breaths ... for the show to appear.”

• Robert Louis Stevenson—wannabe detective-fictionist?

• Bloody Scotland, set this year to be a hybrid festival of on-site events and video presentations, will begin in Stirling, Scotland, on September 17 and run through the 19th. A news release says, “huge names including Stephen King, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child, Jeanine Cummins, Linwood Barclay and Robert Peston” will be available on-screen, while interviewers fire questions at them in front of live audiences. “Meanwhile,” it adds, “pacing the boards in Stirling itself will be the great and the good of the Scottish crime scene, including Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, Marisa Haetzman, Lin Anderson, Abir Mukherjee, Craig Robertson, Alan Parks, Morgan Cry, Craig Russell and Stuart MacBride. Plus some big names from outside Scotland: Paula Hawkins, Luca Veste, Mark Billingham, Mick Herron, S.J. Watson, Lisa Jewell, Stuart Neville, Kia Abdullah, E.S. Thomson and Louise Candlish.” Opening-night festivities will feature the presentation of two awards: the 2021 McIlvanney Prize and Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. The full program of convention events, plus ticket information, can be accessed here.

• Speaking of crime-fiction conventions, SlaughterFest—a single-day online event “curated by internationally best-selling author Karin Slaughter”—is scheduled for Saturday, September 4. Click here to see the lineup of speakers. All of the conversations will be broadcast on the Killer Reads Facebook page, which is also where you should go to make your interest in SlaughterFest known.

• Just to remind you, the abbreviated roster of online events comprising this year’s postponed Bouchercon will kick off next Friday, August 27. In the run-up to that date, organizers are reminding everyone that “the hilariously ironically titled This Time for Sure, the 2021 Bouchercon short-story anthology,” is ready for ordering. Edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan and published by Down & Out, the book features tales by such familiar authors as Karen Dionne, Heather Graham, G. Miki Hayden, Edwin Hill, Craig Johnson, Ellen Clair Lamb, Kristen Lepionka, Alan Orloff, Alex Segura, Charles Todd, Gabriel Valjan, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

• As always, I hesitate to recommend films and TV shows I stumble across on YouTube, fearing they might disappear at any moment. (That’s exactly what happened to “Enough Rope,” for instance, a rare 1960 episode of the TV anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show that introduced Bert Freed as the later-legendary Lieutenant Columbo; it flashed onto YouTube recently, but was gone again before I could alert readers.) Nonetheless, I must draw attention to the fact that Travis McGee, a 1983 pilot for an ABC series starring Sam Elliott and based on John D. MacDonald’s The Empty Copper Sea (1978), is ready for your viewing pleasure here. My opinion of Travis McGee both before and after rewatching it is identical: I like Elliott in this role, and find the flick generally entertaining, but don’t think it accurately captures MacDonald’s “salvage consultant”-cum-sleuth. Steve Scott, who writes the fine MacDonald-focused blog The Trap of Solid Gold, is rather less generous:

I watched it when it was first broadcast, then forced myself to watch it again on videotape, then erased the tape. I recall it as possibly the worst attempt of adapting JDM to the screen, ever. Elliott apparently couldn’t be bothered to shave his bushy mustache, so he looked nothing like Travis. He spoke in his characteristic twang, dropping his g’s and sounding more like a rodeo clown than MacDonald’s melancholy, intelligent hero. The feel of the thing was all wrong, so that even the sections of dialogue and voice-over that were taken directly from the book sounded trite and worn. Writing in The Washington Post, Tom Shales called Elliott “not so much a craggy actor as one great crag; his voice comes up straight from Middle Earth and his countenance is rangy and dry to the point of characterature.”

JDM was not happy with the result either. He called Elliott “an OK actor, but he was swimming upstream.” [MacDonald] was especially angry at the changing of the title. “What did they expect to call the sequel?” he fumed, and labeled the whole project a “mishmash.”

The ratings, however, were apparently good enough to get Warners to green-light a series, but the producers diddled, and by the time they had made up their minds to go forward, Elliott was committed to other projects and unavailable.

Scott offers more background on Travis McGee here.

• Cross-Examining Crime reviews a new book titled Sherlock in the Seventies: A Wild Decade of Sherlock Holmes Films, by Derham Groves (Visible Spectrum), and in the course of it argues that that those offerings were not only varied, but also “weird and bizarre.” Do you remember, for example, 1970’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, or 1971’s They Might Be Giants? How about The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), the teleflick Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976), or Murder by Decree (1979)? I don’t know. In my opinion, most of these movies weren’t so “weird and bizarre” as they were ... wonderful.

• Whilst we’re on the subject of Messrs. Holmes and Watson, let me direct your attention to Murder & Mayhem’s selection of nine books that take an unusual approach toward the world of Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned Victorian investigators.

• On a related note, The Bunburyist’s Elizabeth Foxwell writes: “The new Arthur Conan Doyle Society (spearheaded by George Mason University’s Ross Davies) is devoted to the study and enjoyment of the works of Conan Doyle. It is accepting nominations until November 1, 2021, for the best scholarly writing on Conan Doyle’s works or life that was published in 2020–21.” Any suggestions?

• I didn’t even know there was a Public Library of the Year award, presented by the Scotland-based International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Evidently, though, it exists, and has just chosen a winner from among five finalists. The only hint I’ll give, is that you probably live nowhere near this signal institution.

• New York-born actor—and childhood polio survivor—Alex Cord passed away on August 9 at age 88. As blogger Terence Towles Canote reminds us, Cord (originally Alexander Viespi Jr.) “was a particularly talented actor who played a variety of roles. He was the Ringo Kid in the 1966 remake of Stagecoach, Dylan Hunt in Gene Roddenberry’s failed pilot Genesis II, and Archangel on Airwolf. He could play heroes as easily as he could play villains, and was as comfortable in Westerns as he was science fiction or action movies.” My strongest memories of Cord, who was once married to actress Joanna Pettet, come from his starring role in 1973’s Genesis II, which I fervently hoped at the time would generate a series for CBS; unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and Cord found himself replaced in the 1974 follow-up pilot, Planet Earth, by John Saxon (who died about a year ago). Cord’s other credits included parts on Naked City, Route 66, Police Story, Simon & Simon, and Jake and the Fatman. In addition, he appeared as Angie Dickinson’s ex-husband on the 1982 P.I. series Cassie & Co. (watch that show’s leggy main title sequence here).

• The Reprobate looks back at the “double life” of Clare Dunkel, “one of the biggest glamour models of the 1980s,” who “became an acclaimed author of ultra-violent crime fiction”: the recently deceased Mo Hayder (Birdman, The Devil of Nanking).

• Who knew Russians were so hungry for crime fiction?

• Solicitations and more solicitations: First off, Mystery Readers Journal has put out a call for reviews, articles, and essays having to do with cold-case mysteries, all to be featured in its next quarterly issue. Second, Gerald So is asking for submissions of crime-related poetry to his blog The Five-Two, which is about to begin its 11th year in business; he says he needs them by August 31. And third, Kevin R. Tipple is welcoming guest posts to his own site, Kevin’s Corner. “Topic—pretty much anything goes,” he explains. “While my blog is mainly aimed towards items of interest for readers and writers of mystery and crime fiction, I am open to pretty much anything. I do ask that folks avoid the topics of religion and politics unless either or both directly relate to the work being discussed or promoted.”

• What’s The Private Eye Writers Bulletin Board? Kevin Burton Smith, who cooked up this project for The Thrilling Detective Web Site, explains: “If you’re a private eye writer, and you’ve got something in a private eye vein coming out in the next little while, please let me know via e-mail (or DM me, for you youngsters) and I’ll post the news here. All I ask is that you keep it short, keep it pithy and keep it relevant. If you’re not sure, check out “What the Hell Is a Private Eye, Anyway?”

• Finally, if you haven’t noticed yet, I have added a link from the right-hand column of this page to “The Dick of the Day,” a delightful Thrilling Detective feature that introduces—or reintroduces—detective-fiction fans to familiar or obscure protagonists plucked from the pages of history. Of late, it has spotlighted everyone from Peter Scratch and Mitch Roberts to Jinx Alameda, Nameless (no, not Bill Pronzini’s Nameless), and … Donald J. Trump. Yes, before he was a failed, serial-lying former White House occupant, Trump did gumshoe work in a story River Clegg sold to The New Yorker.

PaperBack: “The Sex Kitten Grows Up”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Sex Kitten Grows Up, by Anthony Naylor (Beacon, 1965).
Sadly, the cover artist is unidentified.

READ MORE: “Where Have All the Sex Kittens Gone, Long Time Passing?” by Neal Umphread (Medium).

Need Something New to Watch?

My wife and I watched the final episode of Unforgotten, Season 4, last weekend on PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! If you haven’t seen those half-dozen installments yet, fear not: I shan’t spoil the surprises, except to mention that Nicola Walker, who played Detective Chief Inspector Cassie Stuart, won’t be returning for the promised Season 5. She’s already decamped to Annika, a new program on the British pay-TV channel Alibi that’s based on a BBC Radio 4 drama titled Annika Stranded, which has starred Walker ever since 2013.

As Wikipedia says, this six-part, small-screen Annika “follows [Detective Inspector] Annika Strandhed as she takes over a new Marine Homicide Unit in Scotland.” Reviewing Episode 1, The Killing Times observes: “What’s different and what makes Annika an engaging watch are two things. Nicola Walker is, not surprisingly for an actor playing a character for a number of years, on supreme form, and it feels like Annika as a character fits her like a glove. She’s natural, warm, and funny, too. The other dimension this has is the fourth wall, or the smashing of it. Annika regularly talks to us, the audience, and gives insights and even tells jokes.” Whether this program will someday reach U.S. audiences is anyone’s guess.

In the meantime, we can all tune in for The Defeated (aka Shadowplay), an eight-episode historical crime drama debuting this week on Netflix. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) says it’s set in Berlin, Germany, during the summer of 1946, when that recently war-ravaged city was “in chaos—there are no laws, and everyone is either a criminal or a survivor.” Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights, Waco) stars as Max McLaughlin, a Brooklyn cop who “arrives to help create a police force and take down the Al Capone of Berlin, Dr. Werner ‘Englemache’ Gladow [Sebastian Koch].” Unofficially, though, McLaughlin is also “on a private mission to track down his missing brother [Moritz, played by Logan Marshall-Green], who’s been killing former Nazis in hiding.”

The Web site Movie Recipe (yeah, I’d never heard of that before this week either) notes that, while McLaughlin pursues Gladow, “unbeknownst to him, the American Vice Consul is using Max to gather intelligence and stop Russia from making any inroads.” Partnering with McLaughlin is Elsie Garten (Nina Hoss), a rookie “torn apart by war, rape and back-breaking work,” but “street smart and full of dark humor.” Helping to complete this series’ cast are Michael C. Hall, the lovely Tuppence Middleton, and Benjamin Sadler.

Fortunately, a second season is already in the works.

Click here to find a Defeated trailer and links to its episodes.

READ MORE: “Annika Review—Nicola Walker As a Maritime Murder Cop Is Sure to Reel You In,” by Stuart Jeffries (The Guardian).

Knee-Slappers and Great Groaners

One of the humorous high points of each twelvemonth is the announcement, by the English Department at California’s San Jose State University, of which entries have won its Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. As you’ll recall, this competition was started in 1982 by Professor Scott E. Rice, and solicits the worst (i.e., funniest and most outlandish) opening sentences from never-to-be-completed books.

Fourteen clever scribblers captured honors this year, in categories ranging from Adventure and Children’s Lit & YA to Vile Puns and Purple Prose. Paul Scheeler of Buffalo, New York, triumphed in the Crime & Detective field with this smile-provoking entry:

The Big Joe Palooka murder wasn’t just another killing, another homicide, another manslaughter, another slaying, another hit, another whack, another rubbing-out, another bumping-off, another assassination, another liquidation, another extermination, another execution—but it was nothing new for Johnny Synonymous, Obsessive-Compulsive Crime Fighter.

That same category produced three Dishonorable Mentions:

“Irony,” bombasted Inspector Simons, “is when someone believes themselves more clever than anyone else in the room, but in fact they are careless, and foolish, like the murderer—MATILDA DANNER—yes, Matilda, YOU killed—wait, um ... where’s Matilda?” — Mark Meiches, Dallas, Texas

The cat purred like a Geiger counter beside the fireplace which crackled like gunfire (which reminded Detective Greenwich of his service in The Ukraine and The Latvia), this feline being the only witness to the murder of the wet nurse and, unless purring counts, he wasn't talking. — Michael McDermott, Dublin, Ireland

Detective Hill raised his service pistol and pointed it at the suspect, a master of disguise hiding in plain sight as a living statue in central park: “Freeze!” he called out. — Justin C. McCarthy, Cranston, Rhode Island

Also worth applauding is the Fantasy & Horror champ:

Upon his death, Van Helsing wrote: “This Vexes me still to-day … with no Mirror able to cast his Curs’d Reflection, how did Dracula comb his hair so perfectly every time and achieve such a clean, close shave that brought the babes in truckloads??” — Donald J. Hicks, Jr., Manchester, New Jersey

How can I overlook this Dishonorable Mention honoree in Romance?:

Brigid O’Hanion was the fairest flower of Southern womanhood, and Lt. Lance Beauregard was almost blind with lust for her, but after he slipped off her hoop skirt, unbuttoned her lacy blouse, untied her incredibly tight corset, dove beneath the rustling crinoline petticoats, and laboriously inched off her pantalets, he realized his mood had shifted and he now wondered if there was still some cold ham on the sideboard downstairs. — Randall Card, Bellingham, Washington

There’s also this gem from Historical Fiction:

To the rest of the world, General Sir Antony Alexander Agamemnon Hardcastle may have been the Scourge of the French, the Hero of the Borghorst Pass, and the fourth-worst enemy of the late Napoleon Bonaparte, but to the waitress at the Badger's Head Tavern and Grill, he was just another customer—and if he called her "cutie pie" one more time, she was going to do to him with one fork what Boney couldn't with a thousand men. — Scott Lyons, Stirling, Scotland

And of course, I must draw your attention to this year’s Grand Prize winner, submitted by Stu Duval of Auckland, New Zealand:

A lecherous sunrise flaunted itself over a flatulent sea,
ripping the obsidian bodice of night asunder with its rapacious fingers of gold, thus exposing her dusky bosom to the dawn’s ogling stare.

To take a gander at all of the 2021 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners and hilarious runners-up, simply click here.

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)