A Bit Tardy, but Still Welcome

Those of us who attended this year’s Bouchercon in San Diego were surprised to hear that no announcement of the 2023 Macavity Award winners would be made during the convention, even as several other types of prizes were dispensed. This was because Janet Rudolph, the editor of Mystery Readers Journal and director of Mystery Readers International, which sponsor those annual honors, could not make it to San Diego due to illness. We were told, instead, that the latest Macavity recipients would be named at a future date.

Well, apparently that date is today, and the 2023 winners are ...

Best Mystery Novel:
A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Also nominated: Back to the Garden, by Laurie R. King (Bantam); Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone (MCD); A Heart Full of Headstones, by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown); Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley); and Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best First Mystery:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler); Five Moves of Doom, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane); and The Verifiers, by Jane Pek (Vintage)

Best Mystery Short Story: “Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, January 2022)

Also nominated: “The Landscaper’s Wife,” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, August/September 2022); “First You Dream, Then You Die,” by Donna Moore (from Black Is the Night: Stories Inspired by Cornell Woolrich, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Titan); “Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2022); “Stockholm,” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories); “The Angel of Rome,” by Jess Walter (from The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, by Jess Walter; Harper); and “My Two-Legs,” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2022)

Best Mystery Critical/Biographical:
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Also nominated: The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, edited by Mary Anna Evans and J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic); The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations, by David Geherin (McFarland); and Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

Also nominated: The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton); Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow); The Secret in the Wall, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press); and One-Shot Harry, by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)

As the Mystery Readers International Web site explains, “The Macavity Award derives its name from the ‘mystery cat’ of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats).”

What I’ll Do for Free Merch

Generally, I abhor having photographs taken of myself. But at Bouchercon in San Diego earlier this month, I promised Kevin Burton Smith, the creator and editor of The Thrilling Detective Web Site, that I would pose for a shot and post it here in exchange for him giving me one of the T-shirts he brought with him to that convention commemorating his site’s 25 years in business.

Thanks, Kevin. And here’s to your page’s next quarter-century!

Shooting San Diego

(Above) Bouchercon 2023 was held at the Marriott Marquis, a capacious and comfortable hotel on San Diego’s waterfront.

Until I took part last week in the 2023 Bouchercon, I hadn’t visited San Diego, California, in a very long while. Not since my sophomore year in college, when a friend and I sped through the city on our way to Tijuana, Mexico, and then on to a wedding in Phoenix. My strongest memories from that jaunt are of Tijuana—the only place I have ever watched a professional jai alai game, and the first of two towns where I’ve been offered the services of a prostitute within an hour of my arrival. (The second was Anchorage, Alaska.)

So I was jazzed to see more of “America’s Finest City,” and to reconnect with or make the acquaintance of several authors I expected to find at the convention. I hadn’t been to a Bouchercon since one was held in New Orleans back in 2016. But this time, I wouldn’t be in the company of my usual convention companion, Rap Sheet contributor Ali Karim, who—being far more social than I am—usually smooths the way for me to meet new and notable writers, and allows me to tag along as he bounces between publisher parties and small-group dinners. Ali had announced in April that, for an assortment of personal reasons, he could not make it to San Diego. I had considered backing out, too, in response, but ultimately didn’t. I am glad I persevered.

With a new camera in hand, I made the rounds of panel discussions, big-stage interviews with convention guests of honor, awards presentations, and intimate gatherings, most of which took place in or around the convention hotel, the Marriott Marquis. My highlights from the trip include: sharing a sidewalk-side dinner with short-story specialist Art Taylor, his novelist wife, Tara Laskowski, and their precocious son, Dash, along with multiple-award-winning British writer Martin Edwards; hanging out one evening at the hotel’s Marina Kitchen bar with novelists (and friends) Gary Phillips and Mark Coggins; meeting up with another pal, Kevin Burton Smith of The Thrilling Detective Web Site, and cabbing together to the oddly remote Shamus Awards dinner, where I talked at some length with local musician-turned-scribbler Corey Lynn Fayman, creator of the Rolly Waters gumshoe series; and being exposed to several writers whose work I haven’t read but whose presentations made me wish to change that, among them Katharine Beutner (Killingly) and best-selling Virginia writer David Baldacci, this convention’s Lifetime Guest of Honor.

Sadly, I never spotted authors Charles Todd, Alice Feeney, Scott Von Doviak, Sarah Weinman, Eriq La Salle (who I remember well from the TV series ER), Mark Pryor, or Elly Griffiths, all of whom I had hoped to speak with, if only briefly. And I was disappointed to hear that my CrimeReads editor, Dwyer Murphy—who I have never seen in the flesh—had to cancel his trip to Bouchercon for health reasons.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Although my journalism career has never required that I take photographs to accompany my stories, I think I collected some good shots over the course of this five-day conference. I need to become bolder about snapping close-up photos of people, but that may come with time and practice. Of 102 images in my camera, I have selected a small number to share, and have added to those three from Mark Coggins. Click on any of these to open enlargements.

The first panel discussion I attended, on Thursday morning, was called “You Can’t Kill Me—Why the P.I. Novel Won’t Die.” Left to right: Moderated by Kevin Burton Smith, founder and editor of that essential resource, The Thrilling Detective Web Site, it also featured Sara Paretsky, D.P. Lyle, Andrew Welsh-Higgins, David Housewright, and Janet Elizabeth Lynn.

Given my plain interest in book criticism, it was only to be expected that I should be in the audience for the presentation “Readers Panel: Book Clubs, Blogs, Reviewing, and Reading.” San Diego book-group organizer Lisa Benton (far left) moderated that talk, which incorporated Publishers Weekly contributor Katrina Nildas Holm, BOLO Books blogger Kristopher Zgorski, Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine editor George Easter, and Rich Ehisen, host of the podcast “Open Mic: Writers in Their Own Words.”

Los Angeles writer Ivy Pochoda (left) and Washington, D.C.-area fictionist E.A. Aymar were among five speakers taking part in a Thursday afternoon discussion titled “Strong Voice, Strong POV: Authors Talk Character, Voice, and POV.” Although I sought to limit my acquisition of new books during last week’s Bouchercon (due to limited extra space in my baggage), both of these authors impressed me, and I quickly grabbed up their latest releases—Sing Her Down and No Home for Killers, respectively.

There were many people I’d hoped to see and speak with during Bouchercon, but I just couldn’t make connections with everybody. I only saw renowned Virginia writer S.A. Cosby (All the Sinners Bleed, Razorblade Tears) in passing. Fortunately, though, author, photographer, and sometime Rap Sheet contributor Mark Coggins managed to take this wonderful candid shot of him.

International Guest of Honor Ann Cleeves (The Raging Storm) was interviewed on Thursday evening by not one, but two fellow wordsmiths: Catriona McPherson (far left) and Lori Rader-Day (far right). Cleeves proved to be a most thoughtful and honest speaker, and her interrogators succeeded in drawing her out on subjects ranging from the significant to the gossipy.

Southern California crime-fictionist Naomi Hirahara (Clark and Division, Evergreen) admirably filled the role of Toastmaster at this year’s convention. Here she is entertaining the crowd at the Thursday night opening ceremonies.

If there was one thing attendees learned during the Friday afternoon panel conversation “Page to Screen (and Back): When My Book Becomes a TV Show or Film,” it was that author-screenwriter Lee Goldberg (center) is a delightful, humorous moderator. Seated on the left and right are his fellow speakers: Ann Cleeves, Tess Gerritsen, Matthew F. Quick, and Rae James.

Again, Mark Coggins showed himself to be a better portrait photographer than I am, capturing this image of prolific Wyoming writer C.J. Box, Bouchercon’s National Guest of Honor for 2023.

It’s long been tradition that the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) organization has distributed its annual Shamus Awards during Bouchercon, though at a venue outside the convention hotel. This year’s Friday night event took place at Filippi’s Pizza Grotto on India Street, and was hosted by PWA founder Robert J. Randisi (left) and awards chairperson John Shepphird.

Long Island, New York, author Reed Farrel Coleman (Sleepless City) observes the PWA goings-on, malted beverage in hand.

This year’s Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover went to The Wheel of Doll, Jonathan Ames’ second detective yarn starring L.A. cop-turned-private eye Hank “Happy” Doll. A full list of the 2023 Shamus winners can be found here.

“Noir at the Bar” events have been popping up nationwide ever since 2008, providing crime and mystery writers the opportunity to read excerpts from their work in supportive environments. But until the San Diego Bouchercon, I had never been on hand for one. Late last Friday night, I joined dozens of other people in a Marriott Marquis ballroom to listen to authors such as Gary Phillips (shown above) and Megan Abbott (below) belt out their prose in public.



The most highly anticipated event during Bouchercon 2023 was the Saturday evening presentation of this year’s Anthony Awards. Best Novel honors went to New Jersey native and former TV writer Kellye Garrett for her 2022 domestic suspense tale, Like a Sister. In this photo, she is shown receiving her prize from San Diego’s Matt Coyle, author of the Rick Cahill series. Click here to see the complete rundown of the latest Anthony recipients.

Sundays at Bouchercon are always quieter. Yet I fit in two more panel presentations that day, the most notable of which carried a real mouthful of a title, “The Things We (Don’t) Know: The Past and the Present (Secrets Characters Must Face or Historical Secrets).” It had Washington, D.C., mystery-maker and moderator Con Lehane (Murder by Definition) grilling novelists Linda Joffe Hull, T.M. Dunn, and Thomas Kies, along with Amulya Malladi (A Death in Denmark) and Christopher Huang (Unnatural Ends).

I found free time before and after the convention to see more of what San Diego has to offer. On my first full day there, I took a tour bus out to the Hotel del Coronado, a 135-year-old beachfront landmark located just across San Diego Bay. Ever since my first experience with photos of that mammoth wooden resort property as a boy, I’ve wanted to stay at the “Hotel Del,” but had never so much as visited before. Not only is the exterior stunning (above), but the main lobby (below) speaks of Victorian-era elegance.



Another historic gem—and one that caught me completely by surprise—was downtown’s Santa Fe Depot, designed by famous San Francisco architects Bakewell and Brown and opened in 1915 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to replace a Victorian station. The Santa Fe Depot welcomed tens of thousands of tourists coming to San Diego in 1915 and 1916 to attend the Panama–California Exposition, a world’s fair that celebrated completion of the Panama Canal. (Some of that fair’s Spanish Colonial Revival edifices are still standing in the city’s extensive Balboa Park.) Despite modifications over the decades, the Depot remains an attention-getter, both for its exterior and its interior. I wasn’t the only one wowed by its design; Mark Coggins took the two black-and-white photographs featured above and below.



In addition to its domed, redwood-beamed ceiling and chandeliers, the depot’s waiting room boasts a colorful ceramic tile wainscot, embedded with the Santa Fe’s historic “cross” emblem.

READ MORE: “A Magical Time in San Diego,” by Martin Edwards (‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’); “Bouchercon 2023: Murder at the Marina—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” by George Kelley.

Abundant Bouchercon Winnings

I’ll have more to say (and show) regarding this last weekend’s Bouchercon in San Diego. But for now, let’s at least run through the awards given out during that delightful five-day event.

To begin, here are the winners of the 2023 Anthony Awards, named for author-critic Anthony Boucher and chosen by Bouchercon attendees.

Best Hardcover:
Like a Sister, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Devil Takes You Home, by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland); The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine); and Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best Paperback/E-book/Audiobook:
The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Also nominated: Real Bad Things, by Kelly J. Ford (Thomas & Mercer); Dead Drop, by James L’Etoile (Level Best); Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia); and In the Dark We Forget, by Sandra S.G. Wong (HarperCollins)

Best First Novel:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Pegasus); and Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)

Best Historical:
Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)

Also nominated: The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Mobius); Danger on the Atlantic, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington); Under a Veiled Moon, by Karen Odden (Crooked Lane); and Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

Best Humorous:
Scot in a Trap, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House)

Also nominated: Bayou Book Thief, by Ellen Byron (Berkley); Death by Bubble Tea, by Jennifer J. Chow (Berkley); A Streetcar Named Murder, by T.G. Herren (Crooked Lane); and Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)

Best Short Story:
“Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, February 2022)

Also nominated: “Still Crazy After All These Years,” by E.A Aymar (from Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out); “The Impediment,” by Bruce Robert Coffin (from Deadly Nightshade: Best New England Crime Stories 2022, edited by Christine Bagley, Susan Oleksiw, and Leslie Wheeler; Crime Spell); “The Estate Sale,” by Curtis Ippolito (Vautrin Magazine, Summer 2022); and “C.O.D.,” by Gabriel Valjan (from Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry; Berry Contest)

Best Anthology:
Crime Hits Home: A Collection of Short Stories from Crime Fiction’s Top Authors, edited by S.J. Rozan (Hanover Square Press)

Also nominated: Low Down Dirty Vote, Volume 3: The Color of My Vote, edited by Mysti Berry (Berry Contest); Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor (Down & Out); Land of 1,000 Thrills: Bouchercon Anthology 2022, edited by Greg Herren (Down & Out); and Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, edited by Josh Pachter (Down & Out)

Best Critical/Non-fiction:
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)

Also nominated: The Alaska Blonde: Sex, Secrets, and the Hollywood Story That Shocked America, by James T. Bartlett (Terrirory); American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur); Promophobia: Taking the Mystery Out of Promoting Crime Fiction, edited by Diane Vallere (Sisters in Crime); Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free, by Sarah Weinman (Ecco); and Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Best Children’s/Young Adult:
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Also nominated: In Myrtle Peril, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers); Daybreak on Raven Island, by Fleur Bradley (Viking Books for Young Readers); #Shedeservedit, by Greg Herren (Bold Strokes Press); The New Girl, by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Sourcebooks Fire); and Vanish Me, by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Wise Wolf)

The Anthonys were handed out amid much applause on Saturday, September 2, following a special awards banquet.

* * *

This year’s Shamus Awards, sponsored by the Private Eye Writers of America, and recognizing “outstanding achievement in private eye fiction,” were presented on Friday evening, September 1. The ceremony took place at a restaurant away from the convention hotel.

Best P.I. Hardcover:
The Wheel of Doll, by Jonathan Ames (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Big Bundle, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); The Goodbye Coast, by Joe Ide (Mulholland); Holmes Coming, by Kenneth Johnson (Blackstone); and The Blackmail, by M. Ravenel (Chikara Press)

Best P.I. Paperback:
Dead-Bang Fall, by J.R. Sanders (Level Best)

Also nominated: Quarry’s Blood, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); DoubleBlind, by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Red Herrings Press); Canary in a Coal Mine, by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out); and Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia/Level Best)

Best First P.I. Novel:
The Goldenacre, by Philip Miller (Soho Crime)

Also nominated: Big Fat F@!k-up, by Lawrence Allan (M.S. Wooten Press); Pay Dirt Road, by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur); Foote, by Tom Bredehoft (West Virginia University Press); and What Meets the Eye, by Alex Kenna (Crooked Lane)

Best P.I. Short Story: “Charlie’s Medicine,” by Libby Cudmore (from Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon, edited by Libby Cudmore and Art Taylor; Down & Out)

Also nominated: “No Place for a Dame,” by Lori Armstrong (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection from the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer; Down & Out); “A Jelly of Intrigue,” by O’Neil De Noux (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden); “The Pearl of Antilles,” by Caroline Garcia-Aguilera (from Edgar & Shamus Go Golden); and “Bad Actor,” by Elliot Sweeney (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2022)

A list of previous Shamus recipients can be found here.

* * *

Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine bestowed its 2023 Barry Awards upon three novels during Bouchercon’s opening ceremonies, on Thursday, August 31. As Mystery News once explained, the Barry Awards are named in honor of Barry W. Gardner, a longtime “friend of mystery fiction,” who died “while reading in his easy chair at his Dallas home on July 19, 1996.” There were three categories of winners

Best Mystery or Crime Novel:
Desert Star, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

Also nominated: The Accomplice, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion); The Dark Flood, by Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly Press); Shifty’s Boys, by Chris Offutt (Grove Press); Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron); and City on Fire, by Don Winslow (Morrow)

Best Debut Mystery or Crime Novel:
The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Also nominated: Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/EmilyBestler); Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime); Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime); Blood Sugar, by Sascha Rothchild (Putnam); and Dirt Creek, by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron)

Best Thriller:
Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)

Also nominated: In the Blood, by Jack Carr (Atria/Emily Bester); Winter Work, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf); Sierra Six, by Mark Greaney (Berkley); Bad Actors, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); and Goering’s Gold, by Richard O’Rawe (Melville House)

Don Sandstrom Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom: Mike Bursaw, the owner of Mystery Mike’s in Indianapolis, Indiana

Deadly Pleasures editor George Easter had previously announced there would be no Best Paperback Original prize given out in 2023 (“[It’s] more and more difficult to come up with a good list that the nominating committee members have read, so at least this year,” he said, “we included the good ones in the longlists for the other categories.”). He added, however, that if a paperback original had been honored last week, his preferred beneficiary would’ve been Pesticide, by Kim Hays (Seventh Street).

* * *

Finally, three additional commendations were conferred during the Thursday-night opening ceremonies.

Star Award: Marvin Lachman, author of The Heirs of Anthony Boucher: A History of Mystery Fandom (who could not attend).

Dotty Award: Dotty Morefield, for her longtime volunteer activities at various mystery-fiction conventions.

David Thompson Special Service Award: Sara Paretsky, the creator of private eye V.I. Warshawski, for her “extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the mystery and crime fiction field.”

Macavitys Seek Their Proper Homes

Today brings an announcement of the 2023 Macavity Award nominees, in five categories. Winners will be chosen by a vote among members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and “friends of MRI.” Those results are to be reported during the opening ceremonies at this year’s Bouchercon, to be held in San Diego, California, from August 30 to September 3.

Best Mystery Novel:
• Back to the Garden, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
• Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone (MCD)
• A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• A Heart Full of Headstones, by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
• Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
• Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron)

Best First Mystery:
• Before You Knew My Name, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Five Moves of Doom, by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
• Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
• Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane)
• The Verifiers, by Jane Pek (Vintage)
• The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

Best Mystery Short Story:
• “The Landscaper’s Wife,” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, August/September 2022)
• “Beauty and the Beyotch,” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, January 2022)
• “First You Dream, Then You Die,” by Donna Moore (from Black Is the Night: Stories Inspired by Cornell Woolrich, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Titan)
• “Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2022)
• “Stockholm,” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories)
• “The Angel of Rome,” by Jess Walter (from The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, by Jess Walter; Harper)
• “My Two-Legs,” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2022)

Best Mystery Critical/Biographical:
• The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
• The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, edited by Mary Anna Evans and J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
• The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations, by David Geherin (McFarland)
• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:
• The Lindbergh Nanny, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
• In Place of Fear, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)
• The Secret in the Wall, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
• One-Shot Harry, by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)
• Lavender House, by Lev A.C. Rosen (Forge)

As the MRI Web site explains, “The Macavity Award is named for the ‘mystery cat’ of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats).”

A Fast Five

• Vaseem Khan, award-winning author of both the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels and the Malabar House series, has been elected as the new chair of the British Crime Writers’ Association. He succeeds editor, writer, and critic Maxim Jakubowski in that post. As The Guardian notes, Khan is “the first person of colour to take the role in the organisation’s 70-year history.” It adds that “Jakubowski will formally hand over the Creasey Bell—named in honour of the CWA founder [John Creasey]—to Khan at the annual Dagger awards on 6 July. The bell has been passed on from chair to chair for 70 years.”

• The 69th and latest edition of Strand Magazine contains a previously unpublished short story by James M. Cain (1892-1977). Titled “Blackmail,” and for decades cached at the Library of Congress, it “tells of a blind Korean War veteran known as Johnsie; Pat, the former comrade who now employs him; and Myra, a woman from the past with some hard-boiled ideas about money, and love …,” according to the Associated Press. “The themes in ‘Blackmail’ of betrayal, violence, rough sexuality—and blackmail—echo such Cain classics as Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.” The Strand remarks: “In just over 3,000 words, Cain offers up all the noir elements we’ve come to expect from him, complete with gritty dialogue and a cunning antagonist, but puts in an unexpected twist that turns the tale on its head, offering a surprisingly nuanced take on these supposedly hard characters.” Order a copy of the issue here.

• We must say farewell to George Maharis, the American actor/singer perhaps best remembered for playing peripatetic Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the television series Route 66. He died on May 24 at 94 years of age. In the decades following Route 66, Maharis appeared in films such as The Satan Bug (1965) and The Desperadoes (1969); starred as a San Francisco private eye in the 1969 ABC-TV pilot The Monk (written by Blake Edwards); and—alongside Ralph Bellamy and Yvette Mimieux—headlined the 1970-1971 ABC crime drama The Most Deadly Game. He also found roles on shows such as Cade’s County, Mission: Impossible, Police Story, Shaft, McMillan & Wife, Ellery Queen, Switch, and Murder, She Wrote. Something I didn’t know until reading The New York Times’ obituary of this performer: Maharis was gay, and was arrested twice during the less-enlightened 1960s and ’70s for “cruising in men’s bathrooms.”

• Although I will be attending the 2023 Bouchercon in San Diego (August 30-September 3), the price of this banquet is a wee bit steep for my budget. According to a message from convention organizers, “The Wolfe Pack is planning a dinner in a local restaurant near the event, Friday, September 1, at 6:30 p.m. Over the course of the evening, celebrate Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories by singing pastiches; completing hilarious quizzes about the opus; and toasting Mr. Stout, Mr. Wolfe, Archie, Fritz, and ‘Other.’ Very limited seating, so register now. $175 per person.” Click here for more information.

• And this is an unlikely employment opportunity. “M16 spooks are looking for James Bond-loving cabbies to drive cars, minibuses and lorries for the secret service,” reports Britain’s Daily Mail. “The intelligence service is searching for chauffeurs to drive around the capital for £33,029 a year.” The paper goes on to explain: “The day-to-day job will be varied, with drivers picking up staff members in varying authority as well as passengers.” It adds that “experience of driving large vans, minibuses or lorries is vital for you to be successful in this role.” What sensitive materials might those oversized vehicles be transporting? Get your application in now to find out!

Bullet Points: Random Finds Edition

• It seems that British comedy writer John Finnemore (Cabin Pressure), one of the few people known to have solved the literary puzzle Cain’s Jawbone, has penned “an official sequel” to that work. As The Guardian’s Sarah Shaffi explains, the Cain’s Jawbone murder mystery was originally published in 1934, and was created by Edward Powys Mathers (aka “Torquemada”), the “cryptic crossword compiler” for Britain’s Observer newspaper. Mathers’ puzzle “can only be solved if readers rearrange its 100 pages in the correct order,” says Shaffi. “It became a literary phenomenon after book fans on TikTok discovered it.” About the contents of Finnemore’s sequel—set for release next year—The Guardian provides the following:

A locked room mystery, Finnemore’s new whodunnit hinges on a person found stabbed to death in the study of a complete stranger. The room was securely locked from the inside, but no weapon—or murderer—has ever been found, and the police investigation discovered no credible suspects or likely motive.

The murderer keeps, safely locked in a drawer, a box of 100 picture postcards. If arranged in the correct order and properly understood, these postcards will explain the murder in the study, and nine others that took place the same year. Readers need to re-order the postcards, one side of which features text, the other an image which is also a clue, in sequence to correctly solve and explain the 10 murders.

For now, Finnemore’s book, due out from crowdfunding publisher Unbound, is listed only as Untitled Mystery. However, Shaffi reports that “the title will be revealed to those who pledge during the crowdfunding campaign.” As of this writing, that campaign has 1,061 supporters at various reward levels.

• Crime Fiction Lover reports that the popular ITV-TV crime drama Unforgotten will return to British airwaves on Monday, February 27. This fifth season of the show finds Irish actress Sinéad Keenan stepping into shoes vacated by Nicola Walker, whose character, Detective Chief Inspector Cassie Stuart, was killed suddenly in a car crash at the end of Series 4. (Walker subsequently went on to headline the Alibi network’s Annika, which has been renewed for a second season.) Keenan has been cast as DCI Jessica James, who joins series regular DCI Sunil “Sunny” Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) in managing a team of London police detectives who specialize in solving cold cases. Their initial investigation together will, of course, be a “devilishly tricky one,” CFL explains. “During the renovation of a period property in [the West London district of] Hammersmith, a body is found bricked into the chimney. At first, Jessica is sceptical and warns that with its tight resources the team can only afford to investigate cases that have consequences in the here-and-now. After all, there’s the suggestion that the body could date as far back as the 1930s.” As usual, Season 5 will comprise six episodes. The UK blog What to Watch notes that “A U.S. release date has still to be announced.”

• Meanwhile, the ninth and concluding season of Endeavour—a prequel to the long-running Inspector Morse—is scheduled to begin its run on the same British network, ITV, come Sunday, February 26. There will be just three 90-minute episodes this time out, concluding on March 12. Although The Killing Times says Season 9 “plot details are currently embargoed,” Radio Times observes that the program’s “fans are bracing themselves for some sad scenes in the final three episodes, which will reveal how Morse (Shaun Evans) came to be estranged from his crime-solving partner, Fred Thursday (Roger Allam).” The PBS-TV Web site supplies nary a clue as to when this last season of Endeavour might become available to American viewers, but it does offer a brief video that recaps scenes from Evans’ decade spent in the role of Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse.

• Speaking of Shaun Evans, it appears he will star with Anna Maxwell Martin (Line of Duty) in a four-part ITV adaptation of Delia Balmer’s 2017 true-crime memoir, Living with a Serial Killer. The story, according to Deadline, will focus on Balmer, a nurse “who fell for murderer John Sweeney (Evans) and overcame a horrific attack to provide vital evidence in the prosecution against her former lover.” Using a script by Nick Stevens (The Pembrokeshire Murders), filming on this mini-series is expected to begin next month.

• Season 2 of the HBO-TV series Perry Mason, starring Matthew Rhys, is slated to premiere on Monday, March 6. I haven’t seen much information about what to expect from those eight new episodes, but the Web site FedRegsAdvisor states they’ll be set in 1933—the last year of America’s failed Prohibition experiment—“with the protagonist’s law company taking on civil issues as opposed to criminal justice cases.” After the offspring of a powerful oil company exec is slain cruelly, and Los Angeles’ Depression-era “Hoovervilles” are searched for “the most obvious suspects, … Perry, Della [Street], and Paul [Drake] find themselves at the center of a case that reveals vast conspiracies and forces them to consider what it means to be truly guilty.” A most promising trailer for Season 2 is available here.

• A final TV note: The UK channel BBC One has released early images from Wolf, an upcoming crime drama based on the late author Mo Hayder’s novels about Detective Inspector Jack Caffery. English actor Ukweli Roach will be portraying Caffery.

• Because I have committed myself to attending this year’s Bouchercon, I’ve been on alert for news about that event. Which is why I noticed this generous offer. From In Reference to Murder: “A new Bouchercon Scholarship Award Program has been established to help mystery fans and writers with a financial subsidy. This subsidy covers registration fees for the annual Bouchercon convention, scheduled to be held in San Diego in 2023, as well as travel and lodging costs, reimbursed up to $500.00 (for up to five awardees). Interested applicants will need to write a 300- to 500-word essay on the applicant’s interest in attending Bouchercon and in the mystery genre and be willing to volunteer for no less than four hours at the event. The deadline is May 1st, with scholarship winners announced June 1.” Click here to find applications specifics.

• Nero Wolfe fans will find something extra to like about this San Diego Bouchercon. A banquet in honor of their favorite fictional sleuth has been scheduled for Friday, September 1, at Morton’s Steakhouse on J Street, “a 2-minute walk from the convention hotel, with shuttle rides available.” The cost is $175 per person, and it looks as if attendance is limited to members of the Wolfe Pack literary society.

• Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor have been scoring plenty of favorable press coverage for their new, first-ever Mickey Spillane biography, Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction (Mysterious Press). That includes a joint interview with the Web site Bookreporter, from which we learn, for instance, why Spillane took a decade-long hiatus from writing after Kiss Me, Deadly was published in 1952. My humble contribution to these kudos is a short critique I posted earlier this week in January Magazine. Here it is in its entirety:

“The chewing gum of American literature” is how crime novelist Mickey Spillane described his books, which typically blended eye-for-an-eye justice with risqué innuendos and granite-chinned philosophizing (“Too many times naked women and death walked side by side”). And boy, did readers eat up his fiction, making his first Mike Hammer private-eye yarn, 1947’s I, the Jury, into a best-seller that spawned a dozen sequels and turned its protagonist into a radio, film, and TV fixture. Spillane developed his own media persona along the way, part-Hammer (he portrayed his Gotham gumshoe in a 1963 film, The Girl Hunters) and part-ham (he spoofed himself in a succession of Miller Lite beer commercials). In this enlightening biography, fellow writers Collins (his friend and posthumous collaborator) and Traylor make the most of their extraordinary access to Spillane’s personal archives, delivering incisive perspectives on his comic-book years, his multiple marriages, his pugnaciousness and wont to embellish the facts of his life, his surprising conversion by Jehovah’s Witnesses, his vexation with Hollywood, and his eventual recognition by peers who’d earlier condemned him as “a vulgar pulpmeister.” This book’s paramount success, though, is in casting Spillane as a trendsetting stylist, who recognized early the value of paperback publication and helped shape late-20th-century detective fiction.

• Until recently, I knew Mark Dawidziak mainly as the author of a fine 1989 TV retrospective, The Columbo Phile: A Casebook. But he is the man, too, behind a new biography that features prominently on my must-have list: A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe (St. Martin’s Press). In a CrimeReads extract from that book, Dawidziak recounts the “ongoing fascination” with Poe’s death, in Baltimore, at the tender age of 40—a subject that A Mystery of Mysteries addresses in some detail. Also posted recently in CrimeReads was Dean Jobb’s terrific look back at Poe’s 1843 horror story, “The Black Cat,” and the real-life murder that inspired it.

• Dammit! As I mentioned here last month, I have been looking forward to watching Marlowe, an adaptation of Benjamin Black’s 2014 Philip Marlowe continuation novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde, which debuted in theaters last week. Unfortunately, The A.V. Club’s Ray Greene is rather less than enthusiastic about this Liam Neeson film. As he remarks in a review, “Marlowe has seen it all—he’s a voyeur of the very worst human behaviors, and he’s world-weary to a fault. Liam is just plain weary—laconic, not iconic. Where Bogie and even a comparably aged Robert Mitchum were able to convey Marlowe as a man who at least remembers what caring felt like, Neeson is going through the motions of going through the motions. And the age thing doesn’t help. The only time Neeson’s Marlowe seems truly vulnerable is when he talks about the possibility of regaining his police pension. ‘I’m getting too old for this’ he moans after a fistfight, tempting audience agreement with the very phrase.” I’ll still plump for tickets to Marlowe, but go into it with lowered expectations.

• Thanks to the release of Poker Face on the Peacock streaming service, a 10-part “howcatchem” crime/comedy series that has garnered plenty of comparisons to Columbo, Peter Falk’s iconic L.A. police lieutenant has been enjoying a recent wave of reconsideration in critical circles. In this piece for the Web site of Boston’s WBUR-FM radio, Ed Siegel recalls an interview he had over dinner with Falk in the mid-’80s. In the meantime, Slate’s Cameron Gorman explains how the Internet turned Columbo “into a sex symbol and queer icon.”

• I am dearly hoping that this celebration of crime novelist Peter Robinson’s life and literary endeavors, to be held at England’s University of Leeds in early April, will be broadcast live via the Web. Robinson, you’ll recall, died last October at age 72.

• Tomorrow is Presidents’ Day here in the States—time to pour through Janet Rudolph’s extensive collection of mysteries that guest star or are built around American chief executives. You might also wish to revisit this article I wrote for CrimeReads about novels featuring authentic or imagined U.S. presidents.

• Subjects covered in Mike Ripley’s latest “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots range from his long-ago stroke to the 1951 espionage film Decision Before Dawn and Steven Powell’s biography of James Ellroy, plus mentions of brand-new works by Stephen O’Shea, Kathleen Kent, David Brierley, Karen Smirnoff, and others.

• Worth checking out as well is the new, Winter 2013 issue of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, which is stuffed full of “best crime fiction” choices from the year that just was—selected both by DP critics and outside sources. Among this edition’s other contents are a wrap-up of Depression-era mysteries; reviews columns from such regulars as Ted Hertel, Meredith Anthony, and Kristopher Zgorski; and news that DP has added four contributors to its stable, all refugees from the recently closed Mystery Scene magazine: Kevin Burton Smith, Robin Agnew, Hank Wagner, and Craig Sisterson. Subscribe to this quarterly, or buy the Winter 2013 issue alone, by clicking here.

• And isn’t this interesting. Ramona Emerson’s 2022 crime/horror thriller, Shutter (Soho Crime), has moved up to the shortlist of titles vying for this year’s PEN America Literary Awards. It’s been nominated for both the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. Winners are to be announced on March 2 during an evening ceremony at The Town Hall in New York City.

Should I Start Packing Yet?

OK, now I’ve gone and done it—registered for Bouchercon 2023, that is. It’s been seven years since I last attended one of these crime-fiction conventions, which took place then in New Orleans. The intervening period​ has seen the outbreak of COVID-19, the unfortunate cancellation of so many such assemblies (or, just as bad, their unsatisfying transference to Zoom), and my declining interest in attending very large business or social gatherings.

I had been all prepared to pass on this year’s Bouchercon, which is to be held in San Diego, California, from August 30 to September 3. But several back-to-back inquires from author friends such as Mark Coggins and Art Taylor made me think twice. Although I’ve made multiple trips to Los Angeles, only one time did I visit (briefly) San Diego, back when I was in college, on my way one summer to Tijuana, Mexico. My curiosity about it, though, had been piqued during the research I undertook for a CrimeReads piece about David Janssen’s Harry O TV series, which was originally set in that Pacific Coast city. Stories about the favorable architectural development of downtown San Diego have also crossed my radar in recent years. As I mused on the idea of attending this year’s Bouchercon, I figured, Why not? It helped that my wife has also voiced an interest in traveling there.

So now I’m committed. Hotel reservations have been made, and flight arrangements are in the works. My name already appears on the lengthy list of registered convention attendees. I am looking forward to reconnecting with some people I haven’t seen in years, and—despite my inclination toward introversion—possibly encountering a few new ones worth knowing. If nothing else, I know there will be plenty of free new books to be had there. I’ll just have to restrain myself.

Only 213 more days to go. Yikes!