When She Was Bad, by William Ard (Dell, 1960). This was the second of two novels starring ex-con actor-turned-sleuth Danny Fontaine (né Mike Fontaine). Cover illustration by Robert McGinnis.
Sunday, May 30, 2021
PaperBack: “When She Was Bad”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
When She Was Bad, by William Ard (Dell, 1960). This was the second of two novels starring ex-con actor-turned-sleuth Danny Fontaine (né Mike Fontaine). Cover illustration by Robert McGinnis.
When She Was Bad, by William Ard (Dell, 1960). This was the second of two novels starring ex-con actor-turned-sleuth Danny Fontaine (né Mike Fontaine). Cover illustration by Robert McGinnis.
Meat and Greet
Although I’ve never barbecued even once in my life, I do enjoy barbecued meats and vegetables in moderation. And chances are I shall be eating some of those tomorrow afternoon, while celebrating Memorial Day with family. Today, however, I’ll be satisfied with just looking over Janet Rudolph’s list of the many barbecue-related mysteries in print, any of which might be a swell thing to read on Monday while waiting for dinner to be served.
Enjoy the holiday, everyone!
Enjoy the holiday, everyone!
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Whishaw Collects Last Bony Blithe
Vancouver, British Columbia, author Iona Whishaw has won the 2021 Bony Blithe/Bloody Words Light Mystery Award for her seventh Lane Winslow whodunit, 2020’s A Match Made for Murder (Touchwood Editions). As organizers of Toronto, Canada’s 2021 Bloody Words Mini-con explain, the Bony Blithe celebrates “traditional, feel-good mysteries. Now in its 10th year, the award includes everything from laugh-out-loud to gentle humour to good old-fashioned stories with little violence or gore—in short, books that are fun to read.”
Vying, too, for this prize were There’s a Murder Afoot, by Vicki Delany (Crooked Lane); The Adventures of Isabel, by Candas Jane Dorsey (ECW Press); Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, by Liz Ireland (Kensington); and Obsidian, by Thomas King (HarperCollins Canada).
Hopes are for a gathering in Toronto to recognize the 2020 and 2021 Bony Blithe victors, but a date is still undetermined. It might be scheduled as late as next spring, depending on pandemic conditions.
Here comes the sad news: “Bony Blithe is retiring,” proclaims the award’s Web site. “We’ve had a great run over the past 10 years, but now it’s time for our bony lass to rest her weary bones. … While we will no longer have an annual award and mini-con, we still want to pay homage to our wonderful Canuck light mystery authors, so watch for Bare Bones, the new and exciting Bony Blithe Light Mystery newsletter, coming soon.” Check the Bony Blithe Facebook page for updates.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Vying, too, for this prize were There’s a Murder Afoot, by Vicki Delany (Crooked Lane); The Adventures of Isabel, by Candas Jane Dorsey (ECW Press); Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings, by Liz Ireland (Kensington); and Obsidian, by Thomas King (HarperCollins Canada).
Hopes are for a gathering in Toronto to recognize the 2020 and 2021 Bony Blithe victors, but a date is still undetermined. It might be scheduled as late as next spring, depending on pandemic conditions.
Here comes the sad news: “Bony Blithe is retiring,” proclaims the award’s Web site. “We’ve had a great run over the past 10 years, but now it’s time for our bony lass to rest her weary bones. … While we will no longer have an annual award and mini-con, we still want to pay homage to our wonderful Canuck light mystery authors, so watch for Bare Bones, the new and exciting Bony Blithe Light Mystery newsletter, coming soon.” Check the Bony Blithe Facebook page for updates.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Friday, May 28, 2021
The Book You Have to Read: “The Expendable Man,” by Dorothy B. Hughes
(Editor’s note: This is the 171st installment in The Rap Sheet’s continuing series about great but forgotten books.)
By Steven Nester
No good deed goes unpunished in Dorothy B. Hughes’ 1963 novel, The Expendable Man, a clean and spare noir work that stretches plot boundaries with an interesting twist. This straight-talking book combines a police procedural, a fish-out-of-water thriller, and psychological suspense with something unexpected that’s germane in any era, but especially the one we’re living through now: It isn’t until almost a quarter of the way into this tale that it’s revealed that Hughes’ main character, UCLA medical intern Dr. Hugh Densmore, is Black. His kindness has gotten him into the jam of a lifetime, requiring him to fight (with kid gloves, unfortunately) racist police and Jim Crow laws
in order to find justice and perhaps save his own skin in this how-it-was portrayal of U.S. racism during the early 1960s.
Some might label this a trick novel, because Densmore’s race isn’t revealed early on. However, Hughes’ stratagem deftly sets the hook, drawing readers into the circumstances of the crime at hand first, rather than having them focus on social issues.
Densmore is a model citizen, and the author assiduously makes him appealing and sympathetic. Intelligent and sensitive, he displays actionable empathy when he picks up a young white hitchhiker named Iris Croom in the Southern California desert. She says she’s on her way to her mother’s house in Phoenix. Densmore, it so happens, is bound for the Arizona capital as well, to attend his niece’s wedding. It doesn’t take long for him to discover he’s being played by Iris—if that’s even her real name. Bringing her from California to Arizona would be a violation of the Mann Act (or White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910), and as a successful and decent man from a good family, this kind deed might jeopardize Densmore’s career and bring shame to his relatives. It could even incite violence from others.
Iris’ “badly bleached hair” and general aura of cheapness tag her as a runaway. Densmore might be a nice guy, but he’s no shrinking violet, and he patiently picks apart her brazen story. “You’re a practiced liar,” he tells her. “I manage,” she replies with unabashed confidence. After that he takes her to a bus station in California, buys her a ticket to ride, and says goodbye. Checking in at a local motel, he observes that the desk clerk “didn’t up the price for him.” This should set readers’ minds a-wondering, expecting some clarification to come.
As for Iris, she cashes in the ticket; and like a bad penny, she shows up the next day, standing a few steps beyond the Arizona state line—far enough to make the Mann Act a nonissue—and obviously waiting for Densmore to drive by. Begrudgingly, he gives her a lift the rest of the way to Phoenix. State border agents, though, witness him with an underage white girl, and one of those officers (“the kind who’d like to make something of Hugh’s picking up a dirty blond teenager”) hears her say his name and notes the plate number on his white Cadillac. Calculating and resourceful, Croom knows Densmore is a physician, and her ulterior motives are revealed when she stalks him to his motel to ask for an abortion. He promptly sends her away … only to read soon after in the local paper that she has died. And then it’s game on! Densmore must find the abortionist who ultimately treated Croom, a person he hopes will lead him to the killer (if in fact they are two different people), before police track him down and make Densmore’s family gathering an uncomfortable affair.
Densmore’s fear of being linked to Iris grows as he begins to investigate her passing. It doesn’t, in fact, take long for the cops to connect him to Croom, and the two Phoenix detectives working that case want nothing more than to wrap it up with Densmore as the convenient fall guy. Not afraid to intimidate him, they call him “n—” to his face and in front of others, and use every dirty trick they know to implicate him. When word comes that the cause of Iris’ demise has yet to be determined, it gives him a bit of breathing room to work.
Meanwhile, Densmore is also hot on the trail of Ellen Hamilton, a beautiful and intelligent black woman attending his niece’s nuptials. The daughter of a prominent Washington, D.C., judge, she has a brilliant future planned for herself, and finds Densmore promising. He tells her his story of Iris Coom; she believes him and appeals to her father to give him help. The judge, in turn, arranges for Skye Houston, a well-connected Phoenix lawyer, to represent Densmore. A white man with political aspirations, Houston knows a high-profile case will help with his eventual gubernatorial run and is quite up-front about it. In the changing times of the early 1960s, it seems that having a black client wouldn’t hurt his prospects one bit. But Skye is no panderer; he is merely a realist. He introduces Densmore to the world of tit for tat, where the content of a man’s character (to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr.) is more important than the color of his skin. Skye has found the place where black and white can meet on a professional level, and he asks Densmore to join him there and perhaps cut a legal deal.
(Above) On the left is the 1963 Avon paperback edition of Hughes’ novel. On the right is the 1965 Mayflower Dell edition. At the top of this piece is shown the 1963 Random House hardcover front.
Skye waives his attorney’s fee, saying he’ll “take out in trade” any medical services he might need further down the road. Although that exchange is presented as a joke, Skye is serious. What else is serious here is Densmore’s concern regarding the attraction he detects between Houston and Ellen, a sensual magnetism that’s also a metaphor for finding common ground between races. Skye is “tanned far darker than Ellen,” her “skin like golden sand.” And the last name Hamilton—it’s impossible to overlook the connotations of that. Could Ellen be the progeny of America’s sexually prolific, Caribbean-born first secretary of the treasury? It’s the kind of tease and torment that leaves readers with the vague thrill that there’s more to this story than they’ll ever know.
Dorothy B. Hughes (1904-1993) was a journalist and author, The Expendable Man being her 14th and final novel. As a native of Kansas City, Missouri, she was probably no stranger to the extent of Jim Crow intolerances. As the United States began a massive cultural shift in the 1950s and ’60s, her inclination as a writer seemed to be to record current events as fiction, perhaps for a more dramatic and human effect. The happy ending in this book is that more than justice is done for Densmore; but as for the big picture, the work is just beginning. Dr. King looms large over this book, 1963 being the year he led protests to bring attention to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama—demonstrations that marked the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Hughes doesn’t spank readers with the theme of racial injustice and redemption, but allows her characters to act it out, making their hopes and humanity carry the message.
The author might be disappointed to know that while change comes, it does so slowly and with resistance from unexpected sources. A conversation between Densmore and Ellen perhaps best sums up how both sides of the skin-color line need to work together. Densmore asks Ellen about her romantic interest in Skye, which she confirms. Could you have ended up with him instead of me, he wants to know. “If he hadn’t been white,” she admits. Ellen goes on to say, “It’s too soon. I’m not that strong.” There was much more work to be done in this area in the 1960s, and many racial advancements still remain incomplete or are under attack today. In her fiction, though, Hughes succeeded in crossing the color line decades ago, beginning the task of bringing black and white together to make one shade.
READ MORE: “On the World’s Finest Female Noir Writer, Dorothy B. Hughes,” by Sarah Weinman (Los Angeles Review of Books).
By Steven Nester
No good deed goes unpunished in Dorothy B. Hughes’ 1963 novel, The Expendable Man, a clean and spare noir work that stretches plot boundaries with an interesting twist. This straight-talking book combines a police procedural, a fish-out-of-water thriller, and psychological suspense with something unexpected that’s germane in any era, but especially the one we’re living through now: It isn’t until almost a quarter of the way into this tale that it’s revealed that Hughes’ main character, UCLA medical intern Dr. Hugh Densmore, is Black. His kindness has gotten him into the jam of a lifetime, requiring him to fight (with kid gloves, unfortunately) racist police and Jim Crow laws
in order to find justice and perhaps save his own skin in this how-it-was portrayal of U.S. racism during the early 1960s.Some might label this a trick novel, because Densmore’s race isn’t revealed early on. However, Hughes’ stratagem deftly sets the hook, drawing readers into the circumstances of the crime at hand first, rather than having them focus on social issues.
Densmore is a model citizen, and the author assiduously makes him appealing and sympathetic. Intelligent and sensitive, he displays actionable empathy when he picks up a young white hitchhiker named Iris Croom in the Southern California desert. She says she’s on her way to her mother’s house in Phoenix. Densmore, it so happens, is bound for the Arizona capital as well, to attend his niece’s wedding. It doesn’t take long for him to discover he’s being played by Iris—if that’s even her real name. Bringing her from California to Arizona would be a violation of the Mann Act (or White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910), and as a successful and decent man from a good family, this kind deed might jeopardize Densmore’s career and bring shame to his relatives. It could even incite violence from others.
Iris’ “badly bleached hair” and general aura of cheapness tag her as a runaway. Densmore might be a nice guy, but he’s no shrinking violet, and he patiently picks apart her brazen story. “You’re a practiced liar,” he tells her. “I manage,” she replies with unabashed confidence. After that he takes her to a bus station in California, buys her a ticket to ride, and says goodbye. Checking in at a local motel, he observes that the desk clerk “didn’t up the price for him.” This should set readers’ minds a-wondering, expecting some clarification to come.
As for Iris, she cashes in the ticket; and like a bad penny, she shows up the next day, standing a few steps beyond the Arizona state line—far enough to make the Mann Act a nonissue—and obviously waiting for Densmore to drive by. Begrudgingly, he gives her a lift the rest of the way to Phoenix. State border agents, though, witness him with an underage white girl, and one of those officers (“the kind who’d like to make something of Hugh’s picking up a dirty blond teenager”) hears her say his name and notes the plate number on his white Cadillac. Calculating and resourceful, Croom knows Densmore is a physician, and her ulterior motives are revealed when she stalks him to his motel to ask for an abortion. He promptly sends her away … only to read soon after in the local paper that she has died. And then it’s game on! Densmore must find the abortionist who ultimately treated Croom, a person he hopes will lead him to the killer (if in fact they are two different people), before police track him down and make Densmore’s family gathering an uncomfortable affair.
Densmore’s fear of being linked to Iris grows as he begins to investigate her passing. It doesn’t, in fact, take long for the cops to connect him to Croom, and the two Phoenix detectives working that case want nothing more than to wrap it up with Densmore as the convenient fall guy. Not afraid to intimidate him, they call him “n—” to his face and in front of others, and use every dirty trick they know to implicate him. When word comes that the cause of Iris’ demise has yet to be determined, it gives him a bit of breathing room to work.
Meanwhile, Densmore is also hot on the trail of Ellen Hamilton, a beautiful and intelligent black woman attending his niece’s nuptials. The daughter of a prominent Washington, D.C., judge, she has a brilliant future planned for herself, and finds Densmore promising. He tells her his story of Iris Coom; she believes him and appeals to her father to give him help. The judge, in turn, arranges for Skye Houston, a well-connected Phoenix lawyer, to represent Densmore. A white man with political aspirations, Houston knows a high-profile case will help with his eventual gubernatorial run and is quite up-front about it. In the changing times of the early 1960s, it seems that having a black client wouldn’t hurt his prospects one bit. But Skye is no panderer; he is merely a realist. He introduces Densmore to the world of tit for tat, where the content of a man’s character (to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr.) is more important than the color of his skin. Skye has found the place where black and white can meet on a professional level, and he asks Densmore to join him there and perhaps cut a legal deal.
(Above) On the left is the 1963 Avon paperback edition of Hughes’ novel. On the right is the 1965 Mayflower Dell edition. At the top of this piece is shown the 1963 Random House hardcover front.
Skye waives his attorney’s fee, saying he’ll “take out in trade” any medical services he might need further down the road. Although that exchange is presented as a joke, Skye is serious. What else is serious here is Densmore’s concern regarding the attraction he detects between Houston and Ellen, a sensual magnetism that’s also a metaphor for finding common ground between races. Skye is “tanned far darker than Ellen,” her “skin like golden sand.” And the last name Hamilton—it’s impossible to overlook the connotations of that. Could Ellen be the progeny of America’s sexually prolific, Caribbean-born first secretary of the treasury? It’s the kind of tease and torment that leaves readers with the vague thrill that there’s more to this story than they’ll ever know.
Dorothy B. Hughes (1904-1993) was a journalist and author, The Expendable Man being her 14th and final novel. As a native of Kansas City, Missouri, she was probably no stranger to the extent of Jim Crow intolerances. As the United States began a massive cultural shift in the 1950s and ’60s, her inclination as a writer seemed to be to record current events as fiction, perhaps for a more dramatic and human effect. The happy ending in this book is that more than justice is done for Densmore; but as for the big picture, the work is just beginning. Dr. King looms large over this book, 1963 being the year he led protests to bring attention to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama—demonstrations that marked the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Hughes doesn’t spank readers with the theme of racial injustice and redemption, but allows her characters to act it out, making their hopes and humanity carry the message.
The author might be disappointed to know that while change comes, it does so slowly and with resistance from unexpected sources. A conversation between Densmore and Ellen perhaps best sums up how both sides of the skin-color line need to work together. Densmore asks Ellen about her romantic interest in Skye, which she confirms. Could you have ended up with him instead of me, he wants to know. “If he hadn’t been white,” she admits. Ellen goes on to say, “It’s too soon. I’m not that strong.” There was much more work to be done in this area in the 1960s, and many racial advancements still remain incomplete or are under attack today. In her fiction, though, Hughes succeeded in crossing the color line decades ago, beginning the task of bringing black and white together to make one shade.
READ MORE: “On the World’s Finest Female Noir Writer, Dorothy B. Hughes,” by Sarah Weinman (Los Angeles Review of Books).
The Times Discovers Christie
A fun article for the weekend! From In Reference to Murder:
The New York Times took at look at the first mentions of famous authors in the newspaper through the years. Included among those is Agatha Christie, first mentioned in the gossipy Books and Authors column from Aug. 8, 1920, in which the Book Review reported, “An interesting story is told about how ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie, a detective novel announced for Fall publication by the John Lane company, came to be written. The author had never before attempted to write a book, but made a wager that she could write a detective story in which the reader would not be able to pick out the murderer, although having knowledge of the same clues as the detective. She was at least successful enough to have her work chosen by The London Times as a serial for its weekly edition.”I wrote more about Christie’s Styles in this CrimeReads piece.
A Late-Career Addition to 007’s Saga
Since I very much enjoyed this British screenwriter-author’s first couple of Agent 007 adventures, Trigger Mortis (2015) and Forever and a Day (2018), this is terrific news to begin my Friday: “A third James Bond continuation novel by Anthony Horowitz is scheduled to be published next year ...,” managing editor Bill Koenig writes in The Spy Command. “The story picks up after the events of The Man with the Golden Gun [1965], Bond creator Ian Fleming’s final 007 novel.”
Horowitz tells The Bookseller, "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy.”
This author’s next Bond yarn will follow the publication of A Line to Kill, Horowitz’s third Daniel Hawthorne novel. It’s set to debut in the UK this coming August, and in the States in October.
Koenig adds that “Today’s announcement comes on the 113th anniversary of the birth of Bond’s creator.”
Horowitz tells The Bookseller, "I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy.”
This author’s next Bond yarn will follow the publication of A Line to Kill, Horowitz’s third Daniel Hawthorne novel. It’s set to debut in the UK this coming August, and in the States in October.
Koenig adds that “Today’s announcement comes on the 113th anniversary of the birth of Bond’s creator.”
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Doing Crime the Canadian Way
This morning brought the scheduled announcement of which books and authors have won the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing (formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards). Below are the nine categories of recipients.
Best Crime Novel:
The Finder, by Will Ferguson (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Also nominated: How a Woman Becomes a Lake, by Marjorie Celona (Hamish Hamilton Canada); The Historians, by Cecilia Ekbäck (HarperCollins); Obsidian,
by Thomas King (HarperCollins); and Hurry Home, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Best Crime First Novel: The Transaction, by Guglielmo D’Izza (Guernica Editions)
Also nominated: And We Shall Have Snow, by Raye Anderson (Signature Editions); True Patriots, by Russell Fralich (Dundurn Press); The Woman in the Attic, by Emily Hepditch (Flanker Press); and The Nightshade Cabal, by Chris Patrick Carolan (Parliament House Press)
The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
Stay Where I Can See You, by Katrina Onstad (HarperCollins)
Also nominated: Payback, by Randall Denley (Ottawa Press); Rabbit Foot Bill, by Helen Humphreys (HarperCollins); The Dogs of Winter, by Ann Lambert (Second Story Press); and Two for the Tablelands, by Kevin Major (Breakwater)
Best Crime Novella:
Never Going Back, by Sam Wiebe (Orca)
Also nominated: The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, by C.C. Benison (At Bay Press); Coral Reef Views, by Vicki Delany (Orca); and “Salty Dog Blues,” by Winona Kent (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-Canada West Chapter)
Best Crime Short Story:
“Cold Wave,” by Marcelle Dubé (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime- Canada West Chapter)
Also nominated: “Days Without Name,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (from A Grave Diagnosis: 35 Stories of Murder and Malaise, edited by Donna Carrick; Carrick Publishing); “Used to Be,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], January/February 2020); “Killer Biznez,” by Zandra Renwick (EQMM, September/October 2020); and “Limited Liability,” by Sarah Weinman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020)
Best French Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
La mariée de corail, by Roxanne Bouchard (Libre Expression)
Also nominated: Inacceptable, by Stéphanie Gauthier (Éditions Québec Amérique); Le printemps des traîtres, by Christian Giguère (Héliotrope NOIR); Les cachettes, by Guy
Lalancette (VLB éditeur); and Les Demoiselles du Havre-Aubert, by Jean Lemieux (Éditions Québec Amérique)
Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction): Red Fox Road, by Frances Greenslade (Puffin Canada)
Also nominated: Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House, by Janet Hill (Tundra); Fight Like a Girl, by Sheena Kamal (Penguin Teen); Magic Dark and Strange, by Kelly Powell (Margaret K. McElderry); and Hope You’re Listening, by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman)
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto’s Queer Community, by Justin Ling (McClelland & Stewart)
Also nominated: Murder in the Family: How the Search for My Mother’s Killer Led to My Father, by Jeff Blackstock (Viking Press); Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip, by Norm Boucher (NeWest Press); Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, by Silver Donald Cameron (Viking Press); and Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett, by Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell (University of Regina Press)
The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript:
The Future, by Raymond Bazowski
Also nominated: Predator and Prey, by Dianne Scott; Notes on Killing Your Wife, by Mark Thomas; A Nice Place to Die, by Joyce Woollcott; and Cat with a Bone, by Susan Jane Wright
Let’s give a round of applause to all of this year’s candidates!
Best Crime Novel:
The Finder, by Will Ferguson (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Also nominated: How a Woman Becomes a Lake, by Marjorie Celona (Hamish Hamilton Canada); The Historians, by Cecilia Ekbäck (HarperCollins); Obsidian,
by Thomas King (HarperCollins); and Hurry Home, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)Best Crime First Novel: The Transaction, by Guglielmo D’Izza (Guernica Editions)
Also nominated: And We Shall Have Snow, by Raye Anderson (Signature Editions); True Patriots, by Russell Fralich (Dundurn Press); The Woman in the Attic, by Emily Hepditch (Flanker Press); and The Nightshade Cabal, by Chris Patrick Carolan (Parliament House Press)
The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
Stay Where I Can See You, by Katrina Onstad (HarperCollins)
Also nominated: Payback, by Randall Denley (Ottawa Press); Rabbit Foot Bill, by Helen Humphreys (HarperCollins); The Dogs of Winter, by Ann Lambert (Second Story Press); and Two for the Tablelands, by Kevin Major (Breakwater)
Best Crime Novella:
Never Going Back, by Sam Wiebe (Orca)
Also nominated: The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, by C.C. Benison (At Bay Press); Coral Reef Views, by Vicki Delany (Orca); and “Salty Dog Blues,” by Winona Kent (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-Canada West Chapter)
Best Crime Short Story:
“Cold Wave,” by Marcelle Dubé (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime- Canada West Chapter)
Also nominated: “Days Without Name,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (from A Grave Diagnosis: 35 Stories of Murder and Malaise, edited by Donna Carrick; Carrick Publishing); “Used to Be,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], January/February 2020); “Killer Biznez,” by Zandra Renwick (EQMM, September/October 2020); and “Limited Liability,” by Sarah Weinman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020)
Best French Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
La mariée de corail, by Roxanne Bouchard (Libre Expression)
Also nominated: Inacceptable, by Stéphanie Gauthier (Éditions Québec Amérique); Le printemps des traîtres, by Christian Giguère (Héliotrope NOIR); Les cachettes, by Guy
Lalancette (VLB éditeur); and Les Demoiselles du Havre-Aubert, by Jean Lemieux (Éditions Québec Amérique)Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction): Red Fox Road, by Frances Greenslade (Puffin Canada)
Also nominated: Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House, by Janet Hill (Tundra); Fight Like a Girl, by Sheena Kamal (Penguin Teen); Magic Dark and Strange, by Kelly Powell (Margaret K. McElderry); and Hope You’re Listening, by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman)
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto’s Queer Community, by Justin Ling (McClelland & Stewart)
Also nominated: Murder in the Family: How the Search for My Mother’s Killer Led to My Father, by Jeff Blackstock (Viking Press); Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip, by Norm Boucher (NeWest Press); Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, by Silver Donald Cameron (Viking Press); and Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett, by Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell (University of Regina Press)
The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript:
The Future, by Raymond Bazowski
Also nominated: Predator and Prey, by Dianne Scott; Notes on Killing Your Wife, by Mark Thomas; A Nice Place to Die, by Joyce Woollcott; and Cat with a Bone, by Susan Jane Wright
Let’s give a round of applause to all of this year’s candidates!
The Nibbies’ “Troubled” Triumph
Winners of the 2021 British Book Awards—also known as The Nibbies—have been announced, in 29 categories (including trade awards). These prizes are administered annually by The Bookseller.
There were half a dozen contenders for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year, with the victor being Troubled Blood (Sphere), by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling). The other shortlisted candidates were The Sentinel, by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Bantam Press); The Patient Man, by Joy Ellis (Joffe); The Guest List, by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Viking); and A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin (Orion).
Troubled Blood was also in the running for Overall Book of the Year, but lost out to Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain (Picador).
Click here to find the full results of this year’s contest, plus video coverage of the 2021 awards ceremony.
(Hat tip to Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine.)
There were half a dozen contenders for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year, with the victor being Troubled Blood (Sphere), by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling). The other shortlisted candidates were The Sentinel, by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Bantam Press); The Patient Man, by Joy Ellis (Joffe); The Guest List, by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Viking); and A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin (Orion).
Troubled Blood was also in the running for Overall Book of the Year, but lost out to Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain (Picador).
Click here to find the full results of this year’s contest, plus video coverage of the 2021 awards ceremony.
(Hat tip to Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine.)
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Amazon Takes on Bond
It wasn’t just idle talk or wild speculation after all: Amazon has announced its acquisition—for $8.45 billion—of Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, a deal that will give Amazon a new wealth of familiar entertainment products for its Prime Video streaming service, plus control over the popular James Bond film franchise.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of [intellectual property] in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, is quoted in Variety as saying. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.” In addition to the character of British spy James Bond, MGM owns the Pink Panther and the Rocky franchises.
So will this lead to a spread of new Bond-related dramas, for screens both large and small? Probably not. “There’s a catch,” explains Esquire magazine: “Amazon can’t just churn out countless Bond movies. Amazon will own only 50% of the spy franchise, while the other half will remain held by siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who inherited the rights from their father, longtime Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. Through Eon, their UK production company, Broccoli and Wilson exert exacting control over the Bond franchise, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role, and whether television spinoffs get greenlit (they’ve blocked such efforts in the past). According to The New York Times, ‘Broccoli and Wilson have final say over every line of dialogue, every casting decision, every stunt sequence, every marketing tie-in, every TV ad, poster and billboard.’” The upside for Eon, though, is that Amazon is likely to stabilize MGM’s often-shaky financial standing, and prevent production problems such as those faced by Skyfall in 2010.
And how might this acquisition affect the latest Bond flick, which has seen its premiere delayed several times due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis? The Spy Command notes, “Amazon didn’t estimate how long regulatory approval [of its MGM deal] will take. It’s possible such review won’t be completed by Sept. 30, when No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, is scheduled to be released in the U.K. and Oct. 8 in the U.S. As things stand now, No Time to Die will be released by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures, in the U.S. and by Universal internationally.”
READ MORE: “Bond 25 Questions: The Amazon Edition, Part III,”
by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command).
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of [intellectual property] in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, is quoted in Variety as saying. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.” In addition to the character of British spy James Bond, MGM owns the Pink Panther and the Rocky franchises.
So will this lead to a spread of new Bond-related dramas, for screens both large and small? Probably not. “There’s a catch,” explains Esquire magazine: “Amazon can’t just churn out countless Bond movies. Amazon will own only 50% of the spy franchise, while the other half will remain held by siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who inherited the rights from their father, longtime Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. Through Eon, their UK production company, Broccoli and Wilson exert exacting control over the Bond franchise, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role, and whether television spinoffs get greenlit (they’ve blocked such efforts in the past). According to The New York Times, ‘Broccoli and Wilson have final say over every line of dialogue, every casting decision, every stunt sequence, every marketing tie-in, every TV ad, poster and billboard.’” The upside for Eon, though, is that Amazon is likely to stabilize MGM’s often-shaky financial standing, and prevent production problems such as those faced by Skyfall in 2010.
And how might this acquisition affect the latest Bond flick, which has seen its premiere delayed several times due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis? The Spy Command notes, “Amazon didn’t estimate how long regulatory approval [of its MGM deal] will take. It’s possible such review won’t be completed by Sept. 30, when No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, is scheduled to be released in the U.K. and Oct. 8 in the U.S. As things stand now, No Time to Die will be released by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures, in the U.S. and by Universal internationally.”
READ MORE: “Bond 25 Questions: The Amazon Edition, Part III,”
by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command).
Saturday, May 22, 2021
The Fifteen Years Later Affair
Sometimes I wish I’d been more modest in my expectations for The Rap Sheet—which celebrates its 15th birthday today. I could have created this blog as a place to occasionally share random thoughts on crime, mystery, and thriller fiction, both new and vintage. At the least I could have been in the habit of posting less ardently. Instead, after having spent many years editing magazines and newspapers, I envisioned The Rap Sheet as a frequently updated resource to which fans of this genre could turn to find news, information, and commentary. I essentially wanted it to be CrimeReads, only without anywhere near the manpower or financial backing that that more youthful site claims. And when I have to take a hiatus of a week or 
two in order to finish a project for another publication? Well, visitors start to wonder at my absence. “Did this fuckin’ guy die?” an anonymous reader inquired after I’d let 13 days pass recently between posts.
None of this is to say that I’m unhappy about how The Rap Sheet has turned out. Quite the contrary, in fact. It has been a wonderful experience getting to know the magnitude of works in this genre, and to meet plenty of the writers who have provided that remarkable breadth. This blog has given me entrée into corners of the literary world that I would not otherwise have enjoyed, and led me into some invaluable friendships.
That The Rap Sheet has brought me more than a few frustrations is likewise true. I cringe every time I discover a broken link within an older post, and try my best to update those connections (often using the Wayback Machine). Last year’s sudden disappearance of most of the blog’s embedded videos almost convinced me to give up this enterprise completely. And the news in May that The Thrilling Detective Web Site had switched servers, and as a consequence hundreds (if not thousands) of links in this blog were now inoperable struck me as the even crueler part of a double whammy. (The only thing worse would have been for Wikipedia to go out of business!) Nonetheless, I persevered. While I still have various videos awaiting my attention, most have been replaced; and I remain hopeful that creator/editor Kevin Burton Smith will find a clever way to redirect The Thrilling Detective’s links, so I don’t need to change all of their Web addresses—a likely impossible task.
As I sit to compose this post, I think back on my launching The Rap Sheet in May 2006. I was then incredibly naïve in the business of blogging, but I imagined it as a way to share my curiosity about—and my knowledge of—crime and mystery fiction with readers. My wish was that their interest would push me to further investigation of the field. That’s certainly the way things have worked out. So maybe my ambitions weren’t ridiculous after all.
Thank you for your continuing support of this page.
two in order to finish a project for another publication? Well, visitors start to wonder at my absence. “Did this fuckin’ guy die?” an anonymous reader inquired after I’d let 13 days pass recently between posts.None of this is to say that I’m unhappy about how The Rap Sheet has turned out. Quite the contrary, in fact. It has been a wonderful experience getting to know the magnitude of works in this genre, and to meet plenty of the writers who have provided that remarkable breadth. This blog has given me entrée into corners of the literary world that I would not otherwise have enjoyed, and led me into some invaluable friendships.
That The Rap Sheet has brought me more than a few frustrations is likewise true. I cringe every time I discover a broken link within an older post, and try my best to update those connections (often using the Wayback Machine). Last year’s sudden disappearance of most of the blog’s embedded videos almost convinced me to give up this enterprise completely. And the news in May that The Thrilling Detective Web Site had switched servers, and as a consequence hundreds (if not thousands) of links in this blog were now inoperable struck me as the even crueler part of a double whammy. (The only thing worse would have been for Wikipedia to go out of business!) Nonetheless, I persevered. While I still have various videos awaiting my attention, most have been replaced; and I remain hopeful that creator/editor Kevin Burton Smith will find a clever way to redirect The Thrilling Detective’s links, so I don’t need to change all of their Web addresses—a likely impossible task.
As I sit to compose this post, I think back on my launching The Rap Sheet in May 2006. I was then incredibly naïve in the business of blogging, but I imagined it as a way to share my curiosity about—and my knowledge of—crime and mystery fiction with readers. My wish was that their interest would push me to further investigation of the field. That’s certainly the way things have worked out. So maybe my ambitions weren’t ridiculous after all.
Thank you for your continuing support of this page.
Awards Notices Keep Rolling In
The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation has announced the list of six finalists for its 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. This commendation takes its name, of course, from the best-selling Zambian-born author of historical/adventure novels such as Shout at the Devil (1968), The Burning Shore (1985), and Elephant Song (1991). Here are this year’s contestants:
• The Deep Blue Between, by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Pushkin Press)
• City of Vengeance, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)
• Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal, by Niall Edworthy (Universe)
• Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday)
• Total Blackout, by Alex Shaw (HQ)
• Rogue, by James Swallow (Bonnier)
The winner, to be made known during an online ceremony on September 8, will receive £10,000 in prize money.
The shortlisted works are:
• “For Laura Hope,” by Antony M. Brown
• “All the Little Boxes,” by Chris Curran
• “Heartbridge Homicides,” by Camilla Macpherson
• “As Dead as Dodo,” by Hazell Ward
The victor is set to be announced on July 1.
• The Deep Blue Between, by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Pushkin Press)
• City of Vengeance, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)
• Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal, by Niall Edworthy (Universe)
• Miss Benson’s Beetle, by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday)
• Total Blackout, by Alex Shaw (HQ)
• Rogue, by James Swallow (Bonnier)
The winner, to be made known during an online ceremony on September 8, will receive £10,000 in prize money.
* * *
Also in the news this week are the names of four authors vying to win the 2021 Margery Allingham Short Story Mystery Competition. “The [judges’] mission,” according to press materials, “is to find the best unpublished short mystery—one that fits into legendary crime writer Margery’s definition of what makes a great story: ‘The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.’”The shortlisted works are:
• “For Laura Hope,” by Antony M. Brown
• “All the Little Boxes,” by Chris Curran
• “Heartbridge Homicides,” by Camilla Macpherson
• “As Dead as Dodo,” by Hazell Ward
The victor is set to be announced on July 1.
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Trimming the Daggers Array
This morning brings the news, from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association, of its shortlisted nominees for the 2021 Dagger awards, in 10 categories. Winners are set to announced during an online presentation on July 1, which will feature Barry Forshaw as master of ceremonies and Abir Mukherjee as the guest speaker.
Gold Dagger:
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck)
• House of Correction, by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster)
• Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Midnight Atlanta, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)
• The Nothing Man, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic)
• The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• One by One, by Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
• The Creak on the Stairs, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Orenda)
• City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck)
• The One That Got Away, by Egan Hughes (Sphere)
• The Bone Jar, by S.W. Kane (Thomas & Mercer)
• Fortune Favours the Dead, by Stephen Spotswood (Wildfire)
• Three Fifths, by John Vercher (Pushkin Press)
Sapere Books Historical Dagger:
• Snow, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
• Midnight at Malabar House, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Unwanted Dead, by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction)
• The City Under Siege, by Michael Russell (Constable)
• Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons, by David S. Stafford
(Allison & Busby)
• The Mimosa Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)
ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
• Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind,
by Sue Black (Doubleday)
• We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence, by Becky Cooper (Heinemann)
• These Are Not Gentle People, by Andrew Harding (MacLehose Press)
• Dancing with the Octopus: The Telling of a True Crime,
by Debora Harding (Profile)
• The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us,
by Nick Hayes (Bloomsbury Circus)
• Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, by Ben MacIntyre (Viking)
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:
• Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith (Michael Joseph)
• The Coral Bride, by Roxanne Bouchard, translated by David
Warriner (Orenda)
• The Disaster Tourist, by Yun Ko-eun, translated by Lizzie
Buehler (Serpent’s Tail)
• Three, by D.A. Mishani, translated by Jessica Cohen (Riverrun)
• To Cook a Bear, by Mikael Niemi, translated by Deborah
Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press)
• The Seven Doors, by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie
Hedger (Orenda)
Short Story Dagger:
• “A Dog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas,” by Robert Scragg (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg;
Robert Scragg)
• “Deathbed,” by Elle Croft (from Afraid of the Light, edited by
Robert Scragg; Robert Scragg)
• “Daddy Dearest,” by Dominic Nolan (from Afraid of the Light)
• “Hunted,” by Victoria Selman (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights)
• “Monsters,” by Clare Mackintosh (from First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books, edited by David Headley and Daniel
Gedeon; The Dome Press)
• “Planting Nan,” by James Delargy (from Afraid of the Light)
Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”):
• Faber and Faber
• Head of Zeus
• Michael Joseph
• No Exit Press
• Raven
• Viper
CWA Debut Dagger (for as-yet-unpublished novels):
• The Looking Glass Spy, by Ashley Harrison
• Underwater, by Fiona McPhillips
• Rough Justice, by Biba Pearce
• Deception, by Hannah Redding
• Lightfoot, by Edward Regenye
• Mandatory Reporting, by Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh
Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”):
• C.L. Taylor
• Peter May
• Lisa Jewell
• James Oswald
• Denise Mina
• L.J. Ross
The longlists of nominees for most of these prizes can be found here. To see the full rundown of Debut Dagger rivals, click here.
Martina Cole was already declared as the recipient of the 2021 Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement.
“The Dagger shortlists again highlight the wealth of great books and diversity within the crime genre,” says Maxim Jakubowski, the CWA’s newly appointed chair. “With terrific new titles from authors both familiar and new, including some books impressively nominated in more than a single category, the presence on the Publisher Dagger shortlist of long-standing traditional publishing houses and smaller independents and even, on the Dagger in the Library (voted on by librarians throughout the country), a first, with a self-published writer rubbing shoulders with established veterans. The Daggers are assuredly the best and most prestigious reflection of what’s happening on the crime and mystery writing front.”
Congratulations to all of these contenders!
Gold Dagger:
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck)
• House of Correction, by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster)
• Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Midnight Atlanta, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)
• The Nothing Man, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic)
• The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• One by One, by Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
• The Creak on the Stairs, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Orenda)
• City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck)
• The One That Got Away, by Egan Hughes (Sphere)
• The Bone Jar, by S.W. Kane (Thomas & Mercer)
• Fortune Favours the Dead, by Stephen Spotswood (Wildfire)
• Three Fifths, by John Vercher (Pushkin Press)
Sapere Books Historical Dagger:
• Snow, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
• Midnight at Malabar House, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Unwanted Dead, by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction)
• The City Under Siege, by Michael Russell (Constable)
• Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons, by David S. Stafford
(Allison & Busby)
• The Mimosa Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)
ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:
• Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind,
by Sue Black (Doubleday)
• We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence, by Becky Cooper (Heinemann)
• These Are Not Gentle People, by Andrew Harding (MacLehose Press)
• Dancing with the Octopus: The Telling of a True Crime,
by Debora Harding (Profile)
• The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us,
by Nick Hayes (Bloomsbury Circus)
• Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, by Ben MacIntyre (Viking)
Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:
• Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith (Michael Joseph)
• The Coral Bride, by Roxanne Bouchard, translated by David
Warriner (Orenda)
• The Disaster Tourist, by Yun Ko-eun, translated by Lizzie
Buehler (Serpent’s Tail)
• Three, by D.A. Mishani, translated by Jessica Cohen (Riverrun)
• To Cook a Bear, by Mikael Niemi, translated by Deborah
Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press)
• The Seven Doors, by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie
Hedger (Orenda)
Short Story Dagger:
• “A Dog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas,” by Robert Scragg (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg;
Robert Scragg)
• “Deathbed,” by Elle Croft (from Afraid of the Light, edited by
Robert Scragg; Robert Scragg)
• “Daddy Dearest,” by Dominic Nolan (from Afraid of the Light)
• “Hunted,” by Victoria Selman (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights)
• “Monsters,” by Clare Mackintosh (from First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books, edited by David Headley and Daniel
Gedeon; The Dome Press)
• “Planting Nan,” by James Delargy (from Afraid of the Light)
Publishers’ Dagger (“awarded annually to the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year”):
• Faber and Faber
• Head of Zeus
• Michael Joseph
• No Exit Press
• Raven
• Viper
CWA Debut Dagger (for as-yet-unpublished novels):
• The Looking Glass Spy, by Ashley Harrison
• Underwater, by Fiona McPhillips
• Rough Justice, by Biba Pearce
• Deception, by Hannah Redding
• Lightfoot, by Edward Regenye
• Mandatory Reporting, by Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh
Dagger in the Library (“for a body of work by an established crime writer that has long been popular with borrowers from libraries”):
• C.L. Taylor
• Peter May
• Lisa Jewell
• James Oswald
• Denise Mina
• L.J. Ross
The longlists of nominees for most of these prizes can be found here. To see the full rundown of Debut Dagger rivals, click here.
Martina Cole was already declared as the recipient of the 2021 Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement.
“The Dagger shortlists again highlight the wealth of great books and diversity within the crime genre,” says Maxim Jakubowski, the CWA’s newly appointed chair. “With terrific new titles from authors both familiar and new, including some books impressively nominated in more than a single category, the presence on the Publisher Dagger shortlist of long-standing traditional publishing houses and smaller independents and even, on the Dagger in the Library (voted on by librarians throughout the country), a first, with a self-published writer rubbing shoulders with established veterans. The Daggers are assuredly the best and most prestigious reflection of what’s happening on the crime and mystery writing front.”
Congratulations to all of these contenders!
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
One Final Le Carré in View
This is splendid news! From The Bookseller:
Le Carré, you will recall, died last December at age 89.
Viking will publish a “superb and fitting” final full-length novel by John le Carré, Silverview, this autumn. The book will be le Carré's 26th novel, and is released on 14th October, in the week that would have marked le Carré’s 90th birthday.The piece goes on to quote Mary Mount, le Carré’s publisher at Viking, calling Silverview “mesmerizing. … Beautifully constructed and so acute on the forces—love, loyalty, duty, guilt—that motivate us. It was so thrilling, and very moving, to hear, in these pages, le Carré’s inimitable voice speak once again.”
Le Carré had been working on the book alongside his last two novels, A Legacy of Spies and Agent Running in the Field, both published by Viking. It was le Carré’s wish that his children look after his literary legacy and they, along with an archivist, are currently cataloguing his archive of unpublished work. Silverview was the only complete, full-length, novel left unpublished at the time of his death.
Nick Cornwell, John le Carré’s youngest son and a novelist who writes under the pen name Nick Harkaway, said: “This is the authentic le Carré, telling one more story. The book is fraught, forensic, lyrical, and fierce, at long last searching the soul of the modern Secret Intelligence Service itself. It’s a superb and fitting final novel.”
Le Carré, you will recall, died last December at age 89.
Thursday, May 06, 2021
Revue of Reviewers, 5-6-21
Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.
Ripley’s Disclosed Relocation
Don’t go looking for Mike Ripley’s latest “Getting Away with Murder” column in Shots; you won’t find it there. As he explains, “This is due to the main website having been hi-jacked by interweb pirates (probably Russian) and sailed into the Bermuda Triangle, or whatever it is happens in these cases. As you may have gathered, I am no expert when it comes to modern technology, but those who claim to be assure me that normal service will soon be resumed.”
Ripley’s rich May trove of crime-fiction tidbits includes notes about William Le Quex’s largely forgotten 1906 spy novel, The Invasion of 1910; Vera Caspary’s classic psychological suspense yarns with domestic settings; new paperback covers for Len Deighton’s early thrillers; fresh fiction from Tom Bradby, William Shaw, Jo Spain, Andrew Taylor, and others; and a good deal more besides.
Ripley’s rich May trove of crime-fiction tidbits includes notes about William Le Quex’s largely forgotten 1906 spy novel, The Invasion of 1910; Vera Caspary’s classic psychological suspense yarns with domestic settings; new paperback covers for Len Deighton’s early thrillers; fresh fiction from Tom Bradby, William Shaw, Jo Spain, Andrew Taylor, and others; and a good deal more besides.
Wednesday, May 05, 2021
Who Will Take Home the Anthonys?
There are a number of familiar names among the just-announced nominees for this year’s Anthony Awards. S.A. Cosby, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Art Taylor, Lori Rader-Day, Richard Osman—they’re all there. Strangely missing, however, are several other authors whose books also deserved to be among this year’s Anthony contenders, notably Anthony Horowitz (Moonflower Murders), Stuart Turton (The Devil and the Dark Water), and Ivy Pochoda (These Women). But no matter: everyone’s tastes are not the same, and it was left up to Bouchercon participants—both from last year and this one—to select the candidates, rather than relying on judging panels to make the picks.
Here are the books contending for the 2021 Anthonys:
Best Hardcover Novel:
• What You Don’t See, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• 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:
• Derailed, by Mary Keliikoa (Camel Press)
• Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur)
• Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)
Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel:
• The Fate of a Flapper, by Susanna Calkins (Griffin)
• When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
• Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)
• Dirty Old Town, by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best)
Best Short Story:
• “Dear Emily Etiquette,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October)
• “90 Miles,” by Alex Segura (from Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino Iglesias; Agora)
• “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)
• “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:
• 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)
• Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, by Richie Narvaez (Piñata)
• Star Wars Poe: Dameron: Free Fall, by Alex Segura (Disney
Lucasfilm Press)
Best Critical or Non-fiction Work:
• 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)
• Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)
Best Anthology or Collection:
• Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Press Anthology, edited by Heather Graham (Nasty Woman Press)
• 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)
• Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle (Polis)
Winners will be made known during a special event on Saturday, August 28—the last full day of Bouchercon 2021, to be held in New Orleans from August 25-29. Congratulations to all of the finalists!
Here are the books contending for the 2021 Anthonys:
Best Hardcover Novel:
• What You Don’t See, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• 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:
• Derailed, by Mary Keliikoa (Camel Press)
• Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur)
• Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman)
• Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)
Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel:
• The Fate of a Flapper, by Susanna Calkins (Griffin)
• When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
• Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)
• Dirty Old Town, by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best)
Best Short Story:
• “Dear Emily Etiquette,” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October)
• “90 Miles,” by Alex Segura (from Both Sides: Stories from the Border, edited by Gabino Iglesias; Agora)
• “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)
• “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:
• 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)
• Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, by Richie Narvaez (Piñata)
• Star Wars Poe: Dameron: Free Fall, by Alex Segura (Disney
Lucasfilm Press)
Best Critical or Non-fiction Work:
• 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)
• Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)
Best Anthology or Collection:
• Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Press Anthology, edited by Heather Graham (Nasty Woman Press)
• 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)
• Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope During a Pandemic, edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle (Polis)
Winners will be made known during a special event on Saturday, August 28—the last full day of Bouchercon 2021, to be held in New Orleans from August 25-29. Congratulations to all of the finalists!
Tapped for Theakston Honors
Organizers of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, scheduled to take place from July 22 to 25 in Harrogate, England (provided the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t worsen), have announced 
their longlist of 18 nominees for the 2021 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award.
• Cry Baby, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• The Other Passenger, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster)
• The Cutting Place, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)
• Fifty-Fifty, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• Black River, by Will Dean (Point Blank)
• Between Two Evils, by Eva Dolan (Raven)
• The Guest List, by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins)
• The Lantern Men, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Big Chill, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton (Viking)
• Still Life, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Last Crossing, by Brian McGilloway (Dome Press)
• Death in the East, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Our Little Cruelties, by Liz Nugent (Penguin)
• A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Remain Silent, by Susie Steiner
(The Borough Press)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
• The Man on the Street, by Trevor Wood (Quercus)
Go here to vote for your favorite book from among these.
A shortlist of contenders is expected to be broadcast in June, with the winner to be named on July 22, the opening day of the festival. For more information, click here.
(Hat tip to Promoting Crime Fiction.)
their longlist of 18 nominees for the 2021 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award.• Cry Baby, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• The Other Passenger, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster)
• The Cutting Place, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)
• Fifty-Fifty, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• Black River, by Will Dean (Point Blank)
• Between Two Evils, by Eva Dolan (Raven)
• The Guest List, by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins)
• The Lantern Men, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Big Chill, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)• Three Hours, by Rosamund Lupton (Viking)
• Still Life, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Last Crossing, by Brian McGilloway (Dome Press)
• Death in the East, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Our Little Cruelties, by Liz Nugent (Penguin)
• A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Remain Silent, by Susie Steiner
(The Borough Press)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)
• The Man on the Street, by Trevor Wood (Quercus)
Go here to vote for your favorite book from among these.
A shortlist of contenders is expected to be broadcast in June, with the winner to be named on July 22, the opening day of the festival. For more information, click here.
(Hat tip to Promoting Crime Fiction.)
Tuesday, May 04, 2021
Overcoming Cyberspace Obstacles
If you’ve tried recently to access the British crime-fiction site Shots, only to encounter a message declaring, “the Web page you are trying to reach is unavailable” … rest assured, you are not alone in your bewilderment. I sent a query to Shots editor Mike Stotter, asking him what’s going on. Here’s his response:
This sounds great, but part of what it means in practice is that most of the hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of links from this blog to original Thrilling Detective Web pages are suddenly inoperable. I shall do my utmost to replace all of those obsolete connections with new ones, and Smith has agreed to help me in that enterprise; but as is the case with my continuing efforts to restore a decade-and-a-half’s worth of videos embedded in this blog, this will take time.
In the interim, the best I can do is recommend that whenever you encounter a broken link from this page, try accessing an archived version of that material through the Wayback Machine, an invaluable resource provided by the free digital library Internet Archive. All you have to do is copy-and-paste the original URL into the Wayback Machine’s search engine, and hit Enter. More often than not, there’s an archived version available to be enjoyed. I have installed a “Finding Broken Links?” notice in The Rap Sheet’s right-hand column, from which you can always go directly to the Wayback Machine.
“I know, I know,” says Smith, when I question his decision to switch servers. “It’s a giant pain in the ass (all the search engines are now wrong, too), but continuing the site as it was was no longer feasible, either timewise or financially.” And at least there’s been one benefit to these moves, he adds: “Now that the domain has finally been officially transferred, traffic has increased substantially—in some cases, tenfold from the same date a year ago. Part of it may be my new Dick of the Day feature, where I highlight a different private eye each day on Twitter and Facebook, but it seems to be working.”
The lesson in all of this is simple: Nothing on the Web is permanent, no matter how much we might wish it to be so.
Some hacker put in a malicious bug. The owner of the server informed me last week (Monday, I think) and took down the site until it is repaired. The original webmaster is working on it and will probably take another 3-4 weeks to get it fixed. It needs a new patch to resolve it. In the meantime, reviews and features are being uploaded to the [Shots] blog. I really don’t know why people do this kind of thing. What do they get out of it?Let’s hope things will get back to normal at Shots soon.
* * *
At the same time, Kevin Burton Smith, creator and editor of the excellent Thrilling Detective Web Site, has taken down his original site and is steadily relocating all of its many pages to a new cyberspace location. “As it stands now, depending on how you squint, I’m somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the site having been transferred,” he tells me, “and I’ve tried to focus mostly on the primary pages.”This sounds great, but part of what it means in practice is that most of the hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of links from this blog to original Thrilling Detective Web pages are suddenly inoperable. I shall do my utmost to replace all of those obsolete connections with new ones, and Smith has agreed to help me in that enterprise; but as is the case with my continuing efforts to restore a decade-and-a-half’s worth of videos embedded in this blog, this will take time.
In the interim, the best I can do is recommend that whenever you encounter a broken link from this page, try accessing an archived version of that material through the Wayback Machine, an invaluable resource provided by the free digital library Internet Archive. All you have to do is copy-and-paste the original URL into the Wayback Machine’s search engine, and hit Enter. More often than not, there’s an archived version available to be enjoyed. I have installed a “Finding Broken Links?” notice in The Rap Sheet’s right-hand column, from which you can always go directly to the Wayback Machine.
“I know, I know,” says Smith, when I question his decision to switch servers. “It’s a giant pain in the ass (all the search engines are now wrong, too), but continuing the site as it was was no longer feasible, either timewise or financially.” And at least there’s been one benefit to these moves, he adds: “Now that the domain has finally been officially transferred, traffic has increased substantially—in some cases, tenfold from the same date a year ago. Part of it may be my new Dick of the Day feature, where I highlight a different private eye each day on Twitter and Facebook, but it seems to be working.”
The lesson in all of this is simple: Nothing on the Web is permanent, no matter how much we might wish it to be so.
Saturday, May 01, 2021
Taking in the Shorts
The Short Mystery Fiction Society (SMFS) today announced the winners of its 2021 Derringer Awards, which recognize excellence in short crime fiction. There were four categories of contenders.
Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words): TIE—“Memories of Fire,” by C.W. Blackwell (Pulp Modern, August 2020); and “War Words,” by Travis Richardson (Punk Noir, December 2020)
Also nominated: “Outsourcing,” by James Blakey (Shotgun Honey, December 2020); “Over Before It Started,” by Robert Mangeot (Akashic: Mondays Are Murder, June 2020); and “Quitman County Ambush,” by Bobby Mathews (Bristol Noir, December 2020)
Best Short Story (1,001 to 4,000 words): TIE—“The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom,” by Eleanor Cawood Jones (from Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press); and “River,” by Stacy Woodson (from The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads)
Also nominated: “The Homicidal Understudy,” by Elizabeth Elwood (from Mystery Most Theatrical, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press); “That Which Is True,” by Jacqueline Freimor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], July/August; and “The Crossing,” by Kim Keeline (from Crossing Borders, edited by Lisa Brackmann and Matt Coyle; Down & Out)
Best Long Story (4,001 to 8,000 words): “Hotelin’,” by Sarah M. Chen (from Shotgun Honey Presents, Volume 4: Recoil, edited by Ron Earl Phillips; Shotgun Honey)
Also nominated: “Lord, Spare the Bottom Feeders,” by Robert Mangeot (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], March/April); “Chasing Diamonds,” by Joseph S. Walker (EQMM, September/October); “Etta at the End of the World,” by Joseph S. Walker (AHMM, May/June); and “Mary Poppins Didn't Have Tattoos,” by Stacy Woodson (EQMM, July/August)
Best Novelette (8,001 to 20,000 words): “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74,” by Art Taylor (AHMM, January/February)
Also nominated: “The Question of the Befuddled Judge,” by Jeff Cohen (AHMM, May/June); “A Murder at Morehead Mews,” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, July/August); “Suicide Blonde,” by Brian Thornton (from Suicide Blonde: Three Novellas, by Brian Thornton; Down & Out); and “The Wretched Strangers,” by Matthew Wilson (EQMM, January/February)
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words): TIE—“Memories of Fire,” by C.W. Blackwell (Pulp Modern, August 2020); and “War Words,” by Travis Richardson (Punk Noir, December 2020)
Also nominated: “Outsourcing,” by James Blakey (Shotgun Honey, December 2020); “Over Before It Started,” by Robert Mangeot (Akashic: Mondays Are Murder, June 2020); and “Quitman County Ambush,” by Bobby Mathews (Bristol Noir, December 2020)
Best Short Story (1,001 to 4,000 words): TIE—“The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom,” by Eleanor Cawood Jones (from Chesapeake Crimes: Invitation to Murder, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press); and “River,” by Stacy Woodson (from The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell, edited by Josh Pachter; Untreed Reads)
Also nominated: “The Homicidal Understudy,” by Elizabeth Elwood (from Mystery Most Theatrical, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press); “That Which Is True,” by Jacqueline Freimor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], July/August; and “The Crossing,” by Kim Keeline (from Crossing Borders, edited by Lisa Brackmann and Matt Coyle; Down & Out)
Best Long Story (4,001 to 8,000 words): “Hotelin’,” by Sarah M. Chen (from Shotgun Honey Presents, Volume 4: Recoil, edited by Ron Earl Phillips; Shotgun Honey)
Also nominated: “Lord, Spare the Bottom Feeders,” by Robert Mangeot (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine [AHMM], March/April); “Chasing Diamonds,” by Joseph S. Walker (EQMM, September/October); “Etta at the End of the World,” by Joseph S. Walker (AHMM, May/June); and “Mary Poppins Didn't Have Tattoos,” by Stacy Woodson (EQMM, July/August)
Best Novelette (8,001 to 20,000 words): “The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74,” by Art Taylor (AHMM, January/February)
Also nominated: “The Question of the Befuddled Judge,” by Jeff Cohen (AHMM, May/June); “A Murder at Morehead Mews,” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, July/August); “Suicide Blonde,” by Brian Thornton (from Suicide Blonde: Three Novellas, by Brian Thornton; Down & Out); and “The Wretched Strangers,” by Matthew Wilson (EQMM, January/February)
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
PaperBack: “So Sweet, So Wicked”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
So Sweet, So Wicked, by “Steve Rand,” aka Jay Bennett (Monarch, 1961). Cover illustration by Raymond Johnson.
So Sweet, So Wicked, by “Steve Rand,” aka Jay Bennett (Monarch, 1961). Cover illustration by Raymond Johnson.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Who Walked Off with the Edgars?
The Mystery Writers of America today announced the winners of its 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2020.”
Best Novel: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara
(Random House)
Also nominated: Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Poisoned Pen Press); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco); The Missing American, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime); and The Distant Dead, by Heather Young (Morrow)
Best First Novel by an American Author:
Please See Us, by Caitlin Mullen (Gallery)
Also nominated: Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); Catherine House, by Elisabeth Thomas (Morrow); Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco); and Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley)
Best Paperback Original:
When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
Also nominated: The Deep, Deep Snow, by Brian Freeman (Blackstone); Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer); The Keeper, by Jessica Moor (Penguin); and East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (Harper 360)
Best Fact Crime:
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic, by Eric Eyre (Scribner)
Also nominated: Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America, by Mark A. Bradley (Norton); The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (Hachette); Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country, by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Random House); and Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, by Ariel Sabar (Doubleday)
Best Critical/Biographical:
Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)
Also nominated: Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Harper360/Collins Crime Club); Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland); Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction, by Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff (Syracuse University Press); and This Time Next Year We’ll be Laughing, by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press)
Best Short Story: “Dust, Ash, Flight,” by Maaza Mengiste (from Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza Mengiste; Akashic)
Also nominated: “The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay,” by Leslie Elman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2020); “Etta at the End of the World,” by Joseph S. Walker (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020); 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: Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce
(Algonquin Young Readers)
Also nominated: Me and Banksy, by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (Puffin Canada); From the Desk of Zoe Washington, by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen); Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Books for Young Readers); Nessie Quest, by Melissa Savage (Crown Books for Young Readers); and Coop Knows the Scoop, by Taryn Souders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)
Best Young Adult: The Companion, by Katie Alender (Putnam
Books for Young Readers)
Also nominated: The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); They Went Left, by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); The Silence of Bones, by June Hur (Feiwel & Friends); and The Cousins, by Karen M. McManus (Delacorte Press)
Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Episode 1, Photochemistry,” Dead Still, teleplay by John Morton (Acorn TV)
Also nominated: “Episode 1, The Stranger,” Harlan Coben’s The Stranger, teleplay by Danny Brocklehurst (Netflix); “Episode 1, Open Water,” The Sounds, teleplay by Sarah-Kate Lynch (Acorn TV); “Episode 1,” Des, teleplay by Luke Neal (Sundance Now); and “What I Know,” The Boys, teleplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine; based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Amazon)
Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“The Bite,” by Colette Bancroft (from Tampa Bay Noir, edited by Colette Bancroft; Akashic)
The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award:
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Death of an American Beauty, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow); The First to Lie, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Cold Wind, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)
The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award:
Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery, by Rosalie Knecht (Tin House)
Also nominated: The Burn, by Kathleen Kent (Mulholland); Riviera Gold, by Laurie R. King (Ballantine); Dead Land, by Sara Paretsky (Morrow); The Sleeping Nymph, by Ilaria Tuti (Soho Crime); and Turn to Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)
Grand Masters: Jeffery Deaver and Charlaine Harris
Raven Award: Malice Domestic
Ellery Queen Award: Reagan Arthur, Alfred A. Knopf
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees!
Best Novel: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara
(Random House)
Also nominated: Before She Was Helen, by Caroline B. Cooney (Poisoned Pen Press); The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman); These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco); The Missing American, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime); and The Distant Dead, by Heather Young (Morrow)
Best First Novel by an American Author:
Please See Us, by Caitlin Mullen (Gallery)
Also nominated: Murder in Old Bombay, by Nev March (Minotaur); Catherine House, by Elisabeth Thomas (Morrow); Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco); and Darling Rose Gold, by Stephanie Wrobel (Berkley)
Best Paperback Original:
When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
Also nominated: The Deep, Deep Snow, by Brian Freeman (Blackstone); Unspeakable Things, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer); The Keeper, by Jessica Moor (Penguin); and East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (Harper 360)
Best Fact Crime:
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic, by Eric Eyre (Scribner)
Also nominated: Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America, by Mark A. Bradley (Norton); The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (Hachette); Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country, by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Random House); and Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, by Ariel Sabar (Doubleday)
Best Critical/Biographical:
Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, by Christina Lane (Chicago Review Press)
Also nominated: Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Harper360/Collins Crime Club); Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland); Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction, by Elizabeth Mannion and Brian Cliff (Syracuse University Press); and This Time Next Year We’ll be Laughing, by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press)
Best Short Story: “Dust, Ash, Flight,” by Maaza Mengiste (from Addis Ababa Noir, edited by Maaza Mengiste; Akashic)
Also nominated: “The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay,” by Leslie Elman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2020); “Etta at the End of the World,” by Joseph S. Walker (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020); 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: Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce
(Algonquin Young Readers)
Also nominated: Me and Banksy, by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (Puffin Canada); From the Desk of Zoe Washington, by Janae Marks (Katherine Tegen); Ikenga, by Nnedi Okorafor (Viking Books for Young Readers); Nessie Quest, by Melissa Savage (Crown Books for Young Readers); and Coop Knows the Scoop, by Taryn Souders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)
Best Young Adult: The Companion, by Katie Alender (Putnam
Books for Young Readers)
Also nominated: The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); They Went Left, by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); The Silence of Bones, by June Hur (Feiwel & Friends); and The Cousins, by Karen M. McManus (Delacorte Press)
Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Episode 1, Photochemistry,” Dead Still, teleplay by John Morton (Acorn TV)
Also nominated: “Episode 1, The Stranger,” Harlan Coben’s The Stranger, teleplay by Danny Brocklehurst (Netflix); “Episode 1, Open Water,” The Sounds, teleplay by Sarah-Kate Lynch (Acorn TV); “Episode 1,” Des, teleplay by Luke Neal (Sundance Now); and “What I Know,” The Boys, teleplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine; based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Amazon)
Robert L. Fish Memorial Award:
“The Bite,” by Colette Bancroft (from Tampa Bay Noir, edited by Colette Bancroft; Akashic)
The Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award:
The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Death of an American Beauty, by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur); The Lucky One, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow); The First to Lie, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Cold Wind, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)
The G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award:
Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery, by Rosalie Knecht (Tin House)
Also nominated: The Burn, by Kathleen Kent (Mulholland); Riviera Gold, by Laurie R. King (Ballantine); Dead Land, by Sara Paretsky (Morrow); The Sleeping Nymph, by Ilaria Tuti (Soho Crime); and Turn to Stone, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)
Grand Masters: Jeffery Deaver and Charlaine Harris
Raven Award: Malice Domestic
Ellery Queen Award: Reagan Arthur, Alfred A. Knopf
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees!
Maxim in Overdrive
Author, editor, critic, and onetime London bookseller Maxim Jakubowski has been named as the new chair of the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). He has been part of the CWA committee ever since 2014, and has served as its joint vice-chair from 2017 and its publishers’ liaison officer for the last two years.
A CWA press release relates a bit of Jakubowski’s professional background, as follows:
Jakubowski will take over as chair from Victorian crime specialist Linda Stratmann, who has held that post since 2019. Other previous chairs include Martin Edwards, L.C. (Len) Tyler, and Peter James.
The Bookseller notes that in addition to promoting Jakubowski, “The [CWA’s recent] annual general meeting also saw two new faces join the committee. Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin joined as a board member. She writes crime novels as Sam Blake and is founder of the writing resource website, Writing.ie and Murder One, Ireland’s international crime writing festival. She was joined by Simon Michael, a barrister since 1978, who began writing crime fiction in the 1980s alongside a successful Legal 500 career and retired early in 2016 to resume his writing. He has also established and managed a national charity.”
* Jakubowski also edited Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction, a 2010 travel/reference book to which I contributed an essay.
A CWA press release relates a bit of Jakubowski’s professional background, as follows:
Maxim has compiled over 120 anthologies including the Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Pulp Fiction, Vintage Crime, Future Cops and London, Paris, Rome and Venice Noir. He won the Anthony award for non-fiction for 100 Great Detectives. He is also the author of 20 novels, several of which have made The Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller list in another genre [namely, erotic fiction].*The notice also quotes Jakubowski on the importance of his ascension to this new post: “As a member for several decades of the CWA, I am excited to take the helm of a vital organisation, which is constantly in the process of reinventing itself and am keen to see it becoming even more relevant to writers in a changing literary and publishing landscape, and currently troubled social landscape. With board members past and new at my side, I hope that my stewardship will do honour to my illustrious predecessors in the chair.”
A director of London’s past Crime Scene festival, Maxim was also the co-chair of the Nottingham Bouchercon and is a regular broadcaster on matters literary on TV and radio, and a frequent participant in crime festivals around the world. He was for 12 years the Guardian's crime reviewer.
Jakubowski will take over as chair from Victorian crime specialist Linda Stratmann, who has held that post since 2019. Other previous chairs include Martin Edwards, L.C. (Len) Tyler, and Peter James.
The Bookseller notes that in addition to promoting Jakubowski, “The [CWA’s recent] annual general meeting also saw two new faces join the committee. Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin joined as a board member. She writes crime novels as Sam Blake and is founder of the writing resource website, Writing.ie and Murder One, Ireland’s international crime writing festival. She was joined by Simon Michael, a barrister since 1978, who began writing crime fiction in the 1980s alongside a successful Legal 500 career and retired early in 2016 to resume his writing. He has also established and managed a national charity.”
* Jakubowski also edited Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction, a 2010 travel/reference book to which I contributed an essay.
Monday, April 26, 2021
Masked Up and Making the Race
This last Saturday, I participated in my fourth Seattle Independent Bookstore Day celebration. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expectations in 2021 were quite different from what they’d been previously. In 2019, for instance, the goal was to visit 21 out of 26 participating indie shops in a single day; this time, rules called for us simply to purchase at least one item in 10 different stores over a 10-day period. Nonetheless, sticking with tradition, my cohorts for this 2021 event—my delightful niece Amie-June 
(who has accompanied me on two previous SIBDs) and her precocious 5-year-old son, Gareth—agreed to try hitting all 10 book retailers on Saturday alone.
(Left) Amie-June, Gareth, and yours truly at Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor Book Company.
We began the run at 8 a.m., traveled by both car and ferry in a circle around the city (with a couple of necessary detours to cover bookstores that closed earlier than others), and finished 10 hours later at the Elliott Bay Book Company, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Given that we had only 10 bookstores to cover, we tried to spend some quality time in each, buying items for ourselves or others. Gareth made the biggest haul, with his book-nerd mother and I both adding to his reading stock. I had brought along a short list of things I hoped to find for myself—both crime fiction and non-fiction works—but couldn’t locate most of them, and wound up with only two books: Laurence Bergreen’s In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire and Ride the Devil’s Herd: Wyatt Earp’s Epic Battle Against the West’s Biggest Outlaw Gang, by John Boessenecker.
In the past, people who complete the SIBD challenge have won 25-percent discounts for a year at all participating bookshops. This time, the prize is considerably less significant—a limited-edition Seattle Indie Bookstore Day 2021 tote bag—but the fun, as usual, was in making the race and getting to boast about it for the next 365 days, until we are invited to saddle up all over again.
READ MORE: “Bookstore Mysteries: Independent Bookstore Day,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
(who has accompanied me on two previous SIBDs) and her precocious 5-year-old son, Gareth—agreed to try hitting all 10 book retailers on Saturday alone.(Left) Amie-June, Gareth, and yours truly at Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor Book Company.
We began the run at 8 a.m., traveled by both car and ferry in a circle around the city (with a couple of necessary detours to cover bookstores that closed earlier than others), and finished 10 hours later at the Elliott Bay Book Company, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Given that we had only 10 bookstores to cover, we tried to spend some quality time in each, buying items for ourselves or others. Gareth made the biggest haul, with his book-nerd mother and I both adding to his reading stock. I had brought along a short list of things I hoped to find for myself—both crime fiction and non-fiction works—but couldn’t locate most of them, and wound up with only two books: Laurence Bergreen’s In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire and Ride the Devil’s Herd: Wyatt Earp’s Epic Battle Against the West’s Biggest Outlaw Gang, by John Boessenecker.
In the past, people who complete the SIBD challenge have won 25-percent discounts for a year at all participating bookshops. This time, the prize is considerably less significant—a limited-edition Seattle Indie Bookstore Day 2021 tote bag—but the fun, as usual, was in making the race and getting to boast about it for the next 365 days, until we are invited to saddle up all over again.
READ MORE: “Bookstore Mysteries: Independent Bookstore Day,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
The Challenge of Competing Demands
Blogging in The Rap Sheet could be somewhat lighter than normal over the next two weeks, as I struggle to complete a rather complicated article for another Web site. Please bear with me.
Friday, April 23, 2021
Plenty of Plaudits to Go Around
Any veteran journalist who covers a beat, as I do here at The Rap Sheet, knows there’s never a perfect time to go out of town. It’s always when you are off your patch that some development you really ought to be keeping track of takes place, and you can’t report on it. That was certainly what happened late this week, when my wife and I decided to spend a few days away, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. Not just one, but four crime-fiction-award-related stories broke in our absence. I’ll go through them individually below.
honor of Canada’s first official hangman), “recognize the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction, and crime non-fiction by Canadian authors.” Winners are to be named on May 27.
Best Crime Novel:
• How a Woman Becomes a Lake, by Marjorie Celona (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• The Historians, by Cecilia Ekbäck (HarperCollins)
• The Finder, by Will Ferguson (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Obsidian, by Thomas King (HarperCollins)
• Hurry Home, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Best Crime First Novel:
• And We Shall Have Snow, by Raye Anderson (Signature Editions)
• The Transaction, by Guglielmo D’Izza (Guernica Editions)
• True Patriots, by Russell Fralich (Dundurn Press)
• The Woman in the Attic, by Emily Hepditch (Flanker Press)
• The Nightshade Cabal, by Chris Patrick Carolan (Parliament
House Press)
The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
• Payback, by Randall Denley (Ottawa Press)
• Rabbit Foot Bill, by Helen Humphreys (HarperCollins)
• The Dogs of Winter, by Ann Lambert (Second Story Press)
• Two for the Tablelands, by Kevin Major (Breakwater)
• Stay Where I Can See You, by Katrina Onstad (HarperCollins)
Best Crime Novella:
• The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, by C.C. Benison
(At Bay Press)
• Coral Reef Views, by Vicki Delany (Orca)
• “Salty Dog Blues,” by Winona Kent (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-
Canada West Chapter)
• Never Going Back, by Sam Wiebe (Orca)
Best Crime Short Story:
• “Cold Wave,” by Marcelle Dubé (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-
Canada West Chapter)
• “Days Without Name,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (from A Grave Diagnosis: 35 Stories of Murder and Malaise, edited by Donna Carrick; Carrick Publishing)
• “Used to Be,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], January/February 2020)
• “Killer Biznez,” by Zandra Renwick (EQMM, September/October 2020)
• “Limited Liability,” by Sarah Weinman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020)
Best French Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
• La mariée de corail, by Roxanne Bouchard (Libre Expression)
• Inacceptable, by Stéphanie Gauthier (Éditions Québec Amérique)
• Le printemps des traîtres, by Christian Giguère (Héliotrope NOIR)
• Les cachettes, by Guy Lalancette (VLB éditeur)
• Les Demoiselles du Havre-Aubert, by Jean Lemieux (Éditions
Québec Amérique)
Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
• Red Fox Road, by Frances Greenslade (Puffin Canada)
• Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House, by Janet Hill (Tundra)
• Fight Like a Girl, by Sheena Kamal (Penguin Teen)
• Magic Dark and Strange, by Kelly Powell (Margaret K. McElderry)
• Hope You’re Listening, by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman)
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
• Murder in the Family: How the Search for My Mother’s Killer Led to My Father, by Jeff Blackstock (Viking Press)
• Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip, by Norm Boucher (NeWest Press)
• Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, by Silver Donald Cameron (Viking Press)
• Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto’s Queer Community, by Justin Ling (McClelland & Stewart)
• Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett, by Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell (University of
Regina Press)
The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript:
• The Future, by Raymond Bazowski
• Predator and Prey, by Dianne Scott
• Notes on Killing Your Wife, by Mark Thomas
• A Nice Place to Die, by Joyce Woollcott
• Cat with a Bone, by Susan Jane Wright
In addition, the CWC has declared that Marian Misters, co-owner of Toronto’s Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore, will receive the 2021 Derrick Murdoch Award, “a special achievement award for contributions to the Canadian crime-writing genre.”
Best Hardcover Novel:
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Hi Five, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Penguin)
• These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco)
• Confessions on the 7:45, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)
Best First Novel:
• The Opium Prince, by Jasmine Aimaq (Soho Press)
• Without Sanction, by Don Bentley (Berkley)
• The Bluffs, by Kyle Perry (Michael Joseph)
• Ghosts of Harvard, by Francesca Serritella (Random House)
• Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)
Best Original Paperback Novel:
• When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
• Unknown 9: Genesis, by Layton Green (Reflector)
• What Lies Between Us, by John Marrs (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Girl Beneath the Sea, by Andrew Mayne (Thomas & Mercer)
• Either Side of Midnight, by Benjamin Stevenson (Penguin Random House Australia)
Best Short Story:
• “The Death and Carnage Boy,” by Steve Hockensmith (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July/August 2020)
• “Slow Burner,” by Laura Lippman (Amazon Original Stories e-book)
• “Rent Due,” by Alan Orloff (from Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out)
• “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)
• “The Mailman,” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (from Mickey Finn:
21st Century Noir)
Best Young Adult Novel:
• Last Girls, by Demetra Brodsky (Tor Teen)
• Throwaway Girls, by Andrea Contos (Kids Can Press)
• I Killed Zoe Spanos, by Kit Frick (Margaret K. McElderry)
• Teen Killers Club, by Lily Sparks (Crooked Lane)
• The Distant Dead, by Heather Young (Morrow)
Best E-book Original Novel:
• Avenue of Thieves, by Sean Black (Sean Black)
• A Killing Game, by Jeff Buick (Novel Words)
• Full Metal Jack, by Diane Capri (AugustBooks)
• Mongkok Station, by Jake Needham (Half Penny)
• No Hesitation, by Kirk Russell (Strawberry Creek)
This year’s Thriller Award winners are to be announced on Saturday, July 10, during Virtual ThrillerFest XVI (June 28-July 10).
• Savage Games, by Peter Boland
• The Tonganoxie Split, by Zack Daniel
• Long Egg, by Kerry Eaton
• The Looking Glass Spy, by Ashley Harrison
• Underwater, by Fiona McPhillips
• Sister Killer, by Karen Milner
• The Lying Days, by Julie Nugent
• Rough Justice, by Biba Pearce
• Deception, by Hannah Redding
• Lightfoot, by Edward Regenye
• The Tunnel Runners, by Elizabeth Todman
• Mandatory Reporting, by Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh
* * *
The Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) has announced the shortlists of contenders for its 2021 Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards. These annual prizes, introduced in 1984 (and named most colorfully in 
honor of Canada’s first official hangman), “recognize the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction, and crime non-fiction by Canadian authors.” Winners are to be named on May 27.Best Crime Novel:
• How a Woman Becomes a Lake, by Marjorie Celona (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• The Historians, by Cecilia Ekbäck (HarperCollins)
• The Finder, by Will Ferguson (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Obsidian, by Thomas King (HarperCollins)
• Hurry Home, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Best Crime First Novel:
• And We Shall Have Snow, by Raye Anderson (Signature Editions)
• The Transaction, by Guglielmo D’Izza (Guernica Editions)
• True Patriots, by Russell Fralich (Dundurn Press)
• The Woman in the Attic, by Emily Hepditch (Flanker Press)
• The Nightshade Cabal, by Chris Patrick Carolan (Parliament
House Press)
The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada:
• Payback, by Randall Denley (Ottawa Press)
• Rabbit Foot Bill, by Helen Humphreys (HarperCollins)
• The Dogs of Winter, by Ann Lambert (Second Story Press)
• Two for the Tablelands, by Kevin Major (Breakwater)
• Stay Where I Can See You, by Katrina Onstad (HarperCollins)
Best Crime Novella:
• The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, by C.C. Benison
(At Bay Press)
• Coral Reef Views, by Vicki Delany (Orca)
• “Salty Dog Blues,” by Winona Kent (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-
Canada West Chapter)
• Never Going Back, by Sam Wiebe (Orca)
Best Crime Short Story:
• “Cold Wave,” by Marcelle Dubé (from Crime Wave: A Canada West Anthology, edited by Karen L. Abrahamson; Sisters in Crime-
Canada West Chapter)
• “Days Without Name,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (from A Grave Diagnosis: 35 Stories of Murder and Malaise, edited by Donna Carrick; Carrick Publishing)
• “Used to Be,” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], January/February 2020)
• “Killer Biznez,” by Zandra Renwick (EQMM, September/October 2020)
• “Limited Liability,” by Sarah Weinman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2020)
Best French Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
• La mariée de corail, by Roxanne Bouchard (Libre Expression)
• Inacceptable, by Stéphanie Gauthier (Éditions Québec Amérique)
• Le printemps des traîtres, by Christian Giguère (Héliotrope NOIR)
• Les cachettes, by Guy Lalancette (VLB éditeur)
• Les Demoiselles du Havre-Aubert, by Jean Lemieux (Éditions
Québec Amérique)
Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (fiction and non-fiction):
• Red Fox Road, by Frances Greenslade (Puffin Canada)
• Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House, by Janet Hill (Tundra)
• Fight Like a Girl, by Sheena Kamal (Penguin Teen)
• Magic Dark and Strange, by Kelly Powell (Margaret K. McElderry)
• Hope You’re Listening, by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman)
The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
• Murder in the Family: How the Search for My Mother’s Killer Led to My Father, by Jeff Blackstock (Viking Press)
• Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip, by Norm Boucher (NeWest Press)
• Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, by Silver Donald Cameron (Viking Press)
• Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto’s Queer Community, by Justin Ling (McClelland & Stewart)
• Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett, by Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell (University of
Regina Press)
The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript:
• The Future, by Raymond Bazowski
• Predator and Prey, by Dianne Scott
• Notes on Killing Your Wife, by Mark Thomas
• A Nice Place to Die, by Joyce Woollcott
• Cat with a Bone, by Susan Jane Wright
In addition, the CWC has declared that Marian Misters, co-owner of Toronto’s Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore, will receive the 2021 Derrick Murdoch Award, “a special achievement award for contributions to the Canadian crime-writing genre.”
* * *
Meanwhile, the International Thriller Writers (ITW) has put forth its roster of rivals for the 2021 Thriller Awards, in six categories.Best Hardcover Novel:
• Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Hi Five, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)
• The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman (Penguin)
• These Women, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco)
• Confessions on the 7:45, by Lisa Unger (Park Row)
Best First Novel:
• The Opium Prince, by Jasmine Aimaq (Soho Press)
• Without Sanction, by Don Bentley (Berkley)
• The Bluffs, by Kyle Perry (Michael Joseph)
• Ghosts of Harvard, by Francesca Serritella (Random House)
• Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco)
Best Original Paperback Novel:
• When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole (Morrow)
• Unknown 9: Genesis, by Layton Green (Reflector)
• What Lies Between Us, by John Marrs (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Girl Beneath the Sea, by Andrew Mayne (Thomas & Mercer)
• Either Side of Midnight, by Benjamin Stevenson (Penguin Random House Australia)
Best Short Story:
• “The Death and Carnage Boy,” by Steve Hockensmith (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July/August 2020)
• “Slow Burner,” by Laura Lippman (Amazon Original Stories e-book)
• “Rent Due,” by Alan Orloff (from Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out)
• “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)
• “The Mailman,” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (from Mickey Finn:
21st Century Noir)
Best Young Adult Novel:
• Last Girls, by Demetra Brodsky (Tor Teen)
• Throwaway Girls, by Andrea Contos (Kids Can Press)
• I Killed Zoe Spanos, by Kit Frick (Margaret K. McElderry)
• Teen Killers Club, by Lily Sparks (Crooked Lane)
• The Distant Dead, by Heather Young (Morrow)
Best E-book Original Novel:
• Avenue of Thieves, by Sean Black (Sean Black)
• A Killing Game, by Jeff Buick (Novel Words)
• Full Metal Jack, by Diane Capri (AugustBooks)
• Mongkok Station, by Jake Needham (Half Penny)
• No Hesitation, by Kirk Russell (Strawberry Creek)
This year’s Thriller Award winners are to be announced on Saturday, July 10, during Virtual ThrillerFest XVI (June 28-July 10).
* * *
The British Crime Writers Association (CWA) released most of its inventories of 2021 Dagger Award nominees back in mid-April. However, only this last Thursday did it finally follow up with its longlist of contestants for the Debut Dagger, “a competition for the opening of a crime novel by an uncontracted writer.”• Savage Games, by Peter Boland
• The Tonganoxie Split, by Zack Daniel
• Long Egg, by Kerry Eaton
• The Looking Glass Spy, by Ashley Harrison
• Underwater, by Fiona McPhillips
• Sister Killer, by Karen Milner
• The Lying Days, by Julie Nugent
• Rough Justice, by Biba Pearce
• Deception, by Hannah Redding
• Lightfoot, by Edward Regenye
• The Tunnel Runners, by Elizabeth Todman
• Mandatory Reporting, by Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh
* * *
Finally, this week brought news that Virginia author Barb Goffman has won the 2020 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award Poll. Readers of that publication selected “Dear Emily Etiquette,” her story from the September/October 2020 issue, as their favorite of last year. The second- and third-place finalists were, respectively, John M. Floyd’s “Crow’s Nest” (January/February 2020) and Gregory Fallis’ “Terrible Ideas” (September/October 2020). The complete rundown of 2020 EQMM finalists can be found here.
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