Now is a busy time for crime-fiction prizes. We have had the recent announcements of this year’s Edgar Award winners and Agatha Award recipients, as well as news of which books and authors are in contention for half a dozen CrimeFest commendations. Today, thanks to Crimepieces, we are hearing about nominees for the 2018 Petrona Award for Translated Scandinavian Crime Fiction.
• What My Body Remembers, by Agnete Friis,
translated by Lindy Falk van Rooyen (Soho Press; Denmark)
• Quicksand, by Malin Persson Giolito,
translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Simon & Schuster; Sweden)
• After the Fire, by Henning Mankell,
translated by Marlaine Delargy (Vintage/Harvill Secker; Sweden)
• The Darkest Day, by Håkan Nesser,
translated by Sarah Death (Pan Macmillan/Mantle; Sweden)
• The White City, by Karolina Ramqvist,
translated by Saskia Vogel (Atlantic Books/Grove Press; Sweden)
• The Man Who Died, by Antti Tuomainen,
translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books; Finland)
“The winning title,” says Crimepieces blogger Sarah Ward, “will be announced at the Gala Dinner on 19 May during the annual international crime-fiction convention CrimeFest, held in Bristol on 17-20 May 2018. The winning author and the translator of the winning title will both receive a cash prize, and the winning author will receive a full pass to and a guaranteed panel at CrimeFest 2019.”
Monday, April 30, 2018
It’s Adams’ Nose Against the Glass
This is an interesting tidbit from In Reference to Murder:
Amy Adams will play the lead in Fox 2000’s The Woman in the Window, an adaptation of A.J. Finn’s best-selling novel, with Joe Wright directing from a script by Tracy Letts. Adams is set to play Anna Fox, an agoraphobic child psychologist who lives alone in a New York suburb. Afraid to leave home, she fills her day watching film noir classics and spies on her neighbors like they do in the movies she loves. She thinks she witnesses a murder through her window but she can’t be quite sure because she also is an alcoholic and takes prescription narcotics.Blogger B.V. Lawson offers more movie and TV news here.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
PaperBack: “Too Many Murderers”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
Too Many Murderers, by Manning Lee Stokes (Graphic, 1955), originally published in 1951 as The Crooked Circle.
Cover illustration by Clyde Ross.
Too Many Murderers, by Manning Lee Stokes (Graphic, 1955), originally published in 1951 as The Crooked Circle.
Cover illustration by Clyde Ross.
Taking Home the Agathas
Because I was out of my office yesterday, participating in the sometimes mad dash known as Independent Bookstore Day, I missed posting the news about which books and authors have captured this year’s Agatha Awards. Those prizes were handed out last evening during the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland. Fortunately, Mystery Fanfare has tipped me to the winners.
Best Contemporary Novel: Glass Houses, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Death Overdue, by Allison Brook (Crooked Lane);
A Cajun Christmas Killing, by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane); No Way Home, by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press); and Take Out, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central)
Best Historical Novel: In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)
Also nominated: Murder in an English Village, by Jessica Ellicott (Kensington); Called to Justice, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink); The Paris Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam); and Dangerous to Know, by Renee Patrick (Forge)
Best First Novel: Hollywood Homicide, by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
Also nominated: Adrift, Micki Browning (Alibi); The Plot Is Murder, by V.M. Burns (Kensington); Daughters of Bad Men, by Laura Oles (Red Adept); and Protocol, by Kathleen Valenti (Henery Press)
Best Non-fiction: From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon, by Mattias Boström (Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press); American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, by Monica Hesse (Liveright); Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction, by Jess Lourey (Conari Press); and Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Press)
Best Short Story: The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn, by Gigi Pandian (Henery Press e-book)
Also nominated: Double Deck the Halls, by Gretchen Archer (Henery Press e-book); “Whose Wine Is it Anyway” by Barb Goffman (from 50 Shades of Cabernet; Koehler); “The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place,” by Debra Goldstein (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017); and “A Necessary Ingredient,” by Art Taylor (from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks; Down & Out)
Best Children’s/Young Adult: Sydney Mackenzie Knocks ’Em Dead, by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
Also nominated: City of Angels, by Kristi Belcamino (Polis); The World’s Greatest Detective, by Caroline Carlson (HarperCollins); Audacity Jones Steals the Show, by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press); and The Harlem Charade, by Natasha Tarpley (Scholastic Press)
In addition, Nancy Pickard is Malice Domestic’s 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient; the Amelia Award went to actor David Suchet; Brenda Blethyn, who stars as DCI Vera Stanhope in the series Vera (based on the books by Ann Cleeves), earned the Poirot Award; and the late Joan Hess was honored with a Special Amelia Award.
Best Contemporary Novel: Glass Houses, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Death Overdue, by Allison Brook (Crooked Lane);
A Cajun Christmas Killing, by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane); No Way Home, by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press); and Take Out, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central)
Best Historical Novel: In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)
Also nominated: Murder in an English Village, by Jessica Ellicott (Kensington); Called to Justice, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink); The Paris Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam); and Dangerous to Know, by Renee Patrick (Forge)
Best First Novel: Hollywood Homicide, by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
Also nominated: Adrift, Micki Browning (Alibi); The Plot Is Murder, by V.M. Burns (Kensington); Daughters of Bad Men, by Laura Oles (Red Adept); and Protocol, by Kathleen Valenti (Henery Press)
Best Non-fiction: From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon, by Mattias Boström (Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press); American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, by Monica Hesse (Liveright); Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction, by Jess Lourey (Conari Press); and Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Press)
Best Short Story: The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn, by Gigi Pandian (Henery Press e-book)
Also nominated: Double Deck the Halls, by Gretchen Archer (Henery Press e-book); “Whose Wine Is it Anyway” by Barb Goffman (from 50 Shades of Cabernet; Koehler); “The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place,” by Debra Goldstein (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017); and “A Necessary Ingredient,” by Art Taylor (from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks; Down & Out)
Best Children’s/Young Adult: Sydney Mackenzie Knocks ’Em Dead, by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
Also nominated: City of Angels, by Kristi Belcamino (Polis); The World’s Greatest Detective, by Caroline Carlson (HarperCollins); Audacity Jones Steals the Show, by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press); and The Harlem Charade, by Natasha Tarpley (Scholastic Press)
In addition, Nancy Pickard is Malice Domestic’s 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient; the Amelia Award went to actor David Suchet; Brenda Blethyn, who stars as DCI Vera Stanhope in the series Vera (based on the books by Ann Cleeves), earned the Poirot Award; and the late Joan Hess was honored with a Special Amelia Award.
Friday, April 27, 2018
The Book You Have to Read:
“Homeboy,” by Seth Morgan
(Editor’s note: This is the 155th installment in The Rap Sheet’s continuing series about great but forgotten books.)
By Steven Nester
Seth Morgan updated the jewel-heist storyline in his acclaimed 1990 debut novel, Homeboy, by taking it to the way down low of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District where pimps, porn queens, and junkies comprise the curdled cream of society. The English language can barely contain this fast-moving white-trash picaresque as Morgan’s adventurous and unrelenting, jive-slinging and look-at-me-write! narrative plunges breathlessly forward with the unquenchable cravings of an addict—which is what the author was. Homeboy zigzags through the late 1980s underworld, following strip club barker and junky/dealer Joe Speaker, together with a large and intriguingly conceived supporting cast of “hookers, hustlers, thieves and thugs,” as Morgan’s story moves from the
street, to strip joints, and eventually to prison. For a lucky few, that journey ends with serendipitous redemption and self-revelation. For most, however, it does not.
Rosemary Hooten, “a she-devil bike bimbo and certified Satan’s Slut,” bears the nom du putain Rings’n’Things, in recognition of her plethora of piercings and tattoos. As this book opens, Rings witnesses the murder of her friend and fellow sex worker Gloria Monday, who had already been beaten badly by her lover, well-married California Supreme Court Justice Lucius Carver Bell, after he failed to retrieve from Gloria his wife’s family heirloom: a necklace featuring the infamous Blue Jager Moon diamond. Subsequent to the justice’s empty-handed exit, local kingpin pimp and porn tycoon “Baby” Jewels Moses, an obese parasite “pawnbrokering dreams,” arrives and finds the necklace. Recognizing his opportunity, he promptly kills Bell’s low-rent inamorata and then sets out to blackmail the prominent jurist. The fly in the K-Y Jelly, though, is that Rings’n’Things now has the goods not only on Bell, but also on Moses. As if those weren’t plot complications enough, Joe Speaker soon robs Jewels’ gambling den and stumbles upon the Blue Moon. He takes that sparkling prize, unaware of its value or provenance. Or the dangers it will bring his way.
With San Francisco’s criminal realm nettled by politicians’ efforts to clean the streets in advance of the coming election season, the search for Bell’s wayward gem turns deadly—even for those who write about it.
Author Seth Morgan was born in New York City to a family of privilege and old money. (His father was soap fortune heir, poet, and onetime Hudson Review editor George Frederick Morgan.) Yet not even exclusive boarding schools could make him into something suitable for polite society, so Morgan set his own course. Prior to penning Homeboy, he was a heroin addict and alcoholic who himself worked as a strip club barker in San Francisco. He was also rock singer Janis Joplin’s fiancé at the time of her death, in 1970. Later in that same decade, Morgan served the greater part of three years in prison for armed robbery. Publishing a popular novel might finally have turned things around for him; instead, it was all downhill from there. He died in October 1990, at age 41, the victim of a drunken motorcycle crash in New Orleans, just months after Homeboy saw print.
Judging by the abundance of voice, literary invention, and characterization Morgan poured into his only finished novel, one might think he knew his life would be short. The plot and action hurl along through these pages, aided by coincidence and fate, like the work of a Brontë sister on crack. It’s recommended that readers surrender their judgment to the machinations of this book in the same way addicts submit themselves to dope. Morgan channels Valley Girl drolleries (“fer shur”) and exhibits a Joycean flair for lusty portmanteau, labeling fashionable prostitute wear “peek-a-boo whoredrobe.” He flirts with Shakespearean-lite when describing a junkie-hooker’s abject endgame, the woman strung out on heroin (“the bitter seasoning of her direful days”), imagining that she will “hijack a shopping cart and join the Tenderloin’s mad hag legions, hank and hair like her of what had once some dim yesternight been dream flesh.” The fabled and cursed Blue Moon possesses a pedigree that makes the Hope Diamond seem like a dime store rhinestone; but Morgan writes that its beauty, its “cold colors washing the lights from his rings the way dawn enfeebles streetlamps,” simultaneously beguiles and damns all who come in contact with it—including Joe Speaker.
Everything hits the fan for Speaker when a robbery results in homicide—and that’s just the start of his troubles. Speaker tosses the pricey necklace he’s found into a shark tank in a Chinese restaurant for safekeeping, and then allows his loose-lipped sidekick to die at the hands of police in order to keep him quiet. One feeble ray of hope shining on Morgan’s protagonist is a tenacious cop named Ricardo Tarzon, whose skin in this game is a beef with Baby Jewels. Tarzon’s daughter, Belinda, is a street-level employee of Jewels, and following the cop’s failed rapprochement with her, and her ensuing slaying by Jewels, Tarzon plans to even the score.
Accomplishing that will require that he recover the Blue Moon; and to do that he must keep Speaker safe.
(Right) Author Morgan photographed on the back of 1990’s Homeboy.
After Speaker is sent away to prison for car theft, he can keep his secret no longer. Tarzon, Jewels, and the entire San Francisco underworld seem to know that he’s hidden the Blue Moon, and efforts to get him to divulge its whereabouts begin. Homicide Lieutenant Tarzon’s power is limited in the penitentiary; but that’s not the case for Baby Jewels, whose tentacles extend through the bars to wrap around Speaker’s throat in search of information. Fortunately for Speaker, he has a guardian angel in the joint—one with some juice, and nothing to lose. An elderly lifer named Earl, whose relationship with Speaker is closer than the junky barker imagines, keeps him safe during a cell block uprising, but in the process, literally takes a bullet for the young felon.
Quickly, loose plot threads are laced together like a Victorian bodice. The love of Speaker’s life, a stripper known as Kitty Litter, is revealed to be carrying his child—and both parents are elated. Speaker discovers the truth behind Earl’s devotion to him (a twist that might have been right at home in a romance yarn), and the Blue Moon is not only located, but is sold to fund a drug-rehabilitation program. Although it is at times prosaic and a little corny, with over-the-top elements and Pink Panther-on-junk twists tossed in, Homeboy reinvents the gritty world of sex and dope. It doesn’t glorify that lifestyle, but uses it to showcase the triumph of Joe Speaker’s resilience.
It’s apparent that Seth Morgan wrote about the sort of world he knew best, and without a doubt he lived there, too. He doesn’t take cover behind his art: what you see is what you get, full-frontal Morgan, unashamed of revealing himself and most likely reveling in the talents that brought this book to fruition. Homeboy seems to be a cathartic document about a life Morgan needed to share and from which he would never escape, save for dying.
By Steven Nester
Seth Morgan updated the jewel-heist storyline in his acclaimed 1990 debut novel, Homeboy, by taking it to the way down low of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District where pimps, porn queens, and junkies comprise the curdled cream of society. The English language can barely contain this fast-moving white-trash picaresque as Morgan’s adventurous and unrelenting, jive-slinging and look-at-me-write! narrative plunges breathlessly forward with the unquenchable cravings of an addict—which is what the author was. Homeboy zigzags through the late 1980s underworld, following strip club barker and junky/dealer Joe Speaker, together with a large and intriguingly conceived supporting cast of “hookers, hustlers, thieves and thugs,” as Morgan’s story moves from the
street, to strip joints, and eventually to prison. For a lucky few, that journey ends with serendipitous redemption and self-revelation. For most, however, it does not.Rosemary Hooten, “a she-devil bike bimbo and certified Satan’s Slut,” bears the nom du putain Rings’n’Things, in recognition of her plethora of piercings and tattoos. As this book opens, Rings witnesses the murder of her friend and fellow sex worker Gloria Monday, who had already been beaten badly by her lover, well-married California Supreme Court Justice Lucius Carver Bell, after he failed to retrieve from Gloria his wife’s family heirloom: a necklace featuring the infamous Blue Jager Moon diamond. Subsequent to the justice’s empty-handed exit, local kingpin pimp and porn tycoon “Baby” Jewels Moses, an obese parasite “pawnbrokering dreams,” arrives and finds the necklace. Recognizing his opportunity, he promptly kills Bell’s low-rent inamorata and then sets out to blackmail the prominent jurist. The fly in the K-Y Jelly, though, is that Rings’n’Things now has the goods not only on Bell, but also on Moses. As if those weren’t plot complications enough, Joe Speaker soon robs Jewels’ gambling den and stumbles upon the Blue Moon. He takes that sparkling prize, unaware of its value or provenance. Or the dangers it will bring his way.
With San Francisco’s criminal realm nettled by politicians’ efforts to clean the streets in advance of the coming election season, the search for Bell’s wayward gem turns deadly—even for those who write about it.
Author Seth Morgan was born in New York City to a family of privilege and old money. (His father was soap fortune heir, poet, and onetime Hudson Review editor George Frederick Morgan.) Yet not even exclusive boarding schools could make him into something suitable for polite society, so Morgan set his own course. Prior to penning Homeboy, he was a heroin addict and alcoholic who himself worked as a strip club barker in San Francisco. He was also rock singer Janis Joplin’s fiancé at the time of her death, in 1970. Later in that same decade, Morgan served the greater part of three years in prison for armed robbery. Publishing a popular novel might finally have turned things around for him; instead, it was all downhill from there. He died in October 1990, at age 41, the victim of a drunken motorcycle crash in New Orleans, just months after Homeboy saw print.
Judging by the abundance of voice, literary invention, and characterization Morgan poured into his only finished novel, one might think he knew his life would be short. The plot and action hurl along through these pages, aided by coincidence and fate, like the work of a Brontë sister on crack. It’s recommended that readers surrender their judgment to the machinations of this book in the same way addicts submit themselves to dope. Morgan channels Valley Girl drolleries (“fer shur”) and exhibits a Joycean flair for lusty portmanteau, labeling fashionable prostitute wear “peek-a-boo whoredrobe.” He flirts with Shakespearean-lite when describing a junkie-hooker’s abject endgame, the woman strung out on heroin (“the bitter seasoning of her direful days”), imagining that she will “hijack a shopping cart and join the Tenderloin’s mad hag legions, hank and hair like her of what had once some dim yesternight been dream flesh.” The fabled and cursed Blue Moon possesses a pedigree that makes the Hope Diamond seem like a dime store rhinestone; but Morgan writes that its beauty, its “cold colors washing the lights from his rings the way dawn enfeebles streetlamps,” simultaneously beguiles and damns all who come in contact with it—including Joe Speaker.
Everything hits the fan for Speaker when a robbery results in homicide—and that’s just the start of his troubles. Speaker tosses the pricey necklace he’s found into a shark tank in a Chinese restaurant for safekeeping, and then allows his loose-lipped sidekick to die at the hands of police in order to keep him quiet. One feeble ray of hope shining on Morgan’s protagonist is a tenacious cop named Ricardo Tarzon, whose skin in this game is a beef with Baby Jewels. Tarzon’s daughter, Belinda, is a street-level employee of Jewels, and following the cop’s failed rapprochement with her, and her ensuing slaying by Jewels, Tarzon plans to even the score.
Accomplishing that will require that he recover the Blue Moon; and to do that he must keep Speaker safe.(Right) Author Morgan photographed on the back of 1990’s Homeboy.
After Speaker is sent away to prison for car theft, he can keep his secret no longer. Tarzon, Jewels, and the entire San Francisco underworld seem to know that he’s hidden the Blue Moon, and efforts to get him to divulge its whereabouts begin. Homicide Lieutenant Tarzon’s power is limited in the penitentiary; but that’s not the case for Baby Jewels, whose tentacles extend through the bars to wrap around Speaker’s throat in search of information. Fortunately for Speaker, he has a guardian angel in the joint—one with some juice, and nothing to lose. An elderly lifer named Earl, whose relationship with Speaker is closer than the junky barker imagines, keeps him safe during a cell block uprising, but in the process, literally takes a bullet for the young felon.
Quickly, loose plot threads are laced together like a Victorian bodice. The love of Speaker’s life, a stripper known as Kitty Litter, is revealed to be carrying his child—and both parents are elated. Speaker discovers the truth behind Earl’s devotion to him (a twist that might have been right at home in a romance yarn), and the Blue Moon is not only located, but is sold to fund a drug-rehabilitation program. Although it is at times prosaic and a little corny, with over-the-top elements and Pink Panther-on-junk twists tossed in, Homeboy reinvents the gritty world of sex and dope. It doesn’t glorify that lifestyle, but uses it to showcase the triumph of Joe Speaker’s resilience.
It’s apparent that Seth Morgan wrote about the sort of world he knew best, and without a doubt he lived there, too. He doesn’t take cover behind his art: what you see is what you get, full-frontal Morgan, unashamed of revealing himself and most likely reveling in the talents that brought this book to fruition. Homeboy seems to be a cathartic document about a life Morgan needed to share and from which he would never escape, save for dying.
Edgars All Around
During a banquet held last evening in New York City, the Mystery Writers of America declared the winners of its 2018 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television published or produced in 2017.” Congratulations are owed to the victors as well as to the other nominees.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Best Novel: Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica
Locke (Mulholland)
Also nominated: The Dime, by Kathleen Kent
(Mulholland); Prussian Blue, by Philip Kerr (Putnam); A Rising Man,
by Abir Mukherjee (Pegasus); and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, by
Hannah Tinti (Dial Press)
Best First Novel by an American Author: She Rides Shotgun,
by Jordan Harper (Ecco)
Best First Novel by an American Author: She Rides Shotgun,
by Jordan Harper (Ecco)
Also nominated: Dark Chapter, by Winnie M. Li (Polis);
Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Crown); Tornado Weather, by
Deborah E. Kennedy (Flatiron); and Idaho, by Emily Ruskovich (Random
House)
Best Paperback Original: The Unseeing, by Anna Mazzola (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Best Paperback Original: The Unseeing, by Anna Mazzola (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Also nominated: In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen
(Thomas & Mercer); Ragged Lake, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press); Black
Fall, by Andrew Mayne (Harper); Penance, by Kanae Minato
(Mulholland); and The Rules of Backyard Cricket, by Jock Serong (Text)
Best Fact Crime: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann (Doubleday)
Best Fact Crime: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann (Doubleday)
Also nominated: The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and
Peoples Temple, by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster); American Fire:
Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, by Monica Hesse (Liveright); The
Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery, by
Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James (Scribner); and Mrs. Sherlock Holmes:
The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917
Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation, by Brad Ricca (St. Martin’s
Press)
Best Critical/Biographical: Chester B. Himes: A Biography,
by Lawrence P. Jackson (Norton)
Best Critical/Biographical: Chester B. Himes: A Biography,
by Lawrence P. Jackson (Norton)
Also nominated: From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the
Men and Women Who Created an Icon, by Mattias Bostrom (Mysterious Press); Manderley
Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana de Rosnay (St.
Martin’s Press); Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall, by Curtis Evans (McFarland); and Arthur and Sherlock:
Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes,
by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury USA)
Best Short Story: “Spring Break,” by John Crowley (from New Haven Noir, edited by Amy Bloom; Akashic)
by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury USA)
Best Short Story: “Spring Break,” by John Crowley (from New Haven Noir, edited by Amy Bloom; Akashic)
Also nominated: “Hard to Get,” by Jeffery Deaver (Ellery
Queen Mystery Magazine, July/August 2017); “Ace in the Hole,” by Eric
Heidle (from Montana Noir, edited by James Grady and Keir Graff;
Akashic); “A Moment of Clarity at the Waffle House,” by Kenji Jasper (from Atlanta
Noir, edited by Tayari Jones; Akashic); and “Chin Yong-Yun Stays at Home,”
by S.J. Rozan (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2017)
Best Juvenile: Vanished! by James Ponti (Aladdin)
Best Juvenile: Vanished! by James Ponti (Aladdin)
Also nominated: Audacity Jones Steals the Show, by
Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press); The Assassin’s Curse, by Kevin Sands
(Aladdin); First Class Murder, by Robin Stevens (Simon & Schuster);
and NewsPrints, by Ru Xu (Graphix)
Best Young Adult: Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum)
Best Young Adult: Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum)
Also nominated: The Cruelty, by Scott Bergstrom
(Feiwel & Friends); Grit, by Gillian French (HarperTeen); The
Impossible Fortress, by Jason Rekulak (Simon & Schuster); and The
Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray)
Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Somebody to Love,” Fargo, teleplay by Noah Hawley (FX Networks/MGM)
Best Television Episode Teleplay: “Somebody to Love,” Fargo, teleplay by Noah Hawley (FX Networks/MGM)
Also nominated: “Episode 1,” Loch Ness, teleplay by
Stephen Brady (Acorn TV); “Something Happened,” Law & Order: SVU,
teleplay by Michael Chernuchin (NBC Universal/Wolf Entertainment); “Gently and
the New Age,” George Gently, teleplay by Robert Murphy (Acorn TV); and “The
Blanket Mire,” Vera, teleplay by Paul Matthew Thompson and Martha
Hillier (Acorn TV)
The Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award: The Widow’s House, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)
The Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award: The Widow’s House, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)
Also nominated: The Vineyard Victims, by Ellen Crosby
(Minotaur); You’ll Never Know, Dear, by Hallie Ephron (Morrow); Uncorking
a Lie, by Nadine Nettmann (Midnight Ink); and The Day I Died, by
Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)
In addition, authors Jane Langton, Peter Lovesey, and
William Link (who attended this affair in a wheelchair) received the 2018 Grand
Master Awards; Kristopher Zgorski of BOLO Books and The Raven Bookstore in
Lawrence, Kansas, were both honored with Raven Awards; Robert Pépin was this
year’s recipient of the Ellery Queen Award; and “The Queen of Secrets,” by Lisa
D. Gray (from New Haven Noir; Akashic), won the winner of the Robert L.
Fish Memorial Award.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Race for Reading
Since I will be away from my office tomorrow, this is my final opportunity to remind everyone about Independent Bookstore Day, a delightful, all-day celebration of reading that’s scheduled to take place in various American cities on Saturday, April 28.
This will be the fourth year in a row my hometown of Seattle, Washington, has joined the festivities, and as I did in 2016 and again last year, I shall be taking part. There are 23 local-area retailers participating in 2018 (which does not include the terrific Seattle Mystery Bookshop, closed last September). People wishing to participate in this tourney can start at any one of those businesses. All you have to do is ask at the first stop for a free Passport Map, which provides the addresses of all 23 stores, and then have someone at each shop along the way stamp that passport. Everyone who can collect at least 19 such ink stamps during the day—thus finishing the “Champion Challenge”—will win a special card providing the holder with a 25-percent discount at all 23 bookshops for one year.
As The Seattle Times notes, folks who don’t think they’re up for the full competition can still benefit: “Visit three stores on the list on that day and get your passport stamped, and you’ll get a one-time 30 percent off coupon, good for any participating store.”
I’ve found this event to be most enjoyable over the years, even though it is also hectic and exhausting. (Last year, my favorite niece and I started the circuit at 6:30 a.m. and finished 12.5 hours later!) Like other repeat racers, I suspect, I have a route that works well for me—involving ferry trips across Puget Sound, a stop for pastries in the Kitsap County town of Poulsbo, and time enough to browse the shelves at each bookstore—and will be following that again on Saturday. I look forward to seeing many fellow Seattle bibliophiles over the course of the day. There were 340 “Champion Challenge” winners in 2017; I expect the route to be even more crowded this Saturday.
READ MORE: “Bookstore Mysteries: Independent Bookstore Day,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
This will be the fourth year in a row my hometown of Seattle, Washington, has joined the festivities, and as I did in 2016 and again last year, I shall be taking part. There are 23 local-area retailers participating in 2018 (which does not include the terrific Seattle Mystery Bookshop, closed last September). People wishing to participate in this tourney can start at any one of those businesses. All you have to do is ask at the first stop for a free Passport Map, which provides the addresses of all 23 stores, and then have someone at each shop along the way stamp that passport. Everyone who can collect at least 19 such ink stamps during the day—thus finishing the “Champion Challenge”—will win a special card providing the holder with a 25-percent discount at all 23 bookshops for one year.
As The Seattle Times notes, folks who don’t think they’re up for the full competition can still benefit: “Visit three stores on the list on that day and get your passport stamped, and you’ll get a one-time 30 percent off coupon, good for any participating store.”
I’ve found this event to be most enjoyable over the years, even though it is also hectic and exhausting. (Last year, my favorite niece and I started the circuit at 6:30 a.m. and finished 12.5 hours later!) Like other repeat racers, I suspect, I have a route that works well for me—involving ferry trips across Puget Sound, a stop for pastries in the Kitsap County town of Poulsbo, and time enough to browse the shelves at each bookstore—and will be following that again on Saturday. I look forward to seeing many fellow Seattle bibliophiles over the course of the day. There were 340 “Champion Challenge” winners in 2017; I expect the route to be even more crowded this Saturday.
READ MORE: “Bookstore Mysteries: Independent Bookstore Day,” by Janet Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Revue of Reviewers, 4-25-18
Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.
Choosing to Live in the Past
Linked to today’s publication, in Britain, of Historical Noir (Pocket Essentials), author Barry Forshaw has posted a piece on the Web site Historia featuring remarks from five acclaimed historical mystery writers on the subject of how they became interested in this popular subgenre. In his introduction to the post, Forshaw provides a précis of his new book, which follows last year’s American Noir:
The historical crime genre might be said to have begun in earnest with Ellis Peters’ crime-solving monk Brother Cadfael in the 1970s, and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose in 1980 (with another monkish detective), but it has now taken readers to virtually every era and locale. When I wrote Historical Noir, I tried to deal with the phenomenon right from its inception, with such writers as Josephine Tey, examining the work of such multi-prize-winning authors as C.J. Sansom (with his Elizabethan-set mysteries) to Robert Harris (whose books span the centuries), the late Philip Kerr (wartime Berlin) and such writers as Boris Akunin, Antonia Hodgson, Rory Clements, Martin Cruz Smith and Andrew Taylor (who has tackled everything from Edgar Allan Poe’s 19th-century America to the Great Fire of London), along with virtually every other important writer in this still-burgeoning genre.Historical Noir is due out in the States in September.
Monday, April 23, 2018
NoirCon Is Down, But Not Out
According to religious zealot and ”practiced doomsday diviner” David Meade, today—April 23—is supposed to mark the beginning of the end for the planet we call Earth. While that’s unlikely to happen, The Gumshoe Site brings us other bad news, this from the realm of reality: “Lou Boxer, a co-organizer of NoirCon, has announced that NoirCon 2018 is canceled, partly due to the recent passing of its co-founder and co-director Deen Kogan. Those who have already registered will be fully refunded.” You can read Boxer’s full statement here.
NoirCon 2018 had previously been scheduled to take place from November 1 to 4 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although the conference itself is off, one can only assume that this year’s associated award winners will still receive their prizes:
The David L. Goodis Award: Walter Mosley (author)
The Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence: Max Rudin
(publisher, The Library of America)
The Anne Friedberg Award for Contributions to Noir and Its Preservation: Dana Polan (author and professor)
“Please note that NoirCon as an organization is not over,” Boxer writes. “Deen would not have wanted what she helped build to fall. Once we reorganize, we will return.”
Our fingers are crossed in hopes of this “biennial literary conference devoted to the dark, elusive, and seductive areas of art and life that we have come to call ‘noir’” being revived for 2020.
NoirCon 2018 had previously been scheduled to take place from November 1 to 4 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although the conference itself is off, one can only assume that this year’s associated award winners will still receive their prizes:
The David L. Goodis Award: Walter Mosley (author)
The Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence: Max Rudin
(publisher, The Library of America)
The Anne Friedberg Award for Contributions to Noir and Its Preservation: Dana Polan (author and professor)
“Please note that NoirCon as an organization is not over,” Boxer writes. “Deen would not have wanted what she helped build to fall. Once we reorganize, we will return.”
Our fingers are crossed in hopes of this “biennial literary conference devoted to the dark, elusive, and seductive areas of art and life that we have come to call ‘noir’” being revived for 2020.
Sunday, April 22, 2018
PaperBack: “The Demon Stirs”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
The Demon Stirs, by Owen Cameron (Dell, 1958), originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1957 as The Fire Trap. Cover illustration by Richard M. Powers.
The Demon Stirs, by Owen Cameron (Dell, 1958), originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1957 as The Fire Trap. Cover illustration by Richard M. Powers.
Distinctive Works, Singular Groupings
The British crime-fiction Web site Dead Good is looking for help in selecting candidates to complete for its 2018 Dead Good Reader Awards. “Simply nominate your favorite books and authors from the past year …,” Dead Good managers explain, “and the most popular will form the shortlists and go to a public vote.”
There are half a dozen classifications of contenders for 2018, all completely different from last year’s:
• The Holmes and Watson Award for Best Detective Duo
• The Whodunnit Award for the Book That Keeps You Guessing
• The Cabot Cove Award for Best Small-Town Mystery
• The Wringer Award for the Character Who’s Been Put Through It All
• The House of Horrors Award for Most Dysfunctional Family
• The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book
Simply click here to enter your suggestions in any or all of these categories. The Dead Good nominating process is scheduled to close on Friday, May 21. People proposing contenders will reportedly have a chance to score “£200 worth of crime books and DVDs!”
Winners are to be announced during the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, July 19-22.
There are half a dozen classifications of contenders for 2018, all completely different from last year’s:
• The Holmes and Watson Award for Best Detective Duo
• The Whodunnit Award for the Book That Keeps You Guessing
• The Cabot Cove Award for Best Small-Town Mystery
• The Wringer Award for the Character Who’s Been Put Through It All
• The House of Horrors Award for Most Dysfunctional Family
• The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book
Simply click here to enter your suggestions in any or all of these categories. The Dead Good nominating process is scheduled to close on Friday, May 21. People proposing contenders will reportedly have a chance to score “£200 worth of crime books and DVDs!”
Winners are to be announced during the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, July 19-22.
Saturday, April 21, 2018
“Martyr” Turns Winner
Joyce Carol Oates has captured the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, in the Mystery/Thriller category, with her novel A Book of American Martyrs (Ecco). According to The Gumshoe Site, she was one of 11 book-category award recipients announced last evening in advance of the opening of this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which is taking place over the next two days on the University of Southern California campus in L.A. You’ll find a list of all the 2017 prize winners by clicking here.
To secure this victory, Oates’ convictions-driven novel had to triumph over four other well-reviewed Mystery/Thriller nominees: The Late Show, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); The Night Ocean, by Paul LaFarge (Penguin Press); Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Mulholland), and Wonder Valley, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco).
To secure this victory, Oates’ convictions-driven novel had to triumph over four other well-reviewed Mystery/Thriller nominees: The Late Show, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); The Night Ocean, by Paul LaFarge (Penguin Press); Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Mulholland), and Wonder Valley, by Ivy Pochoda (Ecco).
Thursday, April 19, 2018
There’ll Be a Battle in Bristol
Having already reported on two sets of Canadian prize nominees, let me now turn your attention to Britain. Organizers of this year’s CrimeFest—to be held in Bristol, England, from May 17 to 20—have announced the shortlists of candidates for their 10th annual CrimeFest Awards in half a dozen categories.
Best Unabridged Crime Audiobook:
• The Child, by Fiona Barton; read by Clare Corbett, Adjoa Andoh, Finty Williams, Fenella Woolgar, and Steven Pacey (Audible Studios)
• The Midnight Line, by Lee Child; read by Jeff Harding (Transworld)
• The Girl Before, by J.P. Delaney; read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams, and Lise Aagaard Knudsen (Quercus)
• Silent Child, by Sarah A. Denzil; read by Joanne Froggatt
(Audible Studios)
• Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney; read by Stephanie Racine (HQ)
• The Girlfriend, by Michelle Frances; read by Antonia Beamish
(Pan Macmillan Audio)
• The Word Is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz; read by Rory Kinnear (Penguin Random House Audio)
• The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz;
read by Saul Reichlin (Quercus)
eDunnit Award (for the best crime fiction e-book):
• Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Ghosts of Galway, by Ken Bruen (Head of Zeus)
• The Late Show, by Michael Connelly (Orion)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Little, Brown)
• You Can Run, by Steve Mosby (Orion)
• Wolves in the Dark, by Gunnar Staalesen (Orenda)
• Exquisite, by Sarah Stovell (Orenda)
The Last Laugh Award (for the best humorous crime novel):
• Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen,
by Simon Brett (Little, Brown)
• Bryant & May: Wild Chamber, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)
• Spook Street, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star,
by Vaseem Khan (Mullholland)
• East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
• Sweetpea, by C.J. Skuse, (HQ)
• The Man Who Died, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
• Herring in the Smoke, by L.C. Tyler (Allison & Busby)
The H.R.F. Keating Award (for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction):
• The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwards
(British Library)
• America Noir, by Barry Forshaw (No Exit Press)
• Sherlock Holmes in Context, by Sam Naidu (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Sherlock Holmes from Screen to Stage, by Benjamin Poore
(Palgrave Macmillan)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, by Mike Ripley (HarperCollins)
• The Man Who Would Be Sherlock, by Christopher Sandford
(The History Press)
• Arthur & Sherlock, by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury)
• Getting Carter, by Nick Triplow (No Exit Press)
Best Crime Novel for Children (8-12):
• Chase, by Linwood Barclay (Orion Children’s Books)
• The Misfits Club, by Kieran Crowley (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• A Place Called Perfect, by Helena Duggan (Usborne)
• The Royal Rabbits of London: Escape from the Tower, by Santa and Simon Sebag Montefiore (Simon & Schuster)
• Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, by Dermot O'Leary (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure, by Alex T. Smith
(Hodder Children’s Books)
• Violet and the Mummy Mystery, by Harriet Whitehorn
(Simon & Schuster)
Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (12-16):
• Girlhood, by Cat Clarke (Quercus Children’s Books)
• The Ones That Disappeared, by Zana Fraillon (Orion Children’s Books)
• After the Fire, by Will Hill (Usborne)
• Indigo Donut, by Patrice Lawrence (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Genuine Fraud, by E. Lockhart (Hot Key)
• SweetFreak, by Sophie McKenzie (Simon & Schuster)
• Dark Matter: Contagion, by Teri Terry (Orchard)
• Beware That Girl, by Teresa Toten (Hot Key)
These commendations are set to be presented to the winners during a ceremony on Saturday, May 19.
Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Best Unabridged Crime Audiobook:
• The Child, by Fiona Barton; read by Clare Corbett, Adjoa Andoh, Finty Williams, Fenella Woolgar, and Steven Pacey (Audible Studios)
• The Midnight Line, by Lee Child; read by Jeff Harding (Transworld)
• The Girl Before, by J.P. Delaney; read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams, and Lise Aagaard Knudsen (Quercus)
• Silent Child, by Sarah A. Denzil; read by Joanne Froggatt
(Audible Studios)
• Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney; read by Stephanie Racine (HQ)
• The Girlfriend, by Michelle Frances; read by Antonia Beamish
(Pan Macmillan Audio)
• The Word Is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz; read by Rory Kinnear (Penguin Random House Audio)
• The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz;
read by Saul Reichlin (Quercus)
eDunnit Award (for the best crime fiction e-book):
• Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Ghosts of Galway, by Ken Bruen (Head of Zeus)
• The Late Show, by Michael Connelly (Orion)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Little, Brown)
• You Can Run, by Steve Mosby (Orion)
• Wolves in the Dark, by Gunnar Staalesen (Orenda)
• Exquisite, by Sarah Stovell (Orenda)
The Last Laugh Award (for the best humorous crime novel):
• Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen,
by Simon Brett (Little, Brown)
• Bryant & May: Wild Chamber, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)
• Spook Street, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star,
by Vaseem Khan (Mullholland)
• East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
• Sweetpea, by C.J. Skuse, (HQ)
• The Man Who Died, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)
• Herring in the Smoke, by L.C. Tyler (Allison & Busby)
The H.R.F. Keating Award (for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction):
• The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwards
(British Library)
• America Noir, by Barry Forshaw (No Exit Press)
• Sherlock Holmes in Context, by Sam Naidu (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Sherlock Holmes from Screen to Stage, by Benjamin Poore
(Palgrave Macmillan)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, by Mike Ripley (HarperCollins)
• The Man Who Would Be Sherlock, by Christopher Sandford
(The History Press)
• Arthur & Sherlock, by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury)
• Getting Carter, by Nick Triplow (No Exit Press)
Best Crime Novel for Children (8-12):
• Chase, by Linwood Barclay (Orion Children’s Books)
• The Misfits Club, by Kieran Crowley (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• A Place Called Perfect, by Helena Duggan (Usborne)
• The Royal Rabbits of London: Escape from the Tower, by Santa and Simon Sebag Montefiore (Simon & Schuster)
• Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, by Dermot O'Leary (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure, by Alex T. Smith
(Hodder Children’s Books)
• Violet and the Mummy Mystery, by Harriet Whitehorn
(Simon & Schuster)
Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (12-16):
• Girlhood, by Cat Clarke (Quercus Children’s Books)
• The Ones That Disappeared, by Zana Fraillon (Orion Children’s Books)
• After the Fire, by Will Hill (Usborne)
• Indigo Donut, by Patrice Lawrence (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Genuine Fraud, by E. Lockhart (Hot Key)
• SweetFreak, by Sophie McKenzie (Simon & Schuster)
• Dark Matter: Contagion, by Teri Terry (Orchard)
• Beware That Girl, by Teresa Toten (Hot Key)
These commendations are set to be presented to the winners during a ceremony on Saturday, May 19.
Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Race for the Prizes Up North
This is a rather busy morning for crime-fiction awards news, so let’s get right to it. First, we have the newly announced shortlist of nominees for the 2018 Arthur Ellis Awards. Presented by the Crime Writers of Canada, these commendations recognize “excellence in Canadian crime writing.” This year’s contestants are as follows.
Best Crime Novel:
• The Winners’ Circle, by Gail Bowen (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Party, by Robyn Harding (Gallery/Scout Press)
• The White Angel, by John MacLachlan Gray (Douglas and McIntyre)
• Sleeping in the Ground, by Peter Robinson (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Forgotten Girl, by Rio Youers (St. Martin’s Press)
Best First Crime Novel:
• Puzzle of Pieces, by Sally Hill Brouard (FriesenPress)
• Full Curl, by Dave Butler (Dundurn Press)
• Ragged Lake, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
• Flush, by Sky Curtis (Inanna)
• Our Little Secret, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Best Crime Novella (The Lou Allin Memorial Award):
• “Snake Oil,” by M.H. Callway (from 13 Claws: The Mesdames of Mayhem; Carrick)
• “How Lon Pruitt Was Found Murdered in an Open Field with No Footprints Around,” by Mike Culpepper (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September/October 2017)
• Blood and Belonging, by Vicki Delany (Orca)
• “Dead Clown Blues,” by R. Daniel Lester (Shotgun Honey)
• “Money Maker,” by Jas R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017)
Best Crime Short Story:
• “The Outlier,” by Catherine Astolfo (from 13 Claws)
• “There be Dragons,” by Jane Petersen Burfield (from 13 Claws)
• “Jerusalem Syndrome,” by Hilary Davidson (from Passport to Murder: Bouchercon Anthology 2017, edited by John McFetridge; Down & Out)
• “The Ranchero’s Daughter,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh
(from 13 Claws)
• “The Sin Eaters,” by Melissa Yi (from Montreal Noir, edited by
John McFetridge and Jacques Fillippi; Akashic)
Best Non-Fiction Crime Book:
• Murder in Plain English, by Michael Arntfield and Marcel Danesi (Prometheus)
• The Whisky King, by Trevor Cole (HarperCollins)
• Blood, Sweat and Fear, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Dog Lover Unit, by Rachel Rose (St. Martin’s Press)
• Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence,
by Alex Roslin (Sugar Hill)
Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book:
• Missing, by Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)
• Chase, by Linwood Barclay (Puffin Canada)
• The Disappearance, by Gillian Chan (Annick Press)
• Thistlewood, by Donna Chubaty (Grasmere)
• The Lives of Desperate Girls, by MacKenzie Common
(Penguin Teen Canada)
Best Crime Book in French:
• Amqui, by Éric Forbes (Héliotrope Noir)
• La vie rêvée de Frank Bélair, by Maxime Houde (Éditions Alire)
• Les clefs du silence, by Jean Lemieux (Québec Amérique)
• La mort en bleu pastel, by Maryse Rouy (Éditions Druide)
• Les Tricoteuses, by Marie Saur (Héliotrope Noir)
Best Unpublished Manuscript:
• The Alibi Network, by Raimey Gallant
• Finn Slew, by Ken MacQueen
• Destruction in Paradise, by Dianne Scott
• Dig, Dug, Dead, by Sylvia Teaves
• Condemned, by Kevin Thornton
The winners of these prizes will be declared on May 24 during the annual Arthur Ellis Awards Gala in Toronto, Ontario.
Here are the five candidates:
• The Case of the Unsuitable Suitor, by Cathy Ace (Severn House)
• Dying on Second, by E.C. Bell (Tyche)
• Digging up Trouble, by Rickie Blair (Barkley)
• Hark the Herald Angels Slay, by Vicki Delany (Berkley)
• Much Ado About Murder, by Elizabeth J. Duncan (Crooked Lane)
Congratulations to all of the nominees!
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Best Crime Novel:
• The Winners’ Circle, by Gail Bowen (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Party, by Robyn Harding (Gallery/Scout Press)
• The White Angel, by John MacLachlan Gray (Douglas and McIntyre)
• Sleeping in the Ground, by Peter Robinson (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Forgotten Girl, by Rio Youers (St. Martin’s Press)
Best First Crime Novel:
• Puzzle of Pieces, by Sally Hill Brouard (FriesenPress)
• Full Curl, by Dave Butler (Dundurn Press)
• Ragged Lake, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
• Flush, by Sky Curtis (Inanna)
• Our Little Secret, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Best Crime Novella (The Lou Allin Memorial Award):
• “Snake Oil,” by M.H. Callway (from 13 Claws: The Mesdames of Mayhem; Carrick)
• “How Lon Pruitt Was Found Murdered in an Open Field with No Footprints Around,” by Mike Culpepper (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September/October 2017)
• Blood and Belonging, by Vicki Delany (Orca)
• “Dead Clown Blues,” by R. Daniel Lester (Shotgun Honey)
• “Money Maker,” by Jas R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017)
Best Crime Short Story:
• “The Outlier,” by Catherine Astolfo (from 13 Claws)
• “There be Dragons,” by Jane Petersen Burfield (from 13 Claws)
• “Jerusalem Syndrome,” by Hilary Davidson (from Passport to Murder: Bouchercon Anthology 2017, edited by John McFetridge; Down & Out)
• “The Ranchero’s Daughter,” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh
(from 13 Claws)
• “The Sin Eaters,” by Melissa Yi (from Montreal Noir, edited by
John McFetridge and Jacques Fillippi; Akashic)
Best Non-Fiction Crime Book:
• Murder in Plain English, by Michael Arntfield and Marcel Danesi (Prometheus)
• The Whisky King, by Trevor Cole (HarperCollins)
• Blood, Sweat and Fear, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Dog Lover Unit, by Rachel Rose (St. Martin’s Press)
• Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence,
by Alex Roslin (Sugar Hill)
Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book:
• Missing, by Kelley Armstrong (Doubleday Canada)
• Chase, by Linwood Barclay (Puffin Canada)
• The Disappearance, by Gillian Chan (Annick Press)
• Thistlewood, by Donna Chubaty (Grasmere)
• The Lives of Desperate Girls, by MacKenzie Common
(Penguin Teen Canada)
Best Crime Book in French:
• Amqui, by Éric Forbes (Héliotrope Noir)
• La vie rêvée de Frank Bélair, by Maxime Houde (Éditions Alire)
• Les clefs du silence, by Jean Lemieux (Québec Amérique)
• La mort en bleu pastel, by Maryse Rouy (Éditions Druide)
• Les Tricoteuses, by Marie Saur (Héliotrope Noir)
Best Unpublished Manuscript:
• The Alibi Network, by Raimey Gallant
• Finn Slew, by Ken MacQueen
• Destruction in Paradise, by Dianne Scott
• Dig, Dug, Dead, by Sylvia Teaves
• Condemned, by Kevin Thornton
The winners of these prizes will be declared on May 24 during the annual Arthur Ellis Awards Gala in Toronto, Ontario.
* * *
The second set of contenders to broadcast are those vying for the 2018 Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (aka the Bony Blithe). This honor will be bestowed during the Bony Blithe Mini-con, which is to be held on May 25 (from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.) at the High Park Club in Toronto. The winner will receive $1,000 “plus a colourful plaque.”Here are the five candidates:
• The Case of the Unsuitable Suitor, by Cathy Ace (Severn House)
• Dying on Second, by E.C. Bell (Tyche)
• Digging up Trouble, by Rickie Blair (Barkley)
• Hark the Herald Angels Slay, by Vicki Delany (Berkley)
• Much Ado About Murder, by Elizabeth J. Duncan (Crooked Lane)
Congratulations to all of the nominees!
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
PaperBack: “Die by Night”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
Die by Night, by “M.S. Marble,” aka Margaret Strauss (Graphic, 1955). This book features the one and only appearance of gumshoe Joe Gaylord. Cover illustration by Walter Popp.
Die by Night, by “M.S. Marble,” aka Margaret Strauss (Graphic, 1955). This book features the one and only appearance of gumshoe Joe Gaylord. Cover illustration by Walter Popp.
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
But There’s Always More
Pressed as I was for time yesterday, I didn’t mention all of the crime-fiction news links I have collected lately. Here are a few more.
• How are the multiple scandals and bizarre news reports coming out of Donald Trump’s chaotic administration affecting today’s crime-fictionists? In an article for CrimeReads, Brad Parks explains:
• In a piece for New York magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, crime-fiction critic and editor Sarah Weinman writes about her bout with breast cancer and its potential connection to alcohol.
• What do publishers see as the trends made evident by much-anticipated novels being readied for release this spring and summer? Library Journal contributor Lisa Levy says we can look forward to more “suspense novels involving missing women,” abundant historical mysteries set during the 1920s and in the Victorian era, and works of “psychological suspense bordering on horror.”
• From The Guardian: “While literary novels are sidelined, crime fiction is fast developing as the most versatile narrative of our times.”
• In The Trap of Solid Gold, Steve Scott looks back at John D. MacDonald’s hesitation about collecting his pulp-fiction tales.
• As longtime Rap Sheet readers know, one of my favorite private-eye films is Paul Newman’s Harper, which was adapted from Ross Macdonald’s 1949 novel, The Moving Target. So I was intrigued to see not just one, but two blogs recently address the many strengths of that 1966 film. Here is a review from Vintage45’s Blog; and clickety-clack here to read Raquel Stecher’s comments, in Out of the Past, on both Harper and its lesser, 1975 sequel, The Drowning Pool.
• Not long ago, my mailman brought me an advance reading copy of The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington, by Charles Rosenberg (Hanover Square Press), which I hope to read in advance of its late-June publication date. By odd coincidence, this arrived shortly before I received an e-mail note from a Web site that features all 1,399 installments of the 1974-1982 radio drama, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, suggesting that I enjoy a 1982 episode titled “The Washington Kidnap,” inspired by the same historical curiosity—a Revolutionary War plot, by British military forces, to apprehend then Continental Army commander George Washington.
• It was 112 years ago today that an earthquake and fire devastated San Francisco. Click here to read about those frightening events.
• And let’s hear it for Batman—road-safety instructor.
• How are the multiple scandals and bizarre news reports coming out of Donald Trump’s chaotic administration affecting today’s crime-fictionists? In an article for CrimeReads, Brad Parks explains:
Because of the long gestation period of a novel, we’re only just now seeing the first trickle of books that were developed, written, and edited during the ascendancy of President Trump and the head-spinning early days of his reign. With this in mind, I undertook a highly unscientific poll of agents, editors, and my fellow authors of crime fiction to ask them how this extraordinary time in history was impacting our genre—both in what’s being written, how it’s being written, and what is capturing readers’ attention.• CrimeReads has also posted—in relation to National Poetry Month—a list of mystery and thriller writers who’ve penned verse.
What I found was, unlike so many things related to Trump, subtle and nuanced. There’s no great tsunami of forthcoming books in which an erratic narcissist in the White House casts juvenile taunts at foreign leaders while casually threatening nuclear war—and thank goodness, because we get enough of that already. It’s more a gentle lapping of smaller waves, created by authors who are no longer looking at this mad new world in quite the same way.
• In a piece for New York magazine’s fashion blog, The Cut, crime-fiction critic and editor Sarah Weinman writes about her bout with breast cancer and its potential connection to alcohol.
• What do publishers see as the trends made evident by much-anticipated novels being readied for release this spring and summer? Library Journal contributor Lisa Levy says we can look forward to more “suspense novels involving missing women,” abundant historical mysteries set during the 1920s and in the Victorian era, and works of “psychological suspense bordering on horror.”
• From The Guardian: “While literary novels are sidelined, crime fiction is fast developing as the most versatile narrative of our times.”
• In The Trap of Solid Gold, Steve Scott looks back at John D. MacDonald’s hesitation about collecting his pulp-fiction tales.
• As longtime Rap Sheet readers know, one of my favorite private-eye films is Paul Newman’s Harper, which was adapted from Ross Macdonald’s 1949 novel, The Moving Target. So I was intrigued to see not just one, but two blogs recently address the many strengths of that 1966 film. Here is a review from Vintage45’s Blog; and clickety-clack here to read Raquel Stecher’s comments, in Out of the Past, on both Harper and its lesser, 1975 sequel, The Drowning Pool.
• Not long ago, my mailman brought me an advance reading copy of The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington, by Charles Rosenberg (Hanover Square Press), which I hope to read in advance of its late-June publication date. By odd coincidence, this arrived shortly before I received an e-mail note from a Web site that features all 1,399 installments of the 1974-1982 radio drama, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, suggesting that I enjoy a 1982 episode titled “The Washington Kidnap,” inspired by the same historical curiosity—a Revolutionary War plot, by British military forces, to apprehend then Continental Army commander George Washington.
• It was 112 years ago today that an earthquake and fire devastated San Francisco. Click here to read about those frightening events.
• And let’s hear it for Batman—road-safety instructor.
A Send-off Full of Gratitude
It was only two days ago that I finished my voracious reading of Greeks Bearing Gifts, the penultimate novel by Philip Kerr, who passed away last month at age 62, just prior to the novel’s publication. British author Kerr had long been a favorite author of mine, someone whose writing combined Raymond Chandler’s poetic sarcasm about life and its disappointments with a historian’s grasp of world-changing events and their often-underappreciated impact on individuals.
Therefore, I was pleased to see this new post in Shotsmag Confidential, penned by my good friend and colleague Ali Karim, relating events from Kerr’s funeral, which was held this week at St. Mary’s Church in the London district of Wimbledon. Ali paid his last respects to Kerr in company with critic-author Mike Ripley. He writes:
Therefore, I was pleased to see this new post in Shotsmag Confidential, penned by my good friend and colleague Ali Karim, relating events from Kerr’s funeral, which was held this week at St. Mary’s Church in the London district of Wimbledon. Ali paid his last respects to Kerr in company with critic-author Mike Ripley. He writes:
It was a very sunny day in London, and the attendants mainly friends and family members, though we met up with Jane Wood, his [UK] editor, Carodoc King [Kerr’s literary agent], and saw [author] Sebastian Faulks as well as [actor] John Sessions.It’s heartbreaking to me that an author who has brought so much pleasure to my reading experiences over the years should have left us so early, and I am sorry that I could not attend his funeral myself. But I’m glad to know he was shown off with such manifest love.
There were readings from his children, Charlie, William and Naomi, and the priest recounted how Phil Kerr found faith later in life.
We were invited by the family back to their house, where they had catering and drinks for the guests. I got talking to the team from Quercus Publishing, including … Jane Wood. She confirmed that the final Bernie Gunther novel, Metropolis, has been delivered [it’s due out in April 2019], and she confirmed Carodoc King’s assertion that “Metropolis is the finest and most complex and thrilling Bernie Gunther novel.”
So it was soon time to leave, [but] before heading off, Mike Ripley and I thanked Quercus Publishing and Phil’s family for a memorable celebration—though sad—for we came to represent the very best wishes from Shots magazine, The Rap Sheet, January Magazine, and Deadly Pleasures Magazine (as we contribute to [all of] them).
One part of Carodoc King’s comments echoes in my mind, and is one that I deeply believe to be true: “despite all the published work of Philip Kerr, it will be Bernie Gunther that he will be remembered for.”
Revue of Reviewers, 4-18-18
Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Just a Few Things to Mention
• Good for Megan Abbott! Variety reports that cable television’s USA Network has ordered a pilot film based on her 2012 novel, Dare Me. The entertainment trade mag explains that the series will dive into “the cutthroat world of competitive high school cheerleading in a small Midwestern town through the eyes of two
best friends after a new coach arrives to bring their team to prominence.” Abbott, who’s been working on scripts and as a story editor for the HBO-TV period drama The Deuce, is slated also to write USA’s Dare Me.
• Meanwhile, In Reference to Murder brings word that “HBO Documentary Films has acquired the rights to journalist Michelle McNamara’s bestselling true-crime book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, to develop as a docuseries. The project is a meticulous exploration of the case of an elusive, violent predator who terrorized California in the late 1970s and early ’80s. McNamara, the late wife of [comedian] Patton Oswalt, was in the midst of writing the book when she unexpectedly died in her sleep in 2016, leaving the book to be completed by McNamara’s lead researcher, Paul Haynes, and a close colleague, Billy Jenkin.”
• Like Martin Edwards, I’d not heard that prolific British mystery novelist Roderic Jeffries, “who also wrote as Jeffrey Ashford and Peter Alding, died last year at the age of 90.” Edwards goes on to write in his blog that Jeffries had been “living in Mallorca for over forty years,
which perhaps explains not only why I’ve never come across him in person but also why his books have tended, in recent years, to be rather overlooked.”
• A huge loss to America’s airwaves: “Every weekday for more than three decades, his baritone steadied our mornings [on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition]. Even in moments of chaos and crisis, Carl Kasell brought unflappable authority to the news. But behind that hid a lively sense of humor, revealed to listeners late in his career, when he became the beloved judge and official scorekeeper for Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! NPR’s news quiz show. Kasell died Tuesday from complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Potomac, Md. He was 84.” Remembrances of Kasell’s career and kindnesses can be found here, here, and here.
• Not to be dwell overmuch on death … but I should also mention the passing of Tim O’Connor, the Chicago-born actor whose face was for so long a U.S. television fixture. He was 90 years old when he passed away in California on April 5. In his O’Connor obituary, blogger Terence Towles Canote observes that in the 1970s alone, O’Connor “guest starred on such shows as Mannix, Longstreet, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., The Manhunter, Get Christie Love!, The Rockford Files, All in the Family, The Six Million Dollar Man, Police Story, Cannon, Maude, Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, Lou Grant, Police Woman, Wonder Woman, Barnaby Jones, and M*A*S*H. He starred in the first season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He appeared in the films Wild in the Sky (1972), The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), Sssssss (1973), and [the theatrical release] Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).”
• In the latest edition of Fiction/Non/Fiction, Literary Hub’s popular podcast, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell, together with author Mat Johnson (Pym, Loving Day), “examine the omnipresent American comfort narrative of mystery and crime fiction,” and conclude that “all fiction is crime fiction.”
• Having enjoyed the previous comedic work of both Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Friends with Benefits) and Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon, I cannot help but hope that this summer’s The Spy Who Dumped Me is as quirky and fun as its trailer suggests. However, I’m not taking bets on that. According to Double O Section’s Matthew Bradford, the movie—due to premiere in August—focuses on “best friends who become embroiled in espionage when one of them (Kunis) discovers her ex was a secret agent.”
• New York journalist-author Julia Dahl picks her “top 10 books about miscarriages of justice” for The Guardian. Among her selections: Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places.
• Good news from novelist Sophie Hannah: “It has happened at last! Finally, the literary world is a meritocracy! Crime fiction—which I first became aware of as the Best Genre Ever when I read my first Enid Blyton mystery at six years old—is now officially the UK’s bestselling genre. Nielsen Bookscan data at the London book fair has revealed that crime novels in 2017, for the first time since Nielsen’s records began, sold more than the category rather vaguely labelled ‘general and literary fiction.’ Crime sales of have increased by 19% since 2015 to 18.7m, compared to the 18.1m fiction books sold in 2017.”
• Now this is my kind of public library!
• Looking for a Canadian suspense novel to take on vacation? Toronto’s Globe and Mail provides some worthy suggestions.
• Wow, Americans can find a way to get upset about nearly anything. Case in point: the hubbub over Taylor Swift’s cover version of “September,” a 1978 song recorded originally by Earth, Wind & Fire. To tell you the truth, I developed a serious dislike of the original, back when it was still so popular. It was standard fare at disco-music events when I was in college. There was a fairly attractive younger woman I knew there, who didn’t pay much attention to me—except during dances, when she seemed drawn to my side like an electromagnet, because I was a pretty good dancer, and I had great stamina. (Another partner and I actually won “Most Energetic Couple” honors after completing a dance marathon during my senior year.) Anyway, one of this woman’s favorite songs was “September,” so I danced to it frequently—enough times, that I swore I would promptly turn it off whenever I heard it on the radio in the future. That Ms. Swift has now adopted “September” for her own doesn’t make it any better or worse. I still cringe at hearing those lyrics.
• Some author interviews worth checking out: In both Crime Fiction Lover and BookRiot, Alison Gaylin and Megan Abbott talk about their new graphic novel, Normandy Gold; Crimespree Magazine’s Elise Cooper quizzes Kimberley “K.J.” Howe about her second thriller, Skyjack; Welsh writer Amy Lloyd (The Innocent Wife) is the latest subject of Crime Watch’s 9mm Q&A series; Speaking of Mysteries podcast host Nancie Clare chats with Mariah Fredericks (A Death of No Importance); Jeff Rutherford speaks with Matthew Pearl (The Last Bookaneer, The Dante Chamber) in Episode 224 of his own podcast, Reading and Writing; and the great Peter Lovesey takes the opportunity to fire questions at Anthea Fraser in advance of her 50th novel, Sins of the Fathers, to be released later this month.
• And it was nice to see The Rap Sheet chosen by author Julia Spencer-Fleming as one of her favorite mystery blogs.
• Meanwhile, In Reference to Murder brings word that “HBO Documentary Films has acquired the rights to journalist Michelle McNamara’s bestselling true-crime book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, to develop as a docuseries. The project is a meticulous exploration of the case of an elusive, violent predator who terrorized California in the late 1970s and early ’80s. McNamara, the late wife of [comedian] Patton Oswalt, was in the midst of writing the book when she unexpectedly died in her sleep in 2016, leaving the book to be completed by McNamara’s lead researcher, Paul Haynes, and a close colleague, Billy Jenkin.”
• Like Martin Edwards, I’d not heard that prolific British mystery novelist Roderic Jeffries, “who also wrote as Jeffrey Ashford and Peter Alding, died last year at the age of 90.” Edwards goes on to write in his blog that Jeffries had been “living in Mallorca for over forty years,
which perhaps explains not only why I’ve never come across him in person but also why his books have tended, in recent years, to be rather overlooked.”• A huge loss to America’s airwaves: “Every weekday for more than three decades, his baritone steadied our mornings [on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition]. Even in moments of chaos and crisis, Carl Kasell brought unflappable authority to the news. But behind that hid a lively sense of humor, revealed to listeners late in his career, when he became the beloved judge and official scorekeeper for Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! NPR’s news quiz show. Kasell died Tuesday from complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Potomac, Md. He was 84.” Remembrances of Kasell’s career and kindnesses can be found here, here, and here.
• Not to be dwell overmuch on death … but I should also mention the passing of Tim O’Connor, the Chicago-born actor whose face was for so long a U.S. television fixture. He was 90 years old when he passed away in California on April 5. In his O’Connor obituary, blogger Terence Towles Canote observes that in the 1970s alone, O’Connor “guest starred on such shows as Mannix, Longstreet, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., The Manhunter, Get Christie Love!, The Rockford Files, All in the Family, The Six Million Dollar Man, Police Story, Cannon, Maude, Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, Lou Grant, Police Woman, Wonder Woman, Barnaby Jones, and M*A*S*H. He starred in the first season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He appeared in the films Wild in the Sky (1972), The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), Sssssss (1973), and [the theatrical release] Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).”
• In the latest edition of Fiction/Non/Fiction, Literary Hub’s popular podcast, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell, together with author Mat Johnson (Pym, Loving Day), “examine the omnipresent American comfort narrative of mystery and crime fiction,” and conclude that “all fiction is crime fiction.”
• Having enjoyed the previous comedic work of both Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Friends with Benefits) and Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon, I cannot help but hope that this summer’s The Spy Who Dumped Me is as quirky and fun as its trailer suggests. However, I’m not taking bets on that. According to Double O Section’s Matthew Bradford, the movie—due to premiere in August—focuses on “best friends who become embroiled in espionage when one of them (Kunis) discovers her ex was a secret agent.”
• New York journalist-author Julia Dahl picks her “top 10 books about miscarriages of justice” for The Guardian. Among her selections: Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places.
• Good news from novelist Sophie Hannah: “It has happened at last! Finally, the literary world is a meritocracy! Crime fiction—which I first became aware of as the Best Genre Ever when I read my first Enid Blyton mystery at six years old—is now officially the UK’s bestselling genre. Nielsen Bookscan data at the London book fair has revealed that crime novels in 2017, for the first time since Nielsen’s records began, sold more than the category rather vaguely labelled ‘general and literary fiction.’ Crime sales of have increased by 19% since 2015 to 18.7m, compared to the 18.1m fiction books sold in 2017.”
• Now this is my kind of public library!
• Looking for a Canadian suspense novel to take on vacation? Toronto’s Globe and Mail provides some worthy suggestions.
• Wow, Americans can find a way to get upset about nearly anything. Case in point: the hubbub over Taylor Swift’s cover version of “September,” a 1978 song recorded originally by Earth, Wind & Fire. To tell you the truth, I developed a serious dislike of the original, back when it was still so popular. It was standard fare at disco-music events when I was in college. There was a fairly attractive younger woman I knew there, who didn’t pay much attention to me—except during dances, when she seemed drawn to my side like an electromagnet, because I was a pretty good dancer, and I had great stamina. (Another partner and I actually won “Most Energetic Couple” honors after completing a dance marathon during my senior year.) Anyway, one of this woman’s favorite songs was “September,” so I danced to it frequently—enough times, that I swore I would promptly turn it off whenever I heard it on the radio in the future. That Ms. Swift has now adopted “September” for her own doesn’t make it any better or worse. I still cringe at hearing those lyrics.
• Some author interviews worth checking out: In both Crime Fiction Lover and BookRiot, Alison Gaylin and Megan Abbott talk about their new graphic novel, Normandy Gold; Crimespree Magazine’s Elise Cooper quizzes Kimberley “K.J.” Howe about her second thriller, Skyjack; Welsh writer Amy Lloyd (The Innocent Wife) is the latest subject of Crime Watch’s 9mm Q&A series; Speaking of Mysteries podcast host Nancie Clare chats with Mariah Fredericks (A Death of No Importance); Jeff Rutherford speaks with Matthew Pearl (The Last Bookaneer, The Dante Chamber) in Episode 224 of his own podcast, Reading and Writing; and the great Peter Lovesey takes the opportunity to fire questions at Anthea Fraser in advance of her 50th novel, Sins of the Fathers, to be released later this month.
• And it was nice to see The Rap Sheet chosen by author Julia Spencer-Fleming as one of her favorite mystery blogs.
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Short of Length, Long on Talent
For a Sunday, this has been a fairly busy time for mystery-fiction news. First, we received word about which works have been longlisted for the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. And now comes the list of finalists for this year’s Derringer Awards, to be handed out by the Short Mystery Fiction Society.
For Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words):
For Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words):
According to the Short Mystery Fiction Society, “a vote of eligible SMFS members will determine the winners, to be announced in May 2018.”
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
Best Flash Fiction
(up to 1,000 words):
• “Cold Turkey,” by Patricia Dusenbury (Flash Bang Mysteries,
edited by Brandon Bourg, Summer 2017)
edited by Brandon Bourg, Summer 2017)
• “Happy Birthday,” by Alan Orloff (Shotgun Honey, June 15, 2017)
• “Final Testimony,” by Travis Richardson (Flash Fiction Offensive,
July 10, 2017)
July 10, 2017)
• “Fishing for an Alibi,” by Earl Staggs (Flash Bang Mysteries,
Fall 2017)
Fall 2017)
• “Flash Point,” by Elizabeth Zelvin (A Twist of Noir, March 20, 2017)
For Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words):
• “The Kids Keep Coming,” by David H. Hendrickson (from Fiction
River: Tavern Tales, edited by Kerrie L. Hughes; WMG)
• “The Cop Who Liked Gilbert and Sullivan,” by Robert
Lopresti (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, October
2017)
• “The New Score,” by Alison McMahan (from Fish Out of
Water: A Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside Press)
• “The Bank Job,” by Stephen D. Rogers (Trigger Warning:
Short Fiction with Pictures, March 16, 2017)
• “Every Picture Tells a Story,” by Cathi Stoler (from Where
Crime Never Sleeps: Murder New York Style 4, edited by Elizabeth
Zelvin; Level Best)
Zelvin; Level Best)
For Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words):
• “El Asesino,” by Rusty Barnes (Bull, May 22, 2017)
• “The #2 Pencil,” by Matt Coyle (from Coast to Coast:
Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D.
Marks; Down & Out)
• “Death in the Serengeti,” by David H. Hendrickson (from Fiction
River: Pulse Pounders: Adrenaline, edited by Kevin J. Anderson; WMG)
• “Matricide and Ice Cream,” by William Burton McCormick
(from The CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour, edited by Martin
Edwards; Orenda)
• “The Drive-By,” by Alison McMahan (from Busted:
Arresting Stories from the Beat, edited by Verena Rose, Harriette Sackler,
and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Level Best)
For Best Novelette (8,001-20,000 words):
• “Flowing Waters,” by Brendan DuBois (Ellery Queen
Mystery Magazine, January/February 2017)
• “Windward,” by Paul D. Marks (from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea, edited by Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks; Down & Out)
• “King's Quarter,” by Andrew McAleer (from Coast to
Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea)
• “Kill My Wife, Please,” by Robert J. Randisi (from Coast
to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea)
• “Trouble Like a Freight Train Coming,” by Tina Whittle
(from Lowcountry Crime: Four Novellas, edited by James M. Jackson and
Jan Rubens; Wolf’s Echo Press)
According to the Short Mystery Fiction Society, “a vote of eligible SMFS members will determine the winners, to be announced in May 2018.”
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
PaperBack: “Death and Taxes”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
Death and Taxes, by Thomas B. Dewey (Berkley, 1968). Posting the paperback front of this novel—Dewey’s 13th starring the Chicago private eye known as “Mac”—seemed appropriate in the run-up to this week’s U.S. income tax filing deadline, April 17.
READ MORE: “Death and Taxes: Tax Day Mysteries,” by Janet
Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
Death and Taxes, by Thomas B. Dewey (Berkley, 1968). Posting the paperback front of this novel—Dewey’s 13th starring the Chicago private eye known as “Mac”—seemed appropriate in the run-up to this week’s U.S. income tax filing deadline, April 17.
READ MORE: “Death and Taxes: Tax Day Mysteries,” by Janet
Rudolph (Mystery Fanfare).
Who’s Peculier Now?
Organizers of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (to be held in the spa town of Harrogate, England, July 19-22) have announced their longlist of nominees for the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. The 18 contenders include both heavy hitters and lesser-knowns.
• Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Midnight Line, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• The Seagull, by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan)
• Little Deaths, by Emma Flint (Picador)
• The Chalk Pit, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Dry, by Jane Harper (Macmillan)
• Spook Street, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Death at Fountains Abbey, by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• He Said, She Said, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Sirens, by Joseph Knox (Doubleday)
• The Accident on A35, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)
• You Don’t Know Me, by Imran Mahmood (Michael Joseph)
• Insidious Intent, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Long Drop, by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)
• A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Rather Be the Devil, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• The Intrusions, by Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber)
• Persons Unknown, by Susie Steiner (The Borough Press)
Festival officials tells us, “The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 27 May, followed by a six-week promotion in libraries and in W.H. Smith stores [across Britain]. The overall winner will be decided by the panel of judges, alongside a public vote. The public vote opens on 1 July and closes 14 July at https://www.theakstons.co.uk.”
• Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Midnight Line, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• The Seagull, by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan)
• Little Deaths, by Emma Flint (Picador)
• The Chalk Pit, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Dry, by Jane Harper (Macmillan)
• Spook Street, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Death at Fountains Abbey, by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• He Said, She Said, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Sirens, by Joseph Knox (Doubleday)
• The Accident on A35, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)
• You Don’t Know Me, by Imran Mahmood (Michael Joseph)
• Insidious Intent, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Long Drop, by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)
• A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Rather Be the Devil, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• The Intrusions, by Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber)
• Persons Unknown, by Susie Steiner (The Borough Press)
Festival officials tells us, “The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 27 May, followed by a six-week promotion in libraries and in W.H. Smith stores [across Britain]. The overall winner will be decided by the panel of judges, alongside a public vote. The public vote opens on 1 July and closes 14 July at https://www.theakstons.co.uk.”
Friday, April 13, 2018
McManus Leaves Behind Lots of Laughs
From The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington:
Patrick F. McManus, the New York Times best-selling author of books such as “Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink!” and “The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw,” died on Wednesday in Spokane. He was 84.Among those novels the newspaper casually references were six “charmingly wry” (to quote Kirkus Reviews) mysteries starring Bo Tully, the middle-aged sheriff of fictional Blight County, Idaho. The first of the Tully books was 2006’s The Blight Way, while McManus’ final installment in the series was 2014’s Cicles in the Snow.
Patrick Francis McManus was born on Aug. 25, 1933, and grew up along the banks of Sand Creek outside Sandpoint [Idaho]. His father died when he was 6, leaving his mother, a school teacher, to raise him and his older sister. In interviews over the years, he spoke glowingly of his childhood as one where he would spend hours outdoors. His family may not have had a lot of money, but there was time and freedom to explore the world.
“I had a wonderful time as a child growing up,” he told Sandpoint Magazine in 1995. “I was down by the creek all the time and had all this freedom, running around all these mountains. (His friend) Vern and I took off one time and wandered around those mountains for a week. That’s not a bad way to grow up.”
As a humor columnist [for Outdoor Life magazine], he mined his own life for his stories, creating a beloved cast of characters based on people he knew from his childhood, guys like Rancid Crabtree and Crazy Eddie Muldoon, a dog named Strange, and even his sister, Patricia the Troll. McManus published two dozen books, and sold roughly 6 million copies, in his lengthy career. Several of those books were collections of his magazine humor columns, but he also wrote novels.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Changes Coming to “Granchester”
Good news! Grantchester, the 1950s-set British TV mystery based on James Runcie’s books about an Anglican vicar, Sidney Chambers, who solves crimes in his spare time, is being given a fourth season. Production of fresh episodes is scheduled to commence 
this coming June, with the new season expected to air in the United States as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! series sometime in 2019.
Questions had arisen, after the broadcast of Season 3’s final episode last summer, as to whether we had seen the last of James Norton playing Chambers. (There’s been talk that he wants to tackle different projects, and he’s even been mentioned as a contender to portray secret agent James Bond, after Daniel Craig exists that prominent film role.) It’s a relief to put such fears to rest.
Now, though, for the less-good news. As Mystery Fanfare notes, “These will be the final episodes for Norton’s character Sidney Chambers, the charismatic, jazz-loving vicar who has captured the hearts of millions of viewers. Casting of a new vicar will be announced at a later date.” There’s no word yet on whether the program’s supporting cast—which includes Robson Green as Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, Tessa Peake-Jones as grumpy housekeeper Sylvia Maguire, and Al Weaver as junior Anglican curate Leonard Finch—will carry over into any revised version of Grantchester. And press releases about Season 4 and the series’ future haven’t mentioned whether Morven Christie, who played Chambers’ sometimes sweetheart on the series, Amanda Kendall Hopkins, has left the show.
Knowing Grantchester watchers might be uneasy about casting alterations, Rebecca Eaton, the executive producer of Masterpiece, has been quoted as saying: “It’s a bittersweet time for Grantchester fans, who will be cheering the return of the series but crushed to say good-bye to James. We want to assure them that the series they love will continue with brilliant new episodes and a captivating new vicar.”
Let’s all hope for the best.
this coming June, with the new season expected to air in the United States as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! series sometime in 2019.Questions had arisen, after the broadcast of Season 3’s final episode last summer, as to whether we had seen the last of James Norton playing Chambers. (There’s been talk that he wants to tackle different projects, and he’s even been mentioned as a contender to portray secret agent James Bond, after Daniel Craig exists that prominent film role.) It’s a relief to put such fears to rest.
Now, though, for the less-good news. As Mystery Fanfare notes, “These will be the final episodes for Norton’s character Sidney Chambers, the charismatic, jazz-loving vicar who has captured the hearts of millions of viewers. Casting of a new vicar will be announced at a later date.” There’s no word yet on whether the program’s supporting cast—which includes Robson Green as Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, Tessa Peake-Jones as grumpy housekeeper Sylvia Maguire, and Al Weaver as junior Anglican curate Leonard Finch—will carry over into any revised version of Grantchester. And press releases about Season 4 and the series’ future haven’t mentioned whether Morven Christie, who played Chambers’ sometimes sweetheart on the series, Amanda Kendall Hopkins, has left the show.
Knowing Grantchester watchers might be uneasy about casting alterations, Rebecca Eaton, the executive producer of Masterpiece, has been quoted as saying: “It’s a bittersweet time for Grantchester fans, who will be cheering the return of the series but crushed to say good-bye to James. We want to assure them that the series they love will continue with brilliant new episodes and a captivating new vicar.”
Let’s all hope for the best.
Dipping a Toe in the Water
Following the sudden disappearance last month of Spinetingler Magazine, there came word that co-founder and longtime editor Sandra Ruttan was starting a new crime-fiction publication called Toe Six Press. Today brought that periodical’s online debut, which features an “author snapshot” of Earl Javorsky (Down to No Good), a couple of book reviews, and a good-size interview with UK novelist Stuart MacBride. Also being offered are links to crime fiction-related stories found elsewhere on the Web and to posts in Palomino Mugging, a pop-culture blog written by Ruttan’s husband, Brian
Lindenmuth.
What might the future bring for Toe Six Press? Ruttan says that “While there may be times that posts are made throughout the week, the current plan is to produce at least two online issues per month. At this time, the focus will be on author interviews and author features, as well as reviews.” Best of luck with this new venture!
What might the future bring for Toe Six Press? Ruttan says that “While there may be times that posts are made throughout the week, the current plan is to produce at least two online issues per month. At this time, the focus will be on author interviews and author features, as well as reviews.” Best of luck with this new venture!
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
PaperBack: “To Keep or Kill”
Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.
To Keep or Kill, by Wilson Tucker (Lion Library, 1956). As the fantasy lit blog Black Gate observes: “Wilson Tucker is a fascinating author. Although he wrote several acclaimed SF novels, including the Hugo and Nebula nominee The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970), and was even inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2003, he’s remembered today chiefly for his tireless contributions to fandom. Well, that and his habit of putting his friends into his novels—so much so that the literary term for this practice now bears his name: tuckerization.”
Cover illustration by Robert Maguire.
To Keep or Kill, by Wilson Tucker (Lion Library, 1956). As the fantasy lit blog Black Gate observes: “Wilson Tucker is a fascinating author. Although he wrote several acclaimed SF novels, including the Hugo and Nebula nominee The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970), and was even inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2003, he’s remembered today chiefly for his tireless contributions to fandom. Well, that and his habit of putting his friends into his novels—so much so that the literary term for this practice now bears his name: tuckerization.”
Cover illustration by Robert Maguire.
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