Ripley’s Rundown

Critic-author Mike Ripley commemorates this month’s 25th anniversary of “the first (and only) First Blood Award,” explaining in the new, November edition of his “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots that “It all came about because in 1993 the Crime Writers’ Association had refused to present their annual John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel because none of the titles on the CWA’s short-list was deemed good enough.” Beyond sharing those recollections, Ripley also comments on the late John le Carré’s possible successors, the 14th Dennis Wheatley Convention, and the latest works by Gabriel Bergmoser, Olivier Norek, Dominic Nolan, and others.