In Reference to Murder

Edgar Exaltations

Mystery Writers of America revealed the winners for the 78th Annual Edgar® Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2023, in a ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Novel:   Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic)

Other finalists:

• ll the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
• The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
• Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (Simon & Schuster – Simon Element – Marysue Rucci Books)
• An Honest Man by Michael Koryta (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)
• The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
• Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

Best First Novel by an American Author:   The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

Other finalists:

• The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Macmillan Publishing – Minotaur Books)
• Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski (Macmillan Publishing – Henry Holt and Co.)
• The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
• Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)

Best Paperback Original:  Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

Other finalists:

• Boomtown by A.F. Carter (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
• Hide by Tracy Clark (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
• The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
• Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak (Hard Case Crime)

Best Fact Crime:  Crooked: The Roaring ’20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group)

Other finalists:

• In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America’s Child by Kim Cross (Hachette Book Group – Grand Central Publishing)
• Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux (Penguin Random House – Crown Currency)
• Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt (Macmillan Publishers – St. Martin’s Press)
•  Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever by Barbara Rae-Venter (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books)
• The Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy by Joe Sexton (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)

Best Critical/Biographical:  Love Me Fierce in Danger – The Life of James Ellroy by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing – Bloomsbury Academic)

Other finalists:

• Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
• Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Penzler Publishers – Mysterious Press)
• A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak (Macmillan Publishing – St. Martin’s Press)
• Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

Best Short Story:  “Hallowed Ground,” by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Other finalists:

• “Thriller,” Thriller by Heather Graham (Blackstone Publishing)
• “Miss Direction,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2023 by Rob Osler (Dell Magazines)
• “The Rise,” Amazon Original Stories by Ian Rankin (Amazon Publishing)
• “Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand,” Amazon Original Stories by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Publishing)

Best Juvenile:  The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas (Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)

Other finalists:

• Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Hachette Book Group – Workman Publishing – Algonquin Young Readers)
• pic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Publishers – Versify)
• The Jules Verne Prophecy by Larry Schwarz & Iva-Marie Palmer (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)

Best Young Adult:  Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Other finalists:

• Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)
• The Sharp Edge of Silence by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum (HarperCollins Publishers – Quill Tree Books)
• My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon (HarperCollins Publishers – Katherine Tegen Books)
• Just Do This One Thing for Me by Laura Zimmerman (Penguin Young Readers – Dutton Books for Young Readers)

Best Television Episode Teleplay:  “Escape from Shit Mountain” – Poker Face, Written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman (Peacock)

Other finalists:

• “Time of the Monkey” – Poker Face, Written by Wyatt Cain & Charlie Peppers (Peacock)
• “I’m a Pretty Observant Guy” – Will Trent, Written by Liz Heldens (ABC)
• “Dead Man’s Hand” – Poker Face, Written by Rian Johnson (Peacock)
• “Hózhó Náhásdlii (Beauty is Restore)” – Dark Winds, Written by Graham Roland & John Wirth (AMC)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: “The Body in Cell Two,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2023 by Kate Hohl (Dell Magazines)

Other finalists:

• “Errand for a Neighbor,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January-February 2023 by Bill Bassman (Dell Magazines)
• “The Soiled Dove of Shallow Hollow,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January-February 2023 by Sean McCluskey (Dell Magazines)
• “It’s Half Your Fault,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, July-August 2023 by Meghan Leigh Paulk (Dell Magazines)
• “Two Hours West of Nothing,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2023 by Gabriela Stiteler (Dell Magazines)

The Simon & Schuster Mary HIggins Clark Award:  Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House – Bantam)

Other finalists:

• The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
• Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
• The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard by Kate Robards (Crooked Lane Books)
• Murder in Postscript by Mary Winters (Penguin Random House – Berkley)

The G.P. Putman's Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award:  An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Other finalists:

• Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)
• Bad, Bad Seymour Brown by Susan Isaacs (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Past Lying by Val McDermid (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
• A Stolen Child by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award:  Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

Other finalists:

• Misfortune Cookie by Vivien Chien (Macmillan – St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
• Hot Pot Murder by Jennifer J. Chow (Penguin Random House – Berkley)
• Murder of an Amish Bridegroom by Patricia Johns (Crooked Lane Books)
• The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell (Crooked Lane Books)

SPECIAL AWARDS – PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED IN JANUARY 2024 

Grand Master

• Katherine Hall Page
• R.L. Stine

Ellery Queen Award

• Michaela Hamilton, Kensington Books

 

 

Mystery Melange

Photo credit via PRRINT Art Shop

 

CrimeReads contributor Molly Odintz asked dozens of crime fiction writers to contribute to an annual roundtable discussion on the state of the genre. This year’s roundtable, like in previous years, is divided into two parts: the first is focused on craft advice and the writing life, while the second addresses issues in the genre and the future of crime writing. The participants include James Lee Burke, William Kent Krueger, Katherine Hall Page, Susan Isaacs, April Henry, Tracy Clark, and others who have been nominated for various categories for Edgar Awards. You can see the finalists and winners of the 2024 Edgars in this previous blog post.

International Thriller Writer's Breakout Series will feature Lee Child and Andrew Child (authors of the Jack Reacher series) in conversation with Joseph Finder on May 9th, 2024, at 8pm ET, on the topic of "Power Storytelling." This is a free zoom webinar series open to all writers, but you must register using this link. Child (the pen name of Jim Grant) began the Reacher novels with 1997's Killing Floor, which won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the series has since sold over a million copies and been adapted for film and television. In 2020, Lee Child announced that his younger brother Andrew Grant would take over as writer of the Jack Reacher novels, writing under the pen name of Andrew Child.

CJ Sansom, author of the Shardlake novels, has died at the age of 71, just days before Shardlake, the TV adaptation of Sansom's novel, Dissolution, starring Arthur Hughes and Sean Bean, was released on Disney+ on May 1. Sansom had suffered from multiple myeloma, a rare cancer that affects bone marrow, since 2012. Sansom was one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists, known in particular for his mystery novels featuring barrister Matthew Shardlake, set in Tudor England. His longtime editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, said Sansom "wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare. But he always took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic responses to his novels and worked tirelessly on each book, never wanting to disappoint a single reader."

This week, we also lost author Paul Auster, who passed away at the age of 77. Auster’s breakthrough came with the 1985 publication of City of Glass, the first novel in his New York trilogy. As The Guardian notes, "while the books are ostensibly mystery stories, Auster wielded the form to ask existential questions about identity." Auster was better known in Europe than in his native United States, and was awarded Spain’s Prince of Asturias prize for literature and France's Prix Médicis Étranger. He was also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honor that recognizes significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields. 

Crime fiction from Scotland is often dubbed as "tartan noir," featuring such bestselling authors as Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. But The Daily Mail rightfully noted that Scotland's secret king of crime has been unfortunately overshadowed by these more recent authors. Bill Knox, a journalist from Glasgow, covered untold crimes, hosted STV's Crime Desk program appealing for help from the public – always signing off with the promise that any calls to the police "can be in confidence" – and had abundant contacts in the police force. But he was also the author of many police procedurals and thrillers, most notably a series that follows the excitable Chief Inspector Thane and his calmer deputy, Moss.

Digging out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Egypt is putting prized assets up for sale. Among these is the historic Old Cataract Hotel, perched on a rocky outcrop on the Nile River’s eastern bank, which has welcomed the likes of Winston Churchill, Jimmy Carter, Tsar Nicholas II, and Agatha Christie. Dame Agatha checked into the Old Cataract in 1937 and remained there for most of that year, where she would sit for hours and write the novel inspired by her surroundings, Death on the Nile. Her suite has been available for overnight stays (for upwards of $8,000 a night), although it will remain to be seen if any new owners keep the suite with its period furnishings intact.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Ava January about her latest novel, The Mayfair Dagger, a witty, feminist mystery set in the heart of nineteenth-century London; I.S. Berry spoke with CrimeReads about her career as a case officer for the CIA and her debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow; and Shots Magazine interviewed author John Connolly about his new Charlie Parker detective thriller, The Instruments of Darkness.

Derringer Delights

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the winners of this year Derringer Awards. Since 1998, the SMFS has awarded the annual Derringers—after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The awards recognize outstanding stories published during 2023. Congratulations to this year's winners and finalists!

 

FLASH:  “The Referee” by C. W. Blackwell (Shotgun Honey, October 12, 2023)

Other finalists:

• “Sleep Rough” by Brandon Barrows (Shotgun Honey, September 19, 2023)
• “To Whom It May Concern by Serena Jayne” (Shotgun Honey, January 9, 2023)
• “Teddy’s Favorite Thing” by Paul Ryan O’Connor (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
• “Supply Chains” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Black Cat Weekly #89)

 

SHORT STORY: “Last Day At The Jackrabbit” by John Floyd (The Strand, May 2023)

Other finalists:

• “Denim Mining” by Michael Bracken (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)
• “Dogs Of War” by Michael Bracken & Stacy Woodson (Mickey Finn: 21^st Century Noir Volume Four, Down & Out Books)
• “I Don’t Like Mondays” by Josh Pachter (Mystery Magazine, July 2023)
• “Judge Not” by Twist Phelan (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May/June 2023)
• “A Tail Of Justice” by Shannon Taft (Black Cat Weekly #114)

 

LONG STORY:  “Good Deed For The Day” by Bonnar Spring (Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories, Crime Spell Books)

Other finalists:

• “Hard Rain On Beach Street” by C. W. Blackwell (Killin’ Time in San Diego, Down & Out Books)
• “Reversion” by Marcelle Dubé (Mystery Magazine, April 2023)
• “Back To Hell House” by Nick Kolakowski (Vautrin, Fall 2023)
• “Troubled Water” by Donalee Moulton (Black Cat Weekly #75)
• “It’s Not Even Past” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
• “Ignatius Rum-And-Cola” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2023)

 

NOVELETTE:  “Mrs. Hyde” by David Dean (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2023)

Other finalists:

• “Vengeance Weapon” by James R. Benn (The Refusal Camp: Stories by James R. Benn, Soho Press)
• “The Case Of The Bogus Cinderellas” by Jacqueline Freimor (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/Aug 2023)
• “Madam Tomahawk” by Nick Kolakowski (A Grifter’s Song, Down & Out Books, 2023)
• “Catherine The Great” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (WMG 2023 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories)

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Ben Kingsley are set to star in The Thursday Murder Club, with Chris Columbus attached to write and direct. The film is an adaptation of British TV host and producer Richard Osman's novel of the same name from Steven Spielberg‘s production house, Amblin Entertainment. The story follows a group of geriatric friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren will play ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley will play ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Brosnan will play former union activist Ron. Negotiations for an actress to play the fourth member of the group, Joyce, are ongoing.

Pierce Brosnan has also signed to star in the romantic thriller, In The Wind, from Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures. The production is the feature directorial debut of Simon Barry, whose previous credits include creator and showrunner on the Netflix fantasy show Warrior Nun as well as Syfy show Ghost Wars. The film (fka A Spy’s Guide To Survival) centers around a reclusive, retired spy who is brought out of hiding by his enigmatic new neighbor, digging up both of their secrets in the process.

Clue is set to get another remake after Sony Pictures landed the TV and film rights to the board game that was turned into the iconic 1985 movie. Starring Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, the film centered around a group of strangers invited to a secluded mansion where things go wrong and also featured Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Colleen Camp as French maid Yvette, and Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy. Produced by Debra Hill, it infamously featured a number of different endings. Other potential film and TV adaptations have come and gone in the years since, but none has yet seen the light of day.

Emmy nominee Adam Scott (Severance) is set to star in and direct his first feature, Double Booked, alongside Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), and Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus). The story follows a successful self-help writer (Scott) and his heavily pregnant wife (Beetz) who organize a weekend away at a secluded lodge, only to encounter another couple (Brown and Daddario) at their cabin when they arrive. With a blizzard moving in they are forced to spend the night together, and what seems like an innocent system error turns into a chilling battle of deceit with deadly consequences.

A trailer was released for Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut, Blink Twice, a thriller about a waitress (Naomi Acke) being invited to the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), which is a far more sinister trip than it first appears. Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, and Kyle MacLachlan also star. Blink Twice is in theaters from August 23.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Adler Entertainment Trust (AET), the production company dedicated to adapting the works of Warren Adler, is partnering with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Todd Lieberman (The Fighter) and his production company, Hidden Pictures, on an initial two-project production deal: an untitled Fiona Fitzgerald Detective Series, based on Adler's eight-book Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery books set in the streets of Washington DC and its political backrooms, where Fiona Fitzgerald, born into an illustrious family of DC insiders, abandoned her obvious path in favor of becoming a full-time detective within the DC Metro PD; and Trans Siberian Express, an epic cold-war thriller based on Adler’s best-selling book by the same name, which follows an American cancer specialist secretly sent to Moscow to save the Soviet Politburo Chief, where he overhears a sinister plan to nuke China.

ITV's longest-running drama series, Vera, is coming to an end after 14 seasons. Based on the crime novels by Ann Cleeves, the drama stars Brenda Blethyn as the retired detective who plods along in a disheveled state but has a calculating mind, and, despite her irascible personality, cares deeply about her work and colleagues. Blethyn won the Rose d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award for her portrayal of the detective in 2021. 

Deadline reported that CBS has picked up a fifth season of The Equalizer, starring and executive produced by Queen Latifah, for 2024-25. But fans of another CBS crime drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, aren't so lucky, as the network canceled the franchise’s first female-led (Vanessa Lachey) series after three seasons. It will also be the first series in the franchise not to get a proper sendoff after a brief run, compared to its predecessors.

NBC's Law & Order: Organized Crime, is finalizing a deal for a 10-episode Season 5 renewal, relocating from NBC to sibling Peacock, with the new season streaming exclusively on the platform. The move gives the NBCUniversal streamer an original Dick Wolf drama series to go with the Wolf library and next-day runs of the company’s remaining NBC series Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, which are among the platform’s most viewed titles. Organized Crime follows SVU's Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in his return to the NYPD to work on the Organized Crime Task Force.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with journalist, broadcaster, and crime writer, Stig Abell, about his new novel, Death in a Lonely Place; working at the Press Complaints Commission; and the phenomenon of bits falling off satellites and back to Earth.

On Crime Time FM, author David Hewson chatted with Paul Burke about Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall; Venice; Shakespeare; Audible; writing the official prequel to a hit television show, and more.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers nominated for the 2024 Edgar Awards.

Agatha Ascendancy

At the awards banquet held as part of the annual Malice Domestic conference last night, the winners were announced for the 2024 Agatha Awards in six categories. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Contemporary Mystery Novel: The Weekend Retreat, by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)

Also nominated:

• Wined and Died in New Orleans, by Ellen Byron (Berkley)
• Helpless, by Annette Dashofy (Level Best)
• A Case of the Bleus, by Korina Moss (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)

Best Historical Mystery Novel: The Mistress of Bhatia House, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated:

• Death Among the Ruins, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House)
• Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, by Celeste Connally (Minotaur)
• I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)
• Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

Best First Mystery Novel: Crime and Parchment, by Daphne Silver (Level Best)

Also nominated:

• Glory Be, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus)
• The Hint of Light, by Kristin Kisska (Lake Union)
• Dutch Treat, by Josh Pachter (Genius)
• Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery Novel: The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)

Also nominated:

• Myrtle, Means and Opportunity, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
• Araña and Spiderman, by Alex Segura (Marvel Press)
• The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle, by Taryn Sounders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)
• Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Best Mystery Short Story: "Ticket to Ride," by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski (from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)

Also nominated:

• "The Knife Sharpener," by Shelley Costa (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2023)
• "A Good Judge of Character," by Tina deBellegarde (from Malice Domestic 17: Murder Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press)
• "Real Courage," by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2023)
• "Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective," by Richie Narvaez (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out)

Best Mystery Non-fiction:  Finders: Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated:

• Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder, by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
• A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press)
• Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

Criminally Good Canadians

 

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the shortlists for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 29th, 2024. Congrats to all the honorees!

2024 Grand MasterAward:  Maureen Jennings

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel

• Robyn Harding, The Drowning Woman, Grand Central Publishing
• Shari Lapena, Everyone Here is Lying, Doubleday Canada
• Scott Thornley, Middlemen, House of Anansi Press
• Sam Wiebe, Sunset and Jericho, Harbour Publishing
• Loreth Anne White, The Maid's Diary, Montlake

Best Crime First Novel

• Jann Arden, The Bittlemores, Random House Canada
• Lisa Brideau, Adrift, Sourcebooks
• Charlotte Morganti, The End Game, Halfdan Press
• Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers, Harper Perennial
• Steve Urszenyi, Perfect Shot, Minotaur

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada

• Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Almost Widow, Harper Avenue/HarperCollins
• Renee Lehnen, Elmington, Storeyline Press
• Cyndi MacMillan, Cruel Light, Crooked Lane
• Joan Thomas, Wild Hope, Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
• Melissa Yi, Shapes of Wrath, Windtree Press

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery

• Gail Bowen, The Legacy, ECW Press
• Vicki Delany, Steeped in Malice, Kensington Books
• Vicki Delany, The Game is a Footnote, Crooked Lane Books
• Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest, Viking
• Iona Whishaw, To Track a Traitor, TouchWood Editions

Best Crime Short Story

• M.H. Callway, "Wisteria Cottage," Wildside Press (for Malice Domestic)
• Marcelle Dubé, "Reversion," Mystery Magazine
• Mary Keenan "The Canadians," Killin' Time in San Diego, Down & Out Books
• Donalee Moulton, "Troubled Water," Black Cat Weekly, Wildside Press
• Zandra Renwick, "American Night," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

• Jean-Philippe Bernié, La punition, Glénat Québec
• Chrystine Brouillet, Le mois des morts, Éditions Druide
• Catherine Lafrance, Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, Éditions Druide
• André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
• Jean-Jacques Pelletier, Rien, Alire

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book

• Kelley Armstrong, Someone is Always Watching, Tundra Books
• Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books
• Rachelle Delaney, The Big Sting, Tundra Books
• Clara Kumagai, Catfish Rolling, Penguin Teen Canada
• Kevin Sands, Champions of the Fox, Puffin Canada

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime  

• Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin, The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press
• David Rabinovitch, Jukebox Empire, Rowman & Littlefield
• Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen, Cheated, ECW Press
• Carolyn Whitzman, Clara at the Door with a Revolver, UBC Press, On Point Press

Best Unpublished Crime Novel

• Tom Blackwell, The Patient
• Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
• Sheilla Jones and James Burns, Murder on Richmond Road: An Enquiry Bureau Mystery
• Nora Sellers, The Forest Beyond
• William Wodhams, Thirty Feet Under

Friday's Forgotten Books: The Spoilt Kill

Mary Theresa Coolican Kelly (1927-2017) was born in London but ended up a Scotland gal. She received an M.A. degree from University of Edinburgh in 1951, married Dennis Charles Kelly in 1950, and became a teacher. Her first mystery series featured Inspector Brett Nightingale of Scotland, starting with A Cold Coming in 1956. But after only three entries in that series, she switched to a series with freelance detective, Hedley Nicholson, as protagonist, with the first installment, The Spoilt Kill, earning the Gold Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association in 1961. She was also a member of the Detection Club and served as secretary..

Apparently, starting on a new literary track worked well for her, because after only two books in the Hedley Nicholson series, she switched to standalone novels, the first three (beginning with March to the Gallows) all nominated for the Gold Dagger in 1964, 1966 and 1969. She also tried her hand at a short story in 1971, "Judgment," chosen for inclusion in 1984's anthology The Best Crime Stories published by Hamlyn, putting in her the same company as Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, in 1974 she stopped writing for good.

In The Spoilt Kill, P.I. Nicholson is hired to discover who is copying new pottery designs from the Shentall Pottery Company of Stoke-on-Trent and selling them to foreign competitors. It seems fairly straightforward until a body is found in a closed "kill" (local dialect for "kiln") filled with liquid clay. Nicholson soon finds himself falling for the chief suspect in both crimes, talented designer Corina Wakefield, the only employee not native to the area—who also has a drinking problem and a failed marriage that turns out to be relevant to the case..

Kelly structures the plot to start off with the discovery of the body in the first section ("What Happened"), just one chapter, in essence a prologue, then doubles back to a prequel of events ("What Happened Before") in the middle section, before returning to the denouement in part three's "What Happened After." The author does a nice job of immersing the reader into the atmospheric setting of the industrial area in the Midlands and of the pottery world, with passages such as the following:

"...A row of bottle kilns blocking the gap between blackened brick buildings, and beyond them a factory chimney and the peak of a slag heap, wraiths even in the middle distance. There was no far distance, only a grey blankness of cleaned smoke mixed with the drizzle that seeped from low-lying clouds."

Kelly had a foot in the very end of the Golden Age of detective fiction, and was a somewhat rare example of a female British writer penning a professional male private eye at the time. As such, Spoilt Kill has the feel of a hybrid cozy/traditional mystery blended with the P.I. form. Some may quibble that Kelly doesn't quite nail the male first-person POV all the time, and the ending a tad telescoped, but the characters are well drawn and engaging, and the true mystery Kelly portrays is the psychological puzzle underlying human relationships.

Mary Theresa Coolican Kelly (1927-2017) was born in London but ended up a Scotland gal. She received an M.A. degree from University of Edinburgh in 1951, married Dennis Charles Kelly in 1950, and became a teacher. Her first mystery series featured Inspector Brett Nightingale of Scotland, starting with A Cold Coming in 1956. But after only three entries in that series, she switched to a series with freelance detective, Hedley Nicholson, as protagonist, with the first installment, The Spoilt Kill, earning the Gold Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association in 1961. She was also a member of the Detection Club and served as secretary..

Apparently, starting on a new literary track worked well for her, because after only two books in the Hedley Nicholson series, she switched to standalone novels, the first three (beginning with March to the Gallows) all nominated for the Gold Dagger in 1964, 1966 and 1969. She also tried her hand at a short story in 1971, "Judgment," chosen for inclusion in 1984's anthology The Best Crime Stories published by Hamlyn, putting in her the same company as Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, in 1974 she stopped writing for good.

In The Spoilt Kill, P.I. Nicholson is hired to discover who is copying new pottery designs from the Shentall Pottery Company of Stoke-on-Trent and selling them to foreign competitors. It seems fairly straightforward until a body is found in a closed "kill" (local dialect for "kiln") filled with liquid clay. Nicholson soon finds himself falling for the chief suspect in both crimes, talented designer Corina Wakefield, the only employee not native to the area—who also has a drinking problem and a failed marriage that turns out to be relevant to the case..

Kelly structures the plot to start off with the discovery of the body in the first section ("What Happened"), just one chapter, in essence a prologue, then doubles back to a prequel of events ("What Happened Before") in the middle section, before returning to the denouement in part three's "What Happened After." The author does a nice job of immersing the reader into the atmospheric setting of the industrial area in the Midlands and of the pottery world, with passages such as the following:

"...A row of bottle kilns blocking the gap between blackened brick buildings, and beyond them a factory chimney and the peak of a slag heap, wraiths even in the middle distance. There was no far distance, only a grey blankness of cleaned smoke mixed with the drizzle that seeped from low-lying clouds."

Kelly had a foot in the very end of the Golden Age of detective fiction, and was a somewhat rare example of a female British writer penning a professional male private eye at the time. As such, Spoilt Kill has the feel of a hybrid cozy/traditional mystery blended with the P.I. form. Some may quibble that Kelly doesn't quite nail the male first-person POV all the time, and the ending a tad telescoped, but the characters are well drawn and engaging, and the true mystery Kelly portrays is the psychological puzzle underlying human relationships.

Mystery Melange

Ivy Pochoda has won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category for her novel, Sing Her Down. The story takes place in the shadows of L.A.’s homeless camps, run-down motels, and dark alleys, following women who have turned — for various reasons — to a life of crime. As noted in the LA Times, the judges, including Alex Segura, Wanda Morris, and mystery fiction critic Oline Cogdill, wrote, "Pochoda brilliantly explores her characters and this setting, while sifting through myriad literary tropes, including allusions to Macbeth, mythology, even a bit of a Greek chorus." The other finalists in this year's competition in that category included Dark Ride, by Lou Berney (Morrow); Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland); All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron); and Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton).

The Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans announced winners of the annual Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, established in 2012 for women writers to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley (1952-2012), a longtime crime fiction columnist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune. The Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work, which honors an established woman writer who has created a significant body of work in crime fiction, was awarded to Alafair Burke. Margot Douaihy was also honored with the 2023 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for Scorched Grace, while Sascha Rothchild is the winner of the 2022 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for her first book, Blood Sugar.

I previously noted the longlists that were announced this past weekend for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, but the CW also announced the longlist for this year’s Margery Allingham Short Mystery competition. Stories must be under 3,500 words and follow the spirit of Allingham's rule that "The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it."  

Noir at the Bar Edinburgh takes place this evening at the Canon Gait Pub, 232 Canongate,Edinburgh, from 6:30-8:00 pm (2:30-4pm ET). Authors scheduled to read from their works include Doug A Sinclair, Alex Nye, Brian Stewart, Ken Lussey, Michael Mackenzie, Fiona Veitch Smith, Jess Faraday, and Traude Ailinger.

Ashley Audrain and Conor Kerr are among the authors announced for this year's MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival, presented by the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA). The event will take place June 7 to 9, 2024 at Harbourfront Centre and online. Other notable writers in attendance are American Canadian writer Linwood Barclay and Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings. Kicking off MOTIVE, there will be a special pre-Festival "in conversation" with best-selling British author Clare Mackintosh on April 29 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

The estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has approved a new novel from thriller writer Gareth Rubin that will focus on Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes's greatest nemesis, endorsing Rubin’s book, Holmes and Moriarty, as a worthy successor. "Gareth has drawn these characters very well, including Colonel Moran, who is key to this story," said Richard Pooley, Conan Doyle’s step-great-grandson. "Moran was once described by Holmes as ‘the second most dangerous man in London’, and he tells half of this new mystery. As Moriarty’s right-hand man, he only crops up in a couple of original Holmes stories, I believe." Pooley suspects that Moran, "a young guy," could now spawn his own series, adding that there is potential too, in the other Doyle character Professor Challenger, as well as in the boxer, Stone.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed James M. Jackson about Hijacked Legacy, his eighth Seamus McCree novel, for the Writers Who Kill blog; novelist Kirsten Weiss chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new metaphysical mystery, Legacy of the Witch; and Publishers Weekly welcomed Stacey Lee, who returns to her historical YA roots with the new murder mystery novel Kill Her Twice, which takes place in 1932 Chinatown Los Angeles.

Theakston Delights

The longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 was announced today. Readers are now invited to vote for their favorite novels to reach the shortlist, to be announced on June 13, with the winner revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, July 18. The Award is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and Daily Express, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024.

The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 longlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is:

• The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus; Little, Brown Book Group)
• In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Close by Jane Casey (Harper Fiction; Harper Collins)
• The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan)
• Fearless by M W Craven (Constable; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville; John Murray Press)
• Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Zaffre, Bonnier)
• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell (Century; Cornerstone)
• Conviction by Jack Jordan (Simon & Schuster)
• A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason (riverrun; Quercus)
• Past Lying by Val McDermid (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland)
• The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan Macmillan)
• The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph; Penguin Random House)
• You Can Run by Trevor Wood (Quercus)

 

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Sony’s 3000 Pictures has set Justin Kuritzkes to adapt City on Fire, the first of a bestselling novel trilogy by Don Winslow that is being developed as a star vehicle for Austin Butler. Winslow’s swan song trilogy – the final installment City in Ruins is just landing on the bestseller lists after being published by William Morrow – is a modern retelling of the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and Greek tragic dramas set in the world of contemporary crime. Kuritzkes will start at the beginning, a struggle between two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of New England, until a modern-day Helen of Troy tears them apart and starts a brutal war. Butler will play the main character, Danny Ryan, who is forced to grow from a street soldier into a ruthlessly efficient leader to protect his friends, his family and the home he loves.

Park Chan-wook is developing his acclaimed film Oldboy for the first time as an English-language series in partnership with Lionsgate Television. Park, who directed and co-wrote the original film, is set to produce the series alongside producing partner Syd Lim. The 2003 feature was an adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name written by Garon Tsuchiya and follows Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a man taken off the streets and imprisoned in a cell that resembles a hotel room for fifteen years, without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence as he seeks revenge against his enigmatic captor.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Noah Jupe, who is starring opposite Michael Douglas in the Apple TV+ Benjamin Franklin biopic, is leading a TV drama adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s cult classic, Engleby. Jupe will play the titular character, an enigmatic outsider who graduates from 1970s campus life to 1980s Fleet Street and beyond – haunted all the while by an unsolved mystery involving a friend and fellow student from his university days. The six-part drama is described as a "quintessential British murder mystery meets acute psychological character study, with a healthy dose of dark wit." Michael Keillor, who is helming the upcoming BBC/Netflix drama on the Lockerbie disaster, is directing, and Channel 4-backed production outfit Freedom Scripted is producing, although no network is attached as of yet.

Miss Scarlet wasn’t left alone for long, after Stuart Martin, who played William "The Duke" Wellington in the previous four seasons of the historical crime series, Miss Scarlet and The Duke, opted not to return for season five. Tom Durant Pritchard (The Crown) has joined the cast of the MASTERPIECE drama, playing Alexander Blake, a handsome former soldier and respected detective inspector who joins the force at Scotland Yard after Wellington's departure. He’s not particularly shocked by a woman working as a private eye, so Eliza takes this to mean she’ll be given more cases. But their relationship gets off to a rocky start since Blake has decided not to allow private detectives to aid in his investigations. As Blake and Miss Scarlet cross paths at various crime scenes across London, they can’t help but develop mutual respect for one another, and perhaps even an attraction.

ABC has renewed the Nathan Fillion drama, The Rookie, for a seventh season. Nathan Fillion stars as John Nolan, a man in his forties, who becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department. Other cast members include Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Wade Grey, Melissa O’Neil as Lucy Chen, Eric Winter as Tim Bradford, Jenna Dewan as Bailey Nune, Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers, Tru Valentino as Aaron Thorsen, and Lisseth Chavez as Celina Juarez. The Rookie airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC, and streams next day on Hulu.

CBS has renewed the freshman series Elsbeth for the 2024-2025 season. The series follows the titular Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), who first appeared in The Good Wife and later in The Good Fight spinoff, an "astute but unconventional attorney who utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD following her successful career in Chicago." Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson round out the series' regular cast as Captain Wagner and Kaya Blanke, respectively.

One show that won't be returning is CSI: Vegas, with the network giving the drama the axe after three seasons. A follow-up to the 2000 CSI series, CSI: Vegas launched with original cast members William Petersen and Jorja Fox reprising their CSI roles in Season 1. The sequel’s current cast includes fellow original star Marg Helgenberger, who joined in Season 2, Paula Newsome, Mandeep Dhillon, Matt Lauria, Ariana Guerra, Jay Lee, and Lex Medlin.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! released its first trailer for the ninth season of Grantchester, which premieres Sunday, June 16 at 9/8c ET. The new season is set in 1961 and sees the poignant departure of Rev. Will Davenport (Tom Brittany) and the arrival of Rev. Alphy Kotteram (Rishi Nair).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Juiie Anderson chatted with Paul Burke about her latest thriller, The MIdnight Man, the first book in a new historical crime series; Whitehall machinations; the birth of the NHS; the Clapham Literary Festival; The South London Women & Children's Hospital; the locked room mystery; and old British movies.

This week's episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Len Joy to discuss his novel, Dry Heat, and other writings.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Brian J. Morra, who spent his career in intelligence and national security, about his series, "The Able Archers," including the latest installment, The Righteous Arrows.

The Cops and Writers podcast traveled to San Francisco and the home of Fisherman’s Wharf, The Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and of course, Alcatraz, to chat with the City of San Francisco Police Sergeant and bestselling author, Adam Plantinga.

TG Wolff and Jack Wolff, the hosts of Mysteries To Die For Podcast, stormed the Wrong Place Write Crime studios and took over for an episode. Check out their interview with a mystery guest you may know.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers nominated for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

The Pick Your Poison podcast took a look at the animal called the most venomous in the world, discussed if pee is an effective antidote, and how pantyhose makes swimming safer.