After returning home from a weekend spent out of town and away from my computer, I am just catching up with this news: “Lois Duncan and James Ellroy have been chosen as the 2015 Grand Masters by Mystery Writers of America (MWA). MWA’s Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Ms. Duncan and Mr. Ellroy will be presented with their awards at the Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.” Read more in Shotsmag Confidential and Crime Watch.
In addition, the recipients of two Raven Awards (“recogniz[ing] outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing”) have been announced. Jon and Ruth Jordan, co-founders of Crimespree Magazine, will receive one of those prizes. The other will go to Kathryn Kennison, founder of the Midwestern mystery-fiction conference Magna Cum Murder.
Finally, Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai has won the MWA’s 2015 Ellery Queen Award, which honors “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.”
Showing posts with label Awards 2014. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Awards 2014. Show all posts
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Sunday, December 07, 2014
Orchids Blooming Everywhere
During its Black Orchid Banquet, held last evening in New York City, the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin fan organization, The Wolfe Pack, announced that the winner of its 2014 Nero Award is Murder as a Fine Art, by David Morrell (Mulholland). This commendation is given out annually “for the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.”
Morrell’s historical thriller beat out four other novels to capture this year’s Nero: Ask Not, by Max Allan Collins (Forge); Three Can Keep a Secret, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur); A Study in Revenge, by Kieran Shields (Crown); and A Question of Honor, by Charles Todd (Morrow).
Also in the course of Saturday night’s Manhattan banquet, the Black Orchid Novella Award was presented to K.G. McAbee for “Dyed to Death.” The Black Orchid is sponsored jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Morrell’s historical thriller beat out four other novels to capture this year’s Nero: Ask Not, by Max Allan Collins (Forge); Three Can Keep a Secret, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur); A Study in Revenge, by Kieran Shields (Crown); and A Question of Honor, by Charles Todd (Morrow).
Also in the course of Saturday night’s Manhattan banquet, the Black Orchid Novella Award was presented to K.G. McAbee for “Dyed to Death.” The Black Orchid is sponsored jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Friday, December 05, 2014
Check Out Bolton’s Victory
Sharon Bolton has won the British Crime Writers’ Association’s 2014 Dagger in the Library award, according to The Gumshoe Site. This prize honors “an author’s body of work to date, rather than a single title and an author must have published three books to be eligible for the award.” Bolton’s latest novel is A Dark and Twisted Tide, which was released in the States this last June by Minotaur Books.
A longlist of 10 contenders was announced in mid-September. Those nominees were pared down to five by early November. Bolton, a Transworld author in the UK, ultimately beat out Elly Griffiths (Quercus), Mari Hannah (Pan), James Oswald (Michael Joseph), and Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer) to capture the Dagger in the Library.
Last year’s winner of this commendation was Belinda Bauer.
READ MORE: “2014 Dagger in the Library Winner,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential).
A longlist of 10 contenders was announced in mid-September. Those nominees were pared down to five by early November. Bolton, a Transworld author in the UK, ultimately beat out Elly Griffiths (Quercus), Mari Hannah (Pan), James Oswald (Michael Joseph), and Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer) to capture the Dagger in the Library.
Last year’s winner of this commendation was Belinda Bauer.
READ MORE: “2014 Dagger in the Library Winner,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential).
Friday, November 28, 2014
Can the Casting Begin Now?
Namibian-born Zirk van den Berg “scooped a 2014 KykNET Report Book Prize in South Africa last week for the recent Afrikaans translation of his acclaimed debut thriller, Nobody Dies, which was first published in English in New Zealand ten years ago,” reports Craig Sisterson of Crime Watch. “Van den Berg won the film category of the prestigious awards, which offer a total prize money of 500,000 rand in three categories: literary fiction, non-fiction, and book with the most film potential.” Sisterson adds: “Having read the English language version of Nobody Dies, I can heartily agree that it is a book that very well could make for an excellent film, with terrific visuals, action sequences, twisting plot and intriguing hero.”
Monday, November 24, 2014
Bullet Points: Run-up to Thanksgiving Edition
Having finally come down from all the excitement at Bouchercon in Long Beach, and after putting the last touches on a couple of unexpectedly challenging editorial assignments, I am ready for a wrap-up of recent crime-fiction news. How about you?
• Publishers Weekly has posted a list of its critics’ 12 favorite mystery and thriller novels from 2014. They are:
-- The Black-Eyed Blonde, by Benjamin Black (Holt)
-- Memory of Flames, by Armand Cabasson (Gallic)
-- Sting of the Drone, by Richard A. Clarke (St. Martin’s/Dunne)
-- The Sweetness of Life, by Paulus Hochgatterer (MacLehose Press)
-- The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson (Mariner)
-- The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica (Mira)
-- The Iron Sickle, by Martin Limón (Soho Crime)
-- The Forgers, by Bradford Morrow (Mysterious Press)
-- Desperate, by Daniel Palmer (Kensington)
-- Soul of the Fire, by Eliot Pattison (Minotaur)
-- The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)
-- The Martian, by Andy Weir (Crown)
• Crime Fiction Lover chooses its “Top 10 Crime Debuts of 2014,” including Someone Else’s Skin, by Sarah Hilary; Spring Tide, by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind; and The Lying Down Room, by Anna Jaquiery.
• With the American version of Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, check out this list in Mystery Fanfare of crime fiction related to the occasion. Who knows, you might like to pick up a copy of Kate Borden’s Death of a Turkey or Rex Stout’s Too Many Cooks to while away the time as you wait for your holiday feast to be done.
• Former Norwegian police investigator-turned-author Jǿrn Lier Horst has won the 2014 Martin Beck Award for The Hunting Dogs (Sandstone Press), his third English-translated police procedural starring William Wisting. The Martin Beck Award is presented annually by the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy (Svenska Deckarakademin) for the best crime novel in translation. Last year, The Hunting Dogs won the Glass Key Award from the Crime Writers of Scandinavia. Maybe it’s time I actually found a copy of that novel and sat down to read it.
• Several additions have been made in recent days to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page, including the video embedded above: the opening title sequence from Tropical Heat, a 1991-1993 Canadian action-adventure series starring Rob Stewart as an ex-DEA agent turned Florida gumshoe. Other new clips include the introductions from Cool Million, Shell Game, and Jigsaw John.
• Can you dig it? Author and sometime Rap Sheet writer Gary Phillips dropped me a note over the weekend, saying that he and David Walker--the latter of whom is writing the new Shaft comic-book series for Dynamite Entertainment--“are putting together the first-ever anthology of [John] Shaft short stories … set in the ’70s of course.” As somebody who, over the years, has developed an unexpected fondness for Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft series, I look forward to seeing that black private eye’s return in any form possible.
• A recent interview with David Walker can be heard here.
• Jake Hinkson, author of The Big Ugly and a regular contributor to Criminal Element, has kicked off a new succession of posts for that blog about “standalone novels by mystery writers who are better known for their big-time franchise characters.” Hinkson begins his series with a look back at I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman’s noirish thriller, published in 2010.
• Are you in the mood for an “oddball detective book”? Jeff Somers showcases five such works--by Thomas Pynchon, Isaac Asimov, and others--in this piece for the B&N Book Blog.
• This qualifies as good news: Despite doubts voiced by many people, the TV series Longmire--inspired by Craig Johnson’s acclaimed series of novels and starring Robert Taylor as Wyoming county sheriff Walt Longmire--will return for a fourth season. This, after A&E cancelled the show in August. ComingSoon.net reports that Netflix has ordered “ten new episodes of the series [to] premiere exclusively in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand in 2015.” It adds: “Season four of Longmire picks up moments after season three’s exciting finale. Longmire, having found out who was behind the murder of his wife, succumbs to his darker impulses and takes off in pursuit of the killer with murder on his mind. Meanwhile, Branch Connally ([played by Bailey] Chase), the deputy who Walt fired for erratic, violent behavior, believes he has already figured out who the real culprit is. But during his confrontation with this suspected killer, a gun goes off. Now the audience will finally learn what happened, and whether Walt can be stopped before he makes a fatal choice.”
• Did you know that independent bookstores across the United States will celebrate Small Business Saturday on November 29 by hosting author and illustrator appearances--just in time for holiday gift-buying? A state-by-state listing of participating shops can be found here. I’m pleased to see that my local bookseller, Phinney Books, is among those taking part. (Hat tip to Life, Death and Fog.)
• Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-off series starring Bob Odenkirk, will be given a two-night debut on February 8 and 9 of next year, after which it will settle into its Monday time slot on AMC-TV.
• What’s your favorite John Dickson Carr mystery?
• A couple of interviews worth reading: Clinton Greaves talks with Roger Smith, South African author of Man Down, while Omnimystery News chats with Les Roberts about his new novel, Wet Work.
• If the short-lived, 1972-1973 TV series Madigan, starring Richard Widmark (an early element of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie “wheel series”), is available in a DVD set from Amazon France, why is it still not for sale in the States?
• Winners of the 2014 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards are to be declared this coming Wednesday, November 26. Among the nominees are six works competing for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Declan Burke reacquaints us with those contenders here, and then suggests eight other “tremendous novels published that didn’t, for various reasons, feature on the shortlist”--among them Adrian McKinty’s The Sun Is God and Conor Fitzgerald’s Bitter Remedy.
• This last weekend’s Iceland Noir conference in Reykjavik received some important coverage from the blog Crime Fiction Lover. An overview can be found here, but look also for CFL’s post about new authors who took part in the event and this item about “a tour guided by Iceland’s own queen of crime, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, to the west of the island and out onto the Snaefellsnes peninsula.” You’ll find links to all of CFL’s Iceland Noir articles here.
• Are you ready for Cozy Crime Week, December 8-13?
• And “after about ten years of work, and a year-and-a-half online serialization,” the Webcomic Gravedigger is done--“at least for now,” says its writer, Christopher Mills. “‘Digger’ McCrae will probably be back, though. He’s a tough sonuvabitch. I’m already talking to publishers about print editions and digital download versions of both ‘The Predators’ and ‘The Scavengers,’ and I’m hopeful that we’ll be seeing said versions sometime soon.” In the meantime, if you missed any of the 49 chapters of “The Predators,” put together by Mills and illustrator Rick Burchett, you can still find them online, beginning here. “The Scavengers” is still available, too, beginning here.
• Publishers Weekly has posted a list of its critics’ 12 favorite mystery and thriller novels from 2014. They are:
-- The Black-Eyed Blonde, by Benjamin Black (Holt)
-- Memory of Flames, by Armand Cabasson (Gallic)
-- Sting of the Drone, by Richard A. Clarke (St. Martin’s/Dunne)
-- The Sweetness of Life, by Paulus Hochgatterer (MacLehose Press)
-- The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson (Mariner)
-- The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica (Mira)
-- The Iron Sickle, by Martin Limón (Soho Crime)
-- The Forgers, by Bradford Morrow (Mysterious Press)
-- Desperate, by Daniel Palmer (Kensington)
-- Soul of the Fire, by Eliot Pattison (Minotaur)
-- The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)
-- The Martian, by Andy Weir (Crown)
• Crime Fiction Lover chooses its “Top 10 Crime Debuts of 2014,” including Someone Else’s Skin, by Sarah Hilary; Spring Tide, by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind; and The Lying Down Room, by Anna Jaquiery.
• With the American version of Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday, check out this list in Mystery Fanfare of crime fiction related to the occasion. Who knows, you might like to pick up a copy of Kate Borden’s Death of a Turkey or Rex Stout’s Too Many Cooks to while away the time as you wait for your holiday feast to be done.
• Former Norwegian police investigator-turned-author Jǿrn Lier Horst has won the 2014 Martin Beck Award for The Hunting Dogs (Sandstone Press), his third English-translated police procedural starring William Wisting. The Martin Beck Award is presented annually by the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy (Svenska Deckarakademin) for the best crime novel in translation. Last year, The Hunting Dogs won the Glass Key Award from the Crime Writers of Scandinavia. Maybe it’s time I actually found a copy of that novel and sat down to read it.
• Several additions have been made in recent days to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page, including the video embedded above: the opening title sequence from Tropical Heat, a 1991-1993 Canadian action-adventure series starring Rob Stewart as an ex-DEA agent turned Florida gumshoe. Other new clips include the introductions from Cool Million, Shell Game, and Jigsaw John.
• Can you dig it? Author and sometime Rap Sheet writer Gary Phillips dropped me a note over the weekend, saying that he and David Walker--the latter of whom is writing the new Shaft comic-book series for Dynamite Entertainment--“are putting together the first-ever anthology of [John] Shaft short stories … set in the ’70s of course.” As somebody who, over the years, has developed an unexpected fondness for Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft series, I look forward to seeing that black private eye’s return in any form possible.
• A recent interview with David Walker can be heard here.
• Jake Hinkson, author of The Big Ugly and a regular contributor to Criminal Element, has kicked off a new succession of posts for that blog about “standalone novels by mystery writers who are better known for their big-time franchise characters.” Hinkson begins his series with a look back at I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman’s noirish thriller, published in 2010.
• Are you in the mood for an “oddball detective book”? Jeff Somers showcases five such works--by Thomas Pynchon, Isaac Asimov, and others--in this piece for the B&N Book Blog.
• This qualifies as good news: Despite doubts voiced by many people, the TV series Longmire--inspired by Craig Johnson’s acclaimed series of novels and starring Robert Taylor as Wyoming county sheriff Walt Longmire--will return for a fourth season. This, after A&E cancelled the show in August. ComingSoon.net reports that Netflix has ordered “ten new episodes of the series [to] premiere exclusively in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand in 2015.” It adds: “Season four of Longmire picks up moments after season three’s exciting finale. Longmire, having found out who was behind the murder of his wife, succumbs to his darker impulses and takes off in pursuit of the killer with murder on his mind. Meanwhile, Branch Connally ([played by Bailey] Chase), the deputy who Walt fired for erratic, violent behavior, believes he has already figured out who the real culprit is. But during his confrontation with this suspected killer, a gun goes off. Now the audience will finally learn what happened, and whether Walt can be stopped before he makes a fatal choice.”
• Did you know that independent bookstores across the United States will celebrate Small Business Saturday on November 29 by hosting author and illustrator appearances--just in time for holiday gift-buying? A state-by-state listing of participating shops can be found here. I’m pleased to see that my local bookseller, Phinney Books, is among those taking part. (Hat tip to Life, Death and Fog.)
• Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-off series starring Bob Odenkirk, will be given a two-night debut on February 8 and 9 of next year, after which it will settle into its Monday time slot on AMC-TV.
• What’s your favorite John Dickson Carr mystery?
• A couple of interviews worth reading: Clinton Greaves talks with Roger Smith, South African author of Man Down, while Omnimystery News chats with Les Roberts about his new novel, Wet Work.
• If the short-lived, 1972-1973 TV series Madigan, starring Richard Widmark (an early element of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie “wheel series”), is available in a DVD set from Amazon France, why is it still not for sale in the States?
• Winners of the 2014 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards are to be declared this coming Wednesday, November 26. Among the nominees are six works competing for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Declan Burke reacquaints us with those contenders here, and then suggests eight other “tremendous novels published that didn’t, for various reasons, feature on the shortlist”--among them Adrian McKinty’s The Sun Is God and Conor Fitzgerald’s Bitter Remedy.
• This last weekend’s Iceland Noir conference in Reykjavik received some important coverage from the blog Crime Fiction Lover. An overview can be found here, but look also for CFL’s post about new authors who took part in the event and this item about “a tour guided by Iceland’s own queen of crime, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, to the west of the island and out onto the Snaefellsnes peninsula.” You’ll find links to all of CFL’s Iceland Noir articles here.
• Are you ready for Cozy Crime Week, December 8-13?
• And “after about ten years of work, and a year-and-a-half online serialization,” the Webcomic Gravedigger is done--“at least for now,” says its writer, Christopher Mills. “‘Digger’ McCrae will probably be back, though. He’s a tough sonuvabitch. I’m already talking to publishers about print editions and digital download versions of both ‘The Predators’ and ‘The Scavengers,’ and I’m hopeful that we’ll be seeing said versions sometime soon.” In the meantime, if you missed any of the 49 chapters of “The Predators,” put together by Mills and illustrator Rick Burchett, you can still find them online, beginning here. “The Scavengers” is still available, too, beginning here.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Anthonys on Parade
My wife and I spent this evening enjoying a wonderful dinner elsewhere in Long Beach with my cousin and his wife. But Rap Sheet correspondent Ali Karim was on hand at the 2014 Anthony Awards presentation to record the winners. A vote by conference attendees determined who should receive these commendations.
Best Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: Suspect, by Robert Crais (Putnam); A Cold and Lonely Place, by Sara J. Henry (Crown); The Wrong Girl, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Through the Evil Days, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur)
Best First Novel: Yesterday’s Echo, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
Also nominated: Ghostman, by Roger Hobbs (Knopf); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberly McCreight (HarperCollins); and The Hard Bounce, by Todd Robinson (Tyrus)
Best Paperback Original Novel: As She Left It, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
Also nominated: The Big Reap, by Chris F. Holm (Angry Robot); Purgatory Key, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink); Joyland, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime); and The Wicked Girls, by Alex Marwood (Penguin)
Best Short Story: “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (The Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: “Dead End,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Untreed Reads); “Annie and the Grateful Dead,” by Denise Dietz (from The Sound and the Furry, edited by Denise Dietz and Lillian Stewart Carl; Amazon Digital); “Incident on the 405,” by Travis Richardson (from The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey; St. Martin’s Press); and “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants,” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)
Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work: The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by Maria Konnikova (Viking); The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines, by Cate Lineberry (Little, Brown); All the Wild Children, by Josh Stallings (Snubnose Press); and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, edited by Sarah Weinman (Penguin)
Best Children’s or Young Adult Novel: The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau (Houghton Mifflin)
Also nominated: Escape Theory, by Margaux Froley (Soho Teen); Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein (Random House); Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy, by Elizabeth Kiem (Soho Teen); and The Code Busters Club: Mystery of the Pirate’s Treasure, by Penny Warner (Edgmont USA)
Best Television Episode Teleplay (First Aired in 2013): The Blacklist, “Pilot,” teleplay by Jon Bokenkamp (Davis Entertainment, NBC)
Also nominated: The Fall, “Dark Descent,” teleplay by Allan Cubitt (Netflix Original); Breaking Bad, “Felina,” teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC); The Following, “Pilot,” teleplay by Kevin Williamson (Fox/Warner Bros. Television); and Justified, “Hole in the Wall,” teleplay by Graham Yost (Fox/Warner Bros. Television)
Best Audiobook: The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette)
Also nominated: Crescendo, by Deborah J, Ledford, read by Christina Cox (Audible); Man in the Empty Suit, by Sean Ferrell, read by Mauro Hantman (AudioGO); Death and the Lit Chick, by G.M. Malliet, read by Davina Porter (Dreamscape); and Hour of the Rat, by Lisa Brackmann, read by Tracy Sallows (Audible)
In addition, this year’s David S. Thompson Special Service Award was presented to Judy Bobalik.
Congratulations to all of the winners as well as the other nominees.
Best Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: Suspect, by Robert Crais (Putnam); A Cold and Lonely Place, by Sara J. Henry (Crown); The Wrong Girl, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge); and Through the Evil Days, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur)
Best First Novel: Yesterday’s Echo, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)
Also nominated: Ghostman, by Roger Hobbs (Knopf); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberly McCreight (HarperCollins); and The Hard Bounce, by Todd Robinson (Tyrus)
Best Paperback Original Novel: As She Left It, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)
Also nominated: The Big Reap, by Chris F. Holm (Angry Robot); Purgatory Key, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink); Joyland, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime); and The Wicked Girls, by Alex Marwood (Penguin)
Best Short Story: “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (The Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: “Dead End,” by Craig Faustus Buck (Untreed Reads); “Annie and the Grateful Dead,” by Denise Dietz (from The Sound and the Furry, edited by Denise Dietz and Lillian Stewart Carl; Amazon Digital); “Incident on the 405,” by Travis Richardson (from The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey; St. Martin’s Press); and “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants,” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)
Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work: The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, by Maria Konnikova (Viking); The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines, by Cate Lineberry (Little, Brown); All the Wild Children, by Josh Stallings (Snubnose Press); and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, edited by Sarah Weinman (Penguin)
Best Children’s or Young Adult Novel: The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau (Houghton Mifflin)
Also nominated: Escape Theory, by Margaux Froley (Soho Teen); Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein (Random House); Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy, by Elizabeth Kiem (Soho Teen); and The Code Busters Club: Mystery of the Pirate’s Treasure, by Penny Warner (Edgmont USA)
Best Television Episode Teleplay (First Aired in 2013): The Blacklist, “Pilot,” teleplay by Jon Bokenkamp (Davis Entertainment, NBC)
Also nominated: The Fall, “Dark Descent,” teleplay by Allan Cubitt (Netflix Original); Breaking Bad, “Felina,” teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC); The Following, “Pilot,” teleplay by Kevin Williamson (Fox/Warner Bros. Television); and Justified, “Hole in the Wall,” teleplay by Graham Yost (Fox/Warner Bros. Television)
Best Audiobook: The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette)
Also nominated: Crescendo, by Deborah J, Ledford, read by Christina Cox (Audible); Man in the Empty Suit, by Sean Ferrell, read by Mauro Hantman (AudioGO); Death and the Lit Chick, by G.M. Malliet, read by Davina Porter (Dreamscape); and Hour of the Rat, by Lisa Brackmann, read by Tracy Sallows (Audible)
In addition, this year’s David S. Thompson Special Service Award was presented to Judy Bobalik.
Congratulations to all of the winners as well as the other nominees.
Eyes Front and Center
Last night, during a banquet ceremony held in Long Beach, California, Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins played masters of ceremonies for the presentation of this year’s Shamus Awards, given out by the Private Eye Writers of America. The winners were:
Best Hardcover P.I. Novel:
The Good Cop, by Brad Parks (Minotaur)
Also nominated: Little Elvises, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime); The Mojito Coast, by Richard Helms (Five Star); W Is for Wasted, by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Putnam); and Nemesis, by Bill Pronzini (Forge)
Best First P.I. Novel:
Bear Is Broken, by Lachlan Smith
(Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: A Good Death, by Christopher R. Cox (Minotaur); Montana, by Gwen Florio (Permanent Press); Blood Orange, by Karen Keskinen (Minotaur); and Loyalty, by Ingrid Thoft (Putnam)
Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel:
Heart of Ice, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)
Also nominated: Seduction of the Innocent, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); Into the Dark, by Alison Gaylin (HarperCollins); Purgatory Key, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink); and The Honky Tonk Big Hoss Boogie, by Robert J. Randisi (Perfect Crime)
Best P.I. Short Story:
“So Long, Chief,” by Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2013)
Also nominated: “The Ace I,” by Jack Fredrickson (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], June 2013); “What We Do,” by Mick Herron (EQMM, September-October 2013); “Extra Fries,” by Michael Z. Lewin (EQMM, May 2013): and “The Lethal Leeteg,” by Hayford Peirce (EQMM, August 2013)
Best Indie P.I. Novel:
Don’t Dare a Dame, by M. Ruth Myers (Tuesday House)
Also nominated: Murder Take Three, by April Kelly and Marsha Lyons (Flight Risk); A Small Sacrifice, by Dana King (Amazon Digital); No Pat Hands, by J.J. Lamb (Two Black Sheep); and State vs. Lassiter, by Paul Levine (CreateSpace)
In addition, fictional private eye Kinsey Millhone (the star of Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries) was given the Hammer Award, and Grant Bywater won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press First Novel Award for The Red Storm.
Best Hardcover P.I. Novel:
Also nominated: Little Elvises, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime); The Mojito Coast, by Richard Helms (Five Star); W Is for Wasted, by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Putnam); and Nemesis, by Bill Pronzini (Forge)
Best First P.I. Novel:
Bear Is Broken, by Lachlan Smith
(Mysterious Press)
Also nominated: A Good Death, by Christopher R. Cox (Minotaur); Montana, by Gwen Florio (Permanent Press); Blood Orange, by Karen Keskinen (Minotaur); and Loyalty, by Ingrid Thoft (Putnam)
Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel:
Heart of Ice, by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)
Also nominated: Seduction of the Innocent, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime); Into the Dark, by Alison Gaylin (HarperCollins); Purgatory Key, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink); and The Honky Tonk Big Hoss Boogie, by Robert J. Randisi (Perfect Crime)
Best P.I. Short Story:
“So Long, Chief,” by Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2013)
Also nominated: “The Ace I,” by Jack Fredrickson (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], June 2013); “What We Do,” by Mick Herron (EQMM, September-October 2013); “Extra Fries,” by Michael Z. Lewin (EQMM, May 2013): and “The Lethal Leeteg,” by Hayford Peirce (EQMM, August 2013)
Best Indie P.I. Novel:
Don’t Dare a Dame, by M. Ruth Myers (Tuesday House)
Also nominated: Murder Take Three, by April Kelly and Marsha Lyons (Flight Risk); A Small Sacrifice, by Dana King (Amazon Digital); No Pat Hands, by J.J. Lamb (Two Black Sheep); and State vs. Lassiter, by Paul Levine (CreateSpace)
In addition, fictional private eye Kinsey Millhone (the star of Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries) was given the Hammer Award, and Grant Bywater won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press First Novel Award for The Red Storm.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Plethora of Prizes in Long Beach
Having overcome a pretty serious technical issue that prevented my posting from the site of Bouchercon 2014, in Long Beach, California (I forgot my password in to Blogger--yeah, I know, I should have written it down somewhere), I can finally deliver to all you loyal Rap Sheet readers the results of last night’s awards presentations.
MACAVITY AWARDS
(Presented by Mystery Readers International)
Best Mystery Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press); Dead Lions, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); The Wicked Girls, by Alex Marwood (Penguin); How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); and Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur)
Best First Mystery: A Killing at Cotton Hill, by Terry Shames
(Seventh Street)
Also nominated: Yesterday’s Echo, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Cover of Snow, by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine); and Norwegian by Night, by Derek Miller (Faber and Faber)
Best Mystery Short Story: “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants,” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)
Also nominated: “The Terminal,” by Reed Farrel Coleman (from Kwik Krimes, edited by Otto Penzler; Thomas & Mercer); “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (Bibliomysteries: Short Tales About Deadly Books, edited by Otto Penzler; Bookspan); “The Dragon’s Tail,” by Martin Limon (from Nightmare Range: The Collected Sueno and Bascom Short Stories; Soho Books); “The Hindi Houdini,” by Gigi Pandian (from Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside Press); and “Incident on the 405,” by Travis Richardson (from The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey; Macmillan)
Best Non-fiction: The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)
Also nominated: The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece, by Roseanne Montillo (Morrow); and Being Cool: The Work of Elmore Leonard, by Charles J. Rzepka (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award: Murder as a Fine Art, by David Morrell (Little, Brown)
Also nominated: A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur); Saving Lincoln, by Robert Kresge (ABQ Press); Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur); and Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
BARRY AWARDS
(Presented by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine)
Best Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: A Conspiracy of Faith, by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton); A Tap on the Window, by Linwood Barclay (New American Library); Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press); Suspect, by Robert Crais (Putnam); and Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur)
MACAVITY AWARDS
(Presented by Mystery Readers International)
Best Mystery Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press); Dead Lions, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); The Wicked Girls, by Alex Marwood (Penguin); How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Minotaur); and Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur)
Best First Mystery: A Killing at Cotton Hill, by Terry Shames
(Seventh Street)
Also nominated: Yesterday’s Echo, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Cover of Snow, by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine); and Norwegian by Night, by Derek Miller (Faber and Faber)
Best Mystery Short Story: “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants,” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April 2013)
Also nominated: “The Terminal,” by Reed Farrel Coleman (from Kwik Krimes, edited by Otto Penzler; Thomas & Mercer); “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository,” by John Connolly (Bibliomysteries: Short Tales About Deadly Books, edited by Otto Penzler; Bookspan); “The Dragon’s Tail,” by Martin Limon (from Nightmare Range: The Collected Sueno and Bascom Short Stories; Soho Books); “The Hindi Houdini,” by Gigi Pandian (from Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, edited by Ramona DeFelice Long; Wildside Press); and “Incident on the 405,” by Travis Richardson (from The Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble, edited by Clare Toohey; Macmillan)
Best Non-fiction: The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War, by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur)
Also nominated: The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece, by Roseanne Montillo (Morrow); and Being Cool: The Work of Elmore Leonard, by Charles J. Rzepka (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award: Murder as a Fine Art, by David Morrell (Little, Brown)
Also nominated: A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur); Saving Lincoln, by Robert Kresge (ABQ Press); Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur); and Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
BARRY AWARDS
(Presented by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine)
Best Novel: Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Also nominated: A Conspiracy of Faith, by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton); A Tap on the Window, by Linwood Barclay (New American Library); Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press); Suspect, by Robert Crais (Putnam); and Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Reagan Arthur)
Best First Novel: Japantown, by Barry Lancet (Simon & Schuster)
Also nominated: Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent (Little, Brown); The Bookman’s Tale, by Charlie Lovett (Viking); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Cover of Snow, by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine; and Norwegian by Night, by Derek B. Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Also nominated: Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent (Little, Brown); The Bookman’s Tale, by Charlie Lovett (Viking); Rage Against the Dying, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur); Cover of Snow, by Jenny Milchman (Ballantine; and Norwegian by Night, by Derek B. Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Best Paperback Original: I Hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)
Also nominated: Joe Victim, by Paul Cleave (Atria); Disciple of Las Vegas, by Ian Hamilton (Picador); The Rage, by Gene Kerrigan (Europa Editions); Fear in the Sunlight, by Nicola Upson (Harper); and Fixing to Die, by Elaine Viets (Signet)
Also nominated: Joe Victim, by Paul Cleave (Atria); Disciple of Las Vegas, by Ian Hamilton (Picador); The Rage, by Gene Kerrigan (Europa Editions); Fear in the Sunlight, by Nicola Upson (Harper); and Fixing to Die, by Elaine Viets (Signet)
Best Thriller: The Doll, by Taylor Stevens (Crown)
Also nominated: Dead Lions, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); Ghostman, by Roger Hobbs (Knopf); Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews (Scribner); The Shanghai Factor, by Charles McCarry (Mysterious Press); and Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
The Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in mystery fandom went to Ted Hertel.
In addition, The Short Mystery Fiction Society celebrated the winners of its 2014 Derringer Awards, previously announced here. The SMFS also gave its Edward D. Hoch Lifetime Achievement Award to Ed Gorman, who was unfortunately not on hand to accept that prize.
Tonight will bring news about the winners of this year’s Shamus Awards for private-eye fiction. If I can remember my damn password long enough, I shall let you know as soon as I can who won.
Also nominated: Dead Lions, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime); Ghostman, by Roger Hobbs (Knopf); Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews (Scribner); The Shanghai Factor, by Charles McCarry (Mysterious Press); and Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)
The Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in mystery fandom went to Ted Hertel.
In addition, The Short Mystery Fiction Society celebrated the winners of its 2014 Derringer Awards, previously announced here. The SMFS also gave its Edward D. Hoch Lifetime Achievement Award to Ed Gorman, who was unfortunately not on hand to accept that prize.
Tonight will bring news about the winners of this year’s Shamus Awards for private-eye fiction. If I can remember my damn password long enough, I shall let you know as soon as I can who won.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Fortunato’s Good Fortune
Mystery Fanfare brings the news that John Fortunato’s Dark Reservations has won the 2014 Tony Hillerman Prize for best debut crime novel set in the American Southwest. That announcement was made this last weekend during the 10th annual Tony Hillerman Writers Conference, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fortunato’s prize “comes with a publishing contract with St. Martin’s Press and $10,000.”
Here’s an online description of Dark Reservations’ plot:
The deadline for submitting manuscripts to next year’s Hillerman Prize competition will be June 1, 2015. For more information, click here.
Here’s an online description of Dark Reservations’ plot:
Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Agent Joe Evers faces a forced early retirement thanks to a botched investigation a year earlier. But when the bullet-riddled sedan belonging to missing Congressman Arlen Edgerton is found deep in the Navajo Nation, Evers may finally get to escape his tainted past. Teaming up with tribal officer Randall Bluehorse, Evers investigates the Edgerton cold case, now twenty years removed from the headlines, and soon uncovers a conspiracy that leads him from the Office of the President of Navajo Nation to the halls of power in Washington D.C. But he’s having difficulty getting to the truth because the other agents on his squad no longer trust him. And he also must confront his new life as a widower and a single father to a college-aged daughter. When people around him start dying, he suspects Arthur Othmann, a crazed collector of Native American artifacts. The only person willing to help Evers is a disgraced archaeologist whose dig site was looted of the only artifacts that would have proven his controversial theory linking the fall of the Aztec Empire to the rise of the Anasazi in the Southwest.Philadelphia native Fortunato, explains Mystery Fanfare, “was a captain in the U.S. Army, Military Intelligence, who served at the Pentagon during the early part of the Global War on Terrorism. He is now a Special Agent with the FBI and has earned an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.” Fortunato is described as a resident of Michigan, though his Facebook page says he moved to Gallup, New Mexico, earlier this year, and this FBI page lists him as “Special Agent, Gallup Resident Agency.”
The deadline for submitting manuscripts to next year’s Hillerman Prize competition will be June 1, 2015. For more information, click here.
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Checking Out Library Prize Rivals
Two days later than anticipated, we finally have the shortlist of nominees for the Crime Writers’ Association’s 2014 Dagger in the Library award, sponsored by Dead Good Books. This prize honors “an author’s body of work to date, rather than a single title and an author must have published three books to be eligible for the award.” Here are the five finalists (plus the names of their usual publishers):
• Sharon Bolton (Transworld)
• Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Mari Hannah (Pan)
• James Oswald (Michael Joseph)
• Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer)
A longlist of 10 contenders was announced in mid-September and can be found here. (I’m particularly sorry to see Tony Black fall by the wayside.) Dead Good and the CWA are scheduled to proclaim a winner “at the beginning of December.”
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
News from Hither and Thither
• Today brings to a close this year’s national midterm elections in the United States, but voting has only just begun for the sixth annual Goodreads Choice Awards. The 20 nominees in the Best
Mystery and Thriller category include: I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes; The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny; The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, by Alan Bradley; and The Secret Place, by Tana French. Click here to pick your favorites. By the way, this is a three-round voting process; the current, first round ends on November 8.
• As Reuters reports, “The case of the disputed Sherlock Holmes copyright is hereby closed after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact a ruling that said 50 works featuring the famed fictional detective are in the public domain. … The estate had wanted writer Leslie Klinger to pay a $5,000 license fee before a volume of new stories based on the Holmes character, famed for his genius IQ, deerstalker hat and cocaine habit, could be published.” The short-story collection at the center of this dispute is In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Klinger and Laurie R. King, and due out in November from Pegasus Crime.
• Have you heard about the International Thriller Writers’ “1,000 Thriller Giveaway”? According to a news release, “ITW authors (including authors such as Lee Child, Harlan Coben, and Karin Slaughter) have donated 1,000 thrillers, and 20 lucky readers will win a book a week for an entire year.” To enter the drawing, simply follow this link. The names of the winners will be drawn on November 30.
• I was very sad to read that Tom Magliozzi--who with his younger brother, Ray, hosted National Public Radio’s Car Talk program for 35 years--died on Monday at age 77 “of complications from Alzheimer’s.” I have never been a big car enthusiast, but Tom and Ray (aka “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers”) were long a regular part of my weekend radio listening. Even now that their show is in repeats, I tune it in all the time. Go smoothly into the night, Tom ... with your foot pressed down hard on the gas pedal. (You can read more about Magliozzi here, here, here, and here.)
• This last weekend’s NoirCon in Philadelphia included the dispensing of three different commendations, according to Mystery Fanfare:
• In case you haven’t yet noticed, I have made a number of additions recently to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page, including the main title sequences from Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Lindsay Wagner’s short-lived Jessie, and the 1971 pilot film Banyon.
• And this is a disturbing trend. For the second time since mid-August, a vehicle has run through my local Seattle Starbucks outlet--and the store doesn’t even have a drive-thru window. An automobile apparently missed making the turn in front of Starbucks on August 24, crashing into the east side of the shop. Then yesterday, “a black pickup truck … tore through the protective guardrail and into the front of the building.” The driver fled the scene of the crime. Fortunately, both accidents occurred when Starbucks was closed.
• As Reuters reports, “The case of the disputed Sherlock Holmes copyright is hereby closed after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact a ruling that said 50 works featuring the famed fictional detective are in the public domain. … The estate had wanted writer Leslie Klinger to pay a $5,000 license fee before a volume of new stories based on the Holmes character, famed for his genius IQ, deerstalker hat and cocaine habit, could be published.” The short-story collection at the center of this dispute is In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Klinger and Laurie R. King, and due out in November from Pegasus Crime.
• Have you heard about the International Thriller Writers’ “1,000 Thriller Giveaway”? According to a news release, “ITW authors (including authors such as Lee Child, Harlan Coben, and Karin Slaughter) have donated 1,000 thrillers, and 20 lucky readers will win a book a week for an entire year.” To enter the drawing, simply follow this link. The names of the winners will be drawn on November 30.
• I was very sad to read that Tom Magliozzi--who with his younger brother, Ray, hosted National Public Radio’s Car Talk program for 35 years--died on Monday at age 77 “of complications from Alzheimer’s.” I have never been a big car enthusiast, but Tom and Ray (aka “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers”) were long a regular part of my weekend radio listening. Even now that their show is in repeats, I tune it in all the time. Go smoothly into the night, Tom ... with your foot pressed down hard on the gas pedal. (You can read more about Magliozzi here, here, here, and here.)
• This last weekend’s NoirCon in Philadelphia included the dispensing of three different commendations, according to Mystery Fanfare:
Bronwen Hruska, publisher at Soho Press, received the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Constant Excellence in the Field. “In recognition of her tireless dedication to the advancement of crime/mystery fiction as publisher of Soho Press.”• Publishers Weekly notes that “Nearly 200 industry members gathered October 31, at the Random House Building in New York City, to pay tribute to Oscar Dystel. The former head of Bantam Books revolutionized the mass-market paperback business in the 1950s and, in the process, made books more widely available to the public than they had been at any point in American history. Dystel died on May 28, at the age of 101.”
Fuminori Nakamura of Tokyo, Japan, received the David Goodis Award for excellence in writing.
The Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller, received the Anne Friedberg Award for his contribution to noir education and preservation.
• In case you haven’t yet noticed, I have made a number of additions recently to The Rap Sheet’s YouTube page, including the main title sequences from Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Lindsay Wagner’s short-lived Jessie, and the 1971 pilot film Banyon.
• And this is a disturbing trend. For the second time since mid-August, a vehicle has run through my local Seattle Starbucks outlet--and the store doesn’t even have a drive-thru window. An automobile apparently missed making the turn in front of Starbucks on August 24, crashing into the east side of the shop. Then yesterday, “a black pickup truck … tore through the protective guardrail and into the front of the building.” The driver fled the scene of the crime. Fortunately, both accidents occurred when Starbucks was closed.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Bullet Points: Eve of Haunts Edition
• Online voting has begun in the contest for the 2014 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. There
are seven categories of nominees, but the one that may interest Rap Sheet readers most is the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year. Here are the contenders:
-- Unravelling Oliver, by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
-- The Kill, by Jane Casey (Ebury Publishing)
-- The Final Silence, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
-- Can Anybody Help Me?, by Sinead Crowley (Quercus)
-- The Secret Place, by Tana French (Hachette Books Ireland)
-- Last Kiss, by Louise Phillips (Hachette Books Ireland)
Choose your favorites here. I don’t see anything about this competition being restricted to Irish citizens, but note that the voting will close at midnight on November 21.
• Unbidden but nonetheless willing, John Harvey--whose recent Charlie Resnick novel, Darkness, Darkness, I appreciated so much--has put together a list of what he says are his 25 favorite crime novels. “It will immediately become clear there are exceptions: no Hammett, no Chandler nor other ‘classic’ crime--so obvious that to mention them was, to my mind, unnecessary; and some writers--Michael Connelly would serve as an example--are not there on the grounds that the stream of their work is so strong, I would find it impossible to lift one prime example from the rest.” Among the novels that did merit inclusion are Megan Abbott’s The End of Everything, Kent Anderson’s Night Dogs, George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and Daniel Woodrell’s Give Us a Kiss. You’ll find all of Harvey’s picks here.
• Who remembers the 1979 TV series A Man Called Sloane? My only recollection is that star Robert Conrad left another series, Stephen J. Cannell’s The Duke, after only a handful of episodes in order to play freelance spy Thomas R. Sloane III in this nearly as short-lived Quinn Martin production. Writer Christopher Mills, though, appreciated Sloane enough to compose an episode-by-episode series of posts in a blog called Spy-fi Channel. That blog is now defunct, but Mills is in the midst of revising those Sloane posts (“editing them a bit and adding a few new thoughts and observations”) for another of his blogs, Atomic Pulp and Other Meltdowns. Keep up with his series here.
• The latest update of The Thrilling Detective Web Site is now live. It includes editor Kevin Burton Smith’s “spontaneous tribute” to the late Rockford Files star, James Garner, and expanded entries on characters ranging from Stryker McBride and Joey Fly to Yakov Semenovich Stern and Steve Allen’s Los Angeles gumshoe, Roger Dale. Smith also brings the welcome news that Thrilling Detective finally has “a decent search engine,” which you can access here.
• I must admit, I envy author-educator Art Taylor for his recent opportunity to interview Otto Penzler on behalf of the Los Angeles Review of Books. They had a nice long talk about editor Penzler’s work on a couple of new short-story collections, The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century (which I reviewed here) and The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries. Penzler also clues Taylor in on what he’s been working on “since January”: another major compilation, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories.
• Edward A. Grainger (aka David Cranmer) asks, in Criminal Element, why Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) hasn’t received more attention over the years--why has it “slipped through the cracks of popular reading?” He suggests it’s “because nothing can live up to the Great American Novel--Huckleberry Finn--that preceded it. Ernest Hemingway famously said, ‘All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.’ No such praise met Tom Sawyer: Detective, with the British Guardian’s original review harshly noting, ‘The whole story is poorly conceived and badly put together.’”
• Although I’ve missed the actual anniversary, I still want to bring attention to the fact that last week the Paul Newman-Robert Redford picture Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid marked 45 years since its general release on October 24, 1969. I’ve watched that romantic adventure many times, and hope for multiple more viewings. It’s just a fantastic film, with one of the best knife-fight scenes ever!
• There are now only two weeks left before the start of Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach. In his BOLO Books blog, Kristopher Zgorski offers a selection of interesting “non-panel-related activities which will be happening during the conference.” Those include the “Author Speed Dating” event scheduled to be held at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 13, during which more than 100 authors will “pitch” their books to Bouchercon attendees, hoping to attract new readers.
• Haven’t registered for Bouchercon? You can still do it here.
• Apparently, author Max Allan Collins (for whom the adjective “prolific” seems to have been invented) composed the liner notes for a new eight-CD set called Jazz on Fillm: Crime Jazz. He describes the line-up of pieces as “astonishing”: “77 Sunset Strip,” “Hawaiian Eye,” “Checkmate,” “Shotgun Slade,” “The Naked City,” “Richard Diamond,” “Bourbon Street Beat,” “M-Squad,” “The Untouchables,” “Peter Gunn,” “Mr. Lucky,” “Staccato” and “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”--“both the TV series soundtrack and the music from the rare Stan Purdy ‘Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer Story’ LP,” Collins explains. A list of the musicians represented in this CD set is here.
• Patricia Highsmith--comic book writer?
• One of my fellow Kirkus Reviews bloggers, John DeNardo, this week posted a list of “10 Things This Fan Was Surprised to Learn About Science Fiction.” I was no less taken aback by one of his factoids:
• I’m not convinced that we really need a new, American version of Wire in the Blood, the British ITV series that ran from 2002 to 2008 and was based on Val McDermid’s novels about a university clinical psychologist who works with police on serial-killer cases. Yet Crimespree Magazine brings word that ABC-TV is developing such a program with the help of a couple of veterans from the underappreciated Detroit 1-8-7. I know I’ve asked this before (and I shall probably ask it again in the future), but why can’t Hollywood come up with new ideas, rather than recycling old ones?
• This doesn’t sound good: In Reference to Murder reports that “CBS reduced the episode order for CSI to 18 episodes, down from 22. The show is in its 15th season, and this is the first time the drama will have produced less than a full season of episodes.”
• While looking back on the 1959 thriller Night Without End, Vintage Pop Fictions remarks that its author, Alistair MacLean, “does not deserve the relative oblivion into which he has fallen.” I made that same point last year in this piece for Kirkus Reviews.
• Brian Drake interviews Anonymous-9 (aka Elaine Ash) on the subject of Bite Harder, the sequel to her 2013 novel, Hard Bite.
• Finally, since tomorrow is Halloween, I’d be remiss in not linking you up with a few associated postings around the Web. TopTenz chooses the “Top 10 Most Haunted Cities in America,” while The Bowery Boys--an excellent New York City history blog--looks back at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stunning announcement, in April 1922, of “an extraordinary discovery--the existence of ectoplasm, the ghostly goo that emits from mediums possessed with the spirits of the dead.” Publishers Weekly tries to identify “The 10 Best Ghost Stories,” but both The Poisoned Martini and Too Much Horror Fiction have other suggestions. Terence Towles Canote rounds up his favorite horror film postings from A Shroud of Thoughts, while Vintage45’s Blog revisits Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), the 1969-1971 British TV program about a London private eye whose late partner is still helping him solve crimes--a show I previously wrote about here. And since this post can’t be completely serious, check out Cracked History’s eye-catching rundown of the “10 Sexiest Halloween Costumes.”
-- Unravelling Oliver, by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
-- The Kill, by Jane Casey (Ebury Publishing)
-- The Final Silence, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
-- Can Anybody Help Me?, by Sinead Crowley (Quercus)
-- The Secret Place, by Tana French (Hachette Books Ireland)
-- Last Kiss, by Louise Phillips (Hachette Books Ireland)
Choose your favorites here. I don’t see anything about this competition being restricted to Irish citizens, but note that the voting will close at midnight on November 21.
• Unbidden but nonetheless willing, John Harvey--whose recent Charlie Resnick novel, Darkness, Darkness, I appreciated so much--has put together a list of what he says are his 25 favorite crime novels. “It will immediately become clear there are exceptions: no Hammett, no Chandler nor other ‘classic’ crime--so obvious that to mention them was, to my mind, unnecessary; and some writers--Michael Connelly would serve as an example--are not there on the grounds that the stream of their work is so strong, I would find it impossible to lift one prime example from the rest.” Among the novels that did merit inclusion are Megan Abbott’s The End of Everything, Kent Anderson’s Night Dogs, George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and Daniel Woodrell’s Give Us a Kiss. You’ll find all of Harvey’s picks here.
• Who remembers the 1979 TV series A Man Called Sloane? My only recollection is that star Robert Conrad left another series, Stephen J. Cannell’s The Duke, after only a handful of episodes in order to play freelance spy Thomas R. Sloane III in this nearly as short-lived Quinn Martin production. Writer Christopher Mills, though, appreciated Sloane enough to compose an episode-by-episode series of posts in a blog called Spy-fi Channel. That blog is now defunct, but Mills is in the midst of revising those Sloane posts (“editing them a bit and adding a few new thoughts and observations”) for another of his blogs, Atomic Pulp and Other Meltdowns. Keep up with his series here.
• The latest update of The Thrilling Detective Web Site is now live. It includes editor Kevin Burton Smith’s “spontaneous tribute” to the late Rockford Files star, James Garner, and expanded entries on characters ranging from Stryker McBride and Joey Fly to Yakov Semenovich Stern and Steve Allen’s Los Angeles gumshoe, Roger Dale. Smith also brings the welcome news that Thrilling Detective finally has “a decent search engine,” which you can access here.
• I must admit, I envy author-educator Art Taylor for his recent opportunity to interview Otto Penzler on behalf of the Los Angeles Review of Books. They had a nice long talk about editor Penzler’s work on a couple of new short-story collections, The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century (which I reviewed here) and The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries. Penzler also clues Taylor in on what he’s been working on “since January”: another major compilation, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories.
• Edward A. Grainger (aka David Cranmer) asks, in Criminal Element, why Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) hasn’t received more attention over the years--why has it “slipped through the cracks of popular reading?” He suggests it’s “because nothing can live up to the Great American Novel--Huckleberry Finn--that preceded it. Ernest Hemingway famously said, ‘All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.’ No such praise met Tom Sawyer: Detective, with the British Guardian’s original review harshly noting, ‘The whole story is poorly conceived and badly put together.’”
• Although I’ve missed the actual anniversary, I still want to bring attention to the fact that last week the Paul Newman-Robert Redford picture Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid marked 45 years since its general release on October 24, 1969. I’ve watched that romantic adventure many times, and hope for multiple more viewings. It’s just a fantastic film, with one of the best knife-fight scenes ever!
• There are now only two weeks left before the start of Bouchercon 2014 in Long Beach. In his BOLO Books blog, Kristopher Zgorski offers a selection of interesting “non-panel-related activities which will be happening during the conference.” Those include the “Author Speed Dating” event scheduled to be held at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 13, during which more than 100 authors will “pitch” their books to Bouchercon attendees, hoping to attract new readers.
• Haven’t registered for Bouchercon? You can still do it here.
• Apparently, author Max Allan Collins (for whom the adjective “prolific” seems to have been invented) composed the liner notes for a new eight-CD set called Jazz on Fillm: Crime Jazz. He describes the line-up of pieces as “astonishing”: “77 Sunset Strip,” “Hawaiian Eye,” “Checkmate,” “Shotgun Slade,” “The Naked City,” “Richard Diamond,” “Bourbon Street Beat,” “M-Squad,” “The Untouchables,” “Peter Gunn,” “Mr. Lucky,” “Staccato” and “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”--“both the TV series soundtrack and the music from the rare Stan Purdy ‘Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer Story’ LP,” Collins explains. A list of the musicians represented in this CD set is here.
• Patricia Highsmith--comic book writer?
• One of my fellow Kirkus Reviews bloggers, John DeNardo, this week posted a list of “10 Things This Fan Was Surprised to Learn About Science Fiction.” I was no less taken aback by one of his factoids:
Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land is about a man named Valentine Michael Smith who was born and raised on Mars. The story concerns Smith’s trip to Earth and his first-ever interaction with Earth culture. The book is considered one of the most popular science-fiction novels of all time. What surprised me was learning that in 1968, the book inspired a man to found a Neopagan religious organization modeled after the religion founded by Smith in the novel, the beliefs of which include polyamory, social libertarianism and non-mainstream family structures.You learn something new (and maybe weird) every day, I guess.
• I’m not convinced that we really need a new, American version of Wire in the Blood, the British ITV series that ran from 2002 to 2008 and was based on Val McDermid’s novels about a university clinical psychologist who works with police on serial-killer cases. Yet Crimespree Magazine brings word that ABC-TV is developing such a program with the help of a couple of veterans from the underappreciated Detroit 1-8-7. I know I’ve asked this before (and I shall probably ask it again in the future), but why can’t Hollywood come up with new ideas, rather than recycling old ones?
• This doesn’t sound good: In Reference to Murder reports that “CBS reduced the episode order for CSI to 18 episodes, down from 22. The show is in its 15th season, and this is the first time the drama will have produced less than a full season of episodes.”
• While looking back on the 1959 thriller Night Without End, Vintage Pop Fictions remarks that its author, Alistair MacLean, “does not deserve the relative oblivion into which he has fallen.” I made that same point last year in this piece for Kirkus Reviews.
• Brian Drake interviews Anonymous-9 (aka Elaine Ash) on the subject of Bite Harder, the sequel to her 2013 novel, Hard Bite.
• Finally, since tomorrow is Halloween, I’d be remiss in not linking you up with a few associated postings around the Web. TopTenz chooses the “Top 10 Most Haunted Cities in America,” while The Bowery Boys--an excellent New York City history blog--looks back at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stunning announcement, in April 1922, of “an extraordinary discovery--the existence of ectoplasm, the ghostly goo that emits from mediums possessed with the spirits of the dead.” Publishers Weekly tries to identify “The 10 Best Ghost Stories,” but both The Poisoned Martini and Too Much Horror Fiction have other suggestions. Terence Towles Canote rounds up his favorite horror film postings from A Shroud of Thoughts, while Vintage45’s Blog revisits Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), the 1969-1971 British TV program about a London private eye whose late partner is still helping him solve crimes--a show I previously wrote about here. And since this post can’t be completely serious, check out Cracked History’s eye-catching rundown of the “10 Sexiest Halloween Costumes.”
Friday, October 24, 2014
London Full of Specsavers Award Winners
Robert Harris wins the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for An Officer and a Spy. (Photo © 2014 by Ali Karim)
Thanks to The Rap Sheet’s indefatigable chief UK correspondent, Ali Karim, we can now tally up the winners of the 2014 Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards. The announcements were made and the commendations presented during a downright glamorous event held this evening at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year: This Dark Road to Mercy, by Wiley Cash (Doubleday/Transworld)
Also nominated: The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson (Constable); How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Sphere/Little Brown); and Keep Your Friends Close, by Paula Daly (Bantam/Transworld)
CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
Also nominated: The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton); The Silent Wife, by A.S.A Harrison (Headline); and The Strangler Vine, by M.J. Carter (Penguin Fig Tree)
CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris (Random House)
Also nominated: Apple Tree Yard, by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber); I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Transworld); and Natchez Burning, by Greg Iles (Harper Collins)
Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read: Entry Island, by Peter May (Quercus)
Also nominated: Before We Met, by Lucie Whitehouse (Bloomsbury); Letters to My Daughter’s Killer, by Cath Staincliffe (C&R Crime); Treachery, by S.J. Parris (HarperCollins); The Tilted World, by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (Mantle); and Watch Me, by James Carol (Faber & Faber)
The Film Dagger: Cold in July
Also nominated: Dom Hemingway, Filth, Prisoners, and Starred Up
Also nominated: Line of Duty, Series 2; Sherlock, Series 3; The Bletchley Circle, Series 2; and The Honourable Woman
The International TV Dagger: True Detective, Season 1
Also nominated: Fargo, Season 1; Inspector Montalbano, Series 9; Orange Is the New Black, Season 2; and The Bridge, Series 2
The Best Actor Dagger: Matthew McConaughey for True Detective
Also nominated: Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock; Shaun Evans for Endeavour; Martin Freeman for Fargo and Sherlock; and Steve Pemberton for Happy Valley
The Best Actress Dagger: Keeley Hawes for Line of Duty
Also nominated: Brenda Blethyn for Vera; Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Honourable Woman; Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley; and Anna Maxwell Martin for Death Comes to Pemberley and The Bletchley Circle
The Best Supporting Actor Dagger: James Norton for Happy Valley
Also nominated: Mark Gatiss for Sherlock; David Leon for Vera; Mandy Patinkin for Homeland; and Billy Bob Thornton for Fargo
The Best Supporting Actress Dagger: Amanda Abbington for Sherlock
Also nominated: Vicky McClure for Line of Duty; Helen McCrory for Peaky Blinders; Gina McKee for By Any Means; and Michelle Monaghan for True Detective
In addition, authors Denise Mina and Robert Harris were inducted into the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Hall of Fame “in recognition of their contributions to the genre.”
Congratulations to all of the nominees!
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Rush’s Hour
I haven’t yet spotted a full list of prize recipients online, but Janet Rudolph is reporting in Mystery Fanfare that Los Angeles author Naomi Hirahara has won the 2014
T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for Murder on Bamboo Lane (Berkley). The Parker is one of several commendations given out annually by the Southern 
California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA), recognizing “excellence in books that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle.”
Of Murder on Bamboo Lane--released this last April--Publishers Weekly wrote:
Hirahara was nominated for this same prize last year, for her Mas Arai mystery Strawberry Yellow, but the honor went instead to What the Heart Remembers, by Debra Ginsberg.
READ MORE: “Naomi Hirahara on Her New Mystery Series ... and the new L.A.,” by David L. Ulin (Los Angeles Times).
Of Murder on Bamboo Lane--released this last April--Publishers Weekly wrote:
Edgar-winner Hirahara, author of Summer of the Big Bachi and four other Mas Arai mysteries, introduces Ellie Rush, a Japanese-American rookie LAPD bicycle cop, in this highly entertaining series debut. When Jenny Nguyen, a former classmate of Ellie’s at Pan Pacific West College, goes missing and later turns up dead in a Chinatown alley, Ellie’s ties to PPW and Jenny’s friends, including Ellie’s ex-boyfriend, Benjamin Choi, prove useful. Jenny’s boyfriend, controversial artist Tuan Le, is a prime suspect, and he asks Ellie for help. Her aunt, Cheryl Toma, the highest-ranking Asian in the LAPD, also wants Ellie on the case, but has a hidden agenda. Ellie finds herself navigating a personal and professional minefield when she’s assigned to work on the case with handsome Det. Cortez Williams. Readers will want to see more of Ellie, who provides a fresh perspective on L.A.’s rich ethnic mix.Also contending for this year’s T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award were The Ascendant, by Drew Chapman (Pocket), and The Disposables, by David Putnam (Oceanview).
Hirahara was nominated for this same prize last year, for her Mas Arai mystery Strawberry Yellow, but the honor went instead to What the Heart Remembers, by Debra Ginsberg.
READ MORE: “Naomi Hirahara on Her New Mystery Series ... and the new L.A.,” by David L. Ulin (Los Angeles Times).
Saturday, September 20, 2014
May’s Day
When I met for an evening drink last week in Seattle with Glasgow-born crime writer Peter May--who is in the midst of a month-long international book tour--he confided that were he still a resident of Scotland (rather than living now in France), he’d have supported his native country’s recent referendum seeking independence from Great Britain. Well, that vote did not go as he’d wished, but May might feel somewhat compensated by having
won the 2014 Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award for his latest novel, Entry Island (Quercus). The announcement came tonight during the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival being held in Stirling, the onetime capital of Scotland.
The other contenders for this honor were: Flesh Wounds, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown); The Amber Fury, by Natalie Haynes (Corvus); Falling Fast, by Neil Broadfoot (Saraband); A Lovely Way to Burn, by Louise Welsh (John Murray); and In the Rosary Garden, by Nicola White (Cargo).
Congratulations to all of the nominees.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
The other contenders for this honor were: Flesh Wounds, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown); The Amber Fury, by Natalie Haynes (Corvus); Falling Fast, by Neil Broadfoot (Saraband); A Lovely Way to Burn, by Louise Welsh (John Murray); and In the Rosary Garden, by Nicola White (Cargo).
Congratulations to all of the nominees.
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Bullet Points: Pre-Scotland Vote Edition
• Today marks 50 years since the London debut of Goldfinger, the third big-screen action film starring Sean Connery as Ian Fleming’s British super-spy, James Bond. As I noted in a previous post--complete with the motion picture’s opening title sequence--“the American release of Goldfinger didn’t come until December 22, 1964.” The HMSS Weblog has a bit more to say about Goldfinger here.
• 2014 year marked the first time contenders for the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger in the Library award were selected by readers on the Web. With the nomination process having now concluded, here’s the longlist of writers who are vying for that prize (plus the names of their usual publishers):
-- M.C. Beaton (Constable & Robinson)
-- Tony Black (Black and White Publishing)
-- Sharon Bolton (Transworld Publishers)
-- Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
-- Mari Hannah (Pan)
-- James Oswald (Michael Joseph)
-- Phil Rickman (Corvus)
-- Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
-- Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer)
-- Neil White (Sphere)
The CWA explains that “Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library honours an author’s whole body of work to date, rather than a single title.” A shortlist of nominees will be announced on November 3, with the winner slated to be revealed during an event at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, London, in late November. (Hat tip to the Euro Crime Blog.)
• Steve Aldous, who in July contributed an interesting and important piece to The Rap Sheet about Ernest Tidyman and the “ghost writers” he employed to create his seven novels about black New York City gumshoe John Shaft, directs our attention toward this interview with David F. Walker. Walker has been hired to write Dynamite Entertainment’s new line of Shaft comic books. “Some good news,” Aldous says, “in that Walker is a fan of the books and [is] using them as the basis for his writing. He is effectively doing an origins story, setting the [Dynamite] series a year before Tidyman’s novel.” The first Shaft comic produced by Walker and artist Bilquis Evely is due out in December, with a cover by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz that you can preview right here. Walker has promised to post updates about his Shaft efforts in his own blog.
• Actress Julia McKenzie will return this coming Sunday evening as Agatha Christie’s popular spinster sleuth in the first of three new episodes of Miss Marple, all set to be broadcast over two weekends as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! series.
• Scott Adlerberg has a nice piece in the blog Hardboiled Wonderland about the film adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s novels.
• News from publisher New Pulp Press:
• Speaking of the late Ms. Bacall, the blog Down These Mean Streets offers a link to an episode of the Lux Radio Theatre from 1946 in which she and Bogie give voice to a “wireless” adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not.
• I admit, I haven’t watched the USA Network crime drama White Collar lately, and probably not since the delightful Hilarie Burton bowed out of her recurring role on that show as insurance company investigator Sara Ellis. So I was surprised to learn, from Crimespree Magazine’s blog, that the series’ sixth and concluding season will begin on Thursday, November 6. Wow, it seems like only yesterday that White Collar had its premiere …
• Happy fourth birthday to The Nick Carter & Carter Brown Blog!
• Interviews worth reading: Libby Fischer Hellmann (Nobody’s Child) answers questions from Omnimystery News; Benjamin Whitmer (Cry Father) chats with MysteryPeople; Reed Farrel Coleman (Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot) goes a round with Crimespree; and Chelsea Cain (One Kick) responds to queries fielded by Lit Reactor.
• Crime Fiction Lover continues its “Classics in September” series with remarks on Adam Hall’s The Quiller Memorandum, Ngaio Marsh’s best books, and a critic’s selection of the “20 Greatest Crime Movies of All Time.” Links to the whole series are being collected here.
• The Blogger software has finally forced our list of new crime fiction, due out between now and December 31, off of The Rap Sheet’s front page. (It apparently doesn’t like lengthy posts stacking up for too long.) However, you can still study that catalogue of more than 275 titles here. Prepare to expand your to-be-read pile!
• Is this Nero Wolfe’s old Manhattan brownstone?
• We’d heard that new publisher Brash Books would be reprinting W.L. Ripley’s original three novels featuring football player turned troubleshooter Wyatt Storme (who debuted in 1993’s Dreamsicle). But now Brash reports that it will also bring out a brand-new Storme tale, Storme Warning. All four are due in bookstores in early 2015.
• Registration for ThrillerFest 2015, to be held (as usual) in New York City from July 7 to 11 of next year, is now open. Next year’s ThrillerMaster will be Nelson DeMille.
• Patti Abbott’s 2015 debut as a novelist (with Concrete Angel) will be abetted by a very fine-looking book cover.
• Critics At Large writer Nick Coccoma isn’t thrilled with Dennis Lehane’s new big-screen movie. “The Drop has some of the finer performances of American society’s white urban underclass we’ve seen in a long time,” he writes, “maybe even since Brando and his crew. In the end, it adds up to a frustrating, wasteful nothing.” UPDATE: Michael Carlson is much fonder of Lehane’s book version.
• The Chill remains one of my favorite Ross Macdonald novels.
• And this sounds mildly intriguing. In Reference to Murder reports that “Shondaland productions and Person of Interest co-executive producer David Slack are teaming up for an ensemble [TV] cop drama titled Protect and Survive that centers on the last LAPD precinct fighting to hang on in Los Angeles after a massive disaster.”
• 2014 year marked the first time contenders for the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger in the Library award were selected by readers on the Web. With the nomination process having now concluded, here’s the longlist of writers who are vying for that prize (plus the names of their usual publishers):
-- M.C. Beaton (Constable & Robinson)
-- Tony Black (Black and White Publishing)
-- Sharon Bolton (Transworld Publishers)
-- Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
-- Mari Hannah (Pan)
-- James Oswald (Michael Joseph)
-- Phil Rickman (Corvus)
-- Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
-- Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer)
-- Neil White (Sphere)
The CWA explains that “Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library honours an author’s whole body of work to date, rather than a single title.” A shortlist of nominees will be announced on November 3, with the winner slated to be revealed during an event at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, London, in late November. (Hat tip to the Euro Crime Blog.)
• Steve Aldous, who in July contributed an interesting and important piece to The Rap Sheet about Ernest Tidyman and the “ghost writers” he employed to create his seven novels about black New York City gumshoe John Shaft, directs our attention toward this interview with David F. Walker. Walker has been hired to write Dynamite Entertainment’s new line of Shaft comic books. “Some good news,” Aldous says, “in that Walker is a fan of the books and [is] using them as the basis for his writing. He is effectively doing an origins story, setting the [Dynamite] series a year before Tidyman’s novel.” The first Shaft comic produced by Walker and artist Bilquis Evely is due out in December, with a cover by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz that you can preview right here. Walker has promised to post updates about his Shaft efforts in his own blog.
• Actress Julia McKenzie will return this coming Sunday evening as Agatha Christie’s popular spinster sleuth in the first of three new episodes of Miss Marple, all set to be broadcast over two weekends as part of PBS-TV’s Masterpiece Mystery! series.
• Scott Adlerberg has a nice piece in the blog Hardboiled Wonderland about the film adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s novels.
• News from publisher New Pulp Press:
Starting January 1, 2015, Jon Bassoff, [the company’s] founder, will be handing over control and ownership of the award-winning press to Jonathan Woods and Shirrel Rhoades of Key West, Florida. While Jon Bassoff will still be associated with New Pulp Press in an advisory role, Jonathan Woods will be in charge of acquisitions and editorial matters. Shirrel Rhoades will take the lead on business, marketing and distribution.• If you haven’t yet noticed, Criminal Element contributor Jake Hinkson has spent early September celebrating the four classic films in which Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall appeared together. Here are the links: To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948).
Jonathan Woods, as a writer, has been associated with New Pulp Press since its early days. New Pulp Press has published three of his books, including the groundbreaking Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem. ‘Jonathan shares the same warped sensibilities that I do,” said Jon Bassoff. “I look forward to seeing where he takes this rowdy little press next.”
Shirrel Rhoades has had a long and distinguished career in publishing, including a stint as EVP and Publisher of Marvel Comics. He currently owns and manages an eBook publishing business called Absolutely Amazing eBooks that publishes a broad range of titles from horror to humor, non-fiction to mystery. “Shirrel’s marketing expertise and his existing publishing business will competitively enhance New Pulp Press and bring its writers to a wider audience,” said Bassoff.
• Speaking of the late Ms. Bacall, the blog Down These Mean Streets offers a link to an episode of the Lux Radio Theatre from 1946 in which she and Bogie give voice to a “wireless” adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not.
• I admit, I haven’t watched the USA Network crime drama White Collar lately, and probably not since the delightful Hilarie Burton bowed out of her recurring role on that show as insurance company investigator Sara Ellis. So I was surprised to learn, from Crimespree Magazine’s blog, that the series’ sixth and concluding season will begin on Thursday, November 6. Wow, it seems like only yesterday that White Collar had its premiere …
• Happy fourth birthday to The Nick Carter & Carter Brown Blog!
• Interviews worth reading: Libby Fischer Hellmann (Nobody’s Child) answers questions from Omnimystery News; Benjamin Whitmer (Cry Father) chats with MysteryPeople; Reed Farrel Coleman (Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot) goes a round with Crimespree; and Chelsea Cain (One Kick) responds to queries fielded by Lit Reactor.
• Crime Fiction Lover continues its “Classics in September” series with remarks on Adam Hall’s The Quiller Memorandum, Ngaio Marsh’s best books, and a critic’s selection of the “20 Greatest Crime Movies of All Time.” Links to the whole series are being collected here.
• The Blogger software has finally forced our list of new crime fiction, due out between now and December 31, off of The Rap Sheet’s front page. (It apparently doesn’t like lengthy posts stacking up for too long.) However, you can still study that catalogue of more than 275 titles here. Prepare to expand your to-be-read pile!
• Is this Nero Wolfe’s old Manhattan brownstone?
• We’d heard that new publisher Brash Books would be reprinting W.L. Ripley’s original three novels featuring football player turned troubleshooter Wyatt Storme (who debuted in 1993’s Dreamsicle). But now Brash reports that it will also bring out a brand-new Storme tale, Storme Warning. All four are due in bookstores in early 2015.
• Registration for ThrillerFest 2015, to be held (as usual) in New York City from July 7 to 11 of next year, is now open. Next year’s ThrillerMaster will be Nelson DeMille.
• Patti Abbott’s 2015 debut as a novelist (with Concrete Angel) will be abetted by a very fine-looking book cover.
• Critics At Large writer Nick Coccoma isn’t thrilled with Dennis Lehane’s new big-screen movie. “The Drop has some of the finer performances of American society’s white urban underclass we’ve seen in a long time,” he writes, “maybe even since Brando and his crew. In the end, it adds up to a frustrating, wasteful nothing.” UPDATE: Michael Carlson is much fonder of Lehane’s book version.
• The Chill remains one of my favorite Ross Macdonald novels.
• And this sounds mildly intriguing. In Reference to Murder reports that “Shondaland productions and Person of Interest co-executive producer David Slack are teaming up for an ensemble [TV] cop drama titled Protect and Survive that centers on the last LAPD precinct fighting to hang on in Los Angeles after a massive disaster.”
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Pride of the Scots
Most of the news coming out of Scotland this week seems to be focused around Thursday’s referendum vote on Scottish independence. But Shots’ Ayo Onatade also brings word of which books and authors have been shortlisted for the 2014 Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award. They are as follows:
• Flesh Wounds, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Amber Fury, by Natalie Haynes (Corvus)
• Falling Fast, by Neil Broadfoot (Saraband)
• Entry Island, by Peter May (Quercus)
• A Lovely Way to Burn, by Louise Welsh (John Murray)
• In the Rosary Garden, by Nicola White (Cargo)
The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 20, during the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival being held this weekend in Stirling.
• Flesh Wounds, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Amber Fury, by Natalie Haynes (Corvus)
• Falling Fast, by Neil Broadfoot (Saraband)
• Entry Island, by Peter May (Quercus)
• A Lovely Way to Burn, by Louise Welsh (John Murray)
• In the Rosary Garden, by Nicola White (Cargo)
The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 20, during the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival being held this weekend in Stirling.
Sunday, September 07, 2014
McKinty Leads the Pack
During events last evening at Australia’s Brisbane Writers Festival, the winners of the 2014 Ned Kelly Awards were announced
as follows:
Best Crime Novel:
In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
Also nominated: Bitter Wash Road, By Garry Disher (Text); Fatal Impact, by Kathryn Fox (Pan Macmillan); Beams Falling, by P.M. Newton (Penguin); One Boy Missing, by Stephen Orr (Text); and The Dying Beach, by Angela Savage (Text)
Best First Crime Novel:
Hades, by Candice Fox (Random House)
Also nominated: Dead Cat Bounce, by Peter Cotton (Scribe); Blood Witness, by Alex Hammond (Penguin); and Every Breath, by Ellie Marney (Tundra)
Best True Crime:
Murder in Mississippi, by John Safran (Blackfriars)
Also nominated: Disgraced? by Paul Dale (Five Mile Press); Forever Nine, by John Kidman and Denise Hofman (Five Mile Press); No Mercy, by Eleanor Learmonth and Jenny Tabakoff (Text); JFK: The Smoking Gun, by Colin McLaren (Hachette); and Outlaw Bikers in Australia, by Duncan McNab (Pan Macmillan)
Sandra Harvey Short Story Award:
“Web Design,” by Emma Viskic
Also nominated: “Housewarming,” by Louise Bassett; “The Scars of Noir,” by Darcy-Lee Tindale; “Voices of Soi 22,” by Roger Vickery; and “Splinter,” by Emma Viskic
(Hat tip to Fair Dinkum Crime.)
Best Crime Novel:
In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
Also nominated: Bitter Wash Road, By Garry Disher (Text); Fatal Impact, by Kathryn Fox (Pan Macmillan); Beams Falling, by P.M. Newton (Penguin); One Boy Missing, by Stephen Orr (Text); and The Dying Beach, by Angela Savage (Text)
Best First Crime Novel:
Hades, by Candice Fox (Random House)
Also nominated: Dead Cat Bounce, by Peter Cotton (Scribe); Blood Witness, by Alex Hammond (Penguin); and Every Breath, by Ellie Marney (Tundra)
Best True Crime:
Murder in Mississippi, by John Safran (Blackfriars)
Also nominated: Disgraced? by Paul Dale (Five Mile Press); Forever Nine, by John Kidman and Denise Hofman (Five Mile Press); No Mercy, by Eleanor Learmonth and Jenny Tabakoff (Text); JFK: The Smoking Gun, by Colin McLaren (Hachette); and Outlaw Bikers in Australia, by Duncan McNab (Pan Macmillan)
Sandra Harvey Short Story Award:
“Web Design,” by Emma Viskic
Also nominated: “Housewarming,” by Louise Bassett; “The Scars of Noir,” by Darcy-Lee Tindale; “Voices of Soi 22,” by Roger Vickery; and “Splinter,” by Emma Viskic
(Hat tip to Fair Dinkum Crime.)
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Screen Time for the Daggers
Just one day after the Crime Writers’ Association announced its shortlists of contenders for three more book-related Dagger Awards, here come several additional categories of Dagger nominees:
The Film Dagger:
• Cold in July
• Dom Hemingway
• Filth
• Prisoners
• Starred Up
The TV Dagger:
• Happy Valley
• Line of Duty, Series 2
• Sherlock, Series 3
• The Bletchley Circle, Series 2
• The Honourable Woman
The International TV Dagger:
• Fargo, Season 1
• Inspector Montalbano, Series 9
• Orange Is the New Black, Season 2
• The Bridge, Series 2
• True Detective, Season 1
The Best Actor Dagger:
• Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock
• Shaun Evans for Endeavour
• Martin Freeman for Fargo and Sherlock
• Matthew McConaughey for True Detective
• Steve Pemberton for Happy Valley
The Best Actress Dagger:
• Brenda Blethyn for Vera
• Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Honourable Woman
• Keeley Hawes for Line of Duty
• Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley
• Anna Maxwell Martin for Death Comes to Pemberley and
The Bletchley Circle
The Best Supporting Actor Dagger:
• Mark Gatiss for Sherlock
• David Leon for Vera
• James Norton for Happy Valley
• Mandy Patinkin for Homeland
• Billy Bob Thornton for Fargo
The Best Supporting Actress Dagger:
• Amanda Abbington for Sherlock
• Vicky McClure for Line of Duty
• Helen McCrory for Peaky Blinders
• Gina McKee for By Any Means
• Michelle Monaghan for True Detective
Again, the fortunate recipients of these prizes (as well as others) will be declared on the evening of Friday, October 24, during the annual Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony.
(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)
The Film Dagger:
• Cold in July
• Dom Hemingway
• Filth
• Prisoners
• Starred Up
The TV Dagger:
• Happy Valley
• Line of Duty, Series 2
• Sherlock, Series 3
• The Bletchley Circle, Series 2
• The Honourable Woman
The International TV Dagger:
• Fargo, Season 1
• Inspector Montalbano, Series 9
• Orange Is the New Black, Season 2
• The Bridge, Series 2
• True Detective, Season 1
The Best Actor Dagger:
• Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock
• Shaun Evans for Endeavour
• Martin Freeman for Fargo and Sherlock
• Matthew McConaughey for True Detective
• Steve Pemberton for Happy Valley
The Best Actress Dagger:
• Brenda Blethyn for Vera
• Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Honourable Woman
• Keeley Hawes for Line of Duty
• Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley
• Anna Maxwell Martin for Death Comes to Pemberley and
The Bletchley Circle
The Best Supporting Actor Dagger:
• Mark Gatiss for Sherlock
• David Leon for Vera
• James Norton for Happy Valley
• Mandy Patinkin for Homeland
• Billy Bob Thornton for Fargo
The Best Supporting Actress Dagger:
• Amanda Abbington for Sherlock
• Vicky McClure for Line of Duty
• Helen McCrory for Peaky Blinders
• Gina McKee for By Any Means
• Michelle Monaghan for True Detective
Again, the fortunate recipients of these prizes (as well as others) will be declared on the evening of Friday, October 24, during the annual Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony.
(Hat tip to Euro Crime.)
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Triple Dagger Play
Two months after the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) announced the winners of its first five Dagger Awards for 2014, it has now
broadcast its shortlists of nominees for three more commendations. They are as follows:
CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year:
• The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson (Constable)
• How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Sphere/Little Brown)
• Keep Your Friends Close, by Paula Daly (Bantam/Transworld)
• This Dark Road to Mercy, by Wiley Cash (Doubleday/Transworld)
Also longlisted for this award: Stone Bruises, by Simon Beckett (Bantam/Transworld); What She Saw, by Mark Roberts (Corvus/Atlantic); The Verdict, by Nick Stone (Sphere/Little, Brown); and The Corporal’s Wife, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
• The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
• The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson
(Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Silent Wife, by A.S.A Harrison (Headline)
• The Strangler Vine, by M.J. Carter (Penguin Fig Tree)
Also longlisted for this award: Night Heron, by Adam Brookes (Sphere); I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Bantam); Shovel Ready, by Adam Sternbergh (Headline); and Black Chalk, by Christopher J. Yates (Harvill Secker)
CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• Apple Tree Yard, by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris (Random House)
• I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Transworld)
• Natchez Burning, by Greg Iles (Harper Collins)
Also longlisted for this award: Never Go Back, by Lee Child (Transworld); 419, by Will Ferguson (Head of Zeus); The Abduction, by Jonathan Holt (Head of Zeus); and The Corporal’s Wife, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
Winners of these prizes will be declared on Friday, October 24, during the annual Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony.
CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year:
• The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson (Constable)
• How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Sphere/Little Brown)
• Keep Your Friends Close, by Paula Daly (Bantam/Transworld)
• This Dark Road to Mercy, by Wiley Cash (Doubleday/Transworld)
Also longlisted for this award: Stone Bruises, by Simon Beckett (Bantam/Transworld); What She Saw, by Mark Roberts (Corvus/Atlantic); The Verdict, by Nick Stone (Sphere/Little, Brown); and The Corporal’s Wife, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:
• The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
• The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson
(Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Silent Wife, by A.S.A Harrison (Headline)
• The Strangler Vine, by M.J. Carter (Penguin Fig Tree)
Also longlisted for this award: Night Heron, by Adam Brookes (Sphere); I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Bantam); Shovel Ready, by Adam Sternbergh (Headline); and Black Chalk, by Christopher J. Yates (Harvill Secker)
CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• Apple Tree Yard, by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris (Random House)
• I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Transworld)
• Natchez Burning, by Greg Iles (Harper Collins)
Also longlisted for this award: Never Go Back, by Lee Child (Transworld); 419, by Will Ferguson (Head of Zeus); The Abduction, by Jonathan Holt (Head of Zeus); and The Corporal’s Wife, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
Winners of these prizes will be declared on Friday, October 24, during the annual Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards ceremony.
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