Sunday, March 22, 2026

News: ANNE PERRY'S FINAL DANIEL PITT MYSTERY

Completed posthumously by Anne Perry’s close friend and longtime collaborator Victoria Zackheim, DEATH TIMES SEVEN, the final in her Daniel Pitt mystery series, is a moving farewell -- rich in intrigue, moral complexity, and courtroom drama, and a fitting final chapter. Publication date in April 14.

About the Book:  Two violent crimes challenge the investigative skills of young Daniel Pitt and his wife, Miriam, in the final novel of iconic mystery writer Anne Perry's beloved Daniel Pitt series.

1913: Junior attorney Daniel Pitt must step in for his friend, fellow attorney Toby Kitteridge, whose parents have been brutally attacked. Toby's mother is dead and his father, a village vicar, is barely alive. With Toby returning to the family home in rural Ipswich, struggling with grief and disbelief, Daniel remains in London to substitute for Toby and defend Peter Ward, on trial for the sexual assault and murder of a young woman.

Daniel is convinced that Ward is innocent, yet the evidence seems to prove otherwise. Eager to assist, his pathologist wife, Miriam fford Croft, offers her forensics expertise and exposes a community of fellow pathologists who may have purposefully omitted information from their autopsy reports. Despite Miriam’s involvement in the case, Daniel finds himself distracted by his desire to help Toby, who is too distraught to investigate the attack on his parents. And when the evidence points to Toby’s father as the killer of Toby’s mother, Daniel faces two of the greatest challenges of his young career: proving the innocence of both Peter Ward and Reverend Kitteridge. One mistake in London and a blameless man will hang. One mistake in Ipswich and Toby’s father will go to prison for life.


Daniel is convinced that Ward is innocent, yet the evidence seems to prove otherwise. Eager to assist, his pathologist wife, Miriam fford Croft, offers her forensics expertise and exposes a community of fellow pathologists who may have purposefully omitted information from their autopsy reports. Despite Miriam’s involvement in the case, Daniel finds himself distracted by his desire to help Toby, who is too distraught to investigate the attack on his parents. And when the evidence points to Toby’s father as the killer of Toby’s mother, Daniel faces two of the greatest challenges of his young career: proving the innocence of both Peter Ward and Reverend Kitteridge. One mistake in London and a blameless man will hang. One mistake in Ipswich and Toby’s father will go to prison for life.

Death Times Seven, the seventh and final novel in Anne Perry’s Daniel Pitt series, was completed by Victoria Zackheim, an author and editor as well as Perry’s close friend. 

About the Authors
Anne Perry was the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. She was also the author of a series featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's son, Daniel, as well as the Elena Standish series; a series of five World War I novels; twenty-one holiday novels; and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Byzantine Empire. Anne Perry died in 2023.

Victoria Zackheim is the author of two novels, including The Curtain Falls in Paris, and editor of seven anthologies. Zackheim is also an essayist and playwright and teaches creative nonfiction and memoir in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She is a frequent conference speaker and writing instructor.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Writers and their Cats: Mary Stewart

Happy Caturday! Authors and their Cats: Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart was a marvelous author of romantic suspense, historical fantasy, and so much more. Read about her here. In this photo, the cat looks less enthusiastic than Mary Stewart. 


Tuesday, March 17, 2026

St Patrick's Day Mysteries // St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction

St. Patrick's Day figures in so many mysteries. Here's my updated St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction list. And, since Irish aka Emerald Noir is very popular right now, you can always add more titles to your TBR pile from the many Irish mystery crime writers. Although they may not take place specifically on St. Patrick's Day.

Mystery Readers Journal has had two issues dedicated to Irish Mysteries. Irish Mysteries: 36:4 (2020) and  Irish Mysteries 24:2 (2008)  Both are still available as PDF download.

As always, I welcome comments and additions to this list. 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY CRIME FICTION

Susan Wittig Albert: Love Lies Bleeding
Jennifer S. Alderson: Death by Leprechaun 
Amy Alessio: Struck by Shillelagh
Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, & Marcia Talley (editors): Homicidal Holidays: Fourteen Tales of Murder and Merriment
Mary Kay Andrews (aka Kathy Hogan Trocheck): Irish Eyes
Marlene Bierworth: Paddy's Mission
S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked
Linda Carroll-Brado: St Patrick's Shenanigans
Harry Brandt (Richard Price): The Whites
MW Burdette: The St. Patrick Day Murders

Lynn Cahoon: Corned Beef and Casualties
Isis Crawford: A Catered St. Patrick's Day
P. Creeden: Murder on Saint Patrick's Day
Kathi Daley: Shamrock Shenanigans
Maddie Day: Four Leaf Cleaver
Nelson DeMille: Cathedral
Tom Dots Doherty: ShamrockSnake
J.C. Eaton: Dressed Up 4 Murder
Peggy Ehrhart: Irish Knit Murder
Janet Evanovich: Plum Lucky
Sharon Fiffer: Lucky Stuff 
Bernadette Franklin: Shammed
S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked
Deborah Garner: A Flair for Shamrocks
Danielle Garrett: Lucky Witch
Andrew Gonzalez: St. Patrick's Day
Ani Gonzalez: Luck of the Witchy
Andrew Greeley: Irish Gold

Jane Haddam: A Great Day for the Deadly
Lyn Hamilton: The Celtic Riddle
Darci Hannah: Murder at the Blarney Bash

Jonathan Harrington: A Great Day for Dying

Lee Harris: The St. Patrick's Day Murder
Jennifer L. Hart: Sleuthing for the Weekend
Michelle Ann Holstein: End of the Rainbow

Dorothy Howell: Duffel Bags and Drownings 
Carolyn Q. Hunter: Shamrock Pie Murder
Melanie Jackson: The Sham
Madison Johns: Lucky Strike
Diane Kelly: Love, Luck, and the Little Green Men 
Linda Kozar: St. Patrick's Secret
Amanda Lee: The Long Stitch Good Night; Four-Leaf Clover
Wendi Lee: The Good Daughter
Dan Mahoney: Once in, Never Out
Marion Markham: The St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Mystery (children's)
Ralph M. McInerny: Lack of the Irish
Leslie Meier: St. Patrick's Day Murder; Irish Parade Murder

Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, & Barbara Ross: Irish Coffee Murder (novellas)
Sharon Michaels: St. Patrick's Day Puzzle
Carlene O'Connor: Murder in an Irish Bookshop, Irish Milkshake Murder
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie: Death Takes Up A Collection
Mark Parker: Lucky You
Jack Pachuta: Murder Most Green
Amy M. Read: St. Patrick's Fray
Christopher Ryan: Go Brath
Madelyn Scott: Suspicions and Shamrocks
Janet Elaine Smith: In St. Patrick's Custody
Kathleen Suzette: Death and a Peppermint Patty
JJ Toner: St. Patrick's Day Special
Kathy Hogan Trochek (aka Mary Kay Andrews): Irish Eyes
Debbie Viguié: Lie Down in Green Pastures

Noreen Wald: Death Never Takes a Holiday; The Luck of the Ghostwriter
J.A. Whiting and Nell McCarthy: Death in Dublin
Traci Wilton: Mrs. Morris and the Pot of Gold

Irish Soda Bread Murder by Carlene O'Connor, Peggy Ehrhart, Liz Ireland (3 books in one)*

Check out Dublin Noir, a collection of short stories edited by Ken Bruen, published by Akashic Books in the US and Brandon in Ireland and the UK.

Read Val McDermid's take on the Popularity of Irish Crime Fiction.

Some Irish crime writers you might want to read: 

Tana French, Erin Hart, Benjamin Black, Conor Brady, Declan Hughes, Jane Casey, Brian McGilloway, Alan Glynn, John Brady, Stuart Neville, Adrian McKinty, John Banville (Benjamin Black), Ken Bruen, Jesse Louisa Rickard, Peter Tremayne, Gene Kerrigan, Stuart Neville, Liz Nugent, Eoin Colfer, John Connolly, Sinead Crowley, Olivia Kiernan, Brian McGilloway, Jo Spain, Jane Casey, Catherine Ryan Howard, Jess Kidd, Claire McGowan, Arlene Hunt, Michelle Duane, Zara Keane, Declan Hughes, Jess Kidd, Gemma O'Connor, Lisa McInerney, 

Who are your favorite Irish authors?

***

Crime Films set around St. Patrick's Day:

Between the Canals (2010), Irish crime film written and directed by Mark O'Connor
The Boondock Saints (1999) American crime film written and directed by Troy Duffy
State of Grace (1990) Neo-Noir Crime Film directed by Phil Joanou
The Fugitive (1993) American Crime Film directed by Andrew Davis

True Crime: 


May the road rise up to meet you, and the wind be always at your back!

LEN DEIGHTON: R.I.P.



Len Deighton
, one of the best and most prolific spy novelists, passed away this week. He was 97.  Perhaps his best known work was The Ipcress File (1962). Deighton also authored a number of historical books about WWII, and as a cookbook writer, he helped to introduce French cuisine to the UK. 

Read more about Len Deighton, who reinvented the spy novel, in these obituaries. 

The Guardian obituary.   Written by Mike Ripley.

The NYT obituary.

The Washington Post obituary. 

The Times obituary. 

The Telegraph.