Call for Articles Mystery Readers Journal (42:1): Faires, Fetes, & Festivals

Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal: Mysteries Set at Faires, Fetes, and Festivals (42:1); Spring 2026

For our next issue, we are looking for Crime Fiction set at Faires, Fetes, and Festivals.

If you have a mystery that fits this theme, please consider writing an Author! Author! essay: 500–1500 words, first person, up-close and personal about yourself, your books, and the 'faire, fete, or festival' connection. 

We’re also looking for reviews and articles. 

Send submission and queries to janet @ mysteryreaders.org 

Deadline: February 15, 2026. 

Author Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "FFF" connection. 500-1000 words. Treat this as if you're chatting with friends and other writers in the bar or cafe (or on zoom) about your work and the "Faire, Fete, Festival" setting in your mysteries. Be sure and cite specific titles, as well as how you use Faires and Fetes in your books. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio. 

Reviews: 50-250 words. 

Articles: 500-1000 words. 

Deadline: February 15, 2026

Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor. janet @ mysteryreaders . org  

Please let me know if you're planning to send an article, review, or author essay--or if you have any questions! 

Subscribe to Mystery Readers Journal. 

Themes in 2026: Mysteries set at Faires, Fetes, & Festivals; Mysteries set in France; Cross-Genre Mysteries; Mysteries set in India.

Back issues available as PDF download 

Southern California: Mystery Readers Journal

Senior Sleuths: Mystery Readers Journal

Irish Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

Hobbies & Crafts in Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal

And so many more... We are now in our 42nd year with articles, reviews, and essays from your favorite authors and reviewers. 

***

Love Mysteries? Love San Francisco? Left Coast Crime will be held in "Everybody's Favorite City" February 26-March 1, 2026.   Register Now! 

Cartoon of the Day: Carded

 

St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend: September 4-6, 2026

St Hilda's 33rd Crime Fiction Weekend announced its theme: Bad Apples: crime fiction's enemies and anti-heroes. 

St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.

September 4-6, 2026

From con artists to killers, crime fiction has served up some of the very best bad apples in all of literature. Ripley, Moriarty, Lecter and many more are responsible for prompting our heroes to action, presenting puzzles, peril and confrontations aplenty. This 33rd Crime Fiction Weekend explores the dark core of these characters, and discusses why we love them – or love to hate them – so much.

Guest of Honour: Andrew Taylor

Speakers:

Jo Callaghan 

Ajay Chowdhury 

Abigail Dean 

Vaseem Khan 

Remi Kone 

Simon Mason 

Ayo Onatade 

Hallie Rubenhold 

Laura Shepherd-Robinson 

Sarah Vaughan 

Martyn Waites

2026 Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Award Nominations

Left Coast Crime 2026 will be presenting four Lefty Awards at our 36th annual convention, to be held this February in San Francisco: Humorous, Historical, Debut, and Best. The awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, February 28, at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero. The Lefty nominees have been selected by convention registrants. 

2026 Lefty Award nominees for books published in 2025:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel. 

The nominees are:

• Ellen Byron, Solid Gold Murder (Kensington)

• Jennifer J. Chow, Star-Crossed Egg Tarts (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)

• Elizabeth Crowens, Bye Bye Blackbird (Level Best Books)

• Catriona McPherson, Scot’s Eggs (Severn House)

• Cindy Sample, All’s Faire in Love and Murder (Cindy Sample Books)

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970 
(The Bill Gottfried Memorial). 

The nominees are:

• Cara Black, Huguette (Soho Crime)

• Mariah Fredericks, The Girl in the Green Dress (Minotaur Books)

• Dianne Freeman, A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder (Kensington)

• Claire M. Johnson, City Lights (Level Best Books)

• Laurie R. King, Knave of Diamonds (Bantam)

• Rob Osler, The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington)

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel. 

The nominees are:

• Adrian Andover, Whiskey Business (Chestnut Avenue Press)

• Kristen L. Berry, We Don’t Talk About Carol (Bantam)

• Laurie L. Dove, Mask of the Deer Woman (Berkley)

• Sue Hincenbergs, The Retirement Plan (William Morrow)

• Marisa Kashino, Best Offer Wins (Celadon Books)

• Diane Schaffer, Mortal Zin (Sibylline Press)

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories). 

The nominees are:

• Lou Berney, Crooks (William Morrow)

• Claire Booth, Throwing Shadows (Severn House)

• Tracy Clark, Edge (Thomas & Mercer)

• Leslie Karst, Waters of Destruction (Severn House)

• James L’Etoile, River of Lies (Oceanview Publishing)

• Gigi Pandian, The Library Game (Minotaur Books) 

Left Coast Crime Conventions are annual events sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and authors. Held in the western half of North America, LCC’s intent is to host an event where readers, authors, critics, librarians, publishers, and other fans can gather in convivial surroundings to pursue their mutual interests. Lefty Awards have been given since 1996. 

Returning to The City, where Left Coast Crime held its first two conventions, the 36th Annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in San Francisco, February 26 – March 1, 2026. This year’s Guests of Honor are authors Robin Burcell and Gary Phillips. Randal Brandt is the Fan Guest of Honor, and author Leslie Karst will serve as Toastmaster.

Left Coast Crime is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation holding annual mystery conventions in the West. Each LCC convention raises money to support a local literary organization, and is staffed entirely by volunteers.

For more information on Left Coast Crime 2026, please visit www.leftcoastcrime.org/2026/

Mystery Readers Journal: Northern California Mysteries II (41:4)

Mystery Readers Journal: Northern California II (41:4) is now available. 

You'll also want to order the companion issue, too: Mystery Readers Journal: Northern California Mysteries I (41:3)

If you're a print copy and/or PDF subscriber, you should have received your copy.

Contributor PDF copies went out today. 

Contributors: Thanks so much for your great articles, essays, and reviews!

Northern California Mysteries II

Volume 41, No. 4, Winter 2025

Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as a downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

• They Didn’t Intend to Be Detectives… by Aubrey Nye Hamilton
• The Air Smelled Like Redwoods by Rona Bell

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• Northern California—in My Blood, in My Books by Juliet Blackwell
• A Time Traveler in the East Bay by Mary Adler
• Did a Charlie Chan Film Influence the Zodiac Murders? by Lou Armagno
• If You’ve Got the Lipstick… by David Corbett
• Climate Fiction in Northern California by Mary Flodin
• Just Say “Yes” to Stories from the Bay Area by Meredith Blevins
• Why I Set My Stories in Northern California by Daryl Wood Gerber
• San Francisco Wild by Toni Dwiggins
• Setting: Real or Invented? by Vinnie Hansen
• Mild-Mannered Men in Northern California by Walter Horsting
• I Have a Wild Imagination by Nancy Lynn Jarvis
• Following the Money to Silicon Valley by Ron Katz
• Baking Up Good Mystery in the Northern California Redwoods by Victoria Kazarian
• The Fault Lines in Northern California by Ellen Kirschman
• 1860s San Francisco— A Perfect Place for a Mystery by Nancy Herriman
• It Had to Be San Francisco… by Barry Lancet
• The City, My City by Lexa Mack
• World Building: It’s Not Just for Science Fiction and Fantasy by A.B. Michaels
• Feng Shui-by-the-Sea by Denise Osborne
• A Fog-Shrouded Lens by Tim Maleeny
• A Fish Out of Water in Oakland by Brad Parks
• The Babylon Deception, a Northern California Mystery by Ray Pace
• The Estuary Kept Its Secrets by Susan Paturzo
• Red Rock Island: Where Imagination Found a Home by Alec Peche
• The Cook, the Inspector, and the City by the Bay by Joanne Pence
• A Reader and a Writer Walk into a Bar by Karen A. Phillips
• Northern California: The Lost Highway by Alexandra Sokoloff

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews
• Crime Seen: The Streets of San Francisco by Kate Derie
• Cop Ten: The Streets of… Everyplace Else but San Francisco by Jim Doherty
• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

***

Time to renew your subscription for 2026: Themes: Mysteries set at Fetes, Fairs, and Festivals;  Mysteries set in France; Cross-Genre Mysteries; Mysteries set in India. Subscriptions are PDF. 

Print-on-Demand issues will be available as each issue is published. We'll post here and elsewhere with a link when each print-on-demand issue is ready. First issue for 2026 will be out in March.

Cartoon of the Day: TBR