MAPBACK MONDAYS: A.A. FAIR'S FOOLS DIE ON FRIDAY

It's Mapback Monday, but today's Dell Mapback is A.A. Fair's Fools Die on Friday. A.A. Fair was the pseudonym that Erle Stanley Gardner used for his Cool and Lam series (Bertha Cool and Donald Lam). This is #11 in that series, and was first published in 1947.  Read a review by Francis M. Nevins that appeared in Mystery*File.  

CALL FOR ARTICLES: Cross-Genre Mysteries

Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal: Cross-Genre Mysteries: Fall 2026

For our next issue, we are looking for articles, reviews, and author essays focusing on cross-genre crime fiction.

DEADLINE: August 20, 2026

Cross-Genre Mysteries:  Cross-genre fiction blends the themes, tropes, and conventions of two or more distinct literary genres. It doesn’t fit neatly into one category. A Cross-Genre Mystery is a story that retains a central investigation or puzzle at its heart, but layers in other distinct genre such as science fiction, fantasy, and Westerns. For this next issue, we are not including historical mysteries, as we have had five Historical Mystery issues of Mystery Readers Journal on that theme. 

We did have a past issue on Cross-Genre Mysteries in 1999: (Volume 15: No. 1). It's unavailable as PDF or print, but have a look at the Table of Contents. 

Have a question? Send me an email at:  Janet @ mysteryreaders. org

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

We’re also looking for reviews and articles. 

Send submissions to janet @ mysteryreaders . org 

Deadline: May 20, 2026. 

Author Essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "Cross-Genre" 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 cross-genre theme in your mysteries. Be sure and cite specific titles, as well as how you use both genres in your books. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio. 

Reviews: 50-250 words. 

Articles: 500-1000 words. 

Deadline: August 20, 2026  

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

Subject Line:  Cross-Genre Mysteries

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 for 2026.

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

Many back issues available as PDF downloads. Here are just a few. 

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. 4 themed issues a year! 

Have a look at our index of fabulous issues with articles, reviews, and essays from your favorite authors and reviewers. 

***

CLAYMORE AWARD FINALISTS 2026

2026 Claymore Finalists

Clay Stafford of the Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference announced this year's Silver Falchion and Claymore Award Finalists. The Silver Falchion Award is given for the Best Book in each category for the previous year (2025). The Claymore Award is given to a diverse collection of the top unpublished manuscripts submitted in 2026. The winners in each category will be announced at the annual Killer Nashville Awards Dinner taking place on August 22nd at the Embassy Suites Nashville South/Cool Springs Hotel in Franklin, TN.
 
Best Action/Adventure
 
The Veiled Mosaic / Christopher Boswell 
Cleopatra's Tomb / Mark Bruce 
Free Economic Zone / J Reid Graham
Dynamite / James Hamilton
The Peacock Throne / Shaun Singh
The Lost Patrol of Black Virgin Mountain / Rick St John
 
Best Children's
 
Leo and the Chess Game of Ashoka / Jaya Agrawl
The Locker of Legends / Nate Searle
 
Best Comedy (includes comedic P.I. and crime caper)
 
The Yellow Willie Incident / Kathleen Kaska
How to Keep a Secret in Alabama / Beth Hamer Miles
Stuck in Stowe / Matthew Minson
 
 
Best Cozy
 
A Truth Most Inconvenient / Elizabeth Abram
Reel Danger in the Dunes / Maggie Cleland
The Doll's House / Lucinda Gerlitz 
Steeped in Gossip / Cathey Rhamy
Alaskan Falls / Lori Sandrock
A Venetian Moonlight Murder / Jacquie Wilvers
 
Best Historical 
 
A Proof Against Ghosts / SR Chamberlain
Hollow Whispers of the Wind / Florence Chien
Hero Traitor Spy / Mark Clemens
The Hidebehind: A Folk Hymnal / John Essex 
Winterburn / DJ           Mattos
The White Diamond / Howard Sewell
 
Best Investigator (includes procedural, serious P.I., detective, and noir)
 
In Plain Sight / Jacquelyn Dohoney
Hunting the Archer / John Foley
Victim’s Voice / Henry James Kaye
Reflections in the Mist / Avram Lavinsky
Centaur Standing / Clare Monteschio
Return to Newstead Hills / CJ Prince
 
Best Juvenile / Y.A.
 
The Ravenspur Mystery / Judy Broad
Cinch / Mary Lynn Cloghesy
Mr. Larson's Tooth / Stephanie Duquette
Three Against Time / Alan Elliot
An Evil on Stanton Street / Janelle Gabay 
Early Decision / A.L. Phillips
  
Best Literary
 
Ghost of Bosnia / Micheal Blankenship
It's Always the Boyfriend / CJ Howell
The Unbroken Trail / Robert Jones
Boys of Autumn / Robert Jones
This Land Remembers / B Michael Whitis
Sacred Ghosts / Carol Potenza
 
Best Mainstream / Commercial
 
Checkpoint / GK Daffu 
The Yeoman of Humboldt County / Brian Heit
Collinwood / Phil Kushner
Hope House/ M Leigh
The Colony / Maria Lynn Barrs 
The Lights of Kirrie / Jennifer Rewick 
 
Best Mystery
 
Exit, Wound / Mark Dillman
The Mystery of the Wolf / David Goodlett
Answers Will Come / Henry James Kaye
All the Buried Secrets / Kim Nuesse
The Holiday Slayer / Janet Shawgo
The End of Us / Elissa Thompson
  
Best Nonfiction
 
Rebelle / Wendy Cooper
Count Time / Emmett Tatter
 
Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy
 
Origins of the Zodiac: Year of the Dragon / Rebecca Camillo-Amisano
What We Awaken / Peregrine Finn
When the Clock Strikes / Lydia Gullicksen
The Consciousness of Life and Death / WB Henley
The Watcher / Lynn Jerdal
The Castello Della Mente / John Morrison
 
Best Short Story Collection / Anthology (awarded to individual author or collection editor)
 
Ten Terrific, Terrifying, and Tantalizing Tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Action / John Bias
Invincible Summer / Andrew Dunn
A Feel for Other People / S Foster Jones
Ain’t Nothin’ Finer- Tales of Appalachia / Venita Lynn Bonds
Between Breath and Bone / Patricia Thorpe
 
Best Southern Gothic
 
The Silence We Inherit / Leigh Bravo
Mississippi Gothic / Elise Burke Brown
A Miracle Past Midnight / Aimee Hardy
The Book Conservator / Shelley Marsh
God Don't Live Here Anymore / Patricia Thorpe
 
Best Supernatural
 
Blood on the Ground / Stephanie Duquette
Hearts and Minds / Kat Horowitz
Moon Child / Sable Pena
Dark Noise / Christopher Allan Poe
Daughters of the Last Breath / Patricia Thorpe
The Wayfarer / Whitney Weldon
 
Best Suspense
 
Fuck, Marry, Kill / LB Blackburne
Colossus Descending / Steven Brody
Needle of Deception / Denise Jendusa
Queenwood / Meredith Pate
The Eleventh Child / Chas Shutt
Aftermath / Deana Willis
 
Best Thriller
 
Fifteen Hours to Redondo / Michael Collins
Blood Cache / Jim Doramus
Blood Cache / Kevin Kuhans
Richmond Rising / Stephen Nathanson
The Whisper Book / Jack Sharman
Ties that Bind / Charles A. Stewart
 
Best True Crime
 
The Gravity of Millions / NR Gibson
Down at the Balinese / Matthew Minson
Erased: The Sinister Plot behind the Disappearance of Charles Wilding / Mark O'Donnell
 
Best Western
 
A Cowboy in Black and Gold / Matthew Gallagher
Windfall / Rebecca Jarnes

My Writing Life (such as it is): Guest Post by Naomi Rand

Why do I write? Because I can't not. Simply put, that's it. I get up every day, put on a pot of espresso, (which, currently features three scoops of Haagen Daz ice cream, a habit that I began during the pandemic, and I haven't seen any reason to break). Then, I go to my writing area, which used to be your standard desk, then became a standing one, and is currently, a bed. Not the one I sleep in, the other one, (insomnia rules). I make myself comfortable, and prop up my laptop on my lap, and I sit there, hoping for inspiration, but while I do I write seventeen versions of the same sentence. Eventually, something kicks in, and then the next few pages of my new mystery take shape.

Hours pass. That's the best part. Hours where I'm not me, worrying about whatever I'm worrying about at the moment. Though, crucially, if I'm eating at home, it's important to break after an hour or so, and check in with my better half, who's the cook, so we can discuss the most crucial decision of the day. What's for dinner. Once that's settled, it's back to work. 

After that, it's back to my current quandary, what happens next, and what do these people say to each other that will be maybe witty, or pithy, or at least entertaining and move the plot forward. The mystery I'm writing currently is about a mother and daughter who've kept secrets from each other. Then, all hell breaks loose on the film set where the daughter's working, and they need to team up. What happens next? That's the quandary. 

I wish I outlined. I've tried and failed. Instead, I exercise. First, I take a walk, (currently in Greenwood Cemetery, which is the location I'm using for my new mystery, and blocks from my house). It's got great birding, and insane looking mausoleums, and Boss Tweed and Basquiat's graves. It's very quiet, lots of dead people, but very few living ones. So, my whirring mind eventually comes up with the germs of the next idea. Then, I jot it down, and head to the pool where I swim a mile and hammer out the details.

After which, there's a drink, and dinner.

Then, it's time to watch something, (Riot Women was a favorite recently, so now I'm exploring everything Sally Wainwright's written), and then, I read whatever it is I'm currently reading. I just finished Whistler, Ann Padgett's latest, (highly recommended), and am now reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke for my book group. Then, to sleep. And being a woman of a certain age, I'm up again at three, to worry some more, but eventually I get back to sleep, and wake at six or so, and then, there's coffee to look forward to, which is, in my humble opinion, the ambrosia of the gods.

It's a life, folks. And it's what makes me happy. Or, at least, keeps me sane.

We all write about ourselves in one way or another, so everything I write has me in it. My current mystery, out now, Goodbye to Me, is no exception. It takes place in 1968 in a gritty, very different New York City. The main character, Freddie, who works as a bike messenger, comes home to find her foster mother, dying, and a strange man, dead in their apartment. She needs to stay one step ahead of her pursuers and solve the mystery of why her foster mother was targeted. She and her best friend/crush, Celia, race through the city I grew up in. They go from the old Times Square, where I skipped school, to haunt the arcades, to the boat basin which used to have actual houseboats that people lived on, bobbing in the, then toxic Hudson, the Museum of Modern Art where my best friend and I would go, religiously to see whatever movie was screening that Saturday, to Bloomingdales where I spotted Faye Dunaway getting into a cab, looking so beautiful it took your breath away.

Writing is life.

And, in my case, life is writing.

***

Naomi Rand is the author of the Emma Price mysteries, The One That Got Away, Stealing For A Living, and It’s Raining Men (Harper Collins) and the novel, Surviving Amelia (Bink Books). Her forthcoming novel Goodbye to Me will be published in June by Bink Books. She has stories in three great collections, Brutal and Strange: Stories Inspired by the Songs of Elvis Costello (Down and Out Press), Crime Plus Music (Three Rooms Press) and Hard Boiled Brooklyn (Bleak House Books). Her fiction and literary criticism have appeared in numerous publications including The Flexible Persona, Other Voices, Melus, Cutbank, The Florida Review, The Spirit That Moves Us Press, Invisible City, and The North Dakota Quarterly. Her personal essays have appeared in The Huffington Post and Ravishly, and she's written a book review column, numerous articles for national publications and, once, long ago, a pregnancy guide. Now she lives in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn with her husband, David. When she's not writing, swimming, or walking, she's planning her next great meal. www.naomirand.com

MAIGRET, Season 2, news

MASTERPIECE PBS has announced that Season 2 of Maigret will premiere on Sunday, October 18 at 9/8c on PBS. It will also be available to stream via the PBS app and PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video. 

Based on Georges Simenon’s novels about the iconic French detective, this groundbreaking, contemporary version of Maigret is written by Patrick Harbinson.

 

In the second installment of the MASTERPIECE Mystery! series, Chief Inspector Maigret (Benjamin Wainwright) and his team of detectives investigate a series of haunting and complex crimes. Based on adaptations of three of Simenon’s most famous Maigret novels – The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Yellow Dog, and Maigret’s Revolver – Season 2 raises the stakes for Maigret and his wife Louise (Stephanie Martin).

 

Maigret’s unique brand of justice exposes him to the critical eye of his mentor, Police Director Xavier Guichard (Nathaniel Parker). He decides that Maigret needs to be taught a lesson and deliberately weakens his team. With the pressure mounting inexorably, Maigret will be forced to make a choice between his personal life and his career.

Cartoon of the Day: Dogs