Cartoon of the Day: Why We Write

From Grant Snider

 

GRANTCHESTER FINAL SEASON: PBS

Masterpiece (PBS) has confirmed the premiere date and released a trailer for the eleventh and final season of Grantchester. 
 
The Mystery! series will debut its last season on Sunday, June 14, 2026 streaming on the PBS app, PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video and broadcasting at 9/8c on your local PBS station.
 
The final season kicks off in the momentous summer of 1963. Alphy reconnects with his estranged mother and questions his faith. Geordie faces a promotion that could end his crime-solving partnership with Alphy, and Cathy’s career soars. As Leonard discovers his paternal side and Miss Scott faces a life-changing event, the Grantchester family must face love, loss, and forgiveness one last time.

Mystery Readers Journal: Fairs, Fêtes, & Festivals in Mysteries (42:1)

Mystery Readers Journal: Fairs, Fêtes, & Festivals in Mysteries (42:1) is now available. 

Buy this issue or subscribe to Mystery Readers Journal for 2026 and receive all 2026 issues. 

If you're a PDF subscriber, you should have received your copy.

Contributor PDF copies will go out tomorrow.

Print-on-Demand issues will be available shortly. We'll post here and elsewhere with a link when each print-on-demand issue is ready. First issue for 2026 will be out later this month.

Fairs, Fêtes, & Festivals in Mysteries

Volume 42, No. 1, Spring 2026

Buy this back issue! Available as a downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARTICLES

• May Day, Maypoles, and Morris Dancing Mysteries (and a Recipe for Maypole Chocolate Cake) by Janet Rudolph

• The Fête of Mortals—The Trigger for Crime by Alan Cassady-Bishop

• Graham Greene: The Man for a White Elephant Stall by Moira Redmond

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• The Welsh Have a Word for It… by Cathy Ace

• Murder Can’t Stop de Carnival—or Writing About It! by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier

• Spectacles, Sangria, and Selkies by Rowan Dillon

• Celebrating Crime on the Page, with the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries by Leslie Budewitz

• There is Nothing Better Than a Fair or Festival by Nancy Coco

• Searching for Carnevale by Yves Fey

• Faire at a Fire Station Sparks a Mystery Plot by Nancy Lynn Jarvis

• Summer Festivals Are Hot in a Wintry City by Janice MacDonald

• Why I Set My Murder Mystery at an English Literary Festival by Mark McCrumb

• World’s Fairs as Bookends to a Mystery Series by Frances McNamara

• Asian Festivals & Fairs by Larry and Rosemary Mild

• It Takes a Village Fair: Setting the Stage for Murder by Paula Munier

• Murder Under the Bunting: Festivals as Crime Scenes by Neil S. Plakcy

• Round and Round: Why We Can’t Resist a Carousel by Bernard O’Keefe

• Murder Midst the Bunting by Ann Sutton

• Mardi Gras State of Mind by Martha Reed

• Come Taste My Wine: The Balmetto Festival in Borgofranco d’Ivrea by D.R. Ransdell

• What’s Fair About It? by Nancy Wikarski

• Comic Cons Make Murder Mysteries More Fun! by Melissa Westemeier

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Lesa Holstine and Aubrey Nye Hamilton

• Children’s Hour: Fairs, Fêtes, & Festivals in Mysteries by Gay Toltl Kinman

• Real Crime at Fêtes and Festivals by Cathy Pickens

• Crime Seen: Fun—and Fear—at the Fair by Kate Derie

• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet Rudolph

LIBRARY POSTER OF THE MONTH

 WPA Library Project

China Invading Taiwan? Get in Line Behind the Tourists -- Guest Post by Ed Lin

I started to get messages three days into our Taipei trip. 

They were along the lines of "Are you guys all right?" 

I read them as I woke up in the dead of night, confused by jetlag and the lack of context, until I read the American news stories. With little forewarning, China had surrounded Taiwan with ships, jet fighters and bombers, and was shooting live ammo into the waters close to the main island. Many but not all international and domestic flights were cancelled. With the Taiwanese public long weary of its neighbor's menacing moves, nearly every news cable channel was running garbage on celebrities and politicians. 

For its part, China channeled Steven Seagal and called the operation "Justice Mission 2025." It's also an odd title considering that move came so late in the year, Dec. 29th. China Daily, a state organ of the People's Republic, said the operation was "to combat 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities and external interference." 

China had been fuming since November when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Chinese military force against Taiwan would threaten Japan. Takaichi's remarks seemed to imply that Japan might help defend Taiwan, a former Japanese colony, against an assault from Beijing. Also, Takaichi is a woman, which rankles the current misogynistic mentality of Chinese Communist Party. 

Then in December, Taiwan agreed to its largest-ever arms package purchase—$11 billion—from the United States. The sale "exposes Washington's reckless disregard for the one-China principle and the political foundations of China-U.S. relations," China Daily noted on Dec. 19. Ten days later, "Justice Mission 2025, " without Seagal, was a go. 

We had landed in Taiwan on Dec. 26, after a 20-hour flight with a layover in Seattle, so before the emails I wasn't aware that China's war games were playing out in real-time American media. I know from experience that skeleton crews, comprising of those who lacked the seniority to get time off, handle newsrooms in the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's typically a slow news week, so Chinese military moves may have gotten a lot more play than usual. The real insider report might be that the whole charade was really a temporary stimulus to address the near-20% unemployment rate among Chinese youth. 

After all, China's supposed safeguarding of Taiwan failed to stop the real invasion—of tourists! Yes, the mission did cause the delay and cancellation of incoming and in-country flights, but people from all over the world were already on the ground and on the move. 

My wife and I have been to Taiwan a number of times, but this trip was the first time we were taking our son. In the planning stages we stressed over what he needed to see, and what he needed to know. We decided that that would make for an unnecessarily harrowing trip. At least this time, we thought, let's just leisurely eat, shop, and hang out. Give the kid some good memories of one of his ancestral homelands. 

If we were wary about anything before the trip, it was due to a deadly incident about a week before we left. A mentally unstable man wearing body armor had entered Taipei's main subway station, threw smoke grenades, and began stabbing people. His rampage spilled out into the street, leaving three dead and 11 injured. On the run from police, he fell off the roof of adepartment store and died after falling to the sidewalk. Later, in front of news cameras, the killer's elderly parents apologized to the victims, knelt on the ground, and bowed. 

There have been similar attacks in Taiwan in the past, but still my wife and I knew the country was one of the safest to visit, and certainly more safe than our hometown of New York, America's shining jewel. 

During one stroll through Taipei, we went through the trendy Zhongshan shopping district, ground zero of where the tragedy unfolded, and observed the memorials set up, which stood in sharp contrast with a Disney-funded mini park set up to promote Zootopia 2 that included a giant Christmas tree, and other stations for photo ops with the animal characters from the film. 

The place was teeming with tourists, foreigners and Taiwanese alike. Taiwan may not be a majority Christian nation, but it is a big-time Christmas nation. You can't go a block in December without seeing pictures of Santa drinking boba tea. 

Filled with a certain nondenominational holiday spirit, we decided to make the trip to super-touristy Jioufen on what would be the day "Justice Mission 2025" launched. 

For the unfamiliar, here are a few things to know about Jioufen. It's about a 40-minute cab ride northeast from the center of Taipei. It's long been rumored to be the inspiration for the setting of the beloved anime Spirited Away. The film's creator Hayao Miyazaki has denied this, but the resemblance is undeniable. Jioufen is an old gold-mining town on a cliffside with a main walk of several hundred stone steps that rise at a more than 45- degree angle through the center of the quaint town. Every other building is ateahouse. At night, when red lanterns spookily light the walk, Jioufen is probably one of the most Instagrammable places in East Asia. 

Unfortunately, Jioufen's main steps can become dangerously overcrowded late in the day. 

I've transferred trains at Times Square during rush hour. I've seen Springsteen at the Garden. I've seen playoff games between the Devils and the Rangers, ones where cadres of women charge into the men's restrooms en masse because the wait at the women's restrooms had become intolerable. Yet I've never been in a group of people as packed in as when we were trying to go down the stairs at Jioufen. Half the crowd was new arrivals trying go up, and the other half were trying to catch a ride back to Taipei. People in all languages cried out in resignation. We moved down maybe three steps a minute. 

Also, for the first time in Taiwan, I was aware someone was trying to pickpocket me. I felt a hand against my backside. Not the affectionate spousal touch, but a nuanced frisking of my back pockets. I managed to turn my head and caught sight of someone with a baseball cap pulled low slipping away through the crowd, contorting like an octopus. 

A few hours later, safe at our hotel, I read the "Are you guys all right?" emails. As I processed what our friends were talking about, I became as blasé as the rest of Taiwan. 

My thinking is this. Since the major hostilities of the Chinese civil war ended in 1949 with the Nationalists decamping to Taiwan, the two sides of the strait have been in a cat-and-mouse game that has occasional flare-ups and casualties. So China sends ships and planes over the median line of the Taiwan Strait. That's all drums and gongs, anyway.

I would really be worried if the People's Republic went silent on condemning "Taiwan authorities" seeking independence, and withheld military exercises, because that perceived lull might mean China's gearing up for the real thing.

***

Ed Lin is a journalist by training and an all-around stand-up kinda guy. He’s the author of several books: Waylaid, his literary debut, and his Robert Chow crime series, set in 1970s Manhattan Chinatown: This Is a Bust, Snakes Can’t Run, and One Red Bastard. Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. Lin lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheun.

Ed Lin’s big-hearted, eye-opening fifth installment in the fan-favorite Taipei Night Market series, The Dead Can't Make a Living, will be out this month. Jing-nan, the owner of the most popular food stand in Taipei’s world-famous Shilin night market, is hauling trash after a successful evening of hawking Taiwanese delicacies to tourists when he finds a corpse propped up against the dumpsters. The dead man turns out to be Juan Ramos, a Philippine national who came to Taiwan for a job at a massive ZHD food processing plant.

EASTER CRIME FICTION/ EASTER MYSTERIES

Just in time for Easter, here's my updated Easter Crime Fiction list. As always, I welcome any additions. I've also added some Good Friday mysteries, rounding out the weekend.

EASTER CRIME FICTION/
EASTER MYSTERIES

The Easter Evader by Mathiya Adams

Death by Flamenco by Jennifer S. Alderson

Antiques Bizarre by Barbara Allan
Ship of Danger by Mabel Esther Allan
Aunt Dimity: Detective by Nancy Atherton
Bunny Donuts and a Body by Cindy Bell
Show Me the Bunny by Laurien Berenson

Death and the Easter Bunny by Linda Berry
In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen
Easter Weekend by David Bottoms
The Last Enemy by Grace Brophy

The Faberge Easter Egg by Sharon E. Buck

Wycliffe and the Last Rites by W.J. Burley
The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha by JoAnna Carl
Papa la-Bas by John Dickson Carr
Do You Promise Not To Tell? by Mary Jane Clark
Easter Hair Hunt by Nancy J. Cohen
Easter Buried Eggs by Lyndsey Cole
Little Easter by Reed Farrel Coleman
A Holiday Sampler by Christine E. Collier
Last Easter by Caroline Conklin
Absolute Certainty by Rose Connors
Murder on Good Friday by Sara Conway
Holy Terrors by Mary R. Daheim
Big Bunny Bump Off, Easter Escapade, Hippity Hoppity Homicide by Kathi Daley
Death of a Harlequin by Mary-Jane Deeb

KittyKai's Easter Mystery by Debbie De Louise
The House of Death by Paul Doherty
Cue the Easter Bunny by Liz Evans
Root of All Evil by E.X. Ferrars

Death at the Wheel by Kate Flora
The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand

Lord James Harrington and the Easter Mystery by Lynn Florkiewicz
Toxic Toffee; Criminally Cocoa by Amanda Flower
Eula May and the Easter Kandy Killer by Amy Mull Fremgen

Lord James Harrington and the Easter Mystery by Lynn Florkiewicz
Deadly Sin by P.J. Grady
Hop 'Til You Drop by J. M. Griffin

Precious Blood by Jane Haddam
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
The Good Friday Murder by Lee Harris 
Server Down by J.M. Hayes
Semana Santa by David Hewson
Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy

Killer Easter Pie by Carolyn Q. Hunter
Easter Murders by Bryant Jackson & Edward Meadows
Death of a Dumb Bunny by Melanie Jackson
Easter Eggs and Shotgun Shells by Madison Johns
On the Lamb by Tina Kashian

Murder on the Eightfold Path by Diana Killian
Beauty Expos are Murder by Libby Klein

Bunny Drop by Linda Kozar
Chef Maurice and the Bunny-Boiler Bake Off by J.A. Lang
Forest of Souls by J. G. Lewis

Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose (short stories) by Peter Lovesey
Dyeing Season: Basket Case by Karen MacInerney
Shot Cross Buns by Tegan Maher
Pagan Spring by G. M. Malliet
Some Like It Lethal by Nancy Martin
Alibis & Angels by Olivia Matthews
Easter Bunny Murder; Easter Bonnet Murder by Leslie Meier
The Chocolate Easter Baking Challenge by M'Lissa Moorecroft

Devil's Door by Sharan Newman
The Easter Mystery by Joan Lowery Nixon
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

The Easter Sunday Slaughter by Imogen Plimp
The Wolf and the Lamb by Frederick Ramsey
Chicory is Trickery by Sheri Richey

The Chocolate Egg Murders by David W. Robinson

The Baritone Wore Chiffon; The Soprano Wore Falsettos by Mark Schweizer
Easter's Lily by Judy Serrano
Prey on Patmos by Jeffrey Siger
Tourist Trap by Julie Smith

Wicked Egg to Crack by Lotta Smith
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming
And Four To Go includes "The Easter Parade" aka The Easter Parade Murder" by Rex Stout
Easter Breakfast by John Stuart

Nickeled-and-Dimed to Death by Denise Swanson
The Quarry by Johan Theorin
Midnight at the Camposanto by Mari Ulmer
The Lord is My Shepherd by Debbie Viguie
Of Crocuses and Confessions; On Borrowed Time; Baa'd to the Bone by Sarah Jane Weldon

The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson
Easter Egg Murder by Patricia Smith Wood
Easter Egg Hunt Murder by Rachel Woods

Short Stories: 

"The Man on the Cross" by Bill Crider from the collection Thou Shalt Not Kill, edited by Anne Perry.
"The Rabbit Died" by Sue Ann Jaffarian.

Looking for Easter Chocolate to eat while reading? Stop by my other Blog, DyingforChocolate.com for some great Chocolate Easter Recipes and the History and Culture of the Chocolate Easter Bunny.

Look Magazine, April 16, 1957