Wednesday, March 22, 2023
VERA NEWS
Kenny Doughty announced he is leaving ITV drama Vera after eight years.
He continued:
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
MYSTERIES SET IN AFRICA: Mystery Readers Journal (39:1)

Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as a downloadable PDF.
ARTICLES
- Eugene P.A. Schleh: The Mysteries of Africa by Aubrey Nye Hamilton
- Agatha in Africa by Kate Derie
- Cape Town Crime Fiction by Eric Beetner
- John V. C. Wyllie and Dr. Samuel Quarshie by Aubrey Nye Hamilton
AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
- Taking My Imagination on Safari by Annamaria Alfieri
- From Scandi Crime to Sandy Crime by Parker Bilal
- I Was Already a Spy, I Might as Well Write About It by Bryan Christy
- Rift — A Novel About a Journey That Is Still on My Mind by Liza Cody
- Green Snake in Green Grass by Kathy Curnow
- Nkisi by Russell Hill
- A Brutal Love Letter by Akbar Hussain
- Memories of my Father’s Bookshelf by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
- Corruption in Kenya—The Mystery Is in the Details by Gerald Everett Jones
- Writing on the Continent of Light by Deon Meyer
- A Trip to Egypt by Erica Ruth Neubauer
- My Mystery Writing Life by Stella Oni
- Le Petit Senegal by Paul R. Paradise
- Adventure and Romance in North Africa by Neil S. Plakcy
- From Your Armchair to the Gulf of Guinea: The Case for the African Mystery by Kwei Quartey
- Murder in Africa by Bryony Rheam
- Death by Natural Causes: Creating an African Cozy Short Story by Merrilee Robson
- Vacation, Vacation, Vacation by Wendall Thomas
- Serious Research in Africa by Michael Stanley (Stanley Trollip)
- Africa: The Most Interesting Place I’ve Never Been by N. S. Wikarski
COLUMNS
- Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Eric Beetner, Aubrey Nye Hamilton, Sandie Herron, Kathy Boone Reel, L.J. Roberts, Craig Sisterson, and Lucinda Surber
- Children’s Hour: African Mysteries by Gay Toltl Kinman
- In Short: Africa by Marv Lachman
- From the Editor’s Desk by Janet A. Rudolph
The Popular Culture Association: George N. Dove Award
Congratulations, Martin Edwards, for receiving the Popular Culture Association (U.S.) George N. Dove Award. The stated mission of the PCA is 'to promote the study of popular culture throughout the world through the establishment and promotion of conferences, publications, and discussion. The PCA actively tries to identify and recruit new areas of scholarly exploration and to be open to new and innovative ideas. PCA is both inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary. Finally, the PCA believes all scholars should be treated with dignity and respect.'
Sunday, March 19, 2023
LEFTY AWARD WINNERS 2023: LEFT COAST CRIME
Lefty Award Winners: Left Coast Crime 2023
The Lefty Awards were announced last night at the Left Coast Crime Convention in Tucson, Arizona. Congratulations to all!
- Ellen Byron, Bayou Book Thief (Berkley Prime Crime)
(The Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books set before 1970
- Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
- Ramona Emerson, Shutter (Soho Crime)
(not in other categories)
- Kellye Garrett, Like a Sister (Mulholland Books)
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Thriller Award Nominees 2023: International Thriller Writers
• The Violence, by Delilah S. Dawson (Del Rey)
• Things We Do in the Dark, by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur)
• The Fervor, by Alma Katsu (Putnam)
• The Children on the Hill, by Jennifer McMahon (Simon & Schuster)
• Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone (MCD)
• Sundial, by Catriona Ward (Macmillan)
Best Audiobook:
• Young Rich Widows, by Kimberly Belle, Fargo Layne, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie; narrated by Dina Pearlman, Karissa Vacker, Helen Laser, and Ariel Blake (Audible)
• The Lies I Tell, by Julie Clark; narrated by Anna Caputo and Amanda Dolan (Audible)
• The Photo Thief, by J.L. Delozier; narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs and Jeffrey Kafer (CamCat)
• Things We Do in the Dark, by Jennifer Hillier; narrated by Carla Vega (Macmillan Audio)
• The Silent Woman, by Minka Kent; narrated by Christine Lakin and Kate Rudd (Blackstone)
Best First Novel:
• The Resemblance, by Lauren Nossett (Flatiron)
• Blood Sugar, by Sascha Rothchild (Putnam)
• Dirt Creek (aka Dirt Town), by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron)
• A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)
• The Fields, by Erin Young (Flatiron)
Best Paperback Original Novel:
• The Lies I Told, by Mary Burton (Montlake)
• No Place to Run, by Mark Edwards (Thomas & Mercer)
• Unmissing, by Minka Kent (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden (Grand Central)
• Anywhere You Run, by Wanda Morris (Morrow)
• The Couple Upstairs, by Holly Wainwright (Pan Macmillan)
• The Patient’s Secret, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)
Best Short Story:
• “Russian for Beginners,” by Dominique Bibeau (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], March/April 2022)
• “The Gift,” by Barb Goffman (from Land of 10,000 Thrills, edited by Greg Herren; Down & Out)
• “Publish or Perish,” by Smita Harish Jain (EQMM, September/October 2022)
• “33 Clues Into the Disappearance of My Sister,” by Joyce Carol Oates (EQMM, March/April 2022)
• “Schrödinger, Cat,” by Anna Scotti (EQMM, March/April 2022)
• “Stockholm,” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories)
Best Young Adult Novel:
• Our Crooked Hearts, by Melissa Albert (Flatiron)
• Sugaring Off, by Gillian French (Algonquin Young Readers)
• Daughter, by Kate McLaughlin (Wednesday)
• What’s Coming to Me, by Francesca Padilla (Soho Teen)
• I’m the Girl, by Courtney Summers (Wednesday)
Best E-Book Original Novel:
• Evasive Species, by Bill Byrnes (Self-published)
• The Couple at Causeway Cottage, by Diane Jeffrey (HarperCollins)
• The Seven Truths of Hannah Baxter, by Grant McKenzie
(Self-published)
• The Hollow Place, by Rick Mofina (Self-published)
• Fatal Rounds, by Carrie Rubin (Self-published)
Charlaine Harris and Walter Mosley will receive 2023 ThrillerMaster Lifetime Achievement Awards. Minotaur Books was named the winner of the 2023 Thriller Legend Award.
Winners will be announced on Saturday, June 3, during ThrillerFest XVIII, in New York City.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
CrimeFest Award Nominees 2023
– Amen Alonge for A Good Day to Die (Quercus)
– Graham Bartlett for Bad for Good (Allison & Busby)
– Nita Prose for The Maid (HarperCollins)
– Oriana Rammuno (translator: Katherine Gregor) for Ashes in the Snow (HarperCollins)
– Joachim B. Schmidt (translator: Jamie Lee Searle) for Kalmann (Bitter Lemon)
– Hayley Scrivenor for Dirt Town (Macmillan)
– John Sutherland for The Siege (Orion Fiction)
– Stacy Willingham for A Flicker in the Dark (HarperCollins)
– Chris Brookmyre for The Cliff House (Abacus)
– Michael Connelly for Desert Star (Orion Fiction)
– M.W. Craven for The Botanist (Constable)
– Sara Gran for The Book of the Most Precious Substance (Faber & Faber)
– Ian Rankin for A Heart Full of Headstones (Orion Fiction)
– Peter Swanson for Nine Lives (Faber & Faber)
H.R.F. Keating Award nominees:
– J.C. Bernthal & Mary Anna Evans for The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie (Bloomsbury Academic)
– John le Carré (edited by Tim Cornwell) for A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré 1945-2020 (Viking)
– Martin Edwards for The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators (Collins Crime Club)
– Barry Forshaw for Simenon: The Man, The Books, The Films (Oldcastle Books)
– Sian MacArthur for Gender Roles and Political Contexts in Cold War Spy Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
– Lucy Worsley for Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman (Hodder & Stoughton)
– Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May’s Peculiar London (Doubleday)
– Elly Griffiths for The Locked Room (Quercus)
– Mick Herron for Bad Actors (Baskerville)
– Cara Hunter for Hope to Die (Viking)
– Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Mosaic (Severn House)
– Antti Tuomainen for The Moose Paradox (Orenda Books)
– Elly Griffiths for A Girl Called Justice: The Spy at the Window (Quercus Children’s Books)
– Anthony Horowitz for Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books)
– Sharna Jackson for The Good Turn (Puffin)
– M.G. Leonard for Spark (Walker Books)
– Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (Puffin)
– Sarah Todd Taylor for Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for Trouble (Nosy Crow)
– Holly Jackson for Five Survive (Electric Monkey)
– Patrice Lawrence for Needle (Barrington Stoke)
– Finn Longman for The Butterfly Assassin (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
– Sophie McKenzie for Truth or Dare (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
– Ruta Sepetys for I Must Betray You (Hodder Children’s Books)
– Jonathan Stroud for The Notorious Scarlett and Browne (Walker Books)
Monday, March 13, 2023
The Unique Pleasures of Writing Both Non-Fiction and Fiction: Guest Post by John McNellis
Sunday, March 12, 2023
HAMMETT PRIZE SHORTLIST 2022
2022 HAMMETT PRIZE SHORTLIST
The International Association of Crime Writers, North America announced the 2022 Hammett Prize Shortlist. The Hammett Prize is given for literary Excellence in Crime Writing. Books must be published in the English language in the U.S. or Canada. Congratulations to All. Winner will be announced Summer 2023.
Gangland, by Chuck Hogan (Grand Central)
Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime)
Pay Dirt Road, by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur)
What Happened to the Bennetts, by Lisa Scottoline (Putnam)
HT: The Rap Sheet
St. Patrick's Day Mysteries // St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction
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 hardcopy or PDF download.
As always, I welcome comments and additions to this list.
ST. PATRICK'S DAY CRIME FICTION
Susan Wittig Albert: Love Lies Bleeding
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
S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked

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
Nelson DeMille: Cathedral
Tom Dots Doherty: ShamrockSnake
Janet Evanovich: Plum Lucky
Sharon Fiffer: Lucky Stuff
Bernadette Franklin: Shammed
S. Furlong-Bollinger: Paddy Whacked
Andrew Gonzalez: St. Patrick's Day
Andrew Greeley: Irish Gold
Jane Haddam: A Great Day for the Deadly
Lyn Hamilton: The Celtic Riddle
Jonathan Harrington: A Great Day for Dying
Lee Harris: The St. Patrick's Day Murder
Jennifer L. Hart: Sleuthing for the Weekend
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
Carlene O'Connor: Murder in an Irish Bookshop
Sister Carol Anne O’Marie: Death Takes Up A Collection
Mark Parker: Lucky You
Christopher Ryan: Go Brath
Janet Elaine Smith: In St. Patrick's Custody
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
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.
Read Lisa Alber's guest post on Travels to Ireland, or, Bah, I Scoff at "Write What You Know"
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.
Who are your favorite Irish authors?
***
Crime Films set around St. Patrick's Day:
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
May the road rise up to meet you, and the wind be always at your back!
***
And, if you want something CHOCOLATE to go along with your Guinness and Bailey's, have a look at my DyingforChocolate blog for some Killer St. Patrick's Day Recipes including:
Chocolate Guinness Cake
Bailey's Irish Cream S'mores
Guinness Chocolate Stout Brownies
Chocolate Irish Soda Bread with Guinness Ice Cream
Bailey's Chocolate Trifle
You Make Me Want to Stout Cupcakes (Scharffen Berger)
Bailey's Irish Cream Fudge
Guinness Chocolate Cherry Bread & Guinness Brown Breads
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Murder at the Academy Awards // Murder at the Oscars
Murder is not the only crime surrounding the Oscars. Read this article in Vanity Fair about 6 Amazing Oscar Heists!
MURDER AT THE OSCARS
Tight Shot by Kevin Allman
Best Murder on the Year by Jon P. Bloch
Screenscam by Michael Bowen
Murder at the Academy Awards by Joe Hyams
Best Actress by John Kane
Oscar Season by Mary McNamara
Murder at the Academy Awards by Joan Rivers and Jerrilyn Farmer
Jack Hightower by Will Vinton & Andrew Wiese
Want some popcorn while you watch the Academy Awards? Add Chocolate: Red Velvet Red Carpet Popcorn!
KAREN PIRIE SEASON 2 NEWS
Good news: There will be a second series of Karen Pirie, starring Lauren Lyle and adapted by Emer Kenny! Series Two will be based on A Darker Domain, the second in the internationally bestselling Karen Pirie novels, written by Val McDermid. Lauren Lyle will again star as the young and fearless Scottish investigator with a quick mouth and tenacious desire for the truth. The bad news is that the series won't start filming until early 2024. Who knows when the show will reach the U.S.
“I'm thrilled that we will continue the life of our fearless young detective Karen Pirie, and of course, her bumbag. I've known for a while how well the show has gone down behind the scenes so it's been a joy to see audiences want more. It's a creative honour to work alongside Emer Kenny with the backbone of Val McDermid's story, season one was incredibly exciting building an original character we hadn't seen before. I look forward to getting the gang back together and finally being able to answer the question: ‘Please say there will be a season two?’ with an ‘Oh yes.’
Val McDermid:
“I know the millions of viewers all over the world who loved the first Karen Pirie series will be as thrilled at this news as I am. I can't wait to see how the team bring the next book, A Darker Domain, to life!”
Filming will commence in Scotland during early 2024 and details of further casting and key production personnel will be advised in the coming months.