Cartoon of the Day: Flu Shots

 

ANNIKA, Season 2, on PBS Masterpiece

Annika Season 2, starring Nicola Walker! premieres October 15 on PBS. Stream all 6 episodes of Annika Season 2 when you watch with PBS Passport. Watch online and on the free PBS App. 

Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, Last Tango in Halifax) stars as DI Annika Strandhed, the wry, speedboat-driving head of Glasgow’s Marine Homicide Unit, who juggles baffling cases and a rebellious teenage daughter. Annika is a witty police procedural.  “The dialogue is so droll and the performances so charming I’m in for what fisherfolk call the long haul,” enthused The Guardian (UK) about Season 1.

Season 2 brings the first of six new episodes with the investigative team solving ever more complex murders that wash up in Scotland’s waters. Meanwhile, Annika balances a family dynamic that grows complicated as long-held secrets begin to impact her relationships. Walker is joined by Jamie Sives (Guilt) as DS Michael McAndrews, Annika’s former colleague and police diver; Katie Leung (Harry Potter, Roadkill) as DC Blair Ferguson, the forensic brains in the unit; and Ukweli Roach (Grantchester) as DS Tyrone Clarke, the newest cop on the team.

Get all the news about the coming season of Annika when you subscribe to the MASTERPIECE Mystery! Insider email newsletter.

BOOKSTORE MYSTERIES: Bookstore Day!

Today is National Bookstore Day. I love books about books aka Bibliomysteries. Here's a random and totally incomplete but fun list of Bookstore Mysteries for Bookstore Day. There are so many bookstore mysteries that I couldn't include them all, but I invite you to comment below with your favorite titles, and I'll add them. 

Mystery Readers Journal has had several issues dedicated to Bibliomysteries that have included Bookstore Mysteries. They are still available. Check out the Tables of Content:

BiblioMysteries: Volume 30:4  (2014) 

Bibliomysteries: Volume 21: 3 (2005)

And don't forget to buy a book (or two or ten) at your local bookstore today!

BOOKSTORE MYSTERIES

Kathy Aarons: Chocolate Covered Mystery Series: Death is Like a Box of Chocolates
Victoria Abbott: The Christie Curse
Ellery Adams: The Secret, Book & Scone Society Series
Laura Alden: Murder at the PTA; Plotting at the PTA, Foul Play at the PTA, Curse of the PTA, Poison at the PTA
Garrison Allen: Desert Cat, Roayl Cat, Stable Cat, Baseball Cat, Dinosaur Cat
Esmahan Aykol: Hotel Bosphorus, Baksheesh, Divorce Turkish Style
Jemma Bard: Cafe Prose Series: Prose & Poison

Lorna Barrett: Booktown Mystery Series: Murder on the Half Shelf, Murder is Binding, Bookmarked for Death, Bookplate Special, Chapter and Hearse, Sentenced to Death, Not the Killing Type, Book Clubbed, A Fatal Chapter, Title Wave, A Just Cause

Isabella Bassett: Old Bookstore Mysteries, Volumes 1-3: Out of Print, Murderous Misprint, Suspicious Small Print

Tamra Baumann: A Novel Way to Die
Mikkel Birkegaard: The Library of Shadows
Laura Gail Black: Antique Bookshop Series: For Whom the Book Tolls
Olivia Blacke: Brooklyn Murder Mystery Series: Killer Content
Maggie Blackburn: Little Bookshop of Murder

Elizabeth Blake: Jane Austen Society Mystery Series: Pride, Prejudice and Poison
Lawrence Block: Burglars Can't be Choosers, The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, The Burglar Who Thought He was Bogart, The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar in the Rye, The Burglar on the Prowl, The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons
Michael Bowen: Washington Deceased, Faithfully Executed, Corruptly Procured, Worst Case Scenario, Collateral Damage
Ali Brandon: Double Booked for Death, A Novel Way to Die, Words with Fiends, Literally Murder, Plot Boiler, Twice Told Tail
Jon Breen: The Gathering Place, Touch of the Past
V. M. Burns: The Plot is Murder; Read Herring Hunt, The Novel Art of Murder; Wed, Read and Dead (May 2019)
Lynn Cahoon: Tourist Trap Mystery Series: Guidebook to Murder
Liam Callanan: Paris by the Book
Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series: Homicide in Hardcover
Erica Chase: A Killer Read

Abby Collette: Body and Soul Food
John Connolly: The Museum of Literary Soul

Laurence Cosse: A Novel Bookstore

Cleo Coyle: Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series, including The Ghost and Mrs. McClure; The Ghost and the Dead, and more.
Cindy Daniel: Death Warmed Over...Coming Soon, A Family Affair
Vicki Delany: Body on Baker Street; Elementary, She Read, The Cat of the Baskervilles: A Curious Incident
Kathi Daley: Romeow and Juliet

Barbara Davis: The Echo of Old Books
John Dunning: Booked to Die, The Bookman's Wake, The Bookman's Promise, The Sign of the Book, The Bookwoman's Last Fling

Lauren Elliott: Beyond the Page Bookstore series: Murder by the Book; Prologue to Murder
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Alex Erickson: Bookstore Cafe series: Death by Coffee; Death by Tea, Death by Pumpkin Spice, Death by Vanilla Latte, Death by Eggnog, Death by Espresso
Amanda Flower: Magical Bookshop Series: Crime and Poetry; Prose and Cons; Murders and Metaphors 

Sarah Fox: Literary Pub Series: Wine and Punishment
Bruce Graeme: Seven Clues in Search of a Crime, House with Crooked Walls, A Case for Solomon, Work for the Hangman, Ten Trails to Tyburn, And a Bottle of Rum, Dead Pigs at Hungry Farm
Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Series: Death on Demand, Design for Murder, Something Wicked, Honeymoon with Murder, A Little Class on Murder, Deadly Valentine, The Christie Caper,  Southern Ghost, The Mint Julep Murder, Yankee Doodle Dead, White Elephant Dead, Sugar Plum Dead, April Fool Dead  Engaged To Die, Murder Walks the Plank, Death of the Party, Dead Days of Summer, Death Walked In, Dare To Die, Laughed ’Til He Died, Dead by Midnight, Death Comes Silently; Dead, White, and Blue; Death at the Door, Don’t Go Home, Walking on My Grave, Death on Demand

Joan Hess: Strangled Prose, The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn, Dear Miss Demeanor,  A Really Cute Corpse, A Diet to Die For, Roll Over and Play Dead,  Death by the Light of the Moon, Poisoned Pins, Pickled to Death, Busy Bodies, Closely Akin to Murder;  A Holly, Jolly Murder ; A Conventional Corpse, Out on a Limb, The Goodbye Body, Damsels in Distress, Mummy Dearest, Deader Homes and Gardens, Murder as a Second Language, Pride v. Prejudice
Caroline Kepnes: You

Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle): The Haunted Bookshop Series: The Ghost of Mrs McClure; The Ghost and the Dead Deb, The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library; The Ghost and the Femme Fatale, The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion; The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller,
Allison Kingsley: Mind Over Murder, A Sinister Sense, Trouble Vision, Extra Sensory Deception
Essie Lang: Castle Bookshop Series: Trouble on the Books
Josh Lanyon: Fatal Shadows, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, The Dark Tide
S.A. Lelchuk: Save Me From Dangerous Men; One Got Away
Amy Lillard: Main Street Book Club Series: Can't Judge a Book by its Murder
Charlie Lovett: The Bookman's Tale

Marianne MacDonald: Death's Autograph,  Ghost Walk, Smoke Screen, Road Kill, Blood Lies; Die Once, Three Monkeys, Faking It
T. J. MacGregor: The Hanged Man,  Black Water, Total Silence, Category Five, Cold as Death
Karen MacInerney: A Killer Ending
Molly MacRae: Plaid and Plagiarism, Scones and Scoundrels
Russell D. McLean: Ed's Dead
Elizabeth C. Main: Murder of the Month, No Rest for the Wicked
Christine Matthews (w/Robert Randisi); Murder is the Deal of the Day, The Masks of Auntie Laveau, Same Time, Same Murder 

Judy Moore: Cozy Mysteries to Die For series: A Book Signing to Die For
Terrie Farley Moran: Well Read, Then Dead; Caught Read-Handed, Read to Death
Walter Mosley: Fearless Jones, Fear Itself, Fear of the Dark
Amy Meyerson: The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Elizabeth Penny: Chapter and Curse
Otto Penzler, ed.: Bibliomysteries (2 volumes): Short Stories
Bill Petrocelli: Through the Bookstore Window
Mark Pryor: The Bookseller series  (multiple titles)
Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill

Kym Roberts: Fatal Fiction
Paige Shelton: The Cracked Spine; Lost Books and Old Bones; A Christmas Tartan
Sheila Simonson: Larkspur, Skylark, Mudlark, Meadowlark, Malarkey
Robin Sloan: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Matthew J. Sullivan: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Carolyn Wells: Murder in the Bookshop
Vanessa Westermann: An Excuse for Murder

Gayle Wigglesworth: Tea is for Terror, Washington Weirdos, Intrigue in Italics, Cruisin' for a Brusin', Malice in Mexico
T.E. Wilson: Mezcalero
M.K. Wren: Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat; A Multitude of Sins, Oh Bury Me Not, Nothing's Certain by Death, Seasons of Death, Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey, Dead Matter,  King of the Mountain
Carlos Ruiz Zafron: The Shadow of the Wind

And a few other Bookstore Novels, not necessarily mysteries:

Jenny Colgan: The Bookshop on the Corner

Penelope Fitzgerald: The Bookshop

Nina George: The Little Paris Bookshop

Helene Hanff: 84 Charing Cross Road

Veronica Henry: How to Find Love in a Bookshop

Amy Meyerson: The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Deborah Meyler: The Bookstore

Christopher Morley: Parnassus on Wheels; The Haunted Bookshop

Robin Sloan: Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore 

Gabrielle Zevin: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

YA: 

Anna James: Tilly and the Bookwanderers

Let me know if I've forgotten any of your favorites.

Cartoon of the Day: Medical Forms

 

PETRONA AWARD 2023 WINNER

The winner of the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year is FEMICIDE by Pascal Engman, translated from the Swedish by Michael Gallagher and published by Legend Press.

Pascal Engman will receive a trophy, and both the author and translator will receive a cash prize.

***

The judges’ statement on FEMICIDE:

This year’s Petrona Award winner is a page-turning, absorbing and uncomfortable Swedish thriller. FEMICIDE tells of a young woman, Emilie, who is found murdered in her Stockholm apartment in the same week that her violent ex-boyfriend is released from prison. Detective Vanessa Frank is assigned the case. Meanwhile, we hear the story of young journalist Jasmina, the survivor of a recent, severe sexual assault. Author Pascal Engman dives into the world of incels through Tom, a very believable character who is part of a weaponised gender war brought about by, amongst other things, misguided hatred, feelings of being ignored by society, and sexual frustration. FEMICIDE comes to a pinnacle as the attacks against women escalate on a huge scale. 

Continuing in the tradition of fellow Swedish authors Sjöwall and Wahlöö, and Henning Mankell, Pascal Engman uses his writing to comment on societal values making FEMICIDE an interesting, fictional take on the multifaceted topic of violence against women. The book stood out to all the Petrona judges for several reasons. The way FEMICIDE opens the reader’s eyes to the steadily increasing threat of the incel movement and what makes these men tick was felt by all the judges. FEMICIDE is a challenging read that broadens thinking. The writing is well informed, the book has a good sense of urban space, and it picks up pace in a satisfying manner. There is a cast of interesting, and sometimes unconventional, characters for the reader to get to know. All the judges felt this book offered something creatively original that captured the zeitgeist of the early twenty-first century and it is a deserved winner. 

Comments from the winning author, translator, and publisher:

Pascal Engman (author):

It feels incredibly significant to win this award. Several of my major idols and heroes in this genre have been recipients of it. I consider it an honour, a great honour. Writing FEMICIDE was a unique experience. The research on the incel movement was very challenging. I was pulled towards their darkness in many ways. Therefore, I also want to thank Linnea, my fiancée, for putting up with me then, as she does now.

Michael Gallagher (translator):

FEMICIDE was a fantastic book to work on. Pascal Engman certainly belongs to the Nordic Noir tradition, but his writing and his characters deftly reflect the tectonic shifts underway in Sweden and the wider world. Always unsettling and compelling, he is not bound by conventions or old cliches. I am delighted that the jury has recognised his talent and that my translation seems to have done it justice!

Cari Rosen (Legend Press Commissioning Editor):

We are so thrilled that FEMICIDE has been chosen as the winner of this year's Petrona Award. The novel delves into the world of incels after a series of brutal attacks against women, and perfectly encapsulates the pace, drama and drive of Pascal's writing. The Vanessa Frank series has sold more than a million copies worldwide and everyone at Legend is delighted to be able to bring this, the first of three books, to an English-speaking audience thanks to Michael Gallagher's expert translation.

Presenting THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE: Guest Post by Ana Brazil

One of my earliest love affairs—at the tender age of six or so—was with the city of San Francisco. During the 1960s my mother would drive my brother, sister, and me over the Bay Bridge for dinner in Chinatown or fish-watching at Steinhart Aquarium or for a parade in North Beach. The City was magical, and no matter where I lived afterwards, I never lost my love for it.
 
Years after I fell in love with San Francisco, I also fell in love with its history. I’ve read up on the Gold Rush, Chinese immigration, the 1906 earthquake, Pan Pacific Expo history, and—thanks to my husband volunteering on The Rock for twenty years—Alcatraz Island.
 
But recently I’ve been more curious about San Francisco in the first months of 1919, a time just after the end of the world war and the almost-end of the Spanish influenza epidemic. I’ve been reading up on 1919 San Francisco because once again, I fell in love. This time the object of my affections is feisty globe-trotting vaudeville chanteuse Elsie Clark. (After inheriting Elsie’s newspaper-clipping-stuffed scrapbooks, photographs, playbills, sheet music, and recordings from my stepmother, how could I not fall in love with Elsie?)
 
Elsie’s fascinating life on the vaudeville stage inspired me to create the character of Viola Vermillion, vaudeville singer and the bodacious amateur sleuth of my upcoming mystery THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE. Like Elsie, ambitious Viola dreams of making it to the vaudeville Big Time by headlining the Palace Theatre in New York City. 
 
And since San Francisco was home to some of the most exuberant vaudeville theatres on the West Coast, I joyfully set Viola’s first murderous adventure there.
 
Once Viola and her troupe of travelling vaudevillians (Female impersonators! Chinese acrobats! Drunken dogs!) begin their two-week run at Market Street’s Pantages Theater, however, Viola’s life come to a dead stop: She discovers her piano player and lover Stu Wiley murdered in the Pantages balcony, killed by her own gun. To remain out of jail, Viola is forced to uncover Stu’s secret past life in San Francisco and figure out which one of his lies got him killed. 

Viola’s not quite as innocent as she seems, and like her dead lover, she’s got secrets of her own. Like the encrypted notebook in her possession, which really belongs to the East Coast munitions tycoon who caused her sister’s death. Then there’s Viola’s surprising attraction to her hot new replacement piano player Jimmy Harrigan, who—unknown to Viola—is employed by the munitions tycoon and has been following her since the troupe performed in Seattle. 

As Viola unravels multiple secrets, lies, and suspicions, she still holds tight to her dream of reaching the vaudeville Big Time. But to succeed at anything, first she needs to stay alive . . .
Viola’s not quite as innocent as she seems, and like her dead lover, she’s got secrets of her own. Like the encrypted notebook in her possession, which really belongs to the East Coast munitions tycoon who caused her sister’s death. Then there’s Viola’s surprising attraction to her hot new replacement piano player Jimmy Harrigan, who—unknown to Viola—is employed by the munitions tycoon and has been following her since the troupe performed in Seattle. 
As Viola unravels multiple secrets, lies, and suspicions, she still holds tight to her dream of reaching the vaudeville Big Time. But to succeed at anything, first she needs to stay alive . . .
 
THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE debuts on the historical mystery stage on Tuesday October 17^th in ebook and paperback, and to paraphrase the vaudeville-inspired musical Gypsy, I hope you let THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE entertain you.
 
***

Many years ago, Ana Brazil inherited the scrapbooks, recordings, and theatrical ephemera of vaudeville songstress Elsie Clark, and used this treasure trove to create Viola Vermillion, the smart, sassy, and bodacious vaudeville heroine of THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE. Ana’s currently writing the second of her Viola Vermillion Vaudeville Mysteries, THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER.

Ana is a founding member of the Paper Lantern Writers historical fiction collective and lives with her husband and cat just across the bay from San Francisco.