CWA Dagger Longlists

The CWA (Crime Writers Association) Dagger Longlists were announced Friday night at CrimeFest. Congratulations to all! Lots of great reading!

CWA Gold Dagger: 
• Head Case, by Ross Armstrong (HQ)
• The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• London Rules, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Little, Brown)
• Sunburn, by Laura Lippman (Faber and Faber)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
• You Don’t Know Me, by Imran Mahmood (Michael Joseph)
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:
• The Spy’s Daughter, by Adam Brookes (Sphere)
• The Switch, by Joseph Finder (Head of Zeus)
• London Rules, by Mick Herron (John Murray)
• If I Die Before I Wake, by Emily Koch (Harvill Secker)
• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
• An Act of Silence, by Colette McBeth (Wildfire)
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Fierce Kingdom, by Gin Phillips (Doubleday)
• The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor (Michael Joseph)
• The Force, by Don Winslow (HarperFiction)

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: 
• Gravesend, by William Boyle (No Exit Press)
• IQ, by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Soho Dead, by Greg Keen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka (Picador)
• Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Point Blank)
• East of Hounslow, by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
• Ravenhill, by John Steele (Silvertail)
• My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent (Fourth Estate)
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
• Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

 CWA International Dagger: 
• Zen and the Art of Murder, by Oliver Bottini, translated by Jamie Bulloch (MacLehose Press)
• The Shadow District, by Arnaldur Indridason, translated by Victoria Cribb (Harvill Secker)
• Three Days and a Life, by Pierre Lemaitre, translated by Frank Wynne (MacLehose Press)
• After the Fire, by Henning Mankell, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Harvill Secker)
• The Frozen Woman, by Jon Michelet, translated by Don Bartlett (No Exit Press)
• Offering to the Storm, by Dolores Redondo, translated by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garzía (HarperCollins)
• Three Minutes, by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström, translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Quercus/Riverrun)
• Snare, by Lilja Sigurdardóttir, translated by Quentin Bates (Orenda)
• The Accordionist, by Fred Vargas, translated by Sian Reynolds (Harvill Secker)
• Can You Hear Me? by Elena Varvello, translated by Alex Valente (Two Roads/John Murray) CWA

Historical Dagger: 
• A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
• Death in the Stars, by Frances Brody (Piatkus)
• Fire, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)
• Lightning Men, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)
• Merlin at War, by Mark Ellis (London Wall)
• Money in the Morgue, by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)
• Nine Lessons, by Nicola Upson (Faber and Faber)
• Nucleus, by Rory Clements (Zaffre)
• Prussian Blue, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)
• The Mitford Murders, by Jessica Fellows (Sphere)

CWA Short Story Dagger: 
• “The Corpse on the Copse,” by Sharon Bolton (from Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2: The Body, edited by Susan Opie; Killer Women)
• “The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle,” by Chris Brookmyre (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
• “Too Much Time,” by Lee Child (from No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories, by Lee Child; Bantam Press)
• “Second Son,” by Lee Child (from No Middle Name)
• “Authentic Carbon Steel Forged,” by Elizabeth Haynes (from Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women, edited by Sophie Hannah; Head of Zeus)
• “Smoking Kills,” by Erin Kelly (from Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2)
• “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” by Denise Mina (from Bloody Scotland)
• “Accounting for Murder,” by Christine Poulson (from Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Martin Edwards; Orenda)
• “Faking a Murder,” by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child (from Match Up, edited by Lee Child; Sphere)
• “Trouble Is a Lonesome Town,” by Cathi Unsworth (from Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women)

CWA Dagger in the Library: (Selected by nominations from libraries)
• Simon Beckett
• Martina Cole
• Martin Edwards
• Nicci French
• Sophie Hannah
• Simon Kernick
• Edward Marston
• Peter May
• Rebecca Tope

Shortlists in all of these categories will be announced in July. Winners will be announced during the CWA Dagger Awards dinner in London on Thursday, October 25.

HT: J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet

Cartoon of the Day: Local Bookstore

From Pearls Before Swine...

HISTORY IS MYSTERY: Guest Post by Victoria Thompson

VICTORIA THOMPSON:
HISTORY IS MYSTERY

The twenty-first book in my Gaslight Mystery Series, Murder on Union Square, came out on May 1. When I started the series back in 1999, I never dreamed it would go on so long, and I have my faithful fans to thank for that. They apparently love revisiting turn-of-the-century New York as much as I do. Sometimes a fan will tell me how much they like the series and then add, “I don’t know why I like it so much. I hated history in school!”

Because didn’t we all hate history in school? Who enjoys memorizing dates and the names of kings and dry facts about wars and treaties and stuff? Nobody does, but don’t we all love a good, juicy piece of gossip? Learning about the Reformation sounds really dull until you know that King Henry VIII split England off from the Roman Catholic Church because he wanted to divorce his aging wife and marry his hot, young girlfriend!

I first became really interested in history when I was in Elementary School and picked up a book called Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada at the school library. I probably chose it because of the picture of Queen Elizabeth on the cover and because it’s about a queen instead of a king. I probably also thought an Armada was some kind of a ball. Getting to the part about the Spanish Armada (which was a bunch of ships and not a ball at all and which fought the British navy in a battle I never really understood) took a long time, though. The author spent the first half of the book explaining Henry VIII and his six wives and how his many marriages eventually resulted in King Edward, Queen Mary and finally Elizabeth, a new religion and a war with Spain. Talk about gossip! This story is loaded with it, along with jealousy, betrayal, and several beheadings. I didn’t even mind the part about the naval battle. If this was history, I was hooked!

I have been hooked ever since. I still hate memorizing dates and battles and treaties, but I love learning the story behind the dates and battles and treaties. Those are stories about real people doing things real people do that have real consequences. Kings and Queens aren’t very different from the rest of us except that lots more people care if they lie or betray their values or are unfaithful to their spouses. And everyone loves hearing a story that makes them say, in astonishment, “I didn’t know that!”

So this is why I love writing historical fiction. Most people cringe when they hear the word research, but the research is the best part of my job. I admit I skim a lot of it. I’m still not interested in the dates or the battles, but I love finding that tidbit that makes me say, “I didn’t know that!” Because I figure if I didn’t know it, you probably didn’t either, and you’re going to be just as excited as I was to learn about it. So that’s what goes in my books—all the good, astonishing stuff we didn’t know because history class was too full of dates and stuff.

Murder on Union Square takes place in 1899. Frank and Sarah Malloy are trying to adopt the little girl Sarah rescued from a mission, but they run into a snag. They need permission from a man they have no reason to trust, and when he turns up dead, Frank finds himself accused of his murder. The victim was an actor, and I found out some very interesting things about the theater in turn of the century New York. I might have called this book Murder in Times Square, except Times Square didn’t yet exist in 1899. I might have called it Murder on Broadway, too, but Broadway wasn’t yet lined with theaters. Have you said, “I didn’t know that!” yet? I hope you’ll say it a lot as you read Murder on Union Square (which was the heart of the theater district in 1899—bet you didn’t know that!).

And I promise you won’t have to memorize a single date.

***

Victoria Thompson is the bestselling author of the Edgar ® and Agatha Award nominated Gaslight Mystery Series and the new Counterfeit Lady Series. Her latest books are Murder on Union Square and City of Lies, both from Berkley. She currently teaches in the Master’s Degree program for writing popular fiction at Seton Hill University. She lives in Illinois with her husband and a very spoiled little dog.

Finalists for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

Finalists for the eighth annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction: The prize was authorized by the late Harper Lee, and established in 2011 by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. It is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.

Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Finalists

• Exposed, by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press)
• Proof, by C.E. Tobisman (Thomas & Mercer)
• Testimony, by Scott Turow (Grand Central)

The award ceremony will take place on September 1 during the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

HT: J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet

Cartoon of the Day: Writing

FOUR MYSTERY AUTHORS WHO KNOW THEIR PLACE: Guest Post by Steve Burrows

STEVE BURROWS: 
Four Authors Who Know their Place 

The popular adage has it that it is not the destination that is important, but the journey. A look at mystery novels, however, might suggest it’s the places through which that journey passes that make all the difference. Mystery writers know that to lose control of their characters can be catastrophic; interesting perhaps, but catastrophic nevertheless. The same is true of their plot; except in this case, it’s not even interesting, just, well, catastrophic. But settings are the one element of a mystery story a writer may allow a little free rein; to become undercoat or highlight, background or frame. Settings are where writers get to indulge themselves, too. And the best ones do.

In The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radliffe allows her settings to assume a central role. Through a chiaroscuro interplay of light and darkness descriptions emerge of classical landscapes with more moods than a troubled teenager. Omniscient and brooding, these settings are also laden with symbolism, tying the novel to contemporary theories of painting, transporting readers effortlessly between the worlds of literature and art.

Charles Dickens also revels in his settings, and again uses them to wonderful effect. Here, though, the goal is not to glide between disciplines, but to overwhelm the senses. A journey through a Dickensian city, be it Paris, London, or the fictional Cloisterham of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, is to experience olfactory overload. The alleyways echo with street vendors’ calls, the gritty, coal-laden air settles on the skin, the sweetly rancid smell of rotting vegetables fills the nostrils. For Dickens, a setting is not merely a place to set a novel; it vies to become a character in its own right.

Both Radcliffe’s classical landscapes and Dickens’s Victorian cities would have been familiar to their readers, but setting in contemporary works often serves to introduce a reader to an unfamiliar world. But this doesn’t mean it can’t serve another purpose. Or several of them. In A Cold-Blooded Business, author Dana Stabenow describes Alaska’s North Slope in a few skilfully-crafted sentences that manage to cover six hundred square mile stretch of terrain, five thousand feet of geologic deposits and an overview of the local flora and fauna. Setting as geography, history and ecology, all in a couple of paragraphs. And then, there is the Gabarone of Alexander McCall Smith’s #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Here, the setting provides a gentle, lilting rhythm against which equally gentle dramas play out. The settings here are not developed in any great detail, but they seem to exist as they do in real life, hovering unnoticed in the background until a character make a specific point of visiting them; the balcony of the President Hotel, for example, where Mma Ramotswe sometimes takes her tea.

Each setting plays its part in a mystery, but there is for writers perhaps more freedom to explore the possibilities than with any other element of the story. Writers are often asked if they have advice for those new to the craft. Mine would be simple. Keep control of your characters, and even firmer control of your plot. But when it comes to your settings, be content to let them lead you where they will.

Steve Burrows is the author of The Birder Murder Mystery Series – A SHIMMER OF HUMMINGBIRDS is the latest instalment, out in the US now. 

*** 
Audubon marks release of U.S. Birder Murder editions with prize giveaway.
The first four Birder Murders – with their edgy new covers – are now available in the U.S, and the Audubon Society is marking their arrival with a prize giveaway of five copies of A Shimmer of Hummingbirds,. To enter, just visit https://www.audubon.org/…/win-copy-murder-mystery….and follow the directions. The contest is open until May 21. Good luck.