STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARDS WINNERS

Quarterly crime-fiction and mystery magazine The Strand announced the winners of the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, The Strand Critics Awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges were chosen from The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press. Congratulations to all!
 

STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARD BEST NOVEL WINNER: 

Secret Identity Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)

Nominees:

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Desert Star by Michael Connelly (Little Brown)
Her Last Affair by John Searles (Mariner Books)
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
 
STRAND MAGAZINE CRITICS AWARD  BEST DEBUT WINNER:

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur)

Nominees:

Jackal by Erin E. Adams (Bantam)
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/Emily Bestler)
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor (Soho)
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho)
 
 
Strand Lifetime Achievement Awards: James Lee Burke and Lee Child 

Cartoon of the Day: The Line Up

 

CALL FOR AUTHOR ESSAYS: MYSTERIES SET IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL (40:1)

Reminder: Deadline is Looming - 4 day extension: January 19! Please contact me if you plan to write a review, articles, or Author Essay:  janet @ mysteryreaders . org

Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal (40:1): Mysteries set in Southern California

We're looking for articles, reviews, and Author essays about Mysteries set in Southern California. Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "SoCal" connection.

Author Essays: 500-100 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 Southern California setting in your mysteries. Be sure and cite specific titles, as well as how you use the Southern California setting in your books. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio. 

Reviews: 50-250 words. 

Articles: 500-1000 words.

Deadline for Mysteries in Southern California (40:1) articles, reviews, author essays: January 19, 2024: Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor.  janet @ mysteryreaders . org

Please let us know if you're planning to send an article, review, or author essay!

SUBSCRIBE TO MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL for 2024: Mysteries set in Southern California; Murder Takes a Holiday (Mysteries that take place while on vacation); London Mysteries; and one more (info to come).

Many back issues of Mystery Readers Journal are available as single copies in hardcopy or PDF. 

Historical Mysteries I: Available as PDF or Hardcopy.

Private Eyes I & Private Eyes II : Available as PDF or Hardcopy.

Extreme Weather Mysteries: Available as PDF or Hardcopy

Italian Mysteries:  Available as PDF or Hardcopy

Senior Sleuths: Available as PDF or Hardcopy.

Gardening Mysteries: Available as PDF or Hardcopy.

Have titles, articles, or suggestions for upcoming issues? Want to write an Author! Author! essay? contact:   janet @ mysteryreaders . org

BLOGS
Mystery Fanfare
Dying for Chocolate

SLOW HORSES RENEWED FOR SEASON 5

Well, this is great news. Slow Horses, based on my favorite espionage series by Mick Herron, will be renewed for a 5th season, on AppleTV+. This was confirmed by Variety, and everyone else! If you haven't seen Slow Horses, you have plenty of time and great streaming ahead of you. Seasons 1-3 are on AppleTV+ now. Season 4 will be released in November 2024, so it will be awhile before we get Season 5, but still, it's great it's being produced. I  encourage you to read Mick Herron's books in the meantime. 

From Variety:

 
Gary Oldman, who recently earned a Golden Globe nod for his performance in the show as irascible spook Jackson Lamb, will return alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays MI5 second desk Diana Taverner, Jack Lowden as espionage nepo baby River Cartwright and Christopher Chung as cocky geek Roddy Ho.

“Everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected,” reads the logline for Season 5. “After all, Jackson Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, ‘London Rules’ should always apply.”

Season 5 is set to be adapted from the fifth book in Herron’s series, “London Rules.” 

JOHN F. "JACK" O'CONNELL: R.I.P.

John F. "Jack" O'Connell, author of noir crime novels set in the fictional New England city of Quinsigamond, died on January 1. Jack also wrote speculative fiction. He lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, with his wife, Nancy, and two children. He was a student, and taught, at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.  O'Connell died on January 1, 2024, at the age of 64.

Read a tribute to Jack O'Connell's life and books on The Rap Sheet

HT: J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet

Moonflower Murders: A Sequel to Magpie Murders

MASTERPIECE PBS and Eleventh Hour Films announced that filming has completed on Moonflower Murders, a new television drama based on the best-selling novel by Anthony Horowitz, CBE. The six-part series is written by Horowitz.  Moonflower Murders is a sequel to the acclaimed Magpie Murders that aired on MASTERPIECE in 2022, for which Horowitz received an Edgar Award.

Moonflower Murders will be available to stream in the US on PBS.org, the PBS App and the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel. In the UK, the series will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. No date yet, but I'll keep you posted.  

Can't wait? Read Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders!!!

Returning in the lead roles they originated in Magpie Murders are Lesley Manville and Susan Ryeland and Timothy McMullan as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd.

Moonflower Murders is the second novel in Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland series, and once again uses the story within a story format. Published in 2020, it was lauded as “a richly plotted, head- spinning novel” by the New York Times and picks up where Magpie Murders left off.

Susan has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there. Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested. Now she has disappeared.

Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late?

Lesley Manville says: “I had an incredible time returning to the role of the smart and feisty Susan Ryeland. Anthony Horowitz has written another ingenious adaptation and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”

Horowitz says, “I’ve been watching the filming of Moonflower Murders with joy. We’re back with the same cast, including Lesley Manville, Tim McMullan and Danny Mays – but this time we’ve got a whole new box of tricks to present as literary editor Susan Ryeland untangles another book within a book and another series of unfathomable murders. I can’t wait to show it to our audience.” 

Filming on Moonflower Murders took place in Dublin and Crete.