CARA BLACK & LIBBY HELLMANN: Lit Salon in Berkeley Thursday 8/1

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Thursday, August 1, 7:00 p.m.

Who: Cara Black, Libby Hellmann

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)

This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.

Space is limited. Venue address sent with acceptance.

Please make a comment below with your email address.

Cara Black

Murder in Bel-Air, the riveting 19th installment in Cara Black's New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series, entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris’s 12th arrondissement.

Cara Black is the author of nineteen books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son and visits Paris frequently.

Libby Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago 35 years ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime fiction. Thirteen novels and twenty short stories later, she claims they’ll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery writing community and has even won a few. More at http://libbyhellmann.com.

Her novels include the now five-volume Ellie Foreman series, which she describes as a cross between “Desperate Housewives” and “24;” the hard-boiled 4-volume Georgia Davis PI series, and four stand-alone historical thrillers set during Revolutionary Iran,  Cuba, the Sixties, and WW2. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s 25 Criminally Good Short Stories collection.

To RSVP, send an email to janet @ mysteryreaders (dot) org

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Upcoming Literary Salons: Mark your Calendar

August 21: Hallie Ephron, 7 p.m. Berkeley
August 25: Naomi Hirahara, 3 p.m. Berkeley

MACAVITY AWARD NOMINEES 2019

The Macavity Award Nominees 2019 
(for works published in 2018)

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Dallas, TX, October 31, 2019. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI, a subscriber to MRJ, or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot by August 15, so get reading.

Best Novel 
November Road by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin (William Morrow)
The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Flat Iron Books)
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur Books)
Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park Books)
Under My Skin by Lisa Unger (Harlequin - Park Row Books)

Best First Novel 
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Books)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman (Ballantine)
The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor (Crown)

Best Nonfiction 
The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective Fiction by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox (Random House)
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus Books)
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)
Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson (Pegasus Books)
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman (HarperCollins)

Best Short Story 
 “Race to Judgment” by Craig Faustus Buck (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)
“All God’s Sparrows” by Leslie Budewitz (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, May/Jun 2018)
“Bug Appétit” by Barb Goffman (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Nov/Dec 2018)
“Three-Star Sushi” by Barry Lancet (Down & Out: The Magazine, Vol.1, No. 3)
“The Cambodian Curse” by Gigi Pandian (The Cambodian Curse and Other Stories)
 “English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jul/Aug 2018)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 
A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
City of Ink by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)
Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
A Dying Note by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen)
A Forgotten Place by Charles Todd (William Morrow)

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DEAD GOOD READERS AWARDS 2019

On Friday 19 July 2019, crime and thriller lovers came together at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate to celebrate their favorite books and authors at the fifth annual Dead Good Reader Awards. Congratulations to all!

The Dead Good Reader Awards 2019 – winners

The Nosy Parker Award for Best Amateur Detective:
Winner:  The Suspect by Fiona Barton

Shortlist:
A Clean Canvas by Elizabeth Mundy
The Brighton Mermaid by Dorothy Koomson
Red Snow by Will Dean
The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths
The Suspect by Fiona Barton
The Taking of Annie Thorne by C J Tudor

The Jury’s Out Award for Most Gripping Courtroom Drama:
Winner: Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

Shortlist:
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
Marked For Death by Tony Kent
No Further Questions by Gillian McAllister
Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall
Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

The Dish Served Cold Award for Best Revenge Thriller:
Winner: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

Shortlist:
Do No Harm by L V Hay
Final Betrayal by Patricia Gibney
Marked For Death by Tony Kent
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
The Puppet Show by M W Craven
Sticks and Stones by Jo Jakeman

The Cancel All Plans Award for the Book You Can’t Put Down:
Winner: Skin Deep by Liz Nugent

Shortlist:
The Brighton Mermaid by Dorothy Koomson
Her Name Was Rose by Claire Allan
The Night Olivia Fell by Christina Mcdonald
The Passengers by John Marrs
Skin Deep by Liz Nugent
Sleep by C L Taylor

The Cat and Mouse Award for Most Elusive Villain:
Winner: Last of the Magpies by Mark Edwards

Shortlist:
Beautiful Liars by Isabel Ashdown
Do No Harm by L V Hay
The Infirmary by L J Ross
Last of the Magpies by Mark Edwards
The Rumour by Lesley Kara
Twisted by Steve Cavanagh

The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book:
Winner: The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

Shortlist:
The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware
Now You See Her by Heidi Perks
The Passengers by John Marrs
Skin Deep by Liz Nugent
Sleep by C L Taylor
The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

FINDING MY WAY TO CRIME FICTION: Guest post by Hallie Ephron

Hallie Ephron:
Finding My Way to Crime Fiction

When I’m asked what books inspired me to write mystery novels, sometimes I go on about how much I loved the Nancy Drew novels. I talk about graduating to the complete works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and P.D. James. But those authors’ works inspired me to binge read mysteries, not to write them.

Instead, I found my way by first trying and failing to write true crime.

It was the story of a double murder. Two men who worked at an insurance company were shot dead by a disgruntled client. The killer had come in gunning for another employee, a woman who was the sister of one of the men killed. The sister was (and still is) a dear friend of mine, and I wrote a book based on many hours that she and I spent together, talking about what had happened in the aftermath of the murders.

I called the manuscript Exit Wound because the book was about the aftermath of murder—the devasting aftermath for the victim’s children, spouse, parents, siblings, co-workers, and friends. The killer’s capture, trial, and life sentence brought my friend only a small measure of relief. It turns out that justice served does little to assuage grief and loss.

I finished writing that book but never tried to publish it because I realized that the story wasn’t mine to tell. It most certainly was not my story to profit from. I’d have felt like a carrion crow going on book tour and dishing the gory details of those horrific murders and the devastation that grief left in its wake. There are true crime writers who manage to make this work; I could not.

Since then, my stories are purely made up and inspired by experiences far removed from murder. Going to a yard sale and getting invited in to see the renovations inspired me to write a book (Never Tell a Lie) about a pregnant woman who goes to a yard sale, gets invited into the house, and never comes out. Doll parts (heads, legs, eyeballs) that a friend had to clear out from under the beds in her elderly dollmaker mother’s house inspired You’ll Never Know, Dear.

My new book, Careful What You Wish For, is about a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she’s married to man who can’t pass a yard sale without stopping. Yes, I’m married to collector. And yes, sometimes I’d like to murder him for the stuff he drags home.

Sometimes there’s a murder in my books. Sometimes not. I think of them as whatsgoingonhere stories rather than whodunnits—on a good day, Daphne du Maurier with a twist of Patricia Highsmith. My touchstones are classic movies like Gaslight and Suspicion and Dial M For Murder and Wait Until Dark—stories about ordinary women who become increasingly isolated and besieged by doubts. If she’s an unreliable narrator, she’s not intentionally so.

In those movies as in my books, doubt and betrayal drive the plots. The fundamental question is always: Whom can she trust? I want my readers to feel the situation in the novel is utterly believable, and think, this could happen to me--at the same time knowing that that the story is made up will end with the kind of clarity and satisfying wrap-up that you’d rarely have in true crime.

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HALLIE EPHRON (http://hallieephron.com) is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven suspense novels that reviewers call “deliciously creepy” and “Hitchcockian.” Her books are rooted in reality, and it’s no coincidence that her new novel, Careful What You Wish For, is about a professional organizer married to a man who can’t pass a yard sale without stopping. She is a five-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (Writers Digest Books) was an Edgar Award finalist. For twelve years she wrote an award-winning crime-fiction book review column for the Boston Globe. Her Never Tell a Lie was made into a Lifetime movie. A popular speaker and writing teacher, Hallie lives near Boston with her husband. 

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