KENTUCKY DERBY MYSTERIES // KENTUCKY DERBY CRIME FICTION

Today is Kentucky Derby Day, as in the Kentucky Derby. There will be people cheering, betting on the horses, women in big hats, and Bourbon tipplers all around as they celebrate. I've dusted off last year's list of Kentucky Derby mysteries and added a few more titles. You can also read horse-racing mysteries to celebrate the Derby --  or you can watch the movie The Kentucky Derby (1922). It's full of grit and crime. Have a piece of Derby Pie (recipes on DyingforChocolate.com), filled with chocolate, bourbon and nuts. Or make some Mint Julep Truffles or Kentucky Derby Bourbon Truffles.

Kentucky Derby Mysteries
King of the Roses by V.S. Anderson
The Silver Falcon by Evelyn Anthony
The False Favorite by Josh Boldt

Triple Crown by Jon Breen
Death in Lilac Time by Frances Crane  
Triple Cross by Kit Ehrman
Intercept by Mary Jane Forbes
Bonecrack by Dick Francis
Triple Crown by Felix Francis

Silent Partner by Karen Jones
Death by Derby by Abigail Keam
Snip by Doc Macomber

Kentucky Heat by Fern Michaels
Murder at the Kentucky Derby by Charles Parmer
Dark Horse by Bill Shoemaker (Triple Crown)
The Accurst Tower by John Winslow

Kentucky Derby Short Stories
"The Gift" by Dick Francis is set at the Kentucky Derby. It is in the collection Field of Thirteen. "The Gift" first appeared as "A Day of Wine and Roses" in Sports Illustrated, 1973.
Derby Rotten Scoundrels: A Silver Dagger Anthology, edited by Jeffrey Marks
Low Down and Derby, a collection of fast paced mystery stories set around the Kentucky Derby, by fifteen authors from the Ohio River Valley Chapter of Sisters in Crime, edited by Abigail Jones.
Murder at the Races, a collection of Short Stories including "A Derby Horse," edited by Peter Haining.

Children's Mysteries
The Mystery at the Kentucky Derby by Carole Marsh

Non-Fiction

Great Horse Racing Mysteries: Tales from the Track by John McEvoy
Dancer's Image: The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby (and 5 other non-fiction books about Thoroughbread racing and equine law) by Milton Toby

The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, the Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel by Mark Paul

And there once was a thorough-bred named Mystery Novel. He did not win the Kentucky Derby.

Movies
The Kentucky Derby (1922)

Authors who Write Horse Mysteries 
(not necesssarily about the Kentucky Derby)

Gabriella Herkert, Scasser Hill, Jo Banister, Ben Petersen, Sasscer Hill, Kit Ehrman, Jody Jaffe, Bruce Alexander, Fern Michaels, Jody Jaffe, Carolyn Banks, Michele Scott, Dick Francis, Laura Crum, J.R. Lindermuth, William Murray, Mary Monica Pulver, Rita Mae Brown, Janet Dawson, Maggie Estep, Dick Francis, John Francome, Alyson Hagy, Michael Kilian, Peter Klein, Lynda La Plante, Holly Menino, John McEvoy, Jassy Mackenzie, Robert Nicholas Reeves,J. R. Rain, Bill Shoemaker, Laura Young, Lyndon Stacey, JD Carpenter, Lisa Wysocky, Sally Wright, James Ziskin, Leigh Hearon, Gabriella Herkert, Michele Scott, Annette Dashofy, D.C. Alexander, 

Other Horse Mystery Short Stories
Murder at the Racetrack, edited by Otto Penzler
Field of Thirteen by Dick Francis 

 

CINCO DE MAYO CRIME FICTION

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo: Read a Mystery!

Cinco De Mayo, the 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It's primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some recognition in other parts of  Mexico, and also in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people believe, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

I've blogged about Cinco de Mayo Mysteries before, but I think it's always good to repost -- with a few additions -- for those who missed it or won't take the extra step to click. No judgement here.

This list is supplemented with Mexican mystery writers and books set in Mexico and on the Mexican-American border. Let me know any titles or authors you think should be included.

Add some Mexican Chocolate Treats to add to your Cinco de Mayo celebration. Check out my other Blog, Dying for Chocolate, for recipes and suggestions of great Chocolate for Cinco de Mayo: Chocolate entrees, drinks and desserts and more desserts. 

Cinco de Mayo Mysteries:

Cinco de Murder by Rebecca Adler
Cinco de Mayo by Robert E. Cook
Margaritas and Murder by Jessica Fletcher, Donald Bain
Cinco de Mayo Murders by Sydnie Goodell

The Cinco de Mayo Murder by Lee Harris
A Corpse for Cuamantla by Harol Marshall
Cinco de Mayo by Michael Martineck (science fiction/but cross-over)
Cinco de Mayo by Don Miles

The Bane of Cinco de Mayo by Nathan S. Mitchell
Cinco de Mayhem by Ann Myers The Cinco de Mayo Reckoning by Terry Money

***

And a few Mexican crime writers who set their mysteries in Mexico but not on Cinco de Mayo. They have not all been translated into English.

Mexican Crime Writers:
Paco Ignacio Taibo II The Uncomfortable Dead (and numerous other novels)
Eduardo Monteverde
Juan Hernandez Luna
Martin Solares
Elmer Mendoza

Rolo Diez
Yuri Herrera 

Carlos Fuentes (crime novel: The Hydra Head)

Hector Aguilar Camin

Maria Elvira Bermudez

Hardboiled Fiction on the Mexican-US Border or involved with the drug trade: 

Carlos Fuentes: Cabeza de la Hidra (The Hydra Head)
Joaquin Guerrero-Casaola: The Law of the Garrotte
Sam Hawken: The Dead Women of Juarez; Tequila Sunset
Rolando Hinojosa: Partners in Crime, Ask a Policeman
Elmer Mendoza: Silver Bullets; Kiss the Detective
Gabriel Trujillo Munoz (known for his science fiction and literary criticism, also writes detective fiction):Mesquite Road, Tijuana City Blues Don Winslow: The Cartel; The Power of the Dog; The Border; and more 

Other Crime Fiction set in Mexico

Rafael Bernal: The Mongolian Conspiracy
Roberto Bolano: The Savage Detectives 

Isabel Canas: The Hacienda
Wendy Day: Mexico, Margaritas, & Murder 

Cristina Rivera Garza: The Taiga Syndrome

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Mexican Gothic
Manuel Muñoz: What You See in the Dark

Lili Wright: Dancing with the Tiger 

Want to find out more?

Read G.J. Demko's Landscapes of Crime: Mysteries in Mexico
"Mexican Detective Fiction" by Jose Ignacio Escribano on A Crime is Afoot

Read Lucha Corpi's: La Bloga on Chicana Crime Fiction: Where to?
Read an essay by Jennifer Insley "Border criminals, border crime: hard-boiled fiction on the American Frontier in Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura

YA Literature? You Don't Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens, edited by Sarah Cortez (Arte Publico Press)

Interested in Crime for the Holidays? Check out Mystery Readers Journal, Volume 25:1.

And a fun fact: Five most popular Tequilas in the U.S.

1. Jose Cuervo
2. Patron
3. Sauza
4. Herradura
5. Cabo Wabo

And, here's one of my favorite roses: Cinco de Mayo! a repeat bloomer with a unique shape, color, and scent!

Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Awards

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the winners of the 2024 Derringer Awards for works published in 2023. Congratulations to all!

FLASH
 
THE REFEREE by C. W. Blackwell
(Shotgun Honey, October 12, 2023)
 
SHORT STORY
 
LAST DAY AT THE JACKRABBIT by John Floyd
(The Strand, May 2023)
 
LONG STORY
 
GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY by Bonnar Spring
(Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories, Crime Spell Books)
 
NOVELETTE (TIE)
 
MRS. HYDE by David Dean
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March/April 2023)
 
CATHERINE THE GREAT by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
(WMG 2023 Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories)
 
 
EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER
 
Barb Goffman
 
HALL OF FAME
 
Rex Stout

The Neutral Swiss and their Citizen Army: Guest Post by Kim Hays

After Pesticide (2022) and Sons and Brothers (2023), my third mystery featuring Swiss police Linder and Donatelli came out in April. In A Fondness for Truth, the Bern Polizei detectives are investigating the hit-and-run death of a woman whose job was helping men to get out of their Swiss army service.

What Swiss Army service, you may be asking. For most people, the phrase “Swiss army” exists for one purpose only: to describe red pocket knives with multiple blades, tools, and attachments. Swiss army knives range in weight from less than an ounce to over three pounds (the latter containing 87 implements with 141 functions!), and the name is not a misnomer. The manufacturer, Victorinox, really does produce the knives carried by Swiss soldiers, which are black, not red, weigh 4.6 ounces, and have seven attachments.

Swiss soldiers exist even though Switzerland has been a neutral country for centuries, belonging to neither the European Union nor NATO; it only joined the United Nations in 2002 by a slim majority of the popular vote. Tradition has it that Swiss neutrality was born on September 15, 1515, at the Battle of Marignano in northern Italy. A young Francis I of France was trying to conquer the duchy of Milan, and the soldiers of the Swiss confederacy were fighting for the Milanese in hopes of expanding Switzerland further into Italy. More than half of the thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed in that one battle, and Francis I would probably have been defeated if 12,000 troops from Venice had not arrived in time to fight on his side. 

Out of this war, which the Swiss lost, came a treaty with France in which Switzerland swore never to fight against the French again or allow Swiss mercenaries to be hired to fight against French troops. In return, Switzerland got its Italian-speaking canton of Ticino and plenty of new trade rights. It is said that the devastation at Marignano convinced the Swiss never to attack their neighbors again. Officially, though, the country’s neutrality, along with its independence as a confederation, wasn’t recognized by Europe until three hundred years later in the 1815 Treaty of Paris, signed after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.

Neutral or not, the newly recognized confederation decided it needed an army, and when Switzerland became a modern federal state in 1848, every Swiss man was required to defend his country. During the First and Second World Wars, this militia-style army was mobilized to protect the nation. Historians now agree that Hitler’s respect for Switzerland’s neutrality had more to do with the Swiss banks—and perhaps the Swiss Alps—than the Swiss army, but at the time, the country’s 4.2 million people were very grateful to the up-to-850,000 sons, fathers, and brothers guarding its borders.

Between 1961, at the height of the Cold War, and 2024, Switzerland’s militia army dropped from 625,000 men aged 18 to 50 to 100,000 men (and some women) aged 18 to 30 (not including senior officers). The series of government reforms that streamlined the Swiss army also did away with the nation’s strictly enforced jail sentence for conscientious objectors.

Soon after turning eighteen, Swiss men are ordered to spend three days at a military center to evaluate their fitness for army service. Until recently, those deemed fit went into Rekrutenschule or basic training, followed by further military service; those judged not suited to soldiering were drafted into protecting the Swiss population in other ways—for example, in cases of flooding or rock slides. For the last fifteen years, however, young men who’ve passed all their fitness tests have had the option of doing thirteen months of social service rather than learning to be soldiers. This choice is called the Civilian Service, and the young men who do it are nicknamed Zivis in Swiss German—I’ve called them Civis in my book.

Andrea Eberhart, the murder victim in my new Polizei Bern mystery, had a job advising Swiss Civis. If you want to learn more about what that means and about the extraordinary range of jobs Civis do, I suggest you read A Fondness for Truth!

***

Kim Hays, a citizen of Switzerland and the United States, has made her home in Bern for thirty-six years since marrying her Swiss husband. Before that, she lived in San Juan, Vancouver, Stockholm, Cambridge, MA, and Berkeley, CA. Kim has worked at many jobs, including factory forewoman, lecturer in sociology, and cross-cultural trainer. Pesticide, the first book in her Polizei Bern series featuring detectives Giuliana Linder and Renzo Donatelli, was published by Seventh Street Books in 2022 and was a finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and the Falchion Award for Best Mystery. The second book in the series, Sons and Brothers, came out in 2023, and the third, A Fondness for Truth, in April 2024. 

 

EDGAR AWARDS 2024: Mystery Writers of America

I loved being able to "attend" the Edgar Awards this year. So good to see old and new friends. Great job, MWA, on the live-stream. Congratulations to all!

Mystery Writers of America announced the winners for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2023. The 78^th Annual Edgar® Awards were celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square and live-streamed on YouTube. 

 

BEST NOVEL

Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
 
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
 
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

(Penguin Random House - Berkley)

 

BEST FACT CRIME

Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal

by Nathan Masters (Hachette Book Group – Hachette Books)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
 
Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy

by Steven Powell (Bloomsbury Publishing - Bloomsbury Academic)

BEST SHORT STORY

"Hallowed Ground," by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

 

BEST JUVENILE

The Ghosts of Rancho Espanto by Adrianna Cuevas

(Macmillan Publishers – Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
 
Girl Forgotten by April Henry (Hachette Book Group – LBYR – Christy Ottaviano Books)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Escape from Shit Mountain” – Poker Face,

Written by Nora Zuckerman & Lilla Zuckerman (Peacock)

 

* * * * * *

 

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

“The Body in Cell Two,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2023 by Kate Hohl

(Dell Magazines)

 

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

 

Play the Fool by Lina Chern (Penguin Random House - Bantam)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD
Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

 

An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

 

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD

Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

 

Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

 

SPECIAL AWARDS

 

GRAND MASTER

 

Katherine Hall Page

R.L. Stine

 

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

 

Michaela Hamilton, Kensington Books

 

 

MAY DAY, MORRIS DANCING, AND MAYPOLE MYSTERIES: MAY DAY CRIME FICTION

"What potent blood hath modest May."- Ralph W. Emerson

For the past few years, I've posted a list of May Day Mysteries. I love May Day with its Morris Dancing and the Maypole, dating back to pagan Celtic times. And, although May may seem idyllic with its flowers and showers, it can actually be quite murderous! Later this month, I will have an updated list of Cinco de Mayo Mysteries, Mother's Day Mysteries, and Memorial Day Mysteries. All take place in May.

I've expanded my updated list of May Day Crime Fiction to include a few other May mysteries. Let me know if I've forgotten any titles. Be sure and check out the Morris Dancing Mysteries at the end of the list.

May Day Mysteries

The May Day Mystery by Mabel Esther Allan
No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews

The Neighborhood by Susan Bernhardt

The Art of Betrayal by Connie Berry
The May Weeks Murders by Douglas G. Browne
The Case of the Tangled Maypole by Anna Castle
The May Day Mystery by Octavus Roy Cohen

Murder in the Green by Lesley Cookman
May Queen Killers by Lorna Dounaeva  
Five Days in May by Paul Eiseman
The Nutting Girl by Fred DeVecca
30 Days in May by Wayne Hancock
Five Days in May by Christopher Hartpence
A Terrible Enemy by Jo Hiesand
May Day Murder by Jennifer David Hesse

May Day by Josie Jaffrey

Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel 
The Moonlit Door by Deryn Lake  
May Day by Jess Lourey
May Might Mean Murder by Bill McGrath 
A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell  
May Day in Magadan by Anthony Olcott 

Death in the Morning by Sheila Radley

MayDay by Amy M. Reade
The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer
The Merry Month of May by Elvi Rhodes
A Hot Day in May by Julian Jay Savarin
Merry Month of Murder by Nicholas Slade

May Day Murder by Julie Wassmer
The May Day Murders by Scott Wittenburg

Morris dancing is one of the Great English Mysteries, like cricket and warm beer. 

--Rosemary Edghill, mystery writer, in Book of Moons


Morris Dancing Mysteries

The Case of the Missing Morris Dancer: A Cozy Mystery Set in Wales by Cathy Ace

As the Pig Turns; Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate; Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton
Murder of a Straw Man by Robyn Beecroft
Blind to the Bones by Stephen Booth
Thieves by Hannah Dennison
False Step by Jo Hiesand

Dumb as Morris Dancing by Scott Hunt

The Moonlit Door by Deryn Lake

The Shortest Day by Jane Langton
Stone Cold Sober by Rebecca Marks

Death of a Fool (Off with his Head) by Ngaio Marsh
Dead Men's Morris by Gladys Mitchell 
The Death-Cap Dancers by Gladys Mitchell
The Lazareth Pit by Elizabeth Patterson
All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman

***
May Day also has a more Activist meaning. For more information and a great list, check out Molly Odintz's Radical Noir: 26 Activist Crime Novels on CrimeReads.