2001 - 2002 Archive

Click here for more information about this page.

For What's New? for 2003, click here

12/31/2002

Happy New Year! Here's a roundup of links to various publications' lists of best and/or notable books of 2002. Here's a link to the NY Times (site requires free registration) Notable Books - mysteries are listed on the last page. The Washington Post list of rave reviews includes mysteries about 2/3 of the way down the page. The Los Angeles Times list of Best Books of 2002 thoughtfully has a separate Mystery page. Check out the January Magazine Best Crime Fiction of 2002 page.

In a bit of synchronicity, the American Booksellers Association's January/February 2003 Booksense 76 includes a highlighted mention of Carol Goodman, our most recent Mystery News featured cover interview subject.

Updated the Conventions page to include info on Armed and Dangerous, a mystery conference in Tucson on March 8, 2003, sponsored by the Southern Arizona Chapter of Sisters in Crime and the 10th annual Harriette Austin Writers Conference to be held July18 & 19 in Athens, GA.

 

12/29/2002

A couple more updates:

Atlanta's Science Fiction and Mystery Bookstore is moving! We just got word from Mark Stevens that the store will be moving the week of January 13th to 2558 Shallowford Rd, Suite 202, Atlanta, Ga. 30345 (at the Shallowford Exchange shopping center at I-85 and Shallowford Rd). For more info, you can contact Mark at sf.mystery.books@mindspring.com.

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed on Monday, December 16th. It features interviews with Carol Goodman (by Lynn Kaczmarek), Stephen Booth (by Harriet Stay), Sharan Newman (by Virginia R. Knight) and Jackie Chan (by Thomas McNulty). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Libby Hellmann Fischer, author of An Eye for Murder, which was published in November by Poisoned Pen Press. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Veronica Parker Johns, a writer who was active in the formation of Mystery Writers of America and whose hoby was sea shells. Dave Magayna contributes audio reviews of A Murder of Promise, The Art of Deception and The Lovely Bones in "The Sound of Mystery".

12/28/2002

We're back after a long absence. I have been on a special assignment for my day job that has had me traveling every week and working long and arduous hours. My apologies for the lack of updates to the site and I assure you all that we will be back to normal going into the New Year.

I am still working on getting our Bouchercon 2002 photos up -- please check back in a few days.

Here are some updates (in no particular order):

We've added some new reviews that are exclusive to our Web site and will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Hot Dog by Laurien Berenson - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
A Short Life on a Sunny Isle by Hannah I. Blank - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Red Dream
by Victoria Brooks - reviewed by Sally Fellows
An Eye for Murder
by Libby Fischer Hellmann - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Death's Jest-book (A Dalziel and Pascoe Novel) by Reginald Hill - reviewed by John Leech
The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman - reviewed by Dick Saxe
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Alliance by Larry Millett - reviewed by Dick Saxe
Sea-Born Women by B.J. Mountford - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Thin Walls by Kris Nelscott - reviewed by Gary Warren Niebuhr
Four Blind Mice
by James Patterson - reviewed by Dick Saxe

Resurrection Men: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin OBE - reviewed by John Leech
Death in the Dordogne
by Louis Sanders - reviewed by Dick Saxe
Dead Ringer by Charles Smithdeal - reviewed by John Leech
Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask and other Historical Mysteries by Hugh Ross Williamson - reviewed by Sally Fellows

Updated the Awards page to include winners of the 2002 Anthony, Shamus, Macavity, Barry, Herodotus, CWA Daggers, Hammett and Nero Wolfe Awards, as well as the nominees for the 2003 Dilys Award.

Added links to the Crime Writers' Association of Australia, The Wolfe Pack, and Soho Press. Added new bookstores, Dark Carnival in Berkeley and Murder by the Book in Houston.

Updated the Conventions page to include Murder in the Magic City Mystery Conference to be held on Feb 8, 2003 in Birmingham, Alabama, sponsored by Southern Sisters in Crime, Homewood Library and Crosshaven Books, and to include the Book Passage 10th Annual Mystery Writers' Conference that will be held July 17 - 20 in Corte Madera, CA. The four day conference, co-chaired by award-winning mystery writers Judith Greber aka Gillian Roberts and Marilyn Wallace, is an intense program designed with realistic, helpful information for both novice and experienced writers. It stresses the subject matter of mystery writing, as well as the writing and publishing process itself. Conference highlights include writing classes on building suspense, creating dialogue, and effective plotting. Participants will also attend panels with agents, editors, authors, publishers, as well as investigators and crime fighting professionals. Cost is $495, which includes all classes, panels, the opening banquet, lunches, and the closing reception. Also to include Murder in the Grove, May 30 & 31, 2002, sponsored by Partners in Crime (the Boise Chapter of Sisters in Crime)

San Francisco's legendary movie palace, the Castro Theatre, is the venue for NOIR CITY: The First Annual San Francisco Festival of Film Noir, running January 17-26, 2003. What makes the series especially intriguing is that it's composed entirely of vintage crime thrillers set in San Francisco. The event is the brainchild of local author and Mystery Readers International member Eddie Muller. Not coincidentally, his period crime novels for Scribner, "The Distance" and "Shadow Boxer" are set in late 1940s San Francisco, and his Edgar-nominated "Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir" is one of the mostly acclaimed books on the subject.

Belated congratulations to Babs Lakey, the editor and publisher of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, for being recognized by her home city with a 2002 Minneapolis Award on November 14, 2002. Babs was honored in the Friend of the Arts category.

Silver Dagger Mysteries/Overmountain Press has published THE LIZ READER: A Collection of the Shorter Works of Elizabeth Daniels Squire. Squire's husband, Chick, and assistant Catherine Schultz have mined "the rich files of her 60 year writing career" to put together this collection of short stories, interviews and a sampling of other short pieces including a mystery short story that Liz wrote in high-school. This promises to be a wonderful remembrance of this charming woman who died unexpectedly while returning home from Left Coast Crime 2001. (ISBN 1-57072-227-7 Hardcover.$23.95, ISBN 1-57072-228-5 Softcover.$13.95)

Guardian Unlimited, which bills itself as The UK's most popular newspaper website, featured an edited transcript of Ian Rankin and Anthony Bourdain in conversation at this year's Waterstone's Dead on Deansgate crime fiction festival in Manchester. You can find it here.

Click here to read "The 10 Most Wanted? Authors on the rise—not the usual suspects—drop a few clues about their mysterious creativity" from the 10/21/2002 issue of Publishers Weekly.

For a raucus and fun look at Bouchercon, check out Katy Munger's Diary of a Tart Unbound at Bouchercon at the Tart City web site.Munger was honored earlier this year by the American Crime Writers League with the Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing. Munger is also the author of the Casey Jones series.

 

9/26/2002

Bouchercon 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin will be held 9/28/06 - 10/1/06. Okay, so not everyone plans 4 years in advance. But our conventions page is now up to date!

The ninth annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Bookfair & Convention starts tomorrow night in Philadelphia. It runs through Sunday afternoon at the Wyndam Franklin Plaza Hotel. Mystery News will be there in the book dealers room and I'll be on the "Writing About Mystery" panel on Saturday morning at 9 am. Please say hello if you're there.

Val McDermid's newest newsletter contains info on her involvement with Mission Mini -- perhaps the world's first new-car launch to include a crime novel and a contest to become one of 80 amateur investigators to be flown to Barcelona to solve the crime. You can read more about it on Val's site or at the Mission Mini site.

9/19/2002

Bill Crider, author and fan, contributed an interview of Walter Satterthwait to one of our early issues. Bill's got a new website, which you can find at www.billcrider.com.

Got bucks? Christie's is getting ready to auction off the Detective Fiction Library of Richard M. Lackritz, M.D., Part II. According to the email I got, the Lackritz collection is one of the most important of its kind to be sold at auction in the past twenty years devoted to the hard-boiled school of fiction and the auction includes all major titles by Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Ellery Queen, and many others.. You can browse the catalog here. One caveat - their definition of hard-boiled is fairly liberal since the author list includes Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers and others whose work is not generally considered to be hard-boiled at all.

There's an interesting article called Bribes, threats and naked readings by Christopher Dreher at salon.com with the premise that "In a world where more and more new books get less and less attention, authors will do anything to promote their work." You can read it here.

The Rara-Avis mailing list's home pages include The Hardboiled Era: A Checklist, 1929-1958. This is the appendix to Hardboiled America, by Geoffrey O'Brien (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981). The list is designed to show the hardboiled novel not as a series of isolated literary works but as part of an ongoing cycle. Click here to see it.There's also a rather interesting glossary of hard-boiled slang compiled by Bill Denton, the listowner. It's called Twists, Slugs and Roscoes and you can find it here.

The Bouchercon Standing Committee has announced locations for a number of upcoming Bouchercons along with a call for bids for the 2007 Bouchercon. You can read the complete message here. Where will Bouchercon be? Austin coming up in about a month, Las Vegas in 2003, Toronto in 2004, Chicago in 2005 and Madison in 2006. Check our conventions page for more mystery-related events.

9/8/2002

Mystery News goes Hollywood!? Well, not exactly -- but we now have several pages of Thomas McNulty's photos from the Road to Perdition Chicago premiere and press conference. Tom is one of our regular contributors, and he was an extra in the film that was based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. His article on the movie and his interview of Collins can be found in the current (August/September 2002) issue of Mystery News. Click here to see them.

9/7/2002

Updated Conventions page to include Sayers in the 21st Century: Readers, Writers and Critics on the Detective Fiction of Dorothy L Sayers and Love is Murder.

9/2/2002

Updated Conventions page to include Cheltenham Festival of Literature and the 2004 and 2005 Malice Domestic dates, and a new email address for Malice Domestic. Updated link to author I.J. Parker's new web site.

8/27/2002

Earlier this year, Book magazine published a list of the "100 Best Characters in Fiction since 1900". I was stumbling around the NPR Talk of the Nation page and came upon the list, along with a link to an on-air discussion of the list. You can see the list here, and you can click on the link at the top of the page to hear the discussion.

Mystery fans who (like me) are crossword puzzle fans should click here for a Merl Reagle masterpiece called "Shades of John D. MacDonald". It's a great treat. Those puzzlers who already use the AcrossLite solving software can click here for a .puz version of the puzzle.

8/26/2002

It's official -- A&E has cancelled Nero Wolfe. You can read about it here. Pfui!

8/23/2002

Updated the Conventions and Conferences page to include a link to the National Book Festival, which will be held in Washington, DC on October 12, 2002. I went last year and had a great time. Once again, there will be a Mystery and Thriller track hosted by Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen bookstore and sometime contributor to Mystery News.

Updated the link to MidAtlantic Mystery. Find us in the book dealer's room, and come to the Writing About Mystery panel on Saturday, Sept 28th.

8/21/2002

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed on Monday, August 19. It features interviews with Elizabeth Gunn (by Lynn Kaczmarek), Max Allan Collins (by Thomas McNulty), Les Roberts (by Gary Warren Niebuhr), Letha Albright (by Reed Andrus), and William Link (by Edgar winner Jan Burke). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on I.J. Parker, author of Rashomon Gate, which was published in July by Minotaur Books. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Evelyn Berckman, a concert pianist and composer who published 25 mystery novels beginning in the 1950s. Tom McNulty contributes "Behind the Scenes on the Road to Perdition", an account of his experiences as an extra in the movie (check back next week when we'll post some exclusive photos from the movie set and the press tour). Dave Magayna contributes audio reviews of Lullaby Town and Sinister Heights in "The Sound of Mystery".Updated Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue.

Today's NY Times has an announcement about the first Hurston/Wright Legacy Award to honor black writers in three categories: fiction, debut fiction and nonfiction. Walter Mosley is one of the nominees in the fiction category. Click here to see the item.

8/20/2002

The Mystery Writers of America web site has a new searchable Edgar Award database.

Updated the convention page to include the 2002 International Edgar Allan Poe Conference, Sleuthfest 2003, Bloody Words 2003 and Deadly Ink 2003.

8/18/2002

We've posted several more new reviews that are exclusive to our Web site and will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Dying for a Change by Kathleen Delaney - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Safe Beginnings by Christine Duncan - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Fish, Blood and Bone by Leslie Forbes - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Garden View by Mary Freeman - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Save the Last Dance for Me by Ed Gorman - reviewed by Gary Warren Niebuhr
Blood Diamonds by Jon Land - reviewed by Dick Saxe
A Valley to Die For by Radine Trees Nehring - reviewed by Robyn Glazer

8/17/2002

Terry Gross recently interviewed Max Allan Collins on Fresh Air. Click here to listen to that interview and others related to Road to Perdition.

8/11/2002

I've been on the road quite a bit lately so there are tons of updates today. And our new issue will be out in about a week -- it's a supersized 40-pager this time around. Check this page in a week for details...

The Anthony Award Committee has announced the nominations for the Anthony Awards, which are, like Bouchercon, named for the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White, who used the Boucher name for his crime fiction and his reviews in The New York Times Book Review) in honor of his conributions to the field of mystery and detective fiction. The Awards will be presented at a banquet at Bouchercon on Saturday, October 19, 2002, in Austin, Texas.

My old friend Marty Schwartz, who is a great fan of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series wrote to tell us that the A&E TV series is about to be cancelled. If you're a fan of the series (I certainly am), please write to the acting head of programming to try to get them to keep it on the air. To get more info on the show, click on the link above.

Dan Davids, Acting Head of Programming
A and E Television
235 East 45th Street
New York, N.Y. 10017

Guardian Unlimited, which bills itself as The UK's most popular newspaper website, has an article on Baroness Rendell of Babergh, more commonly known as Ruth Rendell.

Dave Magayna, who has been doing our "The Sound of Mystery" column, has compiled an updated list of upcoming audio releases. Click here for The Sound of Mystery August New Releases.

National Public Radio's Morning Edition has been running a terrific series called Present at the Creation that chronicles the origins of some icons of American culture. Some of the subjects that have been covered are mystery-related, including Perry Mason and Edgar Allan Poe's Raven. Be sure to scroll down for a list of related links and resources. And don't limit your listening to the mystery-related episodes --click on this link for the complete list of topics covered in the series.The ones on California Dreamin', hamburgers, and Thoreau's Walden are among my favorites.

Salon.com has an interesting piece by Katharine Mieszkowski about a Penguin Putnam sideline -- an "Internet-based learning program that teaches you everything you need to know to transform your passion for writing into a published work". And they promise to have to have an excerpt of the work read by one of their editors.This article is an interesting expose of what seems to me to be one of those ideas that sounds too good to be true. And it appears that's exactly what it is. I had gotten several spammy-looking emails about this new "service" and wondered what they were thinking. Read this and find out. My favorite quote is from a senior vice president for business affairs at Penguin Putnam: "We know about this business. We know about publishing. Maybe we can monetize that". Yeah, let's monetize that.

Speaking of monetizing, Janet Evanovich is recycling one of her early romance books, Full House. A new revised and enhanced edition, cowritten with Charlotte Hughes (whose name doesn't appear on the cover) will be on sale on September 3, 2002. According to Evanovich (in a letter on her web site) "a slightly off-center love story about a devious man, an uncooperative woman, and a misguided genius. I wrote and published the original Full House in 1987 under the name Steffie Hall. I thought it was a fun book at the time, but Charlotte and I have made it bigger and better". Stephanie Plum fans, take heart. There will be a "Stephanie Plum holiday novel" out in November. The web site says "Visions of Sugar Plums takes Stephanie Plum on a holiday adventure and introduces a new character that readers will flip for! He's as mysterious as Ranger, as sexy as Morelli, and... well, we won't say any more".

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries premieres with a chilling two-part adaptation of Elizabeth George's acclaimed first novel, A Great Deliverance, airing Mondays, August 19 and 26, 2002, on PBS's "MYSTERY!" (for times check local listings).

Steve Miller forwarded this link to a Yahoo news story about Halle Berry's negotiations to star in "The Guide", based on Thomas Perry's Shadow Woman.

The Cape Fear Crime Festival has announced that Eliot Pattison will be this year's Keynote Speaker and Stuart Kaminsky will be Guest of Honor.

From the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA):

"YA'LL ARE INVITED TO HAVE DINNER WITH YOUR FAVORITE PRIVATE EYE WRITERS! The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) invite you to help them celebrate their 21st Anniversary on October 17th in Austin, Texas. It's a 4 hour event from 7-11 pm. Drinks, food--the greatest BBQ in Texas--entertainment, the Shamus Award ceremony, and a few surprises. Dress code is Jet Lag Casual. And to make things ever more fun we've hired buses--complete with spiral staircase and t.v.--to take you from the convention hotel to the event in style. Don't drive. Don't pay a fortune for a cab (It's a 45 minute ride). Don't yell at your friends for reading the map wrong and getting lost. Dinner tickets for the Banquet at the Salt Lick Restaurant are $50 each and bus tickets are $10. Email Christine Matthews at RRandisi@aol.com for more details, or send your check made out to PWA to: Christine Matthews 4342 Forest DeVille Dr., Apt. H, St. Louis, Mo 63129. This is the first time this event has been open to the general public. Seating is limited so make your reservations now."

From Anthony Neil Smith:

We recently posted the Summer 2002 issue of Plots With Guns, guest edited by Vicki Hendricks. She's chosen six noir tales from Adrian Milnes, Cerian Griffiths, Tim Wohlforth, Stephen D. Rogers, Louise Guardino, and Dave Zeltserman. Also, our regular column Hard-boiled Dixie by Edgar nominee Victor Gischler is a summer grab bag of nifty items.

More sad news - Cap'n Bob Napier reported that well-known Mystery Fan Hal Rice was killed in an automobile accident at the beginning of August. Hal and his wife Sonya were the guests of honor at the 1998 Bouchercon in Philadelphia, and Cap'n Bob said "He was a great guy, a great fan, and a Real Man. He was also going to bid on Bouchercon in Chicago at the next B'con. His warm personality and generous spirit will be missed at conventions, in Dapa-Em, and on line. Sincere condolences to Sonya and his very large family". We add deepest condolences from the Mystery News family.

7/22/2002

Here's a link to an article in Time magazine about Janet Evanovich.

7/17/2002

OK, so the mystery connection is tenous, but click on this link to see the winners, runners-up and dishonorable mentions awarded in this year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Conceived to honor the memory of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, encourage word play, and promote the universal improvement of mankind, the contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Bulwer was selected as patron of the competition because he opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words, "It was a dark and stormy night." Lytton is also responsible for the line, "The pen is mightier than the sword," and the expression "the great unwashed." His best known work is probably The Last Days of Pompeii.

The mystery connection? Scroll down a couple of screens to see the selections from the Detective category.

7/16/2002

Malice Domestic announced that it is accepting submissions to the ninth competition for the Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers. Malice Domestic plans to award $1000 grants to two unpublished writers of traditional mysteries. For more info, click on this link to the Malice Domestic site.

7/11/2002

Sad news - Bartholomew Gill, author of the Peter McGarr series set in Dublin, died on July 4 after a fall at his home in New Jersey. Click here for the NY Times obituary or here for the Washington Post obituary.

Road to Perdition, the movie based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Rayner, opens nationally tomorrow. Watch Tom McNulty's article in the August/September issue of Mystery News, which will be mailed in mid-August.

Updated the Conventions and Conferences page to include new links and info about Mystery News participation in several upcoming events.

7/5/2002

Yesterday's New York Times had two mystery-related articles on the first page of the Arts section: one, a provocative profile of Edgar-winning author Daniel Chavarria (thanks, Steve!), and the other was a review of Walter Mosley's newest Easy Rawlings mystery, Bad Boy Brawly Brown, by Janet Maslin.

6/27/2002

Check out the latest in the NY Times series on Making Books by Martin Arnold -- this time discussing a Chandler festival. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

6/26/2002

Steve Miller, our "In the beginning" columnist, forwarded a message from the RaraAvis mailing list that Anthony Mason has done a piece on Dashiell Hammett that will be airing on the July 7 edition of CBS Sunday Morning. And I'll add that Publishers Weekly mentioned that Janet Evanovich will be profiled on CBS Sunday Morning some time in July...

Dave Magayna, who has been doing our "The Sound of Mystery" column, has compiled a list of upcoming audio releases. Click here for The Sound of Mystery - June 2002 New Releases.

6/25/2002

We've posted several new reviews that are exclusive to our Web site and will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Death of the Party by Catherine Dain - reviewed by Robyn Glazer
The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner - reviewed by John Leech
Three to Kill by Jean-Patrick Manchette - reviewed by John Leech
Atonement by Ian McEwan - reviewed by John Leech
Angel Fire by Lisa Miscione - reviewed by Gary Warren Niebuhr
The President's Weekend by David D. Reed - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Eclipse by Richard S. Wheeler - reviewed by Sally Fellows

Updated Conventions & Events pages to include NY is Book Country and a talk by Chris Aldrich at the Westport Public Library. Also updated link to The Mysterious Home Page.

6/22/2002

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed on Monday, June 17. It features interviews with Earl Emerson (by Lynn Kaczmarek), D. Daniel Judson (by Gary Warren Niebuhr), and Daniel Stashower (by Reed Andrus). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Gabriel Cohen, whose first novel, Red Hook, published in October by Minotaur Books, was nominated for an Edgar. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Thomas Flanagan, master of historical fiction who started his literary career in 1949 with seven stories in EQMM. In Point/Counter Point, Ted Hertel and Reed Andrus go head-to-head over Daniel Silva's The English Assasin. Dave Magayna contributes a couple of audio reviews in The Sound of Mystery. And author Sharon Zukowski shows us the glories of Belize in her new regular feature Mysterious Travels. Updated Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue.

6/18/2002

Check out an article in the current issue of Newsweek titled It's Black, White -- and Noir: Crime writers are taking a hard-boiled look at race.

Added a link to Books by the Bay, "a celebration of independent bookselling" in San Francisco on July 20, 2002.

6/17/2002

NEWS FLASH! Ian Rankin has been awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday honours list, in recognition of his services to literature. Rankin said "If somebody told me that this would happen two years ago, I would not have believed them.

For more of on Ian Rankin's reaction, click here, here and here. Others honoured include David Suchet (OBE), best known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot, Sir Mick Jagger (no obvious connection to mystery but how could I leave him out) and playwright Harold Pinter, who has been made Companion of Honour. For the BBC's Guide to the Honours, click here.

6/16/2002

On Friday, June 14, Terry Gross rebroadcast an interview with Dennis Lehane about Mystic River, his best-selling novel that recently came out in paperback. Click here to listen to the interview.

6/13/2002

The Crime Writers of Canada have announced the winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards, which were presented at a banquet in Toronto on June 12, 2002. For more information check out www.crimewriterscanada.com.

Short Story: "Sign of the Times" by Mary Jane Maffini (in Fit to Die, RendezVous Press)

Juvenile: Scared to Death by Norah McClintock (Scholastic Canada)

True Crime: The Last Amigo by Stevie Cameron & Harvey Cashore (McClelland & Stewart) - tied with -
Saboteurs by Andrew Nikiforuk (McClelland & Stewart)

First Novel: The Boy Must Die by Jon Redfern (ECW Press)

Novel: In the Midnight Hour by Michelle Spring (Ballantine)

French-language: Fleur invitait au troisième by Anne-Michèle Lévesque (Vents d'Ouest)

Derrick Murdocs Awards:

James Dubro - for serving a seven-year term as chair of the Ellis awards
Caro Soles - for giving us Bloody Words, Canada's own mystery conference

6/10/2002

Updated the Conventions and Conferences links to delete past events. Looks like I (this is Chris) will finally be able to attend Deadly Ink this coming weekend. Considering that it's practically in my back yard, I'm pleased to finally be able to attend, and I hope to meet some of you there.

6/8/2002

Mystery Readers International announces Macavity Award Nominees for works published in 2001. The Macavity is nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, the largest reader/fan based organization in the world. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention in October 2002. For more information, contact Janet A. Rudolph at whodunit@murderonthemenu.com or call (510) 845-3600.

Best Mystery Novel:
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
The Deadhouse by Linda Fairstein (Scribner)
Folly by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Tell No One by Harlan Coben (Delacorte)
Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (Hyperion)

Best First Mystery Novel:

The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton (Scribner)
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter (Morrow)
Open Season by C. J. Box (G.P. Putnam's)
Perhaps She'll Die by M.K. Preston (Intrigue)

Best Bio/Critical Mystery Work:

Writing the Mystery: A Start to Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional by G. Miki Hayden (Intrigue)
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins)
The History of Mystery by Max Allan Collins (Collectors Press)
My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet by Michael J. Hayde (Cumberland House)
Who Was that Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of Screwball Mystery by Jeffrey Marks (Delphi Books)

Best Mystery Short Story:

"My Bonnie Lies" by Ted Hertel (The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers)
"Bitter Waters" by Rochelle Krich (Criminal Kabbalah)
"The Would-Be Widower" by Katherine Hall Page (Malice Domestic 10)
"The Abbey Ghosts" by Jan Burke (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, 01/01)

6/1/2002

Added a link to Crime Scene 2002, "a unique event, dedicated to the crime, mystery and thriller genres, and combines film, television, literature and stage work celebrating contemporary and historical developments in these most fertile of genres." Sponsored by the National Film Theatre and the British Film Institure, the literary events are directed by Maxim Jakubowski and the TV events include a preview of The Mermaids Singing, adapted from Val McDermid's novel. Crime Scene 2002 takes place in London from July 11 - July 14, 2002..

Added a link to Flatirons Blunt Instrument VII, a workshop for mystery readers and writers presented by Rocky Mountain Chapter/Sisters in Crime on June 22, 2002 in Boulder, CO.

Added a link to the Southern Festival of Books, a three-day celebration of books that takes place annually the second full weekend of October at War Memorial Plaza in downtown Nashville, TN. Dates this year are October 11 - October 13, 2002.

5/31/2002

The Private Eye Writers of America have announced the following nominees for the Shamus Awards, which will be presented at Bouchercon in October, in Austin, at a 21st anniversary PWA Shamus Award Banquet (not at Bouchercon, as we previously stated).

Best First PI Novel:
Epitaph by James Siegel (Mysterious Press)
Chasing the Devil's Tail by David Fulmer (Poisoned Pen Press)
Rat City by Curt Colbert (Ugly Town)
A Witness Above by Andy Straka ( Signet)
Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy (LTD Books)

Best PI Novel:

Angel in Black by Max Allan Collins (NAL)
Ashes of Aries by Martha C. Lawrence (St. Martins)
The Devil Went Down to Austin by Rick Riordan (Bantam)
Reflecting the Sky by S.J. Rozan (St. Martins)
Cold Water Burning by John Straley (Bantam)

Best PI Paperback Original:
Ancient Enemy by Robert Westbrook (Signet)
Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse (Roc)
Keepers by Janet LaPierre (Perseverance Press)

Best PI Short Story:

"Rough Justice" by Ceri Jordan (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, 7/01)
"The Jungle" by John Lantigua (And the Dying is Easy)
"Last Kiss" by Tom Sweeney (Mystery Street)
"Golden Retriever" by Barbara Paul (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, 12/01)
"The Cobalt Blues" by Clark Howard (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, 9/01)

5/29/2002

Mildred Wirt Benson, original author of the Nancy Drew mystery stories, died yesterday in Toledo, Ohio at the age of 96. Read her obituary in the Toledo Blade and read the tribute by the Mystery Writers of America, who honored her last year. Jennifer Fisher's Mildred Wirt Benson site can be found at this link.

5/28/2002

The American Booksellers Association' Book Sense 76 program has published a Summer Mystery Book Sense 76 Top Ten that includes new books by C.J. Box and Harlan Coben, along with one of my faves of last year, Forty Words for Sorrow, which is now available in paperback.

5/25/2002

Somehow I missed it but last Sunday, May 19, Michael Connelly was interviewed on NPR's Weekend Edition. To listen to the interview - click on this link.

5/21/2002

Fans of Lawrence Block will be happy (I think) to hear that Joe Carnahan is set to direct Harrison Ford in A Walk Among the Tombstones private detective Matthew Scudder, based on the Scott Frank screenplay. As Block states on his website "He did those brilliant adaptations of two Elmore Leonard novels, Get Shorty and Out of Sight, managing to retain the special feel and attitude of the books. How often does that happen?" Universal Pictures production to begin in January 2003.

This news in from Sally Fellows -- the dates for next year's Mayhem in the Midlands are set! They are May 29 through June 1, 2003 -- the guest of honor is Jan Burke and Toastmaster is Jerrilyn Farmer.

5/18/2002

It's official! Left Coast Crime 2004 will be held in Monterey, California, the site of Bouchercon 1997, with many of the same committee members. Here's the announcement:

Left Coast Crime 14 will be held February 19-22, 2004, at the Monterey Doubletree in Monterey, California. Return to fabulous
Monterey--otters, sea lions, Cannery Row, Aquarium, ocean,cypress trees, great food and terrific mystery programs. It's never too early
to plan. This Left Coast Crime is being brought to you by the same wonderful and detailed people who brought you Bouchercon in Monterey
in 1997.
Co-Chairs: Bill & Toby Gottfried.
Author Guests of Honor: Sharan Newman; Walter Mosley
Lifetime Achievement: Dick Lupoff
Toastmistress: Gillian Roberts
Fan Guests of Honor: Bryan Barrett & Thom Walls

Website: http://www.lcc2004.com (it's still early but check back as the site develops)
To register: Go to http://www.lcc2004.com, print out the registration form on the website and mail back or pay via PayPal (will be up shortly).

Questions, contact: lcc2004@gottfried.org
Progamming suggestions, contact: EFCorwin@aol.com

Remember, Time and Tide wait for No Body.

 

And this just in from our audio reviewer, Dave Magayna:

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners of the Seventh Annual Audie Awards on May 3rd.

Harlan Coben's Tell No One read by Steven Weber (Random House Audio) won in the Mystery, Fiction category.

Winner in the Audiobook Adapted from Another Medium category was The Zebra-Striped Hearse, by Ross Macdonald, read by Harris Yulin, Edward Asner, Kathryn Harrold, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pantoliano, and a cast of 36 others (The Audio Partners Publishing Corporation)

5/13/2002

Today's NY TImes included that an article that says the new season of The Sopranos will start on Sunday, September 15. Here's a link to the article. And Janet Maslin had a article on the first page of the Arts section entitled The Crimes They Are A-Changin' about Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos and Ian Rankin.Check it out -- I wonder if you, like me, will end up thinking they need to get a new photographer! What a terrible photo...[thank you, Steve Miller, for making sure I caught this article]

Of Dark and Stormy Nights, the nation's oldest established workshop for writers of mystery and true crime, has a website! This year's event on June 8 marks the 20th anniversary of the conference, which is sponsored by the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. I love the graphic at the top of the page...

5/12/2002

Today's NY Times has a full-page ad for Blood Works, the Clint Eastwood movie based on Michael Connelly's book of the same name. Mark your calendar for August 9th, 2002 -- that's the scheduled premier date.

5/11/2002

Carole Ann Nelson has an interview with Tony Hillerman at the Baltimore Sun website -- click on this link to read it. And check out this article by Margaret Atwood on Elmore Leonard's Tishomingo Blues in the New York Review of Books.

The Crime Writers of Canada have announced the nominees for the Arthur Ellis Awards, which will be presented at a banquet in Toronto on June 12, 2002. Click on this link to see the list of nominees.

5/7/2002

Talk about timing! "The Pine Barrens", the episode of The Sopranos that garnered the Best TV Episode Edgar for writer Terence Winter, will be shown Sunday, May 12 on HBO. Here in my neighborhood it's on at 8 pm -- check your local listings.

5/6/2002

Malice Domestic has announced the winners of the 2002 Agatha Awards, honoring the best cozy mysteries published in 2001. Tony Hillerman received this year's Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards were presented at the Agatha Awards Banquet on May 4th.

Best Novel: Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur Books)

Best First Mystery Novel: Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer (Dutton)

Nonfiction: Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins)

Short Story: "The Would-Be Widower" by Katherine Hall Page, Malice Domestic X (Avon Books)

Best Children's/YA: The Mystery of the Haunted Caves by Penny Warner (Meadowbook Press)

Also at Malice, the American Crime Writers League announced that Katy Munger, a mystery reviewer for the Washington Post Book World, won the 2002 Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing. The award is named for the late Ellen Nehr, Ohio mystery author, reviewer, fan extraordinaire and Malice Domestic's first Fan Guest of Honor.

Added a new link to the St Hilda's College Mystery and Crime Weekend web site on the conventions page. Updated link to the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference.

5/4/2002

Updated the Awards page to include the winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award, which was presented at the Agents & Editors party on May 1 to Judith Kelman for Summer of Storms.

5/3/2002

The annual Edgar Allan Poe awards banquet was held last night in New York. The winners of the major Edgars are listed below -- a full list can be found at this link to our Awards page.

Best Novel: Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
Best First Novel by an American Author: Line of Vision by David Ellis
Best Paperback Original: Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarria
Best Short Story: Double-Crossing Delancey by S.J. Rozan
Best Critical/Biographical: Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z by Dawn. B. Sova
Best Fact Crime: Son of a Grifter by Kent Walker with Mark Schone
Best Movie: Memento screenplay by Christopher Nolan


Parker's Silent Joe also took won the LA Times Book Award for Best Mystery/Thriller published in 2001. According to the LA Times site: The judges agreed that this, Parker's ninth crime novel, is "a gripping book as moving as it is hard-edged" and "a 'career best.'"

Our apologies to Mark Schone, co-author of Son of a Grifter, for calling him 'Mike' on the awards page. Now that we've had a chance to see him at the podium accepting the Edgar with Kent Walker, we agree that he looks more like a Mark, and we've made the appropriate corrections!

Our congratulations to all the winners!

As a follow-up to Sharon Zukowski's article in the most recent issue, one of our readers has written to let us know that "late last year, Charlotte Trumpler released AGATHA CHRISTIE & ARCHAEOLOGY (ISBN# 0714111481. It is a well-researched work dealing with A.C.'s travels with Max Mallowan and includes many diagrams and pictures." The book was published by British Museum Press in the U.K. and can be found at some of the US mystery specialty bookstores.

The Southwest Chapter of MWA will be holding a conference called "Pitch, Polish and Publish" on June 15, 2002 in Houston. Click on this link for details.

4/25/2002

We've posted several new reviews that are exclusive to our Web site and will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Queen of Ambition by Fiona Buckley - reviewed by Sally Fellows
A Sunset Touch by Marjorie Eccles - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Dead Men Die
by E. L. Larkin
- reviewed by Robyn Glazer
Peaches and Screams by G. A. McKevett - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Winter and Night by S. J. Rozan - reviewed by Gary Warren Niebuhr

Private Justice by Richard Sand - reviewed by Dick Saxe
Dying to Meet You by Amy Talford - reviewed by Sally Fellows
The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor - reviewed by Dick Saxe
Rex by Fred Yager - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks

We've added a page that outlines our submission guidelines, for publishers and authors who wish to submit books for review. Click here to see this new page.

4/23/2002

I just found an interview of author James Sallis by Terry Gross on the Fresh Air site. Click here to listen to this interview, which aired on March 29, 2002.

4/22/2002

It's been ages since an update! I've been traveling a lot for my day job and have gotten caught up in some matters at home that claimed my attention. I promise not to let so much time go by without updates again. On to the updates!

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed early last week. It features interviews with Jeffery Deaver (by Reed Andrus), Stuart Kaminsky (by Gary Warren Niebuhr), and KJ Erickson (by Lynn Kaczmarek). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on David Fulmer, whose first novel, Chasing the Devil's Tail, published in November by Poisoned Pen Press, is one of the finalists for the LA Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Freeman Wills Crofts, one of the masters of the Golden Age of mysteries. In Point/Counter Point, Ted Hertel and Reed Andrus reveal much about Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, and themselves. Dave Magayna contributes a couple of audio reviews in The Sound of Mystery. And author Sharon Zukowski returns to our pages with a her new regular feature Mysterious Travels. Updated Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue.

We've just added the winners of the Dilys and Lefty Awards, both of which were presented at Left Coast Crime in Portland. We've updated our link to the San Francisco Mystery Books new web site, and added a link to The Murder Squad (A virtual collective of seven crime writers from the North of England). We cleaned up the mystery convention page to delete past events.

You can listen to an interview of Sara Paretsky, author of the VI Warshawski series, and Pamela Beere Briggs, filmmaker, Women of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction, on WAMU radio. Click here for the link (you'll need to scroll down to Friday, March 22, 2002 to find the mystery segment).

Today's NY Times has a cool article by Alan Furst, part of their Writers on Writing series. You can find it here. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

The long-awaited CBS Sunday Morning Pelecanos profile? It happened last month and if you missed it, you can find out about it here.

And here are some links to items of interest at the Publishers Weekly site: interviews with Carole Nelson Douglas, Laurie R. King, Lee Child, mystery booksellers, and a roundup on mystery series featuring comments by leading editors.

3/6/2002

Bad news about the Pelecanos segment on CBS Sunday Morning -- looks like it's postponed once again, and won't be shown this Sunday, March 10.

Added link to Rabbi Larry Raphael's site, which has an extensive bibliography of Jewish Mysteries.

3/3/2002

We've posted several new reviews that are exclusive to our Web site and will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Fit to Die edited by Joan Boswell and Sue Pike - reviewed by Robyn Glazer
He Sees You When You're Sleeping
by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark - reviewed by Robyn Glazer
Hostage by Robert Crais - reviewed by Reed Andrus
Killing Paparazzi by Robert M. Eversz - reviewed by Angie Hogencamp
The Case of the Ripper's Revenge by Sam McCarver - reviewed by Reed Andrus
A Study in Lilac by Maria-Antonia Oliver - reviewed by James Clar
Advent of Dying by Carol Anne O'Marie - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks

3/2/2002

News from our contributor, Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen bookstore and founder (along with her husband and daughter) of Poisoned Pen Press:

"We are very pleased to a share with you the LA Times Book Prize: 2002 Mystery Nominees. Our author will be flown to LA for the April 27 Awards. Rob (Robert Rosenwald, Publisher and President of PPP) will join him. Congratulations to all the authors."

C.J. Box, Open Season (Putnam)
Henry Bromell, Little America (Knopf)
Marshall Browne, The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders (St Martin's Press)
David Fulmer, Chasing the Devil's Tail (Poisoned Pen Press)
T. Jefferson Parker, Silent Joe (Hyperion)

Rumor has it that the long-delayed broadcast of the George Pelecanos profile on CBS Sunday Morning will happen on March 10th. Keep your fingers crossed... Here is a link to a NY Times review of his latest book, Hell to Pay.

 

2/27/2002

My apologies for the skimpy (non-existent?) updates this past week and a half - I've been traveling on day job business and haven't had the time to get the news onto the page....

Sad news from across the Atlantic: John Thaw, who portrayed the much-beloved Inspector Morse in 33 two-hour episodes based on Colin Dexter's series, died Thursday February 21, 2002 of throat cancer. For more information about the series, click here. To see tributes to John Thaw on the Reuters site, click here. For the NY Times obituary, click here.

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed Wednesday, February 20, and features interviews with Nevada Barr (by Lynn Kaczmarek), John Wessel (by Gary Warren Niebuhr), Susan Slater (by Lynnette Baughman) and Robert M. Eversz (by Reed Andrus). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Jan Grape, whose first novel, Austin City Blues, was published last fall by Five Star Publishing. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Seeley Regester (one of the pseudonyms used by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor, 1831-1885). In Point/Counter Point, Ted Hertel and Reed Andrus work their magic on the subject of Daniel Stashower's The Houdini Specter. Dave Magayna makes his Mystery News debut with his review of the audiobook version of Hostage by Robert Crais in The Sound of Mystery. This is also the issue in which our contributors name their 5 (or 8 or 10) Favorite Books of 2001. Updated Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue.

2002 Agatha Award nominations: Malice Domestic has announced the nominees for the 2002 Agatha Awards, honoring the best cozy mysteries published in 2001. Tony Hillerman will receive this year's Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards will be presented at the Agatha Awards Banquet on May 4th. Malice attendees registered by January 4th made the nominations; the Agathas will be selected at the convention by all convention attendees.

Best Novel:

Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur Books)
Arkansas Traveler by Earlene Fowler (Berkley Prime Crime)
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Ace Books)
The Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey (HarperCollins)
Shadows of Sin by Rochelle Krich (William Morrow & Co.)

Best First Mystery Novel:

Innkeeping With Murder by Tim Myers (Berkley Prime Crime)
Mute Witness by Charles O'Brien (Poisoned Pen Press)
A Witness Above by Andy Straka (Signet)
Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer (Dutton)
An Affinity For Murder by Anne White (Oak Tree Press)

Nonfiction:

The History of Mystery by Max Allan Collins (Collectors Press)
Writing the Mystery by G. Miki Hayden (Intrigue Press)
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins)
Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of Screwball Mystery by Jeffrey Marks (Delphi Books)
Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth by The Sisters Wells (iUniverse.com)

Short Story:

"Bitter Waters" by Rochelle Krich (Criminal Kabbalah, Jewish Lights Publishing)
"Virgo in Sapphires" by Margaret Maron, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, December 2001
"The Peculiar Events on Riverside Drive" by Maan Meyers, Mystery Street, Signet
"The Would-Be Widower" by Katherine Hall Page, Malice Domestic X, Avon Books
"Juggernaut" by Nancy Springer, published by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, June 2001

Best Children's/YA:

The Viking Claw by Michael Dahl Pocket Books)
Death on Sacred Ground by Harriet K. Feder (Lerner Publications Co.)
The Mystery of the Octagonal House by Gay Toltl Kinman (RFI West)
Ring Out Wild Bells: A Matty Trescott Novel by Carroll Thomas (Smith & Kraus Books)
The Mystery of the Haunted Caves by Penny Warner (Meadowbook Press)

2/16/2002

The Crime Writers Association has announced that Sara Paretsky is this year's Cartier Diamond Dagger recipient. This annual award,sponsored by Cartier, is given to a writer in recognition for a lifetime's achievement in the genre of crime writing. For this coveted award the CWA selects writers who meet two essential criteria. First, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation. The award is made purely on merit without reference to age, gender or nationality.

Sara Paretsky will receive her award from Cartier and the CWA at a reception at the British Museum on Wednesday, May 8, 2002.

The CWA has also announced a new award for the year's best thriller, adventure novel or spy fiction novel. The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger has been suggested and sponsored by Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Publications Ltd., to celebrate the best of contemporary thriller writing.

2/10/2002

Updated Bookstore list.

The International Association of Crime Writers, North American Branch, have announced the following nominees for the 2002 Hammett Prize, which will be awarded at Mid-Atlantic Mystery in September.

Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst (Random House)
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (Hyperion)
Right as Rain by George P. Pelecanos (Little, Brown)
Hollowpoint by Rob Reuland (Random House)

2/8/2002

We have a new mailing address! Items sent to our old address will be forwarded for several months but we now can be found at:

Black Raven Press
PMB 152
105 E. Townline Rd
Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1424

And good news from our once and future contributor, author Sharon Zukowski: her first short story has been published in The Early Years of Famous Detectives, First Cases. (Vol 4). It's a Signet paperback, edited by Robert J. Randisi, that came out in January 2002. There are 12 other stories in the collection, including works by Mickey Spillane, J.A. Jance, Terence Faherty, Jan Burke and John Harvey. Several years ago, Sharon wrote a series of columns for us called "Can't Get No Respect" that highlighted overlooked authors. She and Lynn are cooking up a new series of columns that will set your mind to wandering...probably beginning with the April/May 2002 issue of Mystery News.

2/5/2002

Check out this article on Dashiell Hammett by Margaret Atwood, winner of last year's Hammett award for The Blind Assasin.The article appears in the New York Review of Books.

2/4/2002

The American Crime Writers League (ACWL) has announced this year's nominees for the Ellen Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing:

Ed Gilbreth, Chicago Sun-Times
Katy Munger, Washington Post Book World
Kathy Phillips, The Drood Review

According to the MWA site:

Cathleen Jordan, editor of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and one of this year's winners of the Ellery Queen Award, died unexpectedly in her sleep Wednesday night, January 30. She was 60. She was the author of A Carol in the Dark (Walker, 1984) and before she joined AHMM, was an editor at Doubleday. She is survived by her husband James. A memoral service was held in New York on Monday, February 4, 2002. Contributions for the purchase of a streetlamp in her memory may be made to the West 69th Street Block Association, 108 West 69th Street, New York, NY 10023. (She was a founding member of the association.) Cathleen Jordan was an extraordinary woman as both an editor and a friend. Our hearts go out to her family and colleagues.

2/3/2002

The Mystery Writers of America have announced the 2002 Edgar Award Nominees. Click here to see the full list on our links page. Special congrats to our contributor Ted Hertel who is the winner of the Robert L. Fish Award for the best first short story by an American author. Ted's story, "My Bonnie Lies", appeared in the Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers.

1/31/2002

Updated dates for the St. Hilda's Crime & Mystery Weekend. The previously announced mid-August dates had to be changed due to a scheduling conflict at the college. The new dates are August 30 - September 1, 2002, and the theme is "The Female of the Species."

1/27/2002

The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association has announced the nominees for the 2001 Dilys Award, which will be awarded at Left Coast Crime in late March. Named for Dilys Winn, the Dilys is awarded each year by the IMBA to the book the members most enjoyed selling over the past year.

The Cold Blue Blood by David Handler (St. Martin's/Minotaur)
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Ace Books)
Mystic River byDennis Lehane (William Morrow & Co.)
Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger (Pocket Books)
The Reaper by Peter Lovesey (Soho Press)

Fans of Anne Perry will be glad to hear that Joe Blades, VP & Executive Editor at Ballantine Publishing, recently announced that Ballantine has acquired a new five-book miniseries to be written by Anne Perry. The novels, set in World War I (1914-1918), explore the last golden summer of Edwardian England, the outbreak of war, the hell of the trenches, and life on the home front--seen largely from the perspective of British Army chaplain Joseph Reavley, who was the protagonist of Perry's Edgar Award-winning short story, "Heroes." Ballantine will begin publishing this series in 2003.

Check out this article from today's Washington Post Book World - "The Writing Life: The District's very own master of the hardboiled novel, on the distance between his origins and his art" by George P. Pelecanos.

1/22/2002 - lots of updates today!

First, the nominees for the Mary Higgins Clard Award were announced January 21, 2002 by Camille Minichino, award chair, on behalf of the committee that also included Sara Hoskinson Frommer and Evelynn Coleman. The Mary Higgins Clark Award is given each year to an author whose work is judged the best of the year in the tradition of eminent suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark. The Award is sponsored by Simon & Schuster, judging is by the Mystery Writers of American, and the award is presented by Mary Higgins Clark. The winner will be announced at the May 2002 MWA Agent/Editor gathering that precedes the Edgar Awards Banquet in New York City.

Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur)
Summer of Storms by Judith Kelman (Putnam Press)
Perhaps She'll Die by M. K. Preston, (Intrigue Press)
Murder of a Sweet Old Lady by Denise Swanson (Signet)

Next, Neil Smith advises that the new issue of Plots With Guns is up at their new domain, www.plotswithguns.com. This issue's stories were chosen by guest editor, Robert Skinner, author of the Wesley Farrell series (Poisoned Pen Press). We updated our link to point to the new domain.

And the following publishing news was posted on the AOL hardboiled board by Michael Seidman, editor at Walker and Company:

Well, I would say it's just a wild rumor, but that would confirm for
everyone that editors are just tools of the publishers and lie like bad
toupees.

So: effective immediately, Walker is not acquiring any new titles for its
crime fiction list; the list will cease to exist with the publication of the
titles on the fall list. However, any books under contract will be
published and it is possible that at some point in the future certain titles
may appear. They will be classified as fiction, they will not be part of an
ongoing publishing program in the sense that a list is.

After being in the business of crime since 1959, introducing such writers as
John leCarré, Julie Smith, Jerry Healy, Rich Barre, Gerry Ford, Sandra West
Prowell, after publishing writers like Bob Randisi, Bill Pronzini, Keith
Snyder and Lise McClendon and Jim Sallis and, and, and...after all that,
after the dramatic change in cover art, after the coming of reviews, after
awareness by booksense and a beginning groundswell for a book coming later
this season (SASSO, by James Sturz, being featured in an upcoming PW piece on
first novels), after all, now, it ends with something resembling a whimper.
(I'm the one whimpering.)

George Gibson has been trying to reach the authors and their agents to bring
the word personally; unfortunately and as expected, some are going to be
shocked to discover the news here and there: their agents weren't around,
they didn't return calls. I'm heartbroken about that, as I am about those
writers I talked to since I found out, talked to and talked about something
else instead: a copyedit, the outline on my desk.... I am, after all, an
editor and the tool of the publisher and, hell, I'm too old to singe
bridges, no less burn them.

It's over for Walker; I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing.
Odds are, it won't be crime fiction though stranger things have happened. I
mean, just look at some of the folks I've published....

Last, the profile of George Pelecanos that was scheduled to be shown last Sunday on CBS Sunday morning was bumped at the last minute. It should appear some time in the next few weeks. We'll let you know if we hear of it being rescheduled.

1/19/2002

Added links to The Book Group List and the Virginia Festival of the Book.

1/18/2002

The American Booksellers Association's Bookselling This Week features an article on Ian Rankin, who was the UK's biggest-selling crime fiction writer in 2001.

Terry Gross interviewed Carl Hiaasen yesterday on Fresh Air. Clink here to link to a replay of that interview.

1/17/2001

News Flash! - we've just learned that George Pelecanos will be featured on the next edition of CBS Sunday Morning. It's on at 9 am here in New York, but check your local listings. George is a terrific writer whose upcoming book, Hell to Pay, has already garnered rave reviews. You can also check you this link to some of the previous mystery author profiles from CBS Sunday Morning,

1/14/2002

Bravo TV has given those of us in the US a New Year's gift - daily reruns of Hill Street Blues. This was the original 'must see TV' show, and I'm really enjoying seeing some of the old shows. Check out the Bravo listings.

1/8/2002

The special guests at Bouchercon 34 (October 2003 in Las Vegas) have been announced. They are:

American Guest of Honor: James Lee Burke

International Guest of Honor: Ian Rankin

Fan Guests of Honor: Ann and Jeff Smith

Honoree for Contributions to the Field: Janet Hutchings

1/5/2002

Some sad news -- William X. Kienzle, author of the Father Koesler mystery series, died on December 28, 2001. Here is a link to his obituary in the Detroit Free Press.

Updated Mystery Conventions & Conferences page to include Caledonian Crime, Mystery - The Florida Connection, Chester Himes Mystery Writers Conference, Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference, St. Hilda's Crime & Mystery Weekend, Magna Cum Murder, and Cape Fear Crime Festival.

1/4/2002

The LA Times is catching up! Here's a link to an article on Uglytown, an LA-based publisher of "retro noir fiction", written by author Denise Hamilton.

1/3/2002

The NY Times is on some kind of mystery-related roll -- and I guess I am too! Here's a link to an interview with Ian Rankin that appeared in today's paper, another one to a review of Carl Hiaasens's "frisky" new book, and yet another link to an article from the business section on the economics of publishing (with thanks to Jim Huang for bringing it to my attention via the mystery-pub mailing list).

1/1/2002

Happy New Year, everyone!

Steve Miller has scooped me again -- check out this link to a 12/31/01 NY Times piece by James Sallis, about writing the last book in his Lew Griffin series. This is part of their Writers on Writing series that appears every other Monday.

12/29/2001

Check out Janet Maslin's article The Case of the Hard-Boiled Thrillers With Blurbs by Famous Authors in the Thursday, 12/27/01 edition of the NY Times. Thanks to Steve Miller for drawing my attention to the article - now that I'm driving to work every day, I miss my nearly hour long train commute with the Times each day. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

12/27/2001

Updated Home page to include info related to the new issue. Added excerpt from Charles Todd interview.

12/17/2001

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed today, Monday December 17, and features interviews with Charles Todd (by Lynn Kaczmarek), M.J. Trow (by Reed Andrus), and Robert Ferrigno (by Reed Andrus). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Tim McLoughlin, whose first novel, Heart of the Old Country, was published this spring by Akashic Books. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is Rex Stout. In this issue, we introduce a new feature, Point/Counter Point, in which new contributor Ted Hertel and Reed Andrus duke it out over Philip Margolin's The Associate.

Updated Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue.

The January/February Book Sense 76 Preview was released on December 13, and Ian Rankin's The Falls is the lone mystery entry.

Added a link to the Love is Murder conference in early February 2002 in the Chicago suburbs.

12/12/2001

Added the LA Times Festival of Books to be held April 27 & 28 at UCLA.

12/11/2001

The Private Eye Writers of America has announced a call for submissions for for 2002 Shamus Award nominations. To be eligible, a work must have a first copyright date in 2001 and must feature as a main character a person PAID for investigative work but NOT employed by a unit of government. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2002. Additional information may be obtained from the overall awards chair, S.J. Rozan at SJRozan@aol.com.

Added information about A Dark and Stormy Night, the nation's oldest established workshop for writers of mystery and true crime, sponsored by the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. Click here.

12/10/2001

Not exactly new, but I just discovered that my hometown paper, the NY Times, has an archive of crime and mystery fiction reviewed by Marilyn Stasio since January 1997. To see what Stasio has to say about some of your favorites, click here. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

The Washington Post's list of "Best Fiction 2001" includes a section of mystery and suspense novels. To find it, click here. The mysteries are about 3/4 of the way down the page.

And let's not forget the west coast! The mystery section of the LA Times list of Best Books of 2001 can be found here.

12/9/2001

More sad news from the St. Martin's Minotaur website:

Very sad news . . . . . Earlier this year, we published a book by the winner of our year 2000 Malice Domestic first novel award - The Gripping Beast, by Margot Wadley. It is a fine book, it got good reviews and many happy readers. We are very sorry to have to report that the author died last October 29 in an automobile accident, on her way, ironically, to her writing group. It is a loss for every reader of good mysteries. We know that you, reading this news, will join us in sending our deep sympathy to the author's family.

Steve Miller interviewed Wadley in our "In the Beginning..." column in the April/May 2001 issue of Mystery News. We all extend our deepest condolences to Margot Wadley's family and friends.

12/4/2001

Sunday's New York Times Book Review (December 2, 2001) included their annual list of Notable books published in the past year. The mystery selections were: Bad News by Donald Westlake, Exile by Denise Mina, The Final Country by James Crumley, Hostage by Robert Crais, The Huntsman by Whitney Terrell, In A Strange City by Laura Lippman, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, Open Season by C.J. Box, Over Tumbled Graves by Jess Walter, and The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters. To see the mystery portion of the list on the NY Times site, click here. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

To see the Baltimore Sun obituary for Paige Rose, click here.

12/3/2001

We are incredibly saddened to learn of the death of Paige Rose, co-owner of Mystery Loves Company, the Baltimore mystery bookstore. I saw Paige just a month ago at Bouchercon, and it is hard to believe that this vibrant, opinionated, loyal and kind woman is gone. It's been reported that she attended MLC's holiday party on Saturday, December 1, and then went to dinner with her husband and some friends. She collapsed of a massive heart attack after dinner. Paige was a great supporter of local writers, and one of Ed McBain's greatest (and most vocal) fans. She will be greatly missed. Our deepest condolences to the Rose family, to Paige's partner at MLC Kathy Harig, and to her friends.

12/1/2001

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving -- this year was one spent quietly with family for us. I've been on the road for a little more than a week, without access to email or the web, so I'll be catching up and posting some more news over the next few days... <signed> Chris.

Michael Connelly has written a Harry Bosch Christmas short story exclusively for his Mailing List. It is called "Christmas Even." It will be e-mailed to his list on Christmas Eve. It is his way of saying Happy Holidays to his readers. Anyone interested in receiving this story should join his mailing list by December 23. When they join, they will also receive "Cielo Azul," a short story that Michael wrote as an addition to his bestselling novel, A Darkness More Than Night.

For more information, click on this link: Michael Connelly mailing list

11/20/2001

We've posted a slew of new reviews, including the following. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.

Aunt Dimity: Detective by Nancy Atherton - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Sketches with Wolves by Jacqueline Fiedler - reviewed by Angie Hogencamp
Separation of Power by Vince Flynn - reviewed by John Leech
Death of a Songbird by Christine Goff - reviewed by Leslie Doran
Bad Connection by Michael Ledwidge - reviewed by Reed Andrus
Sound Tracks by Marcia Simpson - reviewed by Leslie Doran
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Foreign Body by Kathleen Taylor - reviewed by Angie Hogencamp
A Tax Deductible Death by Malinda Terreri - reviewed by Brenda Weeaks
Sleep with the Fishes by Brian M. Wiprud - reviewed by Reed Andrus

 

11/19/2001

Fans of James Sallis will want to check out this interview in the 11/12/01 issue of Publishers Weekly. Note the PW site requires registration, which is free.

11/17/2001

The The UK-based Crime Writers Association has announced the winners of the Macallan Daggers, their awards for crime writing.

11/13/2001

We've added a link to our Bouchercon 2001 photos! There are 5 pages of photos and we saved the best (okay, so we're not all that modest) for last.

The Bouchercon 2001 site has been updated with links to the Anthony Award winners and to the taping service. Tapes of all panels are available.

Yesterday's crash of American Airlines flight 587 near JFK airport rattled everyone's nerves. Chris and family are all safe and sound on Long Island and we all hope that more calm days are ahead.

11/12/2001

Dorothy Dunnett, best known for her historical fiction, but also the author of the Johnson Johnson series (sometimes known as the "Dolly" series) has died. Here are links to her obituary and a page at James Thin booksellers. I remember reading the Dolly books avidly in the early 80s.

11/10/2001

Added link to Plots with Guns, an on-line hard-boiled crime writing magazine edited by Neil Smith.

11/8/2001

More news from Bouchercon: Ann & Jeff Smith will be the Fan Guests of Honor at Bouchercon 2003 in Las Vegas! Other special guests will be named later, but we want to congratulate Ann & Jeff.

Lynn and I attended our first Bouchercon business meeting last week, and learned that the site for Bouchercon 2004 has been provisionally named as Toronto, with Al Navis as chair. Final approval should be granted later this year once hotel guarantees are in place. We congratulate the Fan Guest of Honor, our own Gary Warren Niebuhr. Added new listing on our Mystery Conventions page.

In other Guest of Honor news, the featured guest at Mayhem in the Midlands will be Dennis Lehane, and Kathleen Taylor will be the Toastmaster. Jonathan Gash and Lisa Scottoline will be the featured guests at Mid-Atlantic Mystery. Bob Crais will be Guest of Honor and Sue Feder will be Fan Guest of Honor at Left Coast Crime 2003.

Corrected dates for ClueFest 2002.

11/6/2001

Updated Awards list to include winners of the Anthony, Macavity, Herodotus, and Barry awards. Added link to Bouchercon 2003. Added link to Charles Todd's web site.

11/4/2001

Last night, Mystery News won the Anthony Award for Best Fan Publication at Bouchercon! Lynn and I thank all of our contributors, our subscribers,the bookstores that carry Mystery News, the publishers that provide us with review copies, the authors who give us all so many hours of reading pleasure, our friendly competitors (Janet, Sue, Jim and George -- and all of the others who publish mystery fan literature), and our families..with a special thanks to Mack Bonk. We are thrilled and honored by this recognition. The awards page will be updated by Tuesday for sure! <Chris>

11/1/2001

News flash from Crystal City, VA: Longtime Mystery News contributor, mystery fan and author extraordinaire Marv Lachman was presented the first ever Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom by Karen Muir, one of Don's daughters, on behalf of Deadly Pleasures magazine. We'll have more awards updates tomorrow, including the winners of the Macavity, Herodotus and Barry awards. A couple of sneak previews -- Marv also won the Macavity in the Best Biographical/Critical category for his terrific work, The American Regional Mystery. And our October/November cover girl, Val McDermid, got the Macavity in the Best Novel category for A Place of Execution.

We've added a link to the new site for Mystery Loves Company, Kathy Harig and Paige Rose's Baltimore book store.

10/29/2001

A new book published by the American Library Association, The Mystery Readers' Advisory -- The Librarian's Clues to Murder and Mayhem, has the following to say about Mystery News:

"If you can only afford one mystery review source for your library, this is
the one to get. A terrific mix of author interviews and in-depth reviews of
current mystery fiction. Each issue includes a preview section of
forthcoming titles as well as information on mystery awards, conferences, and more."

Attention Bouchercon 2001 Attendees! Our "meet and greet" signing schedule is now available at this link. In addition to the authors listed below, Jeremiah Healy, Jan Burke and Michael Connelly will be joining us.

10/27/2001

Attention Bouchercon 2001 Attendees! Mystery News will have a table in the book dealer's room, where we will be selling new subscriptions at a special convention price and back issues at a reduced price.

We are also hosting a number of "meet and greet" visits with some of the authors who have graced our pages and supported us over the past 4 years. Check back here on Monday, October 29th for the schedule. Authors who have confirmed their intention to visit with us include Val McDermid, Margaret Maron, SJ Rozan, Bill Crider, Margaret Coel, Charles (& Caroline) Todd, Steve Hamilton, Susan McBride, Keith Snyder and Robin Burcell.

10/25/2001

The UK-based Crime Writers Association has announced the winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the UK’s leading literary award for novelists writing historical crime fiction.

10/23/2001

The UK-based Crime Writers Association has announced the winner of the Debut Dagger, their award for unpublished writers of crime fiction.

10/22/2001

Added link for Bouchercon 2002 web site.

10/21/2001

Updated link for Mayhem in the Midlands conference and winner of the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger. Also updated Bouchercon Author Cancellations list.

10/17/2001

Updated Home page, Back Issues and Authors pages to include info related to the new issue. Added excerpt from Val McDermid interview.

10/16/2001

The Bouchercon 2001 website has been updated to include information on how to transfer registrations, and on a new block of rooms available at the convention hotels.

10/15/2001

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed today, Monday October 15, and features interviews with Val McDermid (by Chris Aldrich), Susan McBride (by Reed Andrus), Keith Snyder (by Reed Andrus), and Kris Nelscott (by Gary Warren Niebuhr). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Cynthia Alwyn, whose first novel, Scent of Murder, was published this summer by St. Martins/Minotaur. The subject of Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column is this year's Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement honoree, Edward D. Hoch. Barbara Peters' "Book News!" column talks about the National Book Festival held in September at the Library of Congress. And this issue features our first review of a kids mystery by a kid, Michelle Babicz.

The November/December Book Sense 76 Preview was released on October 12, and Sujata Massey's The Bride's Kimono is the lone mystery entry. Sujata was the subject of our cover interview in the June/July 2000 issue of Mystery News.

10/11/2001

Added list of Bouchercon 2001 Author Cancellations, received from Bouchercon organizers.

0/10/2001

Updated bookseller list to include new store The Cloak and Dagger in Princeton, NJ and updated calendar to remove events that have passed.

Also added new "Subscriber Raves" page with comments from our readers.

10/7/2001

The October 1, 2001 edition of PW Daily (a daily email of news from Publishers Weekly) included Who’s Gonna Do It: The BookSense 76 Fall Mystery List, with annotations from booksellers. Find it here.

And check out the latest in the NY Times series on Making Books by Martin Arnold -- this time discussing thrillers post-9/11/01. Note that the Times site requires (free) registration.

10/5/2001

Oops, I somehow overlooked a Publishers Weekly article on small presses that publish mysteries. Entitled Small Presses Feeding a Big Market, you can find it here.

10/2/2001

The Crime Writers Association has announced the shortlists for the Macallan Daggers, the UK's leading literary award for crime writing. Included are the Gold and Silver Daggers for Fiction, the Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, and the Short Story Dagger. Find the shortlists here.

Updated web links for Malice Domestic.

9/29/2001

Added dates for Bouchercon 34 -- "Where the odds favor mystery" in 2003, which will be produced by the same folks who have done a slew of cons in Philadelphia -- Mid Atlantic Mystery and a couple of Bouchercons.

They've also announced that the special guests for next year's Mid Atlantic will be Jonathan Gash and Lisa Scottoline.

9/28/2001

The Crime Writers Association has announced the shortlists for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the UK’s leading literary award for novelists writing historical crime fiction and the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger, the UK’s leading literary award for debuting novelists writing crime fiction. Find the shortlists here.

Added new link to Connoisseurs of Crime Writers' Conference.

9/24/2001

Good news from Ballantine! Joe Blades, VP& Executive Editor of the Ballantine Publishing Group, has announced new deals for some favoirte authors that will result in the following being published in 2002.

Earl Emerson's Vertical Burn, a fact-based suspense novel about the activities of a big-city firefighting company;

Scott Phillips' The Walkaway, the sequel (ten years after the fact) to The Ice Harvest; and

Paula L. Woods' Stormy Weather, which continues the adventures of Charlotte Justice, the LAPD homicide detective introduced in Inner City Blues.

For more Ballantine information, check out this link.

9/20/2001

Check out this link at the Publishers Weekly site for another of their periodic articles about the mystery and crime fiction scene. This one is called "Not the Usual Suspects" and features 10 "rising star" authors, including some well-known to Mystery News readers: Brian Haig, Robert Wilson, George P. Pelecanos, John Connolly, Peter Robinson, C.J. Box, Val McDermid, Andy Straka, Greg Rucka, and Scott Phillips. The PW site requires registration, which is free.

9/19/2001

The Private Eye Writers of America have announced the following winners of the Shamus Awards for works published in 2000:

Best Hardcover Private Eye Novel: Havana Heat by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera (HarperCollins)

Best First Private Eye Novel: Street Level by Bob Truluck (St. Martin's Press)

Best Paperback Original Private Eye Novel: Death in the Steel City by Thomas Lipinski (Avon)

Best Private Eye Short Story: "The Road's End" by Brendan Dubois (EQMM, April 2000)

For the complete list of nominees, click here.

In a letter and press release, the PWA explained that in deference to the tragedy of September 11, they are cancelling the award banquet scheduled for November 1 at Bouchercon. They suggest that those who had planned to attend consider donating $50 banquet fee to one of the relief charities.

Kate Derie of Cluelass has established a list of New York & Washington-based members of the mystery community who are okay. To see the list, click here.

The New York is Book Country street fair, scheduled for Sunday September 23, has been cancelled.

9/12/2001

Our hearts and prayers go out to those involved in yesterday's tragedies. Chris & family are safe in NY and appreciate the concern of those of you who have emailed and called.

9/6/2001

Added new links to Cluefest and Sleuthfest

9/4/2001 by Chris

Today we added new links to the list of Ned Kelly award winners, and to several additions to our Mystery Conventions and Conferences listings for 2002 (Mayhem in the Midlands, AZ Murder Goes...Western, and Deadly Ink)

9/3/2001 by Chris

Since Mystery News is a labor of love for the publishers and contributors, it seems only fitting to post our first set of on-line reviews on Labor Day 2001, September 3. The following reviews are exclusive to our Web site, and most (if not all) will not appear in the printed version of Mystery News. We hope you enjoy them, and we thank our contributors for allowing us to share them with you on www.blackravenpress.com.
The Company by Arabella Edge - reviewed by: Dick Saxe
The Janus Deception by John F. Bayer - reviewed by: Dick Saxe
Fury by G.M. Ford - reviewed by Reed Andrus
Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy - reviewed by Reed Andrus
The Killing Kind by John Connolly - reviewed by Reed Andrus
Dr. Nightingale Follows a Canine Clue by Lydia Adamson - reviewed by Robyn Glazer
Overkill by Susan McBride - reviewed by Robyn Glazer
One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis - reviewed by Sally Fellows
The Valley of Jewels by Mary Saums - reviewed by Sally Fellows
Food, Drink, and the Female Sleuth by The Sisters Wells - reviewed by Beth Fedyn
The Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton - reviewed by Virginia R. Knight
The Music of the Spheres by Elizabeth Redfern - reviewed by Virginia R. Knight
The Mask of Ra by P.C. Doherty - reviewed by Virginia R. Knight

 

9/2/2001 by Chris

The following press release came from the Hallmark Channel (formerly the Odyssey channel):

MATT FREWER RETURNS IN 'SHERLOCK HOLMES IN 'THE ROYAL SCANDAL''
A WORLD PREMIERE ORIGINAL MOVIE ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19


Matt Frewer ("Max Headroom") reprises his role as legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes in 'The Royal Scandal,'" the third of four original movies scheduled to be produced by Hallmark Entertainment. The production, which was filmed in Montreal, will premiere on the newly re-branded Hallmark Channel Friday, October 19, 9 - 11 p.m., ET/PT encoring Sunday, October 21, 4 - 6 p.m., ET/PT and Thursday, October 25, 9 - 11 p.m., ET/PT.
In "Sherlock Holmes in 'The Royal Scandal,'" Frewer will be paired once again with Kenneth Welsh ("Witchblade") who stars as the celebrated detective's partner in crime-solving, Dr. John Watson.

"Sherlock Holmes in 'The Royal Scandal'" is produced by Muse Entertainment Enterprises in association with Hallmark Entertainment, and will be distributed worldwide by Hallmark Entertainment. Muse Entertainment in association with Hallmark Entertainment also produced the two previous Sherlock Holmes movies, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Sign of Four."

In this adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated short stories, "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Bruce-Partington Plans," Sherlock Holmes finds himself confronted by the beautiful but treacherous Irene Adler as well as his brilliant brother Mycroft Holmes, the British Chief of Intelligence Officer. What begins for Holmes as a simple case of retrieving a compromising photograph of the Crown Prince of Bohemia, becomes a mysterious web of intrigue involving stolen jewels, murder, and potentially, a breach of national security -- not to mention a touch of romance for the unshakable detective.

8/15/2001 by Chris

The latest issue of Mystery News was mailed on Monday, August 13, and features interviews with James Crumley (by Lynn Kaczmarek) and John Connolly (by Reed Andrus). Steve Miller's "In the beginning" column focuses on Betty Webb, whose first novel, Desert Noir was published in both a hardcover and a trade paperback edition in June by Poisoned Pen Press. Anthony and Macavity nominee Marv Lachman's "Out of the Past" column corrects a self-acknowledged oversight by focusing on John Dickson Carr.

Sneak Preview Dept: The October/November issue will star an award-winning Manchester-based author...and will feature our first-ever review of a juvenile mystery by a third-grader. Check back for more details...

8/7/2001 by Chris

Lynn and I are saddened to hear of the death of Bill Spurgeon, a long-time member of the midwest chapter of MWA and editor of that chapter's excellent newsletter, Clues. Bill was the organizer of Of Dark and Stormy Nights, the writing conference which was just held for the 19th time this past spring. Our condolences to his family and colleagues.

We've heard that Bouchercon 2003 will happen in Las Vegas, produced by Deen Kogan who is the force behind the nearly annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention series as well as Bouchercon 1998 in Philadelphia.

8/6/2001 by Chris

Welcome to our "What's New" page. We'll post news about Mystery News and about the mystery community here from time to time.

All of us at Black Raven Press are still glowing from our Anthony Award nomination for Best Fan Publication! We thank the Anthony Awards committee and the fans who nominated us. We hope that you'll be able to attend Bouchercon this fall in Arlington, Virginia, and that you'll think of us when you cast your Anthony ballots.

We feel lucky to have the most incredible group of people working with us on Mystery News all because they love the genre. I hope you will indulge us as we make sure that the world knows how much we appreciate them:

Our reviewers:
Reed Andrus, Lynnette Baughman, Joyce Behncke, Barbara Blunt, Rick Centner, James Clar, Frank Denton, Leslie Doran, Beth Fedyn, Sally Fellows, Jean L. Geiger, Robyn Glazer, Angie Hogencamp, Virginia R. Knight, John Leech, Lisa Lundquist, Thomas McNulty, Gary Warren Niebuhr, Dick Saxe, Harriet Stay, Mary Ann Steele, Gayle Wedgwood, Brenda Weeaks, and occasional guest reviewers (like Bill Crider in the June/July issue and W.E. Reinka in the August/September issue).

Our columnists:
Marv "Out of the Past" Lachman, Stephen "In the beginning" Miller, Barbara "Book News!" Peters

Our interviewers:
Reed Andrus, Lynnette Baughman, Leslie Doran, Thomas McNulty, Gary Warren Niebuhr, Lynn Kaczmarek

We also want to acknowledge Mack Bonk, Lynn's husband, who is our V.P. of Distribution & Chief Investigator (when there's no money to be had, a great title sometimes helps!); Gary Babicz, Chris's brother-in-law, who is our Webmaster; and Kelly Van Dorn, the professional artist who does layout and graphics for the paper.

We're looking forward to seeing old friends, and to making new ones at Bouchercon in November. Look for us in the book dealers room. From Lynn and me -- thank you, thank you, thank you for all your support.

Return to the top of the 2001 -2002 What's New page

Go to the What's New page for 2003

Return to Mystery News home page

 

The What's New? page is updated regularly by Chris Aldrich, one of the partners in Black Raven Press. Items of general interest to fans of mystery and crime fiction may be emailed to her at whatsnew@blackravenpress.com. Please do not send promotional announcements for individual authors or books - they will likely not be used and will likely only cause annoyance. Please refer to our submission guidelines for information on submitting books for review.