Entries from Westport Public Library BOOK blog tagged with 'awardwinner'
A latter-day Dostoevsky
If there was a "Life’s Little Ironies" competition, author Ruth Rendell might be the winner. She was fired from her newspaper job after writing an article about the local tennis club's annual dinner which she had not actually attended – and so she “neglected” to mention the untimely death of the after-dinner speaker mid-speech. False alibis, erroneous statements, sudden deaths … some of the major ingredients of good crime fiction! Rendell moved on to become one of the most celebrated mystery authors of our time and has won the Silver, Gold, and Cartier Diamond Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association, three Edgars and a Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America, and countless other awards. In addition to over forty psychological crime novels – which she also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine – Rendell has produced twenty two Chief Inspector Wexford police procedurals. The series began in 1964, and the latest book, The Monster in the Box, was recently released.The Diamond Dagger
Award winning British author Peter Lovesey will be joining us at the Library on Sunday, October 25 at 2 pm, along with master blender of fact and fiction, Connecticut author James R. Benn. They will be interviewed by Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post. This is a rare opportunity to meet Lovesey, the author Publishers Weekly says “has no peer in presenting a traditional mystery with all the clues hiding in plain sight. Skeleton Hill, his new Peter Diamond novel, is the tenth book in this contemporary series, which is set in Bath. The PW review says “Diamond remains one of the most realistic and human of fictional sleuths.”Movin’ on
The bad news is that Walter Mosley says that his beloved character Easy Rawlins “has officially moved on.” The good news is that Easy’s fans can join in next Sunday, October 18th at 2, when the Usual Suspects discuss the first book in the Rawlins series, Devil in a Blue Dress. Published in 1990, it won the Shamus Award, and was followed by ten critically acclaimed titles. The series played out over a twenty year period, from the Jim Crow 1940s to the politically charged 1960s. The author is known for his strong, black male characters and his passionate musings on race, politics and the writing life. When asked in a CNN interview if he missed Easy Rawlins at all, Mosley replied “No, he's right there on the shelf. All I have to do is reach up and pull him down.”
The Indy Five
The 40th Bouchercon World Mystery Convention will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 15 - 18, 2009. Author Michael Connelly will be the Guest of Honor. The Anthony Awards, named in memory of mystery writer and critic Anthony Boucher, will be given out at a ceremony on Saturday, October 17. The five Best Novel nominees are Trigger City by Sean Chercover, The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly, Red Knife by William Kent Krueger, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. The Cruelest Month has already won this year’s Agatha Award for Best Novel and is nominated for the McAvity and the Barry awards as well as the Anthony. Louise Penny is an author that I suggest to readers often and they never come back to me disappointed. The New York Times attributes this success to the “elegance and depth” that she brings to her traditional village mysteries.The stolen generation
F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are among the many famous literary figures who have called Westport home, although their stay was brief. The newly-wed couple were here for six-months in 1920 during which time Fitzgerald began writing his second novel, The Beautiful and Damned. A stolen manuscript is at the heart of the newly-released The Fitzgerald Ruse, the second title in Mark Castrique’s Blackman-Robertson series. Former U.S. military CID Chief Warrant officer Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson have opened a detective agency in Asheville, North Carolina. Their first client is Ethel Barkley, a charming elderly woman who hires them to retrieve a lockbox that she claims holds a valuable F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript which she stole from the author in 1935 while he was living at the stately Grove Park Inn.The buzz on Russell and Holmes
Laurie R. King became the first novelist since Patricia Cornwell to win on both sides of the Atlantic with the publication of her debut thriller, A Grave Talent, which won the 1995 New Blood Dagger Award in the UK and the 1995 Edgar Award for Best First Novel in the US. A Grave Talent was the first of five contemporary novels featuring Kate Martinelli, a San Francisco homicide detective. King also has a long-running series which features Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes. With the creation of Mary Russell, King met with furious resistance from Sherlockian purists, but one reviewer said that the series "captures the spirit of the Holmes adventures with a great deal of love, while allowing room for female fans to more easily project themselves into the story." The Washington Post stated that King “… has relieved Holmes of the worst effects of his misogyny and, by so doing, salved the old hurt that comes to every female reader of literature … “Have Faith
Katherine Hall Page is the author of seventeen Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery. The fifteenth book, The Body in the Snowdrift (2005), won the Agatha for best novel. Page also won an Agatha for her short story The Would-Be Widower. She is the first person in the history of Malice Domestic to win all three of these awards and was the Guest of Honor at Malice in 2006. Good news for Page’s fans. The Body in the Sleigh – book number eighteen – is promised for October, 2009. Katherine Hall Page will also be joining the group of authors assembled for the Murder 203 mystery festival to be held on April 18th-19th.Hardboiled Connecticut?
The noir form will be more than adequately represented at the upcoming Murder 203 event by authors Reed Farrel Coleman, Peter Spiegelman and Jason Starr.
The New York Times Book Review reported that "Among the undying conventions of detective fiction is the one that requires every retired cop to have a case that still haunts him. Reed Farrel Coleman blows the dust off that cliche." Publisher’s Weekly called Peter Spiegelman “one of today's best practitioners of neo-noir." Jason Starr has eight non-series novels to his credit, including the award winning Twisted City, and he collaborates with writer Ken Bruen on a series for Hard Case Crime. His book The Follower was dubbed “this generation's Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” So don’t let the name Murder 203 fool you. We’re not just about suburban mysteries! There will be lots of talk about crime in the big city and one of our panels will address how urban crime differs from suburban crime. Check the Murder 203 website for registration information.Tartan Noir
Prolific bestselling author Val McDermid comes from Fife in the coal-mining region of eastern Scotland. On her website she explains “I had always wanted to write, ever since I realised that real people actually produced all those books in the library.” After a career in journalism she began her first crime novel in 1984. She recalls that reading a Sara Paretsky mystery a "defining moment" because it was "a mystery with an urban setting that dealt with contemporary women's lives, that didn't shy away from engaging with the politics of the society it reflected, and that was fun."The 2009 Edgar hopefuls
Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. MWA gives out the most prestigious mystery writing award, the Edgar, and the 2009 nominees were recently announced. The list for Best Novel includes Missing by Karin Alvtegen, Blue Heaven by C.J. Box, Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno, The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes, The Night Following by Morag Joss and The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz.
Last seen writing
Connecticut mystery writer Hillary Waugh was one of the pioneers of the American police procedural novel. He died on Dec. 8th at the age of 88. Waugh's 1952 novel Last Seen Wearing was listed by the Mystery Writers of America as one of the top 100 mysteries of all time and in 1989 he was named a Grand Master by the MWA. He used Connecticut as the setting for many of his stories, and had an eleven title series which featured Fred Fellows, chief of police in Stockford, a fictional small town.A nose for the news
There has been a noticeable increase in the number of broadcast crime and investigative reporter mysteries of late. Michael A. Black and Julie Hyzy have brought their respective series detectives P.I. Ron Shade and TV reporter Alex St. James together in Dead Ringer. Julie Kramer’s debut mystery Stalking Susan introduces Riley Spartz, a Twin Cities investigative TV journalist. Kramer is a freelance news producer for the Today Show and Dateline. Real-life BBC crime correspondent Simon Hall has created fictional TV crime reporter Dan Groves who becomes involved in the death of painter who is murdered after he creates a series of ten paintings containing a mysterious riddle.Head games, indeed
If you have come across the recently released mystery award nomination lists, your eyes do not deceive you. Two mysteries sharing a title and a dark comic style are both in the running for major awards. Head Games by Craig McDonald has been nominated for an Anthony Award in the Best First Novel category and Head Games by Thomas B. Cavanagh has been nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best Hardcover category. The full nomination lists for the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus Awards are available on-line.Astonish me
Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs was a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2003, an Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel 2003, the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel 2003, and one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Mysteries of 2003. The New York Times review for this book said “Prepare to be astonished …” The Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will be discussing Maisie Dobbs next Sunday, September 21st, at 2 p.m.Beach reads
Last Wednesday night I was at Borders in Fairfield for a panel of authors -- several being mystery writers -- who shared their favorite beach reads.And the winners are …
This year’s Best Novel Edgar went to John Hart for Down River. Quite an achievement, as this is only his second published work. His first book was The King of Lies which was nominated for a Best First Novel Edgar. Both books made the New York Times Bestseller list. This year’s Best Novel Agatha went to Louise Penny for A Fatal Grace, which is the second title in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, preceded by Still Life and followed by the recently released The Cruelest Month.A classy case of mistaken identity
Acclaimed Irish novelist and journalist – and Man Booker Prize winner – John Banville is better known to mystery fans as his noir writing alter-ego Benjamin Black. His two mystery novels to date, Christine Falls and the recently released The Silver Swan are darkly set in 1950s Dublin and both feature pathologist-cum-detective Garret Quirke. Sarah Dunant, author of many international literary fiction bestsellers, including The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, is also a writer of hard-boiled detective fiction. Her character, Hannah Wolfe, is a private investigator in London.More nominees
The Agatha Awards are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write novels in the traditional method exemplified by Agatha Christie, the best selling mystery writer of all time. This year’s nominees in the Best Novel category are: The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews; Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen; Hard Row by Margaret Maron; A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny; Murder with Reservations by Elaine Viets.And the nominees are ...
The Edgar Allan Poe Award, popularly known as the EDGAR, is awarded each year by the Mystery Writers of America, which was founded in 1945 "to increase the esteem and literary recognition" of the mystery genre. This year's nominees are: Christine Falls by Benjamin Black; Priest by Ken Bruen; The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon; Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman; Down River by John Hart.Le bonton roulez
It will be an early Mardi Gras tomorrow in New Orleans, the unforgettable city of mystery and intrigue. Even if you can’t make it to the party this year you can bring a taste of it home. Julie Smith’s protagonist is Skip Langdon, a former debutante and carnival queen who has traded in her crown for a badge. The first book in her series is New Orleans Mourning takes place during Mardi Gras. When the King of Carnival is gunned down by a party-goer dressed as Dolly Parton, Langdon scours the French Quarter and beyond for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky and Cookie, and using her contacts from her white glove days.Thrilling detectives
Have you visited thethrillingdetective.com, the internet's most popular crime-fiction site? Among many other terrific features, it has an A-Z listing of “everything you ever wanted to know about private eyes & other tough guys ... listed by character, with all appearances in novels, short stories, film, television, radio and other media.” According to thrillingdetective, Rick Riordan’s fictional detective, Tres Navarre “… is many things -- an unlicensed TexMex private eye, a tequila drinker, tai chi master and an outcast from Academia with a PhD in medieval studies.” The first Tres Navarre mystery, Big Red Tequila (1997) managed to hit the bestseller lists, and even win a Shamus for Best First P.I. Novel. To date, there are seven titles in the series. Along with his enchilada-eating cat and many other colorful characters, Navarre explores the dangerous, dark, and often bizarre back streets of San Antonio, Texas.When Johnny comes marching home
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – is an acronym that has passed into common parlance these days. Two new mysteries incorporate this timely issue. John Lescroart’s Betrayal tells the story of Evan Scholler, a young National Guard reservist riddled with “survivor guilt” who is having difficulty readjusting to civilian life after his service in Iraq. Seven men in Scholler’s platoon, as well as an innocent Iraqi family, were killed in a deadly incident because of the apparent mistakes of an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Scholler publicly vows to kill him, and when Nolan is indeed murdered, is convicted of the crime.An author of interest
Theresa Schwegel’s latest book, A Person of Interest, reinforces her position as one of today's top authors of hard-boiled police procedurals. A Person of Interest is set in Chicago – her hometown – where detective Craig McHugh is working undercover to bust a powerful Chinese gang that traffics in heroin. Meanwhile, his teenage daughter, Ivy, is caught with a small amount of ecstasy, and his wife, convinced he's having an affair, begins flirting with Ivy's boyfriend. Schwegel deftly weaves these three subplots together. Her vivid characterizations of a family in crisis elevate the story beyond the crime thriller and into the realm of the literary novel.Gather around
Three authors of interest to mystery fans will be speaking at the Library over the next few weeks as part of the Authors @ the Library series. On Tuesday, October 30, at noon Jerry Labriola will discuss his book The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, a suspense novel that combines equal parts mystery and rich historical detail. On Wednesday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. Jed Rubenfeld will discuss his book The Interpretation of Murder, a historical mystery and a psychological thriller - in the truest sense of the term -- with a cast that includes Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. On Monday, November 12, at 7:30 p.m. Susan Schaab will discuss her book Wearing the Spider, which Liz Smith called "The Devil Wears Prada in legal Technicolor."Fall book discussions
The Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group has two award winners up for discussion this fall.
This coming Sunday, September 16th, at 2 p.m. our title will be The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin, which was the winner of the this year's Edgar Award for Best Novel.
On Sunday, October 21st our title will be The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard, which was the winner of this year's Agatha Award for Best Novel.
There's no one like Macavity!
Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw -
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
The Macavity Award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
Joie de mort
Join the Usual Suspects this coming Sunday, June 17th, at 2 p.m. for a discussion of The Circle by Peter Lovesey.
Publisher Edgar Blacker is murdered shortly after speaking to an eccentric group of would-be writers. His body is found in the charred remains of his house.
Will writers really kill to be published?
Words which I command are immortal
Yesterday’s authors@theLibrary speaker was local journalist and mystery writer Jessica Speart. Her career path is an interesting one. She started out as a soap opera actress and when her character was killed off she turned to investigative journalism after a consciousness raising visit to Africa and then later to began writing mystery novels, in which she continues to champion the cause of environmental and wildlife exploitation through her character, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter.
If you are thinking about starting to write mysteries or have some old manuscripts that you have been meaning to dust off and get back to, check out Don’t Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden, the 2007 Agatha winner for best nonfiction book. It promises “24 fiction writing techniques to save your manuscript from turning up D.O.A.”
Survivor, 1779
The Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will meet again on Sunday, May 20th at 2 p.m. in the Seminar Room.
The book under discussion will be She Walks These Hills, in which an old murder is explained, an even older murder is revealed, and a murder takes place in the present time.
This 1994 Sharyn McCrumb book won the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity and Nero Wolfe awards.
It is part her highly acclaimed Ballad Novels series.
The characters include the ghost of a teenager kidnapped by Shawnees in 1779, an elderly escaped convict who cannot recall recent events because of a rare mental illness, the convict’s former wife and daughter, a radio talk show host interested in the convict’s past, and a frightened girl with an abusive husband and a demanding baby.
Malice personified
Attending mystery conferences is one of my favorite things. Authors, publishers, editors, librarians, and just plain ordinary fans get together and talk about mysteries.
I get to go to panels and hear authors discuss their work. How they write. Why they write. Where they get their ideas from.
I get to hang out around the conference hotel and meet up with old friends and to converse with some of the promising new authors as well as some of my all-time favorites.
One would think that people who write mysteries would be a somber and negative lot, but, on the contrary, they are funny and basically idealistic people.
Agatha would be delighted
This year’s Agatha Award for Best Novel was given to Nancy Pickard for her book The Virgin of Small Plains.
It is a stand-alone mystery set in Small Plains, Kansas, in 1987.
The discovery of the frozen body of a beautiful teenage girl forever changes the lives of everyone in the town and those who faithfully tend to her grave find themselves beneficiaries of all manner of miracles and cures.
And the winner is …
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin is the winner of the 2007 Edgar Award for best novel.
The New York Times review called it “the perfect escapist mystery.”
It is set in 1836 during the Ottoman Empire's declining decades. Just before the Sultan announces sweeping modernizations, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court.
For 400 years the Janissaries were the empire's elite soldiers, but they grew too powerful, and ten years ago the Sultan had them crushed. Are the Janissaries staging a brutal comeback?
The investigation is in the hands of a court eunuch, Yashim Togalu, who is of the opinion that he is the perfect man for the job as he is “unencumbered by the plums.”
Not your mother's academic mystery
The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid. Edgy, tense, compelling.
A 200-year-old body appears when a peat bog in England’s Lake District dries up. There is much speculation as to who the man covered with South Seas tattoos was and how he ended up there.
Wordsworth scholar Jane Grisham is convinced that he was Fletcher Christian, famed HMS Bounty mutineer, who somehow managed to escape from Pitcairn Island and make his way back to England.
And the nominees are ...
The Academy Award nominees may make the headlines but what mystery readers really care about are mystery award nominees!
On January 19th, the Mystery Writers of America announced the contenders for this year’s Edgar awards.
New material (more or less) from two notable women authors
From a pioneer of the medieval mystery:
The Trinity Cat and Other Mysteries is a collection of fifteen tales of mystery by Ellis Peters (1913-1995) most of which were written before a certain Benedictine made her rich and famous and one story of which is published here for the first time anywhere.
The cat, alas, does not belong to our beloved Brother Cadfael
Like father, like daughter
Mystery writer Alafair Burke is the daughter of acclaimed writer James Lee Burke.
The emergence of the celebrity criminal
If you enjoyed Erik Larson's The Devil in The White City, which was a National Book Award finalist and a winner of the Edgar award for true crime writing, don’t miss Thunderstruck.
Iceland and Sweden are hot, hot, hot!
No, not global warming! Outstanding mysteries set in Reykjavik, the cosmopolitan capital of Iceland, and Ystad, a small town in the wind-lashed Swedish province of Skane.
Arnaldur Indridason’s second Inspector Erlandur Sveinsson mystery Silence of the Grave is expected in October. Erlandur was first introduced to us in Jar City (2005).
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