Was Shakespeare a Spy? By Howard Linskey

The man at the heart of my Elizabethan murder mystery was a writer and an actor but was he also a spy?

William Shakespeare was a playwright, the world’s most famous in fact, and he was also an actor who appeared in his own plays and others. That is a matter of record. We also know that he was a businessman, a shareholder in a theatrical company and the Globe theatre and had investments in all manner of things, including land. He may even have been a money lender. But was he also a spy? 

The premise of my new novel, ‘A Serpent In The Garden’, is that Will Shakespeare is called upon to investigate the mystery of a woman’s suspicious death, in exchange for patronage. He is still a young man at this point and has only written one play, Henry the 6th. That was a small success, but now Will is struggling to write that difficult second play, and the Earl of Southampton is dangling the promise of financial support in exchange for more than just poetry. His cousin is the first reported victim of an outbreak of plague that hit London in 1592, claiming thousands of lives, but the Earl does not believe it, and asks Will to find out what really happened to Lady Celia. 

When the Queen’s spymaster, Robert Cecil, learns of this, he orders Will to spy on his new patron and report back to him. Will soon realises how dangerous it is to have two masters in Elizabethan England, especially when they are the most powerful men in the realm. 

The plot of my book does draw upon the truth, though I am not claiming Shakespeare was a Tudor James Bond. Back then, he might very well have been called upon to report on people to powerful men at court, since many others were given similar tasks, whether they liked it or not. Shakespeare’s most famous patron was the young, handsome and very rich, Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. Will dedicated sonnets to him, including ‘Venus and Adonis’ and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’, using such flowery prose some have suggested they must have been lovers, though flattering dedications to a patron were fully expected, no matter how chaste the relationship. 

The Earl of Southampton had a very powerful enemy at Elizabeth’s court. Sir Robert Cecil took over the role of her principal advisor from his father, William and became spymaster for both Elizabeth and her successor, King James the 1st. He even uncovered the Gunpowder Plot. Back in Shakespeare’s time, he would have known that the Earl of Southampton, a lover of plays and poetry, was looking favourably on Will and might be about to give him patronage. Crucially, the Earl was also a Catholic in a Protestant land and suspected of conspiring against the Queen. Later, in 1601, he would join the Essex Rebellion against her, and be sentenced to life imprisonment, though he was eventually released by King James. Perhaps more importantly, the two men hated one another. Wriothesley was ward to Cecil’s father as a child, and they grew up together. Cecil was very short and had a curved back caused by scoliosis. He envied Southampton’s good looks, his vast fortune and, most galling of all, his ability to charm the Queen into becoming her favourite. Southampton also broke off his engagement to Cecil’s niece, humiliating her and, by extension, his family. 

This was a time when plots against Elizabeth the 1st abounded. As a protestant Queen in a religiously divided nation, she was always a target. Catholics still saw her as the illegitimate child of an illegal second marriage, between Henry the 8th and Anne Boleyn. If they needed any further encouragement, the Pope himself declared, in an official Papal Bull to his faithful, that removing and even killing the Queen of England was no crime, since he had already excommunicated her. He was granting Elizabeth’s English Catholic subjects official permission to commit a regicide, blessed by God himself. 

Cecil already had a network of spies everywhere, and he needed them to protect the Queen. Most notably, Christopher Marlowe is believed to have spied for him in the Lowlands, and he was a far more famous and successful playwright than Will Shakespeare at this point. It is usually accepted that Marlowe died in a ‘tavern brawl’ in 1593, but the building was not a tavern and the only other men there were his friends; Skeres, Frizer and Poley, all of whom had links to the criminal world and had worked for Robert Cecil. Poley even played a significant part in the downfall of Mary Queen of Scots, when he acted as a double agent during the Babington Plot of 1586. Significantly, Marlowe was about to be brought before the Privy Council, to be questioned about dangerous heretical writings that would have severely embarrassed Cecil, his former employer. How convenient that he was instead stabbed in the eye, by a supposed friend, just before he had the opportunity to discredit the Queen’s spymaster by association. 

There is another interesting historical slant to this story. When Will Shakespeare left Stratford as a young man, he had little or no money. By 1592, he was an actor who had just been paid the sum of two pounds for his first play. Within a little over a year, he had somehow acquired the enormous sum of fifty pounds. Enough to become a shareholder in a new theatrical company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. No one knows how he did this. Many believe the money came from his patron, the Earl, but that is a lot to pay to have sonnets dedicated to you, hence the suspicion that Will might have been Southampton’s lover. In my book, Will hopes to get the money by risking his life to uncover the enormous secret linked to the suspicious death of Lady Celia. 

Revealing anything more would be a spoiler and, like spies everywhere, I reserve the right to keep some secrets. But, if you would like to know what really happened to Celia, and how Will manages to narrowly avoid a gruesome death, at the hands of two of the most powerful men in the realm, you can find the answers between the pages of ‘A Serpent In The Garden’.

A Serpent in the Garden by Howard Linsey. (Canelo) Out Now

London, 1592. 28-year-old William Shakespeare is the rising man of English theatre. But plague has hit the capital, and the playhouses are to be shut. Livelihoods, and lives, are at stake. Lady Celia Vernon is one of the first to perish but did she really die of plague? Her cousin, the Earl of Southampton, orders Will to discover the truth in a London filled with conspirators, cutthroats and traitors. The Queen's spymaster, Robert Cecil, suspects the Earl of treason and orders Will to spy on him in return. Caught between two of the most powerful men in the kingdom, Will cannot possibly serve both masters, and could easily become the next victim of the killer he is trying to catch. With his future, safety and life on the line, Will uncovers a devastating secret, and changes the course of his, and the world’s destiny forever.

A Tail of Murder by Oskar Jensen

Can you imagine a dog as a master criminal? An assassin, a burglar, a schemer-in-chief? No, nor can I. As a killer, oh yes, as hunter of fox, dog of war, slavering bloodhound. But … sly? Unthinkable.

Since the beginnings of detective fiction (which I’m going to place ambiguously around 1800, but that’s another story) animals have figured extensively in tales of murder and mystery. And mostly they’ve been the animals that work most closely with humans: dogs and horses. We generally find them doing a lot of the legwork: Arthur Conan Doyle’s dog Toby is the apotheosis of this tradition. Watson describes him as an ‘ugly long haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown and white in colour, with a very clumsy waddling gait’ – but with the best nose in the business. Obviously, he’s on the side of law and order. The Victorians (or at least the sort who wrote best-selling stories) practically worshipped dogs for their ideal qualities of loyalty, courage, simplicity, and generally knowing their place: they didn’t want the vote or anything inconvenient like that. It’s no coincidence that the medieval Welsh legend of Gelert had such a revival in this era. It’s a tale that appear the world over: the story of the faithful hound wrongly slain by his master, who thinks the dog has attacked his baby when in fact he has defended it from a wolf. Come to think of it, maybe that’s the first murder mystery – one in which the human protagonist leaps to a tragically wrong conclusion. No Victorian would make the same mistake: they knew there was nothing so trustworthy as a dog. 

Much more unusual is Josephine Tey’s horse Timber in her novel Brat Farrar – precisely because its character does not conform to this type. In fact, to call this horse unreliable is quite the understatement, and the result is uncanny and effective for this very reason: it subverts all our expectations of how a normally dependable animal should behave. I’ll say no more for fear of spoilers but really, Timber is one of the greatest animals in all of crime fiction.

For unpleasant reasons tangled up in empire and exoticisation, the writers of the nineteenth century in particular preferred to cast more outlandish animals (from a European perspective) in the role of villain. Edgar Allen Poe’s orangutan heads the field, while Conan Doyle weighs in with a whole menagerie, from a lion (or is it?) to a lion’s mane, via baboon, cheetah, snake and mongoose. Today, Leonora Nattrass is the great champion of unlikely animals in her tales of murder, giving us a rhinoceros, a bear cub, a parrot and, most memorably, a sapient hog. But once again, her main protagonist Laurence Jago spends much more time with his most faithful companion – his dog.

Dogs dogs dogs. There’s Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness –huge letdown, the dog does almost nothing. On the other hand, a canine actually narrates Vee Walker’s recent French-set short story Nice Dog, and solves the mystery to boot: you can hear his tale brought beautifully to life by Paterson Joseph on BBC Sounds. I defy anyone to listen without a broad smile on their face. Besides the aforementioned Toby, we find two of all literature’s most celebrated dogs in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories – the one that didn’t bark in the nighttime, and its nightmare opposite, the Hound of the Baskervilles. Which is where my new novel Helle’s Hound comes in. On one level it’s a deeply irreverent homage, even a rewrite, of Conan Doyle’s Gothic masterpiece. I’ve swapped the rugged marshes of windswept Victorian Dartmoor for the petty politics and fancy restaurants of twenty-first-century Bloomsbury, but all the plot essentials are there, including one very large, very hungry hound: Mortimer, an Irish wolfhound.

But I wanted to do something new with the story. And I kept coming back to those Victorian truisms: that dogs – especially big, brave dogs – are intrinsically and entirely faithful, reliable, a source of friendship and security. The thing is, they sort of are. I return you to paragraph one: dogs can’t be master criminals. But what if there were a way to take those very qualities of dependability, and somehow subvert them? Wouldn’t that be both an interesting challenge, and a deeply disquieting moral for a story? I really, really can’t say any more about where my line of thinking went – except that I promise it’s very much worth your while to find out. You may never look at a dog in quite the same way again.

Helle's Hound by Oskar Jensen (Profile Books Ltd)

A dead art historian. Cold War skulduggery. A reluctant Danish sleuth. And an extremely hungry dog. Dame Charlotte Lazerton - eminent art historian and mentor of Danish academic Torben Helle - is dead. And to make things worse, she was found partially eaten by her Irish wolfhound, Mortimer. While the police believe that she died of natural causes, Torben becomes convinced that Charlotte was murdered, although as usual no one pays any attention to him. That is, until he gains the confidence of a policeman who has watched too many Nordic Noir television shows and is ready to listen to any Scandinavian in a fetching woolly jumper. Aided by his old friend Leyla, Torben soon realises that there are plenty of people who might have wanted Dame Charlotte dead, from her competitors for a prestigious academic presidency to old enemies from her time in intelligence during the Cold War. One thing is for sure: Torben Helle is woefully unqualified to catch a killer, and the killer knows it...

More information about the author can be found on his website. He can also be found on X oskarcoxjensen

Nachtigall, ick hör dir trapsen …

Nightingale, I hear you singing (Saying from Berlin, meaning: I can hear which way the wind is blowing)

Most of the time I can't say exactly how I come up with ideas for my novels, because it's often a lengthy process. But the idea for this series came to me in a rather unusual way, which I’d like to share with you.

Did you know that Berlin is considered the capital city of nightingales, with around 1300-1500 specimen recorded? This queen of the night is an inconspicuous gray-brown bird by day that is difficult to spot in the hedges, but it blossoms by night. A nightingale can sing an average of 180 musical phrases. By way of comparison – the average tit chirps just 6 phrases. In addition, the nightingale learns something new every year, inspired by its surroundings. 

It is often regarded as a symbol of spring, its song is a poetic embodiment of the soul in love, but it is also the harbinger of death. In Oscar Wilde's fairy tale 'The Nightingale and the Rose', the nightingale sacrifices its lifeblood - in the truest sense of the word - for a student in love, showing itself willing to help even in the death. Yet in that story, her death is in vain, and the gift is not appreciated. 

A few years ago, I was in Berlin in the spring, researching my Radio Free Europe novel 'Fräulein Kiss träumt von der Freiheit'. I also visited the Allied Museum in Clayallee, where there was an exhibition on the Berlin Airlift. There were lots of photos of hungry and injured-looking children and portraits of the famous Raisin Bomber pilot Gail Halvorsen. The next day, I had the opportunity to walk through the escape tunnels that were dug shortly after the Wall was built and during the Cold War.

This tour made me realise that what you think you know in theory about this period can become a nightmarish reality. You suddenly realize how powerless people must have felt waking up behind a barbed wire fence that wasn't there the previous evening. How families were amputated and life plans destroyed by an arbitrary division into East and West, across streets, houses and even cemeteries.

All these impressions were simmering away when I took a cab back to my apartment late at night after visiting my son. The driver, a true Berlin eccentric, suddenly stopped on a somewhat dilapidated corner in Wilmersdorf and lowered the windows. I was a little nervous, but then he asked, 'Hear that? The little wonder?' 

Unfortunately, all I could hear was my slightly accelerated pulse. 

He shook his head and explained that he was an amateur ornithologist and that the nightingales of Berlin were his hobby. Then he suggested that I get out of the car and listen more closely. But as a crime writer, you tend to be overcautious, so I politely declined. Grinning broadly, he shrugged his shoulders. “Well then, no,” he said, and drove me to my destination in silence, then sped off. 

I was just taking the key out of my backpack when I heard something. It was rather delicate at first, a chirping, which then gathered incredible momentum and became a beguiling song. Somewhere very close to me, in one of the hedges at the edge of Preussenpark. Fascinated, I paused and listened. 

All the quotes, poems and stories that I’d heard or read about nightingales rushed to mind. And while I stood still, enchanted, the germ of an idea crystallized. I saw a child in front of me, one of those waiting for the Raisin Bomber, a girl who does her utmost to bring her mother a gift. A gift that would lead to a catastrophe that would henceforth cast a shadow over her life. 

Carla was born in that instant, and with the next even louder warbles, her sister, Wallie, the queen of the night, popped up. From the very beginning, they were as real to as the song of that nightingale, they ignited my imagination ... and the result of that is what you’re holding in your hands now.

Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz (Corylus Books) Translator (Marina Sofia) out now.

Nightingale & Co is the first in a cosy historical crime series featuring the sisters of the Nightingale & Co detective agency in 1960s Berlin. Since the death of her beloved father, Carla has been running the Nightingale & Co detective agency by herself. It’s a far from easy job for a female investigator. When the chaotic, fun-loving Wallie shows up at the door, claiming to be her half-sister, Carla’s world is turned upside down. Wallie needs Carla – the Berlin Wall has been built overnight, leaving her unable to return to her flat in East Berlin. Carla certainly doesn’t need Wallie, with her secret double life and unorthodox methods for getting results. Yet the mismatched pair must find a way to work together when one of their clients is accused of murdering her husband.

2025 CWA Diamond Dagger awarded to Mick Herron

 Mick Herron Awarded CWA Diamond Dagger

Slow Horses author receives highest accolade in crime writing

Mick Herron is the 2025 recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger - the highest accolade in the genre.

The award recognises authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre. 

One of the UK’s most prominent societies, the CWA was founded in 1953 by John Creasey; the awards started in 1955 with its first award going to Winston Graham, best known for Poldark. 

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Herron studied English Literature at Oxford, where he continues to live. He began writing fiction while working as a sub editor in London.

His first novel, Down Cemetery Road, was published in 2003. This was the start of Herron’s Zoë Boehm series.

In 2008, inspired by world events, he began writing the Slough House series, featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. The first novel, Slow Horses, was published in 2010. Some years later, it was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as one of “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time.”

A #1 Sunday Times bestselling author, the Slough House thrillers were adapted into an Apple TV series, starring Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, and have been published in twenty-five languages. 

Herron has a long association with the CWA, becoming a member in 2004. Two of his books in the Slough House series have received a Dagger: Dead Lions won the CWA Gold Dagger in 2013, and Spook Street the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2017.

Herron’s Zoë Boehm series is to be adapted into a major TV series starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. Herron is also the author of the highly acclaimed standalone novels Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours.

Mick Herron said: “I’ve spent the best part of my life – not the majority of it; just the best part – in the crime writers’ community, and to receive this accolade from these friends and colleagues is both a career highlight and a personal joy. I’m touched and thrilled beyond measure, and will try to live up to the honour.”

Vaseem Khan, Chair of the CWA, said: Vaseem Khan, Chair of the CWA, said: “I am delighted that the Diamond Dagger judges have picked Mick as their recipient this year. Few could be more deserving. Mick is the quintessential writers' writer and his Slough House novels have, by general consensus, reinvented the spy thriller, going on to delight millions on the page and onscreen. The Diamond Dagger is a fitting tribute to a writer whose work has become both cultural marker and record of our time.”

Nominations for the CWA Diamond Dagger are recommended by CWA members. Industry experts then narrow these down to a shortlist. The winner is then voted for by a panel of past Diamond Dagger winners.

Recent recipients of the Diamond Dagger include Lynda La Plante, James Lee Burke, Peter James, Walter Mosley, Lee Child, Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, Lindsey Davis, Andrew Taylor, Martina Cole, Ann Cleeves, Val McDermid, Robert Goddard, Martin Edwards, Catherine Aird and Simon Brett. 

Past icons of the genre acknowledged with a Diamond Dagger include Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, and John le Carré.

The CWA Daggers are now regarded by the publishing world as the foremost British awards for crime-writing. As the oldest awards in the genre, they have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

The Diamond Dagger is presented at the annual CWA Dagger Awards, dubbed the ‘Oscars of the crime genre,’ which take place this year on Thursday, July 3.

Mystery Writers of America - 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominations

Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2024. The 79th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated on May 1, 2025, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.

BEST NOVEL

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Penguin Random House – Random House Worlds/Del Rey

Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD)

Things Don’t Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins (Penguin Random House – Crown)

My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Macmillan Publishers – Celadon Books)

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton (Crooked Lane Book

Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda (Crooked Lane Books)

The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee (CamCat Books)

A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis (Kensington Books – A John Scognamiglio Book)

The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)

Holy City by Henry Wise (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row Books)

The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House)

Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler (HarperCollins – Harper Paperbacks)

A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (Dundurn Press Ltd.)

BEST FACT CRIME

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown)

A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)

The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)

Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)

The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co.)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)

American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)

Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing)

On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press)

Ian Fleming; The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins – Harper)

 BEST SHORT STORY

“Cut and Thirst,” Amazon Original Stories by Margaret Atwood (Amazon Publishing)

“Everywhere You Look,” Amazon Original Stories by Liv Constantine (Amazon Publishing)

“Eat My Moose,” Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse (Bard College)

“Barriers to Entry,” Amazon Original Stories by Ariel Lawhon (Amazon Publishing)

“The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July-August 2024 by Steven Sheil (Dell Magazine)

BEST JUVENILE

The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Mystery of Mystic Mountain by Janet Fox (Simon & Schuster BFYR)

Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix (HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)

The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Find Her by Ginger Reno (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (HarperCollins – Heartdrum)

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne (Random House Books for Young Readers)

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Teen)

49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode Five” – Rebus, Written by Gregory Burke (Viaplay)

“Episode One” – Monsieur Spade, Written by Tom Fontana & Scott Frank (AMC)

“Episode One” – Moonflower Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece PBS)

“Mirror” – Murderesses, Written by Wiktor Piatkowski, Joanna Kozłowska, Katarzyna Kaczmarek (Viaplay)

“Episode Two” – The Marlow Murder Club, Written by Robert Thorogood (Masterpiece PBS)

OTHER AWARDS

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD – 

Endowed by the family of Robert L. Fish.

“The Legend of Penny and the Luck of the Draw Casino,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2024 by Pat Gaudet (Dell Magazines)

“Head Start,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Kai Lovelace (Dell Magazines)

“Murder Under Sedation,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March-April 2024 by Lawrence Ong (Dell Magazines)

“The Jews on Elm Street,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Anna Stolley Persky (Dell Magazines)

“Sparrow Maker,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November-December 2024 by Jake Stein (Dell Magazines)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – 

Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen (Amazon Publishing – Lake Union)

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow Paperbacks)

Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen (Crooked Lane Books)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – 

Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Landmark)

Proof by Beverly McLachlin (Simon & Schuster Canada – Simon & Schuster)

A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

All the Way Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press – Soho Crime)

 

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD –

 Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Death and Fromage by Ian Moore (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

Booked for Murder by P.J. Nelson (Macmillan Publishers – Minotaur Books)

Murder on Devil’s Pond by Ayla Rose (Crooked Lane Books)

The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

 

Icon of Genre Announced for Final CrimeFest

 CrimeFest has announced an icon of the genre, Lee Child, will take part in its final convention in May 2025.

One of the UK’s leading crime fiction conventions, which is hosted in Bristol supported by title sponsor Specsavers, CrimeFest announced 2025 will be its final event after 16 years.

Organisers have said they are putting all their energy into making the final event one to remember.

The celebratory finale features a record number of Diamond Dagger recipients in attendance.

Alongside Lee, fellow Diamond Dagger recipients confirmed are Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, and John Harvey, as well as in spirit, John le Carré (with his two sons) and Dick Francis (as represented by his son, the crime writer Felix Francis). 

Le Carré’s sons are the film producer Simon Cornwell, who is behind adaptations of his father’s work, including The Night Manager for the BBC starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman; and Nick Harkaway who, to much acclaim, recently brought back his father’s famous literary creation, George Smiley, with his novel, Karla’s Choice.

John Harvey has written over 100 books, including his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels. Harvey has a number of short stories due for publication this year, including his story Criss-Cross in Playing Dead, a new collection of stories written by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards, and published in March. Also out in March is his new poetry collection, Blue in Green, published by Shoestring Press.

Also confirmed is the Icelandic author known as the Queen of Nordic thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who is also a regular face at CrimeFest and will return to help celebrate CrimeFest’s sixteen years.

Also attending is the award-winning author Barbara Nadel, author of the much-loved Inspector Cetin Ikmen series, adapted for TV as The Turkish Detective starring Haluk Bilginer, which aired on BBC2 in June 2024. Trained as an actress, Barbara Nadel used to work in mental health services. She now writes full time and has been a visitor to Turkey for over twenty years. The latest in her Cetin Ikmen series, The Wooden Library, is out in May. She also has a new title in her Hakim and Arnold series, The East Ham Golem, out this February.

Adrian Muller, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “Lee Child, alongside American author Jeffery Deaver, has played a very special role in our history. Both were special guests at our very first CrimeFest, they were there for our fifth anniversary, and for our tenth anniversary. Jeffery has prior commitments; however, we’re working on him participating in CrimeFest remotely, and we're thrilled Lee will be there in person to help celebrate our final year.”

The Jack Reacher creator, whose books have been adapted to the big and small screen by Tom Cruise and for Amazon Prime, will attend with his brother and co-writer, Andrew, who has taken over writing the series. 

Lee Child said: "Sadly all good things come to an end - and Adrian Muller's Bristol CrimeFest is one of the very best things ever. It is a warm, friendly, relaxed, and inclusive festival, hugely enjoyable for authors and readers alike. Myles, Liz, Donna and Adrian, their team of volunteers - and Dame Mary from Specsavers - have my sincere thanks for many delightful weekends over the years."

Already announced for the long-weekend [15 – 18 May] at Bristol’s Mercure Grand Hotel is the author and CWA chair, Vaseem Khan, who will be Toastmaster at the CrimeFest Awards night. Vaseem is author of the Malabar House historical crime series set in Bombay. Upcoming is his continuation of the James Bond franchise with Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q.

2025 also welcomes the return of author Cathy Ace, who will close the Gala Dinner event. Cathy's Cait Morgan Mysteries have been optioned for TV by the production company, Free@Last TV, which is behind the hit series, Agatha Raisin.

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention, and CrimeFest runs on the US model. The first CrimeFest was organised in June 2008. 

Unlike other major crime fiction events in the UK, any commercially published author who signs up can feature on a panel. In this way, CrimeFest has provided many authors with a platform they would not have been offered elsewhere in the UK. 

Donna Moore, author and co-host of CrimeFest, said: “We’re proud to be a unique and perhaps the most democratic crime fiction event in the UK. Readers have discovered and met writers they otherwise may never have heard of. All delegates – be they authors, readers, from the book trade, or aspiring writers – come together as equals to celebrate the genre they love. We very much appreciate the talent and ongoing support of much-loved regulars, along with first-time attendees.”

The convention also continues its Community Outreach Programme. In partnership with the independent Max Minerva’s Bookshop and participating publishers, CrimeFest gifts thousands of pounds of crime fiction books for children and young adults to school libraries.

With thanks to Specsavers, librarians, students, and those on benefits are offered significantly discounted tickets.

To find out more, or to book your spot as a delegate, go to: https://www.crimefest.com/

MWA 2025 Grand Masters, Raven, & Ellery Queen Award Recipients announced

    

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announced the recipients of its special awards. 

2025 Grand Masters: Laura Lippman and John Sandford 

2025 Raven Award: Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts

2025 Ellery Queen Award: Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group 

They will accept their awards at the 79th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will be held May 1, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

MWA’s Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. 

The Raven Award recognises outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. 

The Ellery Queen Award was established in 1983 to honour “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry”

Congratulations to all the recipients.

Left Coast Crime "Lefty" Awards 2025

 

The Left Coast Crime "Lefty" Awards are fan awards chosen by registered members of the Left Coast Crime conventions since 1996. A ballot listing the official nominees is given to each registrant when they check in at the convention, and final voting takes place during the event, which this year takes place in Denver Colorado from March 13-16. 2025. The winners will be revealed at the Lefty Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 15th.

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron (Kensington Books) 

Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow, (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)

Bronco Buster by A.J. Devlin, (NeWest Press)

Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson, (Severn House)

Cirque du Slay by Rob Osler, (Crooked Lane Books)

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, (Pamela Dorman Books / Viking)

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970 

Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver, (Pegasus Crime)

A Killing on the Hill by Robert Dugoni, (Thomas & Mercer)

An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman, (Kensington Books)

The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie R. King, (Bantam Books)

Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker, (Level Best Books / Historia)

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Blue Ridge by Peter Malone Elliott, (Level Best Books)

Obey All Laws by Cindy Goyette, (Level Best Books)

The Mechanics of Memory  by Audrey Lee, (CamCat Books) 

Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita, (Crooked Lane Books)

You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen,  (Dutton)

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel

Home Fires by Claire Booth, (Severn House)

Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy,  (Zando, Gillian Flynn Books)

Assassins Anonymous  by Rob Hart, (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Molten Death by Leslie Karst,  (Severn House)

Served Cold  by James L’Etoile, (Level Best Books)

California Bear by Duane Swierczynski,  (Mulholland Books)

Congratulations to this year's finalists:

32nd St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend - Detecting the Gothic:- Tales from the Dark Heart of Crime Fiction

 

Those who have been attending St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend over the many years of its existence know that it is a weekend with a difference. Launched at St Hilda's College in 1994, it offers the crime fiction fans the unique experience of hearing their favourite authors exploring the genre, their own work and the writers who inspired them.

This year the theme is ‘Detecting the Gothic: Tales from the Dark Heart of Crime Fiction and will take place from 8^th to 10^th August 2025.

Guest of Honour is Val McDermid and featured speakers include Mick Herron, Olivia Isaac-Henry, Anna Mazzola, Stuart Neville, Ambrose Parry, William Ryan, Catherine Ryan Howard, Stuart Turton, Ruth Ware, Catriona Ward and Louise Welsh.

Taking place in the heart of Oxford in a glorious riverside location the St Hilda’s Weekend includes not only the speaker sessions, but a massive Blackwell's shop open on site every day, author signings, prizes and a brimming goodie bag all enjoyed in a relaxed, intimate College atmosphere. Beginning on Friday evening with a dinner and drinks reception, the packed weekend finishes with a traditional lunch on Sunday.

Look out for some mini interviews in the run up to the weekend from the authors taking part.

Ticket information can be found here.

Forthcoming Books from Pushkin Press

January 2025

A Japanese mystery horror bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective - from the Youtube sensation Uketsu. A series of drawings by a pregnant woman conceal a chilling warning. A child's picture of his home contains within it a dark secret message. A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth into a terrifying investigation. Can you find the hidden clues in these strange pictures and discover what connects them all? When you do, a sinister truth will be revealed.

February 2025

One True Word is by Snæbjörn Arngrímsson. Why did she do it? After a day of simmering tension on a trip to an uninhabited island, Júlia snaps and leaves her husband Gíó marooned in the middle of a freezing fjord in the depths of the Icelandic winter, with night drawing in. When she regrets her decision and returns, he is nowhere to be found. The police launch a manhunt, but soon their suspicion falls on his wife. She spins them a story to hide her involvement, but she can feel the net closing in. Is Gíó alive or dead? In hiding or hunting her down? And can Júlia get to the truth before it destroys her?

Everyone is talking about it: a serial killer is on the loose. Women are being slain across the countryside surrounding the isolated Warren mansion where Helen has taken up a domestic position. And each murder is closer to the house than the last... When the body of a local girl is discovered in the nearby village, Professor Warren orders the mansion be locked up overnight for the residents' safety. But as a storm rages outside and tensions mount within the home. Helen begins to wonder whether the murderer isn't already inside, stalking his next victim... The Spiral Staircase is by Ethel Lina White.

March 2025

DCI Alison McCoist is back: newly promoted and even less popular. Chuck Gardner is the proud owner of both a confidential paper-shredding business and a serious betting habit. When Chuck finds some scandalous paperwork and McCoist investigates a rat-nibbled corpse under a flyover, they are both sucked into a deadly stramash of gangland wars and police corruption. Can Chuck solve his gambling and gangster problems before some heed-banger feeds him into his own shredder? And can McCoist claw herself out of this latest shitemire without her own shady dealings coming to light? It might depend on how far she's prepared to go.. Paperboy is by Calum McSorley

May 2025

Murder in the House of Omari is by Taku Ashibe. Osaka, 1943: as the Second World War rages and American bombers rain death down upon the city, the once prosperous Omari family is already in decline, financially ruined by the terrible conflict. Then the household is struck by a series of gruesome murders. Can anyone solve the mystery of these baffling slayings before the Omari line is extinguished entirely? To do so, and unravel the killer's fiendish plot, they will have to delve into the family's past, where a dark and deadly secret has been festering for decades.

Forthcoming books from Bookouture

 January 2025

Family Doctor is by J M Dalgliesh. I have three days to kill a patient. If I fail, my daughter will die… As the only doctor on a stunning remote Scottish island, I finally feel safe and happy. Here, nobody knows about my troubled past except my teenage daughter Lauren. I'm a single mother, so it’s just the two of us now, and Lauren is my world. Caring for every person on the island, from birth to death, I know all their fears and secrets. But they don’t know mine, and for the sake of my daughter, I must keep it that way… Everything is going perfectly until I am sent a link to a live video stream of my beautiful daughter Lauren, her wide blue eyes terrified. And there’s a voice: ‘Three rules. Three days. You must murder one of your patients. You must not tell another soul. You must not get caught. If you fail, your daughter dies…’

I know it’s him. He says we’ve never met. Why would he lie?  Her - When I see him, my heart stops dead. I tell myself it’s impossible, but I would recognise those striking pale blue eyes anywhere. It’s him. The high-school boyfriend I adored… Until the day he vanished without a trace. I run towards him, my pulse racing. He turns, politely, a puzzled look on that familiar face. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘Do I know you?’ I need answers. I’m certain he’s lying. I just have to prove it. Him - Of course you recognised me. Always so keen, always trying to do right by everyone. It’s typical of my bad luck that we happened to run into each other. I left this place for a reason – one you never knew. And now I’m back, I have plans. And I’m afraid, my dear, that you’re getting in my way… The Perfect Boyfriend is by S E Lynes.

What Kind of Mother is by Anna-Lou Weatherley. My son and his girlfriend stand there, two terrified teenagers shivering in the doorway, and say the unthinkable. ‘I think we killed someone.’ Now, I have to decide exactly what kind of mother I am… It was never my dream to clean the Levinsons’ mansion for a living, particularly as Helen Levinson and her daughter Paris are oddly secretive about which rooms I can go into.But none of that matters the night Paris and my son Conor come begging for help, their clothes spattered with blood. They say it was an accident, that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time… Now, Helen and I have to make a terrible choice. Do we tell the truth and risk losing our children forever? Or do we lie to keep them safe? We will do anything to protect our children, but one wrong move could cost us everything. Lying to the police was a risk, and now Helen is acting more unpredictable by the day – turning up at my house unannounced, harassing my husband, telling lies about my past… The only way to save my family is to uncover the truth about that night. I’m convinced the answers lie hidden inside the Levinsons’ house. I’d do anything for Conor, but am I prepared for what I might find behind locked doors? But when your son is in danger, you find out what kind of mother you are…

She’s perfect. Too perfect… Wife: For twenty-five years, my husband and I have been the ideal couple. I’m shy, but he’s always been the life and soul of the party, a charmer, so I didn’t worry the first time I caught him a little too close to my best friend, Wendy. Mother: Then our darling son says he’s taking Wendy’s daughter to prom, the girl I never trusted because she’s too much like her mother. As I snap photos of them, I have a smile plastered on my face, but inside my head I’m screaming at him to stay away from her. Liar: As flashing lights slice the darkness around our home, my worst nightmare comes true with the shocking news that one of our children is dead. And I can tell my husband, my best friend are both lying about where they were. But none of their secrets compares to mine. And nobody knows just how far I’d go to protect my family… Wife, Mother, Liar is by Sue Watson.

Gripping the phone, my hands tremble with fear. I look at my son and wonder how my darling blue-eyed boy could have done this. But as my eyes focus down on the body, I know what I must do. I know it will destroy our lives forever. 'Hello? I need help. It’s my child. He’s killed someone.' As my son looks at me, his eyes pleading for help, all I can think in that moment is that I will do whatever it takes to protect him. A young girl’s lifeless body lies on the ground and my heart breaks when I realise I’m already too late to save her. Our family will never be the same again. I know I should call for help. But looking towards the phone table I see an old picture of the children playing in the garden. Our children and hers. We used to be so close, I thought our families would be together for a lifetime. But in a moment of rage, the life I imagined has been snatched away. But if I’m honest, I’ve been kidding myself about how perfect our lives were. I’m a mother. I should be able to keep my children safe. But what I see in front of me cannot be denied. No one else is here. My son’s guilty. How far will I go to protect him? The Mother's Phone Call is by Victoria Jenkins.

May Day should mark the start of spring. But this year, it means murder… Fortunately antique store owner and amateur detective Bella Winter is on the case!  Everyone in Hope Eaton climbs the hill to Sweet Agnes’ Spring on May Day, to greet the dawn and leave tokens among the flowers. Antique store owner Bella Winter grumbles about the early start, but she has to admit that watching the sun rise over the flower-strewn grove is worth it. And her interest deepens when she sees that one of the offerings this year is a little doll stuck all over with pins… a perfect replica of Mary Roberts, who lives nearby. Determined to find out what lies behind this bizarre threat, Bella dives into a murky mess of strange events. Mary’s house is up for sale, but someone’s trying to wreck the deal, leaving rotting weeds on her front step. And Mary claims she’s seen a cloaked figure watching her from the woods… Bella’s half convinced this is all nonsense, but then Mary is found dead, her prized carving of the spring stolen from her dresser. The police say it was a heart attack, but was she literally scared to death? Soon Bella has uncovered a string of further mysteries. Why is Mary’s nearest neighbour missing? Who graffitied her boss’s house with a warning the night she died? And why would anyone want Mary’s carving? All paths lead back to the spring itself… but does it hold answers or more danger? And can Bella track the killer down before she’s cut off at the source? The Antique Store Detective and the May Day Murder is by Clare Chase.

The Husband is by Daniel Hurst. Is the man you love a killer? I’ve been married to my kind, loving husband Lachlan for over twenty years. He’s my everything. We have two teenage children, a beautiful home and I feel so lucky to live this perfect life. Until my best friend says something that makes me doubt everything… She whispers it’s strange Lachlan has lived nearby to two unsolved murder cases. First, the murder of the woman in the small, Scottish village where he grew up and more recently the shocking death of a woman who lived round the corner from us. The thought makes my head spin. It’s just a coincidence, surely? But at home, I can’t help but notice that Lachlan’s becoming angry, not at all like his usual self. It makes me wonder if he’s hiding something from me. It makes me wonder if he could be guilty. I push the thought away, but no matter what, I can’t get rid of this niggle of doubt. The only way to find out is to go to Scotland and get my husband to face his past. But when secrets start to unravel in the remote Scottish Highlands, I realise the truth is more complicated than I thought, and more than one person could be a killer. Now my children and I are in terrible danger. And coming here might be the last mistake I ever make.

“Megan, you need to call me. Wallace was here. He left a message to say please don’t worry. He’s coming for you soon.” As I hang up the call, my blood runs cold. I’ve spent a lifetime running from this man. But as I look down at his next victim, their face frozen in one final moment of fear, I can’t escape the feeling that I will be next to die. When the body of Detective Susan Dupont is discovered lying across the dividing line of two counties, Detective Megan Carpenter is immediately called to the scene. When her body is examined they find a sharp piece of metal has been lodged in her eye. A detail that takes Megan back to a deeply-buried memory which she has long been running from. Twenty-four hours later, retired Detective Riley Denton is found dead at home. His death is deemed a tragic accident. He fell down the stairs and had no enemies. Why would anyone want him dead? But Megan feels sure there is a link to the deaths and there is only one person she can trust with her theory. Calling in the help of her partner Detective Ronnie Marsh, they start to piece together a link that places Megan right at the centre of a deadly plot. As they race to find the killer before they strike closer to home, a string of murder victims going back years starts to emerge. And when Megan discovers how the murders are linked, she has to finally accept a dark truth she has spent her life running from. A killer from her past is back just like they promised and they will stop at nothing to take everything she loves. Can Megan stop them dead in their tracks or will she pay the ultimate price? Final Victim is by Gregg Olson.

Stolen Baby is by L G Davis. I told everyone she is my baby. I lied. My life changes forever when my little girl appears in a basket on my doorstep, her long lashes fluttering, only a few hours old. She’s so tiny and precious; my heart is hers in an instant. My husband Tom and I have always longed for a child, so we agree not to tell the authorities. We won’t risk them taking her away. And I know if they find out my history, they’d never let me keep her… I’m so grateful to have my beautiful baby, who we call Daisy. But while Tom refuses to talk about it, I can’t stop wondering who her biological parents are and why they left her with us? Then someone sends me a message, enclosing it in a funeral programme I find on my kitchen table. Now I know the terrible truth about what happened to Daisy’s parents, and it’s closer to home than I could ever have imagined. I thought I could protect us all, despite my past mistakes. But when the secrets I uncover put my family’s lives at risk, how far will I go to keep the little girl I love?

I’m home,’ she says, standing at my door with a sky-blue backpack clutched tightly to her chest. I haven’t seen my granddaughter in years. But I know she’s hiding a deadly secret…It’s been ten years since I last saw Stephanie, but looking into her haunted eyes, she looks just as innocent as she did as a baby. I remember the photo of her wrapped in a little pink blanket; how my heart hurt not to hold her on the day she was born. Pulling her in to a tight embrace, I promise her that although she’s lost her mother, I will take care of her from now on. No matter what… But as I usher her inside, I can’t help wondering if Stephanie knows my secrets. The real reason I hadn’t seen her mother in years… or why she wasn’t ever allowed to visit me at my house. Did my daughter take our family secrets to the grave? Stephanie’s heart breaks when she talks about her mother. But soon details slip out about the night she died, and I begin to realise that my granddaughter is just as good a liar as I am… Stephanie says my daughter's death was an accident, but I’m not so sure. If I uncover my granddaughter’s secrets, will I be next? The Perfect Guest is by Casey Kelleher.

Her Hiding Place is by Shannon Hollinger. “Okay sweetheart,” I whisper, giving my little girl Alice a final kiss. “Now remember, after I’ve locked the door, be quiet like a mouse. I’ll come back later, I promise.” Her little face crumples as I turn to leave and my heart breaks. But I have no choice. I have to work, and I have to keep her hidden. It’s just ten days until the new hotel opens. As I push my cleaning cart into the chandeliered honeymoon suite, I wonder how it would feel to stay here as a guest. To watch the sun rise over the ocean, to fall asleep with no fear. I’ll never know, of course. Instead, I work twelve-hour days as a maid, constantly frightened of discovery. Alice is just three, and she’s already seen more than any child should. Hiding on this isolated island resort, where she can only come out at night, is so hard for her. But the other staff can’t know she’s here, let alone the guests when they arrive. And no one can know my secret—or what we’re really running from. But when a massive storm cuts the island off from the mainland, my darkest fears become real. A body is found and in the shocking aftermath, someone finds out about Alice… With no means of escape, I know we are stuck on the island with a killer. Someone has been hiding in plain sight, waiting for an opportunity to make their move. Then my worst nightmare comes true and Alice disappears. I know I can trust no one. How far will I have to go to find her? And what will happen when they find out who Alice really is…?