2020 Strand Critics Award

The Strand Magazine announces nominations for the 2020 Strand Critics Awards:

Authors Attica Locke, Alex Michaelides, Don Winslow, Angie Kim, and Laura Lippman headline this year’s nominees for the Strand Critics Awards.

Walter Mosley and Tess Gerritsen will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Bronwen Hruska of Soho Press will receive the Publisher of the Year Award.

Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, the annual Strand Critics Awards are judged by a select group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges include talent from NPR, USA Today, LA Times, and The Washington Post.

And the nominees are . . .

Best Mystery Novel (2019)

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown and Co.)

The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books)

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (Harper)

Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke (Mulholland Books)

The Border by Don Winslow (William Morrow)

Best Debut Novel (2019)

Scrublands by Chris Hammer (Atria Books)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG)

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Celadon Books)

Three-Fifths by John Vercher (Agora Books)

“This year’s panel chose a great lineup of nominees,” said Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine. “It’s great to see a variety of books within the genre get represented. We have everything from traditional puzzle mystery and PI novel to noir and literary suspense, even a hospital mystery.”

Past recipients of Critics Awards include Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Richard Price, Megan Abbott, George Pelecanos, Joseph Finder, Lauren Beukes, and William Landay.

The Strand Magazine’s Publisher of the Year Award recognizes excellence in publishing…

This year’s recipient is Bronwen Hruska, publisher of Soho Press. An accomplished journalist and screenwriter, Hruska took the helm at Soho in 2010 and for the past ten years has overseen record growth, with scores of novels receiving critical and commercial acclaim.

“The characteristic of a great publisher is one who takes risks, who is never satisfied with the status quo, and most importantly someone who is dedicated to releasing works from a diverse set of authors,” said Managing Editor Gulli. “For over a decade, Hruska has done just that. She has been a fearless and tireless advocate for her authors, and they all love her.”

“Publishing is a labor of love, full stop. At Soho, we believe in every book we publish, every author. But to be recognized for that work—and by Strand Magazine, a leader in the crime fiction community—is truly an honor,” said Hruska. “Thank you Strand, and thank you to our wonderful authors who make our work not only meaningful, but quite joyful as well.”

The Strand Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Awards go to Tess Gerritsen and Walter Mosley.

In a writing career spanning several decades and multiple genres, Tess Gerritsen has stood

out as one of the most inventive practitioners of the medical thriller. Her series featuring Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles has been a staple of best-seller lists (also inspiring a hit TV show), and her books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

“When I was a child, my very practical father told me I’d never be able to support myself as a writer,” said Gerritsen. “But we storytellers are a stubborn bunch, and three decades into a writing career, here I am. Still writing. I’m thrilled by this honor, which proves that, yes, tenacity has its rewards.”

In 1990, the release of Devil in a Blue Dress marked the debut of Easy Rawlins, a clever, noble, and thoughtful private investigator in post-World War II Los Angeles. Author Walter Mosley earned plaudits for the novel, and for the past thirty years he has been compared to noir luminaries Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain. Mosley is the author of more than 40 books and his work has been translated into 23 languages.

“I want to thank Andrew Gulli and the critics that elected to give me this honor, adding my name to a list of names I greatly admire,” said Mosley. “The Strand itself deserves honors too for staying true to its mission in an age of media attrition, showcasing, engaging and amplifying the voices of writers who write in all the many forms this genre takes on.”

The Strand Critics Awards will be held virtually on September 4.

Thanks to Strand Magazine for the information.

The Macavity Award Nominees 2020

The Macavity Award Nominees 2020 

(for works published in 2019)

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at the Virtual Sacramento Bouchercon. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI, a subscriber to MRJ, or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot by August 1.

Best Mystery Novel 
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Ecco)
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (Wm. Morrow)
The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Mulholland)
The Murder List by Hank Philippi Ryan (Forge)
Sarah Jane by James Sallis (Soho Crime)

Best First Mystery 
The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge (Agora Books)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (Penguin)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (Sarah Crichton Books)
One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (Random House)

Best Mystery Short Story 
“West Texas Barbecue” by Michael Chandos (The Eyes of Texas, edited by Michael Bracken—Down & Out Books)
“Alex's Choice” by Barb Goffman (Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman—Wildside Press)
“The Cardboard Box” by Terence Faherty (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2019)
"Whiteout” by G.M. Malliet (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2019)
“Brother’s Keeper” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, May/June 2019)
“Better Days,” by Art Taylor (EQMM, May/June 2019)

Best Mystery Nonfiction/Critical 
Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer (University Press of Kentucky)
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan (Bloomsbury)
Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan (Counterpoint)
The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women, by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin (Counterpoint Press)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery 
Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
The Pearl Dagger by L.A. Chandlar (Kensington)
A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (Vintage)

Unlikely Crime Solving Partners and Moral Ambiguity by G S Locke

Morally ambiguous characters are the toughest to create and write. I’m not talking about main protagonists with flaws and failings that make them human, (who cares for a perfect player?) but those characters who, from most perspectives, sound more like primary antagonists and thereby run the risk of alienating readers. Very few will happily follow a main man or woman with distinctly iffy morals for hundreds of pages, not least because it makes the climactic scene when good guy versus bad guy (simplistically put, I realise) tricky. 

All of the above filtered into my thoughts when creating DCI Matt Jackson and his sidekick and hit woman, Iris Palmer. A serving police officer and a woman who kills for a living are not a natural fit, yet it’s each character’s very moral ambiguity that glues them together. 

Most readers will forgive main characters (and the writer) just about anything as long as two things are in play: a really strong backstory and a nuanced approach to characterisation that includes a healthy measure of self-awareness. 

With Matt Jackson, backstory was fairly easy to incorporate. Driven crazy by a serial killer, ‘Neon’, and an investigation going nowhere, Jackson then suffers the ultimate loss when his wife is murdered. Suicidal in the opening scene, vengeful when he believes he has a shot at nailing the killer, conflicted, because a desire to kill goes against his professional code, it’s these emotions that I plumbed into all the way through the story. 

By rights, Jackson should be content with colleagues bringing a killer to justice through the judicial system. But the grief, following a death as a result of violent crime, is uniquely different and more extreme to the mourning of an ‘ordinary’ and ‘conventional’ passing. Jackson’s desire to take ‘Neon’ out of the game permanently and by any means is one, I hope, readers will, at least, understand if not condone. Rather than focusing on vigilantism, I deliberately played up the element of ‘There for the grace of God,’ and ‘What the hell would I do in the circumstances?’ A fine line, to be sure. 

While Jackson may ultimately come down on the wrong side of the law, it was important to me to ensure that he has enough integrity, psychological insight and self-awareness to recognise who he is, what he feels and why he feels it. Unlike Iris who is a lot less complex in her thinking but a lot more complex in her characterisation! The challenge for me: who is going to love a woman who kills to pay the bills?

Again, it was important to layer her characterisation with a convincing backstory that goes above and beyond the fact that, from the moment of her birth, Iris has been dealt a rotten set of cards in the great deck of life. While making no specific social comment, it’s no accident that the most disadvantaged often fall through society’s widely laid pavements and I took care to drop this into her story, without either descending into polemic or revealing too much. Even Jackson has to wait until the very end to find out who Iris really is, a discovery that explains a lot and puts her more extreme acts into context. I also took care to seed in a few redeeming features. Perversely, Iris actually has a strong sense of basic right and wrong – anyone who beats an animal is likely to get a fist in the face. She’s direct, perceptive and very able to cut through social niceties to what’s really going down. She’s also brave and immensely loyal to Jackson, and not just for the money. In common with him, she knows who she is, recognises what she does, and doesn’t make excuses. 

Obviously, sharing a common goal for different reasons welds Iris and Jackson together. Damaged individuals, they spark off and occasionally loathe each other. It makes for an interesting dynamic. While Jackson has no scruples with Iris offing Neon if she can lay her hands on him, he draws the line at her carrying out hits on anyone else. Iris, naturally, views things quite differently and considers Jackson’s objections as obstacles to be ignored for sound economic reasons. Of necessity, theirs is an unholy alliance, each bringing something different to the table in their combined pursuit of a devious and ruthless serial killer. Superficially, their partnership shouldn’t work and yet, somehow, it does. Who knew moral ambiguity could be such fun?

Neon by G S Locke published by Orion Fiction (Out now)

A detective desperate for revenge. A hitwoman with one last job. A killer with both on his list. Detective Matt Jackson's beloved wife, Polly, is the latest victim of a serial killer - Neon - who displays his victims amongst snaking neon lights. Suicidal but unable to kill himself, he hires someone to finish the job. But on the night of his planned murder he makes a breakthrough in the Neon case and offers his assassin, Iris, an irresistible opportunity: help Jackson find and kill Neon in return for his entire estate. What follows is a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse between detective, assassin and serial killer. But when Jackson discovers it's not a coincidence that their paths have crossed, he begins to question who the real target has been all along...

Welcome to G's Bar

From The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge:

G’s was an old building that a few decades past had been a flower shop—when Fulda had a business district. Rundown on the outside, because maybe Gretta hadn’t gotten to exterior remodeling yet, it was shiny and new on the inside with a hint of rustic style. The bar was dark polished wood with brass trim, and the stools looked to be leather-covered. There was a jukebox, the old-fashioned kind with real 45s in it, but it wasn’t playing anything; maybe it was just for show. Two pool tables in the front had Coca Cola lights hanging over them, and several round dining tables spread out over a pitted, impressive hardwood floor were filled with customers—who had paused their conversations to regard Millie.

Millie was twenty-four and in her full deputy regalia, including her hat. The rest of the occupants—all men, save a bartender—were in jeans and t-shirts and in their forties to seventies, looking rough around all the edges and relaxed.

I read a random article on the MSN page one morning: “Obscure Laws in Every State.” I figured there might be something interesting I could use in a book. I tabbed over to Indiana and discovered that it is illegal for a bartender to give a buddy a free drink if he is charging everyone else. Handing over a complimentary beer could land you in jail with a hefty fine … if you’re reported, if a cop bothers to show up, and if the DA is willing to prosecute.

I wanted to use that outdated law somehow in one of my mystery novels. I just had to create the vehicle for it. So I built a tavern in rural Spencer County, Indiana, in Sheriff Piper Blackwell’s jurisdiction. I made it rundown on the outside, slick and shiny on the inside—as the owner had paid for a serious remodel, sprinkled in some customers, and created the bartender, a retired school teacher in need of something to do with her free time. I put records in the old-time jukebox and plopped the whole of it on a county road.

Then I set a chapter of The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge in this bar, put that obscure law into play, and it grew into a subplot that wrapped itself into the novel. There’s a murder in the book, else it wouldn’t be a murder mystery, and that crime is elsewhere and serves as the main action of the novel. G’s Bar is just for a little color, to let me have fun with an obscure law, and to show that a rural sheriff’s department never has only one crime to handle.

The action in Jerusalem Ridge switches between rural Spencer County, IN, and across the river in the woods in Kentucky, a spot where cell phones don’t work. I consulted various experts in those Kentucky backwoods, and my law enforcement and DA buddies to make sure I got all the details right. I detest mysteries that don’t follow real-world practices and places. Sure, I’m a writer, I make stuff up. But the laws of geography and courts … I make sure I keep it factual.

I had fun surfing and ogling tavern online menus so I could establish the offerings at G’s Bar. And I conducted a quick poll on the price of “beer night specials” so I knew what to charge at my fictional establishment.

G’s Bar is a place I might like to visit. The music on the jukebox is good, aged and rhythmic, the tunes I like to hear. The pool tables are up at the front, and I enjoy playing pool, even though I am not good at it. I don’t care for beer, but once a year I order a strawberry daiquiri for my birthday … except this year, Covid closings, you know.

The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge by Jean Rabe

Sheriff Piper Blackwell’s three-day vacation with old Army buddies ends in tragedy. At the same time, a vile hate crime along a county road enrages her department. Their forces divided, Piper and her deputies must solve both cases before tensions boil and threaten the rural fabric of Spencer County, Indiana. Only eight months on the job, the young sheriff must weave together clues to uncover both a killer and a secret that could scar her soul.

Jean Rabe has written 40 novels and more than 100 short stories, has made the USA Today Bestseller list a few times, and lives in Central Illinois surrounded by cornfields and railroad tracks. When not writing, she games and spends time with her cadre of dogs. She’s good at tossing tennis balls. A former newspaper reporter and bureau chief, she penned a true crime novel with F. Lee Bailey: When the Husband is the Suspect.

The link to The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge can be found here.

Jean Rabe’s Amazon author page can be found here.

My personal webpage is at www.jeanrabe.com 

2020 ITW Thriller Awards

On 11 July 2020 the International Thriller Writers proudly announced the recipients of the 2020 ITW Thriller Awards. The awards were presented during “Virtual” Thrillerfest.

Best Hardcover Novel

The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Mulholland Books)

Best First Novel

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Best Paperback Original Novel

The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan (penguin books)

Best Short Story

“The Long-Term Tenant” by Tara Laskowski (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Best Young Adult

Keep This To Yourself by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman & Company)

Best E-book Original

Close To You by Kerry Wilkinson (Bookouture)

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors.

The Syndicate by G J Minett

It’s when a character begins to tug at my mental sleeve and won’t let go that I know I’m ready to start a new novel. It’s never a plot . . . always a character. I’m rarely stuck for ideas - avenues that might be ripe for exploration tend to creep into my thoughts on a daily basis, but as a rule they vanish just as quickly. If I were to write a novel about each and every one that occurs to me, I’d make L. Ron Hubbard’s output look pretty ordinary. But some characters come back for more than one visit and eventually one of them will sneak through my defences so often that I can’t resist the siren call any longer. I know I’m going to write about them. The plot? Well, that comes later. My first priority is to spend a month or two getting to know my central character until it’s pretty clear what her/his achilles heel is going to be. Once I know that, the role of the plot is to put that weakness under pressure and that’s how the story emerges. It doesn’t dictate – it serves.

I’ve no idea where Jon Kavanagh came from. I know his fictional biography of course, because I created it – born in Bristol in the 1950s, deeply affected by a family tragedy at the age of nine, scarred and almost blinded by a bomb blast while serving in Northern Ireland, turbulent years working as an enforcer for a major crime syndicate in London, major fall from grace because of a deliberate breach of protocol which meant leaving a potential witness alive, then twenty uneventful years running his own bookshop in Dorset, with time to mull over things he’s done that he knows he cannot justify to himself. This biography remained more or less constant once I had the character nailed down but quite why Kavanagh himself popped into my head in the first place, I have no idea. If I did, life as a writer would be so much easier.

The Syndicate is a novel which I hope cuts across several genres. It is a crime novel of course because in order to understand Kavanagh as he is now, we need to see the events that have shaped him, the decisions he’s taken and the vagaries of fate that lie beyond his control. But I’d like to think it’s more than that. If asked to summarise it in two words, I’d choose the phrase redemption novel. Jon Kavanagh, even while working for the syndicate, is aware of a need to follow some sort of moral imperative. If he is to be responsible for someone’s death, he has to be able to convince himself that there was no other course open to him, that the world is a better place once the victim has been removed and his actions have been for the greater good. It is the realisation however that he has been manipulated by people he respected that causes him to walk away from that life.

His one trump card, that has effectively kept the syndicate from coming after him for twenty

years, is the threat that if anything happens to him, it will trigger the automatic release of a series of recordings and documents that will do significant damage to its operations. It’s a ‘nuclear pact’ that has held until now - leave me alone and you’ve nothing to fear. But events have moved on in London and policy is now being shaped by a man who has his own reasons for viewing Kavanagh’s defection as a dangerous precedent which does nothing to discourage others from trying to do the same.  The syndicate has always known where Kavanagh is. And now they’re coming after him.

This provides the backdrop for Kavanagh’s bid for redemption. With time running out, in more than one sense, all roads lead back to that fateful night when he went against established protocol. He can’t undo the past . . . but he knows what he needs to do with the time he has left if he is to achieve redemption.

Most of the action is set in Dorset, in and around Wareham, taking in landmarks which may be familiar to readers such as Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door and the amazingly atmospheric ghost village of Tyneham. In the latter stages of the novel  however, the scene changes to the resort of Praia D’El Rey on Portugal’s Silver Coast, which is almost certainly less well-known. I feel the need to end by singing the resort’s praises and emphasising that during two wonderful stays there I never once saw anything to suggest that it might be linked to the nefarious behaviour described in the closing chapters. I’d happily recommend it.

The Syndicate by GJ Minett Published by Zaffre Books 9^th July 2020 Paperback Original and eBook £8.99

Twenty years ago, Jon Kavanagh worked for a crime syndicate. Then one night he made a mistake. He left a witness at a crime scene. Alive. Now, he is haunted by the memories of that young girl. Her face a constant reminder of the life he chose to leave behind. Time has passed and now he wants answers: What ever happened to her? Anna Hill is an aspiring singer, but the bars and clubs she works in are far from exciting. When she is given the opportunity to work in Portugal, she takes it. This is her chance to finally kick-start her career. But the job offer comes at a price; one that will endanger the lives of those she knows, and those she doesn't. Becoming involved with the Syndicate is risky, and Anna will need her instincts to work out who to trust - and who not to . . .

V. B. Grey and her connection to a singer who died too soon.

My psychological thriller Tell Me How It Ends is inspired by post-war American noir movies and ‘women’s pictures, in particular All About Eve (1950), starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, and Laura (1944) with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews.

Alma Cogan - © unknown

In All About Eve Bette Davis’s character, Margo Channing (who delivers the famous line ‘Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.’) is an award-winning New York theatre actress threatened by both the power of Hollywood and a younger rival.

My novel is set in London in 1963, the pivotal year when the 1950s truly came the Sixties, and my central character, an internationally famous singer, Delia Maxwell, is facing a similar watershed moment in her career. Delia is inspired not only by Margo Channing but also by the British singer Alma Cogan.

I must confess that I had never heard of Alma Cogan until I married her first cousin - I had only just turned twelve when she died of cancer in 1966 aged only 34. The man who became my husband was then 24 and already a photographer in London. He had grown up listening to her sing on the radio, watching from the wings as she performed at the London Palladium, and enjoying the television shows she hosted with guests including the Everley Brothers, Adam Faith and Morecambe and Wise.

Alma was a huge international star throughout the 1950s, famous as the ‘girl with a laugh in her voice’ and for her extravagantly embroidered, beaded and sparkly dresses. Her aunt, my mother-in-law, had a framed photograph of Alma being presented to the Queen at a Royal Command performance, and the singer’s skirts are more opulent than Her Majesty’s.

The child of Russian Jewish immigrants, Alma began singing professionally in 1949. While rationing continued into the years of post-war austerity, her big dresses, bouffant hair and upbeat music provided glamour and cheer that were understood and welcomed by an audience that had come through the war.

She lived in a flat in Kensington High Street where the family mingled with visiting American actors and singers, including Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Danny Kaye and Sammy Davis Jr, who taught my former husband to tap dance.

But, as the 1950s finally gave way to the 1960s, Alma struggled to reinvent herself. Her signature larger-than-life look was hopelessly old-fashioned; other female vocalists such as Dusty Springfield were turning successfully to soul music; and the format of her light entertainment shows appeared staid beside the youthful informality of Ready, Steady, Go. 

Alma became very good friends with The Beatles – Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday at her

Alma Cogan & the Beatles © unknown

piano, naming it ‘Scrambled Eggs’ in honour of what she’d just cooked for him, and she was rumoured to have had an affair with John Lennon, whose affectionate nickname for her was Sara Sequin – yet she wasn’t part of the Swinging Sixties generation. Teenagers had no real memories of the war and no desire to look back. To them, Alma was a merely singer who appealed to their parents.

Although tragically Alma became ill and died before she could fully re-invent herself, the family stories of how consciously – sometimes following John Lennon’s advice – she went about changing her clothes and hair-style and altering her music to suit a more intimate cabaret style fed directly into the choices facing Delia Maxwell in Tell Me How It Ends.

And, of course, like Margo Channing, Delia also has a dangerous younger rival. In All About Eve, Eve Harrington’s stories about her tragic past are shown to be lies. In my novel I wanted to explore what genuine reasons might drive a young woman who came of age in the 1960s to seek to destroy an older star’s career.

For the 1960s were not only about pop music and mini skirts. There were dark undercurrents. 1963 saw John Profumo resign and Christine Keeler arrested; Kim Philby was named as the ‘third man’ in the Moscow spy ring; the Kray Twins were feted as celebrities and the Great Train Robbers almost got away with millions; in November, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

And, even in the Swinging Sixties, not all the shadows of war had gone away.

Tell Me How It Ends by V B Grey.

Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation, an icon of 1950s glamour who is still riding high on the new 60s scene. Adored by millions, all men want to be with her, all women want to be her. But one woman wants it maybe a little too much...  Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her life, studying her music and her on-stage mannerisms. Now she has a dream job as Delia's assistant - but is there more to her attachment than the admiration of a fan? Private investigator Frank is beginning to wonder.  As Lily steps into Delia's spotlight, and Delia encourages her ambitious protegee, Frank's suspicions of Lily's ulterior motives increase. But are his own feelings for Delia clouding his judgement?   The truth is something far darker: the shocking result of years of pain and rage, rooted in Europe's darkest hour. If Delia thought she had put her past behind her, she had better start watching her back.

Tell Me How It Ends is published by Quercus on 9 July.

V. B. Grey is the pseudonym of screenwriter and novelist Isabelle Grey who has written two novels of psychological suspense and four books in the D.I. Grace Fisher crime series.