A Taste of Capital Crime

If you are missing Capital Crime watch the video below which showcases the 2019 festival and see if you can spot yourself. If you haven't been to Capital Crime we hope the video will give you a sense of what to expect in 2020: a warm welcome, lots of fun and great entertainment.

Capital Crime Festival from Capital Crime on Vimeo.

The inaugural Capital Crime took place in September 2019 but never fear. Capital Crime 2020 will be taking place between 1st -3rd October 2020

Regular tickets are now on sale priced at £150 for a weekend pass and £80 for a day pass. Visit www.capitalcrime.org for more information. 

Stay tuned for more news soon.

Roy Grace series by Peter James to be adapted for Television

© ITV

John Simm will play the lead role in police drama Grace, ITV has announced.  The Doctor Who star will take on the troubled Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in the series, which is based on the bestselling Roy Grace novels by Peter James.

The series will consist of two episodes and will cover the first two books, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with filming due to begin in Brighton in early 2020.

Novelist Peter James said: “John Simm, who actually looks like the Roy Grace of my imagination, is inspired casting! With John in the lead, the brilliant scripting by Russell Lewis, and our wonderful production team, I’m confident that fans of my novels and of TV crime dramas in general will be in for a treat.”

John Simm is best known for playing The Master in Doctor Who and fellow time traveller Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, and was recently in ITV crime drama Strangers.

Grace will follow Simm’s character Roy Grace as he investigates a missing groom-to-be following a stag night prank, while Grace himself is haunted by the disappearance of his own wife, Sandy. Suspecting something more sinister, Grace ends up getting dangerously close to the bride-to-be…

The series will be written by Russell Lewis, who also created (and wrote) Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be involved in bringing Peter James’ brilliantly gripping series of Roy Grace novels to ITV,” Lewis said.

“Each story is a fantastic, hair-raising, twisting, switch-back of a roller-coaster ride that grips the reader from first to last, and the opportunity to translate that best-selling magic to television is like all one’s Christmases and birthdays come at once.”

He added, “That John Simm will be breathing flesh to the bones of Roy Grace really is the cherry on a dark, and troublingly encrimsoned cake…”

Edinburgh Conan Doyle Network Conference - Call for Papers

Conan Doyle in Edinburgh 

25th – 27th June, 2020

Edinburgh Napier University

Proposals are invited for a conference in Edinburgh about Arthur Conan Doyle. At the centre of the conference will be the relation between the writer and his native city, but papers about all aspects of his work and life will be welcome.

“I do not come before you as a stranger. I was born in Edinburgh. I spent my boyhood there. I was educated at the University, and I graduated there. I owe much to the old City” (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch 25th Sept 1900.) Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of May 1859, and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881. Famously, Dr Joseph Bell, one of his professors, was said to be the inspiration for the character Sherlock Holmes.  Although Conan Doyle only spent 12 years of his life in Edinburgh, it was the city which shaped him and out of which his stories grew. As Val McDermid notes: “those early years in Edinburgh played a crucial role in his development as a writer” (2009). This conference will explore the interplay between city and writer, and we invite broad, imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretations on the topic of ‘Conan Doyle in Edinburgh’. We also welcome proposals for papers on other topics concerning the writings and life of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Key note speakers: Owen Dudley Edwards and Nicholas Daly

We will also be running a virtual conference alongside the physical conference which we hope will encourage greater participation for those unable to attend for financial, environmental or other reasons. If selected, the online participants will be asked to record their presentation which will be hosted on our website before, during and after the conference. Viewers and attendees of the conference will have the opportunity to ask questions of the online participants. The online participants will be included in the conference programme.

‘Conan Doyle in Edinburgh’ is the second event associated with a new scholarly enterprise, The Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, sponsored by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Selected papers from across the conference will be considered for book publication.

Please send proposals for 20-minute papers, panels of three papers, posters, or virtual attendance, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:

Conan Doyle and Edinburgh

Conan Doyle and Cities

Conan Doyle and Medicine

Conan Doyle and other Authors

Conan Doyle’s Campaigns

Conan Doyle and his Fiction

Travel and Empire Writing

Science and Science Fiction

Spiritualism and the Supernatural

The City and Crime Writing

Editing Conan Doyle

Proposals should be no more than 300 words, and submissions should include a 50 word biography. Online participants should note on their proposal their wish to be considered for the virtual conference. If you are only able to attend for one day please state which day in your proposal. Proposals should be sent in Word or .odt format to Linda Dryden, Douglas Kerr and Jonathan Wild at: edinburghconandoyle@gmail.com

Deadline for proposals: Friday 31st January 2020

Attendance: full conference £200, single day £75, virtual conference £45. A social events calendar, including opportunities for visits, walks and planned meals, will be sent to participants before the conference. Conference attendees will have Saturday afternoon free to explore Edinburgh.

Call for Papers - Captivating Criminality 7: Memory, History and Revaluation

7th Annual Conference of the International Crime Fiction Association, in association with Bath Spa University  on the 2-4th July 2020 at Newton Park campus, Bath Spa University, Bath UK.

Professor Mary Evans. Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, UK.  

Professor Evans is the author of various studies of feminism and feminist writers.  Her most recent work ( with Sarah Moore and Hazel Johnstone ) is a study of detective fiction ( Detecting the Modern ) and the theme of that book, of how detective  fiction locates the central dynamics of the contemporary world, arises from her continuing interest in  the ways in which we  learn and acquire our social identities. She also wrote the seminal text, The Imagination of Evil: Crime Fiction and the Modern World.

Professor Thomas Leitch, Professor of English at The University of Delaware. USA.

Professor Leitch teaches undergraduate courses in cinema and graduate courses in literary and cultural theory. His most recent books are The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies and The History of American Literature of Film, both on adaptation. His credentials in crime fiction include three books he wrote or co-edited on Alfred Hitchcock and a book on Perry Mason and Crime Films, which was shortlisted for an Edgar in 2003. 

Dr Andrew Pepper, Senior Lecturer in English at Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. - 

Andrew Pepper is Senior Lecturer in English at Queen's University Belfast. He is the author of Unwilling Executioner: Crime Fiction and the State (2016) and co-editor of Globalization and the State in Contemporary Crime Fiction (2016) and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Crime Fiction (2020). He has also written a series of detective novels set in 19th Britain and Ireland, all published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Call for Papers

The Captivating Criminality Network is delighted to announce its seventh conference, which will be held in Bath, UK. Building upon and developing ideas and themes from the previous six successful conferences, Memory, History and Revaluation, will examine the ways in which Crime Fiction as a genre necessarily incorporates elements of the past – the past in general and its own past, both in terms of its own generic developments and also in respect of true crime and historical events. The CfP will thus offer opportunities for delegates to engage in discussions that are relevant to both past and present crime writing. 

As Tzvetan Todorov argued in “The Typology of Detective Fiction,” crime fiction in many of its various sub-forms has a special relationship with the past. In classic forms of detective fiction, the central event around which the narrative is organized – the murder – occurs in pre-narrated time, and the actual narrative of the investigation is little more than a form of narrative archaeology, an excavation of a mysterious past event than is only accessible through reconstruction in the present. But this relationship between crime fiction and the past goes beyond narrative structure. The central characters of crime writing – its investigative figures – and frequently represented as haunted by their memories, living out their lives in the shadow of past traumas. More broadly, crime writing is frequently described as exhibiting a nostalgic orientation towards the past, and this longing for the restoration of an imagined prelapsarian Golden Age is part of the reason it has been association with social and political conservatism. On the other hand, there is a strong tradition of radical crime fiction that looks to the past not for comfort and stability, but in order to challenge historical myths and collective memories of unity, order, and security. Val McDermid argues that ‘…crime is a good vehicle for looking at society in general because the nature of the crime novel means that you draw on a wide group of social possibilities.’ Thus, crime fiction has been used to challenge, subvert and interrogate the legal and cultural status quo. Crime fiction’s relationship with the past is thus inherently complex, and represents a fascinating, and underexplored, focus for critical work. 

Papers presented at Captivating Criminality 7 will thus examine changing notions of criminality, punishment, deviance and policing, drawing on the multiple threads that have fed into the genre since its inception. Speakers are invited to embrace interdisciplinarity, exploring the crossing of forms and themes, and to investigate and challenge claims that Crime Fiction is a fixed genre. Abstracts dealing with crime fiction past and present, true crime narratives, television and film studies, and other forms of new media such as blogs, computer games, websites and podcasts are welcome, as are papers adopting a range of theoretical, sociological and historical approaches.

Topics may include but are not restricted to:

True Crime

Gender and the Past

Crime Fiction in the age of #me too

Crime Fiction from traumatised nations

Crime Fiction and Landscape

Revisionist Crime Fiction

Crime Fiction and contemporary debates

Crime Reports and the Press

Real and Imagined Deviance

Adaptation and Interpretation

Crime Fiction and Form

Generic Crossings

Crime and Gothic

The Detective, Then and Now

The Anti-Hero

Geographies of Crime

Real and Symbolic Boundaries

Ethnicity and Cultural Diversity

The Ideology of Law and Order: Tradition and Innovation

Gender and Crime

Women and Crime: Victims and Perpetrators

Crime and Queer Theory

Film Adaptations

TV series

Technology

The Media and Detection

Sociology of Crime

The Psychological

Early Forms of Crime Writing

Victorian Crime Fiction

The Golden Age

Hardboiled Fiction

Contemporary Crime Fiction

Postcolonial Crime and Detection

Please send 200 word proposals to Professor Fiona Peters, Dr Ruth Heholt and Dr Eric Sandberg, to captivatingcriminality7@gmail.com by 15^th February 2020. 

The abstract should include your name, email address, and affiliation, as well as the title of your paper. Please feel free to submit abstracts presenting work in progress as well as completed projects. Postgraduate students are welcome. Papers will be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Proposals for suggested panels are also welcome. 

Conference Fees: The fee for CC7 will be 155 pounds sterling, with a discounted fee of 105 pounds sterling for students.

CWA Debut Dagger Open for Submissions

Entries are being invited for the coveted CWA Debut Dagger Award. 

Authors shortlisted for the Debut Dagger come to the direct attention of interested literary agents and publishers. M W Craven who won the 2019 Gold Dagger for best crime novel for The Puppet Show was shortlisted a few years ago for the Debut Dagger. Entering, Craven said, changed his life, he said: “I’ve been able to leave my job and become a full-time writer. And all this success comes from entering the Debut Dagger in 2013.” 

The CWA website has a series of Debuts blog to inspire aspiring authors from those who’ve triumphed. It also features Crime Writing Tips, for advice, where author Cal Moriarty is creating a series of articles on novel-writing that entrants might find useful.  

To submit to the award, entries need to include the opening of a crime novel up to 3,000

words, together with a synopsis for the full novel of up to 1,500 words. Novels do not need to be finished, and you can still enter if you have self-published providing you’ve never had a traditional contract for a full-length novel. Debut authors must not already have an agent or contract at the time the competition closes. To enter there is a fee of £36. The winner will also receive £500. Deadline for submissions is 6pm on 29 February 2020. 

For those seeking professional feedback, the CWA provides the Criminal Critiques service. The Mini Critique is specially aimed at Debut Dagger entrants. If you want feedback in time to hone and polish for the deadline, the service is open until 19 Dec and then from 2 January 2020 and promises a speedy turnaround. 

Go to the Debut Dagger for the full rules and to submit your entry. For more details contact secretary@thecwa.co.uk before 19 December 2019 or after 2 January 2020.

CWA Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

Entries are being invited for the CWA Margery Allingham Short Story competition. 

This year, the competition has changed the weighting of its scoring system to match Margery Allingham’s definition of a Mystery. Entrants are asked to focus on specific elements to match the definition: “The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.” 

Entries should therefore feature the elements: the crime, the mystery, the enquiry and at least a partly satisfactory conclusion, ideally in that chronology. 

The submissions have a limit of 3,500 words. It costs £12 to enter and the winner walks away with £500, a selection of Margery Allingham books, and two passes for the international crime writing convention CrimeFest in 2021. Being shortlisted for this renowned competition also brings attention and prestige to the writing CV. 

The winner will be announced in early June at CrimeFest 2020 – when the long-list of the CWA Debut Dagger and other Daggers are also made public.  

For the rules, and to submit, go to Short Story Competition on the CWA website. The deadline is 6pm on 29 February 2020. 

Professional feedback on stories before submission at the CWA Mini Critique is also available for any writing up to 4,000 words, including short stories. The service is open until 19 Dec and then from 2 January 2020 and promises a speedy turnaround. 

For more details, contact secretary@thecwa.co.uk before 19 December 2019 or after 2 January 2020. 

MWA 2020 Grand Master, Raven, & Ellery Queen Awards Recipients

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) have announced the recipients of its three special awards. The board chose Barbara Neely as the 2020 Grand Master, the 2020 Raven Award recipient is Left Coast Crime, and Kelley Ragland will receive the Ellery Queen Award at the 74th Annual Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on April 30, 2020.

“Mystery Writers of America is thrilled that Barbara Neely is MWA’s 2020 Grand Master,” MWA board president Meg Gardiner said. “Neely is a groundbreaking author, and MWA is delighted to recognize her work, in which she tackles tough social issues with an unflinching eye and a wry sense of humor.”

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. Barbara Neely is best known for her Blanche White mystery series, and her debut, Blanche on the Lam, received the Agatha Award, Anthony Award, and the Macavity Award for best first novel, as well as the Go on Girl! Award from Black Women’s Reading Club. Neely published her first short story, “Passing the Word” (1981) in the magazine Essence. Her Blanche White novels, which featured the first black female series sleuth in mainstream American publishing, followed a decade later beginning with Blanche on the Lam (1992), followed by Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (1994), Blanche Cleans Up (1998), and Blanche Passes Go (2000) and are beloved by fans in part because of her unique heroine—an amateur detective and domestic worker who uses the invisibility inherent to her position to her advantage in her pursuit of the truth.

“MWA Grand Master! I hope this doesn’t mean I have to relinquish my position as Empress Regnant of the Multiverse,” Neely said on learning of the award.

Neely’s nomination cited the stories of Blanche White for containing themes and issues that extends beyond mystery and into political and social commentary. “Blanche allows Neely to explore the female beauty. There are other issues that Neely is able to tackle through her writing—such as violence against women, racism, class boundaries, and sexism”. Barbara Neely is quoted as saying, ‘That as a feminist mystery writer it is not enough to create strong women, and that maybe the term ‘feminist mystery writer’ is being used too loosely.’”

Neely was born in 1941 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. According to her biography, she was the only child of African-American descent to attend her elementary and high school in this heavily German influenced community. She attended the University of Pittsburgh where she earned her master’s degree in Urban and Regional planning before beginning a career in the public sector. Neely served as director of Women for Economic Justice, worked in the Philadelphia Tutorial Project, became the director of a YWCA, and headed a consultant firm for non-profits. In addition, she became a radio producer for Africa News Service, and later, a staff member at Southern Exposure magazine.

Previous Grand Masters include Martin Cruz Smith, William Link, Peter Lovesey, Walter Mosley, Lois Duncan, James Ellroy, Robert Crais, Ken Follett, Martha Grimes, Sara Paretsky, James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Lawrence Block, P.D. James, Ellery Queen, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene, and Agatha Christie, to name a few.

The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. Left Coast Crime will receive the 2020 Raven Award. Left Coast Crime is an annual mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and authors, first held in San Francisco in 1991. It is an all-volunteer organization that raises money each year to support a local literacy organization with funds collected through silent and live auctions, and the annual Quilt Raffle. The Left Coast Crime Permanent Committee is Bill and Toby Gottfried, Noemi Levine, Janet Rudolph, Lucinda Surber, and Stan Ulrich.

“We are all agog here at Left Coast Crime by the news that we have been awarded the Raven Award by Mystery Writers of America,” said Surber. “We are truly thrilled and honoured to be recognized. Since 1991 Left Coast Crime has been holding annual conventions where readers, authors, critics, librarians, publishers, and other fans can gather in convivial surroundings to pursue their mutual interest in the mystery/crime genre. We strive to create an inclusive environment with many opportunities to build warm and caring friendships through a variety of programming.”

Previous Raven winners include Marilyn Stasio, Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, Kristopher Zgorski, Dru Ann Love, Sisters in Crime, Margaret Kinsman, Kathryn Kennison, Jon and Ruth Jordan, Aunt Agatha’s Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oline Cogdill, Molly Weston, The Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Chicago, Once Upon a Crime Bookstore in Minneapolis, Mystery Lovers Bookstore in Oakmont, PA, Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge, MA, and The Poe House in Baltimore, MD.

The Ellery Queen Award was established in 1983 to honor “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.” This year the Board chose to honour Kelley Ragland, associate publisher and editorial director of Minotaur Books. Ms. Ragland came to Minotaur Books in 1993.

On learning she would receive the Ellery Queen Award, Ragland said, “I’m honoured and not a little bit stunned to have been recognized by MWA with the Ellery Queen Award. To be added to a list that includes such inspiring professionals in our community, especially St. Martin’s own Ruth Cavin, is truly humbling. My work with mystery authors at Minotaur Books, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and within the mystery community—what I have always found to be the most supportive, generous, and dedicated slice of the publishing world—is a source of great joy to me. Thanks to MWA for this recognition, and their support of all facets of the mystery community, including publishers, writers—especially new writers—and readers.”

Fresh out of college and newly relocated to NYC after growing up in the Midwest, Kelley Ragland started as an editorial assistant at St. Martin’s Press in 1993, became an editor in 1998, and took part in the creation of the St. Martin’s Publishing Group’s crime and suspense imprint, Minotaur Books, in 1999. She became Editorial Director of Minotaur in 2009 and Vice President and Associate Publisher in 2015. Over her twenty-six years at SMPG, she has worked with such authors as Jeffrey Archer, Kelley Armstrong, Linda Barnes, Steve Berry, Allison Brennan, Chelsea Cain, Andrew Gross, Charlaine Harris, Louise Penny, Dana Stabenow, Olen Steinhauer, and many others.

Previous Ellery Queen Award winners include Linda Landrigan, Robert Pépin, Neil Nyren, Janet Rudolph, Charles Ardai, Joe Meyers, Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald, Brian Skupin and Kate Stine, Carolyn Marino, Ed Gorman, Janet Hutchings, Cathleen Jordan, Douglas G. Greene, Susanne Kirk, Sara Ann Freed, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Jacques Barzun, Martin Greenburg, Otto Penzler, Richard Levinson, William Link, Ruth Cavin, and Emma Lathen.

The Edgar Awards, or “Edgars,” as they are commonly known, are named after MWA’s patron saint Edgar Allan Poe and are presented to authors of distinguished work in various categories. MWA 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. The organization encompasses some 3,000 members including authors of fiction and non-fiction books, screen and television writers, as well as publishers, editors, and literary agents. 

For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org

The Return of Nick Sharman

“The truth is you can’t play Angry Birds all day. Believe me, I know”

– Mark Timlin

After crime readers thought we’d seen the last of Mark Timlin’s signature Private Detective Nick Sharman, an unexpected Christmas Treat has arrived, entitled REAP THE WHIRLWIND; a collection of five short stories, with a novella that gives this book its title.

It’s been awhile since we last met up with the troubled Sarf-London private-eye; though set in those days when Nick Sharman bumbled along in the 1990s, this new book is surprisingly fresh. Naturally there is a nostalgic appeal for readers familiar with Mark Timlin’s voice, that terse urgency of Sharman’s first-person narrative. There is a broader appeal to those yet to experience the world through those amoral eyes, and of that voice.

The eponymous novella, as well as the short stories are concise, judiciously edited with short chapters that act as a serious of vignettes. We get to meet up with some of the secondary characters that gave the Nick Sharman adventures [or more aptly put – misadventures] their unique style. And we laugh, chortle silently at some of the inappropriate observations.

Reap the Whirlwind starts the collection and acts a primer to bring readers back to that beat, the cynical outlook, the grey area of lives lived under neon, and under the cosh.

Read the full review from Shots HERE

After putting the book down, I called Mark as I had a few questions, and it had been a few years since I visited him [and Lucy Ramsey], 

Click HERE for information 

Ali: Firstly, the crime/thriller community thought old Nicky Boy was gone? So, what prompted you to return to writing about the 1990s before Sharman’s exit?

Mark:  I’d grown stale, and bored with writing. Then a ton of things occurred. My dear old mum died, I got ill. Ill enough to face my maker a couple of times. Then Lucy and I decided it was just too expensive living in London, and she in particular wanted a cat and a garden, so we sold everything and moved down to her old home town in Wales where we have both. Buying an old house, and bringing it up to speed also took a load of time and money, which left little outlet for creative thoughts. Then, my brain started buzzing with plots and dialogue, so I began writing some Sharman again. But not a novel. Most crime novels these days are too long, but at twenty quid a pop for a hardback it’s no surprise people want value for their money. So, a novella it had to be, and other short stories more or less started writing themselves.

As for why the nineties? To me that was Sharman’s time. And mine. I don’t really think he fits the modern world. And besides, I can’t pretend to be street these days, as I don’t hang out like I used to. Also, when I write Sharman, I’m not a seventy-five-year-old invalid, but a ruthless, sexy crime buster chasing beautiful women. What’s not to like?

Ali: It was funny to see Jack Robber and some of the names from the day, back in print. Was it easy to get back into the saddle with all back-story from those novels and short stories of Sharman and his world?

Mark: The old characters just reappeared fully formed, and it was great to meet them again. Then, there were a bunch of new characters who I came to love, and loved writing parts for them.

Ali: I know you relocated out from London several years back, what was it like to write about the London of the 1990s from memory, or did you return to get the scent back?

Mark:  I haven’t been to London for seven years, and it seems to have changed, not for the better. I have my memories and I used them to write the stories. Besides, Sharman’s London is a parallel universe, where things aren’t quite what they seem.

Ali: I know many compare Sharman to Marlowe, but for me he’s a British Spencer. Would you care to comment?

Mark: Marlowe or Spenser. Blimey, that’s heavy-duty company, and for me to be compared is a rare honour. I love them both, and even the Spenser novels by other writers are pretty good. Not quite the voice of the master, but close. If you tied me down and threatened to tickle my feet, I guess I’d have to go with brother Ray.

Ali: I know from your book reviewing days, and literary commentary you were always a voracious reader, but where did your love of reading originate from?

Mark: Reading has always been one of the loves if my life. I’ll read sauce bottle labels if there’s nothing else around. The only thing I miss about reviewing is the stacks of books arriving with every post. I was spoiled, and I still buy hardback novels just for the feel of the thing.

Ali: Can you tell us a little about your reading. If memory serves, we were around when John Connolly arrived on the scene, have you been following his work still?

Mark: I was actually the first person to review John’s first novel, and I’ve read almost everything since.

Ali: I was fortunate to meet up with novelist film maker Terrill Lee Lankford [who works with Michael Connelly] on the BOSCH Amazon TV film set. I know you admire both Lee and Mike’s work, so can you tell us a little more?

Mark:  When I was reviewing for the Indie on Sunday, I reviewed Lee’s novel ‘Shooters’ which to me is one of the great lost crime novels that every hard-boiled fan should have on their bookcase, but sadly don’t. He got in touch and we have been exchanging mails ever since. As for Michael he’s a crime writer who never fails to satisfy, and an all-round jolly good fella. In fact, I nicked the idea of the Lincoln Lawyer and he became Bobby D, the Beemer brief in the book. Check it the last page and you’ll find my few words if thanks. And before you ask, yes I have sent him a copy.

Ali: Last time we met, we were both engrossed in season one of TRUE DETECTIVE [I’d rather not mention the following two series….which I loathed], so as a film buff, tells us a little about what you have been watching that you’ve enjoyed? And TV streaming?

Mark: Crikey, what a question. Tons of stuff. Scandie, French and Spanish on Saturday night BBC 4. Loads on Netflix. ‘Guilt’ was great on BBC2. ‘The Irishman’, but maybe a trifle long, and the stars were too old. ‘The Crime’ from Poland. ‘Mindhunter’, ‘The Capture’, ‘Traces’. And I’m watching ‘Hazell’ and ‘Special Branch’, as well as ‘Talking Pictures.’

Ali: And how is Lucy Ramsey?

Mark: Lucy is in fine shape, looking after me and the garden, and cooking up a storm, and we hope to see you soon too, bud.

More information about Mark Timlin and Nick Sharman click HERE

Black Orchid and Nero Wolfe Awards: The Wolfe Pack

The Wolfe Pack, the society of fans of Rex Stout's mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, held their 42nd annual Black Orchid Banquet the weekend of 7^th and 8^th December 2019. 

The Nero Award was presented for Best American Mystery to Walter Mosley for Down the River Unto the Sea.  

The Black Orchid Novella Award went to author Ted Burge for his novella, "The Red Taxi." The award is presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. It is designed to encourage writers to create a new and hitherto unpublished mystery story at novella length, the length and format which Rex Stout so often used for his shorter stories. Among other honours, the winning novella will be published next summer in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.

The Lindisfarne Prize 2020

The Lindisfarne Prize for Debut Crime Fiction (‘The Lindisfarne Prize’) is a literary prize which recognises outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction, sponsored by the author L J Ross and in association with the Newcastle Noir Crime Writing Festival. It is open to all new writers who are from, or whose work celebrates, the north of England and who have not previously had a crime or thriller story published in any form. 

Entrants must submit a short story of no more than ten thousand words or the first two chapters and a synopsis of their work in progress, to be considered.

The winning entry will be awarded a prize of £2500 to support the completion of their work, as well as free editorial and mentoring services from a local independent publisher and funding towards a year’s membership of industry associations. Entries are open from 31st May 2019 – 31st March 2020 and the winner will be announced at a ceremony forming part of the Newcastle Noir Crime Writing Festival in May 2020.

More information including terms and conditions can be found here.

2020 St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend - All Our Yesterdays: historical crime fiction

St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend 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 ‘All Our Yesterdays’: historical crime fiction  and will take place from 14 to 16 August 2020.  Featured speakers include:

Val McDermid, Mick Herron, William Shaw, Sarah Hilary, Andrew Taylor, Alison Joseph, Jake Kerridge, Abir Mukherjee, Vaseem Khan, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Elly Griffiths and Tom Wood.

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.

Programme details to follow soon.

The PD James Conference Dinner is held on Saturday night – proceeds go to the PD James Fund which supports the work of the English School and students at St Hilda’s College, kindly endowed by Honorary Fellow P. D. James.  When booking, the opportunity is available to make an additional voluntary donation to the P.D. James Memorial Fund.

About St Hilda’s

St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, is on the banks of the River Cherwell overlooking the meadows and spires of the city. Its lovely gardens sweep down to the river, which is famous for punting and picnics. The centre of Oxford is a few minutes walk away, but the College itself lies in a pleasantly secluded area away from the noise and bustle of the city. B&B is offered and can be extended before or after the conference. Access by train is good and there are excellent coach services to Oxford from Central London and from Heathrow & Gatwick airports. Parking may be available for conference guests.

Accommodation

If you would like to stay at St Hilda's, accommodation can be requested through the Conference and Events Team here or via 01865 276 888 or by email to Sarah Brett. Once you have made your request, a member of the team will advise you of availability and direct you to our payments page. Your booking is not confirmed until payment has been received. 

The number of rooms available is limited so you are advised to book early.                                                                                               
Single Ensuite B&B £53.04
Twin  Ensuite B&B per person per night £38.10
Single Standard B&B £42.60
Twin  Standard B&B per person per night £24.78

Queries

For further information including any special requirements not mentioned on this site please call Triona Adams at St Hilda's College Development Office 01865 276 828.