Amazon’s Editor’s Picks: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense for May, 2024 If any of the titles garnered starred reviews in the four library journals, that is indicated after the plot summary of the title. Amazon does a good job of coming up with these monthly lists and especially its year-end best list. I’ve read four of these – HUNTED by Abir Mukherjee, THINK TWICE by Harlan Coben, THE INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS by John Connolly, and RETURN TO BLOOD by Michael Bennett and can recommend them – particularly the John Connolly. I am listening to the audio book version of BLOOD RUBIES by Mailan D ..read more

From the ShotsConfidential blog site: Harrogate International Festivals announced the 18 titles long-listed for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024, the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award now in its twentieth year. The longlist, voted for by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers and members of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, features stories that transport readers from the burning heat of the Chihuahuan Desert to the chill of nineties Berlin, from down-at-heel Blackpool to the splend ..read more

From the following longlists for each award, the CWA will choose the finalists for the 2024 Dagger Awards. The shortlists will be announced on May 10, 2024. There will be a CWA gala awards dinner on July 4, 2024. Perhaps they can celebrate getting rid of those pesky 13 colonies at the same event ..read more

Chock full of goodies, Issue #103 will be published on May 9th ..read more

The London-based crime fiction convention Capital Crime has announced the short lists for this year’s Fingerprint Awards. All mystery fans are welcome to vote for the winners here. Winners will be announced May 30th at the convention ..read more

Back in March, 2023 I posted the cover art of a number of mysteries with titles contained words such as “How To,” “Art of,” and “Guide.” The trend is still hot so here are some more of those titles ..read more

If any of the titles garnered starred reviews in the four library journals, that is indicated after the plot summary of the title. Amazon does a good job of coming up with these monthly lists and especially its year-end best list. At an initial glance, this month’s list was underwhelming – with the exception of Anthony Horowitz’s CLOSE TO DEATH and Don Winslow’s CITY IN RUINS. But upon further investigation, a number of titles with two starred reviews turned up: THE MURDER OF MR. MA by S. J. Rozan et al, ONE OF US KNOWS by Alyssa Cole, THE NIGHT IN QUESTION by Susan Fletcher, THE SICILIAN INH ..read more

It is always a bit difficult to come up with an early list of the Best of the Year, but here is my first attempt at one. You may notice that some of the titles only have a “DP” recommendation. That is because in most such cases, the titles are coming out later in the year and there hasn’t been enough time for starred reviews and/or amazon editors’ recommendations to come out. I’m just guessing that they will get some of those and that they should be included on a list of the best of 2024. But every once in a while a much ballyhooed novel comes out without any starred reviews. This year it is T ..read more

Steve Hamilton Good News! Finally… a new book from Steve Hamilton, after a four-year hiatus. HONORABLE ASSASSIN will be published on August 27, 2024 by Blackstone Publishing. It is the third in the Nick Mason series. Here is the plot: He was released from federal prison to a second life as an unwilling assassin, serving a major Chicago crime lord until the day he finally won his freedom. But that freedom was a lie. Now Mason finds himself on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there’s only one name on ..read more

Daniel Silva’s new Gabriel Allon thriller will be published on July 9, 2024. The cover art has been revealed but no details about the plot yet other than “a brutal murder, a missing masterpiece, a mystery only Gabriel Allon can solve.” Even though I’ve had mixed feelings of late about each new Silva novel, I’m always anxious to read the new one ..read more