On Thursday, March 7, from 2-3 pm, the New York Public Library will host a Historical Mystery panel in honor of Women's History Month, hosted by the NY Sisters in Crime and featuring authors Mally Becker, LA Chandlar, Mariah Fredericks, and Nina Wachsman. This is a free virtual event, and you can register following this link. Tickets are also available for another library event across The Pond, the ninth annual Bodies From The Library conference at the British Library, taking place on 1 June 2024. The Conference celebrates the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and will be of interest to fans o ..read more

The annual Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association announced their 2024 finalists in some 27 categories. Winners will be honored at a March 4 announcement ceremony set for Los Angeles. I've listed the shortlists for the Mystery and Thriller/Suspense categories below, as well as a few other crime fiction-related nominees.   BEST MYSTERY AUDIOBOOK The Golden Gate By Amy Chua; Narrated by Robb Moreira, Tim Campbell, and Suzanne Toren (published by Macmillan Audio) A Line in the Sand By Kevin Powers; Narrated by Christine Lakin (published by Hachette Audio) Murder Your Employer B ..read more

Kirby Ann has always been captivated by the world of literature. From a young age, her love for reading laid the foundation for a lifelong passion for storytelling. It wasn't until her twenties that she took up writing seriously, embarking on a journey of self-expression. Away from writing, she finds joy on trips with friends and family, drawing inspiration from the new landscapes and cultures she encounters. When in need of a break, she immerses herself in the world of online gaming, finding both relaxation and creativity in the virtual realms. In 2023, she took a bold step forward, deciding ..read more

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news: THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES Following the success of Air, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reuniting on the kidnapping thriller, Animals, with Damon starring and Affleck directing. Connor McIntyre penned the script with revisions by Billy Ray. Plot details are vague outside the fact that it is said to involve a kidnapping. Actor Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) has found his next project with the thriller, Huntington, from writer-director John Patton Ford (Emily The Criminal). Producers are aiming for ..read more

The 2024 Diamond Dagger for lifetime contribution to crime writing has been awarded jointly to two authors, Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke. The award, which is administered by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), recognizes sustained excellence in the genre. CWA Daggers’ committee chair, Maxim Jakubowsk, explained that, "By an extraordinary quirk of fate, due to our new voting process, this year’s Diamond Dagger is, for the first time in seven decades, being awarded to two authors." La Plante is best known for writing the Prime Suspect and Widows television and novel series. Her other s ..read more

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news: THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES Rosa Salazar (Captain America: Brave New World) has signed on for the female lead in Play Dirty, Shane Black’s crime thriller for Amazon MGM Studios, also starring Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield. Details as to her role have not yet been disclosed. In Play Dirty, Wahlberg plays professional thief Parker, who after being double-crossed and left for dead, sees his hunt for revenge bring with it a shot at the biggest heist of his career. But even with the help of his part ..read more

Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2023. The 78th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Congrats to all the finalists!   BEST NOVEL Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press) All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books) The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Penguin Random House – Ballantine Books) Bright Young Women by Jessica ..read more

The Baker Street Irregulars just marked their 90th anniversary with the BSI Weekend in New York City, filled with events for Sherlockians of all kinds. At this year's event, Otto Penzler was given the Two-Shilling Award for his continued support of the Baker Street Irregulars and general Sherlockianism. As Penzler explained on Twitter, in the Holmes canon, the detective employed a group of street urchins whom he called The Baker Street Irregulars, giving each a shilling. When someone is accepted into the BSI, they are given a shilling, and if they are chosen to be honored for their service to ..read more

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news: THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES Zachary Levi (Shazam!) is set to lead the cast of Hotel Tehran, a new action thriller marking the fourth feature from writer-director Guy Moshe (Bunraku). Levi plays Tucker, who leads a unit of disgraced, war-torn ex-CIA operators into the heart of Tehran to "take down a life-changing score." Moshe wrote the script with Mark Bacci (Prisoner’s Daughter), from an original idea by Bazzel Baz (The Blacklist), a former CIA special operations group officer. In a statement to Dea ..read more

Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) was born in Kingsbury, England, the daughter of a doctor and the sister of nuclear physicist John H. Fremlin. She studied classics at Somerville College, Oxford, but after her mother died in 1931, she was expected to look after her father. Instead of being content to just stay at home, she took jobs in domestic service, which was unusual for a middle-class woman at that time. She said it was to "observe the peculiarities of the class structure of our society," and those experiences later found their way into her later writing. Much later, in her sixties, she began to ..read more