See you in Albuquerque in 2022!

Winners are listed first each category.
Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel
  ✫Ellen Byron, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard (Crooked Lane Books)
  ° Jennifer J. Chow, Mimi Lee Gets a Clue (Berkley Prime Crime)
  ° Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me (Alfred A. Knopf)
  ° Cynthia Kuhn, The Study of Secrets (Henery Press)
  ° J. Michael Orenduff, The Pot Thief Who Studied the Woman at Otowi Crossing (Aakenbaaken & Kent)
  ° Sung J. Woo, Skin Deep (Agora Books)
Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel
(Bruce Alexander Memorial) for books covering events before 1970
  ✫Catriona McPherson, The Turning Tide (Quercus)
  ° Susanna Calkins, The Fate of a Flapper (Minotaur Books)
  ° Dianne Freeman, A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder (Kensington Books)
  ° Laurie R. King, Riviera Gold (Bantam Books)
  ° Ann Parker, Mortal Music (Poisoned Pen Press)
  ° James W. Ziskin, Turn to Stone (Seventh Street Books)
Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel
  ✫David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Winter Counts (Ecco)
  ° Daisy Bateman, Murder Goes to Market (Seventh Street Books)
  ° Mary Keliikoa, Derailed (Camel Press)
  ° Erica Ruth Neubauer, Murder at the Mena House (Kensington Books)
  ° Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club (Viking)
  ° Halley Sutton, The Lady Upstairs (Putnam)
Lefty for Best Mystery Novel
  ✫Louise Penny, All the Devils Are Here (Minotaur Books)
  ° Tracy Clark, What You Don’t See (Kensington Books)
  ° S.A. Cosby, Blacktop Wasteland (Flatiron Books)
  ° Matt Coyle, Blind Vigil (Oceanview Publishing)
  ° Rachel Howzell Hall, And Now She’s Gone (Forge)

I woke to this sad news via the CornwallUK website. I admire the Royal Family, always have, although I've poked gentle fun at them in my books over the years.

RIP Prince Philip. I can't imagine how she'll cope without you.

Photo: Getty Images

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/09/uk/prince-philip-dies-gbr-intl/index.html

From the organizers: "The shortlists have been compiled by votes from crime fiction reviewers who write for national newspapers and websites, with the exception of the Sounds of Crime Award, where the shortlists were established by listeners of Audible.
 
"All winners receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award, and Audible and Specsavers once again are providing £1,000 for the winners of the categories they sponsor."

Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award
- Eva Björg Aegisdóttir for The Creak on the Stairs (Orenda Books)
- Marion Brunet for Summer of Reckoning (Bitter Lemon Press)
- Robin Morgan-Bentley for The Wreckage (Trapeze)
- Richard Osman for The Thursday Murder Club (Viking)
- Mara Timon for City of Spies (Zaffre)
- Trevor Wood for The Man on the Street (Quercus)

With thanks to our headline and award sponsor, Specsavers.
 
Audible Sounds of Crime Award
- Lee & Andrew Child for The Sentinel, reader Jeff Harding (Transworld)
- Lucy Foley for The Guest List, readers Olivia Dowd, Aoife McMahon, Chloe Massey, Sarah Ovens, Rich Keeble & Jot Davies (HarperFiction)
- Robert Galbraith for Troubled Blood, reader Robert Glenister (Little, Brown Book Group)
- Anthony Horowitz for Moonflower Murders, readers Lesley Manville & Allan Corduner (Penguin Random House Audio)
- Peter James for Find Them Dead, reader Daniel Weyman (Pan Macmillan)
- Lisa Jewell for Invisible Girl, reader Donna Banya, Rebekah Staton & Connor Swindells (Penguin Random House Audio)
- Lynda La Plante for Buried, readers Alex Hassell & Annie Aldington (Zaffre)
- T. M. Logan for The Catch, reader Philip Stevens (Zaffre)
- Richard Osman for The Thursday Murder Club, reader Lesley Manville (Viking)
- Ian Rankin for A Song for the Dark Times, reader James Macpherson (Orion)
With thanks to award sponsor, Audible.

eDunnit Award
- Gabriel Bergmoser for The Hunted (Faber)
- Sharon Bolton for The Split (Trapeze) 
- J. P. Carter for Little Boy Lost (Avon)
- Steve Cavanagh for Fifty-Fifty (Orion Fiction)
- Michael Connelly for Fair Warning (Orion Fiction)
- James Lee Burke for A Private Cathedral (Orion Fiction)
- Ian Rankin for A Song for the Dark Times (Orion Fiction)
- Holly Watt for The Dead Line (Raven Books)

H. R. F. Keating Award
- Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World (HarperCollins)
- Martin Edwards (editor) for Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club (Collins Crime Club)
- Colin Larkin for Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965 (Telos Publishing)
- Andrew Lycett for Conan Doyle’s Wide World (Tauris Parke)
- Heather Martin for The Reacher Guy (Constable)
- Sheila Mitchell for H. R. F. Keating: A Life of Crime (Level Best Books)
- Craig Sisterson for Southern Cross Crime: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand (Oldcastle Books)
- Peter Temple for The Red Hand: Stories, reflections and the last appearance of Jack Irish (riverrun)
 
Last Laugh Award
- Ben Aaronovitch for False Value (Gollancz)
- Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May - Oranges and Lemons (Doubleday)
 - Elly Griffiths for The Postscript Murders (Quercus)
- Carl Hiaasen for Squeeze Me (Sphere)
- Richard Osman for The Thursday Murder Club (Viking)
- Malcolm Pryce for The Corpse in the Garden of Perfect Brightness (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- Khurrum Rahman for Ride or Die (HQ)
- Olga Wojtas for Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Vampire Menace (Contraband)

Best Crime Novel for Children (Ages 8-12)
- Sophie Deen for Agent Asha: Mission Shark Bytes (Walker Books)
- Elly Griffiths for A Girl Called Justice - The Smugglers' Secret (Quercus Children's Group)
- Anthony Horowitz for Nightshade (Walker Books)
- Jack Noel for My Headteacher is an Evil Genius (Walker Books)
- Serena Patel for Anisha, Accidental Detective (Usborne Publishing)
- Serena Patel for School's Cancelled (Usborne Publishing)
- Onjali Q. Rauf for The Night Bus Hero (Orion Children's Group)
- Dave Shelton for The Pencil Case (David Fickling Books)

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (Ages 12-16)
- William Hussey for Hideous Beauty (Usborne Publishing)
- Lauren James for The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker (Walker Books)
- Matt Killeen for Devil Darling Spy (Usborne Publishing)
- Patrice Lawrence for Eight Pieces of Silva (Hodder Children's Group)
- Simon Lelic for Deadfall (Hodder Children's Group)
- Robert Muchamore for Hacking, Heists & Flaming Arrows (Hot Key Books)
- Patrick Ness for Burn (Walker Books)
- Nancy Springer for The Case of the Missing Marquess (Hot Key Books)

My novelette "A Murder at Morehead Mews" is on the list. This story has a history I'll tell one day. It has to do with believing in yourself and the story you need to tell.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all of the authors and their outstanding stories! Winners will be announced May 1, 2021.

The list including place of publication also appears here.

Flash
Outsourcing, James Blakey
Over Before It Started, Robert Mangeot
Memories of Fire, Joshua Pastor
War Words, Travis Richardson
Quitman County Ambush, Bobby Mathews

Short
That Which Is True, Jacqueline Freimor
River, Stacy Woodson
The Crossing, Kim Keeline
The Great Bedbug Incident and the Invitation of Doom, Eleanor Cawood Jones
The Homicidal Understudy, Elizabeth Elwood

Long
Chasing Diamonds, Joseph S. Walker
Lord, Spare the Bottom Feeders, Robert Mangeot
Mary Poppins Didn't Have Tattoos, Stacy Woodson
Etta at the End of the World, Joseph S. Walker
Hotelin', Sarah M. Chen

Novelette  
A Murder at Morehead Mews, G.M. Malliet
The Wretched Strangers, Matthew Wilson
The Question of the Befuddled Judge, Jeff Cohen
The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74, Art Taylor
Suicide Blonde, Brian Thornton

Most authors have a system for their writing. They jot every idea in a special notebook, and when they have dozens of notebooks they store them in a large box in the attic. I learned from watching a biography of J.K. Rowling that this is her method, except that she probably has to keep her notebooks in a bank vault.

Some authors scribble ideas on sticky notes that they attach to their study walls. The highly organized writer will code her sticky notes, giving each character and scene its own color. Sometimes the writer will show connected thoughts by stretching a piece of string from one note to another, often using colored twine that also carries some deep significance, so that before long the walls of the writer’s study look like the squad room of a murder investigation. When the author adds images of a character—photos cut from magazines and whatnot—the illusion of a real-life investigation is enhanced. Somehow a book comes out of all this.

I am tempted to tell you that my books are written in just such an orderly and colorful way, in between hourly breaks for mindfulness meditation and yoga, and that WICKED AUTUMN and the following books in the Max Tudor series grew out of such fastidious planning and plotting. But the truth is my books emerge from chaos—a million bits and pieces of ideas, character descriptions, settings, and motives, all scribbled on whatever scrap of paper is to hand and stored in no particular order, with no brightly colored strings involved—a sort of Big Bang method of novel writing. Right now the worst part of my lack of method is that when asked to write about my inspiration for the Max Tudor series, I can only say, “I don’t really know.” That and, “I don’t remember.” Like most people, I am generally inspired by a looming car payment. But a book deadline becomes my lodestar, and I aim the good ship Max Tudor in that general direction and head off. Often without supplies or compass or life preserver, to continue the metaphor.

But somehow in this process a book starts to emerge. My starting point is often the setting, which I can visualize almost to the last cobblestone. Nether Monkslip was largely inspired by my love of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and her St. Mary Mead, that much I do know. Then along came the characters to inhabit my village: suspects and victims. Someone must die! The why and the how are trickier, and are often inspired by some real-life case in the news. From there, anything I see, hear, touch, smell, or taste in the next nine to twelve months works its way into the story.

All that said, as the first in the series, WICKED AUTUMN germinated for a very long time. Its protagonist Max Tudor is an Anglican priest and former MI5 agent, and he is loosely based on a CIA analyst of my acquaintance who is an Episcopal priest. Around the same time I met the analyst I met a pathologist who was also an Anglican priest. He happened to be a friend and consultant to P.D. James. I never knew these dual existences were possible, and it got me to thinking: What if? Max Tudor actually turns his back on being a spy when he goes to Oxford to begin the process of taking holy orders, but the “life” keeps calling him back and becomes a growing theme in the books as Max is called in, time and again, to solve a murder.

Once I could picture a village like St. Mary Mead with its butchers and bakers and candlestick makers, and I had my handsome spy/priest, along came my imaginary woman in charge of the Women’s Institute in Nether Monkslip. I decided that Wanda would be bossy and awful to everyone, especially the group of hapless volunteers under her command. WICKED AUTUMN was the somehow inevitable result.

I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed being able to bring it to you.

 
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS:

1. From the author’s character descriptions, which actors would you choose to portray Max Tudor, Awena Owen, DCI Cotton, or any of the villagers?
2.  Do you think you would enjoy living in a small village like Nether Monkslip? Or would you, like Max Tudor and Suzanna Winship, sometimes feel like a fish out of water?
3. If it’s true that people are the same everywhere, does Nether Monkslip remind you in any way of your own neighborhood?
4. Does the wearisome Wanda remind you of anyone you’ve ever met or been forced to work with?
5. Max Tudor makes a complete about-face when he leaves MI5 to become the vicar of St. Edwold’s Church in Nether Monkslip. Do you know of anyone who has made such a dramatic life change? Have you made such a switch, leaving your old life behind—or have you ever wished you could?
6. Of the women introduced in WICKED AUTUMN, which do you think might make a suitable wife for Max Tudor?
7. Crime seems to follow Max Tudor wherever he goes in subsequent books in the series—even though he became an Anglican priest to escape the violence of his past. What point do you think the author is trying to make?

 
 

EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. A book that lives up to the hype. It is truly heartbreaking to watch the kids in this Randy Weaver-era family try to cope with or break away their from loving but reactionary parents. Parents who unintentionally put them in danger, more than once. I would love to hear what other readers think. Leave a comment below or you can reach me through the contact link at the top of each page of this website.