From the latest edition of the Mystery Loves Company bookstore newsletter:

• Saturday Oct 1 (OXFORD) 12:30 – 3pm. Agatha Award-winning author G.M. Malliet will sign the first in a second series of mysteries WICKED AUTUMN. Ms. Malliet introduces us to the villagers of Nether Monkslip, a delightfully quirky group who are much more than they seem. The protagonist is a dishy new pastor who just happens to have been a former member of MI 5. So when a murder occurs during the annual Harvest Fayre the local police ask Father Max Tudor for his help. Since everyone confides in and trusts Max he is the perfect spy. What Max discovers is that you can trust very few folks in his new parish, and your friends could come from very unlikely places. I loved WICKED AUTUMN and predict it will top many “Best of” lists for 2011. [Bless you, Kathy!]

This delightful store is located at 202 S. Morris Street | Oxford MD 21654 - email [email protected]
It's a beautiful spot on the water. Why not pencil in October 1 on your calendar for a visit?

Awoke to great news - I received a Macavity nomination from Mystery Readers International for best short story. "Bookworm" appeared in the collection Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ (Wildside Press).

The Macavity awards are presented at Bouchercon each year. This year the convention will be held in St. Louis, in September. Here's the full list:

Macavity Award Nominees:

Best Mystery Novel
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins-William Morrow)
Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer (Grove Atlantic)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)

Best First Mystery Novel
The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson (Forge)
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Forge-Tom Doherty Associates)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)
Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill (Wildside)
A Thousand Cuts by Simon Lelic (Viking)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (Penguin)
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction edited by Maxim Jakubowski (New Holland)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank W Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

Best Mystery Short Story
“The Scent of Lilacs” by Doug Allyn (EQMM)
“Swing Shift” by Dana Cameron in Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side (Berkley)
“Devil’s Pocket” by Keith Gilman in Philadelphia Noir (Akashic)
“The Gods for Vengeance Cry” by Richard Helms (EQMM)
“Bookworm” by G.M. Malliet in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ (Wildside)

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery
A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton (Berkley)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Random House)
City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)
The Red Door by Charles Todd (HarperCollins- William Morrow)
The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia (HarperCollins-William Morrow)

There is a fun new feature for Agatha Christie fans over at
http://agathachristie.com/map/
Choose a character (say, Miss Marple) and then choose a book she's featured in. The map displays the location or locations used or mentioned during the story.

(Of course, there is no St. Mary Mead, however real it may seem to us.)

My publisher is experimenting by lowering the price to only $.99 for my first novel, the Agatha Award winner Death of a Cozy Writer. This is part of the Amazon "Kindle Sunshine Deal" launched this month.

The previous "Sunshine" price for Cozy Writer was $1.99 - that deal ran all last week. The $.99 offer ends June 15 and after that the price will revert to the old download cost of about $10.

It's a great opportunity to sample the St. Just series if you haven't done so. There are also about 650 books being offered during this deal, ranging in price from $.99 to $2.99.

Here is the link to the Death of a Cozy Writer e-Book:

http://tinyurl.com/3nut2j4

Amazon.com is offering 650 Kindle books at reduced prices for the next two weeks as part of its "Sunshine Deals." I'm so happy to say Death of a Cozy Writer is one of these offers (it went to #1 in the Mysteries/British Detectives category almost immediately). The price is $1.99 for the download:

http://tinyurl.com/3nut2j4