Fiction Review

CrimeFest in Bristol just celebrated its tenth anniversary. One panel featured the authors and editors of Ten Year Stretch, the anthology published by Poisoned Pen Press that celebrates the anniversary of the conference. Panelists included editor Martin Edwards, along with Lee Child, Yrsa Sigurdadottir, Simon Brett, John Harvey, and moderator Donna Moore. You can read more about CrimeFest on Edwards’ blog, Do You Write Under Your Own Name? You can order Ten Year Stretch through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rVWFae

CrimeFest is another conference at which awards are presented. Some of the authors and books may not yet be familiar to American audiences. Some of the books haven’t yet been published in the United States. These awards are presented in England. Check the Web Store now and then if you’re interested in these titles. Some are already available. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Here are the winners in the adult categories.

AUDIBLE SOUNDS OF CRIME AWARD
The Audible Sounds of Crime Award is for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2017 in both printed and audio formats, and available for download from audible.co.uk, Britain’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks.

Winner – J.P. Delaney, The Girl Before (Quercus), read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams & Lise Aagaard Knudsen

eDUNNIT AWARD
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2017.

Winner – Michael Connelly, The Late Show (Orion)

LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2017.

Winner – Mick Herron, Spook Street (John Murray)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the British Isles in 2017. H.R.F. “˜Harry’ Keating was one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, and a renowned reviewer and writer of books about crime fiction.

Winner – Mike Ripley, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (HarperCollins)

THE PETRONA AWARD
CrimeFest also hosts the presentation of The Petrona Award which was created in the memory of Maxine Clarke by her friends and colleagues. The award celebrates the best of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Winner – QUICKSAND by Malin Persson Giolito, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Simon & Schuster) – To be released in the U.S. in August, 2018.

If you’re planning to attend the Elevengedden Sci/Fi Fantasy Party on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 PM (See blog here – https://bit.ly/2IzReDT), you probably already know who won the Nebular Awards. The Nebula Awards are presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The awards were just announced. Check the Web Store to order the books by the authors. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Congratulations to the winners and nominees.

Novel

• Winner: The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor)
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)
• Spoonbenders, Daryl Gregory (Knopf; riverrun)
• Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty (Orbit US)
• Jade City, Fonda Lee (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK 2018)

Novella

• Winner: All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
• River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
• Passing Strange, Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)
• “And Then There Were (N-One)”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny3-4/17)
• Barry’s Deal, Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion)
• The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

Novelette

• WINNER: “A Human Stain”, Kelly Robson (com1/4/17)
• “Dirty Old Town”, Richard Bowes (F&SF5-6/17)
• “Weaponized Math”, Jonathan P. Brazee (The Expanding Universe, Vol. 3)
• “Wind Will Rove”, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)
• “A Series of Steaks”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
• “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time”, K.M. Szpara (Uncanny5-6/17)

Short Story

• WINNER: “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM”, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex8/17)
• “The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)”, Matthew Kressel (com 3/15/17)
• “Fandom for Robots”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny9-10/17)
• “Utopia, LOL?”, Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons6/5/17)
• “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny9-10/17)
• “Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies5/11/17)

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

• WINNER: Get Out
• The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit”
• Logan
• The Shape of Water
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• Wonder Woman

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

• WINNER: The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)
• Exo, Fonda Lee (Scholastic Press)
• Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren (Tor)
• Want, Cindy Pon (Simon Pulse)

The Kevin O’Donnell Jr Award for Service to SFWA went to Bud Sparhawk.The Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award went to Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams. The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award went to Peter Beagle.

Are you a fan of Dana Stabenow’s mysteries set in Alaska? Or maybe you fell for Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone. You might want to check out Mark Adams’ nonfiction book, Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000 Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier. You can order it through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2rXSnOw

Here’s the summary.

From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu, a fascinating and funny journey into Alaska, America’s last frontier, retracing the historic 1899 Harriman Expedition.

In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman organized a most unusual summer voyage to the wilds of Alaska: He converted a steamship into a luxury “floating university,” populated by some of America’s best and brightest scientists and writers, including the anti-capitalist eco-prophet John Muir. Those aboard encountered a land of immeasurable beauty and impending environmental calamity. More than a hundred years later, Alaska is still America’s most sublime wilderness, both the lure that draws a million tourists annually on Inside Passage cruises and a natural resources larder waiting to be raided. As ever, it remains a magnet for weirdos and dreamers.

Armed with Dramamine and an industrial-strength mosquito net, Mark Adams sets out to retrace the 1899 expedition. Using the state’s intricate public ferry system, the Alaska Marine Highway System, Adams travels three thousand miles, following the George W. Elder‘s itinerary north through Wrangell, Juneau, and Glacier Bay, then continuing west into the colder and stranger regions of the Aleutians and the Arctic Circle. Along the way, he encounters dozens of unusual characters (and a couple of very hungry bears) and investigates how lessons learned in 1899 might relate to Alaska’s current struggles in adapting to climate change.

*****

Here’s the author, Mark Adams, talking about writing.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJgWQOxaVPM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living, has a podcast called “But That’s Another Story”.  He recently interviewed Louise Penny, author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries. It’s a very personal interview in which Louise discusses E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, her own fears, and writing. You can hear it here. https://bit.ly/2rUVjvw

Penny’s next book in her series is scheduled for a November 27 release. You can pre-order Kingdom of the Blind, or the other books in the series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2LeWZJ2

Interested in Will Schwalbe’s books or Charlotte’s Web? You can check the Web Store for those as well. https://store.poisonedpen.com

It’s that time of year when science fiction and fantasy authors show up to party with readers at the Poisoned Pen. It’s time for Elevengedden. The party kicks off on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 PM. You can buy the authors’ books that night at the bookstore.

The event starts @ 7pm. We ask that participates to please line up outside the front door of store. We will provide the water if needed.

We will have author books for sale for signing as well as other stuff.

*Please support the author you’re getting books signed with by buying one of their books at our store.  Be dutiful of personal book amounts limit is 3. If you have more respectfully ask the author.  This event supports the authors, the community & our store. Independent bookstores are unicorns.*

This years authors are:

Myke Cole

Emily Devenport

Cory Doctorow

Jason Fry

Araron Mahnke

Sylvain Neuvel

K. Arsenault Rivera

John Scalzi

Victoria (V.E.) Schwab

Scott Sigler

Charles Soule

Chuck Wendig

Sam Sykes

That’s not ALL! More authors are going to show up and hang out the evening of the event!

It’s been all over the news, and it kicks off next week. According to the PBS website,

“THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels (as chosen in a national survey).  It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.

The television series features entertaining and informative documentary segments, with compelling testimonials from celebrities, authors, notable Americans and book lovers across the country. It is comprised of a two-hour launch episode in which the list of 100 books is revealed, five one-hour theme episodes that examine concepts common to groups of books on the list, and a finale, in which the results are announced of a nationwide vote to choose America’s best-loved book.”

Looking for some of those 100 books? Here’s the list. https://to.pbs.org/2Knp5Rf

Here’s the website where you can find more information. https://to.pbs.org/2rGEvsB

And, here’s the Poisoned Pen’s web store, where you can order the titles you’re interested in reading. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

From time to time, I like to mention mystery sites, and then encourage you to come back to the Poisoned Pen’s Web Store to order books. https://store.poisonedpen.com

Criminal Element took a short hiatus in March, and it looks like they’re back. https://www.criminalelement.com

There are reviews, excerpts from books, some contests. Check out the latest news there, and then come back to the Poisoned Pen for your reading.

Jon Talton is a former columnist for the Arizona Republic, so he has quite an audience when he returns to Arizona. It doesn’t hurt that his latest novel, The Bomb Shelter, was based on an actual bombing in Phoenix. Signed copies are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2vFQj31

Here’s the summary of The Bomb Shelter.

The past never rests easy in Arizona.

Forty years ago, a Phoenix reporter was killed by a car bomb in one of America’s most notorious crimes. Three men went to prison – but was there more to the story of Charles Page’s assassination? More than three low-level players? Did a kingpin order the hit and get away with it? And what was the real motive? Despite the work of teams of journalists and law and legal professionals, no one yet knows why.

It’s a case custom-made for David Mapstone, the historian-turned-sheriff’s deputy. And suddenly Mapstone’s boss, newly re-elected Sheriff Mike Peralta, promises to reopen the investigation into the only murder of an American journalist, in the US, in modern times. Why?

The promise triggers new murders. The crimes are reenactments of Phoenix’s mob-riddled past, where gangsters rubbed elbows with the city’s elite amid crosscurrents of corrupt cops, political payoffs, gambling, prostitution, and murder, all shielded by the sunshine image of a resort city. But who is committing them? A former soldier who is an explosives expert and deadly with a knife? A woman with screen-siren looks and extraordinary computer skills? Or someone out of Phoenix’s seamy, swinging Seventies with secrets to keep, even though the major power brokers are dead?

Mapstone will need all the help he can get. He enlists a PhD candidate and Black Lives Matter activist to help him comb through sealed archives of the original bombing. Mapstone’s wife, Lindsey, a top hacker, rejoins the Sheriff’s Office and plays a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the perp or perps – one that goes from the digital to the real and risky world. Somewhere in the house of mirrors surrounding the Page case they must find the key that connects the past to the present.

In this swiftly paced, compelling new novel by journalist Jon Talton, the ninth in the David Mapstone series, a big city is trying to keep its darkest history off-limits.

*****

Credit for the photos goes to Timothy Moore who sent them to the Poisoned Pen.

Michael Koryta will be the guest author at the Poisoned Pen on Tuesday, May 15 at 7 PM. Author Nick Petrie will act as host, interviewing Koryta, who will talk about and sign his latest novel, How It Happened. Signed copies of How It Happened, along with copies of Koryta’s other novels, are available through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2wy0eIj

Here’s the summary of How It Happened.

Booklist magazine celebrates Mystery Month every May, and they have a number of extra features to highlight mysteries of all types. On May 10, they gave author Catriona McPherson a platform to talk about cozy mysteries of any type. But, one book in particular inspired Catriona to pick a subject. Sheila Connolly’s Buried in a Bog, led McPherson to write about Celtic Cozies. You can read the article, “The Celtic Cozies are Coming” here. https://bit.ly/2G5luET

Then, you can check the Web Store for the books that interest you. https://store.poisonedpen.com/