Author Max Allan Collins remembers that when he was a teenager back in the early sixties, he was drawn to the work of the notorious mega best-seller Mickey Spillane. While the literary establishment was blowing gaskets over sadism and masochism—not to mention sex and ultraviolence—in the work of this hardest of hard-boiled authors, Collins was […]
In the May 1, 2019, Booklist, I wrote the first of what I promised would be a series of pieces about my 40 years of reading and reviewing crime fiction for Booklist. The second installment of that proposed series is arriving a bit later than planned, but here it is. I’m moving on to the […]
The winners of the Agatha Awards were announced Saturday, May 4th, during the Malice Domestic 31 fan convention in Bethesda, Maryland. Named for Agatha Christie, the grande dame of Golden Age mystery, the awards honor the best books published in the previous calendar year exemplifying the “traditional mystery” genre (e.g. no explicit sex, gore, or […]
The 2019 Edgar Awards were announced last night during the MWA’s seventy-third gala banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. Here at Booklist, we’re gearing up for our tenth annual Mystery Month celebration and Mystery Showcase issue, both of which are mere days away! (Next week, be sure to keep an eye […]
With Chicago experiencing genuinely arctic weather (and the Arctic warmer than usual), most sensible citizens are waiting it out indoors. ALA’s offices are closed through tomorrow, and Booklist employees who have made it home from the Midwinter Meeting in Seattle are hunkered down at home. What to do with an unexpected reading day? Well, personally, […]
This morning, Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2019 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Here at Booklist, we take pride in our year-round coverage of the mystery genre, culminating in our Mystery Showcase issue and Mystery Month celebration in May. (That’s also when we announce our own list of the year’s best crime novels.) […]
Last weekend mystery and crime writers from all over gathered at Boucheron, the World Mystery Convention in St. Petersburg, Florida for four days of panels, interviews, signings—and, of course, awards. Winners of the Anthony Awards, the Barry Awards (voted on by readers of the crime magazine Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine), and the Macavity Awards (voted on […]
Minnesota-based mystery writer William Kent Krueger is the bestselling author of the Cork O’Connor mystery series, as well as the conspiracy thriller The Devil’s Bed and the historical coming-of-age mystery Ordinary Grace. His work has earned five Minnesota Book Awards, back-to-back Anthony Awards, as well as Dilys, Edgar, Barry, and Macavity awards for Best Novel, and his last […]
Sisters in Crime has announced the 2018 winner of the annual Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award: Mia Manansala who, as the press release notes, serves as the secretary for the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. The prize has recognized emerging crime writers of color—both men and women—since 2014 with […]
After mounting accusations of collusion, election meddling and spreading fake news, recent sensational headlines on Russian doings seem drawn directly from a Cold War thriller. We recommend the following books, linked to their excerpted Booklist reviews, for readers craving more accounts of political intrigue and conspiracy—or for those sad that The Americans has ended. Fiction […]
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