Mystery Weekend Roundup for May 4, 2014

Agatha Winners Announced At Malice Domestic

The Agatha Winners were announced at this year's Malice Domestic Conference. Best First Novel went to Leslie Budewitz for Death Ala Dente. Leslie's editor is Faith Black of Berkley Prime Crime. Congratulations to Leslie!


Best Contemporary Novel Went to Hank Phillippi Ryan for The Wrong Girl. Hank came to Kansas City last year and we got to hear her speak at the Kansas City Library about her career and her award winning thriller. You can listen to her presentation below. To hear her speaking about her thriller, The Wrong Girl, you can go to 21 minutes in the video.

The Edgar Winners!


The annual MWA Edgar Banquet was on Thursday, followed by the Edgar Award announcements. William Kent Kruger won Best Novel with Ordinary Grace. Best First Novel went to Jason Matthews for Red Sparrow. Congratulations to all the winners!


A hearty congratulations to Jenny Milchman, who won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for her debut novel, Cover of Snow, which I reviewed on this blog last year. You can see a complete list of the winners here.

And the Wall Street Journal talked with Daniel Stashower about his award for Best Fact Crime, for his book The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War.


New Release By 2011 Winner Of Malice Domestic Award

Linda Rodriguez made an impressive debut with her first novel, Every Last Secret, winning the Malice Domestic Award for First Traditional Mystery Novel. Now she has a new release in the series, Every Hidden Fear, which will be published on May 6th. To celebrate, Linda will be appearing at Mysteryscape bookstore in Overland Park, Kansas on May 10th at 11:00 AM. RSVP requested by calling (913) 649-0000 or by email at rsvp@mysteryscape.com. Don't miss this event if you're anywhere in the area (like, within the boundaries of the continental United States).


Is This The Face of Norman Bates?

Fear.net has a fascinating look at famous, or infamous, characters in crime and horror fiction in an article on their website this week. We get most of our impressions of crime characters from the movies, but how did their authors see them? Take a look at these police sketches done on some of our most fearful fiends. Anthony Perkins was a rather handsome, even shy, rendition of Norman Bates. But this police drawing is...a little creepy. And maybe that's exactly what Robert Bloch was trying to convey when he wrote "The eyes behind the fat man's glasses seemed vacant." For the entire article, clickety-click here.