"You know what? The bastard blows me out of the water. This guy writes Maine like Ardai writes New York. If you're not reading him, you don't know what you're missing." --Chris F. Holm, author of "The Collector" series, The Killing Kind, and Red Right Hand.

"A refreshingly new voice in noir." --Ed Kurtz, author of Nothing You Can Do and The Rib From Which I Remake the World.

"A glorious boilermaker of noir and East Coast gothic. The action is taut as a sprung snare and Bagley tightens the screws with every page." -- Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase and Blood Standard.




Friday, May 3, 2013

WWEAPD (What Would Edgar Allan Poe Do)?

 
The Mystery Writers of America have announced the winners of the 2013 Edgar Awards.
 
 
 
BEST NOVEL
 
 
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR


The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown Publishers)



BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL


The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)



BEST FACT CRIME
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted


the Last Days of Old China by Paul French (Penguin Group USA – Penguin Books)



BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics
 
by James O’Brien (Oxford University Press)

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Unremarkable Heart" – Mystery Writers of America Presents: Vengeance
by Karin Slaughter (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown and Company – Mulholland Books)

1
BEST JUVENILE


The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams – Amulet Books)



BEST YOUNG ADULT


Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion)



BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY


“A Scandal in Belgravia” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Steven Moffat (BBC/Masterpiece)



ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"When They Are Done With Us" – Staten Island Noir
by Patricia Smith (Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTER


Ken Follett
Margaret Maron

RAVEN AWARDS


Oline Cogdill
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego & Redondo Beach, CA

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD


Akashic Books

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD


(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, May 1, 2013)

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge Books)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A Start (Maybe)

Here's something I wrote last night, trying to set a mood. I don't where this piece might go, but it feels like an okay start.



Two years working on Elman Luce’s farm and Doyle had never once set foot in the old man’s house.  Now here he was, sitting at the kitchen table across from his boss while Mrs. Luce busied herself with fixing supper.  Doyle took in the cross-stitched Bible verses hung between the windows, the linen calendar, the electric range sitting next to the old wood-fired cook stove, the handmade oven mitts and the linoleum floor—spotless except for small black burns where someone had been careless when emptying the stove of coals and ashes.  It was house so unlike his own; even though he’d been asked in, he felt like an intruder.

Luce stared at the table, rubbing with his thumb at a worn spot in the Formica top.  The old man blew through his nose and pushed himself up from the table, lumbered over to a cupboard from which he took a bottle of whiskey that sat on a high shelf.  The bottle was mostly full.  With his wife scowling at him, Luce poured some into two tumblers and handed one to Doyle.

A cold feeling seeped through Doyle’s guts.  Elman Luce’s stinginess with liquor was just as legendary as Mrs. Luce’s hatred of the stuff. Whatever the old man had to tell Doyle, it wasn’t going to be a joke.

Taking Attendance

Twenty-four people visited this blog today.



Weird.