The nominees for the 24th Annual (2011) Lambda Literary Awards have been announced by the Lambda Literary Foundation, recognizing achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2011.
Many genres are represented; we've listed those nominees in the mystery categories below.
The winners will be announced on Monday, June 4th, 2012 in a ceremony at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue) in New York City with an after-party at Slate (54 West 21st Street).
Gay Men's Mystery Nominees:
• The Affair of the Porcelain Dog by Jess Faraday (Bold Strokes Books)
• Blue's Bayou by David Lennon (Blue Spike Publishing)
• Malabarista by Garry Ryan (NeWest Press)
• Red White Black and Blue by Richard Stevenson (MLR Press)
• Boystown by Marshall Thornton (Torquere Press)
Lesbian Mystery Nominees:
• Dying to Live by Kim Baldwin and Xenia Alexiou (Bold Strokes Books)
• Rainey Nights by R. E. Bradshaw (R. E. Bradshaw Books)
• Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid (Bywater Books)
• Retirement Plan by Martha Miller (Bold Strokes Books)
• Hostage Moon by A. J. Quinn (Bold Strokes Books)
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Nominees for the 2011 Lambda Literary Awards Announced
St. Louis County Library Presents its 7th Annual Suspense Night
The St. Louis County Library Foundation has announced the details for its Seventh Annual Suspense Night.
"An evening of thrills and chills" will be held on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 7 PM at the Library Headquarters on 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.
Four crime novelists will attend and read from their recent works: Reed Farrel Coleman, Sara J. Henry, Frank Bill, and Duane Swierczynski. Copies of the authors' books will be for sale at the event. A question-and-answer forum and book signing will follow the program.
This event is free and open to the public.
(Source: SLCL.org.)
Special Offer, Today Only from Amazon Local
If you have signed up for Amazon Local (http://local.amazon.com/) and visited the site today, you already know you can purchase a $10 gift card for $5. But if you haven't signed up, it might be worth a visit!
You need to be in the US and enter your location and e-mail address to register, but that's it. You'll need a credit card to purchase the gift card, but once purchased, the gift card balance of $10 can be applied to any subsequent purchased.
This offer is available today, Tuesday March 20th, 2012, only. (As of the approximate time of this post, there were 15 hours and 30 minutes remaining to take advantage of this offer. About 450,000 people have purchased the gift card when we last checked — and bought ours! — and there's a warning that quantities are limited.)
OMN Welcomes Crime Novelist Steve Brewer
Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome crime novelist Steve Brewer, author of the Bubba Mabry mysteries. The most recent in the series is Party Doll (February 2012 eBook).
Today Steve talks about taking story ideas right from the headlines.
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Where do writers get their ideas? In New Mexico, it's as easy as picking up a newspaper.
An example: In a little border town called Sunland Park, a city councilman recently was charged with an assortment of crimes related to a lap dance.
Photo provided courtesy of
Steve Brewer
The councilman, Daniel Salinas, was running for mayor. He allegedly acquired video of his opponent enjoying a lap dance from a topless woman, then threatened to expose it unless the opponent dropped out of the race.
The opponent refused. The video went public. And Salinas was arrested and charged with extortion and other crimes. So far, seven other current or former city employees also have been charged with various crimes related to the case.
Wait, it gets better. The town went ahead with its election anyway. And Salinas won! Unfortunately for him, one of the conditions of his current release-on-bail is that he can't enter City Hall, so he hasn't been sworn in as mayor. Yet.
Ah, it's good to be back in New Mexico. Land of spicy green chile, beautiful sunsets and dirty politics.
My wife and I moved back to the Land of Enchantment in October after nearly nine years in California (which has its own political problems, but never mind). Since then, I've watched in amusement as one corruption case after another has darkened the headlines.
Naturally, political corruption found its way into my fiction as well. My latest story, a novella called Party Doll, features a cabal of strip-club operators who conspire with crooked politicians to turn the state fairgrounds into a legal red-light district, complete with gambling and prostitution.
In Party Doll, bumbling private eye Bubba Mabry is hired to locate a missing stripper who goes by the stage name Joy Forever. Before long, it becomes clear that Joy has information about the fairgrounds scheme and she's feeding it to the feds.
This is the ninth outing for Bubba, who starred in my first published novel, Lonely Street, which came out in 1994. I've written a lot of standalone crime novels since then, but I come back to Bubba ever so often. He's a fun character to write, and there's never any shortage of material in New Mexico.
I don't plan to use lap-dance extortion in a novel (who would believe it?), but you're welcome to it. You can read more about the Sunland Park case on NMPolitics.net.
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Steve Brewer is the author of over 20 books about crooks. His first Bubby Mabry mystery, Lonely Street, was adapted into the 2009 film of the same title starring Jay Mohr as the Albuquerque PI. A former journalist and syndicated humor columnist, Brewer now works as a writing coach and University of New Mexico lecturer. A frequent speaker at mystery conventions, he was toastmaster at Left Coast Crime in 2011.
For more information about Steve and his books, visit his author page on Amazon.com.
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About Party Doll:
Bubba bumbles back into action when he's hired to find a missing stripper who goes by the stage name Joy Forever. Joy's boss says business has been off since she disappeared, owing him money. He wants Bubba to find Joy and find her fast.
But there's more here than meets the eye. A federal prosecutor is interested in Joy as well, and Bubba's wife, newspaper reporter Felicia Quattlebaum, is working on a crusade that seems to be entangled with the case.
Winners of the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards Announced
The EPIC eBook Awards were handed out this past weekend in San Antonio by the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition.
Many different book genres are recognized; we've listed below the winners in the mystery, suspense and thriller categories.
• Mystery: The Dead Detective Agency by Peg Herring (LL-Publications);
• Suspense/Thriller: Becoming NADIA by Cyrus Keith (Muse It Up Publishing);
• Romantic Suspense: Absolution by Kaelea Cross (Wild Rose Press);
• Ariana Award Winner for Best Suspense/Mystery Cover: The Scream of the Siren by Jessica Housand-Weaver; cover by Nancy Donahue.
The Late Greats by Nick Quantrill is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Late Greats by Nick Quantrill as today's third free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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The Late Greats by Nick Quantrill
A Joe Geraghty Mystery
Publisher: Caffeine Nights
This is the second mystery in this series featuring Joe Geraghty, a former rugby player turned private investigator in Hull (England).
About The Late Greats (from the publisher): Having been convinced by their manager, Kane Major, to put their acrimonious break-up behind them and launch a comeback, New Holland, Hull's most successful band of the 1990s, is reforming. Allowing one privileged journalist to document the process. Joe Geraghty is employed to act as a liaison between the different camps. What appears to be a straightforward assignment sees him neck deep in trouble when singer, Greg Tasker, disappears leaving behind a trail of people who wanted him out of their lives. Geraghty has to choose sides and the investigation penetrates deeper into the city. As the rich and famous rub shoulders with the poor and vulnerable, the stakes increase. Forced to keep his friends close but his enemies' closer still, the case could see Joe Geraghty lose everything.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Frank's Wild Years by Nick Triplow is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Frank's Wild Years by Nick Triplow as today's second free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Frank's Wild Years by Nick Triplow
Publisher: Caffeine Nights
According to the author's blog, "March 19th sees the long-awaited publication of Frank's Wild Years. For its first five days out in the big bad world, publisher Caffeine Nights will be offering the novel as a free e-book on Amazon — a not to be repeated offer."
About Frank's Wild Years (from the publisher): In the twilight days between Christmas and New Year, Frank Neaves is about to drink away his last tenner in a Deptford boozer. A former friend and associate of long-dead local villain Dave Price, Frank's scotch-soaked meditation is interrupted when Carl, Price's son and the pub's landlord, disappears leaving an oblique one line note for barmaid, Adeline. Carl has set his heart on bringing his young daughter home for New Year's Eve. An undertaking that puts him on a collision course with his ex-wife's new man, a Hull-based hard case called O'Keefe. Desperate to avoid a violent confrontation that Carl can't win, Adeline persuades Frank to join her. They take a slow train for Humberside. And with the year grinding towards its close, Frank's former life comes back to haunt him in a way he could never have imagined …
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Blood and Groom by Jill Edmondson is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Blood and Groom by Jill Edmondson as today's free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Blood and Groom by Jill Edmondson
A Sasha Jackson Mystery
Publisher: Dundurn
This first in a series introduces the Toronto private investigator.
About Blood and Groom (from the publisher): When not talking dirty at her part time phone sex job, or singing cheesy cover tunes in generic suburban bars, fledgling PI Sasha Jackson is spending her days trying to figure out how "till death do us part" applies to her jilted client.
Christine Arvisais was dumped by her gold plated fiancé days before mailing the wedding invitations. Four months later, he was shot in a Toronto ravine during his Saturday morning jog. Christine says she was wrapped in seaweed and bathing in mud when Gordon Hanes went to the mahogany paneled VIP room in the sky.
Then another former fiancé falls victim to another femme fatale and it appears Cupid's bow is no match for the Grim Reaper's scythe.
As Sasha continues her investigation, she uncovers a pattern of guys who skipped "I do" and now never will. It seems a coincidence, until Sasha learns the real meaning of Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
With her dad driving her crazy via long distance, and her brother steeped in confusion about his own romantic comedy of Eros, Sasha must figure out who's whacking would-be grooms before it becomes a case of four funerals and a wedding.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Blood Country by Mary Logue is Today's Barnes&Noble Nook Daily Find
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Blood Country by Mary Logue as today's Barnes&Noble Daily Find. The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, March 20, 2012.
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Blood Country by Mary Logue
A Claire Watkins Mystery
Publisher: Tyrus Books
This is the first in a series that currently spans eight books and introduces western Wisconsin Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins.
About Blood Country (from the publisher): When Landers Anderson — an elderly neighbor who befriended Claire and and her daughter Meg — dies of a heart attack after being sideswiped with a shovel, Claire determines to find the culprit. This involves delving into Landers's family history and investigating the machinations of a right-wing group, Homeowners of America, that is buying up property to build an environmentally unsound development.
At the same time, Meg fearfully admits to Claire that she saw the man who killed her father, Claire's husband Steve, a former Twin Cities cop. Claire contacts her former partner, Det. Bruce Jacobs, and prods him into accelerating the investigation into Steve's death.
Important Note: Barnes&Noble updates its Nook Daily Find every day at approximately midnight PT. The title referenced above is available at a discounted price for Tuesday, March 20, 2012 only.
Download Link(s):
Monday, March 19, 2012
First Trailer for Dark Shadows
Though we made passing reference to it last week in a post we wrote about a new poster for the film, we missed posting the first US trailer for Dark Shadows, which premiered on "The Ellen Show"; it is embedded below.
Johnny Depp stars as vampire Barnabas Collins in this update of the 1960s television series, which is directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith. It opens in theaters May 11th, 2012.
Production Underway for BBC America's New Crime Drama Ripper Street
Production began last week in Dublin for BBC America's new crime drama, Ripper Street. The eight part series is set in and around Whitechapel in London's East End in 1889, during the aftermath of the Jack The Ripper murders.
The series will star Matthew Macfadyen (MI-5), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), Adam Rothenberg (Alcatraz), MyAnna Buring ("The Twilight Saga") and David Dawson (Luther). The action centers on the notorious H Division, which is charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets of East London.
"To this day, audiences continue to be fascinated by Jack The Ripper and the events in Whitechapel in the late 19th Century," said Richard De Croce, BBC America's SVP of Programming. "This script and cast are going to take us for a great ride. We're excited to be involved in such an ambitious production."
Ripper Street is expected to premiere this fall on BBC America.
(Source: Press release.)
Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120320)
Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.
See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.
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Purchase/Rental Options
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Film Synopsis (from the studio): Hoping to distance himself from the fallout of a libel conviction, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) retreats to a remote island in Sweden's far north where the unsolved murder of a young girl still haunts her industrial uncle forty years later. Ensconced in a cottage on the island where the killer may still roam, Blomkvist's investigation draws him into the secrets and lies of the rich and powerful, and throws him together with one unlikely ally — tattooed, punk hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).
Adapted from the first book in "The Millennium Trilogy" of thrillers by Stieg Larsson.
Rated R. 158 minutes.
Watch a trailer for the film below:
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Purchase/Rental Options
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Film Synopsis (from the studio): Set in the 1970s, this film adaptation of John le Carré's spy thriller finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the Circus, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects — all experienced, urbane, successful agents — but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.
Rated R. 127 minutes.
Watch a trailer for the film below:
Mr. E. Reviews Killer Elite
Purchase/Rental Option(s)
Adapted from the purportedly fact-based book by Ranulph Fiennes, this action thriller is frequently confusing in both its storyline and character relationships. The principal actors all play roles for which they are stereotypically known, making the film seem both familiar and routine.
Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Killer Elite.
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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.
Review: Hunting Sweetie Rose by Jack Fredrickson
We've just published our Review of Hunting Sweetie Rose by Jack Fredrickson. A Dek Elstrom Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, February 2012.
Available to purchase from …
Telemystery: Kojak and Scarecrow & Mrs. King, New This Week on DVD
Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling two series being released this week.
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Telly Savalas stars as NYPD Lieutenant Theo Kojak in the edgy 1970s police drama Kojak.
This third season finds Kojak embroiled in a series of high-profile cases involving the savage murder of a priest, a car theft ring, an 18-year-old homicide cold case, a cop killer and a Mob hit ordered on Kojak himself. Known for pushing the limits with a fiery intensity while keeping a cool head, Kojak never lets the law get in the way of justice.
Kojak: Season Three is available on DVD and consists of episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 1975 through March 1976.
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Operation: Laughs, Romance and Danger! Bruce Boxleitner and Kate Jackson star as Scarecrow and Mrs. King in this romantic suspense crime drama.
American spy "Scarecrow" Lee Stetson and his housewife sidekick Mrs. Amanda King are truly partners now that Amanda is a full-fledged operative in this third (and penultimate) season of the series. Mismatched operatives at best, they mix laughs, intrigue and battle-of-the-sexes verbal jabs while taking down enemies of the State.
Scarecrow and Mrs. King: Season Three is available on DVD and consists of episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 1985 through May 1986.
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Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.
