Crime Fiction in the news and on the 'Net: Weekly Round-up

Kia ora everyone. I hope you've all had a great week. It's been a very busy one down here, as we finally presented the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. It was quite a journey from the first stirrings of the concept many, many months ago, to seeing the eventual award being presented to Louise Crisp of Penguin (accepting on behalf of an absent Alix Bosco, for the pseudonymed author's excellent debut, CUT & RUN) this week.

You can read more about the Ngaio Marsh Award result, including comments from the judges and Dame Ngaio's family, here. As you can imagine, there has been a fair bit of speculation following the announcement, about the potential identity of 'Alix Bosco'. Along with the discussions on Crime Watch earlier this year (read here), you can check out some more speculation (and comments from the authors agent) on Beattie's Book Blog here and here, and other theories or comments here, here and here.

Finalist Vanda Symon has also just published her thoughts on the evening, along with some photos, here. I will do the same shortly. It was fantastic to get a whole group of crime fiction writers and readers together in this way, and hopefully it will be the start of something even bigger down here in Aotearoa. Just wait for 2011.

But now, onto the weekly round-up. Once again there have been some more great crime fiction stories on the Internet this past week - from newspapers, magazines, and several of my fellow bloggers. As usual, I've listed a few that have caught my eye below. Hopefully you will all find an interesting article or post or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

• Andy Martin of The Independent gets up close and personal with the man behind Jack Reacher, in an interesting feature interview ("Adventures of an over-reacher") with #1 bestseller Lee Child, who reinvented himself after being fired from British television.
• A team of reviewers in the Otago Daily Times takes a look at some recent crime fiction releases, including the latest books by Mark Billingham and Val McDermid.
• The Hartford Books Examiner shares a new Q&A with the crime writer credited as kickstarting the 'forensic' sub-genre that is so popular on books and screen now; Patricia Cornwell.
• Opinionated Canadian crime writer R. Scott Bakker speaks freely and doesn't hold back ("literature is dead", "I embrace the conventions of a genre and then I attack it with as much subversive material as I can get away with,” other shots taken at the CanLit scene and various books-related topics) in an interview with Jane Sims of the London Free Press.
• The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the bestselling TV-series inspired 'Castle' books.
• A Massachussetts-based micro-brewery has teamed up with a mystery writer for a unique promotion - a selection of limited edition beer bottles covered in a 12-part detective series label. Each ‘chapter’ of crime fiction is printed on a 22oz bottle of the recently-released India Pale Ale, telling the story of a 1920’s-inspired detective melodrama about a wealthy brewer and his intrigues…full of brewing references and industry puns.
• In a very interesting article, Meghan Casserly of Forbes blog profiles Kate White, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, the world's biggest-selling women's magazine, who found ways amongst her hectic work and family schedule to also pursue her 'back-pocket dream' to be a mystery writer.
• Joann Alberstat of Canada's Chronicle-Herald reviews books by James Lee Burke, Janet Evanovich, and Val McDermid.

Do you agree with R. Scott Bakker that literature is dead? What do you think of Cosmo editor Kate White's theories and advice on finding the time to follow you 'back-pocket dream'? Will/have you read the Castle books? What do you think of the mystery serial beer label promotion? Thoughts and comments welcome.