Louise Penny wins Arthur Ellis Award for BURY YOUR DEAD

Earlier today (NZT), superstar Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny added another trophy to her overflowing crime award cabinet, by winning the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel for BURY YOUR DEAD, her sixth tale starring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

Penny has come a long way in quite a short time since being highly commended as an unpublished writer in the 2004 Debut Dagger category of the CWA's prestigious Dagger Awards. Her Quebec-set tales starring Gamache have certainly struck a chord with readers, reviewers, and awards judges alike. Earlier this year I noted that Penny was up for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Agatha Award for Best Novel (for BURY YOUR DEAD) at this year's Malice Domestic mystery writing festival (which focuses on 'traditional mysteries' typified by Golden Age writers like Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, loosely defined as containing no explicit sex or violence).

Sure enough, shortly after I returned from my Turkey/Greece holiday, Penny pocketed her fourth consecutive Agatha Award, an astonishing achievement.

I have yet to read BURY YOUR DEAD, but it looks like I might have to elevate it up the towering TBR pile. Here's the blurb:

"It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to celebrate but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the seemingly peaceful Literary and Historical Society--where an obsessive historian's search for the missing remains of the founder of Quebec ends bizarrely in murder. Injured himself and in need of rest, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smoldering tensions between the English and the French.
Meanwhile, he receives letter after letter from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. "It doesn't make sense," Olivier's partner writes every day. "He didn't do it, you know." Despite the overwhelming case against Olivier, Gamache sends his deputy back to Three Pines to make sure that nothing was overlooked.

Through it all, in his painstaking quest for justice, Gamache must relive the terrible events that killed one of his men before he can begin to bury his dead."

Have you read BURY YOUR DEAD or any of Penny's other Gamache books? Do you enjoy 'traditional mysteries' set in modern times?

Louise Penny in line for four-peat at upcoming Agatha Awards

After claiming an unprecedented third consecutive Best Novel Agatha Award last year, popular Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny is now in line to score four, with the nomination of her novel BURY YOUR DEAD for Best Novel at this year's instalment of the Agatha Awards - which focus on 'traditional mysteries' (ie cosies, or mysteries with less violence, blood and sex, that usually focus on confined settings and often have amateur detectives).

The 2010 Agatha Awards (yes, we're in 2011, but they seem to name them for the year the books came out, rather than the year of presentation) are given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2010 (January 1-December 31), either in hardcover, as a paperback original, or e-published by an e-publishing firm. The Agatha Awards will be voted on by attendees and then presented at the upcoming Malice Domestic convention, to be held in Bethesda, Maryland from 29 April to 1 May 2011.

Here is the full list of nominees:

Best Novel:
Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard
Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Best First Novel:
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames
Murder at the PTA by Laura Alden
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower
Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill
Diamonds for the Dead by Alan Orloff

Best Non-fiction:
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder
Have Faith in Your Kitchen by Katherine Hall Page
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Best Short Story:
"Swing Shift" by Dana Cameron, Crimes by Moonlight
"Size Matters" by Sheila Connolly, Thin Ice
"Volunteer of the Year" by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin'
"So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
"The Green Cross" by Liz Zelvin, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Best Children's/Young Adult:
Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R. L. LaFevers
The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee
Virals by Kathy Reichs
The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith

Of the nominees, I have only read THEODORE BOONE by John Grisham (it was an enjoyable read, and a well-told tale for teenagers). I also have a copy of BURY YOUR DEAD in my TBR pile (I think). Interestingly, I only found out about VIRALS recently, in conjunction with Kathy Reichs's brief visit to New Zealand - it sounds like an interesting novel too, and good to see some big-name crime and thriller writers penning tales for younger readers. I think it's so important that reading is encouraged with children, and things are done to develop or cultivate the lifelong love of stories and reading that many of us share.

Have you read any of the nominees? Thoughts welcome.

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

There's been several interesting crime fiction stories on the Web the past four weeks I've been away - from newspapers, magazines, and fellow bloggers. Hopefully you will all like finding an interesting article or two linked here, from recent stories, that you enjoy reading.

Crime Watch Weekly Round-Up: In the News and on the 'Net

• As English-speaking readers become more aware of great crime fiction translated from other languages, Tom Kington of The Guardian looks at how Italian crime might be looking to knock the Scandinavians from the top of the bestseller lists, thanks to a new TV adaptation of the Aurelio Zen novels.
• In an interesting feature interview with Joanne Sasvari of the Vancouver Sun, bestselling author Louise Penny - the only person ever to win three consecutive Agatha Awards - talks about readers being "literary tourists", the place of hope and compassion in her novels of murder and mystery, the fictional Canadian town of Three Pines, and much more.
• Publishers Weekly has broadcast some fascinating findings of a recent research study on the mystery/crime fiction book-buying market sponsored by Sister In Crime and conducted by Bowker’s PubTrack service. Amongst the statistics (US-based I believe): Women bought the most mysteries, accounting for 68% of purchases, 66% of mystery buyers were over 45 years old, and "Knowing or liking an author" was the top reason cited by readers for buying a particular mystery - underlining the importance of author branding and the 'tribal' nature of crime fiction readers.
• In a review of Bradford Morrow's 'The Diviner's Tale' and Jed Rubenfeld's 'The Death Instinct' for the Los Angeles Times, the always-excellent Sarah Weinman also talks about the perils of sales trends-focused publishing for 'mid-list' and up-and-coming authors, and some of the creative tactics being used to break through (in a sales way).
• In an interesting article that may have some parallels for local crime fiction in countries like New Zealand, Chris Thurman of MediaClubSouthAfrica has some interesting thoughts on the growth and slowly increasing recognition of South African crime fiction, and questions about why South African readers have been slow to embrace locally-written stories while buying international crime fiction by the bucket load.
• Jenny Shank of New West - Books and Writers conducts an interview with Denver's Cortwright McKeel, the founder of Murdaland crime fiction literary magazine, about his own "funny, talented debut novel" SHORT.
• Jay Strafford of the Richmonds Times-Dispatch has an interesting 'top 5' mystery novels of 2010, ranging from books by James Lee Burke and Louise Penny, to a "deft combination of Agatha Christie manor-house whodunit, Erle Stanley Gardner courtroom drama and Dan Brown thriller" written by JRR Tolkien's grandson.
• The New York Times has a nice obituary for Joe Gores, "a crime writer whose spare, chiseled sentences and deadpan dialogue put him squarely in the Dashiell Hammett tradition and persuaded Hammett’s daughter to let him write a follow-up to THE MALTESE FALCON", who died earlier this week in California. Read some of the other great tributes to Gores from the San Francisco Chronicle here, the Los Angeles Times here, and The Rap Sheet here.
• The Wall Street Journal takes a look at some new crime fiction, including the latest Lord Peter Wimsey book from Jill Paton Walsh, who was deputised by Dorothy Sayer's estate to continue the series from unpublished manuscripts and letters left behind by Sayers, and has now written a Wimsey tale from scratch, THE ATTENBURY EMERALDS.

Why do you think most crime fiction readers are female, and older? Do you largely follow particular crime writers with your reading? Have you read any/many of the books or authors discussed in this week's articles? What do you think of crime writers continuing series created by other authors (eg Gores with Hammett, Paton Walsh with Sayers)? Comments appreciated.

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

There have been some more great crime fiction stories on the Web this past week - from newspapers, magazines, and fellow bloggers. Hopefully you will all like finding an interesting article or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

Before we dive in however, I'll just quickly mention that those of you in the North Island of New Zealand who are interesed in crime fiction should pick up a copy of this today's Weekend Herald, as it includes my review of the latest Kiwi crime novel to hit booksellers' shelves - SURRENDER by Donna Malane - in the Canvas magazine.

Onto the round-up.

Crime Watch Weekly Round-Up: In the News and on the 'Net

• Last night in The Guardian, 2010 Cartier Diamond Dagger recipient and crime writing legend Val McDermid, whose latest acclaimed thriller TRICK OF THE DARK is partially set back in her old university haunts of Oxford, selected her favourite ten novels set in the 'venerable university town', a list that ranges from the crime tales of Colin Dexter, Edmund Crispin and Dorothy L. Sayers to Evelyn Waugh's BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
• It was announced earlier this week that UK-born, Toronto-based crime writer Peter Robinson (who appeared on New Zealand TV in recent weeks) has been awarded the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize, which which rewards writers who have had a "substantial contribution to the world of books". Read the full CBC.ca story here.
• Monsters and Critics reviews the DVD of the second season of Castle, a TV cop show that stars Nathan Fillion as a crime novelist who gets involved in the investigation of real-life cases alongside a female cop he is basing his new character on.
• The Idaho Mountain Express has a nice interview article with prolific crime writer Ridley Pearson, who has written more than 25 crime novels, been on the New York Times bestseller list, and whose latest release IN HARM'S WAY is another instalment in the adventures of small-town Sheriff Walt Fleming, who apparently is based on a real-life Sheriff who is a close friend of the author.
• Keith Stuart of The Guardian blog asks whether interactive fiction is the future in the digital age, and if so, how it might work well, and not so well.
• Susan Fish of The Record reviews the latest novel from multiple-award-winning Canadian crime writer Louise Penny, BURY YOUR DEAD, while also touching on the 'Good Reads' programme - 100 page books designed for adult literacy learners by top Canadian authors. Penny's THE HANGMAN is one of six Good Reads books being released in 2010.
• Gina Doggett of AFP talks to bestselling crime writer Donna Leon about living in, writing about, but still maintaing a largely anonymous life in Venice, Italy.

So what stories most intrigue you this week? Do you agree with Val McDermid's top 10 Oxford-set stories - has she missed any great ones out? Have you watched the TV show Castle or read Ridley Pearson's novels? What are your thoughts on interactive fiction - did you used to read the 'choose your own adventure' books that were very popular back in the 1980s? What do you think about big-name authors like Louise Penny writing shorter books specifically for adult literacy learners? Thoughts and comments welcome.