Agatha Awards shortlist announced

For those who like their malice domestic, here are the nominations for the Agathas:

Best Novel
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, by Donna Andrews (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Her Royal Spyness, by Rhys Bowen (Penguin Group)
Hard Row, by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing)
A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Murder With Reservations, by Elaine Viets (NAL)

Best First Novel
A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch ( St. Martin 's Minotaur)
A Real Basket Case, by Beth Groundwater (Five Star)
Silent In The Grave, by Deanna Raybourn (Mira)
Prime Time, by Hank Phillipi Ryan (Harlequin)

Best Nonfiction
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life In Letters, by Charles Foley, Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower (Penguin Press)
The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, by Penny Warner (Quirck Productions)

Best Short Story
"A Rat's Tale", by Donna Andrews (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Sept/Oct, 2007)
"Please Watch Your Step", by Rhys Bowen (The Strand, Spring, 2007)
"Casino Gamble", by Nan Higginson (Murder New York Style, L & L Dreamspell)
"Popping Round To The Post", by Peter Lovesey (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November, 2007)
"Death Will Clean Your Closet", by Elizabeth Zelvin (Murder New York Style, L & L Dreamspell)

Best Children's/Young Adult
A Light In The Cellar, by Sarah Masters Buckey (American Girl)
Bravo Zulu, Samantha!, by Kathleen Benner Duble (Peachtree Publishers)
Cover-Up: Mystery At The Super Bowl, by John Feinstein (Knopf)
The Falconer's Knot, by Mary Hoffman (Bloomsbury USA Children's Books)
Theodosia And The Serpents Of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin)

The Agathas will be presented at the Malice Domestic XX banquet on April 26, 2008 being held at Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, Virginia. The annual convention of cozy authors takes place April 25-27 and will feature special awards for Lindsey Davis, Charlaine Harris and Peter Lovesey; Toastmaster will be Dan Stashower.

For information, go to: http://www.malicedomestic.org/

More March madness

Maybe it's because I'm tired of all the lousy weather or the fact that it's Leap Year, but I continually think about March and what it will bring.

Yesterday, I was thinking St. Patrick's Day and that, of course, led me to Irish mysteries. What would I suggest for a suitable (or unsuitable) tribute to the snake driver?

First, there's Christine Falls, Benjamin Black's '50s era Dublin noir featuring Quirke, a larger -than-life pathologist out to discover how the eponymous woman met her death and what happened to her child. Things get murkier for Quirke as he indulges too much at his favorite pub and endures pressure from within his family and from without. A great read whether you like mysteries or not. Upcoming is The Silver Swan, a sequel also featuring Quirke.

Some of my favorite Ireland-centric mysteries are the series about Chief Inspector Peter McGarr, written by Bartholomew Gill. Through the years Gill has given us a continually well- written series, including Death in Dublin, The Death of an Irish Tradition, The Death of an Irish Lass, The Death of an Irish Consul and The Death of an Irish Lover, to name a few. You don't see these books around much, but they are still in print and that's a blessing.

For historical mysteries, I don't have to go any further than Peter Tremayne whose 7th century tales of Sister Fidelma has been delighting readers for a decade. In the latest entry, A Prayer for the Damned, Fidelma of Cashel and Eadulf are preparing for their upcoming nuptials when a murder of a fanatical abbott puts the on one of the wedding guests.

And, of course, you can't get more Irish than Ken Bruen's Priest in which Father Joyce is decapitated in the confessional of a Galway church. And we can expect more Galway mayhem come March with Cross, which brings protagonist Jack Taylor face-to-face with another horrific case.

And while you're at it take a look at Dublin Noir: The Celtic Tiger vs. the Ugly American, in which Ken Bruen edits works set in Dublin by authors Eoin Colfer, Jason Starr, Laura Lippman, Olen Steinhauer, Peter Spiegelman, kevin Wignall, Jim Fusilli, Charlie Stella, Ray Banks and others. It's sort of a hands-across-the-Irish-Sea collection of short stories all set in the city of sweet Molly Malone.

*

Writers I'd like to see back in print: Gemma O'Connor, who's mystery novels Following the Wake and Walking on Water, are nowhere to be found.

March madness

Here we are just past St. Valentine's Day and I am looking forward with anticipation to March. Not that I long for what we in Vermont call Mud Season (although a little thaw would be nice). No, it's a time when new titles will be added to the shelf, and that is reason to celebrate.

As a fan of British short-story writing, I'm looking forward to The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, a new collection of stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski. This latest gathering of British mystery writers includes new stories by the creme de la crime with newly told tales by Mark Billingham, Lee Child, Val McDermid, Len Deighton, Colin Dexter, John Harvey and two dozen other practitioners of mayhem.

Vertical Inc., which gave us Keigo Higashino's Naoka several years back will be issuing the first English translation of his Malice. It looks to be a twisted tale in which a bestselling author is murdered and a fellow author immediately confesses to the crime. But with Higashino nothing is obvious and, if nothing else, it should prove to be a real brain teaser. Also from Verical Inc. comes Kenzo Kitakata's City of Refuge in which a man and a kidnapped boy are being pursued by the yakuza and by Detective Takagi, in this paperback original. Other Kenzo books include Ashes, Winter Sleep and The Cage. And one more from Vertical, this time by Seicho Matsumoto comes Pro Bono, in which a high-priced lawyer tells a young woman he cannot help defend her brother; the young woman decides to get some revenge. Matsumoto is an award-winning novelist and author of Inspector Imanishi Investigates.

Next to Victorian England where everything is genteel and aboveboard. Or is it? Blockbuster writer Anne Perry brings back Thomas Pitt in Buckingham Palace Gardens. In this case Pitt is called in to solve a murder of a woman at a stag party thrown by Edward, Prince of Wales.


And let's not forget 19th Century Europe. I'm looking forward to a first novel by Michael Gregorio titled Critique of Criminal Reason. Sounds boring, you say? How's this for a plot: Arriving in the city of Königsberg to help solve a strange series of murders, young detective Hanno Stiffeniis joins forces with his mentor, philosopher Immanuel Kant, to track down the serial killer terrorizing the city. Prussia, it would seem, is as good a place to get bumped off as any and the novel is coming out in paperback from Griffin. Meanwhile, the followup to this novel, Days of Atonement (from Minatour), introduces Stiffeniis to the murder of three children and the disappearance of their mother. Fans of Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters should look to both books if they crave detective work coupled with psychological insight.

For those of us who just can't get enough mysteries featuring castrati, soprano Tito Amato returns for a fourth mystery in The Iron Tongue of Midnight. Author Beverle Graves Myers, who first introduced us to Tito in Interrupted Aria, returns to the rarified world of Venetian Opera. This book, like the three before it, will be published by Poison Pen Press.

And if you like your mysteries modern and cozy, Laura Child is back on the scene. Her Dragonwell Dead will be release in paperback by Berkley the same time her latest hardcover The Silver Needle Murder hits the shelves. In this latest adventure Theodosia Browning and her staff are catering a film festival party when a famous director is shot. (Recipes and tea time tips are included.)

And, in a followup to Dry Ice, psychologist Alan Gregory is in a dilemma when his ex-wife contacts him for help in Stephen White's Dead Time. With a first printing of 100,000 copies,
we can only imagine that Dutton has high hopes for White's latest effort.

Playing Mock the Monk

I watch some TV, usually keeping it to a few shows: Torchwood, Psych, Chuck and Numbers (and Pushing Daisies when I remember its on). While the current season of Monk was written before the writers' strike, the last few shows would have a tough time proving it.

While I don't expect a lot from Psych in the way of mystery (it is, after all, mostly comedy), I do expect Monk with its fine cast to rise above the standards of ... say, Mystery Woman. However, over the last few weeks Monk has lost me. We've had Mr. Monk Joins a Cult (its main clue being a secret door we could never have deduced), Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank (a poor reworking of Murder on the Orient Express, I turned it off half way through the episode), Mr. Monk and the Three Julies (predictable, but a valiant try) and, lord deliver us, Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece (my cat solved that one in the first 10 minutes). Even the antics of Tony Shalhoub couldn't save that last one.

I know that doing a mystery series in the constraints of an hour must be difficult, but at least Monk isn't burdened by a rash of guest stars (Howie Mandel, not withstanding) to divert you from the mystery or truly insufferable characters (Jessica Fletcher's nephew Grady comes to mind). It has a solid base of characters that could serve its stories well.

No, Monk's problem is worse; in a stretch to give Shalhoub a chance to strut his stuff as the phobic-ridden detective, the writers have neglected to give the audience well-constructed mysteries. And it is the audience that really counts.

While characters drive a plot in a good mystery series, it would seem as if Monk, in its pursuit to be antic, has forgotten how to be engaging. It has become a family comedy (father Leland, mother Natalie, kid brother Randy, wise uncle Dr. Kroger) in which the nerdy son trips over a new dead body every week. Nerdy Adrian knows something isn't quite right, but leave it to mom and dad ... and sometimes even wise uncle Dr. Kroger ... to doubt him. Haven't they tumbled to the fact that Monk is usually right? Like every sitcom, these characters fail to grow and must learn the same weekly lesson only to forget it in the next episode (unless, of course, remembering it is convenient for a particular plot).

If Monk wants us to believe its characters, it should let them grow. If Monk wants us to believe its plots, someone is going to have to pay more attention to their construction. Either way, if the show doesn't remember its roots in storytelling, one of those dead bodies it encounters will be the show itself.

You're gonna need a bigger boat

One of the most solid actors to come out of the '70s, Roy Scheider died Sunday at age 75. While he will always be remembered for his role in the 1975 film Jaws, the two movies I most liked were The French Connection and All That Jazz. Both films brought him Oscar nominations, for a best-supporting actor in 1971's The French Connection and for best-actor for 1979's All That Jazz, the Bob Fosse film. A political activist, most recently against the war in Iraq, his voice will be sorely missed.

Black heart

Loved Christine Falls and can't wait for Quirke to return in The Silver Swan (to be release March 4). Well, author Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) is back in print in the Sunday New York Times. The Sunday serial is called The Lemur and if you want to read it before Picador gets it on the bookshelves in June 2008, all you need to do is to go to: http://www.benjaminblackbooks.com/news.htm and click through to the New York Times pages. The serialization began Jan. 13 and currently three chapters are online with, presumably, more to come.

Booker Man Prize-winner Banville has certainly offered mystery before (The Book of Evidence about a confessed murderer) and an exploration of secrets (The Shroud). What a splendid writer; always intelligent, literate, exciting. And what a surprise that the pseudenonymously penned Christine Falls would bring the award-winning Irish writer the recognition in the States he's deserved for so long.

Something 'Wicked' this way comes

I'm not one who normally enjoys books with a high body count, let alone gruesomely detailed deaths by torture. I'm from the Agatha Christie Old School: Meet the characters, kill one descretely (preferrably off stage), interview the suspects and then gather them all in a room for the denoument.

I got none of that from Leighton Gage's first effort Blood of the Wicked which, after a body count in the teens (I stopped counting), still was compelled to read it to the end. While it might not be my typical cup of tea, it proved to be a heady brew of mayhem that keeps you riveted. No one in this book is without sin -- not the assassin of a bishop, not the police, not the land owners and not the farm workers.

Set in Brazil, Blood of the Wicked introduces Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Federal Police and his nephew and partner Hector Costa. Together they investigate the bishop's death, and as the body count increases, the death of a disparate group who may or may not be connected with the initial crime.

Blood of the Wicked is a great start to a new series and Mario Silva, no saint himself, a compelling protagonist. Author Leighton Gage is on tour through March and the Brazilain-based writer (when he's not at home in the Netherlands or Florida) will be an interesting speaker.

For information on Gage's tour (and all other Soho Crime authors), check out Soho Crime's site at http://www.sohopress.com/tours.html Or go to the Events page at http://www.mysteryonmain.com/ for more information.