The Wolfe Pack had its annual gala event this past Saturday – Dec. 7, 2013. Yes, as is tradition on the first Saturday of December, the Wolfe Pack held their Black Orchid Banquet. They announced their 2013 Nero Award winner, as well as congratulated all of the 2013 nominees. They also announced the winner of the 2013 Black Orchid Novella Award.

2013 Nero Award:

Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf (Winner)
Antiques Disposal by Barbara Allan
Burning Midnight by Loren D. Estleman
The Truth of All Things by Kieran Shields

2013 Black Orchid Novella Award:

Susan Thibadeau: “The Discarded Spouse” (in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July/August, 2014)

Congratulations to ALL!

If you would like to take a look at the past winners and nominees for these two awards, here are the links:

Nero Awards page

Black Orchid Novella Awards page

I just got word that the 2013 Nero Award Nominees have been picked. The Nero Awards are given to authors who write mystery novels similar to the way Rex Stout wrote his Nero Wolfe mystery books – which are definitely classic mysteries.

The Wolfe Pack is a society of literary people who, simply put, love everything about Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout’s main sleuth – although Archie Goodwin might think he’s the main sleuth!) The Wolfe Pack hosts the Black Orchid Banquet each year, during December – on the first Saturday of that month. It is at this time that the winners is announced.

Here are the 2013 Nero Award Nominees:

Barbara Allan: Antiques Disposal

Kieran Shields: The Truth of All Things

Loren D. Estleman: Burning Midnight

Chris Knopf: Dead Anyway

Congratulations to all the 2013 Nero Award Nominees!

If you’d like to take a look at all of the Nero Award Nominees and Winners from past years, here’s the link.

Congratulations to all of this year’s Bouchercon mystery author nominees!

Most of you already know that Bouchercon is a huge convention that celebrates mystery authors and their books. This year, Bouchercon XLIV will be held in Albany, New York (at the Empire State Plaza) during the September 19 – 22 weekend.

The awards they present at the Bouchercon conventions are the Anthony Awards, which are named after Anthony Boucher, one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America organization.

Here is the list of the Bouchercon XLIV authors and their works:

Lifetime Achievement:  Sue Grafton

International Guest of Honor:  Anne Perry

American Guest of Honor:  Tess Gerritsen

Toastmaster:  Steve Hamilton

Fan Guests of Honor:  Chris Aldrich & Lynn Kaczmarek

Best Novel:

Dare Me by Megan Abbott
The Trinity Game by Sean Chercover
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best First Novel:

Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
The Professionals by Owen Laukkanen
The Expats by Chris Pavone
The 500 by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays by Michael Sears

Best Paperback Original:

Whiplash River by Lou Berney
Murder for Choir by Joelle Charbonneau
And She Was by Alison Gaylin
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn
Big Maria by Johnny Shaw

Best Short Story:

Mischief in Mesopotamia by Dana Cameron
Kept in the Dark by Shelia Connolly
The Lord is My Shamus by Barb Goffman
Peaches by Todd Robinson, Grift
The Unremarkable Heart by Karin Slaughter

Best Critical Nonfiction Work:

Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels by John Connolly and Declan Burke, eds.
Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950 by Joseph Goodrich, ed.
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle, M.D.
The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie by Mathew Prichard, ed.
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero by Otto Penzler, ed.

Congratulations to ALL!

I mentioned that my husband and I were listening to Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time while on the road to visit my mother, brother, and Yellowstone. When I became aware of both the British list and USA list of the top 100 mystery books of all time, I decided that I wanted to broaden my mystery reading scope. What better mystery book to start with than the number one pick on the British list, and number four on the USA list!

We finished listening to this 1951 mystery book, and I was left with sort of a question – Is this a mystery or is this book a history-mystery? I’m not sure I would have picked it for either if those lists, but, of course, my opinion is just that, my opinion.

While I found the novel interesting, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a mystery. The book takes place in a hospital room. This book, not being the first in Josephine Tey‘s Inspector Alan Grant Mystery Series, has the characters already knowing each other, and the action already known. Apparently, Alan Grant has been injured, and is stuck in the hospital with more time on his hands than he knows what to do with. His well-meaning friends have supplied him with books, but Grant simply isn’t in the mood to lay there and read.

This is what then starts the “mystery” part of the book. He begins to wonder if King Richard III did indeed kill his two young nephews in order to continue reigning Britain, or if the story that has been commonly told by authors (including Shakespeare) is simply a made-up piece of history.

I think that perhaps, years ago, before the time of the internet, the historical references that Grant and his cohort uncover could be made to look like some type of “mystery” solving. However, having access to all sorts of facts now that we can simply Google a topic made this book seem like less of a “mystery” and more of a “possibility” – which is why I’m not sure if I’d think of this book as the number one (or four) best mystery book of all time.

I think that I am going to have to read more of Josephine Tey’s books and then perhaps compare the two books to see if she does, indeed, write true mysteries – at least what I would conside true mysteries.

Daughter of Time was certainly interesting to listen to, and, since both my husband and I (he, more than me) are interested in history, we both enjoyed it. But, I would not categorize it as a classic mystery book – but then, that’s just my opinion.