September 2024
In this issue of The Blood-Letter from Friends of Mystery: Spotted Owl Award winner Marc Cameron, awards, a Bouchercon recap, and more.
CONTENTS:
- On September 26, 2024 Friends of Mystery Welcomes Spotted Owl Winner Marc Cameron
- And the Winners Were
- Bouchercon 2024
- New and Noteworthy
- Member News
- Buy Books by FOM Speakers at Annie Bloom’s
- Membership Renewal
- Submissions Needed
BLOODY THURSDAY
On September 26, 2024 Friends of Mystery Welcomes Spotted Owl Winner Marc Cameron
Friends of Mystery is pleased to welcome Spotted Owl Award-winning author Marc Cameron. He won his award for Breakneck, the fifth book in his Arliss Cutter series. His most recent book in the series is Bad River, which came out this summer.
Author of the New York Times bestselling Jericho Quinn Thriller series, Marc Cameron’s short stories have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and BOYS LIFE magazine. In late 2016, he was chosen to continue the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan/Campus Thriller series. TOM CLANCY COMMAND AND CONTROL was released in November 2023.
Cameron is a retired Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal who spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement. His assignments have taken him from Alaska to Manhattan, Canada to Mexico and dozens of points in between. He holds a second-degree black belt in Jujitsu and is a certified scuba diver and man-tracking instructor.
Originally from Texas, Cameron is an avid sailor and adventure motorcyclist. His books often feature boats and bikes including OSI Agent Jericho Quinn’s beloved BMW GS Adventure. Cameron lives in Alaska with his wife and BMW GS motorcycle. He enjoys hearing from his readers.
Please join us at TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont Street, Portland, Oregon 7215, in person or via Zoom. The event is free and open to the public. A social time begins at 7:00 pm, with the program beginning at 7:30 pm. Free parking is available in the block across from the entrance. Bus line #15 will drop you off right by the door.
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And the Winners Were
Crime Writers’ Association 2024 Dagger Awards
Diamond Dagger (Lifetime Achievement in Crime Writing)
Lynda LaPlante
James Lee Burke
Gold Dagger (Best Crime Novel)
Una Mannion for Tell Me What I Am
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
Jordan Harper for Everybody Knows
ILP John Creasy New Blood Dagger
Jo Callaghan for In the Blink of an Eye
Historical Dagger
Jake Lamar for Viper’s Dream
Dagger in the Library
Anthony Horowitz
Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year
Jo Callaghan for In the Blink of an Eye
Barry Awards
Best Mystery or Crime Novel
Dennis Lehane for Small Mercies
Best First Mystery or Crime Novel
I.S. Berry for The Peacock and the Sparrow
Best Paperback Original, Mystery of Crime Novel
Jake Needham for Who the Hell is Harry Black?
Best Thriller
Mick Herron for The Secret Hours
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Bouchercon 2024
Bouchercon 2024 was held in Nashville, Tennessee this year. The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center was located on a seven-acre facility within walking distance of the Grand Ole Opry. While the surrounding area had 100 degrees plus temperatures, the 3000 room hotel was under a temperature-controlled glass dome, so we were quite comfortable.
Carrie Richards, Sheila Sweet and I arrived on Monday afternoon, and were able to do a little exploring of the facility, which required a map to navigate. We were able to pick up our registration materials early, giving us a chance to have an advance peek at the panels and interviews being offered once the conference officially began.
The panels began on Wednesday at noon and continued through Sunday morning. The theme of the conference was “Murder and Mayhem in Music City”. The honorees were Harlan Coben (Distinguished Guest of Honor), Heather Graham (American Guest of Honor), Mick Herron (International Guest of Honor), Brad Thor (Thriller Guest of Honor), Anthony Horowitz (Lifetime Achievement), Valerie (V.M. Burns (Cozy Guest of Honor), Kelli Stanley (Historical Guest of Honor), J.T. Ellison (Local Guest of Honor), Clay Stafford (Fan Guest of Honor) and Rachel Howzell Hall (Toastmaster).
Each guest of honor was interviewed separately over the course of the conference.
Each attendee got to choose four free books as part of the registration packet, and there was a “Book Room” where books were sold, and authors were available for autographs after their panels. There was also a pop-up Starbucks available near the book room in the mornings if you needed more caffeine. You were on your own for most meals, but there were a variety of restaurants on the grounds.
On Saturday evening they announced the Anthony Awards, voted on by the conference attendees. The awards went to:
Best Hardcover Novel
All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby
Best First Novel
Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon
Best Paperback Novel
Hide, by Tracy Clark
Best Short Story
Ticket to Ride, by Dru Ann Love & Kristopher Zgorski
Best Critical Or Nonfiction Work
A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan
Panel Suggestions
One of my favorite panels this year was from the reviewers of Deadly Pleasures Magazine, entitled “Simply The Best – Mystery Reviewers Talk About Their Favorite Mysteries”. Each of the reviewers talked about “Recent Favorites”, “Classic Favorite” and “Little-known Author/Title Favorite”, and I’d like to share with you their “classic” and “little-known” favorites. I know I’m going to look up these and see what they were talking about.
Classic Favorites
- Child, Lee. Killing Floor
- Connelly, Michael. The Last Coyote
- Cook, Thomas H. Breakheart Hill
- Hill, Reginald. Dialogues of the Dead
- McDermid, Val. A Place of Execution
Little-Known Author/Title Favorites
- Noor, Rozlan Mohd. 21 Immortals
- Reid, Iain. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
- Sinclair, John Gordon. Walk in Silence
- Tellier, Herve Le. The Anomaly
- Willard, Fred (1997). Down on Ponce
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New and Noteworthy
(Summaries provided by the publishers)
Ordinary Bear by C.B. Bernard
Farley stands out among his Inupiat neighbors in the Alaska village he calls home, both white and enormous, like the hungry polar bears that wander its streets. Jovial and a little hapless, he works as an investigator for a North Slope oil company, passing the long Arctic winters drinking whiskey with the village’s preacher and playing in the weekly poker game hosted by its matriarch and mayor.
When his young daughter visits from thousands of miles away in Portland—where she lives with her mother, who despises him—a shocking moment of violence leaves her dead and Farley injured. Crippled by his wounds and hamstrung with guilt over his inability to save her, he goes home to Oregon to try to make amends.
There he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a single mother and her daughter. With their help, he begins the slow process of healing—until the girl goes missing. Faced with the opportunity to do what he couldn’t do for his own daughter, Farley sets out on a brutal odyssey through Portland’s quirky and dangerous underworld, using his wits and his fists to try to save her life along with the shattered remains of his own.
The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald
The small, run-down village of Great Diddling is full of stories – author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers…Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she’s just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn’t just want this story. She needs it.
Then, while attending a village tea party, Berit becomes part of the action herself. An explosion in the library of the village’s grand manor kills a local man, and the resulting investigation and influx of outsiders sends the quiet community into chaos. The residents of Great Diddling, each one more eccentric and interesting than any character Berit could have invented, rewrite their own narrative and transform the death of one of their own from a tragedy into a new beginning. Taking advantage of Great Diddling’s new notoriety, the villagers band together to start a book and murder festival designed to bring desperately needed tourists to their town. What they couldn’t have predicted is how the new story they’ve begun to tell will change all their lives forever.
When Cicadas Cry by Caroline Cleveland
A high-profile murder case—A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Waterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state rolling with racial tension, the murder case is a powder keg.
A haunting cold case—Two young women are murdered on nearby Edisto Beach, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later, the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection?
A killer who’s watching—Attorney Zach Stander takes on Jenkins’s defense, but he’s up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a shocking secret. When private investigator Addie Stone, Stander’s partner, reopens the cold case, long-buried secrets begin coming to light. Would someone kill again to keep them?
The Black Loch by Peter May
When the lifeless body of eighteen-year-old Caitlin is discovered on a desolate beach by the Black Loch, questions of murder and secrecy shroud the tight-knit community. It soon emerges that the young woman was in an illicit relationship with Fionnlagh Macleod, a married teacher at the Nicholson Institute where she was a student. Her lover becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. He is also Fin’s son.
Despite leaving the island a decade earlier to escape the haunting memories of his past, Fin is compelled to return to Lewis in a desperate attempt, despite the evidence, to clear his troubled son’s name. He will discover that the crime is connected to his own teenage years, in a tragic salmon fishing accident that had led to two deaths, and in the growth of a multi-billion-pound industry on the island.
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Share Your Member News
Friends of Mystery is happy to publish news and press releases from our members in our Member News section, with the following considerations:
- The news must be related to mystery or true crime writing, films, and television, as well as non-fiction examinations of the mystery genre.
- Friends of Mystery will not be able to edit announcements, and will publish them as provided.
- Friends of Mystery will include one image with each announcement, if provided.
- Friends of Mystery is not responsible for the content of news announcements, and we reserve the right to not publish any announcements which we feel will reflect poorly on the organization and do not advance the organization’s mission.
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Buy Books by Friends of Mystery Speakers Online at Annie Bloom’s Books
If you want to order any of our speaker’s books, you can find them at our special Friends of Mystery page at Annie Bloom’s Books!
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Membership Renewal
It’s never too late to consider renewing your membership to Friends of Mystery! Dues are $20.00 annually. FOM is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Dues and additional donations are deductible to the full extent of the law. Please mail your check, made out to Friends of Mystery, to PO Box 8251, Portland, Oregon 97207. Your newsletter will be sent electronically unless otherwise requested.
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Submissions Needed
Members and readers are encouraged to submit book or film reviews, comments on authors, and recommendations for books to read or questions about mysteries, crime fiction and fact. If you have suggestions of mysteries worth sharing, please contact the editor at: jlvoss48@gmail.com.
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