Blood-Letter #179

November 2025

In this issue of The Blood-Letter from Friends of Mystery: Bloody Thursday guest Juliet Grames, awards, and new books.

CONTENTS:

• On November 20, 2025 Friends of Mystery Welcomes Juliet Grames
• In Memoriam
• Awards and More Awards
• New and Noteworthy
• New Mailing Address
• Member News
• Buy Books by FOM Speakers at Annie Bloom’s
• Membership Renewal
• Submissions Needed

BLOODY THURSDAY

On November 20, 2025 Friends of Mystery Welcomes Juliet Grames

Friends of Mystery is pleased to welcome Juliet Grames as our guest speaker. Juliet Grames is the national and international bestselling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia. Her debut novel was shortlisted for the New England Book Award and the Connecticut Book Award, and received Italy’s Premio Cetraro for contribution to Southern Italian literature. It has been translated into nine languages. Her third novel, The Moody Mortician, a rom-com crime collaboration with funeral director cousin which they are writing under the joint penname Samantha Jay, is forthcoming from Dutton in spring 2027. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Best American Mystery & Suspense, Real Simple, Parade, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and the Boston Globe, among other venues. Since 2010 she has worked at Soho Press, where she is Editorial Director. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Ellery Queen Award for her editorial work in the crime fiction genre. She lives in New England.

Please join us on Zoom for the meeting, which will open at 6:45 pm, with the formal programming beginning at 7:00 pm. The Zoom link is available below.

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In Memoriam

Thomas Perry

January 1, 1947 – September 15, 2025

Perry’s first novel, The Butcher’s Boy, won the 1983 Edgar for Best First Mystery. He launched his series featuring Jane Whitefield in 1995 with Vanishing Act, and the last book in the series (The Tree of Light and Flowers) will be published in March 2026. He was the winner of three Barry Awards, the most recent of which was for Best Thriller of the Year, presented at Bouchercon in September 2025. Perry was the author of 31 novels.

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Awards and More Awards…

Barry Awards

Anthony Awards

Macavity Awards

International Awards

2025 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year
The Clues in the Fjord, by Satu Ramo (Finnish)

Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere 2025 (France)
The Black Loch, by Peter May (Scotland)

16th Annual Ngaio Marsh Awards (New Zealand)

Australian Crime Writers Association 2025 Ned Kelly Awards

International Association of Crime Writers, North American Branch – 2024 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing
The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore

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New and Noteworthy

(Summaries provided by the publishers)

Guilty by Definition, by Susie Dent

Oxford, England. After a decade abroad, Martha Thornhill has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, where Martha is a newly hired senior editor, it’s rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the coded letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.

The date can mean only one thing: the summer Martha’s brilliant older sister, Charlie, went missing.

When more letters arrive and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. It seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone may be tryi8ng to help the lexicographers unravel the mystery of her disappearance. But other forces are no less desperate to keep their secrets well and truly buried, and Martha and her team must crack the codes before it’s too late.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer, by Ragnar Jonasson

One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elin S. Jonsdottir goes missing.

There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi Reykdal to crack the case before it’s leaked to the press.

As Helgi interviews the people closest to Elin—a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge—he realizes her life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote.

As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer’s very unexpected life.

A Place of Secrets, by Shane Peacock

When Evelyn Massey is found dead in her home, it seems like an open-and-shut case. Evelyn was one hundred years old – natural causes. But Sergeant Alice Morrow learns that traces of poison were found in Mrs. Massey’s blood. Then the remains of a body some sixty years deceased are discovered in the dead woman’s basement.

Two murders, decades apart. Are they connected?

Buried Above Ground, by Mike Ripley

The librarian. It’s been two decades since mystery writer Duncan Torrens was last published. I should know, I was his editor. So why a blogger would turn up asking questions about the rights to his books is beyond me…

The reader. The librarian Roly is a bit odd. You’d think he’d be happy with my blog’s research into a largely forgotten author, but he’s…resistant. If I can get into Duncan’s home – and his mysterious garden shed – I know I’ll find what I’m looking for…

The publisher. Torrens’ books are crying out for a revival. I just need that blogger, Jacon to work out who holds the rights to his backlist. Then I can acquire them before Duncan’s old publishing house realizes they’ve missed a trick!

The editor. I never worked directly with Duncan before he died, but if someone is sniffing round, there must be money involved. I just need to find out what’s happened to the rights before they do…

The writer. After twenty years, will the sudden interest in this author’s forgotten mysteries reveal a dark – and deadly – twist?

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Friends of Mystery has a new mailing address

If you need to contact us by mail, the new address is:

Friends of Mystery
P.O. Box 332
Sherwood, Oregon 97140

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Member News

The second book in Friends of Mystery member Emmeline Duncan’s Halloween Bookshop Mystery Series, Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding, came out on July 29th. She’ll be at the Cedar Hills Powell’s Books on September 18th.

It’s Halloween year-round in Elyan Hollow, Oregon, where Bailey Briggs sells the latest tomes of frights and fears at the bustling Lazy Bones Books—when she’s not uncovering deadly secrets and mysteries that haunt the town . . .

Learn more at emmelineduncan.com.

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 P.O. Box 332, Sherwood, OR 97140. 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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Fall: the time for cozy sweaters and great mysteries