Bouchercon Announces Nominees

For 2023 Anthony Awards

Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, last week announced the 2023 nominees for its annual Anthony Awards. Some of them include:

Best Hardcover:

Like A Sister, by Kellye Garrett (Mulholland Books)

The Devil Takes You Home, by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland Books)

The Bullet that Missed, by Richard Osman (Pamela Dorman Books)

A World of Curiosities, by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine Books)

Secret Identity, by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)

Best First Novel:

Don’t Know Tough, by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime) 

Shutter, by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)

The Bangalore Detectives Club, by Harini Nagendra (Pegasus Books) 

Devil’s Chew Toy, by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)

The Maid, by Nita Prose (Ballantine Books) 

Best Paperback/eBook/Audiobook:

Real Bad Things, by Kelly J. Ford (Thomas & Mercer Audio)

Dead Drop, by James L’Etoile (Level Best Books)

The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)

Hush Hush, by Gabriel Valjan (Historia)

In the Dark We Forget, by Sandra SG Wong (HarperCollins Publishers)

Here’s the list of all this year’s nominees. The winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held in San Diego on September 2. 

Tiny Gibraltar Features Prominently In

Global Mystery And Espionage Novels

The British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar—aka “The Rock” or simply “Gib”—is a long-contested territory at the strategically crucial western entrance to the Mediterranean. The tiny spit of land controlled by the UK consists of two and a half square miles and a year-round population of 32,000, boosted by hundreds of Spanish day workers, as well as the men and women of whichever Royal Navy ships happen to be in port. Plus, there’s the famous Barbary Apes tourists love to photograph and which have been known to escape uncaptured with the odd wallet, camera, or ice cream. The small speck of land has been the focus of numerous military and intelligence skirmishes over the years, and while Madrid sees the British presence as a provocation, the British government shows no sign of packing up and going home. As Paul French noted in a recent Crime Reads article, Gibraltar also features prominently in many espionage and crime novels, from Barry Perowne’s “gentleman thief” Raffles in the 1937 mystery Crime in Gibraltar to Thomas Mogford’s five-book Spike Sanguinetti series, which starts with Shadow of the Rock (2012). And Lohn le Carré’s 2013 superb spy novel A Delicate Truth features a British/American covert mission in Gibraltar and the subsequent consequences for two British civil servants.

DNA COLD CASE

Serial Killer Who Says He Killed Over 100 Admits To 50-Year-Old Murders

Ailing serial killer Richard Cottingham—aka the Torso Killer—has pleaded guilty to the 1968 murder of Long Island mother Diane Cusick in Nassau County, New York, as well as four other Nassau County murders he was charged with last summer. Cottingham, who confessed to killing Cusick after DNA evidence tied him to the case via a federal database, says he began his murder spree of more than 100 victims when he was still a teen growing up in New Jersey. “For a long time now I have been trying to understand the darkness that enveloped my soul during my youth,” he told Rolling Stone. “Remorse back then wasn’t part of my thought process. When the sun went down, and the moon came up, the animal form that is in all of us came out and controlled my actions.” A divorced computer operator who frequented sex clubs, Cottingham was arrested on May 22, 1980, after attempting to murder 18-year-old Leslie Ann O’Dell at a motel in New Jersey. He previously left the remains of another victim, 19-year-old Valerie Ann Street, at the same hotel. Initially, Cottingham was convicted of five murders and sentenced to life in prison. His known victims at the time were Street; radiologist MaryAnn Carr of Little Ferry, who was also left in the Quality Inn parking lot, in 1977; sex worker Deedeh Goodarzi and an unidentified friend; and 25-year-old Jean Mary Ann Reyner. Goodarzi and her friend were discovered dismembered and aflame in a Times Square hotel room in 1979, their heads were never found, giving Cottingham his grisly nickname.

16 Edgy Thrillers To Read If

You’re A Fan Of Jack Reacher

Lee Child’s bestselling Jack Reacher series has been captivating mystery and thriller fans for over two decades. The series, named after the main character, follows ex-Army MP whose exploits as a self-exiled nomad regularly place him in harms’ way as he searches for truth, justice, and a pugilistic sort of righteousness. Small-town crooks and major metro crime bosses never stand a chance when he crosses the city limits and, as he quickly deduces that people are up to no good, much blood is shed, usually through the throwing of punches and elbows. At six-five he’s a one-man wrecking crew, a stat that Tom Cruise readily overlooked when casting himself in two the title role of two feature-length Reacher films. A bulkier and more-ripped Alan Ritchson plays the title character in the current Prime Video series, which returns this fall with Season 2. If you like Jack Reacher and have already read all the books and watched all the media, don’t worry: Facebook is chock full of books featuring protagonists billed as “the next Reacher,” and Sara Kapheim at Murder-Mayhem compiled a list of crime novels with Reacher-esque anti-heroes who also have their own dark pasts and moral codes. “Many of these books are all a part of larger series, which—like Reacher—can be read in any order,” she says. “These crime-fighting and mystery-solving people are sure to occupy the space Jack Reacher left in your reading life.”

REVIEW

Parker Totally Nails The Human-Animal

Bond In His Riveting Novel The Rescue

The arrival of a new T. Jefferson Parker novel on my doorstep is a cause for celebration. The three-time Edgar Award winner and bestselling author is unrivaled in his ability to craft unique characters who defy the usual tropes of mysteries and crime fiction, and he’s at the top of his game in The Rescue. Not only has he spun a taut, riveting thriller about a bloody war between competing cartels in the drug-addled city of Tijuana, but much of the book is told directly through the eyes and musings of Joe, a Mexican street dog injured in a Sinaloa shoot-out. While reporting on a Tijuana animal shelter, SoCal journalist Bettina Blazak falls in love with the wounded stray and impulsively adopts him, only to learn that he’s actually a former DEA drug-sniffing canine who has led a very colorful, dangerous, and profitable life. As Bettina’s story goes viral, she finds that more than a few people from all sides of the law are looking for him, and will go to extreme lengths to get him back—or kill him. The magic—indeed, the sheer joy—in this book is the natural manner in which Parker [pictured with his own Tijuana rescue dog Jasper] masterfully captures the bond between humans and dogs. Once again, he proves himself a master of crime fiction as he ratchets up the danger, the emotion, and the perils of falling in love…whether it’s with a rescue dog or a life partner. Who, sometimes, turns out to be one and the same.

NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Greenwich Mean Time

“A globe-spanning, mind-spinning thriller that will delight fans of Jason Bourne. Rōnin Phythian, an assassin with extraordinary powers and a code of his own, deserves a sequel. Make that sequels.” —Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of House on Fire

“Greenwich Mean Time is a rollicking good time of thrills and skills.” —New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry

"Over-the-top action..." —Publishers Weekly

"Original, riveting, and with more unexpected plot twists and turns than a Disneyland roller coaster, Greenwich Mean Time is a fun read for anyone with an interest in assassination and conspiracy psychic thriller novels."

—Midwest Book Review

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