Killer Nashville Announces 2022

Silver Falchion Awards

The 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion awards were announced at the Killer Nashville dinner in Nashville on August 20. The mystery conference honors authors in a number of categories; some of those in the “top” categories” are mentioned here:

Best Mystery: An Ambush of Widows, by Jeff Abbot

Best Suspense: The Reunion, by Kiersten Modglin

Best Thriller: The General's Briefcase, by Ray Collins

Best Action Adventure: The Pilate Scroll, by M.B.

Lewis

Best Comedy: Big Fat F@K Up, by Lawrence Allan

Best Cozy: Suitable for Framing, by Lori Roberts

Herbst

Best Juvenile/YA: Leisha’s Song, by Lynn Slaughter

Best Nonfiction: The Home for Friendless Children,

by C.L. Olsen

The Silver Falchion Awards recognize “some of the best stories from the previous year told through various media utilizing the elements of mystery, thriller, and/or suspense. Judges are professional writers, book reviewers, librarians, academics, and—in specialized cases—specific industry peers. Focus is on quality, not popularity.”

Eleven Morally Grey Shows To

Watch Now That Ozark Is Over

One of the most popular streaming series on television the last four years was Ozark, which concluded its run with a finale that has been described as both “bewildering” and “anticlimactic.” In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say I made it only halfway through the first season, after finding absolutely no character I actually cared about. However, as I recently learned through a social media posting, a lot of people vehemently disagree, including my friends at Murder-Mayhem. “It won't be easy to say farewell to Ozark following four exhilarating seasons,” the editors collectively wrote last week. “Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and Julia Garner brought dizzying levels of unmatchable energy and skill to the adrenaline-fueled family crime drama about a financial planner who finds himself funneling money for a Mexican drug cartel. Now that the series is officially over…we've put together this list of 11 TV shows that explore complicated issues like the international drug trade, dysfunctional families, secret identities—and the multilayered reasons why seemingly moral people sometimes choose to live on the edge.”

REVIEW

Lawrence Block’s Latest Rhodenbarr Book Is Full Of Extraordinarily Masterful Twists

Let me begin by stating the obvious: Lawrence Block is the master of mystery and crime fiction. Grand master, actually, having been given the title by the Mystery Writers of America in 1994 for his body of work, which includes over 100 novels, and multiple Edgar and Shamus awards. I’ve devoured plenty of his books, but I had never read one in his Bernie Rhodenbarr series—until several weeks ago when I dug into The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown. That’s when I instantly remembered, almost for the first time, why he is such a marvelous author and skilled observer of the social condition. Who else but Block could take a retired burglar who now runs a secondhand bookstore in Greenwich Village, pair him up with a decidedly “out” lesbian pet groomer, and throw in the temptation of stealing the most famous diamond in the world from perhaps the most unsavory reprobate on the planet. Then—and here’s where the author’s literary genius comes in—he tops it off with a Venn diagram of overlapping universes straight from the late Fredric Brown’s 1949 science fiction novel What Mad Universe. The result is a complex but delightful tale in which (spoiler alert) Bernie’s theft of the rare gem appears all but unnoticed but, in his temporary new world, the police are eyeing him as the prime suspect in an altogether different heist. All in all, an extraordinarily wonderful story with twists that blindside you through to the last page. Masterful…and available now at Amazon.

50-Year-Old Cold Case Finally Solved

As DNA Match Leads To Killer

Nancy Marie Bennallack was a 28-year-old court reporter when she was brutally murdered in the bedroom of her home in Sacramento, California on Oct. 26, 1970. Forensics analysts found she had been stabbed almost three dozen times and had been nearly decapitated, which at the time indicated it probably had been a crime of passion. Bennallack was engaged and planning to get married the following month, and her devastated fiancé, family, and friends spent the next 52 years wondering what happened to her. Last week, the Sacramento Bee reported that the case was solved by investigators who used DNA genealogy techniques to identify Richard John Davis as her killer. Davis was living in the same apartment complex as the victim at the time of her murder, and police now believe he put tape on his fingertips to avoid leaving prints, then climbed up to her balcony and entered her apartment. Defensive wounds on her body that show she tried to fight off the attack, and he was cut so badly that he left a trail of blood from her apartment to the middle of the parking lot. In 2004, a DNA profile was developed from the drops, and a year later retired detective Micky Links began working on the case. The Sacramento County cold case unit started reexamining the case in 2019, and last month announced it was solved. Davis died back in 1997 at the age of 54 from alcoholism, according to the Sacramento Bee, so no criminal charges will be filed.

The 80 Greatest Con Artists In

Movies And Television, Ranked.

There is possibly no more enjoyable archetype in crime film than the con artist. Probably because it’s a fascinating profession that requires a cold heart, a pathological mind, and an eye for complex detail. The con artist isn’t exactly a thief; he (or she) is more manipulative than that. A thief takes your money, but a con artist convinces you to give them your money. And that’s a big difference. Olivia Rutigliano, Crimes Reads’ in-house film expert, recently examined the “legendary pros of the great movie cons” in order to compile a definitive list of the greatest TV and film con artists, based on strict criteria of the genre. “To be on this list, a character has to be more of a swindler than an actual thief," she writes. "We’re talking confidence men, frauds, tricksters, charlatans, impostors, swindlers, shady real estate salesmen, pool hustlers, card sharks, and all other purveyors of flimflam.” From Reef Break, a show no one watched about a con artist-turned-fixer for hire who lives on a Pacific island, to The Sting (pictured left)—one of very few perfect movies ever made—this list features the best of the best, with a few dogs thrown in.

Coming January 10, 2023:

Greenwich Mean Time

“A globe-spanning, mind-spinning thriller that will delight fans of Jason Bourne. Ronin 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

When photojournalist Monica Cross literally stumbles into the site of an old airplane crash at the edge of a Himalayan glacier, she is exposed to a dark and deadly secret that was meant to remain hidden forever. Unaware that her life is in grave danger, she attempts to get home to New York while the Greenwich Global Group—a dark-web, murder-for-hire outfit—pulls out all stops to make sure she never gets there. Spanning ten time zones, nine countries, and four continents, Greenwich Mean Time is a tightly spun thriller that plays out against a sinister plot designed to change the course of history for all time.