Cartoon of the Day: Best Books for Summer

 

Cartoon of the Day: TBR Pile

 

SISTER BONIFACE MYSTERIES, SEASON 4

Sister Boniface, the crime-solving nun series, Season 4, will premiere on Britbox on August 19. 

The series is set in the 1960s. Sister Boniface is a Vespa-riding Catholic nun with a crime lab and love of detective fiction, quite comparable to and competent as a forensic scientist, who works with the local constabulary. 

Season 4 will have 8 episodes. 

Lorna Watson stars as Sister Boniface. Returning also are cast members Max Brown as DI Sam Gillespie, Jerry Iwu as DS Felix Livingstone, Ami Metcalf as WPC Peggy Button, and Carolyn Pickles as Rev Mother Adrian. 

Season 4 guest cast includes Les Dennis, Katherine Kingsley, Martyn Ellis Mina Anwar, Ed Birch, and Daniel Laurie.

GREG ILES: R.I.P.

Greg Iles, Mississippi author of several New York Times best-selling novels, died yesterday, at the age of 65.  He had multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Greg was one of the nicest, kindest, and supportive people, as well as a great writer. He will be missed. My sympathy and love go out to his friends and family.

Greg Iles was born in Germany in 1960, where his father ran the US Embassy Medical Clinic during the height of the Cold War. His mother was raised on a subsistence farm in Louisiana and began picking cotton at the age of three. Iles spent his youth in Natchez, Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983.  While attending Ole Miss, Greg lived in the cabin where William Faulkner and his brothers listened to countless stories told by “Mammy Callie,” their beloved nanny, who had been born enslaved.

 

Iles wrote his first novel in 1993, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess, which became the first of seventeen New York Times bestsellers. Primarily set in the Deep South, his later novels have been made into films, translated into more than twenty languages, and published in more than thirty-five countries worldwide.  His new novel will continue the story of Penn Cage, after the epic trilogy that ended with 

New York Times #1 bestseller Mississippi Blood. 

Greg was also a member of The Rock Bottom Remainders, a charitable rock group made up of authors. Bandmates included Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Dave Barry. 

He is survived by his wife Caroline and four children.

Ned Kelly Awards Shortlists: Australian Crime Writers Association

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced three new shortlists for the 2025 Ned Kelly Awards. 

Best True Crime Nominees

They’ll Never Hold Me, by Michael Adams (Affirm Press)
A Thousand Miles from Care, by Steve Johnson (William Collins)
The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin)
Meadow’s Law, by Quentin McDermott (HarperCollins)
The Lasting Harm, by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (HarperCollins)

Best International Crime Fiction Nominees

Return to Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster UK)
Leave the Girls Behind, by Jacqueline Bublitz (Allen & Unwin)
The Waiting, by Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin)
A Case of Matricide, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Text)
Moscow X, by David McCloskey (Swift Press)
Home Truths, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)

Best Crime Fiction Nominees

Shadow City, by Natalie Conner

Sanctuary, by Garry Disher

Unbury the Dead, by Fiona Hardy

The Creeper, by Margaret Hickey

Cold Truth, by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Highway 13, by Fiona McFarlane

17 Years Later, by J.P. Pomare

Storm Child, by Michael Robotham

The winners, along with Best Debut Crime Fiction, will be awarded in September.

The Petrona Award: Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year Longlist

OUTSTANDING CRIME FICTION FROM FINLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 PETRONA AWARD

Twelve crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden made the longlist for the 2025 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. Congratulations to All!

Samuel Bjørk - Dead Island tr. Charlotte Barslund (Norway, Bantam)

Stella Blómkvist - Murder Under the Midnight Sun tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Pascal Engman - The Widows tr. Neil Smith (Sweden, Legend Press)

Malin Persson Giolito - Deliver Me tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden, Simon & Schuster)

Óskar Guðmundsson - The Dancer tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger - Victim tr. Megan E Turney (Norway, Orenda Books)

Jo Nesbo - Blood Ties tr. Robert Ferguson (Norway, Harvill Secker)

Aslak Nore - The Sea Cemetery tr. Deborah Dawkin (Norway, MacLehose Press)

Sólveig Pálsdóttir - Shrouded tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland, Corylus Books)

Satu Rämö - The Clues in the Fjord tr. Kristian London (Finland, Zaffre)

Max Seeck - Ghost Island tr. Kristian London (Finland, Mountain Leopard Press)

Gunnar Staalesen - Pursued by Death tr. Don Bartlett (Norway, Orenda Books)

 

The breakdown by country is Norway (5), Iceland (3), Finland (2) and Sweden (2).

 

The shortlist will be announced on 18 September 2025.

***

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

 

More information on the history of the Award and previous winners can be found at the Petrona Award website (https://www.petronaaward.co.uk/).