End the Cuba Trade Embargo on Books

by Leslie Budewitz, President

Some of you may have read or heard about the publishing industry petition to the White House and Congress to end the Cuba trade embargo as it pertains to books and educational materials. You can read the petition on the Publishers’ Weekly website, http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/international-book-news/article/69612-end-the-book-embargo-against-cuba.html.

You can also learn more about the campaign on NPR http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/10/469987895/publishing-heavyweights-petition-white-house-congress-to-end-cuba-book-embargo.

Following a unanimous vote by the board, Sisters in Crime signed the petition. This is not about politics, but about free expression and the exchange of ideas. In the words of the petition, the book embargo is "counter to American ideals of free expression," and "books are catalysts for greater cross-cultural understanding, economic development, free expression, and positive social change."

Individuals may also sign the petition, and I hope you’ll consider doing so. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/end-book-embargo-against-cuba

SinC at PLA: Presenting 'Perfect Partners in Crime'

By Mary Boone

Sisters in Crime participated in last week's Public Library Association (PLA) conference in Philadelphia with a very popular exhibit booth and a well-received panel titled "Perfect Partners in Crime" celebrating public libraries and the books we read.

Presentation proposals for PLA must be submitted two years in advance of the conference (which is only held every two years), which can make writing a proposal, and then following up with a panel proposal written so far in advance, a real challenge.

I had a front row seat for the proceedings and, from my perspective, the panel was a hit. A 600-seat auditorium appeared to me to be close to a third to half full of librarians there to hear to SinC board members Frankie Bailey, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Cathy Pickens, and Nancy Martin talk to librarian "rock star" Nancy Pearl about books, libraries, a love of reading, and Sisters in Crime.

The conversation flowed from the practical (a little background about SinC and its resources including info about the continuing We Love Libraries drawings and what makes a good author visit program) to the theoretical (how best to connect readers to books and how helpful are genre and sub genre classifications) and back again.

Hank moderated the panel, and started with a "stump the librarian" quiz, which served to bring the audience immediately into all aspects of the conversation that followed. She'd asked the panelists in advance what books had a profound influence on them growing up. She read a few sentences from the opening of each and challenged the audience to identify the book and match it to the panelist. The audience identified Nancy Pearl’s and Cathy Pickens's books, but were stumped by Frankie Bailey’s and Nancy Martin's.

Early in the panel, Hank made Nancy Pearl an honorary member of Sisters in Crime. Nancy P. played a key role in last summer's SinC Summit Team project, when the team went to the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans to talk with librarians about how readers find books.

Later in the conversation, Nancy P., who pioneered the one city/one book movement, commented that one of the things she valued most about SinC is the organization's commitment to building community around books and reading and its commitment to libraries. She said, in that respect, librarians and Sisters in Crime had common goals.

Nancy Martin wanted to know how Nancy Pearl, who has been called "America's Librarian" and has come to be known as a literary "tastemaker," finds the books she reviews and recommends in her popular Book Lust series and on National Public Radio.

Nancy P. said she receives numerous copies of books from publishers and other sources and that she will try to read any book but, if she isn't engaged within the first 50 pages, she stops reading. This is a strategy she recommends to all readers.

"Life is short, and the library is large," she's often said.

The time may not be right, and she will put aside a book, and come back to it later. But, having said that, she went on to say that she believes that most of us (herself included) find the books we read and love from recommendations from friends.

I watched the audience for its reactions, and saw librarians furiously taking notes and listening with concentration to the discussion. A number of librarians approached panel members afterward to say they thought this was one of the best panels of the conference. Bear in mind the time slot was late Friday afternoon, the last full day of the conference, so folks were conference-weary, thinking about getting to dinner or packing for the trip home, etc.; in short, not necessarily an easy audience to please.

Another measure of the success of the panel is that our PLA panel/conference programming liaison, Ronald Block, approached me after the session to say that PLA was looking forward to making a panel from Sisters in Crime an on-going part of its conference programming.

As plans for this panel were coming together before the conference, we began thinking of it as a "dream book discussion group." Every indication Friday afternoon was that the audience thought of it this way, too.


Mary Boone, Library Liaison for Sisters in Crime, says she is happy to be a reader and lucky that, as a librarian, she gets paid to turn readers on to books. She encourages everyone to make sure their library or libraries have entered the Sisters in Crime "We Love Libraries" book grant lottery. Information and a registration form can be found on the SinC website page linked here.

Talking About Banned Books

By Anne Perry

We all want the freedom to make our own choices, and to do so without penalty or coercion. But with freedom comes responsibility to live with the results. A civilized society tries to create a balance between protecting the vulnerable and stifling the explorers of the mind, the innovators and the creators in the imagination, without whom there would be no invention and no art.

It is an appallingly difficult course to steer. My freedom of religion might be your blasphemy. My questions might be disturbing to you – your art might be obscene to me. One man's political protest might be another's treason, and so on.

Who has the right or the duty to decide what we may or may not read? And upon what grounds?

Which brings me to the question how on earth anyone decided that "The Chronicles of Narnia" were dangerous and should be banned. Am I hopelessly naïve and missing some dark evil in a children's story which is blazingly obviously Christian, written by a man famous for his faith and his inspiring wartime broadcasts to Britain?

"Narnia" is not among my favourites of his works. I greatly prefer The Great Divorce, and The Screwtape Letters with their brilliant philosophical insights. They were not mentioned as banned, but seem to me far more provocative of thought, self-questioning and possible growth. Are they allowed? May we know what C. S. Lewis thought to be the smallness of mind, the sins clung onto which will keep us out of heaven?

I am more than surprised that "Narnia" was banned. I am astounded, and I admit I do not understand.

Which banned book is my favourite? I don't even have to think about that. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. I grew up with it in my hand. Even now, listening to others read it to their children, I find I can follow almost word for word.

Its wit and imagination still please me. The smile of the Cheshire Cat is part of the furniture of my mind, as is the Mad Hatter with the price ticket on his hat, the March Hare (they do go crazy in March here in the fields and are a joy to see), the Gryphon, the dance on the seashore; all of it.

To me, Alice was a reflection of myself; inquisitive, articulate and frequently argumentative and, like most children, with a keen sense of what is fair. I also had vivid dreams, and toy animals I talked to (They never talked back! That would be cause for concern). I knew all the poetry and loved the play on words. I can still smile at "reading, writing and painting in oils" ending up as "reeling, writhing and fainting in coils."

And Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen – "jam every other day – yesterday and tomorrow!" Life can seem like that. "Don't waken the Red King or we shall all disappear – we are only figments of his dream."

And the poetry in "Through the Looking Glass": The Walrus and the Carpenter. I could quote screeds of it. Even better, the White Knight, forever slipping off his horse, and the old man a-sitting on a gate that summer evening long ago.

It seemed to be innocent, funny and very dear. What did I miss in it that was so dangerous it must be banned? Dangerous to what? My imagination, my laughter, my love of reading, my ability to "think outside the box"?

Who decides these things? What slander, blasphemy or sedition is hidden in these stories? What monster do they see that I missed? Is it possible it isn't there, and they brought it with them?


Anne Perry is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author. Her two Victorian mystery series have more than 25 million copies in print worldwide. A docu-style video on Perry and more about her books can be found here.

The First SinC25 Blogging Challenge Roundup

By Barbara Fister


Jose Ignacio Escribano, who blogs from Spain at The Game’s Afoot, was the very first blogger to pick up the SinC 25th anniversary book blogging challenge, and has already posted twice. His posts are helping to remind me of several Spanish women whose work I keep meaning to read.

• Book Blogger’s Challenge (Spain) and Book Bloggers Challenge (Great Britain)

Bernadette in Oz, who writes insightful reviews at Reactions to Reading, has also started the challenge, focusing her first post on women writing in the PI tradition - Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton having been her original ticket to the genre. I’m looking forward to post #2, but since the deadline is “whenever,” I’ll be patient.

• Sisters in Crime Post #1: The PI novel

Also from Australia (or “Paradise,” as she prefers to call it), Kerrie Smith of Mysteries in Paradise completes the challenge with a roundup of women writers she has enjoyed reviewing recently, starting with Asa Larsson’s new book, which I am eager to read.

• Sisters in Crime Book Bloggers Challenge – the Easy Challenge completed

The director of the Goshen Public Library has also taken the challenge and posted about a library-related mystery. Scan her blog to read reviews of more women writers – and male writers, too.

• Goshendirector’s Weblog – Classified as Murder by Miranda James

Fictionista Katherine Tomlinson (Kat Parrish) has two posts about women authors at Kattomic Energy – love that name! – featuring Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad mysteries, Kelli Stanley, Carol O’Connell, and more.

• In Praise of Women Crime Writers and More Praise for Women Crime Writers

If you want to play along, the rules (such as they are – I’m an anarchist at heart) are here. If you tag your posts with SinC25, I will be able to add them to the list.

Sisters in Crime is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the professional development and the advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry. And it’s 25 years old this year.

Barbara Fister is the author of the Anni Koskinen mysteries. The most recent title in the series is Through the Cracks. She is an academic librarian and serves on the SinC board as Secretary.

Summer Reading

by Sandra Parshall

Sometimes I look at my list of recently read books and realize many of them made little impression on me, but this summer’s list is filled with memorable novels.

Karin Slaughter’s new book is always a highlight of summer, and I think this year’s Fallen is the best novel she’s ever written. I’ve been a happy reader since Karin brought Sara Linton and Will Trent together, and their relationship advances in Fallen, but the focus is on Faith Mitchell, Will’s partner in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and her mother, a retired cop who has been kidnapped. Old secrets surface in the course of a riveting crime story.

For something completely different, I turned to Julia Spencer-Fleming’s long-awaited new mystery, One Was a Soldier. Claire Ferguson’s return from active duty in the Middle East lands her and Police Chief Russ Van Alstine in the middle of a murder investigation and gives Julia the opportunity to explore the aftermath of war duty in the lives of veterans.

I read Chevy Stevens' first and second novels, Still Missing and Never Knowing, close together and found both absorbing in different ways. The author uses the same device to tell each story, a first person protagonist talking to her therapist, but there’s nothing similar in the plots. Still Missing is about a woman who is kidnapped and held prisoner for a year (giving birth to the kidnapper’s baby during that time) and suffers another life-altering jolt when she learns the truth behind what happened to her. Never Knowing is about a woman who was adopted as a baby and searches for her real parents as an adult, with disastrous consequences.

I “discovered” Michael Koryta with So Cold the River, and although I’m not usually a fan of supernatural elements in mysteries, I’m now hopelessly hooked on his writing. I read The Cypress House and The Ridge this summer, enjoying his larger-than-life characters and his fearless storytelling.

Again, for something totally different, I finally got around to Leonie Swann’s Three Bags Full, a marvelously droll tale of a flock of sheep solving the murder of their shepherd. The sheep were as real to me as any human characters I’ve met in novels.

These are just a few of the entertaining books on my summer list, which also includes Iron House by John Hart, Fatal Error by J.A. Jance, Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton, The Ice Princess and The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg, and the astonishing Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. Next up, another new book by a favorite writer: Laura Lippman’s The Most Dangerous Thing.

What have you been reading this summer?


Sandra Parshall is the author of the award-winning Rachel Goddard mysteries. The fourth book in the series, Under the Dog Star, has just been published.

Sisters in Crime Book Bloggers Challenge

By Barbara Fister

Avid readers are always on the lookout for ideas about what to read next. They also like to share what they’ve been reading. So, to satisfy both urges – and to celebrate SinC’s 25th anniversary – I threw down a reading challenge.

I hope some of you will want to take it up and will post your own thoughts – on your own blogs or here at the SinC blog – about favorite mysteries by women authors. (To submit posts to the SinC blog, contact KathieFelix[at]aol.com.)

Here’s what I posted at my blog:

I am somewhat loath to issue a reading challenge, given that one of the greatest pleasures of reading is choosing books you just feel like reading without being told what to read. But this challenge includes a lot of latitude for crime fiction fans, so I hope it will let you indulge in an activity enjoyed by avid readers: that of grabbing people by the virtual elbow and saying “have you read this book? It’s sooooo good!”

Given that Sisters in Crime is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year at Bouchercon, it seems a good time to blog about women’s contributions to crime fiction.

Easy challenge: Write a blog post about a work of crime fiction by a woman author; list five more women authors who you recommend.

Moderate challenge: Write five blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention another woman author who writes in a similar vein.

Expert challenge: Write 10 blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention three similar women authors whose works you would recommend.

Deadline: Whenever. Another one of the joys of reading for pleasure is not having deadlines. Also, feel free to recycle previous reviews. I’m all about recycling.

If you tag your posts with “SinC25” I will compile them. And if you tweet, use the hashtag #SinC25.

You can do it!

If you aren’t familiar with Sisters in Crime, it’s a nonprofit organization with the mission to “promote the professional development and the advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry.” SinC was founded on the heels of a talk Sara Paretsky gave at the first conference on women in detective fiction held at Hunter College in March 1986. The organization now has 3,000 or so members worldwide and is welcoming to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

For writers in particular, both published and not yet published, it offers some terrific opportunities for friendship and professional development. (Full disclosure: I’ve been a member for many years and am currently serving on the board.)

By the way, this image is based on the famous “We Can Do It/Rosie the Riveter” poster in the National Archives. Feel free to reuse my Rosie the Reader variation.

Guess I’ll dive into the deep end and sign up for the Expert Challenge. Stay tuned …



Barbara Fister is the author of the Anni Koskinen mysteries. The most recent title in the series is Through the Cracks. She is an academic librarian and serves on the SinC board as Secretary.

Off to See the Lizard?

By Kathie Felix

This summer, Vintage Books launched “Weekly Lizard,” a new mobile-enabled website for fans of mystery, crime, suspense and thriller fiction.

The site, online at weeklylizard.com, offers news and feature articles written by authors, booksellers, journalists, bloggers and other experts in the mystery and thriller genre.

The content includes author profiles in a section titled “In the Lineup,” essays and profiles of great mystery characters (filed under “Tough Guys and Dangerous Dames”), quotations from classic and contemporary mystery and thriller novels (“Wiseguy Quotes”) and early excerpts from upcoming novels.

The site draws on Vintage Crime/Black Lizard’s backlist and lineup of contemporary authors for access to original essays and historical documents. Feature articles are developed from books and news across the publishing industry.

Expect to see information on the imprint’s classic crime writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, as well as current bestsellers Steig Larsson, Henning Mankell, James Ellroy and Ruth Rendell.

The site also covers book-to-film news and features, classic film noir and current popular crime television series.

Currently, Weekly Lizard offers an in-depth look at the life of hard-boiled hero James M. Cain, author of the crime fiction classics The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce; author Lisa Unger’s take on Scott Smith’s novel, A Simple Plan, and an inside look at the debut of the Aurelio Zen series now airing on Masterpiece Mystery. In addition, author Karen Essex writes about sex and storylines with a discussion of her thriller, Dracula in Love.

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, founded in June 1990, combines the publishing muscle of Vintage Books, the publisher of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, with Black Lizard, a classic crime fiction publishing house focused on the post-World War II era.

You're Invited to Spoilerville

By Jan Burke


At last, a place where enthusiastic fans can talk about your books without spoiling the plots for those who haven't read them yet!

Spoilerville [http://spoilerville.com] is a place where your readers can comment on your books after they've read them. Here, they don't need to worry about asking questions on blogs, websites, mailing lists and other places where they might raise the ire of those who haven't yet read your latest.

And, yes, I started it because I needed a place like this, and figured others might, too.

It's easy to have your books included -- and it's free.

Just send the following to me at spoilerville[at]gmail.com (Please convert that into the usual address format -- I put it here in this form to discourage spammers):


1) Low resolution/web-sized images of your book covers (ideally, all in one email)

2) Your website's URL.

That's all there is to it! Once your books are up on the site, I'll send you links to your pages and you can encourage your readers to join in the fun.

If you have questions or need more details, contact me at the Spoilerville email address above.


Jan Burke is the award-winning author of the Irene Kelly thrillers. The newest book in the series is Disturbance. Jan is the original editor of Breaking & Entering, the Sisters in Crime guide to getting published, and the founder of the Crime Lab Project, a nonprofit organization created to increase awareness of the problems facing public forensic science agencies.