Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 15

Krimileser, aka Bernd Kochanowski, is hosting the carnival this Mayday in Germany at Internationale Krimis. His post embraces the classic style of a blog carnival, which is intended to point out interesting, controversial, and/or high quality blog posts. Carnival of the Criminal Minds › Edit — WordPressIn his case, he’s traveled back into the past to created a “museum” of though-provoking blog posts. What a wonderful idea! Instead of looking for the next new thing, the hot topic, the flash in the pan, he gently turns us around to look back, highlighting some extraordinary reviews, some industry analysis, insightful essays, and posts that grew an interesting tail of commentary. And then, to bring us back to the present, he also reviews crime fiction blogs in Germany and Austria. It’s a veritable wunderkammer of crime fiction.

Next up: The Carnival will be hosted by Canadian blogger Sandra Ruttan whose life and other inconveniences have recently relocated to the US.

photo courtesy of Ennor.

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 14

The carnival has come to your humble archivist’s blog today. The focus this time around is on ways to figure out what to read next - highlighting the many blogs that can help you feed your addiction expand your horizons and discover books you might enjoy. Though most carnival followers probably have mountainous piles of books waiting to be read, there’s always room for more, isn’t there? We’re aiming for the Himalayan range, here. So come on, come all - come find the next several thousand mysteries that you just have to read.

Up next: We’ll be packing for Germany as we travel to Internationale Krimis!

photo courtesy of smcgee

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 13

The lucky thirteenth installment of the Carnival is pulling your leg at Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine. Setting up the rides and freak shows on April Fool’s Day should not reflect on Mr. Crider’s dignified self. No indeed. In fact, if he ever had any pretense of dignity, posting items about large gator sightings, crocodile thefts, and the progressive nature of his home state should have disabused everyone of that idea some time ago.

Come along for the rides as Mr. Crider shows us around his personal list of the blogs every crime fiction aficionado should read.

Up next: the carnival is traveling to my backyard - to Barbara Fister’s Place.  Obviously, I was not feeling terribly clever the day I named that particular corner of the internets.

photo courtesy of  StevenM-61

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 12

There’s something very heartwarming about our dozenth carnival. This one celebrates the victim - what would we do without him? It’s the Dead Guy Carnival. To be specific, it’s partying in the blogspace of the Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room, an ensemble effort that covers books from writing to publishing to promoting to reviewing. Which is sort of where the Dead Guy comes in, because it is reviewer Sharon Wheeler (aka Shaz) who is our mid-March host. As a professional critic, she is a self-proclaimed “fussy blogger.” Her creme-de-la-carnival picks are Eurocrime, Crime Always Pays, and AustCrimeFiction for their excellent international book coverage, Hedgehog and EvilE for chutzpah, and “must-read” Murderati. especially pointing out Thursdays when the dynamic duo, Ken Bruen and Louise Ure, post.

Next up: We’re taking our lucky thirteenth carnival to the Republic of Tejas, where Bill Crider publishes his Pop Culture Magazine. Check it out around April Fool’s Day - no pun intended.

photo of Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls courtesy of digiyesica.

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 11

The Jungle Red Writers are hosting the “in like a lion” edition of the Carnival. And, in keeping with lions and with women’s history month, they are highlighting blogs that feature Strong Women. And yes, there are lots of them. Lady killers. Good girls who kill for money. Lipstick chroniclers. Writers who plot, and have momentary lapses. All that and more. Come one, come all - see the strong women of the carnival!

Up next: Sharon Wheeler will entertain the carnival at Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room, around March 6th.

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 10

Love is in the air at this Valentine’s Day edition of the Carnival. BV Lawson, the VB genius behind the awesome In Reference to Murder site, has pulled together a selection of blog treats as scrumptious and healthy as a box of special dark chocolate. There are short stories specially written for the day that feature the slings and arrows of love and crime, celebrations of crime fiction that features romantic duos, appreciations of romantic suspense, and some cover art you have to check out. Right now.

How many titles can you come up with that get to the heart of the matter? The Women of Mystery have started a list. All this - plus some heart-warming images from Bad Astronomy. It’ll make your heart go pitter-pat.

Next up: continuing with the color scheme, the Carnival travels next to the lair of the Jungle Red Writers around March 1st.

photo courtesy of russelldavies

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 9.2

Crimespot has managed to host a second edition of the Carnival - this one all singing, all dancing! There’s some wonderful listening to be had here, from Angie’s incomparable In for Questioning, to a peek Behind the Black Mask, to . . . well, you’ll just have to dance on over to the carnival to find out.

Is this what happens when you’re up to your you-know-what in aggregators?

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 9

Every day’s a carnival at Crimespot, the site that aggregates all the blague fit to blog from a wide variety of crime fiction-related sites. But this week, the site features a very special spot - Black Mystery Month. As a nod to Black History Month, this feature highlights African-American detectives, with links to an informative compilation by Brian Lindemuth, a helpful introduction to some memorable black detectives by Kevin Burton Smith over at January Magazine, and appreciations of Ed Lacy and In the Heat of the Night.

Next Up: the Carnival is heading to the erudite and well-informed research mecca, In Reference to Murder, where BV Lawson (rhymes with “awesome”) will delight carnival goers with daring feats of discovery.

photo montage of Notting Hill carnival courtesy of strollerdos

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 8

Peter Rozovsky, with a planetary interest in crime fiction, and a rather greenish brain the size of a planet (just scroll down a bit for the official portrait), is hosting an international edition of the Carnival, providing a veritable Baedeker of blogs that cover the crime fiction globe - molto Italiano, German, Mongolian, more German, Finnish, quite a bit of Australian and a good sampling of Irish as well.

And no excuses for those with limited language skills. The recent renaissance of crime fiction in translation is expanding English readers’ horizons. The sun never sets on crime fiction, and Peter’s Detectives Beyond Borders blog is a fine place to map out your next exploration.

Up next: crime fiction hits the spot at Crimespot, which will be hosting the next carnival close to Groundhog day.

Carnival of the Criminal Minds, No. 7

The glamorous BookBitch is our host for the first carnival of the new year. A self-confessed addict, she is sustained by two things: knowing there are some great crime fiction writers she hasn’t read yet, and debut books by new writers. She doesn’t have to go to the sleazy part of town for her next fix - with a pipeline to publishers, she gets 25-30 new books delivered to her door each week.

The local post office has no doubt started a BookBitch fan club.

After she samples the wares she pushes them onto the rest of us addicts through reviews in Library Journal and her own BookBitch site, where there are regular contests - and not for those cheap stuffed animals, either. This installment of the carnival focuses on debuts to look forward to.

Come one, come all - run away and join the carnival, where you’ll be introduced to some of the new talent hitting the shelves (and telling all in the blogs) this year.

photo courtesy of kendiala