Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Brenda Buchanan (Monday), Maggie Robinson (Tuesday), Jule Selbo (Thursday) and Joe Souza (Friday).

In the news department, here’s what’s happening with some of us who blog regularly at Maine Crime Writers:

Dick Cass published the sixth in the Elder Darrow jazz mystery series, Mickey’s Mayhem, on November 24. Here’s a lovely review from Mystery Scene magazine.

And here’s a short synopsis:

An intimate member of the Esposito family becomes the victim of murder by heroin overdose. Suspicion is cast on the gangster kingpin from Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, Frank Vinson, but Mickey Barksdale, Boston’s equivalent in the criminal world, might bear some responsibility, too. Mickey is running a money laundry through the local culinary institute, but his lieutenant there is up to his own crooked tricks. On the personal side, Burton mourns the loss of his relationship with Marina Antonelli, while Elder Darrow and Susan Voisine come together again, then part, maybe for good this time.

As always–signed copies through Kelly’s Books to Go. Love to hear what you think.

Susan Vaughan: A new five star review of Genuine Fake gave me something to celebrate. Reading it literally left me breathless. You’ll see why. “This story has a lot of thrills, danger, action, suspense and romance keeps you turning the pages until the very end hats off to this author looking forward to reading more books from her.”

Maine Crime Writers tree at Augusta Elks Festival of Trees: As we always say at Maine Crime Writers, books make great gifts! The Maine Crime Writers are sponsoring a tree at the Augusta Elks Festival of Trees, which takes place Dec. 6-11, at the Augusta Elks Club, 397 Civic Center Drive, Augusta. Admission is $2, and there will be more than 2o themed trees — including ours! You buy raffle tickets, then drop the tickets in the bucket in front of the trees you’d like to win. You win the tree (they’re all artificial), all the ornaments on it, and everthing under it. The Maine Crime Writers tree includes dozens of books donated by their authors, as well as some crime and mystery-related goodies. For more information, including specific hours, check out the Augusta Elks 964 Festival of Trees Facebook post.

The festival is a fundraiser for the renovation of Augusta’s historic Colonial Theater, and there’ll be plenty of fun trees to bid on besides ours. Watch the Maine Crime Writers Facebook page Sunday night or Monday for a full view of the decorated tree at the festival.

Some of the books that will be under the Maine Crime Writers tree at the Augusta Elks Festival of Trees.

An invitation to readers of this blog: Do you have news relating to Maine, Crime, or Writing? We’d love to hear from you. Just comment below to share.

And a reminder: If your library, school, or organization is looking for a speaker, we are often available to talk about the writing process, research, where we get our ideas, and other mysteries of the business. We also do programs on Zoom. Contact Kate Flora