Calendar of Crime Challenge (New for 2019!)

photo credit: Ellery Queen's Calendar
of Crime  (Signet edition)

My Reader's Block is pleased to present the brand-new Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. Like the soon-to-be retired Follow the Clues, this is another reading challenge that will allow mystery readers to include any mystery regardless of publication date. If it falls in a mystery category (crime fiction/detective novel/police procedural/suspense/thriller/spy & espionage/hard-boiled/cozy etc.), then it counts and it does not matter if it was published in 1892 or 2019

Click photo to enlarge

The Rules

~Challenge runs from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. all books should be read during this time period. Sign up any time between now and November 1, 2019. If you have a blog, please post about the challenge. Then sign up via the linky below. and please make the url link to your challenge post and not your home page. (Links that do not follow this rule will be removed.) If you do not have a blog, links to an online list (Goodreads, Library Thing, etc.) devoted to this challenge are also acceptable OR you may comment below to indicate your sign up.

~All books must be mysteries. Humor, romance, supernatural elements (etc.) are welcome, but the books must be mysteries/crime/detective novels first.

~ Twelve books, one representing each month, are required for a completed challenge and to be eligible for the end-of-year prize drawing. Each month comes with several categories (see chart above) that may be selected to fulfill the month's reading. If you would like the excel version of the chart to use or have any questions about fulfilling a category, please email me at phryne1969 AT gmail DOT com.

~To claim a book, it must fit one of the categories for the month you wish to fulfill. Unless otherwise specified, the category is fulfilled within the actual story. For instance, if you are claiming a book for December and you want to use "Christmas" as the category, then Christmas must figure in some way in the plot. Did someone poison the plum pudding? Did Great-Uncle Whozit invite all the family home for Christmas so he could tell them he plans to change his will? 

~The "wild card" book is exactly that. If July is your birth month (as mine is), then for category #9, you may read any mystery book you want. It does not have to connect with July in any way--other than a July baby chose it. The other eleven months, you must do the alternate category #9 if you want to fulfill that slot. 

~For the category that says "Book title contains a word that starts with the letter A," the following do not count: "A" and "An." 

~Books may only count for one month and one category, but they may count for other challenges (such as my other mystery challenge, Just the Facts, Ma'am). If it could fulfill more than one category or month, then you are welcome to change the category/month at any time prior to the final wrap-up.

~Books do not have to be read during the month for which they qualify. So--if you're feeling like a little "Christmas in July" (or May or...), then feel free to read your book for December whenever the mood strikes.

~A wrap-up post/comment/email will be requested that should include a calendar of books read and what category they fulfilled. [Example: January: The House of Sudden Sleep by John Hawk (original pub date January 1930)]

~As with my other challenges, a headquarters link will be set-up in the left-hand sidebar by the beginning of January 2019 for easy access to this original challenge post, monthly link-ups, and the final wrap-up post. The final wrap-up link will not go live till the end of 2019, please save your wrap-up notification until that time.

~If you post to Facebook, Instagram or other social media to log a book (or about the challenge), please use #CalendarOfCrime2019.

~Prizes! All participants who complete the challenge will be eligible for an end-of-year prize drawing. There will also be a "My Calendar's Booked" prize for the challenger who fills their calendar with the most books, so challengers are encouraged to read more than one/all category/ies for each month. In case of a tie, there will be a prize drawing among the the folks who booked-up their year so fully.

UPDATE: I have made a spreadsheet of DOBs for authors on my TBR and read list (or at least of all the DOBs I could track down). If this would be useful to you--email me at phryne1969 AT gmail DOT com and I will send you what I have.