Friday, October 22, 2021

Calendar of Crime 2022

 

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

Ready for another year of mysterious months and dangerous days? I'm pleased to sponsor the 2022 edition of the Calendar of Crime--with slight variations in the prompts. Just a reminder that this mystery-based challenge allows 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 2022. 
 

 
 
A larger version of the spreadsheet may be found HERE. Click on the 2022 tab at bottom.
 
The Rules
~Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2022. All books should be read during this time period. Sign up at any time. If you have a blog, please post about the challenge. Then sign up via the form below and please make the url link to your challenge post and not your home page. If you don't have a blog, links to an online list (Goodreads, Library Thing, etc.) devoted to this challenge are acceptable OR you may skip that question.

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

~Twelve books, one representing each month, are required for a complete challenge.

~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 the book for December and want to use "Christmas" as the category, then Christmas figure in some 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.

~Chinese Zodiac: Animal must be important to the book in some way. Examples: animal name appears in title (stand-alone, not part of another word); animal itself is important to the story; animal appears on cover; important character is associated with the animal (nickname--for instance) OR book may have been published in a year that corresponds to the Zodiac year.

~Books may only count for one month and one category, but they may count for other challenges (such as my Vintage Scattergories Challenge). If it could fulfill more than one category or month, then you are welcome to change it 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 list of books read and what category they fulfilled. [Example: January: The House of Sudden Sleep by John Hawk (original pub date January 1930)]

~The headquarters link in the left-hand sidebar will be updated in January for 2022 for easy access to this original challenge post, monthly review link-ups, and the final wrap-up. The final wrap-up link will not go live until the end of 2022, so please save your notification until that time.

~If you post on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media to log a book, please use #CalendarOfCrime2022. 
 

 


5 comments:

Sunshine said...

Is it too late to enter this challenge? I have read books that qualify for January, I am just not clear on how to join this challenge?

Bev Hankins said...

No, it's not too late. To sign up just enter the information in the form. If you have a blog, then I'd appreciate you writing a post (on your blog) about joining the challenge and entering the URL in the sign-up form above. Or if you want to just log books for the challenge through Goodreads or another social media site, you could link to that URL. But you don't have to--You can just enter your name as a challenger.

Along the left side of my blog, there is a Calendar of Crime Headquarters. If you click on that, you'll see links that will give a list of challengers as well as links for pages to submit books read for the various months. If you click on "January Reviews," then you can either use the form at that page to link up a review from your blog or Goodreads (etc)--OR you can just post a comment saying what book you read and which of the prompts for that month it fulfilled.

Sunshine said...

OK, thank you SO much! Sunshine

Anchal Bhatia said...

WHat do you mean by the chinese zodiac sign? Is it for a character or the publication year ?

Bev Hankins said...

Anchal: Here is what I had in mind--Chinese Zodiac: Animal must be important to the book in some way. Examples: animal name appears in title (stand-alone, not part of another word); animal itself is important to the story; animal appears on cover; important character is associated with the animal (nickname--for instance) OR book may have been published in a year that corresponds to the Zodiac year

I've updated the rules above with this info as well.