Winner Named 
in 2018 Mystery Writers Whodunit Writing Competition

E. King, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has been named First Place winner in an international competition to claim the 2018 Mystery Writers Whodunit Award.

Sponsored by Absolutely Amazing eBooks, King’s winning entry “The Hollywood Portal” wins her a Whodunit Award trophy, book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, complimentary Mystery Fest Key West 2018 registration, airfare and hotel accommodations for two nights.

King is a painter, performer, biologist and widely published writer whose stories the author Ray Bradbury has called “marvelously inventive, wildly funny and deeply thought-provoking.” She’s worked with children in Bosnia, crocodiles in Mexico, frogs in Puerto Rico, egrets in Bali, mushrooms in Montana, archaeologists in Spain, butterflies in South Central Los Angeles, lectured on island evolution and marine biology on cruise ships in the South Pacific and the Caribbean, and painted murals in Los Angeles and Spain.

“I really can’t express how thrilled and honored I am to have won First Place,” said King. And the added benefit is I get to go to the Keys! I love the Keys and am coming early to dive and snorkel ahead of the Mystery Fest.”

Joining King in the winner’s circle are P.F. Hudson who took Second Place with “The Hale Gig,” and Candace J. Carter of Aiken, South Carolina, who took Third Place with “Muddy Waters.”

Candidates for the award were required to submit the first three pages of a finished but unpublished manuscript to a “blind” judging committee comprised of Dr. Toby Armour, a playwright, author and performer whose credits include the murder mystery book “Blood Tells” and the play, “Is This 24 Lily Pond Lane?”; Carol Lazar, an author, columnist, photojournalist and former senior editor for South Africa’s Independent Newspapers; Captain Reef Perkins, author of “Sex, Salvage and Secrets,” “Screwed, Blu’d and Tattoed,” and the mystery novel “Deep Air”; Robin Robinson, an author, syndicated newspaper columnist, educator and horticulturist; and Shirrel Rhoades, an author, movie critic, media consultant and publisher of Absolutely Amazing eBooks.

“Why just the first three pages? That criterion is a nod to late author Jeremiah Healy, a world-class mystery writer and a great judge of mystery writing,” says Rhoades, who is also co-founder of Mystery Fest Key West. “Jerry’s opinion was that a book either captures a reader in the first three pages…or it doesn’t. The competition judges all agreed with that assessment, and decided to use it as a yardstick for the competition.”

King is to receive her award trophy at 11am on Saturday, June 23, at the Mystery Fest venue, DoubleTree by Hilton Grand Key Resort. The Fest itself is to include multiple workshops, presentations, panel discussions and social events where attendees mingle with acclaimed crime fiction and true crime writers including headliners Ace Atkins, the multi-award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one novels, including several in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series; the multi-award-winning editor and publisher Otto Penzler – proprietor of the famed The Mysterious Book Shop in New York City; and New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham.

For information on attending the 5th annual Fest as well as complete Mystery Writers Whodunit Writing Competition guidelines and submission details, visit mysteryfestkeywest.com.

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