Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Dorothy H. from Green Valley, AZ won Murder at Mallowan Hall. Diane M. from State College, PA won Her Name is Knight (even though she did say Go Penn State to me. But, at least Ohio State beat them last weekend.) The books are going out in the mail today.

This week, I’m giving away two crime novels involving women. The first is Helene Tursten’s collection of interlocking stories, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed. Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be eighty-eight, but if you cross her this elderly lady is more sinister than sweet. Ever since Maud was a girl, death seems to follow her. Memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, certain “Problems” in the present require immediate attention. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands . . . even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.

Perhaps you prefer historical mysteries. Set in 1944 Chicago, Edgar Award-winner Naomi Hirahara’s eye-opening and poignant mystery, the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister’s death, brings to focus the struggles of one Japanese American family released from mass incarceration at Manzanar during World War II. Twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from Manzanar, where they have been detained by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, together with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The life in California the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone; instead, they are being resettled two thousand miles away in Chicago, where Aki’s older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier and moved to the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family’s reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train.

Inspired by historical events, Clark and Division infuses an atmospheric and heartbreakingly real crime with rich period details and delicately wrought personal stories Naomi Hirahara has gleaned from thirty years of research and archival work in Japanese American history.

Which book would you like to win? You can enter to win both, but I need separate entries. Email me at Lesa.Holstine@gmail.com. Your subject heading should read either “Win An Elderly Lady” or “Win Clark and Division.” Please include your name and mailing address. The contest will end Thursday, Nov. 11 at 5 PM CT. Entries from the U.S. only, please.