B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 100

Mystery Melange

The organizers of Granite Noir have announced that Aberdeen’s crime fiction festival will return between February 19-21, 2021 as an online celebration of the very best of home grown and international crime writing. The lineup includes Jo Nesbo and Camilla Lackberg who will lead the Nordic contingent, as well as Scottish authors Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride and Peter May, and American authors David Baldacci from Virginia and Attica Locke in Los Angeles. There will be additional authors, bloggers, and podcasters joining in, and a Bold New Voices Panel featuring the ones to watch. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Also on February 19, a panel called "Criminal Minds" (part of the 2021 Auckland Fringe Festival) will present 10 crime writers in 100 thrilling minutes on Facebook Live. Covering a criminally large range of small town crime to international espionage and finishing with a sliver of paranormal tension, these ten authors represent some of New Zealand’s best crime writers. Those scheduled to appear include John Ling, Ngaio Marsh Award finalists Nathan Blackwell and Nikki Crutchley, ex Police Officer Ian Austein, Amazon bestseller Kirsten McKenzie, emerging author Madeleine Eskedahl, comic horror author Andrene Low, serving police officer Angus McLean, award winner Michael Bennett, and more.

The Romantic Novelists’ Association announced the shortlists for their prestigious 2021 Romantic Novel Awards. The winners of the awards will be presented by actor and presenter Larry Lamb in a digital event on Monday 8th March. Among the nominees are those in the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award:

The Forgotten Sister, Nicola Cornick, HQ

The House by the Sea, Louise Douglas, Boldwood Books

Death Comes to Cornwall, Kate Johnson, Dash Digital, Orion

The Twins, Jane Lark, One More Chapter, HarperCollins

Escape to the Little Chateau, Marie Laval, Choc Lit

Combined print book and e-book sales hit 942 million units in 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan (for the US market), a 9% increase over 2019 and the most unit sales recorded in a single year by BookScan since the service was created in 2004. In a webinar held last week, Kristen McLean, executive director of NPD Books, said the gain was due to a combination of strong sales of both print and digital books. While this is good news for some publishers due to online sales, the news for shuttered and/or partially opened brick-and-mortar bookstores hasn't been as rosy.

For those fans of U.S. football, Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog gets ready for the "big game" with a list of "Murder at the Super Bowl and other Football Mysteries."

Sara Driscoll, the pen name of Jen J. Danna and Ann Vanderlaan who co-author the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries and the FBI K-9s series, applied the Page 69 Test to their latest FBI K-9s novel, Leave No Trace.

Via the Spybusters blog, "The Darwin Award for spying goes to..."

From the mysteries of science department comes this bit of fun news: Meet YInMn, the first new blue pigment in two centuries, created accidentally in 2009 by chemists at Oregon State University.

The featured monthly story at All Due Respect is "Any Deadly Thing" by Emily Bay Moore.

There's also a new story up at Punk Noir Magazine, "Shattered Delusions" by John Patrick Robbins.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Five Lips Kissing Back" by B. Frederick Foley.

In the Q&A spotlight, Joanna Schaffhausen, who holds a doctorate in psychology, stopped by Writer Interviews to reflect on her long-standing interest in the brain and to discuss her new novel, the fourth book in her Ellery Hathaway mystery series, Every Waking Hour.

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Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES.

Gerard McMurray, who directed Burning Sands for Netflix, is set to return to the studio to direct The Formula, starring John Boyega and Robert De Niro. The Formula follows a Formula One racing prodigy who is forced to become a getaway driver to save the only family he has left.

Alyssa Milano will star in Netflix's feature film adaptation of Nora Roberts's romance thriller, Brazen Virtue. Milano plays Grace, a prominent mystery writer and crime expert, who hurries back to her family home in Washington, D.C., after her estranged sister summons her. When her sister is killed and her double life as a webcam performer is revealed, Grace ignores the warnings of a cool-headed detective and gets involved in the case. Unfortunately, the casting choice of Milano caused a bit of controversy that Roberts felt compelled to defend publicly.

Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson are set to join Daisy Edgar-Jones in the film adaptation of the bestselling novel, Where The Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. Set up at Sony, the film is being directed by Olivia Newman from a screenplay written by Oscar-nominated scribe Lucy Alibar. The story takes place in the mid-20th century South and centers on Kya, a young woman who is abandoned by her family and has to raise herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight, instantly branded by the local townspeople and law enforcement as the prime suspect for his murder.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Critics Choice Association, the largest critics organization in the U.S. and Canada, representing more than 400 television, radio and online critics and entertainment reporters, announced the nominees for the 26th annual Critics Choice Awards for television (the film nominees will be revealed on February 8). Crime dramas nominated in the Best Drama Series category include Better Call Saul (AMC), The Good Fight (CBS All Access), Ozark (Netflix), and Perry Mason (HBO). Best Actor noms include Jason Bateman for Ozark; Bob Odenkirk for Better Call Saul; and Matthew Rhys for Perry Mason. Best Actress nominees include Christine Baranski for The Good Fight (CBS All Access) and Laura Linney for Ozark.

HBO has acquired the rights to adapt Alex Marzano-Lesnevich's book, The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, as a limited series. Jeremiah Zagar (Hustle) will co-write the script, exec produce, and direct. The drama revolves around a young lawyer whose opposition to the death penalty is shaken when she's assigned the case of a child murderer—whose complicated life story parallels the long-suppressed trauma of her past.

Dylan McDermott is heading to New York to star in Law & Order: Organized Crime. McDermott, best known for his role on ABC’s long-running drama, The Practice, will star alongside Christopher Meloni in the NBC drama. Meloni is reprising his role as Elliot Stabler, who returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss. Stabler will aim to rebuild his life as part of a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.

French mystery thriller, Lupin, is returning to Netflix for its second half of season one this summer. The series has become a surprising hit for the streamer, with 70M households projected to watch since its launch on January 8, making it easily Netflix's biggest French original. The project is a contemporary adaptation of the novels penned by French writer Maurice LeBlanc and stars Omar Sy as Assane Diop, who uses the world famous gentleman thief and master of disguise, Arsène Lupin, as his inspiration as he tries to get revenge on those responsible for his father's death.

Jamie Dornan has been cast as the lead of The Tourist, a limited series from BBC One and HBO Max. Along with Dornan, the six-episode show will star Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, and Hugo Weaving. The Tourist centers on a British man (Dornan) who finds himself in the heart of the Australian outback being pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road. An epic cat and mouse chase unfolds and the man later wakes in the hospital, hurt, but somehow alive. Except he has no idea who he is. With merciless figures from the man’s past pursuing him, his search for answers propels him through the vast and unforgiving outback.

The Canadian legal drama, Diggstown, is heading to the U.S. after Fox acquired the series. Diggstown follows Marcie Diggs (Vinessa Antoine Antoine), as a corporate lawyer who reconsiders her priorities and moves to work in a legal-aid office after her beloved aunt takes her own life following the pressures of a malicious prosecution. The team of lawyers that Marcie works with are a curious band of do-gooders, cynics, and scrappers – messy souls struggling to keep personal disappointment and demons out of their practice. The cast also includes Natasha Henstridge, C. David Johnson, Stacey Farber, Brandon Oakes, Shailene Garnett, Tim Rozon, and Dwain Murphy.

lan Cumming has been tapped for a recurring role opposite Michael Sheen and Tom Payne on Fox’s serial-killer thriller drama, Prodigal Son. The series follows Malcolm Bright (Payne), son of "The Surgeon" (Sheen), who as a child was responsible for enabling the police to arrest his father. Now a profiler, who formerly worked for the FBI until he was fired, he currently consults for the New York Police Department. Bright is forced to confront his father after a copycat serial killer uses his father's methods of killing, and then uses his father's insights to help the police solve particularly horrible crimes and battle his own inner demons.

Scandal actor, Dan Bucatinsky, is returning to ABC’s Thursday lineup, joining the cast of ABC’s new Katey Sagal-starring series, Rebel, which was slotted in the Thursday 10 PM slot starting April 8. Created by Krista Vernoff and inspired by the life of Erin Brockovich, Rebel centers on Annie "Rebel" Bello (Sagal), a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. Bucatinsky will play Jason Erickson, an edgy, somewhat bitter university professor from whom Rebel (Sagal) seeks help.

Jen Landon (Yellowstone, Animal Kingdom) is set for a recurring role opposite Yaya Gosselin on the second season of CBS’s drama series FBI: Most Wanted. Landon will play Sarah Allen, Tali’s (Gosselin) riding instructor. The FBI spinoff, from Universal Television and Wolf Entertainment, stars Julian McMahon, Kellan Lutz, Roxy Sternberg, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Nathaniel Arcand.

David E. Kelley’s hit freshman ABC drama series, Big Sky, continues to bulk up its cast with the addition of five high profile recurring guest stars, Michelle Forbes, Britt Robertson, Michael Raymond-James, Ryan Dorsey and Omar Metwally. They join recently cast new series regular Ted Levine, who plays powerful ranch owner Horst Kleinsasse, and Kyle Schmid, who will recur as his second-born son John Wayne Kleinsasse. The crime thriller series, created by Kelley based on C.J Box’s book, follows private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) who join forces to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken.

Netflix’s drama-thriller series, Pieces of Her, starring Oscar nominee Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote, has added Jessica Barden, Omari Hardwick, David Wenham, Joe Dempsie, and Jacob Scipio to its ensemble cast. The series adaptation is based on the author Karin Slaughter’s thriller novel of the same name. Pieces of Her will be set in a sleepy Georgia town where a random act of violence sets off an unexpected chain of events for 30-year-old Andy Oliver (Heathcote) and her mother Laura (Collette). Desperate for answers, Andy embarks on a dangerous journey across America, drawing her towards the dark, hidden heart of her family.

David Magidoff has been added to the cast of Showtime’s Dexter revival set in the upstate New York town of Iron Lake. He will co-star opposite Michael C. Hall, Clancy Brown, Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, and Jack Alcott in the 10-episode limited series, which begins production next month in Massachusetts. Magidoff will play Teddy, a quirky new cop who is a little scared of his boss, Police Chief Angela Bishop (Jones). The original series, which ran from 2008-13, followed Dexter Morgan (Hall), a complicated and conflicted blood-spatter expert for the Miami Police Department who moonlighted as a serial killer.

Apple TV+ has renewed its first non-English language original series, the Israeli espionage thriller drama, Tehran, for a second season. Tehran tells the story of Mossad agent, Tamar Rabinyan, who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy.

Just three episodes into The Blacklist’s eighth season, NBC’s long-running drama has been picked up for a ninth season. The series stars James Spader as Raymond "Red" Reddington, a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily surrenders to the FBI after eluding capture for decades. The cast also includes Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, Laura Sohn, and Harry Lennix.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO



A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring the mystery short story, "The Bucket List," written by Ang Pompano and read by actor Teya Juarez.

Read or Dead discussed books that make use of unique formats to tell their story.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Gregg Hurwitz, bestselling author of 22 thrillers including the ORPHAN X series.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Julie Holmes to discuss her novel, Murder in Plane Sight.

On the latest It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club, New York Times bestseller author, Ellery Adams, stopped by for a look at Ink and Shadows, No. 4 in her Secret, Book & Scone Society Series.

The featured guests on Queer Writers of Crime were authors C.S. Poe and Gregory Ashe, who put their heads together and co-wrote A Friend in the Dark (An Auden O'Callaghan Mystery).

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Quote of the Week

            

FFB: The House at Balnesmoor, a/k/a A Few Small Bones

Scottish writer Hugh C(rauford) Rae was born in 1935 (d. 2014) and brought up in Glasgow, where he spent fourteen years working in a bookshop before turning to writing books rather than selling them. Between 1965 and 1992, he published over seventy novels in various genres under several pseudonyms, including Robert Crawford, James Albany, R B Houston, Stuart Stern (with S. Ungar), and Jessica Stirling (with Margaret M. Coghlan). He also served as past president of the Scottish Association of Writers.



The House at Balnesmoor, a/k/a A Few Small Bones, dates from 1968 and is one of Rae's earliest efforts. It follows Norman Lang, who makes a gruesome discovery near his idyllic country retreat in Glasgow's countryside, the bodies of two schoolgirls buried among the heather. The chapters alterenate between Chief Superintendent McCaig and Inspector Ryan and their investigation and the lives of the cast of suspects, including the reclusive Lang; his wife, who is prone to nervous fits; the real estate agent Galbraith, an aging libidinous bachelor; and Lang's neighbors, the Johnstones, both involved in separate adulterous affairs. As the investigation deepens, it casts a long shadow over Lang and his reputation and threatens to push his tormented  wife to the brink of madness. But McCaig begins to worry that a fatal fusion of youthful passion and neurosis gone murderously awry may lead the killer to strike again.



Rae once said in an interview that he hoped he was "crafty enough not to bury the story in an excess of detail but to lure the reader into the experience of another time, another place through the interaction of the characters." He also noted that he returned again and again to Scottish backgrounds and themes, with a particular interest in the shifting phases in his home country over the past two centuries and the hardships suffered by its people, urban and rural. It's been pointed out that Rae was one of the earliest in the "tartan noir" line of Scottish authors whose descendants include Ian Rankin and Denise Mina.



Rae went on to write only one additional book in the McCaig/Ryan series, The Shooting Gallery (1972), which was a finalist for the 1973 Edgar Award for Best Mystery. Rae eventually turned to "lightweight guns'n'gals thrillers" under the Crawford and Albany names and historical romance novels under the Stirling pseudonym because they were more lucrative. He also dabbled in radio plays and television, and two of his novels were adapted for TV in the 80s and 90s.

            

Mystery Melange

On February 8, the Dallas Museum of Art will be hosting a virtual event with Walter Mosley in connection with his new novel, Blood Grove, the latest Easy Rawlins installment set among the sun-soaked streets of Southern California.

On Friday, March 5, NoirCon and The Projection Booth Podcast are teaming up to celebrate the birthday of noir icon David Goodis with a virtual watch party, celebrating the cinematic legacy of Goodis with a selection of films adapted from his books (and maybe a few TV shows, too).

On Tuesday, March 9, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, C.J. Box, heads to The Music Hall Loft's virtual stage as part of the Writers on in The Loft series, now being presented in an intimate, online format. Box will discuss his new mystery novel, Dark Sky, the latest adventure for Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett.

As part of the virtual SleuthFest conference this year, there will be a Noir at the Bar on March 19. Co-hosts E.A. Aymar and Raquel V. Reyes will be joined by authors JD Allen, Kellye Garrett, Catriona McPherson, and Alex Segura who will share readings from their works.

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Patricia Highsmith at 100 (1921-1995), several essays and articles have been pouring in, including Crime Reads's look at Highsmith and the women who inspired The Talented Mr. Ripley; LitHub's take on Patricia Highsmith’s confessions and rebellions at Yaddo, the legendary writers' retreat; and Bookmarks' study of classic and contemporary reviews of five iconic thrillers by Highsmith. The Guardian had three different articles, the first on the author's "twisted brilliance," the second on the best film adaptations of Highsmith's works, and the third, a review of the new biography, Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith, by Richard Bradford.

Do you know what really happens inside a crime lab? In "Blood, Powder, and Residue," Beth A. Bechky offers an ethnography of the world of criminalists, who sort through the evidence from crime scenes.

Author Jeannie Mobley took the "Page 69 Test" for her novel, The Jewel Thief, which centers on the only daughter of the King's crown jeweler, Juliette, who is accused by Louis XIV of stealing his most precious diamond, the large blue stone known as The French Blue.

Kings River Life Magazine featured "Crime writers of color coming attractions," a list of new releases from January through March.

America Reads profiled "Top 10 Female Assassin Books," while Book Riot compiled a list of "15 of the best feminist mystery novels."

Several bloggers are participating in "Short Story Wednesday"; this week, they include Jerry House's take on "The Red Face of Feerish Ali" by James Francis Dwyer (from Collier's, March 9, 1912; and Patti Abbott's feature of "A Short Guide to the City" by Peter Straub. Award-winning short author and editor, Art Taylor, also put together a list of recommended short-story collections (which includes several crime fiction titles) for a new course he's teaching at George Mason University.

Meet the book club that's helping to vaccinate its town.

As Lesa Holstein reported, last week we lost Sharon Kay Penman, bestselling historical novelist and mystery author, after a bout with cancer. She's perhaps best known as the author of nine critically acclaimed historical novels, but she also penned four medieval mysteries including The Queen’s Man, a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Taserman" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with British-born Allie Reynolds, a former freestyle snowboarder and English teacher, about her debut crime novel, Shiver; and 5 thriller and mystery writers — Michael Connelly, John Lescroart, Lee Goldberg, Penny Warner, and Catriona McPherson — weighed in California’s murderous appeal.

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Enter the Edgars

The Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2020. The 75th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated on April 29, 2021.

BEST NOVEL

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney 

Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

These Women by Ivy Pochoda 

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

The Distant Dead by Heather Young 

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March 

Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen 

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas 

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden 

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel 

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

The Deep, Deep Snow by Brian Freeman 

Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey 

The Keeper by Jessica Moor 

East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman 

BEST FACT CRIME

Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley 

The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg 

Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eric Eyre 

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch 

Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus's Wifeby Ariel Sabar

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club by Martin Edwards 

Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane 

Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery & Fiction by Erin E. MacDonald (McFarland)

Guilt Rules All:  Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction by Elizabeth Mannion & Brian Cliff 

This Time Next Year We'll be Laughing by Jacqueline Winspear 

BEST SHORT STORY

"The Summer Uncle Cat Came to Stay," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Leslie Elman 

"Dust, Ash, Flight," Addis Ababa Noir by Maaza Mengiste 

"Fearless," California Schemin' by Walter Mosley (

"Etta at the End of the World," Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by Joseph S. Walker 

“The Twenty-Five Year Engagement,” In League with Sherlock Holmes by James W. Ziskin 

BEST JUVENILE

Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce 

Me and Banksy by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks 

Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor 

Nessie Quest by Melissa Savage 

Coop Knows the Scoop by Taryn Souders

BEST YOUNG ADULT

The Companion by Katie Alender 

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 

They Went Left by Monica Hesse 

Silence of Bones by June Hur

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

TV EPISODE/TELEPLAY

“Episode 1, The Stranger” – Harlan Coben’s The Stranger, Written by Danny Brocklehurst (Netflix)

“Episode 1, Open Water” – The Sounds, Written by Sarah-Kate Lynch (Acorn TV)

“Episode 1, Photochemistry” – Dead Still, Written by John Morton (Acorn TV)

“Episode 1” – Des, Written by Luke Neal (Sundance Now)

“What I Know” – The Boys, Written by Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Amazon)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL

"The Bite,” Tampa Bay Noir by Colette Bancroft 

SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

Death of an American Beauty by Mariah Fredericks 

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart 

The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day 

The First to Lie by Hank Phillippi Ryan 

Cold Wind by Paige Shelton 

G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD

The Burn by Kathleen Kent 

Riviera Gold by Laurie R. King

Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht

Dead Land by Sara Paretsky

The Sleeping Nymph by Ilaria Tuti 

Turn to Stone by James W. Ziskin

GRAND MASTER

Jeffrey Deaver

Charlaine Harris

RAVEN AWARD

Malice Domestic

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Reagan Arthur, Publisher – Alfred A. Knopf

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Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Josh Hartnett is set to star opposite Jason Statham, Cary Elwes, and Aubrey Plaza in the latest Miramax/STX feature spy thriller from Guy Ritchie, which originally went by the title Five Eyes. The movie, which is now temporarily untitled, follows MI6 guns-and-steel agent (Statham) who is recruited by a global intelligence agency to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology that threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a CIA high-tech expert, Fortune sets off on a globe-trotting mission where he will have to use all of his charm, ingenuity and stealth to track down and infiltrate a billionaire arms broker's network.

In other "Five Eyes" news, Hugh Grant is also in preliminary talks to join Guy Ritche’s action thriller, although the deal has not been finalized. One would think that would have to happen soon, though, since preliminary filming is already underway in Qatar and Turkey.

Four actors have been added to the cast of the Michael Bay-directed action thriller, Ambulance, with Garret Dillahunt, A Martinez, Keir O’Donnell, and Moses Ingram coming on board. The four join current cast members Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez in a feature that’s based off the original Danish film, Ambulancen. While the plot is being kept under wraps, the pic is said to be in the same vein as such 1990s action pictures, Speed and Bad Boys.

This isn't exactly crime drama, but interesting nonetheless; in an interview with People magazine, actor Liam Neeson said he'd been approached by Seth McFarlane and Paramount Studios to maybe resurrect the Naked Gun films, adding "It'll either finish my career or bring it in another direction. I honestly don't know." The original Naked Gun film series was from the late '80s and early '90s (based on the Police Squad! TV show) and followed Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), a bumbling official who always seems to figure out the crime despite wisecracking hijinks.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Sony-backed Eleventh Hour Films has signed up The Crown star Lesley Manville to lead the cast of its PBS/BritBox crime series, Magpie Murders, with Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) set as the director. Manville will star as Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel but has little idea it will change her life. The six-part series is based on Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling novel of the same name, with the author adapting his own work for the screen.

Don DeLillo’s novel, Libra, a speculative account of the plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy interwoven with the life story of his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, is being adapted for television. First published in 1988, Libra blends fact and fiction to tell the story of the JFK assassination, one of the most mythologized events in American history, and explores the U.S.’s obsession with and relationship to conspiracy. The book was shortlisted for the National Book Award, and the New York Times called it "DeLillo’s richest novel."

Channel 5 and Acorn TV have jointly commissioned new six part thriller, The Reluctant Madame Blanc (working title), written by Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent. The new six-part series follows Jean White, a renowned and respected antiques dealer, running a successful business in leafy Cheshire with her husband, Rory. Jean learns that Rory has tragically died on his way home from their vintage treasure-trove stomping grounds in the South of France. Things take a darker turn when she discovers all of their money has disappeared, their shop re-mortgaged to the hilt, and their assets pawned off...except for their cottage in French antiques hub, Saint Victoire. She quickly realizes something is amiss and heads to Saint Victoire, but will Jean get the answers she's seeking?

Swedish crime drama, Bäckström, has been renewed for a second series. The series is based on the books by Leif GW Persso and premiered in Sweden before being picked up by Acorn TV for UK broadcast. It will once again see Kjell Bergqvist play the titular character of homicide detective, Evert Bäckström.

Hit BBC drama, Peaky Blinders, will end after its sixth and final season, but creator and writer Steven Knight has promised the story will "continue in another form." The series follows the story of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his notorious family’s rise to power against the backdrop of working class, post-WWI Birmingham.

AMC has acquired six-part British revenge thriller, The Beast Must Die. Based on the novel by Nicholas Blake (pen name of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, CBE), it stars Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo and tells the story of a grieving mother who infiltrates the life of the man she believes killed her son.

 

Matt Hamilton, Paul Campbell, and Cristina Rosato are set for recurring roles in Turner & Hooch, Disney+’s reboot of the classic 1989 buddy-cop comedy feature. The TV series, which has a 12-episode order, centers on Scott Turner (Josh Peck), who now is a U.S. marshal, versus the police detective played by Tom Hanks in the film. When the ambitious, buttoned-up marshal inherits a big, unruly dog, he soon realizes the dog he didn’t want might be the partner he needs.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, chatted with crime writer Cathi Stoler about her latest novel, Bar None, from the Murder on the Rocks mystery series.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Cecilia Ekbäck to discuss her new historical mystery, The Historians. The book is set in a Sweden rife with dangerous crosscurrents that young, well-connected Laura Dalgren gets caught up in when Britta Hallberg—her best friend from university—is found murdered. Did Britta sign her own death warrant with the subject of her post-grad thesis?

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with David Rohlfing about his debut crime novel, Deliberate Duplicity.

Queer Writers of Crime chatted with Timothy Jay Smith, who has turned his thrilling life into thrilling fiction.

Robert McCaw was the featured guest on Wrong Place, Write Crime, discussing his Hawaii-based series starring Detective Koa Kane, including the newest release, Death of a Messenger.

Robert Dugoni stopped by the My Favorite Detective Story podcast. The multiple-award-winning Dugoni is the author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, the Charles Jenkins espionage series, and the David Sloane legal thriller series, among many more novels.

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Quote of the Week

            

FFB: Mystery on the Queen Mary

Bruce Graeme (1900-1982) is one of the many pen names of British author Graham Montague Jeffries, who also wrote as Peter Bourne, David Graeme, Roderic Hastings, Fielding Hope and Jeffrey Montague. He was born in London and served in the Queen's Westminster Rifles in 1918, as well as working as a reporter and film producer and serving as a founding member of the Crime Writers Association. Along the way, Graeme wrote some 80 novels and several short stories, the most successful of which featured his "gentleman crook" a/k/a wealthy mystery novelist, Blackshirt.



Graeme also created several other series characters such as the team of C.I.D. Superintendent William Stevens and Inspector Pierre Allain of the Surete Nationale, beginning with A Murder of Some Importance in 1931. Twelve more Stevens/Allain novels followed until 1943, including Mystery on the Queen Mary from 1937.



Inspector Pierre Allain is described as a plump, bearded man with dark brown eyes. Although likeable, he possesses a mercurial temperament and claims to be the best detective (and the greatest lover) in France. He dislikes simple cases because they are "beneath" his prodigious talents and don't offer the chance to get his accustomed adulation after solving the affair. Superintendent William Stevens is tall, broad-shouldered and in good shape from exercise that has left his "flesh healthily tinted." Unlike his colleague, he's a family man and less egotistical, but not without his own flights of fancy and the occasional bout of flirting with the ladies.



Robby MacKay, a young shipyard worker who is one of many helping to prepare the Queen Mary get ready for her historic maiden voyage, overhears a scheme to hide something somewhere on the ship, masterminded by a man with a foreign voice. Robby later survives a violent attack and near-drowning to seek the help of the police. Inspector Stevens uses his influence to get Robby a job aboard the ship so he can mingle with passengers and hopefully ID the mystery voice. Meanwhile in France, a dying foreigner with ties to jewel thieves leads Inspector Allain to also snag a ticket aboard the Queen, and soon the detective duo realize the two mysteries are in some way connected.



As Leo Harris notes in his Foreword to a 1992 reprint, though presented as a detective thriller, this is "really a floating Grand Hotel replete with interlocking dramas, romances and comedies, with the msytery element almost secondary. You can enjoy it for its variety of incident and especially for an obliquely revealed view of life in the 30s."

            

Mystery Melange

The Writers Police Academy is launching an online program with classes and workshops for writers featuring law enforcement and forensic procedures and the craft of storytelling. The first up will be on January 23, "Criminal Investigations: Writing Believable Make-Believe." This daylong live and interactive seminar features detailed instruction in cyber crime and security, crime scene mapping using lasers and drones, and sexual assault investigations. As a bonus, USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Lisa Regan, tells how to use the elements of fiction to craft a gripping crime novel. You can register for than and other upcoming courses via this link.

Exactly a 100 years ago, on January 21, 1921, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first novel by Agatha Christie was published in the UK. There have been many tributes and essays penned about the centennary, but if you're a fan of Christie and geography, you might check out this article by Sebastian Beck and Dominique Jeannerod on the International Crime Fiction blog. It takes a closer look at the different dimensions of space in the 45 novels featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and how the places where homicides were committed evolved over the course of Christie’s career.

If you're looking forward to staying inside with some good reading, the Rap Sheet blog has you covered with lists of new releases in the U.S. and UK for the first three months of 2021.

Netflix debuted its chilling true-crime documentary series, Night Stalker, on January 13, which tells the story of the law-enforcement officers who caught and apprehended Richard Ramirez, a serial killer and rapist who was active in California during the 1980s. As an adjunct to the series, The Wrap took a closer look at Frank Salerno, the detective who helped snag Ramirez in 1985.

Amazon.com and the "Big Five" publishers (Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster) have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago. The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York a week ago by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers "co-conspirators." It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as "Most Favored Nations" to keep ebook prices artificially high by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.

A couple of new essays at CrimeReads tackle the topics of mental illness, including Josh Stallings's piece on the need for "neurodiversity" in crime fiction since the human brain works in fascinating, diverse ways; and Frederick Weisel's deep dive into what the intersection of detective fiction and Alzheimer’s can tell us about the paths of mysteries and the course of this tragic disease.

Did you ever wonder where the tradition of bookplates came from? Wonder no more.

A new flash fiction story is up at Shotgun Honey, "Denied," by karen Harrington.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "January 6, 2021" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Murder Books welcomed Boston-based crime novelist Gabriel Valjan, author of the Roma Series, The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary mystery series, and a finalist for the Agatha and Anthony Awards; over at CrimeReads, Lee Child and Paraic O'Donnell discussed the history and significance of Jack Reacher in the context of "Moral Codes, Punching Nazis, and Human Evolution"; Lisa Haselton inverviewed cozy mystery author, G.P. Gottlieb, about her new culinary cozy novel, Smothered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery; and Ace Atkins, the author who has continued Robert B. Parker's series featuring the iconic P.I., Spencer, talked true crime and Spenser’s hidden Auburn connection with Alabama Life & Culture.

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