B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 110

Mystery Melange

The Noirwich Crime Writing Festival announced that Anita Terpstra and Paddy Richardson will be its Unesco City of Literature virtual writers in residence for 2020. Terpstra, who is from Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, will join Richardson, from Dunedin, New Zealand, to create new work and "foster connections" between Norwich and their home cities. This year's festival will take place as an online event from September 10-13 and include a program of live Q&As, creative writing workshops and discussion panels. Authors such as Attica Locke, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Olivier Norek, Sophie Hannah, and Jill Dawson will be feature in discussions that will be free to view.

The Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival is hosting an interview with Lee Child ahead of the publication of his biography, The Reacher Guy: The Authorised Biography of Lee Child, by Dr. Heather Martin. Titled "Reacher, Prospero and Me," the interview will include Child describing the influence Shakespeare has had on his work, and "revelations about a life-changing trip to Stratford." He will also talk about the creation of his main protagonist, Jack Reacher, via the broadcast on Eventbrite's digital platform, September 28. 

The new issue of Mystery Scene Magazine is out, with a cover profile of Camilla Läckberg by Oline H. Cogdill; an article on "Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon" by Lawrence Block; a look at "Love on the Run: Criminal Couples" by Pat H. Broeske, and much more.

There is a call for submissions for "The Crossroads of Crime Writing: Historical, Sociological, and Cultural Contexts/Intersections/Perspectives." The editors are seeking essays that "provide new insights into the works of significant authors, series or sub-genres of crime literature that we once thought we knew and/or examine the intersections of the real and fictional within the broader genre of Crime Writing in meaningful ways. Contributors are encouraged to dissect the historical, cultural, and/ or sociological significance of crime fiction, as well as examine how such works influence true crime writing or vice versa." You can find some sample essay topics on the Law Lit blog announcement. Interested authors should send 500-word abstracts along with a 200-word biographical statement to Meghan Nolan (mnolan2@sunyrockland.edu) and Rebecca Martin (doc.rmartin@gmail.com) by November 1st, 2020. The deadline for selected essays of 5000-7000 words is April 2021.

Kings River Life had a profile of the new owners of Mysterious Galaxy, an independent bookstore specializing in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, young adult, romance, and horror. Founded in 1992, the store has been an integral part of San Diego’s literary scene for readers ever since. After nearly 30 years in business, the original owners decided it was time to sell, which is where Matthew Berger and Jenni Marchisotto came in. A young couple who had lived down the street from the store, they had called it "their happy place," and along with Matthew being a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, it all converged to make Mysterious Galaxy a perfect fit.

Frustrated at not being able to travel or take that vacation this summer? CrimeReads recently featured some trips to crime fiction regions that might help tide you over, including a review of the new Akashic Books anthology, Tampa Bay Noir; a look at Lawrence Osborne's "Uncanny Bangkok"; a profile of the crime fiction of New Zealand; a list of "10 California Crime Novels That Aren't Set in Los Angeles or San Francisco"; and a roundtable discussion titled "The Women of Canadian Crime Fiction."

You may think of Ray Bradbury as a master of science fiction, but as the Bookgasm blog notes, a new anthology from Hard Case Crime titled Killer, Come Back to Me includes 20 stories that demonstrate the imagination and creativity Bradbury brought to crime fiction.

Did you know there are subscription coffee services? One in particular, My Coffee and Book Club, allows you to choose from your favorite literary genre including mysteries and thrillers and send along a book and java every month.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Dexterity" by Clark Zlotchew.

In the Q&A roundup, Denise Mina chatted with Shots Magazine's Ayo Onatade about her recent books Conviction and The Last Drop and how they're different from her other books; Aretha Phiri interviewed Rhodes University professor, Sam Naidu, about his essay focusing on African crime and detective fiction as a complex and disruptive variety of classic crime; and Julie Mulhern was featured at the Writers Who Kill blog talking about Killer Queen, the eleventh book in her humorous Country Club Murder mystery series, which is set in the 1970s.

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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

Elisabeth Moss and Blumhouse are developing a feature adaptation of the upcoming Virginia Feito psychological thriller novel, Mrs. March, a project in which the multi-Golden Globe and Emmy winning actress will play the titular character. Mrs. March follows a polished Upper East Side housewife who unravels when she begins to suspect the detestable protagonist of her husband’s latest bestselling novel is based on her. Feito will write the screenplay and executive produce.

Spyglass Media has optioned the rights to False Assurances, the debut bestselling novel from Christopher Rosow. The story is set in motion when the FBI Boston field office gets a hoax call, with a man claiming his sailboat was hijacked and used to smuggle weapons and terrorists into the United States. A presidential visit to Boston that night requires an investigation into the claims, and the FBI dispatches admin staffer Ben Porter, a laid-back millennial and the opposite of Jack Ryan in almost every way.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE S

Idris Elba will star in and produce a new romantic spy thriller for Apple TV, teaming up with X-Men and Murder on the Orient Express producer, Simon Kinberg. Though plot details are being kept under wraps, the film is said to be in the vein of another Kinberg project, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which he wrote back in 2005, and will combine action and romance elements in the spy genre. Travon Free, a writer on The Daily Show, wrote the screenplay.

CBS’s CSI event series has been quietly moving forward, with William Petersen and Jorja Fox in negotiations to star in CSI: Vegas, which will serve as a sequel to the mothership series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Casting is under way for four new characters who will join Petersen’s Gil Grissom and Fox’s Sara Sidle. Although CSI: Vegas has not been officially ordered, its filming is eyed to begin in the fall when COVID conditions permit Hollywood production to resume safely.

Wonder Woman 1984 star, Connie Nielsen, and Doctor Who’s Christopher Eccleston are set to star in the psychological drama, Close to Me, a six-part serial adaptation of British author Amanda Reynolds’s novel. The project tells the story of Jo Harding (Nielsen), a woman who has a seemingly perfect life with her partner (Eccleston) until a fall erases an entire year from her memory. As she struggles to piece events together, Jo discovers that her life was in fact far from perfect, with someone trying to keep a terrible secret from her.

AMC Networks-owned streamer UMC has ordered the legal drama, Lace, with a six-episode order for its first season. The series will follow a prolific Los Angeles attorney who often blurs the lines between right and wrong to protect her rich and powerful clientele. It is currently casting and the producers are in talks with Jamal Hill, who helmed the Netflix feature, Deuces, to direct.

The CBS dramas NCIS and its spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles have been assigned tentative dates to start production on their upcoming seasons under strict COVID-19 protocols: Sept. 9 for the mothership series and Sept. 3 for NCIS: LA. As is the case with any attempts to restart production during the pandemic, the dates are not set in stone and might easily be pushed as conditions related to the spread of the coronavirus change daily.

Spectrum Originals has set a new premiere date for the Gabrielle Union-Jessica Alba series, L.A.’s Finest, after delaying the cop drama earlier this summer. The series will return for its second season on Wednesday, Sept. 9, when all 13 episodes are made available on-demand to Spectrum subscribers. A spinoff of the Bad Boys film series, L.A.’s Finest features Gabrielle Union reprising her role as Syd Burnett from 2003’s Bad Boys II. Now an LAPD detective, Syd is paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba).

FilmRise is launching its first original production, the forensic investigative series, Bloodline Detectives, hosted by Nancy Grace. The twenty-episode syndicated series will feature criminal investigations using familial DNA and premiere nationwide October 3 on stations reaching nearly 90% of the country followed by a roll out on streaming platforms in 2021.

Netflix has dropped the first trailer for Young Wallander, which premieres on September 3 and tells the story of detective Kurt Wallander’s first case as a recently graduated police officer in his early 20s. Swedish actor Adam Pålsson features in the eponymous role alongside Argo’s Richard Dillane and Black Mirror’s Leanne Best. Pålsson takes on the mantle of Wallander after he was previously played by Kenneth Branagh in a BBC adaptation of Henning Mankell’s novels.

ITV has commissioned an extended second season of its odd-couple detective series, McDonald & Dodds, starring Jason Watkins (The Crown) and Tala Gouveia (Cold Feet). The show features BAFTA-winner Watkins as Detective Sergeant Dodds, a modest and unassuming figure, who is thrown together with Detective Chief Inspector Lauren McDonald, a feisty crime fighter from London’s Metropolitan Police. McDonald & Dodds is set against the backdrop of the historic British city of Bath, in southwest England, and is created and executive produced by Shetland writer, Robert Murphy.

Peacock has handed a series order to the young-adult mystery drama, One of Us is Lying, and has tapped Darío Madrona, co-creator of Netflix’s Elite, as showrunner. The streaming service has given the adaptation of Karen M. McManus’s novel an eight-episode order after ordering a pilot last year. One Of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five high schoolers walk into detention and only four make it out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Crime Writers of Color podcast spoke with J. L. Brown, author of the Jade Harrington mystery novels.

On the Crime Cafe podcast, Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Ann Aptaker, author of the Cantor Gold mystery novels, which have won Lambda Literary and Goldie Awards.

Writer Types featured a "cornucopia of accents on the show this week as four authors from all over the world discuss four very different books." Special guests included Gigi Pandian, David Joy, Poppy Gee, and Jax Miller.

Laury A. Egan visited the Gay Mystery Podcast to talk about her novels which include Jenny Kidd, an LGTBQ suspense set in Venice, and the literary suspense novel, Wave in D Minor.

On the latest Read or Dead podcast, hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about a new Megan Abbott book; Unsolved Mysteries; cold cases and more.

T. Jefferson Parker was the guest on Speaking of Mysteries to discuss Then She Vanished, the fourth installment in his series about the Fallbrook, CA-based private investigator, Roland Ford.

Beyond the Cover chatted with Laurell K. Hamilton about her current release, Sucker Punch.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Joseph Reid to talk about Departure, the latest installment in his Seth Walker series about an air marshal turned investigator who solves crimes in and around aviation.

Writer/producer/director, Michael Elias, stopped by It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club to discuss his new novel You Can Go Home Now, which features a tough Queens detective with a series of cold case homicides on her desk – men whose widows had the same alibi: they were living in Artemis, a battered women’s shelter, when their husbands were killed.

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FFB: Speaking of Murder

We owe many thanks to Ed Gorman (1941-2016) and Martin H. Greenberg (1941-2011)for the variety of collections and anthologies they edited through the years. I looked at bibliographies and counted at least 53 edited by Gorman, and one source said Greenberg had edited over a thousand books. Ed was also one of the regular contributors to the Friday's Forgotten Books feature at one time, as well as being an accomplished, award-winning author in his own right.



Two of the Gorman/Greenberg collaborations were a book and its sequel, both featuring interviews with well-known crime fiction authors, Speaking of Murder: Interviews with the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, published in July 1998, and Speaking of Murder II, which came out the following year.



I've not yet read the second volume, but the first is introduced by Ed, who tells the story of how a Chicago talk show producer once told him that writers made dull guests. Ed allowed as how he agreed, since "compared to cross-dressing prostitutes, mothers who sleep with their daughter's boyfriends, and UFO abductees who have mysteriously started to dress like Elvis, I guess most of us writers do lead pretty uneventful lives." He goes on to add that writers are interesting because they're quiet and introspective.



The twenty-one interviews in volume one include some of the best-known names in the genre: Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Ed McBain, Elizabeth George, Marcia Muller, Mickey Spillane, Ian Rankin, Tony Hillerman, Sue Grafton, Anne Perry, and more, each offering up insights into their inner world as well as their personal take on the writing process.



I'm always particularly fascinated by the early stages of a writer's career before they were successful, because that's the "danger time," the period when a writer is most likely to get discouraged and give up. From Carolyn G. Hart we learn that despite having thirteen books published ("nothing exciting happened with any one of them") and teaching journalism, she was depressed and felt like an enormous failure. One agent told her no one was buying mysteries, but after a Mystery Writers of America seminar, she decided she was going to write the mystery she wanted to anyway, the result being her wildly popular Death on Demand series.



The late Tony Hillerman worked as a journalist for seventeen years and taught for twenty-one years, writing a lot of nonfiction. One day he decided he wanted to write the great American novel and decided to start with a mystery because he didn't know if he could do characters or plotting well. He knew he could do descriptions, though, and chose the most beautiful setting he could think of (with his Navajo Tribal Police series) so the readers would at least enjoy the background. He wrote it off and on, thinking it wasn't good enough to be published, until he finally got tired of it and sent it off to an agent. And the rest, as they say, is history.



Other random tidbits: From Bill Pronzini, "Critical, editorial and/or peer misunderstanding or dismissal of my work only makes me more determined to hang around."



From Mickey Spillane: "If you are a writer and you do a scene ten times, the last one probably will sound like the first one, and you're not going to get any better as you revise. The best stuff you put down comes right off the typewriter, bam! ... I don't have a big garbage problem."



From Ian Rankin: "I remember an early attempt at research (at Leith Police Station)...They asked me what the book was about, I said a child killer. What I hadn't realized was that a child had just been abducted in Leith and a murder room had been set up. So they took down my details and added me to their computer. I became supsect number 350 and spent more time answering their questions than they did mine."



From Sharyn McCrumb: "Storytelling was an art form that I learned early on. When I was a little girl, my father would come in to tell me a bedtime story, which usually began with a phrase like, 'Once there was a prince named Paris, whose father was Priam, the king of Troy . . . .' thus I got the Iliad in nightly installments, geared to the level of a four-year-old's understanding."



From Sue Grafton:  "I love mystery; it is my favorite form. It is sublimely difficult, and for my money, it encompasses everything that is interesting about writing because you need a strong story, strong characters, and mood and atmosphere. It is also the perfect vehicle for social commentary. Mysteries are about the psychology of crime and the psychology of human nature. It is a form so difficult that I know I'll never conquer it. So it's the perfect place to keep throwing myself into the abyss."

            

Mystery Melange

The finalists for the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards were announced this week. The awards, which are named after the famed Kiwi crime author, celebrate the year's best in crime fiction from New Zealand writers. Awards founder Craig Sisterson noted, "Ten years after we launched the Ngaio Marsh Awards to help celebrate excellence in local crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing it’s heartening to see so many new voices infusing and stretching our #yeahnoir community."

This year's finalists include:

BEST NOVEL

Whatever it Takes by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)

Girl from the Tree House by Gudrun Frerichs

Aue by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press)

The Nancys by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)

In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette NZ)

The Wild Card by Renée (The Cuba Press)

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Tugga’s Mob by Stephen Johnson (Clan Destine Press)

Aue by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press)

The Nancys by RWR McDonald (Allen & Unwin)

Into the Void by Christina O’Reilly

 

The Killer Nashville conference announced the longlist for its annual Claymore Award for unpublished manuscripts. The award was established to "assist new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales." A jury of publishing and writing professionals within each genre chooses the Top 20 Finalists through a blind judging process, and you can see their efforts via this link for all the nominated titles. The announcement of the winners for the Claymore and also the Silver Falchion Awards (for published works) will continue as planned, just not in person due to the conference's cancellation, at a later date TBA. Voting is also currently underway online for the Killer Nashville Readers' Choice Award (full disclaimer: I have a book, The Suicide Sonata, listed there).

The finalists for the 2020 Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards in the genre category include Proof: A Marjorie Trumaine Mystery by Larry Sweazy. Judges include former winners, writers, educators, scholars, local bookstore owners and librarians, with winners to receive a $5,000 prize.

Another Noir at the Bar is coming up this Saturday via CrowdCast. Award-winning contributors to the anthology of short stories and essays, Writers Crushing Covid-19, will be on hand for selected readings from their works. Those currently scheduled to participate include Diane Kelly, Micki Bare, J.L. Delozier, Vince Zandri, E.A. Aymar, and Lawrence Kelter.

Organizers of the International Noireland Crime Fiction Festival in Belfast had postponed the event back in March, moving it to October this year in the hope that life would be back to normal by then. But as Festival Director, Angela McMahon, noted, "Sadly, it seems we were a little optimistic! The risk to public health from Covid-19 is still significant and unlikely to change for some time. As the wellbeing of our audiences, our authors and our many wonderful volunteers is paramount, we have concluded that in the circumstances we cannot go ahead with NOIRELAND this year." She went on to add that the hope is to present another great program of events in 2021.

We marked another passage in the crime fiction community, with the death at age 96 of Betty Rowlands, dubbed the "queen of cosy crime" by publisher Bookouture. The author, who wrote 25 books including the Melissa Craig and the Sukey Reynolds series, passed away peacefully of natural causes at a residential home on July 29th.

The summer issue of Suspense Magazine is out, featuring interviews with D.B. Corey, Jasper Bark, Riley Sager, Andrew Mayne, Joel C. Rosenberg, Harlan Coben, Kay Hooper, and Iris Johansen; an article on "how to write a murderer" by Ronald S. Barak; how to make your fictional serial killer, scarier, according to R. G. Belsky; plus new short stories, tons of new book reviews and more.

If you're a fan of short fiction, the Black Cat Mystery & Science Fiction Ebook Club from Wildside Press offers a book-of-the-month club, except for weekly and with electronic short stories and some novellas. Every week, paid club members get an email telling them about the seven-plus stories, a mix of crime/mystery and science fiction, that they can download that week in mobi or epub versions. Unpaid club members get the same weekly email giving them access to one free story, a specific one each week. All of the ebook club stories are available for two weeks only, giving members an incentive to check in each week to download the new offerings. (HT to Barb Goffman at the Sleuthsayers blog)

Bookriot compiled a list of six murder mysteries involving classical music, a subject near and dear to my heart since I'm a lifelong fan (and my own Scott Drayco series also features a former classical musician).

 

Do authors' "invisible" words reveal the blueprint for storytelling? Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Lancaster University think that they do.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Call Me Morbid, But ..." by Stephen J. Golds.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with entertainment lawyer/producer/writer, Nina Sadowsky, about her novels, including her latest, the psychological thriller, Convince Me; the same blog also recently spoke with Heather Vogel Frederick, the award-winning author of the young-adult Pumpkin Falls Mystery series, and Julie McElwain, author of Shadows in Time, which continues the journey of time-traveler FBI Agent Kendra Donovan as she solves murders in Regency England; the Venetian Vase blog welcomed Leah Konen to discuss her debut psychological thriller, One White Lie; and Laura Lippman sat down with CrimeReads to open up about "parenting, aging, choosing happiness, and exploring her dark, twisted imagination."

           Related StoriesMystery Melange 

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

Spyglass Media Group has teamed with Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear to develop a film based on the 1980s classic action series Knight Rider. TJ Fixman, a former video game writer, is adapting the screenplay. Created by Glen A. Larson, Knight Rider first aired on NBC from 1982-1986 and featured a high-tech car named KITT that assisted the mysterious crime-fighting driver Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff). The series amassed a significant cult following and inspired TV spinoffs, films, video games, books, and a Knight Rider convention known as KnightCon. Plot details for this latest installment are being kept under wraps, although it is said to be a present-day take that will maintain the anti-establishment tone of the original.

Lionsgate studios confirmed that a fifth John Wick movie is in the works and announced that both John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 will be filmed back-to-back. The fourth installment was originally scheduled for release in May of 2021 but is now slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. A release date for John Wick 5 was not announced. John Wick has become a big action franchise for Lionsgate, with the Starz John Wick TV series, The Continental, looking to premiere sometime following the fourth movie.

Chad Stahelski is set to produce New Line’s remake of the 2010 South Korean film, The Man From Nowhere, with Derek Kolstad penning the script. Stahelski previously directed all three John Wick films with Kolstad serving as writer. The Man From Nowhere was the highest grossing film in South Korea during its year of release making $42M and centered around a quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past who takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend.

The Kissing Booth’s Joey King is in negotiations to star opposite Brad Pitt in the action-thriller, Bullet Train, for Sony Pictures. Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch will direct and also supervise the script, which will be written by Zak Olkewicz. The film is based on the Japanese novel, Maria Beetle, by best-selling author Kotaro Isaka (which Harvill Secker has separately announced it will publish in English next year). In the novel, five assassins find themselves on a fast-moving bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with only a few stops in between and discover their missions may be related. The question becomes, who will make it off the train alive and what awaits them at the terminal station?

STXfilms has won the U.S. rights to director Kevin Macdonald’s untitled legal thriller (formerly known as Prisoner 760). The project stars Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Zachary Levi and tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), who is captured by the U.S. government and languishes in prison for years without charge or trial. Losing all hope, Slahi finds allies in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Woodley). Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch), eventually reveals a shocking and far reaching conspiracy.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Van Ditthavong’s feature directorial debut, All Roads To Pearla (formerly known as Sleeping In Plastic), which had its world premiere at the 2019 Austin Film Festival. The crime-thriller stars Alex MacNicoll, Addison Timlin, Corin Nemec, Nick Chinlund and Dash Mihok and is described as a dark coming-of-age tale about a high school wrestler in a small Texas town who becomes entangled with a beautiful drifter and her psychopathic lover.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Novelist-turned-TV-writer Megan Abbott is setting up her latest television project after eOne snapped up the rights to her upcoming book, The Turnout. The story is set in the hothouse world of a ballet school led by the Durant sisters, Dara and Marie, and Dara’s husband Charlie. After they hire Derek, a charismatic, possibly shady contractor to renovate the studio, Marie throws herself into an intense affair with him that threatens the family's tight bonds and brings forward family secrets until an act of violence overturns everything.

Apple TV+ has given a straight-to-series order to a crime drama from Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey and writer Adam Perlman. The untitled series is based on the Toronto Life article "The Sting" by journalist Michael Lista and follows a frustrated Canadian detective who takes on a decades-old cold case in hopes of winning a confession and becoming a hero. The case quickly spirals out of control when the undercover cop attempts an elaborate sting, adding playacting cops, taxpayer resources, and an unexpected friendship with the peculiar target.

Thomas Jane will star in and executive produce the crime drama, Troppo, a series adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Candice Fox’s Crimson Lake novel. Yolanda Ramke (Netflix’s Cargo) will pen the adaptation. Jane stars as an ex-cop falsely accused of a disturbing crime who escapes to the tropics of Far North Queensland. The series is slated to go into production later this year in Australia.

Landmark Studio Group has partnered with District 33 to develop and produce Shadows in the Vineyard, a limited-run drama series based on journalist Maximillian Potter’s bestselling book, Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison The World’s Greatest Wine, with Noah Wyle and Judith Light attached to star and executive produce. The project is set against the backdrop of the gorgeous, rolling countryside of the Cote-d’Or in Burgundy, France and is based on the true story of the outlandish 2010 plot-by-poison extortion scheme that targeted the most sought-after and expensive wine in the world – the legendary Romanée-Conti.

Michelle Gomez has been cast as a series regular in a recasting of HBO Max’s thriller series, The Flight Attendant, starring and executive produced by Kaley Cuoco. The Flight Attendant is a story of how an entire life can change in one night when flight attendant Cassie (Cuoco) wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. Gomez plays Miranda, a hardened, savvy businesswoman with anger-management issues who Cassie meets in Bangkok, and replaces Sonoya Mizuno who was initially cast in the role. Michiel Huisman, Colin Woodell, Zosia Mamet, Merle Dandridge and Griffin Matthews also star.

Valerie Mahaffey (Dead To Me) has been cast in Big Sky, ABC’s straight-to-series drama created and executive produced by David E. Kelley. Based on The Highway, the first book in C.J. Box’s Cassie Dewell series of novels, the story sees private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) partnering with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. 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 victim is taken.

Amazon Studios has ordered a second season of its hit conspiracy thriller drama series, Hunters, starring Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and Jerrika Hinton. Created by David Weil and executive produced by Jordan Peele, the first season of Hunters followed a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. The Hunters, as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the United States.

Hulu’s upcoming drama, No Man’s Land, tells the story of the all-female militia that fought in the Syrian civil war against ISIS. Called the YPJ, or Women’s Protection Units, these courageous women took on the terrorist ISIS soldiers who were terrified of dying by their hand. The series stars Félix Moati, Mélanie Thierry and James Purefoy alongside Souheila Yacoub, Joe Ben Ayed, James Floyd, Dean Ridge, Julia Faure, François Caron and Céline Samie.

Hulu announced new programming including a true-crime series, The Girl From Plainville, starring Elle Fanning. The series is based on the true story of Michelle Carter, who was controversially convicted of involuntary manslaughter of Conrad Roy III in the infamous texting-suicide case. In addition to starring as Carter, Fanning will executive produce alongside co-showrunners Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus, as well as Brittany Kahan Ward.

Sundance Now has boarded the New Zealand crime series, One Lane Bridge, in the U.S. and Canada (while sister AMC Networks streamer Acorn TV has taken the rights in the UK and Latin America). One Lane Bridge tells the story of young Maori detective, Ariki Davis (Dominic Ona-Ariki), who investigates the death of local legend, Grub Ryder, after his body is found at the bottom of One Lane Bridge. During his investigation with Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Tremaine (Joel Tobeck) in Queenstown, Davis taps into his Matakite — a supernatural ability akin to a second sight that he hasn’t experienced since his youth.

Netflix unveiled a first look at Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca, the adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel that was previously turned into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. Armie Hammer and Lily James lead the cast, playing the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier in Hitchcock’s version) and his new wife (previously Joan Fontaine), with Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers.

Showtime has debuted the first clip for Bryan Cranston’s limited legal drama, Your Honor. The ten-part series is executive produced by The Good Fight duo Robert and Michelle King and The Night Of’s Peter Moffat, who also writes. The Breaking Bad star plays a respected judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run in New Orleans that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "Nova, Capers, and a Schmear of Cream Cheese," written by Debra H. Goldstein and read by actor Thomas Nance.

Via Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog, which also brought us another such "story time" last week: The Elmhurst (IL) Public Library is offering a Storytime for Grown-Ups podcast, including shorts by Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl, William Faulkner, B.J. Novak, Edgar Allan Poe, Bill Pronzini, and Ian Rankin.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andrew Allan, author of the Walt Asher thriller series, on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan who writes mysteries set in her hometown while working as an editor in the newspaper industry.

On the Spybrary Podcast, Jeff Quest of the Spy Write blog joined Josh Pachter to talk about the mid-eighties digest, Espionage Magazine.

All Things Investigative chatted with J. Todd Scott, a federal agent-turned novelist of the Texas border series.

The Gay Mystery podcast talked about "impossible crimes" with Robert Innes, author of The Blake Harte Mysteries.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with the "cop doc," Ellen Kirschman, a clinical psychologist and recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Police and Public Safety Psychology.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured O'Neil de Noux, 2019 Shamus Award winner for Best Short Story for his tale "Sac-a-Lait Man," from EQMM's September/October 2019 issue.

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Quote of the Week

            

FFB: The New Adventures of Sherlock Homes

It's a great time to be Sherlock Holmes. Recent years have seen the hit TV series, Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson, the movie franchise with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, and new books by Anthony Horowitz, House of Silk (the first Holmes novel approved by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate in the past 125 years) and its sequel, Moriarty. Holmes pastiche short stories have long been popular, including the anthologies, A Study In Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger; Sherlock Holmes in America: 14 Original Stories by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, et al; and many many more (especially now that the Holmes characters from the books and stories published prior to 1923 are in the public domain).

An earlier anthology of Holmes pastiches from 1987 was also authorized by the Conan Doyle estate, a centennial edition marking the 100th year since the appearance of Holmes in print. Titled The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, editors Martin H. Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh collected new stories by John Lutz, Stuart Kaminsky, Gary Alan Ruse, Ed Hoch, Jon L. Breen, Micharl Harrison, Barry Jones, Joyce Harrison, Loren D. Estleman, Michael Gilbert, Dorothy B. Hughes, Peter Lovesey, Lillian de la Torre, Edward Wellen, and Stephen King.

Stories that capture the time period and style well are Barry Jones' "The Shadows on the Lawn" and Stuart Kaminsky's "The Final Toast," in which you get double Holmes, as the sleuth plays a Holmes lookalike in a plot of revenge. The more faithful to the actual Holmes canon are by Dorothy B. Hughes and Stephen King. The "muffin" of Hughes' story "Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin" refers to one of Mrs. Hudson's poor and illiterate girls who ends up helping Holmes solve a diamond robbery. "The Doctor's Case" by King is a brilliant locked-room mystery which is the only story Watson solved before Holmes did.

And if you're wondering how to go about writing your own Holmes-inspired story, Anthony Horowitz offers up "Ten Rules for Writing a Sherlock Holmes Novel."

            

Mystery Melange

The CWA Dagger shortlists were announced today. The winners of the annual awards, which honor the very best in the crime writing genre, will be announced at an awards ceremony on October 22. (HT to Shots Magazine)

GOLD DAGGER

What You Pay For by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)
November Road by Lou Berney(Harper Fiction)
Forced Confessions by John Fairfax (Little, Brown)
Joe Country by Mick Herron (John Murray)
Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (Sphere)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

November Road by Lou Berney (Harper Fiction)
This is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield (Hodder & Stoughton)
One Way Out by AA Dhand (Bantam Press)
Between Two Evils by Eva Dolan (Raven Books)
Cold Storage by David Koepp(HQ)
The Whisper Man by Alex North:(Michael Joseph)

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Faber & Faber)
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (Michael Joseph)
Little White Lies by Philippa East (HQ)
The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley (Trapeze)
The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood(Quercus Fiction)

SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER

In Two Minds by Alis Hawkins (The Dome Press)
Metropolis by Philip Kerr(Quercus Fiction)
The Bear Pit by SG MacLean (Quercus Fiction)
Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
The Anarchists’ Club by Alex Reeve (Raven Books)
The Paper Bark Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Constable)

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Summer of Reckoning by Marion Brunet, translated by Katherine Gregor (Bitter Lemon Press)
The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre, translated by Stephanie Smee (Old Street Publishing)
Like Flies from Afar by K Ferrari, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Canongate Books)
November by Jorge Galán, translated by Jason Wilson (Constable)
The Fragility of Bodies by Sergio Olguín, translated by Miranda France (Bitter Lemon Press)
Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

SHORT STORY DAGGER

"The Bully" by Jeffery Deaver in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)
"The New Lad" by Paul Finch in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)
"The Washing" by Christopher Fowler in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books)
"#Me Too" by Lauren Henderson in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books)
"The Recipe" by Louise Jensen in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)
"Easily Made" by Syd Moore in 12 Strange Days of Christmas (Point Blank Press)

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Furious Hours by Casey Cep (William Heinemann)
Corrupt Bodies by Peter Everett (Icon Books)
Honour: Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod by Caroline Goode (Oneworld Publications)
The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury by Sean O’Connor (Simon & Schuster)
The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking by Adam Sisman (Profile Books)
The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective by Susannah Stapleton (Picador)

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Christopher Brookmyre
Jane Casey
Alex Gray
Quintin Jardine

DEBUT DAGGER

The Spae-Wife by Anna Caig
Whipstick by Leanne Fry
Pesticide by Kim Hays
Emergency Drill by Nicholas Morrish
Revolution Never Lies by Josephine Moulds
Bitter Lake by Michael Munro

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Bitter Lemon Press
Harvill Secker
Head of Zeus
HQ
Michael Joseph
Orenda
Raven Books
Severn House

Sisters in Crime (SinC) announced that the 2020 winner of the annual Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award is Yasmin McClinton of Columbia, SC. The winning novel-in-progress was selected by judges Rachel Howzell-Hall, Alex Segura and the 2019 winner, Jessica Martinez. The award, which honors the memory of pioneering African-American crime fiction author Eleanor Taylor Bland with a $2,000 grant to an emerging writer of color, was created in 2014 to support SinC’s vision to serve as the voice for excellence and diversity in crime writing. Past recipients include Maria Kelson (2014), Vera H-C Chan (2015), Stephane Dunn (2016), Jessica Ellis Laine (2017), Mia P. Manansala (2018) and Jessica Martinez (2019).

The Hugo Awards for excellence in science fiction announced the winners in the various categories. Many of these often have a crime component, such as the winner of the Best Novel this year, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, which follows Ambassador Mahit Dzmare who arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has been murdered.

After the cancellation of all the Edinburgh International Book Festival due to the coronavirus pandemic, the book festival has moved entirely online, hosting 140 book readings and, for the first time, online book signings. It has arranged signings with 22 authors based in the UK, where fans who buy the first 50 of their books will be given access to short, private signing sessions lasting about a minute, with the possibility of recording the moment. The authors involved include the crime novelists Ian Rankin and Val McDermid.

Independent publisher Canelo is launching a new crime fiction imprint, Canelo Crime, and has promoted Louise Cullen as publishing director to oversee the list. The imprint will launch with a selection of eight titles, including novels by Rachel Lynch and Nick Louth, due for release on September 24.  Cullen is now actively seeking new novels with "bestseller potential" for inclusion in the imprint in 2021 and beyond, with a target of 15–18 new releases next year.

Jane Friedman took a look at the state of the book publishing industry in the midst of the pandemic and found that book publishing is positioned to grow in terms of unit sales when compared to 2019, and in fact, 2020 may prove to be one of the strongest sales years in recent memory - at least in terms of total sales. The numbers for brick-and-mortar stores aren't as bright.

The August issue of Mystery Weekly Magazine is out with the cover feature, "Lucid'' by Bill Kelly, a femme fatale tale dealing with mystery, memory and murder, and original custom cover art By Robin Grenville-Evans. There are also story contributions from Michael Mallory, Josh Pachter, Rachel Amphlett, Leone Ciporin, Michael Bracken, David Bart, and Gerard J Waggett.

Publishers Weekly asked seven mystery writers to discuss the debt they owe to the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie.

So many blogs have gone the way of the dinosaur over the past several years, and last week brought the end to two more: the Cozy Chicks blog announced it was ceasing operations as a blog after thirteen years. The authors (Lorraine Bartlett/Lorna Barrett, Duffy Brown, Mary Kennedy, Maggie Sefton, and Karen Rose Smith) will continue to post in a Facebook group; likewise, the Killer Characters blog also announced it was also ceasing operations after ten years. Their final post was an unpublished draft from colleague, Sheila Connolly, who passed away in April.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Kneecaps Or Us" by David S. Pointer.

In the Q&A roundup, Marshal Zeringue, of Writer Interviews, chatted with Adele Parks, author of the psychological thriller, Lies, Lies, Lies; Mystery Playground spoke with Paul D. Marks about his new crime novel, The Blues Don't Care; and Indie Crime Scene interviewed Phillip Jordan, whose first novel, Code of Silence, has its debut this autumn.

           Related StoriesMystery Melange 

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

Ariel Winter (Modern Family) is joining the cast of Don’t Log Off, an indie feature set entirely during the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine. The comedy-thriller marks the directorial debut from the Baer Brothers, Brandon Baer and Garrett Baer. Additional casting includes Luke Benward (Dumplin’), Ashley Argota (The Fosters), Brielle Barbusca (Big Time Adolescence), Sterling Beaumon (The Killing), Jack Griffo (Alexa & Katie), Khylin Rhambo (Teen Wolf), and Kara Royster (Pretty Little Liars). The plot, written by the Baer Brothers, revolves around six friends attending a virtual surprise party when the birthday girl suddenly goes missing.

A trailer was released for Honest Thief, starring Liam Neeson as bank robber Tom Carter, ready to pay back the $9 million he’s stolen throughout a career in crime. Turning himself into law enforcement, he’s ready to do his time, and go straight for the woman he loves (Kate Walsh). There’s just one, huge problem: a pair of dirty agents (Anthony Ramos and Jai Courtney) want to make off with the money for themselves and frame Carter with a murder to make sure he can’t stop them.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy Award nominations were announced last week and include several spots for crime dramas, including Best Drama Series nods for Better Call Saul (AMC), Killing Eve (BBC America), and Ozark (Netflix); a Best Actor nomination for Jason Bateman (Ozark); and Best Actress nominations for Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and Laura Linney (Ozark).

The winners of the British version of the Emmys, the BAFTAs, were also announced, with a few crime dramas among the honorees. Best Drama went to the darkly comedic crime caper, The End of the F***ing World; Glenda Jackson won Best Actress in a Drama for Elizabeth is Missing about an elderly woman living with dementia who struggles to piece together a double mystery; Will Sharpe won Best Supporting Actor for the detective drama, Giri/Haji; and Naomi Ackie won Best Supporting Acress for The End of the F***ing World. A BAFTA special award was also given to Idris Elba (the star of Luther) for his role in championing diversity and new talent in the industry.

AMC streamer Acorn TV has unveiled its second original project, the crime drama Cannes Confidential. Penned by Midsomer Murders writer, Chris Murray, the eight-part series is a romantic procedural that blends comedy, mystery and crime detection with a heart-warming love story — all against the backdrop of the Cote d’Azur. Fun trivia: Acorn is billing Cannes Confidential as the first English-language procedural drama to be produced and set on the Cote d’Azur since the 1970s action-adventure comedy, The Persuaders, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.

Acorn TV has also commissioned a second season of Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries after licensing the first season of the Australian crime drama. The show, originally brought to Acorn subscribers last year, is a spin-off of Australian broadcaster ABC’s series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Geraldine Hakewill stars as the charming 1960s detective Peregrine Fisher, who takes up the detective mantle from her aunt Phryne Fisher (featured in the original ABC drama) after the latter goes missing over Papua New Guinea in her light plane.

ABC (the U.S. network) is developing the thriller drama, The Women, from writers Jennifer Johnson and Glenn Porter, producer Mark Pellington, and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. The Women is described as a propulsive thriller about a conspiracy of powerful and dangerous women who attempt to take over the global power structure before male dominance leads us to ruin, using violence to end violence, corruption to end corruption, and destruction to end destruction.

Showtime is developing an hourlong drama from Brian Grazer, Terence Winter, and Nicholas Pileggi. Written by Boardwalk Empire creator Winter, the untitled series is inspired by Pileggi’s in-depth chronology of organized crime in America — which is also the history of corruption in America — as seen through the eyes of the mafia’s First Family.

Actor Stanley Tucci is to star in Oscar-winner Alejandro Amenábar’s first TV series, La Fortuna, a co-production between AMC and Spain’s pay-TV broadcaster Movistar+. Based on Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral’s graphic novel, El Tesoro del Cisne Negro (The Treasure Of The Black Swan), the story centers on young diplomat Alex Ventura who teams with a combative public official and a brilliant American lawyer to recover treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild (Tucci), who travels the world plundering historic items from the ocean.

Fox set a premiere date for the crime drama, L.A.'s Finest. Spawned from the universe of Jerry Bruckheimer’s Bad Boys movie franchise, L.A.'s Finest stars Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba as cops taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The staff of the Saint Paul (MN) Public Library have initiated the Adult Storytime Podcast with mystery readings "The Lenten Croft Robberies" by Arthur Morrison; "The Coin of Dionysus" by Ernest Bramah (with blind detective Max Carrados, 1913); and "The York Mystery" by Baroness Orczy (with the Old Man in the Corner, 1902). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist blog.)

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Charlie Donlea, the USA Today and International bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, and Some Choose Darkness. His latest novel is The Suicide House, about a chilling murder in a prestigious prep school.

Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, got excited about adaptations of The Shining Girls and Magpie Murders, and discussed mystery books by Black authors that they’ve recently picked up.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled "Areas of Responsibility, Nolle Prosequi, and GPS Tracking."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Kate Winkler Dawson, author of The American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI.

The Gay Mystery Podcast welcomed Mark Zubro, the author of thirty-seven novels and eight short stories. His book, A Simple Suburban Murder, won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery.

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