B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 131

Mystery Melange

Jonathan Lethem has been chosen as the recipient of the 2019 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for his novel, The Feral Detective, as announced at the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Awards luncheon. The other finalists this year were The Good Detective, by John McMahon, and The Border, by Don Winslow. At the event, SCIBA also announced the organization was dissolving with the hope that California booksellers could become part of a single independent booksellers association. Although there was no word specifically regarding how this will affect the SCIBA book awards going forward, (including the T. Jefferson Parker award), the SCIBA website is already soliciting nominations for 2020.

Ashley Harrison has won the Capital Crime New Voices Award at the recent inaugural Capital Crime Festival in London. Harrison won for The Dysconnect, with Victoria Goldman and Patti Buff were named runner-up at the festival’s opening night cocktail party. The 2019 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards were also awarded on Saturday night, with Ian Rankin winning both Best Mystery and Best Crime Novel with In A House of Lies. Other winners included Best Thriller: Mick Herron's London Rules; Best e-Book: C.L. Taylor's Sleep; Independent Voice: Will Dean's Red Snow; Best Audiobook: Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, read by Jot Davies; Best Television Show: Killing Eve; and Best Feature Film: BlacKkKlansman. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Happy birthday to the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona, which turns 30 years old today. To celebrate, owner Barbara Peters and her staff will host a cake and champagne party featuring author Joe Hill (NOS4A2) in conversation with attorney and editor, Leslie Klinger. Other guests include John Sandford, author of the Prey series; James Rollins, author of the Sigma Force series; and Anne Perry, author of the Thomas Pitt and William Monk series. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Washington D.C.'s Tenth Annual Noir at the Bar is headed to The Wonderland Ballroom on October 12. The event will be hosted by Ed Aymar and feature several crime authors reading from their work, including Kathleen Barber, John Copenhaver, James Grady, Cheryl Head, Alan Orloff, David Swinson, Art Taylor, and Erica Wright. The event is free and open to the public beginning at 6 p.m. for some brewskis and criminally good story-telling.

The Rap Sheet's Jeff Pierce urges you to "step up your reading pace," offering up a long list of some of the many upcoming crime novels through the end of the year in both the U.S. and the U.K. (And maybe a good speed-reading course might be in order!)

In another look at why libraries and librarians (even amateur ones) can help save the world, the NYT reported that in 2013 in the war-ravaged Syrian town of Daraya, people collected books after shelling and wrapped them in blankets to take them to a secret basement location. "The self-appointed chief librarian, a 14-year-old named Amjad, would write down in a large file the names of people who borrowed the books, and then return to his seat to continue reading. … The library hosted a weekly book club, as well as classes on English, math and world history, and debates over literature and religion."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Secret Messages" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, thriller writer Lee Child offered up some "inside scoop" about his billion-dollar Jack Reacher brand, for Forbes; Craig Sisterson's latest "9mm Interview" featured Kiwi storyteller Michael Botur, who has published five short story collections, as well as dozens of other stories often about crime, lowlifes, petty thieves, and other such characters; and Criminal Element chatted with Laura Childs and Terrie Farley Moran, about their collaborative New Orleans Scrapbooking series, featuring the upcoming Mumbo Gumbo Murder.

           Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Emmy Award-winning director Jason Bateman (Ozark) is in early talks to direct Ryan Reynolds in Clue, the live-action feature adaptation of the Hasbro board game for Fox/Disney. Bateman also plans to star in the film. Bateman will develop the Clue script with Reynolds, who’s producing through his Maximum Effort banner, along with Allspark Pictures, the film division of Hasbro. Clue is a comedy and murder mystery inspired by the popular board game, but it’s not connected to the 1985 Clue film starring Tim Curry.

Warner Bros is rebooting its 1991 neo-noir gangster film, New Jack City, which Snowfall actor and filmmaker Malcolm M. Mays is writing. The original movie, directed by Mario Van Peebles, boasted a star cast that included Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Flavor Flav, Allen Payne, Judd Nelson, and Peebles. The plot revolves an arrogant New York City drug lord during the 1980s crack epidemic and a detective who goes undercover in the gang.

Will Smith will take on the role of New York City crime boss Nicky Barnes in his next Netflix film, The Council. Peter Landesman will executive produce and wrote the screenplay that tells the never-before-told story of a crime syndicate consisting of seven African-American men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early ’80s. It wasn't an ordinary crime syndicate – the men dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game.

David Strathairn, who earned an Oscar nomination for Good Night, and Good Luck, has joined the cast of Nightmare Alley, the noir thriller being written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Bradley Cooper is headlining the Fox Searchlight production, an adaptation of the 1946 noir novel by William Lindsay (first adapted in the 1947 film noir starring Tyrone Power). Toni Collette, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett also star in the cast. The story is set in a world of carnival hustlers and con men, telling the story of a "mentalist" (Cooper) who teams up with a female psychiatrist (Blanchett) to trick people into giving them money.

Actor Emilio Insolera has joined the cast of 355, the Simon Kinberg-directed global spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Bingbing Fan, Sebastian Stan, and Edgar Ramirez. Based on an idea by Chastain, the plot centers around female spies from agencies around the world who must use all their considerable talents and training to stop an event from occurring that could thrust our teetering world into total chaos.

A new teaser released for Netflix's upcoming El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie gives us our first look at Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, reprising his role) in the moments after he left Walter (Bryan Cranston) and drove to freedom in the Breaking Bad TV series finale. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will premiere on Netflix and in select theaters Oct. 11.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Showtime has given an eight-episode series order to Ripley, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling series of novels, starring Sherlock alum Andrew Scott. The Night Of director, Steven Zaillian, will write and helm the series that centers on Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York. The character was first introduced in Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955 and later appeared in four more of her novels. He was most famously portrayed on-screen by Matt Damon in the 1999 film by Anthony Minghella.

Rebus is set to return to TV screens after over a decade away. The detective drama starred Ken Stott in the role of DI John Rebus for three seasons when John Hannah quit the role after the first series. Rebus creator, Scottish author Ian Rankin, has confirmed its long-awaited comeback and that new episodes are on the way with Gregory Burke penning the scripts. It's said the new episode could have a Nordic Noir-style, while Rankin (who has penned 22 books featuring Rebus) will have a much bigger say in how the series is run. No broadcast date has been set yet, and there is no word on whether the show would return to ITV.

In a competitive situation with multiple networks bidding, CBS has landed Queens, a police drama from The InBetween creator/executive producer Moira Kirland, executive producer Matt Gross, and studio Universal TV. Written by Kirland, Queens centers on a veteran homicide detective in Queens who takes on the most challenging case of her life — mentoring her new partner, a rookie cop whose Millennial outlook on the world clashes with the veteran’s Gen-X mentality — as these women work to solve the borough’s toughest crimes while also attempting to right a wrong from their past.

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to DEA, a drama from writer Craig Gore (S.W.A.T.). Written by Gore, DEA is an "operation of the week" show as Jack Riley and his DEA Task Force hunt down a drug kingpin, dismantling dangerous drug organizations in major cities across the U.S. Episodes will be "a combination of smart investigation, intense action, as we explore what drives our main characters (cops and criminals) on both sides of the law."

Freeform has ordered a new thriller pilot from executive producers Jessica Biel, Bert V. Royal, and Michelle Purple, titled Last Summer. It's described as an "unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers – ’93, ’94, ’95 – in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate, is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette, goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town." Each episode is told from the POV of one of the two main girls (Jeanette and Kate), which will have the viewers loyalties constantly shifting as more information is revealed.

CBS has put in development the crime programs Wet House and The Terminal. Cop drama Wet House hails from the Rizzoli & Isles duo of star Sasha Alexander and writer-producer Russell Grant and centers on a female detective who lands at a station for castoff cops with personal demons after she has a fight with a colleague. She soon discovers her new colleagues are not only exceptional police officers who serve and protect their community but also a family of flawed human beings who nevertheless take care of their own. The Terminal is based on a short story by bestselling author Lee Child and centers on an unflappable ex-Marine, the first female to earn the Medal of Honor. When she lands the job of head of security for JFK International Airport, she discovers that protecting what is widely considered the biggest soft target in the world will be the most challenging mission of her life.

Walker, Texas Ranger is getting a reboot, with Supernatural star Jared Padalecki set to headline and executive produce. The "reimagining" of CBS’ long-running 1990s action/crime series starring Chuck Norris is being shopped by CBS TV Studios, with the CW as a leading contender for the new show. The project will see Walker getting a female partner and "will explore morality, family, and rediscovering our lost common ground." At the center of the series is Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a man finding his way back to his family while investigating crime in the state’s most elite unit.

Awesome Media & Entertainment has optioned best-selling author Caroline Mitchell’s detective novel, Truth and Lies, in the hope of creating a female Luther. The story follows the young London detective, DI Amy Winter, the daughter of a husband and wife who were imprisoned for a string of heinous killings. As she investigates the disappearance of a teenage girl, she's forced to reconnect with her incarcerated mother, Lillian, in order to prevent another murder.

Amy Brenneman is set as a lead opposite Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow in FX’s drama pilot, The Old Man, which is based on the eponymous novel written by Thomas Perry. The story centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives gunning for Chase, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. Brenneman will play Zoe, a woman recovering from a bruising divorce, who rents a room to Chase not knowing he’s on the run - and then must draw on reserves she never knew she had in order to survive the day.

Julianne Nicholson (Monos), Jean Smart (Life Itself), Angourie Rice (Black Mirror), Evan Peters (I Am Woman), Cailee Spaeny (On the Basis of Sex), and David Denman (The Replacements) have been cast opposite Kate Winslet in HBO’s limited series, Mare of Easttown. Written and executive produced by Brad Inglesby, who also serves as showrunner, Mare Of Easttown stars Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvania detective whose life crumbles around her as she investigates a local murder.

Sherlock’s Rupert Graves is joining the third season of the Sky drama, Riviera. Graves will play Gabriel Hirsch, the carefree, charismatic and worldly ally of Julia Stiles’ Georgina Ryland. A year has passed since the second season finale, with Georgina having abandoned the cursed Riviera, leaving all its devastation and damage behind to start a new life. Now a rising star in international art restitution, she has reinvented herself as Georgina Ryland as she travels the world – from Venice to Argentina – on the hunt for stolen art works.

Amazon has given a formal Season 3 pickup to its thriller Absentia, starring and executive produced by Stana Katic. Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Josette Simon (Wonder Woman) have also joined the cast. The series centers on FBI agent Emily Byrne (Katic), with the new season opening three months after the dramatic events of Season 2 that sees Emily nearing the end of her suspension from the Bureau and working hard to be the best possible mother to her son. Everything is upended when one of Nick Durand’s (Patrick Heusinger) criminal cases hits too close to home and threatens the lives of the family Emily is desperately trying to hold together.

BET has canceled the legal drama, In Contempt, after one season. The series which debuted back in April 2018, starred Erica Ash as Gwen Sullivan, an outspoken and passionate public defender in a New York legal aid office.

Fox has added four more characters to its upcoming 9-1-1 spinoff starring Rob Lowe. Natacha Karam, Brian Michael Smith, Julian Works, and newcomer Rafael Silva are joining 9-1-1: Lone Star as series regulars. Karam will play Marjan Marwani, a devout Muslim firefighter, who is also described as an adrenaline junkie. Smith will portray transgender male firefighter Paul Strickland, who "has a gift for observation worthy of Sherlock Holmes." Works will portray rookie firefighter Mateo Chavez, while Silva plays Austin police officer Carlos Reyes.

Timothy Busfield (The West Wing) is set as a series regular opposite Nicholas Pinnock in ABC’s midseason legal drama series, For Life. Written by Hank Steinberg, For Life is a fictional serialized legal and family drama, inspired by the life of Isaac Wright Jr, about Aaron Wallace (Pinnock), a prisoner who becomes a lawyer and litigates cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Busfield will play Roswell, a legal mentor and trusted friend of Wallace.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Public radio station WLRN in Miami spoke with Alex Segura about his books featuring Cuban-American private investigator, Pete Fernandez.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "The Mystery of the Jade Cats" by Sharon K Garner and read by actor Ariel Linn. The story is told by a black cat - just in time to kick off the Halloween season.

Criminal Mischief: Episode #28, with host Dr. D.P. Lyle, focused on "The MacGuffin" in crime fiction.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro debuted a new season by welcoming guest, Trey R. Barker, to discuss pounding his heart out as a rock and roll drummer, working in a jail, being a book conference social butterfly, owning a bookstore, and being a cop who writes.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective, Adam Richardson, tackled the topics of "Bad Cops, Romantic Complications, and Interview Rapport."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviewed Faye Snowden, the author of three published mysteries with Kensington, whose new novel, A Killing Fire, features homicide detective, Raven Burns.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Jim Heskett, who writes award-winning mystery-thrillers (and as J.E. Heskett, post-apocalyptic thrillers), seasoned with a dash of snark.

Writer Types, hosted by Eric Beetner and S.W. Lauden, wlecomed three outstanding authors, including Laura Benedict (The Stranger Inside), J Todd Scott (This Side Of Night), and Catherine Ryan Howard (Rewind). 

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham gave "readalikes" for some of the best selling mystery writers like James Patterson, Louise Penny and more.

The Book People podcast snagged Lara Prescott, whose debut novel, The Secrets We Kept, was inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: Morse's Greatest Mystery

The late Norman Colin Dexter received multiple honors and awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards, the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding services to crime literature (1997) and the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to literature.



All of his 13 novels and most of his short stories featured his famous fictional creation, Inspector Morse, who shared a love of classical music and crosswords with the author. The TV series based on Morse, starring actor John Thaw, ran for 33 episides from 1987-2000, followed by several more episodes of Inspector Lewis, featuring Morse's sidekick, and then a prequel series, Endeavor, about a young Morse, which premiered in 2013.



Dexter's short story output isn't large, with some seven individual stories appearing in various magazines and anthologies, and only one collection, Morse's Greatest Mystery, from 1993 (in the UK; 1995 in the U.S). The 11 stories in this volume include six Morse/Lewis stories; one of Dexter's few American-set stories, about a group of con men; and his only Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Some of the highlights:



"The Inside Story": In the longest of the stories in the group, Morse and Lewis investigate after a young woman is stabbed to death in Oxford. The victim was writing a short story for a crime fiction contest (to be judged by no less than Julian Symons and H.R.F. Keating), and it becomes apparent to Morse there are autobiographical details included in her story that are not only clues, but motive for murder. (As an aside, this story was later bundled into a special edition paperback original, complete with crossword puzzle, and commissioned by American Express.)



"Evans Tries an O-Level":  This is a humorous and complex prison breakout yarn featuring the title character of James Roderick Evans, a convict already involved in two failed breakouts from an Oxford prison, which has earned him the nickname "Evans the Break." When Evans announces he wants to take an O-Level exam in German, this quite rightfully makes the prison Governor suspicious. (The story received a Macavity Award in 1996.)



"Neighbourhood Watch": A German professor's car is stolen and returned with an apology and tickets to the opera. Morse smugly believes it's a ploy to set up a cunning robbery while the professor attends the opera, only the tables end up being turned on Morse instead.



"A Case of Mis-Identity":  In this Holmes pastiche, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes are rivals in trying to figure out the real story behind a disappearing bridegroom mystery, yet it's the loyal Watson who saves the day and has one of his few moments in the sun.



The stories included in the collection are a bit uneven, but the Morse offerings preserve the essence of the character, his intellect, quirkiness and wit. All in all, the longer novel format is probably a better vehicle to provide context for Morse and allow for the more intricate and careful plotting that Morse fans have come to expect.

            

Mystery Melange

Manda Scott has won the 2019 McIlvanney Prize, making her the second woman in its eight year history to win the award. Scott was honored for her thriller, A Treachery of Spies, in a ceremony at the recent Bloody Scotland crime festival. The McIlvanney Prize recognizes excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000, and nationwide promotion in Waterstones. This year also saw the inaugural McIlvanney Debut Prize, which went to All the Hidden Truths by Claire Askew.

Noir Nation established the Golden Fedora Prize as a means to reward noir crime writing short forms, with the inaugural award in 2018 for poetry and this year's prize for short stories (the prize will alternate each form every other year). The 2019 Golden Fedora Prize winners are Erika Nichols-Frazer, BV Lawson, and Anne Swardson. Honorable Mentions include James Chesky, Jennifer Giacalone, A.M. Gregori, Mark Moran, Tyler Real, Gita Smith, and JMP Zute. (On a personal note: I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to have been honored with this award and grateful to the judges for their selection of my story "Alien Nation" for this accolade)

A Noir at the Bar event is headed to Hillsborough, North Carolina, tonight as an early spooky treat for the Halloween season. The event, which brings together independent crime authors to read from and sell their books, originated in St. Louis and was replicated in other cities across the country. Eryk Pruitt will host the Hillsborough event at the Yonder bar, with other contributors including James Maxey (Bitterwood), Suzanne Adair (Deadly Occupation), and Shawn Cosby (My Darkest Prayer).





The Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press are collaborating for the Library of Congress Crime Classics series, which "will feature a rich and diverse selection of books originally published between the 1860s and the 1960s," according to the Library. Titles will be drawn from the LOC's collection of hard-to-find and out-of-print books, with cover designs inspired by images from the library's collections. The series launches next spring with the publication of three books: That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green (1897), The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope by C.W. Grafton (1943) and Case Pending by Dell Shannon (1960). (HT to Shelf Awareness)

The latest issue of Mystery Scene magazine features a cover story about Ruth Ware's latest novel, a idiosyncratic updating of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw; Michael Mallory profiles fictional detective, Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, who was popular between the two world wars in books and on film; in a new annual feature, Oline Cogdill takes a look at terrific current books from six up-and-coming writers; plus many more articles, essays, news, and reviews.

October 1 is the deadline to submit to the Clues themed issue on "Genre-Bending: Crime's Hybrid Forms" that will be guest edited by Maurizio Ascari (the University of Bologna). Throughout its long history, crime writing has inspired and been inspired by other genres such as the gothic, sensation fiction, horror, romance, film noir, science fiction, and true crime. Papers and extracts should "explore the richness of these generic contact zones and the acts of cross-pollination they engendered, ultimately contributing to the overall development of this galaxy of literary forms."

Abu Dhabi's The National publication reported on one of literature's enduring heroes, Inspector Maigret. All of George Simenon's Maigret novels will be available in English via new translations soon to be completed, a process that has involved the work of as many as 11 translators. Between 1931 and 1972, Belgian author Simenon wrote more than 70 novels in his Inspector Maigret series, and Penguin Books has been commissioning the new translations, releasing one story a month over the last six years.

Auction house Christies' online blog featured a profile of Dashiell Hammett, with a side look at the author's collectible books from auctions past.

I've mentioned before how the late author, Stieg Larsson, became involved with the unsolved assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. A recent Guardian article also talked about how Larsson put several references to it in his novels, taking that one step further to ask "Do his secret files contain vital clues?"

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Paradise Costs" by Barry Ergang.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime Reads spoke with Craig Johnson, author of the popular Longmire series that was made into a TV series, about his latest novel, Land Of Wolves, which puts his Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire in a new place; Lesa Holstein chatted with Ann Cleves, author of the Vera Stanhope and Shetland Island mystery series that have been made into TV programs in the UK; and There's Been a Murder sat down with Val Penny, an American author living and writing in southwest Scotland.

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Author R&R with John DeDakis

John DeDakis is a former Senior Copy Editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" and is also the author of five novels in the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense series.  His fourth novel, Bullet in the Chamber, is the winner of the Reviewers Choice, Foreword INDIES, and Feathered Quill book awards. DeDakis regularly teaches novel writing at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at the Politics & Prose Bookstore in D.C., and at various writing conferences and literary centers around the U.S. and abroad. In his spare time, what little he has of it, he’s a jazz drummer. 

His fifth novel, Fake, was published by Strategic Media Books in September 2019. In Fake, Lark is a White House correspondent in a #MeToo era when facts are suspect and reporters are targets. When popular First Lady Rose Gannon dies suddenly (and mysteriously) during an interview with White House correspondent Lark Chadwick, Lark is thrust into the midst of a media-bashing frenzy. Lark, still reeling from the death of her photographer boyfriend, finds herself covering a grieving president struggling with his pain while trying to defuse a looming nuclear war. In the era of “fake news,” when all “facts” are suspect (and reporters are targets), Lark tries to discover the truth while also under personal attack.

John DeDakis stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about writing and researching his books:

 

Research: Writing What You DON’T Know

You’ve heard it a gazillion times: “Write what you know.” And, for someone who wants to be a writer, that’s excellent advice. The words flow easily when they come from a familiar place.

But what do you do when the story you’re writing requires knowledge about something that’s unfamiliar to you? Yes, the obvious answer is research. And this website is a fabulous resource. But let’s be honest: research can also be an endless detour down a rabbit hole of procrastination.

Here’s the dilemma: you’ll never know everything, but how can you tell when you know enough?

The answer will be different for everyone, but here’s how I’ve answered it over the course of writing five mystery-suspense novels:

Get Oriented: I begin a project focusing on what I DO know. Much of what I write is drawn from personal experience and places where I’ve lived, visited, or worked. Invariably, however, I’ll realize during the project’s planning phase that there are some things I need to know more about. When that happens, Google and Wikipedia become my best friends. I create a research folder and add links to articles and websites that flesh out the details of what I might need. This preliminary research gets me oriented, but it’s also a moment of grave danger. If I’m not careful, I’ll never leave this phase. It’s probably similar to what it must be like for a newly-recovering alcoholic to walk into a bar. For a writer, research is like catnip – you can never get enough.

Write the First Draft Straight Through: The best advice I ever got about writing comes from Robert Ray’s excellent book, The Weekend Novelist. Ray recommends that you turn off your internal editor and write your first draft all the way through. Resist the temptation to allow your forward momentum to be blunted while you track down a fact you don’t know. Simply make a note to yourself in the manuscript, using all caps, to “find out more about X.” Then, move on. Keep writing.

Use Your Imagination: As a writer, I’ve discovered something very spooky: the act of writing is like a straw that taps into my subconscious. Ideas, voices, and images show up as I type. It sounds counterintuitive, but, for me, the best way to break writer’s block is to write. So, when my writing enters unfamiliar territory, I allow my imagination (not research) to propel me forward. The goal here is momentum, not accuracy.

Target What You Need to Know:  Finishing the first draft is exhilarating: It’s done! But it’s also depressing: It sucks!! Yet I can’t say enough about the sense of accomplishment that’s a direct result of having worked through the initial problems inherent in writing a novel from beginning to end. The hard part is over; now comes the fun part. No longer will your research be endless. Now that you have the essentials of your story written down, you can identify those items you need to learn more about.

Beta Readers and Going There:  As I said earlier, “In Reference to Murder” is a wonderful website where you can get answers to many questions that might have surfaced as you were writing your manuscript. But, in addition, let me suggest two other research resources: Beta Readers and Going There. Portions of my second novel, Bluff, take place along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains of Peru. After I’d written several drafts, I was looking at pictures of the Inca Trail online and realized I needed to go there to experience it. I booked a trip and hiked the trail (four days, 15-thousand feet, 25 miles). I came back with several experiences that added depth and texture to the finished product. In my third novel, Troubled Water, 911 calls play an important part. One of my beta readers, Karen Hoel, used to train 911 operators in Wisconsin. I used my imagination to write the first draft, then sent the 911 chapters to Karen. She corrected some of my misconceptions, but when she read a scene I’d concocted out of thin air, I was stunned and relieved when she told me, “I’ve actually been in that situation.”  Who knew?! (My subconscious did – spooky, indeed.)

Final thought:

Keep in mind that a novel shouldn’t be a pedantic data dump. The story is the most important thing. Your research should serve the story by making the characters, the setting, and the situation come alive.

 

You can find out more about John DeDakis and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. John's books, including Fake, are available via all major book retailers.

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN

Sony Pictures Classics has made another acquisition out of the Toronto International Film Festival with Giuseppe Capotondi’s The Burnt Orange Heresy. The thriller, based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford, stars Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, and Donald Sutherland and follows an art dealer hired to steal a painting from one of the biggest painters of all time. 

Universal has set August 14, 2020 as the release date for the Bob Odenkirk feature, Nobody, which is described as "John Wick meets Falling Down." Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, the guy you don’t notice, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor. But when two thieves break into his home one night, the incident ignites Hutch’s unknown long-simmering rage, propelling him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind.

Parks and Recreation alum, Natalie Morales, has joined the cast of Warner Bros.’ The Little Things opposite Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Rami Malek. The pic follows Deke (Washington), a burned-out Kern County, CA. deputy sheriff who teams with Baxter (Malek), a crack LASD detective, to nab a serial killer. Deke’s nose for the “little things” proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Jared Leto is in talks to join in the role as the serial killer in the project from writer-director John Lee Hancock. Morales will play a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department detective working for Baxter.

NEON has released the first trailer for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning drama, Clemency, written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, who made history as the first black female to snag the marquee award at the festival. The film stars Alfre Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams, who, over the years, has been drifting away from her husband while dutifully carrying out executions in a maximum security prison. When she strikes up a unique bond with death-row inmate Anthony Woods (Hodge), Bernadine is forced to confront the complex—and often contradictory relationship between good intentions, unrequited desires, and what it means to be sanctioned to kill.

The first trailer dropped for The Rhythm Section, the revenge thriller starring Blake Lively, Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy Awards were handed out last night, and a few crime dramas notched some wins:  Best Actress in a Dramatic Series was won by Jodie Comer as Vilanelle in Killing Eve; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie went to Jharrel Jerome for When They See Us; Outstanding Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Movie went to Patricia Arquette for The Act, based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard the murder of her mother. Jason Bateman won for Best Director of a Drama Series for Ozark, and Julia Garner won for her Supporting Actress role as Ruth Langmore in Ozark.

Kiefer Sutherland and Logan star Boyd Holbrook are joining streaming service Quibi’s adaptation of The Fugitive. The series puts a new twist on the 1993 film of the same name that starred Harrison Ford. Sutherland will star as a grizzled, well-respected Los Angeles cop leading an investigation into Mike Ferro (Holbrook), a blue-collar worker who is incorrectly, and very publicly, blamed for a bomb that destroys a subway train.

The Leftovers alum Amy Brenneman has been cast in the Jeff Bridges/John Lithgow spy drama pilot at FX, The Old Man. Adapted from the Thomas Perry novel, the project stars Bridges as Dan Chase, a former CIA operative who absconded from the agency decades ago and has been living off the grid since. FX describes the series as “When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past.” Brenneman will star as Zoe, a woman picking up the pieces after a bruising divorce who rents a room to Chase not knowing he’s on the run.

Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment have optioned Arthur T. Burton’s book, Black, Red & Deadly, for a TV series that they’ll develop about 19th century Arkansas slave-turned U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves. Reeves was a notable lawman whose legend has largely been ignored by history. Reeves captured more criminals than Pat Garrett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Wyatt Earp, using flamboyant detective skills that were ahead of their time.

Ashlie Atkinson (BlacKkKlansman) is set as a series regular opposite Rami Malek and Christian Slater on the upcoming fourth and final season of USA Network’s Mr. Robot. The series stars Oscar winner Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cyber-security engineer who becomes involved in the underground hacker group, fsociety, after being recruited by its leader (Slater). Atkinson will play Janice, a chatty taxidermist with a peculiar sense of humor. The series also co-stars Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Martin Wallström, Grace Gummer, Michael Cristofer, and BD Wong.

Beta Film is partnering with Croatian production company Drugi Plan on the six-part drama series, Amnesia, about refugee and drug trafficking at the south eastern European border. The project will star Branka Katić (Captain America – The Winter Soldier), Tihana Lazović (The High Sun) and Aleksandar Cvjetković (Netflix’s The Paper). The drama is slated to shoot next March in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, the actual route used by many refugees who are fleeing Syria and other war-torn regions.

Justified star Timothy Olyphant is returning to FX with a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series, Fargo, headlined by Chris Rock. Season 4 is set in 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri amidst the uneasy truce between two crime syndicates.

The 9-1-1 spinoff, 9-1-1: Lone Star, has added Ronen Rubinstein (Dead of Summer) and Sierra McClain (Mindhunter, Empire) to the cast. The series follows Owen (Rob Lowe), a sophisticated New York firefighter who, along with his son (Rubinstein), relocates to the Texas capital and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. McClain will play Grace Ryder, an Austin-based 9-1-1 call center operator and wife of firefighter Judd Ryder (Jim Parrack).

J.K. Rowling’s crime drama, Strike, will return to U.S. cable network Cinemax and has added several actors for its next season. Live By Night’s Robert Glenister and Peaky Blinders’ Natasha O’Keeffe have joined the series, which is based on Rowling’s best-selling Cormoran Strike crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Psych fans will have to wait a little longer for the second movie sequel. Originally slated to premiere in 2019, the film will not debut until at least spring 2020. That is because the movie is moving from USA Network, home of the original Psych series and Psych: The Movie, to Peacock, NBCU’s upcoming streaming service.

Escape, an established multicast network owned by E.W. Scripps’ Katz Networks, will rebrand itself as Court TV Mystery on September 30. According to the official announcement of the move, the rebrand will “continue the mission of Escape,” which targets women 25 to 54 with true-crime-focused programming.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR's Morning Edition chatted with Attica Locke, author of Heaven, My Home, which continues the series featuring black Texas ranger, Darren Mathews, who returns from Locke's previous novel, Bluebird, Bluebird.

The latest Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured Sherri Leigh James, talking about her mystery series with interior decorate, Cissy Huntington, and also author James R. Benn, discussing the 14th installment in his series of World War Two mysteries.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Bookclub spoke with S. A. Lelchuk about Save Me From Dangerous Men, the first in a new series featuring bookseller and private investigator Nikki Griffin, which has been optioned for film and television with foreign rights sold in multiple countries.

THEATRE

Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell will return to Broadway in a revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, a play about three low-level crooks conjuring up a get-rich-quick scheme. The production will begin previews in March 2020 with an official opening on Tuesday, April 14. Fishburne will play the character Donny, while Rockwell will play Teach. The duo’s casting leaves the play’s third character, Bobby, as yet unfilled or unannounced.

The Cambridge Arts Theater and the Theatre Royal Plymouth, both in the UK, are the latest stops for the touring production of The Girl on The Train, based on the novel by Paula Hawkins, about a woman who discovers a woman she's been watching through the window on her train commute has disappeared. The show continues through September 28 for Cambridge and through October 5 for Plymouth.

The Limetree Theatre in Ireland is staging a production of Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced, September 30 through October 2. The classic story features Miss Marple who has to discover who committed a murder - at a party where it was announced in advance.

The Top 10 "Most-Produced Plays of the 2019-20 Season in the U.S." include a couple of crime dramas, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens, based on the book by Mark Haddon, which tied for the top spot, and also Murder on the Orient Express adapted by Ken Ludwig from the book by Agatha Christie.

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Banned Books Week

Today is the start of the annual Banned Books Week, launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship, which is why this year's theme is "Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark." The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. In 2018, The ALA tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2018, which included 483 different book titles.

Just as a reminder, more than 4,000 books were banned and burned in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. If you'd like to learn more about ways you can help stem the tide of censorship in the U.S., the American Library Association has some suggestions.

 

            

Quote of the Week

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FFB: Final Proof

It's interesting to look at the Edgar Award debut novel nominees, wondering how where their literary careers took them from there. One such author, Marie R. Reno, was nominated for her first novel, Final Proof, in 1977, and even though I was able to get my hands on a copy via my local library, I found practically nothing available online in the way of biography or career. The dust jacket indicates Reno had a long and notable career in the book-club world and was also an editor of This Week magazine. Her book-club connections are probably why she is listed as editor of A Treasury of Modern Mysteries, Volumes 1 and 2, from 1973 and later An International Treasury of Mystery and Suspense, from 1983. It also helps explains why she wrote this first novel, Final Proof, set in a New York book club publishing house.



At the beginning of the Final Proof, Marcia Richardson is found in her home office, shot twice through the head at close range by a .22 revolver and slumped over a set of galley proofs. Although her fingers had been wrapped around the gun in an attempt to make the death look like suicide, there's little doubt she's been murdered. Marcia was editorial director of the Readers' Circle, one of the Big Three book clubs along with Book-of-the-Month and the Literary Guild, and in the small, interconnected world of New York publishing, Marcia's death is talk of the town.



Marcia's friend and colleague, Karen Lindstrom, editor of the Mystery, Suspense and Intrigue line, finds herself working with, and at cross-purposes to, Lieutenant Jack Morrison of the NYPD. At first, he merely seems fascinated by Karen's endless fount of information about the publishing world and isn't particularly thrilled to have her assistance. As the case grinds on, Karen and the Lieutenant find themselves drawn to each other in personal ways that could jeopardize the investigation.



It's quite obvious from all the insider details and observations that the author was indeed employed with such a book club, which seems to be both the inspiration and raison d'etre for the book. I also suspect Reno is a pen name, one reason there isn't much in the way of biographical details—changing the names to avoid getting sued or incurring the wrath of fellow employees (if anyone out there knows his/her real name, feel free to add it in the comments).



As the publishing world seems to change almost daily in our current day, it's a bit of a throwback to read about a segment of the literary establishment that's shrinking, perhaps disappearing altogether. However, some of the author's observations (speaking through the likely-autobiographical character of Lindstrom) are timeless:

We're caught up in such a tide of manuscripts and galleys that we get sort of jaded. I mean, every once in a while something comes along that I really love, but six months later I'd have a hard time remembering it.

The tough thing is dealing with authors. All those fragile egos.

There's a lot of sly humor and oblique poking fun at the industry, and if you want some light entertainment with a touch of publishing nostalgia and romance thrown in, then Final Proof is right up your galley. If you're wondering about who actually won the best first novel in 1977, it was a book titled The Thomas Berryman Number by someone you may have heard of, a fellow by the name of James Patterson.