B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 139

Mystery Melange

The annual Arthur Ellis Awards by Crime Writers of Canada recognizes the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors. Winners were announced this past weekend at the Arthur Ellis Awards Gala in Toronto:

Best Crime Novel: Anne Emery, Though the Heavens Fall
Best First Crime Novel: A.J. Devlin, Cobra Clutch
Best Crime Novella: John Lawrence Reynolds, Murder Among the Pines
Best Crime Short Story: Linda L. Richards, "Terminal City," Vancouver Noir
Best Crime Book in French: Hervé Gagnon, Adolphus - Une enquête de Joseph Laflamme
Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book: Linwood Barclay, Escape
Best Nonfiction Crime Book: Sarah Weinman, The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World
Best Unpublished Manuscript: Liv McFarlane, The Scarlet Cross

For all the finalists in the various categories, head on over to the CWC's website.



Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the longlists for the 2019 Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women. A total of 127 titles were longlisted, including 73 adult novels, 17 young adult novels, 15 children’s novels and 22 nonfiction books.

Ian Rankin has donated his literary archive, including correspondence with authors like J K Rowling, Iain Banks and Ruth Rendell, to the National Library of Scotland. Rankin's collection comprises 50 boxes of documents, including the original manuscript for his first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses. It also contains long-forgotten scripts for a sitcom and a crime drama series that neither the author nor his wife had any recollection of, as they were among projects he attempted to pursue before his Inspector Rebus books took off.

Libraries and librarians matter, as the state of Michigan has recently noted. Following a 2018 report from the Michigan Department of Education showing the majority of third and fourth graders cannot read at grade level, some legislators have declared a literary crisis and are working to make immediate change by hiring more school librarians. And, as an article in The Atlantic added, libraries are also becoming second responders, i.e. places of refuge for personal, community, and environmental emergencies.

As part of Thomas Harris's new book launch for his first novel in 13 years (and only his second non-Hannibal Lecter novel), publisher Penguin Random House sponsored a social media treasure hunt in the UK. Gavin Dimmock, the winner, will receive a gold bullion edition of Cari Mora after solving clues on the PRH website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook which lead to the location of the prize.

Some thriller love:  Literary Hub reprinted an Ian Fleming essay from 1963 in which he explains how to write a thriller, and Crime Reads's J.S. Monroe offered up seven literary thrillers to keep you reading all through the night.

Hard-boiled detective fiction is known for its hard-drinking sleuths, and Mystery Fanfare jiggered up a menu of some libations from famous literary private eyes.

Here's some happy bookstore news:  The American Booksellers Association again gained membership, rising from 1,835 individual companies (all but a handful independently owned stores) a year ago to 1,887, and marked an increase of more than 20 percent in the last ten years. The number of store locations is now 2,524, compared to 2,470 in 2018, as independent sellers such as Shakespeare & Co. in New York continue to expand.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Strangle Hold" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, Crimereads chatted with Scott Montgomery, Crime Fiction Coordinator of BookPeople's mystery bookstore-within-a-bookstore; the Mysteristas spoke with Bess Carnan, winner of the Malice Domestic conference's William F. Deeck Grant for Unpublished Writers; and James Ellroy sat down for an interview with Men's Journal about his new novel, as well as World War II and "Why Trump Lacks 'the Charm of a True World-Class Dictator.'"

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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

Shooting has begun on Tenet, which is now officially the title of Christopher Nolan’s secretive next movie. The project also added Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Clémence Poésy to the ensemble cast (joining already-cast John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Elizabeth Debicki). Although almost everything about the production has been kept under wraps, it's said to be is an action epic evolving around the world of international espionage.

FilmNational sold international rights at Cannes to the Shailene Woodley serial killer thriller, Misanthrope. Woodley stars as a talented but troubled cop recruited by the FBI to help profile and track a murderer. Additional casting is underway, and filming is expected to take place in Atlanta later this year.

Sony snagged another Cannes win, taking rights to the Italian Cannes competition film, The Traitor. The Marco Bellocchio-directed drama chronicles the takedown of organized crime seen through the eyes of Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), a key mob figure who turned state’s evidence, leading to a slew of killers and drug traffickers ending up in prison.

With an eye toward a theatrical release this year, Magnolia Pictures has acquired the North American rights to The Whistlers, the inventive crime thriller from Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu. In The Whistlers, not everything is as it seems for Cristi, a police inspector in Bucharest who plays both sides of the law. Embarking with the beautiful Gilda on a high-stakes heist, both will have to navigate the twists and turns of corruption, treachery and deception. A trip to the Canary Islands to learn a secret whistling language might just be what they need to pull it off.

Fresh off the box office success of John Wick 3's opening weekend, Lionsgate has greenlit another sequel, John Wick: Chapter 4, which is slated for release on May 21, 2021. Although no casting details were announced, the previous three installments starred Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Halle Berry. John Wick 3 starts off with Wick having a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail. After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild the High Table, Wick is excommunicado, but the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon has beaten out several buyers to take world rights to the Joseph Gordon-Levitt hijacking thriller 7500. Inception's Gordon-Levitt stars as the co-pilot of a plane hijacked by terrorists, with Patrick Vollrath directing from his own script.

ABC Studios International has teamed up with Endemol Shine to produce an adaptation of Holly Throsby’s novel, Goodwood, for Australian broadcaster ABC. The coming-of-age mystery/love story is written by Alison Bell and Sarah Scheller and is set in a small town which is torn apart when two of its residents go missing.

The season finale for Whiskey Cavalier ended up being the show's finale, as ABC pulled the plug on the series. There was some hope when ABC and the show’s producer, Warner Bros., were in talks to bring the series back, 11 days after ABC canceled the drama after one season, but the network ultimately decided to pass on a renewal. The show centers on tough but tender FBI super-agent Will Chase (codename: Whiskey Cavalier) who is assigned to work with CIA operative Francesca "Frankie" Trowbridge (codename: Fiery Tribune). Together, they lead an interagency team of flawed, funny and heroic spies.

Julia Stiles’s sun-soaked crime thriller, Riviera, is returning for a third season on Sky Atlantic. The British pay-TV broadcaster has ordered another eight-part run with filming set to start in Autumn 2019. Stiles plays Georgina Clios, a U.S. art curator who attempts to uncover the truth about her husband’s death.

David Bianchi (Westworld, MacGyver) and Alejandro Barrios (S.W.A.T., Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) are set to recur opposite Alice Braga in the upcoming fourth season of USA Network’s Queen of the South, based on the bestselling book La Reina del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. It tells the story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about Nora Roberts hitting a major milestone, more lists featuring just white authors, and some mysteries by Asian and Asian American authors.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Hilary Davidson to talk about One Small Sacrifice, her new crime fiction novel featuring NYPD Detective Sheryn Sterling.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with Brian Thornton who discussed his upcoming crime fiction anthology inspired by the music of Steely Dan, Die Behind the Wheel.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, covered "Dictating Reports, Domestic Violence, and The Third Degree."

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Mike Gomes, author of the the Falau Files series, about his writing process and influences.

THEATER

The Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, announced the cast and crew of the ExxonMobil Summer Chills production, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Ken Ludwig. Murder on the Orient Express runs July 19-August 25, 2019, on the Hubbard Theatre stage. Tickets are available now at alleytheatre.org.

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Quote of the Week

            

FFB: The Best American Mystery Stories, 1997, ed. Robert B. Parker

The history of the "best of" American mystery short story anthology probably dates back to 1931 and The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year, edited by Carolyn Wells, up through David C. Cooke's Best Detective Stories of the Year published from 1947 to 1959. More modern incarnations have been The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, from the editors of Mystery Scene Magazine; The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories edited by Ed Gorman; and Otto Penzler's The Best American Mystery Stories series.

The first Penzler anthology was in 1997 when Houghton Mifflin wanted a mystery version of its already-established Best American Short Stories. They contacted Penzler, who said in the Foreword that "it was his responsibility to identify and read all the mystery stories published in the calendar year," a number which totaled 500 from mystery specialty magazines, small literary journals, popular consumer publications, and anthologies.

The editor for the freshman effort in the Penzler series, Robert B. Parker, first reflects on the Hammett-Chandler origins of the American crime story. Then he introduces the collection with the words "As you will see in this collection, the stories remain the story of the hero's adventure in search of a hidden truth.' They are stories about a hero 'fit for adventure' in a time when stories of far bluer blood are still stuck in their bleak corner of the wasteland where Spade took Hammett. This is no small thing." The 20 stories included cover a wide range of thematic material in a variety of authorial styles: from the high society setting of Elizabeth George to the psychological suspense-with-a-twist by Jeffery Deaver, and from Melodye Johnson Howe's Hollywood banality to the humor-noir of Elmore Leonard.

The collection starts off nicely with "Blind Lemon" by Doug Allyn, draped against a backdrop of the blues and music of real-life musician Blind Lemon Jefferson, in which private eye R.B. "Ax" Axton painfully relives a fateful day a decade earlier  when he and a female singer inadvertently caused the murder of a mutual friend. Other standouts include "A Death on the Ho Chi Minh Trail," by David K. Harford', where an M.P. tries to solve the puzzle of why an American soldier supposedly killed in a firefight with the Viet Cong didn't have bullet holes in his shirt, and "When You're Hungry" by George Pelecanos, a tale of double-crossing and betrayal in the steamy and lawless streets of Brazil.

Ask any author and most will tell you short stories can be harder to write than novels, but when you come across little gems like these, you almost wish the authors would drop the novels and dedicate themselves to the shorter form. The reader benefits, too, from such an anthology, being able to experience one actualized world after another—the literary equivalent of visiting an amusement park, finding some rides more to your liking than others, but having all of them leave you just a little bit breathless.

            

Mystery Melange

The shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year has been announced after being pared down from the longlist of 18 titles. The prize celebrates excellence in UK crime fiction with the winner to be announced on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on July 18. Here are your finalists:

Snap by Belinda Bauer
Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
London Rules by Mick Herron
Broken Ground by Val McDermid
The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney
East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman

 

Finalists for the annual Maine Literary Awards were also announced, including those in the Crime Fiction category:

Beyond the Truth by Bruce Coffin
Stowed Away by Barbara Ross
Death and a Pot of Chowder by Lea Wait (writing as Cornelia Kidd)

The 2019 Iceland Noir Award for translated crime fiction released a shortlist this past weekend, including the following:

James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (translated by Þórdís Bachmann)
Keigo Higashino: The Devotion of Suspect X (translated by Ásta S. Guðbjartsdóttir)
Shari Lapena: A Stranger in the House (translated by Ingunn Snædal)
Pierre Lemaitre: Three Days and a Life (translated by Friðrik Rafnsson)
Henning Mankell: After the Fire (translated by Hilmar Hilmarsson)

Ian Rankin and Ann Cleeves will headline this summer's Bute Noir crime writing festival. Authors Mark Billingham, Denise Mina, Stuart MacBride, Chris Brookmyre, Ruth Ware and Mick Herron will also join the line-up for the festival in Rothesay, which takes place from Friday August 2 to Sunday August 4. They join the previously announced list of international authors including Mexico's Oscar de Muriel, Iceland's Lilja Sigurdardottir, Norway's Thomas Enger, the USA's Alexandra Sokoloff, Ireland's Liz Nugent, and Scottish talent including Alex Gray, Lin Anderson and Craig Robertson. Events will be held at Rothesay Library, Bute Museum, Print Point bookshop, and the Discovery Cinema with a crime writers' putting competition on Rothesay’s putting greens for "The Brookmyre Cup." (HT to The Bookseller)

The Sisters in Crime Chessie Chapter and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America are co-hosting a workshop to help authors make the choices involved in reinvention: another traditional publisher, going indie, or both? What pitfalls should you watch out for? How do you protect your legal rights? What about changing genres? Bestselling authors and industry experts discuss what’s worked for them in a day-long program. Speakers include John Betancourt, Ken Budd, Tara Laskowski, Sujata Massey, Julie Moffett, Alan Orloff, Joanna Campbell Slan, Daniel Steven, and Marcia Talley. The event is Sunday, June 2nd, and registration is open to the public.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Crime List has come under fire after women made up just a third of the authors of the listed novels. Authors including Marian Keyes criticized the list, saying "Seeing the chronic conscious and unconscious bias against work by women is enraging." In defense of the list, Sunday Times literary editor Andrew Holgate said that it was mostly compiled by female journalists. Even so, earlier this year, a research project found that new books by men were found to receive 12% more broadsheet review coverage than those of their female counterparts. In response to the controversy over the Sunday Times list, The Guardian tapped Ann Cleeves, Val McDermid, Dreda Say Mitchell and other leading writers to nominate some alternatives for a roster of "50 great thrillers by women."

Writing for CrimeReads, Kellye Garrett penned a profile of Barbara Neely, the activist-turned-crime writer who inspired a generation and bucked the traditions associated with female writers of color.

The LA Review of Books profiled another crime fiction pioneer, Joseph Hansen, who forced publishers to take risks to bring Hansen's brand of gay noir to the literary world.

Author and literacy advocate James Patterson is funding "Buy A Book, Give A Book" to encourage reading in children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds through an initiative between Penguin, Asda and the National Literary Trust (NLT). The partnership is dedicated to inspiring lifelong reading and will help the nationwide charity provide access to books to children, young people and families in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities.

Writing for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's blog, Something is Going to Happen, Chad Baker penned an essay "On Sara Gran’s Claire DeWitt and the Nature of Truth in Detective Fiction."

An essay by Mel McGrath in the National Post wondered "Is reading crime fiction written by women a feminist act?"

Janet Rudolph has a list of Memorial Day-themed crime fiction up at Mystery Fanfare.

The recently re-opened (in a new location) International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., is bigger than ever before. But in addition to the crowd-pleasing Bond gadgets and interactive exhibits, the museum isn't afraid to tackle controversial subjects like torture. Both NPR and the Washington Post had profiles.

Canada's first "body farm" (for research into how human bodies decompose, crucial info for death investigations) is opening its doors, and people are already lining up to be the first donors.

A pocket watch owned by mystery writer Edgar Allen Poe is heading for auction at Christie’s next month. The 18k gold engraved pocket watch will be offered in New York on June 12, with an estimated price of $80,000 – $120,000. Personal items owned by the writer himself rarely appear on the market, and those that do can command big prices. In 2012, a collection of artifacts including a lock of Poe’s hair, his late wife’s engagement ring, photographic portraits and a silver spoon sold at Profiles in History for $96,000, almost doubling their top estimate.

An elementary school in West Valley City, Utah, has become only the fourth school in the U.S. to instill an unusual kind of vending machine—a book vending machine, which can hold 300 to 400 books. School staff believe the novelty of the machine will help instill a love of reading in students, who can earn gold tokens and apply them toward different titles.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ballad of a Tabby Man" by Howard Ho.



In the Q&A roundup, Jeffery Deaver offered up his secrets of writing a bestseller for the Cambridge Independent; Lee Child spoke with iNews UK about his Jack Reacher thrillers and being a populist writer; James Ellroy spoke with The Guardian on his love of everything big, why he doesn’t rate Raymond Chandler, and reading all 55 of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels; Denise Mina explained to The National how love of podcasts shaped her new novel, Conviction; and the LA Review of Books spoke with Cara Black, author of a series with Parisian private detective, Aimée Leduc, about "the darker side of the City of Light."

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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

Lionsgate has picked up North American distribution rights to the cop drama, Semper Fi, starring Divergent actor Jai Courtney. Known internationally as Edge Of Dawn, the film follows Cal (Courtney), a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a reservist in the Marine Corps along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother, Oyster (Nat Wolff), accidentally kills a guy in a barfight and tries to flee, Cal is torn between his family and his job.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Nick Vallelonga is teaming up with Nicolas Cage for the action-thriller, 10 Double Zero. The cop thriller is set in the stifling heat of Louisiana and will follow two police officers who take on a personal vendetta to hunt down cop killers, but as they get closer to solving the crime, they find themselves targets of a conspiracy in the ranks of the police force.

Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek is in talks to join Denzel Washington in the cast of Warner Bros.’ Little Things. Malek would star as a young detective who teams up with a burned-out deputy sheriff (Washington) on the hunt for a serial killer.

X-Men: Apocalypse star Alexandra Shipp and Riverdale's Cole Sprouse are joining the true crime feature, Silk Road, about criminal mastermind Ross Ulbricht (Nick Robinson), who unleashed the Darknet, and the "Jurassic Narc" (Jason Clarke) bent on bringing down the young kingpin’s billion-dollar empire. Darrell Britt-Gibson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri) and Jimmi Simpson (Date Night) also star.

The Navot Papushado-directed action thriller, Gunpowder Milkshake, has cast Carla Gugino as a lethal assassin, starring alongside Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Paul Giamatti. The plot is being kept under wraps but is described as a high-concept assassin story that has a rich mythology and spans several generations.

Famke Janssen (Taken) has joined Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the cast of the crime thriller, The Postcard Killings. Morgan plays Jacob Kanon, a New York detective intent on capturing his daughter’s murderer, while Janssen plays Valerie Kanon, the mother of their now-deceased daughter.

Twilight's Cam Gigandet is set to star in Marco Ristori’s action-drama Wreckage. The project charts the story of man who finds himself trapped in the rubble of a building following a terrorist attack. His only contact with the outside world is a compassionate counter-terrorism agent on the other end of his cell phone.

The international spy thriller, 355, has added Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez to the cast and set a July 8 production start in Paris, London, and Morocco. The production also stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, and Fan Bingbing as spies from international agencies tasked with stopping an event that could thrust our teetering world into total chaos. Along the way, a new faction is formed – code-named "355" (a name they adopt from the first female spy in the American Revolution).

Madelaine Petsch is set to star in Sightless, an indie thriller written and directed by Cooper Karl. She'll play a woman viciously blinded by an unidentified assailant. Now a veritable shut-in, living and working out of her apartment and never venturing outside, she waits for her assailant to make his next move.

A trailer dropped for the third installment of the "Olympus" series, Angel Has Fallen, with Morgan Freeman And Gerard Butler back as Secret Service agent Mike Banning and the President of the United States, respectively.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

At the recent BAFTA Awards in the UK, a couple of crime dramas were big winners, including Killing Eve (Best Drama Series; Best Actress, Jodie Comer; Best Supporting Actress, Fiona Shaw) and A Very English Scandal (Best Director, Stephen Frears; Best Supporting Actor, Ben Whishaw).

Netflix has picked up the Spanish crime pic Eye For An Eye by director Paco Plaza. Luis Tosar stars in the revenge-thriller about a retirement home nurse who becomes entangled with a feared cartel boss discharged from prison and put into his care.

There are cast changes for Get Shorty, the Epix series based in part on Elmore Leonard's 1990 bestselling novel: Isaac Keys has been promoted to series regular and Michaela Watkins (Casual) and Seychelle Gabriel (Sleepy Hollow) have been tapped for recurring roles on the upcoming third season. The series follows Miles Daly (Chris O’Dowd), a muscle for a Nevada crime ring who tries to become a movie producer in Hollywood with the help of a washed-up producer, Rick Moreweather (Ray Romano), as a means to leave his criminal past behind.

Rob Lowe is joining Ryan Murphy's 9-1-1 television franchise in a spin-off set in Austin, Texas called 9-1-1: Lone Star. The new series will follow Lowe's sophisticated New York cop who, along with his son, re-locates to Austin and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life.

Season 2 of the AT&T Audience Network's spy thriller, Condor, has rounded out its cast with the additions of Constance Zimmer (House of Cards), Toby Leonard Moore (Billions), Rose Rollins (The Catch), Isidora Goreshter (Shameless), Eric Johnson (Vikings), Alexei Bondar (The Americans) and Jonathan Kells Phillips (Madam Secretary). In season two, Joe Turner (series star Max Irons) is forced to return to the CIA’s tight-knit Virginia community after his Uncle Bob’s death, to find the Russian traitor who’s responsible.

The finale of CBS’s FBI marked the final episode for co-star Sela Ward, an unsurprising move since Ward had a one-year deal for the crime drama series. On FBI, Ward played Special Agent in Charge Dana Mosier. At the end of the Season 1 finale, Dana reveals to her team that she had submitted her resignation.

Breakout true-crime anthology series, Dirty John, will move from Bravo to sister NBCUniversal network USA for its second season, expected to premiere in 2020. With its first season, starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana, Dirty John became the highest-rated scripted series ever on the network, with ratings growing throughout its run.

True crime is also coming to the BBC:  The controversial Novichok poisonings in the UK are to be the basis for a drama on BBC Two. Titled Salisbury, the show will tell the story of how ordinary people reacted to the crisis as their city became the focus of an unprecedented national emergency.

Here is ABC’s fall 2019-20 schedule, followed by brief analysis and detailed descriptions of the network’s new series, including the new mystery-themed thriller drama, Emergence, on Tuesdays at 10pm; the new crime drama Stumptown Wednesdays at 10; and How to Get Away with Murder, Thursdays at 10. The Rookie also continues in its second season, scheduled for Sunday nights at 10. You can check out a trailer for Stumptown via this link.

With the exception of the courtroom drama All Rise, most of the CBS pilots are dead with one exception, the conspiracy thriller drama, Surveillance, starring Chicago PD alumna Sophia Bush. The pilot has supporters at the network which is actively looking for ways to take it to series, including a possible summer run. Surveillance is described as a complex and timely spy thriller centered around the head of communications for the NSA (Bush), a charming operative who finds her loyalties torn between protecting the government’s secrets and her own.

CBS's recently announced fall schedule includes the usual lineup of crime dramas:  new shows All Rise, FBI: Most Wanted (midseason), and Tommy (midseason); and returning shows Bull, the three NCIS franchises, FBI, Seal Team, S.W.A.T, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, Magnum PI, and "Crimetime Saturday," which will present some of the favorite procedurals from the rest of the week. You can catch trailers for the new shows here.

At NBC's upfront presentation, the network unveiled the fall schedule for returning shows such as the "Chicago" franchises (Med/Fire/P.D.), The Blacklist, Law & Order:SVU, and the new legal drama, Bluff City Law, starring Jimmy Smits. You can watch a trailer for Bluff City Law here.

Fox's fall lineup includes the new cop/serial killer drama, Prodigal Son, starring Tom Payne and Michael Sheen, scheduled for Monday nights after the emergency-responder show, 9-1-1. You can watch trailers for the new series, via this link.

Riley Smith is returning to the CW with a lead role opposite Kennedy McMann in the network’s new drama series, Nancy Drew, based on the novels featuring the iconic female teenage sleuth (McMann). Smith had been quietly cast as a series regular in the pilot in second position to his Fox drama series, Proven Innocent, but became officially available when Fox canceled the legal drama this past weekend. Smith plays the handsome and affluent Ryan Hudson whose trophy wife is the murder victim.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Tod Goldberg, author of Gangsterland and Gangster Nation, joined Writerly podcast host Panio Gianopoulos to discuss how to write a good psychopath, the morality of art, and why MFA programs need more genre writers.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Sean Carswell to talk about his new novel, Dead Extra, set in post World War II Southern California. It follows a man presumed dead in the war who comes home to find out that his wife has died…and that’s not the worst of it.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with DP Lyle, MD, author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books including the Samantha Cody, Dub Walker, and Jake Longly thriller series and the Royal Pains hit TV show media tie-in novels. Lyle is also the creator and host of the podcast series CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: The Art and Science of Crime Fiction.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro spoke with James Ziskin about his award-winning Ellie Stone series, being a linguist, working in Hollywood as a subtitle expert, researching historical novels, the 7 Criminal Minds blog, and being the "mayor" of basically all of the mystery writer’s conferences.

Beyond the Cover's special guest was Chris Pavone, discussing his new novel, The Paris Diversion, which follows a bored housewife who jumps back into the spy game again.

The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of licensing your work, how cops deal with an a/k/a, why you should consider a p/k/a, and how detectives handle end of watch.

THEATER

Call The Midwife star Helen George will take the lead in a new stage adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel at the Theatre Royal Bath in November. The psychological thriller is largely set in Cornwall and tells a tale of trust, dark romance, and deception. It was first made into a film in 1952 with Olivia de Havilland in the titular role and again in 2017 with Rachel Weisz as the lead. 

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Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: A Bleeding of Innocents

Author Jo Bannister (b. 1951) is a former journalist born in Rochdale, Lancashire, who currently lives in Northern Ireland. She's the author of over 30 novels and has received recognition from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Press Awards and garnered an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Readers' Award in 1988.

She has several series including the Castlemere books, the very first of which was titled A Bleeding of Innocents, published in 1993, featuring a trio of police detectives. The story opens at a funeral for a dead policeman, soon followed by a case handed to Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro, who has brought in the ambitious DI Liz Graham to take over after the policeman's death.

The dead policeman's partner, Sgt.Cal Donovan, tries to get over the guilt surrounding his partner's murder, which he blames on a local crime baron. The case they're given is that of a young nurse shot in her car, but it's soon followed by the death of a surgeon who used to work with the murdered nurse. Making things worse, a third member of the same operating-room team, the anaesthetist, seems to be next in line, pointing to a serial killer. Then there's the matter of who killed Cal's partner adding to the mix.

Bannister is particularly known for her skillful plotting and convincing characterization. (The New York Times Book Review said "Jo Bannister scores high on character with her persuasive insights into the psychological responses to pain").

In an interview with Gerard Brennan via his blog Crime Scene NI, the author talked about her writing:

 

"I used to be a lot more disciplined about writing than I am now – working 8 to 12 and 7 to 9 six days a week. One of the advantages of getting older is that you no longer feel the need to do everything yesterday. When I’m in the middle of a book I aim at producing a thousand words a day. Sometimes I struggle; sometimes I’m on a roll and produce a lot more. But I don’t beat myself up if nothing much is happening, just keep trying until it does. There are more than thirty of my books on the shelves: if the next is a little late, people can read one of the earlier ones while they’re waiting."

She also discussed her worst writing experience involving a heavy-handed editor: "She was a zealot. And she thought...that she could improve something on just about every page," and gave her very sage advice for writing greenhorns:  "Do it for your own pleasure. There are easier ways to make a living."

Bannister's other novels include several standalone police procedurals and other non-Castlemere series:  Brodie Farrell who runs Looking for Something?—an eclectic problem-solving agency in Dimmock, England; a series with Gabriel Ash, ex-British Government Investigator and police recruit Hazel Best; a series with Dr. Clio Marsh and her husband, Detective Harry Marsh; a series with photojournalist Mickey Flynn; and a series with Rosie Holland, a newspaper advice columnist.

            

The Anthony Awards Arrive

Bouchercon 2019 — “Denim, Diamonds, and Death” — announced this year’s Anthony Award finalists for the 50th annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention to be held in Dallas, October 31 to November 3, 2019. The Anthony Awards will be voted on by attendees at the convention and presented on Saturday, November 2.

Best Novel

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown and Company)
November Road by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier (Minotaur Books)
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
Blackout by Alex Segura (Polis Books)

Best First Novel

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
Broken Places by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Books)
What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix (Midnight Ink)
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco)

Best Paperback Original Novel

Hollywood Ending by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park Books)
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day (William Morrow Paperbacks)
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street Books)

Best Short Story

“The Grass Beneath My Feet” by S.A. Cosby, in Tough (blogazine, August 20, 2018)
“Bug Appétit” by Barb Goffman, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November/December 2018)
“Cold Beer No Flies” by Greg Herren, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)
“English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (July/August 2018)
“The Best Laid Plans” by Holly West, in Florida Happens (Three Rooms Press)

Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Mastering Plot Twists: How To Use Suspense, Targeted Storytelling Strategies, and Structure To Captivate Your Readers by Jane K. Cleland (Writer’s Digest Books)
Pulp According to David Goodis by Jay A. Gertzman (Down & Out Books)
Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s by Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus Books)
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (HarperCollins)
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman (Ecco)

The honored guests this year at Bouchercon in Dallas are Peter Lovesey (Lifetime Achievement), Hank Phillippi Ryan (American Guest of Honor), Felix Francis (International Guest of Honor), James Patterson (Distinguished Contribution to the Genre), Deborah Crombie (Local Guest of Honor), Harry Hunsicker (Toastmaster), McKenna Jordan (Fan Guest of Honor), and Charlaine Harris and Sandra Brown (Special Guests).

For more information about the Anthony Awards, visit the official website, Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Mystery Melange

The international crime fiction convention Crimefest was held this past weekend and included the announcement of the Crimefest Award winners. The Audible Sounds of Crime Award went to Robert Galbraith for Lethal White, read by Robert Glenister; the eDUNNIT AWARD was won by Laura Lippman for Sunburn; The Last Laugh Award went to Lynne Truss for A Shot in the Dark; The H.R.F. Keating Award went to James Sallis for Difficult Lives – Hitching Rides; the Best Crime Novel for Children winner was Lauren St. John for Kat Wolfe Investigates; and the Best Crime Novel for Young Adults winner was Nikesh Shukla for Run, Riot. For all the finalists, head on over to the official Crimefest awards page.

Also at CrimeFest, the 2019 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year was given to The Katharina Code by Jørn Lier Horst, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce. Others on the short list included The Ice Swimmer Kjell Ola Dahl, tr. Don Bartlett; The Whisperer by Karin Fossum, tr. Kari Dickson; The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson, tr. Victoria Cribb; Resin by Ane Riel, tr. Charlotte Barslund; and Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen, tr. Don Bartlett. Eurocrime has the full shortlist of nominated titles.

The Crime Writers Association in the UK announced the longlists for this year's Dagger Awards, celebrating the best in crime fiction and nonfiction. As the term "longlist" implies, the number of nominees is fairly long, but Shots Magazine's Ayo Onatade has an easy quick reference for you to see all the nods in the various categories. Shortlists for the Daggers will be announced in the summer and the winners will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on October 24.

At this year's British Book Awards, Louise Candlish was the winner in the Crime and Thriller category for her novel, Our House, while the Author of the Year honor was bestowed upon Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series.

The winner for the inaugural Lindisfarne Prize for debut crime fiction was announced. Cressida Downing won for her novel, The Roll Bearer's Daughter, which is set on Holy Island at the turn of the 15th century. The prize was launched this year by author LJ Ross to honor new literary talent as well as celebrating settings in the North East area of the UK.

Strand Magazine announced the 2019 Strand Critics Awards finalists:

Best Mystery Novel:



Lullaby Road by James Anderson

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

November Road by Lou Berney

Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Sunburn by Laura Lippman

Best Debut Mystery Novel:



Dodging and Burning by John Copenhaver

Star of the North by D.B. John

The Other Side of Everything by Lauren Doyle Owens

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

The Strand also announced the latest recipients of its latest Lifetime Achievement Awards: Heather Graham and Donna Leon; and Publisher of the Year Award to Dominique Raccah, the publisher/CEO of Sourcebooks. 

 

Ireland's International Crime Writing Festival, Murder One, won't take place until November of this year, but in the meantime, the organizers are launching a series of summer events. Each takes places in Dublin’s historic City Hall where capacity is limited to 200. First up is Jeffery Deaver in conversation with Declan Burke on Friday May 24th; James Ellroy will join a Q&A with Eoin McNamee on Thursday May 30th; and finally, Karin Slaughter will be interviewed by RTE’s Sinead Crowley on Thursday June 13th.

London's Capital Crime Digital Festival (September 26-28) also has a special feature lined up this year. If you are a ticket holder, you can also participate in the Capital Crime Digital Festival to be launched on October 28th. It's also a great opportunity for authors, as Shot Magazine's Ayo Onatade noted, becoming a permanent platform that showcases more than 70 authors with video links and dedicated book pages.

Capital Crime added to the line-up for London's new crime and thriller festival taking place in September at the Connaught Rooms in England's capital city. Martina Cole, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Mark Billingham, Don Winslow, Robert Glenister, Adenle, Denise Mina, Catherine Steadman, and Mukherjee are among the latest guests announced with further names to be revealed at a later date. Speakers previously announced by organizers David Headley and Adam Hamdy include Kate Atkinson, David Baldacci, Ann Cleeves, Robert Harris, Peter James, Lynda La Plante, Simon Mayo, and Kate Mosse. Dubbed a "diverse, inclusive and socially responsible festival," Capital Crime is running initiatives including social outreach to support students exploring a literary career, an innovative digital festival, and the launch of the New Voices Award. 

This year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival will host an inaugural library conference with speakers including Ann Cleeves and Arts Council England CEO Darren Henley. The festival will also deliver its 11th annual Big Read with current reader-in-residence, author Mari Hannah. It aims to encourage crime fiction fans and entice reluctant readers to read and discuss the same book and utilize their local library service.

On view through June 3 at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, FL, you can catch the exhibition "The Art of Sherlock Holmes," which features 15 artistic works inspired by the Great Detective. Curated by author Phil Growick, the exhibit brings together 14 pieces of art that are interpretations of different short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, all created by West Palm Beach artists. The artistic styles include abstract, contemporary, digital, realist, minimalist, symbolism, or an amalgam of various forms. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Writing for The Millions, John Smith investigated the real genesis for the character of Sherlock Holmes:  two leading crime experts of Arthur Conan Doyle's day who had a profound influence upon the author, one who reaped the glory of being named "the real life" Holmes in the press and another who was largely unrecognized in his lifetime.

Speaking of Holmes, the Royal Mint in the UK has released a Sherlock Holmes 50p coin to mark the 160th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Designed by Stephen Raw, the coin has been made to encourage people to use their magnifying glass to read the names of the famous cases (listed on the coin in tiny print) in true Sherlock style.

The Washington Post profiled author Thomas Harris, who introduced the world to Hannibal Lecter. Harris has just released his first novel in thirteen years, Cari Mora.

Chris Pavone, whose first novel, The Expats, received both the Edgar and Anthony awards for Best First Novel, as well as a film deal, applied the Page 69 Test to his latest work, The Paris Diversion.

Penguin Random House is offering a "Spruce Up Your Shelves" sweepstakes to win a library of 50 books and more. The contest runs through June 30th.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Cornelia Gale" by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

           Related StoriesMystery Melange