B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 144

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

Tom Holland is in talks to star in a new film from Avengers directors Anthony and Joe Russo, the heist movie Cherry. Based on the 2018 novel by Nico Walker, the story centers on a former Iraq War Army medic who turned to robbing banks to pay for his increasing medical bills and to cope with his PTSD. While fictionalized, the book parallels the true story of its author, who himself was an army medic convicted for bank robbery and is currently serving out the last two years of his 11-year prison sentence.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Avengement, an action thriller starring Doctor Strange’s Scott Adkins and directed by Jesse V. Johnson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Stu Small. The film centers on a lowly criminal named Cain Burgess (Adkins) who evades his guards while on furlough and returns to his old haunts to take revenge on the people who made him a cold-hearted killer. Nick Moran, Thomas Turgoose, Kierston Wareing and Louis Mandylor co-star.

Killing Ground helmer, Damien Power, is attached to direct 20th Century Fox’s No Exit, a thriller based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Adams. The project follows several strangers stranded at a rest stop during a blizzard, where a young woman discovers a kidnapped girl and must determine who the kidnapper is and plot their escape.

Denzel Washington is in talks to star in John Lee Hancock’s cop thriller Little Things, taking on the role of Deke, a burned out Kern County sheriff who teams with LA County Sheriff’s Department detective, Baxter, to reel in a wily serial killer. Deke’s nose for the “little things” (hence the title of the movie) proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma, even as Deke wrestles with a dark secret from his past. The role of Baxter has yet to be cast.

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman has signed on for The Hitman’s Bodyguard sequel from Lionsgate and Millennium Films. Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek are set to reprise their roles with Patrick Hughes returning to direct from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor. The latest installment, which is slated to begin filming this month, will follow Michael Bryce (Reynolds) who joins Darius (Jackson) and his wife Sonia (Hayek) on a mission along the Amalfi Coast.

John Magaro has been cast in The Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, reteaming with David Chase after their 2012 movie Not Fade Away. There’s no word on who Magaro is playing, but he joins Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen and Michael Gandolfini in the cast. The project is set in the era of the Newark riots in the 1960s, when African Americans and Italian Americans in the city were at each other’s throats.

Denis O’Hare, Naomi Battrick and Ruairi O’Connor have joined Danis Tanovic’s The Postcard Killings. The trio will star alongside Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Connie Nielsen and Cush Jumbo in the adaptation of the James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestseller which follows a hardened New York Detective (Dean Morgan), in search of the person responsible for the murder of his only daughter. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Riven Rock Projects is moving into the action-thriller arena with the acquisition of Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series. The books, which consist of 14 installments including the recent Malta Exchange, focus on former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, who partners with Cassiopeia Vitt to take down the world’s deadliest terrorists, assassins and con men, unraveling along the way some of history’s most legendary and iconic mysteries.

Indie producer Stampede has acquired bestselling author Ragnar Jónasson’s Icelandic thriller The Darkness and will adapt it as a local-language series. The Darkness, which was published last year, is Jónasson’s first in a planned trilogy focusing on Reykjavik detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir, a dedicated investigator forced into early retirement who takes on a final cold case centered on the mysterious death of a young Russian asylum seeker. 

NBC has given an early Season 7 renewal to veteran thriller drama The Blacklist. Series star James Spader had renegotiated his deal early on, adding an extra year, but the rest of the show’s original cast members’ contracts were up at the end of the current sixth season. In addition to headliners Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, and Harry Lennix, The Blacklist cast also features Amir Arison, Mozhan Marnò and Hisham Tawfiq.

Michael Ealy and Mark Webber are set as leads opposite Cobie Smulders in Stumptown, ABC’s drama pilot inspired by the graphic novels published by Oni Press. It follows Dex Parios (Smulders), a strong, assertive, and sharp-witted Army veteran working as a PI in Portland, OR. Ealy will play Miles Hoffman, a detective with the Portland Police Department who is looking for escaped convict Samuel Kane, while Webber’s Grey McConnell is Dex’s best friend and has an unrequited crush on her. It was also announced last week that The Practice alumna Camryn Manheim is set as a lead in the project.

Last week I reported that Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones had signed on to star in Fox’s crime drama pilot Prodigal Son, but the network announced four days later they’d changed their minds and have replaced him with Walking Dead star Tom Payne. The project centers on Malcolm Bright, who has a gift of knowing how killers think and how their minds work because his father Martin Whitly (played by Michael Sheen) is one of the worst — a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” Also starring in the pilot as previously announced are Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, and Frank Harts.

And in other recasting news, Fox’s drama pilot, Deputy, is recasting one of the female leads opposite star Stephen Dorff. Bex Taylor-Klaus has been cast as Deputy Breanna Bishop, replacing Jasmine Kaur, who originally was cast in the role. Deputy centers on Deputy Bill Hollister (Dorff), a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors yet utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the L.A. County sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West. Taylor-Klaus’s Deputy Breanna Bishop is the smartly dressed, sarcastic, “quietly badass” driver in charge of newly appointed Sheriff Hollister’s security detail

Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny and Joon) is set as a lead opposite Nicholas Pinnock and Indira Varma in ABC’s untitled legal/family drama pilot from Hank Steinberg, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Doug Robinson, and Alison Greenspan. Also executive producing is Isaac Wright Jr., who was wrongfully convicted as a drug kingpin but got his conviction overturned while in prison and became a licensed attorney. Masterson will play Anya, the hard-charging Brooklyn District Attorney.

Former Midnight, Texas star Arielle Kebbel has been hired as the female lead opposite Russell Hornsby in NBC’s Lincoln, the drama pilot based on Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme book series that started with the 1997 novel The Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Lincoln forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs (Kebbel), a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD. Also joining the cast is Michael Imperioli, who will play Rick Sellitto, an NYPD detective who assists the title character, a quadriplegic forensic criminalist.

Freddie Prinze Jr. is joining the CW’s Nancy Drew project, playing Nancy's father Carson Drew. In the untitled pilot based on the series of mystery novels featuring the teen sleuth, Carson is a dynamic attorney who has become estranged from his daughter (Kennedy McMann) following the death of his beloved wife. His attempts to reconnect with Nancy run aground when her murder investigation reveals unsettling secrets from Carson's past. The cast also includes Leah Lewis (Charmed), Tunji Kasim, Maddison Jaizani and Alex Saxon. 

Joseph Lyle Taylor (Sneaky Pete) and David Fierro (The Knick) are set as series regulars opposite Edie Falco and Michael Chernus in the CBS drama pilot Tommy (fka Nancy), from the Bull team of co-creator Paul Attanasio and producer Amblin TV. Falco will play Abigail “Tommy” Thomas, a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles. Fierro’s Buddy is the brilliant, manipulative mayor of Los Angeles, who becomes a rival for power with the city’s first female police chief, while Taylor will portray Dudik, Buddy’s deputy.

Longmire and Saving Grace alum Bailey Chase and David Andrews (Shooter) have joined the Season 4 cast of USA Network’s Queen of the South drama series in key roles. Starring Alice Braga and based on the best-selling book La Reina Del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Queen of the South tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from a Mexican cartel to seek refuge in America.  

Scrubs alum Donald Faison is set as a lead opposite Allison Tolman in Emergence, NBC’s mystery drama pilot. Emergence is a character-driven genre thriller that centers on Jo (Tolman), a police chief who takes in a young child, Piper (Alexa Skye Swinton), she finds near the site of a mysterious accident. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined.

Michael Mosley (Seven Seconds, Ozark) is set as a series regular in Fox’s artificial intelligence thriller drama pilot neXT. The show is described as “a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research.” Mosley will play CM, a Southern ex-con hacker with a genius IQ who works at the FBI cybercrime division. He joins previously cast series regulars Fernanda Andrade, Eve Harlowe, Aaron Moten, and Gerardo Celasco.

Joe Tippett (Rise) and Colony alum Alex Neustaedter are set as series regulars opposite Malin Akerman and Mykelti Williamson in NBC’s legal drama pilot Prism, inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa. Prism is described as a provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved.

A trailer was released for Charlie Says, a film which focuses on the females who fell prey to the manipulation of the infamous murderer and cult leader Charles Manson. American Psycho filmmaker Mary Harron directed the film, which stars The Crown’s Matt Smith as Manson.

A keynote lecture by James Naremore will be part of the second annual Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival  Wednesday, March 27. The event will be held at the Katharina Otto-Bernstein screening room at the Lenfest Center for the Arts in New York and features the talk “Into the Night: Cornell Woolrich and Film Noir.”

If you’re a fan of international crime dramas, check out this list from the New York Times of “5 New International Series [that] Visit 5 Far-Flung Crime Scenes.”

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Story Blender welcomed Liv Constantine, the internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish, who follows that success with an addictive novel about the aftermath of a brutal high-society murder in The Last Time I Saw You.

Debbi Mack interviewed mystery author Phillippe Diederich (writing as Danny Lopez), author of the Dexter Vega mysteries, on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Writer Types hosts Eric Beetner and  S.W. Lauden welcomed the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to talk about their debut novel, Double Exposure; Wendall Thomas, author of the Cyd Redondo series; Jeffrey Fleishman to answer five questions about his novel My Detective; plus authors from the upcoming anthology Murder A Go-Gos.

Hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about the big college admissions scam and provided some creepy book picks for a reader’s book club on the Read or Dead podcast.

The latest two Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured Jess Montgomery discussing The Widows, the first novel in a new series with Lily Ross, the first woman sheriff in Ohio; and Glen Erik Hamilton, talking about Mercy River, the fourth installment in his series about the former Army Ranger, Van Shaw.

Tell the Damn Story host Chris Ryan chatted with mystery author and ex-journalist, R.G. Belsky.

The latest edition of Michael Connelly’s Murder Book podcast focuses on the defense of Pierre Romain.

THEATER

The Kings Theatre in Edinburgh is staging a production of The Girl on the Train, adapted from Paula Hawkins’s novel about a woman who learns someone she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, embroiling her in a thrilling mystery. The show opens March 25 with a run through March 30.

GAMES

NEXT Studios has announced its upcoming narrative-centric detective game, Unheard, will be released on PC on March 29, 2019. Unheard combines story-driven audio drama with puzzle elements to create a unique experience where players take on the role of a time-traveling detective who is only able to use one sense—sound.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

FFB: The Port of London Murders

Josephine Bell, the pen name of  Doris Collier Ball, was born in Manchester in 1897, educated at Cambridge, and became a University College Hospital of London physician. She married a fellow physician who died at a young age in 1936, which is when Bell turned her hand to writing, even as she maintained her medical practice.



She was a co-founder of the Crime Writers' Association, serving as its chair in 1959, and also became a member of the Detection Club. She eventually closed her medical practice at age 57 but continued to write full time until she was 85, creating numerous sleuths in her more than 40 crime novels (at the rate of two a year), such as AmyTupper, Dr. David Wintingham, Dr. Henry Frost, and Scotland Yard Inspector Steven Mitchell.



Not surprisingly, her novels often feature a strong medical component, not the least of which were two of her doctor-protagonists. She also featured poison and other unusual methods of murder prominently in her plots. Bell and her family were experienced sailors, and the author drew upon this knowledge, too, using many vivid passages in her books that relate to the water and to various nautical details.



Water is certainly at the heart of the setting in Bell's novel The Port of London Murders from 1938, specifically as the title suggests, the port area of London's River Thames. It's a tough neighborhood, but the death of one Mary Holland is still a bit of a shock, even though it appears at first to be a suicide by Lysol poisoning. Tell-tale needle marks on the victim's arm lead Detective Sergeant Chandler to suspect murder tied into a drug ring—which seems even more chillingly apparent when Chandler disappears shortly after he starts to investigate, right before he's due to testify at the inquest. It's up to Inspector Mitchell of Scotland Yard to unravel the layers of deception and addiction that are exploiting rich and poor alike in a way that hasn't changed much in the seventy years since the book was written.



Bell is particularly good with settings, even the squalid ones that pop up in the novel, no doubt witnessed first-hand in her role as a physician who saw people from every walk of life. Her take on the state of medicine in her day was often somewhat bleak, as in this passage from the book—again, as true today as it was in 1938:

For the great majority of these cases, too poor to have a doctor of their own, there was little he could do...Dr. Freeman could encourage them with a bottle of medicine and help them with a pint of milk a day, but it was not in his power nor that of anyone else to effect a lasting cure of their complaints. There were others, too, not old, but equally hopeless, who attended the dispensary as regular visitors; those struck down in youth or middle age by tuberculosis, rheumatism, heart trouble, and a number of more rare diseases. They had come to the end of their resources, their insurances, and their capacity for earning. The hospitals could do nothing more for them, but they still lived, in the worse possible surroundings, and the Public Assistance saw to it that they did not die too soon.

           Related StoriesFFB: A Private InquiryFFB: Death WatchFFB: The Spoilt Kill 

Mystery Melange

For over 30 years, the Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) have identified and honored the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books. The organization recently announced the finalists of the 31st Lammys, culled from over 1,000 book submissions by 300 publishers, with winners to be announced at the Awards Ceremony and Gala the evening of Monday, June 3, 2019 in New York City. Here are the finalists for best Lesbian Mystery and Best Gay Mystery:

Lesbian Mystery

A Matter of Blood, Catherine Maiorisi
A Study in Honor: A Novel, Claire O’Dell
A Whisper of Bones: A Jane Lawless Mystery, Ellen Hart
Alice Isn’t Dead: A Novel, Joseph Fink
Gnarled Hollow, Charlotte Greene
The Locket, Gerri Hill
Secrets of the Last Castle, A. Rose Mathieu
Stolen: A Kieran Yeats Mystery, Linda J. Wright

Gay Mystery

Black Diamond Fall, Joseph Olshan
Boystown 11: Heart’s Desire, Marshall Thornton
Death Checks In, David S. Pederson
Dodging and Burning: A Mystery, John Copenhaver
The God Game: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round
Late Fees: A Pinx Video Mystery, Marshall Thornton
Somewhere Over Lorain Road, Bud Gundy
Survival Is a Dying Art: An Angus Green Novel, Neil S. Plakcy

 

Friends of Mystery, a non-profit literary organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon, announced its list of 10 finalists for the 2019 Spotted Owl Award. For a book to be considered, the author must have primary residence in the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or the Province of British Columbia. The winner will be awarded later this month from among the nominees:

Baron Birtcher – Fistful of Rai
Robert Dugoni – A Steep Price
Warren Easley – Moving Targets
G.M. Ford – Soul Survivor
Elizabeth George – The Punishment She Deserves
Stephen Holgate – Madagascar
Mike Lawson – House Witness
Martin Limon – The Line
John Straley – Baby’s First Felony
Jon Talton – The Bomb Shelter

 

Foreword Magazine released the list of finalists for the 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, including the fifteen titles in the Mystery category and the thirteen books in the Thriller category.

This coming Saturday, March 16th, the Murderous March 2019 Writers’ & Readers’ Confab, hosted by the Mavens of Mayhem (Sisters in Crime, Upper Hudson chapter) and the East Greenbush Community Library will take place in East Greenbush, New York. Canadian author Vicki Delany is the keynote speaker, with other featured authors to include Edwin Hill, Frankie Y. Bailey, Catherine Bruns, Debi Chowdhury, Denis Foley, and Kathleen J. Kaminski.

Portland, Maine’s Brownville Free Public Library will host a series of discussions themed around “Detective Fiction in the 20th Century: A Notion of Evil,” from April 16 - June 11, 2019. This series examines the enormous popularity of mystery/detective fiction and at the same time “provides a highly entertaining platform to consider the nature of a specific literary genre.” Organizers also hope participants will experience how literature grows out of and is changed by the cultural climate and historical moment from which it springs.

Yes Weekly profiled the “six-gun sisters and future female private eyes,” a/k/a the diverse pulp fiction of Nicole Givens Kurtz, whose novels include a rare black female protagonist in pulp fiction. 

A literary mystery solved? It's well known that literature was almost exclusively the realm of monasteries in medieval times, but it was primarily thought to involve male scribes. However, analysis of the fossilized dental plaque of a medieval woman reveals lapis lazuli, suggesting she was an accomplished painter of illuminated manuscripts. Christina Warinner of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author on the paper about the discovery, added, “This woman's story could have remained hidden forever without the use of these techniques. It makes me wonder how many other artists we might find in medieval cemeteries - if we only look.”

Mardi Gras 2019 may be history, but you can still check out more lists of the crime fiction of New Orleans and Carnival, courtesy of Crime Reads.

The Spectator has regular writing challenges for their readers, and the latest was to submit a short story in the style of hard-boiled crime fiction set in the corridors of power. According to the editors, “Raymond Chandler cast a long shadow over an entry bristling with stinging one-liners, dames, black humour and grandstanding similes laid on with a trowel. The mean streets of Westminster were the most popular setting, though there were glimpses of Brussels and the Oval Office too.”

Speaking of hard-boiled, Crime Reads offered up a list of “The 10 Best and Pulpiest Mickey Spillane Covers” in honor the iconic crime fiction author's birthday.

Folks in relatively low-crime areas often find entertainment from reading the local police blotter. YouTuber Michael McCurdy recently took this to another level and made a video featuring animated selections from the police blotter for Port Townsend, Washington, and surrounding Jefferson County. Watch as a tough local cop rescues an otter from a garbage can. Just another day on the job.

NPR has a series of puzzles online, and a recent one was based on the names of famous writers of mysteries, crime fiction, and spy novels, with their last names anagrammed. If you’re familiar with classic crime fiction, this should be a piece of cake (or cafe coke pie, if you prefer).

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “The Good, the Kind, the Peaceful” by David Cranmer.

In the Q&A roundup, David Roy of the Irish Times chatted with novelist Anthony Horowitz about his best-selling teen spy series Alex Rider and what it’s like penning new adventures for Ian Fleming’s James Bond; Donna Leon, author of the Guido Brunetti series, was the latest to participate in the New York Times's By the Book Q&A; Don Winslow was interviewed by GQ Magazine to chat about his latest novel (the third in his cartel trilogy), Trump, and becoming an accidental activist; Ann Cleves spoke with the Belfast Telegraph about the pain of losing her husband, what she makes of TV series inspired by her work and how commercial success hasn’t changed her; and William Kent Krueger sat down with the Minnesota Sun Sailor about the inspiration for his latest mystery and how his sense of rebellion still finds its way into his books.

           Related StoriesMystery MelangeMystery Melange, Valentine's Edition 

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

Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B (the creative team behind this year's Oscar winners Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk) are adapting the best-selling novel The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides to the big screen. The thriller centers on Alicia Berenson, a famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer with a seemingly perfect life - until one day she shoots her husband five times in the face and then never speaks another word. When she's sent to the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London, criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is determined to get her to talk and unravel the mystery behind her actions, a pursuit that threatens to consume him.

The upstart Solstice Studios has chosen its first homegrown picture, the action thriller Split Second. Scripted by former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune, Split Second centers on an assassin who suffers a psychological breakdown when he is ordered to kill the woman who is his lifeline. The story follows two versions of the same character: one who pulls the trigger and descends into madness, the other who takes the road to redemption and goes on the run with her.

Unified Pictures is developing the film noir thriller Whisper. The project stars Maia Mitchell, Joey Bicicchi, and Guy Burnet, with Azi Rahman making his feature directorial debut. Bicicchi plays Nick, a talented photographer who is new to Los Angeles and falls for Tessa (Mitchell), a free-spirited young woman who is no longer charmed by the city. Their worlds are turned upside down when she asks him to do the unimaginable, which forces the duo down a path of revenge and destruction.

Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike has been cast as the lead in the thriller I Care A Lot. Director J Blakeson (The 5th Wave) is also writing the project, which will begin shooting in June of this year. Oscar nominee Pike will play Marla Grayson, a highly successful legal guardian with a knack for using the law to her benefit and her clients’ detriment. But when she cherry picks her seemingly perfect client, she soon realizes looks can be deceiving.

James Moses Black has come aboard Black and Blue, a crime drama directed by Deon Taylor. Naomie Harris stars as a rookie cop in New Orleans who witnesses corrupt narc officers murdering a drug dealer, an event captured by her body cam. When they then fail to execute her and she escapes, the narcs pin the murder on her, and she is hunted both by the narcs who are desperate to destroy the incriminating footage, as well as the drug dealers out for apparent revenge.

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow announced the release of Sherlock Holmes 3 has been pushed back a full year. The still-untitled follow up to 2011’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will now hit theaters December 22, 2021, instead of December 25, 2020. The first two films were directed by Guy Ritchie and starred Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson, respectively. It's not been officially announced whether Downey and Law will return for the third outing.

If you're a fan of noir cinema, check out this list of the “10 best neo-noir films of all time: From Chinatown to LA Confidential.”

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

FX Networks has landed the rights to adapt Don Winslow’s acclaimed Cartel Trilogy into a TV series that will include Winslow’s 2005 novel The Power of the Dog, the 2015 followup The Cartel, and the just published conclusion, The Border. The book trilogy spans a 45 year period and follows DEA agent Art Keller through America’s long running war on drugs as well as his blood feud with Mexican drug kingpin Adan Berrera. The first two books were originally sold to be turned into a feature film by Fox, but the company ultimately decided it was too much material for a two-hour film and better suited for “an edgy Sons of Anarchy-style series” by sister company FX.

The classic British series Rumpole of the Bailey is returning to the small screen. The legal drama, which was created by writer and barrister John Mortimer, will be rebooted by Mortimer’s daughter, Emily. The original starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an elderly barrister in London who defended a weird and wonderful mix of clients. Polly Williams, eOne’s head of scripted development in the UK, told Deadline that Mortimer has “reimagined” the series and she and her sister Rosie were writing the script. “They have written a very modern take on Rumpole. I’m very excited to see how that turns out,” Williams added.

Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories has inked a deal with Agatha Christie Ltd. to develop a new Miss Marple TV series. The latest incarnation will be co-developed by the Big Little Lies producer and Endeavor Content. Christie’s books about the amateur detective have been in print for more than 90 years and are now in more than 100 territories worldwide. Numerous film and TV adaptations through that time have starred Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine McEwan, Helen Hayes, and Joan Hickson as the iconic amateur sleuth.

NBC has put the brakes on its plans for Law & Order: Hate Crimes, the greenlighted new Law & Order spinoff from the franchise’s creator Dick Wolf, which had already been given a 13-episode order. The project remains in active development at the network as everyone “needed more time to fresh (sic) out the concept.” Meanwhile, SVU has not been renewed, although it is considered to be likely so it can break the record for the longest-run drama series jointly held by Gunsmoke and Law & Order. It is thought the Hate Crimes spinoff could then be introduced during SVU’s 21st and likely final season.

A drama series starring Captain Marvel star Brie Larson has landed at Apple with a straight-to-series order. The untitled female-focused CIA drama is based on Amaryrillis Fox’s upcoming memoir, Coming of Age in the CIA, and draws upon the real-life experiences of undercover operative Fox as a young woman working up the ranks in the spy agency.

Podcast company Wondery is stepping up its television activities following the success of Dirty John and is in talks to adapt its latest hit, Over My Dead Body. The first season of the Over My Dead Body podcast tells the story of Dan Markel and his wife Wendi, two good-looking attorneys whose wedding is featured in the New York Times. But when this perfect couple’s marriage falls apart, it leads to a bad breakup, a worse divorce, and a murder case involving a menagerie of high-priced lawyers and unexpected co-conspirators.

USA Network has picked up a third season of its thriller drama series, The Sinner, and has tapped Matt Bomer as a new lead opposite Bill Pullman who will return as Detective Harry Ambrose. Bomer will play Jamie, an upstanding Dorchester resident and expectant father who looks to Ambrose for support in the wake of an accident. He succeeds Jessica Biel and Carrie Coon, who starred opposite Pullman in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively.

Russell Hornsby has been hired as the title character in NBC’s Lincoln, a drama pilot based on the bestselling book series by Jeffery Deaver (adapted into the 1999 movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie). Lincoln follows legendary forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Hornsby), who was seriously injured during his hunt for the diabolical serial killer known as the Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Rhyme forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs, a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD.

Nicholas Pinnock (Counterpart) has been cast as the lead in ABC’s untitled legal/family drama pilot that centers on Aaron (Pinnock), a prisoner who becomes a lawyer, litigating cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. One of the producers on the project is Isaac Wright, Jr., who was once wrongfully convicted as drug kingpin but got his conviction overturned while in prison and became a licensed attorney. It was also recently announced that Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) has been cast as the female lead in the pilot.

Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones has signed on to star in Fox’s crime drama pilot, Prodigal Son. The project centers on Malcolm Bright (Jones), who has a gift—he knows how killers think because his father Martin Whitly (played by Michael Sheen) is one of the worst, a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” Also starring in the pilot are Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, and Frank Harts.

ITV announced that Brenda Blethyn will return for a 10th series of Vera (based on the novels by Ann Cleeves), reprising her role as DCI Vera Stanhope. Four feature-length episodes, set in North East England, will begin production in April and will air in 2020. Returning alongside Blethyn are Kenny Doughty (DS Aiden Healy), Jon Morrison (DC Kenny Lockhart), Riley Jones (DC Mark Edwards), Ibinabo Jack (DC Jacqueline Williams), and Paul Kaye (Dr Malcolm Donahue).

Hellboy’s Ron Perlman and X-Men’s Famke Janssen are to star in BBC One's spy drama The Capture, joining previously announced Callum Turner and Holliday Grainger in the six-part series. The London-set spy thriller begins with the unjust arrest of an innocent man and escalates into a multi-layered conspiracy of manipulated evidence.

Sara Rue is set as a series regular in NBC’s Prism pilot. Written and directed by Daniel Barnz, Prism is inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa, and is described as a “provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved.”

Sofia Barclay has booked a series regular role on ABC’s NYPD Blue pilot, a new iteration of the iconic cop drama. The sequel centers on Theo (played by Fabien Frankel), the son of Dennis Franz’s Detective Andy Sipowicz character from the original series, who tries to earn his detective shield and work in the 15th squad while investigating his father’s murder.

Daredevil alum Wilson Bethel is set as a series regular in the CBS legal drama pilot Courthouse, a show that pulls back the curtain on the court system. It follows the lives of the judges, assistant district attorneys, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles. Bethel will play Mark, a roguish, highly successful Deputy District Attorney.

Maddison Jaizani and Alex Saxon are set as series regulars opposite Kennedy McMann and Tunji Kasim in the CW’s untitled Nancy Drew pilot inspired by the classic mysteries about the brilliant young sleuth. Jaizani will play Bess, a refined young woman whose wealthy background sets her apart from Nancy (Kennedy McMann) – but when they both become suspects in the same murder, Bess proves to be a spirited ally in the search for the real killer.

Chris D’Elia is set for a recurring role on the upcoming second season of Netflix’s You. D’Elia will play Henderson, a “designer hoodie, black Ray-Bans, expensive sneakers-wearing famous comedian.” You follows bookstore manager and stalker Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) and is based on Caroline Kepnes’s best-selling novels. The show’s second season will be loosely based on the author’s second book in the series titled Hidden Bodies, which follows Goldberg to Los Angeles where he meets Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), an aspiring chef who isn’t into social media like his previous leading lady.

Yara Martinez and Brian Van Holt will co-star opposite Stephen Dorff in Deputy, Fox’s police drama pilot from Bright helmer David Ayer, Aquaman writer Will Beall, and eOne. Written by Beall and directed by Ayer, Deputy centers on Deputy Bill Hollister (Dorff), a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors but utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the L.A. County sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West. Martinez will play Hollister’s wife, Dr. Paula Reyes, a trauma surgeon, while Van Holt will play former Marine-turned-Deputy Cade Walker.

Sarayu Blue has joined the cast of Medical Police, which has a 10-episode series order at Netflix and stars Childrens Hospital alums Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel. Medical Police is described as an action-packed thriller, mystery, and love story that centers on two American physicians (Hayes and Huebel) stationed at a pediatric hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, who discover a civilization-threatening virus. The duo are recruited as government agents in a race against time and around the world to find a cure and uncover a dark conspiracy.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

David Swinson was featured on WAMU public radio's Kojo Nnamdi Show to talk about his career, his characters, and the “good cop/bad cop” tropes of crime fiction.

On the latest Mysteryrat’s Maze podcast from Kings River Life magazine, actor Thomas Nance reads the first chapter of the mystery novel Fostering Death by K.M. Rockwood.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste welcomed guest Jo Spain, who talked about her road to being published, Brookside, and writing for TV.

Beyond the Cover chatted with Greg Iles about his latest novel, Cemetery Road.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed Dr. Ellen Kirschman, clinical psychologist and consultant, who's worked with law enforcement agencies for over 20 years, and has written mysteries and nonfiction books like I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief focused on “The Rules of Writing.”

Michael Connelly's Murder Book podcast continued the real life saga of a Hollywood killing that tested the limits of the American justice system.

THEATER

The Mystery Series at Calgary's Vertigo Theatre is performing Might as Well Be Dead: a Nero Wolfe Mystery, from March 16- April 14. Adapted by Joseph Goodrich from the Rex Stout novel, the story follows iconic P.I. Nero Wole and his assistant Archie Goodwin as they help a client whose estranged son has been charged with murder.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: Dover One

Joyce Porter (1924-1990) started down a literary path with a degree in English at London University before she veered off and served in the Women’s Royal Air Force as an officer (including confidential work in intelligence), from 1949-63 in the UK and Germany. Somewhere along the line, she developed not only an interest in writing novels, but a sharp sense of humor and the absurd that she wove into protagonists featured in all three of her series—whether it's Edmund “Eddie” Brown, a secret agent who's as much a threat to the British intelligence service as he is to the bad guys, or the Honorable Constance Ethel Morrison Burke, a bit of a bungler who possesses a below-average IQ.



But the most popular of her creations is the thoroughly original Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover, who quite possibly has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He's described as having a six-two frame draped in “seventeen and a quarter stone (241 pounds) of flabby flesh”; unhygienic (the only man in the Metropolitan Police Service with underarm dandruff); and “with a moustache of the type that the late Adolph Hitler did so much to depopularize.” He's also mean, occasionally violent, but mostly lazy, having been promoted through the ranks as much by colleagues who wanted to get rid of him as any particular investigative skills, relying on luck and the work of others to solve cases.



Dover is aided by his aide and polar opposite, the young, well-dressed, kind, sympathetic, charming and intelligent up-and-coming Sergeant Edward MacGregor. The patient MacGregor does most of the work for which Dover gets the credit, one reason he keeps trying to be transferred away from his boss—to no avail, thanks to the Assistant Commissioner who believes in a “baptism of fire and salvation through suffering” for the younger detectives.



The first literary outing for Dover and MacGregor was the appropriately-named Dover One, published in 1964. To get him out of the building, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Dover to investigate the disappearance of a promiscuous young housemaid in the small remote town of Creedshire. Once there, Dover and MacGregor find affairs, illegitimate children, homosexuality, drug abuse and seemingly every one of the Seven Deadly Sins, as well as a cast of over-the-top characters who all have motives to kill the housemaid. The problem is—there's no body and this particular body is a rather large young woman who'd be hard to hide. Did she just run off? or is it a case of kidnapping or suicide? Dover doesn't particularly care, he just wants to find a restaurant in town that has a decent meal. Or take a nap.



In Dover One, as well as all the Dover novels, Porter creates an uncultured and slightly titillating world but tempers it via pitch-black humor. Her supporting characters are often repulsively racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and definitely not politically correct, but this is part of her own satirical dig at elitism and classism in the UK of the 1960s. She also doesn't shy away from other touchy subjects, including castration, cannibalism and terrorism.



Neither does she skimp on plotting, which lead Anthony Boucher to note in a 1965 New York Times review, that Porter's first two novels (Dover One and Dover Two) were “plotted with the technique of a virtuoso.” Publishers Weekly added that the author “plants clues in the best British whodunit tradition, simultaneously honoring the genre's conventions even as she sends it up.” Best-selling author Martha Grimes (the Richard Jury series) once said that Porter was one of the few series she really liked, with Porter perhaps the only writer who has consciously influenced her.



The BBC adapted one of the Dover novels for an episode of the TV series Detective in 1968, and Paul Mendelson and David Neville adapted five books from the Dover collection by Joyce Porter into radio plays for BBC Radio 4, with Kenneth Cranham as Chief Inspector Dover and Stuart McQuarrie as Sergeant MacGregor. (None of these was based on Dover One, but taken from the other 14 Dover novels and 11 Dover short stories.)



If you're in the mood for serious detective fiction, then Dover won't be your cup of tea, but if you like dark humor, then settle down with “Scotland Yard's least-wanted man,” some strong British ale and maybe some tea biscuits. Lots of tea biscuits.

            

Mystery Melange

The British Crime Writers’ Association has selected author Robert Goddard as the recipient of its 2019 CWA Diamond Dagger, given to an author whose crime writing career has been marked by sustained excellence and who has made a significant contribution to the genre. Goddard will received the award during the CWA’s Dagger Awards ceremony on October 24 in London. Previous winners of the CWA Diamond Dagger include Michael Connelly, Ann Cleeves, Sara Paretsky, and Peter Lovesey.

The Carter Brown Foundation in conjunction with Brio Books and Stark House Press announced that the inaugural winner of the Carter Brown Mystery Writing Award is Wilson Toney for his novel, Alibi for a Dead Man. The judges praised the novel for its “snappy plotting, sharp dialogue and authentic characterization.” The award is named in honor of prolific Australian author Alan Geoffrey Yates, aka Carter Brown (1923-1985), who wrote over 350 novels and was posthumously awarded a Ned Kelly, Australia’s leading literary award for crime writing.

The winners of the Audie Awards, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association, were announced Monday night at the APA’s 24th annual Audies Gala. The winner in the Mystery category was The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, as read by Simon Vance. The Thriller/Suspense award winner was Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, read by Euan Morton.

The McIlvanney Prize is launching a new award for 2019 for Scottish Crime Debut of the Year. The winner of the McIlvanney Prize, Bloody Scotland’s annual prize awarded to the best Scottish Crime book of the year, will be awarded £1,000, with the winner of the Crime Debut taking home £500. The Scottish Crime Debut of the Year will be judged by the board of Bloody Scotland including crime writers Lin Anderson, Craig Robertson, Gordon Brown and Abir Mukerjee.

An International Crime Fiction conference is headed to University College Dublin on March 29. Panel discussions will include such topics as “Contemporary Perspectives on French Crime Fiction,” “Italian and Irish Crime Fiction,” and more. This is a free event open to the public.

Crafting Crime Fiction: Mark Billingham and Erin Kelly will be in conversation with Libraries Sheffield on May 23, talking about writing crime fiction, adapting work for television, and their latest books. The authors are both Sunday Times bestselling authors and both published in over 25 countries.

HarperCollins imprint Avon is partnering with the Big Issue magazine to find a new crime writer in a competition launching this month. The winner will receive a two-book deal with the HarperCollins division. Submissions are invited from across the UK, with a deadline of May 31, 2019 followed by the shortlist and winner announcements in September and October, respectively. Judges for the award include books editor at the Big Issue, Jane Graham; Kingsford Campbell agent Julia Silk; author Katerina Diamond; and writer and editor M J Ford.

There is a call for papers for a special issue of Studies In Crime Writing: The True Crime Renaissance. This edition is devoted to scholarly explorations of the reasons for this popularity and a deep analysis of the genre in its present and multiple forms. The editors welcome submissions on any aspect of this phenomenon and seek 300-word abstracts and a 1-page CV by the deadline of June 30, 2019. First drafts of accepted essays will be due by September 30, 2019, and final drafts by January 31, 2020 for a 2020 publication date.

Author and editor Martin Edwards that among the upcoming titles in the British Library’s Crime Classic series is the first novel by John Dickson Carr, It Walks By Night, which introduced his first major series detective, Henri Bencolin. The new edition will also include a Bencolin short story.

Alan Nevins and his team at Renaissance Literary & Talent, who represent the various parties that control the Cornell Woolrich library, have worked tirelessly to track down and retrieve rights to Woolrich stories and collections that have been out of print for decades. They're making a major push to reintroduce Woolrich’s revolutionary work to new audiences with fresh collections of his most well-known and obscure short fiction. They already issued a couple of editions including a two-part series published on the 50th anniversary his death, An Obsession with Death and Dying, with more works schedule in the months to come.

The online publication My London News profiled Isokon, the London building that opened in 1934, where Agatha Christie and a Cambridge spy ring mastermind both lived. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Agatha Christie wrote her only spy novel, N or M?, during her stay there.

Speaking of Agatha Christie, her fans and readers can relax. HarperCollins Publishers has signed a new global deal with Agatha Christie Ltd to continue its exclusive English language publishing relationship until 2030. The company has been Christie’s publisher since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published (under imprint William Collins) in 1926, and the deal for print, digital and audio formats continues one of the longest-running partnerships in publishing history.

Carol Westron penned a guest post on the Promoting Crime Fiction blog about how superstition, spiritualism, and the supernatural were used by many Golden Age authors but in particular, Ngaio Marsh.

Indie publisher Joffe Books has acquired the 350-strong Robert Hale crime and general fiction list from the Crowood Press. Hale’s publishing list was built up over the course of 80 years and included titles from big names like Jean Plaidy, Harold Robbins and Nicholas Rhea, as well as UK print rights to Robert Bloch’s classic, Psycho. Joffe Books, a digital crime specialist, plans to relaunch many of the titles over the next 12 to 18 months in both ebook and paperback editions.

We lost two fine crime authors last week when news came of the deaths of H. Terrell Griffin and Charles McCarry. Griffin was a former attorney and Army medic who later turned his hand to writing the award-winning Matt Royal mysteries set on the Florida Gulf Coast. (Here's an Author R&R post he shared with this blog back in 2008 after the publication of his novel, Blood Island.) McCarry was a former C.I.A. agent who used his Cold War experiences to pen his critically-acclaimed espionage novels, including the bestselling The Tears of Autumn, about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Just in time for Mardi Gras, Janet Rudolph has a list of Mardi Gras mysteries. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The Milwaukee Public Museum's new exhibit, “The Power of Poison,” opened this past weekend and runs through July 7. Organized by the American Museum of Natural History, the exhibit highlights the complex role of venom and poisons in nature, popular culture, medicine and history. There's a section on poison in myths and legends, highlighting how poisonings are critical plot points in the Harry Potter series, comic books, Sherlock Holmes stories, and Agatha Christie's novels.

A notebook of poetry penned by Bonnie Park and Clyde Barrow is set to go on auction in April. The volume features poems written by the outlaw duo during their Depression-era crime spree and also includes a treasure trove of photographs. Although most of the poems were written by Bonnie, the book also includes a poem ostensibly written in Clyde Barrow’s spelling error-filled scrawl.

My local library matched up readers up with book “blind dates” for Valentine's Day - but Tom Lee, owner of Troubadour Books and Records, has been wrapping some of his wares in brown paper and string for a while, with only a quote and some key words to entice potential readers, giving “mystery novel” a new meaning.

What a bargain! Late author Tom Clancy’s former penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore is now on the market for less than half its original asking price. The 12,000-square-foot condo is currently listed for $5.9 million and features views of the Inner Harbor, five bedrooms, two offices, three private elevators, and a 700-square-foot private gym and an in-home theater.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “The Complex Solution is Sometimes Correct” by Nicholas Bush.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime by the Book welcome crime writer Camilla Grebe to discuss her brand-new Scandinavian mystery, After She's Gone; The Bookseller chatted with Karin Slaughter about her most recent novel, Pieces of Her, and the gendered questions she gets about the violence in her books; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with MJ Arlidge, the creator of the series of crime novels featuring DI Helen Grace and also a TV producer on shows such as Silent Witness; and the Mystery People’s Scott Butki interviewed Greg Iles, the bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy, who returns with a new novel, Cemetery Road, about friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town.

           Related StoriesMystery MelangeMystery Melange, Valentine's Edition 

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

Fox Searchlight has signed a deal with producer Damian Jones to develop several movie projects, including a thriller and a murder mystery. The thriller is a remake of Julia Roberts’s 1991 hit, Sleeping With The Enemy, about a woman trying to escape her abusive husband. The project is an untitled murder mystery film by Flaked co-creator Mark Chappell, although no further details were released.

Christian Gudegast and JP Davis have closed a deal to co-write Mafia X for Thunder Road Pictures and Pioneer Pictures, with Gudegast serving as director. Mafia X is described as a high-concept action thriller inspired by the true stories of organized crime groups banding together to fight terrorism.

Saban Films has picked up domestic rights to Richard Bates Jr.’s horror thriller, Tone-Deaf, which stars Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick and Silicon Valley’s Amanda Crew. Tone-Deaf follows millennial Olive (Crew) who leaves the city for a weekend of peace in the country, only to discover the shockingly dark underbelly of rural America. She rents an eccentric, ornate country house from Harvey (Patrick), an old-fashioned widower who’s struggling to hide his psychopathic tendencies — and the two collide.

Indie distributor Roadside Attractions has acquired U.S. rights to Edward Zwick’s true-crime drama, Trial by Fire, adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher and based on David Grann’s article in The New Yorker. The project stars Laura Dern and Jack O’Connell and centers on the unlikely bond between a death row inmate (O’Connell) and a mother of two from Houston (Dern) who, though facing staggering odds, fights for his freedom.

NEON has taken U.S. rights to this year’s Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner, Clemency, from filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu. The film stars Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams, who after years of carrying out death row executions, comes up against one inmate who forces her to confront the psychological and emotional demons her job has created.

Warner Bros. has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Reminiscence, the action thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson and directed by Lisa Joy (Westworld), who also wrote the script. The project is set in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas and follows one man’s journey to find the woman he loves after her mysterious disappearance—delving through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for.

Ray Liotta is in talks to join The Many Saints Of Newark, The Sopranos prequel film that has already lined up Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Jon Bernthal, Billy Magnussen, Corey Stoll, and Michael Gandolfini (who will play the Tony Soprano role originated by his late father James Gandolfini). Scripted by The Sopranos creator David Chase and Lawrence Konner, the prequel is set in the era of the Newark riots in the ’60s, at a time when African Americans and Italian Americans in the city were at each other’s throats.

Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek is in final negotiations to play the villain opposite Daniel Craig in writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Bond 25. There aren’t many character details available, though the villain has been rumored to be a blind man. Deadline also reported that fellow Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o is being courted to join the film as the latest “Bond girl.”

Greg Kinnear, Michelle Rodriguez, and Lily-Rose Depp have been set to join Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, and Evangeline Lilly in Dreamland, Nicholas Jarecki’s dramatic thriller revolving around the opioid crisis. The film follows three colliding stories: a drug trafficker (Hammer) arranges a multi-cartel Fentanyl smuggling operation between Canada and the U.S.; an architect (Lilly) recovering from an OxyContin addiction tracks down the truth behind her son’s involvement with narcotics; and a university professor (Oldman) who battles unexpected revelations about his employer, a drug company with deep government influence bringing a new “non-addictive” painkiller to market.

A trailer was released for the thriller, A Dark Place, featuring Andrew Scott (Sherlock), Bronagh Waugh (The Fall), and Denise Gough (Colette). Scott stars a local sanitation truck driver in a sleepy backwoods town who plays detective when a local boy goes missing.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Harriet Tyce’s psychological thriller, Blood Orange, has been picked up by World Productions (the producer responsible for Bodyguard) to develop into a TV series. The project centers on a young lawyer as she takes on her first murder case, and her life starts spiraling out of control.

Tony winner Nathan Lane will play a lead role opposite Daniel Zovatto and Natalie Dormer in Showtime’s upcoming series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, a follow-up to Penny Dreadful from the original show's creator, writer and executive producer, John Logan. The next chapter moves from Victorian London to 1938 Los Angeles where a grisly murder shocks the city, leading Detective Tiago Vega (Zovatto) into an epic story that reflects the rich history of Los Angeles: from the building of the city’s first freeways and its deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, to the dangerous espionage actions of the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism.

Jimmy Smits has been tapped as the male lead in NBC’s legal drama pilot Bluff City Law, a character-driven legal drama that follows the lawyers of an elite Memphis firm that specializes in the most controversial landmark civil rights cases. Led by legendary lawyer Elijah Strait (Smits) and his brilliant daughter, Sydney Keller (Caitlin McGee), they take on the toughest David-and-Goliath cases while navigating their complicated relationship. Barry Sloane (Six) and Michael Luwoye (Hamilton) have also been added to the cast.

Adelaide Clemens (Rectify) is set for a lead role opposite Edie Falco and Michael Chernus in the CBS drama pilot, Tommy, from the Bull team of co-creator Paul Attanasio and producer Amblin TV. Tommy stars Falco as the title character, a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female chief of police for Los Angeles and uses her unflinching honesty and hardball tactics to navigate the social, political and national-security issues that converge with enforcing the law. Clemens will play Blake, the Press Secretary for the chief of police.

Avengers co-star Cobie Smulders is returning to network television as the lead of Stumptown, ABC’s drama pilot that's inspired by the graphic novels published by Oni Press. It follows Dex Parios (Smulders), a strong, assertive, and unapologetically sharp-witted Army veteran working as a P.I. in Portland, OR. With a complicated personal history and only herself to rely on, she solves other people’s messes with a blind eye toward her own.

Eve Harlow (Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) is set as a series regular in Fox’s AI thriller drama pilot, neXT, described as a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research. It features a brilliant but paranoid former tech CEO who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team to stop the world’s first artificial intelligence crisis: the emergence of a rogue AI with the ability to continuously improve itself. Harlow will play Gina, a bit of a nerd who works in the FBI cybercrime division.

Chloe Wepper (Good Trouble), David Alpay (The Lottery), and Brooke Smith (The Good Doctor) are set as series regulars in NBC’s Prism pilot. Written by Daniel Barnz, who also directs, Prism is inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa.

How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor has been cast opposite Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and Jerrika Hinton in The Hunt, Amazon’s vengeance-driven Nazi-hunting series executive produced by Oscar-winning Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele. Radnor will play Lonny Flash, a movie star who’s secretly a member of Meyer’s (Pacino) organization, a diverse band of neo-Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City.

Child actress Alexa Skye Swinton (Billions) has landed the young lead opposite Allison Tolman in Emergence, a new NBC mystery drama pilot. The character-driven genre thriller centers on Jo (Tolman), a police chief who takes in a young child, Piper (Swinton), she finds near the site of a mysterious accident. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.

NBC has renewed all three of its Chicago-set drama series from Dick Wolf: Chicago Fire (for Season 8), Chicago P.D. (Season 7) and Chicago Med (Season 5). The network noted that the Windy City trio is delivering their most-watched season ever, per Nielsen.

The ITV series Endeavour has been renewed for a seventh season.The show depicts the early career of the young Endeavour Morse, played by Shaun Evans, along with his mentor DI Fred Thursday of the Oxford City Police, played by Roger Allam. Both series (Endeavour and Inspector Morse) are based on the novels by Colin Dexter.

British detective Agatha Raisin is returning to Acorn TV after the streaming service ordered a third season of the drama based on MC Beaton’s novels. Ashley Jensen stars as a London PR whizz turned amateur sleuth, who becomes entangled in mischief, mayhem, and murder when she opts for early retirement in a small village in the Cotswolds.

Oxygen has set an April 7 premiere date for Murder For Hire, the latest true crime series from Dick Wolf. The program gives an exclusive look into the dark world of contract killings, showcasing some of the most fascinating murder for hire cases.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Unpause Your Life host Dr. Cali Estes welcomed Phil Chalmers, an American true crime writer and homicide consultant who has appeared on the shows Killer Kids on A&E and Crime Watch Daily on Fox. He is the author of several books including the landmark book on teen violence, Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer.

Point Blank: Hardboiled, Noir, & Detective Fiction reviewed some of the latest in crime dramas and books, including A Walk Among The Tombstones by Lawrence Block.

The newest episode of Michael Connelly's true-crime Murder Book podcast featured part 4 in the series profiling the case of Jade Clark’s murder in 1987. The killer, Pierre Romain, thought he could game the system and get off, but LAPD Detective Rick Jackson, prosecutor John Lewin, the so-called king of cold cases, and Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler had other ideas.

The latest monthly Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured a reading of "English 398: Fiction Workshop” by Art Taylor, who is currently nominated for both the MWA’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Award for best short story.

Beyond the Cover’s special guest was Steve Berry, chatting about his Cotton Malone series involving the Knights of Malta, papal conclave, and lost documents that could change history.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime author and screenwriter James Longmore on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Writer Types welcomed three authors this week: Samuel Gailey, back after 5 years with his new novel, The Guilt We Carry; Jessica Barry, with her debut thriller novel, Freefall; and Angel Luis Colon, who has his first full length novel out, Hell Chose Me.

In the latest Read or Dead podcast, hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about the history of mysteries and thrillers and espionage novels.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by Det. Adam Richardson, profiled the new Authors of Mass Destruction podcast, hosted by Natasha Bajema; and Adam answered questions about which agency would take the lead on arresting a federal agent, and about the different uniforms and insignias police departments use to identify rank.

THEATER

The UK's Norwich Theatre Royal is staging a production of crime author and playwright Peter James’s The House On Cold Hill, starting March 11 with a run through the 16th. When the Harcourt family move into the house of their dreams, that dream home quickly turns into the stuff of nightmares as they begin to wonder whether they may not be the only residents at Cold Hill.

GAMES

Mystery Tribune compiled a 2019 list of best crime, mystery, and thriller games for Xbox One, including old and new titles such as now classic Grand Theft Auto and Mafia, as well as new releases such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Just Cause 4.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: A Private Inquiry

Jessica Mann (1937-2018) originally earned degrees in archaeology, Anglo-Saxon, and law and worked in various fields in the UK, including as a Planning Inspector. She later turned her hand to writing crime fiction, and her novel, A Charitable End, was published in 1971, with some 20 novels published up to 2013. She was also a well-known and respected radio and television broadcast, particularly her radio program, "Women of Mystery," and authored a treatise on women crime writers entitled Deadlier than the Male.



She wrote reviews for The Literary Review, and once published an essay that she would no longer review certain types of crime fiction due to the misogyny and violence against women, saying, "Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say they have had enough. So however many more outpourings of sadistic misogyny are crammed on to the bandwagon, no more of them will be reviewed by me."



A Private Inquiry dates from 1996 and was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger that year. It's set mainly in St. Ives, in Cornwall, near where Mann herself has lived for several years. At its heart, the novel is a tale of psychological suspense involving four women whose disparate lives intersect in a twisted scheme of blackmail, missing persons, double identity, a perverse game of victim and oppressor, a child's death, and ultimately, murder.



Mann deftly weaves complex psychological characterizations into the mix, such as the following comment from one of the main characters, a child psychologist:

Men showed themselves as they really were in bed. No doubt women did too, but Fidelis had been strictly heterosexual. Children, however, she could understand while keeping a proper and professional distance from them, observing and interacting across a desk, on the playing mat, at the zoo. But to know an adult, she had always needed intimacy. Fidelis's sexual life was over now and she was afraid she might have become a bad judge of character as a result.

The adroitly twisted plot provides plenty of social commentary and an intriguing look into how the losses and sins of youth shape the dysfunctional adults we become.

           Related StoriesFFB: Death WatchFFB: The Spoilt KillFFB: Murder Among Friends