B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 16

Edgar Award Nominations Set for 2025

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Mystery Writers of America announced the nominees for the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2024. The 78th Annual Edgar® Awards will be celebrated, with winners revealed, on May 1, 2025, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Congrats to all the finalists!

BEST NOVEL

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Penguin Random House – Random House Worlds/Del Rey
Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (Farrar, Straus and Giroux – MCD)
Things Don’t Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins (Penguin Random House – Crown)
My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro (Soho Press – Soho Crime)
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Penguin Random House – Riverhead Books)
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Macmillan Publishers – Celadon Books)
The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton (Crooked Lane Books)
Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda (Crooked Lane Books)
The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee (CamCat Books)
A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis (Kensington Books – A John Scognamiglio Book)
The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins (Simon & Schuster – Atria Books)
Holy City by Henry Wise (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row Books)
The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Graydon House)
Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler (HarperCollins – Harper Paperbacks)
A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (Dundurn Press Ltd.)  

BEST FACT CRIME

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)
The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown)
A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books – Pegasus Crime)
The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America’s Second Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins – Mariner Books)
The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co.)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)
American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)
Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing)
On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press)
Ian Fleming; The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins – Harper)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Cut and Thirst,” Amazon Original Stories by Margaret Atwood (Amazon Publishing)
“Everywhere You Look,” Amazon Original Stories by Liv Constantine (Amazon Publishing)
“Eat My Moose,” Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse (Bard College)
“Barriers to Entry,” Amazon Original Stories by Ariel Lawhon (Amazon Publishing)
“The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July-August 2024 by Steven Sheil (Dell Magazine)

BEST JUVENILE

The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
Mystery of Mystic Mountain by Janet Fox (Simon & Schuster BFYR)
Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix (HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)
The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
Find Her by Ginger Reno (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (HarperCollins – Heartdrum)
The Bitter End by Alexa Donne (Random House Books for Young Readers)
A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur (Macmillan Publishers – Feiwel & Friends)
Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Teen)
49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode Five” – Rebus, Written by Gregory Burke (Viaplay)
“Episode One” – Monsieur Spade, Written by Tom Fontana & Scott Frank (AMC)
“Episode One” – Moonflower Murders, Written by Anthony Horowitz (Masterpiece PBS)
“Mirror” – Murderesses , Written by Wiktor Piatkowski, Joanna Kozłowska, Katarzyna Kaczmarek (Viaplay)
“Episode Two” – The Marlow Murder Club , Written by Robert Thorogood (Masterpiece PBS)

SPECIAL AWARDS – PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED IN JANUARY 2025

Grand Master

Laura Lippman


John Sandford

Raven Award

Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts

Ellery Queen Award

Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group

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Author R&R with J.W. Jarvis

[image error]J.W. Jarvis lives in sunny California but is originally from the suburbs of the Windy City. After working in the IT and AI fields, he turned his hand to writing young adult action novels, including the First Responder series. When he’s not thinking of ways to create inspiring characters and nonstop action stories, you can find him reading, golfing, traveling, or just sipping a hot vanilla latte.

[image error]Jarvis's latest novel is the adult technothriller, Artificial Age. Determined to escape a wheelchair-bound existence, paralyzed Navy SEAL Michael Cooling undergoes surgery to integrate an untested hi-tech endoskeleton into his ravaged human flesh. And as he trains tirelessly to adapt to his new synthetic body, he develops an unprecedented strength and speed he hopes will help him crush those who would see the USA fall. But while technology gives him new life, it may also prove to be the world's undoing. Inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man, J.W. Jarvis imagines a thrilling next chapter in which a highly decorated Navy SEAL is given a second chance to serve his country through technology.

J.W. Jarvis stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

 

Researching: Readers want to be taken away, not taken for granted.

When I plotted my technothriller, I knew my main character was going to be a worldly man. He has years of military experience and has received many decorations. He commands an elite navy unit, and his missions have no borders or barriers to entry. The problem—I’ve only visited countries in three of the seven continents. To be fair, I have no desire to visit Antarctica in my lifetime. That still leaves three. How can I write about a well-traveled super-agent? One word, research.

For example, my research helped when one of my book characters visited an Eastern Europe restaurant. Every country has certain dishes that are part of the local cuisine. The reader wants to feel like they are right there enjoying it, too. I knew I hit the mark when my editor told me his mouth started watering. Readers crave facts despite reading fiction. Using accurate information to describe a location helps take the reader there. That place may just end up on their bucket list someday. If they’ve already visited, nostalgia is an incredible page-turner.

My new thriller book’s plot is part fan fiction. Fan fiction is creative writing that builds on popular works from the past. In my case, it was a TV series from 50 years ago. At the time of its airing, the bionic man dazzled viewers with its unprecedented technology. Even today, people use the iconic sounds of the bionic man in video clips. Fast forward five decades and humans are now receiving bionic arms to aid with their disabilities. I wanted to break the technology barriers with a new story. My advanced prosthetics would not only be believable, but also achievable. The good news about fiction is you just need an eccentric billionaire character to make the money problem go away. And so, I investigated superior technology. Derived from natural resources that are not only efficient but sustainable.

I wrote Artificial Agent with a rigorous mindset. Everything I wrote must be possible. It didn’t matter if I was writing about the latest military technology, material science advancements, or the location of a train yard. For example, in today’s world, carbon fiber materials are very popular. Compared to steel, carbon fiber weighs much less and is significantly stronger. These benefits make the material an excellent candidate for aerospace, automotive and sports applications. I could have used those materials in my book but dug even deeper. Carbon fibers are 3-D crystalline materials. The future, however, is 2-D allotropes. Essentially, allotropes highlight how a single element can have its atoms restructured for unique applications. Such is the case with the element boron. The nanotechnology mentioned in my book enhanced my protagonist’s weaponry.

The pace of thriller books is unmatched by other genres. To guide the reader to the next suspenseful scene, the writer must elaborate efficiently. That means more research than the typical book. Plot scenes change frequently. This keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Alternate book genres don’t require as many locations or physical references from the real world. Consider romance novels. They can have an entire chapter devoted to a sensual encounter. Fantasy novels have world building that is more imaginative than researched. Thriller readers need to believe that ordinary characters are thrust into extraordinary situations. Thrillers prey on readers’ fears that could happen in everyday life.

Book research can also be extremely rewarding. Authors can identify plot variants they may have never imagined. It can expose weaknesses in areas such as government, technology, and medicine. Evil characters can capitalize on those deficits. Good characters can protect them. In Artificial Agent, I investigated the military might of many of the Eastern European countries. I also determined if a country would act as my antagonist’s friend or foe. Last, I found some countries lacked key weaponry to put up a proper fight. This made it all too easy for my bad guy.

In closing, try approaching a person born between 1997 and 2012, otherwise known as Generation Z. Ask them what an encyclopedia is? We have it easy today compared to the past. Methods of research are literally at our fingertips. The days of opening a thick encyclopedia labeled (Aa - Al) or heading to the library to scroll through microfilm readers are gone. Those research venues are hard to maintain. The information is as old as the paper it’s printed on. The internet, search engines, and now GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture gives people easy access to massive amounts of information. Updating technology is relatively easy. The only downside to so many ways to get information is the onset of mass misinformation. The research may have gotten easier, but the validation of that research has gotten harder. Perhaps that’s a good thing, so book readers get what they paid for. An economical way to go somewhere new or experience things they may never see in the real world.

 

You can learn more about J.W. Jarvis via his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Bookbub. The Artificial Agent is now available via all major booksellers.  

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

A trailer was released for The Alto Knights, which sees Robert De Niro playing not one, but two gangsters, in the film that reunites De Niro and director Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog; The Wizard of Lies). Written by Goodfellas screenwriter, Nicholas Pileggi, The Alto Knights sees De Niro take on the dual roles of real-life crime bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Once the closest of friends, a series of betrayals has torn the two apart, and they now battle for control of New York, which promises to reshape the Mafia forever.

NOIR CITY 22 is set for January 24 through February 2 at Oakland, California's historic Grand Lake Theatre, with a highlight on the fabulous femmes fatales who made the genre so spectacularly saucy, sexy, and sinister. Film Noir Foundation founder, Eddie Muller, will be joined by his TCM colleague, Alicia Malone, as they present legendary noirs such as Out of the Past (1947), The Narrow Margin (1952), and Detour (1945), alongside an array of dark gems and little-seen rarities like Hell's Half Acre (1954), The Sleeping City (1950), and the 3D noir Inferno (1953). In addition, the festival will be filled with special onscreen features, live music, and special guests. All proceeds from the festival go to the Film Noir Foundation's mission of rescuing and restoring lost examples of the genre, which to date includes more than thirty restorations and preservation of films once feared lost.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

After playing Harry Bosch for a decade on Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, Titus Welliver is taking on a new leading character for a TV crime drama. CBS announced that Welliver and Juani Feliz (Harlem) will star as the two leads of a spinoff from The Equalizer, with the Queen Latifah procedural introducing the two new characters in Episode 516 this season. Welliver will play Hudson Reed, a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robin McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor. Feliz plays Samantha Reed, who has been trained by her father to be a weapons expert, skilled martial artist, and true chameleon, all while hiding a mysterious past.

Kyrie McAlpin (Birdie; Cheaper By The Dozen) has joined the cast of ABC's Will Trent for Season 3 in the recurring role of Sunny, a smart and resourceful tween—and also the daughter of a criminal—who now finds herself in the care of the deputy director of the GBI. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling crime fiction series, Special Agent Will Trent (Ramón Rodriguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now, he uses his unique point of view in the pursuit of justice and has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

Richard Jenkins has been tapped to co-star opposite Jason Bateman and David Harbour in DTF St. Louis, HBO's seven-episode limited series from writer, director, showrunner, and executive producer, Steve Conrad. The darkly comedic series is about a love triangle among three adults experiencing middle-age malaise that leads to one of them ending up dead. Jenkins plays a police detective who is investigating the death.

The CBS drama series, Elsbeth, has added Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show) and Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious) to its growing list of guest stars for Season 2, with new episodes returning on January 30 at 10 p.m. Based on the character featured in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, the series follows Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), the astute but unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD to catch New York's well-heeled murderers utilizing her unique point of view. Ullman will portray Marilyn, a professional psychic with elite Manhattan clients who won’t make a move without consulting her first. Brewster will play Chloe, a beautiful, elegant "lifestyle consultant," who will do anything for her clients, even murder.

Fox has given a Season 2 renewal to its crime series, Murder in a Small Town, starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk. The Canadian-made series is based on the Edgar Award-winning, nine-book Karl Alberg series. Murder in a Small Town, whose eight-episode first season ended its Fox run in November, follows Karl Alberg (Sutherland), who moves to a quiet, coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work. He quickly learns that this gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets, and he will need to call upon all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving the murders that, even in this seemingly idyllic setting, continue to wash up on his shore.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Robert Crais was the latest guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing his new book, The Big Empty, which sees Elvis Cole and Joe Pike involved in finding the missing father of a popular influencer known as The Muffin Girl.

On Crime Time FM, Rob Parker chatted with Paul Burke about The Troubled Deep: A Cam Killick Norfolk Mystery; Ben Bracken; Audible Books; working with young minds; PTSD; knee injuries; and kismet.

Crime writer Matt Cost joined Crime Time Cafe host Debbie Mack to discuss how Matt manages to write and publish three books a year, in various series.

On the latest edition of Murder Junction, hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee welcomed author Tom Hindle to chat about his latest novel, Death in the Arctic, based on the true unsolved arctic mystery of Charles Francis Hall; an age when airships ruled the skies and the demise of the Hindenberg; and an escapist tortoise.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with J.D. Barker, the New York Times and international best-selling author of numerous novels, including Dracul and The Fourth Monkey. His work has been broadly described as suspense thrillers, often incorporating elements of horror, crime, mystery, science fiction, and the supernatural, and he's a frequent collaborator with James Patterson. (Their latest novel, The Writer, will be published on May 17, 2025.)

Pick Your Poison profiled a disease that's more common in the Emergency Department in the month of January and has often been called "Jitterbug," and why Veterans Hospitals used to have whisky on the formulary.

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Mystery Melange

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Book art by Pam Langdon

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announced the recipients of its annual special awards. The board chose Laura Lippman and John Sandford as the 2025 Grand Masters; the 2025 Raven Award recipient (for outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing) as the California bookstore, Face in a Book; and Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group will receive the Ellery Queen Award (for outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry). They will accept their awards at the 79th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will be held May 1, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

In a press release, CrimeFest announced an icon of the genre, Lee Child, will be one of the headliners for its final convention in May 2025. One of the UK’s leading crime fiction conventions, which is hosted in Bristol supported by title sponsor Specsavers, CrimeFest announced 2025 will be its final event after 16 years. Despite the sad news, organizers say they are still putting all their energy into making the final event one to remember. The celebratory finale will feature a record number of Diamond Dagger recipients in attendance, including Lee Child, Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, and John Harvey, as well as in spirit, John le Carré (with his two sons) and Dick Francis (as represented by his son, the crime writer Felix Francis).

If you're in the area of Brixton in the UK on January 28th, the Brixton Library will host a panel titled, "Crafting Crime," featuring authors Nina Bhadreshwar (The Day of the Roaring), Nadine Matheson (The Kill List), and Nicola Williams (Until Proven Innocent), hosted by Stella Oni, who will be discussing the genre tropes, cultural influences, and writing processes of the authors. The event is sponsored by Dark Matter, an inclusive marketing agency that works collaboratively to connect Black audiences with culture and the arts.

Noir at the Bar moves to the Boston area on Thursday, February 20 starting at 6pm, at Cafe Avellino in Swampscott, MA for some "Crime Writing and Cocktails." The event will be hosted by John Nardizzi, with the lineup of authors scheduled to read from their works to include Kate Flora, Connie Hambley, Tom Davidson, Bonnar Spring, Zakariah Johnson, Gabriela Stiteler, Sally Milliken, E. Chris Ambrose, Stephen D. Rogers, and Norman Birnbach.

Orion publishing and the A M Heath agency are sponsoring The Criminal Lines Award, open to writers aged 18 and over born or living in Britain (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) and Ireland (Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland). Entrants must not be represented by a literary agent at the time of submission or at the shortlist stage and must not have previously published a novel or novella although self-published novels, novellas and self-published e-books are accepted. Entries consist of 5,000 words max, taken from the opening chapter/s (and including any prologues) and a 1,000 word synopsis. The winner will receive a cash prize of £3,500 and an offer of representation from A M Heath with potential publication by Orion. The submission deadline is February 7, 2025.

Every year since 2014, the CWA and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international competition for a short story of up to 3,500 words that fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great mystery story: "The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it." The competition is open to all – both published and unpublished authors from all over the world. The story must be originally written in English, not be previously published anywhere, and not shortlisted for this competition, nor won any other competition. The submission deadline is 6pm GMT February 28, 2025. The longlist will be announced on April 12 at the CWA Northern Symposium. The winner, who will be revealed at a later date, receives a cash prize of £500.

Margot Kinberg is editing a charity anthology of Los Angeles-based crime fiction stories, with proceeds to be donated to the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund. Along with meeting immediate needs, they also support rebuilding, mental health care, housing, and other assistance. All authors are welcome to contribute, whether you write light, cozy crime fiction, comic-caper, deep-black noir, or anything in between. Each story should take place in, or be about, or focus on, Los Angeles and be between approximately 1,500-8,000 words. The deadline for contributions is April 15, 2025, with a release in the fourth quarter of this year. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

Writing for CrimeReads, Matt Lubbers Moore and Jeffrey Marks profiled the "Trailblazers of Queer Crime Fiction," noting that with four of the ten crime fiction authors on The New York Times "Best Of" list being queer, it may well be a pivotal moment for queer crime fiction, while at the same time it’s important to remember queer crime writers have always been here, crafting compelling stories and paving the way for today’s diverse voices.

In the Q&A roundup, Chicks on the Case had a round-robin interview with Colorado Mystery Merge anthology authors Ann Dominguez, Brooke Craig, Francelia Belton, Galit Gottlieb, Holly Harris, Jenna Lincoln, Kerry Hammond, Linda Solaya, Meagan Dallner, Peg Brantley, Rhonda Blackhurst, Donnell Bell, Fleur Bradley Visscher, Marie Sutro, Melisson Robins; Vicki Delaney took the Page 69 Test for her book, The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime, the tenth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery; and Lisa Haselton interviewed author Paul G. Wright about his new action thriller, Line of Sight.

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Left Coast Crime "Lefty" Finalists 2025

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The Left Coast Crime "Lefty" Awards are fan awards chosen by registered members of the Left Coast Crime conventions since 1996. A ballot listing the official nominees is given to each registrant when they check in at the convention, and final voting takes place during the event, which this year takes place in Denver Colorado from March 13-16. 2025. The winners will be revealed at the Lefty Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 15th.

Congratulations to this year's finalists:

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Ellen Byron, A Very Woodsy Murder (Kensington Books) 
Jennifer J. Chow, Ill-Fated Fortune (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
A.J. Devlin, Bronco Buster (NeWest Press)
Catriona McPherson, Scotzilla (Severn House)
Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books)
Richard Osman, We Solve Murders (Pamela Dorman Books / Viking)

 

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970

 

John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime)
Robert Dugoni, A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer)
Dianne Freeman, An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder (Kensington Books)
Laurie R. King, The Lantern’s Dance (Bantam Books)
Laura Jensen Walker, Death of a Flying Nightingale (Level Best Books / Historia)

 

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Peter Malone Elliott, Blue Ridge (Level Best Books)
Cindy Goyette, Obey All Laws (Level Best Books)
Audrey Lee, The Mechanics of Memory (CamCat Books) 
Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane Books)
K.T. Nguyen, You Know What You Did (Dutton)

 

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel

Claire Booth, Home Fires (Severn House)
Margot Douaihy, Blessed Water (Zando, Gillian Flynn Books)
Rob Hart, Assassins Anonymous (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Leslie Karst, Molten Death (Severn House)
James L’Etoile, Served Cold (Level Best Books)
Duane Swierczynski, California Bear (Mulholland Books)

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Media Murder for Monday

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

WILDFIRE UPDATE

Due to the recent wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area, production on some TV shows and movies has been put on hold temporarily. Affected shows include NCIS, NCIS: Origins, and The Rookie, among others. The LA County Fire Department announced that all permits issued for filming in the communities of Altadena, La Crescenta, La Canada, Flintridge, and unincorporated Pasadena had been withdrawn, with other permit revocations possible. Though most studio sites or soundstages are not directly in the path of the various fires, the air quality has been deemed dangerous to health, and residents are being asked not to leave their homes unnecessarily. Of course, Hollywood is not the only entity affected, as many other businesses, schools, churches, animal shelters, and homes have been destroyed. If you'd like to help victims of the fires, CBS compiled a helpful list of resources.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Tom Holland is set to star in and produce The Partner, a drama based on the John Grisham 1997 bestseller that Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) is scripting for Universal. The story follows Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a white shoe Biloxi law firm who fakes his own death in a burning car. He’s left behind a wife, newborn daughter, and a secret—he’s actually faked his death to create a new life by stealing $90 million from a client of his crooked law firm, and ultimately finds happiness and love in South America. When the client who worked so hard to defraud the government finds the money is missing from his offshore accounts, he becomes determined to hunt down the lawyer he doesn’t believe is dead. That leads the attorney to have to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child, and life he left behind.

Ali Afshar’s ESX Entertainment is developing the western, Day of Reckoning, starring Billy Zane, Zach Roerig, and Cara Jade Myers, and directed by Shaun Silva. The project centers on put-upon lawman John Dorsey (Roerig), on the verge of losing his wife and his job as sheriff, who sets up a posse with bullish U.S. Marshall Butch Hayden (Zane) to hold outlaw Emily Rouse (Myers) hostage. A battle of wills ensues as Emily turns the posse on themselves, but as her marauding husband and his gang approach, Emily and John realize they will need each other to survive.





TELEVISION/STREAMING

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is set to lead the thriller series, Minotaur, alongside Assaad Bouab (Call My Agent). Celyn Jones will write and direct the six-part Welsh/French drama, which he created and will be produced via Mad As Birds, the production company he runs with Sean Marley. Minotaur follows Luc (Bouab), a cold-blooded killer who escapes Paris’s criminal underbelly for the more prosaic North Wales. There he meets Angel (Dormer) who lives in a struggling community she feels she can never belong to, raising her son Joe alone. Whilst fighting addiction, Angel gravitates towards the mysterious Luc as a new start for both, but the past looks determined to drag Luc back into a dangerous underworld.

In the wake of the success of Polish drama, Śleboda, which has become SkyShowtime’s best performing scripted series ever in the country, the streamer is rolling out the series across its footprint — meaning its services in Northern Europe, Iberia, and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, starting February 20. Śleboda is an adaptation of the first installment of the acclaimed crime novels by Małgorzata Fugiel-Kuźmińska and Michał Kuźmiński, and turns on the story of cultural anthropologist Anka Serafin, played by Maria Dębska. She embarks on a journey of self-discovery in the mountains but stumbles upon a dead body and becomes embroiled in a twisty murder mystery. She crosses paths with shameless journalist Sebastian Strzygoń (Maciej Musiał), and Jędrek Chowaniec (Piotr Pacek), a local police officer, with whom she once had a teen romance.

David Zayas (Dexter), Jack Alcott (Dexter: New Blood), and James Remar (Oppenheimer) will join Michael C. Hall in the Paramount+/Showtime Original series, Dexter: Resurrection in series regular roles. Production begins on the new series this month and will premiere in the summer. Zayas and Remar will return to the roles they made famous in the mothership series, Detective Angel Batista and Harry Morgan, Dexter’s fathery. Alcott will play Dexter’s son, Harrison Morgan, who he originally portrayed in Dexter: New Blood. As Deadline noted, how Remar will return on a series regular basis will be interesting to see considering his character has been dead for quite some time. No official synopsis for Dexter: Resurrection has been revealed, but it will be a follow-up to Dexter: New Blood and set in the present day.

A new trailer was released for Season 3 of Reacher, based on the novels of Lee Child. The trailer starts with Reacher (Alan Ritchson) being recruited for another mission, this time one involving the owner of a rug import business and the DEA. But this mission has a wrinkle: Quinn (Brian Tee), a former military officer who committed a horrific crime, is involved.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Wes Browne chatted with Scott Blackburn and Paul Burke about his noir, They All Fall the Same; why it wasn't called Spoon; the Appalachians; North Carolina; pizza; and community.

Authors on the Air interviewed Edgar nominee, Alafair Burke, about her new twisty, layered novel, The Note.

Cops and Writers welcomed Richard Rybicki, a retired Chicago Police Department detective and teacher of Crime Scene Technology, who turned to his lifelong passion of writing with a series featuring Sam Laska, a disgraced former Chicago Police detective living in Florida.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed their most anticipated thriller and mystery books of 2025.

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Mystery Melange

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The winners of this year's German Mystery Prize have been announced, with Thomas Knüwer's Das Haus in dem Gudelia stirbt (Pendragon) taking first place in the domestic category. The second spot in that category went to Matthias Wittekindt for Hinterm Deich (Kampa), with third place won by Karina Urbach, Das Haus am Gordon Place (Limes). In the international category, Jake Lamar's 2001 novel (only now translated into German, by Robert Brack) If 6 were 9 snagged top honors, followed by Lavie Tidhar's Maror (translated by Conny Lösch), and Lisa Cody's Die Schnellimbissdetektivin (translated by Iris Konopik).

The Goodreads Readers Choice Award votes were also revealed in the various categories including Mystery/Thriller, with The God of the Woods by Liz Moore sitting in the top spot. Over a half million voters weighed in on their favorites of the year, with Moore's novel edging out second-place First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston by seven thousand-plus votes, followed by Freida McFadden's two novels, The Boyfriend and The Teacher, in third and fourth place, respectively. Rounding out the top five was Chris Whitaker's All the Colors of the Dark. You can check out all the crime fiction finalists via this link.

Cross Examining Crime announced the results for the Reprint of the Year Award 2024, with voting coming in from 20 countries. Leading the contenders was Christianna Brand's Tour de Force, part of the British Library Crime Classics series. Other top vote-getters included Cat of Many Tails by Ellery Queen, from Otto Penzler Presents American Mystery Classics, and The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi (Trans. Jesse Kirkwood) via Pushkin Vertigo.

The Jan/Feb 2025 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (issue #1000) reported the official news that after thirty-three years as editor-in-chief of EQMM, Janet Hutchings has retired. Hutchings has served as one of the most important editors in the world of short crime fiction, creating the publication's "Passport to Crime" department (helping make crime fiction in translation more mainstream), as well as the "Something Is Going to Happen" blog and the EQMM podcast. Hutchings is only the third editor of the publication, and will be succeeded by Jackie Sherbow, who has served as Senior Managing Editor of both Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Martin Edwards of Kinn McIntosh O.B.E., better known to crime readers as the Diamond Dagger winning author Catherine Aird, who recently passed away. She was 94, born in the same year that the Detection Club, of which she was a loyal member for more than forty years, was founded. She penned twenty-six novels, almost all of them featuring her Calleshire cop DI Sloan, as well as many short stories, one of which is due to appear in a forthcoming Detection Club anthology next March.

A bit more sad news to start off the new year: Canadian thriller author Andrew Pyper died at home from cancer on January 3rd at the age of 56. He was known for such bestselling novels as Lost Girls, which won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel in 2000, The Demonologist, The Damned, The Only Child, The Homecoming, and The Killing Circle.

In the Q&A roundup, Thriller author Ian Coates chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new novel, Backlash; Sam Wiebe, author of the Wakeland series set in the Pacific Northwest, took the Page 69 Test to his latest crime novel, Ocean Drive; Alafair Burke spoke with the New York Times about how Encyclopedia Brown got her started on her love of crime fiction; and the Crime Fiction Lover blog interviewed Charlotte Printz, a German cozy crime author whose debut novel, Nightingale & Co, arrives this month in English for the first time, from Corylus Books.

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Josh Duhamel (Shotgun Wedding), Dylan Sprouse (The Duel), and Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds) have just wrapped on the Mississippi production of The Neglected, an action thriller co-written, directed, and produced by David Lipper (Murder at Hollow Creek). In the film, Detective Shaw (Duhamel) is about to retire when he finds out on his last day of work that a serial killer has buried his son alive. He then races against the clock to solve three murders and find his son’s location before he runs out of air.  The project is co-written by Adam G. Levine and Lipper and also stars Jeremy and Jason London and Elena Sanchez. 

The Viola Davis-led political thriller, G20, has set its Prime Video premiere date for April 10. Davis is set to play U.S. President Danielle Sutton after she’s been targeted by a militia group at the G20 summit. In an effort to save herself, her loved ones, and the country, she must keep one step ahead of her enemy. The film also stars Anthony Anderson as Derek Sutton, Marsai Martin as Serena Sutton, Ramón Rodríguez as Agent Manny Ruiz, Douglas Hodge as Oliver Everett, Elizabeth Marvel as Joanna Worth, Sabrina Impacciatore as Elena Romano, Christopher Farrar as Demetrius Sutton, and Antony Starr as Rutledge. 

A trailer was released for Flight Risk, director Mel Gibson’s suspense thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace. The story follows a government witness (Grace) being escorted by an FBI agent (Dockery) on a flight piloted by a hitman (Wahlberg).



 

TELEVISION/STREAMING

AMC Networks dropped a new teaser trailer for Season 3 of its noir drama, Dark Winds, based on the crime novel series by Tony Hillerman. Set to premiere on March 9 with an expanded eight-episode season, Dark Winds Season 3 picks up six months after the events of Season 2. It follows Navaho investigators Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) as they investigate the disappearance of two boys, with only an abandoned bicycle and blood-stained patch of ground left in their wake. Meanwhile, Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) attempts to settle into her new life 500 miles from home with the Border Patrol, but stumbles across a conspiracy involving human and drug smuggling with far-reaching implications. 

A first look teaser-trailer was also released for Grosse Pointe Garden Society, NBC‘s upcoming drama series from Good Girls creator Jenna Bans, Bill Krebs, and Universal Television. Written by Bans and Krebs, the series follows four members of a suburban garden club — Birdie (Melissa Fumero), Alice (AnnaSophia Robb), Brett (Ben Rappaport) and Catherine (Aja Naomi King) — who find their lives intertwined by scandal, mischief and a shared secret – a murder no one wants to talk about. As dark truths begin to rot their lives under the surface, they struggle to remain as perfect as the flowers blooming in their garden above.

PODCASTS/RADIO

In the latest episode of Meet the Thriller Author, host Alan Petersen closed out 2024 by welcoming Vannessa Cronin, a Senior Editor for Amazon Books. She offered an insider’s perspective on how the Amazon Editors curated their list of the Best Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense Books of the year and also highlighted key industry trends—from genre-blending to increased diversity in authorship—that defined 2024’s top picks.

Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger chatted with Paul Burke for Crime Time FM at Newcastle Noir about their upcoming crime thriller, SON, featuring psychologist Kari Voss, a consultant to the Oslo Police; also psychoanalysis; memory; and scheduling,

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Happy New Year!

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Bad Sisters creator, Sharon Horgan, is planning to bring an adaptation of the novel, Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, to the screen. The book tells the story of a college professor who cultivates an obsession with a new faculty member on campus after her husband becomes embroiled in a sexual misconduct controversy.

Matt Reeves’s The Batman sequel is being pushed back a year from Oct. 2, 2026 to Oct. 1, 2027. Taking over The Batman sequel’s place in the original release slot is director Alejandro González Iñárritu's untitled thriller with Tom Cruise, which follows the most powerful man in the world who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything. The movie also stars Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, and Riz Ahmed.





TELEVISION/STREAMING

The Dexter "Trinity Killer" prequel series, following the makings of the notorious serial killer played by John Lithgow in the mothership series, remains "in development" at Paramount+ with Showtime. Original Dexter showrunner, Clyde Phillips, and fellow Dexter veteran, Scott Reynolds, serve as co-creators and executive producers of the Trinity Killer spinoff prequel. The project follows Original Sin, which premiered Dec. 13, itself a prequel to the first Dexter series, featuring the origin story of Dexter Morgan as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department and slowly becomes a serial killer with a "moral" code.

Netflix has dropped the first trailer for Zero Day, the upcoming limited series starring Robert De Niro as respected former U.S. President George Mullen, who, as head of the Zero Day Commission, is charged with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack that has caused chaos around the country and thousands of fatalities.

Newly minted Night Action agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) gets plenty of action in the trailer for Season 2 of hit Netflix drama series, The Night Agent, based on the novel by Matthew Quirk. He's joined by two more familiar faces, cyber security expert Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), Peter’s charge in Season 1 who is back by his side, as well as Kari Matchett as President Michelle Travers whose life the duo saved last season. The trailer also introduces new Season 2 heroes and villains, most notably Peter’s new Night Action boss Catherine Weaver, played by Amanda Warren.

Deadline posted the "2025 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming," starting off on New Year's Day with Homicide Squad New Orleans (on A&E, a new docuseries), Only Murders in the Building (ABC, Season 2 of the network broadcast premiere) on January 2nd, and much more.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Authors on the Air welcomed author Andromeda Romano-Lax, who has established a niche in historical fiction with stories like The Spanish Bow, and speculative fiction with Plum Rain. Her first psychological suspense novel, The Deepest Lake, takes a plunge into the dark side of elite writing retreats and the lengths a mother will go to find her missing daughter

On the Cops and Writers podcast, Patrick J. O'Donnell spoke with retired NYPD Detective-turned-author, Vic Ferrari, about the homicide of United Health Care’s CEO, Brian Thompson, and the suspected killer, Luigi Mangione, and they discussed Ferrari's newest book, NYPD: Presumption & Dysfunction.

Crime Time FM with Paul Burke featured a Review Show, looking at new titles published at the end of 2024 and into January 2025.

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