B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 162

Quote of the Week

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FFB: Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries

Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was born into a prosperous family in West Virginia and practiced criminal and corporate law for several years. However, after the success of his first novel series, he promptly dropped his law career to write full time. He was a prolific writer, penning numerous stories in national magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies Home Journal.



He wrote a couple of series and some standalone novels, but it may have been his twenty-plus stories featuring the mystery-solving and justice dispensing West Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner, which helped make Post popular. Ellery Queen called the stories "an out-of-this-world target for future detective-story writers," and the 1941 review of the mystery genre, Murder for Pleasure, declared that Uncle Abner was, after Edgar Allan Poe's Arsène Dupin, "the greatest American contribution" to the cast of fictional detectives.



Uncle Abner is described as "a big, broad-shouldered, deep-chested Saxon, with all those marked characteristics of a race living out of doors and hardened by wind and sun. His powerful frame carried no ounce of surplus weight. It was the frame of an empire builder on the frontier of the empire. The face reminded one of Cromwell, the craggy features in repose seemed molded over iron but the fine gray eyes had a calm serenity, like remote spaces in the summer sky. The man's clothes were plain and somber. And he gave the impression of things big and vast."



Abner is also a Puritan at heart who always carries a Bible in his pocket and has a knack for finding out the truth. As his nephew, Martin, who frequently narrates the stories, says, “for all his iron ways, Abner was a man who saw justice in its large and human aspect, and he stood for the spirit, above the letter, of the truth.” He is a stern authoritarian figure but equally so a kind and compassionate philosopher.



Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries was the first anthology (1918), and contained 18 Uncle Abner stories all told by Martin. The crimes primarily deal with murder or robbery and start after the crime has been committed and the killer thinks he's gotten away with it. "The Doomdorf Mystery," is the first story in the collection and also one of Post's best known. It features more than one possible suspect who all admit to being the killer, as well as a locked-room scenario ("the wall of the house is plumb with the sheer face of the rock. It is a hundred feet to the river ... but that is not all. Look at these window frames; they are cemented into their casement with dust").



The stories are most definitely of their pre-Civil War setting, in that they feature the attitudes toward African-Americans prevalent at the time (with the associated language that today's readers might find offensive). If you can get past that, these are entertaining for the shrewd characterizations, tight plots and for the dispensing of frontier justice in an era that predated American police forces and procedures.



Note:  Hat tip to Ron Smyth who pointed out that Melville Davisson Post's Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason was apparently what inspired Erle Stanley Gardner to give his iconic Perry Mason that last name, as a tribute to the titular character in Post's novel. Ironically, Randolph Mason was the antithesis of Perry Mason, as an unscrupulous lawyer who found clever ways of helping his clients get away with murder and other crimes.

            

Mystery Melange

This year's Bouchercon organizers have announced the finalists for the annual Anthony Awards, with winners to be announced at the conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, September 5-9. The nods for Best Novel include The Late Show by Michael Connelly, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, Glass Houses by Louise Penny, and The Force by Don Winslow. For all the finalists in the various categories, head on over to the official conference website

Booklist has an annual "Best Crime Fiction Novels" list, but instead of a calendar year, the qualifying books are published from May of the previous year (2017) through April of the current year. You can find the organization's latest list of the top 10 crime novels and also the top 10 debut crime fiction titles via this link.

Kobo announced the finalists for its $10,000 emerging writer prize for Canadian writers, including the genre category. The nods there include the crime fiction titles Our Little Secret by Roz Nay; Full Curl: A Jenny Willson Mystery by Dave Butler; The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal; Ragged Lake: A Frank Yakabuski Mystery by Ron Corbett; and The Twelve Man Bilbo Choir, by Peter Staadecker.

RT Book Reviews announced the 2017 Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Winners, which include a career award to Catherine Coulter for Suspense novels, Christina Dodd for Romantic Suspense, and F. Paul Wilson for Thrillers. The winners of the this year's Mystery/Thriller/Suspense Reviewers' Choice Awards are The Guests on South Battery by Karen White (Mystery); The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg (Historical Mystery); A Room with a Brew by Joyce Tremel (Amateur Sleuth); Shattered by Allison Brennan (Suspense); and The Lost Order by Steve Berry (Thriller). The award ceremony will take place at the RT Booklovers Convention in Reno on Friday, May 18.

I missed this news tidbit back in March, but Friends of Mystery announced that the 2018 Spotted Owl Award Winner is Ingrid Thoft for her novel, Duplicity. The honor is handed out annually to an author whose primary residence in the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. For the list of the 10 other finalists, check out the FOM awards page. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

The Daily Mail and Penguin Random House have launched the third year of their nationwide competition to search for a new writing talent. Submissions can be of any adult genre except for saga, science fiction and fantasy, and entrants must not have had a novel published before. The winner will receive a £20,000 advance and publishing contract with PRH imprint Century and the services of literary agent Luigi Bonomi. The inaugural winner was Amy Lloyd for her psychological thriller, The Innocent Wife.

Festival organizers announced last week that the second edition of the Mediterranean Book Festival, to be held in Croatia's Adriatic city of Split on May 9-13, will offer a number of workshops and panels and feature Norway's crime fiction superstar Jo Nesbø as a special guest.

Following controversy, scandal, and allegations of sexual misconduct against the husband of a Swedish Academy member, the Nobel Prize committee has decided not to award a Nobel for Literature this year. It will be the first time that the academy has declined to give out a literature prize since World War II.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, has issued a call for articles for the next issue, which is themed around spies and secret agents. If you'd like to contribute a review, article, or Author! Author! essay, Janet has all the details on her Mystery Fanfare blog. The deadline is June 20.

May is Short Story Month, and to celebrate, the Short Mystery Fiction Society is highlighting one or more members' online stories per day. Check them out here.

"Listicles" - blog posts with lists of one kind or another - are all the rage right now, but some can be fun and serve as a bit of an overview or introduction to a particular book genre or sub-category of crime fiction. So, I give you Crime Fiction Lover's list of Five Nigerian Noir Books; Portside's "Radical Noir: 26 Activist Crime Novels"; Book Riot's "50 Must-Read Young Adult Mysteries" and "10 Murder Mystery Comics"; and Barnes and Noble's "10 of the Best Political Thrillers Ever." Enjoy!

Some unhappy magazine news: unless Crime Syndicate editor Michael Pool can find someone else to take over the editorial duties, the magazine will be closing its virtual doors, and the fourth issue won't be published. Pool is leaving the post to focus more on his own writing but also continue to produce the Crime Syndicate Podcast.

NPR reported on "The Right to Browse": what happened when one library put its books into storage and made the readers cry foul.

Did you ever notice that there's one thing most serial killers seem to have in common?

They do say truth is stranger than fiction, as some FBI agents may have recently discovered. Let's just say that the title of a new movie coming soon could well be "The Drone Wars."

I am truly awed and inspired by this - and something for all of us to aspire to in life.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Grime" by Patricia Lacy.

In the Q&A roundup, Elena Hartwell interviewed Jenny Milchman, the author of Cover of Snow which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and As Night Falls, the recipient of the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best novel, about her latest work, Wicked River, which was inspired by the author's aborted honeymoon in 1994; Hot Press quizzed David Baldacci about his latest novel, The Fallen, and tackling Trump's America; and the New Zealand Herald chatted with Jane Harper, author of the award-winning and critically-acclaimed novel, The Dry.

           Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Media Murder for Monday

As we start another new week, it's time to tackle a new roundup of the latest crime drama news, from screen to stage:

MOVIES

Imagine Entertainment won a bidding competition for screen rights to the upcoming Rob Hart novel, The Warehouse, as a directing vehicle for Ron Howard. The story is set  in a near-future America ravaged by political strife and climate change, where an online retail giant named Cloud brands itself a global savior but hides a dark truth. Two of its employees, one in security and the other a spy, meet and fall in love, but their relationship is threatened by the deadly nature of the spy’s mission and the all-powerful mega-corporation they both work for. Hart is the author of the Ash McKenna private detective series and is also the publisher of Mysterious Press.com.

One of the hot properties at Cannes next week, which is also expected to grab a rights bidding competition, is the large-scale espionage film 355 that Simon Kinberg will direct with an all-star international cast of Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyong’o. They’ll play international agents in a grounded, edgy action thriller that aims to alter a male-dominated genre with a true female ensemble, in the style of spy franchises The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible, and James Bond. 

IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to The Catcher Was a Spy, starring Paul Rudd, Sienna Miller, Jeff Daniels, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti. Directed by Ben Lewin and written by Robert Rodat, the film is adapted from the WWII-set non-fiction bestseller by Nicholas Davidoff and is based on the true story of Major League Baseball player Moe Berg, who joined the U.S. in its wartime efforts to defeat the Nazis. But once he ascertains how close the Nazis are to building an atomic bomb, he has to make the life-or-death decision that will impact the rest of humanity.

Number 37, described as a Hitchcockian South African crime thriller, is heading to theaters in the U.S. after Dark Star Pictures picked up all North American rights. The film is the directorial debut of Nosipho Dumisa and is an homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, centering on Randall, a low-level criminal recently crippled in an illicit deal gone wrong. Cooped up in his apartment in a rough Cape Town neighborhood, he is heavily indebted to a loan shark named Emmie with the clock ticking for him and his girlfriend Pam to pay the money back. A gift of a pair of binoculars presents him with an opportunity to get his hands on the cash, but at great risk.

Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play Cold War spy Greville Wynne in Ironbark, which is based on the true story of the British businessman who helped the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program during the Cold War. Wynne and his Russian source, Oleg Penkovsky (codenamed Ironbark), provided crucial intelligence that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Cumberbatch's partner-in-crime in the BBC Sherlock series, Martin Freeman, will star opposite Diane Kruger in the espionage-thriller, The Operative, from director Yuval Adler. The film follows Rachel (Kruger), a rogue spy from Israel’s feared national intelligence force Mossad, who vanishes without a trace while attending her father’s funeral in London. The only clue to her whereabouts is a cryptic phone call she places to her former handler Thomas (Freeman), who is then summoned from Germany to Israel by Mossad. Adler adapted the screenplay from the Israeli best-seller, The English Teacher, written by former Israeli intelligence officer Yiftach Reicher Atir.

Liam Neeson will take the leading role and Tarik Saleh will direct in the film Charlie Johnson in the Flames, an adaptation of the Michael Ignatieff thriller novel. Neeson will play the title character, a peerless BBC war correspondent covering civil unrest in the Congo. When the death of an innocent woman shakes him to his core, he risks everything to expose the truth, only to find himself embroiled in a network of murder, corruption, and violence that forces him to question his humanity.

John Woo's remake of his 1989 classic, The Killer, is in negotiations to snag Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o as its lead. The original version of The Killer told the story of an assassin protecting the life of an innocent bystander after accidentally blinding them during a botched hit. Nyong’o would take on the role of the assassin, played by Chow Yun-fat in the 1989 version.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired the feature thriller Broken Star which stars Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) for theatrical release this summer. The film is a psychological thriller that follows a young actress who goes to great lengths in order to ensure everlasting fame. Directed by first-time feature film director Dave Schwep and written by David Brant, the film also stars Tyler Labine, Monique Coleman, and Lauren Bowles. 

John Cena is set to replace fellow WWE star Dwayne Johnson in an adaptation of The Janson Directive. Written by Jason Bourne author Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive novel focused on Paul Janson, an ex-Navy SEAL and former member of a covert government agency Consular Operations who becomes a corporate security consultant and takes a job rescuing an important man. When the mission goes awry, Janson is targeted for a "beyond salvage" termination order and has no choice but to follow the clues that lead him to a massive scandal.

An official trailer was released for Gotti, starring John Travolta in the title role as the Italian-American gangster who became boss of the powerful Gambino crime family in New York City.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

An adaptation of the work of novelist Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist) is headed to the small screen, the first-ever TV drama series based on his books. Exploring themes and characters from Coelho’s novels The Devil and Miss Prym, Brida, and The Witch of Portobello, the yet-untitled crime drama follows a young priest who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption – ostracized by his church, a fugitive from the law, and hunted by a powerful crime family. Meanwhile, the CIA agent chasing him discovers mysterious powers, and a more profound connection to the priest than she ever thought possible. 

HBO is turning late crime author Michelle McNamara's book on the Golden State Killer into a docu-series. The adaptation of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer was announced just a month after purchasing the rights and mere days after former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested on eight counts of first-degree murder based on DNA evidence. The book chronicled McNamara's obsessive journey to find the man responsible for committing over 50 sexual assaults, at least 12 murders and over 100 burglaries in California during the '70s and '80s. The case had gone unsolved for more than 30 years until DNA evidence connected DeAngelo to the crimes, leading to his arrest by the Sacramento Sheriff's Office on April 24. McNamara, who dubbed the serial killer behind these crimes as the Golden State Killer in her book, died suddenly in her sleep in 2016 before she could finish it. The book was completed by those closest to her including longtime researcher Paul Haynes, colleague Billy Jensen, writer Gillian Flynn, who penned the introduction, and her husband Patton Oswalt, who wrote the afterword.

Sony Pictures Television Networks has ordered Reckoning, a 10-episode straight-to-series psychological thriller drama, from writer David Hubbard (Noel) and veteran showrunner David Eick (Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies). Written by Hubbard, who serves as showrunner with David Eick, Reckoning explores the darkest corners of the male psyche through the eyes of two fathers, one of whom is a serial-killer. Like most men, Leo and Mike try to do what’s best for the people they love, the families they protect. But as both struggle to suppress their inner demons, the murder of a local teenager sets them on a course of mutual destruction that will emanate through every facet of their quiet, suburban community.

The Scandinavian terror thriller Greyzone is heading to the UK after Walter Presents acquired the ten-part series from distributor ITV Studios Global Entertainment. The show, set in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Frankfurt, stars Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Victoria, a drone engineer who is taken hostage by terrorists in her own home but manages to get a message to the secret services, who desperately try to prevent an attack on Scandinavian soil. 

Roseanne star John Goodman and Chewing Gum creator Michaela Coel are joining the Netflix and BBC drama Black Earth Rising. The story, which is set across the UK, Europe, Africa and the U.S., centers on Kate Ashby (Coel), who was rescued as a young child during the Rwandan genocide and adopted by Eve Ashby (Harriet Walter), a world-class British prosecutor in international criminal law. Kate was raised in Britain and, now in her late 20s, she works as a legal investigator in the law chambers of Michael Ennis (Goodman). When Eve takes on a case at the International Criminal Court, prosecuting an African militia leader, the story pulls Michael and Kate into a journey that will upend their lives forever.

Australian broadcaster ABC has confirmed a second season of the crime drama Harrow, which stars Ioan Bruffudd as Dr. Daniel Harrow (Gruffudd), a brilliant but highly unorthodox forensic pathologist. When a terrible secret from his past threatens his family, his career and himself, Harrow needs all his wit, wile and forensic genius not to solve a crime but to keep it buried.

Ahead of The Good Fight's Season 2 finale on May 27, the legal drama series has been renewed for a third season by CBS All Access. A spinoff from CBS' acclaimed drama The Good Wife, the follow-on drama has been well received by critics and tackled current events, including the Donald Trump presidency. The show stars Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Rose Leslie, Audra McDonald, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Michael Boatman, Nyambi Nyambi, and Delroy Lindo.

BBC One has ordered an eight-episode second season of Russian crime drama McMafia. The series airs on AMC in the U.S, but the network has not yet made a decision on a renewal. The series charts the journey of Alex Godman, played by James Norton, as he plunges deeper and deeper into the world of organized crime, eventually finding himself unable to resist the lures of corruption. The project was created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins and is based on the book by Misha Glenny.

Fans of the medical examiner "Ducky" on NCIS will be pleased to hear that actor David McCallum, who's played the iconic character for the past 15 seasons of the show, is returning for the 16th season, as well. With Pauley Perrette leaving the crime procedural at the end of the current fifteenth season, McCallum and NCIS star Mark Harmon are now the only remaining original cast members.

John Hoogenakker, who recurs in Season 1 of Amazon’s drama series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, has been promoted to series regular for Season 2. Hoogenakker plays Matice, a tough and salty American who works black ops for the CIA. At first skeptical of what appears to be a desk-jockey, he quickly develops a new respect for Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) after seeing him handle himself in the field.

Carrie Coon (Gone Girl) has been tapped as the female lead opposite Bill Pullman for the second installment of USA Network’s breakout drama series The Sinner. Season 2 lures Detective Harry Ambrose (Pullman) back to his hometown in rural New York to assess an unsettling and heart wrenching crime — parents murdered by their 11-year-old son, with no apparent motive. As Ambrose realizes there’s nothing ordinary about the boy or where he came from, the investigation pulls him into the hidden darkness of his hometown, and he’s pitted against those who’ll stop at nothing to protect its secrets.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Sasscer Hill, an author, former thoroughbred breeder, and amateur steeplechase jockey, spoke with the Because Of Horses podcast about her novels that are set against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her first book in the "Nikki Latrelle" series, Full Mortality, was nominated for both an Agatha and a Macavity award.

Crime writer Baron R. Birtcher was the latest guest on Crime Corner hosted by with Matt Coyle. Birtcher spent a number of years as a professional musician, and founded an independent record label and management company. His crime fiction titles Hard Latitudes, Rain Dogs, and Angels Fall have been nominated for a number of literary awards, including the Nero, Claymore, Left Coast Crime Lefty Award, and Silver Falchion Award in 2016.

On Episode 41 of the Spybrary podcast, the show featured a recorded panel discussion from Spycon 2018 with Spybrary host Shane Whaley joined by authors Mike Brady (Into the Shadows) and C.G.Faulkner (The Edge of Reality).

On the fourth episode of the Crime Syndicate podcast, C.S. DeWildt stopped by to read from and chat about his new novel, Suburban Dick. 

THEATER

The Vertigo Theater's Mystery Series will present the Canadian premiere of Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem from May 12 through June 16. The play is set in 1887 during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, when American performer Anne Moses (a.k.a. Annie Oakley) needs the help of the World’s Greatest Detective. But the simple case of a missing brother quickly leads to extraordinary inventions, robbery, and murder.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Sunday Music Treat

When former pianist Scott Drayco hurt his right hand, some people pushed him to just perform works written for the left hand only. He refused, not wanting to pursue such a career as an "oddity." Works written just for the left hand you say? Yes, they do exist, including perhaps the most famous such piece, Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I. Since tomorrow, May 7, is the anniversary of Ravel's birth in 1875, it seemed fitting to feature his composition today. Here's a recording with soloist Samson François from 1959:

 

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Quote of the Week

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FFB: Malcolm Sage, Detective

English author Herbert George Jenkins (1876-1923) spent several years as a journalist and then worked for the publishing company The Bodley Head, before founding Herbert Jenkins Ltd., which published many of P. G. Wodehouse's novels. His most popular fictional creation was the Cockney Mr. Joseph Bindle, who first appeared in a humorous novel in 1916.



Jenkins also wrote a number of short stories about Detective Malcolm Sage, which were collected into one book in 1921. The stories feature Sage, with his bald, conical head, "determined" jaw, and protruding ears, who worked first as an account, but after uncovering shady practices at high levels of the British civil service, he was appointed to the mysterious "Department Z." After the end of the First World War, his old chief from division Z (whose life Sage once saved) set Sage up in his own private detective agency.



Sage has been compared to Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes for his style of detective work, with his methods fairly high tech for the time, using such newfangled tools as telephones, photography, and medical evidence. However, as the detective himself notes, he is often more interested in setting traps for the villain, than in detecting his original crime. Jenkins also doesn't necessarily play fair with the reader, introducing clues at the end that weren't shown during the story.



Mike Grost at GA Detection notes that the techniques and traps Sage uses often involve considerable social comedy. Although Sage is also a bit on the haughty side, his staff of a secretary, an assistant, a chauffeur and an office boy (himself a devout reader of detective fiction) also provide comic foil to Sage's overbearing attitude.



Since Malcolm Sage, Detective is in the public domain, it's not easy to find in print, but there are several eBook versions you can read online, including Google Books.

            

The 'Zine Scene

I haven't done an update on the latest crime magazine offerings lately, so without further ago, here are some great issues to check out (in alphabetical order):

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine:  The May/June double issue has the usual mystery puzzles, mystery photograph contest, reviews, and new stories from Emily Devenport, John H. Dirckx, Jane K. Cleland, Deborah Lacy, Steve Liskow, Leslie Budewitz, Tara Laskowski, Thomas K. Carpenter, John C. Boland, Neil Schofield, Dayle A. Dermatis, Marianne Wilski Strong, and B.K. Stevens.

Crimespree Magazine features a cover story on the late, much-beloved Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and much more; a celebration of Mickey Spillane’s 100th birthday (did you know the iconic author was also a spokesman for Miller Lite for 18 years? He made over 100 commercials both for TV and radio); two articles from Eryk Pruit, and the regular features.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine:  In addition to reviews, Blog Bytes, The Jury Box, and the announcement of the EQMM Readers Award, the May/June issue has new short fiction from Doug Allyn, Gabriel Flores, Peter Sellers, Hollis Seamon, Richard Helms, William Hallstead, Steve Hockensmith, Susan Dunlap, R.t. Raichev, Benjamin Percy, Marjorie Eccles, Bill Pronzini, Hilary Davidson, and Carlos Orsi.

Flash Bang Mysteries shares new short, short crime from featured author Regina Clark and "On and Off," as well as the Editor's Choice, "No Way Out" by Herschel Cozine; and also mini-tales from Robert Petyo with "Don’t Text and Drive," Vy Kava with "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," and John M. Floyd, with "While You Were Out."

Mystery Readers Journal's latest themed edition is Big Cops II, which continued the two-issue focus on policing in urban environments. There are columns, reviews, and twenty essays from authors on such topics as "How Technology Is Affecting Big City Cops," including two you can read online, "Proof of Procedure" by J.A. Jance and "Big City Perspective, a Greek Island Life" by Jeffrey Siger.

Mystery Scene Magazine: The cover story is an Oline H. Cogdill interview with Anglophile author Elizabeth George; Michael Mallory also takes a look at the versatile writer Henry Slesar, who's penned scores of short stories and TV programs; Jake Hinkson takes a look at true crime docuseries; Jon L. Breen has his annual round-up of recent legal thrillers; and much more.

Mystery Weekly Magazine's May 2018 issue includes stories by Jazz Lawless about a mob hit that didn’t quite "take"; Troy Seate’s take on a 1950s detective who’s haunted by a legend from the deep; Cecily Winter’s near-futuristic look at a terrorist car; Craig Terlson’s look at an unusual couple; Jody Wenner’s unsettling tale of a man who wakes up to find a piece of himself missing; and Edward Musto’s "Armistice."

Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine's recent March issue had Holmes features from "John H. Watson, M. D" and "(Mrs) Martha Hudson"; new short stories by Stan Trybulski, Michael Haynes, Dianne Neral Ell, Laird Long, Ellen Wight, Marian McMahon Stanley, Teel James Glenn, Dana Martin Batory, and a classic from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself; and new non-fiction articles, poetry, art, and cartoons.

Strand Magazine's spring edition features fiction by Jeffery Deaver (a Lincoln Rhyme story), William Trevor, David Marcum, and Andrew McQuilkin; a feature article by Lisa Gardner on research, inspiration, and fact vs. fiction; and an exclusive interview with Caleb Carr, whose Alienist books have been recently adapted for TV.

Suspense Magazine has its usual author interviews, reviews, and articles including profiles of Jack Carr, Alma Katsu, Jake Tapper, Steena Holmes, Lee Goldberg, and Rhys Bowen; Barry Lancet and Anthony Franze are back with their latest "Articles on Talking Writing." Dennis Palumbo tells us "How not to overwrite." Stepping back in time, there's a great interview that was recently on Crime and Science Radio, hosted by D.P. Lyle and Jan Burke, as they talked with Michael Tabor, a forensic dentist who has stories you won't believe.

Switchblade Magazine's May issue has "fast action gutter" fiction from returning author Court Merrigan and Rob Pierce; Indianapolis crime writer, and managing editor of Pulp Modern, Alec Cizak; Switchblade usual suspects Preston Lang, Jack Bates, Robb T. White, Rick Risemberg, and Lisa Douglass; and also new prospects Tom Andes, Tony Genova, E.F. Sweetman, David Rachels, Danny Sophabmisay, Chris McGinley, Timothy Friend, and Tom Barlow.

Yellow Mama's April issue includes the feature story by "Noir-meister" Jason Butkowski, as well as new crime stories by Jim Farren, Marci McKim, British horror writer Sam Graham, Kenneth James Crist, J. Brook, Jon Park, and Jerry Vilhotti; and the usual kick-ass poetry and illustrations.

 

 

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Mystery Melange

This past weekend, the Edgar Awards were announced at the Edgar Week festivities in New York City. The annual awards, handed out by the Mystery Writers of America, honor the previous year's best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television. The Best Novel winner was Attica Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird; Best Debut Novel went to She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper; Best Paper Original was The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola; and Best Short Story was "Spring Break" from New Haven Noir edited by John Crowley. For all the winners and finalists in the other various and extensive categories, head on over to the MWA official Edgar site.

Also during this past very busy weekend, the Malice Domestic Conference announced the winners of the annual Agatha Awards, which honor the traditional mystery genre. The Best Contemporary Novel winner was Glass Houses: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny; Best Historical Novel went to In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen; Best First Novel was won by Kellye Garrett's Hollywood Homicide: A Detective by Day Mystery; the Best Nonfiction winner was From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Boström; Best Short Story was "The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn" by Gigi Pandian; and Best Children’s/Young Adult was Sydney Mackenzie Knocks 'Em Dead by Cindy Callaghan. For all the other finalists in those categories, head on over to the Malice site.

Six crime novels from Denmark, Finland and Sweden have made the shortlist for the 2018 Petrona Award for the Best Translated Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year, including: What My Body Remembers by Agnete Friis, tr. Lindy Falk van Rooyen; Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles; After the Fire by Henning Mankell, tr. Marlaine Delargy; The Darkest Day by Håkan Nesser, tr. Sarah Death; The White City by Karolina Ramqvist, tr. Saskia Vogel; and The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen, tr. David Hackston. The winning title will be announced at the Gala Dinner on 19 May during the annual international crime fiction convention CrimeFest, held in Bristol on 17-20 May 2018.

Five different cities will participate in the second Noir at the Bar Crawl this weekend, kicking off tomorrow in Durham, North Carolina, and then moving onward to Richmond, Virginia, on May 4, Washington, DC, on May 5, Baltimore, Maryland, on May 6, and ending up in Wilmington, Delaware on May 7. Over forty authors will share their work via readings and signings, and there might be a drink or two thrown in for good measure.

Bookriot and Novel Suspects are sponsoring a stack of books by Megan Abbott to give away. Novel Suspects is a new community space from Hachette focused on mystery and thriller titles "and readers who love to share our favorite books, movies, TV shows, and podcasts," with a newsletter and new website launching soon.

As the Malice Conference season winds down (see above), Crime Reads brought together nominees for the Agatha Award to answer a few questions about the traditional ("cozy") genre, their influences, and the mystery community, as well as the state of the cozy mystery.

Korea has been in the news a lot lately, and Paul French compiled an overview of Korean crime fiction on either side of the DMZ, in Seoul and in Pyongyang.

The UK's Crimefest is celebrating its 10th anniversary by teaming up with publishers to give away 4,000 crime novels for free all over the country. The giveaway, which includes donations from almost a dozen different publishers, will take place on May 5, two weeks before the Bristol-based crime festival which runs from May 17-20. Headliners for the conference this year include such luminaries as Martina Cole, Lee Child, and Peter James.

Book Riot's article "Dames are the New Dicks" has an overview of recent takes from authors and journalists on the evolution of strong women characters in crime fiction, as well as the rise of female crime fiction authors writing in the genre.

What hasn't changed much, apparently, is that works by women aren't as valued as books by male authors, according to a new study which found books by women are priced 45% lower.

This year's official Independent Bookstore Day has come and gone (although every day should be indie bookstore day!), but Atlas Obscura compiled this list of 62 of the "World’s Best Independent Bookstores" as recommended by Atlas Obscura readers. Did yours make the list?

The Guardian tasked several British crime authors to choose their "perfect" crime fiction read.

Forty years after the Golden State Killer left a trail of bodies and fear in his wake, there's finally been an arrest, and it turns out to be one of law enforcement's own. The case was recently solved after the late true-crime writer Michelle McNamara shined a spotlight on the case with an article in Los Angeles Magazine. Time magazine listed three podcasts that delve deeper into the infamous case.

Although theft isn't nearly as serious a crime as murder, many museums may feel like murdering someone after a French museum recently discovered half of its collection are fakes ... and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Body Language" by Susan Barry Schulz, and the latest flash piece at Beat to a Pulp is "Clean" by Zakariah Johnson.

In the Q&A roundup, Entertainment Weekly spoke with Alex Segura about Blackout, the author's fourth mystery novel featuring protagonist Pete Fernandez, and how he balances his crime fiction writing with his day job as co-president of Archie Comics; and the Globe and Mail published a piece by former Canadian Chief Justice of Canada, Beverley McLachlin, on "How I became a thriller writer."

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Media Murder for Monday

Greetings and welcome to the latest roundup of crime drama news:

MOVIES

Amy Adams will play the lead in Fox 2000’s The Woman In The Window, an adaptation of A.J. Finn’s best-selling novel, with Joe Wright directing from a script by Tracy Letts.  Adams is set to play Anna Fox, an agoraphobic child psychologist who lives alone in a New York suburb. Afraid to leave home, she fills her day watching film noir classics and spies on her neighbors like they do in the movies she loves. She thinks she witnesses a murder through her window but she can’t be quite sure because she also is an alcoholic and takes prescription narcotics.

Tucker Tooley Entertainment has picked up the crime drama film spec script Thug for Den of Thieves writer/director Christian Gudegast to helm. Thug follows an ex-journeyman boxer and aging enforcer for a San Pedro gangster who attempts to get back into the lives of his estranged children and clean up the messes of his past. To do so, he must come to terms with the ruined landscape of his twenty-year career in crime - if the criminal underworld will loosen their hold on him.

Alicia Coppola (Shameless) has been cast in Andrea Berloff’s New Line film, The Kitchen, also starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss. Domhnall Gleeson, Margo Martindale, Bill Camp and Brian d’Arcy James also co-star in the DC/Vertigo comic book based film about wives of Irish mobsters who team up to take over running the business after their husbands are arrested and sent to prison.

Guy Pearce, Claes Bang, Vicky Krieps and Roland Møller are set to star in Lyrebird, the true story about an art forger who victimized the Nazis, with Dan Friedkin marking his directorial debut. The story centers on Dutch folk hero Han van Meegeren swindled millions of dollars from the Nazis by selling them forgeries of Johannes Vermeer paintings and is considered the most successful art forger of all time.

Actor Jim Klock has joined Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Brad William Henke and Karl Glusman for Annapurna’s untitled thriller written and directed by Babak Anvari. Set for release March 29, 2019, the pic follows a New Orleans bartender (Hammer) who experiences a series of disturbing and inexplicable events, after picking up a cell phone left behind in his bar, that begin to unravel his life. The film is based on Nathan Ballingrud’s novel The Visible Filth.

Claes Bang has come aboard The Burnt Orange Heresy, the neo-noir thriller from Giuseppe Capotondi. The Danish actor joins Christopher Walken and Elizabeth Debicki in the picture, which is based on the Charles Willeford novel. Bang will play James Figueras, a charismatic and fiercely ambitious art critic who is offered a career-changing introduction to reclusive artist Jerome Debney (Walken). In return for the introduction, however, he must steal a masterpiece from the artist’s studio.

If you'd like to plan your movie-going in advance, the Baltimore Sun compiled a handy sneak preview listing of upcoming summer movies that include the crime thriller Bad Samaritan with David Tennant; a restored version of the 1943 French crime drama Le Corbeau, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; the European crime drama Racer and the Jailbird, directed by Michaël R. Roskam; the thriller Terminal starring Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg, Mike Myers, and Max Irons; and many, many more.

A trailer was released for Steven Soderbergh's latest psychological thriller, Unsane, which has the distinction of being the first full length feature film to ever be shot on an iPhone 7 plus. The film stars The Crown’s Claire Foy as a woman who ends up committed in a psychiatric ward but is convinced she was being stalked and that the stalker is part of the staff.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Before John Krasinski's new series Jack Ryan even had a chance to premiere on Amazon Prime, the streaming service has already given the go-ahead for a second season of the action series. Jack Ryan is the first television adaptation of author Tom Clancy's popular protagonist and stars Krasinski in the title role as he's thrust into the eye of a startling mystery involving suspicious bank transfers and a potential terrorist attack. The series' second season renewal comes amid a banner month for Krasinski, whose horror film A Quiet Place has been a huge hit at the box office. 

Epix has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to crime drama Godfather of Harlem, with Forest Whitaker attached to star and executive produce. The series hails from Narcos creator Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, and ABC Signature Studios. The project tells the true story of infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson (Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from ten years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles. With the streets controlled by the Italian mob, Bumpy must take on the Genovese crime family to regain control. During the brutal battle, he forms an alliance with radical preacher Malcolm X – catching Malcolm’s political rise in the crosshairs of social upheaval and a mob war that threatens to tear the city apart.

The top-rated Lethal Weapon series was on the fast-track for renewal on the Fox network, but a behind-the scenes issue involving one of the two leads, Clayne Crawford, is making a third season uncertain. Crawford has had a history of bad behavior on the show, and that he has been disciplined several times over complaints of emotional abuse and creating a hostile environment. The problem is threatening the future of the show, with a recasting — a rare and dramatic move when involving a lead of an established series — being explored. 

Oxygen Media has picked up new seasons of reality series Cold Justice and Criminal Confessions from executive producer Dick Wolf. Cold Justice follows veteran prosecutor Kelly Siegler, who partners with seasoned detectives, to dig into murder cases that have lingered for years without justice. Together with local law enforcement from across the country, the Cold Justice team has successfully helped generate approximately 35 arrests and 18 convictions. As the title suggests, Criminal Confessions delves into the psychological showdown that transpires inside actual police interrogation rooms between investigators and suspects and the process of pursuing a confession to solve cases.

Starz has opted not to proceed with Family Crimes, its drama series project from Suicide Squad writer-director David Ayer and Jerry Bruckheimer Television. Family Crimes already had a writers room up and running and a casting director had been hired and working when Starz notified the producers of its decision not to move forward with the series, citing "creative reasons." Written by Ayer, Family Crimes centers on a young privileged Latina who must reinvent herself in order to save her family when the feds close in on their business with the Mexican mob. She quickly learns to navigate the criminal underworld and finds herself trapped in a web of complex rules, rivalries and deep politics.

The first trailer has been released for HBO's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Sharp Objects. The film stars Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen, Elizabeth Perkins and Matt Crave in the tale of a newspaper journalist who must return to her hometown to report on a series of brutal murders. The eight-episode series is written by Flynn and Marti Noxon and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Big Little Lies).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Tori Telfer, author of Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History, is launching the true crime podcast called Criminal Broads on May 1. Installments will focus on "wild women who’ve ended up on the wrong side of the law, whether for leading a cult, serially murdering their husbands, swindling billionaires, or faking ectoplasm."

Acclaimed author Chesya Burke joined Alex Dolan on Thrill Seekers. Burke has published nearly a hundred fiction pieces and articles within the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Her new historical mystery novel, The Strange Crimes of Little Africa, is garnering critical acclaim. 

Episode 16 of Writer Types featured megastar Gillian Flynn; Michael Kardos and his new novel Bluff; John Shepherd with his new novel Bottom Feeders; a dispatch from the LA Times festival of books; Bob Hartley; and a trio of short fiction publishers on what makes a great story.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey talked about the shocking developments with the Golden State Killer case, how Amy Adams is starring in all the book adaptations and also discussed the Edgar Awards. 

GAMES

Indie video game developer Eggnut has launched a Kickstarter project for Backbone, a pixel-art adventure that lets players solve crimes as Howard Lotor, a Raccoon private investigator and a member of a dystopian animal society based in "retrofuturistic" Vancouver.

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