B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 175

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES



The film rights to Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game have been acquired by The Gotham Group, which is also set to produce Ware’s first two novels: The Woman in Cabin 10 and In A Dark, Dark Wood. The Lying Game follows four best friends from boarding school who are brought back together when a morbid discovery threatens to expose the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of one of their teachers. The group was notorious for playing a game involving an elaborate ruse that created consequences they never imagined.



Veteran producer Uri Singer is developing a movie based on Jess Walter’s 2006 sci-fi detective novel The Zero. The story centers on a cop who wakes up to find he’s shot himself in the head during a devastating terrorist attack. As the smoke slowly clears, he finds that his memory is skipping, lurching between moments of lucidity and days when he doesn’t seem to be living his own life at all. 



Daniel Craig finally confirmed the rumors on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that he'll be back for his fifth appearance as 007 in the upcoming film, which is slated for release in 2019, adding "I couldn't be happier."



Channing Tatum is attached to star in Bloodlines, a crime movie involving the Mexican drug cartels that is based on the upcoming book by Melissa Del Bosque, Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty. Tatum will play Scott Lawson, a rookie FBI agent assigned to the sleepy border town of Laredo, Texas, where he writes reports about the drug war. Lawson finally gets some action when he discovers that Miguel Trevino, the leader of a brutal Mexican drug cartel, has bought a racehorse for the purpose of laundering drug money, and with the help of a more experienced female agent, he attempts to infiltrate the cartel.



The Shaft movie reboot Son of Shaft, with Tim Story attached to direct, is eyeing Samuel L. Jackson to reprise his role from the 2000 Shaft movie as John Shaft II, the nephew of the original. Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. the original John Shaft himself, is also angling to return as the man who started it all. Independence Day: Resurgence's Jessie T. Usher is in talks to play the youngest of the Shaft men, i.e. the son of Jackson's Shaft, in what will turn out to be a "family" affair.



A trailer was released for Good Time, starring Robert Pattinson as a young bank robber whose latest botched job lands his younger brother, Nick (played by co-director Benny Safdie), in jail. Connie's efforts to break him out takes him on a disturbing journey through New York's criminal underworld. 



TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES



ABC Signature, the cable/digital division of ABC Studios, has landed the hot hourlong spec Julia, a darkly comedic dramedy about celebrity chef Julia Child from writer Benjamin Brand and ABC Signature Studios. The fictional project is based on a true fact: before she was the world’s first celebrity chef, Julia Child was an agent for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, during World War II. The new drama re-imagines a world where the CIA takes advantage of Julia Child’s newfound celebrity status and drags the French Chef back into action as a covert operative.



Every Cloud Productions, which produces the female-produced, written and lead show, Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries, is not letting Miss Fisher fade away. A movie is confirmed to be in the works, with a planned release date in the back half of 2018, once again starring Essie Davis in the 1920 flapper era-set action.



BBC has commissioned two new eight-part drama series for its flagship channel BBC One. The Three, based on a trilogy of books by Sarah Lotz, is adapted by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy scribe Peter Straughan and is described as a multi-stranded, international thriller with a supernatural twist that sees four planes crash on the same day in four different countries. The Serpent is written by Ripper Street scribe Richard Warlow and is based on the true story of how one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century – con man and escape artist Charles Sobhraj – was caught and brought to trial. The series will be directed by Tom Shankland (The Missing) and produced by Poldark’s Mammoth Screen.



Patrick Dempsey, who made viewers swoon for 11 seasons as Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, is returning to television via the cable network Epix to headline The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, a 10-episode series based on the 2014 Joël Dicker novel of the same name. Dempsey will play Harry Quebert, a college professor who is accused of the murder of a 15-year-old girl in a coastal New Hampshire town. One of Harry's former students, author Marcus Goldman, comes to see Quebert before the murder to find inspiration for his next novel, but winds up using the murder investigation as his focus. Damon Wayans Jr. and Virginia Madsen were also cast in the series, as a police sergeant and a local diner owner, respectively.



Russell Tovey has closed a deal to return as a series regular for Season 3 of Quantico, which returns to ABC’s lineup in midseason. He joins fellow returning series regulars star Priyanka Chopra, Jake McLaughlin and Johanna Braddy as well as Season 2 addition Blair Underwood. 



Rizzoli & Isles alum Bruce McGill has landed a pivotal recurring role on the upcoming third season of NBC’s hit police drama series Shades of Blue, starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta. McGill will play Jordan Ramsey, a ruthless and resourceful man who runs a unit out of the Intelligence Division. Capable of going to extreme measures to ensure the success of his agenda, Ramsey is not burdened by an over-active moral compass. He knows what he wants, and he pushes the limits to get it.



Barbara Hershey has been tapped for a recurring role on the 10-episode 11th season of the Fox sci-fi drama The X-Files. It’s the show’s second run as an event series, following last season’s six-season revival.  Hershey, an Oscar nominee for The Portrait of a Lady, will play Erika Price, a powerful figure who represents a mysterious organization. She joins returning stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and co-star Mitch Pileggi.



After a teaser two weeks ago along with the revelation of Bobby Cannavale’s used car salesman character Irving, USA Networks dropped a small teaser on Twitter from Mr. Robot's season 3.0, featuring Rami Malek’s Elliot at the world series for hackers.





PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO



Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed Duane Swierczynski, the author of several crime thrillers including the Edgar-nominated and Anthony Award-winning Expiration Date, as well the Charlie Hardie series.



Author, lawyer, and columnist J.D. Rhoades joined The Blue Plate Special podcast to discuss his Jack Keller novels.



Big Blend Radio chatted with author Michael H. Rubin about his new book, Cashed Out, that combines both the allure of and the inherent danger in Louisiana’s bayous with the rush of a legal thriller.



Mystery Writer Loretta Ross was on the Menu at The Blue Plate Special podcast.

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FFB: Naked Villainy

Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922–1985) was born in Yorkshire, England and worked in a bank and as a solicitor's clerk in London during World War II, where she got first-hand experience she put to good use in her mystery novels. Although she wrote under the pseudonyms Ann Burton (three books featuring banker Richard Trenton), Mary Challis (four books featuring solicitor Jeremy Locke) and Margaret Leek (four books featuring attorney Anne Marryat), it was her series with Barrister Anthony Maitland, 48 titles in all, that was her main focus.



The Maitland series debuted with Bloody Instructions in 1961 and continued through the last installment, Naked Villainy, published in 1987 after Woods's death. The publisher included a brief "biography" Woods had created for Barrister Maitland, which was found among the author's papers, as a postscript to the book and the series. In it, Woods says she first met Anthony Maitland when she was 15 years old, when he walked into chapter three of the book she was writing, took over the story and stuck around for more.



The bio refers to Maitland's background—the death of his mother in giving birth to him, his journalist father who died during the War, going to live with his uncle, Maitland's own war experiences, marrying his wife Jenny, and going into law practice. It also describes his physical appearance as tall, a dark man with untidy hair and a thin intelligent face. He was injured in the war and took shrapnel in his shoulder, giving him a permanent disability and some pain. He has a "wickedly accurate gift of mimicry," a facility for foreign languages, and a stammer that only appears when he is angry. But Maitland also has a sense of humor and stubbornness and regards his profession with a touch of cynicism.



In Naked Villainy, Antony Maitland's final outing finds him defending the young Frenchman, Emile Letendre, who is accused of murdering his father, Georges. It appears to many to be an open-and-shut case, with motive, fingerprint evidence, and a half-dozen witnesses consisting of friends dining at the home of Georges' sister and brother-in-law, Francoise and Alan Johnson the night of the murder. But Maitland takes on the case, believing his client's claim that a witches' coven and a Black Mass were behind Georges' death. Unfortunately, the witnesses are all influential people who try to undermine Maitland's case by spreading rumors that the attorney has been coaching witnesses, a charge that could ruin his reputation and career.



Although Maitland's wife Jenny and other secondary characters who often appeared in the series (like Uncle Nicholas, Aunt Vera, and Maitland's friends Meg and Roger), are all present, their roles are secondary to the actual courtroom theatrics. This led Publishers Weekly to say of the book, Woods "is at her best here in the cut and thrust of courtroom drama," and Kirkus Reviews to call it "one of her best...(Maitland) ends his career with a case focused on the courtroom—where he always shone brightest."

            

Mystery Melange

The Australian Crime Writers Association announced the shortlist for the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards in three categories, Best Fiction, Best First Fiction, and True Crime. Winners will be announced on September 1 during the annual Ned Kelly Awards presentation in Melbourne. For all the shortlisted finalists, head on over to the Australia CWA website. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)



Kill Your Darlings and the Australian Crime Writers Association also announced the shortlist for this year’s S D Harvey Short Story Competition. The $1000 award, which honors the late true-crime writer and television producer Sandra Harvey, is presented annually for a work of short crime fiction as part of the Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing. The winner and runner-up of the competition will be announced at the Ned Kelly Awards on 1 September at the Melbourne Writers Festival.



The 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists were likewise announced this week after the initial longlists were whittled down for the annual contest that celebrates the best New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing (fiction and non-fiction). The winners will be announced at a special WORD Christchurch event to be held on October 28. Check out all the honorees via organizer/blogger Craig Sisterson's Crime Watch.



Lizzy Barber from north London has won the Daily Mail and Penguin Random House's First Novel Competition with My Name is Alice, a book Century will publish in 2018. The crime writing competition, now in its second year, invited first-time novelists to submit 5,000 words of their book alongside a 600-word synopsis, with the winning novel chosen from over 700 crime and thriller entries.



Women’s crime writing organization Sisters in Crime announced that Latina author Jessica Ellis Laine is the winner of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award. This annual prize honors a "writer of color, male or female, who has not yet published a full-length work."



Diversity in fiction is a hot topic these days, and Kellye Garrett, writing for Criminal Element, profiled the relatively unknown subgenre of the black woman amateur detective.



The Malice Domestic conference announced that Brenda Blethyn will be the Poirot Award Honoree for the 2017 conference. Ms. Blethyn is an Academy Award and Emmy nominated, Golden Globe winning actress who stars as DCI Vera Stanhope in the series Vera, based on the books by Ann Cleeves. She joins the already-announced lineup that includes Guest of Honor, Louise Penny; Toastmaster Catriona McPherson; LIfetime Achievement Award winner, Nancy Pickard; Amelia Award winner, David Suchet; and Fan Guest of Honor, Janet Blizard.



Unfortunately, I have bit of sad news to report this week: retired professor and mystery author B.K. (Bonnie) Stevens passed away suddenly in the midst of preparations for a presentation at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival. Known for her support and activism in the crime fiction community, she was also a superb short story craftsman, and was a finalist for the Derringer, the Agatha, and the Anthony Awards this year for her Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine short story "The Last Blue Glass."



The Strand Magazine's latest issue includes the publication of a long-lost play by J.M. Barrie that spoofs Sherlock Holmes and the mystery genre. Barrie is believed to have co-written the play with humorist E.V. Lucas around 1912, the year after Barrie wrote his iconic novel, Peter Pan, but the play was never published or performed. Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli said one of his researchers discovered the play at the University of Texas where some of Barrie’s papers are held. Conan Doyle and Barrie were close friends and members of a cricket team that also included contemporary writers Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, P. G. Wodehouse and A. A. Milne.



Anders Roslund is an award-winning investigative journalist and internationally bestselling author, as part of the crime writing duo Roslund & Hellström, looks at the "Growth of the Global Super-Genre of Scandinavian Crime Fiction," which is particularly poignant follow the death this year of his writing colleague, Börge Hellström, to cancer.



Scientific American took a look from the forensics angle at Agatha Christie’s mysterious amnesia when she stayed in a hotel for eleven days under an assumed name, supposedly because she had suffered from a loss of memory. How plausible is her story? Was it real or revenge on her cheating spouse?



Worried about getting a fair trial should you find yourself in court? A computer might be able to help.



Unfortunately, I saw this listing too late for you to have a chance to buy (for almost 3 million) the Spanish-style house that was briefly home to crime novelist-screenwriter Raymond Chandler in the early 1940s. The house was recently listed by its current owner, bassist John McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame, and although it sold pretty quickly, you can still see the photos of the place via the realtor's website.



This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Wolf of Moscow" by Sara Tantlinger.



In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People's Scott Montgomery chatted with the mother-daughter writing duo P.J. Tracy about their new novel, Nothing Stays Buried, featuring a gang of crime-solving programmers in rural Minnesota; the Digital Media Ghost welcomed Anthony Award-nominated author Eric Beetner to discuss his varied career as a as a TV editor and producer and writer of hardboiled crime; in The Interrogation Room, Tom Leins caught up with Canadian crime writer Beau Johnson to discuss his brand new short story collection, A Better Kind of Hate from Down & Out Books (Johnson was also the subject of Paul D. Brazill's latest Short, Sharp Interview).

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Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES



Jennifer Garner is in talks to star in the Pierre Morel-directed action thriller Peppermint, which has been likened to "John Wick with a female protagonist." When her husband and daughter are gunned down in a drive-by, the heroine wakes up from a coma and spends years learning to become a lethal killing machine. On the 10th anniversary of her family’s death, she targets everyone she holds responsible, the gang that committed the act, the lawyers that got them off, and the corrupt cops that enabled the murderous incidents.



The Gotham Group has just optioned Janelle Brown’s recently published suspense thriller Watch Me Disappear. The novel follows a woman who vanishes on a hike in Berkeley, CA and is presumed dead. However, the questions over her disappearance brings up an unsettling thought for her husband: how well can you ever really know another person?



Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman is in talks to star in director Karyn Kusama’s L.A. crime thriller Destroyer. Plot details remain vague, but it’s known that Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote the script and are producing with Kusama, with whom they previously worked on The Invitation and Aeon Flux.



Bestselling author Don Winslow has optioned screen rights to the non-fiction book The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story Of The Biggest Single Payday In The Criminal History Of The Northeast. Winslow plans to write the screenplay, and Shane Salerno will produce through The Story Factory. The Last Good Heist tells the story of how eight armed robbers took down a fur storage company in Providence in 1975 - only their loot happened to include cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins and jewelry that belonged to the local mafia. Winslow’s script will focus on the robbery, the police investigation, and the brutal fallout of a score that rocked the mob to its crooked core.



TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES



Fox chairman Dana Walden revealed that network and producing studio 20th Century Fox TV have started preliminary discussions with 24 executive producers Howard Gordon and Brian Grazer and co-creator Joel Surnow about the next iteration of the series. Plans are to include more anthology storytelling, using the same kind of ticking clock format and apply it to other venues and themes.



In one of its first major buys for next season, CBS has put in development Trident, a submarine drama from writer David Wilcox and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek: Discovery). Written by Wilcox, Trident centers on a mysterious death aboard an American nuclear submarine that tests the mettle of the crew, the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA and causes a crisis that threatens to expose a conspiracy that could trigger World War III.



WGN America has acquired three more international drama series in the crime/thriller genre. They include the 2015 Swedish-American thriller 100 Code, from Oscar winner Bobby Moresco (Crash) and starring Dominic Monaghan (Lost) and the late Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo); the 2016 Canadian police series Shoot the Messenger starring Elyse Levesque (Orphan Black), Lyriq Bent (She’s Gotta Have It), Lucas Bryant (Haven), and Alex Kingston (Doctor Who); and the 2017 Canadian drama Pure, starring Ryan Robbins (Warcraft), Alex Paxton-Beesley (The Strain), A.J. Buckley (CSI: NY) and Rosie Perez (Search Party). All three ran for one season on their original networks.



CBS Reality is delving deeper into the true crime genre. The broadcaster’s fall lineup includes two new original crime series, Click for Murder and Written in Blood, as well as the second season of Murderers and their Mothers. Click For Murder explores murder cases where social media or the internet played an integral role in the crime, while Written in Blood features thriller writer Simon Toyne, who meets other top UK crime writers to discuss how their works of fiction have been inspired by true crime.



FX's birth-of-crack-cocaine crime drama Snowfall has been renewed for Season 2. Set in Los Angeles in 1983, the series follows several people on both sides and at different levels of the drug industry, including entrepreneurial street-level dealer Franklin Saint (Damson Idris); Gustavo "El Oso" Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a Mexican wrestler who gets in too deep while running errands for a crime family; Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson), a CIA operative who starts an ill-advised, unsanctioned operation to use drug money to fund the Nicaraguan Contras and Lucia Villanueva (Breaking Bad's Emily Rios), a crime lord's daughter with grand ambitions of her own.



Fans of the 2012 film Dredd got good news earlier this year with the announcement that the character would be coming to television. Now, the star of the recent film version, Karl Urban, has revealed that he'll probably be back as Judge Dredd in the new series. Joseph Dredd is a law enforcement officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One in North America, who is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals.



APB star Tamberla Perry has booked a recurring role on the fourth season of Amazon drama series Bosch, playing Gabriella Lincoln, a career Internal Affairs detective. The series is based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling Harry Bosch novels and stars Titus Welliver in the title role.



David Barrera (NYPD Blue) has signed on for a recurring role opposite Hugh Laurie in the second season of Hulu’s drama series Chance. The psychological thriller based on Kem Nunn’s novel focuses on Dr. Eldon Chance (Laurie), a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist who reluctantly gets sucked into a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness. Barrera will play Sid Velerio, a weary police detective in charge of an investigation into a body dump on the headlands.



James Carpinello, who guest-starred in the Season 4 finale of NBC’s The Blacklist, will return this upcoming fifth season in a recurring story arc. Carpinello plays Henry Prescott, the handsome, charming, and cool "fixer" who calmly solves problems for powerful and elite clients.



Annabeth Gish's post on Instagram confirmed her FBI character, Monica Reyes, will return in Season 11 of The X-Files. Annabeth Gish isn't the only supporting actor who has signed on for the upcoming season, as Mitch Pileggi has joined up as well, reprising his role as FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner.



TNT has slotted Halloween, October 31 for the Season 6 premiere of its hit crime drama series Major Crimes, and also released a first-look promo. Season 6 will see Cmdr. Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) growing accustomed to her new boss, Assistant Chief Leo Mason (Leonard Roberts) and preparing to face the inexplicable but increasingly undeniable return of Phillip Stroh (guest star Billy Burke), the defense attorney and serial rapist turned serial killer.



PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO



Noir on the Radio host Greg Barth welcomed author Eric Van Lustbader, who has published more than twenty five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear.



Debbi Mack interviewed thriller author Lawrence Kelter on the Crime Cafe podcast about his writing, which has included the Stephanie Chalice and Vincent Gambini thriller series.



The Story Blender chatted with author Douglas Preston about exploring lost civilizations in South America, being the first to enter a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, and researching one of the cruelest serial killers in the world.



Second Sunday Crime host Libby Hellman spoke with Marcus Sakey about his new genre-bending thriller, Afterlife.

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Quote of the Week

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FFB: Death in the Old Country

Eric Wright was born in London, England in 1929 but immigrated to Canada and eventually became chair of the English department and Dean of Arts at Ryerson Institute of Technology in Toronto. Wright penned dozens of stories, many of them crime fiction, and served as editor of Criminal Shorts: Mysteries by Canadian Crime Writers, published in 1992.



Wright created four different detective series, but his most popular series features Charlie Salter, a Toronto inspector suffering from middle-aged depression when he's first introduced in The Night the Gods Smiled in 1983. The book won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, the Crime Writer's Association's John Creasey Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award.



Inspector Salter is an engaging character, self-righteous, outspoken, wise, vulnerable, witty and loving, although there is also an undercurrent of class friction between his police officer status and his wife's wealthy family. The Salter installment Death in the Old Country (1986), which also won the Arthur Ellis Award, finds Charlie Salter and his wife Annie vacationing in merrie olde England while trying to repair their strained marriage. A car accident in the small town of Tokesbury Mallett forces them to find shelter for a few days at the local Boomewood Hotel. At first, they find the unexpected stop to be a blessing, as Annie tours local sights with new friends Maud and Henry Beresford, while Charlie discovers steeplechasing and the local pub.



But the respite is too good to last, as two strange incidents bring a jarring halt to their vacation: a peeping Tom is spying on Charlie and Annie, and an intruder goes through Charlie's coat pockets in their hotel room. Charlie shrugs the incidents off at first, trying to keep his police connections secret, but when middle-aged hotel owner Terry Dillon is stabbed to death, Charlie reluctantly springs into action. He tries to help his British colleague, Inspector Chucher, only to be reprimanded by Chucher's boss, but continues his own investigation on the sly.



The primary suspect is the victim's young Italian wife, who accused her husband of adultery with Canadian hotel guest Miss Rundstedt, but other possibilities include Dillon's proud brother or possibly someone from Dillon mysterious past when he disappeared in Italy during WW II and resurfaced decades later as a wealthy man. Salter's investigations lead to switched identities and blackmail and take him and Annie to Pisa and Florence as they track the victim's shadowy international connections.



Wright is known for his "lucid and agreeably laconic style," as one reviewer put it, and Kirkus adds that "the appeal this time is almost entirely in the trimmings: the English-village charm, the droll peripheral characters, and the Salters themselves—who just may be the most endearingly tart cop-and-wife couple since Roderick Alleyn and Agatha Troy."

            

Mystery Melange

The fourth Noirwich Crime Writing Festival scheduled for September 14-17 has added Val McDermid, Anthony Horowitz, and Martina Cole to the killer lineup that also includes Mark Billingham, Stuart McBride, and Arne Dahl. In addition to the usual panels and signings, the festival will put on a musical interpretation of Derek Raymond’s novel, I Was Dora Suarez, and offer a special screening of the gothic crime drama Real Gods Require Blood, chosen as Critics Choice at the Cannes Film Festival. Participants can also take the city’s crime and punishment walking tour, stay at Agatha Christie’s favourite hotel, browse one of Margaret Attwood’s favorite bookshops, join the Noirwich pub quiz, or take a trip to the dungeons at the medieval Norwich castle.



Faber & Faber has launched a website dedicated to the "beloved" crime writer and author P D James, on the date of the author's birthday. The new site showcases all of James' books, including the Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray mysteries, her standalone novels, short stories, and non-fiction. The books are available to buy from the website, which also houses an extensive archive of annotated manuscripts, photographs of the author throughout her life, first editions and rare book covers, audiobook excerpts, interviews and information about television and film adaptations. (HT to the Bookseller)



The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of the Popular Culture Association have issued a call for proposals for their annual conference. They're seeking proposals for scholarly discussions on all aspects and periods of mystery and detective fiction, including history, criticism, theory, and current trends. The conference will take place March 28-April 1, 2018 in Indianapolis. (HT to Sandra Seamans.)



The Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, is holding another night of chilling crime fiction on August 12 at the KGB Bar. The lineup is TBA but will be hosted by MWA-NY Chapter President Laura K. Curtis, and the event is free and open to the public.



Writers in Ireland and the UK can take advantage of an eight-week course titled "Writing Crime Fiction with Gerard Brennan" to be held in Belfast starting September 28. Brennan earned his PhD in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast and has published award-winning long and short crime fiction, including The Point, which won the 2012 Spinetingler Novella Award.



Scotland's Daily Record wondered about the secret of successful crime writing and invited three internationally bestselling authors, Val McDermid, Lee Child and Dennis Lehane, to give their take on the subject.



Throughout the history of traditional publishing, women have often resorted to using male pen names in order to bypass cultural and professional prejudice to get their books published and read. Now, it seems, the tides have turned; as The Atlantic reported, men have started to adopt female pen names due to the fact that over the last decade, female writers have come to dominate crime fiction, a genre traditionally associated with men.



The Hallmark Channel has jumped onto the self-publishing bandwagon. They're looking for cozy mysteries, romantic suspense, and romance novels of around 70,000 – 85,000 words that celebrate friendship, family, and/or community ties (and have a happy ending). The call for submissions is a bit light on details, however, like royalties, payment, and contracts, so caveat emptor.



When parts of Missouri recently flooded, the Archie Library was left with 4 to 6 inches of standing water throughout the branch, damaging items on the bottom shelves, and ruining the carpet. In addition, computers, computer equipment, and cables were damaged, along with boxes of books meant for children and teens as Summer Reading prizes. They've set up a Go Fund Me page to help, so if you're a fan of libraries, consider making a donation to help out.



It's time once again for the annual Bulwer Lytton Awards for (intentional) bad writing, and there's even a category for detective fiction. Mystery Fanfare has the winning entry and runners-up.



Do you think fictional killers are always male? Emily Temple has a list to show you otherwise.



Writing for Time Magazine, Jeffrey Kluger states that "It Might Be Impossible to Get Away With Crime Some Day," taking a look at the latest in forensic science and what the future holds.



If you're a fan of true crime books, here's a list of fascinating new titles on the subject.



Fun with science: scientists used episodes of Sherlock to study narrative perception in volunteers.



This week, the featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "C.S.I.: My Psyche" by Michael A. Arnzen.



In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People spoke with Danya Kukafka about her debut novel, Girl In Snow, which she began was an undergrad at NYU and finished at 24; the MP's also chatted with Liv Hadden, whose crime novel, The Adventures of Juice Box and Shame, has the style and propulsion of a single issue comic book.

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Author R&R with Michael Pronko

Michael Pronko has won numerous awards for his three collections of writings about life in Tokyo. He has written about Japanese culture, art, jazz, society, architecture, and politics for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times, Artscape Japan, as well as other venues. He has appeared on NHK and Nippon Television and runs his own website, Jazz in Japan. He teaches American Literature and Culture at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo and after class wanders Tokyo contemplating its intensity.

His most recent novel is The Last Train, a mystery-thriller set in Tokyo. (The second in the series, Japan Hand, will be out in February 2018.) When The Last Train opens, Hiroshi Shimizu is perfectly settled into his life investigating white-collar crime in Tokyo. But after an American businessman turns up dead, Hiroshi’s mentor Takamatsu drags him out to the notorious and intriguing hostess clubs and futuristic skyscraper offices of Tokyo in search of a possible killer. When Takamatsu goes missing, Hiroshi teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi as they scour Tokyo’s sacred temples, corporate offices, and industrial wastelands to find out where Takamatsu went and why an average-seeming woman could have been driven to murder. The novel takes an intense look at the nuances of Japanese interpersonal relationships and the power dynamics of gender roles and how women—and men, too—are treated in this ancient society.

Michael stops by In Reference to Murder today to discuss the book and how he goes about researching: 

 

As a writer, I don’t, thankfully, suffer from writer’s block, but I do sometimes suffer from research blockade. That’s the moment where I have to stop to find out what I need to know before I can go forward. That’s not a bad thing, but a natural and necessary part of creating a narrative. Writing my first Hiroshi detective novel, The Last Train, research blockade often put a hold on production to focus on content.

Even though I’ve lived in Tokyo for twenty years, it was sometimes impossible to produce clear, strong sentences (i.e. a “form”) without knowing certain cultural and non-cultural details (i.e. “content”). For example, I can’t elegantly and succinctly describe what a machine lathe looks like without looking at one. I can’t describe a night in a net café without knowing the cost, and I can’t put in a fatal wound without looking at images of a sword cut. I think of research as finding the right content to fill out and improve the form.

It would be nice if all research could be done ahead of time, but it rarely works like that for me. Working on Japan Hand, the second in the Hiroshi series, I first read extensively about America’s military bases in Japan and the history of Japan and America’s military alliance. But, that was not enough. Small details still needed to be checked and added while writing. I can’t just load up the research cart and let it flow. It’s a back and forth process.  

Ongoing research, as I think of it, is not just information about history, dates, or facts, though. It involves much more. To me, in addition to the background textual and informational input, research involves different kinds of content: experience, sensory details, specialized and arcane knowledge, and a lot of self-examination. All these are necessary to produce a good, solid base of research upon which to build prose with energy and clarity and believability.

Experiential research

I love to stand and look and feel places. Since Tokyoites rarely do that, I often look a bit foolish, but that’s OK. It takes time to sink in. Other experiences can be difficult and expensive. An evening at a hostess club can set you back a week’s salary. But to not experience firsthand what it’s like to have beautiful women pouring your drinks and making small talk is to not have done the research. (And for the record, it’s very weird.) For other experiences, like ramen noodle restaurants, I like to sit at the counter slurping and imagining the novel’s characters there. All that ‘research’ soaks into your unconscious and influences the writing of scene, setting, character, and conflict. Other experiential research can be pure chance. I came across the cleaning up of a train suicide twenty years ago. That experience stayed with me and became part of the novel.

Sensory research

This is similar to experiential, but more focused. I often take photos of places I’ll use in my novels. I also search for photos of specific things online. Sensory details put readers in a place and make them feel it more deeply. The smell of a canal, the texture of a rusted staircase, the taste of sake—if I see an image of it, I can more easily conjure it in words. The real world is a hard thing to describe, but sensory input can make a scene come alive, or in the case of a murder scene, become dead. Looking online for photographs or images of places or objects often spurs my sensory memory. That may not seem like research in the traditional sense, but sensory impressions can be as powerful as historical facts.

Specialized research

For my novel Japan Hand, the killer uses a short sword. So, I wanted to experience a sword in person, which was terrifying. I also did a lot of traditional research, like reading the history of swords in Japan, and texts of swordsmen like Takuan Soho and Miyamoto Musashi. But that potentially passive history of swords and theory of swordsmanship was activated by experiencing swords up close. I also ask people who know. One of my friends who studied aikido for decades dropped me to the tatami when I asked him how you flip someone. He just twisted my arm—somehow—and I was down. And yes, it hurt. But, it made it clear how powerful martial arts are. Reading about it or watching a YouTube video doesn’t cause any pain.

Internal research

Inside everyone is a library of emotions, confusions, memories and reactive tendencies. Tapping into that internal catalogue helps to ground the story in an internal world as well as an external world. That can be difficult when a character is entirely different, like the killer in The Last Train, who is a Japanese woman from a working-class background working as a hostess. I’m none of those things, but to achieve emotional veracity, writers must look deeply inside themselves to find human truths and values. Though the protagonist is so different from me, she’s similar in her respect for hard working people, her outrage at unfairness, and her ability to trust herself. (Actually, she’s better at that self-trust thing than me). Except for intimate friends, where else could one research emotions and values except inside oneself?  

Over-research

With any kind of research, there’s the danger of over-research. I know much more about hostesses, swords, train schedules and making ramen (I helped on a couple programs for NHK TV) than I really care to. Research is always inefficient. You end up with too much detail and end up editing out the vast majority. But I think exclusion and editing are part of the writing process. You can’t use it all, but it’s important to know it, so you can choose what has the greatest impact from that research. Choosing well is as important as knowing a lot. As a professor of literature, I know just how to kill students’ interest—tell them everything. Research is more like a spice than the main meat.

Too fresh research

I think there’s also a danger with fresh research. When I started researching swords, I became so enthusiastic I’d write long paragraphs describing the details of the fittings, the way of polishing, the exact way to swing a sword, the long history and fascinating Zen theories. But do readers want to wade through all that? Of course not. Readers want their research contextualized, focused, clarified and juicy. I think researching needs to cure or ferment to have the right flavor.

Fermenting research

Research takes time to reveal its meanings. The researched information itself is maybe less important than the meanings and resonances of the information. When it’s in the conscious mind only, it can end up as an info dump. When it’s put into the unconscious mind, the relevance and deeper meaning of it comes out. Then, it can be succinctly delivered. Research mixed with character, feeling and story is meaningful. Research tends to push my mind into rational, cognitive mode, and I push back to get my mind into narrative flow mode.

Mystery novels draw a lot of their power from the tension of competing elements—researched and non-researched. It’s not knowing all the stops on a Tokyo train line, but setting a chase scene there. It’s not the economics of the night-time world of bars and clubs, but how that affects the characters. Research makes mystery novels gripping by mooring the story to reality. If well-done and thoughtfully included, the researched components keep the story humming with a strong pace, a sincere manner, a balance of emotions and a deep feeling for the world.

 

To find out more about Michael and his new book, The Last Train, check out his website and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. The book is available via Amazon and all major book retailers.

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Media Murder for Monday

August means a lighter than usual roster of crime drama news, but there are still some interesting tidbits to pass along:



MOVIES



New Line Cinema picked up the unique superhero-crime project Pulse, based on an upcoming novel by Michael Harvey. The story follows a teenager investigating the murder of his older brother alongside the police. During this period, and with the help of a mysterious mentor, the young man begins developing a unique ability that helps him uncover the truth and protect himself along the way.



Charlie Gillespie has been cast in Cigarette (f/k/a Speed Kills), the upcoming biopic starring John Travolta as Don Aronow, the speedboat racing champion and multimillionaire who created the Cigarette and other famous speedboats. Aronow lived a double life, which landed him in trouble with the law and drug lords. Gillespie will play Ben Aronow, Don’s teenage son who desperately tries to reconnect with his father.



The rumors around the next Bond film continue to swirl. According to one report, James Bond will travel to Croatia in the 25th installment of the 007 franchise (wt Shatterhand), in which Daniel Craig's spy battles a blind supervillain. Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista will allegedly be reprising their roles as Spectre villains after provisionally agreeing to do the next blockbuster. The film is scheduled to hit cinemas in November 2019.



MGM released the first full trailer for the Bruce Willis-starrer Death Wish, a remake of the gritty Charles Bronson ’70s classic, with Willis taking the role of Dr. Paul Kersey who seeks revenge when his family is attacked.



TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES



Miami Vice is eyeing a return to NBC, after the network put in development a reboot of its signature 1980s action crime drama, with the Fast & Furious duo of Vin Diesel and Chris Morgan producing. The original series starred Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It quickly became a pop culture phenom and ran on NBC for five seasons from 1984-89.



Empire co-creator Danny Strong and writer David Elliot have sold a new legal drama project to FOX, titled Infamy. To be written by Elliot, the script plus penalty commitment for the hourlong pilot, which is said to be a female-led legal drama that focuses on a law firm specializing in tackling wrongful conviction cases and exonerating the innocent.



CBS All Access gave the greenlight to several new shows including $1, a mystery/thriller set in a small rustbelt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing hands connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder. "The path of the dollar bill, and point of view in each episode, paints a picture of a modern American town with deep class and cultural divides that spill out into the open as the town’s secrets get revealed."



WGN America is making another move into the original scripted arena after buying the Canadian drama series Bellevue, starring and executive produced by Anna Paquin. The eight-episode detective drama, set in a blue-collar Canadian town, was created by actress-turned-writer Jane Maggs and director Adrienne Mitchell and also stars Shawn Doyle (Fargo) and Allen Leech (Downton Abbey).



Oscar winner Marlee Matlin has joined the Season 3 cast of ABC’s Quantico. She'll will play Jocelyn Turner, an ex-FBI agent known at one time as the best undercover agent in the field until a bomb blast rendered her deaf. The FBI put her out to pasture, but now she’s being brought back to join a special unit with several other returning characters. (Series regulars Priyanka Chopra, Jake McLaughlin, Johanna Braddy and Blair Underwood are also returning for the third season.)



Michael Ironside (Total Recall) is set for a key recurring role on TNT’s upcoming straight-to-series drama The Alienist, playing J.P. Morgan, the famous American financier and banker. The psychological thriller drama is set in 1896, when a series of gruesome murders of boy prostitutes has gripped the city, and newly appointed top cop Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) calls upon Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), a criminal psychologist — aka alienist — and newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) to conduct the investigation in secret.



Deep State, Fox Networks Group’s first regional scripted commission for Europe and Africa, has added new cast and released a first-look photo as production moves to London. Mark Strong is starring in the eight-part series playing an ex-spy brought back into the game to avenge the death of his son, only to find himself at the heart of a covert intelligence war and a conspiracy to profit from the spread of chaos throughout the Middle East. The new cast hires include Alistair Petrie (Genius, The Night Manager), Anastasia Griffith (Royal Pains, Damages), Amelia Bullmore (Happy Valley), Kingsley Ben-Adir (King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword), Pip Torrens (The Crown) and Fares Fares (Tyrant).



Criminal Minds Season 13 Is bringing back one of its craziest killers, actor Jamie Kennedy, who is returning to reprise his role of the cannibalistic serial killer Floyd Feylinn Ferell, who last appeared in Season 3.



Nia Long has joined the cast of CBS’ veteran crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles as a series regular. She will be introduced in the ninth-season premiere on Sunday, October 1. Long will play Shay Mosely, the team’s new executive assistant director, a character who will fill the void left by the death of NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger (played on the show for five seasons by the late Miguel Ferrer).



Netflix has released the official trailer for the third season of drug cartel drama Narcos, which will see the DEA turn its attention to the powerful Cali Cartel and its four Kings.



The trailer for Season 3 of USA’s Mr. Robot is here and heralds a darker turn for the series. The third season will debut Wednesday, October 11.



If you like your crime fiction on the light-hearted side, The Guardian profiled a new series available via Amazon Streaming, titled Comrade Detective. It’s supposedly a re-mastered and dubbed 1980's Romanian communist buddy cop TV show. But Instead, it’s an "astonishingly high-concept Amazon comedy; a detective spoof written in English, then filmed in Romania with real Romanian actors speaking Romanian, then dubbed back into English using the voices of people like Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jenny Slate, Kim Basinger and Jason Mantzoukas."



PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO



Kate Raphael, host of KPFA's Women’s Magazine podcast and author of two mysteries set in Palestine, talked with crime and suspense writers Judith (JL) Newton (Oink! A Food for Thought Mystery), Amy S. Peele (Cut! A Medical Mystery) and Jennifer Dwight (The Tolling of Mercedes Bell). The four will also be part of a She Writes Mystery tour beginning Friday, August 4.



In the latest A Stab in the Dark podcast, host Mark Billingham chatted with Karin Slaughter about her roots in America's Deep South, how some of the true-life cases from the region have influenced her work, and her new book, The Good Daughter.



THEATER



A Simon Phillips theatrical adaptation of the Hitchcock classic thriller North By Northwest, first seen in Melbourne in 2015, is currently playing at the UK's Theatre Royal Bath through Saturday, August 12. Guardian critic Michael Billington was skeptical at first that such an iconic movie could be re-created on the stage, but he admits this partciular production is "playful, smart and ingenious."



The national tour of the Tony Award-winning adaptation of Mark Haddon's 2003 novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is taking it to the Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre with a run through September 10. The story centers on a 15-year old boy with Asperger's who becomes a suspect in the murder of his neighbor's dog and embarks on an extraordinary journey that pits this amateur detective against the murder mystery culprit.

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Quote of the Week

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