B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 18

Author R&R with Marlene M. Bell

[image error]Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch for her readers, they often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic mysteries and children’s books as characters or subject matter. Marlene is an accomplished artist and photographer who takes pride in entertaining fans on multiple levels of her creativity. Marlene’s award-winning Annalisse series boasts Best Mystery honors for all installments including these: IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, Global Award Best Mystery, and Chanticleer’s International Mystery and Mayhem shortlist for Copper Waters, the fourth mystery in the series.

[image error]In Bell's latest mystery, A Hush at Midnight, former celebrity chef Laura Harris, once celebrated for her show-stopping pastries and irresistible desserts, is now making headlines for a far darker reason:  Laura has been accused of murder. How could this petite chef have brutally smothered beloved small-town matriarch and World War II ferry pilot veteran, Hattie Stenburg? Hattie wasn't just a pillar of the community, she was Laura's confidant and mentor. The shocking twist? Hattie’s Will included recent changes, bypassing next-of kin and leaving her entire fortune and historic estate to Laura. As Laura scrambles to clear her name, she uncovers sinister secrets lurking beneath the town’s idyllic surface. The real murderer is always one step ahead, leaving taunting clues and threatening Laura to leave Texas—or face deadly consequences. With time not a luxury, Laura must untangle the web of deceit before the killer makes her the next victim.

Marlene Bell stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

 

Research for novels has become more of a science for me. After four installments to my Annalisse series, a children’s book, and my new release cozy mystery A HUSH AT MIDNIGHT, I quickly found techniques that didn’t work and gravitated more to those that gave me the true results. Fear of a reader calling a foul on misinformation or bad information in my books has kept me awake many nights. Bottom line: Even though my stories are fiction, the sights, sounds, and actual scenery of the places I write about have to be accurate in order for the reader experience to feel real to that person.

My process begins with a complete outline of my manuscript, scene by scene. I envision each character; where they are, what they’re thinking, and how to leave a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter. Backfilling the sensory information once the outline basics are complete.

When I began to write the first Annalisse novel in 2010, I had no clue where the story was going, nor did I care. My objective was to write a romance. A standalone book. That’s it. It wasn’t until my third draft and wandering subplots I couldn’t keep straight, that a talented developmental editor came to the book’s rescue. She quickly saw the issues and mended my ways. Without an outline as a guide, I couldn’t contain the random elements that did nothing but confuse the reader.

I outline using lined 3 x 5 cards, one card per scene. In a separate diary, I list each character by name and add their characteristics to keep them real and unlike other characters in the book. Also listed are their motivations—what they want from the Main in the book. In my mysteries, I also like to drop a Cast of Characters page in front of the first chapter so that the reader can use it as reference in case they forget a player. A Hush at Midnight has fewer characters than in previous books. The more characters, the harder it is for the reader to recall each one should they show up in the beginning and not again until the mid-point. The Cast of Characters idea was taken from the old Pocket crime books from the 1950s. I hear from readers all the time about that page. It’s an overwhelming success!

How do I make my book locations come to life? Perhaps it’s the generation I grew up in, but I’ve found the old-fashioned methods work best for me. In the age of the internet, I see too many people relying on search results from the giant engines that power the information age. Unfortunately, many top result rankings are paid for by the corporations or individuals who are putting out a narrative. One of their choosing and not always the truth. Sites like Wikipedia and the like are places I tend to steer from because the information is a compilation of information and ideas from others.

Because my books are spiked with sensory details, the best place to obtain images for countries I’ve never traveled to are from the photographers and sightseers who have been there. My favorite place to retrieve the visuals and imagine the landscape are through coffee table books published by photographers who have been on the ground. They explain how it feels to be in the space. Most of the books in the Annalisse series travel to places like Greece, Italy, and New Zealand. Without the visuals and descriptions found in expert’s own published works, I can’t imagine my novels having the realistic feel to them. Readers love to be taken away to places they’ve never been. The more details an author can share, the more their readers will return for the next book.

Many of the stories I write about are based on my own personal experiences. I depend upon the experts to guide me through narratives out of my realm of expertise, such as the next project I’m currently outlining. My husband is an expert in the electric field, and I’ll be relying heavily on his experience—to get it right.

 

You can learn more about Marlene Bell via her website, and follow her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Goodreads. A Hush at Midnight is now available via all major booksellers.

          

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Following a competitive situation, Searchlight Pictures has landed the spec script Clean Break from writer Ryan Brennan and has already begun development on the project. The thriller follows a fiercely independent pool hustler who finally meets her match in a fellow pool shark, and their irresistible but destructive attraction to one another leads to deadly consequences that she can’t outrun.

Focus Features has acquired the sci-fi thriller Hot Spot, the second English-language feature from veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska. Focus will distribute the film in all territories worldwide, excluding Poland, Greece, and France. The project is set in a near-future society ruled by sentient A.I., where a private eye investigates a murder case only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord.





TELEVISION/STREAMING

Another Harlan Coben thriller is coming to Netflix after the streamer gave a series order to I Will Find You. The eight-episode limited series will be adapted from the author’s 2023 novel, by showrunner Robert Hull (Quantum Leap). I Will Find You follows an innocent father serving a life sentence for the murder of his own son. When he receives evidence that his son my still be alive, he is determined to break out of prison to discover the truth. The project is the latest series from Coben under his Netflix deal, following his 2014 thriller Missing You, which is getting the series treatment on Jan. 1, 2025, while other titles Caught and Run Away are in the works. Coben’s other successful series for the streamer include Fool Me Once, Stay Close, The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good, Hold Tight and The Woods. He is also currently writing a thriller novel with Reese Witherspoon, due October 2025.

Prime Video has ordered Silent River, a thriller drama series starring and executive produced by John Krasinski (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and Matthew Rhys (The Americans). The project comes from Krasinski and Allyson Seeger’s production company, Sunday Night, whose first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios has been extended. Told through the viewpoint of two men — played by Krasinski and Rhys — whose lives are far more connected than they realize, Silent River explores the cracks of small-town America in the wake of discovering a serial killer among them.

ITV has reportedly axed two of its primetime crime dramas: The Tower, an adaptation of the novels by Kate London, which starred Gemma Whelan and Emmett J Scanlan and told the story of London-based DS Sarah Collins; and Passenger, which tells the story of what happens in a sleepy Northern village after a local girl disappears, written by Andrew Buchan and starring Wunmi Mosaku, David Threlfall, Rowan Robinson, and Jack James Ryan. (HT to The Killing Times)

Tom Hardy (Venom: The Last Dance), Pierce Brosnan (Die Another Day), and Helen Mirren (The Queen) are officially set as the leads of Guy Ritchie’s new Showtime and Paramount+ series, which is yet untitled. Production of the global crime series, previously known as The Associate (w/t), is currently underway in London. Hardy will star as Harry Da Souza, a professional conciliator on behalf of the Harrigan family; Brosnan will play Conrad Harrigan, the head of a very successful Irish crime family based in London and Harry’s boss; Mirren will play Maeve Harrigan, Conrad’s wife and the Harrigan family matriarch. The logline refers to the project as "an electrifying, new global crime series centered around two warring families based in London whose enterprises stretch to all corners of the planet and the fiercely loyal ‘fixer’ charged with protecting one of them at all costs."

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books for Indigenous Peoples’ Month.

On Crime Time FM, Maxim Jakubowski, Ayo Onatade, Jake Kerridge, Victoria Selman, Paul Burke, and Barry Forshaw discussed their crime fiction best books of the year in "The Great Christmas Debate 2024."

Pick Your Poison host Dr. Jen Prosser investigated the dangers of mistletoe tea and snow flocking spray and the life-threatening complication alcohol can cause in a person who isn’t drunk.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Happy Thanksgiving!

[image error]

          

Mystery Melange, Thanksgiving Edition

[image error]

The winners of the 2024 Historical Writers Association (HWA) Crown Awards were announced, celebrating the best in recent historical writing, fiction, and non-fiction. The 2024 Gold Crown Award was won by Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle, based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi—the greatest female painter of the Renaissance; the Non-fiction Crown Award was Four Shots In the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland by Henry Hemming; and the Debut Crown Award went to The Tumbling Girl: Variety Palace Mysteries Book 1 by Bridget Walsh. You can read about the other finalists in each category here.

Eddie Muller will host NOIR CITY Xmas at Oakland's historic Grand Lake Theatre, Wednesday, December 18, 7:30 pm. To darken your yuletide spirit, the Film Noir Foundation is presenting Who Killed Santa Claus? (L'Assassinat du père Noël), a 1941 French mystery. The evening will also feature the unveiling of the program for NOIR CITY 22, the 22nd year of the world's most popular film noir festival, coming to the Grand Lake Theatre January 24 - February 2, 2025. Tickets for NOIR CITY Xmas are now available online from Eventbrite for $15 and can also be purchased at the theatre box office on the day of the show. Doors will open at 6:30 pm on the day of the event.

Janet Rudolph posted an updated Thanksgiving Crime Fiction list on the Mystery Fanfare blog, featuring novels and short stories with a mix of cozy, noir, and whodunits. King's River Life also has a few Thanksgiving food-themed mysteries for you to chew on.

The authors at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog have some reads and recipes to be thankful for, including Libby Klein's Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Pot Pie; Molly MacRae's Red Wine Honey Cake; Cleo Coyle's Dairy-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes; and the infamous Turducken, courtesy of Maya Corrigan.

I'm a sucker for astronomical mysteries, and Phil Plait, writing for Scientific American, has a fun lesson on why the sky is dark at night and how Edgar Allan Poe figured into the answer to that long-standing riddle.

I'm also a fan of classical music mysteries (and this one hits particularly close to him as it ties in with one of the elements of my own novel, Played to Death): A curator in New York City has identified a lost waltz by Frédéric Chopin, marking the first discovery of music by the renowned 19th-century composer since the 1930s. But is it really Chopin?

In the Q&A roundup, Suspense Magazine spoke with author Jacqueline Bublitz about her latest thriller, Leave the Girls Behind; Writers Who Kill chatted with Jennifer K. Morita about her debut mystery novel, Ghosts of Waikīkī; and Lisa Haselton interviewed Mark L Dressler about his detective mystery novel, Dying for Fame.

         Related StoriesMystery MelangeMystery Melange - Halloween Edition 

Author R&R with Simon Marlowe

[image error]Simon Marlowe is an up-and-coming British crime thriller author, and was a selected author at the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival 2024 (Harrogate International Festivals). A consummate wordsmith, he has excelled as a darkly comic crime author, with his fast paced and action-packed Mason Made trilogy. Like reading a Guy Ritchie movie with a Ken Loach conscience, Simon skillfully blends social and political issues to create a compellingly relevant narrative, on a par with the best in modern crime fiction today. Simon spent his formative years living in South London, indulging in political activism and music, graduating from a number of universities in politics, education and management. He eventually moved back to his home city in Essex, and after studying for a creative writing MA, settled down to developing as a writer. Since 2017, he has been successfully publishing, making people laugh, cry and scream!

[image error]In Marlowe's latest darkly-comic-crime-meets-spy-thriller, The Heart Is A Cruel Hunter, Steven Mason has an axe to grind and just needs to work out who deserves it. Falling fully into the darkness of Hell, Steven lives a crude, rude, cruel, and heartless life in the streets of Amsterdam, cutting himself off from his old life to indulge in drug-fuelled debauchery. In an attempt to reestablish his criminal career during the coronavirus pandemic, he immerses himself into the blood and guts of conspiracy and Far-Right politics, war crimes, and war criminals. But nothing is as it seems, as Steven is propelled by covert love into festering darkness. When faced with an ultimatum, in the form of becoming a member of the ruthless Bloodaxe gang—knee-deep in dealing and drug trafficking— will he pull himself out of the darkness he’s become so accustomed to? Or will he sink even further down?

Simon Marlowe stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing the book and series:

The Heart Is A Cruel Hunter, is the final installment in my darkly comic crime thriller trilogy Mason Made (so check out, The Dead Hand of Dominique – Book One, and Medusa And The Devil – Book Two). And for my protagonists next little adventure, I have Steven Mason, now a jaded drug-fueled criminal, indulging in extremes: personally, professionally (i.e. illegally) and politically.

It may be bold of me to claim the ‘Cruel Hunter’ has captured the zeitgeist of our time, but with Far Right riots, Far Right parties democratically elected in Europe, and Far Right ultra nationalist wars (I’ll leave you to speculate where you think that might be), I felt I would be failing in my thematic duty if I didn’t integrate the political contemporary issue into a bit of crime, murder and mayhem.

Hopefully, if you indulge in purchasing the ebook or paperback (available online from all major retailers!) and you take the obvious next step to read it, you may be surprised to learn that about 90% of the novel is based on fact. Not that I want to stray into Baby Reindeer territory here, because I will say explicitly that the ‘Cruel Hunter’  is a dramatization of Far Right politics, and the ‘facts’ have been integrated to fit into the narrative.

Unfortunately, we are living in a time where nationalism, power, and propaganda are dominant forces, perhaps pushing the world ever closer to some rather unpalatable governing systems. But you’ll be glad to know all is not lost, not if art and literature can be used to laugh at the thugs, tyrants and demagogues.

Mercifully, my anti-hero, Steven Mason, has sufficient moral ambiguity to indulge in criminality whilst retaining a sense of what is right and wrong. Murder, for Steven, is necessary to survive, crime is a way of life (and also happens to pay his bills), but that is nothing compared to the Far Right characters he encounters on a journey that has an underlying purpose which is gradually revealed. Steven may start off unhinged, but that is nothing compared to the bonkers antics of the Far Right criminals and politicians he needs to pander to, characters who are ideologically maladjusted with one thing in common: they think anything that is different should be systematically exterminated.

Perhaps, if we were not living in such strange times, and we considered the Far Right as a poorly psychiatric patient, we would be able to treat them successfully, integrate them back into the community, following a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and grandiose delusions. However, talking therapies in such cases would be ineffective, and any rational doctor would probably recommend large doses of anti-psychotics, a regime of electroconvulsive therapy followed by an irreversible lobotomy. Although I would still worry, that dulled and subdued, the radical conspiracy supremacist, would still be a danger to themselves and others.

But rest assured, Steven Mason has no liberal constraints holding him back. He knows that if he were to ever find himself reading a book called The Heart Is  A Cruel Hunter, and a rabid dog is running towards him, he will throw the book at it to stop it in its tracks.

 

You can learn more about Simon Marlowe and his books by visiting his website and can follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. The Heart is a Cruel Hunter (Mason Made Trilogy Book 3) is now available from the publisher, Cranthorpe Millner, and all major bookstores.

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Michael WolkAuthor R&R with David FinkleAuthor R&R with Alexa Donne 

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Anne Hathaway is set to star in Verity, the upcoming feature from Amazon MGM Studios, which Michael Showalter is directing. Based on the bestseller by Colleen Hoover, the story follows Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who is on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling thriller author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), has hired Ashleigh to complete the remaining books in a successful series his wife is unable to finish after a mysterious accident. Upon arrival at the lavish Crawford estate, Ashleigh slowly learns things aren't as they seem with the discovery of a secret, unfinished manuscript that may divulge chilling admissions about the family’s past. As Ashleigh ingratiates herself with Jeremy and his young son Crew, she must discern if Verity’s writings are merely lurid works of fiction or an ominous warning by a deranged psychopath.

Deadline reported that Philip Barantini is attached to direct Enola Holmes 3 and that franchise star Millie Bobby Brown is expected to return in the title role. Based on the book series by Nancy Springer, the previous two films centered on Enola as she followed in the footsteps of her famous brother, Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), solving mysteries all across London. Plot details about the new pic are unknown, but insiders close to the project say what won over producers when it came to Barantini’s take was to go a little darker and skew a little older. Sources add he pitched this installment as doing for the franchise what Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban did for the Harry Potter series.

Mark Kimsey and Roger Birnbaum's Electromagnetic Productions are developing the feature film, Inconceivable. The project, written by Lauren Black, is a gripping thriller about 38-year-old college professor Sydney Drake, who is determined to obliterate any obstacle in her quest to conceive. She finds an unlikely mark in an unsuspecting student whom she drags into her increasingly unhinged journey as a decades-old secret entwining their pasts threatens to blow up both their lives.





TELEVISION/STREAMING

Apple TV+ has given a green light to Cape Fear, a TV series executive produced by two Oscar winners, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. They are joined by a third, Javier Bardem, who will star and also executive produce. Created by Nick Antosca (The Act), Cape Fear is based on both John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners — which inspired the 1962 feature of the same name directed by J. Lee Thompson from storyboards devised by original director Alfred Hitchcock — as well as the 1991 remake directed by Scorsese. In the 10-episode series, a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (played by Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison. That is a slight departure from MacDonald’s book and the movies where only the husband is a lawyer. In the two features, Max was played by Robert Mitchum (1962) and Robert De Niro (1991). The married couple was played by Gregory Peck and Polly Bergen and Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange, respectively.

Zachary Quinto (Brilliant Minds), Patti LuPone (Agatha All Along), Hank Azaria (Ray Donovan), and Clark Gregg (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) have joined the cast of The Artist, a Gilded Age murder mystery limited series from the free, ad-supported streamer and studio The Network. They join previously announced Mandy Patinkin, Janet McTeer, and Danny Huston. Created, executive produced, written and directed by filmmaker and The Network founder Aram Rappaport, The Artist, set in the twilight of the Gilded Age, follows an ensemble of the era’s celebrities including Thomas Edison (Azaria), Edgar Degas (Huston) and Evelyn Nesbit who meet at the home of Norman Henry, an eccentric and failing tycoon, played by Patinkin, and his wife Marian (McTeer) which ends in his untimely demise.

Scott Foley (Scandal) has joined the cast of ABC's hit series Will Trent in a recurring role. Based on Karin Slaughter’s "Will Trent" series, Special Agent Will Trent (Ramon Rodriguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now, he uses his unique point of view in the pursuit of justice and has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. Season 3 of Will Trent premieres January 7, at 8 pm on ABC and will stream the next day on Hulu. 

The Equalizer is the latest hit CBS series to explore a spinoff, as the Queen Latifah crime drama will introduce two new characters in Episode 516 this season who could anchor their own series. Casting is underway for the roles: a skilled younger female martial artist, weapons expert, and criminologist with a secret origin story who turns to McCall (Queen Latifah) for help, and an older male former top CIA operative. If the offshoot goes forward, its two-hander format would be a departure from the original 1985 Equalizer series, the current CBS reboot as well as the movie franchise, all of which had a single lead, male (first series and movies) and female (the Queen Latifah version).

The BBC, Netflix and co-producer ZDFneo have given the go-ahead for a second season of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, one of the breakout hits of 2024, which stars Emma Myers as the precocious lead, Pip Fitz-Amobi. Based on the popular YA books penned by Holly Jackson, the six-part Season 2 will be taken from Jackson’s second novel, Good Girl, Bad Blood, where Pip is initially determined to stay away from more investigations after solving the Andie Bell case. But as Max Hastings’s trial approaches, key witness Jamie Reynolds suddenly disappears, and Pip finds herself in a race against time to find him.

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR chatted with Christina Lynch about her new novel, Pony Confidential, which is about an unlikely detective: a crime-solving pony who sets off to find his long-lost first owner.

In the latest episode of Spybrary, host Shane Whaley engages in a riveting discussion with historian and author Dr. Claire Hubbard-Hall. Known for her expertise in the history of women in intelligence, Claire brings to light the overlooked yet monumental roles women have played in British Intelligence. Her book titled Her Secret Service – The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence aims to challenge the male-dominated narrative of intelligence history.

The Red Hot Chili Writers discussed Vaseem Khan's latest book, City of Destruction, and chatted about the history of murder, and history's most prolific murderers.

On the Crime Cafe podcast, host Debbi Mack chatted with attorney, playwright, poet, and author Dan Flanigan, whose novels include the Peter O’Keefe hardboiled crime series.

On Crime Time FM, GJ Williams (The Wolf's Shadow), AJ Aberford (The Car Horn Revolution), and Alec Marsh (Cut and Run) chatted with Paul Burke about their latest novels.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "The Jumper" written by John Floyd and read by actor Larry Mattox. This is the first of the podcast's Christmas mysteries this year.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Mystery Melange

[image error]
Book art by Emma Taylor

In an email to Sisters in Crime members, SinC announced that the winner of the 2024 PRIDE Award for emerging LGBTQIA+ writers is Lori Potvin of Perth, Ontario, Canada. Potvin's winning novel-in-progress is a work of contemporary crime fiction.  According to Potvin, "A Trail's Tears follows the stories of two women who are strangers to each other — youth wellness worker Grace, who's looking for Sonny, a missing Indigenous teen mom, and Anna, a street smart young woman caught in the trap of human trafficking and desperate to escape."  Five runners-up were also chosen: Shelley Kinsman of Ashburn, Ontario; Erick Holmberg of Boston, Massachusetts; Emma Pacchiana of Norfolk, Virginia; Langston Prince of Los Angeles, California; and Shoney Sien of Aptos, California.

Amazon has already released its "best of" lists for the year, including those in the Amazon’s "Best Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense Books of 2024," which seems to be broken down into two categories, one for standalones and one for new or continuing series. I suspect the timing of these lists has as much to do with holiday book sales than anything, but you can check out those forty titles here. Washington Post critic Karen MacPherson also compiled a list of her fave top 10 mysteries for the year. Although it's behind a paywell, The Rap Sheet has broken down the details here.

Next year's CrimeFest in the UK, scheduled for May 15-18, will feature an exclusive John le Carré event featuring the author’s two sons: the eldest, film producer Simon Cornwell, who is the CEO and co-founder of the independent studio, The Ink Factory, currently executive producing The Night Manager for Amazon and the BBC, starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman; and Carré youngest son, Nick Harkaway, who recently brought back one of his father’s most famous literary creations, George Smiley, in the new novel, Karla's Choice. Also confirmed for 2025 is the Canadian mystery writer, Cathy Ace, whose Cait Morgan Mysteries have been optioned for TV by the production company, Free@Last TV, which is behind the hit series, Agatha Raisin. Vaseem Khan, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and author of the Malabar House historical crime series set in Bombay, has also been confirmed as 2025’s Gala Dinner’s "Leader of Toasts" for the 2025 CrimeFest award.

In May 2025, Penguin Random House will publish a graphic novel version of Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business (1939) as part of the Pantheon Graphic Library. The creative team behind the project includes writer Arvind Ethan David, illustrator Ilias Kyriazis, and colorist Cris Peter, with a Foreword by Ben H. Winters. In the novella, Philip Marlowe is hired by a female private detective to disentangle a gangster's moll from a rich man's son. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The First Two Pages over at Art Taylor's blog featured Vera Chan with an essay about her story in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024.

In the Q&A roundup, Alex Kenna, whose debut novel, What Meets the Eye, was nominated for a Shamus Award for best first PI novel, applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Burn this Night; Deborah Kalb chatted with Bonnie Kistler, a former trial lawyer and author of the new psychological thriller, Shell Games; and Writers Who Kill's Paula Gail Benson interviewed Saul Golubcow about his new novel with detective Holocaust survivor Frank Wolf and the narrator, Frank’s lawyer grandson, Joel.

         Related StoriesMystery MelangeMystery Melange - Halloween Edition 

Author R&R with Michael Wolk

[image error]Michael Wolk has written screenplays (Innocent Blood, directed by John Landis), theatrical plays and music (Ghostlight 9), and is also a theatrical producer for Broadway (Pacific Overtures, Karate Kid), Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and more. He founded the nonprofit All For One Theater, which has staged over 50 solo shows off-Broadway since 2011, and he directed the award-winning documentary, You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story. He also found time to write the mystery novels, The Beast on Broadway, The Big Picture, and Signet.

His latest project is the cyber thriller, "DevilsGame," which launches today. He didn't want to just write a thriller, he wanted to immerse readers in a story the same way he captures audiences with the stage. So he created something unique: an interactive, multimedia "cyberthriller" that's meant to be read entirely online, blending action, satire, and clickable clues. The story opens with a virtual Blackberry text conversation: a cross-platform virus has swept the globe, turning smartphones into mobile IEDs and causing explosions worldwide. Claire Bodine, a fiery televangelist, and Nathan Rifkin, the cunning mastermind behind the world's most addictive video games, form an unlikely duo as the last line of defense against digital Armageddon. Claire sees the hand of Satan behind the chaos, while Nathan smells a geopolitical conspiracy. Either way, time is running out to get to the bottom of it.

Michael Wolk stops by In Reference to Murder to discuss his innovative creation:

 

It's going to sound strange, but the creation of DevilsGame all began with the realization that I was reading with my thumb. Instead of reading the books piled up by my bedside, I was gazing raptly into my smartphone, scrolling through the events of the day and clicking hyperlinks that added context to the stories I was reading.

I thought: why not write a novel that meets readers like me where they are: on their phones? And why not write a story that employs the “superpower” of hyperlinks to enhance and expand the story?

And it seemed to me the story had to be about an Internet Armageddon that readers would experience the same way we experience REAL crises these days: on our phones, scrolling for the latest developments, then surfing between news sites and social media to get more information—often weaving between fact and fiction without even noticing the boundaries between them!

So DevilsGame became a story about our smartphones going haywire, told on your phone, unfolding “in real-time” through your exploration of the contents of the hero’s smartphone.

I knew I wanted DevilsGame to be a cyber thriller, but it is based on facts that are beyond thrilling – they are terrifying!

In the 24-hour clock of DevilsGame, there is a cascade of hacks that rock the world. Each of the hacks in the book is modeled on an actual, documented attack that was carried out in the past. Each of these attacks were considered “zero day” exploits at the time – meaning hacks that had never occurred before and against which there was no ready defense.

The wrinkle that DevilsGame presents is that all these "greatest hits of hacking" are sequenced one right after the other, with cumulative and catastrophic consequences. My research quickly discovered an internet ecosystem that is astonishingly frail and in deathly peril from bad (state) actors who have already proven they can burrow deeply and often invisibly into its infrastructure.

As I result, I want to share this simple but harrowing maxim:

º Anything connected to the internet can be hacked

º Everything is becoming connected to the internet

º Everything – and everyone – on the Internet is potentially an open book

So please! Protect your data! And don’t entrust your digital life to the “cloud” – keep hard or hard drive copies of your vital information in multiple safe locations! Our entire lives our on the web. Remember the web can easily become a trap that ensnares.

 

You can learn more about Michael and his various projects through his website and also his personal website and follow him on Facebook and LinkedIn. The DevilsGame is live as of today, and you can check it out via this link.

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with David FinkleAuthor R&R with Alexa DonneAuthor R&R with Mel Harrison 

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Prime Video’s upcoming German film, The Calendar Killer (original title Sebastian Fitzeks Der Heimweg), will launch on January 16, 2025. Based on Sebastian Fitzek’s bestselling novel, Walk Me Home, the thriller follows Jules (Sabin Tambrea), who starts his shift on the escort phone, a telephone support line for women to get home safely. Everything looks like a quiet Saturday evening, until he receives a call from a young mother named Klara (Luise Heyer), who claims she will die that very night at the hands of a notorious female killer. So begins Klara’s desperate escape from the so-called Calendar Killer – with Jules on the phone, who is her only hope of salvation.

Gal Gadot has been set to star in The Runner, a London-set action thriller that will be directed by Kevin Macdonald. Amazon MGM Studios has acquired worldwide rights to the film which was developed and will be produced by David Kosse under the veteran exec’s new venture, Rockwood Pictures. Gadot plays a high-powered attorney who must race through London, following the cryptic commands of a mysterious Caller, as she fights against time to save her abducted son.

Charlotte Kirk (Duchess) is set to topline Myra, an indie drug thriller from action director R. Ellis Frazier. Currently in production in Tijuana, Myra follows an ex-gang member (Kirk) who escapes to Tijuana, Mexico with $2 million in bearer bond loot after a botched robbery in Los Angeles. When Tony (Gary Daniels), Myra’s gang leader and long-time lover, realizes he's been robbed, he goes hot on Myra’s trail. Myra has 36 hours to cash out the bonds, emancipate herself from the gang, and start her new life. However, Tony isn’t her only adversary. Also trailing her are local gang leader (Roberto Sanchez) and a corrupt cop (Corin Nemec), proving the time-honored point that blood money comes with a heavy price.

Zack Snyder is set to reteam with Netflix on an untitled project about the Los Angeles Police Department, in early development at the streamer. The film co-written by Snyder and Kurt Johnstad, longtime collaborators on projects like 300 and Rebel Moon, is set in a high-stakes world of life and death, watching as an elite LAPD unit is relentlessly confronted with the unforgiving collision of law and morality.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Acorn TV’s fan-favorite detective crime drama, Dalgliesh, returns on Monday, December 2 in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The third season, consisting of six episodes, is based on three of the novels from P.D. James’s bestselling murder mystery series featuring Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, with Bertie Carvel (The Crown) reprising his role as the enigmatic titular investigator. Season 3 is made up of three distinct mysteries, each two episodes long, with the first, Death in Holy Orders, premiering on Monday, December 2; the second, Cover Her Face, which marks Carvel’s directorial debut, premiering on Monday, December 9; and the third, Devices and Desires, premiering on Monday, December 16. Carlyss Peer (The Crown) and Alistair Brammer (House of the Dragon) both return to the series as Detective Sergeants (DS) Kate Miskin and Daniel Tarrant, respectively.

Acorn TV is also co-producing an adaptation of Reverend Richard Coles's bestselling book, Murder Before Evensong. The book was published in 2022 and introduces Canon Daniel Clement, a rector of Champton who becomes embroiled in a murder case when a cousin to a church patron is found stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs. Canon Daniel Clement has gone on to feature in three other of Coles’s cozy crime novels, including Murder at the Monastery and A Death in the Parish.

The new thriller series based on another book by Harlan Coben finally has a Netflix release date. The limited series, Missing You, which will be released on New Year’s Day, is the author’s latest on-screen collaboration with the streamer, following other series Stay Close, Fool Me Once, and The Stranger. Per the logline: Eleven years ago, Detective Kat Donovan’s fiancé, Josh — the love of her life — disappeared, and she hasn’t heard from him since. Now, swiping profiles on a dating app, she sees his face, and her world explodes all over again. Josh’s reappearance forces her to dive back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder and uncover long-buried secrets from her past.

Gabriel Basso will return as Peter Sutherland in Netflix's The Night Agent for Season 2 on January 23. Based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent's freshman season followed low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast-moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office. The Season 1 finale saw Peter take off from D.C. in a private jet on his first mission as a Night Action spy. Season 2 picks up as he’s shooting through the streets of an Asian city before he, returning Season 1 cast member Luciane Buchanan, and new series regular Amanda Warren, are seen against New York’s skyline in subsequent episodes. Warren will portray Catherine Weaver, a veteran of the top-secret Night Action investigative program, who trains and oversees various Night Agents.

CBS has set winter premiere dates for new and returning series on its 2024-25 primetime schedule, including Tracker, Matlock, Elspeth, The Equalizer, and the FBI and NCIS franchises, as well as the new medical drama, Watson starring Morris Chestnut, which premieres January 26 following the AFC Championship game.

CBS has revealed the series finale date for Blue Bloods, which is ending its run after 14 seasons, set to air on Friday, Dec. 13 at 10 p.m. on CBS. The finale will follow a retrospective special, Blue Bloods: Celebrating a Family Legacy, which will look back on 293 episodes of the beloved series, on Friday, Nov. 29 at 9 pm (also live and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

PODCASTS/RADIO

Crime Time FM's latest episode is a review show as host Paul Burke takes a look at a dozen different recent crime fiction releases.

On the latest Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser takes a look at a disease that affects both sea lions and humans and a toxin that inspired a horror film and has also been used as a deworming agent.

On Tipping My Fedora, Sergio Angelini was joined by author and critic, Mike Ripley. to look at a tale of two tigers, or rather, two versions of The Tiger in the Smoke: the original 1952 novel by Margery Allingham featuring her sleuth Albert Campion, and its film noir adaptation from 1956 that, despite being mostly very faithful, chose to completely eliminate her recurring protagonist.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed their 2024 holiday gift guide featuring their picks of mysteries and thrillers.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Author R&R with David Finkle

[image error]David Finkle has covered the arts and politics for The New York Times, The New York Post, The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The New Yorker, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and The Huffington Post, among others. He is author of the story collections, People Tell Me Things and Great Dates With Some Late Greats, as well as the mystery novel, The Man With the Overcoat, called one of the ten best novels of the year by Foreword magazine. His latest mystery, released today, is The Great Gatsby Murder Case.

[image error]On a beautiful spring day in New York City, writer Daniel Freund finds a long-sought-after 1953 edition of The Great Gatsby, free for the taking on the steps of a brownstone down the block. But when he brings home his treasure, the words on the page begin to glow, and a hand appears out of the pages sending Daniel secret messages. Prompted by The Great Gatsby itself, Daniel begins his own investigation. Accompanied by a hardheaded retired police detective and a nosy-body neighbor, he works to unfold the pieces of this supposedly solved case. He knows a murder took place, the book told him so, so why is everyone else convinced it was suicide?

David Finkle stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing the book:

 

How did I come up with the idea for The Great Gatsby Murder Case and then follow-up with any research? Beats me. Well, almost beats me.

There I was walking down my street one day, thinking about I don’t know what. Maybe wondering whether I’d remembered to pick up everything I needed at Gristede’s or some household notion along those lines. And that’s when suddenly—just like that—a random idea popped full-blown into my head: Why not write a mystery set on this street?

It's not that I’d ever written a  mystery before. I’ve read them, of course. I love mysteries and respect the authors like crazy. From teenagery I’ve been obsessed with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and mystery writers right up to today. As a one-time regular contributor to Publishers Weekly, I’ve even interviewed Patricia Cornwell, a terrific interviewee.

But writing one? It’s crossed my mind but never more than fleetingly, usually because, as I analyze it, mysteries are the one genre where writing isn’t ready to begin until the complete plot has been worked out down to every last detail and clue. Am I wrong about that?

When, however, that write-a-mystery thunder bolt jolted me, it didn’t come outfitted with a plot. Just the cute go-ahead-and-write-one prompt. The subsequent mental monologue started, as I recall, with a celebratory, “Why not?” and was succeeded by, “I know I’ll need a tight plot, but so what?”

I’d just published my last novel—Keys to an Empty House (Plum Bay), having to do with family, father-son stuff—and wasn’t at work on the next one.  I say “at work,” whereas I often regard writing as “at play.” Why shouldn’t writing be play, depending on the content intent?

Authors are often described as at work, but often, when I’m writing, I’m having fun. What I’m doing seems more like play than work. Mightn’t writing a mystery feel like play? I was, right then, prepared to play.

That settled within those first fast-paced seconds on the street, I was percolating. (I grew up when coffee was still brewed in percolators.) And I was still ambling—but more slowly—towards my building and second-floor apartment when something else grabbed me.  If I set the mystery on my block, why not make the detective an amateur like myself? And had I ever learned there had been a mystery on my block, and had I ever furthermore learned there’d been a murder and/or murderer on the block, how would I go about solving it?

Then, the pressing query became, “How would I learn about  the murder or murderer?” Perhaps the obvious answer is that someone on the block mentioned it to me, but one of my quirks is: I’m not generally happy with the obvious. I try to avoid it. My mind goes farther afield. What occurred to me about the origins of my murder/murderer information that wouldn’t be obvious: A book.

A book!? Yes, again out of nowhere I thought a book was clearly the thing. But what book? Millions were available to me. But one pressed forward urgently: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby. Why so suddenly, so completely right? Many of us know its history. Published in 1925, some years after Fitzgerald  left Princeton—where he surely knew Jay Gatsby-Nick Carraway-Tom Buchanan types—the novel was not an immediate success. His first, This Side of Paradise, was. Nonetheless, the initial movie adaptation was 1926. (Scott and Zelda walked out of a screening.) To date there have been three more. By the 1930s, book sales faded more precipitantly but were revived in the 1950s and remain staggering today.

But more than any of that, The Great Gatsby is, in my opinion, the best American novel of the twentieth century. It’s the word-perfect obvious choice. (Here, I broke my rule and did reach for the obvious.) I figured if I settle on this one for the book in my forthcoming mystery, I get to re-read it, a pastime I indulge every couple of years.

I now hurried home, immediately sat down with the 1953 paperback edition from my collection and started perusing. Don’t you know that on the very first page the words “victim” and “detect” leaped out? What more did I need to convince me I was on the right mystery track? All I had to do next was start writing. The plot would come to me.

As would any necessary research. And now a confession: I’m not an inveterate researcher. I kept it to a minimum, which isn’t easy where a mystery is concerned. One helpful aspect: Poison wouldn’t be involved, as it so often is with Christie. Guns were. I had to find out about, for instance, Glocks and Magnums. I did. I had to check out police procedure. Luckily, there’s a precinct half a block from me, where officers are often seen walking to or from or standing around the entrance. I quizzed one or two of them. More? Part of the New York City story branches out to Dayton, Ohio, about which I know some but not all. I pegged answers by calling the Dayton Daily News.  

But enough of that. It all paid off, and now as The Great Gatsby Murder Case—with Fitzgerald’s masterpiece accounting for some of its solution—is here.

 

You can learn more about David Finkle and his writing via his website, enjoy his podcasts on The Hour of Lateral Thinking, and follow him on Facebook and Goodreads. The Great Gatsby Murder Case is now available via all major booksellers.

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Alexa DonneAuthor R&R with Mel HarrisonAuthor R&R with Michael Cohen