B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 189
January 20, 2017
FFB: A Night at the Cemetery
A doctor by trade, although better known for his classic plays like The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov actually began his literary career writing stories, many of which were in the psychological suspense vein. They were published in a wide variety of periodicals and literary publications, many under the pseudonym of Antosha Chekhonte and mostly written to pay the bills to help put him through medical school. It's not a big a leap as many would suspect—Chekhov worked for a time with police assisting with autopsies in criminal investigations.
Peter Sekirin, who works at the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Toronto, collected 42 of these stories and compiled them into "A Night in the Cemetery," published in 2008. As Otto Penzler pointed out for the New York Sun, these are not mystery stories as you may think of them, containing "A lot of drunken behavior, frequently resulting in forgetfulness, which leads to a kind of 'mystery,' as in: What happened? There are occasional policemen, and they invariably leap to erroneous conclusions. Apparent crimes have other, frequently humorous, explanations. Terrors brought on by seemingly supernatural occurrences derive from comical misunderstandings."
Present throughout the collection, even among these early works, are Chekhov's penetrating psychological insight and microscopic views into the absurdity of human nature. His characters here, as in his mature works, are more often than not passive, weak and irrational, although they yearn to make things better or find ways to justify their existence.
In "The Swedish Match," which pokes fun at deductive reasoning, a pair of bumbling detectives find their suspect list growing as they investigate a bizarre murder case after finding "evidence" that the victim was strangled and carried out the window, then later stabbed in the garden to finish him off. The trail leads to the police superintendent's young wife, although not everything is at it seems; in the comically macabre tale, "A Night of Horror," a man finds a pink-glazed coffin in his apartment. His distress only increases as he runs to one friend and then another to find more coffins appearing in apartments.
Other offerings include "A Crime: A Double Murder Case," which is short, but interesting as an early example of noir; "Thieves," a simple-minded doctor's assistant falls among a temptress and robbers which leads to a personal meltdown as "He realized that it was only due to his lack of opportunity that he had not become a thief or a cheat."; and "The Drama at the Hunt," one of the longest stories in the collection, which revolves around three men who love the same woman, ultimately leading to betrayal, humiliation and murder.
As with all translations, I find it frustrating not to be multilingual so I can read them in the original language (I once tried to teach myself Cyrillic, with less-than-steller results), wondering about all the subtleties and authorial voice I'm missing. These stories generally show signs of a young writer coming into his own, but even a young Chekhov in translation creates characters who will stay with you.
January 18, 2017
Mystery Melange
This year's list of nominees for the Left Coast Conference's Lefty Awards have been announced, including the Lefty for Best Humorous Novel honorees: Donna Andrews, Die Like an Eagle; Ellen Byron, Body on the Bayou; Timothy Hallinan, Fields Where They Lay; Heather Haven, The CEO Came DOA; Johnny Shaw, Floodgate; and Diane Vallere, A Disguise To Die For. For all the categories and finalists, check out the Mystery Fanfare site. The 27th annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 16–19, where Faye Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman will be honored with Left Coast Crime Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The Center for Fiction in New York City's next CFA Master Class will be with Scottish crime author Ian Rankin on Tuesday February 7, 2017. Rankin's Inspector Rebus series turns 30 this year, and he will delve into his decades of experience writing the series and crime fiction in general as part of the class.
Fans of the historical mystery TV series Miss Fisher should take note: a new convention, Miss Fisher Con, is headed to Las Vegas' Vdara Hotel from May 4-7, 2017. Events will include discussion sessions, a costume contest, scavenger hunt, and more. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)
Miss Fischer fans (of the TV series or the original book series by Kerry Greenwood) may also be interested to hear that Tin Man Games plans to release the graphic novel Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze later this year.
of the Crime Writers' Association in the UK, Martin Edwards, in what also happens to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of his joining the CWA. The organization hosts several events each year, as well as advocating for authors and sponsoring the prestigious Dagger Awards. Edwards is the first person to hold that position and the presidency of The Detection Club (founded in 1930 by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and others) simultaneously.
Author and editor Paul Brazill announced that A Twist of Noir is back and seeking stories of 1000 words or less in any genre as long as there is a crime and noir theme. Meanwhile, the new website is up with some stories to tide you over. (HT to Sandra Seamans.)
Former HLN host Nancy Grace has launched a new crime news website called Crime Online, which bills itself as an "intersection of crime-reporting and crime-fighting." Grace’s new digital media venture includes a podcast and will allow readers to engage by providing their own input and theories.
Washington Post book reviewer Maureen Corrigan took exception to the recent spate of suspense books with "girl" in the title, adding that "When an old dame like Jessica Fletcher displays more sang-froid in confronting the psychopaths of Cabot Cove than most of these girls do in routinely opening their refrigerators, perhaps it’s time for less malady and more moxie in female suspense fiction."
One of the fictional stars of Spanish crime fiction, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s gourmand private eye Pepe Carvalh, is getting a new case in a novel by Carlos Zanón. Zanón takes up the story line of Carvalh thirteen years after the death of Montalbán with the blessing of the author's family and publishers.
As the Agatha Christie commemorations continue (from 2016) for her 125th anniversary and also the 100th anniversary of Poirot's debut, Emily Temple compiled a list for LitHub of "30 Essential Crime Reads Written by Women in the Last 100 Years" In honor of Dame Agatha.
If you'd like to explore the works of female crime writers even further, the Mystery People's Molly Odintz compiled a list of fifty such mystery novel titles.
The Strand Magazine put together a list of the "Top 8 Mysteries set in China," selected for historical and social interest.
If legal crime thrillers are more your thing, Peter Manus profiled the genre and picked his "favorite lawyers in crime fiction."
It's amazing what people had the time to do before television and the Internet. As an example, check out these "40 Hidden Artworks Painted on the Edges of Books."
The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "You Tell Me" by David Spicer, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "Creepy" by Alec Cizak.
In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People welcomed Richard Newman, whose Graveyard Of The Gods made their list of the Top 5 Debut Crime Novels Of 2016, as well as author Tim Bryant (author of the P.I. Alvin "Dutch" Curridge series), and author Mette Ivie Harrison; and Jeffrey E. Seay stopped by Omnimystery News to talk about his latest thriller featuring NCIS Special Agent Ruben Carver.
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January 16, 2017
Media Murder for Monday
AWARDS
The British Academy Film & Television Awards, or BAFTAs, announced lists of the best films of the year. There aren't many crime dramas in the running, but multiple nominations were handed out to both the neo-noir psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals and the science fiction mystery film Arrival, as well as leading Oscar contenders La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Nocturnal Animals.
The Directors Guild of America announced awards for film and TV excellence in direction. On the film side, the honorees reflected the BAFTAs and Golden Globes already announced, while on the TV side, the crime drama nods included Ryan Murphy and John Singleton, both nominated in the Drama Series categories for episodes from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story; Raymond de Felitta for Madoff; and Steven Zaillan for The Night Of.
MOVIES
The cast of Ocean's 8 is welcoming late night talk show host James Corden to the cast, playing an insurance investigator who grows suspicious of the ladies’ plan to mount a large-scale act of thievery in New York City. The all-star cast includes Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, and Helena Bonham Carter.
Warner Bros. has released the first official trailer for CHiPS, a feature length comedic adaptation of the 1970s-80s NBC TV drama about motorcycle cop partners in the California Highway Patrol based out of Los Angeles.
TELEVISION
AMC and the BBC are re-teaming with The Ink Factory for a limited adaptation of another John le Carré bestselling novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, with Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) set to write the adaptation. This is the first TV series treatment for the book, which was the basis for the 1965 Paramount feature film starring Richard Burton. Le Carré, who served as a writer along with Paul Dehn on the 1965 film, will also executive produce the TV project.
Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids, has landed ABC’s first pilot order of the season with an untitled project starring Reba McEntire. She'll play Ruby Adair, the sheriff of a colorful small Kentucky town, who finds her red state outlook challenged when a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent is sent to help her solve a horrific crime. Together they form an uneasy alliance as Ruby takes the agent behind the lace curtains of this Southern Gothic community to meet an assortment of bizarre characters, each with a secret of their own.
Lifetime has put in development the psychological thriller You, based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel of the same name. It is described as "a 21st century love story about an obsessive, yet brilliant twenty-something who uses the hyper connectivity of today’s technology to make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him."
Four days after TNT’s drama Good Behavior ended its 10-episode first-season run, the show has been picked up for a fall 2017 second season. The series, based on a series of books by Blake Crouch, tells the story of Letty Raines (Michelle Dockery), a thief and con artist whose life is always one wrong turn or one bad decision from implosion. Fresh out of prison, Letty tries to stay afloat but gets sucked back into the criminal world when she overhears a hitman being hired to kill a man’s wife and decides to derail the job, with the help of her parole officer (Terry Kinney).
Dakota Fanning is set as the female lead opposite Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans in TNT’s upcoming straight-to-series drama The Alienist, based on the international best-selling novel by Caleb Carr. The psychological thriller is set during the Gilded Age of New York City in 1896, where newly appointed police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls upon criminal psychologist (aka alienist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl)) and newspaper reporter John Moore (Evans) to conduct a secret investigation into a series of haunting, gruesome murders. Fanning will play a headstrong NYPD secretary named Sara Howard, who helps her colleagues investigate the murders.
Weeds alum Hunter Parrish has booked a major recurring role in ABC drama series Quantico, playing a political strategist forced to join forces with the CIA and FBI during the aftermath of the G20 hostage crisis.
Meredith Eaton (Boston Legal) has joined the cast of CBS’ MacGyver remake as a series regular, playing Matty Webber, the new director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation. Mac (Lucas Till) and the team, with the exception of Jack (George Eads), are excited to meet their new boss, who is known as a legend in Covert Ops.
Shots Fired, Fox’s 10-hour event series, will debut at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. The show, from executive producers Gina Prince-Bythewood, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, examines the dangerous aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a small Southern town.
Showtime president and CEO David Nevins revealed at the Television Critics Association winter previews that David Lynch's reboot of Twin Peaks will premiere with a two-hour episode Sunday, May 21 on Showtime, while a new trailer for the series was also released. The project picks up twenty-five years after the original Twin Peaks when the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town were stunned after their homecoming queen Laura Palmer was shockingly murdered.
20th Century Fox TV is circling a revival of the Emmy-winning 1980s NBC legal drama L.A. Law, with original series co-creator Steven Bochco conceiving the project as set in 2016 Los Angeles and revolving around new characters (young lawyers), while also featuring several characters from the original series as bosses.
The X-Files sequel is closer to becoming a reality, according to Fox entertainment president David Madden, although many details need to be worked out before it actually comes to fruition. Fox chairman Gary Newman also commented on the fate of Wayward Pines, noting that it wasn't dead yet, but won't be returning this summer.
One show not closer to reality is the proposed TV adaptation of the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction (starring Michael Douglas and Glen Close), which has been shot down due to "casting issues."
The first trailer was released for Snatch, Crackle’s upcoming original scripted series based loosely on the 2000 Guy Ritchie-directed crime/comedy film of the same name. Set to premiere on Crackle on March 16, the 10 episode series (supposedly inspired by a real-life heist), stars Harry Potter's Rupert Grint and follows a group of twenty-something hustlers who stumble upon a truck load of stolen gold bullion and are thrust into the high-stakes world of organized crime.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Screenwriter Nina Sadowsky joined Alex Dolan on Thrill Seekers to discuss her first novel, Just Fall, which is currently being adapted for a series on the Starz network.
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed three more women authors in the "Nasty Women of January: Female Crime Fiction Writer" series: Danielle Girard, the author of nine novels, including Chasing Darkness and Savage Art, as well as The Rookie Club series; Elizabeth Heiter, who writes a series featuring FBI profiler Evelyn Baine; and organized-crime thriller writer Dina Santorelli.
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January 14, 2017
January 13, 2017
FFB: Cast for Death
British author Margaret Yorke (1924-2012) was a prolific writer, averaging one novel a year for four decades, with 44 titles published in English and over 450 reprints in other languages. Her popularity in Sweden culminated in the Swedish Academy of Detection presenting her with its Martin Beck award in 1982, and she was also the recipient of the 1999 Crime Writers Association Cartier Diamond Dagger.
Although most of Yorke's novels were standalone works of suspense, in 1970 she created her one serial protagonist, Oxford English literature don and amateur sleuth Dr. Patrick Grant, who appeared in five total novels including Silent Witness (1972), Grave Matters (1973), Mortal Remains (1974) and Cast for Death (1975). Yorke chose the fictional St. Mark's College as Grant's employer and often called on her own job as a college librarian for setting and character details.
Yorke's novel Cast for Death is the final installment featuring the handsome, absent-minded professor Grant, who has a habit of quoting Shakespeare. In fact, Yorke herself once admitted she was "nutty about Shakespeare and mad about Macbeth." The plot centers on the death of actor Sam Irwin, whose body is discovered in the River Thames, an apparent suicide. Grant, who is a friend of Irwin, doesn't buy the suicide angle. After all, why would Irwin have taken his own life shortly before opening in a new play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford?
In pursuing the truth, Grant links seemingly unconnected events including the death of a dog, a second suicide and a series of art robberies. Ultimately, Grant's very life is threatened in a denouement concert at the Festival Hall after he uncovers a deception of theatrical proportions. But Grant's personal philosophy drives him in his quest, mirroring a quote from Edmund Burke used toward the end of the novel, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
During her life, Yorke was also a passionate supporter for public libraries in the U.K. and in 1993 was presented with the Golden Handcuffs award by the British library service for becoming the most-borrowed author.
January 11, 2017
Mystery Melange
Jeffery Deaver has been elected as the new president of the Mystery Writers of America, and if you're in the area of New York City on January 13 from 6-8 p.m., you can attend the MWA’s National Board of Directors for its annual party at Mysterious Bookshop and meet Deaver and fellow authors. Currently, those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Frankie Y. Bailey, Laura K. Curtis, Hannah Dennison, Laura Durham, Lyndsay Faye, Daniel Hale, Thomas Hopp, Harry Hunsicker, Laurie R. King, Allison Leotta, Larry Light, Elizabeth Little, Jeffrey Marks, Tony Perona, Lori Rader-Day, Manuel Ramos, J.M. Redmann, Mark Stevens, Charles Todd, Maggie Toussaint, and Mo Walsh.
From Martin Edwards , I learned of a new event in the UK: Alibis in the Archives, which will be held at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Flintshire, June 9-11. The event will celebrate the launching of the Crime Writing Archive at Gladstone's Library, which is actually two separate but distinct archives, one for the Crime Writers' Association and the other for the Detection Club.
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned the possibility of an Inspector Rebus festival, thanks to the efforts of his creator, author Ian Rankin. It appears the speculation has become reality, with RebusFest now scheduled for June 30 to July 2 in Edinburgh. With Rankin himself serving as curator, there will be interactive events, tours of the city, live music, and talks on Edinburgh’s history and its influence on the author.
Gerald So, editor of the Five-Two Weekly blog focusing on crime-themed poetry, is seeking more unpublished poems for the February 2017 Valentine's/passion/love theme, with a deadline of Saturday, January 21. He's also accepting regular submissions at the same time.
Submissions opened January 1 for the annual Al Blanchard Award for short crime fiction. Sponsored by the New England Crime Bake conference, the award winner receives a cash prize, Publication in Level Best Books’ Crime Fiction anthology, and admission to the conference. For contest guidelines and submission information, head on over to the Crime Bake website.
Mike Ripley has published his latest monthly "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine, with both a look forward (with New Year's "Resolutions") and a look back to 20 years ago when he was commissioned to write two "Crime Guide columns for the Daily Telegraph with book recommendations.
Literary detective Heather Wolfe, who author James Shapiro called the "Sherlock of the library," thinks she's cracked the case of Shakespeare’s identity, thanks to her passion for manuscripts that helped unravel mystery of who the bard really was. Of course, many other claims, such as , this, and this have different opinions on the subject.
Speaking of Sherlock The British Newspaper Archive blog looks at Sherlock Holmes in newspapers, including a peek into the re-creation of 221B Baker Street in London's Sherlock Holmes pub, and Arthur Conan Doyle discussing the fallout following publication of "The Final Problem." (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)
Also, the BBC is launching #SherlockLive, an interactive mystery that you can play along with on Twitter.
The British Library Crime Classics Series, which has recently published re-releases of several neglected and mostly-forgotten mystery novels, has proven to be quite popular with some rather impressive sales numbers. Martin Edwards, who is an editor for the series, has mentioned the series, and the UK Bear Alley Books blog also highlights the series this week, noting that the series may stand out with "a selection of delightfully old-fashioned covers and with no Poirot or Marple on the TV at the moment, maybe readers who enjoy a cosy murder mystery are looking elsewhere for their devilishly clever murders and drawing room revelations."
While we're still on the other side of The Pond, check out this list of "10 Irish Crime Fiction Novels You Didn't Know You Needed in Your Life."
Although the infamous Black Dahlia cases in California grabbed all the headlines in 1947, there was another case a month later, the "Lipstick Murder," which was equally shocking but remains unsolved, a "mere footnote in the annals of L.A. noir," as the LA Weekly reports.
In the UK, one used-bookseller is charging customers to browse in his shop as a way of fighting back against online shopping with the traditional weapon of his trade - misanthropy. The Guardian's Stephen Moss explains why that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If you loved the supernatural and psychological twist on the FBI/law enforcement crime theme in The X-Files television series, then Book Riot has a list of ten books just for you.
Otto Penzler selected his five crime and mystery picks for January, including Sandrone Dazieri, Peter Swanson, Agatha Christie, and more.
Perhaps you are more of a fan of unreliable narrators? If so, here are ten books that will tickle your psychological fancy.
Did you ever catch yourself thinking that the whole gun-in-a-violin case cliche was so passé? Well, maybe not so much: a woman walking in the woods near the Boathouse at Fletcher’s Cove along the C&O Canal in Washington, D.C. found a violin case containing at least one firearm, and police said they discovered other weapons nearby.
The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Broken Window Theory" by Peter M. Gordon.
In the Q&A roundup, thiller author Lesley Welsh took Paul D. Brazill's "Short Sharp Interview" challenge; the Mystery People held a Q&A with Ed Lin about his Taipei night market mysteries; and Ragnar Jónasson stopped by Shots Ezine to answer questions about his new book, Rupture.
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January 9, 2017
Media Murder for Monday
Happy Monday and welcome to a new week of crime drama news:
AWARDS
The Golden Globes were handed out last night, with La La Land leading the way with the most wins overall. On the crime drama side, The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story won for Best Dramatic Limited Series, with Sarah Paulson from the show also winning Best Actress in that category, and Tom Hiddleston winning for Best Actor in a Dramatic Limited Series for The Night Manager. Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman were also honored for their roles in The Night Manager, based on the novel by John le Carré. Billy Bob Thornton also won Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series for his role in Goliath.
The Writers Guild of America unveiled its film nominations in three categories — Original, Adapted and Documentary — for the 2017 WGA Awards, set for February 19 in simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.
The American Cinema Editors announced the nominees for the best-edited films of 2016 for the 67th ACE Eddie Awards. The awards have proven to be a reliable predictor of success in one of the most crucial Oscar categories. Nominations also included lists of the best-edited television programs for 2016.
Likewise, the Producers Guild announced nominees in the categories of children's programs, longform television, sports programs, and digital series for the annual PGA Awards, which will be handed out January 28. Nominees for documentaries were made in November, and nominations for theatrical motion pictures and animated theatrical motion pictures will be unveiled tomorrow. The TV honorees include series Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, House of Cards, Westworld, Black Mirror, and Stranger Things; crime dramas were particularly well represented in the longform category, including The Night Manager, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Sherlock: The Abominable Bride.
MOVIES
Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy are in talks to star in Paramount’s Triple Frontier, the Mark Boal-scripted thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. This is the film that Katherine Bigelow once planned to direct (the new helmer is JC Chandor), and which at one time Tom Hanks and Will Smith and Johnny Depp have all been in discussions to join the cast.
Willem Dafoe has stepped aboard 20th Century Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express, joining the growing all-star cast in the ensemble piece that includes Kenneth Branagh (as Poirot), Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Michael Pena, Leslie Odom and Lucy Boynton. Dafoe will play undercover detective Gerhard Hardman in the hotly anticipated Agatha Christie adaptation that's also being directed by Branagh.
Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are on board the new action thriller, Black Water, which will follow a deep cover operative (Van Damme) who wakes up to find himself trapped in a CIA black site on board a submarine.
Sony’s comedic take on Sherlock Holmes has signed on Hugh Laurie and Ralph Fiennes to join the cast. (The film has nothing to do with the Guy Ritchie reboots starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law or the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.) The satirical take on Conan Doyle's characters stars Will Farrell, with direction from Etan Cohen, who also wrote the screenplay.
TELEVISION
Harold Perrineau, of Constantine and Lost fame, is heading to Criminal Minds for a major recurring role in Season 12. It will be a little later in the season, but he'll be playing a former FBI agent named Calvin Shaw who's behind bars for the murder of one of his informants. Shaw will enter the storyline for a run-in with an unnamed BAU agent, after which the squad has to make a judgment call on whether Shaw is on their side or not.
Veteran character actor Gerald McRaney has joined Fox’s 24 franchise reboot 24: Legacy as a series regular, playing Henry Donovan, the father of presidential candidate John Donovan (Jimmy Smits). A powerful oil man and passionately devoted father, Henry is dedicated to putting his son in the White House, no matter what the obstacles.
Bones showrunners discussed how they will bring Booth's past back to complicate the final season, and they also teased the "rollercoaster" storylines.
Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. bosses discussed more crossovers between the shows with TVGuide, as well as what's next for Severide, an upcoming "surprise" for Casey and Dawson, whether Olinsky will ever warm up to Burgess, and more.
Hulu's forthcoming live TV streaming bundle will include CBS content as part of the package, meaning Hulu customers will be able to watch shows like NCIS for the first time on the streaming service.
Has television (at least in the UK) reached peak-cop-drama critical mass? Mark Lawson, writing for The Guardian, made his case for why that may - or may not - be true.
A first look was released for the upcoming new crime drama APB, a cop show with a tech-savvy twist, which premieres on Fox on February 6.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
The latest Crime and Science Radio discussed "Car Crashes and Crime Hot Spots - Studying Patterns to Prevent Crimes." The special guests were Greg Collins, the Research and Analysis Manager for the Shawnee, KS Police Department, and Dr. Kevin M. Bryant, a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Benedictine College in Atchinson, Kansas, who was certified in advanced crime mapping by the National Institute of Justice.
The tables were turned when Crime and Science Radio host D.P. Lyle stopped by the Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE podcast to talk about forensics in fiction, his background consulting for various TV shows, and his own award-winning crime fiction.
Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed mystery author Terry Shames with special guest co-host Rob Brunet for "Nasty Women January - Female Crime Fiction Writers." Shames writes the award-winning best-selling Samuel Craddock series, set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas.
The latest Crime Cafe featured host and author Debbi Mack interviewing thriller author Paul Casselle.
Dark suspense novelist Laura Benedict also stopped by Authors on the Air to talk about her six novels of dark suspense that include the Bliss House gothic trilogy and other writings.
THEATER
The Court Theatre in Christchurch is set for the world premiere of the new comic-thriller, Ropable, from February 11 through March 4. Written by The Court's Artistic Director, Ross Gumbley (who is also directing the show) and Allison Horsley, the story is set in the the Hitchcock-themed B&B "The Macguffin Hotel," run by the quirky Norma Bates, where Eden Forsyth has arrived to marry (or should that read murder?), the great Montgomery Parker. Her beloved Aunty Prudence is a welcome addition to the wedding party, but the unexpected arrival of her mother, the famous crime novelist C.W. Forsyth, throws a wrench into Eden's plotting.
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January 7, 2017
January 6, 2017
FFB: Habit of Fear
Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) was born in Chicago and raised as a Roman Catholic but left the church when she married her husband, actor Harry Davis (who died in 1993). Now considered one of the Grand Dames of crime fiction, she didn't start out as a writer, working first in advertising and as a librarian, publishing her first novel in 1949 with the encouragement of her husband. Her accomplishments are many and varied: 20 novels and numerous short stories received seven Edgar Award nominations; the novel A Gentle Murderer was chosen as one of the Haycraft-Queen cornerstones of detective fiction; and Davis appeared on the "CBS News Nightwatch" program along with Robert Parker and Nicholas Meyer discussing Sherlock Holmes. Her novel Broken Vows was also made into a 1987 TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.
She had a clear influence on the crime fiction community, serving as Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster in 1985 and on the initial steering committee for the formation of Sisters in Crime (along with Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, Betty Francis, Sara Paretsky, Nancy Pickard and Susan Dunlap). She was Guest of Honor at Malice Domestic VI, quoting Hilaire Belloc, that "It will not matter if my sins are scarlet, if only my books are read." In an interview with J. Kingston Pierce for January Magazine in 2002, no less than Stuart Kaminsky said in regards to his publishing venture called Mystery Vault, "I'm particularly proud of publishing Dorothy Salisbury Davis' 1940s novel Town of Masks ..."
By her own account, Davis was an "odd fit" in crime fiction, unhappy with her perceived inability to create a memorable series character and uncomfortable with violence and murder. But she was very happy creating villains and often commented that villains are much more fun to write about than heroes. Her themes trended more toward psychology than out-and-out detection and religious tensions are often found in her work, not surprising considering her own background.
That religious undercurrent can be found in The Habit of Fear, the fourth and last in her series featuring Julie Hayes, a former actress and fortuneteller-turned New York City tabloid reporter, but the religious theme is only a small part of the deftly-knit threads of the plot that begin with her husband Jeff telling her he wants a divorce. Angry and hurt, she storms out of their apartment where she's tricked into a nightmare scenario of rape and sodomy by two mysterious men. Although she's reluctant to help the police, preferring to try and put as much emotional distance between her and the events as possible, she's drawn into the case, as well as a search for the Irish father she never knew, a journey that eventually takes her to the land of her beloved Yeats.
But her troubles only follow her, as a strange "Gray Man" seems to be stalking her, there's an appearance by her two attackers who escaped New York on bail, and she finds herself in the middle of tensions involving the Irish Republican Army and a splinter group. Underlying it all is a NYC gangster who watches over Julie as a protective, yet violent, avenging guardian angel. The plot threads ultimately do tie together into a hopeful but bittersweet conclusion.
Salisbury once contributed the chapter "Background and Atmosphere" to the Writer's Digest Mystery Writer's Handbook in 1975, and she is certainly adept with creating atmosphere in The Habit of Fear, first in the seedy side streets, police precincts and courts of New York and then in the bucolic but war-torn landscapes of Dublin, Wicklow, Ballina and Sligo:
Julie climbed the narrow street to where the village came to an abrupt end at a gate to the ruins. The wind gusted fiercely. The river became rapids alongside the ruins and rushed noisily down the hillside. Looking down, she could see boats at anchor, heaving in the heavy waters. Beyond the inlet was the Atlantic, blue and white-capped and dappled with dark patches where the clouds threw their shadows. As she went on, she could see the coast road with an occasional cottage and bits of color where the stacked turf was tucked around with plastic tarps.
Her characterizations are also rich and multi-layered, with no character completely evil or saintly. In an interview with Don Swaim on the CBS Radio studio show "Wired for Books," she talked about this novel and her writing and how she created the character of Julie Hayes during a period when the author herself was in therapy (note: the interview contains spoilers). She made Hayes a defender of street people due to Davis' own walking through city areas frequented by prostitutes, where she said she was accepted as "this little old lady with white hair in a raincoat," talking to various people from all walks of life.
Unfortunately, in the interview, she indicated there were a couple of additional Julie Hayes books that were in the works, but alas, that was apparently not to be.
January 4, 2017
Mystery Melange
The new year brings a slate of recurring crime fiction festivals and conferences you can start planning for now, including this list from Crime Fiction Ireland for events across The Pond, this listing from Sisters in Crime, and I've also been updating the Upcoming Conference listing in the upper right sidebar on this blog.
Looking ahead to June, The Guardian's series of writing workshops continues with "Writing authentic crime fiction: A Masterclass with forensic pathologists, criminal lawyers and frontline police." Participants will be able to learn how to craft a killer story for film, fiction, or TV with bestselling author Erin Kelly, Silent Witness consultant Dr Stuart Hamilton, former chief superintendent Graham Bartlett, and other experts from the world of crime.
The Captivating Criminality Network will hold its fourth UK conference June 29 - July 1st at Bath Spa University in the UK. The theme is "Crime Fiction: Detection, Public and Private, Past and Present," and conference organizers have issued a call for papers on the subject. (HT to Ayo Ontade at Shots Magazine.)
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine published their first issue of the new year, which celebrates both the holiday season and Sherlock Holmes (EQMM recently announced they would be publishing fewer issues, six per year, but each will now be a double issue of stories). You can also read more story-behind-the-story tidbits and news via the EQMM blog Something is Going to Happen, or follow the magazine on Facebook.
Speaking of short crime fiction, there's good news and bad news in the world of short mystery publications, as Sandra Seamans noted on her blog with a list of markets that have gone under during the past year, as well as some new kids on the block. It's particularly brutal to lose such outstanding zines as ThugLit, Crime Factory, The Big Click, Shock Totem, and Noir Nation, but we have hopes that some may find new lives eventually (as sometimes happens in the publishing world). Case in point, Pulp Modern, as I mentioned last week, may be rising from the grave.
Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, has issued a call for reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays on the topic of Midwest Mysteries. For more details, check out the notice on the Mystery Fanfare blog.
It's well-known to many Agatha Christie fans that the author was interested in archaeology, thanks in no small part to her second husband, Max Mallowan. But both Christie and Mallowan would be horrified to learn that a lot of the work they did in Nimrud, Iraq, was recently blown to bits by ISIS. As their grandson notes, "If my grandparents could somehow be alive again and see the newspapers for a week, they would not have recognized the places where they had been and lived and worked."
In what may be a first such incident in law enforcement, police in Arkansas have asked Amazon for recordings potentially made by an Echo device ("Alexa") in connection with a murder investigation. Police haven't specified the type of data they expect to find on the device, and it's not clear what the device could have captured that would have been relevant to the case. But such new technology opens up a new can of worms for the legal field to fish through, both in terms of crime investigations and privacy.
The Books in My Life blog profiled the "great (and relatively unknown) short crime fiction of Fredric Brown."
Criminal Element also had a fun look at "Lisbeth Salander’s Assassin’s Guide to New Year’s Resolutions."
This is a cool idea: Vancouver libraries established a writer-in-residence program which has most recently featured crime author Sam Wiebe.
In January 1917, Gordon Mace registered a homestead patent for the Baldpate Inn, a bed-and-breakfast near Estes Park inspired by the mystery novel Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers. In keeping with the book’s theme, he and his family gave each of their guests a key to keep but visitors began donating keys instead. A century later, the inn houses a collection of about 30,000 keys, each with its own story to tell.
Maybe Benedict Cumberbatch playing Sherlock Holmes wasn't such a stretch after all; the actor and Sherlock creator Arthur Conan Doyle are actually 16th cousins, twice removed – both descended from John of Gaunt, who died in 1399.
The featured crime poem at the 5-2 this week is "Sweet Sixteen" by C.J. Edwards.
In the Q&A roundup, E.B. Davis interviewed author Mary Miley for the Writers Who Kill blog, discussing Miley's 1920s Hollywood mystery series; and the Mystery People chatted with Tom Franklin about editing the anthology Mississippi Noir, released as part of the Akashic Noir series.
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