B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 20

Author R&R with Michael Cohen

[image error]Since his retirement from University teaching, Michael Cohen has been writing personal essays about his family, about lifelong pursuits such as golf and birding, about newer interests in flying and amateur astronomy, and above all about six decades of reading. His essays—collected in A Place to Read (2014, IP Press, Brisbane) and And Other Essays (2020, IP Press)—have appeared in Harvard Review, Birding, The Humanist, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, and dozens of other venues. He is the author of six other books, including an introductory poetry text, The Poem in Question (Harcourt Brace, 1983) and an award-winning book on Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Georgia, 1989). Michael Cohen lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Tucson, Arizona. His most recent book is The Golden Era of Sherlock Holmes and His Contemporaries: A Mystery Guide and Finding List (Genius Books, 2024)

[image error]In 1891, a new London magazine, The Strand, decided to publish short mysteries in connected series. Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about Sherlock Holmes nearly doubled the magazine’s circulation, and Doyle became rich. Other magazines searched for tales with the same kind of appeal, and dozens of men and women began to write detective stories in the series format of the Holmes Adventures. Michael Cohen’s The Golden Era of Sherlock Holmes and His Contemporaries is a guide to this trove of stories that fascinated readers a century and a quarter ago. In clear and crisp prose, Cohen takes you through the variety of stories with brief descriptions, and he shows you where to find the stories online in their original, illustrated magazine versions. Here you’ll find names you knew such as Chesterton’s Father Brown, and less well-known ones such as Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, Anna Katherine Green’s debutante detective Violet Strange, and Gelett Burgess’s "Seer of Secrets," Astro.

Michael Cohen stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about the book:    

The Golden Era of Sherlock Holmes and His Contemporaries was my Covid book. During the year between the first lockdowns until I was fully vaccinated the following spring, I did a lot of reading, and most of it was detective short stories published from the 1890s to the first decade of the twentieth century in England, the United States, and Europe. These stories were not easily available twenty years earlier, when I wrote my first book on mysteries, Murder Most Fair: The Appeal of Mystery Fiction (Associated University Presses, 2000). The stories first appeared in newspapers and magazines, and most had not been reprinted; a good big library might have a few of the periodicals, but if the stories appeared in New Zealand’s North Otago Times or the English Newcastle Weekly Courant, for example, I wasn’t going to find them.

But in the ensuing twenty years, these periodicals had all been digitized and made available through Gutenberg, Google Books, Hathi Trust, and a score of other internet archives. The stories that entertained our great-grandparents and their parents could now be read by anyone for free, in their original context between news of the day and quaint advertisements; best of all, they could be read with the engravings and lithographs that illustrated them. Moreover, there were new reprints of the stories in book form published by Coachwhip Press, the Library of Congress Crime Classics, the Mysterious Press Crime Classics Series, and others.

I read through hundreds of detective short stories, and though I started without any clear writing plan, a book idea began to emerge as I took notes on my reading. I really needed to tell two stories about this treasure trove of entertainment from a century and a quarter earlier.

One story was about Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. In 1891, a new London magazine, The Strand, decided to publish short mysteries in connected series. Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about Sherlock Holmes nearly doubled the magazine’s circulation, and Doyle became rich. Other magazines searched for tales with the same kind of appeal. Dozens of men and women began to write detective stories in the series format of the Holmes Adventures.

The second story was about those other writers who followed Doyle. They created an enormous flowering of this kind of tale, with stories that featured female and male detectives, professionals and amateurs, young and old, aristocrats, gentlefolk, and plain folk. Detectives went rogue and became burglars and conmen. Others developed occult powers. It was a Golden Era of detective fiction, and it lasted for two and a half decades until the First World War. Nothing of its variety had been seen before.

So, The Golden Era of Sherlock Holmes and His Contemporaries: A Mystery Guide and Finding List starts with the story of Doyle’s phenomenal success with the Holmes stories. I look at Doyle’s storytelling in the first ones published, with an eye to his plot construction and the original turns that he gave to situations that had been in the sensational literature repertoire for decades, as well as those that were brand new with him.

Most of the book is taken up with a closer look at the variety of stories written by those who followed Doyle. I give brief descriptions of the mysteries and how they struck out in new directions and created a range of mystery literature of astounding diversity. Finally, I provide a guide for finding the stories in their original, illustrated magazines. Here you’ll find names you knew such as Chesterton’s Father Brown, and less well-known ones such as Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, Anna Katherine Green’s debutante detective Violet Strange, and Gelett Burgess’s “Seer of Secrets,” Astro.

Once I sat down with the story lines in mind and my notes at hand, the book took only a few months to write, and it was a pleasure to revisit all those tales of detectives at work.

Michael Cohen's book, The Golden Era of Sherlock Holmes and His Contemporaries (Genius Book Publishing, 2024), is available from Amazon and from the publisher. His earlier collections of essays, A Place to Read (Interactive Press, 2014) and And Other Essays (Glass House Books, 2020), are available in print or audiobook form.

 

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Hannah D SharpeAuthor R&R with donalee MoultonAuthor R&R with Allen Wyler 

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

Crystal City Entertainment and Moonshot Films have acquired the rights to Lisa Jewell’s bestselling novel, Then She Was Gone, for a feature film adaptation. This follows news over the summer that Netflix is working on an adaptation of the UK writer’s 2023 book, None of This Is True. The 2017 thriller, Then She Was Gone, tells the story of Laurel Mack and the aftermath of her youngest daughter’s unexplained disappearance. Ten years on, a still grieving Laurel meets a seemingly perfect man, but his nine-year-old daughter’s resemblance to her own lost child soon becomes an obsession, leaving her no choice but to dig deeper into the past…whatever she might find. Actress and writer Catherine Steadman has joined the project as screenwriter.

Bret Easton Ellis's novel, American Psycho, is being adapted for the silver screen once again, with Luca Guadagnino on board to direct off a script by Scott Z. Burns. It’s being said that this isn't a remake of the 2000 film, but rather a new adaptation of the original novel, perhaps indicating it will be more faithful to the source material. Christian Bale starred in the original movie project, playing a wealthy New York City investment banking executive who hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.

Lee Pace (the villain Ronan in Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy) is set to join Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, and Katy O’Brian in The Running Man, Paramount’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Edgar Wright is directing the feature and co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall. The 1982 novel, written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, was set in 2025 in an America under a totalitarian regime that uses violent game shows to placate the disenfranchised masses. The novel centers on one desperate man (to be played by Powell), needing money for his sick daughter, who joins the most popular show, The Running Man, in which teams of killers hunt down contestants. The longer a contestant survives, the more money that person makes. But as the game show’s producers and killers will find out, this desperate man will break all the rules and expose the show’s dark secrets. Pace plays the brutal chief hunter for the network airing the game shows, who's also tasked by the producer with tracking down Powell’s character. Paramount has set a release date of Nov. 21, 2025.

Rebecca De Mornay, Noah Emmerich, Kunal Nayyar, and Sarah Bolger have joined the feature adaptation of Howard Roughan's legal thriller novel, The Up and Comer. The story delves into the seemingly perfect life of Philip Randall (Nate Mann), a brilliant attorney poised to become the youngest partner at his prestigious firm. Philip’s idyllic world begins to unravel when a former prep-school classmate (Andrew Burnap) threatens to reveal a devastating secret involving another woman (Shay Mitchell). Suddenly caught in a high stakes game of blackmail, murder, and revenge, Philip is forced to risk everything only to face the greatest danger of all – winning.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

The BBC has acquired Lynley, an upcoming contemporary adaptation of the bestselling mystery crime novels by Elizabeth George. Leo Suter (Vikings: Valhalla) and Sofia Barclay (Ted Lasso) star as the unconventional detective duo DI Tommy Lynley and DS Barbara Havers in the new series, currently in production in Ireland. They are joined by Daniel Mays (Magpie Murders), Niamh Walsh (The English Game), Michael Workeye (My Lady Jane) and Joshua Sher (Vera). The four-part series focuses on Tommy Lynley, a brilliant police detective but an outsider in the force – simply by virtue of his aristocratic upbringing. He is paired with Barbara Havers, a sergeant with a maverick attitude and a working-class background. With seemingly nothing in common and against all odds, the mismatched duo of Lynley and Havers become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done.

Downton Abbey star Phyllis Logan is leading a pan-global Channel 5 drama based on Parnell Hall’s Puzzle Lady mysteries. The Puzzle Lady [working title] will see the BAFTA-nominee play Cora Felton, who takes on the title role. When a strange murder takes place in the sleepy market town of Bakerbury, the local police are baffled by a crossword puzzle left on the body. With their case going nowhere, they turn reluctantly to Felton, a recent arrival, who happens to have a nationally syndicated crossword puzzle column. The series is for Paramount-owned Channel 5 and is being distributed in the U.S. by PBS Distribution. The series has begun production in Northern Ireland and is set to air next year. Hall, who died in 2020, wrote numerous puzzle lady books along with his Stanley Hastings mysteries.

The Morris Chestnut-starring Watson has received its premiere date on CBS for January 26 following the AFC Championship game, before the drama takes its regular time slot on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. Watson, inspired by the characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries, takes place six months after the death of the titular character’s friend and partner, Sherlock Holmes, at the hands of Moriarty. The modern take follows the historic detective as he turns his attention from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries. Chestnut stars as Dr. John Watson, who resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders. Watson’s old life isn’t done with him, though – Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century. The series also stars Eve Harlow, Peter Mark Kendall, Ritchie Coster, Inga Schlingmann, and Rochelle Aytes.

Netflix unveiled a slate of images for its upcoming spy thriller series, Black Doves, starring Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw, ahead of its premiere date of December 5. Black Doves, which also stars Sarah Lancashire, is set against the backdrop of London at Christmas. It follows Helen Webb (Knightley), a quick-witted, down-to-earth, dedicated wife and mother — and professional spy. For 10 years, she’s been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organization she works for, the Black Doves. When her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) is assassinated, her spymaster, the enigmatic Reed (Lancashire), calls in Helen’s old friend Sam (Whishaw) to keep her safe.

PODCASTS/RADIO

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with paleontologist and crime writer, Leonard "Kris" Krystalka, whose latest novel is The Bone Field.

Crime Time FM presented a live event from Waterstones Tottenham Court Road, with legends Lisa Jewell and Mark Edwards talking about everything from killing people in sand to Marvel superheroes.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Jeffrey Archer, whose novels, including the Clifton Chronicles, the William Warwick novels, and Kane and Abel, have topped bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 300 million copies.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, spoke with Bill Powers, a fifty-year veteran of law enforcement, as well as being an author, educator, and podcaster.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Death on the Rocks

[image error]So many authors seem to pop out of nowhere, bring us several very fine works—even award-winning titles—only to disappear from the writing world. Michael Allegretto is one such example of a mysteriously vanishing writer. The only biographical information I could find is that he grew up listening to the real-life stories of crime and detection from his father, a Denver police detective. This one tidbit at least explains the setting for Allegretto's novels featuring Jacob Lomax, an ex-cop turned private investigator in Denver.



Allegretto's first novel in the Lomax series, Death on the Rocks, was published in 1987 to critical acclaim, eventually nominated for the 1988 Anthony and Macavity Awards and winning the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel that year. The author went on to pen four more Lomax installments, four standalones, and a few short stories (one included in Justice For Hire: The Fourth Private Eye Writers of America Anthology), with his last book published in 1995. One of his standalone thrillers, Terror in the Shadows, was made into a TV movie.



Death on the Rocks finds wealthy oilman Phillip Townsend dead in a car crash west of Denver after he allegedly drove his Jaguar off a cliff. The police chalk the death up to drunk driving, but Townsend's widow doesn't agree and hires Lomax to uncover the truth. Lomax soon learns more than the widow may have wanted him to: the dead man acted in pornographic movies and may have raped a minor, and he had ties to a call girl named Cassandra. As Lomax digs deeper, he finds that someone doesn't want him digging up more of Townsend's shameful past and is willing to kill again to stop him, targeting Lomax and the victim's wife and young daughter.



The novel's protagonist, Jake Lomax, left his police job and became a private eye after his wife's murder, a history that has left him understandably scarred. His tough-guy exterior is full of cynicism and one-liners, but he's also charming, quite intelligent, even a masterful chess player. Bill Pronzini had this to say about Death on the Rocks:

"(It) is brash and tough in the Hammett/Chandler tradition. But it is more than that, too, because Michael Allegretto is his own writer and Jake Lomax is his own detective. A twisty plot, crackling dialogue, and some knife-sharp observations are just three of the elements that make it something special. The Allegretto-Lomax team has the potential to become a front-runner in today's crowded and competitive private-eye sweepstakes."

Unfortunately, just seven years later, Allegretto and Lomax disappeared off the literary scene as quickly as they came. Thankfully, the Mysterious Press/Open Road Media published all of the Lomax books in ebook format in 2013.

         Related StoriesFriday's "Forgotten" Books: Spence At Marlby ManorFriday's "Forgotten" Books: The Best American Mystery Stories, 1997, ed. Robert B. Parker 

Mystery Melange

[image error]
Book art by Emma Taylor

The inaugural BloodShed Crime Fiction Festival heads to Swindon in the UK this weekend. Authors from around the UK will be featured in interviews and panels on historical crime fiction, psychological thrillers, and police procedurals, and deliver writing workshops for visitors at the Delta Hotel Marriott in Old Town from October 18 to 20. The festival also includes an interactive component, giving attendees the chance to show off their sleuthing ability against those who write mysteries for a living.

Also on that side of the Atlantic, Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival, returns to Dublin, October 17th – 20th in Dun Laoghaire’s landmark DLR Lexicon Library & Culture Centre. Now in its seventh year, the conference features Andrea Mara, C.L. Taylor, BA Paris, Vaseem Khan, Jo Spain, Steve Cavanagh, and Peter James, among others, taking part in talks, master classes, and workshops. There's also a special dedicated day set aside for young readers.

The inaugural A Christie for Christmas event will celebrate all things Agatha Christie at the News Building in London on November 19. The evening explores the legacy of Agatha Christie and the publication of the new And Then There Were None mystery edition, a unique issue that presents her story in a format entirely faithful to her original conception, with the final solution presented in a sealed envelope that can only be revealed once you have finished the story. Joining in the festivities are authors Mark Aldridge, Jane Casey, Lucy Foley, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Kha, Bella Mackie, and Suk Pannu. 

Here's an idea that will hopefully gain more traction: independent Canadian author Peggy Blair is partnering with Little Branches Rural Routes Library Conference 2025 and Vimi Corp to establish the Toby Award, designed to celebrate and amplify the voices of self-published mystery authors who are ineligible to submit their trade paperback novels for existing awards because they do not sell in traditional bookstores or in traditional ways. Submissions are open until Dec. 16, 2024. As Blair noted, "Ian Rankin told me he couldn’t get published now if he was starting over. His first six books didn’t sell. They were remaindered, meaning the covers were torn off and they were tossed out. It was his seventh book that was his breakthrough novel. He told me no publisher these days will give an author the time they need to develop their craft and build up a reader base."

On October 21 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET, Outliers Writing University is presenting a free live online talk with bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child. The event will include a chance for fans to ask all your burning questions about the Jack Reacher series and get the inside scoop on their newest thriller, In Too Deep, releasing October 22. Lee Child (born James Grant) published the first installment in the Jack Reacher series in 1997, and recently decided to step back from writing full time, handing over the reins to the Reacher series to his younger brother, Andrew Grant, who now writes under the new pseudonym Andrew Child. The award-winning Reacher books currently includes 28 installments and were adapted into the TV series starring Alan Ritchson in the title role.

Crime Fiction Lover is once again sponsoring its annual awards with reader input. The British-based website wants to celebrate the best of the best from 2024, from books to authors to television shows, and they need your help to do so. Nominate your favorites in six main categories: Book of the Year, Best Debut, Best in Translation, Best Indie Novel, Best Author, and Best Crime Show. In addition to the main categories, the Life of Crime Award will be presented again this year, bestowed upon an author the editorial team believes has, over the course of their career, made an outstanding contribution to the genre. Nominations will close at noon UK time on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, with shortlists compiled for final voting at a later date.

Hachette is sponsoring a Killer Reads Sweepstakes which opened yesterday and runs through 11:59 PM ET on 11/1/24. Randomly drawn winners from the pool of entrants will receive copies of six different crime fiction books by Melinda Taub; Patricia Cornwell; Douglas Preston & Lee Child; Doug Brod; Holly Frey; and Mikaelia Clements & Onjuli Datta.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton spoke with mystery author Rhonda Lane about her debut mystery novel with a dash of psychological suspense, Fatal Image: An Avery Sloane Mystery; father-son duo, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman, joined Suspense Magazine to talk about their latest book in the Clay Edison series, The Lost Coast; and Janet Evanovich chatted with People Magazine about how "staying fresh" after 31 books in her Stephanie Plum series Is not the hard part.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

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

The upcoming Netflix feature adaptation of the epic BAFTA-winning series, Peaky Blinders, keeps adding to its impressive cast. Alongside the previously announced Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson, Barry Keoghan and Tim Roth are new additions Stephen Graham (Line of Duty) and Jay Lycurgo (The Devil Himself) and returning series stars Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, and Ian Peck. The film is said to be set later than the series, during the Second World War.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in negotiations to star opposite Maika Monroe in 20th Century’s new take on the 1992 thriller, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Michelle Garza Cervera will direct the feature, with Micah Bloomberg penning the script. The original film starred Rebecca De Mornay and Annabella Sciorra and followed a woman, played by De Mornay, who after her sex-offender husband gets caught in the act and kills himself, embarks on a mission of vengeance against one of her husband’s victims and the woman’s family. Monroe will step into the role made famous by De Mornay, while Winstead will play the role originated by Sciorra.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan are in final negotiations to star in the Paramount+ series, Guy Ritchie's The Associate (working title). The drama follows two generations of gangsters, the businesses they run, the complex relationships they weave, and the man they call upon to fix their problems. Hardy is up for the role of Harry, the fixer, a man who is as dangerous as he is handsome. Mirren and Brosnan would star as the crime family’s matriarch and patriarch, respectively

Reacher, based on the novels by Lee Child, has been renewed for a fourth season at Prime Video, even though Season 3 won’t debut until next year. The news comes a week after the streamer also revealed it had given a series order to a Reacher spinoff starring Maria Sten, reprising her fan-favorite character from the mothership, Frances Neagley. Season 3 is based on Persuader, the seventh book in Child’s series, in which Reacher (Alan Ritchson) must go undercover to rescue an informant held by a haunting foe from his past. It isn't currently scheduled to debut until some time in 2025.

Netflix renewed the action-thriller, The Night Agent, based on the novel by Matthew Quirk, for a 10-episode Season 3 renewal ahead of its Season 2 debut slated to premiere in winter 2025. The second season was delayed from 2024, but it appears Season 3 will not lag as far behind as its predecessor and begin filming soon with a production unit in Istanbul at the end of this year followed by a New York shoot in 2025.

The Killing Times reports that Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir's novel DNA is being adapted for TV, retitled Reykjavik 112. Two young women are brutally murdered, and a radio amateur receives a peculiar message that connects him to both victims—although he doesn't know either of them. His curiosity drives him to begin an investigation of his own. Meanwhile, Huldar, the police officer in charge of the investigation, and Freyja, the female psychologist entrusted with the seven-year-old girl who is their key witness, are forced to work together to solve the two cases. Their collaboration is complicated by the fact they recently spent the night together after meeting in a bar where Huldar claimed he was a carpenter from out of town.

Alicia Silverstone is set to play a hot-shot Los Angeles divorce lawyer searching for her father in a new murder mystery series, Irish Blood, for streamer Acorn TV. The series follows Fiona Sharpe (Silverstone), whose path in life is haunted by her father, Declan, who seemingly abandoned her and her mother on her tenth birthday. After years of channeling anger toward him, a message from her father sends her to Ireland. There she learns key truths about her father as well as a family that doesn’t know she exists—and that the story of abandonment was a lie intended to protect her and her mother from her father’s shady business dealings. Fiona resolves to uncover the full truth about her father and reconnect with the parent she only thought she knew.

Boo Killebrew (Mrs. America) is developing a TV series based on Alexandra Andrews’s debut novel, Who Is Maud Dixon? The book is a thriller set in part in Morocco and was compared by the New York Times to The Talented Mr. Ripley, when it was published in 2021. It follows Florence Darrow, who has always felt she was destined for greatness, but after a disastrous affair with her married boss, she starts to doubt herself. All that changes when she sets off for Morocco with her new boss, the celebrated but reclusive author Maud Dixon. Amid the colorful streets of Marrakesh and the wind-swept beaches of the coast, Florence begins to feel she’s leading the sort of interesting, cosmopolitan life she deserves. But when she wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of Maud—a dangerous idea begins to take form.

Rafe Spall will star opposite Kelly Reilly in Sky's upcoming six-part crime thriller series, Under Salt Marsh. As a once-in-a-generation storm begins to gather far out at sea, former detective turned teacher Jackie Ellis (Reilly) discovers the body of her 8-year-old pupil, seemingly drowned. The discovery sends shockwaves through the community, reviving the ghost of an unsolved cold case that rocked the town three years prior—the disappearance of Jackie’s niece, which cost her career. The death summons Jackie’s former partner, Detective Eric Bull (Spall) back to Morfa Halen to lead the investigation into a community he failed once before. Convinced the cases are linked, Jackie and Bull must reconcile and race to uncover long-buried secrets inside Morfa, before the storm breaks and all the evidence is gone for good.

The podcast, My Mom’s Murder, is being adapted into a television series that will star Chloë Grace Moretz. The podcast follows Lauren Malloy, who was just an infant when her mother passed away and who had grown up believing her passing was natural. When she discovers that her mother’s death was actually an unsolved murder, she sets out on a journey to discover the truth. The podcast follows Malloy as she confronts family members, interviews old friends, and unearths hidden evidence about her mother’s life and death. Her investigation leads her to confront shady characters from her mother’s past and navigate conflicting stories and disturbing truths and culminates in potential breakthroughs in the decades-long cold case.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Suspense Magazine spoke with award-winning author, Peter May, about his latest book, The Black Loch.

The Red Hot Chili Writers welcomed bestselling Canadian thriller writer, Shari Lapena, to discuss the fact that Mount Everest is getting taller, and the strange case of the defector who undefects.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Margaret Mizushima about Gathering Mist, the ninth installment in Mizushima’s series featuring Deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 partner, Robo.

The Spybrary Spy Podcast featured an interview with Barry Werth, author of Prisoner of Lies: Jack Downey's Cold War. This remarkable account follows the true cold war spy story of the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, John Downey, Jr., a CIA officer captured in China during the Korean War and imprisoned for twenty-one years.

The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features a fun mystery ghost short story perfect for Halloween listening, "The Codicil," written by Shannon Taft and read by actor Sean Hopper.

The latest Crime Time FM included a review roundup by host Paul Burke of new books by Paula Hawkins, Patricia Cornwell, Lee Child, and more.

On Tipping My Fedora, Sergio Angelini chatted with James Harrison, co-founder of Film Noir UK and director of its first festival, Film Noir Fest 2024. The event will take place in Weston-Super-Mare November 1-3 with a theme of "Dangerous Divas."

The Pick Your Poison podcast's Dr. Jen Prosser investigated a toxin you can find at a haunted house and how it’s responsible for world-wide outbreaks poisoning thousands, with many of the victims children.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Petrona Award Shortlist

[image error]

The shortlist was announced today for the 2024 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year, including six crime novels from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Petrona Award was established to celebrate the work of Maxine Clarke, one of the first online crime fiction reviewers and bloggers, who passed away in December 2012. All entries must be by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia, be a translation, and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year. The winning title will be announced on November 14. Congrats to all the finalists!

 

Anne Mette Hancock - The Collector tr. Tara F Chace (Denmark, Swift Press)




Jørn Lier Horst - Snow Fall tr. Anne Bruce (Norway, Michael Joseph)




Arnaldur Indriðason - The Girl by the Bridge tr. Philip Roughton (Iceland, Harvill Secker)




Jógvan Isaksen - Dead Men Dancing tr. Marita Thomsen (Faroe Islands (Denmark, Norvik Press)




Åsa Larsson - The Sins of our Fathers tr. Frank Perry (Sweden, MacLehose Press)




Yrsa Sigurðardottir - The Prey tr. Victoria Cribb (Iceland, Hodder & Stoughton)

 

         Related StoriesMacavity MagicNed Kelly KudosDavitt Delectations 

Mystery Melange

[image error]

Book art by Emma Taylor

Robert Randisi has died at the age of seventy-three. Randisi authored more than 650 published books and edited more than 30 anthologies of short stories, with Booklist magazine noting that he "may be the last of the pulp writers." He founded Mystery Scene Magazine and the Private Eye Writers of America, an organization he ran for over 40 years, which also sponsored the Shamus Awards. Author Rick Helms posted a tribute on Facebook, "I knew Bob for over 20 years. He was crusty and blunt and yet unexpectedly generous," adding that "Bob was a true master in the field, and I wish him fair skies, calm seas, and and the pleasantest of journeys. The writing world is poorer this morning for his loss, but we were so privileged to have had him. He will be missed."

David Burnham, the New York Times reporter who exposed police graft, has died at the age of 91. After being tipped off by the detective Frank Serpico, Burnham wrote an explosive series on police corruption in New York City, sparking an investigation by the Knapp commission. His reporting inspired the 1973 movie Serpico, which was adapted from the book Serpico by Peter Maas, and starred Al Pacino as the titular detective.

Audible announced a new Audible Original audiobook release on November 14th of a multi-cast adaptation of Agatha Christie’s iconic debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Peter Dinklage takes on the title role of Hercule Poirot, to be joined by Himesh Patel (Yesterday) who will be playing Poirot’s companion, Captain Hastings. The star-studded adaptation will also feature Harriet Walter (Succession), Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer), Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso), Rob Delaney (Catastrophe), John Bradley (Game of Thrones), Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane) and Patsy Ferran (A Streetcar Named Desire). The Mysterious Affair at Styles tells the story of an injured and traumatized Captain Hastings (Patel), who has been invited to the large country estate of Styles Court to recover after serving in World War I. With tensions tearing the family apart, what seems like a perfect haven soon turns into a nightmare, as the matriarch of the family Emily Inglethorp (Walter) is brutally murdered.

The Guardian profiled the new book Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother by Robert S Bader, which is probably a shoe-in to become a movie at some point. Zeppo Marx was said to be the funniest of the Marx Brothers off screen, yet he was overshadowed by his siblings Groucho, Chico, and Harpo. Zeppo went on to became a successful talent agent but as Bader reports, he mingled as easily with mobsters as with movie stars and may have even been behind a series of 1930s jewellery heists from Hollywood stars.

The latest "First Two Pages" offering on Art Taylor's blog featured David Avallone offering the third essay in a series of First Two Pages posts from contributors to Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead, the latest music-themed anthology from editor Josh Pachter. David brings a wide set of backgrounds to the table, including work in film and in comic books in addition to prose fiction—and he has pedigree too, as the son of prolific author Michael Avallone. In the essay below, David focuses on other inspirations and influences for his story, specifically how autobiographical elements feed creativity.

Have you noticed print books getting thinner? It may not be your imagination. Publishers are trying skinnier books to save money and emissions.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element chatted with bestselling author of the Orphan X novels, Gregg Hurwitz, about his upcoming thriller, Nemesis, including what's next for Evan Smoak, and how Evan's moral code will be tested in this novel as it's never been before; Suspense Magazine interviewed John Connolly about his latest book, Night and Day, and what’s next for Charlie Parker; and novelist Richard E. Snyder spoke with Lisa Haselton about his new spy fiction, Defector in Paradise.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Macavity Magic

Winners of the annual Macavity Awards were announced in five categories: Best Mystery; Best First Mystery; Best Mystery Short Story; Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery; and Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical. The awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

 

Best Mystery : All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Also nominated:

Dark Ride by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
Hide by Tracy Clark (Thomas & Mercer)
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth)
Murder Book by Thomas Perry (Mysterious)
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Penguin Random House - Doubleday) 

 

Best First Mystery : The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria)

Also nominated:

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (Macmillan Publishing - Minotaur)
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books)
Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster) 
Dutch Threat by Josh Pachter (Genius Book Publishing) 
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (William Morrow)

 

Best Mystery Short Story : “Ticket to Ride” by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, (Happiness is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, ed. Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books)

Also nominated:

“Real Courage” by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #14, Oct. 2023)
“Green and California Bound” by Curtis Ippolito (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023)
“Pigeon Tony’s Last Stand” by Lisa Scottoline (Amazon Original Stories) 
“One Night in 1965” by Stacy Woodson (More Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, ed. Michael Bracken, Down & Out Books)

 

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery : The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated:

Time's Undoing by Cheryl Head (Dutton)
Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (Simon & Schuster-Atria Books) 
Our Lying Kin by Claudia Hagadus Long (Kasva Press)
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead Books)

 

Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical :  Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated:

Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction by Max Allan Collins & James L. Traylor (Mysterious Press/Penzler Publishers) 
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press) 
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux (Crown Currency) 
Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

         Related StoriesNed Kelly KudosDavitt DelectationsThe Barry Best of 2024 

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

Kirsten Dunst is joining Channing Tatum in the film, Roofman, with Derek Cianfrance directing. The story is based on the true tale of Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum), an eccentric and charming serial robber who broke into more than 60 McDonald's restaurants overnight via their roofs, then emptied the cash register in the morning after herding staff into freezers. The former U.S. Army Reserve officer became known as the "Rooftop Robber" or "Roofman" and was convicted and imprisoned in 2000 but escaped from jail. He evaded capture by holing up for months in a Toys "R" Us and Circuit City store. After reportedly leaving his fingerprints on a Catch Me If You Can DVD, he was recaptured and sent back to jail. The movie will focus on Manchester’s months-long odyssey on the lam where he meets and forms a bond with a woman (Dunst) who works at the toy store and is struggling to make ends meet and provide for her two girls.

Oscar winner Halle Berry is in negotiations to join the cast of Amazon MGM Studios’ adaptation of Don Winslow‘s short story, Crime 101, written and directed by Bart Layton (American Animals). The project will star Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan and is set to be released in theaters next year. Plot details of the film are under wraps, but the original short story by Winslow has shades of Heat as it follows high-level jewel thefts taking place up and down the Pacific Coast that police have linked to Colombian cartels. Detective Lou Lubesnick has other ideas and he zeroes in on one perp, a thief looking for a final score.

Teyana Taylor and Sasha Calle have joined the ensemble cast of the upcoming Netflix crime thriller, RIP, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, with Joe Carnahan directing from his own script. The plot follows a group of Miami cops whose trust begins to fray after they discover millions in cash in a derelict stash house. As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question — including who they can rely on.





TELEVISION/STREAMING

Prime Video has given a series order to a Reacher spinoff starring Maria Sten, reprising her fan favorite character, Frances Neagley, from the original series based on Lee Child's novels. Sten's Neagley is a private investigator in Chicago and former military colleague of Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) in the Army’s 110th Special Investigations Unit. When she learns that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident, she becomes hell bent on justice. Using everything she’s learned from Jack Reacher and her time as a member of the 110 Special Investigators, Neagley puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil. Ritchson is expected to appear on the spinoff as a guest star, reprising his role as Reacher.

Former Criminal Minds star, Matthew Gray Gubler, is returning to television as the lead of another CBS crime procedural, Einstein (working title). Gubler is set to play the title role and produce the CBS Studios pilot, from the Monk team of creator/executive producer Andy Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk. The drama follows the brilliant but directionless great grandson of Albert Einstein (Gubler), who spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases. Gubler’s Lew Einstein is a popular professor at Princeton when he actually shows up for class. Irreverent and misguided, Lew’s genius and famous name weigh heavily on him, but using his gift to help solve homicides may finally offer his life some direction and purpose.

FX has picked up Sterlin Harjo's drama pilot, a follow-up to the network's acclaimed series, Reservation Dogs, to develop into a series starring Ethan Hawke. The untitled series, formerly known as The Sensitive Kind, is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and said to have a film noir vibe centering on Hawke's character, a "guy who knows too much." The pilot cast includes Keith David, Siena East, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tim Blake Nelson, Scott Shepherd, Tracy Letts, Kyle Maclachlan, and Macon Blair.

Poppy Liu (Hacks) and Chris Bauer (The Wire) have joined the cast of Netflix's limited series, His & Hers, in recurring roles. They will star opposite series lead and executive producer, Tessa Thompson. The six-episode limited series from William Oldroyd and adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel is set in the sweltering heat of Atlanta where Anna (Thompson) lives as a recluse and is fading away from her friends and journalism career. But when she overhears about a murder in Dahlonega – the sleepy town where she grew up – she is snapped back to life, pouncing on the case and searching for answers. Detective Jack Harper (Jon Bernthal) is strangely suspicious of her involvement, chasing her into the crosshairs of his own investigation. There are two sides to every story, his and hers, which means someone is always lying.

Colin Farrell is returning to Sugar, Apple TV+’s neo-noir thriller that was hailed for its gripping twists, for a second season. Set after the events of the first season, Season 2 will find Sugar (Farrell) back in Los Angeles to take another missing persons case. At the same time, he will continue to look for answers surrounding his missing sister.

Amazon MGM Studios is not proceeding with the Untitled J. Edgar project, one of two Bosch spinoffs that had been in development at the studio. The other, which centers on Detective Renée Ballard, was picked up to series earlier this year with Maggie Q starring. The Untitled J. Edgar offshoot was to follow Harry Bosch’s (Titus Welliver) former partner, Detective Jerry Edgar, who is tapped for an undercover FBI mission in Little Haiti, Miami. In this glamorous city, he is forced to balance his new life with the city’s gritty underbelly, while being chased by his mysterious past. Jamie Hector, who starred as Edgar opposite Welliver on Bosch, was poised to reprise his role in the potential spinoff.

PODCASTS/RADIO

The BBC chatted with Ian Rankin, who was on a deadline to complete his next Inspector Rebus thriller, and asked: How does a bestselling crime writer breathe new life into his most enduring character?

Kate Summerscale spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her new true-crime book, The Peepshow; misogyny and male violence; the cultural and wider societal impact of a notorious murder, and more.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Jenny Milchman, the Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of five novels. She is launching a new series with Thomas & Mercer, introducing psychologist Arles Shepherd, a character who fights to save the most vulnerable children while battling her own inner demons. The Usual Silence is the first book in that series, which was just published.

Sergio Angelini, of the Tipping My Fedora blog, has started a new podcast on the topic of film noir, uncovering the secrets behind 100 years of crime movies, radio dramas, hardboiled fiction, and thousands of television episodes. For the inaugural episode, he's joined by crime fiction critic and historian, Barry Forshaw as they look at a selection of some of the home video releases on which Barry has worked, spanning 25 years of Film Noir.

The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated how homemade jewelry can poison you, why some people remain unaffected after exposure to this lethal toxin, and how it was used to assassinate dissidents from Eastern Europe.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Spence At Marlby Manor

Born in 1939, English author Michael Derek Allen had a career in education, first as a teacher and then as a university administrator at the University of Bath, and also served a brief stint working for the New York Herald Tribune. When he retired from all his various day jobs, he started his own small press, Kingsfield Publications, and turned his hand to writing novels full-time under the pen names Michael Bradford, Anne Moore, and Patrick Read.

[image error]Allen has penned mostly standalone novels and short stories, but he did write three books in a series featuring his police detective Superintendent Ben Spence. The third and final book in that series was Spence at Marlby Manor, dating from 1982, in which wealthy Lady Dinnister of Marlby Manor begins to suffer from "accidents" she suspects are actually attempts on her life. When Lady Dinnister's companion Emily Fosdyke dies from arsenic poisoning, it's only natural she thinks she herself was the intended victim.

Detective Ben Spence agrees with the Lady of the Manor after interviewing a houseful of servants and family members that are all-too-eager to sell off Marlby Manor and inherit Lady Dinnister's considerable fortune. Chief among them is an artist son-in-law; a handsome but unmotivated grandson in love with a secretary neither Lady Dinnister nor Emily Fosdyke deemed good enough for him; and a selfish, greedy granddaughter and her husband who tend to live well beyond their means. But, as Spence and his assistant, Inspector Laruel, take a closer look, they uncover undercurrents of malevolence coming from an unexpected source.

Although Publishers Weekly was a little critical of the book's "awfully implausible murderer-catching traps to snare the culprit," the publication's reviewer ultimately deemed it "comfortable, mildly beguiling entertainment in the traditional style." It deviates a bit from the traditional police procedural into more of the classic whodunit format.

Michael Allen's last Spence novel was in 1982, but Lume Books re-released the three Spence books in 2016. His blog, the Grumpy Old Bookman, was listed by The Guardian as one of the top 10 literary blogs worldwide in 2005, but fell inactive until recently, when in a poignant post, he notes that the reason he's been away is due to his age (82) and a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

         Related StoriesFriday's "Forgotten" Books: The Best American Mystery Stories, 1997, ed. Robert B. Parker