B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 200
August 21, 2016
Your Sunday Music Treat
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the birth of French composer Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918), the famous French impressionist. Here's one of the composer's best-known works, the ethereal piano piece, "Clair de lune" (referenced in my second Scott Drayco novel, Requiem for Innocence), as played by French pianist François-Joël Thiollier:
Related StoriesYour Sunday Music TreatBlood on the Keys
August 20, 2016
August 19, 2016
FFB: She Shall Have Murder
Delano Ames (1906-1987) was born in Ohio to a newspaperman father. In 1929 Ames married Maysie Grieg, who later became a highly successful author of lighthearted romances, and the duo settled in Greenwich Village where Ames published his first novel, a philosophical look at the Greek gods entitled A Double Bed on Olympus. When the couple divorced, Ames moved to England where he remarried and worked for British intelligence during the second World War.
After the war, according to his tongue-in-cheek autobiography, he "translated an erudite history of keyboard instruments from the French, and believes that at least 100 copies were sold." Fortunately, his later efforts were more successful, beginning with in 1948 with She Shall Have Murder, the first in what was to become a 12-book series featuring the British husband-and-wife sleuthing team of Jane and Dagobert Brown. Ames produced a Brown book every year until 1959 when he moved to Spain and switched to writing a four-book
series featuring Juan Llorca of the Spanish Civil Guard.
She Shall Have Murder, made into a movie on British television in 1950, introduces Jane Hamish, a pretty young executive in the law firm Daniel Playfair and Son, and Dagobert Brown, Jane's lover and a researcher/writer who is so absorbed in the thriller he and Jane are concocting around the law firm's staff, that he is astonished when the wrong victim dies. Said victim is Mrs. Robjohn, the least favorite client of the firm, thanks to her frequent calls, letters and visits and unwavering paranoid belief that the mysterious "they" are out to get her.
She Shall Have Murder was labeled as "Detection with Wit" when first published in 1948, an apt description of the characters of Jane, always the common-sense, down-to-earth narrator, and her other half Dagobert, whose eccentricities and passing fads often leave Jane alternatively delighted and driven to despair ("Dagobert is my hero, but he persistently refuses to behave like one.") One of Dagobert's primary pursuits is amateur sleuthing that he puts to good use as he resorts to bluffs, disguises, charm and insightful detection in his efforts to prove Mrs. Robjohn was murdered.
Jane makes a delightful narrator, as in this bit about her thoughts on her potential novel-writing career at the start of the story:
"On the other hand, thrillers have nowadays become an accepted art-form; bishops and minor poets read practically nothing else, and the New Statesman reviews them....The beginning of a book is always the tricky part. It should arrest. A shot should ring out in the night, or if you prefer, a rod should cough or a Roscoe belch forth destruction. Personally, I like to meet my corpse on page one, and I like him (or her) to be very dead."
In Peter Walker's foreword to the Black Dagger edition of She Shall Have Murder, he notes that the novel is a time capsule of post-World War II life, with utility clothing, conscription, rationing, listening to the wireless, putting lavender in the clothes closet, feeding gas meters with shillings and girls who resemble Rita Hayworth. But the writing sparkles over 60 years later and is far from dated in its ability to entertain.
August 17, 2016
Mystery Melange
The Killer Nashville conference announced the finalists for the Silver Falchion Peer Choice and Judges Choice Awards in various categories. Winners will be announced at the Guest of Honor & Awards Dinner at the conference this Saturday. The event starts Thursday and is headlined by special guests Janet Evanovich, Kevin O'Brien, Robert Randisi, Anne Pery, William Kent Krueger, and Charles Todd. (A personal note: I am thrilled to be included in the Best Mystery/Crime category.)
Otto Penzler, president and publisher of Mysterious Press and owner of New York City's Mysterious Bookshop, announced finalists for the inaugural $25,000 Mysterious Press Award. The contest was open to novels by established authors and first-time novelists (submitted through accredited literary agents only). The winner will be announced at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. The finalists include Alibi by Lee Goodman, The Downside by Mike Cooper, and Bright Like Blood by Leigh C. Rourks.
If you're a fan of Sue Grafton and her mystery series featuring Kinsey Milhone, Panmacmillan and ClassicFM have a contest just for you. To celebrate the release of Sue Grafton's book X, they're offering a chance to win the entire Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series so far plus a fantastic tech bundle including a Kindle Voyage if you enter by Sunday August 21. It's also a nice plug for ClassicFM, by the way - while you're there, take some time to look around (although note that live-streaming is only available in the UK).
Martin Edwards posted that will appeal to fans of Victorian mystery novels. Titled The A-Z of Victorian Crime, the project was compiled by four historians of crime - Neil R.A. Bell, Trevor N. Bond, Kate Clarke, and M.W. Oldridge.
Book Riot took a look at another type of mystery, creating a list of "23 Favorite Missing Person Mysteries."
"Tartan Noir" is the phrase often used to classify Scottish crime fiction, and as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins, Stuart Macbride (author of the Logan McRae novels) tries to explain "what lies behind this publishing phenomenon, and whether it really exists at all."
The national Sisters in Crime organization recently released its annual Report for Change, this year on the subject of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Mystery Community.” Rather than point any fingers of blame, the object of the study is to bring the issues "to consciousness and bringing the membership of this organization and others out of that shade and into the light of open discussion," as Publishing Perspectives noted.
It's not too late to squeeze in that last summer read. To help you out, New York Times readers listed their favorite thrillers. And if you wondered what was on President Obama's summer reading list, he included one crime fiction title.
Want to learn how to be a spy? Or at least live and travel like one? Atlas Obscura compiled a map of all the places "where 007 drank, killed and shagged." (HT to Bill Crider)
This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Short Lived" by Bill Baber.
In the Q&A roundup, the Mysterious People chat with Chris Grabenstein, former standup comedian and author of comedic crime novels as well as co-author of a number of books with author James Patterson; Michael Koryta spoke with the Portland Press Herald about his latest thriller, Rise the Dark, his writing in general, and using Maine as a setting in his books; Nick Kolakowski takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview challenge; the Mystery People snagged James Ziskin to talk about the latest in his series featuring early 1960s "girl reporter" Ellie Stone; and Crime Watch welcomed Argentina's bestselling crime writer, Claudia Piñeiro.
August 15, 2016
Media Murder for Monday
Monday means it's time for the latest wrap-up of crime drama news:
MOVIES
The Magnificent Seven director Antoine Fuqua is in talks to direct Universal's Scarface reboot, which will be set in Los Angeles. The original 1932 film starring Paul Muni took place in Chicago, while the 1983 classic featuring Al Pacino as Tony Montana chronicled the Miami cocaine trade.
Harry Potter's Jason Isaacs has been tapped to join the cast of Hotel Mumbai, joining Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, and Nazanin Boniadi in the film based on the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai. The project is an account of the courageous actions of the hotel staff and guests during a terrorist attack on the iconic Indian landmark by Pakistani militants that resulted in hundreds held hostage for 68 hours and 160 deaths.
The all-female reboot of Oceans Eleven, starring Sandra Bullock, has added to its growing cast with Rihanna and Anne Hathaway in negotiations to join in the fun. They join the already-hired Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and Nora Lum (better known by her rap name Awkwafina). The project will follow a similar path to the George Clooney-starrer about a group of thieves and cons who try to pull off a major heist.
Universal is pushing back the release date of the Tom Cruise movie Mena from January to September 2017 and giving it a new title, American Made. The project reunites director Doug Liman and Cruise after making 2014's Edge of Tomorrow, only this time Cruise stars as real-life American pilot and hustler Barry Seal, who ran drugs in the 1980s for cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and was recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in history.
A new fast-paced trailer has debuted online for Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Inferno, once again starring Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon.
A TV trailer-promo and poster were also released for the next outing of Tom Cruise playing Lee Child's literary creation in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
TELEVISION
Homeland is adding new characters to the cast for the upcoming sixth season. Limitless star Hill Harper (who joins the previously cast Elizabeth Marvel) will play the chief of staff to her president-elect, while The Flash actor Patrick Sabongui will team up with Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison to play a CUNY law professor and advocate for the Muslim-American community.
Homeland also got a bit of very good schedule news: Showtime ordered up not just Season 7 of the political thriller, but also Season 8 before the sixth season even went into production (although the Season 6 release date has been announced, January 15, 2017). Showtime CEO David Nevins said there's an "open-ended expiration date" on the drama, specifically because there is no end to the headlines made by governments around the world."
Ray Donovan fans will also be happy with the news that Showtime renewed the series about Boston-bred fixer (Liev Schrieber) who makes bad stuff go away for his rich, high-profile L.A. clients. Production on the 12-episode season is set to begin next year.
Jennifer Lopez has signed on to star in an upcoming HBO TV movie about the life of one of the most powerful female drug lords of all time. Colombian drug kingpin Griselda Blanco, who became known as the "Cocaine Godmother," changed the rules of the drug trade in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s and was rumored to have been a black widow who killed a couple of her husbands.
The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli has committed to Season 2 of Fox’s supernatural procedural Lucifer, playing Angel Uriel, a brother of the titular devil (Tom Ellis). The casting makes sense in light of the fact that Season 2 will revolve around Lucifer Morningstar's mom (Tricia Helfer), according to producers at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.
If you're a fan of Criminal Minds and wonder why Aaron Hotcher goes missing for the next season, it's because the actor who plays the character, Thomas Gibson, was fired after an "altercation" on the set. The studio added that "creative details for how the character’s exit will be addressed in the show will be announced at a later date." Of course, that all may depend upon the actor's potential lawsuit.
A fan favorite character will be returning to the third season of FOX's Batman prequel show Gotham. Although the show seemingly killed off Jerome (who many felt was a younger version of the Joker), Gotham's Executive Producer John Stephens revealed that Jerome was definitely going to be back on the show at some point.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
Jan Burke and Dr. D.P. Lyle welcomed Dr. Katherine Ramsland to the Crime & Science podcast to discuss Ramsland's years of research into one of America’s most notorious serial killers Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, and the book that resulted form her work.
Mystery author C.L. Shore chatted with author/screenwriter Debbi Mack about her crime fiction and career for the Crime Cafe podcast.
On this week's FBI Retired Case File Reviews, host Jerri Williams spoke with retired agent Shawn Henry, who served in the FBI for 24 years, most recently as an Executive Assistant Director overseeing all criminal and cyber investigations worldwide.
Haunted Nights Live welcomed F. Paul Wilson, the author of fifty-plus books and numerous short stories spanning science fiction, horror, adventure, medical thrillers, and virtually everything between, to talk about his new thriller, Mother.
On the most recent Thrill Seekers podcast, host Alex Dolan snagged Tom Pitts, an acquisitions editor at Gutter Books, editor of the Flash Fiction Offensive, and author of the crime novel Hustle.
August 14, 2016
Your Sunday Music Treat
In celebration of the Olympics in Rio, it seemed fitting to feature Brazil's most famous composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959). He was quite prolific, with over 2000 orchestral, vocal, and chamber works, many inspired by Brazilian folk music mixed with European traditions, most notably Bachianas Brasileiras, a series of nine suites written for various combinations of instruments and voices.
Here's Festa no Sertão ("Party in the Country"), played by Brazilian-born pianist Clelia Iruzun:
And here's arguably the composer's best-known work, "Aria" from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, sung by Anna Moffo:
Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Terrence McCauleyYour Sunday Music TreatBlood on the Keys
August 13, 2016
August 12, 2016
FFB: The Last Vanity
Leopold Horace Ognall (1908-1979) was a prolific author with close to 90 novels under his two pseudonyms, Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. Thus it is rather surprising that it's so difficult to find anything about the author or his books.
He was born in Montreal, educated in Scotland and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. His primary series characters under the Harry Carmichael name are insurance assessor John Piper and crime reporter Quinn. The main focus of his Hartley Howard line are Philip Scott, head of a successful toy company and secretly the head of a British spy unit, and the New York private eye Glenn Bowman. The author once declared thirty-eight year old Bowman to be "the toughest wise-cracking private eye in the business."
One of the earliest Bowman novels is The Last Vanity from 1952, the third in that series. The novel opens with Edwin Newsome, a man worried about the health of his brother, Harold, fearing he may be the victim of steady poisoning by his brother's new—and much younger—wife, Moira. Edwin hires P.I. Glenn Bowman to investigate, and Bowman poses as an ex-con to get himself hired as a second chauffeur in the Harold's household. He soon discovers many under-currents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, much more than a scheming young wife after her husband's wealth.
Hartley Howard's style is solidly in the Golden Age era, with the British author trying valiantly to emulate the American hard-boiled detective writing of Raymond Chandler and the others who followed in Chandler's footsteps. Still, there are a few British-isms that creep in here and there, which is fun. The novel doesn't rise to Chandler's level, but it's still entertaining and Bowman's character sympathetic and engaging.
Although Ognall/Howard's books were apparently never published in the States and weren't even all that easy to find in the U.K. The Thrilling Detective site notes that Howard at some point moved to Italy during the Sixties and his Glenn Bowman private eye books were very popular among Italian readers during that period. They apparently did well in Germany, where almost his entire output was translated.
Both Leopold Horace Ognall and his books appear to be largely forgotten (save perhaps his novel Assignment K, made into a movie starring Stephen Boyd as spy Philip Scott), but the author's son Harry became a high court judge and conducted the hearings regarding former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.
August 10, 2016
Mystery Melange
For the second year in a row, the Deadly Ink Conference's David Award, presented to the best mystery published in 2015, ended in a tie: Jack Getze, for Big Shoes, and A. J. Sidransky, for Forgiving Mariela Camacho. The runners-up included Jane K. Cleland, for Ornaments of Death, Hank Phillippi Ryan, for What You See, and Karin Slaughter, for Pretty Girls. (Hat tip to Classic Mysteries)
A group of 15+ women mystery writers are set to participate in the third annual Ladies of Intrigue event on Sunday, October 2, in Huntington Beach, California. The list of attending authors special guests Agatha Award winner Carolyn Hart (interviewed by Rhys Bowen) and Robin Burcell, the author of The Last Good Place, a 2015 work continuing the Al Krug/Casey Kellog police procedural series created by Carolyn Weston. Also appearing will be Kathy Aaron, Lisa Brackmann, Ellen Byron, Kate Carlisle, Donis Casey, Hannah Dennison, Kate Dyer-Seeley, Earlene Fowler, Daryl Wood Gerber, Naomi Hirahara, Linda O. Johnston, Carlene O'Neil, Laurie Stevens. and Pamela Samuels Young.
With the 2016 Summer Olympics in full swing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare blog has a listing of Olympics-themed mysteries.
New imprint Syndicate Books is publishing the complete works of MWA Grandmaster Margaret Millar, with a special offer for readers: you can pre-order the series and receive each book one month before its on-sale date. Order now and receive one book every two months, or order at any point later and receive all released volumes and then the rest as they publish.
Mike Ripley’s August "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine includes his wrap-up of the recent Heffers of Cambridge crime-fiction summer party; a look at classic works by Fergus Hume and Anna K. Green; news about Ostara Publishing’s reprints of Frank McAuliffe's classic novels; and reviews of new releases from Rod Reynolds, Ray Celestin, Steven Price, Paul Doherty, and more.
Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Klavan penned an essay titled "The Unblinking Private Eye" on the literary private eye novels of Ross Macdonald, who refined the genre to the point where it became a rich commentary upon itself. (Subscription)
Ahead of the Bouchercon Conference, you can read online all of the Macavity Award-nominated short stories via these links.
For authors writing on books on skip tracing and private eye techniques, Sarah Weinman has a timely article about a woman who faked her own death and wound up writing a book about it, Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. The book also features a "motley cast of Ponzi schemers, insurance fraudsters, celebrity hoaxers and the people who love them, believe in them, or hunt for them, in various straits of desperation and skepticism."
Forget the gym, just read books! According to a new report, researchers used data on 3,635 people over 50 participating in a larger health study who had answered questions about reading. The scientists found that folks who read for up to three and a half hours a week were 17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. Book readers lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all.
Got a spare £1million? The Chelsea Art Deco apartment where Agatha Christie set her Poirot novel Third Girl is on the market. The legendary crime author also penned other famous works including The Mousetrap during her 28 years living there.
Want to know what the "most beautiful" library is in your state? Tech Insider compiled a listing of all 50 states.
The featured crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Pied Piper" by Jonel Abellanosa, and this month's featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Back Then Our Stories Were Real ..." by Gary Dobbs.
In the Q&A roundup, David Swinson chatted with the Mystery People about his new books featuring private detective and drug addict Frank Marr; the MP also snagged author Shaun Harris, to discuss his recently released debut crime novel, The Hemingway Thief; Lisa Alber stopped by Omnimystery News to give more details about the second mystery in her County Clare series, Whispers in the Mist; and Criminal Element sat down with Donna Andrews to talk about her 20 Meg Lanslow mysteries and how she comes up with her "punny" titles.
Related StoriesMystery Melange
August 8, 2016
Media Murder for Monday
MOVIES
Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in and produce a film adaptation of Rogue Male, the 1939 English novel by Geoffrey Household. The story follows a hunter who attempts to assassinate a dictator (Household has said the dictator was intended to be a stand-in for Adolph Hitler) but is caught, tortured and left for dead; when he escapes back home to England, he must hide out in a harsh countryside with enemy agents and police in hot pursuit.
Angelina Jolie has departed Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express. She was reported as being in negotiations to join the cast but the studio will now turn to other big names to fill the void, with Charlize Theron among those in consideration. Branagh will star as Detective Hercule Poirot in addition to directing the adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel that has a script from Michael Green.
Jessica Chastain has joined the cast of Ubisoft's film adaptation of the Tom Clancy video game The Division. Released on March 8 this year, the game was an instant success, with the highest number of first-day sales on record for the gaming company. The Division takes place in the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. Players attempt to rebuild, investigate and fight crime in the city.
Sony Pictures and Misher Films are moving forward with a remake of director Gerardo Naranjo's 2011 Mexican crime drama Miss Bala, with Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer adapting the screenplay from the original script by Naranjo and Mauricio Katz. The story is loosely based on a real incident and stars Stephanie Sigman as a young woman who dreams of becoming a beauty queen, but when she witnesses a gang hit in a nightclub, the mob rigs an upcoming pageant and she’s dragged into the world of drug cartels and corrupt cops.
Mark Wahlberg is attached to star in and produce the thriller Home Invasion, re-teaming the actor with Contraband scribe Aaron Guzikowski. Pitched as "Panic Room meets Die Hard," Wahlberg will play a contractor whose artist wife suffers from an illness that prevents her from being in the sunlight and builds a futuristic house for her that blocks out any natural light. When a band of criminals attempts to break into the house to steal one of his wife’s valuable sculptures, he must evade and outsmart them to protect his home.
Mr. Robot star Rami Malek is in talks to join the remake of Papillon alongside Charlie Hunnam. Malek would play Louis Dega, the role made famous by Dustin Hoffman in the 1973 original, with Hunnam taking on Steve McQueen's role of Henri Charrière. The remake will be a modern take on the original film, which was based on the memoirs of a convicted felon (Charrière) who escaped from Devil's Island, a South American settlement for exiled prisoners, aided by Malek's character (Dega), a counterfeiter.
Joel Edgerton is in early talks to join Jennifer Lawrence in the adaptation of the Jason Matthews spy novel Red Sparrow, with Francis Lawrence attached to direct the script by American Hustle scribe Eric Warren Singer. The book is set in contemporary Russia where state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the cast-iron bureaucracy of post-Soviet intelligence. Drafted against her will to become a "Sparrow," a trained seductress in the service, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the agency’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence.
Linda Cardellini (Bloodline) has been cast in the action thriller Hunter Killer, an adaptation by Peter Craig and Jamie Moss of the novel Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith. The story revolves around an American submarine commander (Gerard Butler) sent into Russian waters to save the Russian president (Gary Oldman) in the midst of a military coup. Cardellini will play Jane Norquist, a NSA senior analyst and Russia expert. Toby Stephens, Billy Bob Thornton, Common, Ryan McPartlin and Gabriel Chavarria will also co-star.
Don Johnson is in talks to join Vince Vaughn in the indie action thriller Brawl in Cell Block 99 from S. Craig Zahler, the writer and director of the critically acclaimed 2015 cannibal Western Bone Tomahawk. Vaughn plays Bradley, a former boxer who goes to work for an old friend as a drug courier who winds up in prison and is forced to commit brutal, violent acts. Johnson would play the role of the prison warden in the film, which is set to start production next month in New York City.
Vancouver's Cinematheque is offering its annual summer celebration of the "giddy, gloomy, seductive glories of Film Noir" through August 22. Highlights include The Big Sleep, based on the Chandler novel and starring Bogart and Bacall, and Shadow of a Doubt, Alfred Hitchcock's favorite of his own movies.
TELEVISION
The Closer star Kyra Sedgwick is returning to primetime as the star of another series, ABC's thriller Ten Days In the Valley, with a deal for a 10-episode straight-to-series order. The project comes from Tassie Cameron, co-creator and head writer of hit cop series Rookie Blue, and follows Jane Sadler (Sedgwick), an overworked television producer and single mother in the throes of a fractious separation whose young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night.
James Norton (Grantchester, War & Peace, Happy Valley) has been cast as the lead in BBC One's upcoming event series McMafia, inspired by Misha Glenny's bestselling book. The project is a hard-hitting look at global crime and its far reaching influence and is being spearheaded by Hossein Amini (Drive) and James Watkins (The Woman In Black), who will also direct.
Investigation Discovery is joining forces with bestselling author James Patterson, who will write and executive produce a six-part scripted true crime series for the network based on Patterson’s new line of novella-length BookShots.
Invesitgation Discovery also greenlighted the drama special Black and Blue, with investigative reporting from Emmy-winning journalist Tony Harris. He will travel the country to reveal how police shootings impact African American families in their homes and communities across the U.S., while also giving viewers a first-hand look into what it’s like to be a law enforcement officer working to protect our not-so-united municipalities in these troubling times.
L.A. Law, which ran on NBC for eight seasons starting in 1986, may get a new life through a reboot according to series creator Steven Bochco. The new project is in the works with 20th Century Fox Television, which owns the franchise, but it is in the very early stages of development. Bochco hopes to have the pilot script ready for contention in next year's crop of new shows. Bochco also said that he wouldn't rule out bringing back some of the original cast and characters from the first iteration of L.A. Law, which included Corbin Bernsen, Jimmy Smits, Harry Hamlin, Susan Dey. and Blair Underwood.
After a mildly successful foray into dark serialized dramas like Animal Kingdom and Good Behavior, TNT announced it will gradually bring back procedurals and lighter fare such as Rizzoli & Isles. The plan is to introduce a new procedural drama on the network in late 2017 or early 2018.
USA Network has set an October premiere date for its new original crime thriller series Eyewitness from executive producer Adi Hasak (Shades of Blue). The 10-episode drama series delves into the lives of two teenage boys after they secretly meet up in a cabin, witness a shooting, and barely escape with their lives—then learn the efforts to keep their secret are worse than they'd bargained for. Adapted from the critically acclaimed Norwegian drama Øyevitne, the series stars Julianne Nicholson, Gil Bellows, Tyler Young and James Paxton.
Sleepy Hollow has found Crane’s new archenemy in Jeremy Davies (Lost, Justified). Davies' recurring character, Malcolm Dreyfuss, is described as an eccentric and outspoken tech mogul who became a billionaire before the age of 30 and has since been seeking other worlds to conquer.
Willem Dafoe has closed a deal to voice Ryuk the Shinigami in Adam Wingard's adaptation of the popular Japanese manga Death Note that will debut next year on Netflix. Ryuk is a supernatural god of death who accompanies protagonist/anti-hero Light Turner (Nat Wolff), a high school student who comes into possession of a powerful, unholy "Death Note" that kills anyone whose name is written into it. Drunk on power, he begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life. In addition to being a supernatural horror, Death Note is also a police procedural, as Light's own father is tasked with finding the serial killer who the public believes is behind the sudden string of murders.
Director Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent Seven, Training Day) has received a 10-episode straight-to-series order from the AT&T Audience network for a crime drama that dives deeply into the underbelly of the Los Angeles diamond trade via the members of the Green family. Production is set to begin this month and is slated for release later this year.
Dick Wolf will continue his crime-oriented franchise slate with a New York-set crime drama that focuses on the FBI. Wolf already has actively been researching the subject, meeting with FBI executives and other sources, including FBI director James Comey. Because of how full Wolf’s plate is, the new FBI drama is eyed for the 2018-19 season, with the possibility that the new show would be introduced on Wolf's Law & Order: SVU, which is also set in New York.
Meanwhile, Wolf said he thinks there will "definitely" be a four-way crossover between his three existing Chicago shows - Fire, P.D. and Med - and new spin-off Chicago Justice next year, after the latter premieres mid-season.
Casey Bloys, HBO's new president of programming, told reporters that Nic Pizzolatto's crime drama True Detective is not dead. He added, "It’s a really valuable franchise for us. I think both seasons average about 11 million viewers an episode. So not dead. Just I’m not sure we have the right take for a third season yet."
Emmy-nominated Lili Taylor will return to American Crime for the upcoming third season, joining previously announced Timothy Hutton, Felicity Huffman, Regina King and Richard Cabral in the critically-praised anthology series from John Ridley and Michael McDonald.
There will no second season for Fox's literary adventure drama series Houdini & Doyle, which was canceled by the network after being plagued by soft ratings throughout its freshman run. The series focused on the unlikely real-life friendship between master illusionist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) as they grudgingly joined forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant.
Investigation Discovery has set a three-night television event series focusing on the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation for premiere on September 12, which will reexamine the evidence in the case that gripped the nation of a 6-year-old beauty queen mysteriously murdered in her own home the day after Christmas 1996.
Alexandra Metz has landed a recurring role in the CW's new drama series Frequency, a re-imagining of the 2000 New Line Cinema film, which centers on a female police detective who discovers she can speak via a ham radio with her estranged father (also a detective) who died in 1996. They forge a new relationship while working together on an unsolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the "butterfly effect" wreak havoc in the present day. Metz will play Maya, a college student desperate to prevent herself from becoming a victim of a violent crime.
Author M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin now has her own TV series, Agatha Raisin: The Quiche of Death, which premiered on Acorn TV. Ugly Betty’s Ashley Jensen stars as the London PR executive attempting to retire peacefully in a small Cotswold village, but has trouble winning the townsfolk over—not to mention the encountering of dead bodies. You can watch the trailer and the entire first episode for free on Acorn TV.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
D.P. Lyle and Jan Burke presented a Live Crime & Science Radio Podcast with special guest interviewee Criminalist and Forensics Professor Don Johnson at a MWA-LA meeting on August 7. You can listen to the archived version via this link.
Retired agent Bea DeFazio served in the FBI for 23 years, seven as a member of the Special Surveillance Group (SSG) following spies in New York and 16 as a special agent, as well as working undercover to ferret out child predators trolling in online chat rooms. She stopped by fellow retired FBI agent Jerri Williams' podcast "FBI Retired Case File Review."
THEATER
Australia's Sydney Theatre Company is currently presenting The Hanging by award-winning playwright Angela Betzien through September 10. The story follows two school girls who go missing in Melbourne’s hinterland with the only clue being the girls' closest friend and confidante. Beguiling and quick-witted, this 14-year-old ingénue (played by Ashleigh Cummings) won't give up her secrets easily - and what does her English teacher (Genevieve Lemon) have to hide?
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