B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 202

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday and this week's latest crime drama news:

AWARDS



The Emmy Award nominations announced last week saw FX’s Cold War spy drama The Americans achieve a rare feat by breaking into the top ranks of Emmy contenders in its fourth season. As expected, Game Of Thrones led all shows with 23 nods, while The People Vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story came in second with 22, and Fargo third with 18. Along with The Americans, the other Best Drama contenders include Better Call Saul, Homeland, and Mr. Robot. Another fun category is Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Series Or Movie, with a roster including Bryan Cranston (All the Way), Idris Elba (Luther), Courtney B. Vance and Cuba Gooding, Jr. (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), Tom Hiddleston (Night Manager), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock). For all the nominees, check out this link, or if you're interested in numbers by show click here, or by network, here.



MOVIES



There are plans afoot to bring the Idris Elba-starring crime drama Luther to the big screen. Luther creator Neil Cross indicated that the Luther movie would play as prequel to the series, meaning that some of the characters from early in the show could return, including Luther’s old partner Ian Reed (Steven Mackintosh), and his sidekick Justin Ripley (Warren Brown). Cross added, "It will follow his career in the earlier days when he is still married to Zoe, and the final scene in the film is the first of the initial TV series."



After months of speculation, it has been made (somewhat) official that Colin Firth will be somehow returning for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the follow up to the adaptation of the comic book The Secret Service created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar. Firth played the dapper agent Harry Hart who — SPOILER ALERT — met his demise at the end of the first movie. 



Bruce Willis has signed on to star in First Kill, a Steven C. Miller-directed action thriller, with Willis playing a police chief who tries to solve a kidnapping against a ticking clock. After a man and his son witness a thug shooting a bank thief while on a hunting trip, the bank robber takes the boy hostage, in order to recover the key to a locker that contains the loot from the bank heist. 



TELEVISION



Sky is re-teaming with crime fiction author Harlan Coben for The Four, a stand-alone, character-driven thriller that tells the story of an idyllic family community irrevocably shattered by secrets, lies, suspicions and misguided trust. The new series follows the success of Coben's The Five, his first original story for TV, which debuted in April on Sky 1.



In the wake of yet another gun-related tragedy, USA has opted to postpone the premiere of the forthcoming series Shooter to July 26. The sniper drama, which opens with the sound of a gunshot along with real-life images of historical incidents of gun violence, is being held a week given the recent attack by a sniper on police in downtown Dallas. The show stars Ryan Phillippe and Omar Epps and is based on the 2007 Mark Wahlberg film of the same name.



NBC has put in a series order for the latest Dick Wolf-produced spinoff Law & Order: True Crime, with the first season set up to focus on the still-shocking murders committed by brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez.



South African actress Pearl Thusi is set to play a new series regular on Season 2 of ABC drama series Quantico. Thusi will play Dayana Mampasi, a driven, disciplined, type-A lawyer who struggles to fit in. She joins series stars Priyanka Chopra, Jake McLaughlin, Aunjanue Ellis, Yasmine Al Massri, Johanna Braddy, Blair Underwood, and Russell Tovey.



Season 2 of the fantasy police procedural drama Lucifer has begun filming, and the latest rumors reveal that Tom Ellis (who stars as Lucifer Morningstar) will be getting romantically involved with Rush Hour actress Aimee Garcia, who will be playing a forensic scientist Ella Lopez at the LAPD.



Sandrine Holt (Terminator Genisys) has signed on as a series regular opposite Lucas Till and George Eads in CBS’ new fall series MacGyver, a reimagining of the 1985 show about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife. Holt will play Patricia Thornton, an ex-field agent turned director of operations for DXS (Department of External Services).



Lori Loughlin and Michael Imperioli will guest-star in the season 7 premiere of Blue Bloods. Imperioli (The Sopranos) will play Miller, a hard-charging lawyer in the attorney general’s office who spearheads an investigation into Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and the shooting death of serial killer Thomas Wilder. Loughlin (Full House) will play Grace, the widow of a slain police officer who begs Frank (Tom Selleck) to stop her son from becoming a cop.



Blue Bloods alumna Jennifer Esposito has joined the cast of veteran CBS drama NCIS as a series regular. Esposito will play NCIS Special Agent Alexandra "Alex" Quinn, an experienced agent who left field work and became an instructor at the Law Enforcement Training Center. Gibbs (Harmon) will lure her back into the field as part of his team, where he will take advantage of her sharp wit, quick mind and immense talent as a federal agent. Her character will be introduced in the September 20 season premiere. The show also announced that Duane Henry, who guest-starred in the final two episodes of the Mark Harmon-led series last season, has also been promoted to a regular for the upcoming Season 14. 



The Leftovers' Carrie Coon, twice nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for her role as the complicated Nora Durst in HBO's grim drama, is joining Fargo's third season in a lead role, playing Eden Valley police chief Gloria Burgle, a practical woman coping with a recent divorce.



A first-look photo from the filming of Season 4 of the BBC's Sherlock featured Benedict Cumbatch's titular detective with his new "partner."



PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO



Gayle Lynds was interviewed by Libby Fischer Hellman for Authors on the Air. Lynds is a former journalist who turned her hand to spy thrillers and became a bestseller now published in over 20 countries.



THEATER



An opera based on the Swedish detective novels by Henning Mankell premiered Friday at the University of Tübingen, in Germany. Titled W: The Truth Beyond with music by Fredrik Sixten, the production will next ravel to Ystad in Sweden, the fictional Wallander’s home town.



A play based on the novels of Peter James is coming to Glasgow with the world premiere production of Not Dead Enough from April 3rd to April 7th 2017. The plot centers on a man who claims to have been sixty miles away when his wife was murdered. But as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace continues to deal with the mysterious disappearance of his own wife, he starts to dig a little deeper into the chilling murder case and it soon becomes clear that love can be a dangerous thing.

           Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: The Midnight Plumber

British author Maurice Proctor (1906–1973) worked faithfully as a Police Constable in Yorkshire for nineteen years, with part of his time spent on motorcycle patrol. He was also involved in the investigation of the Halifax Slasher in 1938. All during his time on the force, however, he harbored a secret desire to write crime novels and kept his hobby hidden from his colleagues until his first book was due to be published, when he promptly resigned.



Being the first British author to specialize in police procedurals would have been enough to make him stand out in the crowd, but his background led an air of credibility and authority to his works that made them popular. His first series didn't appear until 1951 with two back-to-back titles featuring Chief Inspector Philip Hunter, but he reached his peak with a fourteen-book series begun in 1954 with Hell Is a City and ending with Hideaway in 1968, all featuring Chief Inspector Martineau.



Proctor invented cities and towns for settings, chiefly the city of Granchester, likely a stand-in for Manchester or Liverpool. Granchester is an inland port called the "Metropolis of the North," a police force 1,100 strong with its own forensic experts that believes they can hold their own with Scotland Yard. Martineau's superintendent realizes his man is a born detective better at solving cases than merely supervising others, something Martineau puts to the test most of the time.



The Midnight Plumber is the second outing with Inspector Martineau and puts Martineau and his men, including the normally-stalwart Detective Sergeant Devery, in the position of having to track down a swift and ruthless gang of burglars whose leader is known only as "The Plumber." But the police have a problem finding leads among the usual police informants who don't want to get involved for fear of getting killed for their troubles, something The Plumber has already demonstrated he's more than willing to do. Martineau's substantial skills are put to the test, and his patience, too, as he deals with Devery's affair with a criminal's wife on top of everything else.



Proctor uses his work background to good effect in his novels, weaving in procedural tips and insights (from a 1950s UK point of view), although his methods may seem unusual at times, like going undercover as a gypsy. In his foreword to the Black Dagger reprint, Martin Edwards notes that although this may seem outlandish at first, Proctor is careful to point out in the story that Martineau is taking his cues from the police handbook by Dr. Hans Gross, Criminal Investigation. Proctor also manages to maintain a tight pace even after the identity of The Plumber is revealed by using a technique he'd turn to often, the POV reversal: switching back and forth between criminal in flight and the police, leading to what Edwards aptly called "a splendid, savage irony" in the very last sentence of the novel.



Although this particular novel wasn't made into a movie or TV program, a few of Proctor's novels were, including the first Martineau work, Hell is a City, released in 1960 and starring Stanley Baker, Billie Whitelaw and Donald Pleasence. Interestingly Procter's works are collected and available for inspection at the Howard B. Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Massachusetts, as part of the Sam Wanamaker Collection that contains the actor/director's manuscripts, correspondence, and production files.

            

Mystery Melange

Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Thriller Awards, announced at the Thrillerfest banquet this past weekend. They include:

Best Novel: The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell  
Best First Novel: Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich  
Best Paperback Original: Against All Enemies by John Gilstrap
Best Short Story: "Gun Accident" by Joyce Carol Oats
Best Young Adult: Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud  
Best e-Book Original: The Prisoner's Gold by Chris Kusneski 

The Strand Magazine Strand Magazine Critics Awards were also announced, with Best Novel handed out to The Whites, by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt, and Best First Novel going to Past Crimes, by Glen Erik Hamilton. As was previously announced, Colin Dexter and Jeffery Deaver received this year’s Strand Critics lifetime achievement awards. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)



The annual Deadly Ink Conference announced the nominees for the David Award, including Ornaments of Death by by Jane K. Cleland, Big Shoes by by Jack Getze, What You See by Hank Philippi Ryan, Forgiving Maximo Rothman by A. J. Sidransk, and Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter.



The inaugural Whistler Independent Book Awards for Canadian authors announced finalists in the four represented genres including crime fiction. That list will be whittled down by Canadian Authors Vancouver, with the winners handed out at this year’s Whistler Writers Festival during the Literary Cabaret event on October 14.



Although it's sold out, you might keep your eye out for future Crime Scene Live events like the upcoming fest at London's Natural History Museum on July 17. The interactive night combines real science and crime fiction as it allows guests to work with the museum's scientists to solve a murder mystery by gathering and analyzing evidence and trawling through the evidence room to piece together the clues using case files, images, recordings and fingerprint analysis.



Malice Domestic's William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant Program for Unpublished Writers is open for submissions through November 1, 2016. The program is designed to foster quality Malice Domestic literature and to assist the next generation of traditional mystery authors on the road to publication. Grant winners receive a $2,500 award plus one comprehensive registration for the upcoming Malice convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel. You can visit the website for detailed submission guidelines and a list of previous Malice Grant winners.



Coffin Hop Press and Opal Publishing are teaming up to present the "When Words Collide" edition of Calgary’s only official Noir at the Bar event at the Boomtown Pub on August 12. Authors scheduled to appear so far include  Marty Chan, Julie E. Czerneda, Ian Hamilton, Robert Runté, and Eve Silver.



Minotaur Books / A Thomas Dunne Book and Wordharvest announced that they have joined forces with Western Writers of America, who will now host the Tony Hillerman Prize. The change includes a new submission deadline, an option for electronic manuscript submission, and a new venue for the announcement of the winner at the annual Western Writers of America convention. It also means that competition for 2016 has been suspended, with the new deadline for the 2017 competition January 2, 2017. Interested authors can check out the guidelines and the online submission here. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)



The summer edition of Suspense Magazine has interviews and profiles featuring authors Brad Meltzer, Graham Masterton, Lisa Unger, L.J. Sellers, Warren C. Easley, debut author, Ezekiel Boone, and more; Joseph Badal and Allison Leotta have cool writing tips in Craft Corner; Dennis Palumbo shares his take on She's Your Agent, Not Your Mother; Anthony Franze and Lois Winston talk writing; and there are over 20 pages of book reviews, short stories, and other articles.  



Carol Westron penned a guest blog post for Promoting Crime about the rise of fingerprinting and forensic science during the Golden Age of crime fiction and how it worked its way into the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, Dorothy L Sayers, and Annie Haynes.



For years, the final resting place of pioneering crime writer Mary Fortune has been a mystery. Now Lucy Sussex, biographer of Fergus Hume and long-time champion of Fortune and her work, has discovered the unmarked grave where the author has lain since 1911. Fortune, who Sussex says "could be the mother of Australian crime writing," was one of the first writers of police procedurals and between 1868 and 1908 wrote more than 500 stories for The Australian Journal. But she used a pseudonym, W.W., standing for Waif Wander, and her identity was revealed only in the 1950s.



The Bouchercon Conference did a nice thing by making all of the Anthony Award Best Short Story finalist entries available for reading online. Check out all of them via this link.



Chet Williamson, writing for The Guardian, picked his "Top 10 novels about deranged killers":  from Norman Bates to Hannibal Lecter, murderous bogeymen exercise an enduring grip on readers’ imaginations.



Meanwhile, the Decider website decided which crime shows were among the "top 10" of the new millennium.



If you are a die-hard book lover, why not carry your love of books around with you? As in a book-scented perfume. Boing Boing notes there are dozens of such new products, from Demeter Paperback Cologne ("used bookstore": paper, violets and potpourri) to Byredo M/Mink (smells like ink); to Kilian Water Calligraphy ("blended to reflect a scent of Chinese ink sliding over rice paper") to Tokyo Milk Parfumarie Curiosite 17 Paper & Cotton ("coriander, white sage, birch wood, and tundra moss"); and Paper Passion ("the unique bouquet of freshly printed books").



The featured crime poem at the 5-2 this week is "Dangerous Honesties" by Sara J. Tantlinger.



In the Q&A roundup, Manning Wolfe chats with The Mystery People about her series featuring Austin attorney Merit Bridges; the MP's also sat down for a chat with Billy Kring, who draws from his experiences as a former border agent for his heroine Hunter Kincaid; Omnimystery News welcomed Rick Bylina to discuss his new cozy mystery titled Kill All Cats; and Criminal Element snagged John Farrow, author of the Storm Murders Trilogy, to answer questions about his retired detective, Émile Cinq-Mars, and new book, Seven Days Dead.

           Related StoriesMystery MelangeThe 'Zine Scene 

Author R&R with Terrence McCauley

Terrence McCauley had success writing short stories featured in Thuglit, Spintetingler Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Big Pulp and other publications before turning his hand to two crime novels set in 1930s New York City, Prohibition and Slow Burn. In 2016, Down and Out Books also published Terrence's World War I novella - The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood, with proceeds going directly to benefit the Semper Fi Fund. His latest work is the techno-thriller, A Murder of Crows, the just-published second installment in his James Hicks spy series, Sympathy for the Devil.



A Murder of Crows opens with every intelligence agency in the world on the hunt for the elusive terrorist known only as The Moroccan. But when James Hicks and his clandestine group known as the University thwart a bio-terror attack against New York City and capture The Moroccan, they find themselves in the crosshairs of their own intelligence community. The CIA, NSA, DIA and the Mossad are still hunting for for The Moroccan and will stop at nothing to get him. The team find themselves in a strange new world where allies become enemies, enemies become allies and the fate of the University - perhaps even the Western world - may hang in the balance. 



McCauley stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R (Reference and Research) on how he went about preparing to write this novel and his other books:

 

Research has always been very important to my work, no matter what genre I may be writing in at the time.

When I wrote my western, I made sure I weeded out many of the inaccuracies created in the collective entertainment consciousness by movies and television. Cowboys didn’t say shucks and darn. They didn’t just drink sarsaparilla and Miss Kitty probably just didn’t run a harmless hotel. Townsfolk weren’t cowardly and almost no one ever had a showdown on Main Street at high noon. Just as people hadn’t travelled all that way and endured all that hardship to let some bully push them around, they certainly weren’t going to stand in the middle of the street and let someone shoot at them in broad daylight.

I did even more research for the first two novels in the University series (PROHIBITION and SLOW BURN). I wanted to capture the flavor of the 1930s without falling prey to the pitfalls of caricature we have come to believe as fact. Anyone who thinks Daymon Runyon’s work accurately chronicled the era is sadly mistaken. If he told the truth about the people he knew and what he saw, his friends would have made sure he took a long walk off a very tall building. For accuracy, one must turn to the photographs of Weegee and the writings of Herbert Asbury (Gangs of New York) and others to attain a better sense of the underworld at the time. Al Capone wasn’t a cigar chomping, Tommy gun-firing mad man. He also wasn’t the charming common man portrayed in archival film footage, either.

If research has taught me anything – whether I’m examining the past or the present – it’s that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The trick is to get close enough to it for the reader to believe it and be entertained by it. As Wesley Gibson, my mentor and friend once told me, ‘You’re not writing a textbook. People don’t care how it’s done. They care about why it’s in your story. Justify it and move on.”

I took the same approach when I researched SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and A MURDER OF CROWS. Just as I sought to avoid the stereotypes of the black hat-wearing villain in my western or the cigar-chomping mad-dog killer of the 1920s, I wanted to avoid the stereotypes that the techno-thriller genre has acquired in the last couple of decades. You know what I mean, even though you might not realize it as they’ve become so commonplace, they’re impossible to notice. I didn’t want to write about the nerdy, socially awkward computer whiz with spiked hair, piercings and tattoos who resents authority, but follows it anyway. I also didn’t want to write about the hacker with the heart of gold or the criminal who reluctantly decides to fight crime or promote national security. And I sure as hell didn’t want to write about the foaming Islamic terrorist or the ex-special forces super-agent who reluctantly gets pulled back in to the fray of serving his or her country.

I wanted to write something different, but also something the reader could recognize. If I wrote an existential spy novel, no one, it meant I had to do my homework. A lot of it.

I started by deciding what kind of story I wanted to tell. Did I want to go the Le Carre route, meaning a book heavy on background and plot but not much action? Did I want a Bourne-like novel, with hyper-action and plot that got filled in along the way? Or did I want a Tom Clancy novel, wherein technology and lingo rule the day while plot and character development take second place?

Never opting for the easy road, I chose a little bit of all three. The collective Snowden and Assange messes helped me with the technological aspects of the story. I replaced the inked-up, rebellious hacker with a standing system called OMNI that gave the members of the mysterious University access to some of the most classified information in the world. Agents could not only access OMNI from their phones, but they could also upload vehicle traces, photographs of suspects and the fingerprints of suspected terrorists with ease. I employed a plot device I’ve dubbed near-technology, wherein I use every day technology and simply expand on our own personal use of it. Can the black box in your car be automatically tracked by satellite? Maybe. Can your fingerprints be scanned and analyzed remotely? They already are by the biometric device on newer iPhones. Can someone listen in to your phone or activate its camera without your knowledge? Certainly.

To a greater extent, could an organization like The University exist, one that isn’t funded by the government but has immense power and reach? That’s for the reader to decide. I certainly hope I’ve painted a convincing world in which the reader cannot only believe, but about which they will want to learn more. Through careful research and a bit of story telling, I strive to strike a balance that strains credulity only far enough for the reader to escape their reality and not fear for their safety. Because, like a wise person once told me, I’m not writing a textbook. I’m telling a story.

 

To find out more about Terrence McCauley and his books, check out his website and follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Grab a copy of A Murder of Crows via online stores or through your local bookstore.

           Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Diana RennAuthor R&R with Robert MaselloAuthor R&R with Sean Chercover 

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday and the latest crime drama news from screens big and small and on the air:

MOVIES



Idris Elba (Luther, Beasts of No Nation) is set to direct his first film later this year, an adaptation of Victor Headley’s novel Yardie. The story centers on D, a courier carrying cocaine from Jamaica to London, who decides to go it alone and disappears into the mean streets of Hackney carrying a kilo of white powder his erstwhile friends are anxious to recover.



Steven Soderbergh will produce and likely direct a feature film about the Panama Papers, the biggest leak of data in corporate and government history. Scott Z. Burns has been taped to write the script, based on the upcoming book Secrecy World by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Bernstein.



Millennium Films' submarine action-thriller Hunter Killer has added two additional members to its crew, drafting Zane Holtz and Gabriel Chavarria for plum roles. In the film (which follows an untested sub captain teamed with an elite military unit to rescue the Russian president from a military coup), Holtz will play a skilled member of the unit, while Chavarria will play a Navy SEAL aboard the American sub. The film also stars Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Billy Bob Thornton, Common, and Taylor John Smith.



NOIR CITY returns to Seattle July 22-28 to a new home at the SIFF Cinema Egyptian. Sponsored by the Film Noir Foundation, this year's slate includes an 18 film lineup  subtitled "Film Noir: A to B" and comprises nine double bills that present a chronological excursion through the classic noir era, with themed pairs of "A" and "B" titles playing together.



A trailer was released for the dark thriller I Am Not a Serial Killer, an adaptation of the novel by Dan Wells with a premise that basically "starts as Dexter for young adults before spinning into much stranger territory."



The first trailer was released for Blood Father, director Jean-François Richet’s action thriller starring Mel Gibson is a hardened ex-con protecting his daughter (Erin Moriarty) from bad guys.



TELEVISION



ITV is headed to Scotland for a new six-part serial killer drama Loch Ness, written by Fortitude’s Stephen Brady and exec produced by Tim Haines (Beowulf). The show centers on "a community nourished and sustained by myth and bordered by untamed nature" where a serial killer becomes a matter of life and death for local detective Annie Cathro (Laura Fraser) who is trying to cope with her first murder case.



HBO Europe will switch to a focus on original dramas following success of adaptations. The subscriber satellite service launched its latest freshly penned drama, the Czech series Pustina (Wasteland), the second original drama to be offered to HBO Europe subscribers after the Polish thriller Wataha (The Pack). In the longer term, the hope is that HBO Europe produce original drama that captures the attention of the world in the way that Scandinavian crime thrillers have over the past few years.



Blue Bloods star Tom Selleck signed a deal in the nick of time to return for Season 7 of the CBS cop drama, which began production last week. The veteran actor plays Police Commissioner Frank Reagan on the show about a multigenerational family of cops dedicated to New York City law enforcement that also stars Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynihan, Will Estes, Amy Carlson, Marissa Ramirez, Tony Terraciano, Andrew Terraciano and Sami Gayle.



Richard Cabral has joined Felicity Huffman and Regina King as the third cast member to sign on for the upcoming third installment of John Ridley’s praised ABC anthology series, American Crime. In Season 3, the show will be set in North Carolina and will deal with labor issues, economic divides and individual rights.



Adrian Martinez has booked a series regular role on NBC’s The Blacklist spinoff The Blacklist: Redemption. The follow-on show stars Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) who joins forces with Susan "Scottie" Hargrave (Famke Janssen), the brilliant and cunning chief of Grey Matters, a covert mercenary organization that solves problems governments don't dare touch. Martinez will play Dumont, a computer hacker with an exotic air who keeps his boss apprised of their enemies' movements.



Production has begun in Toronto on Ransom, the 13-episode drama created by David Vainola (Combat Hospital) and Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files). New cast members joining Luke Roberts, who stars as hostage negotiator Eric Beaumont, include Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful) who plays a young newcomer eager to prove herself; Brandon Jay McLaren (The Killing, Chicago Fire) as a psychological profiler; and Nazneen Contractor (Heroes Reborn) as an ex-cop.



Blair Underwood has closed a deal to play a new series regular on Season 2 of ABC drama series Quantico. He'll play Owen Hall, a charming, intelligent and inspirational CIA officer every fledgling operative wishes he or she could learn from. But is he running them, or using them for something else?



Sleepy Hollow is losing more of its cast: Daniel Reynolds and Sophie Foster will not be back for Season 4 much, if at all, joining actors Lance Gross and Jessica Camacho who aren't returning as series regulars. Sleepy Hollow will premiere its 13-episode fourth season at some point in early 2017, with production scheduled to begin in August of this year.



PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO



Crime Fiction Lover recently joined Brum Radio to talk about domestic noir, on a show that also featured an interview with British crime author Mark Billingham.



The John Batchelor Show took a look at Paul Collins' biography of Edgar Allan Poe in his younger years and how this mysteriously conflicted figure emerges as a genius both driven and undone by his artistic ambitions.



Judy Clemens, author of the Anthony and Agatha-nominated Stella Crown mysteries, the Grim Reaper series, and the stand-alone, Lost Son, joined host Libby Hellman on Author on the Air.

            

Quote of the Week

           Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: I'll Sing you Two-O

Anthea Mary Fraser (born 1930) was inspired by her novelist-mother to be a writer, but her own first published novel had to wait until 1970. The 1974 paranormal novel Laura Possessed was her first break-through success, followed by six other books in a similar vein and some romantic suspense titles before she turned to crime fiction.



She created two series, the first with Detective Chief Inspector David Webb of the Shillingham police, totaling 16 novels in all from 1984 to 1999. The second is a series Fraser debuted in 2003 featuring biographer/freelance journalist Rona Parish, with the last of six books published in 2008. Fraser also served the crime fiction community as secretary of the Crime Writers' Association from 1986 to 1996.



The first twelve in the DCI Webb series all take their titles from the lyrics to the English folk song "Green Grow the Rushes-O," including I'll Sing you Two-O from 1991, the ninth entry in the Webb roster. The case is set in motion when clothing store owner and part-time town magistrate Monica Tovey finds a van abandoned outside her home. But when the van's gruesome contents—the bodies of the football-mad, window washing, petty-thief White twins—are discovered, unsettling events disturb the serenity of the English town of Shillingham, and Monica suddenly finds her own life in danger.



DCI Webb begins to suspect that recent town burglaries, near-riots among soccer fans, low-flying airplanes and mysterious phone calls may not be unrelated to the case. Webb is also an accomplished artist, and he frequently calls upon his skills to record his impressions and hone in on the murderer, as he does here.



Fraser has taken some heat in the past for creating unconvincing and/or unlikely killers but also collected frequent praise for her rendering of small-town settings, with Publishers Weekly noting that "Fraser's rendering of an English community is again impeccable, enabling a reader not only to take pleasure in the mystery itself...but also to feel part of the life of a small, worried town," and Kirkus adding that it's "...enhanced by sensitive probing of snarled relationships and a nicely drawn small-town ambiance."



PW also once characterized Fraser's writing as "succinct," with "her plots developed quickly, her prose straight to the point, with neither narrative nor character suffering from this brevity." And the book does fly along at a fairly clipped pace, in a very dialogue-heavy manner, although the investigation and procedural elements often take a back seat to character interactions.



It's interesting to read words the author gave to one character that "We lead container lives nowadays, bound up in our own concerns. It doesn't make for neighborliness." Those words feel even truer today than in 1991, when thanks to technology, we likely know more about some distant celebrity than we do the people on our own street, and people are glued to cellphones even when out "socializing" with others.

            

Mystery Melange

Don Winslow has won the 2016 Falcon Award from The Maltese Falcon Society Japan for Missing: New York as the best hardboiled/private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year. This is Winslow's fourth Falcon win. He won the same prize in 1994 for A Cool Breeze on the Underground, in 2010 for The Power of the Dog, and in 2011 for The Winter of Frankie Machine.



Critically acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has been honored with the IBAM! Award to Literature, whose previous recipients include Maeve Binchy and Frank McCourt. Bruen will be presented with the award at the iBAM! Gala Awards Dinner on October 14 in the Erin Room at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago. Bruen has written more than 50 books since he began writing in the mid-1990s and is perhaps best known for his series of Jack Taylor books. The Los Angeles Review of Books once said, "Bruen is among the most original and innovative noir voices of the last two decades."



This year's Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival announced their longlist of twelve nominees for the 2016 McIlvanney Prize, previously known as the Scottish Crime Book of the Year award. The winners will be handed out at the event, to be held in the central Scottish town of Stirling during the weekend of September 9 through 11. (HT to Shots Magazine)



The Guardian announced that its latest "writing authentic crime fiction masterclass," with authors, forensic pathologists, criminal lawyers and frontline police, is scheduled for September 24 in London. Featured guests include author Erin Kelly, Silent Witness consultant Dr Stuart Hamilton, former chief superintendent Graham Bartlett, and other experts from the world of crime.



The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal, titled New York City Mysteries II, is now available, with close to thirty "Author, Author" essays, a column on "New York’s Finest: The Top Ten Series Characters" by Jim Doherty, and the usual slate of reviews of the latest releases.



Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Magazine recapped the recent 50th anniversary celebration of the death of Margery Allingham, one of the Golden Age’s "Queens of Crime," as well as the recent Goldsboro Books History in the Court event; there's a look ahead at the upcoming Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in September, which is this year dedicated to the memory of William McIlvanney, the founding father of "Tartan Noir," who died late last year; a look at the neglected American authors Gerald Petievich and Doug J. Swanson; and much more book goodies from across The Post-Brexit Pond.



CPNG, a Netherlands-based organization that promotes Dutch literature, will next year give away free copies of a new novel by crime writer Deon Meyer. Meyer is writing a special "gift book" for the 2017 Crime & Thriller Book Weeks, which will take place June 9-25, 2017. According to the CPNB, thrillers are the most-read fiction genre in the Netherlands and in the spring and summer thrillers make up 37% of fiction sales. Meyer, who is published in the Netherlands by A.W. Bruna Uitgevers, is the author of novels such as Thirteen Hours, Devil’s Peak, and Trackers.



National Geographic online outlined "How Science Is Putting a New Face on Crime Solving," which takes a look at how advances in forensics are giving us an unprecedented ability to solve cases—and exposing mistakes in some investigations.



The Guardian continues the recent spate of articles focusing on women crime novelists with its take on "After Agatha Christie … female crime writers delve deep into women’s worst fears," and how crime fiction may be increasingly a woman’s game.



I missed this bit of news, but as William Kent Krueger notes on his blog, the Mystery Book Store in Omaha is closing in September. Owner Kate Birkel began the store in 1995, and now, after more than twenty years, she's shutting the doors due to "urban renewal." If you're in that part of the country, plan a visit on September 17 when Krueger has a signing for his next novel, Manitou Canyon, the store’s last official author event.



Bond Street celebrated American's unique bookstores with some fine examples from sea to shining sea.



In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element welcomed Rick Campbell, author of Ice Station Nautilus, who spent more than 20 years on multiple submarine tours before turning his hand to submarine-based military thrillers; Marie S. Crosswell takes Paul D. Brazill's Short, Sharp Interview challenge; Omnimystery News featured authors Gordon Chaplin (Paraíso) and J.C. Lane (Tag, You're Dead); and the Mystery People snagged Martin Limón to dicsuss Ping-Pong Heart, Limón’s latest case for his South-Korea-stationed 1970s Army CID cops, Sueño and Bascom.

           Related StoriesThe 'Zine SceneMystery Melange 

The 'Zine Scene

First, some happy and yet sad news: the latest editions of Thuglit have just hit the market in both digital and print editions, but they are also the last. The issue, titled "Last Writes," has twelve new crime stories "to blow your faces off like a mistimed quarter-stick of dynamite."

 







The Spring 2016 issue of the Film Noir Foundation's quarterly Noir City magazine is out, with an article detailing the true story of the U.S intelligence community’s role in the birth of Italian neo-realism; a look at Rudolph Maté and his singular directorial achievement D.O.A.; Imogen Sara Smith considers Douglas Sirk’s dark side; Steve Kronenberg salutes the silken menace of George Macready; Brian Light revisits Peeping Tom, still disturbing after all these years; and Kelly Vance sizes up the latest from Arturo Ripstein, the noir Bleak Street. (HT to Vince Keenan.)





In the summer issue of Mystery Scene magazine, Craig Sisterson chats with James Runcie whose Grantchester mystery series, featuring Anglican priest Sidney Chambers, has been made into a hit PBS TV series; Kevin Burton Smith takes a look at well-known writers from other genres who have dabbled their toes in PI fiction's waters-including the creator of a world-famous young wizard; Kate Jackson examines "The Wimsey Papers," a series of mock letters and diary extracts written by Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey and his family and friends during WWII; Oline H. Cogdill chats with NCIS actor David McCallum, who has has taken up writing late in life at the age of 82; plus much more.





The July issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine continues the publication's 75th anniversary year with a look at its ongoing Department of First Stories feature that has helped launch the writing careers of several authors who are well-known today. To celebrate, there are new stories from nine of these popular authors.







EQMM's sister publication, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, also has treats in store in its July/August issue, including stories from two authors appearing in print for the first time: Jason Half with "The Widow Cleans House," and Mark Thielman with his Black Orchid Novella Award-winning "A Meter of Murder." 









The latest Flash Bang Mysteries features the short story "The Phone Call" by Herschel Cozine along with new short fiction from Jim Wilsky, Nancy Sweetland, Cynthia St. Pierre, Stephen D. Rogers, and Edward W.L. Smith. 

           Related StoriesMystery MelangeGot News?