B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 210
August 1, 2014
FFB: Victorian Tales of Mystery & Detection
Historical crime fiction is big right now and has been since the likes of Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and the Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. And of course Victorian fiction is right in the thick of it all, thanks to the popularity of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. This particular 1992 volume of Victorian Tales,edited by Michael Cox, is an Oxford anthology that includes writers who actually lived and created stories during the reign of Queen Victoria, as opposed to present-day writers...
July 30, 2014
Mystery Melange
Edgar Allan Poe book sculpture by Raidersofthelostart
The Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival announced the shortlist for the third annual Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year, including: Chris Brookmyre, Flesh Wounds; Neil Broadfoot, Falling Fast; Natalie Haynes, The Amber Fury; Peter May, Entry Island; Louise Welsh, A Lovely Way To Burn; and Nicola White, In The Rosary Garden. (Hat tip to EuroCrime.)
Meanwhile, as Mystery Fanfare reports, the organizers of the Iceland Noir festiv...
July 28, 2014
Media Murder for Monday
MOVIES
Legendary Pictures has given a name to its upcoming hacker movie: Blackhat. Directed and produced by Michael Mann, the cyber-thriller project stars Chris Hemsworth who becomes involved in a high-level global cyber-crime network.
TriStar picked up Jodie Foster's project Money Monster, starring George Clooney as a TV personality who is taken hostage live on the air.
Denmark director Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) will direct Deity, an English-language remake of...
July 26, 2014
July 25, 2014
FFB: Death of a Dutchman
Magdalen Nabb was born in Lancashire in 1947 but lived in Florence, Italy, from 1975 until her death in 2007. She wrote both children's fiction and crime fiction, the latter featuring her literary creation Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. She modeled the Marshal on a real Florentine law officer who used to keep the author up to date on crimes in the city being investigated by the Carabinieri, the national Italian police force. Critic Susanna Yager of the Sunday Telegraph once noted that "The my...
July 23, 2014
Mystery Melange
Book sculpture (and working clock) "Make Time to Read" by Jodi Harvey-Brown
The Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year was awarded to Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer at this past weekend's conference in Harrogate. The other finalists included The Red Road by Denise Mina; The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay; The Chessmen by Peter May; Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths; and Eleven Days by Stav Sherez. (Thanks to Karen Meek at EuroCrime.)
The British publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson (w...
July 22, 2014
July 21, 2014
Media Murder for Monday
MOVIES
Christian Bale is in talks to portray the iconic private eye Travis McGhee in the film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's novel The Deep Blue Good-By. Leonardo DiCaprio is producing, and Dennis Lehane wrote the most recent draft of the script.
MGM is developing Terry Hayes��� international bestselling spy thriller I Am Pilgrim, with Hayes adapting his novel for the big screen. Hayes is also an award-winning screenwriter with credits such as Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Dead Calm....
June 18, 2014
Mystery Melange
Book sculpture by Boukje Voet
The finalists for the Shamus Awards for excellence in private eye fiction were announced last week, with winners to be handed out at the PWA Banquet at Bouchercon in Long Beach, California, November 14. The nods in Best Novel category include Little Elvises by Timothy Hallinan; The Mojito Coast by Richard Helms; W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton; The Good Cop by Brad Parks; and Nemesis by Bill Pronzini. For the entire listing, check out the Guns, Games, and Gumsho...
June 17, 2014
Tim Maleeny and the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference
The 21st Annual Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference is coming up in Corte Madera, California on July 24-27. Participants will learn all the clues to a successful writing career from authors, editors, agents, and publishers via classes on setting, dialogue, suspense and point of view. Panels of detectives, forensic experts, and other crime-fighting professionals also provide invaluable information that allows writers to put realism into their work.
This year's event continues its traditio...
