B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 227

Mystery Melange

Book scuulpture by Robert The


Maxine Clarke was one of the first oneline reviewers of crime fiction and operated the blog Petrona for several years. Sadly, Clarke died last December after a long bout with cancer, and to honor her memory, The Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year will be handed out at this year's CrimeFest. The shortlist for this year's award is based on Maxine's reviews and ratings and includes Pierced by Thomas Enger, Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason, Last Will by Liza Marklund and Another Time, Another Life by Leif GW Persson.

In addition, fellow blogger Margot Kinberg, a friend of Clarke's is putting together an anthology of stories themed around crime in the world of editing, publishing, writing and/or reviewing. She'll consider submissions from authors with a deadline of the first week of August, and proceeds from this project will be donated to the Princess Alice Hospice, which was so supportive of Maxine and her family during her last days and weeks. For more information on Clarke and her legacy, there are tribute and memorial sites.

Suspense Magazine is out with its March issue, which was a difficult one for the publication after more sad news, the sudden death of Executive Editor Terri Ann Armstrong. This month's offerings include Sara Foster, Carolyn Haines, Jonathan Maberry, Gregg Olsen, and Heather Graham talking about their latest books, and there are also interviews with debut authors Jenny Milchman and Richard Long. Also, the magazine announced that the newly-named  Terri Ann Armstrong Short Story Contest will begin accepting submissions on April and run through the end of this year.

The ezine Shotgun Honey is accepting submissions between 1500 and 4500 words for its second anthology and looking for premium crime fiction from hard luck to whodoneits. The editors prefer noir and the non-salvageable protagonist, but "a good story is a good story." What they don't want is graphic sex and violence. For more information on the submission guidelines check out the website.

The fiinalists for the Lambda Literary Awards have been selected from a record number of nominations by the Lambda Literary Foundation. This is the 25th anniversary of the awards, which celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing. For a list of all nominees, including the mystery categories, check out the Lamba Literary Foundation's website.

Registration will open this Friday, March 15, for the Writers Police Academy, to be held in Jamestown, N.C.September 5-8. Many of the popular features of this hands-on conference fill up early, such as the FATS (Firearms Training Simulator) and Driving Simulator. New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner is the keynote speaker this year, with Special Guest Speaker, the world-renowned DNA expert Dr. Dan Krane.

The Q&A roundup this week includes a "Short, Sharp Interview with Declan Burke" on Paul D. Brazill's blog; John Lescroart stops by Hook'em and Book'em; and Denise Mina chats with the Msytery People.
 

Author R&R with Roberta Gately

Author Roberta Gately has served as a nurse and humanitarian aid worker in third-world war zones, ranging from Afghanistan to Africa, and prepared a series of articles on the subject of refugees for the Journal of Emergency Nursing and the BBC World News Online. Her first novel, Lipstick in Afghanistan, dealt with the plight of women in the male-dominated culture of the Taliban.


Roberta's follow-up novel, The Bracelet, tells the story of Abby Monroe, a young nurse determined to make her mark as a UN worker in one of the world's most unstable cities, Peshawar, Pakistan. But her plans are disrupted when she witnesses the brutal murder of a woman thrown from a building in Geneva. Haunted by the memory of an intricate and sparkling bracelet that adorned the victim's wrist, Abby struggles to make a difference for the refugees and trafficking victims she meets. When the mysterious bracelet reappears, she and New York Times reporter Nick Sinclair must work together to unravel the mystery that threatens them both.

Roberta stopped by In Reference to Murder to take some "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) about her preparations for writing The Bracelet, supplementing her own first-hand experiences with real-life accounts from people around the globe via the Internet:

Both of my novels, Lipstick in Afghanistan and The Bracelet, were created from my own experiences as a nurse and aid worker, and my often vivid imagination. But research was still a necessary ingredient to be sure that my facts and figures supported the fabric of my stories.

The backstory of The Bracelet involved the gritty real life drama of human trafficking, a hideous and little known business that required intensive and sometimes strange research into the dark world of trafficking in India. I turned to PBS, CNN and even YouTube to get a feel for the victims' experiences, and through their documentaries and videos, I was able to look into a victim's eyes without blurring the lines of myth and reality.

Once I'd seen the stories and gained a tentative understanding of the ordeals the victims had suffered, I turn to Google to investigate the sex trades in India, another integral part of my story. I vaguely wondered if my search using phrases like buying sex in Mumbai, murder in Delhi and a prostitute's life in India might not trigger some kind of red flag somewhere, and I half expected to get a notice barring me from Google. But undaunted, I persisted and my research, bizarre though it might have seemed to anyone who keeps an eye on those things, provided me with a wealth of hideous facts and figures, numbers that numbed my brain, but enriched my story. And, I'm happy to report, that even if there is a red flag hovering over my name on some internet watch-dog site, I'm still researching away.

My third novel, Next Of Kin, is set in Chicago, and though I've visited the windy city, I have nowhere near the experience there that my characters do, and I've turned to the Internet to supplement my story with authentic locations, events and traditions.  I've even found the brand new lakefront condo for one of my characters and I've chosen his apartment, complete with floor plan and layout. I've plotted another character's walk from the courthouse to her car, and I've consulted on-line menus to choose possible evening out meals.

I can't imagine trying to research a novel without the immediacy of the Internet, and my admiration goes to all of those authors who labored for years collecting their facts and backgrounds the old fashioned way, by pounding the pavement. And though I intend to pound a little pavement myself in Chicago, I'll have the benefit of Google maps and Internet searches to guide me along.

© 2013 Roberta Gately, author of The Bracelet

 

The Bracelet is available in paperback and digital versions, and you can follow Roberta via her website, Facebook page and Twitter.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is joining Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell in the cast of the supernatural thriller Solace, directed by Afonso Poyart. The plot follows a former doctor with psychic abilities (Hopkins) who is drawn into a serial-killer case, only to find that the killer (Farrell) is a psychic as well. Morgan will play a veteran FBI agent heading the investigation who recruits Hopkins's character.

Omnimystery News reported that New Regency's adaptation of Michael Koryta's thriller So Cold the River has gotten a new scribe. Although Koryta had planned on penning the adapted screenplay himself, Ben Coccio (behind the upcoming Ryan Gosling-Bradley Cooper crime thriller The Place Beyond the Pines) is slated to write the script.

Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) is in negotiations to join Jason Statham in Heat, a remake of the 1986 Burt Reynolds film about a recovering gambler-turned-bodyguard in Vegas who decides to help a woman who falls victim to a mob attack but gets in over his head as he seeks revenge.

Documentary director Ross Clarke has come aboard the adaptation of Craig Clevenger's novel Dermaphoria, described as "Memento meets Breaking Bad."  The story follows a brilliant chemist who wakes up in jail suffering from amnesia after a drug lab explosion and has to avoid cops and the bad guys who want the formula buried deep inside his head.

TV

Fox has renewed its new psychological thriller The Following, starring James Purefoy as a serial killer whose cult-like following is making mischief while he's locked away, and Kevin Bacon as the FBI agent trying to track them down.

Syfy has picked up the scifi thriller Helix from Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore. The series is follows a team of scientists from the Centers of Disease Control who investigate a possible disease outbreak at a high-tech research facility in the Arctic, and instead find themselves in the middle of a struggle that holds the key to the salvation or total annihilation of humankind.

Omar Epps (House, MD) has joined the ABC drama The Returned,
about people who were dead and buried and suddenly start turning up as if
nothing has happened. Epps will play a former cop turned agent with the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Derek Luke has been added to the CBS pilot, Second Sight, joining Jason Lee as partner detectives. Luke will play Paul Giroux, the newbie on the team, while Lee plays the lead detective who starts having hallucinations that may help the team to crack cases.

Michael Trucco is reuniting with his former Battlestar Galactica co-star Tricia Helfer for the ABC drama pilot Killer Women. Helfer stars as Molly Parker, the only woman in the Texas Rangers, while Trucco will play her older brother Billy.

Jane Lynch and Wilmer Valderrama have been added as voice talent to the cast of Fox's animated comedy, Murder Police. They join lead Jason Ruiz (Six Feet Under), who plays a cop who is described as "nerdy" and more than a little clumsy and foolhardy.

Hope Davis has signed as the female lead in the CBS political thriller The Ordained, about the son of a Kennedy-esque family who leaves the priesthood and becomes a lawyer to prevent his politician sister from being assassinated. Davis will play the man's sister, a first-term mayor of New York City campaigning for re-election

The CBS pilot Beverly Hills Cop has added Judge Reinhold to the cast, reprising the role he played in the original theatrical film starring Eddie Murphy.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Mystery of a Hansom Cab

Fergusson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume (1859-1932) was born in England before his family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where he became a barrister while harboring dreams of writing plays. He tried his hand at short stories first, but not having much luck them or with his theatrical aspirations, he asked a local bookseller the type of book they sold the most. Detective novels by Emile Gaboriau just happened to be popular at the time, so Hume bought everything the bookstore had by Gaboriau and studied them.

The result was The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, the first installment in a prolific career that saw the publication of some 130 books from 1886 until the author's death in 1932. He had to have published privately because after spending a lot of time conducting research on Little Bourke Street in Chinatown in Melbourne, it was considered too scandalous of an exposé of contemporary Melbourne society. He also found publishers were prejudiced against an ex-pat Brit, as Hume noted, "Having completed the book, I tried to get it published, but everyone to whom I offered it refused even to look at the manuscript on the grounds that no Colonial could write anything worth reading."

Despite a disparaging comment from Arthur Conan Doyle that The Mystery of a Hansom Cab was "a slight tale, mostly sold by 'puffing'," Doyle was inspired by the work to write A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the character Sherlock Holmes. "Puffing" or no, Hume's debut novel went on to become the best selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, the Sunday Times called it "One of the hundred best crime novels of all time," and it spawned several film adaptations. In A Companion to Crime Fiction by Charles J. Rzepka and Lee Horsley, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is called a "Most spectacular reimagining of the sensation novel, and a crucial point in the genre's transformation into detective fiction"

Although ground-breaking in detective fiction, it differed from more modern takes on the genre, such as having two detectives, with one (Detective Sam Gorby) starting off the first half of the story and then another (Kelsip) taking over in the second half. The story centers on the investigation into a homicide after a body, suffocated with a chloroform-soaked handkerchief sporting the initials OW, is discovered inside a hansom cab. Gorby discovers the deceased was Oliver Whyte, part of the social circle of wealthy Mark Frettlby, and romantically interested in Frettlby's daughter Madge.

The main suspect is an immigrant Irishman, Brian Fitzgerald, with whom Madge had fallen in love, causing rows between Fitzgerald and the dead man. Mark Frettlby, believing in Fitzgerald's innocence, hires lawyer Calton to defend him, aided by the second detective, Kilslip. Kilslip and Gorby have been rivals for years, which is why he also wrests the latter part of the investigation (and book) away from Gorby. The solution is tied to a Frettlby family secret and the class divide between Melbourne's wealthy and underclass societies.

Several reprints are available, and Project Gutenberg has an HTML E-text version online.

Author R&R With Charles Brokaw

I can't give you much in the way of biographical details about Charles Brokaw, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlantis Code, The Lucifer Code and The Temple Mount Code, because Charles Brokaw is a pseudonym for an anonynous author. We do know he's an academic and college educator living in the Midwest, who is fascinated by history and archeology. He was also a friend of the late Martin H. Greenburg, the prolific editor of anthologies, and there's a Q&A between the two men on Brokaw's web site about the author's first book and the research behind it.

What I can tell you is that Brokaw's latest novel, The Oracle Code, is the fourth in the series featuring brilliant archaeologist, Thomas Lourdes, who is dispatched to Afghanistan to decipher the code found in a tomb associated with Alexander the Great, potentially leading to a lost trove of powerful weapons. But the Russians are also desperate to get their hands on the code and have sent a dangerous assassin to hunt down Lourdes.

Brokaw stopped by IRTM to discuss some of the research behind this book:

Researching the
Ancient World

Saying you want to tackle such a vast genre as the
mythology of the ancient Greeks and the life of Alexander the Great in a novel
is a daunting task, to say the least. This is especially true since there are
so many different stories floating around about what actually happened to
Alexander the Great’s after his death. But that is what made this book so
intriguing to write. There is just enough information out there to make a
concrete story, and enough unknowns to leave certain elements open to
interpretation.

The specific “unknown” that led me to write The Oracle
Code was that pesky question that so many have tried to answer over the ages
and no one ever could: where is the tomb of Alexander the Great?

Some Ancient
Scrolls

The disappearance of the tomb of Alexander the Great is
one of the greatest archaeological mysteries. And as was the case with The
Atlantis Code, the “what if” question that has hung in the air was the perfect
opportunity for Thomas Lourdes to step in and find some answers.

I began by reading and reviewing each historical document
pronouncing the mishaps of Alexander’s early death and the ensuing burial. His
tomb stood for centuries, untouched, in a sacred area of ancient Greece.
However, it is also said to have occupied two different cities in Egypt as well
as various other sites. I also spend quite a bit of time delving into the
nature of the relationship between Alexander the Great and Aristotle, which was
quite unique. Not many people know that Aristotle was actually Alexander’s
mentor and worked quite hard to engender a sympathetic attitude in his protégé
for the Greek culture since Alexander was actually Macedonian.

Traveling the
World

An ancient scroll holding the location of Alexander’s
tomb was said to materialize in Afghanistan. So I decided to take my research
there. With a dear friend of mine along for the ride with a crew of
researchers, we traveled to gain a deeper understanding of the Afghan
culture—the food, clothing, trade routes and location where each scene took
place. I didn’t just want to go to Afghanistan and start digging in the
desert—I wanted this beautiful country to play a major role in the book, almost
as a character in and of itself.

Herat, Afghanistan—the location of the dig and one of the
main cities in which the book takes place, has an extensive history, dating
back to ancient times. Heart’s location on the ancient trade routes of the
Middle East, and Central and South Asia made Herat a vital city to research,
especially when looking into the disappearance of Alexander the Great. We spent
quite a bit of time in the major cities in the area researching primary sources
and speaking with archaeologists who are experts on the subject.

The next obvious stop after Afghanistan was Greece. As I
began shaping my own hypotheses on where the tomb of Alexander might lie, it
seemed like the next logical step, particularly because of the nature of
Alexander and Aristotle’s relationship. Also, there are so many links between
the major trade routes that ran through Herat and Greece, so the connection was
plain and simple.

I could probably write a whole series about
archaeological adventures that take place in Greece. I spent quite a bit of
time on the island of Delos, an island where Aristotle purportedly took
Alexander the Great when he was a child. This island was seen as a holy
sanctuary for a millennium before the Greeks proclaimed it the birthplace of
some of their most revered gods. During the Greek empire, no one was allowed to
live there. It was an island specifically for temples and offerings
to the gods. So as you can imagine, there is quite a bit of history there as
well and the perfect background for an archaeological adventure.

If you go there now, Delos is completely covered with ancient
artifacts and the remains of countless Greek temples. The number of stories
about the Greek gods could make your head spin, especially since there are so
many variations passed down through the ages. To be honest, it took me quite a
bit of time to wrap my mind around it. Although Alexander’s connection to the
Greeks made the perfect backdrop for The Oracle Code and a hypothesis about his
whereabouts that, in my opinion, might not be too far off.

--Charles Brokaw

The Oracle Code is available on Amazon as a Kindle special and has its own book trailer on YouTube. You can also find Brokaw via his website and on Facebook.

Mystery Melange

Edgar Allan Poe Book Sculpture by Jodi Harvey-Brown


The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the finalists for the 2013 Derringer Awards. The categories include Best Flash Story, Best Short Story, Best Long Story and Best Novelette.

Thuglit Issue #4 is available for your Kindle. Edited by Todd Robinson, this edition features stories by Patti Abbott, Sam Wiebe, Eric Beetner, Albert Tucher, Roger Hobbs, Christopher Irvin, Anton Sim and Garrett Crowe.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column is up at Shots Ezine, talking up awards season, new releases, the Murder in the Library exhibition at the British Library, the Historically Criminal seminar at the Victoria Library, and much more.

The latest story at Beat to a Pulp is up, an offering titled "Eye Spy" by Charles A. Gramlich.

Thanks to Marina Sofia over at the Crime Fiction Lover blog, I was reminded that the French city of Lyon is hosting its 9th annual Quais du Polar Crime Festival, from March 29 to April 1. Authors from around the world will attend, including Patricia Cornwell, Henning Mankell, PD James, Harlan Coben, Jeffrey Deaver, Gillian Flynn and Frank Tallis, and some 45,000 fans are also expected to attend and join in the panels,discussions and signings.

The official Nero Wolfe society announced the formation of a new regional chapter and book discussion group. Calling itself the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Area Book Raceme (MACABRe), the inaugural meeting and costume party will be held March 16 at the Mt. Washington Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland. The kick-off meeting is intended to be a light-hearted, get-acquainted affair, with introductions, a quiz, a few games and input regarding venue location/type, days/times for the book discussions, etc. You can even come dressed as your favorite Nero Wolfe character.

The next Mystery Writers of America University is coming up on June 15 at the Delray Beach Marriott in Delray, Florida. The all-day event includes an array of top-notch classes in all facets of writing and publishing, led by authors Jess Lourey, Michael Wiley, Daniel Stashower, Harley Jane Kozak, Reed Farrel Coleman and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

The influence of eBooks is beginning to trickle down to author signings in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Simon & Schuster's imprint Atria Books is going to begin offering digital eBook vouchers at author signings to allow authors todistribute their eBooks to a large audience.

Author R&R with Maureen Johnson

Author Maureen Johnson has written several young adult novels, including The Name of the Star, nominated for an Edgar Award in 2012 for the Best Young Adult title. She's also worked with Electronic Arts as the screenwriter for the handheld versions of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game and earned an MFA in Writing  from Columbia University. The Name of the Star was the first in her Shades of London series and followed the exploits of Rory Devereaux, an American girl in London who crosses paths with a band of ghost hunters and gets involved in a string of a brutal murders breaking out over the city that mimick Jack the Ripper.


The second book in the series, The Madness Underneath, was just released and continues the exploits of Rory and the Shades—the city’s secret ghost-fighting police—as Rory tries to recover from the trauma she suffered in the first book (one reason you may want to read it first). Using the same mix of historical, contemporary and paranormal elements as in the first book, The Madness Underneath plunges Rory into a string of new inexplicable deaths threatening London.

Maureen stopped by IRTM to take some "Author R&R" about how she researched and developed the plots, characters and settings for The Madness Underneath:

The Shades of London books are really
about London, in many ways. The city is a character, of sorts. Much of the
books are about the London that can’t always be seen: the past, the
underground, the secret services. Getting it right was vital.

I spend a lot of time in London, and I made sure I knew the
East London neighborhood where the story mostly takes place. I did Ripper
tours, then I worked on my own with maps and books. I researched underground
tunnels—everything from the actual Underground, to sewers, to shelters, to
graveyards and escape routes and (now known) secret bunkers. I walked miles and
miles. I took pictures of walls and doorknobs and tiles. I watched footage of
what it’s like to drive a Tube train, and I traced the development of the sewer
system on foot.

And, for the first book, I did a lot of research on Jack the
Ripper. I was trying to think of the person you would least want to return from
the grave and roam London, unseen. And the person that sprang directly to mind
was Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper. The name means Victorian England. It means
foggy streets, and carriages, and the glint of a silver knife. It was a story I
was fascinated by as a child. It was a real life mystery, like in the books.
There’s something almost romantic about Jack.

This, when you think about it, is one of the most disturbing
things possible. It would be exactly like saying there’s something romantic
about Ted Bundy or Charles Manson.

The fifth murder of the Ripper series, the murder of Mary
Kelly, is still considered one of the worst crime scenes in English history.

The real mystery is---why is this man famous? He murdered
prostitutes, women who barely registered on the Victorian social scale. He
worked in East London, a place that was rife with murder. It genuinely does not
make sense that this man should be an object of interest for over a hundred
years.

So that’s where the mystery started for me—why Jack? Why do
we care?

The answer might be found in an incredibly boring fact. Up
until 1855, there was a stamp tax on newspapers in England, making them far to
expensive for many people to buy. Once that tax was abolished in that year,
there was a surge in activity. Now everyone could afford a paper. One of the
papers that popped up was called The Star, and the Star knew a good story when
it saw one. Jack the Ripper was a creation of the media. Yes, there was a
Whitechapel murderer, but truth be told, no one quite knows how many people he
killed. It could have been four, or six, or more. (The canonical five are the
five most likely victims, bearing certain signature injuries.) The publishers
of The Star newspaper first saw the
huge potential in the story, pumping it daily, adding frightening drawings.
They were likely the ones who coined the name Jack the Ripper (this is one of
the reasons my book is called The Name of
the Star).

Jack the Ripper is a story based on fact, but the lines
between fiction and reality are blurry. The Scotland Yard case files are
surprisingly paltry. Almost no evidence is still available for examination. The
culprit is most assuredly dead. But what we have left is the fear, so carefully
cultivated by the editors of that newspaper. The fear is so well drawn, it
doesn’t die. Jack the Ripper became part of a collective imagination.

After 123 years, people are still trying to catch Jack the
Ripper. The investigation has never stopped, not once. Even though this guy is
clearly dead, people are still trying to find him. Jack the Ripper has armies
of people investigating his case, filling in the gaps in the files, recreating
the scenes. And since someone solves the case every year or so, there’s always
a documentary to watch, another story to tell. People have been giving Jack the
Ripper the Wikipedia treatment since 1888. And it was from this point of fact
that I started my story, and put the killer back on the streets of East London.

I started to look at things like the London CCTV network,
which is one of the most extensive in the world, with an estimated 1-4 million
cameras, a number that grows all the time. It’s difficult to do anything in
London without being seen, if only by a camera eye. Mostly, though, I thought
about how we would cover the event now. Imagine the frenzy if Jack was back and
we knew what to expect, but not where. London would be prisoner.  The media would cover ever second, and the
murder searches would be broadcast live. There would be Ripper Parties, where
people gathered indoors together because you couldn’t be on the streets. At
home, people would be in front of their televisions or computers, watching and
waiting.

So to nail these details, there was a lot of reading. The
main Ripper case file isn’t that extensive. But pretty much all the press is
also available, and you could read that for a week. And that, in many ways, is
where the Ripper legend can be found.

By the end of all of this, I was a walking, talking database
of random facts about trains and sewers and murders—and normally that makes you
a weirdo. Luckily, though, I can do this sort of thing for my job.

 

For more information on Maureen visit her at www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com or follow her on Twitter via @maureenjohnson. (FYI, Maureen was named one of Time magazine¹s top 140 people to follow on Twitter.)

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Australian actor Jason Clarke has joined the cast of writer-director Stephen Gaghan's crime drama Candy Store, about a former deep-cover operative working a beat cop in Brooklyn who discovers the organization he once infiltrated is infesting his new neighborhood.

Total Film Studios released a trailer for the upcoming crime film Welcome to the Punch, which opens in U.S. theaters on March 27. The plot follows Detective Max Lewisky (played by James McAvoy), a man dedicated to taking down notorious criminal Jacob Sternwood, played by Mark Strong. 

According to producer David Hoberman, the next Muppets movie, The Muppets…Again!, will find Kermit and Miss Piggy embarking on a worldwide tour and apparently running into all kinds of trouble in Europe, with Tina Fey playing a Russian prison guard and Ty Burrell playing an Interpol agent.

The Wolf of Wall Street finally has its release date in theaters, scheduled for November 15. The Martin Scorsese film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a New York stockbroker living the highlife in the 1980s, only to see everything fall apart over accusations of fraud.

TV

Omnimystery News reports that BBC One Daytime, in collaboration with BBC Worldwide, has commissioned a second season of Father Brown. The series is based on the novels of GK Chesterston and stars Mark Williams as the titular Roman Catholic priest, who solves mysteries in his Cotswolds parish.

Christine Lahti is joining the CBS pilot Beverly Hills Cop, which may mean her days playing Mama Doris McGarett on Hawaii Five-0 are numbered, as could be the fate of her character.

Jamie Bell, who starred in the film Billy Elliot, is heading to the AMC drama pilot Turn from Nikita executive producer Craig Silverstein. He'll play the lead role and one of a band of young soldiers and civilians who come together to form America's first top-secret spy ring.

Actress Joanna Cassidy (Body of Proof and Six Feet Under) has signed on to play Agent Booth's mom Marianne Booth, in an upcoming episode of Bones.

Dennis Haysbert (The Unit and 24) is coming aboard the CBS crime drama pilot Backstrom, adapted by Hart Hanson (Bones) from the Swedish book series by Leif G.W. Persson.

Annie Potts (Designing Women) has signed on to star in the ABC dramedy Murder in Manhattan. Potts will star as the mother in a mother-and-daughter team of amateur detectives, while Bridget Regan has signed on as the daughter. Potts' character turns to solving crimes because she's never gotten over her second husband's murder and takes it on as her own private case.

ABC has cancelled Zero Hour, the latest among several mid-season series failures. Although the show and its conspiracy-theory premise were praised by several critics, the ratings didn't follow.

Vinnie Jones has already shot one episode of the CBS Sherlock Holmes drama Elementary, but announced he's also been hired to come back for two more. Jones will play the villain "M," and as the actor noted, "Is he Moriarty? Is he Sebastian Moran? You just don't know. It could go either way."

FX Networks renewed the animated comedy spy series Archer for a fifth season of 13 episodes. (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)

A little over a year after leaving the CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Marg Helgenberger is returning to the network to star in Intelligence, a drama from Josh Holloway (Lost) about a U.S. Cyber Command unit.

NBC's untitled thriller pilot from writer-executive producer Rand Ravich has added X-Files star Gillian Anderson to the cast. She joins 666 Park Avenue star Rachael Taylor in the tale of a Secret Service agent who must deal with the kidnapping of the President’s son and several of his classmates.

British actor Tom Mison has been tapped by FOX to play Ichabod Crane in the Sleepy Hollow pilot. The reworking of Washington Irving's tale finds Crane time traveling to the present and partnering with a local detective (played by Nicole Beharie of The Good Wife).

Need a cheat sheet for all the TV pilots in the pipeline? You're in luck, thanks to Hollywood Reporter's handy list.

NBC released a creepy trailer for its new upcoming series Hannibal, a prequel of sorts to the series by Thomas Harris that included Silence of the Lambs and iconic serial killer Hannibal the Cannibal. The show features Hugh Dancy playing FBI Agent Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen as the sadistic-yet-sophisticated cannibal, Dr. Lecter.

PODCASTS/VIDEO

Mark Billingham, the award-winning creator of DI Tom Thorne, joined BBC Radio 4 to discuss his "Rule Book of Crime," delving through the radio archives to draw out what makes the greats of crime fiction so enduring and whether there's a formula for creating successful detective stories. In a preview article for Radio Times, Billingham discussed with makes him hurl a book across the room and why detectives should be flawed

Joining NPR's Fresh Air last week were Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, authors of Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice.

Patricia Cornwell appeared on the Katie Couric show last week, the author's first TV interview since a federal court handed her a $50 million victory over financial mismanagement from her former advisors.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Slipper Point Mystery

Augusta Huiell Seaman (1879-1950) graduated from Normal College in New York City in 1900 and went on to teach elementary school. Following her marriage in 1906, she devoted her time to writing books for the children/YA age group, with a focus on mysteries. Between 1910 and 1949, she published 42 books as well as short stories, nonfiction pieces and serialized versions of her novels in popular magazines of the day.

She's considered one of the earliest writers of mystery stories for young girls, and her books remained popular and reprinted even in Scholastic press paperback editions as late as the 1970s. Bookseller Christine M. Volk called her "Nancy Drew for Smart Kids." Unlike the Nancy Drew series, Seaman's books didn't feature recurring characters per se, but typically revolved around two ordinary young girls solving a mystery they happened to stumble on in their hometown, inspired by their intelligence, curiosity and determination.

Also unlike Nancy Drew, who was a globe-trotter, the characters in Seaman's books mostly take place in rural New Jersey locations similar to where the author spent her youth. In fact, a New Jersey newspaper reporter once wrote for the Brick Communicator that he was able to trace the characters' route from The Slipper Point Mystery, matching Seaman's descriptions to area landmarks and buildings. The girls in the stories also reflect Seaman's life in other ways—the girls often have only one surviving parent (in Seaman's case, her father) are often sent to live with other relatives. It's not unusual to find characters who are in poor health (six of the author's eight siblings died young and Seaman's husband died from cancer in 1922).

Book illustrations by C.M. Relyea


The Slipper Point Mystery, which was published by Century Publishing Co. in 1919, was the author's ninth book. The central characters are country girl Sally, who likes to read neglected books of poetry, and big-city Doris, who also loves books and new experiences and is be delighted at the prospect of visiting a resort that is "wild, and different from the usual summer places." The resort Doris refers to is "The Bluffs," the sole exclusive and fashionable hotel on the river where Doris and her parents are staying for the summer. The resort isn't far from where the girls discover a mysterious tunnel from the river to a house at Slipper Point, a tunnel that was used by abolitionists to help fugitive slaves travelling on the Underground Railroad.

Although it can be said that the Nancy Drew series is mostly about solving the puzzle du jour, Seaman's books are equally about character development and relationships. As editor Mary Mark Ockerbloom noted about Sally and Doris, "I doubt that Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys would seriously discuss whether to abandon an inquiry out of concern for its possible impact on another person, as do Doris and Sally. Seaman's characters develop and change."

Although Seaman's books are difficult to track in print, with the exception of a few more recent reprints, there are various free digital versions online, including Google Books and Project Gutenberg.

 

BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled 2

Just released from Beat to a Pulp, the online 'zine and eBook publisher, is their latest anthology titled BEAT to a PULP: Hardboiled 2. The work is edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, and I'm proud to have a story included, along with the most excellent writers Tom Roberts, Kieran Shea, Jedidiah Ayres, Eric Beetner, Edward A. Grainger, Matthew C. Funk, Jay Stringer and Jen Conley.

Also featured are stories by Charles Boeckman and Paul S. Powers from the 930s and 40s "golden age" of pulps and two contemporary hardboiled masters, Wayne D. Dundee and Robert J. Randisi. The anthology promises that "this wild bunch is set to blaze a rat-a-tat sweep across the pulp fiction landscape," from tales of crime to private eyes to westerns and even a science fiction piece.

These thirteen hardboiled tales are currently available for Kindle at the
bargain price of $1.49 and will soon be available in a paperback print
format. For more BTAP news and offerings, check out the website and follow along on Twitter.