B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 228

Mystery Melange

Toilet Roll Art by Anastassia Elias




The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers have announced the nominees for their annual Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author. The finalists include       


William Landay, Defending Jacob: A Novel (Delacorte)
Jim Lynch, Truth Like the Sun: A Novel (Knopf)
Howard Owen, Oregon Hill (Permanent)
Kurt Palka, Patient Number 7 (McCelland & Stewart)
G. Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen (Emblem/Canada; Grove/US)


It's Noir at the Bar time again in Los Angeles. Sunday night, March 24th at 7:00 pm at The Mandrake Bar (2692 S La Cienega Blvd), several authors will read from their noirish works, including Todd Morr (Captain Cooker), Josh Stallings (All the Wild Children), Todd Robinson (The Hard Bounce) and Stephen Blackmoore (Dead Things).

There's a new poem up on the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly website, the "The Girl in the American Apparel Ad" by J.D. Debris.

Patti Abbott has another intriguing flash fiction challenge on her blog;
write a story about a man in a white van in 1,000 words and have it
completed by March 13th. If you're interested, click on Patti's blog link for more details and to indicate your participation in the comments section.

Omnimystery News posts its monthly posting of new hardcover mysteries, with this listing of books scheduled for publication in March 2013. Starting off the roster are M. C. Beaton with her 29th Hamish Macbeth story, Cara Black with her 13th Aimée Leduc, Rhys Bowen with the 12th Molly Murphy and C. J. Box with his 13th Joe Pickett installment.

The headliners for the 2013 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival were announced by Programming Chair Val McDermid. Special Guest authors on the Yin side will include Kate Atkinson (the Jackson Brodie series); Ruth Rendell (Chief Inspector Wexford); Charlaine Harris (whose Southern Vampire Mysteries inspired TV's True Blood); and The Woman in Black's Susan Hill. The Yang contingent features Inspector Rebus creator, Ian Rankin; award-winning crime novelist and poet, William McIlvanney; and Lee Child (the Jack Reacher novels, including the recent film starring Tom Cruise).

There's a new crime-related 'zine from the UK titled Prohibition Magazine, billing itself as "Britain's best true crime and showbiz magazine." It aims to cover crooks to celebrities, gangsters to goodies, dames to druglords, actors to assassins, talking to the men and women who commit murder and mayhem and the stars who portray them on television and screen. They also go behind the scenes to discover what makes gangsters tick, why they risk life and liberty in pursuit of riches and what they tell her indoors when they go home. There's a print version and also a digital one.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Terrence P. McCauley joining Paul D. Brazill over at his blog for a "Short, Sharp Interview"; plus, here's an oldie-but-goodie, courtesy of Crimespree Magazine, with a conversation between Marcus Sakey and Sean Chercover.

The Strathmore Concert Hall in Bethesda, Maryland, is sponsoring a "murder mystery tea" version of its weekly afternoon tea events. It's a Strathmore-style whodunit, as actors from Catholic University look for motives and clues all over the tea room. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2 at 1:00 p.m. in the Georgian Mansion at Strathmore.

Author R&R with Robert Ferrigno

Before turning to writing full time, Robert Ferrigno worked as a college professor, a professional poker player and a newspaper
reporter. His first
novel, The Horse Latitudes, was called "the fiction debut of the
season" by Time magazine, and he's been nominated for an Edgar award
for Best Novel by the Mystery Writers of America, and awarded a Silver
Dagger for Best Short Story by the Crime Writers Association. His 13 thrillers have been published in 18 foreign languages. In addition to his writing, he currently works in
the videogames industry and would like to lose twenty
pounds and find a near-mint copy of Space Western #2 at a garage sale.


His latest novel, The Girl Who Cried Wolf, is an eBook exclusive and follows the story of Remy, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer who is kidnapped in Seattle by a group of environmentalist fanatics and held hostage in the vast and dangerous forests of Washington state. But in a tale reminiscent of O. Henry's "Ransom of the Red Chief," the kidnappers get more than they bargained for—the spoiled Remy demands a triple-espresso and a bowl of fresh raspberries and her wealthy father can't be
reached because he's dodging subpoenas for insider trading. Rescue is up to Remy's boyfriend, an ex-cop with a short
temper, after he can't get the
FBI interested because Remy once faked her own kidnapping to run
off with the pool boy.

Ferrigno joins In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about the research and prep work he did for the novel:

After spending
a few years as a professional poker player, I moved from Florida to Southern
California to take up a career as a journalist. This gave me the opportunity to
meet and interview some very interesting people, from auto repo men to hot oil
bikini wrestlers to CIA agents. My time as a journalist helped me develop the skills
to make people feel comfortable enough to open up to me. There are many people
out there who are happy to talk to you. Because I usually don’t approach people
with an agenda, it’s just what I learned when I was a reporter, you just talk
to people, people will tell you things. They will tell you deep things.

Now, when I
work on a novel, I use the same techniques I learned as a journalist to shape
and craft the characters of my story. In particular, for The Girl Who Cried Wolf, I wanted to write a story about the
radical environmentalists that I run into across Seattle where I now make my
home. I love talking to people who are on the outer fringes of society and some
of the people in Seattle definitely fit that description.
My books give me an opportunity to encounter and interview people who don’t see
their own philosophies as extreme, and yet they definitely are extreme.

In the city
of Seattle, you can’t get a plastic bag at the grocery store. The people I
interviewed here really think the world is a filthy dirty place, there are all
these things that can kill you, and our bodies are filled with toxins. They
believe that life is an unclean proposition and there are a million pitfalls
waiting to snag us, whether that pitfall is a plastic bag or a soda.

So to get
character inspiration for The Girl Who
Cried Wolf, I talked to people who are a part of various green political movements.
There is a group called the black anarchists who wear black masks when they
trash a place. For example, the Nike store had all of their windows busted in a
few years ago by this group right before the walked into Starbucks to order a
macchiato. I was able to interview a few members of that group, who weren't
much interested in talking, but a good writer should be a good listener, and
listeners get talked to eventually.  

So I interviewed
people who, for one thing, provide such great dialogue that it lights up the
page and gives the work an air of authenticity. It’s so great because they
don’t know it is dialogue. It is just the way they talk. Yet to those outside
of their immediate circles, it could almost sound like a different language. They
are just incredibly passionate, almost to an extreme degree, about their cause
and believe that the choices they are making about the environment are more
important than anything else in this world. Three of the main characters in the
novel are based off of these environmentalists. Glen, one of the key antagonists,
is based on a man I met who actually speaks as angrily and vindictively as the
character in the book.  

For The Girl Who Cried Wolf, I also did do
some research on the chemical industry.  Talk
about a very scary industry. There really are trucks full of dangerous chemicals
hurtling down the highway at 70 miles an hour. Every once in a while, you’ll
see a warning on the back of a truck saying it contains toxic materials, but it
is in really small type and you have to know what you’re looking for. These are
like powder kegs driving down the highway all around us and we go on our merry
ways, completely confident that everything will work out. Sometimes it doesn't,
and that's where good fiction is found.

Being an
author definitely gives you the opportunity to research exciting topics and
interview very unique people. My novels have always been focused on exceptional
characters and exploring questions of makes the difference between a hero or a
villain, or good and evil decisions. My interviews and research allow me to get
to know the people and industries where these questions are posed every day and
choices matter in terms of which role a character will play in their own story.

—Robert Ferrigno

 

The Girl Who Cried Wolf is available now via Amazon and other eBook retailers. Follow Robert via his personal and eBook Facebook pages, as well as his blog.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

In case you missed the Academy Awards last night, book adaptations fared well. The Best Picture went to Argo, based in part on The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio Mendez; Ang Lee won the Best Director Award for Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel's novel; Lincoln, based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, earned awards for best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and production design; Silver Linings Playbook, based on the novel by Matthew Quick, had nods for best actress (Jennifer Lawrence); the adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables saw awards for supporting actress (Anne Hathaway), sound mixing and makeup and hairstyling; and the adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina won for costume design. (Hat tip to Shelf Awareness.)

Sony is developing an updated version of Charles Dickens's classic novel in a new project titled Dodge and Twist. The plot re-imagines pickpocketing rivals Oliver Twist and Artful Dodger twenty years later and puts them on opposite sides of the law as they become embroiled in an affair to steal the Crown Jewels.

Warner Bros beat out other studios in a bidding battle for screen rights to the upcoming yet-to-be-published thriller novel by Patrick Lee, and brought Justin Lin on board to direct and produce with Michael De Luca. The untitled project is the start of a series featuring an ex-special operative named Sam Dryden who encounters a mysterious young girl and embarks on a journey to keep her safe from a powerful government agent intent on hunting her down.

Andy Goddard (who directed the season finale of Downton Abbey) has been hired to direct a film adaptation of the 1954 novel The Blunderer, by Patricia Highsmith, who is best know for her works The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train. Susan Boyd, who optioned the novel with her husband, novelist and screenwriter William Boyd, has written the adaptation. The Blunderer centers on young, successful, handsome Walter Stackhouse, who seems to have it all until his wife's body is found at the bottom of a cliff and flees when he becomes the chief suspect. (Hat tip to Ominimystery News.)

Magnolia Pictures has picked up two Norwegian crime dramas for U.S. distribution. The first is the thriller Pioneer, set in the early 1980s Norwegian oil boom when a professional diver obessed with reaching the sea floor gets caught up in a web of political intrigue. The second project is Ragnarok, about a sunken Viking ship located between Norway and Russia, a treasure map, and the secrets to Norse mythology's end of days prophecy.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Marvel President Kevin Feige is describing the upcoming sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as a "political thriller." The film is being directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and penned by the scribes of the original movie, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

Warner Bros. has acquired film rights to The Road Home, the soon-to-be-published novel by Michael Armour. The studio has hired Scott Cooper to direct, write, and produce and Leonardo DiCaprio to co-produce and star. The story centers on a man who finds himself in a scandal when he is asked to investigate the brutal murder of a local man, a case that local police have tried to hide.

TV

TNT has guven the go-ahead for a 10-episode order of an untitled private-eye drama based on author David Baldacci's series characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. The project will star Jon Tenney (The Closer) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men), with Michael O'Keefe (Michael Clayton), Chris Butler (The Good Wife) and Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, Wanted) rounding out the cast. Baldacci is a consultant on the series, scheduled to debut in the summer of 2014.

Criminal Minds' Paget Brewster has joined the ABC comedy pilot, Spy, based on Simeon Gouldon’s British TV series. She’ll play a mother named Erica, "an emotionless person with plenty of personal issues who spends a lot of time at the therapist’s office.

Cinemax is co-developung a crime drama with Søren Sveistrup, creator of the popular Danish series Forbrydelsen, which became the popular US series The Killing. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu of the CBS hit drama Elementary were interviewed about their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Watson and their hopes for the future of the show.

The Cold War spy thriller The Americans has been renewed for a second season on FX. The show stars Matthew Rhys (formerly of Brothers & Sisters) and Keri Russell (Felicity) as two KGB spies.

Hill Harper has quit his role as Dr Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: NY and moved over to USA's Covert Affairs as a series regular, playing an ambitious CIA agent based in Latin America.

NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal will guest star on the April 3 episode of TNT's crime drama Southland, playing Officer Earl Dayton, an old friend of Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz).

Bridget Regan (formerly with Legend of the Seeker and CW's Beauty and the Beast), has been cast in a starring role in the ABC drama pilot Murder in Manhattan playing the daughter in a mother/daughter who work in New York City as amateur sleuths.

Lost star Jorge Garcia has joined the new legal drama The Ordained, which features Charlie Cox (Boardwalk Empire) as a former priest who becomes a lawyer to investigate an assassination plot against his sister. Garcia will play the law firm's staff investigator Carlos.

The pilot for the Beverly Hills Cop TV adaptation has added Argo actress Sheila Vand to the cast, playing the show's female lead Leila, a Beverly Hills detective who comes from a privileged background.

The casting news for the frenetic pilot season continues, with more news about various crime drama shows and more via this TVLine link and this one.

PODCASTS/VIDEO

The latest podcast from Suspense Radio features Lisa Gardner, Deborah Ledford, Harrison Demchick and Amy Lignor.

THEATER

Academy Award winner Robert De Niro is planning to direct a musical version of A Bronx Tale, based on the one-man show by Chazz Palminteri (The Usual Suspects and Bullets Over Broadway) that played on Broadway in 2007. In that version, Palminteri played 18 roles that depict "a rough childhood on Bronx streets populated by a cast of friends and enemies."

GAMES

The software company Frogwares announced the newest entry in its popular series of "Sherlock Holmes" videogames, titled Crimes & Punishments, in which players will assume the role of Sherlock Holmes and lead their own investigation.

Friday's "Forgotten" Book - The Chink in the Armour

Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868–1947) was a prolific writer, with close to 70 novels and nonfiction works—as well as plays and short stories—published between 1898 and 1956. She came from a varied and eclectic background, with ancestors including the scientist Joseph Priestly; her mother, feminist Bessie Parkes Belloc; and her barrister father, himself the son of a well-known French painter. Marie and her family were surrounded by literary icons from early days, counting among them the Brownings, novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and George Eliot. Marie's brother, Hilaire Belloc, became one of the best known writers of his day, and Marie married Frederic Lowndes, the editor of The Times.

In her own writing, Marie Belloc Lowndes focused on psychological studies, character development and plots grounded in the ethical dilemmas of ordinary people. She was fascinated by contemporary crime, attended trials, and based several works on famous cases including Lizzie Borden and Jack the Ripper. The latter influenced The Lodger, about a Ripper-like killer named "The Avenger," first published as a short story in McClure's Magazine in 1911 and then a full-length novel in 1913. The Lodger was adapted as a play and later became the basis for Alfred Hitchock's first major film.


Although the suspense novels by Lowndes were mostly standalones, she did create a detective called Hercules Popeau, said to be the inspiration for Hercule Poirot. The Chink in the Armour, published in 1912, however, centers on beautiful blue-eyed Sylvia Bailey, who was married a 19 and a wealthy widow at 25. Sylvia is enjoying her solo life vacationing in a casino resort town near Paris with her friend Anna Wolsky and sporting an ever-present string of pearls as her badge of freedom.

Being superstitious and naive, she visits fortuneteller Madame Cagliostra, who tells Sylvia she may never return to her own country and that the pearls will do her harm and lead her to the "House of Peril" unless she gets rid of them. Sylvia ignores the strange warning and finds herself fascinated by the casino atmosphere, its eccentric denizens and the attentions of Comte Paul de Virieu—until her friend Anna disappears. The Chink in the Armour was also made into a film in 1922 (albeit a silent movie retitled The House of Peril), directed by Kenelm Foss and starring Fay Compton, Roy Travers, Flora le Breton and A.B. Imeson.

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by Brian Dettmer


Edgar Award festivities are coming up in May, and there's still time to register for associated events, including the 2013 Edgar Week Symposium on May 1, featuring authors and agents talking about the craft and business of writing crime fiction. That same evening, there is an Agents & Editors Cocktail Party, limited to the first 175 registrants (who must also be members of Mystery Writers of America). Plus, the 2013 Edgar Banquet will be on Thursday, May 2nd at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, emceed by current MWA president, Charlaine Harris.

I received a note from Mike Ripley, the series editor of Ostara Crime, with news that the first three titles in the Ostara Crime imprint for 2013 are all by award-winning author Janet Neel (a/k/a Baroness Cohen of Pimlico). The three books, featuring her series characters police detective John McLeish and high-flying civil servant Francesca Wilson, were originally published between 1988 and 1993 and include Death’s Bright Angel, Death of A Partner and Death Among the Dons.

The Tucson Festival of Books coming up March 9-10 has an impressive roster of crime fiction authors schedule to appear, from Nevada Barr through Robert Crais, Hilary Davidson, Craig Johnson, T. Jefferson Parker and on down the alphabet to Jeri Westerson and Simon Wood. For specific events, places and times, the conference has a handy search feature.

Most of us won't be able to travel to London to see the A-Z of Crime Fiction Exhibition at the British Library, but the exhibit has a Pinterest page with a few snippets you can enjoy online.

The Q&A roundup this week includes One Minute With: Stuart MacBride, crime writer, for The Independent; and Scene of the Crime chats with author Imogen Robertson about her cozy series featuring Harriet Westerman, mistress of Caveley Park manor, and anatomist Gabriel Crowther, set in 1780s West Sussex, England.

Agatha Christie, spy? The Guardian notes the author was investigated by intelligence chiefs at MI5 who feared that Christie had a spy in Britain's top-secret codebreaking center Bletchley Park during World War II.

In a move Sherlock Holmes would find fascinating, Leslie Klinger, author, editor and Sherlock Holmes expert and movie advisor, has sued the Arthur Conan Doyle estate. The lawsuit asserts that most aspects of the Holmes series are in the public domain and recent attempts by the estate to exert copyrights over various Holmes books and movies are illegal.

Media Monday for Monday

MOVIES

Pierce Brosnan has signed to star in the film adaptation of Stuart Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast (titled Last Man Out for production purposes), which is scheduled to begin shooting at the end of this year. The adaptation was written by late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson and Ted Mulkerin. The project follows a former IRA hitman haunted by the memory of his victims 20 years after serving time for murder, who can't find peace until he takes revenge on their behalf.

Director Daniel Espinosa (of Safe House fame) is developing an adaptation of John Grisham's latest novel, The Racketeer, for Fox 2000 and New Regency. The story follows the only person who has any information regarding the murder of a federal judge—an imprisoned former attorney who plans to use his new position of power to get revenge on those that sent him to prison. 

Deadline reports that Dominik Garcia-Lorido has joined the cast of Heat, directed by Simon West. She'll play the ex-girlfriend of a good-hearted Las Vegas enforcer (Jason Statham), who turns to him when she is violently beaten. Also, in other casting news, Australian actor/singer Tom Budge has signed on to the indie thriller Son of A Gun.

Variety is reporting that the film adaptation of Lawrence Block's novel A Walk Among the Tombstones appears to be getting closer to a reality. It was announced last May that Liam Neeson had been signed to star as former cop turned PI Matt Scudder, and now Downton Abbey's Dan Steven has also been added. (Hat tip to Crimespree.)

TV

Fox was impressed enough with the pilot for The Bridge project, that it has given an order for a 13-episode series. The show is an adaptation of the Danish/Swedish co-produced crime drama Broen/Bron, but is updated to follow a serial killer who is operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, with an El Paso Detective working with her Juárez counterpart. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.) 

Deadline reports that Domenick Lombardozzi (Breakout Kings) has been cast in a recurring role on HBO’s period mob drama Boardwalk Empire, playing Ralph Capone, older brother to Chicago mobster Al Capone (Stephen Graham). Also, in another casting update, James Hiroyuki Liao (Battle: Los Angeles) has joined the revamped CBS crime drama Unforgettable in the role of a detective "with a wide variety of eclectic interests and skills."

Spy dramas appear to be big for next year, and three spy drama pilots have added cast members, including two on ABC:  Ernie Hudson is in negotiations to co-star in Reckless, playing a world-weary experienced CIA analyst, and Seth Numrich and British actor Burn Gorman (The Dark Knight Rises) are set to join the Revolutionary-war project, Turn; meanwhile over at Fox, Felicity Huffman is taking on the role of a housewife with a double life as a spy and master of disguise, in Boomerang.

The Wire's Paul Ben-Victor has signed on for a four-episode story arc on CBS's Vegas, playing an arrogant Hollywood mogul.

Peter Sarsgaard is joining AMC's The Killing, playing the new villain, a Death Row inmate who's been in and out of jail since he was a kid.

CCH Pounder, former star of The Shield, has joined the legal drama pilot The Advocates, from The Mentalist's Bruno Heller. Pounder will play the dedicated head of the Victims Advocate office where female lawyer Shannon Carter works (and partners with male ex-con Henry Bird) as a victim advocate.

NBC released a trailer for its new show Hannibal, based on the novels of Thomas Harris featuring serial killer Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter.

PODCASTS/VIDEO

Michael Enright, host of CBC's The Sunday Edition, talked with two masters of the police procedural: Swedish writer Henning Mankell and American novelist Craig Johnson.

GAMES

USA Network is launching a new online murder mystery game titled The S#cial Sector, written by Psych writers and starring Psych's detective duo, James Roday and Dulé Hill. The game will run eight weeks on SocialSector.usanetwork.com and allow fans to help investigate a murder by "playing games, sending real-time messages to Shawn and Gus and also sending video of their whodunit theories."

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Final Proof

(This is an encore FFB from 2011...)

As this year's Edgar Awards ceremony approaches, I particularly enjoy looking at the debut novel nominees,
wondering how where their literary careers might take them from here.
This prompted me to look back at previous nominees and winners, and I
ran across one by an author I hadn't heard of before, Marie R. Reno (1929-2008),
nominated in 1977 for her first novel, Final Proof. I was even
able to get my hands on a copy of the book at my local library,
something of a remarkable accomplishment from a library that doesn't
even have any S.S. Van Dine books.

Yet, when I tried tracking
down Ms. Reno, I found practically nothing available in the way of
biography or career. The dust jacket indicates Reno had a long and
notable career in the book-club world, and was also an editor of This Week magazine. Her book-club connections are probably why she is listed as editor of A Treasury of Modern Mysteries, Volumes 1 and 2, from 1973 and later An International Treasury of Mystery and Suspense, from 1983. It also helps explains why she wrote this first novel, Final Proof, set in a New York book club publishing house.

At the beginning of the Final Proof,
Marcia Richardson is found in her home office, shot twice through the
head at close range by a .22 revolver and slumped over a set of galley
proofs. Although her fingers had been wrapped around the gun in an
attempt to make the death look like suicide, there's little doubt she's
been murdered. Marcia was editorial director of the Readers' Circle, one
of the Big Three book clubs along with Book-of-the-Month and the
Literary Guild, and in the small, interconnected world of New York
publishing, Marcia's death is talk of the town.

Marcia's friend
and colleague, Karen Lindstrom, editor of the Mystery, Suspense and
Intrigue line, finds herself working with, and at cross-purposes to,
Lieutenant Jack Morrison of the NYPD. At first, he merely seems
fascinated by Karen's endless fount of information about the publishing
world and isn't particularly thrilled to have her assistance. As the
case grinds on, Karen and the Lieutenant find themselves drawn to each
other in personal ways that could jeopardize the investigation.

It's
quite obvious from all the insider details and observations that the
author was indeed employed with such a book club, which seems to be both
the inspiration and raison d'etre for the book. I also suspect
Reno is a pen name, one reason there isn't much in the way of
biographical details—changing the names to avoid getting sued or
incurring the wrath of fellow employees (if anyone out there knows
his/her real name, feel free to add it in the comments).

As the
publishing world seems to change almost daily in our current day, it's a
bit of a throwback to read about a segment of the literary
establishment that's shrinking, perhaps disappearing altogether.
However, some of the author's observations (speaking through the
likely-autobiographical character of Lindstrom) are timeless:

We're
caught up in such a tide of manuscripts and galleys that we get sort of
jaded. I mean, every once in a while something comes along that I
really love, but six months later I'd have a hard time remembering it.

The tough thing is dealing with author. All those fragile egos.

There's a lot of sly humor and oblique poking fun at the
industry, and if you want some light entertainment with a touch of
publishing nostalgia and romance thrown in, then Final Proof is right up your galley. If you're wondering about who actually won the best first novel in 1977, it was a book titled The Thomas Berryman Number by someone you may have heard of. A fellow by the name of James Patterson.

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by David Kracov


Congratulations to Lee Child, awarded this year's Diamond Dagger, which is voted on by members of the Crime Writers Association and celebrates an author with an outstanding body of work in crime fiction. Past winners include Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Elmore Leonard. In 2012 the award went to Frederick Forsyth.

The Malice Domestic Conference announced nominations for the annual Agatha Awards, including Best Novel nods to The Diva Digs Up the Dirt by Krista Davis; A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet; The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron; The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny; and The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Mystery Scene Magazine's Winter Issue #128 includes a conversation with crime fiction icon Sue Grafton, who takes some unexpected detours as she reveals the complicated family history that has informed her immensely popular Kinsey Millhone novels; Ed Gorman shares his take on his favorite John D. MacDonald novels; Mystery Scene's critics offer their Fave Raves of 2012, Daniel Stashower discusses how Alan Pinkerton foiled a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln, and much more.

Suspense Magazine 's February issue is also out, with romances that end in betrayal, murder and revenge for Valentine season. The author lineup  includes Robert Crais, Alan Russell, Jeri Westerson, Robin Burcell, Stuart MacBride, Betty Webb, Mary Daheim, Andrew Gross, Lisa Gardner and Michael Symon (a/k/a the Iron Chef). 

The latest issue of Jack Lehman's Lit Noir magazine is out, with fiction from K A Laity, B R Stateham and more, as well as book recommendations from Paul D. Brazill.

Theresa de Valence has posted the annual "Memorable Books" list culled from recommendation on the DorothyL listserv. The top vote-getter was The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, followed closely by No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Megan Abbott chatting with Pulpetti about the definition of noir and some exciting news about her novel Dare Me; and Crimespree's fun Lego interviews continues with Duane Swierczynski.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The winners of this year's BAFTA Awards (the British version of the Oscars) were announced Sunday. Winners included a Best Film nod to Argo and Best Director to Ben Affleck and an award for Best British Film given to Skyfall.

Paramount is adapting the bestselling French thriller Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez. The supernatural procedural follows a detective named Lucie Hennebelle who teams up with a a Paris cop to investigate a film embedded with subliminal images that lead to murder and the personification of evil. (Hat to Omnimystery News)

New Regency is taking on an adaptation of the true-crime memoir True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, by reporter Michael Finkel. The plot follows Finkel, a disgraced NYT reporter who discovered that an accused murderer had stolen his identity and would only give his story to the reporter. Jonah Hill, James Franco and Felicity Jones have signed aboard the project to star, with Rupert Goold directing.

Omnimystery News reported that production has begun on the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's crime novel The Switch, with a potential release date later this year. The project stars Jennifer Aniston as Margaret "Mickey" Dawson, a loving, naive housewife whose husband has been embezzling millions for years and keeping the cash in off-shore accounts without her knowledge.

Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen are in talks to star in the film adaptation of the John Le Carre novel Our Kind of Traitor. Ewan McGregor was already cast as the male half of a couple who get mixed up with a Russian money launderer and find themselves caught between the Russian Mafia and the British Secret Service.

TV

Actress Kim Raver (24, Gray's Anatomy) has landed the starring role in the new NCIS:LA spinoff for CBS. She'll play Special Agent Paris, joining joining John Corbett who plays the male lead. The premise follows a mobile “Red” team of agents forced to live and work together as they crisscross the country solving crimes.

NBC has given a pilot order for a remake of Ironside, the series from 1967 to 1975 that featured Raymond Burr as a wheelchair-bound detective. Sopranos story editor Michael Caleo is writing the pilot, and Blair Underwood (LA Law) is in talks to star as the lead.

The small-screen adaptation of the film Beverly Hills Cop has landed Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) to direct and executive produce the pilot.

Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) has been cast in the NBC drama pilot Bloodline, written by David Graziano and directed by Peter Berg, about an orphaned young girl caught in the struggle between two warring families of mercenaries and killers.

British actor Max Fowler and 18-year-old newcomer Bex Taylor-Klaus have been added to the third season of AMC’s drama series The Killing. The duo join returning stars Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman and fellow new cast member Elias Koteas in the drama, which will center around homicide detective Sarah Linden's investigation into the disappearance of another teen girl.

Despite ratings that are lower overall this season, Castle is getting an additional episode order from ABC.

Anthony Zuiker, one of the creators of CSI, has out a casting for a new mystery reality competition for ABC. They are seeking "armchair detectives, perceptive problem solvers or anyone who believes they have the mental acuity to go up against other like-minded sleuths for a huge cash prize."

Tonight in the UK, the series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, based on Kerry Greenwood's novels, gets its UK premiere on Alibi.

PODCASTS/VIDEO

The guests this week on Suspense Radio are Brett Battles, Wendy Corsi Staub and Amnon Kabatchnik.

BBC Radio 4's "Books & Authors" podcast for February 10 included Scottish crime writer Christopher Brookmyre talking about his turning to science fiction for inspiration.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The End of Solomon Grundy

Julian Gustave Symons (1912-1994) was an English poet and biographer and served as a mystery fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times. He also wrote non-fiction books on criminology and one titled Bloody Murder (a/k/a Mortal Consequences), a history of the mystery novel up through the book's publication in 1972,  in which he argued that traditional puzzle-plots were inferior to, and being supplanted by, crime novels focused more on the psychology of criminals.

Yet, Symons was also capable of writing some fine puzzle-type myteries himself, such as The End of Solomon Grundy, published in 1964. The name of the main character is taken from a British nursery rhyme from the 19th century, but the fictional Solomon Grundy has also appeared as a character in DC Comics, on an episode of Sesame Street, and in other incarnations incluing an upcoming movie from director Danny Boyle.

The plot of Symons' book centers on a young, self-described "model" who is murdered in Mayfair Mews, although Superintendent Jeffrey Manners isn't sure if the "model" was exactly that or something a little less reputable. His investigations lead him to an exclusive suburban housing estate called The Dell, filled with seemingly law-abiding, upper-class denizens like architect Dick Weldon and wine and food expert Jack Jenifer, who feel "they were on the whole more intelligent, liberal and humane than the majority of their fellow citizens."

The exception to The Dell's civilized enclave is a boorish advertising executive named Solomon Grundy, "ginger-haired and red-faced, arms hanging apelike out of a jacket that seemed too small for him...a terrifying figure." Grundy quickly becomes the chief suspect after it's discovered he had an affair with the victim and is arrested for the murder. Grundy doesn't help his case both during the investigation and the trial with his bluntness and acidic views of his wife, neighbors and colleagues. The trial, which takes up the second half of the book, appears cut-and-dried until a twist ending makes the verdict in doubt.

Symons was awarded various prizes for his writing, and in 1982 was named as Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. He succeeded Agatha Christie as the president of Britain's Detection Club, a position he held from 1976 to 1985, and in 1990 he was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association.