B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 25

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Former Eastenders headliner Martin Kemp is starring in the serial killer movie, Doctor Plague, playing jaded detective John Verney who is on the trail of an ancient cult of Plague Doctors cutting a bloody swathe through the London underworld. Dismissed by his superiors as gang-on-gang killings, the murders draw Verney into an obsessive maze of a secret society conspiracy with links to the Jack The Ripper murders of 1888, putting him and his family in grave danger. Joining Kemp in the cast are Peter Woodward (Babylon 5), David Yip (A View To A Kill), Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott (Renegades), Wendy Glenn (You’re Next) and Daisy Beaumont (The World Is Not Enough).

Mission: Impossible star Rebecca Ferguson has joined the cast of Netflix’s upcoming Peaky Blinders movie, although details about her role are being kept under wraps. Ferguson is the first high-profile name set opposite the previously announced Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer). The Peaky Blinders feature will see Oscar winner Murphy in a return to the iconic role of Tommy Shelby, leader of the eponymous Birmingham gangster family. Tom Harper is directing from a script by Peaky creator Steven Knight. Plot details are currently unknown, but Knight told Deadline in April that a movie story would be set during World War II. Production is expected to begin this year.

Focus Features has set Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming spy drama, Black Bag, for a March 14, 2025 theatrical release. The high-stakes mystery is set in the United Kingdom and stars Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender alongside Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, and Pierce Brosnan. David Koepp wrote the screenplay, although plot details have not been released.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Sony Pictures Television is expanding its relationship with Long Bright River author, Liz Moore, acquiring her novels The God of the Woods and The Unseen World for series development. Set in the summer of 1975, The God of the Woods is an immersive, propulsive novel about a missing child whose disappearance sends equal shockwaves through three very different worlds—an opulent Adirondack summer estate, the rustic teen summer camp that operates in its shadow, and the blue-collar community that serves them both. The Unseen World tells the story of a daughter’s quest to discover the truth about her beloved father’s hidden past. Co-created and executive produced by Moore, Long Bright River stars Amanda Seyfried as Mickey, a police officer who patrols a Philadelphia neighborhood hard-hit by the opioid crisis. When a series of murders begins in the neighborhood, Mickey realizes that her personal history might be related to the case. That series is currently in production, with an as-yet-to-be-announced release date upcoming on Peacock.

At last week's San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Michael C. Hall will star in Dexter: Resurrection, a new series set in the present day and a followup to the 2021 Dexter: New Blood. It will launch in summer 2025. This is in addition to the new prequel series that stars Patrick Gibson as the younger version of the former’s character in Dexter: Original Sin. Hall also serves as narrator of the 90s-set prequel series, which will premiere in December.

A first look was revealed for the upcoming new series, The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, and Úrsula Corberó. The teaser premiered Friday night during NBC and Peacock’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony. The Day of the Jackal will premiere on Peacock (U.S.) and Sky (UK) on November 7. The series is based on the Frederick Forsyth novel and 1973 film adaptation from Universal and follows an unrivaled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal (Redmayne), who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On the Alliance of Independent Authors podcast, Howard Lovy interviewed Dawn Brookes, a British writer of cozy mysteries and a former nurse who worked in healthcare for nearly 40 years. After retiring from nursing, Dawn began writing full-time, drawing on her extensive experience to create rich characters and engaging stories.

Australia's Nightlife podcast chatted with Tim Ayliffe, a journalist for more than 20 years and author of a series featuring John Bailey, a battle-worn journalist who is an amalgam of many great journalists and former correspondents Tim has worked with. He joined podcast host Philip Clark for a look at true crime, corruption, hideous people, and creating a dialogue in print.

On Crime Time FM, Craig Sisterson spoke with Emma Viskic, Dinuka McKenzie, Charity Norman, and Helen Fitzgerald, who all contributed to the anthology, Dark Deeds Down Under 2.

This week’s episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Michael J. Young, MD, who spent 30 years as a surgeon while living in Chicago. He's the author of a memoir/assessment of the current medical system titled The Illness of Medicine: Experiences of Clinical Practice and has also authored a trilogy of medical thrillers.

On the Spybrary Spy Book podcast, guest host Andy Onyx chatted with John Higgs, author of Love and Let Die – James Bond, The Beatles and The British Psyche.

On the Cops and Writers podcast, guest Mike Roche, with over four decades of experience as a street cop, detective, and special agent for the ATF and Secret Service, shared his vast experience and offered up valuable insights into law enforcement.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and guest host Liberty Hardy talked about reading recommendations for fans of Knives Out.

The latest Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine podcast featured "Blue Christmas," a chilling medical mystery by author and emergency-room physician, Melissa Yi, from her series of mysteries featuring Dr. Hope Sze.

          

Mystery Melange

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The Maltese Falcon Society of Japan has named S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears (first published by Flatiron Books in 2021) as the winner of its 2024 Maltese Falcon Award. The honor is bestowed upon the best hard-boiled/private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year. Cosby will receive a wood-crafted Falcon statuette. (HT to the Gumshoe Site by way of The Rap Sheet)

Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the shortlist for the 24th Davitt Awards for best crime and mystery books. Members of the organization are also able to vote on the Davitt Readers' Choice Award through the end of July. The Best Adult novel category include Bronwyn Hall, The Chasm (HQ Fiction); Amanda Hampson, The Tea Ladies (Penguin Random House); Marija Pericic, Exquisite Corpse (Ultimo Press); and also four debut novels, Christine Keighery, The Half Brother (Ultimo Press); Suzie Miller, Prima Facie (Pan Macmillan Australia); Darcy Tindale, The Fall Between (Penguin Random House); and Monica Vuu, When One of Us Hurts (Pan Macmillan Australia).

The BloodShed is a new, interactive crime fiction festival to be held in Swindon, UK, which will bring authors and readers together - with writing workshops led by published crime authors from across the UK. There will also be a variety of panel interviews, and the chance to show off your sleuthing ability against those who write mysteries for a living. More details will be forthcoming soon about this event, scheduled for October 18-20, 2024.

On the heels of Jo Callaghan winning the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 for In the Blink of an Eye, T&R Theakston Limited announced it's extending its partnership with Harrogate International Festivals to continue sponsoring the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, a partnership that's been in place for 20 years. The festival has attracted internationally best-selling authors such as Val McDermid, Denise Mina, S A Cosby, P D James, Lee Child, John Grisham, Michael Connolly, Ian Rankin, and Harlan Coben.

It's always difficult to keep up with all the end-of-the-year "best" crime fiction lists, but Parade Magazine decided to get a head start with "The 29 Best Mystery, Thriller and True Crime Books of 2024…so Far."

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's Lisa Pulitzer interviewed her A Hunger to Kill co-author, Detective Kim Mager, about Mager's writing experience as a first-time author, goals for sharing the previously unrevealed details behind breaking open the Shawn Grate case, as well as personal details about her life as a mom, wife, and female police detective; and at Writers Who Kill, E.B. Davis interviewed Valerie Burns about the third book in her Baker Street series, titled A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death.

         Related StoriesMystery MelangeMedia Murder for Monday 

Author R&R with Allen Wyler

[image error]Allen Wyler is a neurosurgeon who left practice in 2002 to be Medical Director for a medical technology start-up, Northstar Neuroscience, which went public (NSTR) in 2006. Leveraging a love for thrillers since the early '70s, Wyler began writing fiction and published his first book in 2005. At the end of 2007 he retired to devote full time to writing. He served as Vice President of the International Thriller Writers organization for several years and has been nominated twice for a Thriller Award. He lives in Seattle.

[image error]In Wyler’s 7th installment of the Deadly Odds techno-thriller series, Deadly Odds 7.0, reformed hacker Arnold Gold and his team are contracted to come up with a daring plan to sneak past newly installed AI-enhanced security systems to hack the computers and offices at a high-profile Seattle law firm in an ultra-secure downtown office building—while squaring off against the clock and a hard-driving, paranoid Head of Security, Itzhak Mizrahi.

Allen Wyler stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching his novels:

I’m a native Seattleite who, at the University of Washington, made the mistake of majoring in English Literature with the intention of applying for medical school; a choice that turned into a class-scheduling combination from hell. So, I ended up with a BS degree in Basic Medical Sciences, entered med school and went on to become a neurosurgeon. As satisfying as that career was, the specialty didn’t allow for a great deal of creativity. I mean, who wants their brain surgeon to get super creative during the removal of a tricky tumor?  For years I suppressed a squeaky little voice buried in consciousness crying out to scratch a creative itch. Then, one Saturday I came home from making hospital rounds and announced to my wife that I was going write a novel. A thriller, to be exact because that’s the genre I love. At which point she collapsed on the floor in laughter. That did it! I sat down to start in. Eventually I turned out a thriller about a hacker, Radical Dood, that seriously sucked as evidenced by the reams of rejection letters that followed. Still, I kept at it.

Why hackers, might you ask? Well, because years before, as an Assistant Professor at the UW, I ran a neurophysiology lab in which experiments were controlled by a minicomputer, for which I had to write proprietary software, so I knew a little about the subject. A few years later Clifford Stoll wrote a non-fiction book, Cuckoo’s Egg. Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab who tracked down a hacker in their computer who was stealing classified information for an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB. Wow! Pretty engrossing stuff. I was totally hooked on the subject.

Years later a literary agent replied to a query letter with the advice that although my style was “commercial,” a neurosurgeon writing about hackers really wasn’t going to cut it. That in order to land a contract I needed to write what I knew. In other words, “write a medical thriller, stupid.”

So, I wrote a Deadly Errors, a thriller about a hacked electronic medical records system. It scored two-book contract with Tor/Forge. Although medical thrillers were fun to write, I still fantasized writing about hacking.

Switching publishers allowed me the freedom to publish Deadly Odds, originally a stand-alone about twenty-three-year Seattle-based odds-maker and computer genius, Arnold Gold. Described as a “part-time hacker and full-time virgin” by his friends, Gold flies to Las Vegas to try to get lucky—in more ways than one. But his high stakes internet activity inadvertently drops him into a vortex of international terrorism that results in murder and takes every last bit of Arnold's intellect and legendary skill to stay one step ahead of murderous terrorists, the FBI, the local cops and his lawyer. In other words, a quintessential thriller. My publisher and I loved the character I’d stumbled on, so decided I should turn Deadly Odds into a sequentially numbered series similar to software iterations. However, each episode can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.

The series chronicles Arnold’s arc toward maturity as a male, his personal life, and his career as a businessman who is building a select group of “white hat” hackers into IT team specializing in serving the unique needs of law firms that, for various reasons, aren’t keen on opening their highly confidential files to unknown IT techs. In Deadly Odds 7.0 Arnold’s team is contracted by a high-powered law firm to break into their ultra-secure downtown offices by bypassing the building’s newly installed AI security enhancements while also squaring off against the clock and a hard-driving, paranoid Head of Security. These contracted break-ins represent a security-testing tactic known as penetration testing.

To help answer numerous questions that spring up during story development, I’ve developed a terrific team of consultants that include cybersecurity experts as well as law enforcement agencies such as Seattle and King County police and the FBI.

You can learn more about Allen Wyler and his writing via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  Deadly Odds 7.0 is available via Stairway Press and all major booksellers.

         Related StoriesAuthor R&R with Peter ColtAuthor R&R with Thomas R. WeaverAuthor R&R with Larry and Rosemary Mild 

Media Murder for Monday

[image error]It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

As Deadline reported, 20th Century and Imagine Entertainment are in early development on a feature adaptation of the hit Fox series 24. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for Fox, 24 originally ran for nine seasons between 2001 and 2014, and spawned a 2008 television film called Redemption. Kiefer Sutherland starred as Jack Bauer, an agent from the U.S. government’s fictitious "Counter Terrorist Unit" (CTU). No plot details are currently known, and it is also unclear if Sutherland will return to play Bauer.

Michael Mann is making a sequel to his 1995 film Heat and is working on writing the screenplay, which is based on the novel Heat 2 that he co-authored with Meg Gardiner. Mann told the Los Angeles Times that he wants to begin shooting the film by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. Heat followed the conflict between LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and a career thief, Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro), and also starred Val Kilmer as McCauley's right-hand man. Heat 2 will function as both a prequel and a sequel to Heat, jumping between two time periods. Although there's no word official yet on casting, Adam Driver and Austin Butler are rumored to be taking over DeNiro and Kilmer’s roles.

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to The Critic, a period thriller starring Ian McKellen, which is adapted from Anthony Quinn’s novel, Curtain Call. Directed by Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) from a script by Academy Award nominee Patrick Marber (Closer), the film will release in theaters on September 13th. Set in London in 1934, the film follows Jimmy Erskine (McKellen), the most feared theatre critic of his age, who derives pleasure from savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the newspaper where he works dies and his son David Brooke (Mark Strong) takes over, Jimmy finds himself at odds with his new boss. In an attempt to preserve the power and influence he holds so sacred, Jimmy strikes a Faustian pact with struggling actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), entangling them and Brooke in a thrilling but deadly web of desire, blackmail, and betrayal.

Mimi Rogers (Bosch: Legacy) and Cemre Paksoy (As the Crow Flies) are attached to star in Night Nurse, an erotic thriller from writer-director Georgia Bernstein, which will mark her feature debut. The film takes place behind the gates of a remote retirement community, where a starry-eyed nurse is beguiled by a string of perverse scam calls. When she discovers her patient is the seductive con man behind these schemes, her innocent flirtation blooms into a lust for deception.

A trailer was released for The Killer, a remake of John Woo’s 1989 classic. The original film starred Chow Yun-Fat as a noble hit man who performs one last job after accidentally blinding a young singer. In a gender-swapped role, Nathalie Emmanuel stars as the titular assassin in the remake, with Diana Silvers playing the young girl the killer blinds, and Omar Sy playing the dogged detective on the killer’s trail. The preview shows plenty of Woo’s trademark style, which encompasses "slow-motion, operatic emotion, and balletic gunplay." Woo directed the new film from a screenplay by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland and the screenwriting team of Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken. The Killer debuts on Peacock on August 23.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Colin Firth is joining the cast of Young Sherlock, Prime Video’s new series from Guy Ritchie, which tells the origin story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective. He joins previously cast Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Zine Tseng, Joseph Fiennes and Natascha McElhone. Written by Matthew Parkhill and inspired by Andy Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes book series, the show re-imagines Sherlock Holmes (Tiffin) at age 19. Disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed, he finds himself caught up in a murder mystery at Oxford University that threatens his freedom. Diving into his first-ever case with a wild lack of discipline, Sherlock manages to unravel a globe-trotting conspiracy that will change his life forever. Firth will play Sir Bucephalus Hodge.

NBC has picked up its two remaining pilots to series: Suits: L.A., starring Stephen Amell, and Grosse Pointe Garden Society. However, it has not been determined whether either of them will premiere during the 2024-25 season. Suits: L.A. is not a reboot or revival of the original USA series but more like a new chapter, centered on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who has reinvented himself by representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Grosse Pointe Garden Society follows four members of a suburban garden club — Birdie (Melissa Fumero), Alice (AnnaSophia Robb), Brett (Ben Rappaport) and Catherine (Aja Naomi King) — all from different walks of life, "who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom."

Jeff Fahey (Lost), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona), and Nicky Whelan (Halloween 2) are among the cast joining Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural) in the upcoming dramedy crime series, A Motel. Also joining the cast are Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie), Niko Foster (MR-9: Do or Die), Nolan River (Old), Charlene Amoia (How I Met Your Mother), Luke Edwards (True Detective), Kelly Reiter (Deadlock), and Kelly Arjen (Adverse). Pellegrino leads the show about a group of outcasts working at a seedy motel who find themselves in danger when they accidentally uncover a drug smuggling plot for the mafia.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS released two new trailers (here and here) for the three remaining Mystery! titles to come this summer and fall, including the adaptation of Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders, Van der Valk Season 4, and Robert Thorogood's The Marlow Murder Club.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Time FM, Trevor Wood chatted with Sarah Moorhead about his new police thriller, The Silent Killer; early onset Alzheimer's; homelessness; Glastonbury, and more.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with thriller writer Jack Jordan about his new novel, Redemption, and his fascination with existential moral dilemmas.

The Pick Your Poison podcast looked at a poison still being used as medicine, why it’s called the King of Poisons, and what it has to do with the very first antibiotic.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

The Strand Takes a Stand

Quarterly crime fiction and mystery magazine The Strand Magazine has announced its nominees for the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards, which recognize excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing. The awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists, with this year’s judges chosen from Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, USA Today, and The Associated Press. The Strand is also handing out two Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2024, to both Kathy Reichs (of the "Bones" series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan) and Max Allan Collins (the "Quarry" and "Nathan Heller" series). Jonathan Karp of Simon and Schuster has been chosen to receive the magazine’s Publisher of the Year Award. 

 

Best Mystery Novel:

All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland)
Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Harper)
Resurrection Walk, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
Prom Mom, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)
The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

Best Debut Mystery:

Fadeaway Joe, by Hugh Lessig (Crooked Lane)
Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)
The House in the Pines, by Ana Reyes (Dutton)
Don’t Forget the Girl, by Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Adrift, by Lisa Brideau (Sourcebooks Landmark)
The Peacock and the Sparrow, by I.S. Berry (Atria)



          

Theakston's Peculier Delights

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Harrogate International Festivals announced the winners of the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the inaugural McDermid Debut Award at the opening evening of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.  Martina Cole was also awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution for 2024. Congrats to the winners and finalists!

Crime Novel of the Year :   In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)

The other finalists:

The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville; John Murray Press) 
Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Zaffre, Bonnier) 
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell (Century; Cornerstone) 
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland) 

 

McDermid Debut Award:  Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books)

The other finalists:

Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (Orenda Books) 
Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey (Harper Collins) 
Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (Bantam, Transworld) 
Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu (Harper Collins) 
The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere, Little Brown) 

 

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, now in its 12th year, is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and the Daily Express, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024. The Awards Academy chose the longlist, and a public vote helped to determine the shortlist. The winner receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.

The shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award was selected by an academy of established crime and thriller authors, with the winner determined by a judging panel of industry experts, including literary, broadcasting and media figures, with no public voting component. All shortlisted authors receive a full weekend pass to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, with the winner receiving a £500 cash prize.

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Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Felicitations

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The 2024 Killer Nashville Conference announced the Silver Falchion Award Finalists, representing the best books published in 2023. The winners in each category and the top 3 winners overall will be announced at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on August 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. Congrats to all!

Best Action Adventure

A New Game by A.M. Adair
Siphon by Ley Esses
A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston
Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny
Splinter by Paul McHugh
The Warmaker: A Black Spear Novel by Benjamin Spada

Best Comedy

Downsized or Dead by S.E. Greco
Shocked by Champagne by Lucy Lakestone
Cultured by DP Lyle
Citizen Orlov by Jonathan Payne
Model Suspect by TK Sheffield
A Crafty Collage of Crime by Lois Winston

Best Cozy

Under the Cocoon Moon by Kathleen Bailey
Dumpster Dying by Michelle Bennington
Puppy Love by Mike Faricy
Naked Came the Detective by Glendall Jackson
Karma Comes in Red, A Beyond Mystery by Morgan James
Trust the Terrier: A Coral Shores Veterinary Mystery by DL Mitchell

Best Historical

Revenge at the Galliano Club by Carmen Amato
Red Flags: A Novel by Rebecca McQueen
Arsenic at Ascot, A Fiona Figg & Kitty Lane Mystery by Kelly Oliver
The Sorrowful Girl by Keenan Powell
The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman
A Courtesan’s Secret by Nina Wachsman

Best Investigator

When Things Fall Apart by Alan Brenham
Reflections in a Dragon’s Eye by Bradley Harper MD
Vessels of Wrath by Thomas Holland
These Still Black Waters by Christina McDonald
Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima
Splintered Loyalty by Mark Troy

Best Juvenile or YA

Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould
The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson
A Place of Vengeance by David Lafferty 
A Tall Dark Trouble by Vanessa Montalban
Immortality: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
Stateless by Elizabeth Wein

Best Literary

Brush: A Novel by Penn Anderson
The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton
Multo by Cindy Fazzi
Nemesis Rising by Adam Golob
The Salt Cutter by CJ Howell

Best Mainstream / Commercial

Stolen Diary by Kathryn Lane
Beverly Bonnefinche is Dead by Kristen Seeley
Prom Queen by Laura Wolfe

Best Mystery

Mouse in the Box by Lewis Allan
Indigo Road by Reed Bunzel
Beautiful Death by John Deal
Secrets Don’t Sink by Kate B. Jackson
BeatNikki’s Café by Renee James
The Empty Kayak by Jode Millman

Best Nonfiction

Forget It, Jake, It’s Schenectady: The True Story Behind ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ by David Bushman
Monster on the Loose by Richard Carrico
Here, Where Death Delights by Mary Jumbelic
The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Disruption Threatens Human Survival by Dennis Meredith
Saint Bloodbath by Frederick Reynolds
Finding YOUR Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide by Judy Penz Sheluk

Best Sci-Fi or Fantasy

The Pilgrim – Part I by A. Keith Carreiro
The Confession of Hemingway Jones by Kathleen Hannon
Interface: Book One: Connection by R.K. Hillhouse
The Zone: A Cyberpunk Thriller by Stu Jones
Do You Believe in Magic? by Jim Melvin
Darwin’s Dilemma by Don Stuart

Best Anthology/Collection

The Black Hole Pastrami by Jeffrey Feingold
There is No Death in Finding Nemo by Jeffrey Feingold
Paper Walls by Glass Houses by Richard Helms
Blues City Clues edited by Carolyn McSparren, Angelyn Sherrod, and James Paavola
Obsession (editor unknown)
Hook, Line, and Sinker: The Seventh Guppy Anthology edited by Emily Murphy

Best Southern Gothic

Inescapable, A Novel by WB Henley

Best Supernatural

Monstera by EL Block
Personal Demons by L.R. Braden
The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
Downpour by Christopher Hawkins
A Mother’s Torment by Xavier Poe Kane
Ghost Tamer by Meredith R. Lyons

Best Suspense

Don’t Close Your Eyes by Mary Alford
Deep Fake Double Down by Debbie Burke
Deadly Tides by Mary Keliikoa
Perspectives by Matthew Minson
Dead West by Linda L. Richards
The Rule of Thirds by Jeannee Sacken

Best Thriller

Checkout Time by John Bukowski
The Followers by Bradeigh Godfrey
The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard
Implied Consent by Keenan Powell
Breaking Apart by Wanda Venters, MD and Mary Rae, MD
Kyd’s Game by Marc Rosenberg

Best Western

Reckoning by Baron Birtcher
Bladestay by Jackie Johnson
Sting of Lies by Carol Potenza

          

Mystery Melange

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J. Madison Davis, Acting Executive Director of the International Association of Crime Writers North American Branch, alerted me to the news that Colson Whitehead's Crook Manifesto (Doubleday) has won the Hammett Prize trophy, which is awarded to the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing for the previous year. The other finalists included Night Letter by Sterling Watson (Akashic Books); The Almost Widow by Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Harper Avenue); Stealing by Margaret Verble (Mariner Books) and The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (Alfred A. Knopf). Congrats to Whitehead and all the finalists!

At this past weekend's Public Safety Writers Association Conference, the winners of the PSWA Writing Awards were announced. The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Writing went to Colin Conway; Best Book Cover to Hope Dies Last, A Stefan Kopriva Mystery by Frank Zafiro; Published Fiction Books–Police Procedural to Colin Conway for The Fate of Our Years, A 509 Crime Story; Published Fiction Books–Thriller to Devil Within, A Nathan Parker Detective Novel by James L’Etoile; Published Fiction Books–Suspense to Hope Dies Last, A Stefan Kopriva Mystery by Frank Zaffiro; Published Non-Fiction Book to The Alaskan Blonde: Sex, Secrets, and the Hollywood Story That Shocked America by James Bartlett; and Best Published Memoir, Living With Mr. Fahrenheit by Lisa Beecher. For all the finalists in those categories and the winners and finalists in the unpublished division, head on over to the PSWA website.

The 2024 Killer Nashville Claymore Award finalists for unpublished manuscripts were announced this week. The contest is limited to only the first 50 double-spaced pages of unpublished English-language manuscript, or appropriately formatted play or screenplay, containing elements of thriller, mystery, crime, suspense, action, and/or romance not currently under contract. The winners of the seventeen categories will be revealed at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on August 24, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers announced the finalists for the 2024 Scribe Awards, which celebrate and honor excellence in the field of writing tie-in fiction for media franchises. The works include novels, short stories, audio dramas, and graphic novels tied to licenses of movies and TV shows, as well as video games, comics, songs, and even book series. Although this year's field is heavily tilted toward science and speculative fiction, there are a few crime fiction works in the Original Novel – General category, including Legend of the Five Rings: Three Oaths by Josh Reynolds; Murder, She Wrote: Fit for Murder by Jessica Fletcher and Terrie Farley Moran; and Watch Dogs Legion: Cold Reboot. It was also announced that IAMTW’s 2024 Grandmaster and Faust Award Winner is James Reasoner, who has written more than 350 novels and more than 100 short stories. Although perhaps best known for westerns, he has written across many genres from mystery (including Walker, Texas Ranger tie-ins) to fantasy to science fiction.

Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards for Australian women’s best short crime and mystery stories, which offers a record $13,400 in prizes, is open for submissions. A brand-new award – the Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue ($500) – is also being offered this year. The shortlist will be announced in October, with the awards being presented at a gala ceremony in Melbourne in late November. The closing date for the awards is August 31, 2024. For more information, head on over to their website.

Penguin Noir is back by popular demand with two events coming to Brisbane and Melbourne this August, featuring an action-packed showcase with some of the best Australian crime writers. Authors scheduled to participate in the Brisbane event on August 1 include Benjamin Stevenson (Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone), Candice Fox (a James Patterson co-writer), Fiona McIntosh (Jack Hawksworth series), Margaret Hickey (The Creeper), and Georgia Harper (What I Would Do to You). The event in Melbourne will take place a week later on August 8 and feature Kerryn Mayne (Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder), Amanda Hampson (The Cryptic Clue), Amy Doak (Eleanor Jones Can't Keep a Secret), and Lyn Yeowart (The Silent Listener).

Registration is now open for NoirCon 2024, the 8th and biggest NoirCon yet, with four thrilling days of mystery and intrigue at the Palm Springs Cultural Center in Palm Springs, California, from November 7th to 10th, 2024. The organizers are partnering with the Palm Springs Cultural Center and the Best Bookstore in Palm Springs to bring you this year's event, which will feature panels, speakers, classic film screenings with special guests, notable author events, in-person book signings, and more. For more information and to register, follow this link.

The Thunderbolt Prize for crime writers resident in Australia is open for submissions. It includes major prizes and a youth category for writers under 18yrs. All genres of crime writing are eligible, from hard-boiled to comic, to paranormal to rural, noir to cozy, with entries welcome from anywhere in Australia. Works must be a maxmium of 2,500 words for fiction and non-Fiction and 60 lines for poems and be submitted by Friday, September 27, 2024.

Martin Edwards, the final installment of Crime and Detective Stories, a magazine that Geoff Bradley has been running since July 1985. As Edwards notes, that's an incredible 39 years of dedication, "and the result has been something unique, an informal magazine that has gained immensely from its combination of homespun charm yet authoritative comment from a very wide of contributors."

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Media Murder for Monday

[image error] It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The Michael Crichton and James Patterson novel, Eruption, has been bought at auction by Sony in a seven-figure deal. The adaptation has snagged Oscar-winning Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and Deadline also reports that conversations are ongoing with Keanu Reeves to potentially star. Eruption, which Crichton spent 20 years writing before his death in 2008, follows a history-making volcanic explosion that is about to wipe away the big island of Hawaii. However, a secret held for decades by the U.S. military is far more terrifying than any volcano.

Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies) is in talks to join Austin Butler in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller, Caught Stealing, for Sony Pictures, a project based on the book by Charlie Huston, who is also writing the script. Caught Stealing follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of '90s NYC.

Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I), Tom Ellis (Lucifer), Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Paul Freeman (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso), and Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who) are the latest names to have joined Netflix’s movie The Thursday Murder Club, based on the book by Richard Osman. They join a star-studded British and Irish ensemble including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes. The story follows a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. The four members of the club will be played by Mirren (ex-spy Elizabeth), Kingsley (ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim), Brosnan (former union activist Ron), and Imrie (ex-nurse Joyce).

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Apple TV+ has ordered a second season of the legal thriller, Presumed Innocent, with David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams, and Season 1 star Jake Gyllenhaal returning as executive producers, and Presumed Innocent author Scott Turow as co-executive producer. The news comes a month into the run of the series, which already has become the #1 most viewed drama of all time on Apple TV+. There are no details about Season 2 beyond the fact that it "will unfold around a suspenseful, brand new case." Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich is not a recurring character in Turow’s books, so it is unclear whether the actor would return.

Game of Thrones alumna Emilia Clarke is set as a lead in Ed Brubaker’s Prime Video drama, Criminal, an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Clarke will play Mallory, a slick and daring armed robber who's partnered with Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper) in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding secrets that will bring her and her entire crew into the danger zone. In addition to Halper, Clarke joins previously announced cast including Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes, Adria Arjona, Logan Browning, Kadeem Hardison, Pat Healy, Taylor Sele, Aliyah Camacho, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Michael Xavier, and Dominic Burgess.

Prime Video has also set the premiere date for the Aldis Hodge-starring crime thriller series, Cross, for November 14. Cross is a complex, twisted, pulse-pounding thriller created by showrunner and executive producer Ben Watkins, based upon the characters from James Patterson’s best-selling Alex Cross book series. The drama follows Alex Cross (Hodge), a detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, to identify—and ultimately capture—the murderers. In addition to Hodge, Cross also stars Isaiah Mustafa, Juanita Jennings, Alona Tal, Samantha Walkes, Caleb Elijah, Melody Hurd, Jennifer Wigmore, Eloise Mumford, and Ryan Eggold. In an unusual move, the series was renewed back in May by Prime Video for a second season, even before the premiere of season 1.

Courtney Taylor has been cast as a series regular opposite Maggie Q in Prime Video's Untitled Renee Ballard Series, which is a Bosch spinoff. The procedural follows Detective Renée Ballard (Q), who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division—a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. When Ballard uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch, to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life. Taylor will play Samira Parker, who is convinced by Ballard, her former mentor, to return to the LAPD’s Cold Case Unit five years after leaving the force.

PODCASTS/RADIO

James Lee Burke chatted with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke (no relation) about his career and Dave Robicheaux; the Diamond Dagger; Knights Errant; cooking for Davy Crockett, and more.

This most recent episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Phil M. Williams.

The Cops and Writers podcast interviewed bestselling author and ghostwriter, Joshua Lisec.

The latest Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast featured the mystery short story, "Conversation With the Murderer," written by Heidi Hunter and read by actor Mary Catherine.

The latest installment in the podcast from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine featured Iain Rowan's riveting story, "Scars," from AHMM's Sept/Oct 2022 issue.

THEATRE

February 6, 2025 will see the world premiere of Picture You Dead, the seventh Peter James book featuring Roy Grace to be adapted for the stage by award-winning writer Shaun McKenna. The play will tour at major theatres across the UK until July 26, 2025. The Roy Grace books were also previously adapted by ITV for its critically acclaimed prime time drama about the Brighton-based detective, with season four of the crime series to be broadcast later this year.

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Kiki Crime Commendations

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The longlist for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards Best Novel has been announced. The awards were launched in 2010 by lawyer-turned-journalist Craig Sisterson, who wanted a way for excellence in New Zealand crime, mystery, and thriller writing to be recognized and celebrated, choosing to name the award after Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The longlist is currently being considered by an international panel of crime and thriller writing experts from the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, with finalists for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Kids/YA to be announced in early August. Winners will be revealed as part of a special event in late August held in association with the WORD Christchurch Festival in the hometown of Dame Ngaio.

The Longlist:

Dice, by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)

The Caretaker, by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins)

Ritual of Fire, by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)

Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

Pet, by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

El Flamingo, by Nick Davies (YBK)

Double Jeopardy, by Stef Harris (Quentin Wilson)

The Quarry, by Kim Hunt (Spiral Collectives)

Devil’s Breath, by Jill Johnson (Black & White/Bonnier)

Going Zero, by Anthony Mccarten (Macmillan)

Home Before Night, by J.P. Pomare (Hachette)

Expectant, by Vanda Symon (Orenda)

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