B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 29

Mystery Melange

The finalists were announced for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award in the LGBTQ+ Mystery category, including: A Calculated Risk, by Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes); Don’t Forget the Girl, by Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark); The Good Ones, by Polly Stewart (HarperCollins); Transitory, by J.M. Redmann (Bold Strokes); and Where the Dead Sleep, by Joshua Moehling (Poisoned Pen Press). Winners will be revealed on June 11 during the Awards Ceremony at New York City’s Sony Hall.

The Joffe Books Prize is looking for a talented new crime fiction writer of color among UK residents and British citizens, and invites submissions from unagented authors with Black, Asian, Indigenous, or minority ethnic backgrounds. Entrants are invited to submit their full-length manuscript in a crime fiction genre, including psychological thrillers, cozy mysteries, police procedurals, suspense mysteries, domestic noir, etc., which are written in English. The contest judges, A.A. Chaudhuri, bestselling author of She’s Mine, and literary agent Gyamfia Osei from Andrew Nurnberg Associates, will choose the winner, to be offered a prize package consisting of a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize, and a £25,000 audiobook offer from Audible for the first book. The competition closes September 30, 2024. (HT to Shots Magazine)

As part of the Sydney, Australia Writers' Festival, there will be a session featuring bestselling crime fiction author Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, and local superstars Michael Robotham and Chris Hammer, with Benjamin Stevenson as moderator. The event will take place at the Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, on May 24, as 8pm. Connelly will also appear on his own May 25 at Sydney Town Hall.

When Dean Street Press founder Rupert Heath tragically passed away a little over a year ago, there were questions as to whether the book publisher would be able to continue, but I received an email from Director Victoria Eade (Rupert's sister) that Dean Street Press has now officially transitioned into Dean Street Press Limited. She added, "With 465 titles already in print, we are incredibly proud to continue our legacy of uncovering and revitalizing good books. While we cherish our past, we are equally enthusiastic about embracing the future with optimism." Dean Street Press was established to revive worthy books from the past and recent past, including many lesser-known Golden Age titles that were out of print by authors such as Patricia Wentworth, Christopher Bush, and Peter Cheyney.

Vol 42, no. 1 (2024) of Clues: A Journal of Detection has been published, including articles on John Dickson Carr; Agatha Christie; Arthur Conan Doyle in Dutch translation; Umberto Eco; a YA mystery series featuring Indigenous issues; island mysteries; Korean crime fiction; and noir’s relationship with works by William Faulkner, David Goodis, and John D. MacDonald. (HT to editor, Elizabeth Foxwell)

Janet Rudolph has compiled a listing of crime fiction titles themed around Memorial Day aka Decoration Day (which falls on May 27th this year), the annual day of remembrance in the U.S. for those men and women who died serving their country in the line of duty.

This year's Bouchercon committee provided links to all the nominated short stories by Barb Goffman, James DF Hannah, Curtis Ippolito, Dru Ann Love & Kristopher Zgorski, and Holly West. The winners of all the various Bouchercon awards will be revealed at the conference in Nashville to be held August 28-September 1.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton spoke with mystery author Raemi A. Ray about her new novel, A Chain of Pearls (Martha’s Vineyard Murders, Book 1); and Deborah Kalb interviewed James H. Lewis about his new book, The Dead of Winter, where newly appointed Allegheny County detective Lydia Barnwell is assigned to investigate a seemingly accidental death, but soon realizes there is more to the case than meets the eye.

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

Duke Nicholson (Us), William H. Macy (Fargo), Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Stephen Dorff (Blade), Jake Weary (Oh, Canada) and Julia Fox (Uncut Gems) are set to star in the action-thriller, The Deputy. The film is directed by Matt Sukkar in his feature directorial debut and written by Narcos co-creator and co-writer, Carlo Bernard, based on the eponymous novel by Victor Gischler. The official synopsis reads: "Part-time Deputy Toby Sawyer (Nicholson) is jolted awake by Chief Krueger (Macy) and assigned to guard a dead body until the coroner arrives. When the corpse mysteriously vanishes, Toby launches a frantic search and unwittingly discovers decades of wrongdoing…and several cops who have turned a blind eye, including Deputy Billy Banks (Dorff) who pressures Toby to ignore his findings. Only Deputy Amanda Jackson (Haddish) appears trustworthy. Desperate to keep his job, Toby must unravel the town’s deep web of corruption before he and his career end up as dead as the missing cadaver."

Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) and Chris Carmack (Grey’s Anatomy) will star in The Stranger in My Home, an adaptation of the novel from bestselling UK author Adele Parks. Directed by Jeff Fisher (The Image of You), the film follows Ali (Bush), her husband Jeff (Chris Johnson), and their brilliant, vivacious teenage daughter, Katie (Amiah Miller) — the absolute center of Ali’s world. When Tom Truby (Carmack) knocks at their door, life as they know it ends. Fifteen years ago, someone switched Ali and Tom’s babies at the hospital, and now Ali is facing the unthinkable: the daughter she brought home doesn’t belong to her.

Katie Holmes (Woman In Gold), Toby Kebbell (War For The Planet Of The Apes), and Oscar winner Al Pacino (The Irishman) have joined the thriller Captivated, inspired by a real-life 1973 kidnapping. The film focuses on Calabrian mafia boss Saro (Kebbell, and in present day, Pacino) who kidnaps the grandson of one of the world’s richest men, Jean Paul Getty, and endangers his entire organization when he falls in love with his victim’s mother (Holmes) during the fraught ransom negotiations. Producer Michael Mammoliti is the nephew of Saro Mammoliti, one of the main kidnappers, and has been working on a project about the events for several years.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

A third season of Acorn TV and Channel 5 detective drama, Dalgliesh, based on the novels by P.D. James, has begun filming in Northern Ireland and will see lead actor Bertie Carvel making his directorial debut. Another three P.D. James novels will be adapted for the season over two hour-long episodes each, in which Commander Dalgliesh is seen with Margaret Thatcher on the cusp of power in the UK. In the first book, Death in Holy Orders, Dalgliesh travels to a remote seminary overlooking a windswept lake, where a body has been found gruesomely murdered. Nearly everyone in the seminary has reason to resent the victim, and Dalgliesh and DS Tarrant must unpick a complicated set of motives to find their killer.

Amazon MGM Studios unveiled plans for a Road House sequel, bringing back Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, a man hired to be the bouncer of a bar in the Florida Keys, and also a Tomb Raider TV adaptation starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a globe-hopping archaeologist searching for lost artifacts while navigating around dangerous ruins and enemies. They join the previously renewed action series of Reacher starring Alan Ritchson, which is based on the Lee Child thrillers, and Cross, starring Aldis Hodge, an adaptation of the James Patterson crime novels. Amazon/MGM also handed a series order to Noir, a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, with Oscar winner Nicolas Cage set to star.

Sarah Drew (Grey’s Anatomy) will star as Emily Lane in Hallmark Media's Mistletoe Murders, which is based on the Audible global hit podcast of the same name. When Emily isn’t busy running her charming small-town Christmas-themed store, Under the Mistletoe, she finds herself compelled to investigate local murders with the help of a handsome local police detective and his teen daughter. On the surface, Emily is a perfectly lovely, good-natured mystery lover – but she is hiding a secret past that, if exposed, threatens to destroy the new life she has built in Fletcher’s Grove.

Only Murders in the Building season 4 received its premiere date of August 27 on Hulu. The streamer is calling it the show's "starriest season yet," with leads Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez joined by Melissa McCarthy, Meryl Streep, Jane Lynch, Michael Cyril Creighton, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Zach Galifianakis, Molly Shannon, Kumail Nanjiani, and Richard Kind.

ABC was one of the last networks to announce its Fall 2024 schedule, which includes the new drama, High Potential, a crime procedural starring Kaitlin Olson as a single mom with an exceptional mind, whose unconventional knack for solving crimes leads to an unusual partnership with a by-the-book seasoned detective. However, the network is waiting to drop new episodes until mid-season of Will Trent, starring Ramón Rodríguez, which is based on the crime novels of Karin Slaughter, and also Nathan Fillion's The Rookie, ostensibly to allow both shows to have largely unbroken runs starting in early 2025.

Trailing behind ABC is the CW, which announced its fall schedule late last week. It's relatively light on crime dramas with mostly sports and unscripted ("reality show") fodder, although the slate does include Joan, which stars Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) as Joan Hannington, the notorious real-life jewel thief in 1980s London. What the announced schedule doesn't currently include is Walker, the reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, starring Jared Padalecki. The show is on the bubble because such scripted shows are expensive to produce and as Deadline explained, Walker may not be able to continue unless its very low license fee is raised by the network. CW execs have promised a decision "within weeks."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, William Shaw chatted with Paul Burke about his new novel, The Wild Swimmers; music journalism; respecting the arts; CJ Sansom (RIP); Breen & Tozer; Alexandra Cupidi; and unbridled wealth.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Ajay Chowdhury, whose debut crime novel, The Waiter (2021) snagged a Sunday Times crime book of the month title and has also been optioned for television. The fourth book in his Kamil Rahman series, The Spy, was published in April.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story "Voices" written by Nick Andreychuk and read by actor Larry Mattox.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers for AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month.

The Pick Your Poison podcast explained what upholstery has to do with seizures; a poison that murdered children during the Kindergarten Wars, and more.

Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday Media Murder for Murder

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Published on May 20, 2024 07:30

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - A Night at the Cemetery

[image error]A doctor by trade, although better known for his classic plays like The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov actually began his literary career writing stories (close to a thousand of them!), many of which were in the psychological suspense vein. They were published in a wide variety of periodicals and literary publications, many under the pseudonym of Antosha Chekhonte and mostly written to pay the bills to help put him through medical school. It's not a big a leap as many would suspect—Chekhov worked for a time with police assisting with autopsies in criminal investigations.

[image error]Peter Serkin, who worked at the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Toronto, collected and translated 42 of these stories and compiled them into A Night in the Cemetery: and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense, published in 2008. As Otto Penzler pointed out for the New York Sun, these are not mystery stories as may think of them, containing "A lot of drunken behavior, frequently resulting in forgetfulness, which leads to a kind of 'mystery,' as in: What happened? There are occasional policemen, and they invariably leap to erroneous conclusions. Apparent crimes have other, frequently humorous, explanations. Terrors brought on by seemingly supernatural occurrences derive from comical misunderstandings."

Present throughout the collection, even among these early works, are Chekhov's penetrating psychological insight and microscopic views into the absurdity of human nature. His characters here, as in his mature works, are more often than not passive, weak and irrational, although they yearn to make things better or find ways to justify their existence.

In "The Swedish Match," which pokes fun at deductive reasoning, a pair of bumbling detectives find their suspect list growing as they investigate a bizarre murder case after finding "evidence" that the victim was strangled and carried out the window, then later stabbed in the garden to finish him off. The trail leads to the police superintendent's young wife, although not everything is at it seems; in the comically macabre tale, "A Night of Horror," a man finds a pink-glazed coffin in his apartment. His distress only increases as he runs to one friend and then another to find more coffins appearing in apartments.

Other offerings include "A Crime: A Double Murder Case," which is short, but interesting as an early example of noir; "Thieves," a simple-minded doctor's assistant falls among a temptress and robbers which leads to a personal meltdown as "He realized that it was only due to his lack of opportunity that he had not become a thief or a cheat."; and "The Drama at the Hunt," one of the longest stories in the collection, which revolves around three men who love the same woman, ultimately leading to betrayal, humiliation and murder.

As with all translations, I find it frustrating not to be multilingual so I can read them in the original language (I once tried to teach myself Cyrillic, with less-than-steller results), wondering about all the subtleties and authorial voice I'm missing. These stories generally show signs of a young writer coming into his own, but even a young Chekhov in translation creates characters who will stay with you. FYI, you can read some English translations of these stories via Project Gutenberg.

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Published on May 17, 2024 07:30

Mystery Melange

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Book Art by Jodi Harvey Brown

During the recent British Book Awards ceremony, Overall Book of the Year went to Murdle by G T Karber, the murder mystery game phenomenon; Lisa Jewell's None of This is True won both Best Audiobook of the Year (narrated by Nicola Walker and Louise Brealey) and Best Crime/Thriller of the Year. The other books on this year's shortlist in that latter category include Damascus Station by David McCloskey; The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman; The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith; The Secret Hours by Mick Herron; and The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas.

The Danish Crime Academy announced the 2024 Palle Rosenkrantz Award for Best Foreign Crime Novel or Suspense Novel, awarded to the Scottish author Peter May for the Lewis trilogy, which has been translated by Ninna Brenøe and published by Gyldendal. The prize comes with a check for DKK 10,000 (about $1,440). The Harald Mogensen Award for the best Danish crime novel or suspense novel was awarded to Jens Henrik Jensen for Pilgrim, which is published by Politikens Forlag, with a prize of DKK 15,000 (about $2,165). The honors were celebrated at the Crime Fair in Horsens in March.

Ben Fountain won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize from New Literary Project, a $50,000 award that honors a "midcareer" fiction writer. Fountain is the author of Devil Makes Three, which The Washington Post called "a big, deeply humane political thriller that proves the flame of Graham Greene and John le Carré is still burning." Fountain’s 2012 novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, won a National Book Critics Circle Award. You can watch a conversation between Fountain and Oates on May 23 at 7 p.m. ET, which is free, but you'll need to register prior.

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition, sponsored by the CWA and the Margery Allingham Society, announced the 2024 winner as "Olga Popova" by Susan Breen, who received £500 plus a complimentary pass to CrimeFest. Story entries are limited to 3,500 words and must fulfill Margery Allingham's idea of "the Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it." Other highly commended entries included "The Ladies' Tailor" by Meeti Shah and "Right Place Wrong Time" by Yvonne Walus. You can check out the other longlisted titles via this link.

Harrogate International Festivals revealed the full program for this year’s 21st Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival taking place at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel from 18-21 July. Curated by 2024’s Festival Chair, bestselling crime novelist Ruth Ware, highlights of the event will include panels with Special Guest headliners Chris Carter, Jane Casey, Elly Griffiths, Peter James, Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan, Dorothy Koomson, Shari Lapena, Abir Mukherjee, Liz Nugent, and Richard Osman; the crowning of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year; the Critics’ New Blood panel, which showcases four talented debut novelists; Creative Thursday, offering an immersive day of workshops and talks led by bestselling writers and industry experts, with the unique opportunity to pitch work in the "Dragon’s Pen"; the Late Night Quiz hosted by Val McDermid and Mark Billingham; Confessions of a Crime Writer, where well-known authors disclose deliciously dreadful secrets from their past and the audience decide if they should be forgiven, or not; and Author Dinners, where readers join forces with crime writers Kia Abdullah, Chris Brookmyre, Sunny Singh, Imran Mahmood, Lesley Thomson, Syd Moore, John Sutherland, Trevor Wood, Araminta Hall and many more to solve a murder mystery with a twist.

If you've always wanted to attend the annual Bouchercon Convention but didn't think you could manage the registration fee, there's still time to apply for a Convention Attendance Support Grant (CAS). These grants were created to assist fans and writers of the mystery genre by offering a financial subsidy to offset associated costs to attend and participate in the current annual Bouchercon convention, this year to be held in Nashville, Tennessee, from August 24-September 4. There will be five grants awarded this year, which all include a paid registration fee and travel reimbursement for up to $500. Applicants need to fill out this form and submit a brief essay of 300-to-500 words about your interest in the crime fiction/mystery genre; interest in attending Bouchercon; and need for assistance. The deadline for submissions is May 31st.

There was a bit of sad news this week with The Guardian reporting on the death of Maureen O’Connor, who, in addition to being a journalist, published 25 novels under the pen name Patricia Hall. Her two primary series include the "Ackroyd and Thackeray series," with reporter Laura Ackroyd and police detective Michael Thackeray, which often confronted issues of environmentalism and discrimination, and a series with photographer Kate O'Donnell set in 1960s London. O'Connor was 84.

In the Q&A roundup, Kate White, author of eighteen novels of suspense and also eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, chatted with Marshal Zeringue at Author Interviews; and Charlie Kondek interviewed Judy Penz Sheluk for Killer Nashville Magazine about her own writing and also editing short story anthologies.

Author R&R with H. N. Hirsch

[image error]H. N. Hirsch is currently Erwin N. Griswold Professor of Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College in Ohio. Born in Chicago, he was educated at the University of Michigan and at Princeton. He has also taught at Harvard, the University of California-San Diego, and Macalester College, and has served as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin. He is the author of The Enigma of Felix Frankfurter ("brilliant and sure to be controversial," The New York Times), A Theory of Liberty, and the memoir Office Hours ("well crafted and wistful," Kirkus), as well as numerous articles on law, politics, and constitutional questions. He is currently writing the Bob and Marcus Mystery series, the first of which, Shade, was published in 2021, with the sequel, Fault Line, following in June 2023.

[image error]Rain is the third installment in H. N. Hirsch’s acclaimed Bob & Marcus Mystery series featuring Marcus George, a professor at UC San Diego, and his life partner, attorney Bob Abramson. Bob is enlisted to defend one of Marcus’s students who has been accused of murder, in a plot that—naturally enough, in sunny southern California—includes handsome hustlers, arrogant multi-millionaires, and twists and turns that boggle the reader’s mystery-solving skills. Jean Redmann, author of the award-winning Micky Knight Mystery Series, has called the duo of Bob and Marcus "a gay Nick and Nora, a couple you’ll want to spend time and solve mysteries with."

H. N. Hirsch stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing the books:

My Bob and Marcus mystery series began on a beach in Maine.

It was the summer of 1984, I was 32 years old, and I had discovered the lovely resort town of Ogunquit, about ninety minutes north of Boston. At the time I was an assistant professor at Harvard and living in a ramshackle apartment on Beacon Hill. Harvard doesn’t pay lowly assistant professors very much, and Boston was an expensive town, even back then, but I saved my pennies and spent a few summer weeks in Ogunquit.

In many ways, the days I spent there were the happiest of my life. The town was charming. It had a small gay colony, was also a magnet for French Canadians, and it had a beautiful, white-sand beach. Every day, if it wasn’t raining, I would rent a little plastic chair from the hotel at the entrance to the beach and sit on the sand and read, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.

That summer, I had discovered the mystery novels of Amanda Cross. Cross was in fact Carolyn Heilbrun, a distinguished professor of English and American literature at Columbia University in New York. Her amateur sleuth was (not surprisingly) also a professor of literature at Columbia, Kate Fansler. Many of the books had an academic setting.

Most novels in the series were delightful and fun, but one day, I finished one I didn’t think was very good. I slammed it down on the sand and said to my friends, “We could do better than that!”

These friends, like me, were young academics.

So we started hatching a mystery plot. I don’t remember what moved us to do so, but once we got going, we were throwing ideas around, who killed who, how, why. Of course, since we were all academics, the murder victim was a Harvard student and the amateur detective a young Harvard assistant professor, like me.

I took notes. In the Fall, back at Harvard, nose to the grindstone, I put the notes away.

Flash forward to the Spring of 2020—thirty-six years later. That Spring, of course, is when Covid hit and we all put ourselves on lockdown. As it happens, it was also my last semester of teaching before retirement—I was now sixty-eight years old and teaching at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Like everyone, Covid meant my plans shifted abruptly. I had been planning to move to Chicago, my hometown, travel, possibly do some research at the Library of Congress in my academic field, American constitutional law—but, of course, none of that was now going to happen. Everything was on hold.

I needed something to do.

So after finishing the semester via online teaching, and then sleeping for a month, I puttered around the house, and one day took out the notes from 1984. It was the first time I had looked at them, and reading them over, I could almost smell the ocean and the sunscreen.

And I thought, “you know, this isn’t half-bad.”

So I ordered several books from Amazon on how to write mysteries—there are some very good ones—and got to work. I had always been a fan of mystery series—Dorothy Sayers, Tony Hillerman, Stuart Woods—and had a pretty good grasp of what made them work.

So I started to write. To my delight and surprise, I enjoyed it, and the writing went quickly. I had never written fiction of any kind, and it felt a bit like I was using muscles that I had neglected during decades of scholarly writing.

And in fiction, you got to make things up. Who knew.

I set that first mystery, Shade, in 1985, around the time I had first made the notes. Marcus, my amateur sleuth, was of course gay like me, and some of what I wanted to accomplish in the novel was to document what it was like to be a gay man back then, although I’ve also tried to be careful to write the novels in a manner that would appeal to any reader.

As the series has continued, I have moved forward in time. The second novel in the series, Fault Line, is set in 1989, after Bob and Marcus have moved to San Diego (just as I did), and the third, Rain, is set in 2004.

There have been a number of very well done gay mystery series—Michael Nava’s books perhaps the most distinguished contemporary example—but it was a genre that was, and remains, relatively under-developed. There were potboilers published constantly, but “serious” gay mysteries, mysteries with something to say beyond the sex, have been relatively few and far between.

In my reading of mystery series over the years, what kept me reading was less the murder or the crime and more the character of the detective or detectives, seeing them develop as people and change over time.

Since Marcus, the amateur sleuth at the center of Shade, was also a young professor, the novels also offered me an opportunity to describe and comment on academic life. I made Bob, who becomes Marcus’s partner in life, a law student and then a lawyer, which allowed me to focus in subsequent novels on his defense of various criminals. And, since I taught constitutional law for the bulk of my teaching career, including a course on Criminal Law, I was already familiar with police investigations and the complications that can ensue.

So my research has in my many ways been shaped by my own life and observation—as a gay man, as an academic, and as someone with an interest in the law. When I’ve needed more detailed information about the finer points of the law, I’ve found most of the information I need on the internet, and have on one or two occasions also called on former students, many of whom are now lawyers, with my questions (one of them helpfully offering to represent me when the novels are sold to Hollywood. If only.)

After Shade, the next entries in the series are set in San Diego, where I moved in 1986 to teach at the branch of the University of California. So once again I was able to draw on my own experience and make location a central element of the story. California is different—amazingly so. Going from Boston to San Diego, and from Harvard to a large state university, was a bit like moving to another planet.

The third entry in the series, Rain, will be published shortly. In this entry, it is now 2004, and Bob and Marcus have been together for a long time, almost twenty years. Marcus is approaching 50 and Bob is coming up on 40. Following them over time has given me a chance to comment not just on crimes but also on how lives shift and change over time, something we all experience, gay and straight alike.

So, after a lifetime in academic life, I have, much to my surprise, become a writer of mysteries. . .and perhaps, if my former student is right, the executive producer of a television mini-series.

Life is full of surprises. And mystery.

You can learn more about H. N. Hirsch and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook. Rain is now available via Pisgah Press and all major booksellers.

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Published on May 14, 2024 06:11

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

Amazon MGM Studios optioned the film rights to Elizabeth Rose Quinn’s unpublished novel, Follow Me, with Adele Lim in negotiations to write and direct. Follow Me is a dark thriller described as "Heathers meets The Stepford Wives at a mommy influencer retreat in Northern California. It’s a propulsive and witty novel, mixed with the scary social-commentary edge of Black Mirror."

Oscar winner Russell Crowe will re-team with his Unhinged director Derrick Borte on the action-thriller, Bear Country. Borte, alongside Daniel Forte (American Dreamer), wrote the screenplay based on the Thomas Perry novel, Strip. Crowe will play aging but formidable club owner, Manco Kapak, who has been robbed by a masked gunman. Now, his aspirations of selling his club and riding off into the sunset alongside his girlfriend appear more distant than ever. Cartel bosses are breathing down his neck and a young upstart has been posing as the new guy in town eager to purchase the club.

Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground prevailed in an auction for Dyersville, based on a script by Will Hettinger. Although the plot is mostly under wraps, it's said to be a fact-based crime thriller set in the Obamas’ old stomping grounds of Chicago. Hettinger has been a staff writer on the Netflix series Painkiller and the Starz series Hunting Wives, but this is his first feature.

Tom Berenger, Milo Gibson, Mark Dacascos, Henning Baum, Sol Rodriguez, and Patrick Cage are set to star in the crime-action film, The Sheriff, directed by Josh Tessier. Written by Tessier and actor Michael Edwards, the film is set in a rural town and follows a local sheriff (Edwards), as he pursues a recent homicide case that is seemingly linked to the death of his son five years prior.

Kiernan Shipka (Totally Killer) will star with Kiefer Sutherland and Krysten Ritter in the action-thriller, Stone Cold Fox. In the '80s-set revenge story, the defiant Fox (Shipka) breaks out of an abusive commune in search of her family, but when the queenpin (Ritter) kidnaps her little sister and sends a crooked cop (Sutherland) after her, Fox has no choice but to infiltrate the very place she escaped. Also starring are Lorenza Izzo (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Jamie Chung (Lovecraft Country) and Karen Fukuhara (The Boys).

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

In a competitive situation, Universal Television acquired the rights to Jana Monroe’s memoir, Hearts of Darkness: Serial Killers, The Behavioral Science Unit, And My Life As a Woman In The FBI to develop into a series. Filmmakers Susanna Fogel (Winner) and Julia Ruchman (The Walking Dead) will both write and executive produce, with Fogel serving as director. Hearts of Darkness follows Monroe and her astonishing life shaping law enforcement and intelligence analysis as she explores the cases that have stayed with her amid the obstacles she faced as a woman in the male-dominated Bureau.

Robin Wright will star in, direct, and serve as an executive producer of The Girlfriend, a series based on a novel by Michelle Frances. Olivia Cooke (House of the Dragon), Laurie Davidson (Mary and George) and Waleed Zuaiter (Gangs of London) also star in the series from Amazon MGM Studios and Imaginarium Productions. Wright will play Laura, a woman with a great career, a loving husband (Howard) and a close relationship with her son, Daniel (Davidson). Things take a turn when Daniel brings home his new girlfriend, Cherry (Cooke). After an uncomfortable first meeting, Laura grows convinced Cherry isn’t who she says she is, with Laura determined to do anything she has to in order to protect her son. As things go from bad to deadly, the questions mount: Is Cherry a manipulative social climber? Is Laura just paranoid and possessive? Or is the truth a matter of perspective?

Rafe Spall (Trying), Greg Kinnear (Black Bird), Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (The Lincoln Lawyer), and Hannah Emily Anderson (The Purge) round out the ensemble cast of Firebug, Apple’s upcoming drama series from Apple Studios and creator Dennis Lehane, which stars Taron Egerton. In addition to Egerton, the four join previously announced cast members Jurnee Smollett and John Leguizamo. Written by Lehane and loosely inspired by true events, Firebug will follow a troubled detective (Smollett) and an enigmatic arson investigator (Egerton) as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists.

Niamh Algar (Mary & George) and Tom Hollander (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) are set to lead the Sky thriller series Iris, about a code-breaking genius, from Luther creator Neil Cross. The project follows the titular character (Algar), a rootless and enigmatic genius who steals a code from charming philanthropist Cameron McIntyre (Hollander) and goes on the run. Armed only with her lethal intelligence and chameleonic charm, the clock is ticking for her to work out what the code could unleash before she is found. Joining the cast are newcomer Meréana Tomlinson (The Trials), Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who), Maya Sansa (Good Morning Night), Peter Sullivan (Poldark), and Debi Mazar (Entourage).

Apple TV+ released a first-look at its upcoming limited seven-part series, Lady in the Lake, ahead of its premiere on Friday, July 19. The film is based on Laura Lippman’s bestselling novel of the same name and takes place in ’60s Baltimore. An unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram), a hardworking woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

The BBC has confirmed a release date for the crime drama Rebus, which will launch on Friday, May 17. The new series, based on the best-selling Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin, re-imagines the iconic character John Rebus (Outlander's Richard Rankin) as a younger Detective Sergeant, drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal when his brother Michael, a former soldier, crosses the line. The series will also star The Ipcress File's Brian Ferguson as Michael and Line of Duty's Lucie Shorthouse as Rebus’s investigation partner, Detective Constable Siobhan Clarke.

CSI: Miami is getting the docuseries treatment after CBS ordered an unscripted series based on its iconic crime drama. The Real CSI: Miami will feature real-life crime cases and the cutting-edge forensic science used to solve them. CSI Miami ran for ten seasons and 232 episodes between 2002 and 2012 and starred David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine.

After CBS announced its fall schedule last week, NBC followed suit this weekend. The "Chicago" trio of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD returns with back-to-back episodes on Wednesday nights. Thursday nights will include the crime drama duo of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, followed by the missing-persons drama, Found (replacing the third Law & Order drama, Organized Crime, which is moving to Peacock for its upcoming fifth season).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Tom Straw to talk about his latest novel, The Accidental Joe: The Top Secret Life of a Celebrity Chef, which blends murder, mirth, high-stakes espionage, gastronomic highs and lows, and killer locales, as it launches a new series featuring peripatetic bad boy chef, Sebastian Pike, and his CIA handler, Cammie Nova.

On the Cops and Writers podcast, Patrick J. O'Donnell chatted with the acclaimed crime-writing trio of Deborah Levison, T. M. Dunn, and Wendy Whitman, whose topics ranged from serial killers to domestic violence.

The latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers discussed new thrillers by Abir Mukherjee and Imran Mahmood; loan sharks; and deadly Deliveroo drivers.

Paul Burke, who writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover, and the European Literature Network, reviewed new crime fiction titles debuting in May for Crime Time FM.

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Published on May 13, 2024 07:30

Crème de la CrimeFest - The Winners

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The Bristol, UK crime writing convention CrimeFest announced the 2024 winners of the CrimeFest Awards at the convention's Gala Awards Dinner last evening. The honors are bestowed on the best crime books released in the UK in the last year, with eligible titles submitted by publishers and voted on by a team of British crime fiction reviewers. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award: Stig Abell for Death Under a Little Sky (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)

Also nominated:

Jo Callaghan for In The Blink Of An Eye (Simon & Schuster)
Megan Davis for The Messenger (Zaffre)
Jenny Lund Madsen for Thirty Days of Darkness; translated by Megan Turney (Orenda Books)
Natalie Marlow for Needless Alley (Baskerville)
Alice Slater for Death of a Bookseller (Hodder & Stoughton)

Edunnit Award (Ebooks): Laura Lippman for Prom Mom (Faber & Faber)

Also nominated:

Rachel Abbott for Don’t Look Away (Wildfire)
Jane Casey for The Close (HarperCollins)
Martin Edwards for Sepulchre Street (Head of Zeus)
Christina Koning for Murder at Bletchley Park (Allison & Busby)
Craig Russell for The Devil’s Playground (Constable)

Last Laugh Award (Humorous Crime Novels): Mick Herron for The Secret Hours (Baskerville)

Also nominated:

Mark Billingham for The Last Dance (Sphere)
Elly Griffiths for The Great Deceiver (Quercus)
Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Memory (Severn House)
Jesse Sutanto for Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (HQ)
Antti Tuomianen for The Beaver Theory (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. Keating Award (Biographical/Critical) : Adam Sisman for The Secret Life of John Le Carré (Profile Books)

Also nominated:

M, J, F & A Dall’Asta, Migozzi, Pagello & Pepper for Contemporary European Crime Fiction: Representing History and Politics (Palgrave)
Lisa Hopkins for Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction (Palgrave)
Kate Jackson for How To Survive a Classic Crime Novel (British Library Publishing)
Steven Powell for Love Me Fierce In Danger: The Life of James Ellroy (Bloomsbury Academic)
Nicholas Shakespeare for Ian Fleming: The Complete Man (Harvill Secker)

Thalia Proctor Memorial Award For Best Adapted TV Crime Drama: Slow Horses (series 3), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple)

Also nominated:

Dalgliesh (series 2), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
Reacher (series 2), based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child (Amazon Prime)
Shetland (series 8), based on the Shetland books by Ann Cleeves (BBC)
The Serial Killer’s Wife, based on the Serial Killer books by Alice Hunter (Paramount+)
Vera (series 12), based on the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves (ITV)

Best Crime Novel For Children: J.T. Williams for The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison, illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)

Also nominated:

A.M. Howell for Mysteries At Sea: Peril On The Atlantic (Usborne Publishing)
Lis Jardine for The Detention Detectives (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
Beth Lincoln for The Swifts (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
Marcus Rashford (with Alex Falase-Koya) for The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Ghoul in the School (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2: The Body in the Blitz (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)

Best Crime Novel For Young Adults: Elizabeth Wein for Stateless (Bloomsbury YA)

Also nominated:

Jennifer Lynn for Barnes The Brothers Hawthorne (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
Nick Brooks for Promise Boys (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Ravena Guron for This Book Kills (Usborne Publishing)
Ravena Guron for Catch Your Death (Usborne Publishing)
Karen M. McManus for One of Us is Back (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)

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Published on May 12, 2024 12:58

CWA Dagger Shortlists

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During the annual UK Crimefest crime fiction convention taking place in Bristol this weekend, the Crime Writers’ Association announced the shortlists for the 2024 Dagger Awards. (The longlists were previously announced on April 20, and you can see them here.) The winners will be revealed during a CWA gala dinner and awards ceremony on July 4.

Gold Dagger:

Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans (Headline)

The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville)

Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Abacus)

Tell Me What I Am, by Una Mannion (Faber and Faber)

Black River, by Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo)

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Sutanto (HQ)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger:

All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)

Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Headline)

Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Faber and Faber)

The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka (Harvill Secker)

Gaslight, by Femi Kayode (Raven)

Drowning, by T.J. Newman (Simon & Schuster)

ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger:

In the Blink of an Eye, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)

The Golden Gate, by Amy Chua (Corvus)

The Maiden, by Kate Foster (Mantle)

West Heart Kill, by Dann McDorman (Raven)

Go Seek, by Michelle Teahan (Headline)

The Tumbling Girl, by Bridget Walsh (Gallic)

Historical Dagger:

Clara & Olivia, by Lucy Ashe (Magpie)

Harlem After Midnight, by Louise Hare Harlem (HQ)

A Bitter Remedy, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)

Viper's Dream, by Jake Lamar (No Exit Press)

Scarlet Town, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)

Voices of the Dead, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger:

Red Queen, by Juan Gómez-Jurado, translated by Nick Caistor (Macmillan)

The Sins of Our Fathers, by Åsa Larsson, translated by Frank Perry (Maclehose Press)

Nothing Is Lost, by Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis (Europa Editions UK)

The Consultant, by Im Seong-sun, translated by An Seong Jae (Raven)

The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton)

My Husband, by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan (Hutchinson Heinemann)

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction:

The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel (Simon & Schuster)

No Ordinary Day: Espionage, Betrayal, Terrorism and Corruption—The Truth Behind the Murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by Matt Johnson with John Murray (Ad Lib)

Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen, by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson (Ad Lib)

Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy, by Alex Mar (Bedford Square)

How Many More Women?: The Silencing of Women by the Law and How to Stop It, by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida (Endeavour)

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare (Vintage)

Short Story Dagger:

“Safe Enough,” by Lee Child (from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens; Rivertree)

“The Last Best Thing,” by Mia Dalia (from Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook; Head Shot Press)

“The Also-Rans,” by Benedict J. Jones (from Bang!: An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction)

“The Divide,” by Sanjida Kay (from The Book of Bristol, edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks; Comma Press)

“The Spendthrift and the Swallow,” by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)

“Best Served Cold,” by F.D. Quinn (from An Unnecessary Assassin)

Dagger in the Library (for a body of work):

Louise Candlish

M.W. Craven

Cara Hunter

Anthony Horowitz

L.J. Ross

Publishers’ Dagger:

Canelo

Headline (Hachette)

Joffe Books

Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)

Pushkin Press

Simon & Schuster

Debut Dagger (for unpublished novel):

Burnt Ranch, by Katherine Ahlert

Unnatural Predators, by Caroline Arnoul

Makoto Murders, by Richard Jerram

Not a Good Mother, by Karabi Mitra

Long Way Home, by Lynn McCall

The Last Days of Forever, by Jeremy Tinker

The Blond, by Megan Toogood

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Published on May 11, 2024 09:15

During the annual UK Crimefest crime fiction conventio...