B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 46
July 27, 2023
Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Miss Pink at the Edge of the World
Gwen Moffat, born in Brighton, Sussex in 1924 (and who turned 99 this month!), became the first professional female mountain guide in the UK. Her travels in the field provided settings for her crime novels set in the Alps, the Rockies and deserts of the U.S., and the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides. She has thrown that same pioneering gusto into her research in the past, working cattle on a Montana ranch for her novel Grizzly Trail or living in a house in the Mojave Desert for Last Chance Country.
In addition to her thirty-five novels, travel books and her autobiography, Space Below My Feet, Moffat has written short stories, such as the Holmes pastiche "The Adventure in Border County: Holmes and Watson visit Cumberland at Xmas." She's also been a broadcaster and written article for newspapers on mountain climbing, travel and camping, as well as crime fiction reviews for Shots Magazine.
Moffat's first-hand experiences with mountain climbing are at put to obvious use in her novel Miss Pink at the Edge of the World. On a Scottish stack (i.e., a column of rock isolated from a shore by the action of waves) called the Old Man of Scamadale, two climbers die rather mysteriously. One of them, Trevor Stark, is a famous and much-hated TV celebrity who was scouting the area for a program, complete with boats and helicopters, against the wishes of the local laird (landowner) who avoided publicity and wanted to keep tourists away. The local police believe the deaths were accidents until the laird and his fellow climbers convince the police the two men were murdered—and promptly become the prime suspects since they alone had the expertise to pull off the crime.
Moffat got the idea for the plot from a conversation she overheard at Kyleakin Inn on Skye, overlooking Loch Alsh, where someone exclaimed, "The Killers is in!", showing a sharp grasp of ideas and their possibilities which the author also embued in her primary protagonist, Miss Melinda Pink. Miss Pink is politically incorrect, but at the same time feels herself drawn into cases of injustice and abuse, from trafficking in endangered species, to incest, to IRA terrorists. She's a middle-aged writer-magistrate-sleuth, a woman of "imposing presence" who also possesses keen skills of observation and perceptions of human nature and life:
As she undressed she reflected that cannabis had similar effects to alcohol: it was an intoxicant which prompted its dependents to unburden themselves. She wondered if the girl would regret her loquacity in the morning, but then there would be another cigarette to dull uneasy memories...She didn't think that it was a curious coincidence to find tragedy in a remote Highland inn; she was the kind of person people needed to talk to, and she knew only too well that horror was not a matter of place but of people.
Moffat is at her best with her descriptions of the solitary and atmospheric landscapes, as in this scene:
Westwards, she saw the bay that was called Calava demarcated by splendid headlands jutting into the pale and shining sea. The northern point was several hundred feet high, that to the south was dwarfed by another behind it which matched the neighbor across the bay. She stared in an enchantment that had nothing to do with climbing; she could admire a cliff for its lines unassociated with the quality of the rock. There were skerries and rocky islands, and in that brilliant but silent world the seascape had an air of unreality. It was like the coastline of Valhalla.
The author currently lives in the Lake District of the UK and doesn't write much these days. Her most recent novel was Gone Feral in 2007, although many others are out of print, including Miss Pink at the Edge of the World, last reprinted by the Black Dagger series in 1975.
Mystery Melange
M.W. Craven has been announced as the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023, presented by Harrogate International Festivals, for The Botanist, the latest thriller featuring D.S. Washington Poe. A record-smashing 14,110 readers voted for the winner this year from among the other shortlisted authors: Elly Griffiths (The Locked Room), Doug Johnstone (Black Hearts), Fiona Cummins (Into the Dark), Ruth Ware (The It Girl), and Gillian McAllister (Wrong Place Wrong Time). The judges, including Simon Theakston, Steph McGovern, Matt Nixson from the Daily Express, journalist Joe Haddow, Lisa Howells and Gaby Lee from Waterstones, decided the winner, with the public vote counting as the seventh judge on the panel. Elly Griffith was given a "Highly Commended" nod (essentially runner-up) for The Locked Room, and Ann Cleeves was awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her impressive writing career.
The Public Safety Writers Association announced the winners of the PSWA awards at the organization's annual conference. The Public Safety Writers Association is open to both new and experienced, published and not yet published writers, with members including police officers, civilian police personnel, firefighters, fire support personnel, emergency personnel, security personnel and others in the public safety field. Also represented are those who write about public safety including mystery writers, magazine writers, journalists, and those who are simply interested in the genre. You can see the full list of award winners in finalists in all of the various categories here, including The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Published Book-Length Fiction, which was won by James L’Etoile for Dead Drop, and The Marilyn Meredith Award for Excellence in Published Book-Length Non-Fiction, won by William Soldato for Under Too Long.
The finalists were announced for The Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, honoring the Best Books of 2022. The conference also revealed the finalists for The Claymore Award for the best first 50 pages of an unpublished manuscript at the time of entry into the competition. Winners in each of the 17 categories for both published and unpublished entries will be announced at the 2023 Killer Nashville Awards Dinner on Saturday, August 19, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Karen Meek posted on EuroCrime the 43 titles eligible for the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. Titles must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year; the author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia or the submission must be set in Scandinavia; and the submission must have been published in its original language after 1999. The winner of the 2022 Award was Fatal Isles by Maria Adolfsson, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broomé and published by Zaffre.
LA-based publisher Sumerian is lining up a comic book series based by the 2000 thriller movie classic, American Psycho, which starred Christian Bale as iconic madman Patrick Bateman. Drawn from the original novel and characters by Bret Easton Ellis, the four-issue comic book series, publishing later this year, will have a dual narrative, one showing a different perspective of Bateman’s killing spree (with a notable "twist"), and another revealing a modern day arc with surprising connections to the past, focusing on an all-new psychopath--social media obsessed millennial, Charlie (Charlene) Carruthers, who embarks on a downward spiral filled with violence.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "A Crime Unspoken" by J.H. Johns. On a related note, 5-2 editor, Gerald So, indicated that the site will be closing to submissions for good after this year (sooner, if he doesn't receive enough poems to complete the year), although all previously published poems will be available in the archives.
In the Q&A roundup, Laura Lippman spoke with The Guardian about her latest psychological thriller, Prom Mom, Lippman's most political novel to date that centers around a teen with an unwanted pregnancy; Eli Cranor interviewed fellow Arkansas crime writer, Kelly J. Ford, about her latest thriller, The Hunt; and James Lee Burke stopped by CrimeReads to discuss his new novel, Flags On the Bayou, as well southern history and the hatred burning through America.
Related StoriesMystery Melange
July 26, 2023
Davitt Delights Downunder
Sisters in Crime has announced its shortlist for its 23rd Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books – eight adult novels, four YA adults, three children’s novels, three non-fiction books, and six debut novels (most of which are nominated in other categories). The winners will be revealed at a gala dinner on Saturday 2 September by award-winning journalist, true-crime author, and television producer, Debi Marshall. Congrats to the shortlisted titles!
Adult novels
Lucy Christopher, Release (Text Publishing)
Aoife Clifford, When We Fall (Ultimo Press)
Margaret Hickey, Stone Town (Penguin Random House Australia)
Tracey Lien, All That’s Left Unsaid (HQ Fiction) Debut
Dinuka McKenzie, The Torrent (HarperCollins Publishing Australia) Debut
Vikki Petraitis, The Unbelieved (Allen & Unwin) Debut
Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Town (Pan Macmillan Australia) Debut
Emma Styles, No Country for Girls (Sphere, an imprint of Hachette Australia) Debut
Young Adult novels
Louise Bassett, The Hidden Girl (Walker Books) Debut
Sarah Epstein, Night Lights (Fourteen Press)
Fleur Ferris, Seven Days (Penguin Random House Australia)
Ellie Marney, The Killing Code (Allen & Unwin)
Children’s novels
Deborah Abela, The Book of Wondrous Possibilities (Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia)
Charlie Archbold, The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat (Text Publishing)
Lian Tanner, Rita’s Revenge (Allen & Unwin)
Non-fiction books
Wendy Davis, Don’t Make a Fuss: It’s only the Claremont Serial Killer (Fremantle Press) Debut
Katrina Marson, Legitimate Sexpectations: The power of sex-ed (Scribe Publications)
Megan Norris, Out of the Ashes (Big Sky Publishing)
Debut books
Maryrose Cuskelly, The Cane (Allen & Unwin)
Tracey Lien, All That’s Left Unsaid (HQ Fiction)
Dinuka McKenzie, The Torrent (HarperCollins Publishing Australia)
Vikki Petraitis, The Unbelieved (Allen & Unwin)
Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Town (Pan Macmillan Australia)
Emma Styles, No Country for Girls (Sphere, an imprint of Hachette Australia)
Related StoriesMacavity MagicCapital Crime's Fingerprint AwardsTheakston Shortlist
July 24, 2023
Media Murder for Monday
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
Under a SAG Interim Agreement, certain independent movie productions (with no affiliation to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) are being allowed to continue, including the crime drama, King Ivory, from writer-director John Swab. Based on extensive research involving Oklahoma law enforcement and active gang members, King Ivory offers a never-before-seen, authentic look inside the underworld of fentanyl trafficking from gangs inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester, a.k.a. "Big Mac." With potency 100 times that of heroin and nearly undetectable at the border, the drug nicknamed King Ivory has flooded the market, triggering a tidal wave of overdoses, crime, and addiction. The film chronicles the efforts of a joint local, state, and federal task force, led by Layne West (James Badge Dale), Ty (George Carroll), and Beatty (Rory Cochrane), to prevent trafficking by the Irish Mob’s George "Smiley" Greene (Ben Foster), his mother Ginger (Melissa Leo), and uncle Mickey (Ritchie Coster), in partnership with the Indian Brotherhood’s Holt (Graham Greene) and the New Generation Mexican cartel’s Ramón (Michael Mando).
Jason Mitchell has signed on to star in the feature thriller, Black Heat, directed by Wes Miller from a script he wrote. Joining Mitchell in the project are rappers Tabatha "Dreamdoll" Robinson and NLE Choppa, in his first big-screen appearance. Billed as a roller coaster story of "suspense, drama, and unexpected twists," the story follows the broken lives of two parents portrayed by Mitchell and Robinson. After failing to get help from authorities, the pair go on a suicide mission to rescue their fifteen-year-old daughter, who’s under the control of the enigmatic King David, played by NLE Choppa.
Kenneth Branagh returns as Detective Hercule Poirot to solve a chilling supernatural mystery after a séance goes wrong in the first full A Haunting in Venice trailer. Set in post-Second World War Venice, a retired Poirot is summoned to attend a séance by an old friend, played by Tina Fey, to see if a psychic (Michelle Yeoh) is a fake. When one of the séance guests in the decaying, haunted Venice palazzo is murdered, Poirot steps in to identify the killer, only to face a world of supernatural shadows and secrets.
A North American distribution deal with Canadian outfit Swapna Scarecrow was struck for the action thriller, MR-9: Do Or Die, with a scheduled release in 150 U.S. and Canadian screens on August 25. Based on the popular Bangladeshi spy novel series, Masud Rana, the film charts the story of spy MR-9 (played by ABM Sumon), a skilled and veteran spy with a muddled past, who's chosen to join forces with an elite group of international agents. Together they must stop a terror attack aimed at Las Vegas, organized by tech villain Roman Ross (Frank Grillo).
TELEVISION/STREAMING
NBC streamer, Peacock, announced the John Wick prequel series, The Continental, will premiere on September 22 with the first episode of the three-part event titled "Night 1." Episode 2 will debut on September 29, and the final episode will hit the streamer on October 6. The Continental stars Colin Woodell as a young Winston Scott—the hotel manager at The Continental. It will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe through the eyes and actions of Woodell’s young Winston, as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the hotel’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the hotel where he will eventually take his future throne.The cast also includes Ayomide Adegun, who will portray a young Charon; Peter Greene, who plays Uncle Charlie; Mel Gibson as Cormac; Ben Robson as Frankie; Hubert Point-Du Jour as Miles; Jessica Allain as Lou; Mishel Prada as KD; and Nhung Kate as Yen.
The dual Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes may result in a rather barren landscape for the fall television season, at least as far as scripted series are concerned. So, NBC made some scheduling changes to accommodate that dark reality by slotting the second half of season five of Magnum P.I, which was originally intended for mid-season, to debut in the fall on Wednesday nights. It will be joined by a couple of other series with episodes already in the can, including a 13-episode season for the Shanola Hampton-fronted missing persons drama, Found, and also The Irrational, a procedural starring Jesse L. Martin. The rest of NBC's lineup will include some unscripted programs, already produced episodes of the medical drama, Transplant, and reruns of Law & Order.
After the success of the Indian version of The Night Manager (which emerged as the most watched series ever across all specials on Indian streamer, Disney+ Hotstar), The Ink Factory is planning further Indian adaptations of John le Carré novels. The Ink Factory manages the 25 novels under Carré's estate, and executive producer Tessa Inkelaar, who oversees the company’s Asia slate, told Variety, "We are in the process of adapting one, which is in a relatively late stage of adaptation and one, which is at an early stage. We’re very keen to bring more le Carré to India."
ABC News Studios has dropped a full trailer for Mother Undercover, which will stream on Hulu on July 27. The four-part docuseries follows four mothers on a mission to save or get justice for their children. In incidents of murder, international kidnapping, mass suicide, and judicial corruption, the group transform into undercover detectives, mounting covert operations, and taking matters into their own hands. Mother Undercover marks the third title in ABC News Studios’ true crime summer slate, following The Ashley Madison Affair and Betrayal: The Perfect Husband.
The streamer BritBox International has added a pair of British dramas for broadcast in the U.S. to its August slate: the detective drama, Granite Harbour, will launch on August 1, and the psychological thriller, The Ex-Wife, will premiere on August 10. Granite Harbour stars Romario Simpson as Lance Corporal Davis Lindo, who envisions becoming a Scotland Yard detective after completing his tour with the Royal Military Police, only to find himself training in Aberdeen in northeast Scotland. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with his mentor, DCI Lara "Bart" Bartlett, played by Hannah Donaldson, and the duo find themselves in a bit of a corporate power struggle when a wealthy and notable citizen dies under suspicious circumstances. The Ex-Wife is based on Jess Ryder’s hit psychological thriller novel of the same name and follows Tasha (Celine Buckens), whose perfect family life turns into a nightmare when her husband (Tom Mison) is threatened by his ex-wife (Janet Montgomery), who won’t leave them alone and seems intent on staying in the picture.
Prime Video has released several first-look images for Marnie Dickens’ Wilderness, from Firebird Pictures. Written and created by Dickens and based on B.E. Jones’s novel of the same name, Wilderness is a twisted love story, where a dream holiday and a supposedly "happily-ever-after" life quickly turn into a living nightmare. Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen star as Liv and Will, a happy British couple who seem to have it all until Liv learns about her husband's affair. Enter the American road trip Liv’s fantasized about since she was little, from Monument Valley to the Grand Canyon, on through Yosemite, ending up with a hedonistic weekend in Las Vegas to blow off the dust and sweat. For Will, it’s a chance to make amends, for Liv, it’s a very different prospect—a landscape where accidents happen all the time, the perfect place to get revenge.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
Speaking of Mysteries welcomed S.A. Cosby to discuss his latest novel, All the Sinners Bleed, which features Sheriff Titus Crown, making the choice to live in a no-man’s-land between people who believe in him, people who hate him because of his skin color, and people who believe he is a traitor to his race. As tough as he is, though, nothing—even his experience as an FBI agent—could have prepared him for the evil he uncovered.
On the Spybrary podcast, intelligence historian Michael Smith revealed more about his latest book, The Real Special Relationship – The True Story of How the British and US Secret Services Work Together.
The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with thriller author, Karin Slaughter; remembered literary great Cormac McCarthy; and discussed authors whose deaths range from the gruesome to the downright bizarre...including death by flying tortoise.
Vern Smith chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his crime novel, Scratching the Flint; editing the anthology, Jacked; Toronto; corruption; and policing.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured the third vacation episode for the summer holiday, with Misty Simon reading the first chapter of the book, All That Glitters Isn't Old, by her namesake Gabby Allan, which releases 7/25. Whit is up to her ears in this one with Goldy wanting a friend from the past cleared of a murder Whit isn't certain he didn't commit. Things are shady on Catalina Island right now and Whit has to figure out whodunnit before they do it again.
Pick Your Poison's topic this week was a type of poison that affects three million people each year and what this poison has to do with chemical weapons; plus, a toxin so potent it can kill lions in just a few steps.
Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday
July 23, 2023
Sunday Music Treat
This week marks the anniversary of the passing of one of the world's greatest composers (and one of Scott Drayco's favorites), Johann Sebastian Bach, who died on July 28 in 1750. One of the most iconic performers of Bach's piano music in the modern era is Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, whose career really skyrocketed with his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. In October 13, 1957, Gould was featured in an address and Music for the Queen, performing movements from Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F Minor for Piano and Orchestra with the CBC Orchestra - thus making the following excerpt also poignant for its connections to the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth:
Related StoriesSunday Music Treat
July 22, 2023
July 21, 2023
Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Nine Coaches Waiting
British author Mary Florence Elinor Stewart (1916-2014) was a multi-bestselling author at the peak of her popularity from the late 1960s through the 1980s. However, her career started back in 1954 with the release of Madam, Will You Talk?, her first foray into romantic suspense. Although best known for her Merlin series, Stewart has legions of fans who appreciate her romantic suspense novels, including This Rough Magic, which I blogged about a few years ago.
Nine Coaches Waiting is a Stewart suspense novel originally published in 1958. It centers on Linda Martin, a young orphaned French expatriate who's been living in England. After ten years in the UK, she returns to Paris to take on the post of governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy. Linda soon forms a fond with Philippe, who is also an orphan living with his Uncle Léon and Aunt Héloïse in the huge Château Valmy situated (of course) far from civilization. From the get-go, an air of foreboding about the place makes Linda decide not to admit that she speaks fluent French. (The de Valmys had insisted that their nephew’s new governess should be an English girl, after all.)
Linda falls in love with the beauty and history of the estate and surrounding countryside and even finds herself falling for the reckless and rakishly handsome Raoul, son of Léon and Héloïse. But then mysterious accidents start to happen, and Linda feels an increasing sense of danger and dread. Little by little she wonders if the accidents are related to the fact that her young charge will inherit the estate when he comes of age. Can she trust the charming but imposing Léon or the cold and aloof Héloïse? Or is the real threat the attractive Raoul? The young governess has to struggle against her fears and suspicions to keep herself and Philippe safe.
As with This Rough Magic, the setting of the story serves as one of the most impressive characters, as in this passage:
I craned forward to look. The village of Soubirous was set in a wide, green saucer of meadow and orchard serene among the cradling hills. I could see the needle-thin gleam of water, and the lines of willows where two streams threaded the grassland. Where they met stood the village, bright as a toy and sharply-focused in the clear air, with its three bridges and its little watch-making factory and its church of Sainte-Marie-des-Ponts with the sunlight glinting on the weathercock that tips the famous spire.
And as with most of Stewart's protagonists, Linda has to use her wits and deductive reasoning to save the day, rather than any modern kick-ass theatrics. As the author herself once said, "I take conventionally bizarre situations (the car chase, the closed-room murder, the wicked uncle tale) and send real people into them, normal everyday people with normal everyday reactions to violence and fear; people not 'heroic' in the conventional sense, but averagely intelligent men and women who could be shocked or outraged into defending, if necessary with great physical bravery, what they held to be right."
July 20, 2023
Macavity Magic
Best Mystery Novel
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (MCD)
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books)
Best First Mystery
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz (Atria/EmilyBestler)
Five Moves of Doom by A.J. Devlin (NeWest Press)
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
Devil’s Chew Toy by Rob Osler (Crooked Lane Books)
The Verifiers by Jane Pek (Vintage Books)
The Maid by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
Best Mystery Short Story
“The Landscaper’s Wife” by Brendan DuBois (Mystery Tribune, Aug/Sep 2022)
“Beauty and the Beyotch” by Barb Goffman (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Jan 2022)
“First You Dream, Then You Die” by Donna Moore (Black is the Night, Titan Books)
“Schrödinger, Cat” by Anna Scotti (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mar/Apr 2022)
“Stockholm” by Catherine Steadman (Amazon Original Stories)
“The Angel of Rome” by Jess Walter (The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, Harper)
“My Two-Legs” by Melissa Yi (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sep/Oct 2022)
Best Mystery Critical/Biographical
The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie edited by Mary Anna Evans & J.C. Bernthal (Bloomsbury Academic)
The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their Adaptations by David Geherin (McFarland)
Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus Crime)
Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
The Secret in the Wall by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime)
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen (Forge)
Related StoriesCapital Crime's Fingerprint AwardsTheakston ShortlistBloody Good
Mystery Melange
Waterstones announced the shortlist for the bookstore chain's Debut Fiction Prize, an award for exceptional first novels voted on by booksellers. Celebrating debut fiction in all its forms, "the prize highlights the importance of discovering and championing new talent and acts as an extension of the alchemy of bookseller word-of-mouth recommendation." Two crime-themed titles on the list include Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, about two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own, and Kala by Colin Walsh, in which former friends, estranged for twenty years, reckon with the terrifying events of the summer that changed their lives. The winner will be announced on Thursday, August 24, 2023.
The year 2023 marks 120 years since the birth of Georges Simenon, and in celebration, the Liège's Grand Curtius Museum is mounting the exhibition "Simenon: Images of a World in Crisis" featuring photographs taken by Georges Simenon on his extensive travels in the 1930s. Between 1931 and 1935, Georges Simenon, an author best known for his detective Jules Maigret series, traveled the world and brought back reports, novels and thousands of photographs, often of very high quality. A selection of them is on display at the Grand Curtius, dotted along a tour that asks the following question: what does Simenon the photographer tell us about Simenon the novelist and reporter? How do the pictures complement or illuminate his writing? These photographs thus show Simenon immersed in his era and as an observer of history in the making, while providing the true setting for some of his greatest novels, such as Tropic Moon, The Window over the Way, and Avrenos’ Customers. Other events have also included literary readings, projection of films at the Les Grignoux cinema, and a symposium. (HT to The Bunburyist)
Thousands of writers including Nora Roberts, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Michael Chabon, and Margaret Atwood have signed a letter asking artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI and Meta to stop using their work without permission or compensation. It's the latest in a flurry of efforts the literary world has launched in recent weeks against AI, although as NPR noted, protecting writers from the negative impacts of these technologies is not an easy proposition. According to a forthcoming report from The Authors Guild, the median income for a full-time writer last year was $23,000, and writers' incomes declined by 42% between 2009 and 2019. The advent of text-based generative AI applications like GPT-4 and Bard, which scrape the Web for authors' content without permission or compensation and then use it to produce new content in response to users' prompts, is giving writers across the country even more cause for worry.
In more of a "locked house" scenario, over 100 people were trapped for several hours in Greenway, the former home of famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie, in the English countryside on Friday. In a series of events which could have been lifted straight out of the pages of one of Christie’s mystery novels, the group of tourists were left stranded after stormy weather knocked down a tree, blocking the road leading down to the property in the county of Devon, southwest England. The stranded tourists kept themselves busy, drinking cups of tea in the houses’ tearoom and playing rounds of croquet on the lawn. I have a feeling Dame Agatha would approve, even if no bodies were to be found.
This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Midsummer Mischief!" by Sarah Das Gupta.
In the Q&A roundup, Colson Whitehead spoke with The Guardian about writing a sequel to Harlem Shuffle, the influence of Stephen King’s Carrie, and why he no longer makes fried chicken; Lisa Haselton chatted with thriller author Robert Creekmore about his new grit lit fantasy noir, Prophet’s Lamentation; and Elly Griffiths discussed embracing politics in her teens, discovering the thrill of George Eliot, and learning from Wilkie Collins for The Guardian's "Books in My Life" series.
Related StoriesMystery Melange
July 17, 2023
Media Murder for Monday
It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news. Of course, these news items and others could be affected by the SAG-AFTRA and Writers' Guild strikes, so this information could easily change.
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson have been cast as leads in the feature thriller, Lips Like Sugar, which will be directed by Grammy winner Brantley Gutierrez and written by Anthony Tambakis (Warrior). Set during the 1984 Olympic Games in L.A. and loosely based on a true story, the coming-of-age thriller is set against the backdrop of the punk and skate worlds of West Los Angeles. As the new friendship of two teenage girls from different walks of life unfolds and city officials focus on the Olympics, the lives of two former detectives (Harrelson and Wilson) become intertwined when one of the girls goes missing.
Samara Weaving is set to star in the 20th Century heist thriller, Eenie Meanie, which Shawn Simmons is directing. Simmons also penned the script with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick producing the project, which will likely premiere on Hulu. The film follows a former teenage getaway driver who is dragged back into her unsavory past when a former employer offers her a chance to save the life of her chronically unreliable ex-boyfriend.
Republic Pictures has snapped up rights to The Image of You, a thriller starring Sasha Pieterse (Pretty Little Liars) in dual roles playing twins Anna and Zoe, who share a bond so close that nothing — and no one — can tear them apart. While Anna is romantic and trusting, her sister Zoe is daring and dangerous. When Anna meets charismatic Nick (Young), an ambitious stock trader, she thinks he’s perfect. But Zoe, who has seen Anna betrayed by men before, doesn’t trust him. She’s determined to discover the truth about Nick, no matter who stands in the way. Mira Sorvino and Nestor Carbonell play the twins’ wealthy parents, Alexia and David, who are harboring secrets of their own, with Michele Nordin playing Nick’s sister, Rebecca.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Filming has begun in Scotland on Murder is Easy, a major new adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel by Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited for BBC One and iPlayer, in a co-commission with BritBox International. The two-part thriller is adapted by Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre and directed by Meenu Gaur (Zinda Bhaag, World on Fire). David Jonsson plays lead character Fitzwilliam, who meets Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton) on a train in 1954 England. Miss Pinkerton tells him a killer is on the loose in the sleepy village of Wychwood under Ashe. Though the locals believe the deaths are accidents, Miss Pinkerton knows better and is soon found dead on her way to Scotland Yard. Fitzwilliam is convinced he has to find the killer before the killer strike again.
As filming gets underway on the ninth season of the hit Masterpiece and ITV show, Grantchester, lead actor Tom Brittney has confirmed that Season 9 will be his last. Tom, who has played the much-loved character Reverend Will Davenport since 2019, is stepping back from his role to focus on new projects. But it was announced that Rishi Nair (Hollyoaks, Count Abdulla) will take over as charismatic vicar, Alphy Kotteram. Nair will be the third vicar character in the series following Brittney and the original, James Norton, who was featured from 2014-2019. Robson Green, who has played the various vicars' police counterpart, Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, will return once again. The series is based on The Grantchester Mysteries, collections of short stories written by James Runcie.
Netflix has dropped the trailer for the second half of the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer, which shows that Mickey Haller has survived that brutal beating from the previous episode cliffhanger. But will he win the case involving the gorgeous restaurant owner played by Lana Parrilla? In a departure from the first season, Netflix released five episodes from the second season this month, with plans to stream the remaining five on Aug. 3. Season 2 is based on Michael Connelly’s fourth book in the Lincoln Lawyer series called The Fifth Witness. Created for TV by Ted Humphrey and David E. Kelley, The Lincoln Lawyer tells the story of Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), who runs his legal practice from the back of his Lincoln Town Car.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO
On the latest Crime Time FM, CWA Diamond Dagger Winner, Walter Mosley, chatted with Paul Burke about Every Man a King; Mosley's writing, characters, and personal inspiration; American politics; good thoughts for writers; and hope & belief.
This latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Addison McKnight, the pen name for co-authors Nicole Moleti and Krista Wells, whose debut novel is called An Imperfect Plan.
A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Messenger Bags and Murder by Dorothy Howell as read by actor Ren Burley.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club continued their summer short story series with an offering from Charles Dickens, "The Trial for Murder," which invokes the quiet terror that follows seeing what we know we should not be able to see.
On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discuss their most anticipated books for the second half of 2023.
On , Detective Adam Richardson talked about the new THREADS app; whether detectives can find out if someone is listed as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy; victim notifications when an inmate is released from prison; confidential name changes; and violating protective orders.
On the latest Criminal Mischief, Dr. D.P. Lyle investigated "15th Century Blood Transfusions" and the history of transfusions and DNA.
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