B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 66

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

TomKat MeDiA has secured rights to Duff Wilson’s eco-thriller, Fateful Harvest, and Aaron Bobrow-Strain’s award-winning work of narrative nonfiction, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez, with plans to develop both as feature films. Based on a Seattle Times investigative series reported by Wilson that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Fateful Harvest tells the story of Patty Martin, the mayor of a small town in Washington who blows the whistle on industrial toxic waste dumping and is nearly run out of town. The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez is the story of a young woman whose life spans both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border and whose resilience pushes her to survive her own attempted murder, family abuse, incarceration, deportation, separation from her son, and the U.S. immigration system.

Netflix and Dark Horse Entertainment have inked a multi-year, first-look film and TV partnership and announced they are developing two new projects including a film titled Bang! The spy thriller is based on the comic series by Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres, and follows a terrorist cult that sets out to start the apocalypse with a series of novels meant to brainwash their readers. The world’s most celebrated spy is then sent to track down and kill the author responsible. Idris Elba (Luther) will star in the film, adapted by Kindt who penned the screenplay along with Zak Olkewicz.

Director Jeff Nichols’s film, The Bikers, which is inspired by the photography of Danny Lyon and his 1967 book, The Bikeriders, is rounding up an all-star cast that includes Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy in leading roles. The film is an original story set in the 1960s following the rise of a fictional Midwestern motorcycle club. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Hulu has given a series order to the thriller The Other Black Girl, an adaptation of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel of the same name, which is described as "a whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary." The series follows Nella, an editorial assistant, who is tired of being the only black woman at her company, so she’s excited when Hazel is hired. But as Hazel’s star begins to rise, Nella's fortunes spiral downward, and she discovers something sinister is going on at the company. The book is based on Harris’s time working at the Penguin Random House-owned publisher, Atria/Simon & Schuster.

Keanu Reeves will star in the "long-gestating adaptation" of Erik Larson's 2003 bestselling book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. It tells the story of Daniel H. Burnham (Reeves), a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious "Murder Castle" built in the Fair’s shadow. The project will mark Reeves’s first major U.S. TV role. The eight-episode series is currently targeted for a 2024 launch on Hulu.

Additional cast members have been named for A Man in Full, Netflix's six-episode limited series from David E. Kelley and Regina King based on Tom Wolfe's 1998 novel. Joining previously announced stars Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane are William Jackson Harper (Love Life), Tom Pelphrey (Ozark), Aml Ameen (Boxing Day), Sarah Jones (For All Mankind), Jon Michael Hill (Widows) and Chanté Adams (A League of Their Own). Kelley serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner, with King directing three episodes. The story centers on Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker (Daniels), who faces sudden bankruptcy when political and business interests collide as he defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace. But the story also displays Wolfe's usual social commentary as it tackles racial tensions via a star Georgia Tech running back who is accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment; networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent; daily life behind bars; and a shady real estate syndicate.

Rosanna Arquette has joined the third season of Big Sky, the series based on the novels of crime author C.J. Box, in a key recurring role. Arquette will play Virginia "Gigi" Cessna, the charismatic, fast-talking mother of undersheriff Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick). She’s a world-class scam artist who used a young Jenny in her grifts years ago and has an uncanny ability to charm her way into people’s lives and then disappear without a trace. When she returns to Montana to pull her latest con, Jenny catches onto her and mother-daughter must work through their difficult relationship. In Season 3, titled "Deadly Trails," Hoyt, private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury), and newly appointed sheriff Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles) maintain order in Helena, Montana with their unparalleled investigative skills. But when a local backcountry trip led by charismatic outfitter, Sunny Barnes (Reba McEntire), goes awry, the trio faces their most formidable mystery yet – in which no camper can be trusted and where danger lurks around every jagged rock and gnarled tree. Season 3 premieres September 21 on ABC.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Molly MacRae and her novel Argyles and Arsenic, the fifth book in the Highland Bookshop Mystery Series.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer David Rohlfing chatting about his Detective Sasha Frank mysteries.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Philip switched from reviewing his usual mysteries to tackle a suspense and thriller novel that involves spies, Nazis, a male brothel, and southern prejudice.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured a classic story by author William Brittain, who wrote for EQMM from 1964 to 1983. It’s read by EQMM author and translator, Josh Pachter, who has edited three collections of William Brittain’s stories. The short is titled "The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr," from the December 1965 issue of EQMM and was the first in a series of stories whose titles begin "The Man Who."

On Crime Time FM, Beverley Jones, aka B.E. Jones, spoke with host Paul Burke about Jones's novels, The Beach House and The Wilderness (the latter of which is being adapted by Firebird Pictures/Amazon Prime and stars Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson Cohen).

Red Hot Chili Writers welcomed historical crime writer Mark Wightman, who offered up a brief history of Singapore and revealed the origins of the Singapore Sling. Also discussed was Agatha Christie's vanishing act in 1926, which inspired the world's largest crime fiction festival.





THEATRE



A new version of the celebrated murder mystery, Dial M for Murder is being staged this month at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, CA. The original stage play was written by English playwright, Frederick Knott, and has been newly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher in a world-premiere version for the Old Globe. The plot centers around Tony, who is convinced his wife Margot has been cheating on him. Now it seems the affair is over, but in his jealousy, Tony spins a web of suspicion and deception that will tighten around them and ensnare them both in danger, recrimination, and murder.

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

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



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



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



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



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



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

          

Mystery Melange

During the recent Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival held in Harrogate, England, the crime fiction website, Dead Good, announced the recipients of its 2022 Dead Good Reader Awards. The Something in the Air Award for Most Atmospheric Novel went to I Know What You’ve Done by Dorothy Koomson; The Love is Blind Award for Most Twisted Couple was won by The Couple at No 9 by Claire Douglas; The Cold as Ice Award for Most Chilling Read is The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse; The Race-Against-Time Award for Best Action Thriller went to Hostage by Clare Mackintosh; The New Kid on the Block Award for Best New Series was presented to Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series; and The Dead Good Recommends Awards for Most Recommended Book was The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths.

Goldboro Books have announced the shortlist for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award. Administered by independent bookshop Goldsboro Books, the Glass Bell Award rewards storytelling in all genres, and is awarded annually to "a compelling novel with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised." The shortlisted novels include: We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan; Sistersong by Lucy Holland; Ariadne by Jennifer Saint; Mrs March by Virginia Feito; The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper; and Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. The winner, who will receive both £2,000, and a beautiful, handmade glass bell, will be announced on Thursday, September 8.

The shortlist for the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction, which celebrates outstanding crime and thriller storytelling of those who are from or whose work celebrates the North East of England, was announced this week. The honored titles include Can't Hide by Clare Sewell; Sharp Focus by Duncan Robb; Salted Earth by Katherine Graham; The Children of Gaia by Jacqueline Auld; and The Taste of Iron by Ramona Slusarczyk. The winner will be announced on August 31 and will receive a cash prize to support the completion of their work, along with membership of the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Muslim women have long been sidelined in publishing – but now a new wave of writers from Saima Mir to Ambreen and Uzma Hameed are breaking through.

Some twenty-plus authors, from Megan Abbott and Lee Child to Karin Slaughter, were approached by The Guardian to reveal what makes a great crime novel and to name some of their favorites.

Writing for Book Riot, Katie Moench compiled "An Introduction to Irish Crime Fiction."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Maze" by Matthew Sorento.

In the Q&A roundup, Amina Akhtar, the author of Fan Club, and Erin Mayer, the author of Kismet, interviewed each other on Crime Reads to talk about their experiences, and why, exactly, fashion inspires so much rage; The Guardian snagged Frankie Boyle and Denise Mina to talk about writing crime fiction, what makes a great crime novel, celebrity authors getting in on the act, and their shared affection for comics; and GM Today chatted with Sara Paretsky, the pioneering Chicago crime author, who has recently turned 75 but has no plans to stop writing.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

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

Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in an adaptation of David Grann’s book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, from director Martin Scorsese. The project follows the pair’s collaboration on Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is likewise based on a non-fiction book by Grann. Grann’s The Wager tells the true story of a British naval ship called the Wager that wrecked in 1742 and washed up on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia, marooning 30 survivors for months before they managed to make it back to safety. But the story takes a darker turn a few months later, when a different set of just three survivors arrive in Chile and tell an alternate story that the men were not hero survivors but mutineers, and the crew descended into anarchy while stranded on the island.

Judy Greer, Paul Sparks, Alison Pill, Tracy Letts, Annie Parisse, Kate Arrington, and Alexander Skarsgård are set to star in the adaptation of Eric Larue, with Michael Shannon making his directorial debut on the film. Written by Brett Neveu, the film is based on Neveu’s play of the same name and follows the mother of a 17-year-old boy, who shot and killed three of his classmates. As the mother braces for a meeting with the mothers of the other boys and a long-delayed visit to her son in prison, the story evolves into less of a tale about violence and more about the lengths people go to survive (or to ignore) trauma. Playwright and screenwriter Neveu has also been Shannon’s frequent collaborator on productions staged by A Red Orchid Theatre where the play premiered in 2002. In 2005, the play was selected for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s "Postcards from America" series.

The first teaser for Christopher Nolan’s next film, Oppenheimer, shows Cillian Murphy as the father of the atomic bomb, or as the trailer puts it, "the man who moved the Earth." The film aims to go beyond the standard biopic of a scientist, even one as explosive as Oppenheimer, to cast itself as an "epic thriller." The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

An adaptation of Kirk Wallace Johnson’s bestselling book, The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, is in the works for the small screen, via Jenna Bush Hager and Universal International Studios. The Feather Thief is a gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice. One summer evening in 2009, twenty-year-old musical prodigy, Edwin Rist, broke into the British Natural History Museum, home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world. Once inside, he stole as many rare bird specimens as he was able to carry before escaping into the darkness. In search of answers about the crime, Johnson embarked upon a worldwide investigation that led him into the fiercely secretive underground community obsessed with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. The Feather Thief was an Amazon Best Book of 2018 and short-listed for The Gold Dagger Award, Edgar Award, Carnegie Medal, and was translated into a dozen languages.

HBO is developing My Dentist’s Murder Trial, a limited series starring and executive produced by David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian). Written by Steve Conrad (Patriot), who is set to direct the pilot episode, My Dentist’s Murder Trial is inspired by James Lasdun’s 2017 New Yorker article, "My Dentist’s Murder Trial: Adultery, false identities, and a lethal sedation." The true crime story chronicled in the article centers on Dr. Gilberto Nunez, who was indicted for killing his friend, Thomas Kolman, in 2015 by getting him to ingest a substance that caused his death. There were also two forgery counts, including Nunez posing as a C.I.A. agent. Nunez, who had had an affair with Kolman’s wife Linda, stood trial in 2018 where he was found not guilty of murder but guilty on fraud charges, which led to a prison sentence. Pascal will play Dr. Nunez. HBO would not say whether Harbour will play the victim, Thomas Kolman, or the article’s author.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Sunday Sessions podcast from New Zealand Crime spoke with writer Karin Slaughter about her latest thriller, Girl, Forgotten. Karin is a best-selling author of 22 books, whose 2018 hit, Pieces of Her, was made into a series for Netflix. 

NPR's Weekend Edition chatted with thriller author, Megan Miranda, about her latest novel, The Last To Vanish, and her obsession with the duality of nature—beautiful and serene, and also, with just a slight change of perspective, terrifying.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviewed Anthony Horowitz, who has penned over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, as well as two new Sherlock Holmes novels, a James Bond novel, and episodes of the popular TV series, Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War.

Crime Time FM welcomed Barry Forshaw to talk about Simenon: The Man, the Books, the Films, a 21st Century re-examination of Simenon's iconic literary detective, Inspector Maigret, and Simenon's place in French literature.

My Favorite Detective Stories chatted with Sherry Harris, the Agatha Award-nominated author of the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Saloon mysteries.

On the latest Queer Writers of Crime, Ann Aptaker, David Domine, and Brad Shreve offered up novel suggestions they believe are must reads.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah talked about books you should take on your vacation and ones you should skip.

THEATRE

To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s hit stage adaptation of the Harper Lee novel currently on a lengthy Covid-prompted hiatus, will not return to Broadway after all, and both Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher are blaming the original lead producer, Scott Rudin. Although Rudin—who has dodged allegations of bullying and physical abuse of his staff—was believed to have discontinued taking an active role in the play’s production, he continues to control rights to the stage adaptation. Mockingbird opened on Broadway in 2018 and quickly became one of theater’s hottest tickets, starring in turn Jeff Daniels, Richard Thomas, and Greg Kinnear as Atticus Finch.

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Murder at the Foul Line

In 2006, Otto Penzler released the anthology Murder at the Foul Line, with stories contributed by a Who's Who of crime fiction: Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, Sue DeNymme, Brendan DuBois, Parnell Hall, Laurie R. King, Mike Lupica, Michael Malone, Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker, George Pelecanos, R. D. Rosen, S. J. Rozan, Justin Scott and Stephen Solomita.



Michael Malone's winningly deadpan "White Trash Noir," about domestic violence from a former NCAA star that seemingly drives his wife to murder, was nominated for the 2007 Edgar Award for best short story, but had to be withdrawn because it had been previously published in a collection by the author. There are other winners, though: Lawrence Block's hitman character Keller takes in a Pacers game in "Keller's Double Dribble," but the assignment doesn't go as planned and we get glimpses into Keller's past; "String Music" by George Pelecanos focuses on a streetwise D.C. kid trying to escape his troubled life by playing pickup basketball; Laurie R. King's "Cat's Paw" features the coach of a girl's junior high basketball team who is haunted by repressed memories and whose life is shaken up after she runs over a cat; and Jeffery Deaver's "Nothing But Net" is filled with Deaver's trademark twists and turns, featuring con men trying to swindle a naive NBA player.



Penzler would probably argue there's plenty more fodder for murderous takes on professional basketball. As he notes in his Introduction, "Perhaps the biggest difference in the game is the level of criminal activity. One of the big crime stories of the 1950s was when some Manhattan College, CCNY, and Long Island University players conspired to fix games so that certain gamblers could make a killing. The scandal rocked the sport for years, and those teams, then national powers, never recovered. Today, of course, that would be looked upon as kid stuff. Now we're really talking. Stars are commonly arrested for drug abuse, drunk driving, wife (and girlfriend) battering, barroom brawling, rape, and so many other acts of violence and criminality that it is difficult to keep track."



Murder at the Foul Line is the fifth installment in Penzler's sports mystery anthology series, so if you're not a fan of basketball, instead try Murderer's Row (baseball), Murder on the Ropes (boxing), Murder is My Racquet (tennis) and Sudden Death (football). I should point out that these books were published by the defunct New Millennium publishing arm, and that Penzler successfully sued the company claiming breach of contract. It's an unfortunate conclusion to what was originally an intriguing collaboration, but that doesn't change the fact the stories still stand on their own, with many sparkling three-pointers among them.

          

Mystery Melange

 

Mick Herron has won the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award, after his fifth time being shortlisted in six years, at an announcement made during the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. Herron won the award for Slough House, the seventh installment in his series of the same name, which follows a band of failed spies and was recently turned into an Apple TV+ show starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas. Joseph Knox’s True Crime Story was also highly commended by the judges. The other books on the shortlist were The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths; Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson; Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan; and The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean. The ceremony also saw Michael Connelly receive the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction award in recognition of his three-decade writing career. He follows in the footsteps of previous honorees Ian Rankin, Lynda La Plante, Lee Child, Val McDermid and PD James.

Sisters in Crime Australia announced the shortlist for the 22nd Davitt Awards, which recognize the best crime and mystery books by Australian women. The awards are presented in six categories:  adult crime novel; YA crime novel; children's crime novel; nonfiction crime book; debut crime book (any category); and Readers' Choice (as voted by the members of Sisters in Crime Australia). The winner will be honored August 27 at a ceremony in Melbourne.

This weekend, the conference, "Sherlock Holmes and the British Empire," will be open to all Sherlockians from on July 29-31 at the Bear Mountain Inn, near West Point, NY. You do not need to be a member of the sponsoring organization, the Baker Street Irregulars, in order to attend. For more information and to register, click on over here.

Some sad news to report this week: Stuart Woods, an author of more than 90 novels, many featuring the character of lawyer-investigator Stone Barrington, has died. He was 84. 1981’s Chiefs, about three generations of lawmen and the murder of a teenager in a small southern town, won literary awards and was made into a CBS miniseries starring Charlton Heston, Danny Glover, Billy Dee Williams and John Goodman. Putnam plans to release Black Dog, the 62nd book in Stone Barrington series on August 2 and Distant Thunder, the 63rd book in the series, on October 11.

A new exhibit is open at the New-York Historical Society called "PEN America at 100: A Century of Defending the Written Word," which honors the organization's mission to promote a diverse literary culture and advocate for persecuted writers worldwide. The installation includes a historical survey of the organization’s members and work, as recorded in dozens of letters, posters, photographs and other documents. PEN (a loose acronym for Poets and Playwrights, Editors and Essayists and Novelists) began after World War I as a social club for writers but soon coalesced around freedom of expression and human rights. The exhibits include a photograph in a Greenwich Village bookstore of Arthur Miller and Pablo Neruda, whose work had long been banned from the U.S. There’s also a photo of Susan Sontag, E.L. Doctorow, Gay Talese and Norman Mailer at a rally to defend Salman Rushdie from the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa. The PEN America exhibit will be open through October 9, with timed tickets required and Friday evenings set aside as "pay what you can."

In partnership with the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, the Hower House Museum at the University of Akron (in Ohio) is sponsoring the exhibition, "Poe & Doyle: Victorian Crime Fiction" during September and October. Visitors can learn about how Poe created the contemporary conventions of mystery writing and about how Doyle developed those techniques to create Sherlock Holmes. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Crime Reads profiled the people behind some of today's best small publishers that specialize in crime fiction. Included are Paul Oliver of Syndicate Books, an imprint devoted to bringing forgotten authors back into print; Charles Ardai of noir publisher Hard Case Crime; Sara Gran, whose brand-new imprint is Dreamland Books; Gregory Shepard of reissue enthusiast Stark House; Jason Pinter of Polis Books; and the late but welcome addition of Michael Nava of Amble Press.

Writing for LitHub, Dwyer Murphy discussed "The Search for the Funniest Crime Novel Ever Written," targeting Elmore Leonard, Donald E. Westlake, and ... Patricia Highsmith.

In a not-so-funny report, it seems they keep finding bodies in the Lake Mead as receding waters from drought expose more and more of the bottom. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said in May that, "It's likely that we will find additional bodies that have been dumped in Lake Mead" as the water level drops more."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Wanted" by Michael Zimecki.

In the Q&A roundup, Naomi Hirahara talked with LA crime writer Gary Phillips about the lost landmarks of Los Angeles and his latest novel, One-Shot Harry, which concerns a Black news photographer in LA; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Sean Munger, an Oregon-based LGBT crime author whose latest novel, The Son Thief, arrives on 2 August, following on from his first crime novel, In Deadly Mirrors; Dwyer Murphy stopped by Crime Reads to chat about writing routines, superstitions, and "reading Elmore Leonard like a Bible"; and Deborah Kalb interviewed Joey Hartstone, a film and television writer whose new crime novel is The Local.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Macavity Magic

The finalists for the 2022 Macavity Award have been announced. The honor is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favorite mysteries in five categories for the bet books published in the previous year.

Best Mystery Novel:

Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours (Little, Brown and Co.)
S.A. Cosby: Razorblade Tears (Flatiron Books)
Val McDermid: 1979 (Atlantic Monthly)
Alan Parks: Bobby March Will Live Forever (World Noir)
Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End (Henry Holt)
Colson Whitehead: Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday)

Best First Mystery:

Alexandra Andrews: Who is Maude Dixon? (Little, Brown)
Abigail Dean: Girl A (Viking)
Erin Flanagan: Deer Season (University of Nebraska Press)
Mia P. Manansala: Arsenic and Adobo (Berkley)
Wanda M. Morris: All Her Little Secrets (William Morrow)

Best Mystery Short Story:

Tracy Clark: “Lucky Thirteen” (Midnight Hour, Crooked Lane Books)
Richard Helms: “Sweeps Week” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
Steve Hockensmith: “Curious Incidents” (EQMM, January/February 2021)
R.T. Lawton: “The Road to Hana” (AHMM, May/June 2021)
G.M. Malliet: “The White Star” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
Gigi Pandian: “The Locked Room Library” (EQMM, July/August 2021)
Dave Zeltserman: “Julius Katz and the Two Cousins” (EQMM, July/August 2021)

Best Nonfiction/Critical:

Mark Aldridge: Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World (HarperCollins)
Lee Child with Laurie R. King, editors: How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America (Scribner)
Margalit Fox: The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History (Random House)
Richard Greene: The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene (W.W. Norton)
James McGrath Morris: Tony Hillerman: A Life (University of Oklahoma)
John Tresch: The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Edward White: The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense (W.W. Norton)

Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery:

Rhys Bowen: The Venice Sketchbook (Lake Union)
Naomi Hirahara: Clark and Division (Soho Crime)
Susan Elia MacNeal: The Hollywood Spy (Bantam)
Sujata Massey: The Bombay Prince (Soho Crime)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Velvet was the Night (Del Rey)
Lori Rader-Day: Death at Greenway (William Morrow)

 

          

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

Phoenix Raei is joining Hugo Weaving as a lead in The Rooster, an Australian mystery drama film in which a small-town cop discovers the dead body of his best friend. The film, which has just completed principal photography in Victoria state, is directed by actor Mark Leonard Winter, making his debut as a feature director. Raei plays the cop who confronts Weaving’s volatile character, a forest-dwelling hermit who was the last person known to have seen his pal. Other cast include Helen Thomson, Rhys Mitchell, Bert La Bonte, John Waters, Camilla Ah Kin, Robert Menzies, and Deirdre Rubenstein.

Billy Magnussen is the latest addition to Netflix’s upcoming reboot of the Spy Kids film franchise, joining previously announced cast members Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Everly Carganilla, and Connor Esterson. The project will be headed by the original franchise’s creator and director Robert Rodriguez, who is also producing and writing alongside Racer Max. The yet-to-be-titled film will introduce a new family of spies to the four-film franchise that originally starred Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, with Alexa PenaVega and Daryl Sabara as the kids. As the logline goes, after the children of the world’s top secret agents inadvertently help an evil Game Developer gain control of all technology through a computer virus, they must transform into spies themselves to save their parents and the planet.

John Wick: Chapter 4 won’t be in theaters until next spring, but the first footage was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday by star Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski. The screenplay was written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, and returning stars include Laurence Fishburne, Lance Riddick, and Ian McShane.

Bleecker Street today unveiled the trailer for its John Boyega thriller, Breaking (formerly titled 892), which is slated for release in theaters nationwide on August 26. The film from director Abi Damaris Corbin is based on the true story of Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley (Boyega), who finds himself financially desperate and running out of options after being denied support from Veterans Affairs. Subsequently, he enters a bank and takes several of its employees hostage, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with the police.





TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

David P. Davis’s ITV Studios-backed label, 5 Acts Productions, has optioned the TV rights to British author Clare Mackintosh's thriller, The Last Party, which will be published on August 4. The story follows DC Ffion Morgan as she investigates the murder of Rhys Lloyd, a homegrown hero who is found floating dead in the water on New Year’s Day, the morning after a party that brought together a feuding community. The murder leads Morgan to scrutinize neighbors, friends, and family as she attempts to solve a mystery in a town full of secrets.

CBS has given a pilot order to The Never Game, a drama series adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s novel, starring and executive produced by Justin Hartley. The project quietly underwent a writer change in the spring, with Ben Winters replacing Michael Cooney, who had been attached when the pitch was sold last fall. The Never Game features Hartley as lone-wolf survivalist Colter Shaw, who roams the country as a "reward seeker," using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement to solve all manner of mysteries while contending with his own fractured family.

Fresh Off the Boat producer and writer, Eddie Huang, is developing a new one-hour drama series called Panda at Showtime. The series centers on the titular gifted delinquent who starts selling ecstasy in Orlando, Florida during the pressed pill boom of the late-90s, motivated by his mother’s challenge to "be the best of the stupid people." With the help of Jade, a cunning private school girl from the other side of town, they connect the hoods and take over the burgeoning drug trade in the Florida Breaks Rave Scene.

NBC has picked up the missing-persons procedural pilot, Found, as a series for the 2022-23 season. In any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S., and more than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. Public relations specialist Gabi Mosely (series star and producer Shanola Hampton) and her crisis management team now make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own.

Adam Pally has joined the cast of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s untitled spy adventure for Netflix in a key recurring role. The series, from creator and showrunner Nick Santora, is about a father and daughter who realize their entire relationship has been a lie, after learning they’ve each been secretly working as CIA Operatives for years. Pally will play The Great Dane, a black market middleman who isn’t as goofy as he seems and knows how to manipulate and charm to get what he wants. Serving time in a Turkish prison, a team of CIA operatives help him escape so he can connect with Boro (Gabriel Luna), a criminal intent on building a nuke.

Edwin Hodge is officially the newest member of the Fugitive Task Force on CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted, following Miguel Gomez’s exit in June. He will make his debut as Ray Cannon this fall during the show’s fourth season, which kicks off on September 20. Ray Cannon transferred to Remy Scott’s (Dylan McDermott) team from the FBI’s Violent Crimes office in Albany. He started his career in New Orleans as a cop-turned-junior-detective, then graduated at the top of his class at Quantico last year, following in his retired FBI agent father’s footsteps.

MASTERPIECE on PBS released a first look trailer for Magpie Murders, written and adapted for TV by Anthony Horowitz. The miniseries airs in six parts beginning Sunday, October 16. Magpie Murders stars Lesley Manville as editor, Susan Ryeland, and Tim McMullan as 1950's private detective, Atticus Pünd.

Netflix has greenlit a third season of the true crime series, I Am A Killer, the show that interviews murderers on Death Row or those who are spending the majority of their lives behind bars. Sky Studios-backed Transistor Films has gained access to maximum security prisons across the U.S. for season three, exploring the crimes in question through exclusive interviews with the men and women that committed them. Coupled with contributor interviews, the subjects will once again recount the events that led them to murder, exploring their motivations and, ultimately, how they now view their crimes after time spent in some of the toughest prisons in the U.S. The six-parter will launch in late August.

Tru Valentino has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming fifth season of ABC's The Rookie, starring Nathan Fillion. Valentino’s Officer Aaron Thorsen is the newest rookie at the station and appeared in eleven episodes in Season 4.

Middle East and North Africa media and entertainment giant MBC Group has announced an Arabic-language remake of the hit Danish police procedural, The Killing. The original Copenhagen-set show, produced by Danish state broadcaster DR, sold to more than 120 territories and was nominated for multiple TV awards. The new version marks the first time a Nordic noir has been adapted for the Arabic market. Locally titled as Monataf Khater, the remake is set in Cairo.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring an excerpt from The Witch's Child by Susan Van Kirk, read by actor Kathie Chestnut Mollica.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Alice Bienia, as she discussed her background as a geologist and her Jorja Knight mystery series.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed some interesting articles pertaining to the mystery genre, as well as new books by authors who have previously appeared on the podcast.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Justene featured a review of My Name is Jimmy, a crime novella set in post WWII Australia.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Jennifer Hillier to chat about her new suspense novel, Things We Do in the Dark, which centers on Paris Peralta, who's arrested for her husband’s murder but proclaims her innocence even though she’s found next to her husband’s body holding the murder weapon and covered in his blood.

The legendary author Dean Koontz is back on Meet the Thriller Author to talk about his latest thriller, The Big Dark Sky, which centers on a group of strangers, bound by a terrifying synchronicity, who become humankind’s hope of survival.

On Criminal Mischief, Dr. D.P. Lyle took a look at the use of familial/genealogical DNA to solve cases like the Golden State Killer.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of the Sweeney St. George series and the Maggie D’arcy series.

On the latest Crime Time FM, four top Orion authors discussed their latest novels with Paul Burke as the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writers Festival got under way.

On the Red Hot Chili Writers, Luca Veste and Victoria Selman discussed their new crime thrillers, what "Scouse" actually means, and plagiarizing C.S. Lewis at the age of 7.

A recent episode of the NPR podcast 1A took a look at how Indigenous people are being represented in TV and the movies this summer, and how it took thirty years for Dark Winds to be adapted for television. The Tony Hillerman crime novel series revolves around the Navajo Nation and two tribal policemen trying to solve the murder of a Navajo woman. 

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Happy Birthday

Fifteen years ago today, I published my first blog post here at In Reference to Murder. It's hard to believe it's been that long. There are plenty of times I've wondered if it was all worth it, and plenty of times I've considered ending it, but here we are. I hope I've been able to promote fellow authors and the crime fiction and crime drama communities in some small fashion. As Raymond Chandler said, "Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know."

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Mystery Melange

On July 24, California Sisters in Crime's Sizzling Summer Speaker Series will present an online event with a panel featuring thriller authors Chris Hauty, Nick Petrie, and Brian Freeman with Maddie Margarita. The event is free and available to anyone with a Zoom account.

Kensington Books and the University of Washington Book Store are presenting A Night of Cozy Mysteries on August 2. The online panel will include Debra H. Goldstein, Barbrara Ross, Lee Hollis, Darci Hannah, and Cheryl Hollon discussing their latest novels. This event is free to join, though registration is required.

The Winterset in Summer Literary Festival in Eastport, Canada, will present "Mystery Voices", a panel on August 13 on detective story writing, featuring authors Peter Robinson, Mike Martin, and Helen C. Escott, with award-winning CBC broadcaster, journalist, and writer, Linden MacIntyre, serving as host. This is an in-person event, and for more information and tickets, follow this link.

The Book People bookstore in Austin, Texas, will present an in-person panel moderated by Kathleen Kaska on August 25 celebrating new books by Jeff Abbott, Taylor Moore, Dixie Lee Evatt, Helen Currie Foster, and Gabino Iglesias. The event will include a moderated discussion, an audience Q&A, and a signing line and is free and open to the public.

On September 17, Bear Public Library will feature Just the Facts: The Secrets of Writing Crime Fiction, a discussion about crime fiction with a panel of best-selling and professional authors to include Weldon Burge, Lisa Regan, Chris Bauer, Austin Camacho, J. Gregory Smith, Ira Porter, and JM Reinbold. This is a Facebook Live event and open to anyone who has access to a Facebook account.

Registration is open for the International Thriller Writer's 9th annual Online Thriller School. Participants will receive ten weeks of intensive craft lessons from Jeffery Deaver, Alex Finlay, Steven James, Mary Kubica, Tosca Lee, Clare Mackintosh, Isabella Maldonado, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Wendy Walker, and Jerri Williams. Topics to be covered include Red Herrings, Reversals, and Twists; Creating Compelling Characters; Setting: How to Create Your Story World; FBI Myths and Misconceptions; The Thriller Writer's Toolbox; All About Dialogue; How to Nail Structure; Fundamentals of the Action Scene; First Pages: How to Hook Your Reader, and Pacing: How to Keep the Pages Turning. Classes begin September 13 and will be held every Tuesday with recordings available for later study.

Several of Australia's most popular female crime writers will be participating at this year's Sisters in Crime writers festival in Cobaro in late August. Currently scheduled to take part in panels, workshops, and book signings are Melissa Pouliot, Candice Fox, Vikki Petraitis, Sulari Gentill, Fleur Ferris, Ilsa Evans, Dorothy Johnston, Caroline de Costa, and Kay Schubach. For tickets and more information, head on over here.

Tom Mead compiled a list of "10 Most Puzzling Impossible Crime Mysteries" for Publishers Weekly and an associated article, "The Great Locked Room Mystery: My Top 10 Impossible Crimes," for CrimeReads.

If you want more summer reading suggestions, here are "12 mystery and crime books to keep you on the edge of your seat this summer" from the CBC; and two from Book Riot, the first being "A Map to the Best Treasure Hunting Mysteries," and the second, "Book 'Em: 8 of the Best Procedural Series To Add To Your TBR."

Carolina Ciucci also offered up an assortment of suggestions of novels that fans of true crime might enjoy.

Last week, I wrote about a new "reality" competition titled "America's Next Great Author" that purports to give writers a chance to compete for a chance at recognition, money, and publication. I (and many others in the writing community) was pretty skeptical, and Victoria Strauss over at the excellent Writer Beware blog has a bit more on the history of such competitions and why they're not a terribly good fit for books.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "And the Children Sing 'Mr. Carl Bach' " by Suzanne Ondrus.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis chatted with Susan Van Kirk about Death in a Pale Hue, the first novel in her new Art Center Mysteries; CrimeReads interviewed Nadine Matheson about writing serial killer fiction and her work as a defense attorney in London; and Mark Billingham spoke with The Belfast Telegraph about accidentally becoming a writer and how he gives up on a book after 25 pages if "nothing has grabbed hold of me."

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