B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 67

Author R&R with J.L. Abramo

One might say that J. L. Abramo's crime-writing career began the day he was born in Brooklyn on Raymond Chandler’s fifty-ninth birthday. Abramo later earned a BA in Sociology at the City College of New York and a Masters Degree in Social Psychology at the University of Cincinnati and is a long-time educator, arts journalist, film and stage actor, and theater director. He is the author of Catching Water in a Net, a winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Private Eye Novel, and the subsequent Jake Diamond private eye mysteries Clutching at Straws, Counting to Infinity, and Circling the Runway. The latter won the Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback Novel of 2015 by the Private Eye Writers of America. 

 

His first full-length work of nonfiction is Homeland Insecurity: The Birth of an Era of Unrest in America. The book takes a look at the post-World War II American experience leading up to three murders in 1957, and the profound changes to come after the hits and misses of the law enforcement agencies and legal institutions which—over the course of nearly five decades—eventually stumbled upon justice.

 

Abramo stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about researching and writing this true-crime tale:

 

On January 30, 2003, an article in a daily newspaper caught my eye. The piece reported the arrest of a 69-year-old man at his home just miles from where I lived at the time in Columbia, South Carolina. Ten years earlier, in a box of used books purchased at a yard sale, I came across a book by a prison inmate—written while he awaited execution. Those two discoveries stimulated my interest and imagination, and subsequent investigations have led me here.

Homeland Insecurity tells the story of two men accused of taking the lives of three fellow human beings:  a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl in Mahwah, New Jersey, and two young police officers in El Segundo, California. Two killers born 8 days apart in 1934; two men who died 57 days apart in 2017; crimes committed 140 days apart in 1957 at a time when Americans were beginning to feel less and less confident about the safety of their families. One convicted murderer spent nearly fifteen years on death row at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton—where he continually professed his innocence. The other perpetrator escaped identification for more than 45 years.

At the same time, Homeland Insecurity is an account of the hits and misses of the law enforcement agencies and legal institutions which—over the course of nearly five decades—eventually stumbled upon justice. Finally, it is a look at the post-World War II American experience leading up to the murders in 1957, and the profound changes to come after. When rock & roll, Rebel Without a Cause, and Catcher in the Rye burst upon the American scene. When the fear of nuclear annihilation and real-life scary monsters crept into the national consciousness. And when those three murders in 1957, and a growing sense of national insecurity, may have had mutual effect.

 

 

 

In researching the murder of Victoria Zielinski in March of 1957, I ran into a number of roadblocks. My interest was originally stimulated by the 1968 book, Brief Against Death, written by eleventh-year death row inmate, Edgar Smith. The book described the crime, his arrest, arraignment, indictment, trial, and conviction—posing questions about the jury’s guilty verdict—and gained Smith a powerful advocate, William F. Buckley Jr.

 

 

Research on the crime and its immediate aftermath relied heavily on Smith’s accounts (taken with a grain of salt and held up to scrutiny by other sources), media and police reports from the time of the murder, and on trial transcripts.

It wasn’t until after Smith’s discharge from prison after nearly fifteen years that he wrote a follow-up book, Getting Out, describing subsequent events—and the many appeals to state and federal courts, and to the Supreme Court—which ultimately led to his freedom in 1972. It took me quite some time to locate a copy of Getting Out, and much longer to learn of Smith’s fate after his release.

I navigated around that roadblock by writing to William F. Buckley in 1995. Buckley graciously responded to my inquiry with a somewhat shocking update on Edgar Smith—he was back in prison, this time in California.

 

 

It was another five years until I discovered the whereabouts of Edgar Smith, with the help of an attorney acquaintance in California.  I wrote Smith a letter in 2000. He kindly replied—but apologized for not agreeing to meet me for an interview.

 

 

After his numerous appeals for parole were denied, Edgar Smith passed away in 1971 at the age of 83—after spending all but four of his final 60 years behind prison walls.

 

You can catch a book trailer for Homeland Security here, learn more about J.L. Abramo and his books via his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Homeland Insecurity is now available via Down & Out Books and can be ordered from all major bookstores.

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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

Miramax has handed worldwide distribution rights for Confess, Fletch, starring Jon Hamm, to Paramount Global Content. The film will simultaneously receive a limited release in theaters and debut on PVOD Sept. 16 before premiering on Showtime Oct. 28. Directed by Greg Mottola (Adventureland) from a script by Zev Borow (Lethal Weapon), the comedy-noir is an updated take on the "Fletch" character based on Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970 mystery novels. Hamm produced and stars as the title character, Irwin M. Fletcher, an investigative reporter and former Marine. While Chevy Chase first brought him to life in the 1985 screwball comedy, the reboot is inspired by the second novel in the series and promises to take on a slightly darker tone. Joining Hamm onscreen is fellow Mad Men alum, John Slattery, as well as Marcia Gay Harden, Kyle MacLachlan, Annie Mumolo, Lorenza Izzo, Ayden Mayeri, and Roy Wood Jr.

Wonder Woman actress Connie Nielsen is joining the thriller, Role Play, opposite Kaley Cuoco, David Oyelowo, and Bill Nighy. The Thomas Vincent-directed pic revolves around a married couple (Cuoco and Oyelowo) whose lives turn upside down when secrets come out about each other’s pasts. Nighy portrays a mysterious stranger who comes into their lives. Nielsen's role, however, has not yet been disclosed. Seth Owen co-wrote the project with Andrew Baldwin, while George Heller conceived the idea and serves as Executive Producer.

Frank Grillo has joined the action-thriller, Black Lotus, starring eleven-time world kickboxing champion, Rico Verhoeven. In the film from director Todor Chapkanov (Viking Quest), Verhoeven plays the role of special forces officer Matteo Donner, consumed by guilt after his best friend dies while on a joint mission. When he winds up back in his home city of Amsterdam, he ends up in a one-man war as he tries to rescue the kidnapped daughter of his dead friend. Details as to the role that Grillo will be playing haven’t been disclosed. The film will also star Marie Dompnier, Peter Franzén, Rona-Lee Shim’on, Magnus Samuelsson, Simon Wan, Kevin Janssens, and Roland Møller. Tad Daggerhart wrote the script.





TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

It's apparently now official: Paramount+ has placed a 10-episode series order for a continuation of the long-running CBS procedural, Criminal Minds. The original series follows a group of criminal "profilers" who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit. The group is led by Senior Agent David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and includes Agents JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook), Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler), and Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) as well as Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) and Unit Chief Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster). Missing from the list are original cast member Matthew Gray Gubler, who indicated he was ready to move on after playing Spencer Reid for 15 years, and Daniel Henney, who stars in The Wheel Of Time. Additionally, the streamer revealed a companion docuseries, The Real Criminal Minds, which will feature a real-life former FBI profiler who examines real cases and criminal behavior, aided by clips viewers will recognize from the fictional series.

Lizzy Barber’s acclaimed psychological thriller novel, Out of Her Depth, has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television for series development. Set in the heat of a Tuscan summer, the novel is described as "Patricia Highsmith meets E. Lockhart ... a simmering summer thriller about the choices you make as a teenager, and what happens when they go horribly wrong."

Season 2 of CBS’s FBI: International will welcome a new character played by Eva-Jane Willis following the departure of series lead, Christine Paul. Willis will portray Megan "Smitty" Garretson, a street-wise Europol agent with an extensive undercover background who is embedded with The Fly Team and liaises with each host country they inhabit. Smitty is taking over for Paul’s character, Katrin Jaeger, who bowed out with the Season 1 finale, "Crestfallen," serving as her final appearance—for now. Deadline reported that the door remains open for Katrin to pop back in as a guest star in the future though there are currently no plans set as of yet.

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has commissioned a drama adaptation of Louise Doughty’s psychological thriller novel, Platform 7. It will premiere on ITV’s soon-to-launch streaming service ITVX months before its linear premiere on the main channel. The drama is a haunting thriller following central character Lisa, who, after witnessing a cataclysmic event at a railway station, finds her own fragmented memory jogged to reveal a connection between her own life and that of the event she has just witnessed.

Production companies ConradFilm and Bavaria Fiction are following their German hit, Dark Woods, with a new high-octane police drama franchise titled Sonderlage. Inspired by true events, Sonderlage (a working title whose literal translation is "special situation") focuses on police work in exceptional situations such as terrorist attacks, hostage taking, and high-scale extortion. The show stars Henny Reents alongside Annette Paulmann, Lasse Myhr, Georg Bütow, Banafshe Hourmazdi, Zoë Valks, Frederik Schmid, and Sven Gerhardt.

Hulu's original comedy crime series, Only Murders in the Building, has been renewed for Season 3, the streamer announced last week. The show hails from co-creators and writers, Steve Martin and John Hoffman, and stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. Season 2 picks up following the shocking death of Arconia Board President Bunny Folger in the Season 1 finale. Charles, Oliver and Mabel race to unmask her killer, however, three (unfortunate) complications ensue — the trio is publicly implicated in Bunny’s homicide, they are now the subjects of a competing podcast, and they have to deal with a bunch of New York neighbors who all think they committed murder.

Peacock has ordered a second installment of its true-crime anthology series, Dr. Death, based on the Wondery podcast. The new season will feature the "Miracle Man" storyline, based on the most recent third season of the podcast. Season 2 will revolve around Paolo Macchiarini, a charming surgeon, renowned for his innovative operations that earn him the nickname "Miracle Man." When investigative journalist, Benita Alexander, approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about the "Miracle Man" into question.

Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson star as a therapist and the serial killer client holding him hostage in the newly released trailer for FX and Hulu’s 10-episode limited series, The Patient, which is set to premiere August 30. The chilling clip features earlier sessions between lan Strauss (Carell) and Sam Fortner (Gleeson) as the latter describes his quick temper. What seemingly begins as a routine session with a patient eventually devolves into a nightmare, as Fortner reveals himself to be a serial killer who demands help to curb his homicidal urges.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Gordon Kerr, author of British Traitors: Betrayal & Treachery in the Twentieth Century, stopped by Crime Time FM to chat about the men and women who betrayed their country for money and ideology; The Cambridge spies, Lord Haw Haw, and George Blake; and Kerr's novel, A Partisan Heart.

On the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast, Layne spoke with legendary thriller author, Tess Gerritsen, about the unlikeable female character she just couldn't kill off and the secret to keeping a long-running series feeling fresh.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed A. B. Patterson, an award-winning Australian writer who knows first-hand about corruption, power, crime, and sex as a former Detective Sergeant working in pedophilia and vice. He was later a Chief Investigator with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Harry’s World was his award-winning first book in 2015, followed by the sequel, Harry’s Quest, and the upcoming Harry’s Grail.

On the latest episode of Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson talked about a cold-ish case scenario; civilian jobs in law enforcement; and how arrests made outside of your local jurisdiction are handled.

Queer Writers of Crime featured the third in Laury's series of recommendations of favorite Nordic crime novels.





On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah discussed mysteries that feature all sorts of games.

Speaking of Mysteries featured Glaswegian auctioneer extraordinaire Rilke, who is back with his merry band of pranksters in The Second Cut, Louise Welsh’s follow up novel to her remarkable The Cutting Room.

THEATRE



Following their international tour of The Sign of Four, Blackeyed Theatre will bring a new world premiere stage adaptation of The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's final Sherlock Holmes novel, to theatres across the UK in the fall. In the story, a mysterious, coded message is received warning of imminent danger and draws Holmes and Dr. Watson into a tale of intrigue and murder stretching from 221B Baker Street, to an ancient moated manor house, to the bleak Pennsylvanian Vermissa Valley. Faced with a trail of bewildering clues, Holmes begins to unearth a darker, wider web of corruption, a secret society, and the sinister work of one Professor Moriarty. Adapted by Nick Lane and with original music composed by Tristan Parkes, The Valley of Fear sees Luke Barton and Joseph Derrington reprise their critically-acclaimed roles from Sign of Four as the iconic duo.

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Four and Twenty Bloodhounds

It's easy to underestimate how much Anthony Boucher contributed to the world of crime fiction. In addition to being an author himself, he was a prolific reviewer and critic, a columnist for the New York Times Book Review (more than 850 weekly review columns under the heading "Criminals at Large"), a writer and producer of radio dramas, and president of the Mystery Writers of America. And of course, the mighty Bouchercon conference is named after him.



He also edited several anthologies, including Four and Twenty Bloodhounds, published in 1950. As the title suggests, the work features 24 stories of fictional sleuths, ranging from senator whose hobby is magic to a former cop whose address is Skid Row in San Francisco, to icons like Ellery Queen and Dr. Gideon Fell. Boucher contributed a preface and brief editorial introductions to each story, and each detective is given his only "biography" in the book. As Kirkus Reviews noted, it's "A sure entertainment bet which will be of special interest to the mystery market."



The stories were chosen by Boucher and feature members of the Mystery Writers of America. In addition to Boucher, the authors include Verne Chute; Joseph Commings; W T Brannon; John Dickson Carr; Ken Crossen; Matthew Head; Lillian De La Torre; Harold Q Masur; Frank Kane; Jerome & Harold Prince; James M Fox; Clayton Rawson; D B Olsen; Robert Arthur; Lawrence G Blochman; Stewart Sterling; August Derleth; Ellery Queen; Brett Halliday; Fredric Brown; George Harmon Coxe; Q Patrick; Kelley Roos; and Stuart Palmer.

The majority of the stories were published in magazines between 1942-1947, and there's a nice variety for every taste, from hardboiled pulp thrillers, to traditional detective stories, to suspense tales, and a couple of solve-it-yourself puzzles by Clayton Rawson that feature "the Great Merlini." The Thrilling Detective website has a nice listing of the stories, authors, and detectives represented. Fortunately, the anthology was reprinted in 1985 by Carroll & Graf, so it might be easier to get your hands on a second-hand copy if your local library doesn't have it.

          

Mystery Melange

There's still time to register for the online crime fiction conference, Mystery in the Midlands. For a very reasonable price of only $8, you can watch the keynote as David Heska Wanbli Weiden is interviewed by Hank Phillippi Ryan, and also view panels on short stories, cozies, suspenseful settings, and more. Other authors scheduled to take part include Dana Kaye, Lynn C. Willis, Carla Damron, Alan Orloff, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Joseph S. Walker, Daryl Wood Gerber, Raquel V. Reyes, Abby L. Vandiver, Hallie Ephron, and John Hart.

Noir at the Bar Hillsborough is coming up on July 15 at Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Brew in Hillsborough, NC. Hosted by Tracey Reynolds, there will be readings from Todd Robinson, Rob Hart, SA Cosby, Jamie Mason, William Davis Jr, Colin Cutler, Natania Barron, and Josh Getzler.

On July 21, Potter Auctions will hold their first online-only book sale of the year featuring an array of titles and authors spanning several centuries and categories, including large libraries of hard–boiled fiction. Here's your chance to pick up some collections of works by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ian Fleming, Cornell Woolrich, Robert B. Parker and many, many more.

The New York Times reported that "Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse," which, as they noted, includes more than 300 bookstores that have opened in the past couple of years, a revival that's meeting a demand for "real recommendations from real people."

Strychnine has long been a favorite poison of mystery authors dating back to Agatha Christie, and now a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena have discovered the complete biosynthetic pathway for the formation of strychnine in the plant species Strychnos nux-vomica (poison nut).

We've seen so-called "reality" competition TV shows for just about everything, from sword-making to baking to music performance, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before the trend found its way to books. Kwame Alexander will host America’s Next Great Author, where contestants will enter a writers’ retreat and be given 30 days to write a novel while completing "live-wire" challenges. It is not yet clear what the ultimate prize will be, although Alexander seemed to hint on the promotional video that it may include a publishing deal.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Bad Habits" by Peter M. Gordon.

In the Q&A roundup, the New York Times spoke with Alex Michaelides about how his failed screenwriting career was responsible for him penning the bestselling crime novel, The Silent Patient; CrimeReads chatted with Scottish crime author Denise Mina about Glasgow, podcasters as new generation PIs, and the Florentine "trial by fire" that's never far from mind; and The Guardian interviewed Mick Herron about his Jackson Lamb series, which centers on a group of demoted MI5 agents.

         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

Chris Evans is in final negotiations to join Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, starring opposite Emily Blunt. The story, which is described as tonally similar to American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street, centers on Liza Drake (Blunt), a high-school dropout dreaming of a better life for her and her young daughter. Liz lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical startup in a strip mall in Central Florida. Her charm, guts, and drive catapult the company and her into the high life, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy with deadly consequences. Acclaimed short story and nonfiction writer, Wells Tower, is penning the script.

Disney+ has teamed with Beta Film and Morena Films on an adaptation of the young adult mystery novel franchise, The Invisible Girl (La Chica Invisible) from YA author Blue Jeans, the pen name of Francisco de Paula Fernández González. Daniel Grao and Zoe Stein have landed the leads, playing a father and daughter who must overcome their differences to solve a murder case that has shaken the peaceful lives of the inhabitants of picturesque Cárdena.

Christian Bale stars in the first trailer for David O. Russell’s upcoming film, Amsterdam. The story is set in the 1930s and follows three friends who witness a murder, become suspects themselves, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history. The cast includes Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldaña, and Rami Malek. 20th Century Studios is releasing it in theaters this fall on November 4.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Ben Aaronovitch’s bestselling crime fantasy series, Rivers of London, is to be adapted for television. Rivers of London is part urban fantasy and part police procedural, and centers on Detective Constable Peter Grant. A newly graduated police officer from London, he is recruited in the first book by wizard and inspector, Thomas Nightingale, to the Folly, a police unit working on supernatural crimes.

Stephen Graham (Peaky Blinders) will star in one of the lead roles for the crime drama series, Bodies, for Netflix. The eight-part series is based on Si Spencer’s mind-bending 2015 graphic novel which starts with a murder in Whitechapel. Four different detectives are trying to solve the murder in different time periods: 1890s overachiever Edmond Hillinghead, dashing 1940s adventurer Karl Whiteman, kickass female 2010s Detective Sergeant Shahara Hasan, and Maplewood, an amnesiac from post-apocalyptic 2050, who brings a haunting perspective. Together, the four set out to uncover a conspiracy spanning 150 years.

Showtime’s Your Honor will end after its upcoming second season. Your Honor originated as a limited series but after its breakout ratings success, it was renewed for a 10-episode second season last year. In the series, Bryan Cranston stars as Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge whose teenage son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit, and impossible choices. Season 1, which was based on the Israeli series, Kvodo, created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach, became the most-watched debut season on Showtime ever with 6.6 million weekly viewers.

Ashley Thomas has been cast as the male lead opposite Mia Isaac and Adrienne Warren in Hulu's drama series, Black Cake, with Zetna Fuentes (This Is Us) tapped to direct the pilot episode. Based on the book by Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake is a family drama wrapped in a murder mystery with a diverse cast of characters and a global setting that spans decades. In the late 1960s, a runaway bride named Covey (Isaac) disappears into the surf off the coast of Jamaica and is feared drowned or a fugitive on the run for her husband’s murder. Fifty years later in California, a widow named Eleanor Bennett loses her battle with cancer, leaving to her two estranged children, Byron (Thomas) and Benny (Warren), a flash drive that holds previously untold stories of her journey from the Caribbean to America. These stories shock her children and challenge everything they thought they knew about their family’s origin.

Marc Menchaca has signed on to star alongside André Holland, Don Cheadle, Alessandro Nivola, and Tiffany Boone in the Apple TV+ six-episode limited series, The Big Cigar, centered on Black Panther leader, Huey P. Newton (Holland). The series is based on the eponymous Playboy magazine article by Joshuah Bearman and tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola), the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI. Menchaca is set for the series regular role of Agent Sydney Clark, a former lawyer and Vietnam vet from Oklahoma who lives undercover as a dirty hippie while pursuing Newton, who is wanted on charges of killing a teenage prostitute.

The CW network announced premiere dates for several of its programs. The CW’s new shows, The Winchesters and Walker Independence, will both debut in October. The latter is a Walker spinoff set in the late 1800s, where an affluent Bostonian travels to Independence, Texas, to uncover the truth about her husband’s killer.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The New York Times reported on a new podcast that casts Sherlock Holmes as the villain. Moriarty: The Devil’s Game is a 10-episode audio drama written by Charles Kindinger, which debuted recently on Audible. It stars Dominic Monaghan (best known for playing a hobbit in the Lord of the Rings films and Charlie Pace on Lost) as James Moriarty, Holmes’s nemesis, with Phil LaMarr as Holmes.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring the mystery short story "Nobody Home" by Joseph S. Walker, as read by actor Sean Hopper.

On Crime Time FM, Mark Olshaker (Mindhunter) chatted with Victoria Selman about her thriller, Truly, Darkly, Deeply, serial killers, and profiling the criminal mind.

On the Spybrary podcast, Erich Wagner reviewed the nonfiction book, The Spy Who Changed History, by Svetlana Lokhova, which will especially appeal to readers "with an interest in pre cold war Soviet deep cover espionage."

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed psychologist, science editor, and ABC News contributor, Joanna Schaffhausen, about her series featuring police officer Ellery Hathaway and FBI profiler Reed Markham.

Queer Writers of Crime profiled Knock Off the Hat: A Clifford Waterman Gay Philly Mystery, penned by Richard Stevenson and published after his death of pancreatic cancer at age 83. Stevenson was best known for his Donald Strachey mystery series, which won a Lambda Literary Award.

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Mystery Melange

 

Taiwanese writer Chi Wei-jan has won the Falcon Award from the Maltese Falcon Society in Japan for his debut novel, Private Eyes, making him the first Taiwanese to win the honor. The Falcon Award is presented annually to honor the best hard-boiled mystery novel published in Japan. The Maltese Falcon Society was founded in San Francisco in 1981 based on the 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon by US writer Dashiell Hammett, and although the organization is no longer active in the US, the Japanese chapter has been active since 1982. Past winners include US crime writer Lawrence Block, who has received the award twice, as well as Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, and Don Winslow. This is Chi Wei-jan's second honor in Japan, having won the Honkaku Mystery Award earlier this year.

The 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award finalists were announced in a variety of categories including Best Cozy, Best Historical, Best Investigator, Best Mystery, Best Thriller, and more. Winners will be announced at the conference in Nashville, August 18-21. For the lists of all the finalists, click on over here.

The time remaining to vote for the shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022 is running out. Presented by Harrogate International Festivals, six bestselling authors are competing to win the UK’s most prestigious crime writing prize. Voting closes this Friday, July 8, with the winner to be revealed on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, July 21. The winner will receive a £3,000 prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Some sad news to report this week: British crime novelist, Susie Steiner (1971-2022), passed away following a three-year battle with glioblastoma brain tumor. Steiner was author of the Sunday Times bestselling Manon Bradshaw trilogy, with installments in that series being chosen as a Richard & Judy book club pick, a standout book by the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and NPR, and also shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. Susie had also written extensively about losing her eyesight to Retinitis Pigmentosa while living with her husband and two children in London.

Writing for Book Riot, Dee Das compiled a list of "8 Feminist Cozy Mysteries You Need To Read Right Away."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "The Husnock" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Writers Who Kill featured an interview with Jennifer J. Chow, author of Death by Bubble Tea, the first book in the new L.A. Night Market mystery series; over at the Venetian Vase blog, Steve Powell chatted with Jill Dearman about her new novel, Jazzed, which delivers a twist on the famous Leopold & Loeb case from the 1920s – what if the two killers were women?; and Kellye Garrett interviewed Cheryl Head about her new novel, Time’s Undoing, which follows a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago, a story inspired by the author’s own family history.

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Ned Kelly Award Shortlists Announced

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards. The annual honors have been handed out annually since 1996 for excellence in crime fiction by Australian authors and are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious recognition. Congratulations to all this year's nominees!

 

Best debut crime fiction

Sweet Jimmy (Bryan Brown, A&U)
Shadow Over Edmund Street (Suzanne Frankham, Journey to Words Publishing)
Cutters End (Margaret Hickey, Penguin)
Banjawarn (Josh Kemp, UWA Publishing)

Best true crime

The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
Larrimah (Caroline Graham & Kylie Stevenson, A&U)
Banquet: The untold story of Adelaide’s family murders (Debi Marshall, Vintage)
A Witness of Fact (Drew Rooke, Scribe)

Best international crime fiction

Case Study (Graeme Macrae Burnet, Text)
The Heron’s Cry (Ann Cleeves, Macmillan)
The Maid (Nita Prose, HarperCollins)
Cry Wolf (Hans Rosenfeldt, HarperCollins)

Best crime fiction

The Enemy Within (Tim Ayliffe, S&S)
The Others (Mark Brandi, Hachette)
You Had it Coming (B M Carroll, Profile Books)
The Chase (Candice Fox, Bantam)
Kill Your Brother (Jack Heath, A&U)
The Family Doctor (Debra Oswald, A&U)
The Deep (Kyle Perry, Michael Joseph).

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The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has anno...

The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlist for the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards. The annual honors have been handed out annually since 1996 for excellence in crime fiction by Australian authors and are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious recognition. Congratulations to all this year's nominees!

 

Best debut crime fiction

Sweet Jimmy (Bryan Brown, A&U)
Shadow Over Edmund Street (Suzanne Frankham, Journey to Words Publishing)
Cutters End (Margaret Hickey, Penguin)
Banjawarn (Josh Kemp, UWA Publishing)

Best true crime

The Mother Wound (Amani Haydar, Macmillan)
Larrimah (Caroline Graham & Kylie Stevenson, A&U)
Banquet: The untold story of Adelaide’s family murders (Debi Marshall, Vintage)
A Witness of Fact (Drew Rooke, Scribe)

Best international crime fiction

Case Study (Graeme Macrae Burnet, Text)
The Heron’s Cry (Ann Cleeves, Macmillan)
The Maid (Nita Prose, HarperCollins)
Cry Wolf (Hans Rosenfeldt, HarperCollins)

Best crime fiction

The Enemy Within (Tim Ayliffe, S&S)
The Others (Mark Brandi, Hachette)
You Had it Coming (B M Carroll, Profile Books)
The Chase (Candice Fox, Bantam)
Kill Your Brother (Jack Heath, A&U)
The Family Doctor (Debra Oswald, A&U)
The Deep (Kyle Perry, Michael Joseph).

         Related StoriesKiller ThrillersCrimefest GarlandsCWA Dagger Shortlists Announced 

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

Paramount Pictures is set to remake the acclaimed South Korean crime thriller, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, with original star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) reprising his lead role as a gang boss looking for redemption. Lee is also part of the producer team that includes Sylvester Stallone and Braden Aftergood under their production banner, Balboa Productions. The original film centered on the fierce and feared gang boss, Jang Dong-su (Lee), who barely survives a violent attack by an elusive serial killer. With his reputation damaged, the only way for Jang to restore his image is to find the attacker and exact revenge. He thus forms an unlikely partnership with a local detective to catch the sadistic criminal simply known as "K."

Grindstone Entertainment Group has acquired North American rights to the crime drama, One Day as a Lion, written by and starring Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0), from Roxwell Films. The project is currently in production in Oklahoma and boasts an all-star ensemble that also includes Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons, Frank Grillo, Michael Carmen Pitt, Marianne Rendón, Taryn Manning, and Virginia Madsen. The story centers on Jackie Powers (Caan), who is down on his luck and desperate to save his son from juvenile delinquency, a fate he knows all too well. Jackie handles collections for Dom Lorenzo (Pitt) and mob outfit boss Pauly Russo (Grillo). When he fails to collect from  local cowboy legend, Walter Boggs (Simmons), he finds himself on the run with waitress-turned-hostage, Lola Brisky (Rendón). Forging an unlikely alliance, Jackie poses as Lola’s fiancé in the hopes of satisfying the will of her terminally ill, serial divorcee mother, Valerie (Madsen), to finance Lola’s new life and a criminal defense lawyer for Jackie’s son.

Chris Pratt is in talks to star in and reteam with the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War) on Electric State, an adaptation of the illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag. Millie Bobby Brown is already attached to star, with Avengers writing duo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, penning the script. Set in an alternative future, Electric State centers on a teenage girl (Brown) who realizes that a strange but sweet robot has been sent to her by her missing brother. She and the robot set out to find the brother in an imaginative world of humans mixing with robots, uncovering a grand conspiracy in the process.

Reba McEntire will star with fellow Reba alum, Melissa Peterman, in The Hammer, a Lifetime movie inspired by the life of traveling circuit judge, Kim Wanker. McEntire’s real-life partner, Rex Linn (CSI: Miami), and Kay Shioma Metchie (Totally Normal) also star. Per the logline, the film follows Kim Wheeler (McEntire), an outspoken, firecracker lawyer who is appointed Judge of the 5th District of Nevada and is one of the few traveling judges left in America. After the reigning judge dies under suspicious circumstances, Kim finds herself covering a circuit that stretches between Las Vegas and Reno—a rugged, often desolate area where anything and everything can happen. With gavel in hand, she lays down the law with a no-nonsense brand of justice, that quickly earns her the nickname "The Hammer." As the investigation of the former judge’s death heats up, Kim’s sister Kris (Peterman), who runs the local brothel, suddenly becomes the prime suspect, and Kim must work even harder to make certain the appropriate justice is served.

James Bond producer, Barbara Broccoli, has revealed that it will be "at least two years" before the next 007 movie begins filming, and that the task of finding an actor to replace Daniel Craig hasn’t begun. Broccoli said, "Nobody’s in the running. We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time.”

Searchlight Pictures released a trailer for the whimsical murder mystery, See How They Run, starring a detective duo played by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan. The film opens in theaters Sept. 30. The first footage introduces viewers to Rockwell’s seasoned Inspector Stoppard and Ronan’s rookie Constable Stalker. The pair team up to solve a murder most foul in London’s West End theater district during the 1950s, investigating the seedy underbelly of England’s glamorous of artists and turning over a litany of brash, creative suspects. David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, and Ruth Wilson also feature in prominent roles.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Magnum P.I. has been saved after a deal was struck with NBC for new episodes of the action drama starring Jay Hernandez, following its cancellation by CBS last month. The twenty episodes will be split into two seasons with an option for more. Now that an agreement on the order has been reached, the cast is being picked up and finalizing deals to return for the new seasons. Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Tim Kang, and Amy Hill starred alongside Hernandez in the CBS series. Showrunner Eric Guggenheim is also expected to return.

The BBC has greenlit a second season of the whodunnit thriller, Sherwood, immediately after the conclusion of the first. Starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Sherwood is a murder mystery six-parter inspired by events that took place in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up. The second series will once again take inspiration from the pit villages and surrounding towns, continuing the theme of examining the lives and legacy of those governed by Britain’s industrial past and especially the mid-1980s miner’s strikes that rocked the nation.

CSI fan favorite, Wallace Langham, will join HBO’s Perry Mason in the second season, recurring as Melville Phipps, a Los Angeles native and attorney for a very wealthy oil baroness. Here’s the logline for season 2 of the drama that stars Matthew Rhys in the title role: "Months after the end of the Dodson trial, Perry's (Matthew Rhys) moved off the farm, [and] he’s even traded his leather jacket for a pressed suit. It’s the worst year of the Depression, and Perry and Della (Juliet Rylance) have set the firm on a safer path pursuing civil cases instead of the tumultuous work that criminal cases entail. Unfortunately, there isn’t much work for Paul (Chris Chalk) in wills and contracts, so he’s been out on his own. An open-and-closed case overtakes the city of Los Angeles, and Perry’s pursuit of justice reveals that not everything is always as it seems."

Ravi Patel is set to recur in the FX limited series, Justified: City Primeval in the role of Rick Newley. The series is a spinoff of FX’s hit Justified and is inspired by the Elmore Leonard crime novel, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. Seven years following the end of Justified, the limited series returns to once again follow U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (played by original series star Timothy Olyphant) after he left Kentucky for his new home base in Miami. The new series will find Raylan balancing life as a marshal and part-time father of 14-year-old Willa, who will be played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian. A chance encounter on a Florida highway sends him to Detroit where he crosses paths with Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent sociopath who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and wants to do so again. Other previously announced cast members include Aunjanue Ellis, Adelaide Clemens, Vondie Curtis Hall, Marin Ireland, Victor Williams, and Norbert Leo Butz.

Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Paul Dano have joined the cast of Prime Video’s TV reboot of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, although their roles are being kept under wraps. They join previously announced Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, who star in the title roles in the series from Amazon Studios. The project is a reboot of New Regency’s 2005 Doug Liman-directed action comedy film that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple who are surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.

Scandinavia’s leading streamer, Viaplay, has ordered End of Summer, a psychological thriller based on Anders de la Motte’s bestselling Swedish novel of the same name. Jens Jonsson (Young Wallander) and Henrik Georgsson (The Bridge) are on board to direct the series, with Björn Carlström and Stefan Thunberg (Wallander) as head writers. The show opens on a summer evening in 1984 when a 5-year-old boy vanishes in rural southern Sweden. The police investigation fails to find the truth, leaving behind rumors, suspicion, and a grieving family. Twenty years later, the boy’s older sister Vera is leading a group therapy session in Stockholm, when a young man describes a strangely familiar childhood memory of a disappearance. A shaken Vera travels home to her fractured family to uncover, once and for all, what really happened in the summer that never ended.

Marc Cherry’s anthology series, Why Women Kill, will not get a third installment, after all. The Paramount+ drama was renewed for a third season in December and was firming up its lead cast with big-name actors in negotiations to star when the decision was made to axe the program. The abrupt decision on the eve of production is surprising as Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount+ Original Scripted Series, touted the series’ strong Season 2 performance in the Season 3 renewal announcement, revealing that it ranked "within the top 10 series on Paramount+ in terms of both overall engagement and new subscriber acquisition." Set in 1949, Season 2 explored what it means to be beautiful, the hidden truth behind the façades people present to the world, the effects of being ignored and overlooked by society, and the lengths one woman will go in order to finally belong. Each season of the series featured a different set of characters, with the first installment starring Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny were interviewed by CBS News about their co-authored thriller, State of Terror.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with graphic novelist and crime writer, Fabian Nicieza, whose latest novel is The Self-Made Widow.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah talked about mystery and suspense reads to keep Pride alive all year long.

On the Queer Writers of Crime podcast, David S. Pederson, Lev Raphael, and Brad Shreve offered suggestions for your reading pleasure.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, special guest co-host, Colin Conway, joined regular host, Frank Zafiro, for part two of an interview with Mark Bergin, who talked about his short story work and his stint at teaching. Also, there were book recommendations for your summer reads from a number of previous guests.

Jack Lutz chatted with CrimeTime FM host, Paul Burke, about his new novel, London in Black; dystopian murder mysteries; London's past; thriller pace; Cleopatra's Needle; and a guest appearance by Jack's Mum's cat.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Edith Maxwell, writer, blogger, and long-time member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). She's the author of several cozy mystery series, including the Agatha-winning historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast series featured an Independence Day story by an award-winning writer for the Las Vegas Sun who made his fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories. Just in time for July 4th, Michael Grimala reads from his story "A Trunk Full of Illegal Fireworks," from the July/August 2021 issue of EQMM.

All About Agatha interviewed Ruth Ware about her new psychological crime thriller out this summer, which may be "her most Christie-ish yet." 

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Dagger Delights

The 2022 winners of the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honor the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced. Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century. The Dagger awards ceremony was held at the Leonardo City hotel in London this evening. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

 

DIAMOND DAGGER - CJ Samsom

GOLD DAGGER - Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Also nominated:

Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz (Little, Brown; Sphere)
azorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group; Headline)
The Unwilling, John Hart (Bonnier Books UK Ltd; Zaffre)
The Shadows of Men, Abir Mukherjee (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
The Trawlerman, William Shaw (Quercus; riverrun)

 

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER - Dead Ground, MW Craven (Little, Brown; Constable)

Also nominated: 

Find You First, Linwood Barclay (HarperCollins; HQ)
The Pact, Sharon Bolton (Orion)
The Devil’s Advocate, Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
Razorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group)
Dream Girl, Laura Lippman (Faber)

 

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER - The Appeal, Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper Books)

Also nominated: The Appeal, Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper Books)

Welcome to Cooper, Tariq Ashkanani (Thomas & Mercer)
Repentance, Eloísa Díaz (Orion Publishing Group; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The Mash House, Alan Gillespie (Unbound; Unbound Digital)
here Ravens Roost, Karin Nordin (HarperCollins; HQ)
How to Kidnap the Rich, Rahul Raina (Little, Brown)
Waking the Tiger, Mark Wightman (Hobeck Books)

 

HISTORICAL DAGGER - Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)

Also nominated:

April in Spain, John Banville (Faber)
row Court, Andy Charman (Unbound)
Not One of Us, Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
Edge of the Grave, Robbie Morrison (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan)
A Corruption of Blood, Ambrose Parry (Canongate Books)

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER - Hotel Cartagena, Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)

Also nominated:

Bullet Train, Kōtarō Isaka translated by Sam Malissa (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
Oxygen, Sacha Naspini translated by Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions UK Ltd; Europa Editions)
People Like Them, Samira Sedira translated by Lara Vergnaud (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)
The Rabbit Factor, Antti Tuomainen translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

 

SHORT STORY DAGGER - ‘Flesh of a Fancy Woman’ by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)

Also nominated:

‘Blindsided’ by Caroline England in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
‘London’ in The Jealousy Man and other stories by Jo Nesbⱷ edited by Robert Ferguson (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
‘With the Others’ by TM Logan in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)
‘Changeling’ by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
‘When I Grow Up’ by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION - The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice, Julia Laite (Profile Books)

Also nominated:

The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, Dr Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne (Faber)
The Dublin Railway Murder, Thomas Morris (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
The Unusual Suspect, Ben Machell (Canongate Books)
mpire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe (Pan Macmillan; Picador)
The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire, Julie Kavanagh (Atlantic Books; Grove Press UK)

 

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY - Mark Billingham

Also nominated:

Cath Staincliffe
Edward Marston
Lin Anderson
Susan Hill

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER - Faber & Faber

Also nominated:

HarperCollins; Harper Fiction
Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph
Pushkin Press; Pushkin Vertigo
Titan Books
Profile Books; Viper

 

DEBUT DAGGER - The 10:12, Anna Maloney

Also nominated:

Henry’s Bomb, Kevin Bartlett
Holloway Castle, Laura Ashton Hill
he Dead of Egypt, David Smith
The Dieppe Letters, Liz Rachel Walker