B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 70

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

A new adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, based on the Alan Moore graphic novels, is in the works at 20th Century Studios. The film will be written by Justin Haythe, who wrote the Jennifer Lawrence spy thriller, Red Sparrow. The new incarnation will be faithful to the original graphic novel, which involves famous fictional characters like Allan Quatermain, Mina Harker from Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Henry Jekyll, Fu Manchu, Captain Nemo, and Professor Cavor teaming up to thwart a deadly attack on London from the air in Victorian times. The original 2003 film was the last appearance of Sean Connery on the big screen.

A new Ocean’s Eleven film starring Margot Robbie is in "active development" at Warner Bros., with four-time Emmy winner Jay Roach looking to direct the project. Deadline reported that the film, scripted by Carrie Solomon, will be set in Europe in the 1960s, but further details with regard to its plot are being kept under wraps. Warner Bros. is eyeing a production start in spring of 2023.

Saban Films has taken global rights to the John Travolta and Stephen Dorff feature, American Metal. Writer and first-time feature director Nicholas Maggio’s film tells the story of a desperate and struggling family man who robs a pill mill. However, when the theft turns violent, he finds himself hunted by both the police and the Dixieland mafia. Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Benson, and Kevin Dillon also star.

Dree Hemingway is the latest addition to the cast of Yale Entertainment’s darkly comedic thriller, The Kill Room, from writer Jonathan Jacobson and director Nicol Paone. She joins an ensemble that also includes Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke, Debi Mazar, and Larry Pine. The Kill Room centers on hitman, Reggie (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson), an art dealer (Thurman) and their money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld. Hemingway will portray Anika, the owner of a successful art gallery that rivals Thurman’s.

Malin Åkerman is set to star alongside Jack Donnelly, Wayne Gordon, Nicole Bartlett, Celine Arden, and Sam Cassidy in the action-thriller, Us Or Them. Directed by Tom Paton (Black Ops), the film is written by Nicole Bartlett from a story by Paton. The story follows childhood best friends Jude (Donnelly) and Andy (Gordon) who are enjoying a luxury holiday won on a mobile game app. While there, they agree to play another game despite the foreboding caveat that once the game begins, they must play to the end. As the game progresses, the penalties for disagreement escalate along with the prize money. The pair soon realize that failure to agree will have dire consequences not just for them, but also for their family members.

Netflix has greenlit A Day and a Half, a Swedish action film directed, written, and starring Chernobyl and Westworld 's Fares Fares. The story follows Artan (Alexej Manvelov) and Louise (Alma Pöysti), a divorced couple on an emotionally charged road trip where Artan holds Louise hostage in order to reunite with his daughter. The journey takes them through rural Sweden during a hot summer with police officer Lukas (Fares) on their heels. One Netflix executive called it "an intimate story about loss, lies, betrayals, love, prejudice and family."

Fate of the Furious alum, Scott Eastwood, will return to the Fast & Furious franchise as part of the cast of Fast X. He joins an ensemble that also includes Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Michael Rooker, Daniela Melchior, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Ludacris, and Cardi B, as previously announced. Eastwood will reprise his role as Little Nobody, the right-hand man of Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody, who helped Dominic Toretto (Diesel) track down cyberterrorist Cipher (Theron) in the franchise’s eighth film, Fate of the Furious, released in 2017. Whether Russell will also return to the franchise is not yet clear

Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro, along with Scott Eastwood and John Leguizamo. are set for the action movie, Tin Soldier, which begins filming next week in Greece. Tin Soldier tells the story of "The Bokushi" (Foxx), who preaches to hundreds of veterans who have been drawn to the promise of protection and purpose under him. Surrounded by his devout military-trained followers, he has built an impenetrable fortress and amassed an arsenal of weapons. After several failed infiltration attempts, the government – in the form of military operative Emmanuel Ashburn (De Niro) – recruits Nash Cavanaugh (Eastwood), an ex-special forces asset, who was once a disciple of The Bokushi. Nash agrees to use his vulnerable past and insider knowledge of the enigmatic leader to finally get revenge on the man who took everything from him, including the love of his life.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO has renewed Barry for a fourth season. Production will begin in Los Angeles in June, with series star Bill Hader directing all eight episodes. Barry follows the misadventures of the titular character, a hired assassin who dreams of becoming an actor. The more he tries to move away from L.A.’s seedy underbelly, the deeper it consumes him — and affects everyone around him. In Season 3, Barry is fully committed to untangling himself from the murder business to follow his passion to act full time. But that proves to be a job in and of itself because he knows too much. The cast also includes Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Michael Irby, Anthony Carrigan, and Sarah Goldberg.

Hulu has acquired the rights to the graphic novel, A Calculated Man, and is in the early stages of developing a series based on the crime story, which is set to be published in June. Peter Calloway, exec producer on HBO’s The Nevers and co-exec producer on Freeform’s Marvel series Cloak & Dagger and FX’s Legion, has signed to write and serve as showrunner on the project. The comic comes from writer Paul Tobin (Bunny Mask) and artist Alberto Albuquerque (The Amazing Spider-Man) and is a math-inspired crime series that follows Jack Beans, an accountant living in a witness protection program after betraying his former employers, the Pinafore crime family. After three years, Jack decides to reclaim his old life. What follows is a journey full of murder, mayhem and mathematics.

AMC has thrown its hat into the ring of video game adaptations, with a series based on the action-adventure game, Alan Wake. Published by Microsoft Studios, the game follows thriller novelist, Alan Wake, who seeks to uncover the truth behind his wife’s mysterious disappearance in the fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington. While investigating, Alan finds key events from his latest work coming to life.

James D’Arcy is set to star alongside Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks in Constellation, an eight-episode conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series at Apple TV+. Oscar-nominated Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) and Joseph Cedar (Footnote) are set as directors on the series, joining previously announced director/EP Michelle MacLaren. Created and written by Peter Harness (The War of the Worlds), Constellation stars Rapace as Jo, a woman who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. The action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology, one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel, and her efforts to recover all that she has lost.

Lupita Nyong’o has exited Lady In The Lake, Apple TV+’s limited series adaptation of Laura Lippman’s book. Nyong’o was to star and executive produce alongside Natalie Portman, who remains in the series. The project is currently in production and a search is underway for a new actress to take over her role. The limited series takes place in '60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother, Maddie Schwartz (Portman), to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist. That decision sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood, a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Maahra Hill, who played the title role in the OWN series, Delilah, has been tapped as the female lead opposite Jesse L. Martin in NBC’s drama pilot, The Irrational. Written by Arika Mittman, The Irrational is based on bestselling author Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational. The show follows Alec Baker (Martin), a world-renowned professor of behavioral science, who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, law enforcement, and corporations with his unique and unexpected approach to understanding human behavior.

 

Amazon Prime Video’s Alan Ritchson-fronted series, Reacher, will see a familiar face as Maria Sten returns for the second season, reprising her role of Frances Neagley. Here’s the logline for Season 2, which will be based on Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in Lee Child’s Reacher series: "When the members of Reacher’s old military unit start turning up dead, he has just one thing on his mind—revenge." 

Last week, Fox announced the bulk of its programming slate for 2022-23 but not a fall schedule, although the network indicated it would soon be forthcoming. The lineup will include the return of 9-1-1 Lone Star and the mob drama, The Cleaning Lady; the new crime anthology series Accused, from Homeland and 24 producers, Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, and House creator, David Shore; and also Alert, the character-driven police procedural about the LAMPU, the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing person’s unit.

Reba McEntire has joined Big Sky, David E. Kelley’s ABC drama, as a series regular for the upcoming third season. McEntire will play Sunny Brick, the mercurial matriarch of the Brick Family, a successful backcountry outfitter with a secret history of missing customers. McEntire will join new series regular cast members Jensen Ackles, who guest-stars in the upcoming Season 2 finale and will continue his role as Beau Arlen in Season 3, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who recurred as Tonya in Season 2 and was promoted to series regular for the upcoming season. Based on the books by C.J. Box,  Big Sky follows private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and her former partner, Undersheriff Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick), as they investigate local crimes, taking on drug syndicates, notorious kidnappers, crime dynasties, and more along the way.

Yasha Jackson is set as a lead opposite Michaela McManus in ABC’s national parks drama pilot from Rashad Raisani and A+E Studios. Written and executive produced by Raisani, the as-yet-untitled drama revolves around the tangled, messy lives of the agents who work for the ISB — an elite law-enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in our country’s 81,000 square miles of protected land. Jackson will play Tiffany, a brassy, funny Park Service Agent and helicopter pilot. She's also fellow Park Service Agent Audrey’s (McManus) close friend.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "Death on the Rocks," written by Guy Belleranti and read by actor Larry Mattox.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club celebrated their patrons by letting them run the show and tell us about their favorite books.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah discussed mysteries featuring some kind of time or inter-dimensional travel.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed A.M. Adair, an active duty Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Navy and author of action-packed spy/military thrillers. Her latest novel, Shadow War, was published in March.

Queer Writers of Crime's Laury recommended the first novel in a grim psychological series by Val McDermid.

Wrong Place Write Crime chatted with Neely Tucker about his Sully Carter novels and his career as a journalist.

My Favorite Detective Stories interviewed Brooklyn-born dancer and author, Lori Robbins, whose debut novel, Lesson Plan for Murder: A Master Class Mystery, won the Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery and was a finalist in the Readers’ Choice and Indie Book Awards.

Crime Time FM welcomed authors Caz Frear and William Shaw to discuss procedurals, the rise of the armchair detective, and riding in Peter James's police car.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Anthony Award Nominees

Bouchercon 2022 has announced the Anthony Award Nominations. Congratulations to all the honorees!

 

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Albert Gate Mystery

Louis Tracy (1863-1928) was born in Liverpool to an upper middle class family and educated at the French Seminary at Douai. Although he led a relative life of leisure, he also joined the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and earned a full certificate for a captaincy by the age of 18, an unusual feat for the time. He turned his hand to journalism in 1884, writing for several newspapers and even worked his way up to part-ownership of the The Evening News before selling his share. He is said to have used some of the proceeds to run 23 soup kitchens during the depression-style winter of 1894, using some of those glimpses of poverty first-hand in his later novels.



His first published work of fiction was a patriotic, somewhat propagandistic war-themed title, The Final War, which appeared as a serial from 1895 to August 1896 in Pearson's Weekly. After a visit to America for research, Tracy was due to write another serial for Pearson's, but fell ill. The publication drafted M. P. Shiel to help finish the work, which began a decades-long occasional, and sometimes prickly, collaboration between the two men. Tracy went on to publish prolifically, with some 80 or more books and numerous short stories, essays and articles, under his own name and the pseudonyms Gordon Holmes and Robert Fraser.



Tracy's fiction often featured American characters, a ploy to make it easier to sell his books on both sides of the Atlantic. This led to some head-scratching plotting such as setting The House of Peril in New York, even though it included a number of Tracy's familiar English detectives. In the revised English edition of 1924, (retitled The Park Lane Mystery), he reset the story in London. Tracy's strange love-hate relationship with his own country also led to pronouncements such as his comment to the Sunday Times that "American readers are better educated than the English," leading the reporter to sniff, "at least he writes novels about this country without the usual blunders of foreign writers."



The Albert Gate Mystery from 1904, is actually set in London and features one of Tracy's regular protagonists, amateur detective Barrister Reginald Brett. The plot hinges around priceless imperial diamonds sent by the Sultan of Turkey to London, to be cut in the heavily-guarded Albert Gate mansion by experts under the protection of the British government. However, four Turkish officials are found dead in the house, and the diamonds disappear. The leading culprit is Jack Talbot, a young secretary at the Foreign Office who was overseeing the endeavor and also disappeared without a trace the evening of the murders.



Brett reads about the events in the morning newspaper, detailing the high-ranking Turkish gentry, servants, guards, and fourteen expert Dutch diamond-cutters who have been detained at Scotland Yard, and how "the greatest living authority on toxicology" was among several medical personnel consulted. Brett's interest is piqued, but he doesn't get pulled into the mystery until the arrival of Lord Fairholme. It seems Fairholme's fiancee, Edith Talbot, refuses to marry him until her brother—who also happens to be the suspect Jack Talbot—is found and proved innocent.



Brett's investigation has him chasing diamond thieves through England, France and Sicily with the somewhat-antagonistic help of Scotland Yard detective Winter, as well as royal messenger Captain Gaultier, Lord Fairholme and Edith. Along the way, the sleuth (who is described as brash, fearless, handsome, brilliant, a human dynamo and both "the smartest criminal lawyer in London" and "the cleverest analytical detective of the age") dons disguises and wades through political intrigue, treason among thieves, and a spirited horse-carriage chase scene, before the denouement.



The character of Brett was compared to Sherlock Holmes during Tracy's day, although one reviewer said that "Mr. Reginal Brett is perhaps a trifle too Sherlockian in his rapid conclusions, although unlike the incomparable Holmes, he does not always permit his admiring audience to follow step by step in his course of reasoning." Brett has also been called a precursor of Lord Peter Wimsey, but as entertaining as he is at times, the writing and character aren't quite in the same league as Holmes and Wimsey.



There are some laugh-out-loud dated bits, too, such as "Brett expected to see a young, pretty and clever girl, vain enough to believe she had brains" (although the woman in question, Edith, turns out to be a fierce heroine in her own right). There are also some homages to other detective icons in the book, such as the small bust of Edgar Allan Poe in Brett's home and how he has adopted the French method of "reconstituting" the incidents, no doubt a nod to Vidocq, the founder and first director of the crime-detection Sûreté Nationale as well as the head of the first known private detective agency.

          

Mystery Melange

Morten Hesseldahl's thriller, Mørket under isen (The Darkness Under the Ice), has won this year's Harald Mogensen Prize, a Danish literary award for detective novels awarded by the Danish Criminal Academy (Det danske Kriminalakademi, or DKA). The prize was founded in 2006, first awarded in 2007, and is named after Danish author, editor, journalist, and critic Harald Mogensen, who was awarded The Danish Criminal Academy diploma in 1993.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announced this year’s Bram Stoker Awards winners at its first in-person ceremony since before the pandemic. Stephen Graham Jones won the award for Superior Achievement in a Novel for My Heart is a Chainsaw, a story of murder in small-town America where a broken young girl uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. The title was also named named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR. Check out all of this year's Bram Stoker winners here.

In celebration of Pride, hosts Jeffrey Round and Hope Thompson will present Queer Noir at the Bar, an evening of queer crime fiction readings on June 8 in Toronto. Authors include Nairne Holtz, Jared Mitchell, Caro Soles, Felice Picano, Doug Schmidt, and a reading by actor Greg Campbell of Greg Kramer’s bestselling mystery novel, The Pursemonger of Fugu. Books will also be available for purchase and signing.

Kate Mosse, Richard Osman, and Dorothy Koomson are among authors appearing at the UK's Capital Crime Festival from September 29th to October 1st in Battersea Park. The program launched this week at Goldsboro Books, and was co-organized by bookshop owner and agent David Headley. Also confirmed to appear are Peter James, Mark Billingham, Robert Harris, S A Cosby, Jeffrey Archer, Anthony Horowitz, Charlie Higson, Jeffery Deaver, Lucy Foley, Bella Mackie, Ragnar Jónasson, Paula Hawkins, Reverend Richard Coles, Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, Ben Aaronovitch, and former President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Judge Lady Hale, in conversation with Harriet Tyce. A full schedule of panel talks will be announced later in the summer. As part of the event, the Fingerprint Awards – which recognizes the best titles in the genre, voted for by readers – will be announced, with nine awards presented.

International Literary Properties (ILP) has acquired three new literary estates including majority interests in the estates of Dame Ngaio Marsh and Ann Rule. Marsh was one of the four original "Queens of Crime" writers who dominated the genre in the 1920s and 30s (along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L. Sayers) and is best known for her series with Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Rule was a true crime writer known for her bestselling debut book on serial killer Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, published in 1980, the year of his conviction. ILP works with managers of literary estates and individual heirs to help realize the value from book and play-based intellectual property, working closely with award-winning TV, film and stage producers across the world.

The Summer issue of Mystery Scene is out, with a cover feature on Deon Meyer, often called the King of South African Crime Writing; Oline Cogdill provided a guide to mystery-themed cookbooks, as well as a tasting menu of ten delicious new culinary crime novels; Hank Phillippi Ryan assembled a panel of authors, screenwriters, agents, and showrunners to give insights into the fascinating Hollywood process of how an adaptation successfully goes from the page to the screen; Craig Sisterson interviewed author Tara Moss about her historical WWII-era novels, as well as her work as an award-winning human rights and disability advocate; plus Ellen Byron, Susan Van Kirk, Kathleen Kaska, and Gary Lovisi offered "My Book" essays on their new work.

The May edition of Mike Ripley’s Shots column, "Getting Away with Murder," profiled new releases from Tom Bradby (Yesterday’s Spy); Anthony Horowitz (With a Mind to Kill); Peter Morfoot (Essence Of Murder); Chris Pavon (Two Nights In Lisbon); William Shaw a/k/a G.W. Shaw (Dead Rich); and Jo Spain (The Last to Disappear). He also focused a spotlight on his current televisual binge watch, "an utterly delightful, thoughtful and light-hearted crime drama set in sun-drenched Sicily," about a Palermo family in 1979 who come to realize, mostly through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, just how much of a grip the local mafia has on all aspects of everyday life.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Conversion" by Pamela Hobart Carter.

In the Q&A roundup, Indie Crime Scene interviewed Michael D. Graves, author of the Pete Stone Private Investigator series; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with David Adams Cleveland about his historical espionage novel, Gods of Deception, which has the judge in the notorious Alger Hiss case asking his grandson years later to help him figure out if Hiss was really guilty or innocent; and Nicola Upson, author of Dear Little Corpses, shared seven things she'd like her readers to know with Female First magazine.

         Related StoriesMystery MelangeMedia Murder for Monday 

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

Cinedigm has acquired North American rights to the CIA thriller, MK Ultra, starring Anson Mount, Jaime Ray Newman, and Jason Patric, scheduling it for release in theaters and on VOD this fall. The film is inspired by the true story of the illegal drug experimentation program, Project MKUltra, which the CIA established during the early 1960s. That program was a means of developing procedures and using drugs like LSD to weaken individuals in interrogations, forcing confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. The film will follow the brilliant psychiatrist Ford Strauss (Mount), who finds his professional and ethical boundaries tested as he is recruited to run a subset of the program at a rural Mississippi mental hospital.

Neon, the Oscar-winning studio behind Parasite, has acquired U.S. rights to Mothers’ Instinct, a psychological thriller starring Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway. The project is a remake of the 2018 critically acclaimed Belgian film, Duelles, by director Olivier Masset-Depasse, who will also direct the English-language remake of his film. As the official logline reads, "Set in the early '60s, best friends and neighbors Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway) both live an idyllic traditional lifestyle with manicured lawns, successful husbands, and sons of the same age. Life’s perfect harmony is suddenly shattered after a tragic accident. Guilt, suspicion and paranoia combine to unravel their sisterly bond and a psychological battle of wills begins as the maternal instinct reveals its darker side."

Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi wrote and will direct the feature adaptation of John Valliant’s book, The Tiger, in which Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winner Alexander Skarsgård will star alongside Dane DeHaan. Set in snowy far east Russia in the late 90s, the feature follows a group of men — referred to as the Tiger Team — who work to protect endangered tigers from poachers and logging operations. The story follows Vanzin (Skarsgård), the Team’s leader whose sense of duty is tested when he’s charged with hunting down and exterminating a tiger that killed a poacher in self-defense. DeHaan will portray Kanchuga, a young environmental scientist and newest member of the Team.

Mads Mikkelsen will star in the new action-thriller, The Black Kaiser, based on the Dark Horse graphic novel series by Victor Santos. In the story, Mikkelsen will play The Black Kaiser, the world’s most lethal hitman, who uncovers a deadly conspiracy protecting a powerful syndicate of killers and becomes their number one target.

Ralph Fiennes has signed up to lead the conspiracy thriller, Conclave, with John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini also joining the cast. The film, written by Peter Straughan and based on Robert Harris’s novel of the same name, will be directed by Edward Berger. The story is set following the death of the Pope, when the reluctant Cardinal Lomeli is tasked with overseeing the group of Cardinals from across the globe responsible for selecting a new leader for the Church. But as the political machinations inside the Vatican intensify, he realizes that the departed Pope had kept a secret from them that he must uncover before a new Pope is chosen.

Liam Neeson is set to star in the thriller, Thug, reuniting with his Cold Pursuit director, Hans Petter Moland. Thug revolves around an aging San Pedro gangster (Neeson) who attempts to reconnect with his children and rectify the mistakes in his past. But the criminal underworld won’t loosen its grip willingly. Tony Gayton (Hells on Wheels) wrote the screenplay. 

Better Call Saul actress, Kerry Condon, is joining Liam Neeson and Ciarán Hinds in the thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners. Set in a remote Irish village, Neeson will play a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. The screenplay comes from Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane, with revisions by Matthew Feitshans.

Daisy Ridley and Shazad Latif are set to star in Magpie, a contemporary noir thriller based on an original idea from Ridley that was written by Tom Bateman. Award-winning British theater talent Sam Yates will make his feature directorial debut. The film follows a couple whose lives are thrown into disarray when their daughter is cast opposite a controversial major star. 

Luis Gnecco, Claudia Ramírez, and Juan Manuel Bernal will lead the upcoming thriller, Confessions. The film, from award-winning writer-director Carlos Carrera, sees a young child from an affluent Mexico City family go missing. At night, hours after the disappearance, a man arrives at the family home to discuss the child’s return. The terms are not monetary, rather a confession from one family member that has committed a terrible act. One by one, confession by confession, the intruder exposes each family member—unveiling their deepest, shocking secrets.

Reacher breakout star, Alan Ritchson, is in talks to join Fast X, the 10th installment of the "Fast and Furious" franchise, which will open in theaters May 19, 2023. Vin Diesel and the core cast are returning alongside franchise newcomers Jason Momoa and Brie Larson. Justin Lin and Dan Mazeau co-wrote the script. Reacher, based on the books and character by Lee Child, was renewed for a second season, and Amazon recently inked Ritchson to a three-picture deal.

FBI: Most Wanted actor, Kellan Lutz, has been set to star in the thriller, Palido. Lutz will play an attorney with a military past who hunts down the gang that killed his wife and brother and took his daughter. Javier Reyna (Regionrat) is directing from his original screenplay. The crime thriller is due to start principal photography on July 11 in the state of Washington, with additional casting underway.

Glen Powell and Adria Arjona have signed on to star in the upcoming action-comedy, Hitman, from Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater (Boyhood). Written by Linklater and Powell, the film is based on a true story and has Powell starring as the most sought-after, albeit least trustworthy hitman in Houston. If you pay him to rub out a cheating spouse or a sadistic boss, you’d better watch out: he works for the cops. When he breaks protocol to help a desperate woman (Arjona) trying to get away from an abusive boyfriend, he finds himself living the life of one of his false personas, falling for the woman and flirting with becoming a criminal himself.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

It's upfront season again, when the television networks make decisions on series cancellations and renewals and also which pilots will move forward. ABC has ordered The Rookie spinoff, The Rookie: Feds, to series, with Niecy Nash-Betts starring as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The mysteries of Big Sky will also continue at ABC, which has renewed the David E. Kelly series for season three. The series stars Kylie Bunbury and Katheryn Winnick, with Jensen Ackles, who guest starred in the season two finale, joining the cast as a series regular. Not going forward is ABC's L.A. Law sequel, which saw Blair Underwood reprising his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins, but the finished pilot is being shopped to other outlets.

In the already announced new ABC series, Will Trent, Sonja Sohn has been set as a lead opposite Ramón Rodríguez. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series, Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. Sohn will play Amanda, the head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Will’s (Rodriguez) boss.

CBS’s program announcements included news that the  FBI franchise will be continuing to solve crimes for the next few years after the network handed all three shows a two-season pick up. FBI will return for its fifth and sixth seasons; FBI: Most Wanted comes back for a fourth and fifth; and FBI: International gets picked up for its second and third seasons. It is the network’s latest bumper renewal order, having given The Equalizer a two-season pickup last week. CBS has also given series orders to three of its five drama pilots including Fire Country about an ex-con turned firefighter; the police procedural East New York, headlined by Amanda Warren and Jimmy Smits; and the mother-son legal drama, So Help Me Todd, starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin.

It took an extra day but True Lies was also officially picked up by CBS to series. The project is a reboot of James Cameron’s hit 1994 action comedy movie and will star Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga in the roles made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Magnum PI wasn't as lucky, with CBS announcing the show starring Jay Hernandez will end after its current fourth season. Aside from Bull, which announced in January that its current sixth season will be its last, Magnum P.I. is the most established CBS series to be canceled this season. As a Top 25 show in total viewers, it also may also be the most watched broadcast series to get the axe this upfront season. As Deadline noted, as a reboot of the 1980s drama, which starred Tom Selleck, the new Magnum P.I. was a rare broadcast drama with a Latino lead.

Over at NBC, Law & Order has been renewed for Season 22 and Law & Order: Organized Crime for Season 3. The original "mothership" series returned from a 12-year-hiatus for its 21st season this year, with Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson reprising their roles as D.A. Jack McCoy and Detective Kevin Bernard, respectively. The revived series also stars Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy, and Odelya Halevi. NBC previously renewed Law & Order: SVU as part of a three-year renewal for what will be its 24th season, extending its record as the longest-running primetime live-action series of all time, and making it three-for-three for the Dick Wolf series. 

 

The CW network also announced its fall season, which includes the Walker origin story, Walker: Independence. Starring Matt Barr and Katherine McNamara, the prequel is set in the late 1800s and follows Abby Walker (McNamara), an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams, all while becoming agents of change themselves in the small town.

Emmy winner Archie Panjabi is set to star opposite Idris Elba in the Apple thriller series, Hijack. Told in real time, the seven-part Hijack follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba plays Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try to save the lives of the passengers. Panjabi portrays Zahra Gahfoor, a counter terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation. 

The upcoming HBO and Channel 4 drama, Get Millie Black, has set Tamara Lawrance as the lead. With shooting beginning this week in Jamaica, the six-part detective drama has also rounded out its cast with Game of Thrones star Joe Dempsie joining and Tanya Hamilton set to direct. Lawrance will play ex-Scotland Yard detective Millie Black, who returns to Kingston to work missing persons cases for the Jamaican Police Force and soon finds herself on a quest to save a sister who won’t be saved, to find a boy who can’t be found, and to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as she is.

BBC One’s hugely popular drama, Silent Witness, celebrates its 25th series with the dramatic return of Amanda Burton as Sam Ryan. The longest-running crime drama currently airing on TV returns with six new episodes, opening in Liverpool with an assassination attempt and Sam Ryan calling on the Lyell team with a plea for help seventeen years after leaving the Lyell. Sam seeks to usher in democratic health care, but the shooting of the Health Secretary and Sam’s husband pulls Dr. Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), Jack Hodgson (David Caves), and Simone Tyler (Genesis Lynea) into a world of duplicity, intrigue, and betrayal.

Left Bank Pictures and Netflix have set Sean Teale as the male lead in their new Spain-set series Palomino (working title). Teale joins lead Evin Ahmad in the eight-part thriller series set in the suburbs of Barcelona. Ahmad plays British teacher, Erin Carter, who is caught up in a brutal supermarket robbery and finds her life threatening to unravel as one of the robbers claims to recognize her. Teale will play Erin’s Spanish husband, Jordi, who works as a nurse at the local hospital. As the series progresses, Jordi starts to question his past, as well as his marriage.

Australian author, Dervla McTiernan, whose last two novels were international bestsellers, has optioned The Murder Rule, a thriller novel being published this month, to FX. The book focuses on an idealistic law student, who is an outsider to her peers. Working with her elite campus’s prestigious Innocence Project represents the high point of everything she’s sacrificed for, but in a twisted mother/daughter story, she soon reveals that underneath her do-gooder image lie rules pounded into her by mom—including "make them pay." 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed P. David Ebersole to discuss his debut novel, 99 Miles From L.A., which was inspired by the song of the same title written by Hal David and Albert Hammond—and sung by everyone from Hammond to Julio Iglesias to Art Garfunkel, although it’s Johnny Mathis’s take that inspired Ebersole and consequently the novel.

On Spybrary, Jeff Quest welcomed Otto Penzler to share stories from his many years of collecting books and meeting spy fiction authors. They discussed stories about Eric Ambler, Charles McCarry, John le Carré, and many more, as well as Penzler's meeting with Len Deighton, how Ross Thomas nearly lost out on a million dollars, and a shocking revelation about a piece by Quiller writer Adam Hall.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Franz Zafiro, chatted with Emmeline Duncan about her Portland-based cozies.

My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, spoke with Edwin Hill, author of the critically-acclaimed Hester Thursby mystery series, the first of which, Little Comfort, was an Agatha Award finalist, a selection of the Mysterious Press First Mystery Club, and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selection. 

Queer Writers of Crime discussed the news that when ReQueered Tales obtained the rights to Grant Michael's Stan Kraychik series, they never expected to come upon an unpublished 7th novel in the series. That novel, Do-Si-Do with Death, will be published later this month.

Nicola Upson chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her novel, Dear Little Corpses; Josephine Tey and Margery Allingham; WWII and Golden Age crime; the Hitchcocks and Gielguds; not so cozy emotions; and the fun of writing.

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Crimefest Garlands

CRIMEFEST, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, has announced the winners of its annual awards at a gala banquet this evening. Now in its 15th year, the awards honored the best crime books released in 2021 in the UK.

This year also saw the Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama named in honor of Proctor, a CrimeFest team member and a much-loved figure in the world of crime fiction, who sadly died earlier this year. The award is decided by public vote from a longlist of the forty-three programs broadcast on British television in the last year that were based on a crime book. Ann Cleeves won the inaugural prize for Shetland, beating out a shortlist that included Anthony Horowitz for Alex Rider; M.C. Beaton for Agatha Raisin; and James Runcie for Grantchester.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

 

Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award 

WINNER: David Heska Wanbli Weiden for Winter Counts (Simon & Schuster)

Other finalists:

Abigail Dean for Girl A (HarperCollins)

Janice Hallett for The Appeal (Viper)

Saima Mir for The Khan (Point Blank)

Rahul Raina for How to Kidnap the Rich (Abacus)

Lara Thompson for One Night, New York (Virago)

Audible Sounds of Crime Award 

WINNER: Richard Osman for The Man Who Died Twice, reader Lesley Manville (Penguin Random House Audio)

Other finalists:

Lee and Andrew Child for Better Off Dead, reader Jeff Harding (Penguin Random House Audio)

Abigail Dean for Girl A, reader Holliday Grainger (HarperFiction)

Paula Hawkins for Slow Fire Burning, reader Rosamund Pike (Penguin Random House Audio)

Lisa Jewell for The Night She Disappeared, reader Joanna Froggatt (Penguin Random House Audio)

Liane Moriarty  for Apples Never Fall, reader Caroline Lee (Penguin Random House Audio)

K.L. Slater for The Marriage, reader Lucy Price-Lewis (Audible Studios / Bookouture)

Karin Slaughter for False Witness, reader Kathleen Early (HarperCollins)

H R F Keating Award

WINNER:  Patricia Highsmith (edited by Anna von Planta) for Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Other finalists:

Lucy Andrews & Samuel Saunders (editors) for The Detective’s Companion in Crime Fiction: A Study in Sidekicks (Palgrave Macmillan)

Richard Bradford for Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith (Bloomsbury Caravel)

James Fleming (editor) for Bond Behind the Iron Curtain (The Book Collector)

Carla Valentine for Murder Isn’t Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie (Little, Brown Book Group)

Stephen James Walker for Hank Janson Under Cover (Telos Publishing Ltd)

Last Laugh Award

WINNER:  Mick Herron for Slough House (Baskerville)

Other finalists:

Simon Brett for An Untidy Death (Severn House)

Andrea Camilleri for Riccardino (Mantle)

Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May: London Bridge is Falling Down (Doubleday)

Janice Hallett for The Appeal (Viper)

Antti Tuomainen for The Rabbit Factor (Orenda Books)

eDunnit Award 

WINNER:  Abigail Dean for Girl A (HarperCollins)

Other finalists:

Megan Abbott for The Turnout (Virago)

Gianrico Carofiglio for The Measure of Time (Bitter Lemon Press)

Michael Connelly for The Dark Hours (Orion Fiction)

Cath Staincliffe for Running Out of Road (Constable)

Andrew Taylor for The Royal Secret (HarperCollins)

Best Crime Novel for Children (ages 8-12) 

WINNER:  M.G. Leonard for Twitch (Walker Books)

Other finalists:

Frank Cottrell-Boyce for Noah’s Gold (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Maz Evans for VI Spy: Licence to Chill (Chicken House)

Anthony Horowitz for Nightshade (Walker Books)

Anthony Kessel for The Five Clues (Crown House Publishing)

Jennifer Killick for Crater Lake Evolution (Firefly Press)

Alexandra Page (illustrator: Penny Neville-Lee) for Wishyouwas (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc)

Ella Risbridger for The Secret Detectives (Nosy Crow)

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (ages 12-16)

WINNER:  Angeline Boulley for Firekeeper’s Daughter (Rock the Boat)

Other finalists:

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé for Ace of Spades (Usborne Publishing)

Andreina Cordani for The Girl Who… (Atom)

William Hussey for The Outrage (Usborne Publishing)

Holly Jackson for As Good As Dead (Electric Monkey)

Patrice Lawrence for Splinters of Sunshine (Hodder Children’s Books)

Jonathan Stroud for The Outlaws of Scarlett & Browne (Walker Books)

C.L. Taylor for The Island (HQ)

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CWA Dagger Shortlists Announced

The 2022 shortlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honor the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced at a reception hosted at CrimeFest today. 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 will be held at the Leonardo City hotel in London on 29 June, coinciding with National Crime Reading Month, which takes place throughout June.

GOLD DAGGER

Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz (Little, Brown; Sphere)
Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)
Razorblade 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

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)
Dead Ground, MW Craven (Little, Brown; Constable)
Dream Girl, Laura Lippman (Faber)

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

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

HISTORICAL DAGGER

April in Spain, John Banville (Faber)
Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)
Crow 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)
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

‘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)
‘Flesh of a Fancy Woman’ by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
‘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 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)
The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice, Julia Laite (Profile Books)
Empire 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

Cath Staincliffe
Edward Marston
Lin Anderson
Mark Billingham
Susan Hill

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

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

DEBUT DAGGER Sponsored by ProWritingAid

Henry’s Bomb, Kevin Bartlett
Holloway Castle, Laura Ashton Hill
The 10:12, Anna Maloney
The Dead of Egypt, David Smith
The Dieppe Letters, Liz Rachel Walker

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: One Night's Mystery

May Agnes Fleming (1840-1880) was one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction, reportedly earning $10,000 a year, a princely sum at the time. Her work became so popular that many of her novels were re-issued under different titles, often due to piracy. Her first book was published in her adopted state of New York in 1963, titled Erminie or The Gypsy's Vow: A Tale of Love and Vengeance. Using several pen names, including Cousin May Carleton and M.A. Earlie, she published several serial tales in the New York Mercury, the New York Weekly, the Boston Pilot and the London Journal (and set several of her books in England).



She wrote somewhere around 40 novels and would have written more if she hadn't died prematurely from Bright's Disease at the age of 39. Despite her literary success, she struggled in her personal life, separating from her alcoholic husband and ultimately excluding him from her will and the upbringing of their four children. This misfortune didn't break her but rather may have inspired the many strong female characters in her novels, both good and evil.



One Night's Mystery follows the lives and loves of three young women: Cyrilla Hendrick, the daughter of handsome, penniless, scoundrel; her best friend, Sydney Owenson, a naive heiress; and Dolly De Courcy, a spirited actress. Both Cyrilla and Sydney are engaged, although things aren't as they seem in either case. Sydney's gold-digging fiancé is besotted with Dolly, while Cyrilla's is arranged through her aunt, whom Cyrilla calls "the crossest, spitefulest old woman on earth." The one night's mystery of the title refers to the disappearance of Sydney's fiancé the day before her wedding, but did he run off with Dolly or was he murdered?



One Night's Mystery was first serialized in New York Weekly and the London Journal before being published in book form by G.W. Carleton in 1876, toward the end of Fleming's life. It is a prime example of the type of work Fleming wrote, romantic suspense with a few Gothic elements thrown in. Her writing style is direct, her characters simple but reasonably well fleshed out, and the complicated relationships between the characters thorny and entertaining, if a tad melodramatic.



Despite the melodrama, Fleming does insert moments of poetic descriptions that are especially effective with settings, such as this one about the grim street that houses the dull and respectable Demoiselles Chateauroy school for young ladies (where Cyrilla and Sydney met):

There were no shops, there were no people; the houses looked at you as you passed with a sad, settled, melancholy mildew upon them; the doors rarely opened, the blinds and curtains were never drawn; prim little gardens, with prim little gravel-paths, shut in these sad little houses from the street; now and then a pale, pensive face might gleam at you from some upper window, spectre-like, and vanish.

          

Mystery Melange

Warren Easley was announced as this year's recipient of the annual Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award, for his book, No Witness (Poisoned Pen Press). The Spotted Owl Award was established in 1995 and is given to the best mystery novel of the year by an author who lives in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, British Columbia, Canada, Idaho, Oregon or Washington). Previous winners have included Bill Cameron, Robert Dugoni, Earl Emerson, G.M. Ford, Dana Haynes, Mike Lawson, Phil Margolin, and Jon Talton. The other finalists this year were (in order) Robert Dugoni, Martin Limon, Dana Haynes, John Straley, Valerie Geary, Michael Niemann, Marc Cameron, Dana Stabenow, and Amy Stewart.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has announced the list of finalists for the 2022 Maine Literary Awards. This list was derived from over 400 submissions featuring the work of Maine authors, either full-time or part-time seasonal residents. The winners will be announced at a ceremony held at 7 p.m. on May 24 at SPACE in Portland. The contenders in the Crime Fiction category this year include Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn; Jule Selbo,10 Days: A Dee Rommel Mystery; and Caitlin Wahrer, The Damage.

If you happen to be in Dallas tonight, check out Dallas Noir Fest, which kicks off with a panel discussion tonight, moderated by Robert Wilonsky and featuring authors Johnathan Brownlee, Harry Hunsicker, Steve Stodghill, and Paul Coggins. There will also be showings of iconic noir films like Chinatown, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and more, including Reservoir Dogs with special guest Michael Madsen, who played the unforgettable sadistic ex-con in the film but is also a talented producer, director, writer, photographer, and poet.

Capitol Crimes is sponsoring an in-person Killer Workshop this Saturday, May 14 in Rancho Cordova, California. The keynote speaker is Gregg Hurwitz. Other special guests include: authors Dr. Ellen Kirschman, Cara Black, Simon Wood, Eileen Rendahl, Claire Booth, Kris Calvin, James L'Etoile, and Quan Huynh; Ryan Nickel, Crime Scene Lead from the Sacramento Crime Lab; Cover Artist Karen Phillips from Phillips Covers; and District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who will be live streaming about closing the groundbreaking 40-year-old Golden State Killer case using genetic genealogy. The registration deadline for this event is today, which you can do so via this link.

On May 21 from 6.30pm-8pm, Barnet Libraries Literary Festival in the UK will present an evening with four bestselling female crime fiction authors including Erin Kelly (The Poison Tree); Heidi Amsinck (My Name is Jensen); Caz Frear (Sweet Little Lies); and C J Tudor (The Chalk Man) discussing their most recent books. There will also be a Q&A session and book signing to follow.

In honor of the Crime Writers Association's National Crime Reading Month in the UK, Louise Phillips, Dublin’s CWA National Crime Reading Month Ambassador, will be in conversation on June 1 with bestselling author of the Lottie Parker series, Patricia Gibney. There will also be readings from Fiona Sherlock, EV Kelly, and Paul McNeive.

Dean Street Press is republishing the works of golden age crime novelist, Alice Campbell, beginning June 6th. They'll be reissuing the first ten of her mysteries initially, with the remainder to follow next year. As the publisher noted, the novels are "not merely excellent detective stories, but atmospheric works of suspense, many set in France." This is their first time these novels have been in print for over seventy years, and are prefaced by an introduction from crime fiction historian, Curtis Evans. Campbell (1887-1955) came originally from Atlanta, Georgia, where she was part of the socially prominent Ormond family, before she moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and quickly became a socialist and women’s suffragist. She later moved to Paris, marrying the American-born artist and writer, James Lawrence Campbell, and ultimately to England just before World War One. Campbell wrote crime fiction until 1950, though many of her novels continued to have French settings. She published her first work (Juggernaut) in 1928 and published nineteen detective novels during her career.

Climate change is bringing a whole host of problems that countries and local jurisdictions will have to deal with, but there's another strange side effect: as water levels drop to historic levels in Lake Mead near Las Vegas, bodies in barrels are being found in the reservoir. Geoff Schumacher with The Mob Museum in Las Vegas predicts more bodies will be found and some may be linked to organized crime. "A barrel has a signature of a mob hit," he said.

Speaking of crime, this is the definition of karma.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "The Purge" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, Connie Berry spoke with E. B. Davis about her fourth Kate Hamilton mystery, where American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton uncovers a dark secret buried in Victorian England; Kirstyn Petras chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new political thriller, The Next Witness; Joanna Penn interviewed Angela Marsons about writing a successful crime thriller series; Chris Holm, author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, the Michael Hendricks thrillers, and thirty-odd short stories in a variety of genres, stopped by Author Interviews to talk about his new standalone biological thriller, Child Zero; and D V Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo series set in Florence (shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and longlisted for both the CWA Gold Dagger and Historical Dagger), spoke with Shots Magazine's Ayo Ontade.

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Author R&R with Brian Lebeau

Brian Lebeau was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, home of the infamous Lizzie Borden. After being awarded an "A" in high school English once and denied a career in music for "lack of talent" repeatedly, he taught economics at several colleges and universities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island before moving to Fauquier County, Virginia, to work as a defense contractor for two decades. In his debut psychological thriller, A Disturbing Nature, Mr. Lebeau merges three key interests: a keen fascination with everything World War II, a morbid curiosity surrounding the motivations and mayhem of notorious serial killers, and a lifelong obsession with the Red Sox. 

A Disturbing Nature is set in the summer of 1975, when FBI investigator Francis Palmer believes that after the Vietnam War ended, so did his troubles. But the serial killer who strikes a southern New England town is like nothing he's ever seen. Mo Lumen—a young man perpetually stuck with the mental and emotional capacity of an 11-year-old due to a childhood accident—is the main suspect. Abandoned by the Great Society and sheltered from the counter-cultural revolution, he'd been forced to leave Virginia under the shadow of secrets and accusations. But as Palmer digs deeper, their intertwining lives blur the lines between fact and conjecture, truth and justice, man and monster. In war, you can identify your enemy. At home, it could be anyone.

Sitting down with In Reference to Murder for a little Author R&R (Reference and Research), Brian discusses the challenges and unique aspects of conducting research for a psychological thriller about a fictional serial killer from nearly fifty years ago.

 

My novel, A Disturbing Nature, is a psychological thriller in the strictest sense—with questions swirling around, and inside the minds of, a mysterious young man who arrives in Rhode Island just before the killing begins, raising suspicion that he may be the predator lurking in the woods, and an equally enigmatic FBI Chief Investigator tasked with hunting the monster down. While the primary storyline concerns a serial killer, and many significant serial killers from that time (called mass murderers before 1980) are referenced, the mystery unfolds with reduced emphasis on graphic violence and explicit sex, relying more on the resultant trauma. Yes, the story involves sexual themes, and, yes, there are violent crimes committed, but these unfold in such a way as to explore the psychological impact on the chief investigator and the newly arrived young man as they are drawn irresistibly together, though neither fully understands why.

The central theme concerns the thin line between man and monster, so I focused primarily on the psychological profiles of the hunter and hunted and the evolution of their thought processes as they react to distractions and disturbances. In addition to a long-time interest in true-crime documentaries, I leveraged heart-to-heart discussions with family and friends throughout my years as a professor of economics, a defense contractor, and CEO of a mid-sized firm. I also spent a great deal of time researching psychological profiling from the early-to-mid 1970s, as well as modern psychological studies. Combining all this with deep introspection into the darkest recesses of my own mind, I was able to develop a cast of fictional characters that couldn't be further apart intellectually, socially, or professionally. This afforded me an opportunity to explore the human psyche at the extremes and all the space in between. The result is a mystery with very realistic characters—individuals that could be living next door in your rural community, urban high rise, or even college townhouse. Compelling the audience to witness the transformation of a character's thoughts is intentional, evoking empathy and inviting the reader to speculate how similar circumstances in their past might have altered their mindset and motivations—the hallmark of a psychological thriller—because the scariest monsters usually hide in our own closets. 

Historical accuracy is paramount in a period piece. Having A Disturbing Nature unfold in late summer and early fall 1975 created several challenges, including: weaving in significant social, political and cultural events, infamous serial killer investigations, accurate weather, and sports-related history. Fortunately, gathering historical information today is much easier than back in 1975, so my team and I allocated countless hours to online research, scouring websites like farmersalmanac.com, baseball-reference.com, and vault.fbi.gov, among many others. There's no doubt that online information is an author's first source of data, though the information can vary a great deal, so verifying through multiple sources, when possible, is required. 

But online information only provides statistics and landmark references. It does not provide the ambience, flavor or authenticity associated with actually experiencing the locations and extrapolating backwards to the past either through experience or second-hand knowledge. I was eleven when the Red Sox and Reds battled in the 1975 World Series and saw the world through the eyes of an idealistic youth teetering on the edge of puberty. Raised in Fall River, where Massachusetts nestles along the Rhode Island border, I lived in several locations between my hometown and Worcester, Massachusetts while attending graduate school in my mid-twenties, so I'm very familiar with the geography, even back to that time. Additionally, I taught at Bryant College, now Bryant University, in Smithfield, Rhode Island—a key setting in A Disturbing Nature. Using old family photographs and a historical postcard collection of the area allowed me to put together a strong overall picture of central Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts at that time. 

In the novel, A primary location for flashbacks and memories is Fauquier County, Virginia, where I lived for a dozen years while working in the D.C. area. During that time, I engaged in the small, rural community by managing youth baseball, coaching grade school basketball and joining civic organizations. I got to know the people—their joys, sorrows, and fears—and I visited the places—from the beauty of the countryside vistas to the hardship of natural disasters—experiencing perfect summer days and blessed fall foliage, along with historic snowstorms and a flood of biblical proportions. Along the way, I uncovered some of the past in the hallowed battlefields, haunted meadows, and historic town centers, finding, as with any community, if you scratch the surface, you'll unearth dirt (maybe red clay) as anywhere else. In truth, Fauquier County is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, an almost idyllic environment that compels one to wonder what well-kept secrets are masked in the landscape and what proverbial sins are washed away by the waters of the Rappahannock River.

Armed with history, geography, and first-hand experience, I dusted off a shoebox full of memories and self-medicated with an appropriate dose of cynicism before finally sitting down to write A Disturbing Nature. After selling my interest in a company to enjoy an early, if premature, retirement, I assembled a small team under the label "Tangent Inspired Stories" to assist with story layout, research, and editing. Now, a little more than four years later, we have nearly a dozen novels in the works, and we expect to release two per year starting in 2023. Our four-person Tangent team has been together from the company's inception, and has made a number of research trips for A Disturbing Nature, its sequels, and future novels. Destinations have included: China, Australia, Belize, Guatemala, much of New England, Virginia, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

While the countless hours of online research and extensive travel are crucial to make a story accurate and plausible, nothing enables a writer to transport the reader quite like personal experience. Specifically, for A Disturbing Nature, I found tapping into childhood memories and emotions through the disenchanted eyes of an adult proved both challenging and cathartic. But writing in the psychological thriller genre demands a heightened awareness of one's own psyche via extensive internalized research and introspection. For, only when we become familiar with the beast inside ourselves, do we have less to fear from the demons that haunt us.

 

To find out more about Brian Lebeau, you can visit his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. A Disturbing Nature is available via Books Fluent and can be purchased through Amazon in print, eBook, and audio formats, or directly from brianlebeauwriter.com.

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