B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 72

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

Filming is underway in County Donegal, Ireland, on the thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, starring Liam Neeson as a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. The headliners also include Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) and Kerry Condon (Better Call Saul). The rest of the cast, recently announced, includes Colm Meaney (The Banker), Jack Gleeson (Game Of Thrones), Desmond Eastwood (Normal People), Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful), Conor MacNeill (The Fall), Seamus O’Hara (Game of Thrones), Valentine Olukoga (Unforgotten), and Mark O’Regan (Blood).

True Blood star Joe Manganiello has joined Oscar winner Samuel L. Jackson and Oscar nominee Uma Thurman in the upcoming dark comedic thriller, The Kill Room. Principal photography is set to begin this spring in New Jersey and New York on the movie, which will chart the story of a hitman (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson), and an art dealer (Thurman) whose money-laundering scheme accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight avant-garde sensation, forcing Thurman’s character to play the art world against the underworld. The project is written by Jonathan Jacobson and will be directed by Nicol Paone.

Garret Dillahunt (Ambulance) is the latest addition to the cast of the action-thriller, Red Right Hand, from brother directors Ian and Eshom Nelms (Fatman). He joins an ensemble that also includes previously announced actors Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell, and Scott Haze. Written by Jonathan Easley, the project follows Cash (Bloom), who is trying to live an honest and quiet life, taking care of his niece Savannah in the Appalachian hills of Odim County. When the sadistic Queenpin "Big Cat" (MacDowell), who runs the town, forces him back into her services, Cash learns he’s capable of anything—even killing—to protect the town and the only family he has left. As the journey gets harder, Cash is drawn into a nightmare that blurs the lines between good and evil. Dillahunt will portray "Wilder," an ex-addict turned preacher who acts as an advisor and protector to Cash and his family, and struggles to contain his violent nature.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Luther star Idris Elba will turn hostage negotiator in a tense thriller drama series for Apple TV+. The seven-part Hijack is the first production from Elba and his Green Door Pictures first-look deal with Apple TV+ struck in July 2020. Elba will play Sam Nelson, an accomplished business negotiator forced to use his guile to save the lives of passengers onboard a hijacked plane making its way to London. Criminal creator George Kay is writing the film, with Jim Field Smith directing.

CBS has set up a writers room for the drama, The Great Game, led by the project’s co-writers/executive producers John Hlavin (The Man Who Fell to Earth) and Matthew Newman (Chicago PD) with the goal of generating multiple scripts for a potential straight-to-series order. In The Great Game, inspired by an unpublished novel of the same name by Newman, a washed-up but charming British spy is reluctantly recruited out of retirement by a bright-eyed, tech-savvy, female CIA agent, giving him a shot at redemption as he re-learns the modern, ruthless game of international espionage.

PBS Distribution has taken North American rights to the upcoming ITV detective drama, Ridley, which stars Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar. Currently filming in northern England, the show follows retired police officer Ridley who resumes his partnership with former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh) to solve complex murder cases.

The Bridge screenwriter, Camilla Ahlgren, has created a European crime drama series about the head of a group solving cold cases in Sweden. Production was greenlighted on Fallen, which will star The Bridge lead actress Sofia Melin as Iris Broman, the new head of the Kalla Fall. Due to a tragedy, she moves from Stockholm to the southern town of Ystad to live with her half-sister Kattis (Hedda Stierstedt), where a cold case becomes topical again and turns everything upside down, intertwining the lives of several people. 

Erika Christensen has been cast as the female lead opposite Ramón Rodríguez in ABC’s drama pilot, Will Trent, from 20th Television. Written by Liz Heldens and Dan Thomsen, the pilot is based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series. The story centers on Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system, and is now determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was. Christensen will play Angie, a detective with the Atlanta Police Department who struggles with addiction and has yet to confront the dark traumas of her childhood.

BAFTA-nominated Leila Farzad and Broadchurch’s Andrew Buchan are to lead BBC One’s Better. Farzad will play DI Lou Slack, a quick-witted policewoman whose success lies on a foundation of deceit and corruption. Buchan plays Col McHugh, a charming businessman and property developer who heads a city-wide drug trafficking gang. The show, from Humans scribes Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, tells of the pair’s bond set in a world where they have created their own version of "right" and "wrong." Also joining the cast are Samuel Edward-Cook (Peaky Blinders), Zak Ford-Williams (Wolfe), Ceallach Spellman (Cold Feet), Carolin Stoltz (Liar), Anton Lesser (Killing Eve), and Olivia Nakintu (Vera).

A new FX drama is returning Jeff Bridges to action for a seven-episode season of the series, The Old Man, which begins on Thursday, June 17 on FX, with streaming available the next day on Hulu. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry, The Old Man centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. With Dan Chase flushed out of hiding, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Harold Harper (John Lithgow), is called on to hunt him down because of his complicated past with the rogue fugitive. Working alongside Harper is his protégé, Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat), and CIA Special Agent, Raymond Waters (E.J. Bonilla). When Chase proves to be more difficult to apprehend than the authorities expected, Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe), a highly trained special ops contractor, is sent to pursue him.

Apple TV+ released the first trailer for its upcoming bilingual drama series, Now & Then, starring Rosie Perez, Manolo Cardona, Marina de Tavira, José María Yazpik, Soledad Villamil, and Maribel Verdú, among others. Three of the eight episodes will be released on May 20 with the remaining episodes dropping weekly every Friday through June 24. Set in Miami, Now & Then follows a group of college best friends whose lives are forever changed after one of them ends up dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining 5 are forced to reunite after a threat puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk. Perez portrays Flora, a detective obsessed with an unresolved case from 20 years ago, who will stop at nothing to discover the truth. Her partner Sullivan (Željko Ivanek) helps to keep Flora from getting into too much trouble.

AMC released the trailer for the upcoming Western noir, Dark Winds. The original series, based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee books by Tony Hillerman, will premiere Sunday, June 12 on AMC and AMC+. Created and executive produced by Graham Roland (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan), the series is set in 1971 on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley and follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) of the Tribal Police as he is besieged by a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. The closer he digs to the truth, the more he exposes the wounds of his past. He is joined on this journey by his new deputy, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). Together, the two men battle the forces of evil, each other, and their own personal demons on the path to salvation. Dark Winds also stars Jessica Matten, Noah Emmerich, Deanna Allison, and Rainn Wilson.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "A Confluence in Time," by Reavis Wortham, read by actor Ian Jones.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club headed to Malice Domestic to offer one last look at the nominees for the Agatha Awards that will be given out at the banquet on April 23rd.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Libby Fischer Hellman discussed her mystery novels as well as historical novels.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Michael Craven, author of three crime novels, including The Detective and the Pipe Girl, and a finalist for the Shamus Award for best P.I. novel of the year.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah reminisced about their favorite debuts by mystery authors.

The latest Queer Writers of Crime episode welcomed author Laury A. Egan to the team to offer book recommendations. She started off with a thriller by Anne Holt who Val McDermid says, "...is the latest crime writer to reveal how truly dark it gets in Scandinavia."

On the latest Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson complained about his least favorite bureaucratic paperwork and then talked about fatal hit-and-run investigations and suspect extraditions.

The All About Agatha podcast interviewed Gillian Gill, author of Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries.

Crime Time FM featured Aussie crime fiction with authors Chris Hammer and Emma Viskic as they discussed the appeal of Outback Noir, aka Southern Cross Crime, aka Dingo Noir.

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Agatha Accolades

The annual Malice Domestic Conference handed out its annual Agatha Awards last night. Named for Agatha Christie, the awards celebrate mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre, i.e. "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie...loosely defined as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore or gratuitous violence, and are not classified as "hard-boiled." Congratulations to all of the 2022 winners!

Best Contemporary Novel: Cajun Kiss of Death by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)

Also nominated:

Watch Her by Edwin Hill (Kensington)

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Symphony Road by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best Books)



Best Historical Novel: Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins)

Also nominated:

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington)

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

The Devil's Music by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)



Best First Novel: Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley)

Also nominated:

The Turncoat's Widow by Mally Becker (Level Best Books)

A Dead Man's Eyes by Lori Duffy Foster (Level Best Books)

Murder in the Master by Judy L. Murray (Level Best Books)

Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane Books)



Best Short Story: "Bay of Reckoning" by Shawn Reilly Simmons in Murder on the Beach (Destination Murders)

Also nominated:

"A Family Matter" by Barb Goffman (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Jan/Feb 2021)

"A Tale of Two Sisters" by Barb Goffman in Murder on the Beach (Destination Murders)

"Doc's at Midnight" by Richie Narvaez in Midnight Hour (Crooked Lane Books)

"The Locked Room Library" by Gigi Pandian (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine July/Aug 2021)



Best Non-Fiction: How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America by MWA with editors Lee Child and Laurie R. King (Simon & Schuster)

Also nominated:

The Combat Zone: Murder, Race, and Boston's Struggle for Justice by Jan Brogan (Bright Leaf Press)

Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)

The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge, and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England by Julie Kavanaugh (Atlantic Monthly Press)



Best Children's/YA Mystery: I Play One on TV by Alan Orloff (Down & Out Books)

​Also nominated:

Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur (Fiewel and Friends/Macmillan)

Leisha's Song by Lynn Slaughter (Fire and Ice/Melange Books)

Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer (Wednesday Books)

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Dagger Longlists 2022

 

The Crime Writers Association Dagger Longlists were announced this evening at the CWA Gala Dinner which took place during the annual Crime Writer's Association Conference in the UK. Celebrated since 1955, the prestigious Dagger Awards celebrate the very best in crime writing. Dagger shortlists will be announced on May 13 at CrimeFest in Bristol, with the winners celebrated at a live gala event on June 29 in London.  

The Dagger in the Library

Ben Aaronovitch
Lin Anderson
Mark Billingham
Susan Hill
Edward Marston
Kate Rhodes
Cath Staincliffe
Rebecca Tope
Sara Sheridan

The Dagger for the Best Crime & Mystery Publisher

Faber & Faber 
Harper Fiction 
Mantle 
Michael Joseph 
Point Blank 
Pushkin Vertigo 
Quercus 
Raven Books 
Thomas & Mercer 
Titan Books 
Viper

The CWA Short Story Dagger

The Clifton Vampire by T E Kinsey  
With the Others by T M Logan 
When I Grow Up by Robert Scragg
New Tricks by Matt Wesolowski
London by Jo Nesbø  
The Way Of All Flesh by Raven Dane
Blindsided by Caroline England
The Victim by Awais Khan 
Flesh of a Fancy Woman by Paul Magrs 
Changeling by Bryony Pearce

 The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger

Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (trans Victoria Cribb)
Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz (trans Rachel Ward) 
Riccardino by Andrea Camilleri, (trans Stephen Sartarelli) 
Seat 7a by Sebastian Fitzek (trans Steve Anderson)
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka (trans Sam Malissa): 
Heatwave by Victor Jestin (trans Sam Taylor) 
Oxygen by Sacha Naspini (trans Clarissa Botsford)
People Like Them by Samira Sedira (trans Lara Vergnaud) 
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen, (trans David Hackston) 
The Scorpion's Head by Hilde Vandermeeren (trans Laura Watkinson) 

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction

The Devil You Know by Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne:
The Jigsaw Murders by Jeremy Craddock
What Lies Buried by Kerry Daynes
The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro
We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins
The Irish Assassins by Julie Kavanagh
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey by Julia Laite
The Unusual Suspect by Ben Machell
The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris
The Seven Ages of Death by Richard Shepherd 

The CWA Historical Dagger

April in Spain by John Banville
City of Vengeance by DV Bishop
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Crow Court by Andy Charman
Not One Of Us by Alis Hawkins
The Drowned City by KJ Maitland
Where God Does Not Walk by Luke McCallin
Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry
Blackout by Simon Scarrow
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor
The Cannonball Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani
Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan
Repentance by Eloísa Díaz
Hunted by Antony Dunford
The Mash House by Alan Gillespie
Raft of Stars by Andrew J Graff
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Falling by TJ Newman
Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
How to Kidnap the Rich by Rahul Raina
The Death of Kirti Kadakia by Meeti Shroff-Shah
The Source by Sarah Sultoon
Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman 

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames
Find You First by Linwood Barclay 
Exit by Belinda Bauer
The Pact by Sharon Bolton
The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh 
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Razorblade Tears by S A Cosby
Dead Ground by M W Craven
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Dream Girl by Laura Lippman
Rizzio by Denise Mina 
The Lonely Ones by Håkan Nesser

The CWA Gold Dagger

Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict: 
Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham
City of Vengeance by DV Bishop
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby
The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean 
The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg
The Unwilling by John Hart
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
Lightseekers by Femi Kayode
I Know What I Saw by Imran Mahmood
The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee
The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt 
The Stoning by Peter Papathanasiou
The Trawlerman by William Shaw
Daughters of Night by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
A Beginner's Guide to Murder by Rosalind Stopps
Brazilian Psycho by Joe Thomas 

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Shroud of Canvas

Isobel Mary Lambot (1926-2001) was from a family of readers in Birmingham, England, but she didn't turn to writing until 1960. She served first in the Women's Royal Air Force then as a teacher before marrying in 1959 a Belgian engineer whose work took him to Third World countries. That was the launching point for Lambot's travels around the world, experiences that would later turn up in her writing—including her Russian-exile Commissaire Orloff who appeared in two novels and was inspired from a period spent in France. In fact, Lambot's very first crime novel was written in Jamaica, and although never published, it connected her with her literary agent.



In all, she published some 20 crime novels, including police procedurals, political thrillers and standalone detective stories based in such locations as Ceylon and the Congo, translated into German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish under the Lambot name or the pseudonyms Daniel Ingham and Mary Turner. She also had a nonfiction book, How to Write Crime Novels, published in 1992, taught creative writing, lectured to writers' groups and presented "Whodunit" evenings.



She was definitely of her time and the social mores of the day, once saying, "My aim is to entertain, not to preach, but certain moral values underlie my work all the same. I prefer old-fashioned virtues, such as Crime Does Not Pay, while obviously in real life it does! I don't like the permissive society, and make sure my heroines get decently married at the end. If any of my characters leap into bed with each other, it is essential to the plot, and they usually regret it." But she also understood the writing process well, adding that "People write because they want to. It is an inner compulsion. Crime writers write to entertain, to give a little relaxation in a world of stress. It is very hard work." 



Sadly, late in life as a widow she had rapid onset of Alzheimer's disease and after being moved to a nursing home, left one day and was last seen walking into the countryside. As a family member noted, the author's final mystery was like her novels, as a massive search operation was set up with police and volunteers until her body was found against a tree in Yeld Wood. But she probably would have appreciated the funeral—as the hearse drove from the Church in Kington to the Crematorium in Hereford, a lone buzzard flew over the coffin and screeched.



Her novels, such as the 1967 Shroud of Canvas, use a plain straightforward style to good effect, weaving character sketches and interpersonal relationships to help build suspense. The main POV protagonist in "Canvas"  is Rosalind, a young widow with a daughter, who had cut all ties with her family during her first disastrous marriage and has recently married a man she's only known for six months, Geoffrey Lennard, founder of a plastics company.



When Rosalind receives a telephone call from Geoffrey's former fiancée whom Rosalind knew nothing about, it sets in motion a series of mysteries and deaths beginning with the murder of the ex-fiancée in the Lennard garden. As evidence and suspicion begins to mount against Geoffrey, Rosalind's newfound happiness is in jeopardy even as she unwaveringly believes in the innocence of her husband. With the help of a surprising ally, Detective Sergeant Barry Thornley, and his boss, Superintendent Longton, Rosaline pursues the truth, dodging the whispers and doubts from the local community admid a backdrop of industrial espionage and power struggles.



And yet...Rosalind does wonder, as this excerpt indicates, although it also shows Lambot's effective sparse style and how she creates conflict:

There was a nightmare sense of repetition. Was she doomed to sit at the breakfast table each morning waiting for an explanation that never came?...She had wandered round the silent house all evening, waiting for the sound of Geoffrey's car, wishing one moment that Sally was not away for the night, glad at another that she was not there to witness her mother's anxiety.



One in desperation, she had phoned the office but there was no reply. Not that it meant anything. Geoffrey could have told the switchboard not to leave him connected with an outside line, so that he could get on with his work in peace...



But the previous evening he had gone to meet Anne...

Shroud of Canvas may date from the late 60s, but it follows true British Golden Age tradition, filled with skillfully placed clues and red herrings alike and ending with a closed circle of suspects gathered together to hear the revelation of the murderer's identity. 

          

Mystery Melange

The latest Noir at the Bar heads to Toronto at the Duke of Kent pub tonight at 7pm. Authors scheduled to read from their works and sign books include Giles Blunt, Barbara Fradkin, Don MacDonald, C.S. O'Cinneide, Howard Shrier, and Carolyne Topdjian.

Another Noir at the Bar will take place on April 27 at the upcoming SIBA in the Springtime conference in Winston-Salem, NC, the first SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) in-person event since the pandemic began. Eight crime, thriller, and mystery authors will read from their works in an event hosted by author and veteran Noir at the Bar MC, Eryk Pruitt.

The one hundredth British Library Crime Classic has now been published,, who began his association with the series back in 2013. The title in question is appropriately a "bibliomystery," Bernard J. Farmer's Death of a Bookseller, complete with a message on the inside cover from Edwards, who also noted in the article that the Crime Classics are famous enough to merit a mention in Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders. The series has included the publication and "rediscovery" of novels by such varied writers as E.C.R. Lorac, Mary Kelly, John Dickson Carr, Richard Hull, C.E. Vulliamy, Anne Meredith, Peter Shaffer, Christianna Brand, Nap Lombard, Raymond Postgate, and Margot Bennett.

San Diego's Mysterious Galaxy bookstore, an independent genre store specializing in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, young adult, romance, and horror, has launched a $225,000 GoFundMe campaign to help "with some vital upgrades we need to make as well as to help recuperate some finances lost over the two year pandemic." Co-owners Jenni Marchisotto and Matthew Berger posted on Facebook that although loyal customers helped keep the store afloat over the past two years of the pandemic, the campaign will help address the losses of the last two years. On May 7, the store is planning a birthday bash to celebrate their 29th anniversary. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

The Criminal Law Bulletin, an interdisciplinary, peer-edited law journal, seeks papers for two forthcoming special issues. One will be devoted to reform-based solutions to problems in the criminal-legal context and is scheduled for publication in the January/February issue of 2023. The other will explore the collateral consequences of criminal convictions and is scheduled for the publication in the March/April issue of 2023. Submission of papers related either of these broad themes are welcomed from legal, social science, and humanities scholars, as well as from justice practitioners, law students, and graduate students in criminology, criminal justice, and related fields.

The New York Times reported on "How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero." In the past, the book-selling empire, with 600 outposts across all 50 states, was seen by many readers, writers, and book lovers as strong-arming publishers and gobbling up independent stores in its quest for market share. Today, virtually the entire publishing industry is rooting for the chain, including most independent booksellers. (You can read more here.)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Every Story is a Ghost Story" by Brian Townsley.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton spoke with Canadian thriller author Ryan Lawrence about his debut LGBTQ thriller, Vindictive; over at the Writers Who Kill blog, Sarah E. Burr chatted about #Follow Me for Murder, the first in her Trending Topic Mystery Series, and You Can’t Candle the Truth, first in the Glenmyre Whim Mystery Series; Indie Crime Scene interviewed Mary Keliikoa, whose novel Deceived (PI Kelly Pruett mystery series) is their featured new release on May 10; and Don Winslow told The Guardian about the inspiration for his new book about warring gangs, his sudden thirst for poetry and why reading Jane Austen wears him out. Interestingly, Winslow yesterday announced on Twitter that "I'm retiring. The #CityOnFire trilogy will be the last 3 new books I publish. I look forward to sharing with you what is next for me in the days ahead."

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Canadian Accolades

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the Shortlists for the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Started in 1984, the annual Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, then known as the Arthur Ellis Awards, recognizes the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors. Winners will be announced Thursday, May 26, 2022. 

Best Crime Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo, with a $1000 prize

Linwood Barclay, Find You First, William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Daniel Kalla, Lost Immunity, Simon & Schuster

Dietrich Kalteis, Under the Outlaw Moon, ECW Press

Shari Lapena, Not a Happy Family, Doubleday Canada

Roz Nay, The Hunted, Simon & Schuster

Best Crime First Novel sponsored by Writers First, with a $500 prize

Ashley Audrain, The Push, Viking Canada

Fiona King Foster, The Captive, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Byron TD Smith, Windfall: A Henry Lysyk Mystery, Shima Kun Press

Katherine Walker, All Is Well, Thistledown Press

David Whitton, Seven Down, Rare Machines an imprint of Dundurn Press

 

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery sponsored by Jane Doe, with a $500 prize

Candas Jane Dorsey, What’s the Matter with Mary Jane?, ECW Press

Alice Bienia, Three Dog Knight, Cairn Press

Jackie Elliott, Hell's Half Acre, Joffe Books

Catherine Macdonald, So Many Windings, At Bay Press

Vicki Delany, Murder in a Teacup, Kensington Publishing Corp

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada sponsored by The Engel Family, with a $500 prize

S. Porter, Beneath Her Skin, Vagrant Press / Nimbus Publishing Inc.

Cathy Ace, Corpse with an Iron Will, Four Tails Publishing Inc.

Alice Walsh, Death on Darby’s Island, Vagrant Press / Nimbus Publishing Inc.

Sam Wiebe, Hell and Gone, Harbour Publishing Co. Inc.

Kevin Major, Three for Trinity, Breakwater Books

Best Crime Novella sponsored by Mystery Magazine, with a $200 prize

Marcelle Dubé, Identity Withheld, Falcon Ridge Publishing

Brenda Gayle, Murder in Abstract (A Charly Hall Mystery, book 6), Bowstring Books

Wayne Ng, Letters From Johnny, Guernica Editions

Elvie Simons, Not So Fast, Dr. Quick, Dell Magazines

Best Crime Short Story sponsored by Mystery Magazine, with a $300 prize

Pam Barnsley, What can You Do?, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Hilary Davidson, Weed Man, Dell Magazines

Elizabeth Elwood, Number 10 Marlborough Place, Dell Magazines

Charlotte Morganti, All My Darlings, Die Laughing: An Anthology of Humorous Mysteries

Melissa Yi, Dead Man's Hand, Dell Magazines

Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Roxanne Bouchard, Le murmure des hakapiks, Libre Expression

Marc-André Chabot, Dis-moi qui doit vivre… Libre Expression

Guillaume Morrissette, Conduite dangereuse, Saint-Jean

Patrick Senécal, Flots, Editions Alire

Richard Ste-Marie, Stigmates, Editions Alire

Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction) sponsored by Shaftesbury, with a $500 prize

Karen Bass, Blood Donor, Orca Book Publishers

Rachelle Delaney, Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster, Puffin Canada

Cherie Dimaline, Hunting By Stars, Penguin Teen

Kevin Sands, The Traitor's Blade, Aladdin (Simon & Schuster)

Jordyn Taylor, Don't Breathe a Word, HarperTeen (HarperCollins Publishers)

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book sponsored by Simpson & Wellenreiter LLP, Hamilton, with a $300 prize

Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult, Viking Canada

Aaron Chapman, Vancouver Vice: Crime and Spectacle in the City's West End, Arsenal Pulp Press

Catherine Fogarty, Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary, Biblioasis

Nate Hendley, The Beatle Bandit, Dundurn Press

Lorna Poplak, The Don: The Story of Toronto's Infamous Jail, Dundurn Press  

The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript sponsored by ECW Press, with a $500 prize

Delee Fromm, The Strength to Rise

Pam Isfeld, Captives

Renee Lehnen, Elmington

Katie Mac, Ken's Corner

Mark Thomas, Part Time Crazy

CWC announces the 2022 Grand Master Award recipient Louise Penny

Louise Penny’s debut novel, Still Life, not only won CWC Award for Best First Novel but also the New Blood Dagger, Anthony and Barry awards. Since then, Louise Penny has penned over sixteen Inspector Gamache novels, won many more awards, become an International Bestseller and Canadian icon. Inspector Gamache is being adapted for television by Left Bank Productions with Alfred Molina playing the beloved detective. Her most recent book, State of Terror, was written with 2016 U.S. Presential candidate Hilary Clinton, a literary coup and another bestseller.

About Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada was founded in 1982 as a professional organization designed to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers. Our members include authors, publishers, editors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and literary agents as well as many developing authors. Past winners of the Awards have included such major names in Canadian crime writing as Mario Bolduc, Gail Bowen, Stevie Cameron, Howard Engel, Barbara Fradkin, Louise Penny, Peter Robinson and Eric Wright. They would like to thank ECW Press, Rakuten Kobo, Mystery Magazine, Shaftesbury, Simpson and Wellenreiter LLP (Hamilton), Writers First, Jane Doe and the Howard Engel family for their sponsorship, and the many participating publishers for their continued support.

          

Author R&R with Kim Hays

Kim Hays is a dual citizen (Swiss/American) who has made her home in Bern since she married a Swiss. Before that she lived in San Juan, Vancouver, and Stockholm, as well as the US, her birthplace. Since the age of seventeen she has worked at a wide variety of jobs, from factory forewoman to director of a small nonprofit and, in Switzerland, from sociology lecturer to cross-cultural trainer. She began writing mysteries when her son left for college. Pesticide, the first book in the Polizei Bern series, was shortlisted for the 2020 Debut Dagger award by the Crime Writers’ Association. Hays has a BA in English history and literature from Harvard and a PhD in cultural sociology from UC-Berkeley.

Pesticide is set in Bern, Switzerland, known for its narrow cobblestone streets, decorative fountains, and striking towers—until a rave on a hot summer night erupts into violent riots, and a young man is found the next morning bludgeoned to death with a policeman’s club. If that wasn't problem enough, the same day, an elderly organic farmer turns up dead and drenched with pesticide. When an unexpected discovery ties the two victims into a single case, seasoned detective, Giuliana Linder, has to work with her distractingly attractive colleague, Renzo Donatelli. But if Giuliana wants to prevent another murder, she’ll have to put her life on the line—and her principles.

Kim stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

It goes without saying that some of my research for Pesticide had to do with crime: I wanted to find out how the Canton of Bern police respond to riots and investigate murders and to make sure I knew which wholesale dealers in the city handle marijuana and which, heroin. I also needed to check locations, which meant visiting Bern’s alternative culture center, an enormous, graffiti-covered former riding school next to the main train station, and driving around the Three-Lakes region northeast of the city, scouting out a model for Haldiz, the book’s imaginary farming village. The most fun I had, though, was exploring the topic of organic farming.

I already had a romantic view of farming, passed on by my father, who spent the happiest summers of his childhood on his great-aunt and -uncle’s small farm in rural Louisiana. But I’m not the only one who glorifies the agricultural life—most Swiss have an idyllic picture of farming as well, delighting in Alpine meadows dotted with cows, sunny hillsides lined with grapevines, and spring fields full of yellow rapeseed. The reality is grimmer, since the number of farms in Switzerland has been shrinking for decades. Today there are fewer than 50,000 of them, with an average size of 50 acres. Swiss farmers receive the equivalent of three billion dollars per year in subsidies; in return for its generosity, the government regulates their farming methods. There are rules about what farmers must do to increase biodiversity; improve the welfare of livestock; reduce the use of poisons on crops, antibiotics in animals, and fertilizer on fields; and, in general, look after the land and water under their care. The rules for organic farms—which make up about 16% of the acreage used for agriculture—are the strictest. All Swiss farms are checked regularly, and, if they are organic, they have to pass very thorough annual inspections in order to be recertified year after year.

For Pesticide’s plot to make sense, I needed to understand what makes a farm “organic” (or bio in Swiss-German) and how an annual farm inspection works. So, before I started writing, I visited small organic farms in Bern and talked to farmers. I spent time at the offices of Bio Suisse, which manages the guidelines of the organic label, and I interviewed several farm inspectors, one of whom was an organic farmer herself.  She told me something that went straight into my book:

Don’t think of us as a kind of police force; it’s not like that at all. Most farmers like our visits. All year long they protect the soil and the water and keep their crops and animals healthy, and no one really knows how difficult that is or how many setbacks they suffer. But we inspectors know, and we make that clear to them—at least, I do.

Another issue I thought a lot about during the writing of Pesticide was how much standard German and Bernese dialect to use. While a little bit of unintelligible language provides local color, I had to keep reminding myself that too much of it becomes confusing and distracting. Still, a few words turned out to be hard to translate into English. One of these was the police role called “Fahnder.” Literally, the word means “searcher”—we’d translate it as “investigator.” Within the Canton of Bern police department, it’s a plain-clothes job involving a lot of research—both on the computer and in the field, and the different tasks are usually assigned by detectives looking into serious crimes. One of the two main characters in Pesticide, Giuliana Linder, is a homicide detective, and the other, Renzo Donatelli, is an investigator of this kind—he’s junior to Giuliana in rank and age and often works with her on her cases. In the end, I decided to call him a Fahnder, even in an English-language book. I’m not sure the same job exists in the American police force.

I consider research not only an important part of writing but a quintessential one.  Sometimes I gather more information than I end up needing for a particular book, but I find that the process of researching helps me figure out what I want to say in my novel. I’m sure this is true for most writers, not just me. I suppose I’m also influenced by my mother having been a reference librarian whose job was to find things out for people. It was work that she loved.

Google has changed the nature of that pursuit—but not its importance.

 

You can learn more about Kim Hays and her books on her website, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter. Pesticide is now available in ebook and paperback via Seventh Street Books at all major book retailers.

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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

Molly Bernard has signed on to star in the indie film, Best Man Dead Man, marking the feature directorial debut of Verner Maldonado. The film is set in the middle of nowhere, as a bachelor party turns into a night of murder and mystery when the best man ends up with a knife in his head. Friends quickly become suspects and only an eccentric, local private eye can solve the mystery. Bernard will play Debra Carnegie, the lead detective with flowing red hair, purple trench coat, green umbrella, and personality to match it all. David Gridley, Ben Fernandez, Jonny Cruz, Dayana Rincon, Leah Kilpatrick, James Heaney, Jack Ireland, Atul Singh, and Matt Ippolito are also set to star.

The cast has been finalized on Borderland, the long-gestating thriller set on the paranoid streets of 1970s London. Confirmed as starring are Aml Ameen and Colin Morgan, who lead an ensemble cast featuring Felicity Jones, Mark Strong, Sophia Brown, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Borderland is written by Top Boy creator, Ronan Bennett, and the Guard Brothers (Tom and Charles), who are also directing. The film follows an IRA member as he hunts for his wife's murderer while also being tracked by the same killer. The project is currently filming in Glasgow.

Andrew Keegan and Sonalii Castillo have signed on to star in High Tide, a social justice thriller from director Natalie Bible. The film follows Samantha "Sam" Merrick (Castillo), a small-town waitress who endures a brutal hate crime that leaves her badly injured and her younger sister dead. The film is a twisty ride through Sam’s psychological trauma and pursuit for revenge, all while moving through a world that continues to limp along to the tune of systemic racism, inequality, and persecution. Keegan will play Logan Bradford, a tenacious detective with a traumatic past who sets forth on his own quest to help solve the Merrick case and alter a system that is broken.

Face/Off and Hacksaw Ridge producer, David Permut, has acquired Steve Lillbuen’s true crime book, The Devil’s Cinema, about Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell who was convicted of first degree murder in 2011. Twitchell is serving a life sentence for the murder of John Brian Altinger, whom he lured into a "kill room" set up in his garage-turned-film-studio. His arrest and trial attracted substantial media attention since his crimes were inspired by the TV series Dexter and lead character Dexter Morgan, prompting some outlets to refer to Twitchell as the "Dexter Killer."  Brit filmmaker Sam Hobkinson, whose credits include the Netflix mob series, Fear City, has been signed to write and direct the narrative feature.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Paramount+ has given a formal green light to The Turkish Detective, an adaptation of Barbara Nadel’s CWA Silver Dagger Award-winning novels. Haluk Biligner, Ethan Kai, and Yasemin Kay Allen have been tapped to star in the series, set in modern-day Istanbul. Written and executive produced by Ben Schiffer (Skins) and directed by Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), the eight-episode first season is based on the 24-novel series and depicts the lead character, Inspector Cetin Ikmen (Biligner), his partner Mehmet Suleyman (Kai), and Detective Ayse Farsakoglu (Allen) going through ups and downs as they solve crimes. Each crime story is heavily rooted in the varied culture and history of Istanbul and set against the frenzied world of modern-day Turkey.

Jesse L. Martin will star in The Irrational pilot for NBC. The actor, who has played Captain Joe West on The CW’s The Flash for eight seasons, is dropping from series regular to recurring for the ninth season of the superhero series. In The Irrational, Martin will play Alec Baker, a world-renowned professor of behavioral science who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, corporations, and law enforcement. His world is turned upside down when he meets his match in a female domestic terror suspect. The pilot is based on Dan Ariely’s best-selling Predictably Irrational, with the author on board as a consultant.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has joined Natasha Lyonne in the cast of Poker Face at Peacock, a show which hails from Knives Out director, Rian Johnson. There’s a scarcity of plot information available, but Johnson said in a statement last year, "I’m very excited to dig into the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching."

Jill Hennessy is set to star opposite Michael Chiklis in Fox’s straight-to-series crime anthology drama, Accused. Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, the story opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, Accused depicts how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another until it’s too late to turn back. Chiklis plays Dr. Scott Corbett, a successful brain surgeon, who faces the limits of unconditional love when he discovers his teenage son may be planning a violent attack at school. Hennessy portrays Corbett's wife, who has a tough exterior, yet fragile interior that causes her to ignore many of their son’s violent red flags.

Teri Polo is joining the CBS drama series, NCIS, in a recurring role opposite Gary Cole. Polo will play Vivian Kolchak, NCIS Special Agent Alden Parker’s (Cole) ex-wife, and a former FBI agent who left the FBI following their divorce, taking a Defense Department job as a paranormal investigator. Polo will guest star in the Season 19 finale and return as recurring in the upcoming 20th season. NCIS also stars Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, Katrina Law, David McCallum, and Rocky Carroll.

ITV’s reboot of the classic Euro crime drama, Van Der Valk, is coming back for a third season. The drama, starring Marc Warren as the titular Dutch detective, begins filming in and around Holland this summer. It’s reported that the new series will comprise three, 120-minute episodes.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc series, to talk about the 20th installment, Murder at the Porte de Versailles, which takes place in November 2001 in a fraught post-9/11 Paris.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Denmark's Sara Blaedel, a former journalist and author of the bestselling series featuring Detective Louise Rick, whose latest novel in that series is A Harmless Lie.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, authors Christie Bunting and Cathi Twiter joined the hosts to talk about the Game of Books podcast, writing lessons learned, motivation, other authors, and, of course, wine. There are also book recommendations from Dan Bronson, Bryan Collins, Susan Wingate, Kevin Tipple, and David Putnam, along with an April update from Lance Wright at Down and Out Books.

​​Tessa Wegert, author of the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to talk about her books, including the latest, Dead Wind.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Philip chatted about the first novel, Murder on Monte Vista, in a new series by David S. Pederson.

On the latest Writers Detective Bureau, host Detective Adam Richardson discussed investigating false allegations made against a detective; what would happen if Alphabet Soup feds barged in to take possession of a decedent; and the realities of investigating the remains of someone who died sixty or seventy years ago.

On Crime Time FM, author Nick Triplow spoke with host Paul Burke about the novels of Ted Lewis and Brit Noir; the film Yellow Submarine; TV cop shows; Z Cars; and Mary Whitehouse.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed thriller-writing legend David Baldacci about his new novel Dream Town, his writing journey, and his fear of orangutans. They also debated the "Oscars slap."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed Joel Schwartz to discuss his true-crime book, Bone Deep: Untangling the Twisted True Story of the Tragic Betsy Faria Murder.

THEATRE

A new stage play adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is being developed with an eye toward the West End and Broadway, with the Tony- and Olivier Award-winning Rob Ashford set to direct. Written by British writing team Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, the new Sherlock Holmes play is described as an original tale offering a "deeply theatrical exploration of the mind of the famous detective," while remaining faithful to the world created by Conan Doyle. Staged as "a mystery within a mystery," the new play is described by producers as involving a case presented to Holmes that forces him to confront his own murky past.

Agatha Christie's renowned murder mystery novel, And Then There Were None, published in 1939 and adapted for the stage by Christie in 1943, is being featured in an off-Broadway staging at The Players Theatre in The West Village, April 19-24. The production is part of Be Bold! Productions' "Murder on MacDougal" series which produced Murder on the Links in 2021 and Murder on the Nile in 2019.

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Moonshine War

The late, great Elmore Leonard penned dozens of novels, the earliest of which were Westerns published in the 1950s, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers. Among the many awards that came his way were a 1984 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel (LaBrava) and he was named the 1992 Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.

Leonard's 1969 novel, The Moonshine War, might not have been one of the author's most popular or well-known books, but the subject matter caught my attention. Prejudice can take many forms, and I will never forget my trip to New York City some years ago when I was around thirteen. A taxi driver, upon learning I was from Tennessee, sincerely wanted to know if I had a moonshine still in my back yard (and if we went barefoot a lot, but that's another story). Moonshine holds a certain fascination with many people to this day, as evidenced by the recent Moonshiners reality-TV show on Discovery.



The "war" of the book's title refers to the days of Prohibition in the back hills of Kentucky that pits a hell-raising country boy named Son Martin against a gang of city slickers hoping to to steal thousands of dollars worth of homemade whiskey made by Son's father. The gang is hired by Martin's old war buddy, Frank Long, now a crooked prohibition agent, who was willing to look the other way in exchange for a percentage of Son's business. But when Son wouldn't play ball, Long called in the big guns in the form of Dr. Taulbee, who is not afraid to use violent methods such as busting up the stills of Son's neighbors. But after Taulbee and his goons go too far by committing a double murder, Long decides to help Son fend off the gang.



The Moonshire War is something of a crossbreed between Leonard's westerns and his crime fiction, but it has Leonard's trademark tough outlaws, sharp dialogue, twist ending, and he sets up the stakes in a concise, sharp way:

People did crazy things where whiskey was concerned. It being against the law to drink wasn't going to stop anybody. They'd fight and shoot each other and go to prison and die for it...

Like many of Leonard's books and stories (Justified, Get Shorty; 3:10 to Yuma; The Tall T), The Moonshire War was adapted to the screen in the form of a 1970 movie directed by Richard Quine with an all-star cast that included Alan Alda as Son Martin, Patrick McGoohan as Frank Long, and Richard Widmark as Dr. Taulbee.

          

Mystery Melange, the Almost-Easter Edition

This year's list of finalists for the prestigious International Booker Prize, awarded to a book translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, includes Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro. Translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle, Elena Knows centers on a woman in the late stage of Parkinson’s Disease who tries to find the culprit behind her daughter's death. Piñeiro is known for her various crime novels, which are bestsellers in Argentina, Latin America, and around the world, several of which have been adapted for the big screen.

Australian publishing company Allen & Unwin announced the winner of the publisher's inaugural Crime Fiction Prize, which goes to Vikki Petraitis for her novel, The Unbelieved, scheduled to be published in August. Allen & Unwin Publisher, Jane Palfreyman, noted that Petraitis's entry won out of 340 manuscripts for taking "a lifetime of observing police work and true crime ... and the result is this fantastic novel: tightly paced, plausible, a fabulous read and, above all, completely gripping."

As part of the New York Public Library's 2nd World Literature Fest, there will be a virtual panel on April 20th from 3-4 p.m. ET titled "Japanese Crime Fiction: How It Caught The World." The discussion will be led by the English translators of Kaoru Takamura’s Lady Joker, Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida, as well as editor Juliet Grames from the acclaimed Soho Crime imprint and the literature in translation program. For more information and to register, click on over here.

Bestselling authors John Grisham and Celeste Ng will headline the U.S. Book Show, the trade show of the publishing industry, to be held online May 23-26, 2022. Sponsored and organized by Publishers Weekly, USBS will feature book and author panels, "Editors’ Picks" panels, keynotes, a library track, bookseller panels sponsored by the American Bookseller Association, industry-focused discussions and more. Both Grisham and Ng will speak on May 25, a day devoted to adult fiction, at 11:30 a.m. ET and 2:30 p.m. ET, respectively. Grisham's next book, Sparring Partners, is due out in May 2022.

Scarborough’s annual book Books by the Beach festival returns to the Yorkshire coast June 11-12. The featured authors will include Lisa Jewell, who has sold more than five million copies of her books worldwide including the psychological crime novel, The Family Upstairs; TV personality Charlie Higson, who's written the new thriller Whatever Gets You Through the Night, set on the Mediterranean island of Corfu; and former UK Home Secretary Alan Johnson, whose debut novel, The Late Train to Gipsy Hill, is a fast-moving thriller based on the Russian mafia.

Anne Hillerman, bestselling author of the Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series created by her father, Tony Hillerman, applied the Page 69 Test to The Sacred Bridge, her seventh novel in the series.

Janet Rudolph has a running list of Easter-themed crime fiction over at the Mystery Fanfare blog. Janet also has a separate blog, Dying for Chocolate, and recently posted this recipe for an Easy Chocolate Easter Bunny Cake.

Kings River Life Magazine has a few more "food mysteries" for your Easter reading feast, as well as a featured Easter short story from 2021 titled "Twilight Easter Egg Hunt" by Margaret S. Hamilton.

Over at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog, Cleo Coyle posted a recipe for "Seven Minute Apple Doughnuts" for Passover; and you can check out these "classic" posts from future Easter celebrations, including Perfect Easter Eggs; Lemon Cookies for Easter; and an Easter Recipes Roundup.

Here's an Easter tradition I think we should get behind in the U.S: every Easter, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians indulge in crime fiction, known in Norwegian as påskekrim ("Easter Crime"). Whether on TV, at the cinema or in novel form, crime fiction is consumed in massive numbers throughout the Easter holiday. For literary fans, this means the latest books from literary heavyweights like Jo Nesbø do battle with Easter crime collections of short stories in bookstore displays across the country.

Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda believes we should call April "mystery book month" (since both the Malice Domestic conference and MWA Edgar banquet are in April) and notes two titles he'd recommend, Andre Bjerke’s The Lake of the Dead and Masahiro Imamura’s Death Among the Undead.

After being given access to private tapes of one of Scotland's most notorious murderers talking to a prison psychiatrist for a new documentary on the Crime + Investigation channel, best-selling crime writer Denise Mina believes she has solved a 65 year old mystery surrounding the case.

Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew revealed the "marvelous gift" his grandmother gave him when he was a youngster, something he didn't appreciate at the time but one that has made him wealthy enough to be able to contribute to many charitable organizations.

Parade Magazine asked 32 bestselling authors to pick the best mysteries and thrillers of all time and the thrillers that inspired them to begin writing in the first place.

The BBC investigated the surprising benefits of "scary play"—murder-inspired board games, card games, interactive books, party games, dramas, and even books.

If you're a fan of historic art fraud or perhaps writing such a series, The Guardian posted an interesting interview with husband-and-wife forgers Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi who sold fake paintings for millions before some inauthentic white paint led to their capture.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Death by Vending Machine" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Ann Cleves opened up with The Daily Mail about her Icelandic Icepick Award for crime fiction, a telescope that her late husband Tim used for bird watching, and other treasured items from her Northumberland retreat; Kellye Garrett chatted with CrimeReads about the craft of writing, routines, and finding the perfect twist; and crime author and Prime Suspect creator, Lynda La Plante, told the Yorkshire Post why there was "no way" she'd retire as she approaches 80.

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