B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 73

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

Mark Molloy has been tapped to direct Beverly Hills Cop 4, the latest sequel in the crime comedy franchise, to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Netflix. Eddie Murphy is expected to reprise his role of Axel Foley, a Detroit cop who first appeared in the blockbuster 1984 film that took him to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of a friend. That film was so successful, it spawned two sequels in 1987 and 1994. Molloy takes the place of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who left Beverly Hills Cop to direct Warner Brothers’s Batgirl.

Scott Free Productions has optioned the film fights to the thriller novel, Outside, from bestselling Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson, with Henrik Hansen in talks to direct the project. The story follows four friends seeking shelter in a small abandoned hunting lodge during a deadly Icelandic storm. Miles from help, and knowing they will die outside in the cold, they break open the lock and make their way inside, hoping to wait out the storm until morning. But nothing can prepare them for what they find behind the door. Ridley Scott is among those serving on the producer team for the project.

Paramount+ has acquired Finestkind, the crime thriller from Oscar winner, Brian Helgeland, which stars Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, and Jenna Ortega. The story takes place in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the biggest commercial fishing port in the U.S., and follows two brothers (Foster and Wallace) from opposite sides of the tracks who are reunited as adults during one fateful summer. When desperate circumstances force them to strike a deal with a dangerous Boston crime syndicate, a young woman (Ortega) finds herself caught in the middle. Along the way, sacrifices must be made, and bonds between brothers, friends, and a father (Jones) and his son are put to the test.

Screen Media has acquired North American rights to the psychological thriller, Cordelia, starring Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Johnny Flynn. Cordelia centers on Campbell-Hughes’s character of the same name, a young woman living in London with her twin sister, who quickly becomes suspicious of a mysteriously alluring neighbor Frank (Flynn) when she meets him for the first time. With her sister out of town for the weekend, the anxious Cordelia, alone and consumed by her many fears, begins to unravel and sink back into past traumas the more Frank tries to charm his way into her life. Joel Fry, Michael Gambon, and Catherine McCormack also star in the film.

Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi is the last addition to the cast of the action-thriller, Silent Night, from iconic action-director John Woo (Face/Off). He’s set to star alongside Joel Kinnaman, Harold Torres, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. The film, which is currently in production in Mexico City, centers on Godlock (Kinnaman), a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was tragically caught in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve. Shot and nearly killed while in pursuit of the murderers, Godlock vows to avenge his son by any means necessary. Mescudi will portray a detective named Dennis Vassel.

Amazon Studios has landed Ending Things, an action adventure vehicle for Anthony Mackie and Priyanka Chopra. Said to possess a True Lies style premise, the story centers on a hit-woman who wants out of the assassin business. But when she tells her "business" partner she’s ending their personal relationship as well, she comes to realize she doesn’t want to end that part of their bond. In order to survive the breakup – and their last job together – they must join forces for one last night out.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES/SERIES

Jessica Alba has closed a deal to executive produce and headline a series based on Lisa Unger’s international bestseller, Confessions on the 7:45, which is in development at Netflix. Charise Castro Smith, co-writer and co-director of Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto, is attached to adapt Unger’s novel. Confessions on the 7:45 is a psychological thriller in which a working mom (Alba) meets a stranger on a train, as she is commuting home, who upends her life. As betrayals are revealed, she questions whether we can ever truly know the people closest to us.

S.W.A.T is coming back for a sixth season, according to star Shemar Moore, who revealed the news on social media. The action drama is produced by Sony Pictures Television and CBS Studios. Based on the 1975 series of the same created by Robert Hamner, the fifth season premiered in October and runs through May. The show also stars Alex Russell, Lina Esco, Kenny Johnson, Peter Onorati, Jay Harrington, David Lim, Patrick St. Espirit, and Amy Farrington.

Netflix released first-look photos of The Lincoln Lawyer, its series based on the bestselling novels by Michael Connelly, and announced a premiere date of May 13. The Lincoln Lawyer tells the story of Los Angeles-based attorney, Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), who runs his legal practice from the back of his Lincoln Town Car. In the first season, Mickey is trying to find his footing again after spending time away from practicing law. He returns to Los Angeles where he finds himself dragged back into the business with a mystery to solve. The 10-episode series also stars Becki Newton and Neve Campbell as Haller's two ex-wives, as well as Krista Warner, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, Christopher Gorham, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Michael Graziadei, and Jamie McShane.

HBO Max and Warner Bros. are looking to build a Sherlock Holmes film-TV universe in the mold of the TV series offshoots of Suicide Squad and The Batman. Executive produced by Team Downey’s Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, who are also behind HBO’s Perry Mason, each of two different proposed series would focus on a different character to be introduced in the next Downey film installment, Sherlock Holmes 3. As of now, no details have been disclosed on who will play Holmes or Watson or who the central characters might be.

A Killing Eve spin-off based on MI6 spymaster Carolyn Mertens is in the works at BBC America and AMC Networks. It’s unclear whether the new show would air on BBC America, as per its progenitor, or another AMC Networks-owned channel or streaming service. Carolyn, played by Fiona Shaw, began the original show as the ruthless and enigmatic head of MI6’s Russia desk and played a major role in all four seasons of the cat-and-mouse drama. The spin-off will focus on her early life in the British Secret Service.

Peacock is developing a 1960s crime saga set in Hawaii titled The Islands, from The Eternals writers Kaz and Ryan Firpo, Fast & Furious director Justin Lin, and The Walking Dead star, Steven Yeun. Inspired by true events, the series said to be a story about American Imperialism, the fall of a kingdom, and the changing of a way of life.

Fox's The Cleaning Lady will be back for a second season after the network announced the show's renewal last week. Written by Miranda Kwok, The Cleaning Lady stars Élodie Yung as Thony, a whip-smart doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her ailing son. But when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she refuses to be beaten down and marginalized. Instead, she becomes a cleaning lady for the mob and starts playing the game by her own rules. Yung stars alongside Adan Canto, Oliver Hudson, Martha Millan, Jay Mohr, Liza Weil, and Shiva Negar.

West Duchovny is set as a lead opposite Victoria Pedretti and Josh Bonzie in Saint X, Hulu’s eight-part series from writer Leila Gerstein and director Dee Rees. Based on Alexis Schaitkin’s novel, Saint X is a psychological drama told via multiple timelines and perspectives that explores and upends the girl-gone-missing genre. It’s a show about how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. Duchovny will play Alison, a smart and charismatic young woman who is beginning to look at her own privilege through a critical lens as she vacations with her family at a beautiful island resort.

Abhi Sinha is set as a series regular opposite Matt Passmore and Floriana Lima in Blank Slate, NBC’s drama pilot. Blank Slate draws some parallels to the long-running NBC series, The Blacklist, and centers on Special Agent Alexander McCoy, a legend in law enforcement, the agent we all hope is out there, the agent we’d all like to be. The only issue is — he doesn’t actually exist. He’s a ghost, a phantom. So what happens when a man claiming to be Alexander McCoy (Passmore) walks through the door with all of his skills and knowledge but with an agenda nobody will see coming? Sinha will play Cornelius Kepler, the tech specialist on Maya’s Homeland Security team who uses his advanced IT skills to get whatever information they need. In addition to Passmore and Lima, Sinha joins previously announced series regular Dave Annable.

ABC released a trailer and has set Sunday, April 24, for Part 1 of a two-part event that will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff of The Rookie. Part 2 will follow on May 1. The spinoff follows the premise of The Rookie, which stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. As previously announced, Niecy Nash will guest star as Simone Clark, a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred – and the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy.

Walt and Jesse are coming back. AMC confirmed that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will return in some capacity in the upcoming final season of the Bob Odenkirk-fronted show, Better Call Saul. The actors first returned to the roles of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the 2019 Netflix sequel film, El Camino, written and directed by Breaking Bad creator, Vince Gilligan, which picked up immediately where the Breaking Bad finale left off to provide additional closure to Jesse Pinkman’s arc. The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul premieres on April 18 on AMC, but the season is being split up into two parts (Part 2 premieres in July), so it’s unknown during which part Cranston and Paul appear.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, spoke with Aaron Philip Clark about his novel, Under Color of Law, featuring Black rookie cop Trevor "Finn" Finnegan.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring an excerpt from Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico aka Ellen Byron, read by actor Ariel Linn.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Nusrah talked about locked room mysteries and all that the sub-genre has to offer.

On the Crime Writers of Color podcast, Wanda Morris, author of All Her Little Secrets, was interviewed by Robert Justice.

In It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club's final installment of their series of Agatha Award nominee interviews, the show chatted with Judy L. Murray, nominated for Best First Novel, and Jan Brogan, nominated for Best Nonfiction.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Justene recommended Twelve Days of Murder by Jason Wrench, where the mystery gets rolling after someone finds something they weren't shopping for in an iconic store in New York City.

My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Bridget Finnegan, illustrator, designer, animator, and publisher. She's also author of the novel, Odettes: A Quality Men's Club, which sports a unique setting and unusual private detective in the form of former prostitute, Jessamyn Jakes, who forms her own private eye firm.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Detective Adam Richardson, talked about what happens if a homicide detective has personal ties to a homicide victim; if chalk outlines are really used; whether cops can serve on a jury; and how reviewing this podcast on Podchaser.com can raise money for ChefsForUkraine during the #Reviews4Good campaign.

On Crime Time FM, Timothy J. Lockhart chatted with Paul Burke about his novel, Unlucky Money; Norfolk Virginia; hardboiled crime; and "Brit Grit."

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Hammett Honors

The International Association of Crime Writers, North America today announced the finalists for the 2021 Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing. Since 1991, the IACW/NA has presented the Hammett trophy to the book of the year that best represents the conception of literary excellence in crime writing.The finalist books this year are, in alphabetical order by author:

 

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
Stung by William Deverell (ECW Press)
Five Decembers by James Kestrel (Hard Case Crime)
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
The Sacrifice of Lester Yates by Robin Yocum (Arcade Crime Wave)



          

Leftys Lead the Way

 

During a banquet held at the Left Coast Crime convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last evening, winners of the 2022 Lefty Awards were announced. The awards are voted on at the annual convention by attendees. The four categories include:



Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Mango, Mambo, and Murder, by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane)



Also nominated:

Cajun Kiss of Death, by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane)

Mimi Lee Cracks the Code, by Jennifer Chow (Berkley Prime Crime)

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, by Elle Cosimano (Minotaur)

How to Book a Murder, by Cynthia Kuhn (Crooked Lane)

Fogged Off, by Wendall Thomas (Beyond the Page)

 

Bill Gottfried Memorial Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel: Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)



Also nominated:

The Cry of the Hangman, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House)

The Savage Kind, by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Crime)

The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

The Mirror Dance, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)

Death at Greenway, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)





Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: All Her Little Secrets, by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow)



Also nominated:



Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (Little, Brown)

Blackout, by Marco Carocari (Level Best)

The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria)

Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala (Berkley Prime Crime)





Lefty for Best Mystery Novel: Lightning Strike, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)



Also nominated:



Runner, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)

Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)

Last Redemption, by Matt Coyle (Oceanview)

Bath Haus, by P.J. Vernon (Doubleday)

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories

Robert Weinberg (1946-2016) was the author of more than twenty-five books, many of them dealing with science and pop culture, and Stefan Dziemianowicz is an independent scholar and writer and expert on pulp fiction. Together they teamed up with the late Martin H. Greenberg to edit 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories, part of the "100" series published by Barnes and Noble in the 1990s and reprinted about ten years later.



The stories selected for this anthology run the gamut from the classics from the likes of O. Henry ("The Mystery of the Rue de Peychaud"), Charles Dickens ("An Artful Touch"), Bret Harte ("The Stolen Cigar-Case"), and Jack London ("The Leopard Man's Story") to more modern practitioners such Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Writing styles cover most of the bases, from hard-boiled to the more Sherlockian-thoughtful detectives.



As with most anthologies, there are a few hits and a few misses, but this particular grouping is interesting due to the inclusion of those classic authors who aren't always associated with detective writing, as well as many unknowns. There's also a contribution from none other than Abraham Lincoln, "The Trailor Murder Mystery," which first appeared on the front page of the Quincy Whig in 1843. Coming in at 576 pages, it's not exactly "light" reading in weight, but there are plenty of gems that will make for an entertaining, but quick, read.

          

Mystery Melange

You can register now for a free online MWA 2022 Symposium: Special Awards on April 26 at 8pm. Oline Cogdill will be in conversation with Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Laurie R. King, Raven Award recipient Lesa Holstine, and Ellery Queen Award recipient Juliet Grames. The MWA's Edgar Awards Banquet will take place Thursday, April 28, in person once again at the New York Marriott Marquis.

Another one-day crime event will be taking place in person at California's LitFest Pasadena on April 30. There will be panels on the Geography of Crime and True Crime, as well as a panel titled "Mysterious Dimensions" featuring crime fiction authors Wendy Heard, Joe Ide, Kwei Quartey, Pamela Samuels Young, and Gary Phillips as moderator. The evening highlight will be author, Michael Connelly (the Bosch series), in conversation with fellow author, Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X), about adapting their books for the screen.

Knopf will be publishing three new books in its Millennium series, which launched with Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The new titles will be written by bestselling Swedish author Karin Smirnoff, who is taking over the series from David Lagercrantz, after he penned three titles following Larsson's death in 2004. Smirnoff, who grew up in a small Swedish town a short drive from where Larsson was raised, has sold over 700,000 copies of her books in her native country. Speaking to the job of continuing the series, Smirnoff said she wants to "continue to build on Stieg Larsson's core themes, such as violence, abuse of power, and contemporary political currents." Smirnoff's first installment is set to published on September 5, 2023. 





Coming in September is The Perfect Crime: Around the World in 22 Murders, ed. by Vaseem Kahn & Maxim Jakubowski. This hefty volume of crime stories (it's 448 pages) contains twenty-two gripping tales that range from cozy to thrillers and from historical to noir as it takes readers on a journey through a number of diverse cultures and murderous scenarios. As Jakubowski points out in the introduction, it gathers "for the very first time...authors from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including African-American, Asian, First Nation, Aboriginal, Latinx, Chinese-American, Singaporean and Nigerian." Authors include Oyinkan Braithwaite, Abir Mukherjee, S.A. Cosby, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, J.P. Pomare, Sheena Kamal, Vaseem Khan, Sulari Gentill, Nelson George, Rachel Howzell Hall, John Vercher, Sanjida Kay, Amer Anwar, Henry Chang, Nadine Matheson, Mike Phillips, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Felicia Yap, Thomas King, Imran Mahmood, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and Walter Mosley.

I wish there had been something like this while I was still in college: As Elizabeth Foxwell notes at her Bunburyist blog, the UNC Libraries' online exhibition, "Teaching with Mass-Market Paperbacks," draws on the collection of UNC Chapel Hill to assist instructors who wish to use such works in their classroom, with sample lesson plans. Mystery books include assorted works by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; The Blue Geranium by Dolan Birkley (aka Dolores Hitchens); The Couch by Robert Bloch; Honeymoon in Hell by Frederic Brown; Cassidy's Girl by David Goodis; A Taste for Honey by H. F. Heard; I Married a Dead Man and other works by William Irish (aka Cornell Woolrich); and Sorry, Wrong Number by Allan Ullman and Lucille Fletcher.

Foxwell also brought our attention to the Bookmaven account on Tumblr, which features 1970s covers by artist Tom Adams (1926-2019) of various works by Raymond Chandler. Adams (1926–2019) was also known for his paperback covers of Agatha Christie titles. Adams won various awards for illustration, notably the American Society of Illustrators, The American Art Directors Association, and The Design and Art Directors Association, UK. His work is also in numerous private collections. (Fun bit of trivia: Adams' design for the Fontana Books edition of the Agatha Christie mystery Death in the Clouds, featuring a giant wasp, inspired the monster in the Doctor Who adventure The Unicorn and the Wasp, broadcast in 2008. A copy of the book, featuring Adams's cover, appeared in the episode.)

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. After her passing, the series was relocated to Art Taylor's website, with the latest offering being Wendy Hornsby's Depression Era tale, "Nine Sons," which won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Short Story and was later the title story of her collection from Crippen & Landru. At the time of her Edgar win, Wendy had published two books in her Kate Teague Mystery Series, and her subsequent series featuring documentarian and amateur sleuth Maggie MacGowen now numbers 12 novels, including most recently 2019’s A Bouquet of Rue. She also taught ancient and medieval history at Long Beach City College for many years, recently bestowed with the title of professor emerita.

Tessa Wegert is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Adweek, and The Economist. She's also the author of the Shana Merchant series, beginning with Death in the Family, and recently applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Dead Wind.

Researchers from the data and analytics group, WordsRated, looked at nearly 17,500 libraries over the last three decades and found that these institutions aren’t dying in the digital age—they may actually be thriving. Although visits to U.S. libraries have dropped by 21 percent since 2009, there are actually more people borrowing books than ever before.

Over at the Do Some Damage blog, Scott Adlerberg paid tribute to the "crime commissary," the Italian restaurant Forlini's in Manhattan's Chinatown. Adlerberg dubbed it "probably the site of more crime-related discussions than just about any restaurant in existence," due to its proximity to the Manhattan courts and Manhattan jail. Over the decades, since its opening in 1943, it became a favorite lunch spot of countless lawyers, judges, jurors, court reporters, and other law enforcement personnel. Unfortunately, the restaurant is closing, although not due to Covid; the current owners, "Big" Joe, Derek, and "Little" Joe, basically just said, "Well, it's time."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Alliteration" by D.M. Testa.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery author Pat Duggan about her new cozy novel, Murder at Serengeti Plains; Indie Crime Scene spoke with Jeffrey Fleishman, author of Good Night, Forever, which debuts on April 12; and over at Do Some Damage, Jay Stringer, author of the upcoming heist novel, Roll With It, interviewed ... Jay Stringer.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

Author R&R with B. G. Arnold

B.G. Arnold is the pen name of an octagenarian mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who starting writing her debut novel, Bone Deep Bonds, in 2002 but picked it back up again during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason for her pseudonymous name follows on from her life's work; although the characters in Bone Deep Bonds are fictitious, they are based on the author's thirty-five years as a licensed professional clinical counselor, where she worked with families of incest and other sexual abusers and victims. There is also a more personal connection, too—the author's own adopted father, a church elder, abused her until she left home at age eighteen.

In Bone Deep Bonds, upon coming home from work, a father learns that his twelve-year-old son hasn't returned from his routine jog on a country road nearby. The only clue is an unknown BMW that a neighbor noticed passing by, hours earlier. With family and the local police discouraging him, the father believes in his own intuition and the Spirit who guides him. As he sets out on a journey to combat the forces of evil, he's startled to discover some buried secrets from his own youth. 

 

Arnold stopped by In Reference to Murder to talk a little bit more about the book:

 

Although the plot and characters of Bone Deep Bonds are all fictional, they are drawn from an in-depth interview from an expert on the symptomatology, diagnosis and treatment of subjects on 'The Wheel of Sexual Abuse.'  That's me.

Emerging from a history of childhood incest, I instinctively followed an educational path in Clinical Psychology. That path allowed me to ‘step away’ from the emotional swamp that often floods survivors, drowning them in their own psychic pain and anxiety, that far too often results in their continuing on a path of self-destruction, expressed in their own deviant behavior, and/or suicidal chemical addictions.

It was not difficult for me to portray the five major characters as males, as I've had extensive experience in their actual clinical treatment, both as victims and perpetrators. Childhood victims frequently emerged as adult abusers, be they male or female. Female offenders (misandrists) are far less likely to be identified as a sexual abuser, since most often their victims are males, and those victims go with the predominant characterization that allows them to believe that their own male sexuality is the lure that attracts their abusers.

When I began writing my novel, it began in the mind of a wealthy male pedophile who kidnaps a twelve-year-old male, drugging him into an oblivious state, and drives the victim back to his hidden underground apartment, where he 'grooms' him. From that point forward, the characters led me, and the story somehow developed in an organic fashion, much like the human body follows structural patterns.

An example of this character-determined 'organicity' is that the villain drives his chosen boy from his search ending in southern Ohio back to his home in Baltimore, Maryland. I had never been to Baltimore, and tried to 'get out of there,' but my characters wouldn't allow me to leave, so Maryland it was. This called for some research as to city landmarks, but on the advice of my overseeing editor from Atmosphere Press, I soon saw that too much research for actual places deadened the tone of the writing. So I made up the names of many of the streets, suburbs, restaurants, bars. I imagine that Baltimore residents, if they read it, will be offended by my inaccuracies. Or perhaps they'll delight in exposing all my 'mistakes.'

The murders that enter into the plot happen because their perpetrators feel completely justified in their actions, seeing the consequences that would otherwise arise as keeping them from reaching their goals. They’re the ultimate illustrations of self-absolving characters. So...I didn't start out with murder in my mind, but it evolved from the characters that grew out of my clinical background and knowledge of characters on 'The Wheel of Sexual Abuse' that keeps spinning round and round until its momentum is stopped. And that can be stopped only through teaching others how to identify, report, and stop sexual victimization, along with social rehabilitation programs for the victims, abusers and conjoined family members.

This is of prime importance in our modern world where the breakdown of social order begins with the failure to build strong, healthy family units, leading to healthier communities and, eventually, nations. Stopping human abuse of the weak and vulnerable, the cornerstone of a firm foundation, will go a long way toward leading us out of the worldwide chaos, which now prevails.

 

You can find Bone Deep Bonds in both digital and paperback formats from most booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

          

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

Oscar nominee James Caan will star alongside Morena Baccarin and Pierce Brosnan in the hitman thriller, Fast Charlie, to be directed by Phillip Noyce (Salt). Brosnan will play Charlie Swift, who has worked for his aging mob boss Stan (Caan) for twenty years, skillfully operating as a prolific fixer and efficient hitman. When a rival boss moves to eliminate Stan and his entire team, he fails to complete the job. Now on his own, Charlie will stop at nothing to avenge his friend and has no plans to leave anyone alive. Morena Baccarin is set to play the female lead Marcie, the ex-wife of a mobster killed by Charlie, who forms an unexpected pairing with Charlie in his revenge against the rival mob. The project is inspired by the novel Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler.

Hailey Kilgore, David Iacono, and Jeremie Harris have signed on to star in the noir film, Cinnamon, which will stream exclusively on Fox’s free service, Tubi. The feature, currently in production in Atlanta, follows a struggling small-town gas station attendant and aspiring and truly gifted singer, Jodi Jackson (Kilgore), whose life is sent into a spin when there’s a robbery at work. Iacono is playing Jodi’s fiercely devoted hustler boyfriend-turned-music manager, Eddie, with Harris as James Walker, a young gangster in the drug running business. Cinnamon is the first movie in production under Tubi’s recently announced film deal with Village Roadshow Pictures to produce multiple films from its Black Noir Cinema initiative.

Loki star Gugu Mbatha-Raw has been set as the female co-lead opposite Kevin Hart in the cast of the action film Lift at Netflix. To be directed by F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious; Straight Outta Compton), the project has also rounded out the rest of its cast with the additions of Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Yun Jee Kim, Viveik Kalra, and Paul Anderson. Lift tells the story of an international crew who is recruited to prevent a terrorist attack by pulling off a heist on a plane mid-flight.

The action-thriller, Murder at Hollow Creek, from director David Lipper (Wolf Mountain), is currently wrapping up production. The project is set to star Jason Patric, Keli Price, Jack Kesy, Penelope Ann Miller, Perrey Reeves, Tiffany Hines, Casper Van Dien, and Mickey Rourke and was written by Keli Price (On Thin Ice). The story follows a disbarred lawyer (Price) and his eccentric brother (Kesy) whose little sister is dying with no money left to pay the medical bills. When the brothers attempt to pull off the robbery of a lifetime, they instead find themselves in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a disgruntled Serbian mobster (Rourke), while a local detective (Patric) tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together before it’s too late.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS is accelerating development of HSI: Puerto Rico and has set up a writers room for a potential scripts-to-series order. HSI: Puerto Rico is being eyed as a prospective CBS crime drama franchise and centers on a passionate Homeland Security agent who reluctantly returns home to Puerto Rico where she works with her talented, but jaded, training officer as part of an elite HSI team working tirelessly against all manner of threats to the United States. Husband-and-wife duo Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter, who are series regulars on ABC’s The Rookie and Fox’s Fantasy Island respectively, will serve as executive producers.

The entire NCIS franchise will be returning for the 2022-2023 broadcast season. CBS has renewed flagship NCIS for a milestone 20th season, which would tie Gunsmoke as the third-longest-running U.S. primetime drama series only behind Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order. The network also picked up its top freshman drama NCIS: Hawai’i for a second season and NCIS: Los Angeles for a 14th season. The three dramas join CBS’s previously announced renewals of other shows, including CSI: Vegas, with an additional renewal for another strong procedural drama franchise, FBI, said to be coming soon.

The CW is diving into the legal world with its latest series, Family Law, after the network acquired the one-hour Canadian drama series. Created by Degrassi scripter Susin Nielsen, Family Law follows attorney and recovering alcoholic Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite), struggling to put her career and family back together after hitting rock bottom. As a condition of her probation, Abby is forced to work at her estranged father Harry’s (Victor Garber) firm, Svensson and Associates, and practice in family law for the first time while forging new relationships with the half-brother Daniel (Zach Smadu) and half-sister Lucy (Genelle Williams) whom she’s never met. The result is a dysfunctional "Family Law" firm operating to help other families with their own dysfunctions.

Matt Passmore, Floriana Lima, and Dave Annable are set as the leads of NBC's Blank Slate, written by Dean Georgaris and to be directed by Richard Shepard. Blank Slate draws some parallels to The Blacklist and centers on Special Agent Alexander McCoy, a legend in law enforcement, the agent we all hope is out there, the agent we’d all like to be. The only issue is — he doesn’t actually exist. He’s a ghost, a phantom. So what happens when a man claiming to be Alexander McCoy (Passmore) walks through the door with all of his skills and knowledge but with an agenda nobody will see coming? Lima plays Maya Logan, the seasoned head of a team of Homeland Security agents who’s always a step ahead of everyone else. Annable will play Chris Logan, a congressional candidate and husband to Agent Logan.

Victoria Pedretti and Josh Bonzie will lead the cast of Saint X, Hulu’s eight-part series from writer Leila Gerstein and director Dee Rees. Based on Alexis Schaitkin’s novel, Saint X is a psychological drama told via multiple timelines and perspectives that explore and upend the girl-gone-missing genre. The storyline follows a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation, which creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. Pedretti stars as Emily, a sharp and ambitious editor of environmental documentaries whose carefully constructed, seemingly perfect life begins to crumble. Bonzie will play Clive "Gogo" Richardson, who we meet as a shy and clumsy but warm-hearted 20-year old, and again decades later as a hardened, changed man.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest episode of Keen On, hosted by Andrew Keen, Guillermo Martínez, author of The Oxford Brotherhood, discusses Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jorge Luis Borges, and the "Mathematical Art of the Great Detective Novel."

On the latest Crime Cafe podcast, Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Ben Westerham, author of the David Good private eye series and the Banbury Cross Murder Mysteries.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club continued their series with Agatha Award nominees, this time featuring Mally Becker and Mia P. Manansala.

On Speaking of Mysteries, Jess Montgomery spoke about The Echoes, the fourth installment of the Kinship mystery series featuring Sheriff Lily Ross.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Lisa Scottoline, bestselling and Edgar award-winning author of 33 novels, including her latest work, Eternal, her first-ever historical novel.

John McMahon stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to talk about his P.T. Marsh series of mystery novels, including the newest, A Good Kill.

In the first of a new monthly segment on Queer Writers of Crime, three authors who were previously guests on the podcast, Marshall Thornton, Barbarba Wilson, and Elizabeth Sims, give book recommendations for others to enjoy.

The latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories was New England writer, Dale T Phillips, who has published several novels, over 70 short stories, story collections, articles, jokes, and poetry, and has appeared on stage, television, and in Throg, an independent feature film.

On the Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson explained what a Coroner's Inquest is and why inquests aren't used much anymore; the difference between a small-town sheriff and police chief; and he discussed the various investigative units and their divisions.

The most recent Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured "The Broken T," a classic from EQMM’s founding editors, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (writing as Ellery Queen), read by EQMM managing editor, Jackie Sherbow.

The Red Hot Chili Writers discussed the British Book Awards shortlist; Janice Hallett and The Appeal; The Dying Day paperback; and epistolary novels

On Crime Time FM, Bogan Hribs spoke with host, Paul Burke, about Resilience; Romanian crime fiction; politics in Eastern Europe; translating Romanian to English and vice versa; and coffee culture.

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Derringer Distinction

 

The Short Mystery Fiction Society today announced the finalists for this year's Derringer Awards, which celebrate excellence in short crime fiction forms. The finalists will be voted on by the society membership, with winners announced on May 1st. Here are this year's honorees:

 

Flash (Up to 1,000 words)

An Unexpected Reunion by Wil A. Emerson
Smoke And Consequences by C.W. Blackwel
Tourist Trap by John Floyd
Why Are You Just Sitting There? by Robert Weibezahl
Millicent by Scott Von Doviak

 

Short (1,001 to 4,000)

Burnt Ends by Gabriel Valjan
The Right to Hang by Brandon Barrows
Tokyo Stranger by Tina Debellegarde
The Thanksgiving Ragamuffin by Kathleen Marple Kalb
Yelena Tried to Kill Me by Trey Dowell

 

Long (4,001 to 8,000)

Chicken Coops And Bread Pudding by K.L. Abrahamson
A Study of Death by Teel James Glenn
Burnin Butt, Texas by Mark Troy
Missing Carolyn by Annie Reed
The Downeaster Alexa by Michael Bracken

 

Novelette (8,001 to 20,000)

Two Tamales, One Tokarev, and a Lifetime of Broken Promises by Stacy Woodson
Glass by Jim Benn
Little City Blues by Annie Reed
Aloha Boys by Michael Bracken
A Tale of Two Sisters by Barb Goffman

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Man Who Didn't Fly

Scottish author Margot Bennett was born in 1912 and worked first first as a copywriter in the UK and Australia and then as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War before turning to writing. Her output in crime fiction was relatively small, yet successful: The Man Who Didn't Fly was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and was runner-up to Charlotte Armstrong's A Dram of Poison for Best Novel at the Edgars in 1956, and she won the Gold Dagger two years later in 1958 with Someone from the Past. She was also chosen to contribute a short story to the second CWA anthology, Choice Of Weapons, edited by Michael Gilbert.



But thereafter, a bit of mystery regarding Bennett herself began. She essentially stopped writing crime fiction, something discussed by Martin Edwards both and in the foreword he wrote for the Black Dagger Crime Series edition of The Man Who Didn't Fly. Bennett only wrote for television for awhile—including the early '60s UK adaptation of the Maigret novels by Simenon—with the exception of two non-mystery books (one of which had the intriguing title The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation), before abandoning writing altogether in 1966. She died in 1980 at the age of 68.



In The Man Who Didn't Fly, four men are scheduled to take an ill-fated chartered flight to Dublin that crashes into the Irish Channel. Although the bodies can't be recovered, it becomes evident that only three men were on board the plane, yet all four are reported as missing. Inspector Lewis and Sergeant Young have their work count out for them trying to coax clues out of unreliable witnesses including the Wade family, Charles and his daughters Hester and Prudence.



The lives of the Wades intersected with all four of the missing men: Harry Walters, a desperate poet, who was in love with Hester Wade; Joseph Ferguson, a businessman who wife was more interested in Harry; Morgan Price, a nervous guest of the Wades; and Maurice Reid, something of a family friend. Slowly but surely, Lewis and Young piece together the details of the days leading up to the flight, finally uncovering the name of the missing man. But that just sets up a new problem: what happened to him and why?



Bennett's artful plotting was enough to capture the attention of the producers of NBC's Kraft Television Theater who created an episode in 1958 based on The Man Who Didn't Fly starring then-27-year-old William Shatner, Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith of Lost in Space), and Walter Brooke (guest star in just about all TV series in the '60s, '70s, and '80s). The book was also chosen by Julian Symons as part of his 1958 "100 Best Crime Stories" for the London Sunday Times.

          

Mystery Melange

The Independent Book Publishers Association announced the finalists for their annual Ben Franklin Awards, which recognizes excellence in book editorial and design. This year's nods in the Mystery & Thriller category include False Light: A Novel by Eric Dezenhall (Greenleaf Book Group Press); Jove Brand Is Near Death by J. A. Crawford (CamCat Books); and The Wayward Spy by Susan Ouellette (CamCat Books).

On April 6, the London Book Fair is featuring a panel titled "From Book to Screen: Crime and Thrillers." Ayo Onatade, crime fiction critic, blogger, and reviewer for Shots Magazine, will moderate the discussion, with participating authors to include Peter James, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama; Kate Ruby, a producer and screenwriter as well as author of the debut psychological thriller, Tell Me Your Lies, currently in development for a major TV show; and Louise Candlish, author of The Other Passenger, currently in development for the screen in the US.

Mystery author Amy Patricia Meade has organized an auction of signed and dedicated books from more than 170 different authors, with proceeds going to CARE's Ukraine Crisis Fund. As you might expect, there are a lot of crime fiction books involved, but horror, romance, fantasy, and children's fiction are also represented. The campaign originally had a goal of $5,000, but after beating that the first day, it’s been increased to $50,000.You can find out more and bid on items here.

It's good to see a lot of crime fiction conferences gearing up for in-person events again this year following pandemic cancellations. There's even a brand-new event coming up June 23 to 25, Lyme Crime, to be held in Dorset, England. Panelists will include Nicci French, Erin Kelly, Fiona Cummins, Heidi Perks, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Harriet Tyce, Antonia Hodgson, Abir Mukherjee, Laurence Anholt, Charlotte Philby, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who’ll be chatting about his first foray into crime writing, and also forensic scientist, Angela Gallop. There will also be a Noir at the Bar, with readings, signings, and conversation.

It's also good to see that "community reads" programs have survived the pandemic, with Siouxland Libraries highlighting David Heska Wanbli Weiden's crime thriller, Winter Counts. Winter Counts won the 2021 Anthony, Barry, Macavity, and Thriller Awards for Best First Novel and has been shortlisted for many others. The library noted that Weiden being a Sicangu Oyate citizen, he adds a voice that may not be traditionally heard in popular media. Weiden also teaches Native American Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver in Colorado.

A new biography of the life of Agatha Christie from celebrated literary and cultural historian, Lucy Worsley, is on the way. Coming via Pegasus Crime in September is Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, in which Worsley set out to determine why Agatha Christie spent her career pretending that she was "just" an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t. Worsley draws upon personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen to show how Dame Agatha was "was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern." (HT to EuroCrime)

DETECt – Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives – is an interesting project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program and coordinated by the University of Bologna with the assistance of other academic institutions and industry partners. Over a three-year period, the DETECt project has provided Social Science and Humanities scholars and students with opportunities to appreciate and critically examine the way in which crime narratives in fiction, film, and television are produced, distributed and consumed all over the continent. You can read more about the project and some of the research via the project's website.

Aintree Racecourse (home of the Grand National), is honoring Dick Francis, former wartime RAF pilot, champion jump jockey, and bestselling mystery author, with the installation of a life-size bronze statue by renowned sculptor William Newton. Francis's first thriller, Dead Cert, was published in 1962, and he went on to publish more than 40 international best-sellers. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Janet Rudolph, proprietor of the Mystery Fanfare blog, celebrated her birthday yesterday with a list of birthday-themed crime fiction (and Happy Birthday to Janet!).

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Sheriff's Seizures" by James Hamill.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Lisa Scottoline, author of the new novel, What Happened to the Bennetts; thriller author, Joe R. Lansdale, chatted with The San Antonio Current about his latest novel (Born for Trouble: The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard), and the evil inside us all; and Steve Weddle interviewed Nick Kolakowski about his new novel, Payback Is Forever.

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