B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 79

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

With the final season of her hit series Ozark set to premiere later this month on Netflix, Emmy winner Julia Garner is already setting up her next big project, with a starring role in Paramount Players’s Apartment 7A. John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger are producing via Sunday Night along with Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller via their Platinum Dunes company. Natalie Erika James is attached to direct and co-wrote the latest script with Christian White, based off a draft by Skylar James. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is being described as a psychological thriller.

Michael Cudlitz and Jake Abel and have signed on to star alongside Zhang Hanyu and Vivienne Tien in Unspoken, a dramatic feature from writer-director Daming Chen that's currently in production. Unspoken tells the story of Xu (Zhang), an estranged father separated from his deaf daughter and her new life at an American university, whose murder reunites them in a way neither could have foreseen. The tragedy pierces Xu with grief and guilt that he couldn’t be present to protect his child. An ex-cop himself, he becomes convinced the local authorities are pursuing the wrong suspect – and that racism is compromising the investigation.

Mena Suvari will star alongside Steven Ogg, Christina Ricci, and Samantha Win in The Dresden Sun, the upcoming cyberpunk film from writer-director Michael Ryan. A heist goes south when Crilenger (Ogg)—a brilliant, principled mercenary with a traumatic past—works with an insider to steal a valued asset from Peredor Corporation called "the sphere." Meanwhile, a financial analyst, who despises his job at the powerful investment firm Mutual One, finds himself caught between deadly corporate rivals, financial fraud, and technological espionage, and is ultimately forced to run from a psychopathic military contractor.

Thornbyrd Films has launched production on Healed, a psychological thriller starring Guinevere Turner, Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera, Emily Goss, Benjamin Barrett, and Todd Lowe, which has been awarded the coveted ReFrame Stamp from the Sundance Institute and Women in Film for gender-balanced hiring. The film, written by Abeydeera, follows former pop icon Jazz Powers (Abeydeera) and her pregnant wife Olivia (Goss) as they attend an intimate meditation retreat at the invitation of renowned mindfulness expert, Georgia Chambers (Turner). A string of unorthodox therapy sessions and unusual events involving Georgia’s neighbor (Barrett) evoke memories of Jazz’s father (Lowe) and leave her questioning Georgia’s practice. Additional probing later reveals that the women are unknowing participants in an experiment that could change the course of their lives forever.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Keanu Reeves is in talks to star in Hulu’s The Devil In The White City, an adaptation of Erik Larson’s 2003 book that tells the true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were forever linked by the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. It follows Daniel H. Burnham, a brilliant and fastidious architect racing to make his mark on the world, and Henry H. Holmes, a handsome and cunning doctor who fashioned his own pharmaceutical "Murder Castle" on fair grounds–a palace built to seduce, torture, and mutilate young women. It marks a significant step forward for the adaptation, which has been in various stages of development since Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book in 2010 and previously set it up as a feature at Paramount with Martin Scorsese to direct. The project would mark Reeves’ first major U.S. TV role.

The Crown's Tobias Menzies will star in Manhunt, a new limited drama series for Apple TV+ from Lionstage and 3 Arts. He'll play Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln’s War Secretary and friend, who was nearly driven to madness by the need to catch assassin John Wilkes Booth and to carry out Lincoln’s legacy. The project is based on James Swanson’s book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.

The CW is expanding the cast for Season 2 of Kung Fu, its reboot of the classic series, adding Vanessa Yao, Annie Q., and JB Tadena in recurring roles. Following the explosive Season 1 finale, Season 2 picks up with Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang) and her family in a great place: Nicky’s been using her kung fu skills to keep Chinatown safe, and she and Henry (Eddie Liu) are only deeper in love with each other. Everything’s fine ... until the reemergence of villainous businessman, Russell Tan, and the surprise appearance of Nicky’s enigmatic cousin, Mia (Yao).

NCIS stars Wilmer Valderrama and Katrina Law will be visiting Vanessa Lachey and the rest of the NCIS: Hawai’i gang as part of a crossover special event airing via CBS on March 28. Details regarding the storyline are being kept under wraps by CBS, but according to Law, "Viewers can certainly expect an action-packed episode."

Channel 4’s foreign crime streaming service, Walter Presents, will debut four Scandinavian crime series between January and March 2022. First up is the Norwegian procedural, Outlier, which will air on Channel 4 from January 9. It will be followed by Cry Wolf (Denmark) starting January 30; The Truth Will Out season 2 (Sweden) on February 13; and Snow Angels (Sweden) on March 13.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "Murder and Money," by Jacqueline Seewald, read by actor Larry Mattox

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Sebastien Fitzek to talk about the English translation of Das Packet (The Package) and his new project, The Playlist.

Jason King returned to the Spybrary Podcast for his annual appearance to share his best espionage novels of 2021.

My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, chatted with Marcy McCreary about her latest novel, The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon.

On the first Red Hot Chili Writers episode of the new year, hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee looked back at 2021; took a look forward to 2022; and talked about Abir's "crime-writing teapot."

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Sunday Music Treat

It's rare that we have recordings of any composers prior to the advent of the modern record player, but there are some old piano rolls which have been adapted for modern playback. Case in point, here's Claude Debussy playing his own iconic piece, "Claire de lune" from the Suite Bergamasque, written in 1890-1905:

 

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Quote of the Week

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Mrs. Knox's Profession

Jessica Mann (13 September 1937 – 10 July 2018) had a background in archaeology, Anglo-Saxon, and law and worked in various fields in the UK before turning to writing crime fiction with 1971's A Charitable End. She was also a well-known and respected radio and television broadcast, particularly her radio program, "Women of Mystery," and authored a treatise on women crime writers entitled Deadlier than the Male.



Mrs. Knox's Profession was Mann's second novel, and centers around Sarah Foster, a selfish, self-centered woman who is transplanted from her comfortable home in London to a Midlands suburb when her husband Jeffrey, an architect, takes a new job there. She and the other bored executive wives fill their days with outings at the tennis club, at coffee parties, and gossiping. Then, Sarah finds an altogether different side of her new neighborhood, with wife-swapping parties and an affair with an MP, Victor Nightingale.



Sarah is also introduced to Mrs. Knox, a childless woman whose husband is away abroad most of the time and fufills her loneliness by being a foster mother. It would spoil the plot to reveal that child-sitting isn't the only thing Mrs. Knox is good at, but Sarah finds out on her own when she is asked to look after a neighbor's child who promptly disappears. The kidnapping draws Sarah into a nightmarish world of intrigue, ransom, and murder that threatens to shatter her carefully-constructed web of lies and her marriage.



As Betty Rowlands notes in her preface to the Black Dagger edition, Mann defies convention by making almost all of the characters unattractive. Victor is greedy, ruthless and ambtious, his assistant is a rogue, his fiancée a calculating predator. Even Sarah's children are spoiled and demanding. As Rowlands adds, "Only Sarah's devoted husband Jeffrey, a kindly, hard-working architect, her shy neighbor Flora Millington, and ultimately Ms Knox herself, move us to compassion."



One interesting bit of trivia: Mrs. Knox's Profession was a 1973 Raven Mystery Award Winner for best Hardcover Book Jacket.

          

Mystery Melange

British crime author Ann Cleeves was one of the individuals named in the UK's official New Year Honours List. Creator of the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Veyn series, Cleeves has been recognized for her services to reading and libraries and joins the list "due to her extensive contribution to the crime fiction genre."

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore will present a virtual evening with four bestselling thriller authors: Debbie Babitt (Saving Grace); Lynne Constantine (The Stranger in the Mirror); Wendy Walker (Don’t Look for Me); and Hank Phillippi Ryan (Her Perfect Life). Register for this free online event on Wednesday, January 12 at 7pm via this link.

The Baker Street Irregulars is planning to conduct its 2022 January events in person in New York City beginning January 13, 2022. Many events will be open to all Sherlockians with special tax-free group rates for hotel lodgings. Official BSI events that will be open to the public include the BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture (Thursday), the Merchants Room (Saturday), and the BSI Luncheon Reception (Saturday).

If you happen to be Down Under on February 2, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is sponsoring the Summer of Mystery literary crime exhibition celebrating women crime writers and fictional crime fighters. Participants can join in an immersive recreation of mystery and mayhem in the historical setting of The Heights with a display featuring costumes and props from the world of Miss Phryne Fisher, as well as scenes recreated from well-known crime novels. There will also be a Trust Trail of Mystery to keep the kids busy.

Crime Reads welcomed Robert Miklitsch to talk about his latest book, I Died a Million Times: Gangster Noir in Midcentury America, and how the Senate Kefauver Committee investigation, which was broadcast on television, sparked an insatiable appetite for crime stories in 1950s America.





If you're looking for new crime fiction books to start off the new year, CrimeReads's Molly Odintz has ten suggestions for you. Over at the Shots Magazine blog, Ayo Onatade also has some upcoming titles to seek out, with an emphasis on British and European titles.

Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg was recently released. It's the eleventh volume in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series edited by Elizabeth Foxwell and is a comprehensive guide to the mystery work of the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey, with info on some of Sayers's religious-related works.

It appears that at least part of a real-life publishing mystery has been solved. For the past few years, someone has been stealing unpublished manscripts from lesser-known authors and bestsellers like Margaret Atwood. The perpetrator would use a phishing scheme pretending to be affiliated with legitimate publishing houses in order to have authors send him their works. However, the pilfered books never appeared as pirated copies nor was there ever any ransom, making the crime even more baffling. But yesterday, the FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old publishing professional who worked as a rights coordinator for a major international publisher in London (in his Twitter bio, he added that he worked for Simon & Schuster U.K. which wasn't named officially in the arrest warrant). There's no word on a motive yet, although knowing what’s coming, who is buying what, and how much they’re paying, could give publishing companies an edge.

On Jan. 1, works that were first published in 1926 entered the public domain, which means they will become available for free at sites such as Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. Among the books included this year: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne; Soldiers’ Pay, the first novel published by William Faulkner; and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

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, and after her death, the feature was relocated to Art Taylor's website. For the initial First Two Pages of 2022, Art welcomes E.A. Aymar, who is a gifted and dedicated author, a thoughtful and provocative essayist, a tirelessly generous supporter of other writers, and a friend to the entire community. Ed has also established himself as an extraordinary short fiction writer and talks about his latest story, "The Search for Eric Garcia," which is in the anthology, Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color, edited by Abby L. Vandiver.

Teresa Dovalpage, a college professor and author of three theater plays and twelve novels, including the Havana Mystery series published by Soho Crime, applied the Page 69 Test to Death under the Perseids, the most recent novel in the series.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Epiphany 2021" by Tad Tuleja.

In the Q&A roundup, Robert McCaw stopped by Deborah Kalb's blog to talk about Treachery Times Two, the fourth in his Koa Kane series, set in Hawaii; E. B. Davis interviewed Jennifer J. Chow for the Writers Who Kill blog about her latest Sassy Cat cozy mystery , Mimi Lee Cracks the Code; and Author Interviews welcomed Karen Odden, whose novels A Dangerous Duet and A Trace of Deceit have won awards for historical mystery and historical fiction, about her latest work, Down a Dark River.

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Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week (and a new year!) and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

SP Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to the psychological thriller, Nightshade, starring Lou Ferrigno Jr. (S.W.A.T.), Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers) and Jason Patric (Wayward Pines), with plans to release it in theaters across North America and on VOD platforms on January 4. The film, which is directed by Landon Williams, follows a homicide detective (Ferrigno Jr.) on the hunt for a serial killer, who experiences a series of disturbing dreams leading him to seek hypnotherapy and the aid of a psychiatrist (Meyer). The treatment reveals undeniable parallels between his nightmares and the murders, sending him into a spiral of paranoia and distrust.

A trailer dropped for the Tamil-language Indian thriller, Valimai, starring Ajith Kumar as Arjun, an IPS officer who sets out on a mission to hunt down illegal bikers involved in theft and murder. Huma Qureshi and Kartikeya Gummakonda also star. Ajith Kumar, known to his fans as "Thala" (Leader), is one of the most bankable stars from South India’s Tamil-language film industry and has a following across India. Valimai is due a release on Jan. 14, 2022.

Wondering when your favorite blockbuster action movie or thriller is slated for release in the new year? Deadline offered up a list of release dates for the "Most Anticipated 2022 Movies."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Chris Noth is out of the CBS drama, The Equalizer, as the actor faces allegations of sexual assault. "Chris Noth will no longer film additional episodes of The Equalizer, effective immediately," CBS and Universal Television, which produces the series, said in a statement. He will appear in one more episode of the show that has completed production. Noth played William Bishop, the former CIA handler and longtime friend of lead character, Robyn McCall (Queen Latifah).

In an interview with Deadline, crime author Harlan Coben said that "The worst TV adaptations are slavishly devoted to the [original] text." Coben also indicated he hopes to continue working with Netflix as his five-year deal draws to a close. Coben's unusual contract with the streamer saw him mostly adapting his own novels for shows around Europe, even relocating Stay Close from Atlantic City to the British seaside resort of Blackpool for the TV version. The author has plans for at least two more shows, which would bring him up to nine of the planned 14 when the deal was struck in 2018.

The creators and stars of the upcoming Stephen Merchant-starring BBC1 factual drama, Four Lives—about serial killer Stephen Port’s crimes—have slammed London’s Metropolitan Police and the UK justice system for "monumental failings" over the case. An inquest into the Met’s investigation into Port’s four murders concluded in December that three of them "probably" could have been avoided if the police hadn’t missed opportunities, while a group of UK MPs has called for a public inquiry into claims of institutional homophobia that beset the case.

The official Twitter account for the BBC America drama series, Killing Eve, posted a 30-second teaser trailer, offering a preview of the season’s February 27, 2022 premiere. The storyline will see MI6 agent Eve Polastri’s (Sandra Oh) obsession with serial killer, Villanelle (Jodie Comer), come to a head in the fourth and final season. The show has racked up much critical acclaim in its short run, with Comer and Sandra Oh taking home an Emmy and Golden Globe, respectively, for their acting work.

A trailer was also released for the BBC's award-winning period gangster saga, Peaky Blinders, which will end with its upcoming sixth season. An air date has not yet been announced, although it has been teased for early 2022. Peaky Blinders features an ensemble cast led by Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory (who passed away in April of 2021), and Paul Anderson, starring as Tommy Shelby, Elizabeth "Polly" Gray, and Arthur Shelby, respectively. Sam Neill, Iddo Goldberg, Tom Hardy, Paddy Considine, Adrien Brody, Aidan Gillen, Annabelle Wallis, Charlotte Riley, Sam Claflin, Stephen Graham, Sophie Rundle, and Anya Taylor-Joy also have had recurring roles at various times of the series.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Writers Detective Bureau host, Detective Adam Richardson, discussed finding last wills for a homicide investigation; and he also answered two queries about historical crime scenarios: a murder in 1912, and a character in a romance who works for the NYPD in the late 80s/early 90s.

The Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast welcomed Janet Lynn and Will Zeilinger to talk about their solo work and their collaborations, which include the Skylar Drake Mystery Series.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast ushered in 2022 with a reading of a New Year’s story from EQMM’s Department of First Stories. New writer Ken Linn begins his tale on July 4th—but follows his protagonist up to the turn of a new year.

On Crime Time FM, Craig Sisterson chatted with Peter Papathanasiou about his dark outback thriller, The Stoning.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club had a recast of episode 163 featuring an interview with Caitlin Rother about her book, Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case.

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Mystery Melange - New Year's Eve Edition

 

The winners have been announced for this year's German Mystery Prize. In the German language category, Die Experten by Merle Kröger took top honors. This is the second such nod for Kröger, who previously won in 2013, and he was also runner-up in 2016. In the International category, Tokyo Redux, the final volume in David Peace's trilogy, took the top prize. (HT to The Literary Saloon.)

The recent Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were dominated once again by women, with Martha Wells taking the best novel prize for Network Effect. That work is the latest in her "Murderbot Diaries" series, which also won the Hugo for Best Series this year. The Murderbot Diaries follow "Murderbot," the self-chosen name of a particular SecUnit, an intelligent partly-organic robot rented out by the company that owns it for security purposes. Murderbot has secretly hacked its governor module, but none of the members of the planetary survey team it’s working for have any idea.

Award-winning novelist Walter Mosley has been named the recipient of the 2022 Sankofa Freedom Award, presented by Tulsa City-County Library’s African-American Resource Center and the Tulsa Library Trust. Mosley has published more than 60 works of fiction and non-fiction and is best known among the crime fiction community for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, the Fearless Jones mysteries, the Leonid McGill mysteries, and the Socrates Fortlow novels. Along the way, he's also tried "to help readers understand and appreciate Black life in America, particularly segregated inner-city experiences." The Sankofa Freedom Award is handed out biennially in February during Black History Month to a nationally acclaimed individual who has dedicated his or her life to educating and improving the greater African-American community.

On January 21, 2022, the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects" opens at New York's Grolier Club. It features items from the collection of Cathy and Glen Miranker, including artwork, books, correspondence, and manuscripts about the iconic literary detective. The items include letters and an "idea book" from Arthur Conan Doyle; a handwritten speech with Conan Doyle's explanation for killing off Holmes; original artwork of Holmes by British and US illustrators; and a pirated edition of The Sign of the Four. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist blog)

Janet Rudolph has an updated list via her Mystery Fanfare blog of mysteries, crime fiction, thrillers, and movies that take place at the New Year.

And you can enjoy reading those titles with help from the libation recipes via the authors at Mystery Lovers Kitchen including an Eggnog Kahlúa Cocktail, courtesy of Cleo Coyle, and Rosemary Metal Press Gin Fizz by Mia P. Manansala.

A new detective culture periodical has launched in Turkey. 221B Crime Culture Magazine will cover the fields of detective literature, TV series, cinema, academic research, and comics every two months in both print and digital. The first issue can be downloaded from e-magazine platforms such as Mazgter, Amazon, Zinio, PressReader.

Suspense Magazine is out with its Best of 2021 issue, which is apparently going to be its last magazine edition. The editors announced they will no longer be producing a digital magazine, instead using the website to post all reviews, interviews, stories and much more. "Everything you see in the magazine will now be online, with the website being updated once a week."

CrimeFest is offering a bursary (scholarship) for a writer of color to attend the festival in May 2022 and appear on a panel. The deadline to apply for the bursary is January 30, 2022. To be eligible, authors must have had at least one English language book in traditional print published by a British commercial publisher. The winning entry will be chosen in collaboration with CrimeFest organizers and judges Vaseem Khan and critic Ayo Onatade. Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, with around 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days. (HT to Shots Magazine)

It's common for horror, science fiction, and romance writers to make the novella the bulk of their output, but crime fiction authors are far more hesitant to embrace the form. Mystery and Suspense hosted a panel discussion about the crime fiction novella where six experts—Michael Bracken, Martin Edwards, Christina Hoag, Linda Landrigan, Steve Liskow, and Christoffer Peterson—discussed the form's creativity, craft, and market with moderator, William Burton McCormick.

Writing for Aeon, Vera Tobin, an associate professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, discussed the art of the plot twist. Tobin is also the author of Elements of Surprise: Our Mental Limits and the Satisfactions of Plot.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Case Closed" by Tony Dawson.

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Nonpareil Nonfiction

In keeping with the original primary theme of this blog, namely a focus on research and reference in crime fiction, I thought I'd take note of the nonfiction titles that are the cream of the crop according to the various 2021 awards organizations. Just in case you missed these fascinating books, here they are, in alphabetical order, with information from the publishers:

Black Hands: Inside the Bain family murders by Martin Van Beynen, which won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Nonfiction. This is the story of a mass-murder that divided a nation, which began in a rickety old home on a cold June morning in 1994, where five members of a seemingly ordinary New Zealand family were gunned down. There were two suspects. One lay dead from a single bullet to the head. The other was the only survivor: David Bain. Since then the country has asked: Who killed the Bain family? David, or his father Robin? And why? Award-winning journalist Martin van Beynen has covered the Bain story closely for decades. His 2017 Stuff podcast, Black Hands - based on the manuscript for this book - was a runaway success in New Zealand and overseas, downloaded more than 4 million times and topping the charts in New Zealand and around the world. Now, van Beynen brings the story up to date for 2020, exploring the case from start to finish, picking through evidence old and new, plumbing the mysteries and motives, interviewing never-before-spoken-to witnesses and laying out the complex police investigation and judicial processes, seeking to finally answer the question: Who was the killer?

H R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, by Sheila Mitchell, which won the Macavity Award for Best Critical/Biographical. Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating, known to his many readers as H.R.F. Keating, was the author of more than 50 books, favorite among them his series featuring Indian Inspector Ganesh Ghote. In H.R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime, his wife Sheila Mitchell offers an intimate view into the life and writings of one of the most revered authors of British crime fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. With honest reflection, Mitchell brings readers behind the scenes, through the highs and lows of the enduring literary career of her husband, who along with his many writing accolades and achievements was a devoted family man. Rich in detail, H.R.F. Keating: A Life of Crime is the definitive portrait of the artist and man. With an Introduction from Len Deighton.

Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto’s Queer Community, by Justin Ling, which won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Nonfiction Book. In 2013, the Toronto Police Service announced that the disappearances of three men—Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, and Majeed Kayhan—from Toronto's gay village were, perhaps, linked. When the leads ran dry, the investigation was shut down, on paper classified as "open but suspended." By 2015, investigative journalist Justin Ling had begun to retrace investigators' steps, convinced there was evidence of a serial killer. Meanwhile, more men would go missing, and police would continue to deny that there was a threat to the community. On January 18, 2018, Bruce McArthur, a landscaper, would be arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder. In February 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of eight men. This extraordinary book tells the complete story of the McArthur murders. Based on more than five years of in-depth reporting, this is also a story of police failure, of how the queer community responded, and the story of the eight men who went missing and the lives they left behind. In telling that story, Justin Ling uncovers the latent homophobia and racism that kept this case unsolved and unseen. This gripping book reveals how police agencies across the country fail to treat missing persons cases seriously, and how policies and laws, written at every level of government, pushed McArthur's victims out of the light and into the shadows. 

Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock by Christina Lane, which won both the Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction and the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical. In 1933, Joan Harrison was a twenty-six-year-old former salesgirl with a dream of escaping both her stodgy London suburb and the dreadful prospect of settling down with one of the local boys. A few short years later, she was Alfred Hitchcock’s confidante and one of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of his first American film, Rebecca. Harrison had quickly grown from being the worst secretary Hitchcock ever had to one of his closest collaborators, critically shaping his brand as the “Master of Suspense.” Harrison went on to produce numerous Hollywood features before becoming a television pioneer as the producer of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A respected powerhouse, she acquired a singular reputation for running amazingly smooth productions— and defying anyone who posed an obstacle. She built most of her films and series from the ground up. She waged rough-and-tumble battles against executives and censors, and even helped to break the Hollywood blacklist. She teamed up with many of the most respected, well-known directors, writers, and actors of the twentieth century. And she did it all on her own terms

Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession (Sarah Weinman, editor), which won the Anthony Award for Best Critical or Nonfiction Work (and was also an NPR Best Book of the Year). Acclaimed author ofThe Real Lolita and editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin), Sarah Weinman brings together an exemplary collection of recent true crime tales. She culls together some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today.  Michelle Dean’s “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick” went viral when it first published and is the basis for the TV showThe Act and Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” is the gold standard for forensic journalism.  There are 13 pieces in all and as a collection, they showcase writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.

Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice by Louise Milligan, which won the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime Australia for Best Nonfiction Crime Book. A masterful and deeply troubling exposé, Witness is the culmination of almost five years' work for award-winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan. Charting the experiences of those who have the courage to come forward and face their abusers in high-profile child abuse and sexual assault cases, Milligan was profoundly shocked by what she found.  During this time, the #MeToo movement changed the zeitgeist, but time and again during her investigations Milligan watched how witnesses were treated in the courtroom and listened to them afterwards as they relived the associated trauma. Then she was a witness herself in the trial of the decade, R v George Pell. Through these experiences, interviews with high-profile members of the legal profession, including judges, prosecutors and the defence lawyers who have worked in these cases, along with never-before-published court transcripts, Milligan lays bare the flaws that are ignored and exposes a court system that is sexist, unfeeling and weighted towards the rich and powerful. In Witness, Milligan reveals the devastating reality that within the Australian legal system truth is never guaranteed and, for victims, justice is often elusive. And even when they get justice, the process is so bruising, they wish they had never tried.

Words Whispered in Water by Sandy Rosenthal, which won the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Nonfiction. In the aftermath of one of the worst disasters in U.S. history, Words Whispered in Water tells the story of one woman’s fight—against all odds—to expose a mammoth federal agency—and win. It’s a horror story, a mystery, and David and Goliath story all in one. In 2005, the entire world watched as a major U.S. city was nearly wiped off the map. The levees ruptured and New Orleans drowned. But while newscasters attributed the New Orleans flood to “natural catastrophes” and other types of disasters, citizen investigator Sandy Rosenthal set out to expose the true culprit and compel the media and government to tell the truth. This is her story. When the protective steel flood-walls broke, the Army Corps of Engineers—with cooperation from big media—turned the blame on natural types of disasters. In the chaotic aftermath, Rosenthal uncovers the U.S. corruption, and big media at root. Follow this New Orleans hero as she exposes the federal agency’s egregious design errors and eventually changes the narrative surrounding the New Orleans flood. In this engaging and revealing tale of man versus nature and man versus man, Words Whispered in Water proves that the power of a single individual is alive and well.

Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind by Sue Black, which won the Crime Writers’ Association ALCS Gold Dagger for Nonfiction. internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black taking us on a guided tour of the human skeleton and explaining how each person's life history is revealed in their bones, which she calls "the last sentinels of our mortal life to bear witness to the way we lived it." Her narrative follows the skeleton from the top of the skull to the small bones in the foot. Each step of the journey includes an explanation of the biology—how the bone is formed in a person's development, how it changes as we age, the secrets it may hold—and is illustrated with anecdotes from the author's career helping solve crimes and identifying human remains, whether recent or historical. Written in Bone is full of entertaining stories that read like sce

 

          

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

Oliver Trevena has signed on to star in and executive produce the indie feature film, Wire Room, which recently began principal photography in Birmingham, Alabama. Written by Brandon Stiefer and to be directed by Matt Eskandari, Wire Room features Trevena as Eddie Flynn, an infamous Irish arms dealer who smuggled high-powered Russian-made weapons for South American rebels. He ends up on the run after a bloody gang war and winds up in the U.S. where he’s a middleman for the Baja cartel. The film also stars Bruce Willis and Kevin Dillon.

After Paramount recently scheduled Tom Cruise’s long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, for Memorial Day weekend this coming year, Lionsgate posted a teaser-video indicating it was moving John Wick: Chapter 4 from that same weekend to March 24 the following year (2023). However, the real reason may be due to shooting setbacks. Although principal photography wrapped up this summer in France, Germany, and Japan, production was recently halted due to unspecified reasons. John Wick: Chapter 4 stars Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Skarsgård, and Ian McShane.

A new trailer dropped for the Agatha Christie adaptation, Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh’s follow-up to Murder on the Orient Express. The project sees Branagh reprising his role as detective Hercule Poirot, this time investigating a murder aboard a glamorous river steamer boat in 1930s Egypt where Gal Gadot and her new husband, played by Armie Hammer, embark on an exotic honeymoon voyage. The current opening for the film is February 11, 2022.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

A team that includes Academy Award-nominated Chocolat producer, Kit Golden, has secured the rights to Giles Milton’s non-fiction work, Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat. Netflix will air the 10-episode adaptation which follows the work of an international group of soldiers, spies, and saboteurs from all walks of life who devised unconventional new weapons and tactics to "set Europe ablaze" per Churchill’s orders. From their base in the Scottish Highlands, these resistance forces from across Europe led daring yet largely unknown missions throughout Europe that hastened the end of World War II. (Note that this project is different from Paramount Pictures’ forthcoming pic The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which has Guy Ritchie attached to write and direct and is based on a different book by Damian Lewis.)

Author John Scalzi's The Dispatcher, which started life as an Audible original audiobook narrated by Zachary Quinto, is now being adapted for the small screen by producer Uri Singer, who's also behind Netflix’s feature film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Underworld. The Dispatcher takes place in Chicago in a distant future in which it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone – 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. The ongoing series follows Tony Valdez, a Dispatcher – "a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those about to die, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. He teams up with Chicago PD detective, Nona Langdon, to help save those in death’s crosshairs and solve the crimes that put them there."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with Rod Sadler, who had a 30-year career in law enforcement before turning his hand to writing true crime.

The Pune International Literary Festival featured Dr. Mark Aldridge, an Agatha Christie historian and author, in conversation with Helen Smith about his "journey" with Dame Agatha.

On the most recent episode of Spybrary, Le Carré Cast host Jeff Quest tackled some of the most serious and silly questions faced by spy fans. He was joined by an all-star panel of guests – Jeremy Duns, Hannah Cooper and Spybrary host Shane Whaley – as they tackled a wide range of espionage enigmas.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Michael Penncavage to discuss his short stories and new novel, Person Unknown.

Crimetime FM had their season-ending show with a yearly wrap-up with Paul Burke, Victoria Selman, and Barry Forshaw.

The Red Hot Chili Writers chatted with Finnish crime writing superstar, Antti Tuomainen; spoke with Tracy Fenton of the Facebook group, The Book Club, about her five favorite recent reads; discussed the world pillow fighting championships, and more.

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Mystery Melange - Christmas Edition

Over at the Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph has added to her annual roundup of Christmas Crime Fiction lists, which has grown so large, it has to be divided into segments. You can check out Authors A-E here; F-L here; and M-Z here. Plus, there's a separate listing for Christmas Mystery Short Story Anthologies and Novellas A-Z and another for Winter Solstice Mysteries.

The December issue of Mystery Magazine has several holiday themed stories including "Cajun State" by O’Neil De Noux, where there is not much crime at Cajun State University … until someone steals the big Christmas tree from campus; "The Christmas Caper" by Sharon Hart Addy, where even a Grinch’s best laid plans get tripped up; "A Hungarian Christmas" by Vicki Weisfeld, in which Veronika convinces her young fiancé, Bert, that every Hungarian girl must have a present on Hungarian Christmas; "Santa Walks Into A Bar" by Frank Oreto, where wearing the Santa suit to Drake's Bar and Grill had been a joke, but after that night Officer Paul Drazdzinski wouldn't laugh for years; "The X In Xmas" by Robert Jeschonek, in which to solve the murder of a Mafia boss at Christmastime, Detective Charlie Collins joins forces with a female detective who has plenty of mob connections; plus more from Maura Yzmore, Brandon Barrows, Joseph Goodrich, Steve Beresford, and Eric B Ruark.

Also out with their Christmas issue is The Strand, where it's the holiday season for ghosts, small town rivalries, Holmes on the hunt, and suspense in Amish country, with stories by Meg Gardiner, Linda Castillo, Joe Giordano, Carla Kaessinger Coupe, and John Floyd.

Kings River Life has a free online Christmas story for you, "Aunt Jewel and the Christmas Spirits: A Christmas Mystery Short Story," by Bobbi A. Chukran. The magazine's Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast also featured the Christmas mystery short story, "Lady Barbara's Christmas Miracle," written by Connie Berry, read by local actor Ariel Linn, plus an excerpt from the mystery novel, Ghosts of Painting Past, by Sybil Johnson as read by actor Karina C Balfour.

The pandemic led to the delay of the online mystery ezine, Mysterical-E, but they're back with a holiday-themed issue that includes some great features, reviews, and stories, including one by the prolific, award-winning short story master, John M. Floyd.

On the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast, former radio worker Bonnie Hearn Hill, who is also author of sixteen suspense novels, read her seasonally appropriate story "Feliz Navidead," from the January/February 2020 issue of EQMM and first-place winner of Writer's Digest Magazine's genre short story award.

The Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast featured an episode on "What We Are Reading: Christmas Cozy Mysteries."

A Christmas Carol’s lesser-known successor is getting its moment in the spotlight thanks to the Charles Dickens Museum, which is hoping to attract new attention to the festive story, "The Cricket on the Hearth," with the first display of some of its illustrations. The tale, which was published in 1846, is the third of Dickens’ five Christmas books and tells the story of John Peerybingle and his wife Dot, who have a cricket in their home that brings happiness to the family. The toy-maker Tackleton, a malicious old man who "despised all toys [and] wouldn’t have bought one for the world," convinces Peerybingle that Dot has cheated on him, but all finally ends well.

Mystery Lover's Kitchen has an array of holiday recipes for you, including Gingerbread Cookie Sticks via Cleo Coyle; Armenian White Christmas Cookies from Tina Kashian; Lucy Burdette's Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies; and many more.

If you've been wondering what is the most-searched Christmas cookie in your state, look no further.

How well do you know Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas?" Sarah S. Davis created a trivia quiz over at Bookriot so you can find out.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "White Christmas" by Joseph Donato.

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