B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 80

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

Sony has picked up film rights to the Gabino Iglesias novel, The Devil Takes You Home, which Cuban filmmaker, Alejandro Brugués, will adapt and direct. While the project and its storyline are still in early development, the Iglesias novel follows Mario, who has to be a hitman to cover his family’s bills, especially his daughter’s medical tab. He’s presented with an offer: One last score that will either pull him out of poverty forever or put a bullet in the back of his skull. A man named Juanca needs help stealing $2 million dollars from a drug cartel. Together, they begin a journey to an underworld where unspeakable horrors happen every day.

Lionsgate is developing the thriller, Prey, with John Glenn and Alex Davidson co-writing the script. Although details on the plot are a bit limited, Deadline notes that "In the film, a man is dropped off, naked, at the Dodger Stadium parking lot with a $2 million open bounty on his head. He has to make it to Long Beach on foot by dawn, or his family will be killed."

Tom Sizemore has boarded Bruce Bellocchi’s female revenge thriller, The Legend of Jack and Diane. The story is set in motion when Diane (Lydia Zelmac) decides to leave Indiana for a new life in Los Angeles. But after she and her friend, Jack (David Tomlinson), discover secrets about the death of Diane’s mother, they are forced on the run as they create a hit list to exact revenge on everyone involved. While the story and screenplay are original, the film’s title is inspired by John Mellencamp’s song "Jack & Diane." Although there aren't any details about Sizemore's role, he'll be joining other additions to the cast including Robert LaSardo and Alvaro Orlando.

Chaley Rose, Pete Ploszek, and Heather Morris have been set to star in the indie thriller, The Bodyguard. The plot centers on pop star Eden Chase (Rose), who is almost kidnapped by a crazed fan. She enlists the help of handsome, brooding bodyguard, Jackson Reed (Ploszek), to move into her home and become her full-time security. When Jackson develops an unhealthy attachment to Eden, she soon realizes the one person with access to her life and the man she’d called her protector, has now become a predator harboring a dark secret from the past. With the help of her tenacious best friend (Morris), Eden realizes she must outwit him or become prey. Bayardo De Murguia, Malaya Rivera Drew, James C. Burns, Nikki Tuazon, and Rafael Molina also star.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Wilmer Valderrama is developing a TV series based on the Disney western, Zorro, for Disney Branded Television. Valderrama is set to executive produce and star as Don Diego de la Vega and his alter ego, the titular masked horseman. "We’re reimagining this Disney classic as a compelling period piece, set in Pueblo de Los Angeles, but told in a very modern telenovela style — with richly drawn contemporary characters and relationships set against the action, drama, suspense, and humor of the original, iconic Zorro," said Ayo Davis, President of Disney Branded Television.

A series adaptation of TJ Middleton’s quirky English novel, Cliffhanger, is in the works at Fox. The book follows Al Greenwood, a maverick taxi driver, who decides to kill his wife and has planned the perfect murder. But things don’t turn out quite the way he hoped and Al finds himself committing more crimes to cover his tracks. The series will gender swap the main character and will follow the exploits of rideshare driver, Audrey Greenwood, who emerges from the pandemic with a startling realization: she never wants to see her husband Al’s face again. So, one dark and stormy night, fueled by rage and tequila, she tries to kill him.

Carol Mendelsohn, the former showrunner of the original CSI series, has scored a pair of broadcast development sales. Mendelsohn is remaking the Swedish legal drama, Heder, for NBC and also developing the coroner crime drama, Body Farm, for CBS. Heder is being adapted as Honor and follows four brilliant, brash legal minds willing to fight for the underdog. The quartet will be battling a brutal crime, spiraling mystery, and a shocking discovery about the truth that threatens to unravel their very carefully constructed lives. The Body Farm series follows a talented but acerbic New York City forensic pathologist, who after a public fall from grace that renders her nearly unemployable, takes a job with an old-school coroner on his body farm in rural Texas where they covertly investigate mysterious deaths.

CBS is developing Five Point, a drama from Muse Entertainment and FBI co-creator, Craig Turk. When a legendary U.S. marshal goes missing, his committed daughter steps in as head of the service’s most elite team, tackling the toughest law-enforcement assignments across the country—while investigating her father’s disappearance and wrestling with a family legacy more complicated than she ever imagined.

AMC+ has picked up ITV’s big-budget adaptation of Len Deighton’s The Ipcress File. The show is set in the Cold War era, as British army sergeant Harry Palmer (played by Joe Cole) is stationed in Berlin before being sentenced to eight years in a military jail in England. To avoid prison, he becomes a spy, cutting his teeth on the Ipcress File. The Deighton novels achieved worldwide fame when they were turned into a 1965 film starring Michael Caine.

The CW is developing the murder mystery drama, Clubhouse (working title). When a popular podcast features the grisly unsolved murder that took place in their childhood clubhouse, four young women are pulled back into each other’s lives just in time for the killer to strike again. iZombie writer, Christina de Leon, will serve as co-executive producer and also write the series.

It's finally official: Sam Waterston, longtime Law & Order veteran, will be returning for his 17th season as District Attorney Jack McCoy on the famed Dick Wolf show for its revival. Waterston joins previously announced Law & Order alum Anthony Anderson, who will return to the cast as Detective Kevin Bernard, along with new cast members Jeffrey Donovan, as an NYPD detective; Hugh Dancy as an assistant district attorney; Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Kate Dixon; and Odelya Halevi as Assistant District Attorney Samantha Maroun. Law & Order premieres on NBC on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. ET.

Eva De Dominici has been tapped for a major recurring role opposite Adan Canto on The Cleaning Lady, Fox’s adaptation of the Argentinean drama. The Cleaning Lady stars Elodie 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. After accidentally witnessing a murder, Thony is recruited by mobster Arman Morales (Canto) to use her medical skills as a "cleaner", erasing evidence of the mob's crimes. Crossing into a world of moral grey, Thony begins to live a double life, keeping secrets from her family while cleaning crime scenes and dodging the law, playing the game by her own rules in a dangerous criminal underworld. De Dominici will play Arman’s (Canto) wife, Nadia Morales, gorgeous and sultry, she manages the exclusive cigar club La Habana with her husband.

CSI: Vegas is returning for a second season. The series saw original CSI castmembers Wallace Langham, William Petersen, and Jorja Fox return alongside new cast members Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez, and Mandeep Dhillon. Peterson will not return for the second season as Gil Grissom, as he had only signed on for the initial 10-episode revival, but will remain as an executive producer. According to sources, Fox’s contract allows her to continue as Sara Sidle if she chooses to, and the series’ producers are hopeful that she may come back.

Fernando Coimbra (Narcos), Jessica Lowery (Heels), Marialy Rivas (La Jauría) and Nina Lopez-Corrado (A Million Little Things) have been tapped to direct Season 2 of HBO’s Emmy-nominated Perry Mason reboot, starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role. Each will direct two episodes of the eight-episode series. The new season takes place months after the end of the Dodson trial where Perry (Rhys) has moved off the farm, ditched the milk truck, and even traded his leather jacket for a pressed suit. It’s the worst year of the Depression, and Perry and Della (Juliet Rylance) have set the firm on a safer path pursuing civil cases instead of the tumultuous work criminal cases entail. Unfortunately, there isn’t much work for Paul (Chris Chalk) in wills and contracts, so he’s been out on his own. An open-and-closed case overtakes the city of Los Angeles, and Perry’s pursuit of justice reveals that not everything is always as it seems.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Vannessa Cronin, who arrived in the U.S. from Ireland over two decades ago and has spent the intervening years working in the book industry as a book buyer, a sales rep, an Amazon Bookstore curator, and now an Amazon Books senior editor. Vannessa came on the podcast to talk about the Amazon Books Editors’ picks for best mysteries and thrillers of 2021.

On the Read or Dead podcast, Katie and Nusrah talk about their year-end favorites and reflect on reading goals for 2022.

On the Spybrary podcast, host Shane Whaley learned more about How to Betray Your Country, the latest novel from spy fiction writer, author James Wolff.

In a bonus mini-episode of Crime Writers of Color, Rachel Howzell Hall, author of These Toxic Things, was interviewed by Robert Justice.

H.B. Lyle chatted with Crime Time FM host, Paul Burke, about his latest historical thriller, The Year of the Gun; Sherlock Holmes and the Irregulars; Nabokov; historical accuracy in fiction; and how Lyle's protagonist, Wiggins, narrowly avoids going down with the Titanic.

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Sunday Music Treat

You are quite likely to hear J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio this time of year, although it requires some planning and scheduling, seeing as how it's in six parts, each part being intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. The total running time for the entire work is nearly three hours. Here's something a little more manageable, an arrangement of the Sinfonia section for piano, as played by Lang Lang:

 

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Quote of the Week

          

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: A Gentleman Called

Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014) is considered as one of the Grand Dames of crime fiction, but she didn't start out as a writer, working first in advertising and as a librarian. She published her first novel in 1949, The Judas Cat, and went on to author 20 more books and receive seven Edgar Award nominations. She was a big influence on the crime fiction community, serving as Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster in 1985 and served on the initial steering committee for the formation of Sisters in Crime (along with Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, Betty Francis, Sara Paretsky, Nancy Pickard, and Susan Dunlap).



By her own account, Davis was an "odd fit" in crime fiction, unhappy with her perceived inability to create a memorable series character and uncomfortable with violence and murder. But she was very happy creating villains, and often commented that villains were much more fun to write about than heroes. Her themes trended more toward psychology than out-and-out detection and religious tensions are often found in her work, not surprising considering her own background (as a Roman Catholic who left the church).



A Gentleman Called from 1958 was nominated for an Edgar in 1959 and included in The Essential Mystery Lists by Roger Sobin. It features characters who were to be featured in three books, including attorney Jimmie Jarvis, his housekeeper, Mrs. Norris, and the District Attorney's chief investigator, Jasper Tally.



The story starts off revolving around middle-aged bachelor Theodore Adkins, who is slapped with a paternity suit. Adkins is also from a wealthy family who are old clients of Jarvis's law firm, which prompts Jarvis to take the case. At the same time, Jasper Tally is involved in an investigation into the strangulation of wealthy Arabella Sperling and the theft of her diamond pin. Eventuallly, the two plots converge around several other unsolved murders involving matrimony-minded women, which threatens to ensnare Mrs. Norris and put her own life in danger.



Salisbury is adept at characterization and using dialogue to flesh out her characters. The psychological underpinnings of A Gentleman Called are as important, or really more so, than the whodunnit aspect, but it's entertaining to follow her characters through their interactions or, as Kirkus noted, enjoy the "Insidious indirection which gives the novel a crafty glint."

          

Mystery Melange

Tonight at 7pm PT (10pm ET), the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore will host a virtual panel featuring Callie Browning, Vera Chan, Tracy Clark, Christopher Chambers, and Faye Snowden, celebrating the new publication, Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color. Click here to register for this free event.

Simon Bewick and Victoria Watson, the team behind Virtual Noir at the Bar, have released tickets for their first physical event in Whitley Bay. Bay Tales Live, a one-day crime fiction festival for readers and writers, will be held at Whitley Bay Playhouse on Saturday, February 12, 2022 and will feature several successful UK crime writers, as well as introducing audience members to the brightest rising stars. The program will feature six panels with award-winning authors Louise Candlish, Vaseem Khan, Ann Cleeves, Trevor Wood, and Dr. Richard Shepherd, forensic pathologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller, Unnatural Causes.

Award-winning crime writer, Martin Edwards, has partnered with editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback to offer a different kind of crime-writing course. Crafting Crime is aimed at serious writers who wish to study independently yet also receive a critique of their work, and will be accessed online with modules mainly drawn from Martin’s extensive experience of conducting writing workshops. The modules will also include podcasts with Dea Parkin, Editor-in-chief at Fiction Feedback and Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association, as well as tips from crime writers such as Elly Griffiths, Michael Robotham, Steve Cavanagh, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Soji Shimada.

The Writers’ Police Academy announced that the 2022 Guest of Honor is to be bestselling author Robert Dugoni, creator of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels. The Special Guest Speaker for next year's event will be Steven Spingola, known to his colleagues as "the sleuth with the proof" and an investigator for Cold Justice, a popular Oxygen Channel true crime program.

News from The Rap Sheet alerts us to a change in the Spencer "universe." Spencer is the wisecracking Boston private eye introduced in 1973’s The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker, a series continued after the author's death by Ace Atkins. Atkins announced recently that he's putting aside his Spencer pen to work on his own works, including his series about Mississippi sheriff Quinn Colson. The Spencer books will continue via sportswriter and novelist Mike Lupica, who has already written books featuring one of Parker's other protagonists, the small-town police chief Jesse Stone, as well as another of Parker's characters, the gumshoe Sunny Randall. However, the Sunny Randall series is also getting a change: author Alison Gaylin has been tapped to write a new installment, becoming the first woman to take over a Robert Parker series.

CrimeReads featured an online African Crime Fiction Round Table with authors chatting about their books, what it means to be an "African" crime writer, and indeed whether such a thing should bear a label. The participants also discussed cultural influences and who they write for, and offered some reading recommendations.

The UK's Richard & Judy Book Club announced their picks for this winter, with all the choices written by women. Among those included are Lisa Jewell's psychological thriller, The Night She Disappeared; Karin Slaughter's False Witness; Tana French's The Searcher; and Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me. WH Smith stores will also make exclusive special editions of the book club titles with bonus content available for purchase.

Writing for The Guardian, S.J. Bennett compiled a listing of Top 10 cozy crime novels. From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, "these books are not without seriousness but they are all set in warm and human worlds we might prefer to our own."

Bookstores help save the world (again): A bookstore is helping Mosul recover from three years under ISIS. The Mosul Book Forum, which offers concerts and events along with books, opened three months after the city was liberated. Said cofounder Fahad Sabah, "If we have to rebuild our city, we need to rebuild our minds as well as our buildings and streets."

After being sidetracked for 46 years, the famed Orient Express railway, featured in the iconic Agatha Christie novel and subsequent movie adaptations, will return to Italy in 2023 with 6 luxurious new routes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Thankful to Survive" by Joseph B. Haggery, Sr.

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Give the Gift of Literacy

Literacy programs have always been near and dear to my heart, and the holiday season is a great time to think about the fantastic work literacy organizations do in helping produce lifelong readers among young people. Being able to read isn't just important for the sheer joy of it; reading is important for success in education, which in turn is important in the job world and for career advancement and success. Studies have shown that people who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty. Other studies also show that reading helps reduce stress, prevents cognitive decline, and helps make people more compassionate.

So this holiday season, why not consider the gift of literacy to give youngsters a positive leg up in life? There are several organizations that are working hard in this area, but here are three of the most notable:

First Book, the children’s literacy organization, has launched a holiday campaign called Give a Million. From now through Dec. 31, every $1 donated will provide one new book to a child in need. Since its founding in 1992, First Book has distributed more than 200 million books. But as the organization notes, the need is still great since 60 percent of underserved children still don’t own a single book. First Book won the Library of Congress’s $150,000 David M. Rubenstein Prize in recognition of its "outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy." 

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books each month to children from birth to age five, free of charge, through funding shared by Dolly and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income. Together, Dolly Parton and her book gifting organization have received honors and awards for their dedication to enriching the lives of children everywhere, including the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, Best Practices award from the Library of Congress Literacy Awards and recognition in Reading Psychology. In 2018 the organization's 100th million book was dedicated to the Library of Congress (it's since gone on to give away over 150 million globally).

Reading Is Fundamental is committed to a literate America by inspiring a passion for reading among all children, providing quality content to make an impact, and engaging communities in the solution to give every child the fundamentals for success. As the nation’s largest children’s literacy non-profit, Reading Is Fundamental maximizes every contribution to ensure all children have the ability to read and succeed. RIF believes every child deserves an opportunity to own books, learn how to read, and obtain the fundamental building blocks to achieve their highest potential. Throughout its 55-year history, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) has been a champion of racial justice and equity through literacy. RIF adds, "During this time of national unrest, we join with many others to lean in and accelerate our commitment through our Race, Equity, and Inclusion initiative to leverage the power of books for positive impact and change."

          

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

Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, is re-teaming with Edward Neumeier, the screenwriter behind Verhoeven’s classic genre movies Robocop and Starship Troopers, on a political thriller titled Young Sinner. Verhoeven said the project would be "an innovative version of movies like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct...and it would not be adding all kinds of digital elements." Young Sinner is set in Washington, D.C. and follows a young staffer, who works for a powerful Senator, who gets drawn into a web of international intrigue and danger.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Yellowstone creator, Taylor Sheridan, is developing the mob drama, Kansas City, for Paramount with Sylvester Stallone set to star, marking the actor's first regular series TV role in his 50-year career. Sheridan will write and produce the series with Terence Winter, who will serve as showrunner. The story, set in the present day, follows legendary New York City mobster Sal (Stallone), who is faced with the task of re-establishing his Italian mafia family in the modernized, straight-shooting town of Kansas City, Missouri. There, Sal encounters surprising and unsuspecting characters who follow him along his unconventional path to power.

Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) in a series adaptation of Dean Koontz’s thriller books based on his "Nameless" character. Koontz’s series of 12 short thrillers, which were first published in 2019 as Amazon Original Stories, follow Nameless, a man with amnesia who knows only the mission—assigned by a shadowy agency—and travels the country turning predators into prey and dispensing justice when the law fails. As he moves from town to town, the pain of his past can’t hold him back, until dark and splintered visions lead him toward his greatest test yet.

ABC is developing Only to Deceive, a contemporary TV series adaptation of Tasha Alexander’s bestselling novel And Only to Deceive. Although Alexander’s book, the first in the Lady Emily Mysteries, is set in Victorian England, the series adaptation, written by Paul Sciarrotta, is set in modern-day America. As Lady Emily Ashton, the toast of New York City’s high society, tries to make sense of her late husband’s mysterious death, she stumbles into a secret career as a private investigator alongside her polar opposite, Long Island ex-cop Colin Hargreaves.

Frank Langella has been tapped to lead the cast of The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan’s eight-part limited series for Netflix based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. Also starring are Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly, and Mark Hamill. Langella will play Roderick Usher, the towering patriarch of the Usher dynasty; McDonnell will play Roderick’s twin sister and the hidden hand of the Usher dynasty; Lumbly will take on Poe’s legendary investigator, C. Auguste Dupin; and Gugino and Hamill will portray yet-to-be disclosed characters. First published in 1839, Poe's story features themes of madness, family, isolation, and identity.

Marlon James, the Man Booker Prize-winning author behind A Brief History of Seven Killings, has landed a series order from HBO and the UK’s Channel 4 for Get Millie Black, a crime drama set in Jamaica. The project follows ex-Scotland Yard detective, Millie-Jean Black, who returns to Kingston to work missing persons and soon finds herself on a quest to save a sister who won’t be saved; to find a boy who can’t be found; and to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as Millie Black, herself.

The CW is developing a prequel series to Walker set in the 1880s, from Walker star, Jared Padalecki, and Walker series creator, Anna Fricke. Titled Walker: Independence, the prequel project centers on Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins, a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams.

Also in development at the CW is Hipster Death Rattle, described as "a drama/satire with comedic elements." The one-hour series from CBS Studios—based on the novel of the same name by Richie Narvaez—is set in a historically Latino neighborhood that’s falling victim to aggressive gentrification. According to the show’s logline, "Someone is killing the ‘woke’ yet pretentious new hipsters. But who? And worse – do the locals even care? The victims were just hiking up rent anyway!'"

Camryn Manheim will be a series regular on NBC’s revival of Law & Order, playing a new character, Lt. Kate Dixon. Lt. Dixon is a successor to Lt. Anita Van Buren, played by S. Epatha Merkerson in Seasons 4-20 of the Emmy-winning series. (Merkerson is not available as she is a series regular on another Dick Wolf series, Chicago Med.) Manheim joins fellow new Law & Order main cast additions, Jeffrey Donovan, who plays an NYPD detective, and Hugh Dancy, who plays an Assistant District Attorney. Law & Order alum, Anthony Anderson, is also reprising his role as Detective Kevin Bernard, while Sam Waterston remains in negotiations to return as DA Jack McCoy.

Actor and musician, Eliot Sumner (No Time to Die), has been tapped for a recurring role opposite Andrew Scott and Johnny Flynn in Ripley, Showtime’s drama series based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling quintet of Tom Ripley novels. The series follows Tom Ripley (Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York until he's hired by a wealthy man to convince his vagabond son, Dickie Greenleaf (Flynn), who is living a comfortable, trust-funded life in Italy, to return home. Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder. Dakota Fanning also stars as Marge Sherwood, an American living in Italy who suspects darker motives underlie Tom’s affability. Sumner will play a friend of Dickie’s who becomes suspicious of Tom.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Writers of Color featured a discussion of host Robert Justice's new debut novel, They Can't Take Your Name, which pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice and a crooked detective.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Franz Zafiro, chatted with Kevin Tipple about his fiction and his review blog, Kevin's Corner.

S A Cosby spoke with Craig Sisterson on Crime Time FM about Cosby's novel, Razorblade Tears; winning the Crime Time FM Novel Award; being the "bard of broken men"; TV rights; and entertaining readers.

Sunday Times journalist and Spybrary contributor, Tim Shipman, chatted with author, Matthew Richardson. They discussed Matthew's spy novels, his writing style, and his literary influences, and paid tribute to the new generation of spy writers.

spoke with Yasmin Angoe about her new book, Her Name Is Knight, which centers on Nena Knight, a highly trained assassin for The Tribe – a clandestine international organization dedicated to the protection and advancement of the peoples and countries of Africa around the world.

This week's episode of the Red Hot Chili Writers featured an interview with Stuart Turton, author of the mind-bending novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle; a quiz with Imran Mahmood about his adapted BBC show, You Don't Know Me; and a discussion of where the word "tomfoolery" comes from.

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Sunday Music Treat

When I was in college as part of a choral ensemble, Handel's Messiah was the usual December offering, as you might expect. However, one year, we performed John Rutter's Gloria, and it's really a lovely, underrated work. That was many years ago, which is why it's hard to believe I once had the voice to sing the "Miserere" soprano solo line in the Domine Deus section, which you can listen to below:

 

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Quote of the Week

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Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Mystery of Mary

Grace Livingston Hill (1865-1947) published over 100 novels and numerous short stories during her career. Since she was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, it's not terribly surprising that her novels had strong religious and moral underpinnings. Initially, she tried to used her books to proselytize, but her publishers tried to tone down the religious angle, and she later modified her writing to make it more appealing to secular audiences.

Hill was an accidental pioneer of what is now often termed "romantic suspense," but her sometimes over-simplistic views of good versus evil are clearly rooted in more conservative culture of the time. You also can't draw any direct lineage between her characters and those of contemporary women authors with strong female protagonists (think Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, et al.) as the young women in her book are almost always of the damsel-in-distress type.

In 1912's The Mystery of Mary, a beautiful young woman approaches wealthy Tryon Dunham on a dark New York night at a train station. She tells him she's terrified she is being followed, so Dunham escorts her to safety and gets her to agree to attend a dinner party with him. Her dress and manner give away the fact she is a well-bred woman, and at the party she displays her musical talents playing the piano. But why was she traveling alone, with only the clothes on her back and no money?

The young woman won't tell him her full name or why she is in danger. When Dunham helps her leave town on a different train later that night, he can't get her out of his mind. From there on, he determines to discover her true identity and to solve the mystery that surrounds her. With assistance from the famous Judge Blackwell, Dunham picks up the trail that leads to an inheritance and an evil cousin, just in time to save the day.

Coming in at just under 37,000 words, this book is more a novella by today's standards, and many of Hill's books approach that same length. The plotting and characterization are fairly straightforward and simple in these works, but they are a quick read and interesting for their snapshot of the social mores and customs of that era.