B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 83

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet

Burton Egbert Stevenson (1872–1962) was an American anthologist and librarian who also penned his own books, around thirty in all, ranging from young adult fiction, to historical adventure tales, to crime fiction. His main (perhaps only) mystery series included five novels that featured a Holmsian/Watson duo consisting of the urbane, shrewed police detective-turned-reporter, Jim Godfrey, and his lawyer friend, Warwick Lester, who narrates the stories.



The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet was published in 1911. The first half of the novel follows a wealthy client of Lester's, Philip Vantine, who collects antiques. When a mysterious piece of 17th-century furniture, a Boule table, is delivered by mistake, Vantine decides he must have it and asks Lester to track down the real owner to see if he would be willing to sell it. When Lester returns the next day, he finds both Vantine and a stranger lying on the floor in Vantine's parlor, both with two small wounds on their hands. Naturally, Lester turns to his detective friend for help, and they work to discover the secrets of the Boule table and solve the seemingly impossible crime.



The first part of the book takes place almost entirely in the victim's New York house, but then the novel switches gears in the second half with the introduction of a French "Moriarty" style master criminal who is adept as disguises. The bad guy tests Godfrey's detection skills as the trail leads all over New York City, and it becomes apparent that the criminal's real intent is to steal the Boule table, which harbors some valuable and deadly secrets.



Reviewer Mike Grost noted that Stevenson's work is the closest he could name to Mary Roberts Rinehart's early, pre-W.W.I books, in tone, plot, and characterizations, not surprising since they are roughly contemporaries. However, there are also some absurdities and puzzling behavior, such as Lester's tendency to get hysterical at times, as well as a few too many coincidences. The first half is probably better than the second, with more claustrophic tension inside the limited setting. But there is some decent writing throughout, and it's easy to see why the story was entertaining enough to be made into not one, but three separate film adaptations in 1916, 1930, and 1941.

          

Mystery Melange - Veteran's Day Edition

Today is Veteran's Day in the U.S., and Janet Rudolph has some resources for crime fiction related to veteran themes. (Note that she references an older post of mine on the topic, which you can find here.) Even more poignantly, today marks the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

The An Post Irish Book Awards announced the 2021 shortlisted titles, including those in the running for Crime Fiction Book of the Year:  56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard; All Her Fault by Andrea Mara; April in Spain by John Banville; The Dark Room by Sam Blake; The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh; and The Killing Kind by Jane Casey.

Some of the UK’s top thriller, mystery and crime fiction authors have contributed to an anthology timed with World Kindness Day on November 13 to raise money for charity. All proceeds will go to Shelter, a charity that campaigns to end homelessness and support those affected. Everyday Kindness: A collection of uplifting tales to brighten your day, edited by LJ Ross, is being published via Dark Skies Publishing.

The Guardian profiled a new book by mortuary technician, Carla Valentine, which examines how advances in crime-fighting made their way into Agatha Christie’s novels.

CrimeReads held an online roundtable on the topic of class and social division in crime fiction, with participating authors Adrian McKinty, Laura McHugh, Angel Luis Colón, Julia Dahl, Joe Ide, and Lisa Levy.

The Wordsworth Edition website feautured the latest in an occasional series on profiles of classic crime authors, including detective fiction pioneer, Wilkie Collins, and Irish author, J.S. Le Fanu, who is credited with inventing the "locked-room mystery" with his story, "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess," published in 1838 (three years before Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"). (HT to The Bunburyist)

The Page 69 Test blog featured two crime fiction authors this week: Tara Laskowski, whose debut suspense novel, One Night Gone, won the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award and was a finalist for the Lefty, the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark, the Strand Critics, and the Library of VA Literary awards; and Alison Gaylin, an Edgar and Shamus Award winner. Laskowski's new novel is The Mother Next Door, while Gaylin's latest is The Collective.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "State Prison, 1976" by Henry Stimpson.

In the Q&A roundup, Rachel Howzell Hall talked with CrimeReads about longhand, loves, office supplies, and one magical story about a lost manuscript; Deborah Kalb chatted with author Jean Hanff Korelitz about her new thriller novel, The Plot; Kalb also spoke with Gabrielle St. George about her new novel How to Murder a Marriage, the first in her Ex-Whisperer Files series; plus E. B. Davis interviewed Susan Van Kirk about The Witch’s Child, her fourth Endurance mystery, and chatted with V. M. Burns about Killer Words, her seventh Mystery Bookshop Mystery; and Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Tony J Forder about his latest novel, The Huntsmen.

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Media Murder for Monday

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

AWARDS

The 46th annual Saturn Awards were presented October 26. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, which skipped 2020, extended the Saturn Awards eligibility period to allow works released from July 15, 2019-November 15, 2020. There were actually several crime dramas included, most notably Knives Out, which won for Best Thriller Film Release, Best Supporting Actress in a Film (Ana De Armas), Best Film Editing (Bob Ducsay), and Best 4K Film Release. Best Fantasy Film Release was won by Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (more of an alternate timeline than pure fantasy); Best Action/Thriller Television Series was Better Call Saul; and Best Film Presentation on Streaming Media went to Enola Holmes (Netflix).

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Ryan Phillippe, Kate Bosworth, and Ving Rhames are set to star in the thriller, The Locksmith. The project follows Miller, an expert locksmith fresh out of prison after a job gone bad. Back home, he tries to work his way back into the life of his daughter and his ex-girlfriend, Beth, who is now a police detective. Determined to make a clean start, he is forced to use the only skills he has as a gifted locksmith, but things soon get complicated after an unexpected kidnapping. The current target release date is September, 2022.

Lionsgate bought Simon Kinberg's spec script (i.e. a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay), titled Wayland, which Jessica Chastain will produce with Michael Showalter set as director. Wayland is described as "an ensemble drama thriller that has shades of A Simple Plan and Knives Out." There's no word as to whether Chastain herself will star in the project, although plans are still in the preliminary stages. This is only the second spec Kinberg wrote in the last 20 years since he broke on the scene with his first such attempt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, although he's since gone on to write several commissioned blockbusters such as Sherlock Holmes and installments in the X-Men series.

Roberto Urbina, McCaul Lombardi, Julieth Restrepo, Kendal Rae, Luis Chávez, Julio César Cedillo, Manuel Uriza, and Chris Mulkey star in Deadland, an indie thriller from director Lance Larson, with filming in Oklahoma and Texas. The story centers on border agent Angel Waters (Urbina), who is called to investigate a man who walks the harsh plains of the South Texas desert—but what should be a routine apprehension quickly turns into his worst nightmare.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Former Burn Notice star, Jeffrey Donovan, has been tapped as a lead in NBC’s upcoming Law & Order revival, playing a new character, an NYPD detective, on Season 21 of Dick Wolf’s venerable crime drama. The new season is expected to also feature several alums from the original series, with Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson believed to be in talks to return. The new installment of Law & Order, from Wolf and writer-showrunner Rick Eid, will continue the classic bifurcated format and will once again examine “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.”

Denzil Meyrick's DCI Daley series will be adapted for television, and will star Game of Thrones actor, Rory McCann, in the lead role. Rights to the books have been secured to adapt and produce the series by Ocean Independent, the production arm of talent agency Emptage Hallett, together with Fudge Park, award-winning producer of The Inbetweeners. The series will be written and directed by leading Scottish playwright and screenwriter, Anthony Neilson. 

Bodyguard star, Nina Toussaint-White, is to lead a Channel 5 thriller playing Jodie in Witness No.3, a single mother who runs a hairdressing salon. One day at work, Jodie momentarily glances out of the window and in a split second her life descends into freefall. What she notices seems innocuous—two men walking on the opposite side of the road—but she’s actually witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder. Joining the ensemble cast are Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne, Ruaridh Mollica, and Sue Johnston.

Jenna Dewan has been promoted to a series regular for the current fourth season of ABC's cop drama, The Rookie. Dewan plays firefighter Bailey Nune, "fun and unpredictable with a subversive sense of humor," who was asked out by Nolan (Nathan Fillion) after a meet-cute in the Season 3 finale. Dewan has appeared in four of the first six episodes thus far.

The Amazon drama series, Hannah, will end its run with its upcoming third season. The action thriller, which comes from showrunner David Farr, is based on the 2011 feature film directed by Joe Wright and follows the journey of Hanna (played by Esmé Creed-Miles), an extraordinary young woman who was created by the sinister organization Utrax and trained to be an assassin. Hanna is now secretly trying to destroy Utrax from the inside to free herself from its grasp, all with the help of her previous nemesis, former CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos). Together, they have coerced high-ranking Utrax agent John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) into aiding their mission. But her fellow young assassins, Sandy (Áine Rose Daly) and Jules (Gianna Kiehl), and new foes are starting to suspect Hanna’s plot.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Read or Dead discussed mystery and suspense works by Native American authors in honor of National Native American Heritage Month.

Alison Gaylin stopped by Speaking of Mysteries to discuss her latest psychological suspense thriller, The Collective, which was recently optioned by Yellow Bird UK for development into a TV series.

The latest guest on Wrong Place, Write Crime was author Adam Bregman, talking about his new novel, Angelino Heights, a gritty thriller set in Los Angeles.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Caroline Mitchell, an Irish author and former police detective. Her crime thriller, Truth And Lies, is a New York Times best seller and has been optioned for TV by Awesome Media. The book is the first installment in the DI Amy Winter series.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Robbie Bach about her latest novel, The Wilkes Insurrection, a contemporary thriller of "anarchic obsession and heroic ambition."

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's podcast featured Marilyn Todd's historical mystery short story, "Long Slow Dance Through the Passage of Time," as read by actor Mandie Davis.

On Crime Time FM, Joanne Harris chatted with host, Paul Burke, about her novel, A Narrow Door, and about being a schoolteacher, misogyny, and more.

THEATRE

Oscar nominee and two-time Emmy winner, Greg Kinnear, will make his Broadway debut as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, beginning January 5 at the Shubert Theatre. He succeeds Tony nominee and Emmy winner, Jeff Daniels, whose final performance is January 2. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the play resumed performances October 5—after being shuttered by the pandemic—with the return of two of its original stars: Daniels as Finch and Celia Keenan-Bolger in her Tony-winning performance as Scout Finch. To Kill a Mockingbird will also launch its national tour March 27, 2022, at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y., starring Richard Thomas, while on the other side of the Atlantic, performances will begin in London at the Gielgud Theatre March 10, 2022, starring Rafe Spall.

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FFB: The Fortieth Door by Mary Hastings Bradley

Mary Hastings Bradley (1882-1976) published a large number of travel books, short fiction and novels, including mysters and her historical Old Chicago series. Widely-traveled, she often lectured on the topic and was inducted into the Society of Women Geographers, an organization that boasted the likes of members Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, and Eleanor Roosevelt. She also worked as a war correspondent for Collier's Magazine during WWII and undertook a survey of concentration camps across Europe, publishing her findings in a highly acclaimed series in the magazine. She met and married Herbert Bradley, a big-game hunter and explorer and traveled extensively with him. They helped to set up the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and were the parents of another famous writer, James Tiptree Jr (the pen-name of their daughter Alice B Sheldon)



In her younger days, Bradley traveled to Egypt with a cousin, a trip that inspired The Palace of Darkened Windows (1914) and The Fortieth Door (1920), two books that focused on the veiled, secluded women of Egypt. Both of these stories were later made into films, with The Fortieth Door adapted as a silent film in 1924 starring Allene Ray, Bruce Gordon, David Dunbar.



The plot of The Fortieth Door centers on an anti-social American archaeologist working in Cairo named Jack Ryder, who is reluctantly talked into going to a masquerade ball. He dances with a mysterious veiled woman who he understandably believes to be in costume. The sparks fly between them, but when Jack walks the woman home, he learns she's the daughter of a prosperous Muslim merchant and can't date Westerners.



But he can't get her out of his mind and does a little digging of a more personal sort. He discovers that the woman is named Aimée and is actually the daughter of a Frenchman who vanished fifteen years ago. When Jack also discovers Aimée is headed for a forced marriage her "stepfather" has arranged, he hatches a plan to rescue her that could well put both of their lives in jeopardy.



This is a slight, entertaining action/suspense novel with some racism common to its era that today's readers might find offensive, i.e. all of the good guys being white, and all the bad guys Egyptian. But the exotic setting, which is drawn fairly nicely, and the earnest characters (if a little too much like Dudley Do Right vs. the moustache-twirling Snidley Whiplash) make for a quick read.

          

Mystery Melange

 

(Updated to add the Petrona Award, which was just announced this morning....)

The winners of New Zealand's 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards for crime, mystery, and thriller fiction and non-fiction were announced in conjunction with WORD Christchurch Festival. Best Novel went to Sprigs, by Brannavan Gnanalingam; Best First Novel: For Reasons of Their Own, by Chris Stuart; Best Non-fiction: Black Hands: Inside the Bain Family Murders, by Martin van Beynen; Best YA/Kids Book: Katipo Joe, by Brian Falkner. To see all the finalists in the four categories, follow this link.

The winner of the 2021 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year is: To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi, translated from the Swedish by Deborah Bragan-Turner and published by MacLehose Press. As well as a trophy, Mikael Niemi receives a pass to and a guaranteed panel at CrimeFest 2022. This is the first historical crime novel to have that award. To check out all the finalists, head on over here.

The 2021 shortlists have been revealed for the Staunch Prize’s unpublished flash fiction and short stories without violence to women, while the original book prize is on hold until 2022. In the short story category, the shortlist features "My Flood Book" by Greg Beatty; "Swine Tags" by Tom Leins; "The Toll Bridge" by Arendse Lund; "Like Glue" by Kimberly Shaw; "Tremor" by writer Katrina Moinet. In flash fiction, "Cornered" by Moinet is pitted alongside "Serial killers" by Adele Evershed; "Two Faced" by M J Harbottle; "Pale on the Gatepost" by Alison Ringrose; and Ros Thomas' "How To Leave Your Childhood Behind." (HT to The Bookseller)

The shortlist for Waterstones' Book of the Year has 13 titles in the running for the prize, with books nominated by Waterstones booksellers. The sole crime fiction title among them is The Appeal by Janice Hallett, in which law students Charlotte and Femi investigate a mystery in the sleepy town of Lower Lockwood, dealing with everything from an amateur dramatic society’s disastrous staging of All My Sons to a dodgy charity appeal for a child’s medical treatment. Buyer Bea Carvalho said it had been a "real word of mouth hit" for the UK’s largest book chain.

Another "best of" list was recently released, this one courtesy of Publishers Weekly. The titles run the gamut from The Anatomy of Desire by L.R. Dorn to Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews. Follow this link to see the complete list of twelve recommended books.

Ian Fleming fanatic, Kim Sherwood, who is known for her debut novel, Testament, has been tapped by the Fleming's estate to pen a new series of "audacious, pacey, sexy" spy stories in the James Bond universe, becoming the first female to do so. The author struck a deal with HarperCollins to write three contemporary thrillers set in the world of James Bond but where the original 007 is missing, presumed captured or even killed. The series is set to launch in September 2022.

There's a call for papers destined for a book-length publication in the bilingual collection Book Practices & Textual Itineraries (published at Université de Lorraine, France) which traces evolutions in the production, transmission and reception of books and texts over time and across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. If that all sounds a bit puzzling, check out the details here.

Penguin recently announced their intention to buy publisher Simon & Schuster in a $2.2 billion deal. However, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit in the US district court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, saying the deal would let Penguin Random House "exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work." The Authors Guild, a writers’ organization, has said it opposes the acquisition because there would be less competition for authors’ manuscripts.

Just why are we so drawn to the "old book smell?" In a new book by Jude Stewart, the author says it "stems from their slow chemical decomposition...Books are largely paper, and paper is largely plants. But the materials from which books are made have shifted over the centuries—and those shifts, in turn, have influenced how different generations of books, smell." Stewart also provides a scientific explanation of how a book’s scent adapts to and blends with both the scent of the room in which it is placed and the people who occupy it.

Here's an fun crime headline: "Lego trafficking scheme of stolen sets worth thousands busted 'brick by brick,' Seattle police say."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Little Red Corvette" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Irish-born Jane Casey, author of the new novel, The Killing Kind, and also the Maeve Kerrigan series; Alison Gaylin (Never Look Back) chatted with Deborah Kalb about Gaylin's new novel, The Collective; and E.B. Davis interviewed Susan Van Kirk about The Witch’s Child, her fourth Endurance series mystery.

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Chinese filmmaker, John Woo, will return to Hollywood to direct Silent Night, his first film since 2003. According to The Wrap, Woo is conceptualizing the film, which follows a father (Joel Kinnaman) into the underworld in order to avenge his son’s death, to be without a single word of dialogue.

Ana de Armas is in talks to take the lead role in the anticipated John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, about a young female assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family. The character made a fleeting appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. As previously revealed, Len Wiseman (Underworld) is aboard to direct the action-thriller from a script by Shay Hatten (who also penned John Wick: Chapter 3). It's unclear whether Keanu Reeves will make an appearance in the movie, though there is a hope that he and Anjelica Huston may provide cameos.

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in Fast Charlie, a hitman thriller from director Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger), which is scheduled to enter production in January. Based on Victor Gischler’s Edgar Award-nominated novel, Gun Monkeys, the story centers on Charlie Swift (Brosnan), who has worked for his aging mob boss, Stan, 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 in wiping the team clean. Now on his own, Charlie will stop at nothing to avenge his friend, and has no plans to leave anyone alive.

Daisy Ridley will star in a thriller set in the near future called Mind Fall, from director Mathieu Kassovitz. Written by Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) the project follows Ridley as a drug trafficker whose much sought-after black market "drug" involves memories that can be removed from one person’s brain and implanted into another. She’s forced to try to solve a mystery after being accused of murdering one of her clients, all while battling her own addiction and inability to tell her real memories from the implanted ones.

Martin McDonagh has nabbed big-name actors Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, and Oscar Isaac for his next movie. Few details are known about the currently untitled script, although McDonagh is known for writing quirky thrillers with a comedic touch like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and as Deadline adds, "we hear that this is a killer script from a writer-director well known for his killer scripts." Apparently, the project has generated enough excitement that it's already attracted four studio offers.

The movie Role Play, starring Kaley Cuoco, has landed French filmmaker Thomas Vincent (the director of Bodyguard) and are planning to begin production in May 2022. Based on an original idea by George Heller, Deadline calls the project, "a stylish action thriller with a franchise-able hook, about a young married couple whose life is turned upside down after secrets are revealed about each other’s past."

Dolph Lundgren is set to direct and star in the action picture, Wanted Man. Lundgren has also penned the script with Michael Worth (Killing Cupid). The film's story is set in motion when a cartel shooting leaves several DEA agents dead, and an aging police officer must retrieve an eyewitness and escort her across the border. But when he learns that the attack was executed by American forces, he must decide whom to trust.

Liam Neeson is set to star in the Ireland-set thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which will re-team the actor with The Marksman director, Robert Lorenz. Set in a remote Irish village, Neeson will play a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. Ciarán Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) also stars.

Melissa Leo and Emma Roberts are in final negotiations to topline the thriller, Returns. The story follows a young woman who returns to a fractured home twelve years after her mysterious disappearance to find that family secrets and old grudges haunt her joyous homecoming. The film is set to be directed by George Ratliff from a script by Matthew A. Gossett.

Leven Rambin, Jake McLaughlin, Shane West, Sohvi Rodriguez, and Dee Wallace will star in Homestead, a thriller from writer-director Marcos Efron (And Soon the Darkness), which is currently in production in Knoxville, Tennessee. The film centers on a young couple (Rambin and McLaughlin) who have fled the city in search of peace and serenity in the mountains, but subsequently find that they must contend with myriad dangers—both close to home, as well as on a much larger scale.

Dermot Mulroney and Justin Furstenfeld have joined Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Ryan Kwanten in the action movie, Section Eight. Based on an original screenplay by Chad Law and Josh Ridgway and directed by Christian Sesma, the movie charts the story of a former soldier who, after avenging the murder of his family, is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.

Kevin Dillon and Sam Asghari are set to co-star in the action thriller, Hot Seat, joining the previously announced headliner, Mel Gibson. James Cullen Bressack directs the tale of an ex-hacker who is forced to break into high-level banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson plays the man who must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the ex-hacker (Dillon) off the hot seat.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO is developing Londongrad, a limited series based on Alan Cowell’s book, The Terminal Spy, about KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, with Benedict Cumberbatch set to star as Litvinenko. Written by David Scarpa, Londongrad tells the true story of the former KGB agent who was poisoned by the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 in 2006 in England.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to The Missing, an eight-episode crime drama series based on Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s international bestselling novel, The Missing File, from David E. Kelley, Keshet Studios, and Universal Television. Written by Kelley, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer, The Missing tells the story of NYPD Detective Avraham, whose belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. Guided by a deep sense of spirituality and religious principles, Avraham is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down.

Wyatt Oleff has been cast as the male lead in City on Fire, an Apple TV+ drama series inspired by Garth Risk Hallberg’s novel of the same name. The story centers on an NYU student, Samantha Cicciaro, who is shot in Central Park on the Fourth of July, 2003, with no witnesses and very little physical evidence. As the crime against Samantha is investigated, she’s revealed to be the crucial connection between a series of mysterious citywide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep. Oleff will play a friend of Samantha’s who stops at nothing to unravel the mystery of what happened.

Legendary Television is developing a true-crime drama series about the relationship between novelist Norman Mailer and killer Jack Henry Abbott, with Boyd Holbrook slated to star. Set in 1981, the series follows one of the most scandalous events in New York City history, when Mailer helped get Abbott (Holbrook) paroled from prison, leading to Abbott killing again, a nationwide manhunt, and the "trial of the century" in New York.

NBC has given a pilot commitment to Blank Slate, an hour-long drama from The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and The Blacklist producer Davis Entertainment. Written by Georgaris, Black Slate is a high-concept procedural about a government agent who may not be what he seems.

Lindsey Morgan, the female lead opposite Jared Padalecki on the CW’s Walker, will be leaving the hit drama series during its current second season for "personal reasons." The reimagining of the popular CBS drama, Walker, Texas Ranger, centers on Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a widower and father of two with his own moral code who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years. Morgan’s Micki Ramirez is Walker’s new partner, one of the first women in Texas Rangers history. In their joint statement, the CW and CBS Studios hinted that Morgan could return to the series for guest appearances.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

NPR's Book of the Day podcast delved into why Hillary Clinton wanted to write a political thriller about her greatest nightmare.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast is back with a look at "Three Famous Poisoning Cases."

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Anne Laughlin, author of six crime novels, including her latest book, Money Creek, for The Crime Cafe.

On Writer Types, bestselling authors, Lee & Andrew Child, talked about the latest Jack Reacher novel, Better Off Dead. Wanda M. Morris also discussed her debut novel, All Her Little Secrets, and William Boyle talked about his latest novel, Shoot The Moonlight Out.

Diego Ornelas Tapia stopped by the Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast to talk about his novel, To Dame a Dame.

Writers Detective Bureau returned this week with host, Detective Adam Richardson, translating a bit of legalese; he also discussed the crime of discharging a laser at an aircraft; and how police use warrants to take down multiple gang locations at the same time.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with Clare Whitfield, winner of the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Prize, whose debut re-imagines the Jack the Ripper murders; they also discussed the fate of the PG Tips tea chimps; and investigated awkward plurals.

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Mystery Melange - Halloween Edition

 

Noir at the Bar Dallas is coming up on Sunday, November 7, hosted by David Hale Smith. Writers in the crime and mystery genres scheduled to read from their works at Dallas’s indie bookstore, The Wild Detectives, includes Harry Hunsicker, Kathleen Kent, Eryk Pruitt, Alexandra Burt, Jim Nesbitt, Valerie P. Chandler, Kevin R. Tipple, Graham Powell, Opalina Salas, and James Barrett Rodehaver.

This is more of a "treat" than a "trick": You still have a few days (until November 1) to send along a submission for the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers. Restrictions: Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form, and the genre must be mystery stories of the Agatha Christie type—i.e., "traditional mysteries" (no excessive gore, gratuitous violence, or explicit sex). Each grant currently includes a $1,500 award plus a comprehensive registration for the following year's convention and two nights' lodging at the convention hotel, but does not include travel to the convention or meals.

The Glencairn Glass, headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prize, is launching a new crime short story competition in partnership with Scottish Field Magazine. The first prize winner will receive £1000 and publication, and the two runners up will each receive £250. All three winners will also receive a set of six engraved Glencairn Glasses to enjoy their favorite dram with. Stories on the theme of "A Crystal-Clear Crime" with a maximum of 2,000 words can be submitted through December 31st, with winners to be announced in March 2022.

Crimefest will be held in person once again next year, and tickets have just recently gone on sale. Scheduled for May 12-15, 2022, the conference's headline guest is Ann Cleves, author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which were adapted for television. Zoë Sharp has agreed to resume the Toastrix role, and there will be the rescheduled Diamond Dagger recipient interviews with Martin Edwards and Robert Goddard.

A bonus episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up with a Halloween mystery short story called "Halloween Justice," written by Sharon Marchisello and read by actor Donna Beavers. The podcast's originator, Kings River Life magazine, also has some Halloween short stories online, including "Who Is Itt?" by Elena E. Smith, and "The Hound of Bakersfield: Halloween Mystery Short Story" by Pamela Ebel.

Janet Rudolph has an ever-expanding list of Halloween themed crime fiction to add a little extra spookiness to your holiday.

The Halloween issues of Yellow Mama (featuring three stories from vengeance from beyond the grave and more) and Black Petals (with new speculative fiction stories) are now available online. The Dark City's October print 'zine is also available (via Amazon), with more tales from "the darker side of reality."

The Special Collections of the University of Florida-Tampa Libraries has assembled a "Women & Crime Fiction" online exhibition featuring mystery highlights of its collection that focus on female authors, female detectives, femme fatales, and female victims. Some of the works featured are by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Vera Caspary, Lillian de la Torre, Anna Katharine Green, Margaret Millar, and Ellis Peters. Unusual items include The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah, which offers Captain Kirk as detective, and an April 1960 letter from Columbia University student, Leigh Marlowe, to mystery author Baynard Kendrick related to her study of villains. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The authors over at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog have some scary-good holiday treats for you to try, including Cleo Coyle's Pumpkins Spice Soul Cakes; Molly McRae's Ghost Cookies; and Leslie Karst's Pumpkin Soup with Brown Butter and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds.

Many bookstores have mascots in the form of cats of dogs, but what about a bookstore bat? Next Page Books & Coffee in Calgary, Canada, found a Little Brown Myotis bat sleeping on its front door. The bat was roosting in an open location because it was too cold to fly, and the bookstore team put a sign on the front door requesting shoppers open the door carefully to avoid disturbing it. The Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation later rescued the bat, and found it to be in good health. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Books & Company in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, got literary with their Jack O'Lantern carvings this year. You can see some of their spooky creations here, here, here, and here.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ready to Go" by Peter M. Gordon.

In the Q&A roundup, Kathleen Kaska, author of Murder at the Galvez (A Sydney Lockhart Mystery), stopped by the Indie Crime Scene; Nicci French, the wife-and-husband writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, chatted with Deborah Kalb about their latest novel, The Unheard; E.B. Davis interviewed Krista Davis for Writers Who Kill about the third installment of her Pen & Ink mysteries, Murder Outside the Lines, a spooky Halloween mystery set in Georgetown; and Terrie Farley Moran chatted with Lesa Holstine about the cozy mystery series she co-writes with Laura Childs and about taking on the Murder She Wrote tie-in novels.

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Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to For the Love of Money, a crime drama directed by Leslie Small that stars Keri Hilson and Katt Williams. The distributor plans to release the film in 750 theaters nationwide on November 24, marking the company’s first theatrical release in more than a year owing to the pandemic. The story centers on a single mother (Hilson) who, when pushed to her limits out of the need to protect her daughter (Jazzy Jade), returns to a world she’s spent a lifetime running from. LisaRaye McCoy, Rotimi, Jason Mitchell, DC Young Fly, and Cedric Pendleton also star, with appearances by musical artists Keith Sweat, Latto, and Lyfe Jennings.

Avan Jogia and Ajani Russell have been set for the title roles in the crime feature, Johnny & Clyde, also starring Megan Fox and Tyson Ritter. Currently in production, the movie is a spin on the iconic Bonnie and Clyde story and follows two serial killers who are madly in love and on a shocking crime spree. They ultimately set their sights on robbing a prosperous casino run by crime boss, Alana (Fox), and her head of security, Guy (Ritter).

Kathryn Morris has signed on to the ensemble independent film, Hayseed. The dark comedy murder mystery comes from first-time writer-director Travis Burgess. Set in a small town in Michigan, the film follows the investigation of a church congregation after their reverend is found dead. Morris plays Joyce Metts, a former beauty queen now a waitress at the local diner and a jealous type, prone to gossip. She is protective of her daughter Willa, who is a high school senior ready to leave town on her athletic scholarship.

Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, and Hakeem Kai-Kazim have joined the cast of the crime feature, The Channel. The story is set in motion after a bank heist goes wrong, when a desperate criminal (Crawford), his out-of-control brother (Martini), and their motley crew of ex-marines must escape New Orleans and the determined FBI agent (Kai-Kazim) who pursues them. William Kaufman (The Hit List) will direct the film from a script he wrote, from a story by Paul Reichelt.

Lionsgate has acquired Paradise Highway, a thriller starring Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, and Frank Grillo, grabbing North America distribution rights and international sales. Written and directed by Anna Gutto, the story centers on Sally (Binoche), a truck driver who's forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother Dennis (Grillo) from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operative Gerick (Freeman) hot on her trail, Sally’s motivations and conscience are challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl (Hala Finley).

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The DI Hillary Greene book series from British author, Faith Martin, is to be turned into a drama by Southwell Neal Entertainment (Becky Southwell and Dylan Neal), which optioned the film and TV rights to the 18-book series. The stories follow the brilliant cold case detective’s exploits alongside former LAPD detective, John Sullivan, and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Southwell and Neal are also the writers and execs behind Hallmark’s Gourmet Detective series.

The crime novel, Cell 8, by Swedish authors Roslund & Hellström is being adapted by Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group). The gritty crime drama will feature a Nordic cast and premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in 2022. In Cell 8, a man presumed dead is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland, throwing detectives Mariana Hermansson (Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (Leonard Terfelt) into a mysterious and increasingly dark series of events. The case soon reveals a personal connection not only to Hermansson herself, but to a Death Row prisoner in the U.S. and a grieving parent consumed by the quest for revenge.

David Heyman’s Heyday Television has optioned four novels from award-winning Spanish noir author, Dolores Redondo, including The North Face Of The Heart. The story follows a yet-to-be-cast Spanish detective, Amala Salazar, as she helps the FBI track an extraordinary serial killer in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. Salazar joins a high-profile team led by FBI agent Aloisius Dupree, whose own complicated past is entwined with the communities struggling to defend their homes as the flood waters rise.

The Sopranos series creator, David Chase, is in talks with WarnerMedia about another project set in his iconic mob-drama world to become a series on HBO Max. Chase previously said that going back to The Sopranos world would only be done in prequel form, whether it were another film or a series, set in the ’60s and ’70s before the events of the original eries. However the CEO of WarnerMedia Studios, Ann Sarnoff, said no decision has been made regarding whether or not Chase’s next "Sopranos" project would become a series or another prequel film like the newly released Many Saints of Newark.

Starz and Lionsgate’s upcoming three-night John Wick prequel event, titled The Continental, has found its young Winston Scott in actor Colin Woodell (The Flight Attendant). Mel Gibson is also set to star on the John Wick origin series, playing a character named "Cormac." The project, which is set 40 years before the events of the Keanu Reeves-led John Wick films, will be a three-night special exploring the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins—the centerpiece of the "John Wick" universe—through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the films) who is dragged into the Hellscape of 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Each episode will be feature-length installments and boast feature-film budgets.

Corbin Bernsen is set as a lead opposite Blair Underwood in L.A. Law, a new incarnation of the iconic Steven Bochco legal drama, which was officially picked up to pilot by ABC earlier this month. Underwood and Bernsen, reprising their roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, respectively, are believed to be the only original cast members who are series regulars in the sequel pilot. (More are expected to make guest-starring appearances on the potential series.) In the pilot, written by Marc Guggenheim and Ubah Mohamed and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman—now named Becker Rollins—reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases.

Diany Rodriguez (Law & Order: Organized Crime) has joined the upcoming ninth season of NBC’s long-running drama series, The Blacklist, in a recurring role. Rodriguez will play Weecha Xiu, who is more than capable of defending herself against anyone who might threaten her or her associates. The premiere of season 9 of The Blacklist, starring James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff and Amir Arison, recently returned with a jump forward two years. Following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington (Spader) and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded—their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters.

Lifetime has ordered three original thrillers, all set for a winter 2022 premiere. In the first, Single Black Female, Monica (Raven Goodwin), still reeling from the death of her beloved father and a difficult breakup, tries to move forward with her life as the new host for an afternoon talk show. But her new assistant, Simone (Amber Riley) harbors a dark secret, and as time goes on cracks in her façade begin to appear. The second program, Line Sisters, features LeToya Luckett, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Ta’Rhonda Jones, and Drew Sidora as four sorority sisters who reunite at a Black Greek Weekend celebration 15 years after the mysterious death of the dean of pledges. But the past comes knocking on their door as strange things begin to happen, threatening to unearth the deadly secret that may tear them apart. The third thriller is Vanished: Searching for My Sister stars Tatyana Ali as twins Jada and Kayla. When Kayla goes missing and the police investigation is at a standstill, Jada takes matters into her own hands and gets pulled into a world of drugs and deceit in order to learn the shocking truth about what really happened to Kayla.

Breathe: Into The Shadows, the Amazon Prime thriller out of India, has been commissioned by the streamer for a second season. The first season of the crime thriller followed Dr. Avinash Sabharwal (Abhishek Bachchan), whose 6-year-old daughter, Siya, has been kidnapped by a masked man demanding Sabharwal kill someone in order to get his daughter back.

Jonathan Tucker is set as a lead opposite Michelle Monaghan in Echoes, Netflix’s psychological thriller limited series from 13 Reasons Why showrunner, Brian Yorkey. Created and written by Vanessa Gazy, Echoes is a mystery thriller about identical twins Leni and Gina (both portrayed by Monaghan), who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: They share two homes, two husbands, and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. Tucker will play Dylan James, a troubled and mysterious local townie and childhood associate of Leni and Gina.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of a Halloween mystery, Murder in the Mystery Suite, by Ellery Adams, as read by actor Ariel Linn.

Writer Types welcomed bestselling author, Anthony Horowitz (A Line To Kill); Kimi Cunningham Grant (These Silent Woods); Ted Flanagan (Every Hidden Thing); and Raquel Reyes (Mango, Mambo and Murder).

Read or Dead tackled horror and suspense reads set in haunted houses just in time for Halloween.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Taylor Moore, a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations. Down Range is Taylor’s debut novel, and the first of a series featuring DEA agent Garrett Kohl.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Matt Fitzsimmons about his newest release, Constance.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a "Gothic Mystery Roundup."

On Crime Time FM, Felix Francis (son of the late author, Dick Francis) spoke with Paul Burke about his new psychological crime novel, Iced; taking on his father's thriller legacy; the home fiction factory; tea with Agatha Christie; and marbling.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Mystery Melange

Minotaur Books announced that Christina Estes’s novel, Off the Air, has won the 2020 Tony Hillerman Prize for a best first mystery novel. Minotaur Books is planning to publish Estes’s debut in 2023. Estes is an Emmy award-winning reporter who lives in Phoenix, and is also a founding member of Sisters in Crime Grand Canyon Writers. Off the Air is the story of a local TV news reporter who gets the scoop of a lifetime while investigating the murder of a popular radio talk show host—but the killer is determined to keep her silent.

Capital Crime has announced that London-based journalist and writer, Darren Boyle, has won the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award for his thriller, The Black Pool. He will receive a £1,000 cash prize, a trophy, and a potential offer of publication from Thomas & Mercer, the mystery and thriller imprint of prize sponsor Amazon Publishing, whose authors include Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, Dreda Say Mitchell, and Damien Boyd. The Black Pool is set is set in contemporary Dublin and features a journalist protagonist who ventures deep into the murky world of organized tiger raids gang—but how much is he willing to risk for the ultimate story? The Amazon New Voices Award is open annually to unpublished mystery, thriller, and crime fiction manuscripts in English from writers around the world.

The million euro literary Planeta prize has lured three Spanish men out of anonymity to reveal that they are behind ultra-violent Spanish crime thrillers marketed as the work of female author, Carmen Mola, which roughly translates as "Carmen’s cool." When one of their books won the lucrative award, the trio went public to pick up the check at a glitzy ceremony attended by the Spanish king. However, not everyone was thrilled with the unveiling. Beatriz Gimeno, a feminist, writer, activist—and former head of one of Spain’s national equality bodies, the Women’s Institute—attacked the men for creating a female persona in their publicity for Carmen Mola books over several years. "Quite apart from using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing interviews. It’s not just the name—it’s the fake profile that they’ve used to take in readers and journalists. They are scammers."

Tomorrow, the New York Adventure Club is offering the virtual webinar, "Agatha Christie: Unraveling the Mystery Behind the Queen of Crime," with tour guide Simon Whitehouse. It will include London locales of Christie's works and life, including where the royal premieres of film adaptations were held, as well as background on her career and 1926 disappearance. Tickets are $10, with access to the webinar available for a limited time after the event. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The final Inspector Montalbano novel, finished years ago by author Andrea Camilleri, has been published in the UK. Camilleri was determined that his crime series not be continued by another writer and left his concluding novel with his publisher long before his death in 2019. The series, following the food-loving Sicilian detective as he solves crimes against the backdrop of a changing Italy, has been translated into 32 languages, with more than 65 million copies sold around the world. Camilleri wrote the first book about Salvo Montalbano in 1994 at the age of almost 70; he began writing the 28th in 2004, depositing the manuscript at his publishing house in Palermo on the promise that it would be kept in a locked safe and only published after his death.

The year's "best of" book lists are already starting to pop up, including Barnes & Noble, which compiled an overall list as well as one specific to Mysteries and Thrillers. You can find those top ten crime fiction titles here.





The Rap Sheet offered up a tribute to "A Steward of Hammett’s Digs, Now Gone." William P. "Bill" Arney, who is said to have reclaimed the apartment at 891 Post Street in San Francisco (once occupied by Dashiell Hammett and his private-eye creation, Sam Spade), passed away this last September 28. Arney’s studio became a periodic stop on literary historian Don Herron’s popular Dashiell Hammett Tour.

Here's a pandemic surprise: there's been a mini-indie bookstore boom.

Cross-Examining Crime has a fun classic crime quiz this week on the theme of Sherlock Holmes, in particular the artwork used to accompany the short stories. The quiz uses images from the short stories, most of them drawn by Sidney Paget.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Carpet Jones" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, S.A. Cosby chatted with CrimeReads' Eli Cranor about his latest novel, Razorblade Tears, but as Cranor noted, Cosby was a bit late to the interview thanks to some real "dead bodies"; Writers Who Kill spoke with Lorie Lewis Ham about her debut novel, One of Us, and also M. E. Browning about her latest book, Mercy Creek; and the Indie Crime Scene interviewed Kathleen Kaska, author of Murder at the Galvez (A Sydney Lockhart Mystery).

         Related StoriesMystery Melange 

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

Mel Gibson will take on another big action role in the thriller, Hot Seat, starring alongside Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), with James Cullen Bressack set to direct. Based on a story by Leon Langford and Collin Watts, Hot Seat centers on an ex-hacker forced to break into banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson’s character plays the man who must try to enter the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the "hot seat."

Mike Pniewski, Thad Luckinbill, Sky Ferreira, James Devoti, and Michael Beasley will round out the cast of Netflix’s crime thriller, Reptile (appearing alongside previously announced cast members Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Frances Fisher, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, Karl Glusman, Matilda Lutz, Owen Teague, and Catherine Dyer). The story is set in motion by the brutal murder of a young real estate agent and centers on a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Grant Singer, known previously for his work in directing music videos and commercials.

Tony Goldwyn and Paul Ben-Victor have joined Gerard Butler in Lionsgate’s action thriller, The Plane. Goldwyn will play Scarsdale, an ex-Special Forces officer who is now a corporate crisis manager and fixer. Ben-Victor will play Hampton, owner of the airline. The Plane, directed by Jean-François Richet, follows commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Butler) who, after a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in hostile territory, finds himself threatened by militant pirates who are planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage. As the world’s authorities and media search for the disappeared aircraft, Brodie must rise to the occasion and keep his passengers safe long enough for help to arrive.

Mayans M.C. star, JD Pardo, has come aboard the Robert Rodriguez action-thriller, Hypnotic, joining Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, Dayo Okeniyi, William Fichtner, and Hala Finley. Currently filming in Texas, Hypnotic follows a detective (Affleck) who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter (Finley) and a secret government program—while investigating a string of impossible high-end crimes.

Mena Suvari will star alongside Dermot Mulroney and Darren Mann in Breakwater, an indie project from writer-director James Rowe and Loose Cannon Pictures. The crime thriller revolves around Dovey (Mann), a young ex-con who breaks his parole and crosses state lines in order to track down the estranged daughter of fellow inmate Ray Childress (Mulroney). Suvari will portray Kendra, the audacious and alluring manager of a restaurant near the state prison, who offers newly released inmates their first taste of the outside world.

Abbie Cornish and Laz Alonso have signed on to headline Detained, a psychological thriller from director Felipe Mucci. The film follows a woman (Cornish) who wakes up in an isolated police interrogation room with no memory of the night prior. The cops in the station proceed to make some wild allegations as they interrogate her, and there's an eerie vibe that there's something "not quite right" about this particular station or the cops who are running it.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Entertainment One has acquired the rights to bestselling author Lisa Gardner’s novel, Before She Disappeared, with Oscar-winner Hillary Swank set to star and executive produce via her Film Bandits banner. Gardner’s novel follows Frankie Elkin, a recovering alcoholic who travels light and is obsessed with locating missing people whose cases have been dismissed, overlooked, or marginalized.

HBO Max is developing Aloha MotherF**ker, a drama series based on Jason Ryan’s best-selling novel, Hell-Bent. The story centers on Renee, a divorced mom in her 40s, who heads to Hawaii to start her own investigation when cops fail to find her son’s killers. She uncovers rampant disorganized crime and systemic corruption within the police and legal system, before inadvertently finding a new place for herself in the world.

Although it had been announced before the start of the latest NCIS season, its 18th, that star Mark Harmon (playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs) would be appearing in fewer episodes, it turns out last week's is going to be his last. Harmon reportedly was ready to hang up Gibbs’s cap after last season, but learned that if he did so, CBS might not renew NCIS at all. As such, he agreed to return in a limited capacity. But in the fourth episode of Season 19—after Gibbs and the team solved the case of a contract killer hired by a conglomerate to clear the way for an environment-poisoning copper mine—Gibbs decided not to take back his badge, gun and job, when offered by Director Vance, but stay put in "the middle of nowhere" in Alaska, where this multi-episode arc had most recently led him.

Emma Corrin will star in FX’s limited series, Retreat. The project centers on the "Gen Z amateur sleuth," Darby Hart (Corrin), who is invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must fight to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer strikes again.

ABC is developing a legal drama written and executive produced by Bill Chais (a former public defender), and Pat Cunnane, who was President Barack Obama’s Senior Writer and Deputy Director of Messaging at the White House. In the untitled project, a brash Bronx public defender comes to North Carolina to reform a dysfunctional, seriously underfunded criminal justice system, putting him on a collision course with the tough-on-crime governor. Desperate and out of options, he invokes an arcane law that can compel any attorney to serve as defense counsel in criminal trials…and assigns the first case to the governor herself, an attorney in good standing.

Lin Shaye is set to star in and exec-produce the action-thriller, Ellen. The six-episode series will follow a nefarious land developer who gets more than he bargained for when he tries to intimidate an 80-year-old widow (Shaye) into abandoning her Montana ranch. The series will be directed by the filmmaker duo, Clif Prowse and Derek Lee (Afflicted), with a script from Tim Walker.

Just days before the premiere of You season 3, Netflix has renewed the stalker drama for a fourth season. The series, which is based on Caroline Kepnes's novels, follows Joe (Penn Badgley) as he quite literally does anything for love—and then deals with the consequences. 

Octavio Pisano, who portrays Detective Joe Velasco on Law & Order: SVU, has been promoted to series regular on the NBC procedural. Pisano’s Velasco is a former undercover cop and detective under Chief McGrath (Terry Serpico) who’s been assigned to the SVU and has appeared in 3 episodes so far, beginning with the season 23 premiere. Season 23 picked up mere hours after last season’s finale, where Catalina Machado (Zabryna Guevara) was arrested for trafficking single mothers living in shelters in a complex housing-for-sex scheme. She now wants to flip on her superiors in exchange for a deal with the feds, and names a powerful congressman as the big fish. It’s a make-or-break case for the NYPD and puts enormous pressure on the entire SVU squad to get a conviction.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski, has been renewed for a fourth season ahead of the show's Season 3 premiere on Amazon Prime Video. Additionally, Michael Peña is set to join the Season 4 cast in an undisclosed role. Season 3 finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time when he's wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction he's uncovered, Jack is forced underground in Europe while trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict. Also set to return for the third season are Wendell Pierce as James Greer and Michael Kelly as Mike November.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed William Kent Krueger to talk about his Cork O'Connor series; his novel, Saving Grace; and writing, logging, and nostalgia. Plus Maria Marotti discussed her book, The Etruscan Princess; Lance Wright shared some new releases from Down & Out Books; and Elizabeth Splaine, James Swallow, Sarah Adlahka, and Sheila Lowe offered up some book recommendations.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Rory Clements, a British author of historical thrillers. He won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2010 for his novel, Revenger, and the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018 for Nucleus. His latest novel, A Prince and a Spy, is his first novel to be published in America, but it’s the fifth book in his Tom Wilde series.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with historical novelist, Elodie Harper, about The Wolf Den, set in the brothels of ancient Pompeii. They also discussed French literature and the podcast's own Abir Mukherjee's recent trip to France.

On the latest Crime Time FM, Paul Burke shared his thoughts on some of the new crime, mystery, and thriller releases.

THEATRE

The world premiere theatrical adaptation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is set to tour the U.K. January 10 – November 12, 2022. Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel have adapted the best-seller, about a professor and symbologist trying to crack the code to solve a murder and reveal a well-guarded, centuries-old religious mystery. Olivier winner Nigel Harman will play professor Robert Langdon, Danny John-Jules will play Sir Leigh Teabing, and Hannah Rose Caton will play Sophie Neveu.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday