B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 85

FFB: American Fantastic Tales

I don't know how much reading today's school children do, but when I was coming up through the system, American author Shirley Jackson's (1916-1965) classic short story, "The Lottery," was a staple of the mandated literature curriculum. Although Jackson published six novels, she is known primarily for her short fiction. Her over seventy stories have been collected and anthologized into numerous volumes, including American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now, edited by Peter Straub and published by The Library of America in 2009.



This is the second of Straub's two-volume look at fantasy and horror stories in which he explained that "the fantastic is a way of seeing." For her own part, Jackson once explained her love of writing fantasy/horror short stories in much more pedestrian terms: "There is pleasure in seeing a story grow...It's so deeply satisfying, like having a winning streak at poker." Yet, throughout much of her work there is the same undercurrent that things are not always what they seem. Psychological trauma, isolation, madness, and unfulfilled fantasies are all themes that insinuate their way into her characters and plots.



The short work of Jackson's that Straub included in American Fantastic Tales is "The Daemon Lover," a story Joyce Carol Oates once praised as "deeper, more mysterious, and more disturbing than 'The Lottery'." The basic premise seems simple: a thirty-something woman wakes to find her fiancé, Jamie Harris, missing. So she searches for him throughout the town, growing increasingly distressed when no one seems to know him or to have seen him.



Even the narrator herself says "Reconciled, settled, she tried to think of Jamie and could not see his face clearly, or hear his voice," then justifies that by adding, "It's always that way with someone you love..." But exactly who or what is her lover? Is he even real? Like "The Lottery" and many other Jackson stories, the ending is up for interpretation.



The rest of American Fantastic Tales includes 41 stories by Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Stephen King, Steven Millhauser, Harlan Ellison,  Michael Chabon, Thomas Ligotti and many more. Both volumes together represent a good overview of the "Twilight Zone" genre of literature, or, as the book's description adds, to "provide an irresistible journey into the phantasmagoric underside of the American imagination."

          

Mystery Melange

The shortlist for the 2021 Petrona Award for Best Translated Scandinavian Crime Novel was announced today (with the winner to be presented on November 4). The six titles from Iceland, Norway, and Sweden include:

A Necessary Death by Anne Holt, tr. Anne Bruce (Corvus; Norway)
Death Deserved by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, tr. Anne Bruce (Orenda Books; Norway)
The Secret Life Of Mr. Roos by Håkan Nesser, tr. Sarah Death (Mantle; Sweden)
To Cook A Bear by Mikael Niemi, tr. Deborah Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press; Sweden)
The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn, tr. Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books; Norway)
Gallows Rock by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton; Iceland)

Romance, crime, and science fiction novels are among the five shortlisted books for the £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award, which this year received a record number of submissions. The two crime fiction titles include JD Kirk's An Isolated Incident, the 11th installment in his DCI Jack Logan series, and Rachel McLean's The Corfe Castle Murders. You can see the full list of finalists here. The winner will be announced in October.

Tomorrow is the last day to bid on items in the Authors for Voices of Color auction, which is raising money for racial-justice non-profits in the publishing, education, and literacy arenas. Authors, editors, and other publishing professionals are donating items and services to raise funds for organizations that amplify voices of color. The inaugural auction, which ended in August 2020, raised more than $14,000. There are several genres included, and you can check out the thriller offerings via this link.

Join award-winning mystery authors Naomi Hirahara and Walter Mosley for an online discussion October 3 about their critically acclaimed novels. Hirahara’s latest mystery, Clark and Division, revolves around a Japanese American family building a new life in 1940s Chicago after their release from mass incarceration during World War II. Mosley’s indefatigable detective, Easy Rawlins, returns in Blood Grove, solving a new mystery on the streets of Southern California in 1969. The talk is sponsored by the Brooklyn Book Festival and will be moderated by Dwyer Murphy, editor in chief of CrimeReads.

There are a few more Noir at the Bar events coming up soon, starting off with Noir at the Bar Edinburgh at the Rose St Theatre Café with authors Alison Belsham (Her Last Breath), Sharon Bairden (Sins of the Father), Alex Nye (Arguing with the Dead), Sandra Ireland (Bone Deep), and Jackie MacLean (DI Donna Davenport series). Columbia, South Carolina, will be holding its first Noir at the Bar event on October 27 (lineup here); and the next Noir at the Bar Dallas is set for November 7 (lineup here) at the Wild Detectives bookstore.

Titan Books is releasing a new collaboration with editor Maxim Jakubowski for the first retrospective of the Crime Writer Association's Dagger Award-winning short stories. The 19 tales in Daggers Drawn bring together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dealers and master forgers. To coincide with the release, contributors Larry Beinhart, Danuta Kot, Lauren Henderson, and Martin Edwards will join Jakubowski for a live panel on Saturday, October 2, 2021, which will be streamed via Facebook Live.

To celebrate the launch of David Marcum's Sherlock Holmes and The Eye of Heka, Mystery Scene magazine readers are being invited to a chance to win $100 worth of Sherlockian tales from MX Publishing, the home of the largest Sherlock Holmes catalog in the world, with more than 400 Sherlock Holmes novels, biographies, graphic novels and short story collections. To enter, simply sign up for the magazine's free newsletter on the bottom of their home page.

There is some sad news to report following the loss of another mystery author: Frank Wheeler Jr. has passed away only a few months following a surprise cancer diagnosis at the age of 43. Jed Ayres has a personal tribute up at Hardboiled Wonderland.

The Black Cat web site has been around for almost four years now, serving up a weekly buffet of new and classic mysteries—and more recently science fiction—to thousands of readers each week. Rather than continue to release all these novels and stories as individual ebooks, they have decided to bundle them up into a convenient weekly e-magazine beginning with Black Cat Weekly #1, the September 5, 2021 issue. To celebrate, they're including double the usual word count, with three complete novels, seven short stories, and even a "true crime" feature by Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason. The subgenres cover the gamut, from traditional mysteries to contemporary detectives, to psychic detectives (in the case of Frank Lovell Nelson’s story, a telepathic detective, the first of 12 stories featuring Carlton Clarke from 1908, all of which will run in the Black Cat’s pages).





Cross-Examining Crime published the transcription of a talk recently given at the Paignton Zoo as part of the International Agatha Christie Festival, featuring some of the ways in which animals have made themselves at home with classic crime writers and in the mysteries their owners created. The roster has several books from the Golden Age, including the Queen of Crime herself, Agatha Christie, with a few more contemporary takes. The stories include a variety of titles, all of which included animals used as pets, muses, plot devices, or even murder weapons.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Would You Like Fries With That" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's J.B. Stevens interviewed Mark Westmoreland, author of the debut book, A Violent Gospel; the Stiletto Gang's Lynn McPherson interviewed fellow "Gangster," Cathy Perkins about her books, being a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, and writing through chemotherapy; and Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis chatted with Rhys Bowen about God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen, which is Bowen’s fifteenth Royal Spyness 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

Spider-Man: Homecoming director, Jon Watts, is writing, directing, and producing a movie that will bring George Clooney and Brad Pitt together again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, once the project was made known, just about every studio and streaming service jumped in to bid on it. Details about the movie itself are being held close to the vest, but the movie is apparently about two "lone wolf fixers" who get assigned to the same job.

Harry Potter screenwriter, Steve Kloves, has found a more adult project to take on, as he is set to adapt Flynn Berry’s New York Times bestselling novel, Northern Spy, for Netflix. The story is set in the midst of renewed sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and follows a woman who learns that her younger sister has not only been working for the IRA but also has become an MI5 informer. To protect her family, the older sister helps pass information to MI5, but the IRA eventually tries to conscript her.

Kevin Hart and F. Gary Gray are teaming up on the drama, Lift, for Netflix, a heist film that Netflix acquired last March as a spec script by Dan Kunka. Hart will play a master thief who is wooed by his ex-girlfriend and the FBI to pull off an impossible heist with his international crew on a 777 flying from London to Zurich.

Although Chris Hemsworth’s black ops mercenary character, Tyler Rake, appeared to have met his end at the close of Extraction, the actor confirmed today that he will be back for Extraction 2, as Netflix unveiled a teaser for the sequel. Hemsworth will re-team on the follow-up film with director Sam Hargrave, as well as producers Joe and Anthony Russo. The original action-thriller penned by Joe Russo was based on the graphic novel, Ciudad, and followed Rake’s efforts to rescue Ovi Mahajan (Rudhraksh Jaiswal)—the son of an Indian crime lord—and watched as his mission went awry after he was double-crossed.

Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), and Daniela Melchior (Suicide Squad) have been quietly filming the action film, Assassin Club, in Italy. Camille Delamarre (Transporter: Refueled) is directing the movie, which has just wrapped shooting in Turin. Assassin Club takes place in the world of international spies and elite assassins where Morgan Gaines (Golding) is the best of the best. When Morgan is hired to kill six people around the world, he soon discovers all the targets are also assassins unknowingly hired to kill each other. Rapace plays Falk, the only assassin with skills to match his own. Under the guidance of his mentor Jonathan Caldwell (Neill), Morgan must defeat Falk and the other assassins to keep himself and his girlfriend Sophie (Melchior) alive.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Yesterday producer, Matthew James Wilkinson, is teaming up with Poldark and Endeavour exec producer, Tom Mullens, on a TV adaptation of Scottish author Iain Banks’s thriller novel, The Business. The project follows Kate Telman, a working-class Glaswegian who has risen through the ranks to become a senior executive in a secretive super-corporation, known only as "The Business." Telman discovers that The Business is planning to buy a small country in order to secure a seat on the UN and that, despite the benevolent image and democratic structure it presents to the world, the company will stop at nothing to increase its influence. So begins a dangerous personal reckoning as Telman travels the globe, determined to uncover the conspiracy at the heart of the shady company she works for.

Chicago Med and Arrow star, Colin Donnell, is set to lead Peacock’s Australia-set crime drama, Irreverent. The series will also feature PJ Byrne, Kylie Bracknell, Briallen Clarke, Tegan Stimson, Ed Oxenbould, Wayne Blair, Russell Dykstra, Calen Tassone, and Jason Wilder as series regulars. Irreverent follows a criminal from Chicago who bungles a heist and is forced to hide out in a small Australian reef town in Far North Queensland posing as the new church Reverend. Donnell will play Mack/Paulo, a skilled and articulate mediator who keeps the peace between organized crime families in Chicago. After a mediation goes badly wrong, Mack flees to a remote beach town in tropical Australia where he is forced to assume the identity of a Reverend in order to stay ahead of the people who want him dead.

NBC has ordered the thriller, The Endgame, from executive producers Julie Plec and Justin Lin. The series stars Morena Baccarin and Ryan Michelle Bathe as a criminal mastermind and the FBI agent trying to stop her plan. Plec will executive produce with Nicholas Wootton, and Jake Coburn, who will both write the series. As the logline states, it's "a pulse-pounding, high-stakes thriller about Elena Federova (Baccarin), a recently captured international arms dealer and brilliant criminal mastermind who even in captivity orchestrates a number of coordinated bank heists, and Val Turner (Bathe), the principled, relentless, and socially outcast FBI agent who will stop at nothing to foil her ambitious plan."

Netflix has opted not to renew the geopolitical espionage thriller, Hit & Run, co-created, executive produced and headlined by Lior Raz, for a second season. The news comes a month and a half after the release of Season 1, which ended with a major cliffhanger. Hit & Run, which also starred Sanaa Lathan, Kaelen Ohm, Moran Rosenblatt, and Gregg Henry, was well received by critics and viewers. But the sprawling drama, filmed in New York and Israel, is expensive, and due to the COVID-related industry shutdown, the nine-episode Season 1 took three years to produce. Hit & Run centers on Segev (Raz), a happily married man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident in Tel Aviv. Grief-stricken and confused, he searches for his wife’s killers, who have fled to the U.S. With the help of an ex-lover, Naomi Hicks (Lathan), he uncovers disturbing truths about his beloved wife and the secrets she kept from him.

Starz has put in development Lagordiloca, a drama series that chronicles the rise of street journalist, Priscilla Villarreal, as she capitalizes on the power of livestream reporting to expose corruption, cartels, and serial killers in the border town of Laredo, Texas. The project, Inspired by Skip Hollandsworth’s and Leif Reigstad’s articles about Villarreal in Texas Monthly, comes from playwright, film/TV writer, and filmmaker Hilary Bettis, who is penning the adaptation. A modern-day folk hero tale, Priscilla’s use of social media pushes the boundaries of freedom of speech and press to the extreme, shaking the community’s foundation to its core.

Season 9 of The Blacklist, which will be the NBC drama’s first year without now-exited star Megan Boone, will open its October 21 premiere with a time jump that will pick up with Raymond Reddington (James Spader) two years after the death of Elizabeth Keen (Boone). Per NBC, "In the two years following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington (James 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. In the process, they begin to uncover lethal adversaries, unimaginable conspiracies, and surprising betrayals that will threaten alliances and spur vengeance for the past, led by the most devious criminal of them all – Raymond Reddington."

Steve Coogan (Philomena) has been cast as Jimmy Savile in the BBC One drama, The Reckoning. Savile rose from working-class origins to become one of the biggest stars of British television, but faced rumors of misconduct during his career. After his death in 2011, the full extent of his crimes, which included sexually abusing hundreds of child victims, was revealed. The controversial TV project will be directed by Sandra Goldbacher (Ordeal by Innocence). The production team said they are working closely with people whose lives were impacted by Savile to ensure their stories are told with sensitivity and respect. The series will look into the way Savile used his celebrity and powerful connections to conceal his wrongdoings and to hide in plain sight.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

It Was a Dark & Stormy Book Club welcomed Stephanie Kane, an attorney and author of legal thrillers. In 2020, she published Quiet Time, a mystery novel based on her own life as a witness to the murder of her future mother-in-law, a case that resulted in the killer being set free. In 2021, she published Cold Case Story, a true-crime account that ultimately led to a reopening of the case and prosecution of the perpetrator thirty years after the crime.

Thriller and horror author Dan Padavona was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories, chatting about his Wolf Lake series, his Darkwater Cove series, and the Scarlett Bell series.

Read or Dead discussed books that will take you on "a twisty, turn-y journey."

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Owen Mullen stopped by to discuss his new book, The Accused.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Scott Shepherd, a veteran writer/producer/show-runner of programs such as The Equalizer and Miami Vice, to talk about his debut crime novel, The Last Commandment.

On CrimeTime FM, Fiona Cummins (When I Was Ten) and David Fennell (The Art of Death) discussed why we’re so intrigued by serial killers, what makes a good thriller, and which fictional murderer they’d be most afraid to be stranded on a desert island with.

The Cozy Ink Podcast host, Leah Bailey, compiled a list of author interviews she's done with books that contain not only excellent culinary delights, but also the recipes to create them yourself.

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FFB: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

British author Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1841-1910) wrote many short stories and some 14 novels between 1877 and 1894, before she essentially gave up writing in favor of marriage and animal charity work (she and her husband helped found the National Canine Defence League). She is best known for her stories featuring female detective Loveday Brooke, with the first such tale published in Ludgate Monthly magazine in 1893. The Loveday Brooke stories were compiled into the volume The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective in 1894, which was to be the author's last published book.



Loveday Brooke was one of the more popular female detectives among the explosion of mystery stories that followed the success of Sherlock Holmes, and the character is said to be the first female detective penned by a female author. Unlike other female detectives of the day (mostly those created by men), Loveday is a professional business woman, around thirty years of age, who is "not tall, she was not short, she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly. Her features were altogether nondescript." Her main weapon is her intellect and capacity for using logic and observation à la Holmes, which helps her solve cases that have stumped the male police forces. She works for Ebenezer Dyer, head of a detective agency in Lynch Court, off London's Fleet Street, but he isn't involved in her cases and simply dispatches her to do her own thing.



Loveday's cases are mostly robberies and burglaries, which might sound on the surface like the author was avoiding more violent crimes that would be too much for a woman's "delicate constitution." However, Pirkus embued her detective with a feminist (for the day) viewpoint, with the female characters often struggling to escape patriarchal tyranny. There is a religious underpinning to the stories, although it is minimized in favor of the puzzles, which, as Mike Grost of MysteryFile noted, often have three stages: stage one, the establishment of the mystery; stage three, the resolution; and the middle stage, an often elaborate and complex scheme whereby Loveday meddles in the lives of the culprits to trick them into their ultimate capture.



Loveday is notable for her role in blazing a trail for the modern female fictional detective, but Pirkis's writing isn't as pathbreaking. There is a dependence on dialogue, a wealth of coincidences, a lack of clues, and many instances of the lack of "fair play." Some Loveday stories were later dramatized as BBC radio plays, including "The Redhill Sisterhood," where Loveday Brooke takes on the role of an undercover agent as she investigates nuns who appear to have forsaken their vows and taken to burglary.

          

Mystery Melange

Congratulations to Robbie Morrison, who won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Edge of the Grave. Craig Russell also won the McIlvanney Prize for Crime Novel of the Year 2021 with Hyde. The latter prize was named for the late William McIlvanney, whose last book, The Dark Remains, has just been published posthumously with the help of bestselling Scottish crime writer, Ian Rankin.

HarperFiction has revealed the three winners of the Killing It Competition for Undiscovered Writers, launched in January of this year. The competition is designed to find unpublished writers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and was judged by editorial director Phoebe Morgan, commissioning editor Kathryn Cheshire, assistant editor Sophie Churcher, and guest judge Ayo Onatade. Each winner will receive a comprehensive editorial report and mentoring. The winners include Rama Varma, for The Banana Leaf Murder; Stacey Thomas for The Revels; and Shabnam Grewal for Secrets and Shame.

Gillian Flynn, the author of acclaimed psychological thriller, Gone Girl, is to launch her own imprint with new US indie press Zando. Along with actor and producer Lena Waithe, Flynn is a founding partner of the press, which aims to collaborate with creators, authors, and platforms to obtain and publish titles. Flynn will be involved in every stage of the publishing process for her imprint, including acquisition, editing and publication. She will publish her Zando list under the name Gillian Flynn Books, releasing four to six titles over three years. Gillian Flynn Books is expected to include both fiction and non-fiction, featuring narrative non-fiction and true crime.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, has extended the submission deadline for the upcoming issue on "Cold Case Mysteries." Interested authors still have time to submit their proposed reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays by October 10.

 

The Atlantic's Alyse Burnside profiled the "dark reality behind cozy mysteries," and how the genre’s popularity can feel like a relic of a bygone era—but these books share DNA with today’s bloodier thrillers.

The New York Times took a look ahead to "20 New Works of Fiction to Read This Season," a list that includes State of Terror, a political thriller by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny; the Korean murder mystery, Lemon; and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.

The novel that is thought to have inspired Agatha Christie is getting a UK publication date in October by Dean Street Press. The Invisible Host, a 1930 murder mystery by two US journalists, has remarkable parallels with Christie’s most successful work. Dean Street Press describes The Invisible Host as "the widely suspected inspiration" for And Then There Were None, and an "innovative and most unusual mystery from the golden age of crime fiction."

Just a reminder that censorship and book banning is alive and well in the 21st century: a southern Pennsylvania school district was forced to reverse a wide-ranging ban on books following protests and criticism that every author on that list involved a Black voice or subject. Crime fiction author, Brad Meltzer, whose picture book I am Rosa Parks was one of the banned titles, said he sat in the virtual Central York school board meeting "to stop this book ban," and read the board his titles including both I am Rosa Parks and I am Dr King to the board. "When you’re banning Dr King and Rosa Parks, you’re on the wrong side of history," said Meltzer.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Or So It Seemed" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, Sara Gran talked with CrimeReads about "Publishing, Sex Magic, and Ownership for Authors" and starting her own publishing company; Craig Johnson also stopped by CrimeReads to discuss spirituality, the West, and the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women, one of whom was the inspiration for the newest Longmire novel, Daughter of the Morning Star; and the BBC spoke with LJ Ross, a successful self-published author of 18 books including the DCI Ryan series, and a series with forensic psychologist Dr Alexander Gregory.

         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:

AWARDS

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences handed out the 73rd primetime Emmy Awards last night. There weren't very many crime drama winners this year, with most of the nods going to The Crown for, well, just about everything. However, Mare of Easttown had several nods:  Kate Winslet won Best Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie for her role as Mare Sheehan; Evan Peters won Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role as Detective Colin Zabel; and Julianne Nicholson won an Outstanding Supporting Actress award for her role as Lori Ross.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Megan Fox has been set to star with Tyson Ritter in the feature thriller, Johnny And Clyde, a "new take on the famous Bonnie and Clyde story." The movie will follow the two eponymous serial killers, madly in love and on an endless crime spree, who have their sights set on robbing a prosperous casino run by crime boss Alana (Fox) and her head of security (Ritter). The movie is currently in production in Rhode Island with the roles of Johnny and Clyde to be cast "imminently."

Bridget Regan and Patrick Heusinger (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) have signed on to star alongside Katherine Castro in Weak, a new thriller from writer-director, J.S. Mayank. The film is inspired by a true story and follows an investigation involving two women: Audra (Castro), who’s suffering from depression, and her friend, Jen (Regan), who’s trying to help her cope with the mental health issues. Upon their visit to a gun range, an unexpected turn of events leads to a surprising and horrifying revelation.

Winona Ryder is starring alongside Dermot Mulroney, John Gallagher Jr., Owen Teague, and Brianne Tju in The Cow, described as "a mystery thriller" that marks the feature directing debut of Eli Horowitz, co-creator of Amazon’s anthology series, Homecoming. However, plot details are being kept under wraps about the script, which was co-penned by Horowitz and Matthew Derby.

Netflix is teaming up with Vishal Bhardwaj Films for the espionage feature, Khufiya. Based on the spy novel, Escape to Nowhere, by Amar Bhushan, as well as true events, the film tells the story of Krishna Mehra, an intelligence operative at India’s Research and Analysis Wing who is assigned to track down the mole selling defense secrets.

Travis Fimmel, Brady Noon, and Frances Fisher have been added to the cast of Rust, the feature Western that stars Alec Baldwin and is written and directed by Joel Souza (Crown Vic). The story centers on infamous Western outlaw, Harland Rust (Baldwin), who's had a bounty on his head for as long as he can remember. When his estranged 13-year-old grandson Lucas (Noon) is convicted of an accidental murder and sentenced to hang, Rust travels to Kansas to break him out of prison. Together, the fugitives must outrun the legendary U.S. Marshal, Wood Helm, and bounty-hunter, Fenton "Preacher" Lang (Fimmel), who are hot on their tail.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s HiddenLight Productions have optioned film and TV rights to Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series. Hillary, who has made no secret of her love of the mystery series throughout the years, told attendees at the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention last week how much she and Chelsea love the character and her journey during a time of "great social upheaval."

Mark Gordon Pictures is moving along with its series adaptation of Norman Mailer’s spy epic, Harlot’s Ghost. Éric Rochant (who is also developing a global spy thriller with Snowpiercer producer Tomorrow Studios), will write, direct, executive produce, and showrun the project. Harlot’s Ghost, which was published in 1991, is a fictional chronicle of the CIA and centers on Harry Hubbard, the son and godson of CIA legends. His journey to learn the secrets of his organization—and his own past—takes him through the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the "momentous catastrophe" of the Kennedy assassination. All the while, Hubbard is haunted by women who were loved by both his godfather and President Kennedy.

Hulu has given a formal green light to Career Opportunities In Murder & Mayhem (working title), a pilot headlined by Mandy Patinkin and Violett Beane. Joining the duo as series regulars are Lauren Patten, Hugo Diego Garcia, Angela Zhou, and Rahul Kohli. Written by Stumptown duo, Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, and to be directed by Marc Webb, the project asks the question, "How do you solve a murder in a post-fact world? Especially when sailing the Mediterranean on an ocean liner filled with the wealthy and powerful?" Everyone on board is hiding something…but is one of them a killer? That’s what the "World’s Once Greatest Detective," Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), and his protégé, Imogene (Beane), aim to discover.

Idris Elba will officially reprise his role as the brilliant detective John Luther for a Luther movie at Netflix and will be joined in the cast by Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis. Neil Cross, the series creator of Luther, will return to write the script for the movie, and Emmy nominee Jamie Payne is set to direct. The film will continue the events of the "Luther" saga, which aired in 2010 and ran for five seasons on the BBC. Other plot details, however, are being kept under wraps.

Emily Deschanel has been cast as the lead in Netflix’s limited series adaptation of Devil in Ohio. The eight-episode thriller is based on a book of the same name by Daria Polatin, which is inspired by a true story. The series will be written, executive produced, and showrun by author Polatin and follows hospital psychiatrist, Dr. Suzanne Mathis, whose world is turned upside down when she shelters a mysterious cult escapee.

The CW has acquired Professionals, a loose remake of the Christian Slater-fronted action movie, Soldiers of Fortune, which was made for the Scandinavian SVOD service, Viaplay. The series stars Smallville’s Tom Welling as Vincent Corbo, a top-tier security operative paid to protect the interests of rich and powerful clients by any means necessary. After a next-gen medical satellite explodes on launch, Corbo is hired by the rocket’s designer, billionaire futurist Peter Swann (Brendan Fraser), who suspects sabotage. Complicating Corbo’s new gig is his former paramour and now Swann’s fiancée, medical visionary Dr. Grace Davila (Elena Anaya), who is racing to help stave off a global catastrophe. Even worse, Corbo must also contend with a rogue Europol agent (Ken Duken), who is hell-bent on busting him for past sins.

The real-life story about $70 billion in bonds that went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy is being loosely adapted as a series for Netflix. Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) is among the cast in Jigsaw, an eight-part heist action drama that the streamer says takes a "nonlinear approach to storytelling in a way where viewers are in control." Spanning a quarter-century, Jigsaw centers on the largest heist ever attempted and the vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals that surround it.

The Hulu series, Only Murders in the Building, has officially been renewed for a second season. The comedic murder-mystery series follows three strangers—Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one when a grisly death occurs inside their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building. As they record a podcast to document the case, the three unravel the complex secrets of the building which stretch back years. Soon, the endangered trio comes to realize a killer might be living amongst them as they race to decipher the mounting clues before it’s too late.

Freeform has ordered an untitled Hitchcockian nanny-drama pilot that follows a young woman as she's thrust into a world of old money and deadly secrets. Andrea Londo plays Elena, who at first seems like just a wholesome, friendly young woman trying to get a job as the live-in nanny to a wealthy widower (Warren Christie) and his young son at the Greybourne. However, she’s not the wide-eyed innocent she seems to be. Once Elena is ensconced in this world, she’ll discover she’s not the only one with dark secrets or a hidden agenda.

Netflix has given a series order to the legal drama, Partner Track, with Arden Cho set to star. Based on Helen Wan’s 2013 novel of the same name, Partner Track centers on Ingrid Yun (Cho), an idealistic young lawyer who struggles with her moral compass and her passions as she fights to climb the partner track at an elite New York City law firm. Bridgerton’s Julie Anne Robinson will direct the first two episodes of the series.

Law & Order: SVU’s Demore Barnes reacted to news of his upcoming exit from the long-running NBC series, sharing on social media that he’s proud of his work but in the dark about the shift in casting, adding "I don't know why this happened." Barnes and co-star Jamie Gray Hyder, who play Deputy Chief Christian Garland and Officer Kat Tamin, respectively, are departing Law & Order: SVU ahead of its Season 23 premiere next Thursday. Barnes and Hyder were introduced in Season 21 as recurring characters, and both were promoted to series regulars for Season 22. Barnes said his character was the "first Black deputy chief in SVU history."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Colson Whitehead joined NPR's Fresh Air to discuss his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, and the extensive background research he conducts whenever he works on a book.

Writer Types regular host, Eric Beetner, was joined by guest co-host, Frank Zafiro, and guests Amanda Jayatissa (My Sweet Girl); Swedish author Tove Alsterdal (We Know You Remember); and Suruthi Bala & Hannah Maguire from the podcast Redhanded! and its associated book (Redhanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick).

Nadine Matheson—author of The Jigsaw Man—was interviewed by Robert Justice for Crime Writers of Color. When bodies start washing up along the banks of the River Thames, DI Henley fears it is the work of Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer. But it can’t be him; Olivier is already behind bars, and Henley was the one who put him there. The race is on to find the killer before more bodies are found.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Murder Under a Blue Moon by Abigail Keam, as read by actor Brianne Vogt Debbas.

 

The All About Agatha podcast hosted their own event at the recent International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, revisiting Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Amanda Jayatissa to discuss her debut thriller, My Sweet Girl, which centers on Paloma, who thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you.

Lisa Regan stopped by Meet the Thriller Author to discuss her Detective Josie Quinn series, including the latest installment, Her Deadly Touch.

CrimeTime FM's Paul Burke chatted with Simon Scarrow about his new-to-paperback thriller, Blackout; the importance of teaching and understanding history; challenging views of the past; and writing historical fiction.

Over the past two weeks, the Cozy Ink podcast highlighted cozy mysteries featuring cats and dogs. This week, host Leah Bailey tackled cozy mysteries that feature a variety of animals.

James Swallow returned to Wrong Place, Write Crime to talk about his new Marc Dane novels, his Star Trek tie-in novels, and some writing theory (including making location an integral part of the book). Regular host, Frank Zafiro, was also joined by Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, as they chatted about other recommended books and the craft of writing.

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FFB: Death on the Rocks

So many authors seem to pop out of nowhere, bring us several very fine works—even award-winning titles—only to disappear from the writing world. Michael Allegretto is one such example of a mysteriously vanishing writer. The only biographical information I could find is that he grew up listening to the real-life stories of crime and detection from his father, a Denver police detective. This one tidbit at least explains the setting for Allegretto's novels featuring Jacob Lomax, an ex-cop turned private investigator in Denver.



Allegretto's first novel in the Lomax series, Death on the Rocks, was published in 1987 to critical acclaim, eventually nominated for the 1988 Anthony and Macavity Awards and winning the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel that year. The author went on to pen four more Lomax installments, four standalones, and a few short stories (one included in Justice For Hire: The Fourth Private Eye Writers of America Anthology), with his last book published in 1995. One of his standalone thrillers, Terror in the Shadows, was made into a TV movie.



Death on the Rocks finds wealthy oilman Phillip Townsend dead in a car crash west of Denver after he allegedly drove his Jaguar off a cliff. The police chalk the death up to drunk driving, but Townsend's widow doesn't agree and hires Lomax to uncover the truth. Lomax soon learns more than the widow may have wanted him to: the dead man acted in pornographic movies and may have raped a minor, and he had ties to a call girl named Cassandra. As Lomax digs deeper, he finds that someone doesn't want him digging up more of Townsend's shameful past and is willing to kill again to stop him, targeting Lomax and the victim's wife and young daughter.



The novel's protagonist, Jake Lomax, left his police job and became a private eye after his wife's murder, a history that has left him understandably scarred. His tough-guy exterior is full of cynicism and one-liners, but he's also charming, quite intelligent, even a masterful chess player. Bill Pronzini had this to say about Death on the Rocks:

"(It) is brash and tough in the Hammett/Chandler tradition. But it is more than that, too, because Michael Allegretto is his own writer and Jake Lomax is his own detective. A twisty plot, crackling dialogue, and some knife-sharp observations are just three of the elements that make it something special. The Allegretto-Lomax team has the potential to become a front-runner in today's crowded and competitive private-eye sweepstakes."

Unfortunately, just seven years later, Allegretto and Lomax disappeared off the literary scene as quickly as they came. Thankfully, the Mysterious Press/Open Road Media published all of the Lomax books in ebook format in 2013.

          

Mystery Melange

This year's shortlists were revealed for the Ngaio Marsh Awards that honor the best crime, mystery, or thriller novels written by a New Zealand citizen or resident and published in New Zealand during the previous year. The winners will be announced at a special streaming event on Saturday October 30, held in association with the WORD Christchurch festival.

Best novel:

The Murder Club (Nikki Crutchley, Oak House Press)

Sprigs (Brannavan Gnanalingam, Lawrence and Gibson)

The Tally Stick (Carl Nixon, RHNZ Vintage)

The Secrets of Strangers (Charity Norman, A&U)

Tell Me Lies (J P Pomare, Hachette)

Best first novel:

The Girl in the Mirror (Rose Carlyle, A&U)

The Beautiful Dead (Kim Hunt)

Where the Truth Lies (Karina Kilmore, S&S)

For Reasons of Their Own (Chris Stuart, Original Sin)

While the Fantail Lives (Alan Titchall, Devon Media)

Best nonfiction (biennial):

Weed: A New Zealand story (James Borrowdale, Penguin)

Rock College: An unofficial history of Mount Eden Prison (Mark Derby, Massey University Press)

From Dog Collar to Dog Collar (Bruce Howat)

Gangland (Jared Savage, HarperCollins NZ)

Black Hands: Inside the Bain family murders (Martin Van Beynen, PRHNZ).

Best YA novel:

Katipo Joe (Brian Falkner, Scholastic NZ)

Red Edge (Des Hunt, Scholastic NZ)

A Trio of Sophies (Eileen Merriman, Penguin)

Deadhead (Glenn Wood, OneTree House).

 

The ten finalists were announced for the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award. The Capital Crime advisory board along with Amazon Publishing editor, Victoria Haslam, and Thomas & Mercer author, Tariq Ashkanani, will decide on the winner in the coming weeks.

The San Francisco Public Library, in partnership with the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, hosted a panel last evening with Michael Nava curating a panel of Latinx authors discussing their books, writing, and their inspirations. Participating authors included Alex Segura, Raquel V. Reyes, Richie Narvaez, and Lucha Corpi. You can catch a replay of that event here.

The Guardian's Dalya Alberge recently made note of Dutch author Willem Frederik Hermans, a writer of spy thrillers during the mid twentieth century. His novel, The Darkroom of Damocles, was published before John le Carré's iconic work, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Hermans long maintained that le Carré plagiarized from his work.

Janet Rudolph posted an updated short list of mysteries that take place on Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Awe, and/or Yom Kippur.

In honor of Dame Agatha's birthday, Liberty Hardy compiled some of the best references to Agatha Christie in contemporary literature and pop culture.

And you thought humans were the only ones on this planet to commit crimes.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Susan Smith's Dream" by Sally Weston Ziph.

In the Q&A roundup, Colson Whitehead spoke with CrimeReads about why he wrote a heist novel to tell the story of New York; the Stiletto Gang chatted with Debra Sennefelder, author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series, both published by Kensington; Writers Who Kill chatted with Nupur Tustin about her Celine Skye Psychic Mysteries and her Joseph Haydn Mysteries; Frances Hight stopped by CrimeScene to discuss her short crime fiction and her debut novel, West Texas Dead; and J.B. Stevens interviewed Tori Eldridge, author of The Ninja Betrayed, the third book in her Lily Wong series, for Criminal Element.

         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

Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, and Danny DeVito will headline the cast in the next project from director Taylor Hackford, a film titled Sniff. Based on a script by Tom Grey, the story is described as "a stylish reinvention of the film noir." When two residents at a retirement community die under suspicious circumstances, retired detective Joe Mulwray (Freeman) is pulled back into the action by his former partner, William Keys (DeVito) as they uncover a hidden underworld of sex, drugs, and murder in the high-end luxury retirement community controlled by kingpin, Harvey Stride (Pacino), and his femme fatale enforcer, "The Spider" (Mirren).

John Lithgow has joined the cast of Sharper, the Apple Original Films thriller being directed by The Crown helmer, Benjamin Caron. Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, and Briana Middleton also star in the film, set to begin principal photography this week in New York City. The project, which will premiere in theaters and globally on Apple TV+, is based on a script by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka and unfolds within the streets of New York City, from the penthouses of Fifth Avenue to the shadowy corners of Queens. Motivations are suspect and expectations are turned upside down when nothing is as it seems.

Filming has begun in the UK on the spy thriller, Argylle. The film, based on the soon-to-be-launched spy novel of the same name from author Ellie Conway, follows the world’s greatest spy, known as "Argylle," as he is caught up in a globe-trotting adventure. The movie will be the first of at least three films in the franchise and is set in America, London, and multiple locations across the world. Henry Cavill takes on the titular role, headlining a cast that also includes Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Studios have struck an exclusive overall deal with Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo and his wife, actress, writer, and producer Jessica Oyelowo, for original scripted and unscripted series via their Yoruba Saxon productions. In their first project under the pact, David Oyelowo is attached to star in the titular role in Bass Reeves, a limited series about the legendary African-American lawman of the wild West. Reeves was known as the greatest frontier hero in American history and is also believed to be the inspiration for The Lone Ranger. He worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded.

Best-selling crime author, Ian Rankin, has written a TV series for Channel 4 in the UK that will see members of the public take on the role of detective and lead their own investigations. Murder Island, which was filmed during the summer and airs next month, will blend fact, drama, and competition formats. Filmed on the remote Scottish island of Gigha, the six-part series is based around a murder plot, written and developed by Rankin, that stars a group of amateur detectives who will compete to solve a crime and build a "watertight case" that can stand up in court. Contestants on Murder Island will be overseen by some of the UK's leading senior investigating officers.

The BBC unveiled the cast for the upcoming six-part period drama, The Gallows Pole, based on the novel of the same name by Benjamin Myers. The Gallows Pole fictionalizes the remarkable true story of the rise and fall of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners. Set against the backdrop of the coming industrial revolution in 18th century Yorkshire, the drama follows the enigmatic David Hartley (Michael Socha), as he assembles a gang of workers to embark upon a revolutionary criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. Also starring are Thomas Turgoose, George MacKay, Tom Burke, Sophie McShera, Cara Theobold, Yusra Warsama, Eve Burley, Nicole Barber Lane, Samuel Edward-Cook, Anthony Welsh, Joe Sproull, Adam Fogerty, and Fine Time Fontayne.

British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge has exited Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith series due to creative differences with fellow star and executive producer, Donald Glover. According to those close to the project, Waller-Bridge’s departure is amicable and her role will be re-cast. The series, based on Doug Liman’s feature starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, is a joint production between New Regency and Amazon Prime Video. The story of a married couple who discover they are spies hired to assassinate each other was first released in 2005 but somewhat overshadowed by the romance between the two leads.

Steve Howey has landed the male lead in True Lies, the CBS drama pilot adaptation of James Cameron’s 1994 action comedy movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Written by Matt Nix and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the pilot’s plot is true to its movie roots: Shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband (Howey) is a skilled international spy, an unfulfilled suburban housewife is propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Ellroy, the "demon dog" of American crime fiction, is doubling down on the world of podcasting. It was announced in April that he was working on a true crime audio series titled Hollywood Death Trip, and now he's partnering with podcasting firm Audio Up to adapt his American Tabloid novel into a scripted podcast. The 12-part series is set to launch on July 4, 2022, with casting to begin immediately.

On the Crime Cafe podcast, Debbie Mack interviewed Mark Edward Langley, author of the Arthur Nakai Mystery Series set in New Mexico.

Writer Types featured an end-of-the-summer blowout with five amazing authors including Matthew Fitzsimmons (Constance); Rachel Howzell Hall (These Toxic Things); Taylor Moore (Down Range); Tessa Lunney (Autumn Leaves, 1922); and Elisabeth De Mariaffi (The Retreat).

Michael Craft was the featured guest on Queer Writers of Crime. Michael is the author of seventeen novels, four of which have been honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards, and his 2019 mystery, ChoirMaster, was a Gold Winner of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award.

Read Or Dead talked about books featuring cults and people who become a part of them.

Margaret Mizushima was the guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing Striking Range, the seventh installment in her Timber Creek K-9 mystery series, in which Timber Creek County Deputy Mattie Cobb braves ice storms and murderers while looking into the death of a young woman and the kidnappers of the woman’s newborn

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Andrews & Wilson, the bestselling co-author team of multiple covert ops and action-adventure thriller novels including Tier One and Sons of Valor. Brian Andrews is a US Navy veteran and former submarine officer, while Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, firefighter, paramedic, jet pilot, and diving instructor, as well as a vascular and trauma surgeon.

Pauline Rowson stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to chat with host, John Hoda, about her three seaside-themed thriller series.

Sunday Times bestseller, Samantha Downing (My Lovely Wife) joined CrimeTime FM to discuss what makes a great plot twist and also "pantsing."

Since last week's Cozy Ink podcast focused on mysteries with cats, this week's program gives equal time to the dogs.

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

Author R&R with Vicki Delany

Photo credit: Iden Ford

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books, from clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington; the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books; the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House; and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane. Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival, and she is also the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. 

Delany's latest novel, Deadly Summer Nights, is the first installment in a new historical cozy series. It’s the summer of 1953, and Elizabeth Grady is settling into Haggerman’s Catskills Resort. As a vacation getaway, Haggerman’s is ideal, and although Elizabeth’s ostentatious but well-meaning mother is new to running the resort, Elizabeth is eager to help her organize the guests and the entertainment acts. But Elizabeth will have to resort to untested abilities if she wants to save her mother’s business. When a reclusive guest is found dead in a lake on the grounds, and a copy of The Communist Manifesto is found in his cabin, the local police chief is convinced that the man was a Russian spy. But Elizabeth isn’t so sure, and with the fate of the resort hanging in the balance, she’ll need to dodge red herrings, withstand the Red Scare, and catch a killer red-handed.

Vicki stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching her books:

 

Researching the 1950s is surprisingly easy. After all, so many people still alive were there. I will confess that even I was there, although not paying attention to the political and social customs and issues of the time.

When I set about writing the first in my Catskills Summer Resort mysteries, I had a wealth of information to draw upon. There are hundreds of movies made during the time period available on streaming networks or YouTube. Not historical re-enactments in the style of Bridgerton or Outlander, but movies that were contemporary when they were filmed.

I loved watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, Esther Williams in the water, gritty hard-boiled detectives like Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon (although that was made in 1941). Movies are a fantasy, sure, but they are also reflective of their times. Nightly entertainment in a grand fashion was a key part of vacationing at the big hotels in the Catskills, so that forms an important part of my book and some key scenes are set in the ballroom. I watched the dance movies to help set the mood in the ballroom of my Catskills Hotel. I listened to big band music by the likes of Glenn Miller. I studied the clothes, the furniture, the tilt of a cigarette in the mouth of a sophisticated woman and watched peoples’ expressions and listened to the slang or formal speech patterns. 

All of which helped me, I hope, to create the feel of the times, particularly in those minor but important details such as the cut of a character’s dress or her hair style or what she might order from the bar.

People who were there often say the most important part of any Catskills vacation was the food, both quality and quantity. Thus, descriptions of food are vital in the book for helping set the mood. I read a lot of cookbooks from the era and looked at design magazines, many of which are available online. I can’t say I tried cooking anything I read about though. Jell-O salads with canned pineapple just doesn’t appeal.

As for the specific history of the Catskills at the time of the famous resorts, there’s a lot of first-hand information available. Family vacation shots and publicity photos are easy to find on the Internet. And a photo, as has been said, is worth a thousand words. 

But when an old picture isn’t enough, many people have very fond memories of the times they spent at the great hotels, or cheap bungalow colonies, either as guests or as employees, or children of owners and employees.  “Mountain Rats” the latter called themselves and have written about it. 

I relied on Growing up at Grossinger’s by Tania Grossinger, Catskills Culture by Phil Brown, and It Happened in the Catskills by Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer as sources.

The Catskills in the 1950s:  girdles and stockings, fancy cocktails, grand ballrooms, cigarette smoke (and more cigarette smoke), angel food cake and Cheez Whiz on celery sticks, Reds under the beds and slow-moving fans. Comedians and big bands and glamorous singers. Paddle boats and bellhops, tomato cocktails and Jell-O salads, swimsuit competitions and unattended children.

I hope you’ll take a trip back in time with Elizabeth Grady and Olivia Peters and enjoy your time at Haggerman’s Catskills Resort. It is, after all, 1953.  Now, please light me another cigarette and then fetch me a martini, while I help myself to a slice of that pineapple upside down cake.

 

You can learn more about Vicki Delany and her books via her website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads. Deadly Summer Nights will be launched tomorrow and available via all major booksellers.