B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 90

Happy Independence Day!

          

Dagger Delights

The British Crime Writers’ Association announced the winners of this year's Dagger Awards:

Gold Dagger

Winner: We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)

Highly commended: Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Headline); House of Correction, by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster)



Also nominated: City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck); Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus); and Midnight Atlanta, by Thomas Mullen (Little, Brown)



Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Winner: When She Was Good, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)



Also nominated: Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); The Nothing Man, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic); The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton (Raven); One by One, by Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker); and We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Zaffre)



John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

Winner: The Creak on the Stairs, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Orenda)



Also nominated: City of Ghosts, by Ben Creed (Welbeck); The One That Got Away, by Egan Hughes (Sphere); The Bone Jar, by S.W. Kane (Thomas & Mercer); Fortune Favours the Dead, by Stephen Spotswood (Wildfire); and Three Fifths, by John Vercher (Pushkin Press)



Sapere Books Historical Dagger

Winner: Midnight at Malabar House, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)



Also nominated: Snow, by John Banville (Faber and Faber); The Unwanted Dead, by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction); The City Under Siege, by Michael Russell (Constable); Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons, by David S. Stafford (Allison & Busby); and The Mimosa Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)



ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction

Winner: Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind, by Sue Black (Doubleday)



Also nominated: We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence, by Becky Cooper (Heinemann); These Are Not Gentle People, by Andrew Harding (MacLehose Press); Dancing with the Octopus: The Telling of a True Crime, by Debora Harding (Profile); The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us, by Nick Hayes (Bloomsbury Circus); and Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy, by Ben MacIntyre (Viking)



Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger

Winner: The Disaster Tourist, by Yun Ko-eun, translated by Lizzie Buehler (Serpent’s Tail)



Also nominated: Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith (Michael Joseph); The Coral Bride, by Roxanne Bouchard, translated by David Warriner (Orenda); Three, by D.A. Mishani, translated by Jessica Cohen (Riverrun); To Cook a Bear, by Mikael Niemi, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press); and The Seven Doors, by Agnes Ravatn, translated by Rosie Hedger (Orenda)



Short Story Dagger

Winner: “Monsters,” by Clare Mackintosh (from First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books, edited by David Headley and Daniel Gedeon; The Dome Press)



Also nominated: “A Dog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas,” by Robert Scragg (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Robert Scragg; Robert Scragg); “Deathbed,” by Elle Croft (from Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg; Robert Scragg); “Daddy Dearest,” by Dominic Nolan (from Afraid of the Light); “Hunted,” by Victoria Selman (from Afraid of the Christmas Lights); and “Planting Nan,” by James Delargy (from Afraid of the Light)



Dagger in the Library

Winner: Peter May



Also nominated: C.L. Taylor, Lisa Jewell, James Oswald, Denise Mina, and L.J. Ross



Publishers’ Dagger 

Winner: Head of Zeus



Also nominated: Faber and Faber, Michael Joseph, No Exit Press, Raven, and Viper



CWA Debut Dagger

Winner: Deception, by Hannah Redding. Highly commended: Underwater, by Fiona McPhillips



Also nominated: The Looking Glass Spy, by Ashley Harrison; Rough Justice, by Biba Pearce; Lightfoot, by Edward Regenye; and Mandatory Reporting, by Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh





In addition, Martina Cole was given the 2021 Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement.

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FFB: More Good Old Stuff

John D. MacDonald (1916-1986), author of over 70 novels, is best remembered for the books featuring Florida-based private eye Travis McGee, who the Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley called "one of the great characters in contemporary American fiction - not crime fiction; fiction, period." MacDonald himself admitted he enjoyed the detective genre because it gave him a captive audience for his favorite parts of the books, the asides. He said, "I can have the hero hanging on a ledge with somebody pounding on his knuckles with a hammer, and I can go off and make a comment on something in the world that's bugging me, and when I come back, the readers will still be there."



The prolific author actually got his start writing short stories. While he was in the Army in 1945, he sent a short story home to his wife, who promptly typed it up and submitted it to Story magazine. The editors bought it for $25, thus giving MacDonald the idea that he could make a career as a writer. He told Ed Gorman in an interview that after leaving the Army, "I wrote eight hundred thousand words of short stories in those four months, tried to keep thirty of them in the mail at all times, slept about six hours a night and lost twenty pounds."



He eventually sold over six hundred stories to a variety of magazines in a variety of genres, from mystery to sports, to sci-fi, to westerns, to romances. Some of the publications his stories appeared in included crime pulps like Dime Detective and Black Mask, but he was also published in higher-profile glossy 'zines like Esquire, Playboy and Cosmopolitan. His stories were also included in various anthologies and in collections including:



    End of the Tiger and Other Stories (1966)

    S*E*V*E*N (1971)

    Other Times, Other Worlds (1978)

    The Good Old Stuff (1982)

    More Good Old Stuff (1984)



The 1984 collection, More Good Old Stuff, contains 14 of MacDonald's earlier stories from the pulp mystery/detective magazines of the late 1940s. They include "Deadly Damsel," the story of a professional widow (who has wed and murdered five husbands) and an amateur con man who get fatally tangled in a web of their own devising, from which we get lines like these:

"Death gave her a feeling of power that she bore with her wherever she went. She looked at the dull, tidy little lives of the women in the small cities in which she lived, and she felt like a goddess. She could write all manner of things on the black slate of life, and then, with one gesture, wipe the slate clean and begin all over again. New words, new love, new tenderness and a new manner of death... It was good to kill men..."

Or there's "Death for Sale," about a hired killer with a broken soul who stalks a French Nazi-collaborator to a New Orleans restaurant, where hunter and quarry suddenly trade places. MacDonald wrote in the Foreword that he was "tempted to clean up some of the very stilted dialogue" and change the gimmick at the end of this story, but it would "be unfair to excise the warts to make myself look better than I was."



MacDonald was almost apologetic in his Foreword about how dated some of the stories were (he updated some minor details because of that), but as he also said, "The events of these stories are in a past so recent they could just as well have been written today. And that is a portion of my intent, to show how little the world really changes." Those words could almost serve as a summary of these early stories; although they lack the polish and the more intense, well constructed plots that were to come, the nugget of great storytelling that marks the author's work is all there and changed very little over time, but just got better.

          

Mystery Melange

Bloody Scotland announced the shortlist for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2021. This year's titles include The Silent Daughter by Emma Christie; No Harm Done by AJ Liddle; Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison; and Waking the Tiger by Mark Wightman. Three of the books are also on this year’s longlist for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Crime Fiction Novel.

Slaughterfest is returning once again. Now in its second year, the event celebrates crime writing with a weekend of programs curated by author Karin Slaughter with HarperFiction. Covering the broad spectrum of crime fiction, from historical to courtroom thrillers, organized crime gangs to the return of serial killers, SlaughterFest will offer a diverse slate for readers in the genre. The festival will feature a mix of live and pre-recorded content, hosted on Zoom and the Killer Reads Facebook page, and will take place on the 3rd and 4th of September.

On Wednesday, July 7, the Toronto Star is sponsoring a Q&A with Kathy Reichs, author of the crime novels featuring Temperance Bones that were adapted into the TV series, Bones. Fans can submit their questions ahead of time for Reichs to answer during the online event.

The journal Genre en séries : cinéma, télévision, medias has put out a call for papers for a special themed issue reexamining gender representations in film noir. Proposals (abstract of 500-800 words along with a short bio-bibliography) are due before September 15. The issue itself will be published in fall 2022. Shots Magazine's Ayo Ontade has additional information including some suggested topic areas.

Writing for Criminal Element, Tracy Clark offered a brief "Roundup of Black Detective Novels from Then Until Now." Clark also provided her take on the subject for Crime Reads, with an article on "The PI of Color: When It's About More Than the Crime."

Over at The Rap Sheet, Jeff Pierce wondered where all the literary heirs to Agatha Christie's Poirot had vanished. In true sleuthing fashion, he digs deeper into the mystery.

Here's a fun idea for a theme park: Storyville Gardens, a new interactive park that aims to instil a love of reading in visitors.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Eastside Shakedown" by C.W. Blackwell.

In the Q&A roundup, Connie Berry, author of The Art of Betrayal, talked about craft over for the Dark Phantom blog; and Lucy Burdette chatted with Terrie Farley Moran about taking over the Murder She Wrote novel series and her inspiration behind the first title, Killing in a Koi Pond.

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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

Jesse Eisenberg, Adrien Brody and Riley Keough will star in Manodrome, a thriller from South African director, John Trengrove, as he makes his English-language directorial debut. The film is described as a "nihilistic thriller" about an Uber driver and aspiring bodybuilder (Eisenberg) who is inducted into a libertarian masculinity cult and loses his grip on reality when his repressed desires are awakened.

Following her breakout role as Daphne in the hit Netflix series, Bridgerton, Phoebe Dynevor has found her next big film role in Sony Pictures’s I Heart Murder, with Matt Spicer directing. The screenplay is written by Tom O’Donnell and Spicer, and although the plot is being kept under wraps, it’s described as a "female-driven thriller."

David Patrick Kelly (Twin Peaks) has been tapped as a lead in the upcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film for Showtime. Star Liev Schreiber returns in his titular role and co-writes the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who also directs. The film picks up where Season 7 of the popular series left off following the series’ surprise cancellation last year. Kelly will play Matty Galloway, a long-time friend of Mickey’s (Jon Voight).

Open Road Films has set a release date of September 17 for its Gerard Butler action movie, Copshop, from Joe Carnahan. Written by Carnahan and Kurt McLeod, Copshop follows a wily con artist who is on the run from a lethal assassin. He devises a scheme to hide out inside a small-town police station—but when the hitman turns up at the precinct, an unsuspecting rookie cop finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Colin Callender’s Playground and Red Arrow Studios International are joining forces to co-develop a series based on Georges Simenon’s classic Inspector Maigret novels and short stories. The character of Jules Maigret is a French cop who solves murders, using his understanding of human motives and emotional makeup, from the back alleys of Paris to the glamorous beaches of the South of France and beyond. His reputation is so highly regarded that officers come to shadow him and observe his uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing. A previous screen adaptation starred Rowan Atkinson and aired on ITV

Film and TV rights for Faith Martin’s DI Hillary Greene crime series have been optioned by LA-based Southwell Neal Entertainment (SNE). The DI Hillary Greene book series currently has 18 novels and has sold over two million copies. Green is a "flinty, brilliant" detective living in Oxfordshire, and the titles follow Greene as she is partnered with former LAPD detective, John Sullivan.

Coming off her Oscar-nominated role in Hillbilly Elegy, Glenn Close has joined Tehran as a lead in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s international espionage thriller series. Close will play the new series role of Marjan Montazeri, a British woman, living in Tehran. The drama tells the story of Mossad agent, Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy. Close joins an ensemble cast that includes stars Sultan, Shaun Toub and Shervin Alenabi.

Remi Adeleke, the actor, filmmaker, and former Navy SEAL, has joined the cast of Amazon’s thriller series, Terminal List, in a recurring role. The project follows James Reece (Chris Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him. Adeleke will play Terrell "Tee" Daniels, a member of the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, now operating on U.S. soil.

Big Sky’s Patrick Gallagher is set for a recurring role in Joe Pickett, the Spectrum Originals drama based on C.J Box’s novels. The ten-part series follows a game warden (Michael Dorman) and his family as they navigate the changing political and socio-economic climate in a small rural town in Wyoming. Surrounded by rich history and vast wildlife, the township hides decades of schemes and secrets that are yet to be uncovered. Gallagher, who plays Sherriff Walter Tubb on Big Sky, is playing another Sheriff in Joe Pickett – this time Sheriff Barnum, who clashes with the warden’s involvement in his murder case and doesn’t take kindly to the implication that he isn’t doing his job.

The CBS venerable drama series NCIS is adding two new regular cast members for the upcoming 19th season, Gary Cole and Katrina Law. Cole will play a new character, FBI Special Agent Alden Park. Law plays Special Agent Jessica Knight, who was introduced in the last two episodes of Season 18 as a recurring guest star with an option to become a series regular if the show got renewed. Law’s promotion follows the recent exit of longtime series regular Emily Wickersham, and a reduced on-screen presence for Mark Harmon’s Special Agent Gibbs next season.

Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara are set to lead Class of ’09, a limited drama series that will air on FX/Hulu. The eight-part series, which follows a class of FBI agents set in a near future where the U.S. criminal justice system has been transformed by artificial intelligence, comes from Tom Rob Smith, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson. Spanning three decades and told across three interweaving timelines, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity, and the choices we make that ultimately define our lives and our legacy.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Laura McHigh returned to Writer Types to co-host with Eric Beetner as they talked with award-winning writer SA Cosby (Razorblade Tears); Maureen Johnson (The Box In The Woods); and a had a discussion about LGBTQI+ authors with Greg Herren and Dharma Kelleher.

Bestselling author James Patterson stopped by Suspense Radio to talk about his latest book with President Clinton, The President's Daughter.

Queer Writers of Crime welcomed Dean Klinkenberg, a former academic turned author of a mystery series featuring an openly gay travel writer named Frank Dodge.

Over at Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's podcast, Art Taylor read his Derringer-winning novella, The Boy Detective & The Summer of '74, from the January/February 2020 issue, which has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Robyn Gigl, an attorney, speaker, and activist who has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and NJ Pride. Her debut legal thriller is By Way of Sorrow.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Eric Dezenhall's False Light.

Jane Thynne (CJ Carey) spoke with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke about her new thriller, Widowland, and the personal inspiration behind the novel; as well as Philip Kerr; feminism; and editing history.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with Alex Michaelides, author of the global hit, The Silent Patient, about his new book, The Maidens; and also chatted with barrister-writer Imran Mahmood, whose new book, I Know What I Saw, delves into the realities of the court system including judges with a wicked sense of humor.

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FFB: The Killings at Badger's Drift

Caroline Graham (born in the UK in 1931) had what you would definitely call a varied background, including leaving school at age 14 to work in a factory, a stint in the Navy, professional dancer, actress, and journalist and scriptwriter for radio plays followed by television work. But her desire to write novels led her to publish the romance novel Fire Dance in 1982 when she was in her 50s, followed by several other books that had modest success.



In 1987 she published her first crime fiction novel, The Killings at Badger's Drift, which introduced DCI Tom Barnaby and Sergeant Gavin Troy and won the Macavity Award for "Best First Novel" (in addition to being nominated for the same honor by the Anthony and Agatha Awards). In 1990, the Crime Writers' Association selected Badger's Drift as one of the top hundred crime novels of all time.



The DCI Barnaby series was popular enough to spawn six more installments, but it wasn't until ITV came calling that the fortunes of Graham (and Barnaby) really took off. The televised series Midsomer Murders, based on Graham's books and starring John Nettles, began with an adaptation of Badger's Drift in 1997 and is still going strong with new episodes 15 years later. Graham herself has written many of those episodes, but several other writers have also contributed, including Anthony Horowitz (the creator of Foyle's War, among many other works). Graham's ultimate success prompted her to achieve another dream, an advanced degree in Writing for the Theatre at Birmingham University that she obtained at the age of 60.



The Killings at Badger's Drift is set in an idyllic English village of that name filled with stereotypical characters including vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster who taught almost everyone in town. When the spinster dies, everyone believes it was natural causes—except for her closest friend, Miss Lucy Bellringer, who is convincing enough that Chief Inspector Barnaby orders an autopsy. When the coroner finds the woman died of hemlock-laden wine, Barnaby and Sargeant Troy begin to peel away layers of scandals and festering resentments in the town that provides them with plenty of suspects. And then, the murderer strikes again, leaving a woman's bloody corpse to be found by her son, the local undertaker...



Caroline Graham manages to channel the Golden Age mysteries and preserve the same small-town English village milieu popularized by Agatha Christie, while throwing in modern touches and a little more violence and sex. Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy are polar opposites and both well-drawn—Barnaby the conservative, thoughtful, married officer with a dry wit, and Troy, the young, handsome, know-it-all. Publishers Weekly said that "Graham makes the characters humanly believable in her witty and tragic novel, a real winner," while the Washington Post noted "The characters are strong, with a decidedly dark side, and the plot is twisted enough to stump the most astute."



The settings and descriptions are also detailed, astute and quite fun to read, as in this excerpt:

She was very, very fat. She spread outwards and towered upwards. At least a quarter of her height seemed to be accounted for by her hair, which was a rigid pagoda-like structure: a landscape of peaks and waves, whorls and curls ending in a sharp point like an inverted ice-cream cone. It was the colour of butterscotch instant whip. She wore a great deal of makeup in excitable colours and a lilac caftan, rather short, revealing bolstery legs and tiny feet. The chief inspector fielded her welcoming glance, direct and sharp as a lancet, and introduced himself.

This is a wonderful introduction to Graham, to Barnaby, and even to the TV program, although those episodes have veered away from the original material, seeing as how there were only seven books in the series.

          

Mystery Melange

Foreword Reviews announced the winners of this year's INDIES Book of the Year Awards. In the Thriller/Suspense Category, The Leonardo Gulag by Kevin Doherty was the Gold Winner, followed by Tokyo Traffic by Michael Pronko, which took the Silver Award, and Dead Air by Michael Bradley, which took the Bronze. The Spiderling by Marcia Preston also received an Honorable Mention. In the Mystery Category, the Gold Winner was A Child Lost by Michelle Cox, followed by Silver Winner, The Burn Patient by Sue Hinkin, and Bronze Winner, Glass Eels, Shattered Sea by Charlene D'Avanzo. An Honorable Mention also went to Red Canavas by Andrew Nance.

The UK's Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced the winner of its Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize. Camilla Macpherson beat out strong competition with her short story, "Heartbridge Homicides." The competition celebrates the classic mystery story, and entries had to adhere to Allingham’s definition of a mystery.

A 12-title longlist has been released for the 2021 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, which celebrates "a compelling novel with brilliant characterization and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realized." The shortlist will be announced August 5 and the winner on September 30. This year's longlisted titles include the crime-themed novels The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi; Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby; The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel; The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant; Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton; The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman; Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi; The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton; and People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield.

The New Blood with Val McDermid 2021 panel will return at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, July 22-25 at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. McDermid revealed her top four new authors to watch, all of whom will join her coveted "New Blood" panel at the festival on July 24. The chosen titles/authors include: Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan; One Night, New York by Lara Thompson; The Colours of Death by Patricia Marques; and Tall Bones by Anna Bailey. Previous "New Blood" alumni include Clare Mackintosh, SJ Watson, Stuart MacBride, Liam McIlvanney, and Belinda Bauer, as well as two of the authors vying for the title of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2021: Abir Mukherjee and Trevor Wood.

Sisters in Crime will award research grants of $500 for the purchase of books to support research projects that contribute to our understanding of the role of women or underrepresented groups in the crime fiction genre. This may include but is not limited to research on women mystery writers, on the position of women writers in the crime fiction marketplace, or on gender, race, or ethnicity as an aspect of crime fiction. Grant proposals must be received by July 15, 2021, and the recipient(s) will be notified by August 15, 2021.

One bit of sad news, especially for the younger set, that I missed back in May: Robert Quackenbush, creator of Animal Detective Stories, has died at the age of 91. His many characters included Detective Mole, Sherlock Chick, and Miss Mallard, an inquisitive duck who solves crimes around the world in plots that resemble Agatha Christie capers and also got her own television series. For his work on Detective Mole, who wears a trench coat and houndstooth deerstalker hat, he received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best juvenile mystery in 1982.

John Murray Press is establishing a "distinctive new crime and thriller imprint" titled Baskerville, and has hired Jade Chandler away from Harvill Secker to head up the new division. Chandler has worked with bestselling author Jo Nesbo, award-winning Abir Mukherjee, Costa Prize-shortlisted Denise Mina and Emily Koch, whose debut If I Die Before I Wake was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. In 2018, Chandler also set up the Harvill Secker/Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award to find the most exciting new crime fiction by writers of color.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, issued a call for submissions for an upcoming issued of crime fiction themed around Texas. As always, short reviews and articles focusing on the theme of the issue are welcome, as well as author essays. Reviews of a single book should be 200 words or less, articles around 1000 words, author essays 500-1000 words.

 

Featured at the Page 69 Test - Dream Girl: A Novel by Laura Lippman

UK libraries and museums unite to save an "astonishing" lost library from private buyers.

One of the newsletters that arrive in my inbox reminded me of a study back in 2016 that provided another reason to read books: there is an association between book reading with longevity (with a survival advantage significantly greater than that observed for reading newspapers or magazines). Even just thirty minutes a day can stimulate the two cognitive processes the study found affected by reading, "deep reading" and empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence.

I found this story rather sweet and amusing: award-winning author William Kent Krueger was recently given the distinct honor of being tapped to be the Grand Marshal for Perham, Minnesota’s annual Turtle Fest Parade.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "A Split Mind is Convenient to Hide the Axe" by Richard Krause.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with novelist Hugh Fritz about his new fantasy thriller, Mystic Rampage Part 2: Public Display of Aggression; and S.A. Cosby joined Angel Luis Colon at Do Some Damage to chat about what he's up to, his thoughts on his recent success, and the challenge of writing cops in crime fiction in the very current (and historical) climate of the American police state.

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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

MGM has landed the rights to the novel, The Husbands, from best-selling author, Chandler Baker, with Kristen Wiig attached to star and produce along with Plan B Entertainment. Baker will adapt for the screen, marking her feature screenwriting debut, and also serve as an executive producer on the film. The Husbands follows an overworked mother who, while house hunting in a nice suburban neighborhood, meets a group of high-powered women with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to take on a legal case involving the untimely death of one resident’s husband, she risks exposing not only the secrets at the heart of her own marriage, but the true secret to having-it-all, one worth killing for.

Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin are starring in Matt Nable’s directorial debut, Transfusion. The thriller, which also features Nable, is about a former Special Forces operative thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him. Production began in Sydney earlier this week. The film is already scheduled for a theatrical release through Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand but will be shopped for international sales at Cannes.

Matthew Modine, Embeth Davidtz, and Arian Moayed have boarded the Studiocanal Liam Neeson thriller, Retribution, in key roles. The story follows a banking executive whose life is thrown upside down when a bomb is placed inside his car with himself and his family. The banker’s children are forced to go through the harrowing events with him.

Jessica Henwick, who recently landed one of the leads in the new Matrix movie, has rounded out the cast for the next installment of Knives Out, with Daniel Craig returning to star and Rian Johnson to write and direct. Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, and Edward Norton were also recently added to the cast. Plot details are unknown at this time other than Craig returning to solve another mystery involving a large cast of suspects. It is also unknown who Henwick will be playing. Production is set to start this summer in Greece.

AJ Michalka has joined the cast of the upcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film. Michalka will play the younger version of Abby in the film, which will continue Ray’s journey following the hit drama series’ seven-season run on Showtime. Star Liev Schreiber returns in his titular role and is co-writing the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who also directs. The new film picks up where season seven left off following the series’ surprise cancellation last year, with Mickey (Jon Voight) in the wind and Ray (Schreiber) determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. It will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey’s origin story from 30 years ago.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Apple has unveiled the ensemble cast for Surface, its upcoming psychological thriller series from High Fidelity co-creator and exec producer, Veronica West. Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Stephan James, Ari Graynor, François Arnaud, Marianne Jean Baptiste, and Millie Brady join the previously announced Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the series from Apple Studios and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Additionally, Emmy-nominated Sam Miller (I May Destroy You; Luther) will serve as director and executive producer on the eight-episode first season. Starring Mbatha-Raw as Sophie, Surface is described as "an elevated thriller" about a woman’s quest to rebuild her life after a suicide attempt, and her struggle to remember – and understand – everything that led up to the moment when she jumped.

Megan Boone is leaving The Blacklist at the end of the NBC drama’s currently airing eighth season. She has starred on the series as FBI agent, Elizabeth "Liz" Keen, alongside James Spader as criminal mastermind, Raymond "Red" Reddington, since the show premiered in 2013. Apparently, the decision was mutual between the actress and producers and has been in the works since before The Blacklist was renewed for Season 9 in January, giving the writers time to plot out the end of Liz’s storyline in next week’s Season 8 finale. Along with Boone and Spader, the show also stars Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, Laura Sohn and Harry Lennix.

HBO will release a documentary offshoot of Ronan Farrow's book, Catch and Kill. The TV project, titled Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tales, will consist of six half-hour episodes recreating Farrow's "interviews with whistleblowers, journalists, private investigators and other sources as he investigated allegations of sexual misconduct around the now-jailed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, former Today anchor Matt Lauer, and other key media industry figures." Directed by Emmy winners Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the project will debut on HBO with two back-to-back episodes on July 12 and new episodes on subsequent Mondays.

As The Killing Times reported, Channel 4 in the UK has revealed a slate of new crime dramas, including a first-look at the new version of Dalgliesh – based on PD James’s best-selling novels and starring Bertie Carvel – in a new trailer.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Mysterious Bookshop held a virtual Q&A with author James Ellroy that featured a deep dive into his new novel, Widespread Panic.

Read or Dead celebrated Pride Month by talking about books by authors who identify as LGBTQ+ or have written amazing stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

On the Queer Writers of Crime podcast, Shane K Morton was this week's featured guest. Shane has been a playwright and musical theatre actor before turning his hand to LGBTQ+ romance, mystery and YA novels. He also writes darker horror/mystery under the name Sean Azinsalt.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Iron Goddess by Dharma Kelleher, read by actor Casey Ballard. The episode celebrates Pride month as it features a mystery about an LGBTQ+ character written by an LGBTQ+ author.

Writer Types featured an all-Scandinavian episode, as host, Eric Beetner, was joined by Icelandic authors, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Girls Who Lie), Sólveig Pálsdóttir (Silenced), and Quentin Bates, a British author who writes about Iceland (the Officer Gunnhilder series); and from Sweden, Carin Gerhardsen (Black Ice, the Hammarby series) also stopped by.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Laurie R. King about her 17th Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes crime fiction novel, Castle Shade, in which the couple is asked by Queen Marie of Romania to investigate a threat made against her daughter, requiring Russell and Holmes to travel to Castle Bran in Transylvania.

Andy Weir, who took the publishing world by storm with his book, The Martian, stopped by Suspense Radio to talk about his latest novel, Project Hail Mary, which follows an astronaut who has to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery to prevent an extinction-level threat to our species.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Don Bentley, author of the Matt Drake thriller series as well as Target Acquired, a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. novel.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, was joined by debut novelist Sarah Adlahka; got book recommendations from Shawn Reilly Simmons, Scott Kikkawa, and Carmen Jaramillo; and spoke with film director/writer, DJ Holloway.

John Hoda, host of My Favorite Detective Stories, chatted with Tammy Euliano, MD, a practicing anesthesiologist who has also written award-winning short fiction. The medical thriller, Fatal Intent, is her debut novel.

In the latest Writers Detective Bureau podcast, veteran Police Detective, Adam Richardson, walked through how a detective gets a search warrant; how to obtain phone records in a missing person investigation; and whether police officers get involved in arson investigations in California.

Crime Time FM welcomed authors Sarah Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes) and Alex North (The Whisper Man).





THEATRE

Theatrical productions continue to return, with one of the latest being a staging of Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web at Scottsdale's Desert Stages Theatre Mainstage Friday, June 25 through Sunday, July 11. Directed by Dan Ashlock Jr., the plot sees the Queen of Mystery poking fun at the genre that made her famous. (Note that there will be no show on July 4 due to the Independence Day holiday.)

         Related StoriesMedia Murder for Monday 

The Strand Critics Awards Nominations

The Strand Magazine announced the nominations for the 2021 Strand Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, the 2021 Strand Critics Awards are judged by a select group of book critics and journalists, which this year included staff from NPR, USA Today, The LA Times, and The Wall Street Journal.  “This year’s panel chose a diverse set of authors,” said Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine. “Many of these authors are new and exciting voices in our genre, and it’s wonderful to see them get the recognition they deserve.” The awards ceremony will be held virtually in early September. Congrats to all!

Best Mystery Novel (2020)

Snow by John Banville (Hanover Square Press)
You Again by Debra Jo Immergut (Ecco)
Trouble Is What I Do by Walter Mosley (Mulholland Books)
The Missing American by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime)
A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin (Little, Brown and Company)
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay (William Morrow)
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger (Park Row)

Best Debut Novel (2020)

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga (Scribner)
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Ecco)
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole (William Morrow)
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline (William Morrow)
A Burning by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers (The Unnamed Press)
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas (Custom House)

Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Strand Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Awards go to Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Alexander McCall Smith.

Aptly dubbed the “King of Horror,” Stephen King is a true renaissance man of storytelling. Over the past 50 years, he has mastered and melded genres, from supernatural and crime to sci-fi and Western. King is also one of the most prolific authors of our time, with over 60 published novels and roughly 200 short stories. Yet with millions of books in print and a readership around the world, his writing remains as fresh and inventive as when Carrie (1974) first put him on the literary map.

“This is a beautiful thing,” King said of the award. “And I’m most appreciative. Looks like I’m in great company!”

When her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, published in 1964, 26-year-old Joyce Carol Oates was lauded as an exciting voice in fiction—and that has not changed. Consistently striking at the heart of the human experience, she has written over 70 novels, scores of short stories and poems, countless critical reviews, a heartbreaking memoir, and has edited several anthologies, plays, and essays. Oates has long been a force to be reckoned with, and an inspiration to aspiring writers everywhere.

“I’m honored to be a recipient of the Strand Lifetime Achievement Award with its distinguished history,” Oates said. “As a writer who spends much time in solitude, and especially during this perilous pandemic year when immersion in a world of fiction has been both a way of remaining sane and a way of trying to comprehend the insanity roiling about us, I am particularly grateful for the thoughtfulness and generosity of the critics who have thought of me in this regard. Thank you enormously! All writers need encouragement—and this is very encouraging.”

The release of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in 2002 catapulted Alexander McCall Smith to the top of the bestseller lists. He’s continued the series of charming mysteries set in Botswana and has started several other highly successful series, including the 44 Scotland Street books, The Sunday Philosophy Club series, and numerous children’s books. A true humanitarian, McCall Smith has lent his support to several charitable causes, including rabies control and safeguards for the environment, as well as contributed to the Christian Book Sale, a charity that raises funds for disaster relief.

“I am immensely honored by this award from The Strand Magazine,” McCall Smith said. “This is a magazine with a great reputation and a great history, and it is such an honor to be associated with it in this way. I look forward to my continuing association with the splendid cultural institution that is The Strand Magazine.”

Past lifetime achievement award winners include Tess Gerritsen, Walter Mosley, Heather Graham, Jonathan Gash, J.A. Jance, Clive Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, and Elmore Leonard.

Publisher of the Year Award

Josh Stanton of Blackstone Publishing will receive the Publisher of the Year Award. Stanton took the helm at Blackstone ten years ago, and during his tenure sales have more than tripled. He has also overseen the evolution of Blackstone not only as one of the largest audiobook publishers in the United States, but also as a publisher of bestselling print and digital books, recently releasing highly successful mystery novels by Meg Gardiner, Brian Freeman, Catherine Ryan Howard, and Sara Foster.

“Josh and the team at Blackstone are simply phenomenal,” said Gulli. “Their recipe for success should serve as a guide to all businesses seeking to expand and forge excellent relationships with authors, vendors, publishers, and customers.”

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to The Strand,” Stanton said. “It’s truly an honor to be chosen, and I’m humbled to receive this award. This recognition is a testament to our entire Blackstone team and all their amazing efforts and creativity. I’d like to thank the entire company because each one of you is as much a part of this accolade as I am.”

Past recipients of the Strand Publisher of the Year Award include Tom Doherty and Bronwen Hruska.

 

          

FFB: The Moving Toyshop

Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) set out to be a professional musician and had a successful career writing vocal and choral music. He composed music for the cinema, too, close to 50 films including the scores for many British comedies of the 1950s. That comedy link isn't surprising considering Montgomery also wrote comic mystery novels under the pen name of Edmund Crispin, the first of which, The Case of the Gilded Fly, was published in 1944. Crispin didn't write many novels, but those he did featured the eccentric, absent-minded Oxford don and professor of English and Literature, Gervase Fen.



The third of these books is perhaps his best. Titled The Moving Toyshop, P.D. James named it as one of the best five mysteries of all time and critic and mystery writer H.R.F. Keating included it among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. Keating added, "The word to describe The Moving Toyshop is 'rococo'. It possesses in splendid abundance the ebullient charm of the works of art thus labelled. It is alive with flourishes. Its mainspring the actual disappearance of a toyshop visited in midnight Oxford, has all the right fancifulness, and at the end it is explained with perfect plausibility."



The plot centers on poet Richard Cadogan, who stumbles on the dead body of an old lady in an Oxford toyshop late one night right before a blow from an unseen assailant knocks him unconscious. But when he recovers, not only has the woman disappeared, the entire toyshop has vanished, replaced by a grocery store. When the police not surprisingly refuse to believe Cadogan's story, he turns to the only person he thinks can help, his former colleague Gervase Fen. Fen's response is a typical Crisin ploy, a breaking of the fourth-wall illusion, "It's somewhat unusual business, isn't it." "So unusual," replies the poet, "that no one in his sense would invent it." (At another point, Fen dreams up book titles "for Crispin.") Fen sets about solving the impossible crime via his intuition, wits and wit, tossing in various literary references and quotations along the way, including clues based on Edward Lear limericks.



Crispin unfortunately suffered from a problem with alcoholism, and it was his drinking that eventually made into an invalid and semi-recluse, too weak to write. It's a shame, for it would have been interesting to see where his imagination and whimsical take on the genre would have led him, had he had full use of his faculties. The Fen books are witty, clever and entertaining, and filled with wonderfully eccentric characters.

There are new editions in ebook and print formats via Bloomsbury Publishing and Agora Books.