B.V. Lawson's Blog, page 91

Mystery Melange

Finalists were announced for the Harrogate International Festival's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. The 2021 nods go to The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths; Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton; The Last Crossing by Brian McGilloway; Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee; We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker; and The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood. Fans can now vote on the shortlisted titles, with the winner to be crowned during the Harrogate Festival, this year held in person once again from July 22-25.

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH) has announced that the twisty psychological thriller, Denizen by James McKenzie Watson, has won the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize. Watson receives $20,000 as an advance against royalties, with Denizen to be published by PRH Australia publisher Meredith Curnow in 2022.

London-based independent bookstore, Goldsboro Books, . A shortlist of six titles to be voted upon by booksellers is expected August 5 and a winner’s announcement will arrive on September 30. The listed titles include the crime-related 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; and The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton.

The Friends of the Ferguson Library and Mystery Writers of America/NY Chapter are presenting CCX2 - CrimeCONN Express 2, Connecticut's Own (Virtual) Mystery Lovers' Conference, tonight from 7-8 pm ET. This is the third of three events this month, with tonight's titled "We Gotta Get Out of This Place. How Changing Up Settings Can Free Your Imagination," and featuring Scott Adlerberg, Timothy Hallinan, Cara Black, and Johnny Temple. Registration is free.

Noir at the Bar has expanded around the globe since Peter Rozovsky organized the first event in Philadelphia back in 2008. Most of these have gone virtual during the pandemic, and one of the next upcoming events will be from Toronto on June 24th at 7 pm. Hosts Rob Brunet and Hope Thompson will emcee readings from authors Mark Govin, Madeleine Harris-Callway, Terrence McCauley, Hannah Mary McKinnon, C.S. O'Cinneide, David Rotenberg, and Robert Rotenberg.

If you missed a couple of other recent virtual events, you're in luck because they're available online: the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and San Francisco Public Library sponsored a Queer Mystery Writers panel with Michael Nava (moderator), and authors Cheryl A. Head, Greg Herren, Dharma Kelleher, and P.J. Vernon. Also, the New York Society Library and the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America co-sponsored a panel on "How to Write a Mystery," with authors Jeffery Deaver, Laurie King, and Charles and Caroline Todd.

The Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime (based in Columbia, South Carolina) is once again sponsoring Murder in the Midlands, an annual conference which will be virtual on Saturday, June 26, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm ET. The special guest is Dr. Kathy Reichs (bestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series, which was the basis for the TV series, BONES). There will also be panels on "Scorching Short Stories"; "Hot for Historicals (British mysteries by American authors)"; and "Searing Suspense." Authors scheduled to appear include Dana Kaye (moderator), Paula Gail Benson, Frankie Bailey, Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Laurie R. King, Lori Rader-Day, Caroline Todd, Yasmin Angoe, Robert Dugoni, and Alex Segura.

Hachette UK is launching a series of free virtual events, "Opening the Book," later this month, aiming to demystify publishing. Its event series marks the fifth anniversary of its diversity and inclusion program, Changing the Story, "with a renewed drive to make publishing more transparent and accessible to underrepresented groups." The first events will focus on sharing the realities of working in publishing with people who want to break into the industry, while another will focus on aspiring authors. The series will launch on June 28th at 1 p.m with tickets to the events free via Eventbrite.



On June 8, mystery pioneer, Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935), was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in a ceremony that included an appearance by Rebecca Crozier, Green's great-great granddaughter. Green's The Leavenworth Case is one of the first mysteries penned by an American woman, and she is credited with developing the series detective in the form of Ebenezer Gryce of the New York Metropolitan Police Force (although in three novels he is assisted by the nosy society spinster, Amelia Butterworth, the prototype for Miss Marple). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

Kittling Books kicked off a series featuring books with a "a strong sense of place," broken down by regions of the world. First up is a look at Africa and Australasia.

Agatha Christie fans are plotting via the Save Agatha's Home campaign to turn the legendary crime writer's home into an arts and events venue. Time, however, is short:  Christie's house has been listed since April and the Save Agatha's Home campaign is competing with private buyers to secure the historic five-bedroom house - which covers 6,256 square feet and comes with five acres of land, a study, library, adjoining one-bedroom cottage, and stunning landscaped gardens leading down to the River Thames.

If you're a fan of "old school" writing and LEGO and have $199 to spare, this might be for you.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Pins" by David Cranmer.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Maureen Johnson, author of the new young adult mystery novel, The Box in the Woods; Lisa Haselton chatted with Michael Campeta about his new mystery/suspense, The Late Mr. Cary; and Author Interviews welcomed Martine Bailey to dicsuss The Prophet, a historical crime novel in which a new mother, Tabitha Hart, investigates a cold-blooded murder and a utopian sect in an ancient forest. 

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Author R&R with Melissa Larsen

Melissa Larsen has an M.F.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has interned and worked extensively in publishing. Melissa stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about her debut novel, Shutter, which Library Journal recommended "for fans of thrillers with unreliable narrators, and psychologically intense plots involving movies and filmmaking."

In the wake of her father's death, Betty Roux pushes away her mother, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves everything behind to move to New York City. She doesn't know what she wants, except to run. When she's offered the chance to play the leading role in mysterious indie filmmaker Anthony Marino's new project, she jumps at the opportunity. For a month Betty will live in a cabin on a private island off the coast of Maine, with a five-person cast and crew. Anthony gives her a new identity, "Lola," and Betty tells herself that this is exactly what she's been looking for—the chance to reinvent herself. That is, until they begin filming and she meets Sammy, the island's caretaker, and Betty realizes just how little she knows about the movie and its director.

Melissa takes some "Author R&R" about writing the novel:

At a certain point in the drafting process, once I’d gotten into the rhythm that Shutter demanded, writing became closer to reading. I was working toward a single image—Betty, covered in blood, asking for help—but beyond that image, I was just rushing to find out what would happen next in the story. Deep down, I knew what I wanted to happen, but I was not fully in charge of the narrative, because there was also Betty and Anthony and their agendas dictating where the story would go. The creation of the plot was more of a conversation among Betty’s desires (and Anthony’s plans), this image, and my own fears. To propel the story forward when I was stuck, I would ask myself, What frightens me?

I asked myself this because I had set out to write the book that I was always searching for in a bookstore. I wanted to read a psychological thriller about a young woman who was untethered, as I was. I was not married (still not), I had no children (still don’t), I was in my twenties (still am) and trying to figure out, in basic terms, who I was outside of the regular definitions of daughter, sister, student, employee (working on it!). I didn’t feel equipped to write a domestic thriller about the secrets in a marriage or the stresses of children. I did, however, feel equipped to explore the uncharted territory of the early twenties. The awkward, strange power dynamic of a first date—who pays and what does that imply, are they measuring you against some unspoken standard, are you measuring them, are you projecting a fantasy on them or are you actually engaging with them as they are?—the self-doubts and insecurities of a young woman, the magnetic pull of a cold yet charismatic man, the growing pains and strains of old friends reconnecting.

In short, I wrote close to my own experiences—in an extremely inverted sort of way. Betty’s (and Anthony’s) anxieties can be read as an amplified version of my own. I had also worked on the set of my brother’s thesis film, and had been fascinated by the filming process, by the effort that goes into filmmaking and the transformation that occurs in an actor when the director says “Action!” And the hardware! The glorious hardware! Cameras, microphones, battery packs, headphones, gels, lights! As a writer, I likewise find myself obsessed with setting. I often work my way into a story through its sense of place—the house, the surrounding neighborhood, the geography and corresponding weather patterns—and I, like Betty, am from the west coast and I, like Betty, happen to find the forests of the east coast to be very spooky.

Perhaps the biggest influence on Shutter, and the closest I came to formal research, was a writing residency on a private island off the coast of Maine. I had initially set Shutter on an estate in Upstate New York, with a main house and a small cabin hidden in the trees. This location—a lakeside property—hadn’t felt perfect, but it’d felt eerie enough. After selling Shutter, I searched for residencies in the area to live through some of Betty’s experiences, to breathe that air and feel that forest and also to really work through the revisions my editor had asked for! Instead I found the Norton Island Residency for Writers and Artists, which offered two weeks of living in a tiny cabin hidden in the trees, with a main house for the group to congregate in, on a private island off the coast of Maine. I applied; I was (luckily) accepted. And it was like stepping into my own book. I felt the anticipation and the fear of leaving my comfortable writing nest to live in the woods, dependent upon a group of strangers (very dependent—I did not pack well, it’s by the generosity of the group that I survived!). I got to sleep in Betty’s cabin, got to feel the instant camaraderie with this group of strangers. Everything clicked and I spent my two weeks there changing the story to take place on a private island off the coast of Maine.

Every story has its own demands and rhythms. Shutter initially came out in a breathless rush, followed by a tremendous amount of revision and revisiting the question What frightens me? but then with the twist of Okay, how do I frighten someone else with that? Shutter was born out of fear and excitement and putting myself in Betty’s position as much as I could. It demanded, essentially, a personal interrogation of both Betty and myself—and many phone calls with my brother to discuss cameras! As I explore another story and another set of characters, I feel as though I am learning how to write all over again. The constant between these two entirely different stories is this love of reading. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

 

You can learn more about Melissa Larsen via her website and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. Shutter is now available via all major booksellers.

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Bloody Good

The longlist was announced for the McIlvanney Prize (named after the late William McIlvanney) for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021. Finalists will be revealed at the beginning of September coinciding with publication of The Dark Remains, William McIlvanney's final book, completed by Ian Rankin. The winner will be revealed in Stirling at the Bloody Scotland Festival and online on Friday, September 17.

 

The Cut, Chris Brookmyre (Little,Brown)

The Silent Daughter, Emma Christie (Wellbeck)

Before the Storm, Alex Gray (Little, Brown)

Dead Man’s Grave, Neil Lancaster (HarperCollins, HQ)

The Coffinmaker’s Garden, Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)

Still Life, Val McDermid (Little,Brown)

Bad Debt, William McIntyre (Sandstone)

The Less Dead, Denise Mina (Vintage)

How To Survive Everything, Ewan Morrison (Saraband)

Edge of the Grave, Robbie Morrison (Macmillan)

The April Dead, Alan Parks (Canongate)

Hyde, Craig Russell (Constable)

Waking the Tiger, Mark Wightman (Hobeck Books)

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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

Universal Pictures is in pre-production on a drama based on "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement," by New York Times reporters, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor. The article included details of hush money paid to cover up the sexual crimes by producer, Harvey Weinstein, and first-person accounts by actresses accusing Weinstein of non-consensual sexual indiscretions. The article would not only lead to Weinstein being sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape but also spurred the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that are still making major impacts across the world while also completely changing the landscape of Hollywood forever.

Harry Melling, best known as Dudley from the Harry Potter franchise, is set to play a young Edgar Allan Poe in the Netflix/Scott Cooper-directed murder mystery, The Pale Blue Eye. The film is a passion project of Cooper, who has tried making it for more then a decade, and also stars Christian Bale as a veteran detective tasked with solving a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Bale’s detective partners with a detail-oriented young cadet (Melling), who will later become the world famous author we all know today.

Madelyn Cline is set to join Daniel Craig in the next installment of Knives Out, along with Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, and Edward Norton, who were also recently added to the cast. Deadline first reported in March that Netflix was closing a deal north of $400 million for the next two installments, an historic deal for streamers. Rian Johnson is back to write and direct the project and Craig will reprise the role of super sleuth, Benoit Blanc.

Eiza González will star in Wolf Country, a thriller that Jennifer Fox will direct from a script by Pete Begler. González plays a young deputy who is shunned by her entire community when she uncovers a large drug haul that leads straight to a ranch belonging to the town’s lauded and beloved sheriff, her father. When he escapes custody and flees into the rugged Colorado wilderness, his daughter must track down the very man who taught her everything about right and wrong to bring him to justice.

Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Emmy winner, Beau Bridges, have signed on to star opposite Queen Latifah in the Netflix movie, End of the Road. Latifah stars as Brenda, who, after losing her job and being recently widowed, embarks on a cross-country trip with her family to start a new life. But in the New Mexico desert, cut off from help, they must learn to fight back when they become the targets of a mysterious killer.

Emile Hirsch and Liana Liberato have joined Thomas Jane and his daughter Harlow in the cast for the thriller, Dig. The film follows a widowed father and his daughter, who suffers from major hearing loss, as their house is set for demolition. After arriving at the construction site, they are soon taken hostage by a dangerous couple (Hirsch and Liberato), who will stop at nothing to retrieve what lies beneath the property. The father and daughter must work together to outsmart their captors and survive the grueling night.

Hayley Law and Keith Powers have joined Avan Jogia in the neo-noir thriller, Door Mouse. Also starring Famke Janssen and Donal Logue, the story centers on a woman named Mouse (Law) who is stuck in a dead-end job, doing nothing with her life and going nowhere. Mouse works at Mama’s Burlesque Club all night, where her boss Mama (Janssen) encourages her to pursue her real passion of making comics. When a friend from work goes missing and the cops do nothing about it, Mouse and her sidekick, Ugly (Powers), take it upon themselves to find out what happened to her. What they discover is that corruption runs deep, monsters are real, and that sometimes, justice is meant to be taken into your own hands.

A trailer was released for No Sudden Move, a heist thriller set in 1950s Detroit. Steven Soderbergh directs and has assembled a strong cast that includes Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Julia Fox, Frankie Shaw, Ray Liotta, Bill Duke, and the late Craig "muMs" Grant. No Sudden Move will make its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival as the fest’s centerpiece movie on June 18, and it will be released as an HBO Max exclusive starting on July 1.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Chris Addison is adapting Caimh McDonnell’s The Dublin Trilogy series of novels for television. The books are set in Dublin and follow the adventures of an unlikely crime-solving trio. The first installment, A Man with One of Those Faces, tells the story of what happens to Paul Mulchrone when a simple case of mistaken identity leads him into a complicated web of intrigue in which people keep trying to kill him. The only people willing to help are Brigit Conroy, the crime-obsessed nurse who got him into the mess in the first place, and Bunny McGarry, an unconventional old-school copper with whom he has a complicated personal history.

The BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated team behind Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are set to adapt spy author Dave Hutchinson’s Fractured Europe Sequence novels into a major television series titled Europa. The series is set in a near-future Europe, which has splintered into countless tiny nation-states after being ravaged by a pandemic and economic decay. In the first book, Europe In Autumn, Rudi, a chef based out of a small restaurant in Krakow, Poland, is drawn into a new career with Les Coureurs des Bois, a shadowy organization that will move anything across any state line for a price. Soon, Rudi is in a world of "high-risk smuggling operations, where kidnappings and double-crossings are as natural as a map that constantly redraws itself."

Patrick Schwarzenegger has joined the formidable cast of The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited-series drama adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries. He joins previously announced Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Sophie Turner, and Odessa Young. The eight-episode series, from Christine director, Antonio Campos, and American Crime Story writer, Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette). Schwarzenegger will play Todd Peterson, Michael Peterson’s son.

Will Poulter and Lucy Boynton will lead the cast of Hugh Laurie’s three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? The story follows the local Vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances "Frankie" Derwent (Boynton) on their crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who gasps the cryptic question of the title with his last breath. Armed only with a photograph of a beautiful young woman found in the dead man’s pocket, these amateur detectives pursue, and are pursued by, the answer to the mystery.

Giovanni Ribisi, Colin Hanks, and Dan Fogler will join Miles Teller and Matthew Goode in Paramount+’s upcoming limited series, The Offer. The project is based on two-time Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s experience of making 1972's iconic The Godfather that Francis Ford Coppola directed and adapted with Mario Puzo from Puzo’s bestselling novel. The movie starred Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Talia Shire. It was nominated for eleven Oscars and won three — including one to Ruddy for Best Picture. 

Leighton Meester is set to star in Netflix’s twisty thriller, The Weekend Away, an adaptation of the novel by Sarah Alderson. The psychological thriller takes place amid a weekend getaway to Croatia that goes awry when a woman is accused of killing her best friend. As she attempts to clear her name and uncover the truth, her efforts unearth a painful secret. Alderson is adapting the screenplay, with Kim Farrant set to direct.

UK-based production company, Hillbilly Films and Television, has optioned the rights to adapt Jules Grant’s 2016 crime thriller novel, We Go Around In The Night And Are Consumed By Fire, as a limited drama series. Georgi Banks-Davies is attached to direct, while Clare McQuillan will serve as lead writer on the adaptation. The story follows Donna, a gangster, street poet, and boss of the all-female Bronte Close Gang, whose illicit profits are made by selling drugs from perfume atomizers in club toilets. Alongside single parent Carla – her best friend, trusted second-in-command and subject of her unrequited love – they carve out an empire on the toughest streets of Manchester. While the gang avoids violent turf warfare, a tragedy soon sees Donna set out to exact a violent retaliation.

Netflix and Jennifer Lopez have signed a massive deal to produce "a slate of films, television series, scripted and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers and filmmakers." The first project announced by the streamer will be Lopez’s action thriller, The Mother, which will be directed by the live-action Mulan helmer, Niki Caro. The film will have Lopez pulling a John Wick, playing a deadly assassin "who comes out of hiding to teach her daughter how to survive." Shooting gets underway this fall, with a late 2022 release on Netflix. The second project will be The Cipher, based on the thriller novel by Isabel Ojeda Maldonado. That adaptation, part of Maldonado’s series centering on her FBI agent character, Nina Guerrera, has the agent tangling with a serial killer from whom she escaped as a teen.

A month ago, Clarice was poised to move from CBS to Paramount+ with the promise of a long run for a premium version of the Silence of the Lambs sequel. Now, prospects for the series appear bleak as negotiations between the ViacomCBS streamer and co-producer MGM have reached a stalemate. Additionally, there is no viable path for Clarice to continue on CBS since the broadcast network already committed to a full slate of series for next season. It would mean the end of the road for the high-profile drama, which had already snagged a Season 2 order.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Patterson and Bill Clinton, authors of The President is Missing, appeared on Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Ryan to chat up their latest co-written thriller, The President's Daughter.

The Reading and Writing podcast welcomed Les Edgerton to talk about his latest novel, Hard Times.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Jean Hanff Korelitz about her psychological thriller, The Plot.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Alma Katsu about her first spy novel, Red Widow, the logical marriage of her love of storytelling with her 30+ year career in intelligence (as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA).

Mia P. Manansala stopped by the Queer Writers of Crime podcast to talk about how she uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture in her debut novel, Arsenic and Adobo.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Cynthia Kuhn to discuss her Lila MacLean academic mysteries and her upcoming bookstore mystery series.

Robert B. McCaw was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories, talking about his Koa Kane Series where the islands of Hawaii are central to the themes and concepts.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Sarah Graves's Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle, the fourth in the Death by Chocolate series.

James Wolff joined Crime Time FM to talk about growing up in the Middle East, spy fiction, the meaning of treachery, and his new novel, How to Betray Your Country.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed crime authors Laura Shepherd-Robinson and Will Shaw, and also discussed the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, disappearances from trawlers, and why Truman Capote was jealous of Harper Lee.





THEATRE

Following an award winning run at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2021, Australia's favorite comedy magic psychic detective is back in 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation. Based on an obscure 90-year-old short story by Dashiell Hammett, this genre-smashing play is one of the only stage shows in the world that incorporates magic effects into a story about a bank heist, and is described as "Sam Spade meets Naked Gun meets Penn & Teller." Performances run through Saturday, June 26.

As rehearsals begin this week, Peter James and producer Joshua Andrews have announced full casting for the world premiere stage production of James's best-selling novel, Looking Good Dead, based on the author's series featuring Brighton-based detective, Roy Grace. Harry Long will star as Detective Grace, joined by award-winning EastEnders star, Adam Woodyatt, and actors Gaynor Faye, Kellie Bryce, Ian Houghton, Leon Stewart, Gemma Stroyan, Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Mylo McDonald, and Natalie Boakye. The production is now set to open at the Leicester Curve on July 1, ahead of a major UK tour.

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FFB: A Moment on the Edge

Author Elizabeth George, best known for her Inspector Lynley mysteries, selected 26 crime stories by women authors for the anthology A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women (2002). In her introduction, George analyzes how and why people have been fascinated with crime stories since ancient times and takes to task those critics of the genre who believe crime writing is a lesser form of literary endeavor. The stories George chose certainly make a strong argument for their inclusion in any anthology of quality short fiction, whether it's crime-themed or not.



The anthology arranges the stories chronologically, starting with the classic "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell from 1917. From there, the timeline progresses to stories by Golden Age mystery writers Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh, and then "New Golden Age" authors including Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller. There are also selections by writers considered to lie outside the genre: Shirley Jackson, Nadine Gordiner, Antonia Fraser and Joyce Carol Oates. Each selection is prefaced with a description by George that includes a brief bio of the author and a tidbit or two about the story, as with "The Man Who Knew How" by Sayers, which was adapted for radio starring Charles Laughton and Hans Conreid.



All the sub-genres in crime fiction are well-represented, from the supernatural in "Death of a Snowbird" by J. A. Jance, where the spirit of a dead Native American girl appears in a retired couple's RV as they spend the winter in Arizona (1994); psychological suspense in "Afraid All the Time" by Nancy Pickard, following a woman who moves to the plains and descends into a nightmare (1989); a police procedural featuring Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Allyn in "I Can Find My Way Out" (1946); a "whydunnit" from Margery Allingham in "Money to Burn" (1957); the noirish "New Moon and Rattlesnakes" by Wendy Hornsby (1994); and even a Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson pastiche by Gillian Linscott ("A Scandal in Winter," from 1996).



George's intention was to have the stories illustrate how crime fiction, particularly that written by women about women, has changed in the last hundred years. This is likely one reason she bookends her choices with two tales about the death of abusive husbands, written 80 years apart (the authors' lives span 100 years, but not necessarily the stories). As Elizabeth George notes in her intro:  "All of these authors share in common a desire to explore mankind in a moment on the edge. The edge equates to the crime committed. How the characters deal with the edge is the story."

          

Mystery Melange

Looks like your TBR (to be read) pile just got a bit bigger. Amazon released its list of "Best Books of the Year So Far," with a few crime titles making the Top 20: Why We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker; The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz; The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris; and The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth; plus there are twenty picks in the Best Mysteries and Thrillers list. Meanwhile, over at the Rap Sheet blog, Jeff Pierce compiled a preliminary list of more than 360 crime, mystery, and thriller works, all scheduled for release between now and September 1 on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean that are worth investigating. They run the gamut from hard-boiled detective novels to traditional mysteries and crime-related non-fiction titles.

Virtual Noir at the Bar Los Angeles returns on June 25 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET with host, Eric Beetner. Authors scheduled to read from their works include Tracy Clark, Andrew Graff, Kris Calvin, Cate Holahan, Stephen Mack Jones, and Tori Eldridge. Register for free via this link.

Harrogate International Festivals revealed the Special Guest line-up for the world’s largest crime writing event. The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival will actually be the UK's first major literary event to take place in person following the removal of government-mandated lockdowns due to the pandemic (although there is some concern those lockdown lifts may be delayed). Festival Programming Chair (and Inspector Rebus author), Ian Rankin, has lined up Richard Osman, Mick Herron, Elly Griffiths, Ann Cleeves, Mark Billingham, Clare Mackintosh, CL Taylor, Val McDermid, and many more for four days of talks and panels at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel July 22 – 25.

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has appointed author Elly Griffiths to the role of booksellers champion, as National Crime Reading Month begins across the UK. Griffiths, pen-name of author Domenica de Rosa, will be tasked with building better connections between crime authors and bookshops. She will be supported in the new role by fellow crime authors Vaseem Khan and William Shaw.

Most people (myself included) probably weren't aware that Edgar Allan Poe’s bestselling book during his lifetime wasn't a suspense, thriller, horror or crime work - it was a guide to seashells. Speaking of Poe, the Washington Post's Michael Dirda calls him "our nation’s most influential writer."

Well, this is a certainly a sad turn of events.

The featured story this week at Pulp Modern Flash is "The Heaviness of Time" by Nils Gilbertson.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "I Have to Warn You" by Tad Tuleja.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's John Valeri interviewed Lisa Unger, whose latest project, House of Crows is a four-part serial from Amazon Original Stories; over at the Writers Who Kill blog, E.B. Davis interviewed Connie Berry about the latest book in her series featuring American antique dealer Kate Hamilton; and Criminal Element spoke with New York Times bestselling author, Alex Michaelides, about his new novel, The Maidens, a tale of psychological suspense that weaves together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession.

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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

In a preemptive and very lucrative deal, Sony Pictures and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures have optioned Don Winslow’s upcoming crime trilogy epic, beginning with City On Fire. That first novel, which follows the template of Homer’s Iliad, will be published by William Morrow in September. The follow-up, City of Dreams, will follow a year later, and the third installment, City in Ashes, will be published in September of 2023. The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno will produce the films. The trilogy focuses on two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of Rhode Island and have led a peaceful lucrative co-existence until a modern-day Helen of Troy tears them apart and starts a brutal war. The protagonist, Danny Ryan, is forced to grow from a street soldier into a ruthlessly efficient leader to protect his friends, his family, and the home he loves. Fighting the Mafia, the local cops, and the feds, Danny will build a dynasty or die trying.

Star Trek's Zachary Quinto and Euphoria's Jacob Elordi will star together in He Went That Way, a road trip crime thriller set in the ’60s and based on a true story. Jeffrey Darling, a commercial director, will make his feature film directorial debut. He Went That Way centers on a strange road trip that involves a serial killer, an animal handler, and a TV chimpanzee star named Zippy. The film is inspired by how animal trainer Dave Pitts and the famous TV chimp Spanky (the centerpiece of The Ice Capades in the ’60s), had a fateful three-day encounter with serial killer, Larry Lee Ranes. Quinto will play the animal trainer, and Elordi will take on the role of the serial killer.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Donnie Yen has signed on to appear in John Wick: Chapter 4. Yen will play an old friend of John’s who "shares his same history and many of the same enemies."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced winners of their annual BAFTA Awards. The crime-themed drama, Save Me Too, won Best Drama Series, and star Michaela Coel won Best Leading Actress for her role in the show. Rakie Ayola also won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Anthony, about the life of a black teenager murdered in a racist attack.

Jamie Lee Curtis’s Comet Pictures and Blumhouse Television have secured the rights to the Kay Scarpetta novels by author Patricia Cornwell and are developing them as an hour-long drama series centered on the eponymous forensic pathologist. The deal marks the latest development in a long-road to screen for Scarpetta, which ten years ago saw Angelina Jolie attached to play her in a feature film from Fox 2000, which never got off the ground. Similarly, in 1992, Columbia Pictures optioned Cruel and Unusual, the fourth book in the series to make as a film with Demi Moore in the lead role. Scarpetta is inspired by former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner, Marcella Farinelli Fierro.

Miramax Television and Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village are teaming to develop a series adaptation of Alex Michaelides’ upcoming novel, The Maidens. British writer-actor Morwenna Banks (Damned) is attached to pen the script. In the book, a brilliant but troubled therapist travels to Cambridge to comfort her niece when the niece's best friend is murdered. But the therapist finds her alma mater has changed, and a cult like group of students led by a new professor has overtaken the culture.

Gerald McRaney, who has recurred on NCIS: Los Angeles since 2014, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming 13th season of the CBS drama series. McRaney plays retired Adm. Hollis Kilbride, who advises and counsels the Los Angeles division of the NCIS Special Projects unit during their undercover operations.

Sophie Turner has joined the cast of the limited-series adaptation of The Staircase at HBO Max. Turner joins Colin Firth and Toni Collette in the project from Antonio Campos (who will direct six of the eight episodes) and Maggie Cohn (who will co-write the series with Campos). Firth stars as Michael Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his wife and spent eight years in prison, as documented in the true crime docuseries of the same name by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. Collette plays Peterson’s wife, Kathleen, and Turner will play Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael Peterson’s adopted daughters.

Amazon’s conspiracy thriller series, The Terminal List, added a trio of actors to its cast including LaMonica Garrett, Alexis Louder, and Tom Amandes, who will appear in recurring roles. They join previously announced regulars Chris Pratt, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Constance Wu, Riley Keough, Taylor Kitsch, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Based on Jack Carr’s bestselling novel and written by David DiGilio, The Terminal List follows James Reece (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, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.

Tori Anderson and Kian Talan are set as series regulars opposite Vanessa Lachey in the upcoming CBS drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, the first installment in the NCIS franchise with a female character at the center. Created/executive produced by NCIS: New Orleans executive producers/showrunners Christopher Silber and Jan Nash as well as SEAL Team writer-producer Matt Bosack, NCIS: Hawai’i is set in the Aloha State. It follows Jane Tennant (Lachey), the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor, and her team as they balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security, and the mysteries of the island state itself.

Chris Petrovski (Madam Secretary) has joined the cast of the forthcoming Ray Donovan feature-length film for Showtime. Petrovski will play rising Hollywood star Sean Walker in the movie, 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 will also direct.

Judy Greer has been tapped for a key role opposite Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. Greer will play Fran Liddy, G. Gordon Liddy’s unflappable wife who has a misplaced faith in her husband’s intelligence and abilities.

Unforgotten, the cold case crime show airing as part of MASTERPIECE Mystery!, will begin airing its new season Sunday, July 11 at 9/8c. Fans can look forward to six new episodes, starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan. To date, very few details have been released about the new season, though an official trailer was released.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Michael Connelly is helming a new documentary podcast series, The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood, which will launch on Amazon’s Audible on July 1, around the 40th anniversary of the horrific crimes. Connelly has created and written the series and will exec produce alongside LAPD homicide veteran, Rick Jackson, as well as Jen Casey, and Nick Gilhool. Named for the street in Laurel Canyon where the murders took place inside the house of a small-time drug gang, it’s a gruesome crime that "reflected its time, disrupted a mythology, and tells a broader story of Los Angeles, the American dream machine, and when justice does – and doesn’t – work."

June is the 3rd anniversary of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast, so this month, there will be more episodes than usual to celebrate. The latest features the first chapter of Sprinkles of Suspicion by Kim Davis, read by actor Karina Balfour

Writer Types welcomed authors David Swinson, Josh Malerman, Joani Elliott, Eli Cranor, and Stephen Mack Jones to the podcast to talk about their latest books.

Read or Dead tackled books that will appeal to readers of true crime.

Robert Justice interviewed Aya de Leon, author of A Spy in the Struggle, for Crime Writers of Color.

This week's guest on Queer Writers of Crime was Lev Raphael, author and co-author of 27 books in a dozen genres from memoir to mystery. His suspense novel, Assault with a Deadly Lie, was a Midwest Book Award finalist.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Kiersten Modglin to chat about her psychological thrillers; her writing process; marketing; indie and trad publishing; and a lot more.

Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with SA Cosby about his novel, Blacktop Wasteland, and his novella, Ride Like Hell.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed Fatal Intent by Tammy Euliano.

The latest episode of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast has longtime EQMM contributor, Michael Z. Lewin, reading a story featuring his Indianapolis detective Sergeant Leroy Powder.

On CrimeTime FM, Tom Bradby spoke with Paul Burke about his new novel, Triple Cross; his character Kate Henderson; what makes a great modern spy novel; and the relationship between Western democracies and Russia and China that underpin his writing.

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Quote of the Week

         Related StoriesQuote of the Week 

FFB: Find the Innocent

English mystery writer William Edward Vickers (1889-1965) was best known under his pen name Roy Vickers, although he also wrote under the names David Durham, Sefton Kyle, and John Spencer. Biographical details are a bit sketchy, but Vickers worked as a salesman, court reporter, and magazine editor in addition to penning nonfiction articles. He also found some success as a ghostwriter and as a crime reporter for a newspaper.



He found his literary stride when he published his short story, "The Rubber Trumpet," the first of over three dozen stories originally published in Pearson's Magazine and featuring the fictitious Department of Dead Ends division of Scotland Yard (a precursor to TV's Cold Case, if you will). Many of these are inverted mysteries, with the crime and perpetrators being known and the crime solved as much by luck and perseverance than brilliant detection. He also edited several anthologies for the Crime Writers' Association.



The central sleuth in Vickers' Department of Dead Ends stories started out as being Superintendent Tarrant and in the later stories switched to Inspector Rason. However, Vickers also wrote eight novels in a more traditional procedural style featuring Detective Inspector Peter Curwen. Find the Innocent was the final Curwen installment, published in 1959. He's described by one character as being "large, rotund and homely, looking like a successful local auctioneer who contemplates retirement."



Three scientists, Eddis, Stranack and Canvey, are all suspects in the murder of their employer, Mr. "WillyBee" Brengast, who had refused to grant them royalties on their inventions. The trio work and live together at WillyBee Products Ltd., yet they detest one another. Each man gives the same story to the police—each claims the same alibi, that he was the one to stay behind alone with the victim while the other two men went into town together. It's obvious to Inspector Curwen that one man must be guilty and the other two abetting, but which is which? Complicating matters are the victim's beautiful young widow whose one-night stand with one of the scientists plays a key role, and the victim's brainy niece who "helps" Inspector Curwen while falling for another of the suspects.



I've not read much of Vickers' output, but I came across one criticism that his novels paled in comparison to his stories, and I think I can understand why that might be the case. The premise of Find the Innocent is promising—three suspects who give the same story with little or no evidence to prove or disprove which one is guilty—but I think the novel (novella, actually, as it's on the short side) would have worked even better as a shorter story. 



Vickers ultimately wrote close to 70 novels under his various pseudonyms, as well as the dozens of stories published in Pearson's and in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Some of his work has even been adapted for film such as Girl in the News (1940) and Violent Moment (1959), and three of his stories were used as episodes in television's Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. He was inducted into Britain's famed The Detection Club in 1955.



Unfortunately very few of his works are in print today. The Black Dagger Crime Series reprinted Find the Innocent in 2001, and Pan Macmillan republished it and other Vickers titles in 2012 (most out of print now), but it's hard to find a copy of the 1959 original, unless you're willing to fork over $275 or more for a first edition online.

          

Mystery Melange

The winners of the 33rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced, chosen from finalists selected by a panel of over 60 literary professionals from more than 1,000 book submissions and over 300 publishers. I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman & Company) won top honors as this year's Best LGBT Mystery Novel. The other finalists in that category include: Death Before Dessert, A.E. Radley (Heartsome Publishing); Find Me When I’m Lost, Cheryl A. Head, (Bywater Books); Fortune Favors the Dead, Stephen Spotswood (Doubleday); and Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery, Rosalie Knecht (Tin House Books).

Sisters in Crime announced the winner of its inaugural Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, which includes a grant of $2,000 to a new crime fiction author who identifies as LGBTQIA+. This year’s debut prize goes to C.J. Prince of West Orange, New Jersey. Prince will receive a manuscript critique from Crooked Lane Books editor, Terri Bischoff. In addition, five runners-up will be paired with established Sisters in Crime member authors for manuscript critiques: Sandy Bailey; Alix Freeman; A.L. Major; Mary Lewis Pierce; and Jamie Valentino.

The 2021 Bony Blithe Award for Canadian light mystery was announced, and the winner is Iona Whishaw for A Match Made for Murder. The honor shines the spotlight on cozies, capers, satires, and humorous books – in short, "anything from laugh-out-loud books to gentle humor to good old-fashioned stories with minimal overt violence or gore." The Bony Blithe Award was created ten years ago as part of the Bloody Words conference in Canada and continued to be presented even after the demise of the conference in 2014. However, organizers announced that 2021 will be the last Bony Blithe as they transition to a "light mystery newsletter" going forward.

The 2021 Maine Crime Wave takes places this Saturday via Zoom, with panels, a keynote talk, virtual book room, a contest, and much more. Highlights include a Keynote Talk from inside the crime publishing world by award-winning Minotaur editorial director, Kelley Ragland, panels with award-winning and best-selling crime writers Lou Berney, Paul Doiron, Tess Gerritsen, Alexia Gordon, Chris Holm, Michael Koryta, Jess Lourey, Isabella Maldonado, Carla Neggers, and James Ziskin, as well as a Two Minutes in Quarantine reading, and Noir at the Bar event in the evening.

Harvill Secker and Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival have relaunched their joint award to find the most exciting new crime fiction by writers of color. The winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Award will have their book published under the Harvill Secker imprint, in a publishing deal with an advance of £5,000. Entries opened yesterday and will run until the August 4, following a hiatus last year over lockdown. The winner will be announced in September and will feature in a panel appearance at the Bloody Scotland festival.

The Curtis Brown writing school is launching an annual novel-writing scholarship in honor of late thriller writer, John le Carré, seeking out "compelling storytelling and political engagement." Applications for the first scholarship are now open and will provide full funding for one talented writer of limited financial means to join Curtis Brown Creative’s three-month online Writing Your Novel course running from September 6 to December 13.

Anthony Horowitz will write his third official James Bond novel, to be published by Jonathan Cape in 2022 on behalf of Ian Fleming Publications. Horowitz is the fourth author in recent years to be invited by Ian Fleming Publications to write an official Bond novel, and the only one to have been invited back to write successive ones. Trigger Mortis was published in 2015, followed by Forever and a Day in 2018. Previous authors have included William Boyd, Jeffery Deaver, and Sebastian Faulks.

Elizabeth Foxwell, editor of the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction, made note of the next edition in that series, the eleventh, which will be Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Eric Sandberg. As Foxwell aptly notes, previous installments in the series have garnered Edgar nominations (Ellroy companion, Rankin companion), an Agatha nomination (Paretsky companion), and a Macavity Award (Paretsky companion).

Indie bookstores in the US are “on the rise again” but face challenges as the country opens up after a roiling 15 months, according to the American Booksellers Association. While association CEO Allison K. Hill and others had feared that hundreds of stores could go out of business during the 2020-21 holiday season, the ABA has tallied only 14 closings in 2021 so far, along with more than 70 last year. “It’s fair to say that it could have been much, much worse,” Hill said, describing the independent community as “bruised” but standing.





Sixty-three percent of authors and illustrators in the UK, responding to a quick-fire survey from The Bookseller this week, said they had seen a fall in income in pandemic-hit 2020 compared with 2019, including squeezes on author advances and the loss of earnings from live events. The Society of Authors (SoA) has said 250 people have applied to its hardship fund this year, on top of nearly 1,200 applicants in 2020, indicating the “desperation” of many.

Maybe this is a trend that will help.

This is another trend I'd like to see more of: book butlers.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Hillside Stranglers" by Peter Mladinic.

In the Q&A roundup, James Patterson and Bill Clinton spoke with Time Magazine about The President’s Daughter, the follow-up thriller to their bestselling co-written debut; Terrie Farley Moran stopped by the Writers Who Kill blog to talk about picking up the mantle for the popular Murder, She Wrote continuation novel series; and Lisa Haselton chatted with international thriller author, William McGinnis, about his new suspenseful sea adventure, Cyclops Conspiracy: An Adam Weldon Thriller, and also with mystery author Susanne M. Dutton, about her latest novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable.

         Related StoriesMystery Melange