After receiving tens of thousands of entries to the annual writing contest, five self-published books, including two crime fiction titles, have made it onto the Kindle Storyteller Award shortlist. Entrants must be published in the Amazon UK store in both print and digital, with the ebook form exclusive to Amazon's KDP Select program. This year's finalists include the crime novels When Death Calls by J M Dalgliesh, the sixteenth novel in his Hidden Norfolk series, and The Gathering Of Clan McFee by Karen Baugh Menuhin, the fourteenth book in the Heathcliff Lennox murder mystery series. The winner of the 2025 Kindle Storyteller Award will be announced at a ceremony in London later this month and will receive £20,000.
Some more sad publishing news to report: on the heels of Down & Out Press shutting its doors, two other publications have announced they're closing down. These primarily fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction, although many have taken hybrid stories that are also crime fiction-related, usually in a supernatural vein. The Canadian quarterly, On Spec, founded in 1989, is closing its doors as its managing editor is retiring; and Unnerving Books and Unnerving Magazine also announced their respective closures after almost ten years, with Cottage Crimes, featuring eight new mystery and crime stories, possibly their last issue.
The Black List, which was established in 2005, is a platform that allows screenwriters to upload their scripts for review by industry professionals for a fee, which has led to the production of several projects by studios, some that even went on to win Academy Awards. In 2024, the website expanded to include novels as a way to offer a unique entryway to potential industry exposure and connections with agents and publishers for fiction writers with unpublished novel-length manuscripts. The very first book snapped up for a project has been revealed as the crime thriller, Then He Was Gone, from Isabel Booth, which is set to be published in February of next year by Crooked Lane Books. The Black List for Fiction has also established the Unpublished Novel Award to celebrate excellent manuscripts in seven genres including Crime & Mystery and Thriller & Suspense, with a winner in each genre to receive a $10,000 grant to support it on the journey to publication.
There's a new crime fiction festival, Krimi Fest, to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from October 29 - November 9, in partnership with the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. In addition to top Slovenian crime fiction authors, there will be panels lectures from experts in the fields of criminology and forensics, as well as podcasts, film showings, and a crime mystery night of fun. The festival is also sponsoring two awards: a short story contest, with the winner announced as Kamilo Lorenci, whose story will be published in the Saturday Supplement of the Delo newspaper on November 8, 2025; and the Pila Award, given for the best original Slovenian crime novel first published in 2023 and 2024. The winner will be announced during the conference from the finalists, August Demšar: Estonia (Pivec Publishing, 2024); Tadej Golob: Oh, Triglav, My Home (Goga Publishing, 2023); Maria Jakopin: Crystal Death (Hirondelle, 2024); Irena Svetek: The Black Prince (Fiction, 2023); and Mojca Širok: Emptiness (Mladinska knjiga, 2023).
From the life is stranger than fiction department: a "very significant" Jack Kerouac story was recently discovered in a highly unlikely place. Last year, a two-page 1957 unpublished manuscript signed by the author and linked to his classic of beat literature On the Road, was unearthed during the disposal of items owned by Paul Castellano, who ran the feared Gambino crime family in New York from 1976 until he was murdered in a hail of gunfire on December 16, 1985. The assassination was orchestrated by John Gotti, a Gambino boss who was dissatisfied with Castellano’s leadership and took over the organization after the hit. He was convicted of the murder of the 70-year-old Castellano in 1992 and died in prison 10 years later. It is not known how or when Castellano acquired the Kerouac story.
Via Mental Floss comes the story of Edgar Wallace, given the nickname "The King of Thrillers" who published over 170 novels and co-write the screenplay for 1933’s King Kong, led almost to financial ruin early in his career from a marketing scheme gone bad. For his first novel, The Four Just Men (1905), he had the victim meet his end in a locked room, a crime left unresolved, with the reader invited to write in with their own guess to the solution of the mystery. He offered, from his own pocket, £500 worth of prizes (the equivalent of £53,023.35, or more than $72,000, now). But due to a poorly worded entry form and an unexpectedly large number of entries, he ended up losing almost $300K by today's money, and had to sell the rights to future novels about the Four Just Men to pay back his debts.
It seems a mystery of the art world may have been solved. In an article with the Times of London, ahead of the release of his new book, Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, art expert Andrew Graham-Dixon claims to know the inspiration for Vermeer's famous painting, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." He notes that Johannes Vermeer received patronage from a Dutch husband and wife in Delft who were part of a radical Christian sect called the Remonstrants. They modeled their own lives on those of Christ’s apostles or his female followers such as Mary Magdalene, and the pensive-looking girl in the painting is most likely the patrons’ 10-year-old daughter, Magdalena, dressed as Jesus's follower.
On Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog feature, Kendall Brunson discussed writing her story "Bad Eggs" included in the new anthology, On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, edited by Curtis Ippolito.
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Karma" by Jennifer Lagier.
In the Q&A roundup, Sophie Hannah spoke with CrimeReads on how she goes about writing a Hercule Poirot continuation novel; Megan Abbott also stopped by CrimeReads to chat about her fascination with the forbidden, her love of "weirdos," and how she got her start; Margaret Mizushima, who writes the award-winning Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries, applied the Page 69 Test to her new book, Dying Cry; and Irish novelist Jane Casey was interviewed by the Irish Examiner about the latest book in her Maeve Kerrigan detective series.
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Mystery Melange
Monday, October 13, 2025
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
After years of developing a sequel to his iconic crime drama, Heat, director Michael Mann looks to be closer to getting the project made. Deadline reported that Amazon MGM Studios division, United Artists, is in talks to pick up the project with financing and distribution. Heat 2 had been set up at Warner Bros, but when the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a budget, the studio allowed Mann to take the proposed package out to other studios. The plan is to shoot the film some time next year, with Leonardo DiCaprio in early talks to star in the role of Chris Shiherlis, the character played by Val Kilmer in the 1995 original.
George Clooney shared an update on Ocean’s 14, revealing that the sequel film is expected to start shooting sometime in 2026 after Warner Bros. approved the budget for the next follow-up to the heist film trilogy. The Ocean’s franchise began in 2001 with Ocean’s Eleven, a remake of the 1960 heist film starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., followed by Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. The 2001 remake, directed by Steven Soderbergh, featured Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, and Don Cheadle and followed Danny Ocean (George Clooney), a recently paroled con artist who orchestrates a complex scheme to simultaneously rob the vaults of three major Las Vegas casinos.
Meanwhile, the Ocean's Eleven prequel project at Warner Bros has landed both Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung and actor Bradley Cooper, who is in negotiations to star alongside Margot Robbie. No plot details have been disclosed, other than it takes place prior to the events of Ocean's Eleven and will begin shooting next year. Sources say Cooper has been close with Robbie over the years and always wanted to work together, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.
British actor Solly McLeod, best known for starring in the ITVX and PBS Masterpiece miniseries, Tom Jones, has joined the feature film, Anxious People, which is in production in London. McLeod joins previously announced Angelina Jolie, Aimee Lou Wood, Jason Segel, Joanna Scanlan, Lennie James, Stephanie Allynne, Jessica Gunning, and Carol Kane in the cast. The story takes place the day before Christmas Eve, when investment banker Zara begrudgingly finds herself mingling with a group of strangers at an open house. After a reluctant bank robber, Grace, inadvertently takes the group hostage, chaos and oversharing ensues, secrets are revealed, and literally nothing goes according to plan.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Paramount Television Studios is set to adapt the spy thriller The Ambler Warning, based on Robert Ludlum’s bestselling novel, with Jason Horwitch (Echo 3, Fight Night) attached to write the adaptation and serve as showrunner. The project reimagines the book’s male protagonist, Hal Ambler, as Erica Ambler, played by Jessica Biel. While on assignment, CIA Case Officer Ambler (Biel) suffers a devastating injury, waking up without her memories, in custody at a supermax prison for the world’s deadliest spies. Erica must figure out who she is and who she can trust, while piecing together the clues that will prevent a lethal attack on American soil.
Subscription streaming outlet MHz Choice, which brings international television to North American viewers, has acquired rights to Camilla Läckberg’s Erica, the first French-language adaptation of her best-selling Swedish mysteries. The six-episode series encompasses stories from three of Läckberg’s novels – The Ice Princess, The Preacher, and The Stonecutter. Led by Julie De Bona (The Count of Monte Cristo) as Erica and Grégory Fitoussi (Nine Perfect Strangers) as Captain Patrick Saab, the drama is set to premiere on MHz Choice in early 2026. In the series, successful writer Erica Faure returns to her hometown to find her friend Alexandra dead. Convinced it wasn’t suicide, she launches an investigation, but her past and present are soon entangled and her life is upended by meeting the handsome police captain Saab.
StudioCanal and Strong Film & Television have locked up the rights to Robin Stevens’s Murder Most Unladylike books and are developing a children’s TV series. The two companies have enlisted Emmy-winner Anna McCleery (Free Rein) to write the adaptation. The series is pitched as Enola Holmes meets Agatha Christie, following two rebellious 1930s teen female detectives, Hazel and Daisy, as they unravel murder mysteries. McCleery has penned a six-part series, with each story playing out over two 45-minute episodes. With twelve books to draw material from, the hope is that Murder Most Unladylike can be "a returnable series."
Anna Kendrick (Woman of the Hour, Pitch Perfect) and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Westies) will star in a geo-political thriller drama, Embassy. The six-part series finds Layla (Kendrick), a sharp and resourceful
American diplomat, facing an impossible choice when armed mercenaries storm the
U.S. Embassy in London: protect the U.S.
Ambassador (Simmons) or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high value
asset being held at the embassy. As a larger conspiracy unfolds, Layla
must rely on her instincts—and the reluctant help of her ex-fiancé, a
British SAS soldier—in the tense hours before extraction.”
Michael C. Hall will continue his killing spree as everyone’s favorite fictional serial killer, Dexter Morgan, for a second season of Showtime‘s Dexter: Resurrection, after the show's renewal. The series takes place weeks after Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) takes a bullet to the chest from his own son and awakens from a coma to find Harrison (Jack Alcott) gone without a trace. Realizing the weight of what he put his son through, Dexter sets out for New York City, determined to find him and make things right. But closure won’t come easily. When Miami Metro’s Angel Batista (David Zayas) arrives with questions, Dexter realizes his past is catching up to him. As father and son navigate their darkness in the city that never sleeps, they soon find themselves mired deeper than they ever imagined — and that the only way out is together.
Nearly a year since Prime Video‘s Cross premiered, it seems fans will have to wait four more months to watch Season 2. The crime drama starring Aldis Hodge will return on Wednesday, February 11, with the first three episodes and new episodes to follow weekly, leading to the season finale on March 18. The project was created and is showrun and written by Ben Watkins, based on the characters from James Patterson’s best-selling Alex Cross book series. Hodge leads the cast in the titular role of Alex Cross, a brilliant homicide detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the minds of murderers to identify and catch them. In Season 2, Cross is in pursuit of a ruthless vigilante who is hunting down corrupt billionaire magnates.
Sony Pictures Television and Hasbro Entertainment are creating a scripted adaptation of the classic murder mystery board game, Clue, from writer/executive producer Dana Fox (Wicked) and director/executive producer Nicholas Stoller (You’re Cordially Invited). The news follows on the heels of Netflix greenlighting an unscripted Clue series, also from Sony TV and Hasbro Entertainment. Clue brings a modern twist to the colorful cast of iconic characters and follows a group of strangers invited to an eccentric billionaire’s murder mystery night to solve the famous questions — who, where and with what — but they quickly discover that nothing is what it seems to be, and the stakes are even higher than life or death.
Prime Video has opted not to proceed with second seasons of Countdown, starring Jensen Ackles, and Butterfly, headlined by Daniel Dae Kim. Both shows broke into Nielsen Top 10 for Streaming Originals, but apparently the decision came down to total global viewership.
Countdown followed LAPD detective Mark Meachum (Ackles), recruited to a secret task
force, alongside undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement,
to investigate after an officer with the Department of Homeland Security is murdered in broad daylight. Butterfly is a character-driven spy thriller that explores complex family dynamics within the treacherous world of global espionage.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
Jake Arnott chatted with Crime Time FM host, Paul Burke, about his new novel Blood Rival; Sophocles; noir; Blue Lights; James Ellroy, and more.
On the latest Murder Junction, Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with thriller writing legend Patricia Cornwell about her career and her most famous character, Kay Scarpetta, featured in her latest novel, Sharp Force, as well as a soon-to-be-aired TV series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis.
On NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, host Scott Simon chatted with Anna North about her novel, Bog Queen, in which a modern investigator is called to examine an ancient body found in a British bog.
Host Alan Peterson of Meet the Thriller Author interviewed Traci Hunter Abramson, a former CIA officer, longtime high school swimming coach, and the award-winning author of more than forty-five bestselling novels. Her latest release, Victim #8, follows military aide Luke Steele and FBI Special Agent Amberlyn Reiner as they go undercover to stop a conspiracy that could lead to a nuclear strike on the United States.
On the Poisoned Pen podcast, host Barbara Peters chatted with British author Martin Edwards, President of the Detection Club, recipient of the Crime Writers' Association's Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement, and author of several standalone novels and series including the Harry Devlin novels and Lake District series.
On the Get to Know podcast, Kathleen Antrim and DP Lyle spoke with author Carter Wilson, the author of twisty psychological thrillers.
On Criminal Mischief, forensic psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland discussed how she includes a unique forensic method in each novel of her crime series, "The Nut Cracker Investigations."
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Friday, October 10, 2025
Friday's "Forgotten" Books: PIcture Miss Seeton
Carvic's acting roles were mostly dramatic and often included crime or science fiction. One of his early parts was in The Bat, a stage adaptation of Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Circular Staircase, and later roles included Gandalf in a radio version of The Hobbit, Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, and guest roles in the TV shows Police Surgeon, The Avengers, and Dr. Who.
Thus, it's curious that he chose to write a comedic mystery series featuring the slightly barmy English spinster, Miss Seeton. But it was a success from the start with the first book, Picture Miss Seeton, a finalist for the Edgar Award in 1969.
Cavic had first used Miss Emily Seeton in a short story, and fifteen years later said that "Miss Seeton upped and demanded a book," with Carvic deciding that if "she wanted to satirize detective novels in general and elderly lady detectives in particular, he would let her have her lead." Later, Carvic contributed a chapter to the book Murder Ink, edited by Dilys Winn, titled "Little Old Ladies."
Carver said at one point that the character of Miss Seeton was inspired by his friendship with an artist who turned in a commission for a mother-child portrait and then destroyed her canvas of the mother's face rather than use it again. Years later, the now-adult son from the painting was sent to the Broadmoor psychiatric hospital after cutting his mother to ribbons with a kitchen knife. The author had no logical explanation for her destruction of the canvas, but "clearly she must have somehow have seen rather more than she knew."
Emily Seeton is a recently-retired art teacher in the process of moving to the country town of Plummergen, population five hundred and one, but her plans get waylaid when, after a night at the opera, she sees what she thinks is a man insulting a young woman. In fact, what she actually witnessed was a notorious drug dealer knifing a prostitute. (Which brings up a typical Seeton-esque line when she learns from the police about the young woman's "profession": "Oh, dear. A very hard life; such late hours—and then, of course, the weather. And so unrewarding one would imagine."). Aghast at the drug dealer's "bad manners," she pokes him in the back with her brolly (umbrella, to Yanks), which later makes her a darling of the newspapers, which dub her "The Battling Brolly."
When she's questioned by Superintendent Delphick and Detective-Sergeant Ranger of Scotland Yard, they ask her to sketch her impressions of the crime. Even though it was dark, she's able to draw enough details, particularly an element that she only sees in her subconscious, that it helps the police track down the killer. Miss Seeton, as it turns out, is an "anti-psychic." She has a knack for innocently drawing clues (sometimes foretelling events, sometimes revealing important character traits) into her sketches that she's is totally unaware of, a talent that becomes invaluable to the police. Her innocence becomes one of the series' central devices, as she continues to attract crime and criminals even as she accidentally helps to foil them.
If your taste in mysteries runs toward the whimsical, then you'll be entertained by Miss Seeton, her brolly, her attempts at yoga, and snippets such as this one, about two denizens of Plummergen:
They were dedicated vegetarians, known collectively as The Nuts. Miss Nuttel, tall, angular, with the face of a dark horse, was generally referred to as Nutcracker. Mrs. Blaine, whose dumpy geniality was belied by the little blackcurrant eyes, was called by everyone Hot Cross Bun; this derived largely from Miss Nuttel's pet name for her of Bunny, but it may have been also a tacit acceptance of the shrewish temper which flared through the placid surface when she was thwarted. Their house, Lilikot, a modern innovation with large plate-glass windows screened by nylon net, was inevitably The Nut House.
Sadly, Carvic only completed five novels in the series before being killed in a car accident in 1980. The Miss Seeton series didn't die, however, continued under two other pseudonyms, Hampton Charles, the pen name of Roy Peter Martin, who wrote three novels all released in 1990, and Sarah J. Mason, writing under the name of Hamilton Crane, who took up the series after that point, writing 16 installments, the latest in February of 2019.
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Mystery Melange
The winners of the 2025 Lambda Literary Awards (fondly known as the Lammys), established in 1989 to garner national visibility for LGBTQ books, were announced this past weekend. The winner of the Best LBGTQ+ Mystery was Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (MCD). The other finalists include: Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher by Katie Siegel (Kensington); One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole (William Morrow); Rough Pages by Lev AC Rosen (Tor Publishing Group); and The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani, Translated by Sam Bett (Soho Crime).
Down & Out Books, founded by Eric Campbell, announced this week they're shutting down operations after 15 years. The small publisher has released over 1,000 books, collaborating with over 500 authors, and racked up 50 awards in the process, including Anthony, Shamus, Macavity, and Thriller Awards. In a statement on social media, they added that "a sharp decline in sales since 2020 has made continued financial investment unsustainable. As a result, no further payments will be issued. In the coming weeks, all titles will be withdrawn from distribution channels, and rights will revert to their respective authors and editors in accordance with their contracts." The majority of those books were crime fiction titles, including novels and short story anthologies. Jay Hartman, with Misti Media and its various imprints, has offered to republish the orphaned titles as the schedule allows. Hopefully, all the book and authors will be able to find new homes for their works via other means.
Blackstone Publishing announced the launch of AWE, a new imprint formed with military thriller author duo Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson's Andrews & Wilson Entertainment operation. AWE plans to "showcase both established authors in the military thriller genre and emerging voices committed to telling stories focused on service and sacrifice, grit and perseverance, heroism, faith, and moral courage," per the publisher. The inaugural AWE title, Andrews and Wilson’s The Adversary, which is the next novel in their Tier One series, will publish on November 4. The imprint plans to publish 12 books over the course of 2026 and 2027, ramping up to 20 titles annually after that. The current slate includes work from Don Bentley, Joshua Hood, and Jack Stewart. New titles in Andrews and Wilson’s Sons of Valor and Shepherds series, as well as standalone titles from the pair, will also be published under the AWE banner.
There's a new website, magazine, and podcast in the UK called Aspects of Crime, with plans to feature interviews, articles, reviews and short stories related to the crime field. It's the brainchild of Paul Burke, whose been an interviewer, reviewer, writer, and podcaster in his own right for many years. The inaugural issue has an interview with Richard Foreman, a look at women police officers in the UK, an appreciation of John le Carré’s George Smiley, and more.
Mystery Fanfare's editor, Janet Rudolph, announced that they've had so many articles, reviews and author essays for their Northern California issue, they decided to have two issues. If you missed the deadline for NorCal Mysteries, you still have time to contribute. They're looking for Author! Author! essays: 500–1500 words, first person, up-close and personal about yourself, your books, and the NorCal connection, as well as reviews and articles. The deadline for submissions is November 1.
The new anthology On Fire and Under Water set out to showcase the devastating the effects of climate change on everyday people, discuss the growing urgency of the climate emergency, and focus on the ongoing dismantling of environmental protection efforts. CrimeReads hosted some of the authors for "A Roundtable Discussion on Climate Change and Crime Fiction’s Role in Meeting the Moment."
Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog, M.E. Proctor discussed her story "Garbo's Ghost," included in the new Celluloid Crime anthology edited by Deborah Well from Level Best Books.
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "The Making of a Soldier" by A.C. Perri.
In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with J.A. Jance, author of the J.P. Beaumont series and the new novel The Girl from Devil's Lake, the latest in her Joanna Brady series; and thriller author Ronald Chapman chatted with Lisa Haselton about his new psychological thriller, The Reckoning of Grace, Book 3 of the Sage of Grace series.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Macavity Mastery
Winners were unveiled for the 2025 Macavity Awards. The honors, named
after "Macavity: The Mystery Cat," in T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of
Practical Cats, are nominated and voted on by members of Mystery
Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends of MRI. Congratulations to all!
Best Mystery Novel: California Bear by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)
Other finalists:
- Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver (Pegasus Crime)
- Served Cold by James L’Etoile (Level Best Books)
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead)
- The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Doubleday)
- All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (Crown)
Best First Mystery: Ghosts of Waikiki by Jennifer K. Morita (Crooked Lane)
Other finalists:
- Outraged by Brian Copeland (Dutton)
- A Reluctant Spy by David Goodman (Headline)
- You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen (Dutton)
- The Expatby Hansen Shi (Pegasus Crime)
- Holy City by Henry Wise (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Best Mystery Short Story: “Home Game” by Craig Faustus Buck (in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2024)
Other finalists:
- “The Postman Always Flirts Twice” by Barb Goffman (in Agatha and Derringer Get Cozy)
- “Curse of the Super Taster” by Leslie Karst (in Black Cat Weekly, Feb 23, 2024)
- “Two for One” by Art Taylor (in Murder, Neat)
- “Satan’s Spit” by Gabriel Valjan (in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem)
- “Reynisfjara” by Kristopher Zgorski (in Mystery Most International)
Best Historical Mystery: Fog City by Claire Johnson (Level Best Books)
Other finalists:
- The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur)
- An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington)
- The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan (Soho Crime)
- The Bootlegger’s Daughter by Nadine Nettmann (Lake Union)
- A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
Best Nonfiction/Critical: Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press)
Other finalists:
- Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland)
- Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)
- Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis (Pegasus Crime)
- The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Crown)
- On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (Ohio State University Press)
Monday, October 6, 2025
Media Murder for Monday
THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES
Lou Diamond Phillips (Young Guns) is set to direct and appear in the legal thriller, The Ambulance Chaser, based on the novel by Brian Cuban, brother of Mark Cuban. The story follows Atlanta attorney Jason Fredricks, a successful but morally conflicted lawyer whose life unravels when human skeletal remains tied to his past resurface. Quickly identified as a "person of interest" tied to a decades-old murder, Fredricks must navigate among the detectives determined to nail him, his District Attorney ex-wife, and his law practice that feeds off of "injured" clients, all while desperately trying to clear his name, protect his son, and expose a web of corruption and betrayal. The project is envisioned as the first installment in a trilogy.
Emmy winner Jason Bateman (Ozark) will be making his third feature as a director with Universal‘s adaptation of John Grisham‘s The Partner. The film stars Tom Holland as Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a Biloxi law firm who fakes his own death in a burning car. He leaves behind a wife, newborn daughter, and a secret. What he’s actually done is create a template for a new life by stealing $90 million from a client of his crooked law firm and find happiness and love in South America. When the client who worked so hard to defraud the government finds the money is missing from his offshore accounts, he becomes determined to hunt down the lawyer he doesn’t believe is dead. That leads the attorney to have to turn himself in to the FBI and face up to the wife, child, and life he left behind.
Filmmaker Duane Edwards’s independent thriller, Laura Louise, has lined up its cast including Corbin Bernsen (LA Law), Denise Sanchez (Bosch: Legacy), Gilbert Owuor (Emancipation), Patrick Mulvey (The Girlfriend Experience), Kristen Bush (Paterno) and Campbell Krausen (Ghostlight). The project follows Edward Brannock (Bernsen), a retired postal worker thrust into the center of a reopened missing person’s case. As new evidence surfaces decades after a teenage girl’s disappearance, Brannock faces mounting scrutiny and must confront long-buried family secrets he’s desperate to keep hidden. The film is based on an original screenplay by Frederick Mensch (HBO’s Nightingale), who previously collaborated with Edwards on the 2024 feature drama, Wrong Numbers, starring Emily Hall and David Kelsey.
Black Bear has acquired the U.S. rights to Tuner and will release the film theatrically in 2026. Tuner is the feature directing film debut of Oscar-winning writer Daniel Roher (Nalvany) that stars Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, Havana Rose Liu, and Lior Raz. Woodall plays a former piano prodigy turned piano tuner apprentice who is down on his luck. Using his excellent auditory skills to help out his found family (Hoffman) in a time of dire need, while finding love and inspiration in unexpected places with a composer (Liu), he’s forced to make tough decisions as he gets involved in the unsavory business of cracking safes. The romantic thriller premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals and will mark the company’s second theatrical release.
Filming has wrapped in Wales, UK, on Gareth Evans's new feature, A Colt Is My Passport, the Amazon MGM Studios/Orion Pictures reimagining of Nikkatsu’s 1960s Yakuza hitman thriller. Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London). will take on the lead role, with supporting casting including Oscar nominee Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction), Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), Victor Alli, (Bridgerton) Ewan Mitchell (The Last Kingdom), Burn Gorman (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and Noah Taylor (Edge Of Tomorrow). The update of the hardboileded noir original will be set in 1978 Detroit and tell the story of Colt, a Vietnam veteran turned contract killer, who goes on the run after assassinating a gangland boss.
Academy Award winner Mel Gibson and Renata Notni (Zorro) have inked deals to join Esai Morales in Coyote, the border thriller from filmmaker Per Prinz. The project follows Hernán Barroca (Morales), a weathered ex-smuggler pulled back into the dangerous world he thought he had left behind. When Hernán helps Julia and her young daughter, Maribel, navigate treacherous borderlands, their desperate journey triggers the wrath of a ruthless trafficking syndicate. As the past and present collide—with U.S. Border Patrol agent Bradley joining the pursuit—Hernán must rely on his cunning and grit to survive and find redemption. Gibson plays Jack Bradley, a weathered U.S. Army Sergeant and father of Border Patrol agent Liz Bradley. Notni portrays Julia, a mother fighting to get her daughter to safety, as she ventures through the borderlands between the U.S. and Mexico.
TELEVISION/STREAMING
Amazon Prime has ordered a four-part series based upon Murder in the Dark, the first of influential Danish literary icon Dan Turèll’s "Murder Series" of crime novels. Murder in the Dark follows a retired and hard-bitten "nameless journalist" and his daughter Sophie, who is an ambitious police detective. The pair are forced work together to solve a series of mysterious murders. Specifically, their alliance begins after a prominent lawyer is brutally killed, shortly after agreeing to reveal secrets from his criminal past in a tell-all book the journalist was going to write. Turèll’s books inspired 1986 movie Murder In The Dark with musician and actor Michael Falch playing the lead, a role he will reprise in the new series. The cast also includes Alex Høgh Andersen (Vikings), Katinka Lærke Petersen (Elsker dig for tiden), Sofie Torp (Carmen Curlers), Lisbeth Wulff (Borgen), Kristian Halken (Rom), Alexandre Willaume (Tomb Raider), Clint Ruben (Graverne), and Benedikte Hansen (Badehotellet).
Patrick Macmanus, the man behind series including Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy and Dr. Death, has another true-crime story in the works. Macmanus is adapting the Vigilante podcast as a scripted series for the NBCUniversal streamer. The series follows Tim Miller, a famous search-and-rescuer in Dickinson, Texas, who’s helped track down hundreds of missing persons. After 38 years of searching, he’s now convinced that he’s finally solved his own daughter’s murder. The story explores a father’s obsessive pursuit of justice for his missing daughter, highlighting the devastating impact of loss and raising questions about the boundaries between justice and vigilantism.
Iceland’s production powerhouse Glassriver has inked a major international distribution deal with Mediawan Rights for the crime thriller series, Elma, based on Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s best-selling books. When a body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that she's no stranger to the area. Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes following a personal trauma, and her colleagues Sævar and Hörður, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers a shocking secret in the dead woman's past that continues to reverberate in the present day. But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries, they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the townspeople's shattered memories, they have to dodge increasingly serious threats, and find justice … before it's too late.
Netflix and the BBC announced a two-season Peaky Blinders sequel series. The 12-episode spinoff will stay in 1950s Birmingham, picking up after the original show’s six-season run and the events of the upcoming follow-up film. After being heavily bombed in World War II, Birmingham is building a better future out of concrete and steel. The race in on to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project, which becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions. Original star and Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) will serve as one of the executive producers.
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO
On NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, host Scott Simon spoke with Janice Hallett about her new novel, The Killer Question, a tale of a trivia night that turns deadly.
The New York Times chatted with British mystery writer Richard Osman, author of the Thursday Murder Club series about why seniors make ideal fictional detectives and how a "cozy" murder mystery is the perfect frame to explore growing old.
David Jarvis chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new spy thriller, The Green Feathers; Five Eyes; Mike Kingdom; the zeitgeist; and the lighter touch.
The latest episode of Meet the Thriller Author featured author Nicole Trope, whose novels have gripped readers around the world with their mix of raw emotion and edge-of-your-seat suspense, to discuss her latest book, My Daughter’s Secret.
Debbi Mack's latest guest on the Crime Cafe podcast was author Desmond P. Ryan. a former police detective with the Toronto Police who draws on his experiences to write two very distinctive series, the Mike O’Shea series of gritty police stories, reminiscent of Joseph Wambaugh, and a series called "A Pint of Trouble," which is closer in tone to the Thursday Murder Club books by Richard Osman.
On the Tipping My Fedora podcast (which just celebrated its one-year-anniversary), host Sergio Angelini welcomed Professor Stacey Abbott, co-author of TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen, to discuss the John Wick series starring Keanu Reeves.
The latest episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast welcomed Brian Brady, a retired Chief of Police and corporate security executive, who has published three crime novels, including his latest, Greed.
Read or Dead hosts Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books on the cozier end of the mystery spectrum that also feature cute animals.
Want to know what cocaine has to do with residency hours? What genetic disease can kill you in the operating room? How a missed diagnosis resulted in changes to the training of every American intern and resident afterward? The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated.