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

Oscar winner Nicolas Cage, Alexander Ludwig, Gabriel Basso, and Maria Bakalova are set to star in the true crime movie, The Brand, based on the investigative New Yorker article by journalist David Grann. Directed by Vincent Grashaw (Gangland) and based on a screenplay by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger), The Brand follows Taylor Hartman (Ludwig) as a young lifer taken under the wing of Carter Briggs (Cage), the feared leader of San Quentin’s dominant white prison gang. When authorities attempt to dismantle the gang by transferring its members nationwide, they inadvertently spread its criminal empire beyond prison walls. Taylor rises through the ranks and is forced to choose between his love, Lilly (Bakalova), and his loyalty to his mentor.


Teyonah Parris is set to star opposite Denzel Washington in Amazon MGM Studios’ and United Artists’ untitled thriller with Christopher McQuarrie on board to direct. The film centers on a former police detective (Washington) serving a life sentence who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Granted compassionate release with six months to live, he returns home to the estranged daughter (Parris) he left behind and a grandson he never knew existed. He only wants to make amends and forget his dark past, but that past has not forgotten him. The film, which is penned by Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner, will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.


Vertical has acquired North American rights to Father Joe, the Venice Film Festival action-thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland, Ever Anderson, Michael Rispoli, and Al Pacino. Written and produced by Luc Besson, the film is directed by Barthélémy Grossmann. The story centers on Father Joe (Sutherland), a man of God unlike any other, who wages a secret war single-handedly busting crime rings and turning the underworld of Manhattan’s Little Italy into his congregation. The cast also includes Fred Melamed, Chris Tardio, and Erik Palladino. 

Jeremy Renner will do battle with London gangs in his next project, as he's set to star in the new movie, 12 Bullets. The story follows a mysterious American who must wage a one-man war against rival criminal gangs tearing through London’s supposedly gun-free streets while armed with a single gun. But with only twelve bullets, every shot must count. Sean Ellis (Anthropoid) is directing from a script written by Tim Walker.  


Lionsgate has greenlit its anticipated John Wick animated film, with Keanu Reeves inking a deal to reprise his signature role as the iconic assassin in the billion-dollar franchise. Shannon Tindle (Ultraman: Rising, Kubo and the Two Strings) will direct the project, which will go back in time to tell the story of John Wick before the first film, as he completes the Impossible Task in order to free himself from his obligation to the High Table and earn the right to be with the love of his life, Helen.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Chris Pratt is returning as Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander and sniper, James Reece, in Amazon's The Terminal List franchise. The next installment will be adapted from Jack Carr’s novel, Savage Son, the third book in Carr’s series following The Terminal List, which was the basis for Season 1 of the TV series, and True Believer, which was adapted for Season 2. Savage Son is centered on a traitorous CIA officer who has found refuge with the Russian mafia with plans to kill Reece. Meanwhile, Reece is recovering from brain surgery in the Montana wilderness of his youth, learning to live again, putting his life back together with the help of investigative journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) and his longtime friend and SEAL teammate Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper). With an unknown entity inside the U.S. government compromised by Russian intelligence, Reece is forced to recruit a team of former commandos to bring his unique brand of vengeance to the Russian mafia on their home turf, turning the hunters into the hunted.


An ensemble of heavyweight actors has joined the Stieg Larsson adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Sky, including Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses) as Henrik Vanger, James D’Arcy (Oppenheimer) as Martin Vanger, Lena Olin (The Housewife) as Isabella Vanger, Camille Cottin (Stillwater) as Erika Berger, Alun Armstrong (The Choral) as Harald Vanger, Jessica Raine (Two Weeks in August) as Cecilia Vanger, and Paul Ready (The Terror) as Birger Vanger. The new cast join David Oyelowo (Silo) and Viola Prettejohn (The Crown), who are playing the lead roles of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander. The long-gestating TV version of the first in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy brings the story into the present day.


Fifty years after the NBC series, Jigsaw John, a new TV show is in the works telling the story of one of L.A.’s greatest detectives through the woman who unexpectedly found herself alongside him. Jigsaw John, whose real name was John St. John, was one of L.A.’s greatest detectives, leading high-profile cases like the Freeway Killer and Black Dahlia. He was with the LAPD for 50 years and ultimately carried its coveted Detective Badge No. 1. In 1982, Jane Howatt was a 35-year-old suburban mother and aspiring writer when she read about St. John receiving the LAPD’s Distinguished Service Medal. With no background in policing or journalism, she picked up the phone and asked one of America’s most formidable homicide detectives if she could write a book about him. What followed was a 13-year journey she took with St. John into the darkest corners of L.A., and Golden Possum Production’s adaptation of her book tells that story.


ITV has commissioned the gripping thriller, Nightswimming, starring BAFTA award-winning actor Lennie James as Matthew, a man who returns to his home in Portugal where he was convicted of the brutal murder of his family years earlier. Weaving between past and present, Nightswimming picks apart the events that led up to the devastating night when Matthew's wife and two teenage sons were brutally attacked in their beachfront home while Matthew was performing his nightly ritual, swimming in the ocean. In the present, Matthew mounts his own investigation into the crime that tore his life apart, confronting old friends, revisiting broken relationships, and interrogating the people who built the case against him. But as he slowly unravels what happened a decade before, he discovers it was someone much closer to home who helped to put him away.


Prime Video has released some first look images and a teaser trailer for Criminal, the upcoming series that features an “interlocking universe” of crime stories based on the graphic novels created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The drama follows two friends who grew up in a life of crime. While one, Leo Patterson (Charlie Hunnam) tries to fight his way out of the world of crime, the other, Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper), is desperate to follow in the footsteps of his father, a legendary outlaw. And when Ricky’s older brother Tracy (Luke Evans) returns home from the Army, their tragic family history comes home with him. Drawn into their orbit are Greta (Adria Arjona), a sharp-tongued car thief from Leo’s past, and Mallory (Emilia Clarke), Ricky’s girlfriend, who fears what he’ll do to get by. The series also stars Richard Jenkins, Kadeem Hardison, John Hawkes, and Logan Browning. Prime Video has the series broken up into two parts, each containing four episodes. Criminal: Part 1 "Coward" arrives on January 13th, 2027. Criminal: Part 2 "Lawless" hits the streamer on January 27th.


Beef creator Lee Sung Jin has launched Lila Pictures and is developing two series for Netflix, including Citizen’s Arrest. The drama was created by Gene Hong, a producer on Beef, who also executive produced other series including Magnum P.I. Citizen’s Arrest follows two longtime friends and neighbors whose obsession with solving a local crime becomes an escape from the private crises neither is ready to face.


The Rockford Files, NBC‘s upcoming reboot of the 1970s series, is getting a special preview on January 2,  immediately following the network’s NFL telecast. The crime drama starring David Boreanaz will have its time slot premiere on Thursday, January 7, at 8 pm ET/PT. In the drama, a contemporary update on the classic series, James Rockford (Boreanaz), newly paroled after doing time for a crime he didn’t commit, returns to his life as a private investigator using his charm and wit to solve cases around Los Angeles. It doesn’t take long for his quest for legitimacy to land him squarely in the crosshairs of both local police and organized crime. Michaela McManus, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Jacki Weaver also star.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Peter James chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new Roy Grace crime thriller, Dead in Three Two One; Brighton crime central; life in a hotel, and more.


On the Spybrary podcast, Nick Harkaway joined Spybrary's Head of Fiction, Paul Burke, to discuss his new George Smiley novel, The Taper Man, Nick’s second novel set in John le Carré’s Circus cycle and the follow-up to Karla’s Choice.


On the latest Murder Junction, thriller writer Louise Candlish stopped by to discuss her latest novel, A Knock at the Door.


The latest episode of  the Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with international banking expert and crime fiction writer Carl Vonderau.


The Sisters in Crime podcast welcomed Victoria Gilbert, who turned her early obsession with books into a dual career as a librarian and author. Retired from her position as a library director, she now works full-time as an author, writing the Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, the Booklover’s B&B Mystery series, the Hunter and Clewe traditional mystery series, and the Campus Sleuth mystery series.


On the latest Pick Your Poison podcast: A 30-year-old chemistry PhD candidate develops progressive difficulty walking and speaking months after a seemingly minor laboratory incident. His stroke evaluation, MRI, and lumbar puncture reveal nothing. What toxic exposure can hide for months, cross ordinary laboratory protection, and turn only a few drops into a fatal neurological mystery?

Sunday Music Treat

If you ever thought classical music was staid and boring, you probably haven't encountered Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613). A New Yorker article referred to him as the "Prince of Darkness" and others have dubbed him the "Madman of the Renaissance" and not without good reason. He was responsible for at least two murders, but the prolific composer of madrigals and sacred works was also known for his complex and imaginative harmonies that were almost two hundred and fifty years ahead of their time. Here's his "Tenebrae factae sunt" from Feria Sexta - Tenebrae Responsories for Good Friday, sung by the Hilliard Ensemble:

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - This Rough Magic

Mary Stewart (1916-2014) was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England and graduated from Durham University, later serving as a lecturer in English Language and Literature there. She turned to writing novels in the 1950s and is considered to be one of the founders of "romantic suspense." Her marriage to Sir Frederick Stewart, one-time chairman of the Geology Department of Edinburgh University, led to extensive travels that provided inspiration for the detailed exotic settings her novels are famous for.

One such novel heavily dependent upon a sense of place is 1964's This Rough Magic, a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel in 1965 (beaten out by John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold). Lucy Waring, a young British stage actress whose first big play folded abruptly, is having a hard time finding work, so she accepts an invitation to stay with her married sister on the idyllic Ionian island of Corfu. At least, it appears idyllic, but on her first morning there, someone shoots at a tame dolphin, a young Greek boy drowns off the coast of Albania, and soon afterward a smuggler washes up dead in a nearby cove. The prime suspect is one of their neighbors, the handsome, arrogant son of a famous British actor-turned-hermit, although he's not the only one with secrets to hide.

In the story, Corfu is the alleged locale for Shakespeare's The Tempest, which provides plenty of fodder for tie-ins to Shakespeare's play, including the character of Sir Julian Gale (who is a Lawrence Olivier clone), elements such as a deliberate take on Prospero's books, a girl named Miranda and a touch of Ariel's music and epigraphs from the play prefacing each chapter, along with plenty of other literary references.

Setting is another major aspect of the novel, not surprising since the author once said she was blessed with a very good visual memory, "almost like a movie camera. When I start describing something in a book, I find myself putting down things I didn't know I'd caught. I'm a sponge, a happy thing for a writer to be":

The alleys were deserted, save for the thin cats and the singing birds in cages on the walls. Here and there, where a gap in the homes had a blazing wedge of sunlight across the stones, dusty kittens baked themselves in patches of marigolds, or very old women peered from the black doorways. The smell of charcoal-cooking hung in the warm air. Our steps echoed up the hills while from the main streets the sound of talk and laughter surged back at us, muted like the roar of a river in a distant gorge.

Stewart is also solid in her characterizations for the most part, with Lucy, the typical plucky-and-feisty Stewart heroine, and the various supporting cast members fleshed out in vivid detail, particularly the aging hermit actor, Sir Julian. As this is "romantic suspense," there are a couple of love-story angles involved. However, they actually take a back seat to the suspense elements that start off slowly but build steadily until the end, which includes a bona fide deus ex machina (involving a young man, a motorcycle and the island's patron saint, Spiridion).

As for male readers hesitant to pick up a Stewart book, Anthony Boucher noted that "it would take a suspiciously over-male he-man to resist the charm and narrative vigor of Mary Stewart's adventure stories." Stewart's strong story-telling skills are indeed evident, something she once commented on:  "I've written stories since I was three and a half, and I think you're either born with the storyteller's flair or you're not. You can learn much about the craft of writing, but you either have the storyteller's flair or you don't. It's no virtue of mine. It's just there."

Mystery Melange

There's still time to register for the New England Clam Bake conference this weekend, November 7-8, in Dedham, Massachussetts, outside Boston. The special guests are Joseph Finder (High Crimes; Paranoia) and Lisa Gardner (the FBI Profiler or Quincy & Rainie series and the Detective D.D. Warren series). The registration fee covers either in-person events (although the deadline for the banquet has already passed) and all virtual events.

This Saturday, November 7, sixteen authors from the Sisters in Crime Chessie Chapter will participate in a "Murder, They Wrote: A Mystery Author Showcase" at the the Elkridge Branch of the Howard County Public Library in Maryland, beginning at 1 p.m. Authors taking part include Donna Andrews, Mark Brutsché, Barb Goffman, Kathryn Holland, Smita Harish Jain, Kathryn Johnson, Deborah Kalb, J. Herman Kleiger, Libby Klein, Julie Moffett, Jacque Rosman, Misty Simon, Rosalie Spielman, Shannon Taft, Marcia Talley, and Jennifer VanderKleut. You can register for free for the in-person event via this link or if you'd prefer, you can attend virtually and register for the Zoom presentation via this link.


The next online Malice with Friends, sponsored by the Malice Domestic conference, is coming up this Sunday, November 8 at 2 p.m., featuring Kelly Oliver in conversation with Alan Gordon/Allison Montclair (the Sparks & Bainbridge mystery series). You can find out more about registering via this link.


Nov 12 Noir at the Bar heads to Oxford, Pennsylvania on November 12 at the Octoraro Hotel. Authors scheduled to appear include Chris Bauer, Jennifer Conley, Vince Dowdle, Todd Harra, Jay "Knuckles" Kennedy, Gary Zenker, David Kedson, Lanny Larcenese, Mike Clarke, Kavitha Goyal, and James McCrone.


"Edgar Allan Poe at UVA: 1826–2026" is a new exhibit at the the University of Virginia's Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.  It discusses Poe's short time as a UVA student (he studied Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and Italian; racked up some library fines; gambled; and drank) and also investigations whether he crossed paths with the then-82-year-old Thomas Jefferson. From his studies and life on the Lawn to the debts that forced his early departure, this exhibition, which runs through April 9, 2027, reveals how Poe’s brief time at UVA shaped his literary imagination.  (HT to The Bunbuyist)


The New York Times (paywall) had a review of the new British Library's Agatha Christie exhibit, where visitors are invited to sift through a lifetime of clues to uncover the woman behind the world’s best-selling crime novels.


Mystery Fanfare has extended the deadline for articles, reviews, and author essays about crime fiction set in India. The new deadline is now November 15, 2026 for submissions. For more information, follow this link.


Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats column has news of Black Cat Weekly #270, the final issue of that publication, which includes short stories by Short Mystery Fiction Society members Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Paula Messina, and Robert Jeschonek; the upcoming Santa Rage II: Another Killer Claus Compendium anthology (Misti Media), and much more.
 

Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" featured an essay by by Holly West about her story “Randy Scouse Git” in the new anthology Daydream Believer: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of The Monkees, edited by Lawrence Allan and Michelle Kubitz.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Insurrection" by Thomas Piekarski.


In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover interviewed British crime writer Martin Edwards, author of the Harry Devlin series, Lake District series and Rachel Savernake books, who has also edited more than 60 anthologies, has won the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger, and is president to the prestigious Detection Club; and In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel welcomed Suzy Aspley, Scotland based author of gothic thrillers featuring journalist Martha Strangeways, to discuss her writing, including the latest novel, The Bone Mother.

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

Keanu Reeves is set to star in Maelstrom, a new Netflix action film from Carry-On‘s Jaume Collet-Serra, taking over the lead from Reacher‘s Alan Ritchson, who exited the project for undisclosed reasons. In Maelstrom, a Federal Marshal assigned to protect the fiancée of an arms dealer turned witness must defend her through one brutal night as a hurricane cuts off communication, strands them without reinforcements, and unleashes the dealer’s men on their safe house. The current draft of the script is by Mark Bianculli; the first draft was by the late Gregory Fitzpatrick. The project has been working its way through the system for many years, dating all the way back to a spec at Warner Brothers in 1993.


Emmy-nominated This is Us star Chris Sullivan has joined Jeremy Holm (House of Cards, Mr. Robot) on the thriller Tessellation as production gets underway in Illinois. The feature directorial debut of screenwriter Michael Moreci follows disgraced puzzle champion and CIA codebreaker Anton (Holm) who is drawn into a conspiracy that forces him to confront the one code he could never crack: the reason his wife had to die. The cast also features Stephen Louis Grush (The Righteous Gemstones) and Winter Williams (Albanian Gangster).


Stoic is launching world sales on Paradise Disturbed, which will see Mindhunter star Holt McCallany return to the serial killer genre. The film is directed by James Khanlarian (The Ghost Trap) and based on the novel by James Robert Fuller. The story follows retired legendary investigator Ron Lee (McCallany), who is pulled back into the dark world he had walked away from when a series of ritualistic murders target him. A tense cat-and-mouse game unfolds as Ron matches wits with a brilliant and sadistic killer who is waiting to unleash their final masterpiece in this game of death. Also starring are Zak Steiner (Euphoria), Lily Donoghue (The Summer I Turned Pretty), and Xander Berkeley (Apollo 13).


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Amazon MGM Studios is developing a series adaptation of The Courier, a new novel from bestselling thriller author Melinda Leigh. A high-stakes international thriller, the series will follow a diplomatic courier named Daisy, who finds herself framed for a plane explosion meant to kill her and cover up a stolen package. Forced to go on the run across Europe to clear her name, Daisy must stay hidden, uncover what was taken, and find out why it was worth her life.  


NBC is eyeing a fresh spin on a literary classic, with a partially gender-swapped police procedural take on The Great Gatsby. The series, titled Gatsby, is billed as a modern-day police procedural about Det. Jay Gatsby, a devilishly charming investigator with a con-man’s gift for reading human behavior, and decorated New York State Police Det. Nicole “Nicky” Carraway, who was born to be a cop but dreams of becoming a writer. The gender-swapped character here is Nicky, a female counterpart to bond salesman Nick Carraway, who as neighbor to enigmatic self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby, serves as narrator to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel. 

Mike Diliberti is developing a new detective drama series titled Worth for NBC and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. The series revolves around decorated Army Ranger Will Worth, a brash war hero turned bestselling author and pop-culture celebrity who stops coasting on his fame when he returns home to his old job as a detective in Nashville. Other executive producers on the project include Jake Coburn, whose Gatsby police procedural for NBC was just announced, and Jack Carr, the bestselling author whose novel The Terminal List inspired Prime Video’s series starring Chris Pratt.


Netflix has renewed the Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell-led political thriller, The Diplomat, for Season 5, two weeks after its season four premiere. The fourth season heavily featured Allison Janney, who plays President Grace Penn, and Bradley Whitford, who plays her husband Todd as they figure out how to manage the fallout of an assassination attempt of the U.S. President on British soil, while handling the issue of a felled Russian warship. The drama also stars Ato Essandoh, who plays Stuart Hayford, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy, Ali Ahn, who plays Eidra Park, CIA London Station Chief, and Nana Mensah who plays White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah.    


The upcoming 20th season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will be the series’ last on Paramount+. Season 20, which will premiere in 2027, wrapped production earlier this fall, so it will not give fans a proper ending, withlongtime Criminal Minds executive producer/showrunner Erica Messer indicating the cancellation decision was sudden and unexpected. This marks the first official cancellation for the new Paramount+ leadership team after the Discovery/Warner Brothers merger. 


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, David McCloskey chatted with Paul Burke about his new spy thriller London Station, avoiding the polemic but hitting the geopolitical; narcissism and humor, and more.


The Cozy Alchemy podcast spoke with Melinda Mullet, author of A Ghostwriter’s Guide to Murder, about the joy of costumes, cozy (and witchy) sleep stories, ghost encounters, and more.


Elle Hartford, author of the award-winning Alchemical Tales series that blend cozy mystery with cozy fantasy, stopped by the Sisters in Crime podcast.

Sunday Music Treat

If you've had your fill of Tricks and Treats and want to lighten the mood, here's a piece of music you're probably quite familiar with but don't know its origins. It's the "Humoresque" No.7 in G-flat Major by Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904). Although one of eight such pieces in a cycle, this particular work has gone to obtain some infamy all on its own, appearing in The Great Ziegfield, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur, the Animaniacs, and countless others. Here it is performed by Balazs Szokolay: