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: 

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Morse's Greatest Mystery

The late Norman Colin Dexter (1930-2017) received multiple honors and awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards, the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding services to crime literature (1997) and the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to literature. All of his 13 novels and most of his short stories featured his famous fictional creation, Inspector Morse, who shared a love of classical music and crosswords with the author. The TV series based on Morse, starring actor John Thaw, ran for 33 episodes from 1987-2000, followed by several more episodes of Inspector Lewis, featuring Morse's sidekick, and then a prequel series, Endeavor, about a young Morse, which premiered in 2013.

Dexter's short story output isn't large, with some seven individual stories appearing in various magazines and anthologies, and only one collection, Morse's Greatest Mystery, from 1993 (in the UK; 1995 in the U.S). The 11 stories in this volume include six Morse/Lewis stories; one of Dexter's few American-set stories, about a group of con men; and his only Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Some of the highlights:

"The Inside Story": In the longest of the stories in the group, Morse and Lewis investigate after a young woman is stabbed to death in Oxford. The victim was writing a short story for a crime fiction contest (to be judged by no less than Julian Symons and H.R.F. Keating), and it becomes apparent to Morse there are autobiographical details included in her story that are not only clues, but motive for murder. (As an aside, this story was later bundled into a special edition paperback original, complete with crossword puzzle, and commissioned by American Express.)

"Evans Tries an O-Level":  This is a humorous and complex prison breakout yarn featuring the title character of James Roderick Evans, a convict already involved in two failed breakouts from an Oxford prison, which has earned him the nickname "Evans the Break." When Evans announces he wants to take an O-Level exam in German, this quite rightfully makes the prison Governor suspicious. (The story received a Macavity Award in 1996.)

"Neighbourhood Watch": A German professor's car is stolen and returned with an apology and tickets to the opera. Morse smugly believes it's a ploy to set up a cunning robbery while the professor attends the opera, only the tables end up being turned on Morse instead.

"A Case of Mis-Identity":  In this Holmes pastiche, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes are rivals in trying to figure out the real story behind a disappearing bridegroom mystery, yet it's the loyal Watson who saves the day and has one of his few moments in the sun.

The stories included in the collection are a bit uneven, but the Morse offerings preserve the essence of the character, his intellect, quirkiness and wit. All in all, the longer novel format is probably a better vehicle to provide context for Morse and allow for the more intricate and careful plotting that Morse fans have come to expect.

Mystery Melange - Halloween Edition

The deadline is fast approaching to apply for the Barbara Nelly Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Established in 2021, the grants, one for an unpublished Black author and one for a published Black author, honor the late Barbara Neely, a trailblazing Black crime novelist who was named an MWA Grand Master in late 2019 but who passed away before being publicly honored at the 2020 Edgar Awards banquet. Each award carries a $2,000 cash prize to assist the winner with their writing craft and a one-year membership in Mystery Writers of America, which includes membership in the winner’s local chapter. For more information, follow this link, but you only have until November 1st.


In a post on social media, Avon announced the launch of its new imprint, Already Booked. The publisher writes, "Built for readers, Already Booked’s mission is to give you books you can’t put down and can’t help but share." The Harper Collins website (Avon is itself an imprint of HC) notes that titles will include all genres of romance, romantasy, new adult, thriller, and horror. The imprint, which has already reported seven deals according to Publishers Marketplace, is led by Avon editorial director Christa Désir. (HT to Publishers Weekly)


Level Best Books posted on Facebook that it's been 11 years since Dames of Detection acquired the publisher. In that time, the company has grown to include almost 250 authors and 600 titles under its imprints. Works published by LBB have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer, Shamus, and Robert L. Fish Awards. The Facebook post went on to add, "LBB has had an amazing run so far, but as they say, 'you ain't seen nothin' yet!' Here's to the next 11 years!"


Publishers Weekly posted its list of the the twelve best mystery and thriller novels of 2026. (HT to The Rap Sheet)


Mystery Fanfare has its updated lists of Halloween-themed mysteries and crime nonfiction titles posted online.


Kings River Life (KRL) profiled Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander, complete with a pumpkin recipe, plus there's a review of Summer Coven, a vampire cozy by Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor. Other Halloween-themed posts include an interview with Trisha Blanchet about her new book, Murder Like Magic; a guest post with mystery author Mark Leslie talking about his new book, Ghost Stories of the Great Lakes; and another special guest post perfect for the Halloween season,with author Ed Seaward discussing his new book, London Gothic.


Although KRL's Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is still "officially" on hiatus, editor Lorie Lewis Ham alerted me that they will be doing some holiday episodes. The latest features the Halloween mystery short story "Kill Your Darlings" by John A Tures, as read by actor Sean Hopper, and "Pepper Reece and the Ghost of Arthur Goodwin" by Leslie Budewitz, read by Cady Mejias.


On a special Halloween episode of Pick Your Poison podcast: An old Victorian house; a Halloween séance; a trunk that hasn't been opened in decades. What could possibly go wrong? Dr. Jen Prosser takes on a medical mystery that begins with an evening among friends and ends in the emergency department. Along the way, dis cover why pregnancy can trigger unusual cravings, what compulsively chewing ice might reveal about your health, and what your urine color can tell you. Can you solve the mystery before it's too late?

The authors at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have some Halloween books and treats for readers including Perfect Pumpkin Bread from Cleo Coyle; Halloween Bat Bites via Molly MacRae; Chocolate-Pumpkin Crumb Cake, by way of Maddie Day; Pumpkin Scones from Darci Hannah; a Char-BOO-terie board, courtesy of Leslie Budewitz, and much more.


Mystery Readers Journal's latest issue themed around "Cross-Genre Mysteries" is now available. Cross-genre mysteries retain a central investigation or puzzle at its heart, but layers in other distinct genre such as science fiction, fantasy, true crime, and Westerns. Free online teaser articles include "Crossing Genres Can Be Fun, but It’s Not Always Easy to Do" by R.G. Belsky and "Baking Magic into Mysteries" by Jennifer Chow.

 
Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats column has news of Black Cat Weekly #269; BAM! Stories With a Punch; the new Bouchercon anthology, The Lines We Cross: Stories of Crime & Mystery, and much more.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" featured an essay by by Michel Lee Garrett about her story "Last Train to Clarksville" 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 "Gun Molls" by Peter M. Gordon.


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with London-based author Anna Maloney, author of the new novel, The 10:12, a twisty, high-stakes thriller in the style of Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell, and Claire Douglas; Kalb also chatted with Elle Marr about her new psychological thriller, She Dies in the End, as well as Mike Lawson about his new assassination thriller, McKenna's Guy; and Writers Who Kill interviewed Lane Stone about her new novel, Crimes and Sins, featuring Emma Kelly, the art world’s leading recovery agent who goes head-to-head with modern descendants of the Medici family who have taken their legacy further by adding murder, art theft, and terrorism.

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

Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus) will star as a down-on-his-luck tennis pro who is drawn into the dark world of match-fixing to make ends meet for his family in the crime-thriller, The Journeyman, directed by Bill Dubuque (Ozark). Leslie Grace (In the Heights) will co-star as his fiercely loyal fiancée.


Indonesian singer and actress Agnez Mo, who recently made her English-language screen debut in season 4 of Amazon hit, Reacher, will take on her first English-language movie role in the cyber thriller, C.L.A.Y., joining Nicolas Cage, Michael Sheen, Jordi Mollà, Emilio Sakraya, and Adrian Topol. The film follows a brilliant but socially invisible computer prodigy who finds purpose and belonging when he is drawn into C.L.A.Y. (Clowns Laughing At You), an underground hacker collective whose daring exploits turn digital provocation into real-world consequences. As the group’s notoriety grows, their actions attract the attention of intelligence agencies, criminal syndicates, and rival hackers.


Lyrical Media and Embrace have sold the feature package Butcher & Blackbird, a dark romance based on the books by Brynne Weaver, to Amazon MGM Studios, for release worldwide on Prime Video. Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War), is set to direct. The first installment of Weaver's bestselling trilogy, Butcher & Blackbird follows two competing killers (Emma Laird and Thomas Doherty) who target other serial killers as they attempt to one-up each other. As their unlikely bond grows into something deeper, they start to wonder if a future together could ever be possible.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Elgin James (Mayans M.C., The Outlaws), who is currently shooting his upcoming Prison Break series for Hulu, has already lined up his next project: a TV adaptation of S.A. Cosby’s Southern Gothic crime thriller novel, King of Ashes, at FX. The drama is centered on Roman Carruthers, who returns home to his family’s crematory business in Virginia after his father is left comatose in a suspicious hit-and-run, only to discover his brother’s criminal debts have put the entire family in danger—and he’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.


Lucy Fry (Godfather of Harlem) and Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale) are set as series regulars opposite Jensen Ackles in MGM+'s crime thriller series, Rules of Prey. Based on the first novel in John Sandford’s "Prey" books, the series follows Lucas Davenport (Ackles), formerly a detective in the Minneapolis Police Department, drawn out of seclusion back into law enforcement to investigate a series of confounding murders designed to send a message specifically to him. When an ingenious serial killer begins murdering Minneapolis citizens, Davenport, a brilliant polymath and unconventional investigator, takes the case, sparking an intense psychological duel with an equally intelligent adversary. As Davenport deciphers the killer’s twisted moral code and personal vendetta, he must match wits with a predator operating by his own rules of justice, risking everything to stop a killer who sees their conflict as the ultimate game. Fry will portray Marcy, an inquisitive and unrelenting BCA Special Agent. Brugel will play Rose Marie, an observant yet calculated BCA Superintendent who has, over the years, seen it all.


Kari Skogland will direct Vigilant, a vigilante crime thriller based on a Skúli Sigurðsson novel and adapted for TV by Severance star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. ZDF Studios will sell the English-language show internationally. Vigilant follows a female journalist who is approached by a self-styled vigilante who is waging a violent campaign against sexual predators. The reporter initially sees him as a voice for the voiceless, but soon begins to suspect a darker truth. As her reporting fuels a nationwide debate, the series explores whether violence can ever be justified when the justice system fails.


Varada Sethu (The Other Bennet Sister), Ethan Moorhouse (Ludwig), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey: A New Era), Merab Ninidze (Homeland), and Joshua McGuire (Anatomy of a Scandal) have joined the Season 7 cast of Apple TV's Emmy-winning spy drama, Slow Horses. They join Gary Oldman and James Callis, who returns as Claude Whelan, in the upcoming season. Slow Horses follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but cantankerous leader of the spies, who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes as they frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world. Season 7, based on the Bad Actors novel in Mick Herron’s Slough House book series, sees Oldman’s Jackson Lamb and his Slow Horses on the hunt to find and neutralize a mole at the heart of British Government before the mole can bring down the state.


The crime caper Tall Tales & Murder has racked up more international sales as the team behind the show turn their attention to Season 2. The series bowed on RTÉ in Ireland last month to critical acclaim, and it will soon be on the BBC in the UK and also in other markets. Tall Tales & Murder is based upon the comedic crime "Dublin Trilogy" by Caimh McDonnell and landed a two-season order off the bat. The cast includes Ella Lily Hyland (Black Doves), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Philippa Dunne (Amandaland). The series begins as a nurse at a Dublin nursing home and a car thief in debt to a crime boss work together when a comatose patient wakes, reveals he's a gangster, and claims to have buried Celtic gold that multiple criminals pursue.

 
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

In the latest episode of Spybrary, host Matthew Hurst chatted with crime fiction legend Sara Paretsky, best known for her pioneering private investigator V.I. Warshawski series, about her new spy thriller, Bad Company.


Martin Edwards chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new novel, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife, and some new anthologies.


The latest author to be featured on the Sisters in Crime podcast was Raquel V. Reyes, who uses her Cuban-American heritage in the Caribbean Kitchen Mystery series, which is in production to become the TV series, Miami Spice.


On the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast, John Charles was in conversation with Jaime Jo Wright, discussing her new thriller, The Resurrection of Evania James.


The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured an interview with true crime writer, Doug Kari.