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

Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin are returning for Sicario 3, with Padraic McKinley (The Weight) set to direct, and Oscar nominee Steven Knight penning the script. Details surrounding the plot are being kept under wraps, although the first film in 2015 followed FBI agent Kate Macer (Blunt) who joins a covert DoD task force targeting a Mexican cartel. Operating outside legal boundaries with CIA handler Matt Graver (Brolin) and the mysterious fixer Alejandro Gillick (Del Toro), she discovers the mission's true purpose goes far beyond what she was told. It was nominated for three Oscars and followed by the 2018 sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado.


Aldis Hodge and Wunmi Mosaku are set to star in One Night Out for Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures, with George Tillman Jr. directing. The film, based on a short story by Nelson Greaves, follows a married couple with marital issues who leave a babysitter at home with their three kids during a rare night out. When they see someone strange in their house on the nanny cam, the night goes horribly awry, and they must race home and work together to save their kids.


Paul Walter Hauser (Resident Evil) has inked a deal to star in Garden City, a new crime drama from Magenta Light Studios. Based on a true story, the project is written and directed by Chappaquiddick's John Curran. The film follows Dan Day (Walter Hauser), a quiet resident of Garden City, Kansas, whose life becomes unexpectedly entangled in a plot targeting the city’s Somali Muslim community. As the threat unfolds, the lives of those at the center of the thwarted attack begin to intersect, revealing a community grappling with fear, prejudice, identity and belonging. What begins as an isolated act ultimately becomes a deeply human story about the people caught on opposite sides of a growing divide and the choices they make when their community is put at risk.


Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Oscar-winning filmmaker Brian Helgeland’s Outside Man, starring Ice Cube and Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones. Helgeland wrote and directs the film, which follows former Chicago mob enforcer Ruben Bowman (Ice Cube). After Ruben is released from prison, he is a man intent on changing his life. Disappearing into rural Texas, he finds work under the skilled furniture craftsman and retired Texas Ranger, Gus Wanamaker (Jones). As Ruben and Gus form an unlikely friendship, the bond is jeopardized when both men’s pasts threaten to catch up with them.


Amazon MGM Studios is developing A Murder to Remember, a feature adaptation of Brynn Kelly‘s Audible Original, from Grey Gardens helmer Michael Sucsy. The project is described as a "razor-sharp romantic thriller" that follows a Jane Austen-obsessed American art expert and a broke-but-charming British lord who awaken after a blackout-drunk night at a crumbling English abbey convinced they witnessed a murder. With no evidence of a crime and no one willing to believe them, the unlikely pair must uncover the truth before the killer silences them for good.


Keith Kjarval and Renny Harlin, the producer and director of the upcoming The Beast, are collaborating again on Athina, an action-thriller to shoot in Europe next spring. Written by Kjarval, the film centers around two estranged brothers who descend into Athens’ criminal underworld in search of a missing young woman. In the process, the pair get caught between two powerful families and the violent past that once tore the brothers apart.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Jennifer Beals (The L Word) and Katheryn Winnick (Vikings) are set to lead the new Lifetime Original movie, Murder in Cold Country, based on a story by bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, creator of the Rizzoli & Isles series, and Dan Rosen. The drama follows Miami-based detective Maya Lewis (Beals), still haunted by a brutal encounter with a serial killer who murdered her husband and held her captive for days. Desperate to rebuild her life, Maya relocates to Alaska, where she is partnered with Detective Joanna Doyle (Winnick), an accomplished officer carrying the weight of her own devastating past. The women recognize each other from group therapy and immediately are distrustful of one another. When their first case involves another therapy-group member who has been targeted by a killer using methods eerily similar to those from Maya’s past, the detectives must set aside their differences to uncover the truth.


NCIS: New Orleans star Scott Bakula is eying a return to CBS with another procedural drama, which is in early development at the network. The drama is currently being described as "a high-concept detective procedural set in Los Angeles," and will be written and executive produced by Perception co-creator Michael Sussman, who was a writer-producer on one of Bakula’s signature series, Star Trek: Enterprise. And in a nod to another classic Bakula show, Deadline reports that his character will be quite a “leap” from the one he played on NCIS: New Orleans.


In a highly competitive situation, Apple TV has landed the rights to develop All the Little Houses, a drama series based on the recently published novel by May Cobb. All the Little Houses is set in the wealthy enclave of Longview, Texas, where Charleigh Anderson has clawed her way from outcast to undisputed queen bee. But when a seemingly perfect, prairie-kissed family arrives in town — complete with a trad-wife mother, woodworking father, and wholesome daughter — Charleigh finds her carefully constructed world under threat. As two formidable women go head-to-head, their battle for the soul of Longview exposes the secrets, resentments, and desires lurking beneath its picture-perfect surface.  


Two of Britain’s top actors will pair up in the latest BBC Christmas ghost story special, The Bride’s Chamber. Martin Freeman (Sherlock) and Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones) will star in the Dickensian story, alongside Adrian Scarborough (The Chelsea Detective), Joe Armstrong (Happy Valley), India Fowler (The Agency) and Lewis Shepherd (Lynley). The Bride’s Chamber is considered among Charles Dickens’ darkest stories and was originally published in 1858. It tells the story of a spurned and vengeful suitor who manipulates a young woman and marries her to claim her fortune—but his murderous plan creates his own purgatory. As is tradition at the BBC, Mark Gatiss has created the special, which is the ninth and now a staple of British TV festive season specials.


The Icelandic crime thriller series, Elma, will launch domestically on Síminn’s streaming service on October 15. Adapted from global bestselling author Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s book series, the drama is set in the small port town of Akranes in Iceland and follows police detective Elma (Unnur Birna Backman), who returns to her hometown having fled a romantic affair that left her in pieces, and is assigned to the local force. After a woman’s body is found lying at the foot of a lighthouse, terrible secrets resurface from the past, and Elma’s colleague, Saevar (Nikulás Hansen Daðason), could prove to be her only salvation.


Roku has given a green light to Scarlett Holmes, a new Roku Original limited series, with Lucy Hale set to star and executive produce. Said to "put a fresh, romantic spin on the legendary world of Sherlock Holmes," Scarlett Holmes revolves around the titular character played by Hale, a modern descendant of Sherlock Holmes who has inherited his legendary powers of observation, but instead of solving crimes, she takes on mysteries of love, dating, and relationships. Joining Scarlett in each episode is her trusty sidekick, "Jane Watson" (casting TBA). But while Scarlett may be an expert at solving everyone else’s romantic problems, her own love life proves far more difficult to decipher. When she falls for “Ollie Moriarity” (casting TBA) — a charming podcast producer secretly planning an exposé on her methods —she’s faced with the toughest case of all: her own.


Anna Pigeon has been renewed for Season 2 at USA Network. Based on the New York Times best-selling novels by Nevada Barr, the first season follows Anna Pigeon (Tracy Spiridakos), a former city slicker who became a park ranger after a devastating loss changed the trajectory of her life forever. While Anna tries to outrun her demons, her focus turns to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds, no matter who or what gets in her way. Season 1 also stars Paulina Alexis, Ronnie Rowe, Tricia Helfer, Kim Coates, Crystle Lightning, Cooper Levy, Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, Ryan Northcott, Nikki Rae Hallow, Jordan Sledz, and Melanie Scrofano.


The BBC and BritBox’s Poirot series, Hercule, has unveiled more cast including Katherine Parkinson (Rivals), Omari Douglas (Black Doves) and Toby Stephens (Jane Eyre). As with previous cast releases, the trio’s roles are being kept under wraps, but the BBC and BritBox revealed the second book to be adapted for Mammoth Screen’s TV show will be Agatha Christie’s Peril at End House, following Lord Edgware Dies. However, the third novel that the show will be partially based on has yet to be revealed.  Edward Bluemel plays the lead, with the six-episode drama billed as “an intimate study of Hercule Poirot” while introducing the world’s greatest fictional detective to “future friends, allies and one particular nemesis.”  


Prime Video has ordered a new series about Karen Read (as yet untitled), starring and executive produced by Elizabeth Banks (Cocaine Bear) and inspired by the podcast, Karen. Based on actual events, the series tells the story of a Boston police officer who is found dead in the snow during a blizzard. All eyes are on his girlfriend, Karen Read, but when she and her legal team claim she’s not only innocent, but that she’s the victim of a conspiracy protecting the real assailants, the story spreads like wildfire, dividing a community in ways they’ve never seen. As endless suspicion mounts in multiple directions, this genre-bending series explores society’s explosive obsession with true crime.


Apple TV has acquired the hit Aussie series Dustfall starring Anna Torv (Fringe, The Last of Us). Described as a "propulsive, atmospheric tropic noir," the project follows seasoned detective, Antigone "Tig" Pollard (Torv), whose deep sense of justice is challenged by a world where victims are doubted, predators hide in plain sight, and the legal system too often falls short. Tig is called in to investigate a harrowing sexual assault case, which spirals darker after a key suspect turns up dead. Torv leads the cast of the Dianne Taylor-penned series alongside fellow cast members Juliet Stevenson, Peter Fenton, and Bert LaBonté.


Paramount+ has renewed the Sylvester Stallone-led Tulsa King for a fifth season ahead of the show’s fourth season premiere on October 16. Production just kicked off in New York, a new location replacing Atlanta due to the storyline that will explore Dwight “The General” Manfredi’s (Stallone) mafia roots. Scarlet Rose Stallone will return as Spencer for Season 5 with a promotion to series regular. There will also be five new regulars joining the fold: Erik Palladino (I Play Rocky), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Anthony Skordi (The Last Frontier), and Nickola Shreli (Power Book IV: Force). 


Peri Gilpin, known for her celebrated role as Ros in Frasier, will guest star in the second season of Acorn TV’s You’re Killing Me, led and executive produced by Brooke Shields. Gilpin will play Allie’s (Shields) sister, Audra Chandler, a critically acclaimed writer with more awards than William Faulkner. Her pieces have been published in the most prestigious journals in the literary world, which drives Allie up the wall because, despite being a commercial success, she’s never felt she’s measured up to her seemingly perfect sister. But when Audra finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery while visiting Allie, their complicated relationship — and how it evolves — becomes the heart of the story. In addition to Shields, the series also stars Amalia Williamson as Andi and Tom Cavanagh as Jack.


FX has set Havana Rose Liu to star in a crime drama pilot from Widow’s Bay Emmy winner Hiro Murai and famed Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai that shoots in Bangkok later this month. Developed from an original story by Wong, the pilot revolves around a petty criminal who inherits a share in a mysterious and powerful corporation. She then vaults into a world of unimaginable wealth but also constant danger from a ruthless elite who sees her as the ultimate threat. 

 
PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Award-winning author Bobby Nash returns to Meet the Thriller Author for a special reunion. Bobby first appeared on the podcast in 2015, and now, more than ten years later, he joins Alan Petersen again to discuss his latest thriller, his creative process, and the persistence required to build a lasting writing career.


Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer and independent publisher, Charles D’Amico, about his Neil Baggio series.


Paul Burke joined the Spybrary podcast to discuss Spies on Screen, his definitive exploration of over 900 spy films and television from the earliest days of espionage cinema through James Bond, the Cold War, Slow Horses and today's streaming era.


The Sisters in Crime podcast welcomed A.M. Loweecey to discuss her writing, including the Giulia Driscoll, P.I., mystery series.

Sunday Music Treat

The Adagio for Strings has become one of composer Samuel Barber's favorite works (arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11). It was later made into the 1967 choral version, "Agnus Dei," which you can hear via this link, performed by the King's College Choir:

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten Books" - Monkey Puzzle

Paula Gosling was born Paula Osius in 1939, the daughter of an inventor in Detroit, Michigan. She tried her hand at poetry at Wayne State University and later at a Detroit advertising agency, but wasn't happy. In 1964, she headed to England in search of romance, intrigue and adventure, eventually meeting her husband, Christopher Gosling, whom she married in 1968.

Although divorced after only nine years of marriage, she kept the Gosling surname as she started writing her books. Perhaps she felt she owed him her literary start, because it was loneliness when he was away working that led her to start writing to pass the time. The result was A Running Duck in 1974, which won the CWA's John Creasey Award for the best first novel of the year and was named in 1990 as one of the CWA's Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

Many books followed, mostly standalones at first, including one paranormal book penned under the name Ainslie Skinner. Eventually she created her first series, with Detective Chief Inspector Luke Abbot, and another, the Blackwater Bay series, she set near the Great Lakes with Sheriff Matt Gabriel as protagonist. A third series, which she also set in the U.S., was launched in 1985 with Monkey Puzzle, a police procedural centered around homicide Lieutenant Jack Stryker, which won the 1985 CWA Gold Dagger Award.

Money Puzzle takes place primarily around Grantham University in Ohio, when one of the English professors, Aiken Adamson, is murdered and his tongue cut out. The professor was despised by all of his colleagues for collecting and hoarding secrets about them like the human equivalent of a thieving magpie. Hours before his death, all of the department members were with Adamson at a sherry reception, giving each of them opportunity for murder, in addition to the various motives they had—personal and professional rivalries, envy, sexual intrigue and blackmail.

As Detective Stryker digs deeper into the case, he realizes he has secret ties of his own to one of the professors, Kate Trevorne and starts to fall for her, despite the fact her boyfriend and fellow English prof is the prime suspect. Although at first, the murder is considered a crime of passion (the victim was a homosexual), the case soon takes a different turn when the Chairman of the Department is attacked and his ear cut off. Stryker, recovering from pneumonia, is doggedly determined to nail the culprit no matter what it takes, but when Kate is attacked and the murderer attempts to gouge out one of her eyes, the case becomes personal.

Gosling does a good job of portraying the sometimes cut-throat world of academia with its petty squabbles, jockeying for position and inter-departmental feuds. The characters are also relatively well drawn, although some might find a few cliches that date the book, i.e., the sleazy homosexual (complete with mirrors on the ceiling), an alcoholic Vietnam vet and a cop-hating young professor who participated in campus riots in the 70s. The writing carries you along at a suspenseful clip, but it can also show hints of Gosling's poetry background, like this excerpt following a snowfall:

He loved the city like this, hushed and briefly upended in it headlong run to destruction, mantled with a transient beauty that hid all the dirt and slowed all the hate. In two miles he passed only four cars, and the drivers smiled as they edged past one another in the rutted, twinkling streets. The snow made them momentary partners in adversity, witnesses of that fleeting moment in time when nobody had spoiled anything. Yet.

As a side note, Gosling's novel A Running Duck, written in 1974 (also published as Fair Game), was adapted into two separate films, one starring Sylvester Stallone, titled Cobra, and the second starring Cindy Crawford, titled Fair Game. Unfortunately, like a lot of books-to-film, the results were less than Oscar-worthy; the Stallone version was nominated for a Razzie in 1986 for worst screenplay and Metacritic listed the Cindy Crawford flick as one of its five worst movies based on a novel.

Not that Gosling was particularly worried. In a People interview, she noted she had optioned the film to Warner Bros, for a "mid-five-figure" sum and almost forgotten about it when a friend of her son's alerted her to the fact Gosling's name was in the Stallone film' credits. At the time, she said "I haven't really taken it in yet. It's all very exciting."

Mystery Melange

British author Jeffrey Archer has passed away at the age of 86. His thrillers and sagas of the rich and powerful sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide, while his life was often as suspenseful as his books, including serving as a conservative member of Parliament and serving jail term for perjury and perverting the course of justice. As the New York Times obituary noted, "In a life of achievement and disgrace, ambition, self-promotion, misbehavior and scandal were themes that he knew intimately and that propelled his best-selling novels."


As part of the Kildare Readers Festival in Newbridge, Ireland, there will be a panel on "The Perfect Crime" this Saturday, October 10th. Fiona Sherlock will moderate the discussion featuring John Banville, creator of the bestselling Quirke novels; Patricia Gibney, author of the Detective Lottie Parker series; and Edel Coffey, author of psychological thrillers (Breaking Point; In Glass Houses), who come together for a lively discussion on murder, mystery, and the art of suspense. To register, follow this link.


Across the Pond on October 11th, the Orange County Public Library Foundation will host an afternoon of mystery, authors, great food, and community at The Plot Thickens: Mystery Author Panel & Luncheon in Orange, California. authors Amy Meyerson, Kaira Rouda, and Duane Swierczynski will spill the secrets behind their craft, their inspirations, and how they keep readers guessing until the last page. Moderated by acclaimed author Kemper Donovan. For more information and to purchase tickets, follow this link (proceeds help support the Orange Public Library and literacy programs in the community).


On October 15th Noir At The Bar Seattle returns at a new venue, Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub in Pike Place. Hosted by Scotti Andrews and sponsored by the Northwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, the event will feature authors KB Anderson, Gerald Elias, Bethany Maines, Randy Moon, Roz Ray, Russ Thayer, and Will Viharo.


On October 17, the Mystery Writers of America New York chapter will host a panel at the Parkway Central Library in Philadelphia, PA. The panelists include Ann Aptaker (Cantor Gold series); Mark McNease (Devil’s Wood); Rich Zahradnik (The Bone Records), with Moderator James McCrone (Bastard Verdict). The theme is "A ticking clock: how do mystery writers keep the pace moving to raise the stakes of the story and create suspense?" This event is free and open to the public.


Dawn Barclay recently won the 2026 Lowell Thomas Gold Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for her guidebook, Vacations Can Be Murder: A True Crime Lover’s Travel Guide to the Mid-Atlantic States (Level Best Books). This is Barclay's second win following her 2023 nod for Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible and the Neurodiverse (Rowman & Littlefield).


Mystery Readers Journal has a call for Author! Author! essays (500–1500 words, first person, up-close and personal about yourself, your books, and the theme connection), as well as articles and reviews of mysteries set in India. The deadline for submissions is November 5, 2026.


The College English Association welcomes proposals for presentations on "Mystery, Suspense, and True Crime" for their 57th annual conference, to be held in St. Louis from April 1-3, 2027. In keeping with CEA 2027’s theme of “Gateways,” this special topics area welcomes papers examining mystery, suspense, and true crime across literature, film, television, podcasts, digital media, and the classroom. Topics might include detection and investigation; genre and adaptation; evidence and interpretation; ethics and representation; victim, perpetrator, investigator, and audience perspectives; forgotten or recovered cases and voices; and the changing boundaries between fact and narrative.


Dean Street Press will be releasing a brand-new batch of reissues on December 1, marking the third wave of their project to bring Sara Woods' (1916-1985) legendary legal thrillers back into print. The prolific Anglo-Canadian crime writer produced this specific quintet of mystery tales during the last three years of the decade of the 1960s. These five novels have been out of print for nearly forty years, and the returning titles include The Case Is Altered (1967), And Shame the Devil (1967), Knives Have Edges (1968), Past Praying For (1968), and Tarry and Be Hanged (1969). Her novels featured canny barrister Antony Maitland, a character inspired by her beloved older brother, Antony Woods Hutton, who was a promising young solicitor tragically killed in 1941 during WWII at the age of 33 when his plane was shot down.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" featured Scott Adlerberg with an essay on his story "The Case of the Singular Hands" from The Speculative Detective Agency anthology, edited by Matthew David Goodwin and Richie Narvaez.

Short Mystery Fiction Society president Joseph S. Walker posted the latest monthly update of short crime fiction news around and about, including  the release of The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2026; the publication of Crime Before Our Time: Crime Fiction and Mystery Inspired by History, edited by Peter W. J. Hayes and Deborah Well (Level Best Books); and more tidbits.


Kevin Tipple's weekly Thursday Treats column has news of Black Cat Weekly #266; the latest issue of Dark Yonder, a new anthology from Sisters in Crime Colorado Chapter, Colorado Mystery Merge: Crime Fiction Collection 2; and much more.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Procrastination" by Craig Kirchner.


In the Q&A roundup, Humphrey Hawksley applied the Page 69 Test to his new Rake Ozenna thriller, Operation Icebreaker; John B. Valeri interviewed Hank Phillippi Ryan for CrimeReads about her new thriller, Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, as well as endings, generational scars, and secrets in mysteries; Deborah Kalb spoke with Jacqueline Corcoran aka Jacque Rosman about her Academic Mom Mysteries and also interviewed Katherine Reay about new novel cozy spy novel, The Undercover Bookshop; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Bernadette Bernson about her new novel, The Whitby Protocol, featuring DC Martha Rowe; and the Maine Crime Writers welcomed Paul Doiron, author of the Mike Bowditch series, to discuss his writing and latest book, Storm Tide.

The Birth of a New Magazine

It's always a joy to welcome a new crime fiction publication into the world, which is why I was happy to hear the release of the inaugural Short Mystery Fiction Society Mystery Magazine.  Coming from Murderous Ink Press and editor John Connor, SMFSMM will feature fiction, essays, reviews and interviews, all centered on the world of short crime fiction. As the zine's blurb notes, "Since its founding in 1996, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has actively celebrated, supported and promoted short mystery and crime fiction...[and] the launch of SMFS Mystery Magazine marks an exciting new chapter for the Society. No doubt some things will change as the magazine finds its format, but the underlying aim is to provide a platform for SMFS members to showcase their writings, be that fiction, reviews, interviews and opinion pieces – with the SMFS message board giving up-to-date news on markets, advice to new writers, discussions on trends and styles. Just visit our forum to join the merry band. We’re saving a place for you!"

Let Freedom Read

 

This week marks the return of Banned Books Week, an event originally launched in 1982 in response to a surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. The annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community—librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas. The theme of this year’s event is Let Books Be — Protect the Freedom to Read. 

The bulk of recent bans have been tied to schools, as reported by PEN America, which released its annual Index of School Book Bans report, noting that 11,982 books were banned in public schools, a drastic increase from the 6,870 titles banned the academic year prior. A website called "the Banned Book Index" is hoping to compile all challenged titles across the U.S., and a quick search through the database for mysteries and thrillers turns up books by Patricial Cornwell, Harlan Coben, Edgar Allan Poe, Brad Thor, James Patterson, Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly, and Agatha Christie (yes, even Dame Agatha isn't exempt).

Fortunately, If you want to read the challenged books instead of having someone else decide whether you should, most are available through your local library, independent booksellers, bookshop.org, or Amazon. On October 10, 2026, organizers are asking everyone to take at least one action to help defend books from censorship and to stand up for the library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make them available. And share your actions on social media by using the hashtags #LetFreedomReadDay and #BannedBooksWeek.