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.

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

Bradley Cooper has signed on to star in Paramount Pictures's new GI Joe movie. Cooper will portray Duke, the de facto leader of the G.I. Joe team, previously played by Channing Tatum in 2009’s G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and 2013’s sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Danny McBride will make his directorial debut on the project, which is being touted as a reboot for the G.I. Joe live-action film franchise, which also included the 2021 movie Snake Eyes starring Henry Golding.


Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) will headline the new action movie, Shades of Paradise, from Weston Razooli (Riddle of Fire). The film follows four small-time criminals who are thrown into an odyssey of violence and betrayal following a jewel-heist, and is shot on 2-perf 35mm film by Simone D’Arcangelo (The Settlers). Also starring are Jack Dylan Grazer, Naira Lleo, Najwa Nimri, Rojuu, Zack Harrod, Teru Castilla Serrano, Romann Berrux, Rhys Mitchell, and Stanislav Baretsky. Oscar-nominated producer Andrew Morrison of Kaplan Morrison produced the project.


Andrew Schulz is set to join Universal and Joseph Kosinski’s Miami Vice ’85 picture starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. He joins stars Whitney Peak, Alden Ehrenreich, Camila Morrone, John Leguizamo, and Danny Ramirez. Miami Vice ’85, with a screenplay by Dan Gilroy, explores the glamor and corruption of mid-1980s Miami in an all-new version of Miami Vice, inspired by the pilot episode of the landmark 1984-90 NBC series. The movie will be filmed for Imax and is set for release on May 19, 2028.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Prime Video handed its flagship drama, Reacher starring Alan Ritchson, a Season 6 pickup just 12 days after the Season 4 finale and four months after the early Season 5 order, the first time the show has received two renewals in the same year. The expediency helps the series, developed by Nick Santora and based on Lee Child’s books, to stay on a yearly cadence. Season 5, which already had been largely written at the time of the May greenlight, started production in late July in Toronto, ahead of Season 4’s August 12 premiere. It is based on Make Me, the 20th book in Child’s series. It has not been determined which novel will serve as source material for Season 6.


Hulu is currently in development on a TV adaptation of the Elle Kennedy (Off Campus) novel Thornbird, with Marlene King (Pretty Little Liars) set as writer and executive producer of the 20th Television project. Thornbird is a coming-of-age thriller about a girl at the center of her own true-crime mystery. Ten years after her father—the infamous serial killer Gabriel Thorn—was caught, 17-year-old Ryan Shipley is back in her childhood hometown of Starling, Tennessee, trying to lay low. No one can know who the truth about her past, as all Ryan wants is a chance to live as a normal teenager. The book is the first title released by Kennedy under the pseudonym E. Kennedy, and follows one girl’s race to solve the crimes of her family’s twisted past before it’s too late.


The Fast & Furious franchise is coming to television after Peacock greenlit its first television series based on the hit movie franchise, which has made more than $7 billion at the global box office over the past 25 years. The series hails from Mike Daniels and Wolfe Coleman, who will write and serve as co-showrunners. The Fast & Furious action thrillers centered on a series of films revolving around street racing, heists, and spies.


Hugh Laurie is the latest addition to The Trial of Louise Woodward, HBO‘s true-crime limited series from creator Matthew Barry. The show also stars Catriona Chandler, Joanne Froggatt, Meghann Fahy, Sagar Radia, and Chloë Sevigny. The Trial of Louise Woodward tells the shocking true story of how an 18-year-old British au pair (Chandler) was accused of shaking to death a baby left in her care by her American host family, setting off an international media firestorm as the trial unfolds in full view of both the British and American public. Laurie plays Judge Hiller B. Zobel, of the Massachusetts Superior Court, who presided over the murder trial. As previously announced, Froggatt plays Louise’s mother, Susan, with Fahy and Radia as Deborah and Sunil Eappen — parents of the victim, Matthew Eappen. Sevigny plays Louise’s defense attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp.


Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris) and Taylour Paige (I Love Boosters) are set to topline Tyler Perry‘s Confabulation, a new Netflix thriller written and directed by Perry that will also feature Shamier Anderson (John Wick: Chapter 4) in a key role. The film follows a firefighter haunted by his past and struggling with reality who risks everything to rescue his high school sweetheart from her powerful husband, only for the truth to unravel in a shocking twist that questions what is real and what is confabulation. Others set for parts include Nadine Ellis (Our Kind of People), Peter Parros (The Haves and Have Nots), Najah Bradley (I Love Boosters), Mikeal Dwayne Griggs (Beauty in Black), Jenna Nolen (A La Carte), Michelle Núñez (The Rookie: Feds), Colin McCalla (Ballard) and Shelley Robertson (Bel-Air).


First-look images were released of Matthew Macfadyen descending into the John le Carré universe to play iconic spymaster George Smiley in BBC and MGM+'s Legacy of Spies. The eight-part drama marks Smiley’s long-anticipated return to television, a first in four decades, when he was played by Alec Guinness, although he was also portrayed in the 2011 movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Gary Oldman. Legacy of Spies is adapted from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and draws on additional material from 2017’s A Legacy of Spies. When Leamas, a highly experienced Circus field operative, recruits Doris Quinz, a young and dynamic East German woman, to smuggle high-value Stasi documents into the West, it sets in motion a series of events that threaten to explode in the crucible of Cold War Berlin. Pursuing Leamas and Doris are Josef Fiedler and Hans-Dieter Mundt, two Stasi operatives whose ferocious desire to shut down the intelligence leak is matched only by their internal rivalry and an iron will to outmatch each other. Pulled into the action is Liz Gold, an idealistic young woman whose courage and conviction force Leamas to navigate a world where loyalties fracture and betrayal is inevitable.


First-look photos were also released for the final installment of Miss Scarlet (formerly titled Miss Scarlet and the Duke), Season 7, which will premiere Sunday, January 17, 2027, 8/7c on MASTERPIECE on PBS. The full series can be streamed before broadcast with PBS Passport, an added member benefit. Season 7 will also be available on PBS. The series stars Kate Phillips (Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light) as the title character, a Victorian era private detective, alongside Tom Durant-Pritchard (The Forsytes) as Inspector Alexander Blake, with returning cast members Paul Bazely, Tim Chipping, Evan McCabe, Felix Scott, Cordelia Bugeja, and Ansu Kabia also returning to the screen for one last hurrah.


More first-look photos were released, this time for Matthew Barry’s The Last Detective (fka Old Town Murders). The series follows a team of detectives as they investigate a succession of murder cases set against the striking backdrop of Tenby in Wales. Leading the charge are DI Glyn Walsh (Lewis Jones) and DS Sion Dearden (Steffan Rhodri), investigative partners whose instinctive understanding of one another proves invaluable as they navigate complex cases, unexpected twists, and long-buried secrets lurking beneath the town’s picturesque surface. The detectives are joined by DC Remy Jones (Bethan-Mary James), DC Neil Miller (Jordan Davies) and forensic biologist Pamela Thomas (Julie Graham).


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Elaine's Literary Salon welcomed award-winning author S.J. Rozan (of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mysteries) to discuss the third installment in her new Dee and Lao mystery series, A Warning to the Curious, co-written with John Shen Yen Nee.


On the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast, Barbara Peters was in conversation with Michael Koryta about his latest novel, Die Famous.


Hank Philllippi Ryan stopped by the Get to Know podcast with hosts DP Lyle and Kathleen Antrum, to discuss her writing, including her latest psychological thriller, the page-turning standalone, The House.


On the latest Murder Junction, hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee discussed the true life case of the Cleveland Torso Murderer and Vaseem's latest paperback, The Edge of Darkness, the sixth in the Malabar House series.


The Femmes Detectives chatted with Ava Glass, the UK’s biggest selling female spy writer, who writes about the world of female spies from firsthand experience and has been dubbed the “female heir to James Bond” by James Patterson and “the new Queen of spy fiction” by The Guardian.


House of Mystery Radio spoke with Yasmin Angoe about her new thriller, The Ferryman's Daughter, in which the daughter of an infamous murderer gets caught up in a copycat’s sick game.


The Sisters in Crime podcast welcomed Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, award-winning author of essays and short stories, including those featured in Palm Springs Noir, CrimeReads, Orange County Noir, and more.


Author William Boyd joined guest host Ollie Webb Carter on Spybrary for a fascinating spoiler free conversation about spy fiction, John le Carré, Cold War espionage and the creation of his reluctant spy, Gabriel Dax.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser investigated what dangerous wellness trend causes harm with bubbles, why the treatment for too much oxygen can be more oxygen, and how concentration can make the difference between a mild exposure and a medical emergency.

Sunday Music Treat

Sergei Rachmaninov (a/k/a Rachmaninoff) is one of Scott Drayco's favorite composers. Here's one of Rachmaninov's pieces, the Prelude Op.23 No.5 in G minor, which was used in the Drayco mystery, The Suicide Sonata, as played by another talented pianist, Vladimir Ashkenazy:

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy

For all the writers out there who are getting a late start in life, the author of my FFB pick for today should be an inspiration. W.J. Burley started his career as an engineer before going back to college to study zoology and becoming head of the biology department at Newquay School in Cornwall. But he'd always wanted to write, and finally saw his first novel published when he was 51.

He said his intention was "to write interesting detective fiction which did not exploit extreme forms of violence or sex and was relatively free of four-letter words. In doing this I thought I might help fill a gap that was left in the market by the gradual disappearance of the traditional whodunnit." His first effort, Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy, was published in 1968, but it's clear Burley continued in the traditions of the Golden Age of detective fiction from the decades preceding.

The Wycliffe of the title is Detective Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, a man who admits he'd never really felt like a policeman and often wondered why he joined, hating discipline, regimentation, and sometimes order—although he hates violence more. He also loses confidence in himself at the beginning of a case, "avoiding his subordinates for fear of earning their mute criticism, and, forced into their company, he became aggressively dictatorial. Those who knew him shrugged. 'He'll be all right when he's run in.'"

Many of the Golden Age hallmarks are present in the novel: fair play, a rural country setting, a whodunnit-style murder, a small, closed group of suspects and the denouement at the end with Wycliffe gathering the prime suspects together. True to Burley's philosophy, there are no four-letter words and no extreme violence or sex, although sex does play a starring role in the form of the titular victim, Pussy Wells, both by her lifestyle and the double entendre of her name.

The book opens with Wycliffe examining the body of Wells, an attractive 26-year-old who writes crossword puzzles for a living. She's been shot, and only one of her shoes and stockings removed, revealing a deformed foot with three toes. It doesn't take long in the investigation for Wycliffe to discover that Wells was a very complicated and troubled young woman, intelligent but manipulative and cruel. She was also quite promiscuous, using men as her puppets, thereby creating a ready pool of suspects in the small village of Kergwyns. As Wycliffe digs deeper, he links another murder, an attempted murder and an alleged suicide to Pussy's death, all leading to the ultimate resolution and one which leaves "a deeper impression on the superintendent than any in his experience."

Burley went on to publish another seventeen Wycliffe books, as well as six other books including one sci-fi title that Martin Edwards has mentioned in his blog (where he aptly refers to Wycliffe as the "English Simenon").  In 1993, one of the Wycliffe stories was made into a television pilot starring Jack Shepherd, and proved successful enough to inspire 37 episodes over the next five years. Unfortunately, as Edwards notes, people tend to remember Shepherd and his portrayal of Wycliffe, yet have largely forgotten W.J. Burley.

Mystery Melange

We had some sad news this week at the passing of Scottish crime author Peter May at the age of 74. He wife posted a tribute on Facebook from May's publisher and dear friend, Jon Riley, "Although he had announced his retirement, which he was looking forward to sharing with his beloved wife, the writer Janice Hally, May found there was one more novel in him, and he delivered Island of the Dead in July this year. He was preparing for a farewell tour of Scotland and Lewis to coincide with publication in January 2027. Peter May was not only one of the best writers of crime fiction we had, but he inspired enormous affection in his readers and in those lucky enough to work with him. His kindness, generosity and largeness of spirit, loyalty, engagement with life, and the world, made him a much-loved,as well as much- admired figure. He is irreplaceable." More tributes are pouring in, including these from the BBC, The Telegraph, and The Scotsman.


Back in August, news dropped that Wildside Press and publisher John Betancourt were closing down the Black Cat Weekly crime fiction magazine. But this week, Level Best Books announced it's acquiring the magazine and relaunching it as Black Cat Mysteries, a brand-new monthly, digital magazine dedicated to mystery, suspense, and crime fiction. Editors say there will be a new issue every month, arriving on the 13th, with the inaugural issue (appropriately) on Friday, November 13th. Every issue pairs original short stories from today's mystery and crime writers with rediscovered classics from the pulp era, alongside author interviews, industry news, and a recurring feature on the world of mystery writing; the first issue digs into why short stories mattered so much to the genre's Golden Age authors, and why they still do.


Michael Bracken is heading up a free online event focused on writing short crime fiction on Saturday, October 10. Sponsored Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime, this online Zoom presentation will feature panels on "Some Loose Thoughts on Tight Structures," "Short Stories as Building Blocks," and insights from various magazine editors about what they're looking for.


Noir at the Bar heads to the City of Angels on October 11. Eric Beetner takes on hosting duties, with authors scheduled to read from their works including Kasey Lansdale, Luke Goebel, James Queally, Rochelle Staab, Gary Phillips, Dete Meserve, and Lawrence Allen. The venue is the Glen Arden Club in the LA suburb of Glendale.


The new exhibition, “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery,” opens next month at the British Library in London, and includes never-before-seen artifacts from the life of literature’s “Queen of Crime.” The exhibition will take visitors back to Christie’s childhood and explore her journey to becoming an iconic writer, while celebrating how adaptations of her novels for stage and screen continue to enthrall audiences today, over 50 years after her death. Like the works of the novelist it honors, the exhibition will be scattered with “clues” and “Easter eggs” and also feature interviews with fans, journalists and other writers, exploring Christie’s influence on the crime genre. “Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery” will be on view at the British Library from October 30, 2026, through June 20, 2027.


The latest issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Fall 2026) is devoted to "Reappraising James Ellroy," including such articles as "The Conspiratorial Logic of James Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy" and "Ellroy and Macdonald." The publication is under the direction of Managing Editor Elizabeth Foxwell, with guest editors Nathan Ashman (U of East Anglia, UK) and Steven Powell (U of Liverpool, UK).. (HT to The Bunburyist)


Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats has news of Short Mystery Fiction Society Mystery Magazine issue #1, Black Cat Weekly #265, September Smoke, the latest installment in the Declan Shaw Mystery series via Shotgun Honey books, and the Punk Noir FAFO series.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Stop" by F.I. Goldhaber.


In the Q&A roundup, Allison Keeton over at the Maine Crime Writers blog interviewed Dennis Pierce about his debut novel, Swinging for Power; Tracy Maton applied the Page 69 Test to The Artful Anna Harris, her debut psychological thriller; the Alliance of Independent Authors' Howard Lovy chatted with Luke Richardson a former journalist, nightclub DJ, and English teacher who turned his love of travel and adventure into writing thrillers; and Writers Who Kill's Grace Topping interviewed Carol Pouilot about her new mystery that involves time-traveling sleuths, Murder at the Moulin Rouge.

Bookstore Signing-Palooza for October

For those readers who still love print books, here are some mystery bookstore signings coming up in October where you can still see some of your favorite authors in person. (Note that some of these stores also host virtual events if you're unable to travel, so you can check with the bookstores' events calendars for more information.)

Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA:   Eriq La Salle; Adam Plantinga and Barry Eisler

Book People, Austin, TX:  Neal Stephenson; Dusti Bowling

Mysterious Bookshop, New York City:  Teresa Dovalpage; Lindsay Faye; Alexander McCall Smith; Jasper Fforde; Jonathan Ames; Mike Trigg; Jenna Helwig; Kasey Lansdale

Once Upon a Crime Books, Minneapolis, MN:  James Arlen Anderson 

One More Page, Arlington, VA:  Lindsay Faye

Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, AZ:   Brian Freeman; Dusti Bowling; Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale; Tasha Alexander and Andrew Child; Mariah Fredericks; Allison Brennan, Jennifer Graeser, and Paige Shelton; Michael Connelly; Andrew Klavan

Politics & Prose, Washington, DC: John Grisham and David Baldacci;

Powell’s, Portland, OR: Jasper Fforde; Neal Stephenson; Lindsay Faye

Tattered Cover, New York, NY:  Ryan Burruss; Marc Cameron; Lynn Horton; Rob Samborn

Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA:  Trish Lundy; John Stephens; Gary Phillips and DC Frost;