Morning Edition on NPR recently resumed its Crime in the City series in which crime novelists give listeners a tour of the places they and their characters inhabit. The latest installment features mystery writer Julie Smith who sets her stories in New Orleans, which as she says, "is a great place to write mysteries, not because of the city's crime, but because of its secrets."

Variety reported that John Malkovich's Mr. Mudd company has signed a two-year deal with production and financing outfit Mandate Pictures to produce at least one film a year together. The two companies, which first teamed up on Juno, will collaborate on the noir drama Broken City, a story written by playwright Brian Tucker and centering on a cop-turned-P.I. who finds himself "thrust into the seedy backroom politics of a corrupt mayoral election."

The Glenn Beck show on CNN featured an interview this week with Andrew Klavan about his new political thriller, Empire of Lies (published by Otto Penzler/Harcourt). You can find transcripts here.

CNN offered up an article on "Five murders and the movies they inspired," showing that life can indeed be stranger than art and many police officers are most definitely underpaid.