Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Writer/director Dito Montiel's crime drama The Son of No One seemed to have the right pedigree with Montiel at the helm (he was also behind the award-winning 2006 Sundance crime drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) and its all-star cast of Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche and Katie Holmes. Unfortunately, it didn't do well at its Sundance screening, although it may still see life via the right marketing and distribution.

Brian De Palma is going to direct a remake of 2010 Gallic psychodrama Crime d'amour (Love Crime), to be newly titled Passion. The plot centers on two feuding corporate execs, one of whom is driven to murder the other. De Palma told Variety, "Not since Dressed to Kill have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spellbinding cinematic experience."

David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) is preparing a film adaptation of the PlayStation 3 noir thriller game Heavy Rain, which spans four days of the search for a murderer. Known only as the Origami Killer, due to his calling card of leaving behind folded paper shapes at crime scenes, he kills his victims four days after kidnapping them. Although there's not much in the way of detail about the film script, the game's cast of character include a father, a photographer, an FBI agent "with a special skill set," and a retired cop turned private investigator. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TV

CBS has added a new crime drama titled Hail Mary, a buddy P.I. show centered around a suburban single mom in Atlanta who teams up with a street-wise hustler to solve crimes. 

Oscar-winning filmmaker Stephen Gaghan, who also served as a writer for TV's The Practice and NYPD Blue, is returning to the small screen with S.I.L.A., an hour-long drama "weaving together stories about crime, law enforcement, and politics in a multi-layered style not unlike Traffic." Sources close to the project say it boasts the same twists and deep plot scructure as The Wire, but with a more broadly accessible plot making it better suited for broadcast TV.

Edgar Allan Poe, P.I.?  ABC has approved an hour-long drama pilot titled Poe, "a crime procedural that follows Edgar Allan Poe as the world's first detective, using unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 19th-century Boston."

Jim Kouf (Angel) and David Greenwalt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are behind a pilot mixing fantasy with a crime drama recently picked up by NBC. Grimm is described as a "dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales exist."

From Omnimystery/Variety:  "House" executive producer Greg Yaitanes may be developing a crime drama for ABC based on The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, which centers on 28-year-old Isabel Spellman, who comes from an eccentric family of private investigators.

Almost two months after TNT announced The Closer's upcoming seventh season would be its last, comes word the network is looking at ways to keep the lucrative franchise going, even without star Kyra Sedgwick. One option: extending the final season from 15 to 21 episodes. Another: continuing the series with a new lead or launching a spinoff.

Actor Jack McGee (Rescue Me) has joined the cast of the USA drama pilot Common Law, about two mismatched cops: Michael Ealy as jeans-wearing, unshaven Travis Marks, and Warren Kole as tailored suit-wearing, clean-cut Wes Mitchell. The duo are sent to therapy by their ex-marine boss (McGee) for "couples counseling."

PODCASTS/RADIO

From Brian Lindemuth at Spinetingler, a trio of online goodies: free Hitchcock films for viewing; the 1940s radio series The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, free for listening; and an interview with author R.J. Ellory on New Zeland Television.

Gumshoes, Giftbags and Good-byes

If you happen to find yourself in or around Los Angeles tomorrow (Monday), head on over to say goodbye to the Mystery Bookstore. They'll be open all day with bargains throughout the store, but at 6:00 p.m., it's the official farewell party. You can enjoy what they're billing as "one last evening with us – and with the many authors who have promised to drop in to join us in celebrating the fun we've had and perhaps to shed a tear or two. Food, libation, good company, and great books – new, back stock, and collectibles – on sale."  For every $25 that you spend, you'll be given a ticket for a drawing to win one of nine gift bags, which include hand-picked books by owners Kirk Pasich and Pamela Woods and other staff, Robert Crais collectibles and Michael Connelly limited editions.

Lincoln Lawyer Giveaway

 

On March 18th, the film The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the book by Michael Connelly, debuts in theaters nationwide. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who represents lowlife types and operates out of the back of his Lincoln sedan.  Also in the all-star cast are Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Pena and Bryan Cranston, with Brad Furman directing.

Forbes magazine said of the book, "Master mystery novelist Connelly has created one of the most memorable characters in modern American literature, defense attorney Mickey Haller, who narrates this tale. Haller is cynical and ethically challenged (he describes how he bribes bail bondsmen to steer good cases his way), and a negligent (divorced) dad to his daughter from his first marriage. But he comes across as a sympathetic, multidimensional character in whom still lurk idealism, humanity, conscience and a desire to do better by his child, even while he exemplifies almost every stereotype of the ambulance-chasing, publicity-seeking, rule-bending defense lawyer."

For an excerpt from the book, check out this link, and you can also visit the movie's Facebook page here, as well as two movie trailers on Michael Connelly's site.

In advance of the film's release, you can be one of five lucky winners to receive a copy of The Lincoln Lawyer novel, as well as a movie poster. Just send along your name and e-mail address to bv@bvlawson.com (your information will be kept private) and put "Lincoln Lawyer Giveaway" in the subject line. The winners will be drawn at random and posted here on the blog February 1st.

To E or Not to E, That is the Question

The Digital Book World 2011 conference and expo is currently underway in New York City. Galley Cat and the LA Times Jacket Copy are among those blogs offering up dispatches from the heart of it all. If you're on Twitter, you can follow via the hashtag #dbw11. Nervous authors, publishers and booksellers are there, some 1,250 registrants, more than double that of last year.

Many more authors are jumping on the digital bandwagon with stories and books. L.J. Sellers is among those who have divorced their publishers and decided to go it alone. In L.J.'s case, it's been mostly positive, as she notes on the Sisters in Crime blog. Others haven't had quite as much success, and many more will choose to stay with the traditional agency model.

The pace of change is making matters overwhelming for many, and I suspect that will continue for some time to come. A look at the topics to be discussed at Digital Book World will give you some idea of what everyone involved with publishing is facing. From "Author Royalties for Ebooks: What the Agents and Publishers Say Is the State of Play" to "Cost-Effective Development of Enhanced Content: How to Display on Multiple Platforms Without Multiple Headaches."

You can find advice and tips for authors all over the Internet, but some good places to start are Jane Friedman's There are No Rules, JA Konrath and Digital Book World.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

James Gray has signed on to direct The Gray Man, an adaptation of the thriller novel by Mark Greaney scripted by Adam Cozad (of the Jack Ryan franchise). The film follows a former CIA operative-turned assassin as he fights his way across Europe and past special forces in order to save the life of his handler and the handler's family. Gray doesn't want it to turn out like the Bourne films and envisions it as having more "emotional stakes."

Hannibal Lechter as Alfred Hitchcock? Actor Anthony Hopkins is rumored to be in talks to play the legendary director in an adaptation of the non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by author Stephen Rebello. Black Swan screenwriter John McLaughlin wrote the script, and Sacha Gervasi is in talks to direct.

TV

Larisa Oleynik (The Secret World of Alex Mack and 10 Things I Hate About You) will play a recurring role on Hawaii Five-0 as Jessica Kaye, an ex-CIA analyst and Harvard graduate. Kaye assists McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) pursue his arch nemesis, Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos), who was also responsible for the murder of Jessica's fiancé, a CIA field agent.

Law & Order: Los Angeles has not only lost three of its main stars in a cast shakeup, now comes word it won't be returning to the NBC schedule any time soon. The last episode aired on December 1st, and the series was expected to return February 8th, but it's been pulled  from the schedule indefinitely. 

Michael Clarke Duncan has been cast in Fox's untitled spin-off from its popular series Bones. Walter "The Locator" Sherman (based on a character created by Richard Greener), was first introduced in the 2006 thriller The Knowland Retribution, and Duncan will protray Sherman's friend and investigative partner in the series. The character of "The Locator" has yet to be cast.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

NBC has ordered a pilot from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) for a police policedural titled District 17 that's been dubbed "Harry Potter for grown-ups." District 17 will follow a group of policemen working in a magical town called Excelsior. No cast or crew information is currently available.

CBS has picked up Rookies, the cop drama from actor Robert De Niro and Richard Price, a police procedural about six newbie officers sent into high-risk areas.

And from another actor, we have the pilot Exit Strategy, just picked up by Fox. It's co-created by Ethan Hawke, who will play Eric Shaw in the action-drama about a CIA extraction team

PODCASTS/RADIO

The New Criminologist reports that on January 27 at 9 p.m., the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network will launch "Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the Darkside," a weekly hour-long radio program. Guests will include ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, entertainers, informants, prisoners, drug dealers, victim advocates, politicians, crusading reformers and more. You can access the program by going to www.artistfirst.com Thursdays at 9. The show is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. The initial program features Jack Garcia, former FBI agent and best selling co-author of Making Jack Falcone, the story of how Garcia took down a Mob family.

THEATER

This Wednesday, January 26th at 7 p.m. at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in New York, Anika Noni Rose (star of the Dreamgirls and Tony winner for Caroline, or Change) and Stephen Lang (Avatar) will perform stories from the new anthology Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat.

Hot Off the Press

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal has just been published. Themed around Hobbies, Crafts & Special Interests, there are reviews and columns, as well as close to three dozen articles, everything from "Camp Follower for the Weekend? by Suzanne Adair to "Matryoshka Dolls Inspire a 'Nested" Mystery'" by Joyce Yarrow. There are some web-available features, too, including

• Is It Real or Is It a Dollhouse? by by Camille Minichino 
• Constructing Crossword Puzzles by Parnell Hall
• Brewing Up Murder by Cleo Coyle
• Mystery Seen: Detectives with Hobbies by Kate Derie

Editor Janet Rudolph is also looking for fodder for upcoming issues including London Mysteries I, London Mysteries II, Animal Mysteries, Shrinks (and other mental health professionals), so if you're an author and want to write an Author! Author! essay, or have an article or review idea, send her an email.

Mystery Melange

From Peter Rozovsky at Detectives Beyond Borders, comes word about the publication of The Cultural Detective: Reflections on the Writing Life in Thailand by Christopher G. Moore. Moore is the author of the Vincent Calvino crime novels about an American private investigator in Bangkok, as well as various other books about Thailand, where Moore lives. Rozovsky provides the intro to the book and will have a chance to win a copy on his blog soon.

Janet Rudolph sent along a reminder that there's still time to sign up for Left Coast Crime, to be held March 24-27 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If you register now, you can also nominate books for the awards categories. Guests of honor this year are Margaret Cole and Steven Havill, and there will also be day trips available to the spectacular Sante Fe cultural and scenic sites.

Editor Kate Stine notes that Mystery Magazine has some special web-only features during the month of January. Contributor Oline Cogdill shares some of her favorite group author blogs, Gary Phillips takes a look at how e-media is changing the landscape for writers and readers and Lawrence Block is scheduled to talk about his one-man backlist blitz. To kick off the new year, Mystery Scene has set a goal of 1000 Twitter followers, and on the day they reach that target, they'll celebrate by giving away five one-year subscriptions to five lucky Twitter followers drawn at random.

Last week, the crime fiction community was in mourning when news came that the Mystery Book Store in Los Angeles was closing. Now it appears there may be a potential buyer in the wings, according to a report in the UCLA Daily Bruin. Bookstore co-owner Kirk Pasich said a publisher has made an offer, but Pasich will only sell if the new owner agrees to keep it as a bookstore and maintain its character.

Congratulations to crime novelist Peter James, who was named the new Chair of the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) in the UK, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Ian Rankin, Dick Francis and Lady Antonia Fraser.

I Hear a Podcast

Are you itching to take advantage of that new smartphone (or tablet or other audio-playing device) you got for Christmas? Here are some links to podcasts, both audio and video, that you can stream, featuring stories, author interviews, news and tips on writing.

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Podcasts
Each month , AHMM will post a reading of a story from their archives, supplemented with author interviews and interesting tidbits.

Authorlink
Interviews with writers about books, writing, and publishing.

Author Marketing Experts Inc.
Book marketing podcasts on topic such as Getting on Radio, Striking Internet Gold, Successful Press Kits, Find Your Niche.

Authors on Tour — Live!
Authors on Tour is a series of live podcasts made possible by the Tattered Cover Book Store, a premiere independent bookstore with three locations in Colorado.

Barbara Peterson Interviews
Barbara Peterson runs the with Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona and regularly interviews mystery authors who come in for book signings. Many of these are archived on the You Tube link above.

Behind the Black Mask: Mystery Authors Revealed
Writers of hard-boiled, pulp, mystery, and suspense novels reveal secrets about their fiction and the writing life. No longer posting new shows, but the archives is still there.

Booked TV
Podcasts feature interviews with crime fiction writers and real crime scene investigators.

Classic Mysteries
brief reviews of classic mystery novels by Les Blatt.

CrimeWav
A podcast series of crime stories created by Seth Harwood and featuring various authors reading from their stories.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Podcasts
A companion feature to the print magazine, featuring monthly readings and dramatizations of stories by the world's leading writers of suspense chosen from the magazine's archives.

Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Library Podcasts
Featuring author interviews, primarily in the D.C. area, but also others, as well.

I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere
The podcast for those interested in the life and times of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, where it is always 1895.

KQED:  The Writers Block
KQED's weekly reading series featuring writers and performers of all stripes reading the latest short fiction, non-fiction, theater and poetry.

Litopia
Lotipia has two podcasts for writers, the oldest of which is “Litopia After Dark,” which takes a look at the publishing industry, as well as interviewing authors. The newer podcast is a daily feed and is titled “Litopia Daily.” It’s also interactive, in that writers can submit press releases or other relevant information that can be considered for the show.

Netdrag
Interviews With Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, and Crime Fiction Authors And Their Fans.

New York Times Book Review Update
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review, discusses this week's issue.

Noircast
Podcasts about film noir and the fiction that inspired it.

NPR Books
NPR book reviews, news and author interviews — for people who love to read. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs.

The O Line Mysteries
This is a comedy/mystery podcast, a cozy, called "The O Line Mysteries.” It’s a cross between "Friends" and "Murder, She Wrote",  set on a small island in the San Francisco Bay, and told in the old time radio drama fashion.

Reading and Writing Podcasts
Interviews with authors and writers about their books, their writing habits, their favorite novels, and how they got started writing.

Writers on Writing
Interviews with new and best-selling authors.

The Writing Show
Every week or so, they offer a new podcast designed to shed light on some aspect of writing, writers, publishing, and other topics of interest to people who write. They also post articles and other resources to help writers craft their works, get published, market their material, and just feel inspired.

If you have other favorites not listed here, pass them along, and I'll add them to the list!

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Cogan’s Trade, a film based on the 1974 novel by George V. Higgins, starts filming next month in New Orleans. The novel by Higgins, called the best from “the Balzac of the Boston underworld” by the New Yorker, focuses on a private investigator contacted to investigate when a mobster high-stakes game is robbed. 

It’s looking more likely that Bond will be back in 2012, with Daniel Craig returning in the 23rd installment of the movie franchise. It’s been such an on-again, off-again affair due to the uncertainties of MGM’s finances, that it’s hard to believe it’s “on” again. As of now, the release date is set for November 9th. For more on the details, the Rap Sheet has the scoop.

James Franco has signed on to both play the Night Stalker serial killer Richard Ramirez and to direct the film based on Philip Carlo’s book about the mid-80’s serial killer.

TV

Wednesday night, January 19, on Investigation Discovery, author James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, Blood’s A Rover) takes a fresh look at some of Hollywood’s most notorious crimes in the program James Ellroy’s LA: City of Demons. The show includes in-depth interviews “with witless witnesses, preening prosecutors, insipid investigators and jaded jurors.” Oh, and there’s also an animated talking police dog named Barko. Here’s a show teaser.

Hallie Ephron’s book Never Tell a Lie has been made into a Lifetime TV Movie, re-titled And Baby Will Fall, which premieres this Sunday, January 23rd 8 EST. It’s about a young husband and wife expecting a child whose lives are turned upside down when a former flame of the husband’s turns up dead and he becomes a suspect. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

Law & Order: Los Angeles is only into its first season, and it’s already in the middle of a cast shakeup. Skeet Ulrich, Regina Hall and Megan Boone have all been axed. The move is rather puzzling, in light of the fact that the show is the strongest of NBC’s new series in the 18-49 demographic.

Meanwhile, ABC has announced it’s renewing Castle for the 2011-2012 season.

Across the Pond, the BBC and ITV have some crime dramas in the works, including:

• The Body Farm, a spin-off from Waking the Dead, with Tara Fitzgerald reprising her Eve Lockhart character from the series;
• the modern-day espionage drama Page Eight from writer David Hare;
• The Field of Blood based on the Denise Mina novel about a would-be journalist who becomes entangled in a dark murder case;
• Case Histories, a six-part BBC series from award-winning novelist Kate Atkinson, featuring private investigator Jackson Brodie;
• Vera, based on the novels of Ann Cleeves and her fat detective inspector Vera Stanhope;
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher based on the true-crime book by Kate Summerscale about an infamous murder in a Victorian country house.

Across the Pond, part two:  eight one-hour episodes of a potential TV detective series set in Bath during Jane Austen’s time have been written and will be filmed next year. Titled The Regency Detective, the series was created by scriptwriters David Lassman and Terence James and is billed as showing the darker side of the period. (What, no zombies?)

PODCASTS/RADIO

I came across the site Don’t Touch That Dial that features old-time radio programs. Check out the Mystery Monday and Terror Tuesday lineups.

Here’s another fun historical tidbit, a chat between Raymond Chandler and Ian Fleming from 1958.

If you haven’t checked out The Guardian’s author interviews yet, here’s a link to such features as Michael Dibdin, talking about his literary creation Aurelio Zen, as well as Alexander McCall Smith, PD James and Val McDermid.

GAMES

If you’re into online video games and have some time to kill, game developer Hiding Buffalo has just released Something in the Water, part of their Gumshoe Online detective game series. It’s a film noir adventure set in the 1930s about a plan to contaminate a city’s supply.

Contest the New Year

The Strand Magazine has announced a contest to determine who will complete the unfinished Graham Greene novella "The Empty Chair," which for the past year has been serialized in the magazine. According to Andrew F. Gulli of the Strand,  "The Empty Chair" was discovered in a library by French scholar François Gallix while he was going over Graham Greene’s papers for a research project. Here are the rules to submitting your work for the Graham Greene novella writing contest:

1. Do not call their offices.
2. Do not submit any material via regular post. If they receive submissions via regular post, they will be returned back to you.
3. They are looking for something that is 4,000-5,000 words in length. The winner of the contest will receive $500.
4. Submit a Microsoft word file as an attachment to the following email address:greene@strandmag.com 5. If you're interested in finding out what happened in previous chapters, please email them and they'll send you an ms word file with the previous chapters.
5. The deadline for entering your work is Jan 25.

The CWA announced the second Young Crime Writers' Competition to find the UK's Best Young Crime Writer in time for the Crimefest Convention. The competition is open to writers up to 18 years of age, and the deadline is February 18. The word limit for stories is 1,000.

National Public Radio is sponoring its sixth "Three Minute Fiction" contest, with this go 'round's premise "laughter and crying." In other word, write a story in which one character tells a joke, and one character cries. Entries must be no longer than 600 words and be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on January 23, 2011.

Mystery Melange

One of the oldest and most celebrated of independent mystery bookstores is closing its doors at the end of the month. The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles has not only served the reading public and helped launch a few author's careers, it's been mentioned in several crime fiction novels by Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and more, with store employees even used as characters in books by Crais, Lee Goldberg and Duane Swierczynski. Owners Kirk Pasich and Pamela Woods said that "We simply cannot compete with the Amazons of the world and the impact of the economy." 'Tis a sad day, indeed. The small silver lining is that the store will continue in a more limited form, with recommendations, collectibles, and eBooks, on their web site and Facebook page.

Sisters in Crime just released the results of a commissioned mystery book buyer study. The organization's blog states that the report, titled The Mystery Book Consumer in the Digital Age, is "the first of its kind to provide an overview of the mystery/crime fiction book-buying landscape, with information on who buys mystery books, where they buy them, what they buy and why they make their mystery book purchases." Among the findings: the number one factor that determined how mystery readers became aware of books was found to be knowing/liking an author – making author "branding" even more important than conventional wisdom suggests.

Interested in learning more about mystery writing? Plan on being in the UK in April?  Then you can sign up for an intensive three-day workshop with expert tuition from RJ Ellory and Val McDermid. In addition to learning about writing, research and editing, there will be chance to discuss your individual projects in the course.

The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association used to include a compilation of the bestsellers among its member stores each month, but after several months' hiatus, they've returned with a new format. They'll now feature a different member bookstore each month, starting with the Seattle Mystery Bookstore in December and Mystery on Main in January. The idea is that the new listing will highlight the "quirky diversity of our membership, as well as displaying what mystery fans around the country are reading."

Timing is everything, probably why a brand new website has been created to take advantage of the boom in Scandinavian Crime Fiction as "your literary portal into northern deviance." There are currently 15 authors, and one would assume more to come. I found this tip, by the way, from the excellent Scandinavian Crime Fiction blog and companion web site created and operated by Barbara Fister. 

Steve Lewis's Mystery File blog is adding Tise Vahimagi to provide "an occasional series of observations on popular cycles and phases in the history of the TV Crime & Mystery genre." Vahimagi is currently the TV Database Editor for the British Film Institute.

Want to have an easy path to writing a crime novel and getting it optioned for TV? Work as a TV producer first. Following on Anthony Zuiker's (CSI) seven-figure deal with Dutton to create a series of three suspense-thriller "digital novels," Neal Baer (SVU) is making his novel writing debut with a series of three medical thriller books set in the world of forensic psychiatry.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Soon after the debut of the best-selling book The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, Tom Cruise optioned rights for a film and was set to star. Due to problems at United Artists, the project has now been sold to Fox 2000, with George Clooney in the lead role, and Chris McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander writing the screenplay. The book is based on the true-life  murderer (or murderers) known as Il Mostro, who killed more than a dozen people from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s without being caught.

Summit Entertainment, the same company behind the Twilight films, has optioned both film and TV rights to the young adult thriller Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, a book that's not even going to be published until September of this year. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Warner is planning on an English adaptation of the debut novel Snabba Cash by Jens Lapidus, a Swedish criminal defense lawyer and author whose writing has been compared to James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane. It's an account of the Stockholm underworld and the first of a planned trilogy called "The Stockholm Noir Trilogy." Producer Fredrik Wikstrom put an early trailer online, generating a lot of buzz and sparking a bidding war. 

TV

J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot company is developing Pulp, an hour-long crime drama "set in a slightly heightened reality," which has been compared to Pulp Fiction.

Collider has a number of interviews with the cast of ABC's police procedural drama Detroit 187, including Natalie Martinez, who plays Det. Ariana Sanchez.

Fans of the Mentalist can breathe a sigh of relief. Star Simon Baker has reportedly reached a new agreement with Warner Bros. that extends his current contract another year — and guarantees the actor an estimated $30 million payday. Now that's a Merry Christmas.

The new A&E series Breakout Kings, which follows an unusual partnership between the U.S. Marshals' office and a group of convicts as they work to catch fugitives on the run, has been given a premiere date of March 13 at 10 PM. Also, the new AMC series The Killing will debut on April 3 at 10 PM. The series is about the murder of a young girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation, tying together three distinct stories around a single murder including the detectives assigned to the case, the victim's grieving family and the suspects.

Sebastian Roche (General Hospital, Fringe) is joining the cast of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds as a recurring player and possibly a new love interest for Emily Prentiss.

PODCASTS/RADIO

BB7 Radio is airing Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon this week; it will be available online for seven days.

Congrats to the Winners

On Monday, I posted a note about the book giveaway for Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström. So here are the five lucky winners selected via a random drawing:

Linda Gerber
Julie Jezuit
Jen Myers
Deanna Stillings
Katherine Tomlinson

A copy of the novel should be in the mail to these folks shortly. Thanks also to all the other participants in this giveaway, and look for more promotions ahead in the coming months here on IRTM. In the meantime, happy reading to all!

Sherlock Fans, Take Note: The Game’s Afoot

Author Laurie R. King, creator of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, and Leslie S. Klinger, a leading expert on all things Sherlock, have teamed up for the anthology The Grand Game: A Celebration of Sherlockian Scholarship. It's filled with essays based on the fantasy "game" that Sherlock scholars and fans have played through the years, in which the great detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson are imagined as real people. The book includes contributions from such game-playing luminaries as Ronald Knox, A.A. Milne, Dorothy L. Sayers, Christopher Morley, Rex Stout, Anthony Boucher, Red Smith and even Franklin D. Roosevelt — and this is only Volume One, covering 1902-1959.

This Friday, January 7, from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, King and Klinger will take part in a book-signing event at The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, an event capping off the week-long celebration of Sherlock Holmes's birthday and held in conjunction with the Baker Street Irregulars' annual banquet.

But wait — there's more! Graham Moore will be on hand to sign copies of his best-selling mystery The Sherlockian, and publisher/Mysterious Bookshop owner Otto Penzler will also be at the party signing copies of his newly-released Sherlockian book, Bohemian Souls.

Deerstalker hats are optional.

You Can Have Three Seconds Free

Here's a way to start off the New Year right:  you can win one of five free copies of Three Seconds by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström (being released in the U.S. tomorrow). The book received the 2009 Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award from the Swedish Crime Writers' Association, sold over 1.5 million copies in Sweden and spent 13 months on the bestseller list there.

Ali Karim selected it as one of January magazine's top crime fiction titles for 2010, adding, "Tense and gripping, with a chilling climax, Three Seconds boasts plenty of insider knowledge about the ways in which criminals and undercover agents work."

Roslund, an acclaimed investigative journalist, and Hellström, an ex-criminal who spent years working to rehabilitate criminals, combine inside knowledge of the brutal reality of criminal life with searing social criticism that puts them at the forefront of modern Scandinavian crime writing and has reviewers calling them the heirs-apparent to Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell. Carol Memmott of USA Today said that "Americans are finally catching on to what thriller fans around the world already know — that the Swedish team of Roslund & Hellstrom is writing explosive crime novels as good, if not better, than those of Stieg Larsson."

Three Seconds follows ex-con Piet Hoffman, the Swedish police force's most valuable informant, who has infiltrated the Polish mafia inside an infamous maximum-security prison. Success will mean freedom and the chance to start a new life with his beloved wife and two young sons; failure will mean certain death. His survival depends on Detective Inspector Ewert Grens, a brilliant, complex, neurotic man charged with investigating a drug-related killing involving Hoffman — but unaware of Hoffmann's real identity, Grens instead believes he's on the trail of a dangerous psychopath. To complicate matters further, the cops who helped Hoffman infiltrate the prison and promised to protect him now want him dead, and someone has told Hoffman's fellow prisoners he's a snitch.

If you'd like a chance to win one of the five copies of this book, send your name, postal address and e-mail address to bv@bvlawson.com and type "Three Seconds Giveaway" (or something to that effect) in the subject line. But hurry — entries will be accepted only until midnight EST, Wednesday, January 5th, 2011, with the winners chosen via random drawing and posted the following day. Note:  unfortunately, this one is open to U.S. residents only.

New Year Writes

"New Year's Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~ Mark Twain

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

New Year's Day is every man's birthday.  ~ Charles Lamb

"New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time."  ~ James Agate

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice."
Little Gidding II ~ T.S. Eliot 

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." ~ G. K. Chesterton  

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson