Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

With one exception, the movie news this week focuses on remakes (who says Hollywood doesn't have creativity anymore?).

Bradley Cooper, Alex Pettyfer and Sofia Vergara have offered starring roles in a new film adaptation of Peter Dexter's thriller novel The Paperboy. The plot hinges on the slacker son of a small-town Florida newspaper publisher who gets involved in a murder investigation by his older brother, a big-city reporter (who would be played by Cooper).

Now for the remakes: 

A new version of the Bodyguard (you may remember the 1992 film with Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston, and the Dolly Parton song "I Will Always Love You" that Whitney yodeled sang). The updated twist: it's an Iraqi war veteran who's assigned to protect a singer in an age of high technology. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's film (whose project In a Better World won for Best Foreign-Language film at Sunday's Oscars), is going to direct a remake of the French kidnapping thriller Rapt.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) is set to direct Red Circle, the remake of the 1970 Jean-Pierre Melville film Le Cercle Rouge, about an aristocratic thief, a vengeful mob boss, a murderer and cat-loving police superintendent.

TV

BBC1 has canceled the crime drama Zen starring Rufus Sewell, which was based on the character of Italian detective Aurelio Zen from the novels of Michael Dibdin. The production company behind the series, Left Bank (also responsible for BBC1's Swedish detective drama Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh), is in talks with other broadcasters to continue the show.

Rogers cable company in Canada is adding seven new channels, including GGBG, "devoted to people and organizations that uphold law and order in our society and that would feature entertainment programming on the police, law, the courts, emergency and medical response teams, as well as disaster and relief operations"; and Highwire, to include selections from crime fiction.

The seventh installment in the series of made-for-TV movies starring Tom Selleck as Police Chief Jesse Stone has been scheduled to premiere May 22. Stone is taken from the works of the late author Robert B. Parker. Kathy Baker and Kohl Sudduth return as members of the Paradise Police Force, with other returning cast to include William Devane, Stephen McHattie, Saul Rubinek and William Sadler.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Jo Nesbø will appear as a guest on the on BBC World Book Club on Monday March 7 at 3:30 p.m. London time. You can send questions in advance about Nesbø's latest novel The Redbreast to the Beeb.

Heidi Durrow discussed "Three Books To Rescue Nordic Lit From The Dark Side" for NPR.

KCRW's Bookworm show featured T.C. Boyle, about his latest novel, When the Killing's Done.

THEATER

The Lifeline Theater in Chicago is presenting a stage adaptation of Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone. 

Also in the Windy City, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater will present a new musical murder mystery, Murder For Two, with music by Joe Kinosian, lyrics by Kellen Blair and book by Kinosian and Blair. It's a whodunit where one actor (yet to be announced) plays the investigator of the crime and the other (Kinosian) plays all 13 suspects.

GAMES

Nancy Drew fans take note: There's a new Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. "Shadow Ranch" is the first installment, but the company behind the interactive app, Her Interactive, plans on additional titles.

London, Spinetingler & the Spirit of Short Fiction

Janet Rudoloph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, is looking for  Author! Author! essays for the next issue, which will focus on mysteries set in London. These essays are between 500 and 2,500 words, "first person, upclose and personal about yourself, your books and the London connection. Think of it as chatting with readers and writers in the cafe (or tea shop) or bar!" The  deadline is fast approaching, March 10th. If interested, let Janet know via e-mail.

Spinetingler Magazine has kicked off its 2011 fiction publication with Fred Snyder's story "The Colombian." Editor-In-Chief Sandra Ruttan also reports that, while the magazine has reopened for fiction submissions, she doesn't expect they'll be open for long, as several stories for 2011 publication have already been selected. She remains hopeful that fiction publication will increase as site revenue increases. 

If you have younger writers in your circle of family, friends and neighbors, point them toward the Spirits of Short Fiction contest, sponsored by Jon Jordan as part of this year's Bouchercon Conference in St. Louis. The hope is the contest will "encourage young writers to express themselves through fiction and possibly launch future New York Times bestselling authors."  The rules are fairly simple: you must be under 18 and unpublished, and the story must be less than 5000 words, take place in St. Louis and contain a mention of BBQ. Entries are due by May 1st.

Mystery Melange

Craig Sisterson's Kiwi Crime blog has information on how you can help the victims of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, which shook the area yesterday. Buildings were toppled and at least 75 people have died, with many more people potentially trapped in rubble. As he also notes, crime writers Paul Cleave, Andrew Grant and Steve Malley came through unscathed, although no word yet on folks associated with the Christchurch Writer's Festival, the Ngaio Marsh Award, or the Ngaio Marsh House.

It's beginning to look like we need an Antiques Road Show for literary treasures. "Lost" stories by Mark Twain, P.G. Wodehouse and Graham Greene were published recently in The Strand, and last month, it was announced that fifteen new Dashiell Hammett stories had been found and will be published in an upcoming story collection (and one in The Strand). Now comes word that five new Daphne du Maurier stories were turned up by a bookseller in the author's home town and will likewise be included in a new collection. And just in time for Presidents' Day, 74 long-lost books from Thomas Jefferson's personal library were discovered buried in the stacks of Washington University's library.

Speaking of libraries, it turns out that librarians make decent sleuths. After some fancy detective work, several librarians helped track down a man who had been stealing library books for 11 years and is estimated to have sold 2,200 of them on eBay, making potential hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thanks to the efforts of Detective Librarian Loretta Kelleher and others, the thief is now behind bars in New Rochelle, NY.

It seems that crime fiction is still popular among libraries in the U.K., with a majority (somewhere around 60 to 70% of the top 100) of the most-borrowed titles in 2010 belonging to the mystery/suspense/thriller category. The most borrowed author was James Patterson.

The Crimefactory magazine blog has an archived interview from 1996 with author James Crumley (The Last Good Kiss), who died in 2008. In reply to why he and so many other writers seemed attracted to Missoula, Montana, Crumley noted "It was the middle of the bottom of an ice-age lake, so maybe it's the prehistoric mud that attracts us!," and as for his former state of Texas, "Where I lived is the last place where there's a great clash between the white minority and the Mexican American majority, where people are still race conscious in a really silly way."

A look at Crippen and Landau's upcoming releases includes three different collections of short stories by Edward D. Hoch, who also died in 2008. Hoch wrote some 950 stories in his lifetime, appearing in 34 years of consecutive Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine issues. The three collections include Nothing Is Impossible: The Third Casebook of Dr. Sam Hawthorne; Funeral in the Fog and Other Simon Ark Tales; and Hoch's Ladies, three series of short stories, each featuring a female protagonist.

The Toronto Star takes a look at the environs that inspired Dostoevsky's classic Crime and Punishment, "about a murderer, his crime and the eternal nature of consequence." Guided walking tours around the same streets of St. Petersburg's tough Haymarket area where the fictional Raskilnokov walked are quite popular these days, even as the 130th anniversary of Dostoevsky's death was honored February 9th.

Publishers Weekly has a wrap-up of the recent Love is Murder conference, and just a reminder that there's still time to register for Sleuthfest in Florida, coming up March 3-6, with special guest authors S.J. Rozan, Meg Gardiner and Dennis Lehane.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

For his first film in a decade, Director John Polson has chosen fellow Australian Peter Temple's award-winning crime novel Truth. The novel became the first work of genre fiction to win the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2010. The story follows Melbourne Police Inspector Stephen Villani as he balances investigations into a murdered woman in a penthouse apartment and three men butchered in a sadistic rampage, while dealing with a tattoo-faced drug dealer corrupting his rebellious daughter and his own crumbling marriage.

Director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Bone Collector) is taking on a film adaptation of Firing Point, a yet-to-be-published sequel to the 2003 submarine thriller Final Bearing by George Wallace and Don Keith. The novel is about an untested submarine captain who must work with a Navy SEAL team to rescue the Russian president and avoid igniting World War III. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Steve Rose, writing for The Guardian, takes a look at crime television and film based in Melbourne, Australia, including the new thriller Animal Kingdom by writer and director, David Michôd. It's based on a true case of two policemen lured to investigate an abandoned car, then shot dead in cold blood in retaliation for a previous shooting.

Robert Downey Jr is rumored to be in talks to star in the film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's mystery novel, Inherent Vice, an adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon mystery novel. Downey would play Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private eye based in Los Angeles in the late 1960s who is tracking down the killer of a woman's wealthy lover.

TV

It's "old home" week for actor Jamie Bamber and producer Ronald D. Moore, both of Battlestar Galactica fame, with Bamber set to star in a new Moore pilot for NBC, titled 17th Precinct. He joins already-cast Stockard Channing in the ensemble cop drama set in a fictional town where magic and supernatural elements rule over science.

Fresh on the heels of the announcement from NBC about a new police procedural for the fall schedule blending fairytale fiction with reality comes news that the lead role has already been cast. David Giuntoli (of the Real World…seriously!) will star in Grimm as a detective who "begins to see humans as 'beast/animals', and discovers he has a legacy, to protect 'humans' from these beasts."

Maria Bello (ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) will take on the role made famous by Helen Mirren in the new Prime Suspect reboot, with English actor Toby Stephens playing her live-in boyfriend.

Four of the six NYPD rookie cop characters in the upcoming Robert De Niro-produced pilot Rookies have been cast:  this week Judy Marte, Tom Reed and Stark Sands joined already-announced Leelee Sobieski in starring roles.

Ashley Judd may be nearing a deal for her first regular TV series role, in ABC's action series Missing (one of several working titles). Judd would play Becca Winstone, a devoted single mom and ex-CIA agent who travels to Europe to track down her 18-year-old son after he disappears in Italy where he'd been working on architecture fellowship.

PODCASTS/RADIO

For NPR, Alan Cheuse reviews two crime novels set in two very different parts of the world, The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Japan), a story of murder, mathematics and rivalry, and Damage by John Lescroart (San Francisco), a tale of violence and revenge.

Happy Birthday to the “Queen of Crime”

Today is the birthday of author Ruth Rendell, who has sold at least 20 million copies of more than 60 novels, translated into 25 languages worldwide. Her most famous literary creation is police Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, who was named after taking a holiday in Ireland, as she noted in a recent interview. It was a choice between the Irish cities of Wexford and Waterford (approximately 60 kilometers apart), but Rendell happens to "like the letter X in names."

She says she actually didn't like Wexford in his first novel, From Doon with Death, wanting him to be "a bit less tough, more tolerant, a bit more literate, more liberal, more interesting to me." As she developed these qualities in later novels, the books' themes began to tackle racism, the environment and domestic violence, even though Rendell was afraid her readers wouldn't like it. The author hasn't stopped tackling contemporary topics, coming out strongly against a plan by the Suffolk County Council in the UK to close two-thirds of its libraries, adding "The thing is, if they are closed they will never open again."

Twice the Book Love

The National Book Festival on the Mall is adding a second day this year after ten years of being one day only. The event has readings and book signings by invited authors, including a Fiction and Mystery tent, which in 2010 featured Martha Grimes, Karin Slaughter, Peter Straub and Scott Turow. This year's lineup hasn't been scheduled yet, but you can check out podcasts from some of the authors who have appeared during the festival's 10 year history. Here are a few examples (note if you're at work—the audio starts automatically):

• Michael Connelly
• Ken Follett
• Martha Grimes
• Brad Meltzer
• Walter Mosley
• George Pelecanos
• Peter Robinson
• Karin Slaughter

There are plenty more you can find and access via the web site's search engine. If you're in the D.C. area September 24-25, stop on by, and you can even bring the kids for the Let's Read America Pavilion. The focus on literacy continues in the Pavilion of the States, where there will be reading and library-promotion programs and literary events from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. trusts and territories.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules) is taking on an adaptation of the best-selling crime novel by Lars Keper, The Hypnotist. It will be the director's first Swedish film in 25 years and his first-ever thriller.

DreamWorks has acquired the original script Voices from the Dead by J. Michael Straczynski. It's a thriller based on the friendship between magician Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was real enough, although the script is about a fictitious case involving a psychic and bizarre murders in 1920s New York.

If you're a fan of film noir, then check out the charity blogathon February 14-21 titled "For the Love of Film (Noir)," to benefit the Film Noir Foundation. In addition to helping restore films in danger of being lost forever, you'll have a chance to be entered in raffles.

Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Garner and Marcia Gay Harden have joined the cast to star in Infinity Media's adaptation of the bestselling novel Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell (an Oprah's Book Club selection in March 2000). The murder-mystery plot is set in Pennsylvania and will be directed by Adrian Lyne.

Collider has posted the first looks at scenes from the upcoming film J. Edgar from Clint Eastwood. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover; Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, Hoover's confidant and secret lover; and  Judi Dench as Hoover's mother, Anne Marie.

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice has found a wealthy benefactor and appears to be back on track. It follows Larry "Doc" Sportello, a pothead private eye wandering through the Summer of Love in 1969 Los Angeles, tracking down the killer of a woman's wealthy lover

D.J. Caruso has signed on to direct the film adaptation of Josh Bazell's suspense novel Beat the Reaper, about a former mobster-turned-doctor in the witness protection program whose past comes back to haunt him.

TV

Pay-cable channel Cinemax is taking the plunge into the original programming pool with its first scripted primetime drama, Strike Back, a 10-hour action series written by X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz and British TV writer Richard Zadjlic (EastEnders) and loosely based on Chris Ryan's book of the same name. The series stars Damien Scott as a former U.S. Special Forces op and Philip Winchester (Fringe, Crusoe) as Section 20 officer Michael Stonebridge.

AMC has scheduled a two-hour premiere for its new series Killing, about the murder of a young Seattle girl, Rosie Larsen, and the subsequent police investigation, on April 3. USA has likewise scheduled its premiere of the spinoff Burn Notice made-for-television prequel film, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, on April 17. Not to be outdone, A&E released a video sneak peak of its new crime drama Breakout Kings.

Apparently, the failure of J.J. Abrams's spy show Undercovers and the disappointing ratings for Fringe haven't diminished his clout in Hollywood; CBS picked up another pilot from Abrams, Person of Interest, which follows an ex-CIA hit man and a scientist who team up to prevent crimes before they happen.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Bunburyist's Elizabeth Foxwell points us to an interview with Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith.

CrimeWav's latest podcast is up, with excerpts from a new novel by Nik Korpon (Stay God).

THEATER

A play based on the  Detective Murdoch mystery novels by author Maureen Jennings is currently being staged in London. No Traveler Returns has the detective working undercover to solve a murder at a Huntsville inn during the Victorian era.

Valentine’s Day Prequels

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare has a list of famous sweetheart sleuth duos and Valentine's Day mystery novels.

NPR takes a look at the dark origins of Valentine's Day, dating from the misogynistic feast of Lupercalia.

Alan Rinzler offers an editor's Valentine to writers, explaining "What Makes Writers Special."

Peter Robinson and nineteen other authors listed their favorite romantic reads for The Globe and Mail. Among the choices: Graham Greene and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Barbara Cartland's estate is publishing one-fourth of the romance novelist's titles as e-books for the first time, beginning tomorrow on Valentine's Day.

The Guardian has a slide show of the ten best literary love stories as told in pictures.

Jen Forbus moderated the "Cute Guys" panel of authors at the recent Love is Murder conference and has a video clip available.

 Do you live on or near one of America's Most Romantic Main Streets?

NASA's Stardust spacecraft will have a rendezvous of its own on Valentine's Day—with comet Tempel 1. Talk about star-crossed romances.

Out of gift ideas? What lover wouldn't be thrilled to have a cockroach named after them.

The police have been going about this all wrong for the past several years, apparently. If you want to get guns off the streets, don't buy them back, exchange them for sex toys.

Mystery Melange

Registration for the 2011 Writers' Police Academy is officially open. This annual hands-on conference is held at an actual police academy with law enforcement instructors and includes a patrol car/fire truck/ambulance driving simulator, FATS (Firearms Training Simulator) and more. Organizer/author Lee Lofland says "It's Disneyland for writers."

For a bit of research to help with your next historical novel or just for fun, check out these "Ten Most Infamous Failed Assassins" over on the Online Degree site.

Europa Editions is currently sponsoring a daily Trivia Contest on their Facebook page. Winners can receive free books from their catalog, which includes authors Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett and Carlo Lucarelli.

Lee Goldberg has a thoughtful interview at Spinetingler about e-books and what he thinks authors should and should not be doing. With the drumbeat to jump on the Kindle bandwagon, you might be surprised by his conclusions.

Beat the Dust's latest edition focuses on crime and noir stories from the likes of Cathi Unsworth, Mark SaFranko, Gary McMahon, Matthew Stokoe, Gary Carson and more.

In other magazine news, check out the redesigned Shots Magazine web site, as well as the latest Getting Away with Murder column by Mike Ripley.

Mysterical-E just released its Winter edition, featuring fiction by B.J. Bourg, Victor Banis, Libby Cudmore and more, as well as the usual fine columns and an interview with author Peggy Ehrhart.

Speaking of interviews, the Book Slut interviewed Brad Meltzer about his new book The Inner Circle and how he got the idea following a call from The Department of Homeland Security asking him to brainstorm different ways for terrorists to attack the U.S.

The news group Dorothy-L compiles a yearly "Best Mysteries" books listing from members. Although only four percent of the 3,000+ members participated, and the membership is heavily skewed toward female readers, it's still a fun list and a good snapshot of some of the more popular books people actually read last year (and in years prior), not just the best-sellers.

If you missed Publishers Weekly's overview of the Spring Season of book publications, you can read the Top 10 mystery/thrillers they're looking forward to, as well as scan through all the various upcoming book titles by publisher.

At the Bijou is holding its "annual Fab*Feb*Film*Fest" this month and has scheduled a Rat Pack Revue involving an interview and a spotlight on Robert J. Randisi and his Rat Pack mystery series. Kate Pilarcik, Paul Brazill, Eric Beetner and Sean Patrick Reardon "are taking on some Rat Pack personnas for the last two weeks of February … any / all of youse cool guys are welcome to toss out a far-from-the-norm interview query for the Randisi interview and jump in with our jiving lot somethin' criminal along RatPack lines."

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Director-screenwriter-producer Tyler Perry has signed on to star as psychologist Alex Cross in a new film adaptation based on the James Patterson novels. 

Several tidbits from Omnimystery News: Summit Entertainment has picked up the film rights to This Dark Endeavor, by Kenneth Oppel, a thriller that's not being released until August of this year. It's subtitled "The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein", which gives you a hint of what the book and movie are about; more film rights, too, as projects are in the works based on Three Seconds, the fifth mystery in the Sundkvist and Grens series by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström; and also a new version of the Fletch series of mysteries by Gregory Mcdonald, first adapted as a vehicle for actor Chevy Chase in the 1980s.

A mystery untitled-mystery-film has been acquired by Paramount Insurge, about a young woman accused in the mysterious murders of three religious figures (the mystery is in the details…). William Brent Bell (Stay Alive) is directing the film and cast, which includes Fernanda Andrade (Fallen), Simon Quarterman (Perfect Strangers), Evan Helmuth (Ready or Not) and Suzan Crowley (Christabel) will star.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing a political thriller titled Argo, based on an article written in Wired magazine about how the CIA fooled the Iranian government in 1979 as an effort to rescue six U.S. diplomats who were being held hostage. Rumors are that Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone and The Town) is in negotiations to direct.

TV

The USA Network has announced May 1 as the premiere date of the 10th season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are rejoining the cast.

Looks like the remake of the hit British series Prime Suspect (starring Helen Mirren) is back on again, after being shelved for awhile. NBC has ordered a pilot that changes the setting to New York and follows "an iconoclastic female detective (who) has to make her bones in a tough New York precinct that is dominated by men."

The CW has given a pilot order to Cooper & Stone, a drama about two Chicago female detectives who specialize in pop culture knowledge and solving homicides.   

A&E is developing Overload, a crime drama from writer John E. Pogue and film producer Irwin Winkler (Rocky) about a female detective blessed and cursed with hyper-acute senses who balances her work and personal life in Boston.

Kyle Killen (Lone Star) is producing a pilot for NBC titled REM, about the simultaneous and parallel lives of a detective who cannot let go of any aspect of his fractured family after a horrible car accident.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Elizabeth Foxwell's Bunburyist blog notes that Montana Public Radio's "The Write Question" program featured C. J. Box discussing his mystery Nowhere to Run.

Raymond Chandler fans will want to tune in as BBC Radio 4 airs four radio plays from Chandler's novels this month. Paul Davis has more info.

Erratum Somniculosus

One error to point out in today's Media Murder for Monday post:  The Reagan's Law tidbit somehow managed to slip through a wormhole backward in time. Reagan's Law is actually already in the CBS lineup, although you know it as Blue Bloods. Since we're on the subject of that particular show, fans should note Paige Turco (The Good Wife, Damages) will be guest-starring in the February 9th episode as detective Patricia Ryan, who is working on a robbery case that could result in a wrongful arrest when Tom Selleck's Frank Reagan character gets involved. (A big thank-you to J. Kingston Pierce of the Rap Sheet blog, who apparently gets a lot more coffee—or better coffee—than I do.)

You’re the Top

The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association continues its new look at bestsellers from a rotating list of member stores, and from January, we have the top sellers at Murder on the Beach Bookstore in Delray Beach, Florida:

Hardcovers

1. The Sentry by Robert Crais, Putnam
2. Midnight Guardians by Jonathon King, Open Road
3. Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag, Putnam
4. Mr. Hooligan by Ian Vasquez, St. Martin's
5. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Don Bruns, Oceanview
6. Emporor's Tomb by Steve Berry, Random
7. Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler, Putnam
8. Confession by John Grisham, Random House,
9. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane, Harper Collins
10. Indulgence in Death by JD Robb, Putnam

Trade/Mass Market

1. First Rule by Robert Crais, Berkley
2. Deeper than the Dead by Tami Hoag, Berkley
3. Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey, Storm Surge
4. Slight Mourning by Catherine Aird, Rue Morgue
5. Mortar and Murder by Jennie Bentley, Berkley
6. Dive Cooks a Goose by Krista Davis, Berkley
7. Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy, Berkley
8. Stay Tuned for Murder by Mary Kennedy, Berkley
9. Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay, Berkley
10. Impact by Douglas Preston, St. Martin's

Debut(antes)

 

I've never been able to find a web site reference that specifically lists crime fiction books by debut authors for any given month (if you know of one, please pass it along), although Omnimystery News has a nice feature called Firsts on the First—books with new series characters being released during the upcoming month (some by established authors, too). The site also has some terrific lists of all upcoming hardcover and paperback books. In addition to the series debuts this month, check out debut standalone novels by authors such as Sara J Henry (Learning to Swim), A.D. Miller (Snowdrops), p.g. sturges (Shortcut Man) and  Urban Waite (The Terror of Living).

For more sites with information about all new releases (paperback, hardcover, e-books and re-issue, check out the following:

Bloodstained Bookshelf
Books N Bytes
Cozy Mysteries
Fantastic Fiction
Murder, Mystery and Mayhem
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore
Powells Books
Stop, You're Killing Me

We Have a Winner (or 5)

Congratulations to the following fine folks who win a copy of The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly and a movie poster from the upcoming film starring Matthew McConaughey, which opens on March 18:

• Aldo Calcagno
• Joyce Delaney
• Stephen D. Rogers
• George Sparling
• Deanna Stillings

Stay tuned for more such giveaway opportunities throughout the year!

PBS Double-Header

Tonight on most PBS stations, tune in as the latest intallment of "Pioneers of Television" takes a look at crime dramas, including Jack Webb (Dragnet), Desi Arnaz (The Untouchables), Bruce Geller (Mannix and Mission: Impossible), Bill Cosby, Angie Dickinson, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau and James Garner. From the show's blurb:

Pioneering television crime dramas established new rules for viewers, amping up the violence and the flash-quick dialogue; and delivering reluctant, but likeable, heroes who solve complex crimes in an hour of delicious television. Today, the genre has never been more popular, but it owes much of its winning formula to industry innovations developed in the 1950s and 1960s. For instance, the invention of the teleprompter helped actors deliver dialogue in quick, clipped sentences. New ways of shooting scenes, including the close-up and quick edits, ushered in new and exciting storytelling elements. Unlike Western, which tended to shoot panoramic scenes using wide shots that took in an entire landscape, crime dramas began to produce scenes that drew viewers close into an actor’s face, thus increasing the dramatic arc of the story. Several groundbreaking crime dramas also challenged stereotypes of the day, casting women and minorities in key roles.

That's followed by Frontline, an episode titled "Post Mortem," which looks into the dysfunctional system of forensic death investigation in the U.S. where "there are few standards, little oversight and the mistakes are literally buried."