The Best Before the Fest?

Several mystery/crime fiction conferences include writers' workshops prior to the main event, often staffed with bestselling authors and an interesting array of panels and seminars. Thrillerfest, coming up next week in NYC, has such an event called CraftFest, a two-day affair held July 6-7. The first day starts off with simultaneous panels including Steve Berry talking about "Point of View, Psychic Distance and Passive Voice"; Dr. D.P. Lyle discussing "Forensics in Fiction"; and Gar Anthony Haywood who will tell you how to "Make the Case for Your P.I." You'll also have a chance to hear several other experienced writers as they help you navigate your way through writing and publishing in the suspense/thriller field.  And there's still time to register, if you're a procrastinator.

Over on the West Coast, the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference, held July 21-24 in Corte Madera, CA, likewise has an impressive roster of authors and panels to inspire you. Dr. Lyle will be on hand there, too, talking about "The Psychology of Characters," to get the ball rolling as part of three pre-conference classes, along with David Corbett on "Integrating Arcs and Acts" and Hallie Ephron on "Back Story, and How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot With It."  Then the full conference kicks off in the afternoon on the 21st with Cara Black, Tony Broadbent, Kirk Russell and Moderator Jacqueline Winspear as they "Explore the Genre." And you're in luck here, too, as there's still time to register for this learning opportunity.

Mystery Melange

 

Morning Call columnist Bill White listed his Top 10 Literary Detectives, with both old and new favorites (some of whom aren't technically detectives per se).

The Irish Times reviewed the new anthology Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century , edited by Declan Burke. It's filled with essays, interviews, short stories, memoir and first-hand perspectives from some of today's top Irish crime writers.

Many of you many already know that Martin H. Greenberg passed away this past weekend. Greenberg was a tireless supporter of short stories in the crime fiction, scifi and horror genres, and quite frankly I'm not sure anyone knows how many works he was involved with, but he shared editor duties with Isaac Isamov on over 120 scifi anthologies alone. He received four genre lifetime achievement awards, including the Science Fiction Writers Association Solstice Award, the Bram Stoker award, the Milford Award in science fiction, and the Ellery Queen award in mystery. He will be sorely missed.

The last remaining home to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, is under threat to be torn down. Lee Barwood has an article in Kings River Life magazine where you can read more, and if you'd like to help, visist the Save Undershaw Preservation web site.

Mystery Writers of America has added a new MWA University program in San Francisco on October 15th. There will be classes for writers led by Jess Lourey, Julie Smith, Rex Burns, Laura DiSilverio and Reed Farrel Coleman. Cost is $50 for both members and non MWA members, and you'd better hurry, because attendance is limited to 80 people.

The Macavity Award nominations were announced by Janet Rudolph. They're nominated and voted on by members of Mystery Readers International, with winners to be announced at Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention in St. Louis in September. Congrats to all!

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

A couple of recent updates regarding the film Parker, based on the professional thief created by Donald Westlake in his novels:  FilmDistrict is acquiring the US distribution rights to the film, and Jennifer Lopez is in talks to play the female lead opposite Jason Statham. Taylor Hackford is already on board as director, with the screenplay adaptation by John J. McLaughlin.

A suspense/thriller film written by Eric Nazarian and Sergei Bodrov titled Blood Brothers is in development. Although the plot is unknown, the setting is to be Russia and Bodrov is set to direct, with Channing Tatum being eyed as the star.

Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro all star in the upcoming thriller The Killer Elite, which follows the true story of an ex-special ops agent who is forced to rescue his mentor. The film doesn't arrived until September, but you can catch a trailer preview on Bish's Beat.

Welcome to the Punch, about a detective (James McAvoy) who forms an unusual partnership with a criminal (Mark Strong) to uncover a conspiracy, has added British actress Andrea Riseborough as the female lead. The film starts shooting in July in London.

TV

Masterpiece Mystery will air three episodes in July of the series based on Michael Dibdin's books featuring Italian police detective Aurelio Zen, starring British actor Rufus Sewell.  Dibdin's widow, Seattle author Kathrine Beck, has said that "these have done a very good job of capturing the essence of the books."

Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox will reprise their roles as Inspector Robbie Lewis and his partner DS James Hathaway in more episodes of the Inspector Lewis TV series. They're based on novels by author Colin Dexter, who consults on the production.

Showtime is teaming up with writer/producer David Goyer to create a drama based on the graphic novel series 100 Bullets, which included 100 issues between 1999 and 2009 and was written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso.  The noir series follows the attempts of the mysterious Agent Graves to destroy a secret group of families that control most of the world's wealth and power.

The short list of replacements for Chris Meloni on Law & Order: SVU has been whittled down to five: David Conrad (Ghost Whisperer), Kevin Alejandro (True Blood, Southland), Michael Raymond-James (Terriers), Danny Pino (Cold Case) and Rhys Coiro (Entourage). Meanwhile, Meloni has just been cast in the upcoming Superman movie reboot.

Criminal Minds fans can breathe easier, at least as far as Thomas Gibson's status is concerned. Although negotiations went down to the wire, the actor did come to an agreement to return as Special Agent Hotchner.

The CBS procedural Hawaii Five-0 will be a reunion of Lost stars when Terry O'Quinn returns in the Fall for a recurring role and joins fellow former Lost cast member Daniel Dae Kim. O'Quinn will portray a Navy Seal Lt. Commander who trained Alex O'Loughlin's McGarrett in Coronado and served with his father in Vietnam.

Jason Patric will star in the new FX drama pilot Powers, based on the graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. It's a police procedural set in a world where superpowers are relatively common.

Law and Order: Criminal Intent may be coming to an end, but stars Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe aren't completely giving up hope it may come back in some form. But just in case, they added their farewells to the fans.

The new interactive graphic novel based on the TV series Burn Notice logged 100,000 page views its first day. Created in partnership with DC Comics and titled A New Day, the project bridges the storylines between the fourth and fifth seasons.

Stephen Root has been cast as a a shrewd businessman gangster in the FX drama pilot Outlaw Country, a crime thriller/family drama, set against the backdrop of Southern organized crime and Nashville royalty. It stars Luke Grimes as twenty-something Eli Larkin, who tries to leave a life of crime, John Hawkes as Eli's uncle, who is a big-time player in the Southern crime world, Haley Bennett as a country singer and Mary Steenburgen as her overprotective mother. 

PODCASTS

NPR's Diane Rehm Show featured Eva Gabrielsson, author of There Are Things I Want You to Know about Stieg Larsson and Me.

Suspense Radio added new interviews: on Saturday June 25th, Jon Land and Joseph Finder; and on Sunday June 26th, a split show with Chevy Stevens and Marcia Clark. All times are pacific time. 

THEATER

We had the murderous barber Sweeney Todd, so why not Bonnie and Clyde, the musical? Producers are bringing a version of Bonnie and Clyde, starring Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan, to Boardway previews on November 4, with a regular open on December 1 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway. It has a good pedigree:  the book is  by Ivan Menchell, wh
o wrote The Cemetery Club; music is by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde); and lyrics are by Don Black (Sunset Boulevard).

Two Boys, a new opera by Nico Muhly and Craig Lewis, debuted at the English National Opera on June 24th. It's based on the true story of a teenager who stagged a younger boy outside a shopping mall in an English suburb, and a detective obsessed with the case who has to unravel fake identities and Internet intrigue to solve the motivations behind the tragedy. The opera will premiere at the Metropolitan in New York during the 2013-14 season.

A Fallen Blog Tour and Giveaway

As part of the launch of Karin Slaughter's companion audio CD to her latest novel Fallen, I'm giving away copies to 6 lucky winners of the unabridged boxed CD set (see details below). The audio book is narrated by actress  Shannon Cochran, who is on the faculty of Steppenwolf Classes West in Los Angeles and has had many guest appearances on Fringe, Numb3rs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue and many other shows.

Fallen is the latest in the combining of Slaughter's two series, one with trauma doctor Sara Linton and the other with George Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent. In Fallen, Trent's partner Faith Mitchell arrives at her mother's house to find Faith's infant daughter hidden in a shed behind the house, the front door to the house open with a bloodstained knob, a man dead in the laundry room and there's a hostage situation in the bedroom. When the hostage situation turns deadly and Faith's mother goes missing, Faith turns to Trent, Linton and GBI boss Amanda Wagner to help Faith clear her name, find her mother and uncover the truth.

I've been asking authors this year to talk a bit more about how they approach researching their novels, and Karin graciously obliged:

Q) How do you research your novels? Since they feature cops and medical examiners, have you done ride-alongs and attended autopsies? Do you research at the library or online a lot to get the details just right. Or do you feel too much research and over-planning can be deadly to a manuscript? For Fallen in particular, did you need to do any research into gangs and gang activity?

A) I’ve never done a ride-along, but I’ve been on several training exercises with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  I’ve seen a few autopsies.  I’ve gone to the shooting range and handled the various weapons the GBI agents have to be trained on.  Many of the agents have been very generous with their time, and I’ve had the great pleasure of talking to them about their jobs, how they look at the world, and their toughest cases.  That being said, at the end of the day, I’m a fiction author.  A lot of times I’ll take a grain of truth and turn it into something more exciting.  The fact is that cops spend a lot of time just sitting around reading, or waiting outside a house for the bad guy to come home, or staring at a computer screen trying to connect the dots.

For Fallen, I didn’t want to get into all the gang stuff, mostly because I’m terrified of gangs!  I talked to a gang specialist with the Atlanta police, but mostly, I just made stuff up.  The cool thing I did for Fallen was watching the GBI train for a school shooter scenario.  They took over an abandoned school, had role-players acting as teachers and screaming students, and sent each agent into the building to find that shooter.  They did this all day for a full day, and I got to watch each agent to see how they would respond to the drill.  It was exhilarating, and scary, and such a huge adrenaline rush that as soon as I got home, I was on my computer writing that opening scene where Faith pulls into her mother’s driveway, realizes something horrible has happened, and takes her shotgun into the house to find the bad guys.

Karin, by the way, has spearheaded the SaveThe Libaries.com initiaitve and will receive the Silver Bullet Award at ThrillerFest in July for outstanding achievement in the pursuit of literacy and the love of reading. 

To win one of these 6 boxed sets, courtesy of AudioGO, just send along an e-mail with your name and mailing address and the subject line "Fallen CD Giveaway" to bv@bvlawson.com by midnight EDT on Friday, July 8th, or if you're on Facebook, send me a direct message. All names will be entered into a random drawing and the 6 winners announced on the blog by Sunday, July 10th. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comments section.

As part of Karin's audiobook blog tour, check out the other blogs in the stops along the way:

6/21/2011: Jen's Book Thoughts
6/23/2011: Book Addict Reviews
6/28/2011: Dew on the Kudzu
6/30/2011: Beth Fish Reads
7/1/2011:  Teresa's Reading Corner
7/5/2011:  You've GOTTA Read This!
7/6/2011:  Girls in the Stacks

Mysterious Melange

 

Elizabeth Foxwell posted a Call for Papers for an upcoming themed issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection on paranormal mysteries. You've got awhile: the submission deadline is December 29, 2011.

The crime fiction blog All Due Respect is folding, unless Alec Cizak can find another editor willing to take over. In its brief life, the blog featured stories by 12 different authors, and we'll certainly be sorry to see it go. But fear not for Alec and pulp fiction: he's still shepherding Pulp Modern, which is looking for stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words.

Over at the Women of Mystery blog, Terrie Moran notes that Sleuthfest 2012 will be held in Orlando, so it's a great chance to attend a mystery conference and take the family to Disney World. Sleuthfest special guests will include Charlaine Harris, Jeffery Deaver and Chris Grabenstein.

The Ripster, a/k/a Mike Ripley of Shots E-zine and the Getting Away With Murder column, announced the a Ostara Publishing imprint's Top Notch Thrillers reissues for July. They include two British thrillers from the early 1980s, which Ripley adds are fine examples of "flight and pursuit" novels in the John Buchan tradition.

The Drowning Machine handed out its Watery Grave Invitational short story challenge winners, six in all:  Chris La Tray, Eric Beetner, Chad Eagleton, Ian Ayris, Patricia Abbott and Nigel Bird.

Steve Weddle and Do Some Damage got several entries in the Beach House Noir contest, in which writers were challenged to create a short story by giving the summer vacation the crime fiction treatment. You can read entries via the links posted on the blog.

The first issue of Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers debuted this past Friday. It's a free twice-weekly e-mail newsletter with "a dozen or so book reviews, some content from the daily version of Shelf Awareness that will boost your reading IQ, new consumer-focused content like "Book Candy" and more readerly goodies." Each week, the editors will also share the 25 best books available to you right now, chosen by industry insiders, and all you have to do is sign up on the SA web site.

If you are writer and/or read crime fiction and haven't visited D.P. Lyle's writers forensics blog, you should. As a physician, author and consultant, he has lots of helpful insights into the medical side of crime. Kings River Life magazine has a Q&A with Lyle and is also giving away copy of his new book Royal Pains: First Do No Harm, a tie-in with the TV series.

David Cranmer has a review of a couple of books by Robert J. Randisi, as well as a giveaway of copies of two of Randisi's Rat Pack mystery series, I'm a Fool to Kill You and Fly Me to the Morgue. 

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Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Warner Bros and Universal Pictures have optioned rights to Harlan Coben's thriller Tell No One, with Ben Affleck as director and Chris Terrio adapting the script. The novel is finally getting its day on the big screen in the U.S. after Sony picked up and then dropped the project in 2002—although the new project is basically a remake of the 2006 French film adaptation of Coben's book, which was directed by Guillaume Canet. Also, Deadline reports that the French Gaumont Film Company, which controls the rights to Coben's Bolitar mysteries, is also developing Coben's novel Long Lost.

Omnimystery noted that author Robert Harris's financial thriller, The Fear Index, has been optioned for film by Fox, even though the book won't be published until September in the UK and January 2012 in the U.S. The title refers to the index that measures volatility of the S&P 500, and the plot surrounds a physicist once employed on the Large Hadron Collider, who now uses a secret system of computer algorithms to trade on the world's financial markets.

I think many of us are scratching our heads at the potential casting of the rather diminutive Tom Cruise as 6'5" 250-pound Jack Reacher, the star literary creation of Lee Child. But Cruise is considering taking on the lead role in One Shot, which is being adapted by screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. Child himself says of the potential casting: "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way."

TV

It's been a trend lately to see movies and TV adapted from graphic novels, and now Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are going to make a live-action series for Starz out of the 2001 anime series Noir. The tale follows two female assassins who team up to fight against a secret society. Steven Lightfoot (Criminal Justice) wrote the adaptation.

Laura Prepon and Naomi Judd are set to star in the Lifetime TV movie based on author Iris Johansen's 1999 thriller The Killing Game, about Eve Duncan, a woman who is contacted by a man claiming to be the killer of Eve's 7-year-old daughter 10 years before. Eve, a forensic sculptor, works to close the case even as the alleged killer taunts her and threatens to kill again. 

AMC's The Killing was renewed for a second season with a 13-episode order, following solid ratings for the debut series (see Michael Ausiello's post-mortem with writer/producer Veena Sud on Season One here). In another Q&A with the Calgary Herald, Sud added: "The aspiration in developing this show…was that we allow ourselves to walk in the footsteps of these characters, versus a pre-destined ending and forcing our characters to get there. There's an organic nature to the storytelling."

Three different Canadian mystery writers, William Deverell, Giles Blunt and Robert Rotenberg, had their works optioned for TV by Bell Media. Deverell's series, set in the Gulf Islands and featuring attorney Arthur Beaucham, won the Hammett award for crime writing in 1997; Giles Blunt's Detective John Cardinal series won Britain's Silver Dagger Award for Fiction in 2001; and Robert Rotenberg's debut novel Old City Hall, about a popular radio host who is arrested for murdering his wife is also in the development pipeline.

Lifetime's new procedural drama series, The Protector, starring Ally Walker (Sons of Anarchy, Profiler) as a single mother and detective in the LAPD homicide division, got off to a slow ratings start, but hopefully new casting will help; veteran actress Patty Duke is joining the crew in a recurring role as mother to Walker's character Gloria Sheppard.

If you're headed to Comic-Con in San Diego in July, here's a schedule of who to see when, including cast members from Psych, Covert Affairs, Bones, The Finder and Castle.

PODCASTS

South African crime writers Deon Meyer (Thirteen Hours) and Mike Nicol (Black Heart) discuss the way news events inform their writing, on a podcast for BBC Radio 4.

Father’s Day Presence

Janet Rudolph has posted some crime-fiction related to Father's Day on her blog, Mystery Fanfare.

The Seattle Public Library posted some of its favorite literary fathers and sons.

Galley Cat noted some lists of literary Father's Day gifts.

Author Kevin Renner talked to 50 women to learn more about his daughters and published his efforts in his new book In Search of Fatherhood: A Mother Lode of Wisdom from the World of Daughterhood.

NPR featured The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, a debut book written by the daughter of a divorced father who read to his daughter every single night for nine years—spanning 3,218 days—until she went away to college.

And if your father needs a real celebratory break, make him a Father's Day Whiskey cocktail.

Mom, I’m Bored!

Schools are beginning to let out for the summer, which means that in a couple of weeks you’ll start hearing the “I’m bored” refrain. Although I suspect most children weren’t like me and counting down the days until summer vacation just so they could spend the time reading, when your young’uns start looking for something to do, here are some reading suggestions.

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards just announced their shortlists, including the John Spray Mystery Award:

• Borderline by Allan Stratton ((HarperTrophyCanada) – ages 13 and up
• Dead Bird Through the Cat Door by Jan Markley (Gumboot Books)– ages 9-12
• The Mystery of the Cyber Bully by Mary Chan (Thistledown Press) – ages 9-12
• A Spy in the House by Y.S. (Lee Candlewick Press) – ages 13 and up
• Victim Rights by Norah McClintock (Red Dear Press) – ages 13 and up

Booklist also posted its top YA crime fiction:

• Bullet Point by Peter Abrahams (HarperTeen) – grades 9–12
• The Case of the Gypsy Good-bye by Nancy Springer (Philomel) – grades 6-9
• Griff Carver, Hallway Patrolby Jim Krieg (Penguin/Razorbill) – grades 4-7
• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood (HarperCollins/Balzer and Bray) – grades 4-6
• The Liar Society by Laura Roecker and Lisa Roecker (Sourcebooks) – grades 7-10
• The Memory Bank by Carolyn Coman (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine) – grades 4-6
• Nickel Plated by Aric Davis (AmazonEncore) – grades 8-11
• Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Roaring Brook) – grades 7-10
• Treasure of Dead Man’s Lane and Other Case Files by Simon Cheshire (Roaring Brook) – grades 4-7
• You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin (Little, Brown) – grades 9-12

And if you find them a bit reluctant, remind these members of the Smartphone Generation that they can even download books to their phones and e-readers.

Mystery Melange

New short fiction offerings for you to include in your summer reading: Patti Abbott's story "Father's Day" is up on Spinetingler, and Yellow Mama's latest edition is available online with stories, poems and reviews. Also, Needle Magazine has a special offer for their Spring 2011 issue: use the code "SUMMERBOOK11" to get 20% off on the Lulu download site.

The Writers' Police Academy opened submisions for the Golden Donut flash-fiction contest. To enter, write a 200-word story (including your title) about the photo posted on conference organizer Lee Lofland's Graveyard Shift blog, linked above. The contest winner will receive the prestigious Don Knotts Golden Donut Award (sponsored by the High Point North Carolina Public Library and Krispy Kreme).

There's a new indie e-publisher in town. The folks who bring you Spinetingler Magazine have launched Snubnose Press, to publish the best in short crime fiction, including original anthologies, novellas and short novels. Their first offering, soon to be released, is an anthology titled Speedloader, with new, original stories from Richard Thomas, Nik Korpon, Nigel Bird, newcomer WD County and Spinetingler Award winners Matthew C. Funk and Jonathan Woods.

There is an increasing need for charitable support, especially following the many natural disasters as of late. If you feel a bit overwhelmed about how to help, but are also a fan of stories and poetry, here are some opportunities to consider:

• Shaken: Stories For Japan, is an anthology of Japan-themed stories by 19 different authors including Brett Battles, Cara Black, Hank Phillipi Ryan, Kelli Stanley and Jeri Westerson. One hundred percent of the writers' royalties from the purchase go directly to the 2011 Japan Relief Fund administrated by Japan America Society of Southern California, which has already sent $750,000 to organizations working on the scene. Agent Janet Reid has more info on her blog.

• Bleed Me a River is a print anthology of poetry benefiting domestic violence shelters. Gerald So, an editor of the Thrilling Detective web site, has a couple of poems included. Gerald co-edited The Lineup, an anthology of crime-themed poetry, and one of the other contributors to that effort, David S. Pointer, serves as editor here. Gerald has more information on his blog.

• Paul Levine is donating proceeds from the sale of his legal thriller Flesh & Bones, the 7th book in his Jake Lassiter series, to Four Diamonds Fund, which supports cancer treatment for kids at the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital. Omnimystery News has more info.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Relativity Media has closed its deal for Act of Valor, which Deadline says "shapes up as arguably the biggest money paid for a finished film with an unknown cast." The film is directed by ex-stuntmen and documentary filmmakers Mike "Mouse" McCoy (Dust to Glory) and Scott Waugh (Step Into Liquid) and written by Kurt Johnstad (300) and follows a Navy Seal squad on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent, in the process taking down a web of terrorist cells determined to strike America at all costs.

Vigilante Entertainment has optioned bestselling true-crime author Gregg Olsen's book Starvation Heights. The book is set in the Pacific Northwest in 1911 and tells the story of a egotistical woman doctor who took advantage of the popularity of Dr. Kellogg's health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. But unlike Dr. Kellogg's comparatively gentle method of diet plus enemas, Dr. Hazzard's method was to literally starve her patients to death—and then defraud them of their valuables.

Don Winslow is having a good run. Just as Oliver Stone starts filming an adaptation of Winslow's novel Savages—about pot growers in Southern California who get in over their heads, starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman—comes word that Stone has asked Winslow to write a prequel. That book will be published to coincide with the film's release some time in 2012.

Sylvester Stallone is set to star in a film adaptation of the graphic novel Bullet to the Head written by Matz and illustrated by Colin Wilson. The thriller centers on a New Orleans hitman (Stallone), who teams up with a New York City cop to form an alliance to bring down the killers of their respective partners. Sung Kang (Fast Five) has been cast in a supporting role in the production, due to start filming in Louisiana later this month.

CBS Films had already announced it acquired the film rights to Vince Flynn's thriller series featuring the character of Mitch Rapp and were planning on starting off with Consent to Kill. However, they seem to be leaning instead toward the most recent book in the series, American Assassin, which is a prequel and tells the story of how Rapp came to join the CIA. Ed Zwick is adapting the screenplay and will also serve as director. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TV

CSI is the most-watched TV show in the world—again. Show creator Jerry Bruckheimer was presented with the International Television Audience Award, based on stats from Eurodata TV Worldwide, at the 51st Monte Carlo TV Festival. This is the fourth time in six years CSI has had that honor.

Speaking of CSI, Laurence Fishburn is leaving the cast after only two and a half seasons starring in the show. The Oscar-nominated actor wants to return to film, quelle surprise.

In other casting news, Thomas Gibson's status for next season on Criminal Minds is still up in the air; Mark Pellegrino (Being Human) will have a recurring role in the final season of TNT's The Closer, playing a gay attorney in a firm that specializes in defending police officers and has never lost a case; Jennifer Love Hewitt is out as a half-replacement for Mariska Hargita in L&O: SVU when Hargitay cuts back on her role next season, but Ice T is back in at SVU—for another two years.

For a little bit of fun, check out this YouTube take on Law & Order UK: Lessons in British Justice.

PODCASTS

Authors on Tour has several podcasts of, well, authors on tour promoting their latest books. One of the more recent features is Donna Leon talking about Drawing Conclusions. (Hat tip to EuroCrime.)

THEATER

Variety has a review of the new play The Detective's Wife, a one-woman murder mystery starring Barbara Robertson. She plays the 52-year-old wife of a Chicago police detective who has been killed while investigating a decades-old triple murder, and decides to investigate his death on her own. It's the first in a planned trilogy of plays set within the world of Chicago law enforcement by playwright Keith Huff.

There’s Truth in Crime

For fans of true crime:

Creative Nonfiction magazine is soliciting essays of no more than 4,000 words about true crime, which can be serious, humorous or somewhere in-between. For the Spring 2012 issue, they'd like to see stories about petty theft, identity theft, embezzlement, assault, murder, the gamut. Note that this is not a fee-free proposition, although the best essay will receive a $1,000 award. (Hat tip to Sisters in Crime.)

Noir Nation: International Journal of Crime Fiction is a start-up project seeking true-crime submissions for its e-journal to be distributed through various channels. Other nonfiction interests include pieces on the place of noir in current crime literature and culture, but they're also considering short fiction and short film noir submissions. Writers will be paid per piece, with rights reverting back to the author upon publication. Noir Nation has a Facebook Page and they're also hoping to round up some funding via Kickstarter.

Mystery Melange

It's time for Shamus Award nominations! Bill Crider posted a note on his blog that you can submit novels and stories for consideration until July 1st. Note that works must have been published in 2010, and no self-pubbed books, e-books, or gratis works are eligible.

Hard Case Crime is coming back after a year's hiatus, thanks to their new partnership with Titan Books. To kick things off, they're publishing their first ever hardcover title, a brand new novel by Lawrence Block titled Getting Off. Also coming in late September is a new story with Max Allan Collins' popular hitman character, Quarry, and then in October two additional titles will include Choke Hold by Christa Faust and The Consummata, a novel Mickey Spillane started writing in the 1960s and will be finished by friend Max Allan Collins, 44 years later. 

After an even briefer hiatus, Craig Sisterson has restarted the 9mm author interview series on his blog, Crime Watch, featuring the 51st instalment in the series, an interview with Kathy Reichs. He's also open to suggestions for any future  9mm interviewees you'd like to see.

Sad news: the lovely Dark Valentine magazine is closing for good. Their last issue just came out, although they'll archive previous works online for awhile. Many fine writers and stories have graced their pages during Dark Valentine's run, and it will be missed.  

Lilian Jackson Braun, prolific author of the light, humorous "cat who" books, has died at the age of 97. According to her husband of 33 years, her only regret was that she was unable to publishe the last book in the series, titled The Cat Who Smelled Smoke. 

Open Road Integrated Media has formed a partnership with Otto Penzler to publish digital editions of titles developed by Penzler's brand new MysteriousPress.com. The goal is to  build a catalog of backlist and original titles from renowned writers, including Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Mark McShane and The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen. Also in the pipeline are new titles by Charles McCarry, Nelson DeMille, Lorenzo Carcaterra and C.J. Box.  

Arthur Conan Doyle's very first novel, written between 1883 and 1884, was never published, but that's going to change. Called The Narrative of John Smith, it's not a Sherlock; rather, it's the tale of one man's reflections on life after he finds himself confined to his room with gout. The first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, was printed three years later.

Are you already thinking up ways to entertain the kids or grandkids (including boys!) while they're home all summer? Head to the store with a copy of Booklist's Top Crime Fiction for Youth.

If you want a taste of the new L.A. Noire anthology, you can read the stories free online until June 12, when it officially goes on sale.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Michael Koryta's novel The Cypress House is headed to the big screen. Producer Chris Columbus and his 1492 Pictures company acquired the screen rights for the novel, featuring a WWI veteran who has deadly premonitions. It's set against the backdrop of Florida's Gulf Coast during a 1935 hurricane.

Francis Ford Coppola has a horror thriller in the works titled Twixt Now and Sunrise. Although details are sketchy, Edgar Allan Poe somehow figures into the plot that also includes actor Bruce Dern playing a sheriff in a "spooky town with a murder mystery." Val Kilmer also stars as a second-tier mystery writer who's in town to research the town's secrets. Apparently at least part of the movie will be in rhyme, according to Dern.

The new film version of John Le Carre's spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy now has a U.S. release date—November 18th. It stars Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth (recent Oscar winner for The King's Speech) and Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Sherlock).

Shooting of the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Freaky Deaky starts Jun 27 in Detroit. Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, William H. Macy and Craig Robinson are in talks (but basically set to go) for starring roles in the film about 60s radicals-turned capitalists who try to use their bomb-making skills to make millions. The film will be directed by Charles Matthau, Walter Matthau's son.

Fresh from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher has decided to option the thriller Panic Attack by Jason Starr. The plot centers on a New York shrink after he kills a home intruder, then has to face a media frenzy and the victim's revenge-minded accomplice who stalks the psychiatrist and his family.

TV

The Australia Broadcasting Corporation gave the greenlight to the 13-part series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries based on the novels by Kerry Greenwood, featuring sleuth Phryne Fisher and the jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne. Essie Davis will star as Fisher and be joined in the cast by Nathan Page, Miriam Margoyles and Hugh Johnston-Burt.

Production has also begun on a new adaptation for ITV in the UK of author Lynda La Plante's Above Suspicion series, with rookie female detective Anna Travis. It's set to be a three-part miniseries for broadcast next year, starring Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds in the story of a brutal murder of a young British film star.

The latest made-for-TV adaptation of the Jesse Stone series, created by the late Robert B. Parker, has begun production in Nova Scotia. Tom Selleck continues in the title role as the former Chief of Police for the coastal town of Paradise, Massachuetts. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Author Marcus Sakey posted news on his web site that a TV pilot with Sakey as host was picked up for a series on the Travel Channel to air later this year. The working title is Hidden City, and it features Sakey exploring different places and the crimes that helped define them. (He calls it "Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations meets Castle.")

The CBC has ordered a new police procedural pilot titled Cracked, about a team of police and psychiatric nurses. The pilot has yet to be cast, but includes police officer Aidan Black and psychologist Daniella Ortiz and their Abnormal and Violent Crimes Unit solving crimes amid the unpredictable world of the emotionally disturbed. The fictional drama is inspired by the experiences of former police officer Calum deHartog, who also serves as a producer.

John Lucas (American Psycho, The Lincoln Lawyer, J. Edgar) has been lured to the small screen to star in NBC's midseason drama The Firm, based on John Grisham's best-selling novel. The series actually takes place 10 years after the events depicted in the book, following Mitchell McDeere (Lucas), a mob informant who emerges with his family from the Federal Witness Protection program to reclaim their lives.

And here's a handy little calendar where you can keep track of the June 2011 summer TV premieres, including White Collar, Covert Affairs, Burn Notice, Rookie Blue, Leverage and more.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Decoder Ring Theatre is a Toronto-based theatre and audio production company that runs an award-winning podcast consisting of several series. Included are "Red Panda Adventures," "Black Jack Justice," "Slick Bracer" and "There Will Be Rain Tonight," all done in the style of old-time radio in multi-episode arcs. New releases are posted on the 1st and 15th of every month.

How to Write a Dick

A new crime fiction reference book is due out in July on Kindle and Nook, for all you authors who are thinking about writing a private eye novel. Real-life PIs Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman have written How to Write a Dick, which three-time Shamus Award winner Reed Farrel Coleman called "the best work of its kind I've ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come."

Colleen Collins is a PI at Highland Investigation by day, an author by night, with articles on private investigations in PI Magazine, Pursuit Magazine and others and also 20 novels for both Harlequin and Dorchester. She has spoken at regional and national conferences about writing private eyes in fiction.

Shaun Kaufman has worked in and around the criminal justice field for nearly 30 years, as a former trial attorney and a current investigator. He's published articles in PI Magazine, the Denver Law Review, and authored numerous briefs for the Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Supreme Court, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Shaun is also a frequent conference speaker about investigations, crime scenes, how PIs effectively testify in trials. 

Bits O’Mystery Melange

The Bloody Words conference in Canada gets underway on Friday and runs through June 5th. This year, it's being held at the scenic Hotel Grand Pacific in downtown Victoria on the inner harbour. Guest of Honour is Michael Slade, International Guest of Honour is Tess Gerritsen and Local Guest of Honour is William Deverell, with Denise Dietz serving as emcee. Ahead of that on Thursday, the annual Arthur Ellis awards will be announced.

If you missed the academic symposium on Steig Larsson and other Scandinavian writers in Los Angeles recently (and if you have a lot of time and money for last-minute travel), Film in Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire, just north of London, is organizing a free one-day symposium of talks and discussion on Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. The Keynote Speaker is Barry Forshaw, author of The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson.

Is France the new Scandinavia? Over at Euro Crime, Karen Meek reports on a CrimeFest panel where someone made that made that very claim, so to give you a head start, she offers up some new books set in France but written by North Americans.

Fresh on the heels of the birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22), and Memorial Day this week, Elizabeth Foxwell points you to an article by  Catherine Wynne who discusses how Arthur Conan Doyle dealt with war in his writing.

The inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime novel, launched in Christchurch last year (and delayed for awhile due to the earthquake situation there) will be presented again this fall. The seven-member judging panel will be announced soon to consider a shortlist of New Zealand crime novels published last year.

Timed to complement the upcoming release of the new film version of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, artist Matt Taylor has created new covers for a series of George Smiley reissues from Penguin. They'll start on June 7th with the first two books in the "Karla Trilogy" and the third will follow on June 28th, with more non-Smiley reissues thereafter. (Hat tip to the Double O Section.)

If you are a member of the Sisters in Crime organization and were thinking about going to the Writers' Police Academy organized by Lee Lofland, SinC has an offer for you:  sign up by June 15th and they'll pay 65% of the registration costs. It's a terrific hands-on event for writers to learn about police procedures and forensics.