Mystery Melange, the (Mostly) Magazine Edition

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine is celebrating is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a double issue titled “How Crime Flies,” featuring stories by a number of Edgar and Shamus award-winning authors: Lia Matera, Brendan DuBois, Bill Pronzini, Jonathan King, Clark Howard, Loren D. Estleman, Cheryl Rogers, and more.

Crimespree Magazine issue 43 is also due out August 31st, with fiction by Kenneth Nicols, news, articles and reviews from Ayo Onatade, Avery Aames, Tony Hays, Sara Gran, Lisa Unger, Jen Jordan, Craig McDonald, Reed Farrel Coleman, and an interview of Dennis Lehane by Declan Burke. For subscription info, check out their web site.

The latest “Getting Away With Murder” column by Shots Ezine’s Mike Ripley is available online. The Ripster previews the upcoming Reading Festival of Crime Writing; reviews John Lawton’s novel A Lily of the Field; anticipates a couple of cinematic thrillers including Haywire, with an “ass-kickitrix” black ops super soldier seeking payback after she’s betrayed and set up during a mission; and contemplates “the new Creasey” and “South Africa’s Answer to Stieg Larsson.”

Which graveyards are the most literary? Publishers Weekly takes a look at the top six.

If you have a hard time keeping up with all the latest social networking and “next big thing” online whatever, you’re not alone. Spotify is a music-related site that recently migrated to the U.S. market, allowing you to create “mix tapes” of your favorites. Crime fiction author James Ellroy is a noted Beethoven fan, and Galley Cat created a Spotify playlist in his honor with a Beethoven musical primer.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Alexander Skarsgard (star of True Blood) is in talks to join Brit Marling in The East, a film about an eco-terrorist group of the same name. Skarsgard would portray its leader, with Marling starring as an FBI investigator who infiltrates the group. Marling is also co-writing the script with director Zat Batmanglij.

Robert Harris is adapting his novel The Fear Index, a thriller about an impending meltdown in the financial markets, as a screenplay. Fox Studios grabbed the rights to Harris's novel when he had written just six of its 19 chapters.

Author Tony Black is working with director Richard Jobson for a movie version of Long Time Dead, the latest book in Black's series featuring Gus Drury, a former journalist and alcoholic who becomes a reluctant crime investigator. Black and Jobson are hoping to line up Dougray Scott to play Drury.

TV

Apparently the pilot for Longmire—based on Craig Allen Johnson's novels featuring widowed Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire—was successful enough to get the go-ahead for a 10-episode order from A&E. Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will play a deputy opposite Robert Taylor in the title role.

Shane Brennan, the executive producer of CBS' NCIS franchises, is developing a show pilot based on the "King and Maxwell" novel series by David Baldacci, which feature former Secret Service agents turned private investigators.

The BBC is bringing Denise Mina's The Field of Blood, the first in the Paddy Meehan series, to the small screen. The Glasgow-set series will star David Morrissey, Peter Capaldi, Jonas Armstrong and Jayd Johnson and is being directed/written by David Kane. (Hat tip to Crimespree.)

Another new BBC crime drama I don't believe I've mentioned in a MMM post yet is The Body Farm, starring Tara Fitzgerald as forensic doctor Eve Lockhart and Keith Allen as Detective Inspector Hale. This is to be a six-part series, a sequel to the hit BBC One series Waking The Dead. (Hat tip to EuroCrime.)

Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito has joined the drama pilot Over/Under. The show stars Rescue Me's Steven Pasquale as Paul, a gambling addict who loses his Wall Street job after making a bad trade that costs his company millions and then starts a high-end bookie business. Esposito will play Oliver, "a dry-witted and sophisticated artist who once taught Paul's wife Georgette and maintains a special fondness for his former student."

Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde has inspired several movie projects in the past, and now it may be the source for a series on ABC after the network bought a pilot titled Hide from Sheldon Turner's company Vendetta. The plot has a modern take on the tale as Grant Hyde, a thirtysomething wallflower ER doctor with a degenerative eye condition who begins to experience a strange side effect after a treatment to fix his eye problem. After going to sleep, he turnes into Hyde, "a fearless, gregarious personality who takes control where Grant cannot."

Crimespree has a nice roundup for you of all of the movies to be part of season one of the TNT Mystery Movie Night, featuring TV dramas based on novels by Scott Turow, Sandra Brown, Lisa Gardner, Richard North Patterson, April Smith and Mary and Carol Higgins Clark.

TNT announced the fall premiere dates for several shows, including the crime dramas The Closer, Southland, Rizzoli & Isles and Leverage.

Charlie Brooker is creating a crime detective spoof for Sky1 in the UK. Titled A Touch of Cloth, the TV movie is described as "an all-encompassing parody of every police procedural ever written" and stars New Street Law and Rebus actor John Hannah as DCI Jack Cloth, a maverick, heavy drinking loner who has thrown himself into his work following the mysterious death of his wife.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Laura Lippman joined NPR's Diane Rehm Show to talk about her latest novel, The Most Dangerous Thing.

Kathy Reichs appeared on NBC's Today Show to discuss her latest effort, Flash and Bones.

Jo Nesbo talked with fellow crime fiction author Mark Lawson about his new standalone thriller Headhunters and how he views the recent tragic events in Norway. (The Q&A starts about 20 minutes into the feed). Nesbo also gave an interview on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show.

Mystery Melange

Two new (well, new-ish) anthologies to tell you about: the first was actually published in April and is titled Crimespotting. The stories include offerings from various bestselling crime writers including Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Denise Mina and Ian Rankin, all featuring a crime and set in Edinburgh. The other anthology was just released this week and is titled D*cked. Why the title, you ask? Because all the stories are inspired "by the most vexing juggernaut of modern American politics — Dick Cheney." Authors include Patti Abbott, Jedidiah Ayres, Greg Bardsley and Kieran Shea.

In case you missed it: the nominations for the annual Shamus Awards were announced. The awards are given by the private eye writers association, PWA, for excellence in that genre, and winners will be announced at the banquet during Bouchercon. The Crime Writers Association in the UK also announced the shortlists for the Gold Dagger top novel award, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller and also the John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

Ayo Onatade recapped the recent St Hilda's Crime & Mystery Weekend, which is more academic than most conferences, with each weekend based around a theme and participants staying together on the College grounds, "very reminiscent of being back in boarding school." Various papers and talks were given, including one by PD James who commented on the difficulties surrounding assisted dying. You can read about all the other interesting fodder in Ayo's detailed and entertaining blog post at Shotsmag.

New Zealand writer/blogger Craig Sisterson also reported on the recent "Setting the Stage for Murder" event in New Zealand and a panel (consisting of the four 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award finalists) that raised the question of whether to incorporate last year's devastating earthquake in an author's novels.

If you haven't been following Patti Abbott's regular feature "How I Came to Write This Book (or Story)," you can start with her latest, Glenn Gray talking about his short story "Bigorexia."

Elizabeth Foxwell pays tribute to "Five female mystery authors who left us too soon," all of whom died of tragic circumstances before reaching their full potential.

The Sisters in Crime organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary as "a non-profit organization to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry." As part of the commemoration, Barbara Fister issued a blog challenge for participants to write blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. Be on the lookout for those around the blogosphere heading into the fall.

Libby Fischer Hellman is holding crime writing workshops titled "Anatomy of a Crime Novel: The Craft of Crime Fiction" in Chicago during September and October. For more information, check out her web site link above. (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet.)

Quaking Good Crime

Thanks to our little earthquake yesterday, the jokes have been streaming fairly steadily in the Twitterverse and on Facebook. It also made me think of crime fiction books with an earthquake as a plot device or setting, but I'm not the only one making the literary connection; immediately after the temblor, our local library put up a display of earthquake-themed books. Have I told you how much I love my library?

So, here are a few suggestions for your earthquake-reading pleasure, first from the Golden Gate Mysteries site that has recommendations aplenty about the San Fran region. It's a list of books about the 1906 quake, starting with the 1908 Travers: A Story of the San Francisco Earthquake by Sara Dean, to Locked Rooms, the 2005 book by Laurie R. King.

Other authors have used earthquakes in other regions and times, including The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones, which is set in Japan; Aftershock by Peter Corris, set in Australia; and Earthquake Weather by Terrill Lee Lankford, involving the 1994 Northridge quake, and The Walk by Lee Goldberg, both set in Hollywood.

In case you haven't been following the "laughtershocks" on Twitter, you can check out some of the fun here and here.

All kidding aside, this is a good time to remember that two areas of the world were hit by devastating earthquakes in the past year, Japan and New Zealand, both of which are still struggling to recover. Two different story anthologies were put together to help raise funds, including Shaken: Stories for Japan, including authors Kelli Stanley, Brett Battles, Timothy Hallinan and more; and Tales for Canterbury, edited by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro, with the themes of survival, hope and future. Also, the Spirit of Hope Charity Anthology is a project from the British graphics novel community, with proceeds benefitting both earthquake-hit areas.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Actor Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) is developing a script he adapted from the mystery novel Home Again by David Wiltse. He's working with producer Mark Johnson to turn it into a movie, and will also serve as the film's director. Of the story, Cranston adds "It's basically a very strong father-son story and a murder-mystery."

Brad Pitt is going to star in the movie adaptation of The Gray Man, the thriller novel by Mark Greaney. Pitt will play a former CIA operative-turned-ultimate assassin who battles special forces teams from around the world in order to save the life of his handler and the handler's family. (Hat tip to Omnimystery.)

Director Brian De Palma's next film project is a thriller written by Joby Harold titled The Key Man. It's about a single father who is targeted by U.S. government agents because his body contains answers to important national secrets. De Palma's past crime drama-related projects included Scarface, The Untouchables, Carrie and Mission: Impossible.

More first-look photos and a trailer from the upcoming film adaptation of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.

TV

Fox has ordered a pilot for a new hourlong project from Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and 20th TV. The new show, titled The Asset, is described as "a character-driven drama set in the New York office of the CIA, which centers on a female agent." Also getting the go-ahead from the studio are an alien-themed cop show titled Stranger Planet and an LAPD procedural, both yet to be cast.

Oscar nominee Julianne Moore is in negotiations to star in the HBO period drama based on the novel Dope by author Sara Gran, who is also writing the script. The movie takes place in 1950 in New York and follows a woman who rehabilitates herself on a farm following a heroin addiction and returns to society as a private eye.

The History Channel is gearing up for a miniseries about the infamous American feuding families the Hatfields and McCoys. Bill Paxton will play Randall McCoy opposite Kevin Costner, who will play "Devil" Anse Hatfield.

Get ready for Law & Order: Cape Town. Well, if you live in South Africa, anyway. The Cape Film Commission announced that 12 episodes have been ordered with filming set to begin on location, in Cape Town by May of 2012, with a cast and film crew that will be primarily South African.

CBS is planning on a crossover episode between two of its shows, Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: LA, with NCIS actress Daniela Ruah appearing on H50.

The season opener of CSI:NY commemorates the 9/11 attacks around their ten-year anniversary, with flashbacks to that tragic day, showing viewers how Mac and his ill-fated wife and others were affected.

The BBC is bringing back Martin Shaw to 1960s Northumberland as Inspector George Gently, along with his headstrong, un-pc sidekick, Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), to appear in two TV movies this year and in 2012. The series is based on the books by Alan Hunter.  (Hat tip to Eurocrime.)

Fans of BritCrime should check out this comprehensive rundown of all new crime series coming to the BBC and ITV for the 2011/2012 broacast season. Some of these may make their way across the pond (Endeavor and Sherlock are already scheduled in the U.S.), and hopefully the others will too. Some are news to me, including Undisclosed, a four-part BBC1 thriller starring Philip Glenister (Mad Dogs, Life on Mars) as a small-time solicitor, Harry Venn, forced to delve into his murky past involving the death of his brother 12 years ago, (it also stars one of my favorites, David Suchet).

Are you or is someone on your Christmas gift list a fan of the original Law and Order? If so, and if you have $500 to $700 lying around, the entire 20 years and 456 episodes will be available on DVD November 8th.

THEATER

The Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, will host a production of City of Angels, the jazzy 1989 Tony Award-winning show with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Larry Gelbart. The play is described as a "sexy noir musical comedy about a mystery writer named Stine (played by D.B. Bond) and his famous gumshone/alter ego, Stone (played by Burke Moses)."

The Eyes Have It

Tickets are available for the Private Writers of America Banquet in St. Louis, held in conjunction with Bouchercon. The event takes place Friday, September 16 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m., and buses will leave from the Convention Hotel to the banquet site. The highlight of the evening will be the announcement of the annual Shamus Awards winners for excellence in the private eye genre. For more information or to order tickets, contact Robert Randisi, founder and president of the PWA.

Mystery Melange

Gerald So, one of the editors of two anthologies titled The Lineup: Poems on Crime, announced that due to losing two co-editors due to busy schedules, he's instead created a weekly web page for crime-themed poetry. You can find submissions guidelines there.

Two terrific mystery conferences are coming up at the end of this month, Mystery Florida in Sarasota, August 24-25, and Killer Nashville, August 26-28. Special guests at the Florida event include Gayle Lynds, James O. Born, Don Bruns, Tim Dorsey, H. Terrell Griffin, David Hagberg, Chris Kuzneski, Ward Larsen, P.J. Parrish, Sharon Potts, James Swain, Les Standiford and Elaine Viets. The Nashville affair has Donald Bain and Robert Dugoni as the special guest authors. Registration is still open for both these conferences–a great way to catch a late-summer vacation at the same time!

Editors Nigel Bird and Chris Rhatigan just released the new anthology Pulp Ink, which uses the soundtrack and lines from the movie Pulp Fiction to create short stories. For a listing of stories and authors included, Thomas Brown has the rundown. (Hat tip, too, to Sandra Seamans.)

If you're on the hunt for more short story anthologies and single-author collections, Spinetingler's Brian Lindemuth has a nice listing of those books published so far in 2011. Sandra Seamans added to that list two current books from Snubnose Press (the anthology Speedloader and a collection from Keith Rawson called The Chaos We Knew) as well as two books coming soon (Monkey Justice from Patti Abbott and Gumbo Ya-Ya from Les Edgerton). 

For those of us who can't afford a vacation to Europe this year, Alexander McCall Smith takes you on a tour of Edinburgh's New Town, where many of his books are set. Also, Mysteries in Paradise is featuring a EuroPass crime fiction tour, with different entries each week from August through October that feature on one European country and some suggested books.

The Forth Worth Star-Telegram takes a look at African crime writers who are gaining attention outside of the continent, including Cape Town's Roger Smith, who article author Cary Darling says "writes with the brutal beauty of an Elmore Leonard in a very bad mood."

Janet Rudolph has been sponsoring an alphabetical look at crime fiction authors. Yesterday was "K," with Tracy Kiely, author of the Jane Austen inspired mystery series. Previous entries included Rennie Airth, Lawrence Block, Bruce DeSilva, Vicki Delany, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jamie Freveletti, P. L. Gaus, Timothy Hallinan, Graham Ison, Sue Ann Jaffarian. Many of the entries offer book giveaways, too.
 
  And now for something completely different…an American flag created entirely out of 30,000 bullets by artist Berta Leone, which took her two years to complete.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Millennium Films has optioned movie rights to The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd. Gerard Butler is set to star as retired FBI agent Steve Vail, who is working as a bricklayer in Chicago when he is called back into duty after a gang of criminals begins "demanding an escalating series of multi-million dollar ransom payments." The female role of FBI deputy director who is also Vail's partner has yet to be cast. (Hat tip to Omnimystery.)

Production may begin as early as November on the film Broken City, which was optioned by Mark Wahlberg who will also star and independently produce the movie. Wahlerb plays an ex-cop-turned-private detective hired by the mayor of New York to see if his wife is cheating on him, but instead ends up in the middle of murder and scandal. Russell Crowe has signed on to portray the mayor.

Morgan Freeman will play an ex-magician who has spent much of his life exposing illusionists' secrets, in the film Now You See Me from director Louis Letterier. Morgan teams up with Ruffalo's FBI agent trying to catch a team of illusionists, led by Jesse Eisenberg, who rob banks during their performances then rain their plunder down on their audiences.

French actress Stephanie Szostak is in negotiations for the film adaptation of the graphic novel R.I.P.D. She will play the wife of a murdered cop named Nick Walter (played by Ryan Reynolds) who enlists with the Rest In Peace Department in the afterlife. Walker teams up with a gunslinger from the old west (Jeff Bridges) to find the man who killed him (Kevin Bacon). Szostak's character can sense Nick's presence and he tries to get her to help solve the case.

20th Century Fox has signed a movie deal with Colton Harris-Moore, the "barefoot bandit" teen who gained cult status during a two-year, nine-state crime spree that included stealing airplanes and cars. Harris-Moore and his attorney says the money will go toward the minimum $1.4 million restitution Harris-Moore owes his victims.

Columbia Pictures has released a new trailer for its upcoming political thriller Anonymous, which combines the mystery behind the real identity of William Shakespeare, set amid cloak-and-dagger political intrigue and illicit romances in the Royal Court.

And here are your first images from the upcoming film J. Edgar with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.

TV

Shawn Ryan and Simon Mirren at Sony Pictures have sold an untitled project to CBS, a sort of cross between Criminal Minds and Showtime's Dexter. It's a procedural about a genetic scientist who uses his newfound discovery that he has the psychopath gene to help the FBI catch killers.

CBS has also ordered up a pilot from Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pilegg titled Ralph Lamb. Set in the early '60s, it's based on the true story of Ralph Lamb, a cowboy-turned-Las Vegas sheriff who modernized the department and assembled the city's first SWAT team, but was best known for his tough stance on the Mafia.

ABC is considering making a series based on The Lincoln Lawyer and Mickey Haller character created by author Michael Connelly. Connelly is working with John Romano to write a pilot script for Lionsgate, the same studio that produced the recent film based on Connelly's novel.

Twentieth Television bought the rights to the three-book series from Swedish criminologist and author Leif G.W. Persson. Screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (Traffic) will adapt the novels featuring Evert Backstrom, a cynical, racist, sexist and homophobic cop with a drinking problem who is disliked by many of his colleagues. Persson, a leading psychological profiler, will serve as an executive producer.

The man behind the TV version of True Blood, the series based on books by Charlaine Harris, is working with Cinemax to create a new scripted series, although it won't have a supernatural theme. Alan Ball's new project is titled Banshee, and will focus on an enigmatic ex-con who's also an expert in martial arts who poses as a murdered sheriff in a small town in Pennsylvania Amish Country.

Last week, I mentioned Endeavour, the new ITV made-for-TV prequel movie to the Inspector Morse series. It's been picked up by PBS to air in the U.S. sometime next year.

Diane Neal, who left Law & Order: SVU after season 9, is returning for several episodes in the upcoming season 13 this fall. Neal says the show will hark back to earlier seasons, and "It's back on track to what the original SVU was intended to be, which is about sex crimes and crimes against children. It's got more of a nitty-gritty feel."

Scott Wolf has joined NCIS for the Season 9 opener in the potentially recurring character of FBI Agent Casey Stratton. Executive producer Gary Glasberg says "Who he is and how he influences the NCIS team will come in due time, but I can promise you some unexpected surprises."

Spike TV has ordered three new reality shows including Big Easy Justice, which follows bounty hunter Tat-2 and his Elite Fugitive Recovery Team as they hunt down some of post-Katrina New Orleans' most elusive criminals, and Undercover Stings (from the producers of Cops) taking viewers "inside the high-stakes world of orchestrated busts and undercover police sting operations."

Fans of Warehouse 13 can breathe a sigh of relief, as Syfy renewed the series for a fourth season. Breaking Bad is also coming back for a final batch of 16 episodes. Fans of In Plain Sight, however, will be less happy at the news that USA is not renewing that series.

You can watch all three episodes of Zen available on the PBS web site, but hurry, because they apparently go away after August 30th.

Pull out your calendar or smartphone and start jotting down the nights you'll be glued in front of the TV with popcorn and your beverage of choice. The Hollywood Reporter has a handy complete broadcast premiere guide.

Indie Mystery & Thriller Bestsellers

As the big-box bookstore chains fall by the wayside, independent booksellers move to the forefront once again, and are often one of the best resources an author has for a hand-selling boost. Based on sales at hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending August 7, 2011, here are the current leaders (noting that these stats don't include eBook sales just yet, but probably will in the near future after more stores join digital outfits like Google Books):

1. Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich (Bantam)
2. The Snowman by Jo Nesbø (Knopf)
3. Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s)
4. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Bantam)
5. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler (Sarah Crichton Books)
6. The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell (Vintage)
7. I Still Dream About You Fannie Flagg (Ballantine)
8. The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbø (Harper)
9. Worth Dying For by Lee Child (Dell)
10. Nemesis by Jo Nesbø (Harper)
11. Burn by Nevada Barr (Minotaur)
12. Iron House by John Hart (Thomas Dunne)
13. Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Crown)
14. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor)
15. Sixkill by Robert B. Parker (Putnam)
16. 10th Anniversary by James Patterson (Maxine Paetro)
17. Maisie Dobbs (Book One) by Jacqueline Winspear (Penguin)
18. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley (Bantam)
19. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)
20. Killing Floor by Lee Child (Penguin)
21. A Question of Belief by Donna Leon (Penguin)
22. Death in Summer by Benjamin Black (Holt)
23. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg (Free Press)
24. The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper Perennial)
25. Buried Prey by John Sandford (Putnam)

Mystery Melange

The new kid-on-the-block webzine Dirty Noir, which publishes weekly short fiction, serialized novellas and quarterly guest-edited collections, is seeking submissions of stories 1,500 words and under for its first Dollar Dreadfuls’ Dirty Noir Quarterly in October. You can find more about submission details here.  But hurry, because the deadline is Thursday, September 15, 2011.

Also new are the The Bullet Awards, which reward original, free short crime fiction stories from web zines. Stories are judged by an anonymous panel of crime fiction experts and handed out monthly. The July results were:

• Winner: “Nobody” by Grigori Black (Dirty Noir)
• 2nd Place: “A Felicitous End” by Margaret D. Whittle (Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers)
• 3rd Place: “Smoke” by Trey R. Barker (Shotgun Honey)
• Honorable Mention:  “The Run” by Dana C. Kabel (Powder Burn Flash)
• Honorable Mention:  “One-Sided Conversation” by Ryan Sayles (Shotgun Honey)

You can get a sneak peak of the Film Noir Foundation’s quarterly electronic magazine, Noir City (formerly the Noir City Sentinel), due out soon, with a cover article on Robert Ryan. While you’re on the web site, check out articles from the current issue, including one on Raymond Burr, who made a career as menacing noir villain before he landed the Perry Mason role on TV.

Congratulations to the nominees announced this past weekend for the annual T. Jefferson Parker Book Award for Mystery & Thrillers, presented by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association:

• The Sentry by Robert Crais (Putnam)
• San Diego Noir edited by Maryelizabeth Hart (Akashic Books)
• Savages by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster)
• The Informant by Thomas Perry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

If you read this blog regularly, you’re already aware of the wonderful weekly feature Friday’s Forgotten Books by Patti Abbott (with another installment due tomorrow), but Todd Mason also has a regular Tuesday feature on his Sweet Freedom blog. Titled “Tuesday’s Overlooked Films,” it brings you a nice slate of movies you might not have heard about, many of them crime dramas, but not all. It’s worth checking out.

The Poe House, Nevermore?

Edgar Allan Poe Poe lived in this house at 203 Amity Street in Baltimore, Maryland, with his aunt, her mother and his cousin Virginia from 1833 until 1835. It is thought he wrote several poems and stories there, and until now, the house has been preserved as a museum. But due to budget problems, Baltimore cut the $85,000 in support it gave the Poe House for the second year in a row, and the museum may be forced to close. Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times wondered if perhaps the upcoming Poe resurgence might be able to save it, with two movies (The Raven and Twixt) and a potential TV series all featuring the author. Until then, you can help by signing a petition and/or making a donation to the Support the Poe House fund.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

A film version of  Bryan Gruley's acclaimed crime novel The Hanging Tree may be closer to reality, after film rights to the novel were optioned by John Gray (creator of the television series Ghost Whisperer). It's the second book in Gruley's Starvation Lake series featuring newspaper reporter Augustus "Gus" Carpenter. (Hat tip to Omnimystery.)

Actor Scott McNairy has joined Ben Affleck's upcoming political thriller Argo, adapted from a Wired magazine article outlining how the CIA posed as Hollywood executives filming a sci-fi alien picture to rescue captured U.S. diplomats in Tehran.

Actor James McAvoy has landed the lead role in the film adapted from the novel Filth by Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting). McAvoy will play Bruce Robertson, a bipolar, bigoted, sex-addict and junkie Scottish cop who would rather spend his days pranking his fellow police officers than doing his job. Jamie Bell is also in the cast as Robertson's partner, and Alan Cumming will portray Chief Inspector Bob Toal, Roberton's boss.

The film The Killer Elite opens September 23rd, and the studio has released a full-length trailer. The plot follows a retired member of Britain's Elite Special Air Service (Jason Statham) who is forced into action when his mentor (Robert De Niro) is taken captive. His mission is to kill three assassins dispatched by their ruthless leader (Clive Owen).

TV

ITV announced that Shaun Evans will play a younger Inspector Morse in Endeavor, a made-for-television movie based on the character created by Colin Dexter. The project starts shooting this autumn and will air early in 2012. Set in 1965, the story follows the hunt for a missing schoolgirl that draws Endeavour Morse back to Oxford. The film will mark the 25th anniversary of the very first episode of the original Inspector Morse series.

Essential Media & Entertainment in Sydney, Australia, is developing a mini-series for the Australian Broadcasting Company based on the Jack Irish mystery series by author Peter Temple. (Hat tip to Peter Rozovsky.)

TNT announced they're renewing the popular crime drama series Rizzoli & Isles, based on Tess Gerritsen novels, for a third season to air during summer 2012.

TVLine has casting and story line updates on several crime dramas returning for the fall, including NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, CSI and CSI:New York.

Catherine Bell will star in the adaptation of April Smith's novel, Good Morning Killer, which follows FBI Special Agent Ana Gray as she hunts for a kidnapper. The TV movie is part of the TNT Tuesday Night Mystery series for the fall and may be serving as a potential series pilot, as are some of the other installments in the Tuesday night weekly feature.

Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf from Star Trek: Next Generation) will play a psychiatrist Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is ordered to see at the beginning of the new season of Castle. It will apparently be something of a recurring role for Dorn.

Lucy Liu is joining Southland as a member of the LAPD in the acclaimed cop drama on TNT and will appear throughout season 4.

FX has picked up the pilot Powers for a full season. It's adapted from the graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and follows two homicide detectives (Jason Patric and Lucy Punch) who investigate crimes by super-powered individuals. Network president John Landgraf feels confidant about the show's potential, though he noted that "Once you have The Shield on the air, it's really tough to top that."

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR's Steve Inskeep talked with author Ronald Kessler about his new book, The Secrets of the FBI, and the organization's tactical operations.

NPR also is featuring its annual Crime in the City segments during August, with Archer Mayor's novels set in Brattleboro, Vermont; Seattle cop turned Seattle crime writer Lowen Clausen and his series set in that city; Michael Harvey and his Chicago private investigator; and George Pelecanos, his racially-divided D.C. settings and his upcoming novel, The Cut, due out next month.

In Reference to Writing

Here are some of the latest tips and tricks of the writing/publishing trade that may be helpful to some of you:

ON WRITING

Author and freelance editor Kristen Lamb offers up "4 Writing Crutches that Insult the Reader's Intelligence."

Harry Bingham, of the U.K. based Writer's Workshop, tells you "Why Most of What You’ve Read About Characterization is Untrue."

Writing a police procedural? Author and former cop Lee Lofland gives you tips on how to approach officers to help with questions about your work-in-progress.

Carol Topp, certified public accountant and author of an upcoming book, Business Tips and Taxes for Writers, has a two-part article (here and here) on what writers need to know about taxes.

April Hamilton, author of The Indie Author Guide: Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use, lists 6 dialogue traps you should avoid like the plague (hint: think cliché).

Writer/blogger Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen wants to help you overcome rejection and discouragement, and her 5 Tips should help.

ON PUBLISHING

It's the Wild West in publishing right now, making it difficult for everyone, including authors, to know how best to proceed with their careers. Making things even harder is a new trend among agents to set themselves up as publishers, a controversy author Courtney Milan tried to address on her blog. David Gaughran added to that his own Roadmap for Writers.

After reading those postings, you may think things couldn't get worse, but this cautionary tale of a scam artist who targeted one writer shows otherwise.

If you're not rattled enough, The Passive Voice lectures you on why Your Agent Isn't Your Mommy.  (Depressed now? Go back and re-read Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen's blog.)

ON MARKETING AND PUBLICITY

Editor Alan Rinzler explains the "new author platform" vs. the tired old model and what you need to know to succeed. Author and neuroscience graduate student Livia Blackburne adds that many writers haven't created an effective platform, but rather a never-ending writing conference.

You may have had it hammered into your thoughts that if you're an author, you need to be involved with social media. But Rachel Kovacs warns you about 10 ways to kill your writing career using social media.

Unless you're James Patterson or someone who sells millions of books, you're going to have to learn about self-promotion. Former literary agent Nathan Bransford explains why it "sucks," but that you have to suck up and do it anyway.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

There may be a new film version of Bonnie and Clyde in the works. Director Neil Burger is working with screenwriter Sheldon Turner, after acquiring the rights to the book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn (published last year by Simon & Schuster). The book is a "less romanticized version" than was used for the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

Joan Allen and Albert Finney appear to be on the verge of reprising their roles in the latest installment of the Bourne spy series, with Allen as a CIA agent and Finney as the head of a behavior modification program. However, Matt Damon won't be appearing in The Bourne Legacy, and Jeremy Renner will instead play a new operative in the film.

The movie project The Company You Keep, a vehicle for Robert Redford to star in, direct and co-produce, is expanding its cast, as Nick Nolte is set to join Redford and the already-announced Shia LaBeouf. Redford plays a former militant wanted by the FBI who must go on the run when his true identity is exposed by an ambitious young reporter.

Actor Frank Grillo has lined up two roles in crime films, Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad and also End of Watch. The first film is about gangster who runs the Continental Press Service as part of a plan to control horse racing on the west coast. (The film has already signed Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Emma Stone and Michael Pena.) The second is a Los Angeles-based cop story starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. 

Nicolas Cage and John Cusack are set to star in The Frozen Ground. It's based on the true story of Alaska's most notorious serial predator, Robert Hansen (Cusack), who abducted more than 24 women over 12 years and flew them into the Alaskan wilderness to be hunted. Cage will portray an Alaskan State Trooper who finds Hansen's only surviving teen victim and teams with her to bring Hansen to justice.

If you happen to find yourself in Brisbane, Australia, check out Australian Cinémathèque's surrealist film festival through October 2nd, highlighted by French filmmaker Louis Feuillade's celebrated serial films of the silent era, based on pulp detective fiction.

Three new stills have been released from the upcoming film Twixt, starring  Val Kilmer as "a burnt-out mystery writer who gets mixed up in murder and evil in a California town."

TV

John Corbett and Julie Benz will headline the TV movie Ricochet, based on the book by Sandra Brown. It's the second entry in TNT's recently announced Tuesday Night Mystery franchise debuting in November and featuring six contemporary crime dramas.

Jamie Reagan (played by Will Estes) is getting a new partner for Season 2 of Blue Bloods. Lie to Me actress Monica Raymund joins the cast as Leah Sosa, an accomplished rookie police officer who gets assigned to Jamie when his previous partner, Renzulli (Nick Turturro), is promoted to fill in as platoon commander.

BBC America has been given a 10-episode order for its first original scripted crime drama, Copper. Set in 19th century New York, the show follows a young Irish cop operating in the immigrant communities of the time period. Production starts in the fall in Toronto and will premiere in the summer of 2012.

ITV is renewing four of its crime-themed dramas, including Vera, based on the novels by crime novelist Ann Cleeves and starring Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope; Scott & Bailey; Case Sensitive, based a novel by Sophie Hannah; and Kidnap & Rescue. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

A&E has passed on one crime-drama pilot, Big Mike, but appears ready to give the go-ahead to Longmire, starring Robert Taylor and based on the series of novels by Craig Johnson.

Max Martini, last seen as the ill-fated hitman in the May finale of the series Castle, is being reborn as part of the cast of ABC's new fall drama Revenge. He'll play Frank Saunders, a "rugged, pragmatic private investigator" hired by the show's wealthy patriarch, Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny of The Tudors').

More casting news: two new villains will appear in the spy series Chuck, Mark Hamill and Craig Kilborn (the original host of The Daily Show); Molly Parker (Deadwood) has landed the female lead opposite Josh Lucas in NBC's upcoming series The Firm; William Baldwin is heading to Hawaii 5-0 for a multi-episode arc as a former homicide detective who was kicked off the force for corruption; and here's your first look at Ted Danson as the new William Peterson/Laurence Fishburne in CSI.

Career LAPD Detective/author Paul Bishop stars in a new reality show on ABC called Take the Money and Run
. Bishop will interrogate contestants to find a briefcase filled with $100,000. 

Fans of fictional serial killer Dexter will be able to participate in an interactive Faceboook game that will let players do everything from stalking their victims to exploring new locales. It's set to tie-in with the Season 6 story arc.

THEATER

Jeremy Davidson and Jefferson Mays have joined the cast of Lincoln Center Theater's production of Blood and Gifts. The play tells the story of the secret spy war behind the official Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. As Broadway World sums it up, CIA operative Jim Warnock (to be played by Davidson) struggles to stop the Soviet Army's destruction of Afghanistan, along with his counterparts in the KGB and British and Pakistani secret service. As the outcome of the entire Cold War comes into play, Jim and a larger-than-life Afghan warlord find the only person they can trust is each other