Mystery Melange

Patti Abbott's latest flash fiction challenge is based around one of her favorite painters, Reginald Marsh. To join in, write a story in any genre of under 1,000 words based on one of Marsh's paintings by October 18th. If you don't have a blog, Patti will post it on hers, and she will also donate $5 for every story submitted to Union Settlement, a social service agency in East Harlem.

NoirCon 2012 is sponsoring a poetry contest, for—what else?—noir poetry. For the purposes of the contest, noir poetry is defined as (1) Poetry that makes reference to the subject matter, dialog or style of film noir or the hardboiled detective genre, or, (2) Poetry that invokes stark urban landscapes and atmosphere, and which either alludes to crime and perilous attachments or else seems to bear dark knowledge of this territory, or (3) Poetry that tells the story of tortured souls – lovers, psychopaths, obsessives – driven down deadly paths, following desperate plans that are doomed to failure. (Note: there is an entry fee.)

  The first issue of Pulp Modern has been released. The quarterly e-zine features crime, fantasy, and western fiction. The debut edition includes tories by Jimmy Callaway, James Duncan, C.J. Edwards, Garnett Elliott, Melissa Embry, Edward A. Grainger, Glenn Gray, David James Keaton, John Kenyon, Chris La Tray, Yarrow Paisley, Matthew Pizzolato, Thomas Pluck, Stephen D. Rogers, Sandra Seamans, Copper Smith and a classic tale by pulp fiction pioneer Lawrence Block.

  The first Crime Factory anthology is out, featuring stories culled from the online 'zine. Authors include Ken Bruen, Leigh Redhead, Charlie Stella, Dave Zeltserman, Dennis Tafoya, Roger Smith, Craig McDonald and Adrian McKinty, to cult favorites Frank Bill, Scott Wolven, Nate Flexer, Andrew Nette, Jedidiah Ayres, Josh Converse, Greg Bardsley, Hilary Davidson, Kieran Shea, Cameron Ashley, Patricia Abbott, Chad Eagleton, Jimmy Callaway, Steve Weddle, Keith Rawson, Anonymous-9, Jonathan Woods, Liam Jose, Dave White, and Chris F. Holm.

Gerald So has created a discussion list in Yahoo Groups to help writers, editors, and publishers spread information about reputable short story markets, including anecdotes of specific markets' editorial taste.

Sandra Seamans (via Patti Abbott) notes that Sean O'Kane, the editor of Plots With Guns, is looking to female crime fiction writers for more character-based stories and less shoot-em up stories.

Kerrie Smith's Mysteries in Paradise continues the EuroPass blog tour with a look at crime fiction in the Czech Republic.

The interview roundup this week includes author and law professor Alifair Burke from a Q&A with Jean Henry Mead, talking about Burke's two series with NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid.

ThrillerFest 2012 is already open to registrations and adding to their lineup. In addition to ThrillerMaster Jack Higgins, 2011 ThrillerMaster R.L. Stine, Lee Child, John Sandford, and Ann Rule, D.P. Lyle adds that NASA scientists will also be on hand to discuss some cool scientific advances that will interest all crime fiction and thriller writers. If you register prior to September 30th, you can receive a conference discount.

Didn't make it to Bouchercon? You can listen to CD or MP3 archive recordings of most of Bouchercon's ninety-plus panels available from WW Tapes. (Hat tip to Peter Rozovsky from Detectives Beyond Borders.)

Crime Tech

Federal law enforcement authorities are turning to new tech gadgets such as a little known cellphone-tracking device called a Stingray. The Stingray is designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's not being used to make a call (and often used without a search warrant). It works by mimicking a cellphone tower, getting a phone to connect to it and measuring signals from the phone. In addition to the FBI using it track bad guys, it can help search-and-rescue teams find people lost in remote areas or buried in rubble after an accident.

A new technology calle Shotspotter can help police figure out exactly where a gun was fired, faster than many people could make a 911 call. The system combines acoustic technology with computer programs (used by nuclear power plants and tornado warning systems) to track gunshots down and maybe even stop them. A callback system from Dialogic Communications can even give officers an aerial photo of the gunshot location.

Japanese researchers have found that footsteps are as unique as fingerprints, and can identify people with 99.8 per cent accuracy. "Even if they have the same foot size, even if they have the same shape, [people] load their feet differently, and they do it consistently," Todd Pataky of Shinshu University says. Similar sensors that cost $20,000 could be used in airports to identify passengers as they walk barefoot through security. (Maybe up next, a footstep database for police?)

A new tool that could become a private eye's best friend is not much bigger than a dragonfly. It's a spy drone camera that can also sniff out Wi-Fi and Intercept phone calls. Combined with a GPS car tracker, your typical (or fictional) P.I. could conduct a surveillance and video record the subject without leaving his office. Law enforcement agencies around the country are already using various versions of drone technology.

A shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, recently added a new functionality to its iPhone app for shoppers to find their car, if they've forgotten where they parked it, by entering its license plate number. The local police are looking into the technology to see if they could also use it to find stolen or unregistered vehicles.

On the lighter side: Do you want to look like a criminal and still stay all nice and toasty warm this winter? Have an extra $75 lying around? Then the "Thuggie" is just for you. It's a new take on the popular Snuggie blanket that its manufacturer claims is a freakishly oversized hoodie that will "make you forget pants altogether.'"

And for men who have grocery shopping as one of the items of their "honey do" list, here's a little something to make you feel a little more…well, manly. Or at least rest assured that no one will argue with you over that last T-bone that's on sale for your upcoming game-day BBQ. What are they? Grocery bag brass knuckles. Don't say I didn't give you any Christmas gift ideas this year.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Universal is planning a remake of the classic movie Scarface from 1983 that starred Al Pacino as a notorious gangster (which was itself a remake of the 1932 Paul Muni-George Raft  movie). However, the studio says this film is "not a sequel or outright remake," despite the fact it will be helmed by Martin Bregman, the producer who made the Pacino version.

Actor Jeremy Renner, who starred in The Hurt Locker and earned an Oscar nomination for The Town, is working with Black Bear Pictures to adapt J. North Conway's true-crime book King of Heists: The Sensational  Bank Robbery of 1878 That Shocked America. Renner will portray George Leslie, who secretly put together a crew and masterminded a heist of nearly $3 million in cash and securities from the Manhattan Savings Institution in 1878.

Charlize Theron is in talks to star in and produce Cities of Refuge, a crime thriller by Brandon Willer, optioned by Inferno Entertainment. Theron would star as a female investigator brought in to solve a brutal murder and kidnapping in which things aren’t what they seem (which is a vague generic plotline, but the project is still in its early phases).

20th Century Fox is adapting Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel, a futuristic murder mystery about a time with an overpopulation problem and where robots are banned from Earth. When an Ambassador who wants to ease the anti-robot laws is found murdered, a detective and a "human-looking robot" are assigned to the case.

Millennium Entertainment has acquired the US rights to Rampart, a movie co-written by crime novelist Elmore Leonard and director Oren Moverman, which they hope to release later this year. The film stars Woody Harrelson as Dave Brown, a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the Los Angeles Police Department, and is based in part on a real LAPD scandal from the 1990s. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

A lost Alfred Hitchcock movie was screened in L.A. this past week. The only copy of the 1923 film The White Shadow was found in a New Zealand garden shed along with other films hoarded by former cinema projectionist Jack Murtagh, who died in 1989. Although Hitch didn't direct this one, he wrote it, designed the sets, edited the footage and director Graham Cutts's assistant.

The Steven Soderbergh movie remake of the 1960s TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is attracting a lot of attention from the casting agencies in Hollywood. The actors being considered are a who's who of the current A-list men including Ryan Gosling, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Alexander Skarsgard, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, Chris Pine, Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Hamm, Russell Crowe, Robert Pattinson, Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor.

TV

ABC's supernatural show Once Upon a Time debuts next month, but apparently the network thinks another fairy-tale series might be a good move. The unnamed pilot centers on a female cop who, after pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, discovers a magical world that exists within New York City.

Continuing its pilot-buying spree, ABC has also given the greenlight to several other project including: a new legal drama pilot from Steven Bochco (L.A. Law, Philly and Raising the Bar); Zero Hour, a mystery drama from Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring; and two pilots focusing on intelligence agencies, Safehouse (CIA) and Murder Season (FBI).

Fox has bought The Raiding Party, a drama project from Breakout Kings creator Nick Santora about three brothers and their overbearing mother who carry on the successful family business of robbing banks.

Thriller writer Jeffrey Archer is on a roll. With a movie deal already in hand for some of his books, his 1999 novel The Eleventh Commandment is being developed as a TV series by Gale Anne Hurd. The story follows Connor Fitzgerald, a CIA assassin who battles his own boss and Russian military amibitions as he tries to save the world.

Melissa George is set to star in the BBC-Cinemax spy thriller series Nemesis, which was created by former X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz. George will play a skilled operative with an elite private intelligence firm who survives an attempt on her life that might have been orchestrated by members of her own team.

Fox has purchased a script (reminiscent of the former TV show Alias) that's a procedural thriller focused on the orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative who is recruited to become an operative herself.

Sherlock Holmes mania continues in the movies and TV, not just in the U.S. and the U.K., but apparently also in Russia, with a new adaptation starring Igor Petrenko as Sherlock Homes and Andrey Panin as Dr. Watson.

Joshua Jackson, who stars as Peter of Fox's Fringe, has written three issues of a tie-in graphic novel
for the series, which explores pivotal events that take place between the third and fourth seasons, as well as alternate scenarios.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Geoffrey Gray recounts the events of the infamous and unsolved D.B. Cooper plane hijacking in his new book, Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, as he talks with Guy Raz, weekend host of All Things Considered.

In honor of his new book The Cut, author George Pelecanos offers NPR a playlist of songs that correspond with specific characters or scenes, or "are just cool in their own right."

GAMES

A video game based on the popular crime drama NCIS is coming in October, although the 3D version is apparently only going to be available in Europe and not the U.S. Game makers says users will be able to "investigate crime scenes as agents Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo, conduct forensics analyses as Abby Sciuto, perform victim autopsies as Ducky Mallard, interrogate and break suspects as special agent Gibbs, and use satellite tracking to apprehend bad guys on the run as special agent McGee."

Focus Home Interactive is creating a Sherlock Holmes game for the Nintendo 3DS titled "Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Frozen City," set during a mysterious London snowstorm so cold that even the Thames is starting to freeze.

Ban the Book Banning

Banned Books Week starts today, in what has become an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and many more organizations. The purpose: to promote free and open access to information, even if the unformation and ideas are considered unorthodox or unpopular.

Book banning was in the news just this week with three items: the Republic county school board in Missouri banned two books from the school library, Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut's classic tale of the firebombing of Dresden during World War II, and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, which tells of a girl trying to recover after the death of her boyfriend (they're now kept in a separate room only parents can check out); the Charlton Public Library in Massachuetts lifted a century-old ban on Eve's Diary, a satirical version of the Adam and Eve story that had nude illustrations (not photos, mind you); and the Algerian International Book Fair banned 400 books.

I saw someone make the argument recently that in this day and age of digital books anyone can download, there really isn't such a thing as truly banned books. But many people still don't have ready access to computers or digital devices, in this country and around the world. And that argument doesn't even take into account the issues of free speech that are involved. I'm reminded of the words from 1776 attributed to founding father Stephen Hopkins, delegate from Rhode Island to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, "I've never heard, seen nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn't be talked about."

Of course, the ironic thing about book banning is that it tends to bring attention to the very books it wants to make disappear; the Springfield-Greene County Library District (which includes the public library in Republic) has 21 copies of Slaughterhouse-Five and 36 holds, and 11 copies of Twenty Boy Summer and and 37 holds, and the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis is offering a free copy of the author's book to any Republic student who requests it.

Mystery Melange

Editor/Publisher Charles Ardai announced that after more than nine years of detective work and negotiation, Hard Case Crime has found a lost novel by James M. Cain (Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice) and secured the rights to publish the book. Titled The Cocktail Waitress, it's scheduled for a fall 2012 release and tells the story of beautiful young widow Joan Medford, whose husband died under suspicious circumstances. Desperate for cash, she takes a cocktail waitress gig then marries a rich, ailing older man. But when she falls for a handsome young schemer, things take a typical noirish Cain turn.

Publisher Crippen and Landru, a company that specializes in making out-of-print and neglected works available for new audiences as part of their "Lost Classics" series, announced that due to popular demand, they will reissue Vincent Cornier’s Barnabas Hildreth stories. Ellery Queen called them "one of the great series of modern detective stories," but after their original publication in a British magazine in the 1930s, they all but disappeared. They feature Hildreth solving such mysteries as a bullet fired three centuries earlier that wounded a man; an ancient Egyptian curse that strikes the members of an archeological expedition; a man transformed into stone; and an ancient Aztec laughing cloak.

In the review roundup this week, The Rap Sheet's Jeff Pierce has a Q&A with Kelli Stanley, the author of City of Dragons (recent winner of the Macavity Sue Feder Award for Historical Mystery), and her latest novel, City of Secrets, both featuring 940s San Francisco private eye Miranda Corbie. Stanley draws parallels between the early 20th century political climate and today.

Crime fiction authors Mark Billingham, John Harvey, Michael Ridpath and Pauline Rowson are teaming up with law enforcement experts for "CSI Portsmouth," part of the 2011 Portsmouth, England, BookFest on November 5th. The authors will join police from the Major Crime Unit and Crime Scene experts from Hampshire Constabulary; Dr Claire Nee, Director of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology at Portsmouth University, and Paul Smith, an expert in Crime Scene Investigation. There will even be a panel on Victorian Crime.

If you are an unpublished Canadian novelist, dust off that manuscript and send it to the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel, awarded by the Crime Writers of Canada. The competition is open to (1) Canadian citizens, no matter where they are living, and to writers, regardless of nationality, who have Permanent Resident status in Canada, and (2) who have never had a novel of any kind published commercially.

I don't often mention writing contests that include a fee (especially ones with such a large number of entries), but the Writers Digest contests have large prizes, so if you want to give it a shot, both the Thriller and Crime short story competitions have deadlines coming up soon (October 1 and 22, respectively). Stories must be 4,000 words or less.

Been wanting to try eBooks? The Criminal Element blog is running a contest to win an eReader of your choice. All you have to do is register (for free).

Spies and P.I.s

When the International Spy Museum opened in Washington, D.C. in 2002, it became the largest museum of its kind, with many objects on public display for the first time. It remains the only public museum in the U.S. dedicated solely to espionage. But there are other smaller, quirky museums that profile the spy and private eye trades that don't get as much attention.


 The Spy And Private-Eye Museum in Austin, Texas, is the personal collection of Ralph Thomas, who logged thousands of hours as a P.I. while amassing various paraphernalia related to the trade. The exhibits include everything from rare documents from Pinkerton Detective Agency case files dating back to 1877, to 1930s polygraph equipment, to a CIA covert gun built into a tire gauge.


The P.I. Museum in San Diego contains historic treasures and artifacts gathered by Private Investigator Ben Harroll for over 30 years. Harroll's collection includes both the real and the fictional, including a letter penned in 1852 by Eugene Francois Vidocq, spy cameras and tracking devices and Dick Tracy and Magnum P.I. collectibles.


 The Spy Exchange and Security Center in Austin, Texas, is one of the largest showrooms for private eye gear, books and manuals in the U.S. (which is pretty neat on its own), but it also has two rooms set aside for a collection of historic paraphernalia. While you're there, pick up a smiley-face spy camera. The kids will never know.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Writer-director Ryan Craig has been hired by Warner Brothers to adapt the Brad Thor novel Takedown, the fifth book in the series that centers on Scot Harvath, a former member of Navy SEAL Team 6 who becomes a black-ops counterterrorism agent.

Gold Circle Films is crafting an American remake of Taiwanese supernatural thriller Silk, about scientists who capture the ghost of a child in an apartment and the detective charged with discovering clues to the ghost's identity and demise. It's described as "Michael Crichton meets The Sixth Sense."

The Muppets have a little fun with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

TV

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books may be coming to NBC. John Wells' production company sold the project to be based on Mosley's black private eye Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, who finds himself solving crimes and dealing with the changing world around him in Los Angeles from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Producer/writer Greg Walker (Without a Trace, Defenders) has sold Red on Red to CBS, a crime drama based on the book by Edward Conlon. It centers on a young hungry detective who is asked to inform on his new partner who is a legend in the NYPD. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Author Marcus Sakey is writing and hosting a new Travel Channel series called Hidden City that Sakey describes as "Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations meets Castle." He'll travel to a different city in each of the 12 episodes to uncover its criminal past.

Ethan Hawke and Vince D'Onofrio are joining with writer-producer Chris Brancato for a cop drama pilot for NBC. Titled Blue Tilt, the show follows Hawke and D’Onofrio as two seasoned homicide detectives as they solve cases while dealing with their wives/ex-wives and kids. The title Blue Tilt refers to a cop term for homicide detectives put under psychiatric observation if they may become a danger to themselves.

Nothing succeeds like success. Fresh on the heels of the popular Sherlock Holmes movie version (with Robert Downey, Jr.) and BBC TV series (with Benedict Cumbersnatch), CBS is eyeing a Sherlock reboot. It's described as a "modern take" on the cases of the pipe-smoking private eye created by Arthur Conan Doyle. (In other words, an American version of the BBC show.)

CBS also acquired a project based on a character in the "Mommy Track" series of mysteries by Ayelet Waldman featuring Juliet Applebaum, who has given up her career as a public defender to stay home with her daughter Ruby.

ABC has purchased not one but two pilots based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. I already mentioned one, about an ER doctor whose "id manifests itself as a different person when he goes to sleep as a result of an experiential medical treatment." The latest is described as a "suspenseful, darkly romantic retelling of the classic tale with a unique sci-fi twist."  Set in modern San Francisco, it involves a female criminal psychologist drawn into the mysterious world of a brilliant inhibited scientist and his volatile alter ego.

ABC Family has ordered a pilot project titled Intercept, which follows a group of college students who get roped into solving crimes when one of them creates a high-tech gadget that intercepts conversations.

Hannibal Lecter may be coming to your living room—in a TV series. French film studio Gaumont, who is setting up Gaumont International Television, a production company based in Los Angeles, hopes to sell their series project that will "center on Lecter’s early days, namely his time going head-to-head with FBI agent Will Graham."

THEATER

Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia, is currently presenting The Boy Detective Fails, a world premiere musical based on the book by Joe Meno with music and lyrics by Adam Gwon. It's both a send-up of anachronistic boys detective fiction and a tale of adult survivors' grief when childhood mysteries turn into very-real grownup ones.

There are two staged musical versions of Bonnie & Clyde in the pipeline. The first begins previews on November 4, with the world premiere on December 1st at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in NY. The second is a satiric take of the lives of America's infamous bank robbers, scheduled for March 15-April 8, 2012 at the urora Theatre in suburban Atlanta.

Greensboro, North Carolina's Triad Stage will feature Dial "M" for Murder this fall season. Frederick Knott's play was made famous by Alfred Hitchcock's filmed version. The play is set in 1950s London and revolves around Tony and Margot Wendice, when Tony learns of Margot's infidelity and devises the perfect plot to kill his wife and gain access to h
er wealth. But things don't go as planned, and Tony has to stay ahead of a detective and mystery writer determined to solve the crime.

Bouchercon-fined

Due to the Bouchercon mystery conference, with a large percentage of the crime fiction community converging on St. Louis this weekend, Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books is taking a one-week hiatus. If you're unable to join the festivities at this year's Bouchercon (like moi), there are several ways you can keep up with the proceedings:

Bloggers on hand are promising to try and provide updates as possible. Bill Crider is one of those, as well as Mystery Fanfare's Janet Rudolph;  Shotsmagazine colleagues Ayo Onatade, Mike Stotter and Ali Karim; and Peter Rozovsky over at Detectives Beyond Borders.

Murderati's David Corbett has a preview of two panels, "Shadows Rising: Movies for the Crime Fiction Fan," with lots of recomendations, and "Witness to an Incident: The Human Element."

Mystery Scene columnist Oline Cogdill profiles the three Missouri crime fiction authors who will be given special recognition during the conference, including  Robert J. Randisi, John Lutz, and Joel Goldman.

Bouchercon is also where several crime fiction awards are announced, including the Anthonys, Barrys, Macavity and Shamus awards, which Murder, Mystery and Mayhem itemize for you. Dan Wager, the Hungry Detective, jumps the gun with his personal picks, and The Rap Sheet will also be ready to give you updates on the awards as they are handed out. The Short Mystery Fiction Society has already chosen its Derringer winners for 2011, but they will be honored during Bouchercon.

If you're on Twitter, you can follow conference-goer tweets via #bcon11 and #bcon2011.

Chairman Jon Jordan has gone above and beyond the call of duty to create what looks to be a very special event this year. Kudos to him and all those who have helped make this event happen.

Mystery Melange

Author Paul Lindsay, a/k/a Noah Boyd, died last week. He served in the Marines during the Vietnam War and was awarded two Purple Hearts. Following his military career, he spent two decades working as a FBI agent and retired to write seven novels. His latest, Agent X, was released in February 2011, and Millenium Films has acquired the rights to his bestseller The Bricklayer. His family asked that any memorial contributions be made to the the Wounded Warrior Program.

John Kenyon announced the debut of Grift Magazine, a new print magazine that will feature crime fiction, reviews, interviews and more, beginning with its first issue in 2012 and published three times a year (February, June and October). The companion web site will also include flash fiction, reviews, interviews and news. Submission guidelines will be up soon.

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for a Literary Salon with author Deon Meyer in Berkeley, California on Wednesday, September 21st at 7 p.m. Deon Meyer is an award winning South African thriller writer, who books have been translated in 25 languages. His latest work is Trackers. For reservations and directions, send and e-mail to Janet Rudolph.

If you happen to be in Richmond, Virginia on Thursday, October 13th, you can attend the first annual Mystery Day at the Library of Virginia. The event will showcase 16 of Virginia's talented mystery authors with a special tribute to People's Choice Award nominee Donna Andrews. The panels are free of charge but require an advance registration, and there's an optional lunch for a fee. The lineup includes Mollie Bryan, Meredith Cole, Ellen Crosby, Jan Neuharth, Alan Orloff, Brad Parks, Sandy Parshall, JB Stanley, Andy Straka, and Irene Ziegler. Moderators are Art Taylor, Steve Weddle, Katherine Neville and Meredith Cole.

In the Q&A tour this week, Mysterious People has an interview with Timothy Hallinan, nominated for Edgar and Macavity awards for his Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers. Hallinan discusses his decision to take the indie eBook route for his new Junior Bender series.

Every year, the Malice Domestic mystery conference awards two grants to unpublished writers to help support their writing careers. The winners are awarded $1,500 as well as a paid registration for the following year's convention and two nights lodging. Submissions will be accepted from September 15th through November 15th only. Note: applicants can't have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form.

Prometheus Books is launching Seventh Street Books, a new mystery and thriller imprint, with 20-24 titles expected in fall/winter 2012–2013 and 32-35 in subsequent years. The books will be released in trade paper and and eBook formats.

If you're a fan of the TV series The Killing on the AMC network, you may (or may not) know it's based on a very popular TV show in Denmark, watched by nearly half of Denmark's 5.5 million population. If you want to see where it all began, The Daily Mail laid out "The Killing Tour" that hits all the program's highlighted locations in Copenhagen.

Planning your funeral arrangements well in advance? Tired of the same-old plain coffin and graveside service? The Mother Nature Network offers up
eight "weird burial alternatives" that are going mainstream. (And also make potential crime fiction plot devices…) (Hat tip to Bill Crider.)

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Clint Eastwood plans to unveil his latest film, the biopic about the life of iconic lawman J. Edgar Hoover, on November 3rd during the AFI Festival in Hollywood. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the FBI director and was written by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black.

Anthony Hopkins is actively pursuing the leading role in Solace from New Line pictures. Hopkins would play John Clancy, a former doctor with psychic abilities who works for the FBI and is drawn into a unique serial killer case that pits him against a formidable foe.

Michael Keaton and Michelle Monaghan will star in Penthouse North, a psychological thriller being directed by Joseph Ruben. The plot hinges on a photojournalist (Monaghan) haunted by a tragic event who has escaped from the world in an upscale New York penthouse, only to be terrorized by  a smooth but sadistic criminal (Keaton) looking for a hidden fortune.

The police thriller Rampart, based on the novel by James Ellroy, turned out to be one of the Toronto Film Festival's hottest items. The movie was adapted and directed by Oren Moverman, who says he and Ellroy didn't agree on a lot of things, but he feels that tension plays off in the film.

Crime Scene Pictures is to produce the action thriller Man With a Gun, based on a screenplay by Robert Hewitt Wolfe. The contemporary Western is about a man seeking redemption as Eisenhower "Ike" Bell goes on a mission to infiltrate the gangs of drug warlords in a U.S. border town.

James McTeigue, director of the upcoming Edgar Allan Poe movie The Raven, is in talks to helm the movie Ness/Capone. It's said to put a new spin on the epic battle between Eliot Ness and Al Capone during the Prohibition Era 1920s.

On the Criminal Elements blog, Clare Toohey posted the video "teaser trailer" for the upcoming movie based on Jo Nesbo's novel Headhunters about a corporate headhunter who supports his luxurious lifestyle and his wife's fledgling gallery with art theft on the side.

TV

After Fox canceled the long-running program America's Most Wanted, it was considered a sad day among some law enforcement circles. The show was responsible for the capture of 1,154 wanted criminals in the U.S. and 30 countries, including 17 on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, and the rescue of 61 children and missing persons. Now is seems the show will continue after all on its new network home, Lifetime. 

PBS is premiering the first of three episodes of the Ken Burns documentary Prohibition on October. 2nd. PBS executive John Wilson says "It has all the excitement and drama of any feature film from that era—sex, violence, wild women, thugs and guns—set against this great bitter cultural divide in the country."

The Prohibition era is a hot theme right now. In addition to the Ness/Capone movie and Ken Burns documentary, HBO's popular freshman drama Boardwalk Empire, also set in the Prohibition era, took home seven Creative Arts Emmy awards Saturday night for casting, makeup, art direction, editing, visual effects, sound editing and cinematography.

Producer Mark Gordon has sold a pilot for a crime drama to ABC titled Untouchable. It's described as a "stylish, sexy modernization of Miami Vice for the 21st century," featuring  a hard-charging female FBI agent with a blue-collar background teamed with a reckless, independently wealthy LAPD detective to take on organized crime. The pilot is being written by Chap Taylor and directed by Rob Bowman, the man behind The X Files and Castle.

Thriller writer Joshua Cain tweeted that 20th Century Fox has optioned his books with FBI consultant Esme Stuart for TV, with Barry Josephson and Daniel Voll headlining the project.

Omnimystery is profiling the new and returning crime dramas that will soon start gracing your TV screens, thereby taking care of any withdrawal you've been experiencing. First up is Unforgettable starring Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, an enigmatic former police detective with a rare condition that gives her a perfect memory.

ABC has purchased a globetrotting adventure based on the Jack West Jr. series by best-selling Australian thriller novelist Matthew Reilly. Titled Seven Wonders, the project is a treasure hunt in the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark and National Treasure, featuring a five-member team led with commando-turned-archeologist West as they search the world for seven pieces of an ancient relic with special powe
rs.

Syfy is renewing its freshmen series Alphas for a second season, ordering up thirteen more episodes. Alphas follows a group of people with extraordinary abilities brought together by neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (David Straithairn) to investigate crime cases involving other people with similar abilities.

A production crew is set to film at the Clark County coroner's office in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a potential reality-TV series for the Discovery Channel. According to a county representative, the show's producers want to "focus more on the 'science' of investigating a death instead of the gory details."

If you're one of the few people who watched the summer Lifetime drama The Protector, don't expect to see it next year, because the network pulled the plug. The show starred Ally Walker as a single mom juggling her personal life and her career as a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective.

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR's Crime in the City series has concluded for another summer, but you can catch all of the archived interviews via the NPR site. Featured author/city shows included Benjamin Black on Dublin, Ireland; Petros Markaris in Athens, Greece; Tom Rob Smith and Moscow; Michael Harvey in Chicago; Lowen Clausen and Seattle; George Pelecanos  in D.C.; and Archer Mayor in Vermont. Features from 2009 and 2010 and there for your listening pleasure, as well.

 

Mystery Melange

Jeff Pierce observes Hard Case Crime's long-awaited return to the publishing scene this month with a column for Kirkus Reviews that includes an interview with editor Charles Ardai. Ardai talks about the first titles to roll off the press and other books he looks forward to adding down the line.

Big Pulp, the online journal featuring genre fiction and artwork of all kinds, is open again for submissions. Publisher/editor Bill Olver is seeking submissions of prose, poetry, photography, artwork, and comics. He defines "pulp fiction" as being "lively, challenging, thought-provoking, thrilling, and fun, regardless of how many or how few genre elements are packed in." This current open period only lasts through the end of the month. 

Editor Alec Cizak announced the lineup for issue #1 of Pulp Modern, an e-zine that will feature stories of crime, mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasy and westerns. Contributors to the debut edition include Lawrence Block, Jimmy Callaway, John Kenyon, Stephen D. Rogers, and more, including Sandra Seamans, who also deserves a hat tip for reminding me of the news. Cizak is taking submissions for the next issue, with a due date of November 1st.

Scandinavian crime fiction is hot, and Barbara Fister keeps track of it all. She has a post on her blog this week detailing all the latest news, organized by country, from Denmark to Sweden, including a poll at Crime Scraps where you can vote on which women crime writers from Nordic countries are the most popular.

On the interview circuit, Sons of Spade has a Q&A with author Max Allan Collins about his protagonists P.I. Nate Heller and the enigmatic Quarry, as well as his how he promotes his work and how he feels about literary psychotic sidekicks; Craig Sisterson interviews Jeffery Deaver, who tells why his favorite recurring crime fiction character is Connelly's Harry Bosch and what Deaver does in his spare time (wine, anyone?); Declan Burke puts Val McDermid on the spot asking her which crime novel she wished she had written; and Chris Rhatigan discusses editing the new anthology Pulp Ink and self-publishing on Kindle.

One of my fave games from childhood was "Authors," a literary card game that is like Go Fish for readers. It includes thirteen authors with four cards each and the object of the game is to collect the most sets. As Galley Cat reminds us, the game was created in 1861 by Anne Abbott, a clergyman's daughter and editor of a young people's literary journal. Later versions included Children's Authors and American Authors. (Anyone for creating a mystery author series, too?)

Up in the Hudson Valley area, the Book Booth has opened. Dubbed the smallest library in the U.S., it's a repurposed British phone booth (and patterned after a similar project in the U.K.) that holds 150 books and is run as a community book exchange, with the motto "bring a book, take a book." The light inside is powered by a solar panel, meaning the booth can be open 24/7.

Forensics U

 

Time is running out for you to register for three different hands-on workshops to learn the science and logistics behind criminal investigations:

• The Art & Science of Investigation workshop for mystery writers takes place this weekend in Bryan, Texas, but there are still places left (you must register by the 9th). Speakers will include Suzanne Lowe and Jorge Molina, both forensic artists with the Texas Rangers, Jeff Tomberlin, a forensic entomologist, and Steve Smith, a cognitive psychologist and expert on memory and eye-witness testimony.

• The National Institute of Justice is holding a free 3-day Public Safety Summit on Forensic Science October 18-20 in Clearwater Beach, FL. The event is designed for non-scientists in law enforcement and officers of the court. Registration closes 9/15/11.

• The 2011 Writers' Police Academy is slated for September 23-25 at Guilford Technical Community College and Public Safety Training Academy in Jamestown, N.C.  The Firearms Training Simulator workshop is sold out, but you can still register for the other panels, including everything from crime scene investigation to handcuffing and arrest techniques.
  

As Lee Lofland, the founder of the Writers' Police Academy notes, "Sweat now, so your manuscript won't bleed red ink later."

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Nick Nolte has joined Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone, Mireille Enos and Anthony Mackie in the cast for the drama Gangster Squad. Nolte will Bill Parker, a Purple Heart recipient and the new chief of police in Los Angeles, who is also the first chief not to be corrupted by Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).

TV

CBS is bringing an adaptation of Leslie Glass’ April Woo police procedural series to the small screen. Screenwriter and novelist Amy Bloom, creator of the Lifetime series State of Mind, will write the script centered on the title character, a brilliant young Chinese-American who becomes the first female head of detectives in Coney Island, New York

The BBC psychological police drama Luther starring Idris Elba will be back for a third season, although U.S. fans won't get to see the second season until BBC American starts airing it in September.

The CW has signed a police procedural from Homicide team Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson. Titled Musketeers 3.0, the premise revolves around three highly intelligent, out-of-control New York detectives who meet their match when a rookie is assigned to work with them.

TNT may develop a pilot based on a script from Greg Plageman (NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Cold Case). The working title is Bishop to Pawn, and it is about a private eye who runs his business out of a Los Angeles pawn shop.

TNT has given the green light to several pilots for potential dramas, including H.I.K.E, in which a female police officer runs the Home Invasion Kidnapping Enforcement team in Phoenix, Arizona, and Perfect Set, about a brother and sister who solve crimes and is being dubbed a present-day Hart to Hart. (Hat tip to Ominmystery News.)

Busy-bee TNT also announced cast additions to a pair of projects in its Mystery Movie Night franchise, which will include six procedural dramas, based on novels. Anne Heche and Judd Hirsch have joined the cast of Silent Witness, adapted from Richard North Patterson's book, and William Devane and Titus Welliver have joined Catherine Bell in Good Morning, Killer, adapted by April Smith from her novel. 

ABC has bought a light drama pilot script from Jon Feldman, described as "Moonlighting meets Early Edition." It centers on a charming ex-con who realizes he's receiving video links to news reports by a beautiful, ambitious TV crime reporter (who helped put him away)–before she actually films them, giving the unlikely duo 24 hours to prevent the crimes from taking place.

NBC acquired the television rights to the Israeli television thriller Pillars of Smoke in hopes of making a U.S. version. The original series, titled Timrot Asham, is in its second season in which the police investigate a cult in the Golan Heights that has vanished and uncover a political conspiracy. It's described as a combination of Twin Peaks and Lost.

The Fox network has given the go-ahead to a pilot centered around Stockholm police officer Evert Backstrom (described as "a detective version of Dr. Gregory House"), the series character created by author/criminologist Leif G. W. Persson. Persson has written many TV episodes in his native Sweden, and will serve in an executive producer role for the U.S. series, as well.

Omnimystery News also notes that SVT, Sweden's television network, has some interesting crime dramas on their fall schedule, including ten 90-minute episodes adapted from crime novels by Arne Dahl (a pseudonym used by Jan Arnald).

PODCASTS/RADIO

NPR's Morning Edition continued its Crime in the City series, talking with author John Banville, who writes crime fiction under the name Benjamin Black, about how writing noir fiction set in Dublin in the 1950s is "absolutely perfect."

Charity Begins at Tome

Crime fiction authors are often among the first to lend their talents, services and wares to help support charities such as the earthquake-related projects I mentioned the other day. Coming up Thursday, September 8th, the Severna Park Chartwell Country Club in Maryland will host mystery authors Donna Andrews, Marcia Talley, Louis Bayard, Thomas Kaufman, Rosemary and Larry Mild, and Tracy Kiely in an event to benefit breast cancer research organization METAvivor. Mystery Loves Company will also be selling books at the event.

In other charity news, Ed Gorman reports that author Paul Levine, who celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first novel To Speak for the Dead with a charity effort benefitting the Four Diamonds Fund (supporting treatment and research at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital), is doing it again this year with his second novel ebook release, Flesh & Bones. Craig Sisterson also notes proceeds from Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's thriller Headhunters, about an art theft which goes wrong, will be funneled directly to the Harry Hole Foundation to reduce illiteracy among children in the Third World.

Go hear a favorite author, buy a book, help other people. Sounds like a win-win to me.