A Breather, In More Ways Than One

Patti Abbott is taking a breather from the weekly Friday's "Forgotten" Books feature today. I thought I'd take this opportunity to remind everyone that recent disasters are making it even harder on many folks in this still-recovering economy:

• In Colorado, Utah, Montana and Arizona, tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes and businesses, with hundreds of those building burned to the ground, at a cost of untold millions;

• Flooding in Montana has caused at least $100 million in damage that could take years to recover from in the 14 counties declared disaster areas;

• Tropical Storm Debby forced up to 20,000 people out of their homes in one Florida county alone, and several areas saw 26 inches of rain that led to massive flooding.

It's heartening to see that libraries have been playing a valuable role in helping evacuees, especially in Colorado: the Pikes Peak Library set up a laptop lab and books at the Red Cross Shelter in Cheyenne Mountain High School, Colorado Springs;  and the Poudre River Public Library District set up an area in the Thomas M. McKee Community Center in Larimer County where kids can play with toys, read, watch cartoons and put puzzles together and people can also use laptops to contact family.

Even if you don't have family or friends in the affected areas, consider a contribution to the American Red Cross of either money or a blood donation, both of which are sorely needed.

Mystery Melange

Crime fiction is becoming more global all the time, but I'll bet Israel doesn't come to mind when you think of mystery novels. Peter Rozovsky over at Detectives Beyond Borders offer up a short history of crime fiction in Israel with an article by Uri Kenan in two parts, here and here.

The Q&A roundup includes the Sons of Spade blog chatting with author Sean Dexter, author of the Jackson Burke series, and how he feels that private eyes are so popular ("It's what all men want to be: Tough, wisecracking, and fearless"); and Meg Gardiner stopped by Chuck Wendig's blog Terrible Minds to reveal why she likes writing: "Because holding people’s suspended disbelief in my hands is a beautiful, powerful kick."

Out of the Gutter and NoirCon 2012 are teaming up for Atomic Noir: Four Dark Original Stories Inspired by Post-World War II Crime Fiction. Winners get $50, a copy of the book, and get their work distributed to the biggest names and biggest fans in current crime fiction at the annual noir conference in Philadelphia. Stories should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, and the first round of submissions is open open July 1 and close July 21.

This was the week for fun auctions: a first edition of Live and Let Die, the second James Bond book written by Ian Fleming, sold for $21,258, while an Agatha Christie novel from 1924, with a rare dust jacket that showed Poirot for the first time, sold for £40,000 ($62,000). Remarkably, the Poirot illustration looks like a double for actor David Suchet, who plays Poirot in the ITV/PBS Mystery dramatizations.

Want some summer reading material? Omnimystery News has a listing of the new crime fiction coming in July.

Janet Rudolph has a tribute to Nora Ephron, who died this week, with a short Stieg Larsson parody Ephron wrote for The New Yorker.

July Conference Extravaganza

July may well be the peak month for crime fiction conferences geared to authors and fans around the globe. Here's a listing, with the note that it's not too late to register for most:

July 3
Crime in the Court
London, England
Close to 40 authors will attend, including Mark Billingham, Christopher Fowler, Sophie Hannah, David Hewson, Peter James, Erin Kelly, S.J. Watson.

July 11-14
Thrillerfest
New York, NY
Spotlight guests will include 2012 ThrillerMaster Jack Higgins; 2011 ThrillerMaster R.L. Stine; 2012 Silver Bullet Award Winner Richard North Patterson; 2011 Silver Bullet Winner Karin Slaughter; and 2012 Spotlight Guests Lee Child, John Sandford, Catherine Coulter and Ann Rule.

July 12-15
Public Safety Writers' Conference
Las Vegas, NV
Special Guests John M. Mills, Herman Groman

July 13
Poisoned Pen Conference
Scottsdale, AZ
Special Guests: Howard L. Anderson, Mark de Castrique, Linda Fairstein, Timothy Hallinan, Alex Kava, Joseph Kanon, Jesse Kellerman, Martin Limon, Francine Mathews and Dana Stabenow.

July 19-22
Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference
Corte Madera, CA
Editors, agents, publishers and panels of detectives, forensic experts and other crime-fighting professionals. The keynote speaker for 2012 in Don Winslow. Author guests on the faculty include Don Winslow, Cara Black, Tony Broadbent, Robert Dugoni, William C. Gordon, Taquin Hall, Jesse Kellerman, Arthur Kerns, John Lescroart, D.P. Lyle, Tim Maleeny, Cornelia Read, Gillian Roberts, Kirk Russell, Sheldon Siegel, Karin Slaughter.

July 19-22
Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival
Harrogate, UK
Programming Chair, Mark Billingham; Special Guests include Harlan Coben, John Connolly, Jo Nesbo, Kate Mosse, Peter Robinson, Peter James and Ian Rankin.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The on-again, off-again film project The Thin Man, based on Dashiell Hammett's stories about Nick and Nora Charles, appears to be stalled again, due to budget problems and Johnny Depp's busy schedule.

Edward James Olmos is in talks to play the villain in Baltasar Kormakur's Two Guns film, based on a graphic novel. If the deal goes through, he will join Mark Wahlberg playing a Navy SEAL and Denzel Washington as a DEA agent who work together, not knowing each of them is undercover.

Muppets director James Bobin is on board to direct an adaptation of the novel Agent Zigzag, based on the book by Ben McIntyre. The plot centers on a man named Eddie Chapman, a criminal-turned-hero who serves his country by operating as a double agent during World War II, spying on Germany and reporting back to MI5.

Here's one I overlooked last week: Shane Salerno has optioned Steve Hamilton's 2011 Edgar Award-winning Best Novel The Lock Artist  for film. Salerno also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Don Winslow's Savages. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Director Rob Reiner is getting back into the thriller genre with the project You Belong To Me. It's described as being "in the tradition of Cape Fear," and is about a psychiatrist who makes a mistake when he exposes details about himself to his patients.

Aaron Eckhart has been cast in the upcoming thriller about a former Secret Service agent who has to prevent terrorists from attacking the White House. Titled either White House Taken or Olympus Has Fallen (depending upon the source), Eckhart will play the president and joins previously-cast actor Gerard Butler

New Line has picked up an untitled noir thriller from Allison Burnett, that's filled with sensuality and intrigue and described as "being in the tradition of Body Heat."

TV

BBC2's new five-part police drama Line of Duty begins tomorrow night, starring Lennie James as the much honored and admired Detective Gates. (Hopefully, it will cross the Pond to BBC America in the not-too-distant future.)

Actor Mark Williams has been cast in a new BBC One crime drama based on the Father Brown stories by GK Chesterton about a priest who accidentally finds himself as a crime detective.

CBS is considering bringing back Unforgettable as a mini-series next summer. The recently-canceled police procedural starred Poppy Montgomery as a detective who has the ability to remember everything.

The serial-killer show Dexter will kick off the upcoming Comic Con, while executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa of another Showtime program, Homeland, will debut the first two minutes of the series' second season premiere.

PODCASTS

Don Winslow appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about his new Savages prequel, titled The Kings of Cool.

Thanks to Elizabeth Foxwell for noting that the International Spy Museum offers occasional podcasts, including Christina Shelton discussing her new book Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason.

THEATER

The Broadway production of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca lost its leading man and lady when the show also lost its financial backing. But now funding seems to be in place, two new stars have signed on: Jill Paice (The Woman in White) as a new wife simply known as I, and Ryan Silverman (who played Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway) as her husband, the wealthy Englishman Maxim de Winter.

The Bad and the Better by Derek Ahonen runs through July 21 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York. The New York Times called it a "red-herring-stuffed panorama of dime-store pulp," that includes 26 cast members. The plot ultimately centers on two brothers, a disgraced former NYPD cop named Rick Lang (William Apps) and his equally damaged brother, Chuck (David Nash), an undercover agent who infiltrates an anarchist cell by masquerading as an Off Off Broadway playwright.

Solomon vs. Lord eBook Giveaway

It's giveaway time, and the prize on this occasion is fiction by Paul Levine, who has won the John D. MacDonald fiction award and been nominated for an Edgar, a Macavity, the International Thriller Writers Award and the James Thurber Humor Prize. He's the author of the critically-acclaimed Jake Lassiter series and the Solomon vs. Lord series. The latter features lawyers Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, combative Florida lawyers in a love-hate relationship who can't even agree on "good morning." Victoria is a Coral Gables blueblood who plays by the book, while Steve is a Coconut Grove beach bum who ignores the rules in favor of Solomon's Laws. But they make a good trial team, although there's always the chance they'll kill each other while the jury is still out.

Levine recently released all four books in the series — Solomon vs. Lord, The Deep Blue Alibi, Kill All the Lawyers and Habeas Porpoise (formerly titled Trial & Error) — in Kindle editions and is celebrating by giving away an eBook of the first novel, Solomon vs. Lord, and a short story titled "Sink or Swim." Solomon vs. Lord introduced the two attorneys who bicker and banter as they defend a beautiful young woman accused of killing her wealthy, older husband. With crooks, con men, and a cast of colorful characters swirling around Solomon and an anxious fiancé waiting for Lord, the two attorneys begin to believe their luscious client has been lying through her perfect teeth. Now Solomon and Lord must solve the case before they end up in ruin, in jail…or in bed.

Levine is a former trial attorney who served as a legal commentator for WPLG-TV and WTVJ-TV in Miami, wrote and appeared on You & the Law, a television segment syndicated by Newsweek Broadcasting, and also taught communications law as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Miami School of Law. His writing has been called "Carl Hiaasen meets John Grisham in the court of last retort." The author says he brings "humor to the legal system because I see so much that's absolutely nutty there….I practiced law in front of curmudgeonly judges, and I knew lawyers who could shake your hand and pick your pocket at the same time. There were also judges who were absolutely hilarious, some without meaning to be."

For your chance to win either Solomon vs. Lord in  mobi (Kindle) or PDF versions or the Solomon vs. Lord short story "Sink or Swim" in mobi format, just send along your name and e-mail address to bv@bvlawson.com. I'll take entries until Friday at midnight ET, and post the two winners (drawn at random) over the weekend.

Mystery Melange

The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, sponsored by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, announced this year's nominees: The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly, Murder One by Robert Dugoni and Breach of Trust by David Ellis. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

If you're looking for some good summer reading from Downunder, the Ned Kelly Award nomination longlists were just released for Best First Fiction, Best Fiction and Best True Crime from Australian authors.

Carolyn Hart is the Amelia Award recipient for the Malice Domestic 25 conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013 in Bethesda, Maryland. The Amelia recipient is someone who has contributed significantly not only to the Malice Domestic convention but to the Malice Community. Other honorees next year include Laurie R King, Guest of Honor; Laura Lippman, Toastmaster; Aaron Elkins, Lifetime Achievement; Peter Robinson, International Guest of Honor; Cindy Silberblatt, Fan Guest of Honor; and Malice will also remember Dick Francis.

Patti Abbott frequently sponsors writing challenges on her blog, the latest being a "drabble challenge." A drabble is a 100-word story, in this case, based on one of three photos Patti posted for inspiration. These are fun, and maybe they'll inspire you, too.

If you'll be in the U.K. on July 3rd, Ayo Onatade of Shots Magazine notes the second annual Crime in the Court will take place in Goldsboro Books' Cecil Court location in the heart of London. This year's lineup thus far includes close to 40 authors including Mark Billingham, Christopher Fowler, Sophie Hannah, David Hewson, Peter James, Erin Kelly and S J Watson.

Another conference celebrating its second year is the Quebecrime Writers Festival, to be held October 25-27 in Québec City, Canada. Special guests and panelists include Linwood Barclay, Mark Billingham, Laura Lippman, Chelsea Cain, Owen Laukkane, and many more. Plus, the festival holds several "CSI Activity" sessions for festival participants.

Hard Case Crime is publishing its first-ever novel to include interior illustrations. The book is Seduction of the Innocent by Max Allan Collins, a whodunit inspired by the real-life crusade against comic books led by Dr. Fredric Wertham in the 1950s. The novel tells the story of how the crusading moralist agitating for censorship is murdered and how a troubleshooter for the comic book industry has to track down his killer. Tthe book features 16 pages of interior art done in the 1950s EC Comics style by veteran comics pro Terry Beatty.

In the Q&A roundup, Eva Dolan of the Crime Fiction Lover blog interviewed Danielle Ramsay, author of the Jack Brady novels set in the north eastern seaside resort of Whitley Bay, who was shortlisted for the CWA’s Debut Dagger in 2009; and K.A. Laity over at the blog A Knife and a Quill pulls a "Rapid Fire Interview" with Paul D. Brazill.

One sad bit of news to impart, this from the Mystery Florida Conference Board of Directors:

After seven wonderful years and conferences, the board of directors of Mystery Florida, Inc. has regrettably decided to end the program. We have not been able to recruit new people to take over the tasks of putting on the conferences, and frankly, seven years of intense activity required to make the conferences so successful has taken a toll on the board.

During the past seven years, Mystery Florida and its participants have contributed thousands of dollars to the support of the two beneficiaries of our non-profit corporation, the Longboat Key Library and the Tingley Memorial Library in Bradenton Beach. We have met great mystery writers and introduced many fans to their favorite authors. It has been a labor of love for the members of the board and we are saddened by the demise of the conference.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of our faithful followers for your part in making our conferences so successful.

‘Zine Scene

Out of the Gutter, which bills itself as "a fully illustrated, perfect bound journal of pulp fiction, degenerate literature, demented humor and much, much more," is once again open for crime fiction stories, from 500 to 3,000 words. But the good news doesn't stop there: the publishers are promising more platforms (print and digital), more content, fresh staff, and the 'zine's publishing arm, Gutter Books, is releasing W.R. Burnett's classic novels The Asphalt Jungle and High Sierra. Check out Jedidiah Ayres' Hardboiled Wonderland blog for more details about other interesting classic releases.

This follows on the good news I mentioned last week, that ThugLit is once again open for short-story submissions, as a paying market.

The latest issue of Pulp Modern is out and available via Createspace, with stories from Amy Bloom, Garnett Elliott, Matthew C. Funk, Richard Godwin, Edward A. Grainger and Chuck Tyrell, W.P. Johnson, William Dylan Powell, Chris Rhatigan, Stanley Rutgers, Ron Scheer, Jared Yates Sexton, Wendy Velasquez, and Joseph S. Walker.

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine editor Linda Landrigan has joined the blogosphere, including a posting about AHMM myths (no, they don't only publish "cozies"). The latest issue of the 'zine, by the way, includings stories by Martin Limon, Jim Ingraham, Robert Lopresti, Garnett Elliott, Dee Long, and a classic from Georgette Heyer.

The newest Yellow Mama is also available online, with great noir stories by Dana C. Kabel, Chris Rhatighan, Jason Duke and many more, plus some criminally good poetry.

Crime Factory is currently closed to submissions, except for their first-ever "Horror Factory" issue to concide with Halloween. As Liam Jose posted, they're "looking for you to blow our socks off, and then feed them the S&M demon you worship," as long as it's under 5,000 words.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Charlize Theron has signed on as co-producer and is also in talks to star in director John Madden's film project, Murder Mystery. (Madden's most recent film is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.) Penned by Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt, Murder Myster is said to be "an affectionate deconstruction of an Agatha Christie-style thriller," as it follows an American couple honeymooning abroad who are implicated in a murder they witness. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Sometimes it seems as though J.J. Adams must never sleep. One of his many irons in the fire is a movie based on Patrick Aison's script Wunderkind that was the subject of a bidding war. The action thriller is set in the 1970s and follows a pair of Nazi hunters, one a young CIA operative, the other an older Mossad member.

Primarily known for his movie comedies, director Will Gluck has plans to produce, direct and star in the film adaptation of the book Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper, by Geoffrey Gray. The book recounts the tale of a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 in mid-flight to demand $200,000 and parachuted out of the plane somewhere over the Pacific Northwest.

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul is in talks to star in the HBO pilot The Missionary, a Cold War era drama that would feature Paul as a missionary turned CIA spy in the 1960s.

Oscar winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist) has joined Martin Scorsese's upcoming film The Wolf of Wall Street, based on Jordan Belfort's memoir. Dujardin will play a Swiss banker involved in laundering illicit funds for Belfort's firm.

Here's a fun bit of casting news: Hugh Laurie (House, MD) is in talks to play the villain in the upcoming Robocop movie reboot.

Omnimystery News brought an indie thriller to my attention. Home Sweet Home stars as Gwen Stevens as a lone woman who battles two psychotic squatters for her home and her life. Don't necessarily look for this one in theaters, however; as ON explains, it may be headed direct to DVD.

TV

The Canadian Broadcasting Company has ordered a project based on Louise Penny's novel Still Life. The book features Penny's protagonist, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sureté du Québec, investigating a murder in the sleepy fictional town of Three Pines.

Thanks to Dr. D.P. Lyle for noting that the Smithsonian Channel is airing a new program titled Forensic Firsts, which looks at the history of forensics and how new tools are changing crime solving.

Jeanne Tripplehorn (formerly of HBO's Big Love) has been hired to replace Paget Brewster in Criminal Minds, who left the show at the end of season 7.

NBC has already unveiled its fall schedule, which is starting early to take advantage of Olympics coverage. Grimm will premiere August 13th in a special time slot before moving to its regular in mid-September; a two-hour premier of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is scheduled for later in September, on the 26th. Oddly, the new Chicago Fire series doesn't premiere until October 10th.

PODCASTS

On Friday's installment of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Don Winslow talked about his novel of The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages.

Elizabeth Foxwell notes that BBC Radio 4 Extra is featuring Colin Dexter reading his story "The Double Crossing" this week.

THEATER

The Olney Theater in Maryland is staging Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer's popular play, through July 8. Broadway veteran Bob Ari plays Andrew Wyke, a mystery writer who finds out a young man, Milo Tindle (played by Jeffries Thaiss), is having an affair with his wife. Wyke invistes Tindle to his house, convinces him to stage a burglary of his wife’s jewelry, and things spin into dark territory from thereon.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is producing more than just Shakespeare, with a staging of Agatha Christie's classic play The Mousetrap, still the longest-running play in the history of modern theater, performed continuously in London since 1952.

Michael Walker's whodunit play, Absolutely Dead, won the 2012 competition from the International Mystery Writers' Festival. It was fully staged during the festival at the RiverPark Center in Owensboro, Kentucky.

GAMES

Godfather: the game. Parker Brothers just released a new version of Monopoly based on The Godfather movies. The playing pieces? A horse head (!), cannoli, a Genco Olive Oil tin, the Don's limo, a dead fish and a tommy gun.

Read a Novel, Boost Your Career

Recent articles in Forbes magazine and the Harvard Business Review cited research that seems to show reading novels can improve your emotional intelligence. The process of reading activates neuronal pathways in your brain that help you better understand real human emotion, thus improving your overall social skills. Because the pace of our hectic contemporary lifestyles makes it less likely we'll have time to interact with other humans on any meaningful level, reading fiction provides both time and opportunity to think deeply about the feelings of others and imagine alternate worlds and lives. So all you MBA schools out there: make sure you include fiction in your reading assignments.

Mystery Melange

Good news for writers of short crime fiction: ThugLit is open again for hard-boiled/noir submissions between 3,000-5,000 words (hat tip to Sandra Seamans).
 
Hard Case Crime is publishing a new edition of Harlan Ellison's first novel, Web of the City. According to publisher Charles Ardai, It will be the first edition of the book to hit bookstores in 30 years "and the first ever to feature the definitive text of the book, correcting errors that have dogged the book since its original publication back in 1958. It's also the first ever to pair the novel up with three thematically linked short stories Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines of the 1950s."

The relatively new digital crime fiction imprint Blasted Heath just released two new books, The Storm Without by Tony Black and The Vanity Game by HJ Hampson, about which author Megan Abbott said, "As black as black comedies come and twice as audacious, HJ Hampson's The Vanity Game eviscerates celebrity culture with the incisiveness of an expert surgeon—but with a giddy, over-the-top pleasure that's exhilarating." Blasted Heath is also publishing and giving away 25 limited-edition signed print copies of Hampson's book. For more information on how to enter to win, check out their website.

Lisa Grossman, writing for The New Scientist, asks, "Are printed books really going the way of the dodo? And what would we lose if they did?" At a recent conference titled Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book, presenters made the case that printed books will live on as art objects and collector's items and others will become more multifaceted, incorporating video, music and interactivity. Meanwhile, print-on-demand books are gaining in popularity and becoming another viable option for self-published authors or an author's backlist.

In the Q&A spotlight this week, Michael Connelly interviewed fellow author Mark Billingham (and here's Part 2) who noted that when men write about violence, they tend to write about how it looks rather than how it feels, whereas he's always tried to write about how it feels, which is more powerful. (Note: A TV mini-series on the UK's Encore network based on Billingham's Inspector Thorne novels debuted last night.)

Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, also sponsors regular Literary Salons in Berkeley. Coming up next on Tuesday, June 19, the featured guest will be Katherine Hall Page, author of the Faith Fairchild mystery series.

Poisoned Pen Press is offering several of its ebook mystery titles for free for a limited time. Although most are only free on iTunes, PPP is gradually adding some to Amazon, including Artifacts, the first Faye Longchamp mystery by Mary Anna Evans and In the Shadow of the Glacier, the first Constable Molly Smith mystery by Vicki Delany. This is a new campaign by Poisoned Pen Press, to offer a select number of titles  rotating on a monthly basis, for free or for only 99 cents.

Summertime, When the Reading is Easy

Looking for a great mystery/thriller read this summer or while you're on vacation? The American Booksellers Association posted their bestselling titles for the eight-week period ending May 20, which is a good place to start, although I'm quite surprised to see so many titles held over from last year:

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)
2. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)
3. Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, (Vintage)
5. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor)
6. The Snowman by Jo Nesbø (Vintage)
7. The Affair by Lee Child (Dell)
8. Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon (Penguin)
9. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (Knopf)
10. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)
11. A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper Perennial)
12. Beastly Things by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly)
13. Force of Nature by C.J. Box (Putnam)
14. The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S)
15. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Bantam)
16. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (Penguin)
17. Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George (Dutton)
18. Iron House by John Hart (St. Martin's Griffin)
19. Sixkill by Robert B. Parker (Berkley)
20. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
21. Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Broadway)
22. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur)
23. The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (Broadway)
24. Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby by Ace Atkins (Putnam)
25. I’ll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark (Pocket)

If you've read all of the above and are hankering for some brand-spanking new titles, then Jeff Pierce over at the most excellent Rap Sheet blog has a handy list of the books due out this summer that he's keeping his eye on (for both the U.S. and U.K.). There are some exciting books and terrific authors on his list, so it 's definitely worth checking out.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Stephen Hunter's fourth Bob Lee Swagger mystery, The 47th Samurai, is being adapted for film. It's the  second in the series to be adapted—Hunter's Point of Impact novel, which introduced Swagger, was made into the 2007 movie Shooter.

Sir Isaac Newton, Action Hero. That's the possible premise behind a project from director Rob Cohen and producer Gene Kirkwood, to develop a franchise based on Newton (known for his work in physics and mathematics) as the chief detective and head of the British Mint.

Omnimystery News posted more new trailers for the upcoming movie Savages, adapted from the novel by Don Winslow.

Samuel L. Jackson is joining the remake of RoboCop, playing a megia mogal named Pat Novak.

TV

The TCA (Telelvision Critics Association) announced nominations in various categories for their annual Awards. The shows honored include Homeland in several categories, Justified, Revenge and Sherlock.

The new A&E series Longmire, based on the character of Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire in Craig Johnson's novels, scored a ratings record for the network and made it the top cable drama launch of 2012.

Tomorrow night on Encore, David Morrissey plays the title character in Thorne, a new two-part adaptation of Mark Billingham's crime fiction novels featuring Inspector Tom Thorne. In the opener, Throen tries to track down a ruthless predator while confronting nightmares from his own past. 

TV Guide has a sneak peak of the opener of Burn Notice's new season June 14 on the USA Network.

NBC announced that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has been cast in the role of Hannibal Lecter in their new crime series based on the novels of Thomas Harris.

BBC America released a trailer for their new crime drama Copper, set in 1860s New York City about a rugged Irish-immigrant cop (Tom Weston-Jones) working the city's notorious Five Points neighborhood. This is the network's first original drama on their schedule and will debut in August. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

ABC may have renewed the crime drama Body of Proof for a third season at the last minute, but they did not pick up the contracts for three of the show's stars, including John Carroll Lynch, Nicholas Bishop and Sonja Sohn. Lynch, at least, has already snagged a new role in NBC's Jekyll & Hyde medical thriller Do No Harm.

Eric Szmanda has re-upped for the 13th season of the long-running procedural drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, continuing his portrayal of the character Greg Sanders. Also, Rocky Carroll signed a new deal to return for the upcoming 10th season of NCIS.

Digital Spy reports that Lara Pulver, known to many as "The Woman" from BBC's Sherlock series, has been cast as a series regular in the new fantasy drama Da Vinci's Demons. The series follows the "untold" story of Leonardo da Vinci (played by Tom Riley) during his tough days as a youngster in Renaissance Florence. Digital Spy also noted that Southland actor Clifton Collins Jr has joined the cast of ABC's upcoming drama Red Widow as a series regular, playing FBI Agent James Ramos.

The lineup for ComicCon in July continues to fill out, with Warner Bros. announcing the casts of several TV shows will be on hand, including Person of Interest and the entire cast of Fringe.

PODCASTS/WEBCASTS

Author Gillian Flynn was interviewed on NPR about her new novel, Gone Girl, and writing a dark story about marriage when you're married.

BEA Away

Book Expo America is still the largest gathering of publishing industry personnel in North America, if not the world (more than 1,300 exhibitors this year), and there are always interesting panels, discussions, news and announcements that go along with it. Already we've learned that:

 

• Tor Books and Forge Books, imprints of Macmillan, are launching a DRM-free e-book store for their titles. Readers will be able to buy and download e-books there without embedded digital rights management restrictions, so they can be transferred from one reading device to another. DRM has been a sticking point with many book fans, and to have publishers like Tor switch tactics in this regard signals a newer approach for legacy publishers. Tor/Forge publishes a wide range of mystery, suspense and thriller titles.

• Kobo is launching a self-publishing platform for authors, promising better royalties, improved data and statistics reporting, as well as the ability to sell e-books through a variety of vendors. Authors will also be able to publish their books as "free" without any exclusives, unlike with Amazon's Kindle Select program.

• Amazon just bought the romance and mystery publisher Avalon Books, including its more than 3,000 back-list titles. The publisher of the 62-year-old company said that she "chose Amazon Publishing because they care deeply about the writers, readers, and categories that have long mattered to our family business and they are uniquely positioned to assure that our titles make the leap forward into the digital future."

• Despite the increase in e-book sales, the American Booksellers Association reports their membership of independent booksellers rose 3.5%, or 55 stores, in the past year, which sounds like a win-win scenario to me.

 

For each day's event schedule, and a live webcam (where you might even see somebody you know), check out the BEA's Happening page. You can also follow updates via the Twitter hashtag #BookExpoAmerica, where they also have announcements such as a live-streaming interview with author Michael Connelly today.

Mystery Melange

Congratulations to the latest award winners and nominees, including: James Sallis, who was honored with the 2012 Hammett Prize for his novel The Killer is Dying; the inaugural Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award given out at the Bloody Words conference in Toronto to Gloria Ferris for her debut mystery Cheat the Hangman; the 2012 Nero Award nominees, including Marcia Clark, Tess Gerritsen, Anthony Horowitz, Paul McEuen, Dana Stabenow and Persia Walker; and also all the nominees in the various categories that were just announced for the 2012 Shamus Awards.

Mike Ripley's monthly Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Magazine reminds us that the second annual Crime in the Court is scheduled for July 3rd at Cecil Court in the heart of London's West End. Authors currently scheduled to attending include Tom Benn, Rory Clements, Lindsey Davis, Sophie Hannah, Matt Hilton, Erin Kelly, Ali Knight, Adrian Magson and Claire McGowan. Check out the rest of the column for the usual entertaining collection of news, reviews, people and events.

Janet Rudolph is seeking nonfiction submissions on legal mysteries for an upcoming Mystery Readers Journal, including  articles, reviews and also Author! Author! essays that are 500 to 1500 words about your books and the "legal" connection. Deadline: June 15. Email Janet Rudolph for more info. Also, Janet passed along details on the upcoming Literary Salons in Berkeley, California, including Bryan Gruley on Tuesday, June 12 at 7 p.m, and Katherine Hall Page on Tuesday, June 19 at 2 p.m. Space is limited, so drop an e-mail to Janet for reservations.

This week's Q&A roundup includes Bruce DeSilva, speaking with the Murderous Musings blog, and in a slightly-oldie-but-goodie, Craig Sisterson reprinted his interview with Val McDermid in honor of her birthday yesterday.

If you are a South African writer (or ex-pat) and have a crime story set in South Africa, then send it along to the editors of the upcoming anthology Bloody Satisfied. They are looking for new voices and stories between 2500 to 5000 words to join those commissioned by Roger Smith, Hawa Golakai and Michael Stanley. The "king" of South African crime fiction, Deon Meyer, is writing the Foreword.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first James Bond movie by screening all 22 Bond films, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace. Showings will take place in both the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica starting June 8. 

James Sallis, fresh off his win for the 2012 Hammett Prize, announced his new book Driven is being adapted for film. The first book in the series, featuring a character known only as "Driver," was released in 2011 and starred Ryan Gosling. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Producer Nick Wechsler has acquired film rights to The Prophet, the upcoming Michael Koryta novel to be published in August, and has hired Reid Carolin to adapt the novel to film. The book is about two brothers in a small Ohio town whose torment over the murder of their sister in their teens leads one brother to avenge the killing.

Director Matthew Vaughn has optioned the unpublished thriller Lexicon by Max Barry, due to land in bookstores next year.

The producers behind Only God Forgives, an upcoming crime thriller film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, released some on-set stills. The project revolves around a mother, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who orders her son (Ryan Gosling) to avenge his brother's death.

Universal released an official trailer for The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner as he takes over the reins from Matt Damon. This is the fourth in the film series based on Robert Ludlum's spy novels.

The title of the Tom Cruise-vehicle movie, based on the novels and characters created by author Lee Child, has changed from One Shot to Jack Reacher. Cruise recently stated he was "sensitive" to the backlash that arose after it was announced he was cast as Reacher.

TV

At the BAFTA awards for excellenece in British television, Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty in the BBC Sherlock series, won for Best Supporting Actor (beating out fellow cast member Martin "Dr. Watson" Freeman). Steven Moffat, writer and producer of both Sherlock and Doctor Who, was presented with the 2012 BAFTA Television Special Award.

Norwegian crime novelist Anne Holt's "Hanne Wilhelmsen" mysteries are being developed for television, although no network has picked up the series just yet. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Lionsgate is looking at converting several movies into TV series, including The Expendables (about a group of elite mercenaries) and Red (featuring a group of retired special ops members called back into service).

The CTV has ordered a new Canadian police procedural to start next January, titled Motive, about a female Vancouver homicide detective who matches wits with killers.

Showtime's serial killer drama Dexter is adding Swedish actress Katia Winter in a recurring role, to play a Russian stripper who works at a Miami club. Also new to the cast are Jason Gedrick, as the manger of the same Miami strip club, and Ray Stevenson, playing the leader of a Russian organized crime syndicate.

Former Hung star Thomas Jane is in talks to join the period crime drama L.A. Noir, if it gets a full-season order from TNT. Jon Bernthal (Walking Dead) will star as Joe Teague, the LAPD cop pursuing mobster Mickey Cohen.

RADIO

Radio 4 in the U.K. plans a tribute to Martin Beck, the Swedish fictional detective created by husband and wife writing team Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. The duo helped inspired the genre of the modern police procedural novel and also served as a model for characters such as Ian Rankin's John Rebus and Henning Mankell's Wallender. Radio 4 will dramatize the entire 10-book series.