Media Murder for Monday

Due to the holiday and the demands of travel, this week's Media Murder for Monday post is a montage of classic TV crime drama openers from the past. It seems fitting somehow to reflect on days of yore as we look ahead to the future and the New Year. 

 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Fox 2000 has optioned the rights to Robert Crais's novel Suspect, which marks the first time the author has agreed to sell film rights to his bestselling Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. The team that finally encouraged him to do includes producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson (the duo behind The Hunger Games) and screenwriter David DiGilio (Eight Below). (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Up and coming screenwriter Julie Bush has been tappedy by Universal to script a new draft of The Sigma Protocol, an adaptation of the last novel by the late Robert Ludlum. The novel is described as being in the vein of Three Days Of The Condor and Bourne Identity, in which a man vacationing in Switzerland runs into an old friend who guns down six people, forcing the vacationer into a run for his life.

Well Go USA Entertainment acquired North American rights to Clarence Fok Yiu-Leung’s film Special ID, the story of an undercover cop (Donnie Yen) who goes deep inside China’s most ruthless crime syndicate.  

The producer of the futuristic procedural Dredd has acquired English-language remake rights to Kim Jee-Woon’s 2010 South Korean serial-killer thriller I Saw the Devil. The original film followed an elite special agent whose pregnant fiancé is murdered by an evil madman, prompting the agent to lure the killer into an increasingly violent and twisted game of cat-and-mouse.  

The upcoming film Jack Ryan is getting an IMAX release in January 2014. The latest film, based on the C.I.A. analyst Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy's spy novels (a role previously played by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin), stars Chris Pine as the titular hero who must try and unravel a massive terrorist plot in Moscow.

A new trailer was released for the upcoming thriller Grand Piano, about a celebrated pianist (Elijah Wood) who returns to the stage after a hiatus induced by an intense bout of stage fright. During the concert, he finds himself targeted by a mysterious sniper (John Cusack), who informs him that if one wrong note is played, the pianist will die onstage.

A trailer was also released for 3 Days a Kill, a thriller starring Kevin Costner as a spy trying to wind down his career and reconnect with his wife and teenage daughter. But his plans are derailed when he's poisoned by a former colleague who will only give him the antidote if he does one more job.

TELEVISION

On January 7, The American Experience on PBS will air The Poisoner's Handbook, taking a look at the history of modern forensics. Starting with New York City's first trained medical examiner, Charles Norris, and his talented chief toxicologist, Alexander Gettler, the show will follow forensic chemistry's path toward a formidable science, setting the standards that the rest of the country would ultimately adopt. For an interactive feature, check the PBS online link above.

ABC has ordered a drama pilot from Shondaland (the company behind Scandal) titled How To Get Away With Murder. The project is billed as a law-school legal thriller about students and their mysterious criminal defense professor who get involved in a murder plot. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

ABC also placed a pilot order for the crime drama Sea Of Fire, from Sony Pictures TV. The story centers on the aftermath of three teenage girls starring in a pornographic film, which tears their families apart and leads to a disappearance, a murder and other secrets in a small town.

Producer Garry Marshall, best known for his 1970s sitcoms, is teaming up with Nickelodeon for a children's "crime procedural" feauturing all kids playing grown-up characters including a male cop, his DA brother and the female judge they both have a crush on. It's said to be in the same vein the gangster musical Bugsy Malone starring a then-young Scott Baio and Jodie Foster.

The Sundance Channel is developing the six-episode reality series Loredana, ESQ, which traces the life of Loredana Nesci, a former LAPD officer-turned-lawyer as she navigates the criminal defense system.

Netflix and AMC inked a deal to stream the upcoming Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul after its season finale on AMC Networks in 2014.

NBC shared the new teaser poster for the second season of Hannibal, which also reveals the premiere date for Season 2 at the end of February.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Michael Connelly was a guest on Face the Nation yesterday, participating in a panel on the best books of 2013.

St John's College, University of Oxford, recently held a two-day event focusing on detective fiction and Oxford crime fiction. A video from the event has been posted online featuring Peter Kemp, the Sunday Times fiction editor, speaking about British Detective Fiction.

THEATER

The London premiere of American Psycho, the musical based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel, is a sold-out hit. The production stars Matt Smith (Dr. Who) as the serial killer Patrick Bateman.

Mystery Melange, Pre-Christmas Edition

Open Road Media via NetGalley is offering excerpts from Christmas mysteries and thrillers, including classic favorites, contemporary bestsellers, and little-known gems.

Janet Rudolph keeps expanding her comprehensive listing of Christmas-themed mysteries via her blog, Mystery Fanfare. The list is so extensive, it's broken down into several sections, including A-D; E-H; I-N; and M-Z.

Cressida Cowell, author of the How to Train Your Dragon novels, launched the UK Christmas Mini-Challenge scheme to encourage children to read over the holidays. Similar to summer reading challenges, the program rewards kids for reading and reviewing books and "keeps them in touch with what's happening at their local library," according to Lynne Taylor of the Reading Agency, the group that runs both programs.

Mystery Scene posted some holiday gift book ideas, including one seasonal title, the recently-released Big Book of Christmas Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler.

The authors over at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have several holiday offerings for you, including Florentines and angel wing cookies.

If you like your holiday celebrations with a touch of mayhem, Criminal Element's Dave Richards listed the top Christmas films with explosions.

Or, if you like your holiday celebrations with mayhem in graphic novel form, Dave Richards notes "5 Warped, Weird & Wonderful Christmas Graphic Novels."

The "Best of the Year" book awards keep on coming. NPR created an App (that you can use online) including their picks in various categories, including Best Mysteries & Thrillers.

The 2013 Specsavers National Book Award winners were announced during a ceremony held at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel last week. Popular Fiction Book of the Year was given to An Officer and a Spy, by Robert Harris; Crime & Thriller Book of the Year went to The Carrier, by Sophie Hanna; the International Author of the Year is Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl; and the Waterstones UK Author of the Year is Kate Atkinson for Life After Life. (Hat tip to the Rap Sheet.)

The Swedish publisher of the best-selling The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy says it has hired author David Lagercrantz to write a sequel to the series by Stieg Larsson, who died in 2004. The title will be a new story about journalist Mikael Blomqvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander that doesn't include any material from the fourth book in the series Larsson was writing when he died.

The weekly crime poem over at the 5-2 is "Stealing Band-Aids from Hospitals" by Paul Hostovsky; and the featured Beat to a Pulp short story is "155 Rounds" by Mike Miner.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Michael Connelly, interviewed by the New York Times; Mike Lawson, who visits the Seattle Mystery Bookshop blog; also stopping by the Seattle blog was Carola Dunn, talking about her Daisy Dalrymple series; Steve Weddle takes Paul Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge; Luca Vesta drops by Declan Burke's blog; and Todd Robinson answers "Twenty Questions" from Dana King.

What's My Line?

I came across this video from the 1950s program "What's My Line," in which panelists had to try and guess the identity of a mystery guest by asking him or her questions. On this particular episode, novelist Erle Stanley Gardner (of Perry Mason fame) was the man in the hot seat.

 

Media Murder for Monday

AWARDS

The award nomination season is in full swing, with both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild releasing their lists last week. Big screen and small screen crime dramas were well represented in both, including American Hustle, Breaking Bad, Orphan Black, Orange Is the New Black, Ray Donovan, Boardwalk Empire, and Homeland.

MOVIES

Ridley Scott and Fox are teaming up to remake Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. No word yet on casting or whether the feature will have a period or contemporary setting.

Omnimystery News reported that Paramount is moving forward with the next installment in the "Jack Reacher" series with Tom Cruise as the ex-military loner. The film will be adapted from the most recent book in the series, Never Go Back.

Paramount is also planning on a reboot of the comedy procedural The Naked Gun, which originally starred Leslie Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin. The studio has tapped the scripting team of Thomas Lennon and R. Ben Garant (Night at the Museum and Reno 911), to write the screenplay, with actor Ed Helms taking over Nielsen's role.

Universal announced that Justin Lin will direct the next Bourne installment starring Jeremy Renner, although series writer Tony Gilroy won't be involved this time. The studio has targeted a summer 2015 release date.

Ethan Hawke has reteamed with his Hamlet director Michael Almereyda for a contemporary take on Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. The new trailer released online features dirty cops, drug dealing biker gangs, explosions, machine guns and "lots of people looking pretty grimy." The cast also includes Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Penn Badgley, Anton Yelchin and Dakota Johnson.

The film adaptation of the crime thriller Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale has been selected as one of the featured competition titles at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TELEVISION

NBC has given the freshmen drama series The Blacklist an early renewal, not surprising since it outrated all other new series of the fall season.

Starz has dropped plans for the crime drama Fortitude, which was to air as a 13-episode series in 2014. The project would have centered on how a violent murder of a British research scientist affects a close-knit community with the unsettling horror threatening the town's future.

WGN America landed American Dream, a suspense drama project executive produced by House creator David Shore and produced by Sony TV. The story centers on a cat-and-mouse game that erupts when a Manhattan homicide cop suspects one of America’s top CEOs of being a killer.

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the duo behind NBC‘s live staging of The Sound Of Music), are developing an eight-hour miniseries about famous Prohibition agent Eliot Ness for NBC. The project is based on the book Nemesis: The Final Case Of Eliot Ness by William Bernhardt and follows Ness as he takes on America’s first serial killer, the so-called “Torso Killer.”

TNT gave the greenlight to a legal drama pilot co-written by Marcia Clark (the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial), and Nashville showrunner Dee Johnson. Guilt By Association will be based on Clark’s novel about Rachel Knight, a Deputy District Attorney in the Special Trials Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. 

Sydney T. Poitier (Kendra) has been tapped to play a detective in a five-episode arc on NBC’s upcoming Chicago Fire spinoff series Chicago PD, with an option to become a regular.

Tom Berenger is scheduled to guest-star on an upcoming episode of Hawaii Five-0 as the father of Danno (Scott Caan).

Morena Baccarin (Jessica) and Morgan Saylor (Dana) will not return as regulars to the Emmy-winning drama Homeland for the its fourth season, but will have the option to guest star in some episodes.

Spike TV is going forward with an adaptation of Carl Hiassen's novel Basket Case. Rob Reiner will direct and executive produce the comedy-thriller project, which centers on a newly-demoted investigative reporter who uses a team of friends, relatives, an ex-wife, newspaper misfits and his beautiful new boss to look into suspicious deaths he uncovers via the obituaries.

Sherlock fans, take heart; your waiting time for Season 3 is almost over. In the meantime, the BBC released a pre-launch trailer.

The BBC also announced they are adding three new foreign language drama series to BBC Four: Crimes Of Passion, a Swedish crime series set in the 1950s; Hostages, an Israeli thriller series; and 1864, a Danish historical drama series. A separate spy thriller series, Legacy, is also in the works, based on a 2001 novel by Alan Judd.

AMC released a trailer for its upcoming spring 2014 Revolutionary War series, titled Turn. The project is based on the book Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose, and stars Jamie Bell, Seth Numrich, Hea
ther Lind, Meegan Warner, Kevin McNally, Burn Gorman, Angus MacFadyen, J.J. Field and Samuel Roukin. 

ABC released a trailer for The Assets, an 8-part miniseries based on based on the book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed by Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille. The series premieres on January 2.

RIP, Don Mitchell, who played a bodyguard and assistant to wheelchair-bound Chief of Detectives Robert Ironside in the original TV Ironside series. He died of natural causes at the age of 70.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

December 14's Crime and Science Radio installment was titled "Money is The Root." Jan Burke interviewed Andrea Jacobsen, an investigator with the Financial Crimes Unit of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations, part of the Alaska State Troopers. They discussed how financial crimes and violent crimes are often interlinked, about the damage done through financial crimes, and some of the fraudster methods.  

THEATER

UK's National Theatre is presenting a Christmas show that's an adaptation of Erich Käster's much-loved 1929 children's novel, Emil and the Detectives. The production will continue its run at the Olivier Theater through mid-March.

New Arrivals

I always enjoy promoting new anthologies and 'zines in hopes they will reach a much-deserved wider audience. Here are three new kids worth checking out:

Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled 3 is now available via Createspace, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble (with Kobo, and iBooks to follow soon). I was honored to be included in the second installment of the BTAP anthologies, and this latest edition is packed with some of the best short crime fiction around. Or, as co-editor David Cranmer adds, "nine of today's hard-hitting, top writers stalk the depraved streets where no good deed goes unpunished, vengeance is the norm, and lady luck is a cold-hearted bitch that just left you for dead in a back alley." Authors featured this go'round include Patti Abbott, Fred Blosser, Hilary Davidson, Chris F. Holm, Sophie Littlefield, Andrew Nette, Keith Rawson, Kieran Shea, and Josh Stallings.

The debut issue of the ezine All Due Respect is hot off the digital presses, with reviews, a profile of Chris F. Holm, a look at Hard Case Crime, and original stories, which editors Chris Rhatigan and Mike Monson describe as "a brutal story from Thuglit editor Todd Robinson; the deeply disturbing “Amanda Will Be Fine” by Renee Asher Pickup; a revenge tale by the King of Brit Grit, Paul D. Brazill; the strangely satisfying combination of yoga and organized crime from Travis Richardson; a still-beating heart ripped straight out of the Amazon River basin by Mike Miner; and Walter Conley kicks a couple of clueless Connecticut thugs to the curb."

Silver Birch Press is releasing an anthology of noir poetry made by redacting passages from existing noir and hardboiled novels by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross MacDonald, and others. Contributing editors Gerald So and Catfish McDaris helped collect and write the poems for the Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology.

Mystery Melange

As announced at the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, CB McKenzie’s Bad Country won the Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery set in the Southwest. Also, the 2013 Leaphorn Award was presented to radio personality Mary-Charlotte Domandi for her work in promoting authors and reading.

The New Mexico Book Award Winners included Best Mystery/Suspense title, The Lone Wolf Agenda by Joseph Badal.

Susan Thibadeau has won this year's Black Orchid Novella Award from The Wolfe Pack. (Hat tip to Sandra Seamans and Rob Lopresti.)

Simon & Schuster is sponsoring a contest to win a trip to Florida in January to attend book launch on a yacht with authors Lisa Unger and Michael Connelly The contest’s grand prize includes a three-night stay in a hotel and round-trip airfare from any state in the connected 48 states, plus the winner will get to share a cocktail with the authors before the book launch begins. But you'd better hurry, as the deadline for entries is December 15th.

Mystery Scene's Holiday Issue #132 has a profile of Alexander McCall Smith by Oline Cogdill; Jon L. Breen offers a roundup of terrific legal mysteries; Joseph Goodrich profiles Peter Quinn about his New York-set Fintan Dunne PI novels; Jake Hinkson considers the celebrated television series Breaking Bad; Lynn Kaczmarek interviews Aimée and David Thurlo about their Ella Clah Navajo series; and Kevin Burton Smith rounds up "Gifts for Mystery Lovers."

Suspense magazine's December issue includes their "Best of List" for the year, including the "Crimson Scribe" award for the best book of the year to M.J. Rose for Seduction. The issue also has partnered with Sara Paretsky for a final chapter not found in the pages of her latest novel, Critical Mass. 

Mike Ripley's Christmas edition of his "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Ezine includes the usual entertaining mix of London crime fiction events and book reviews; a look at the Murder Room project by Orion to get out-of-print classic crime novels available in eBook format; and the Ripster's "Shots of the Year" Awards.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Chris Knopf, chatting with the Sag Harbor Express about his books featuring amateur detective Sam Acquillo; James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell visit Mina's Bookshelf to to dicuss Innocent Blood, the latest installment in their Order of the Sanguines series; Luca Veste, Jon Bassoff, and Al Leverone are the latest "Short, Sharp Interviews" at Paul D. Brazill's blog; and short story writer Anonymous 9 chatted with The Mystery People.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Stranger," by Kathleen Shaw (as read by Clare Toohey). The featured story over at Beat to a Pulp is "Circling" by Jen Conley. 

RIP, author British author Colin Wilson, who wrote in various genres, including crime fiction, with his the Inspector Gregory Saltfleet series and more. Wilson was 82.

Gifts for Book Lovers

You can tell it's the HallowThanksMas holiday season when the Christmas displays go up before Halloween (yes, they did that this year), and Starbucks starts serving up its pumpkin and gingerbread lattes. If you missed the Black Friday weekend shopping and find that you're stumped for gift ideas, here are some fun ideas for book lovers (other than books, but that goes without saying, doesn't it?).

The Demeter Fragrance Library created a perfume based on "A trip to your favorite library or used bookstore. Sweet and lovely with just a touch of the musty smell of aged paper, Demeter's Paperback harnesses that scent with a sprinkling of violets and a dash of tasteful potpourri."

Paddywax has a line of "library" candles and fragrances, from Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde. The Edgar Allan Poe Library Travel Tin Candle is made from their signature soy wax, "paired with cardamom, absinthe and sandalwood fragrance notes, and hand-poured in a 3.5 oz two-wick travel tin." Or you can opt for the fragrance-duster-oil version.

 Anthologie touts one line of wall coverings as being perfect for people who are out of bookcase space (or maybe just those who have switched to eBooks but still miss that bookish look to a room). Tracey Kendall's paperback wallpaper will fill nooks of your home with towers of titles. 

For all those little book lovers on your list, there's the Little Librarian kit. "Kids can practice the important skills of organizing, sharing, borrowing, and returning. Book pockets, check out cards, library cards, and bookmarks are just like the ones from the real library. Little Librarians will issue overdue notices and awards. Favorite books can be stored in the reading journal and shared with friends." 

How about a purse made from a book? Each one is hand-made and starts with a gently-used book from garage sales, flea markets or estate sales. as long as it has an eye-catching cover, like the Sherlock Holmes item here. The fabric, handles and the button enclosure are matched to the cover. 

 How about a book lamp made from a book? These lamps are made from drilling into old hardbacks, such as this one made from Secrets and Spies- Behind the Scene Stories of World War II (from the Reader's Digest Collection 1964). It's one of the Typewriter Boneyard's most popular sellers and even includes a 30W Quad Loop Edison Bulb.

These unique bookends can also be used as a vase. Fashioned out of terracotta with glazed finishes, the tops are left open, so you can put a plant or flowers in them. For both the book lover AND gardener on your list – a twofer!

American Discount Tableware touts these dishes as "Just as smart and original as any good read" (well, maybe, depending upon the book). They'd certainly liven up a book club's refreshments, and they're stackable. 

This bookshelf needlepoint pillow will help cushion your back while you're staying up all night turning the pages on your latest thriller purchase. It's hand needlepointed from 100% wool thread and has a cotton back fabric, with color coordinated cording. For cleaning, the inner pillow is removeable. 

Although I'm not sure these are available for purchase yet (maybe coming soon to a store near you?), Flora Chan designed a line of teas for what she called the Prologue Tea Co. Each tin is based on classic literature (including Sherlock Holmes) with flavors inspired by each story, and designs "include motifs from the narratives and other elements that are a part of the reading experience." 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Tate Steinsiek will make his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller Dynamite: A Cautionary Tale, which stars Ian Hardin (Pretty Little Liars), Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch and Carol Kane.

Universal announced that Justin Lin will direct the next Bourne installment starring Jeremy Renner, although series writer Tony Gilroy won't be involved this time. The studio has targeted a summer 2015 release date.

Ethan Hawke has reteamed with his Hamlet director Michael Almereyda for a contemporary take on Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. The new trailer released online features dirty cops, drug dealing biker gangs, explosions, machine guns and "lots of people looking pretty grimy." The cast also includes Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Penn Badgley, Anton Yelchin and Dakota Johnson.

Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) is in talks to direct Sicario, a thriller about a female cop from Tucson who accompanies two delta force-type rangers across the border to apprehend a drug lord, where all hell breaks loose.

A new trailer was released for American Hustle, due in theaters in the U.S. on December 20. The film follows the 970s ABSCAM scandal and stars Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale.

The film adaptation of Veronica Mars has been given its official release date. Fans of the original TV series will only have to wait until March 14 of 2014. There's also a new clip from the fiom and news that the movie is getting a wider release than originally expected.

A trailer was released for Reasonable Doubt, which is set for release in January. It stars Dominic Cooper as an attorney who is involved in a hit-and-run and tries to frame another man who is on trial for murder (Samuel L. Jackson).

TELEVISION

BBC One will release a prequel to the third season of Sherlock on Christmas Day, as an online mini-episode titled "Many Happy Returns." PBS hasn't indicated yet whether it will air the mini-episode.

AMC canceled the crime drama Low Winter Sun, starring Lennie James and Mark Strong, after just one season.

BBC also canceled Ripper Steet after two seasons. The series was set in London's East End during the aftermath of the infamous Jack the Ripper murders.

NBC has given the freshmen drama series The Blacklist an early renewal, not surprising since it outrated all other new series of the fall season.

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (the duo behind NBC‘s live staging of The Sound Of Music), are developing an eight-hour miniseries about famous Prohibition agent Eliot Ness for NBC. The project is based on the book Nemesis: The Final Case Of Eliot Ness by William Bernhardt and follows Ness as he takes on America’s first serial killer, the so-called “Torso Killer.” 

Sydney T. Poitier (Kendra) has been tapped to play a detective in a five-episode arc on NBC’s upcoming Chicago Fire spinoff series Chicago PD, with an option to become a regular. 

Starz is developing an adaptation of the female-driven Italian crime drama Romanzo Criminale, to be written and helmed by Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville, Spartacus). (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Lifetime is planning a movie based on the notorious Los Angeles “Grim Sleeper” serial killer.

ReelzChannel announced the second season premiere dates for Cracked, featuring Detective Aidan Black (David Sutcliffe) and the Psych Crimes team, and also King, which centers on Detective Jessica King (Amy Price-Francis) of the Toronto Major Crimes Task Force. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

AMC released a trailer for its upcoming spring 2014 Revolutionary War series, titled Turn. The project is based on the book Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose, and stars Jamie Bell, Seth Numrich, Heather Lind, Meegan Warner, Kevin McNally, Burn Gorman, Angus MacFadyen, J.J. Field and Samuel Roukin. 

The BBC released a trailer from its upcoming production of Death Comes to Pemberley, based on the PD James sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

A&E also released a trailer for their new drama Those Who Kill, which premieres in March and stars Chloe Sevigny as police detective Catherine Jensen.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Coming up on Crime & Science Radio this Saturday, December 14: Financial Crimes with Andrea Jacobson

Mystery Melange

This was a big week for crime fiction awards outside the U.S.:

• Paul Thomas' Death on Demand won New Zealand's 2013 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. It is the fourth installment in the series about unorthodox Maori police detective Tito Ihaka, and the first new entry to appear in fifteen years. (Hat tip to Craig Sisterson and Jeff Pierce.)

• The winners of the 2013 Swedish Crime Novel Awards were also announced, in the categories of Best Swedish Novel, Best Translated Novel, Best Debut Novel and Best Non-Fiction Book. 

• The Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year Award for 2013 was handed out to Louise Phillips for The Doll's House. In November, John Banville, who writes crime fiction under the pen name of Benjamin Black, was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Irish literature. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

• Plus, members of the Goodreads reader community also chose their selections for Best Mystery/Thriller books of 2013. Dan Brown's Inferno topped the list, followed by The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a/k/a JK Rowling), Stephen King's Joyland and How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny.

The Mystery Writers of America just announced that the 2014 Grand Masters are Robert Crais and Carolyn Hart. The Raven Award was also handed out to Aunt Agatha's of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For UK readers: The Crime Readers Association is giving away a copy of the Crime Writers' Association latest anthology, Deadly Pleasures, signed by a selection of the authors. Deadline to enter this and the other "seven days of celebrations" is Saturday 7th December. 

The December issue of Gumshoe Review is now available online, featuring reviews of new books by Cleo Coyle, Tim O'Mara, Douglas E. Richards, Terry Odell, Donna Andrews, Ellen Larson, Laurie Cass, Anna Lee Huber, Lillian Stewart Carl and more.

The print edition of All Due Respect Issue #1 was just released, featuring new crime fiction from featured author Chris F. Holm and stories from Thuglit editor Todd Robinson, Renee Asher Pickup, Paul D. Brazill, Travis Richardson, Mike Miner, Walter Conley. Plus there are reviews of Steve Weddle’s Country Hardball and Chris Holm's Collector series, and a section devoted to the books of legendary paperback publisher Hard Case Crime.

The featured crime poem over at the 5-2 this week is "But People Just Don't Act That Way" by Allen Stein, and the featured short story at Beat to a Pulp is "Circling" by Jen Conley.

Shelf Awareness reported that the first "Indies First" celebration was a huge success this past weekend. More than 1,000 authors helped out at 400+ indie bookstores, "adding to the excitement generated by Small Business Saturday." And the holiday shopping season isn't over yet, so don't forget your local independent bookstores when hunting for that perfect gift.

If you're a new or struggling writer, Ian Rankin has words of advice for you regarding perseverance. In a Q&A with the Telegraph, he said that it took him 14 years for his writing to pay.

Several publishers are offering online "advent calendars" this year, giving readers a chance to win prizes in the countdown to Christmas.

Think you are an expert on literary pets? The Guardian has a quiz about famous authors and their beloved cats and dogs.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Jason Patric has joined the action movie The Prince, playing a retired mob enforcer who travels across the country to find his missing college-aged daughter. He joins Bruce Willis, who was cast as the villain, as well as John Cusack, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Jonathon Schaech.

Universal announced release dates for its Jennifer Lopez-starring psychological thriller The Boy Next Door for Friday, January 23, 2015, and an untitled Michael Mann cyber crime thriller from Legendary Pictures for January 16, 2015.

TELEVISION

Omnimystery News reported that A&E has officially renewed Longmire for a third season. The series is based on the novels and characters created by Craig Johnson.

Hollywood Reporter took a look at TNT's efforts to rebrand the network from "popcorn crime dramas and procedurals" to darker fare, a la HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The first part of that effort is the period drama Mob City, which debuts on December 4, with others in the pipeline to include the spy thriller Legends; a nuclear-fallout book adaptation of The Last Ship; and Stephen Bochco's single-case mystery Murder in the First.

Shut out of jobs in the U.S., older writers from shows like Murder She Wrote and Hart to Hart are part of a new effort to bring projects to the booming Chinese television market. E! Entertainment co-founder Larry Namer, who is CEO of the Chinese production company Metan, is organizing a collective of about 2,000 older writers to create content for the country.

Melissa Ponzio has booked a recurring role on NBC's firefighter drama Chicago Fire. She will play Donna, a love interest to Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker). In further NBC casting, Copper alumnus Kevin Ryan has signed up for a recurring role in the upcoming Crossbones, playing a pirate who tangles with Blackbeard (John Malkovich).

D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye) has been hired to direct Tin Man, NBC’s drama pilot from screenwriter Ehren Kruger (of The Ring and Transformers franchises). The psychological crime thriller is set in the near future and focuses on a robot accused of first-degree murder (who may also hold the key to the future of human evolution), and the young female public defender forced to fight for his cause.

Welsh actor Tom Ellis is set to star in the USA pilot Rush. He'll play Dr. William Rush, a doctor who’s on call to very rich and private people in need of medical attention in a "look the other way and only ask questions related to treatment." 

CBS put in a development order for Doc Ford, a drama project based on Randy Wayne White’s book series. Chris Gerolmo (Mississippi Burning, The Bridge) is writing the adaptation, which centers around a retired NSA agent-turned-marine biologist who gets justice for those in need on the Gulf Coast of Florida. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

The U.S. hit series Homeland, which is based on an Israeli drama, is headng for a Russian TV version titled Rodina. At the same time, a different production company is planning a separate Rodina show, allegedly not related to the first.

TNT has ordered six episodes of Missing Persons, starring Troy Dunn in a reality-TV investigation series that incorporates a social media application to help reunite loved ones.

The BBC promoted the upcoming third season of Sherlock with a black funeral hearse complete with a floral arrangement spelling out the name "Sherlock" and the date 01/01/14. The date refers to the premiere of the show in London, while American viewers will have to wait until January 19. 

RIP Tony Musante, who died this past week at the age of 77. He starred in the 1970s ABC cop series Toma, baased on the the biography of Newark detective David Toma, as well as playing a mafia boss on the HBO series Oz.