Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers of Canada announced the shortlists for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award, which honor excellence in Canadian crime writing. The winners will be handed out at the Arthur Ellis Gala in Toronto on June 5.

Finalists have been named for this year's CrimeFest Awards in three categories: best crime audiobook, best crime fiction e-book published in both physical and digital format, and best humorous crime novel. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner during the conference May 17 in Bristol, U.K.

Seattle author Mike Lawson won his second straight Spotted Owl Award, given by the Friends of Mystery for the best mystery novel by a Northwest author. Lawson won for his novel House Odds, while Ingrid Thoft won the debut award for her novel Loyalty. For all the finalists, click here.

Earlier this month, RT Book Reviews announced the winners of the 2013 RT Reviewers' Choice Awards in many categories, including various mystery, suspense, and thrillers. In addition, Lee Child and Suzanne Brockmann were honored with a Career Achievement Awards for their body of work. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Thanks to Elizabeth Foxwell for noting the latest recipient of the George N. Dove Award of the Popular Culture Association's Detective/Mystery Caucus is Christine Jackson. The award honors the serious study of mystery and crime fiction such as Jackson's publication "The Tell-Tale Art: Poe in Modern Popular Culture."

Suspense Magazine's April/May issue includes interviews with Alex Berenson, Barry Eisler, Jennifer McMahon, Matthew Iden, and Gigi Pandian. There's also a new section called "From Across the Pond," with an introduction to authors from Europe including the first profile, author Chris Simms. Plus, the winners of the Terri Ann Armstrong Short Story contest are announced, with the top stories also published in the issue.

Amazon via Omnivoracious posted a list of "100 Mysteries & Thrillers to Read in a Lifetime." This is the latest in a long line of "you must read these" lists, but even if you don't agree with the choices the list creators come up with, there are often some new books and/or authors to give a look.

This week's crime poem over at the 5-2 is "Trickster Time" by Linda Rodriguez, while this week's noir story at Beat to a Pulp is "Tongue Wagging" by Natasha Leullier.

The Q&A roundup includes Billy Kring and Christopher Irvin taking a stab at the Mystery People; and Matthew Louis takes the "Short, Sharp Interivew" challenge from Paul D. Brazill.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Warner Bros has acquired the Joel Dicker novel The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair as a vehicle for Ron Howard to direct. The story follows a young superstar novelist who becomes involved in a sensationalized murder mystery when a missing 15-year-old girl turns up dead in the backyard of the novelist's mentor.

Actor Jackie Earle Haley will take on directing duties for the indie crime drama Criminal Activities. The project stars John Travolta, Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens and Rebecca Da Costa and follows four young guys who invest in an insider-trading deal that goes south, although that isn't the worst of their troubles: one of them borrowed his share of the money from a mobster.

British actor Tom Hardy will play twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie in the new film Legend about East End gangsters, from LA Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland. Meanwhile, Emily Browning is in talks to join Hardy, playing a woman who marries one of the gangster brothers in hopes of changing his criminal ways.

Scott Speedman has signed on to star opposite Patricia Clarkson in October Gale, the drama written and directed by Ruba Nadda. Speedman will play a mysterious man who washes up on the shore of a recently widowed doctor's remote island cottage, unconscious and bleeding from a gunshot wound–and then the shooter comes to finish the job during a storm that cut the island off from the mainland.

Company Pictures acquired a TV option for AK Benedict’s The Beauty of Murder, a debut novel that alternates between present day Cambridge and the 17th century as it follows a time-travelling serial killer.

In another book-option deal, UK-based producers Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford bought film rights to Chris Kuzneski’s The Hunters, the first book in a series of the same name. The storyline follows ex-soldier Jack Cobb and his treasure hunting team as they attempt to find a Romanian train filled with riches that disappeared in Russia during the First World War.

Actor Mark Strong (Sherlock) has signed a deal to play a black ops agent opposite Sacha Baron Cohen's unhinged ruffian brother in Grimbsy.

Chace Crawford, Eliza Dushku, Brandon T. Jackson and PJ Byrne will start production May 5 on Eloise, the psychological thriller directed by Robert Legato from a script by Chris Borrelli (Vatican Tapes). The story follows four friends who break into an abandoned asylum in hopes of finding a death certificate, only to instead find the institution harbors a horrifying history and the truth about their own tragic pasts.

An official trailer was released for Cold in July, based on Joe R. Lansdale's book. The movie stars Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Sam Shepard and Don Johnson and has a release date in theaters and via video on demand May 23. Hall stars as a small-town guy hailed as a hero after he kills a burglar, but then the crook’s vengeful ex-con dad (Sam Shepard) shows up and threatens the hero’s family.

New stills from director Justin Kurzel's film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth were published by the Daily Mail, which also featured an interview with the director. The project stars Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) and Marion Cotillard and has a U.K. release in early 2015.

A new extended TV spot was released for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, starring Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Josh Brolin.

TELEVISION

Amazon Prime secured exclusive rights for select HBO programming, including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and The Wire, beginning May 21. In addition, the shows will be available on Amazon's fledgling Fire TV media player by the end of the year.

BBC One is airing the new six-part drama Happy Valley, written by Sally Wainwright and starring Sarah Lancashire as police sergeant Catherine Cawood.

The Beeb also secured the rights to two recent novels by Irish author Claire McGowan, The Lost and The Dead Ground, featureing forensic psychologist Paula Maguire.

Omnimystery News reported that A&E announced the third season of Longmire, based on a character created by Craig Johnson and played by Robert Taylor, will premiere on June 2nd.  

Netflix has set August 1 for the premiere of the six-episode final season of The Killing, starring Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman, and also released a teaser trailer.

USA Network is also looking ahead to summer, announcing the return dates for its series Suits, Graceland, Royal Pains, and Covert Affairs.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest Penguin Podcast features a round up of crime fiction interviews, excerpts, and readings (hat tip to Ayo Onatade via Shotsmag).

Ian Rankin appeared on
the TM Live Book Show, hosted by Michele Magwood.

 

‘Zine Scene

The latest All Due Respect (Issue 2) is out, with a special look at thriller author Owen Laukkanen, whose latest book, Kill Fee, was published in March. Laukkanen is interviewed by Chris F. Holm and offers up a non-fiction piece about his days on the seas and a story about deep sea fishing. There's also some "seriously dark fiction" from CS DeWildt, David Siddall, Joseph Rubas, Eric Beetner, Liam Sweeny, and Scott Adlerberg. And editor Chris Rhatigan continues his quest to review every Hard Case Crime book. You can grab your copy at Amazon or Amazon UK.

The spring 2014 issue of the excellent crime fiction magazine Needle has also just been released, with original stories from Patti Abbott, Jen Conley, Heath Lowrance, Stephen D. Rogers, Sandra Seamans and more.

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is already preparing its June issue to ship. From the blurb: Buried secrets have a way of working their way into the light, sometimes explosively. They may gnaw at psyches, as in Shelley Costa’s "The Specific Gravity of Blood in Sunlight" or Steve Lindley’s "Man Buries Man." There are also new stories from Neil Schofield, John C. Boland, Kevin Egan, Meredith Anthony, Jim Fusilli, Sarah Weinman, and a Mystery Classic by Nedra Tyre.

Likewise, AHMM's sister 'zine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has another great lineup for June, with a look at book awards season and new fiction from previous Readers Award winners Dave Zeltserman, with a new case featuring Julius Katz and Archie ("Julius Accused"), and British author Marilyn Todd, with a new story in her Claudia Seferius series ("Bad Taste"). Plus, there are eight other fine shorts from the likes of Bill Pronzini, Robert Lopresti and more.

Mystery Melange

I missed the announcement earlier this month of the Grand Prix du Roman Noir being bestowed on hard-boiled author Martyn Waites for his novel Born Under Punches (Mysterious Press). The nod for best French crime novel went to Yves Ravey for Un Notaire Peu Ordinaire. The awards are handed out annually at the Festival International du Film Policier de Beaune. For all the nominees, click here.

The finalists for the 2014 Bony Blithe Award (which celebrates traditional Canadian mysteries) include Thread and Buried by Janet Bolin; Gold Web by Vicki Delany; Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By by Elizabeth J. Duncan; Miss Montreal by Howard Shrier; and Framed for Murder by Cathy Spencer. The winner will be announced at this year's Bloody Words conference in Toronto, June 6th through 8th.

Deadly Pleasure Magazine announced its nominees for the annual Barry Awards. Best novel contenders include A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen; Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay; Sandrine's Case by Thomas H. Cook; Suspect by Robert Crais; Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger; and Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin. (Hat tip to Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare.)

A new exhibition on Sherlock Holmes is coming to the Museum of London from October of this year to April 2015. The exhibition looks at why Sherlock Holmes conjures up such enduring fascination and how the character has transcended literature onto stage and screen and continues to attract huge audiences to this day.

Speaking of Sherlock, The Guardian's newspaper readers said Sherlock Holmes is the perfect way to get back into the reading habit. But how does his appearance on the page compare to his screen incarnations?

Bookstores are having to adapt quickly to survive in the lightning-fast changes that are taking place in the publishing world. Salon noted an American Booksellers Association report that the number of indie bookstores in the U.S. has grown 19.3 percent since 2009, adding that "There is increasing evidence that the same digital transformation that has so dramatically reshaped the publishing industry, and driven millions of consumers online, also paradoxically rewards locally rooted authenticity."

Criminal Element is offtering up the chance to win a half-dozen books from Hilary Davidson, John Sandford, and more. The entry deadline is May 6.

Elizabeth Foxwell noted some new music releases of film scores for movies such as Young Sherlock Holmes and 1945's The Man in Half Moon Street.

The featured poem at the 5-2 this week is "Marine Barracks First Aid" by David S. Pointer, and the noir of the week at Beat to a Pulp is "Partners in Crime" by Andy Henion.

The Q&A roundup is a feast of author interviews, including: Christa Faust, who chats with Vince Keenan; J.A. Jance, who is interrogated by the Mystery People; the very same Mystery People grilled Hilary Davidson on her new standalone thriller; Janet Evanovich drops by Writers Who Kill; Alan Bradley, creator of the Flavia de Luce series, was interviewed by Squiddo Magazine; and Jo Nesbø caught up to The Mystery People.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Leonardo DiCaprio has signed to star in the film adaptation of Michael Punke's novel The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge. The gritty thriller focuses on a 19th century fur trapper who survives getting mauled by a grizzly bear, and then plans revenge on cohorts who robbed him and left him for dead. 

The film based on Laura Lippman's novel Every Secret Thing is being shown as part of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan from April 16-27. For screening times, check out the film festival's website.

The Pierce Brosnan-starring spy thriller November Man, based on the late Bill Granger’s 1987 novel, There Are No Spies, has been given a U.S. release date of August 27. Brosnan plays an ex-CIA operative brought out of retirement to track down his former pupil (Luke Bracey) in a plot involving the Russian president-elect and high-level CIA officers.

Directory Jerry Bruckheimer indicated they were in the process of getting the script for the Beverly Hills Cop sequel finished, with the hopes to start shooting at the end of the summer or in early fall. Star Eddie Murphy has signed on to rejoin the franchise.

After just three weeks' efforts, Gosnell has become the most funded movie ever on Indiegogo. The project centers on the real-life story of Philadelphia doctor Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who ran "the abortion clinic from hell" and was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. 

The first trailer was released for Gone Girl, the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel. The project stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Missi Pyle and Patrick Fugit and is directed by David Fincher.

A trailer was also released for God's Pocket, the feature-length directorial debut from Mad Men star John Slattery that's based on the novel of the same name by Pete Dexter. The film stars the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman and is set in a gritty blue-collar neighborhood where a construction "accident" leads to the burial of a body and the truth.

Want more trailers? The latest trailer for David Michod's gritty crime thriller The Rover, promises that "things fall apart" in a post-apocalyptic society where normal rules of civilization have faded.

Meanwhile, Magnolia Pictures released a teaser poster and a trailer for the conspiracy thriller Pioneer.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TELEVISION

FX renewed its 1980s spy drama The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, for a third season of 13 new episodes.

A&E Network gave the go-ahead to the unscripted series D.O.A. from Law & Order executive producer Dick Wolf. The series follows an elite team of detectives who re-examine controversial murder cases "in which unresolved questions linger long after the verdict."

X Files producer/writer Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer (Houdini) have created the crime series Freud: The Secret Casebook, a period drama where Sigmund Freud becomes the world's first criminal profiler.

Law & Order: SVU will welcome back B.D. Wong, who starred on the NBC drama for nine seasons, to reprise his role as Dr. George Huang in the season's penultimate episode.

Omnimystery News reported that of the final five episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot series, three will be available exclusively on Acorn TV, while only two will air on PBS. Acorn will, however, make these three episodes available to PBS later in the year.

The fledgling network Pivot announced a new programming slate, incuding the dark drama Fortitude that follows the residents of an Arctic town shaken to its core by the brutal murder of a research scientist.

ABC Family released a first look at stars Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth who will play amateur detectives in the half-hour comedy-drama Mystery Girls.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

This week on CBS This Morning: David Baldacci, author of The Target.

This week on Crime and Science Radio: When Disaster Hits: Naming The Dead, an Interview With NTSB’s Paul Sledzik.

NPR's Fresh Air program profiled author crime writer Giorgio Scerbanenco, often called "the father of Italian noir."

Black Mask magazine was founded ninety-four years ago, in April of 1920. To celebrate, Open Road Media put together a YouTube video hosted by Otto Penzler, who discusses the history of the magazine where mystery greats including Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Carroll John Daly got their start.

You Disappear

Danish novelist Christian Jungersen worked as a copywriter for an ad agency and then as a TV script consultant and a film teacher before turning his hand to novels—and has since been published in more than 20 countries. His first novel, Undergrowth (Danish title Krat) won Denmark's Best First Novel award and went on to become a bestseller. His latest novel, the psychological suspense title You Disappear, was voted the best novel of 2012 by Danish library users, and it was on the Danish bestseller list for fiction for more than a year. Translated into English by Misha Hoekstra, it was released in that version earlier this year. 

You Disappear is the story of Mia, an elementary schoolteacher in Denmark whose husband, Frederik, is the talented, highly respected headmaster of a local private school. During a vacation in Spain, Frederik has an accident and his visit to the hospital reveals a brain tumor that is gradually altering his personality, confirming Mia's suspicions that her husband is no longer the man he used to be. Now she must protect herself and their teenage son, Niklas, from the strange, blunted, often violent being who lives in her husband's body—and with whom she must share her home, her son, and her bed.

When it emerges that Frederik embezzled millions of crowns from his school, the consequences of his condition envelope the entire community. Increasingly isolated, Mia faces more tough questions. Had his illness already changed him back then when he still seemed so happy? What are the legal ramifications? In her support group for spouses of people with brain injuries, Mia meets a defense attorney named Bernhard. Together they help prepare for Frederik's court case by immersing themselves in the latest brain research and in classic philosophical questions of free will, while simultaneously navigating the uncertain waters of their growing mutual infatuation.

Kirkus noted that the book is "An intelligent, at times even intellectual, novel about philosophical issues of identity and moral responsibility . . . Jungersen writes brilliantly and raises knotty questions of identity." The author himself tackled this question in a recent Q&A, finding himself particularly obsessed with illness and our vulnerability, that our personalities could be snatched from us via a stroke, brain cancer, or Alzheimer's. Do we have a soul or are we merely products of our biochemical brain cocktails? Do you become someone else when you’ve suffered brain damage?

Jungersen is a dedicated researcher, and this book was no exception. He flew to Dartmouth College to talk to a neurophilosopher there, and also visited a number of teachers in Farum, the Copenhagen suburb where You Disappear unfolds. He spoke with doctors, lawyers, accountants, and even contacted a man who’d been convicted of swindling, in the prison where the man was serving time. All that research pays off in both the level of realistic detail offered up in this fascinating book and in the interstitial material that explains some of the thornier concepts.

You Disappear is part romantic novel, part philosophical treatise, part suspense thriller, but at its core is the search for identity and where we stand within our families and communities. As Jungersen notes, "A few years ago, ADHD and depression were personality traits; now they are illnesses that we can medicate our way out of. Soon we might also have drugs for laziness, hot tempers, self-absorption, and the inability to make long-term plans. It was my ridiculously ambitious hope to discover a story that fit this previously unheard-of way of understanding people – and with it, a genuinely new narrative form."

Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers of Canada announced the longlist for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing in the best novel category. This is the first time the organization has released a 10-book novel longlist, a move made in light of the growing number and quality of submissions. Shortlists in all categories will be announced later this month.

The new issue of the Film Noir Foundation's publication Noir City is out, with an appraisal of the hommes fatale of noir; an in-depth survey of the career Ray Milland; a look at the high school noir of Brick and Veronica Mars; and the latest book and television reviews.  (Hat tip to Vince Keenan.)

The Arthur Conan Doyle estate tapped author Anthony Horowitz to pen a new Sherlock Holmes novel back in 2011, and now they've tasked him with writing a follow-up novel about Moriarty, working from the premise that the Holmes villain didn't die at Reichenbach Falls. Horowitz revealed on Twitter that "Sherlock Holmes does not appear (until the very end)", that "a vicious murder is investigated by Inspector Athelney Jones (from The Sign of Four)" and that "nearly all the policemen Holmes ever worked with, including Lestrade, appear in my new book."

Jake Kerridge wrote an article for The Telegraph on Golden Age mystery author Margery Allingham, whom he calls "the Dickens of detective writing." (Last week I reported that author/blogger Mike Ripley has completed a partial manuscript left unfinished by Allingham's husband and writing partner, titled Mr. Campion's Farwell.)

If you've read Les Miserables (or seen the movie) or read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," you've seen characters inspired by Eugène François Vidocq, a French reformed criminal-turned-crime fighter. Bob Couttie, over at the All Things Crime blog, offers up a brief bio of this fascinating character.

Coming up in early June in Manchester, United Kingdom, is a conference titled True Crime: Fact, Fiction, Ideology, an "interdisciplinary conference seeking to explore this genre in its myriad incarnations." Organizers are seeking proposals for 20 minute papers on topics such as "Forensic psychology and criminology" and "Serial killers and profiling," and have extended the deadline to April 18th.

Mystery Writers of America's MWA University is heading to Phildeaphia on Saturday, June 28. Open to the general public, these one-day seminars are geared toward all writers, novice or pro, with experts offering their strategies for all aspects of writing and publishing. Authors scheduled to lead workshops include Jess Lourey, Hallie Ephron, Daniel Stashower, Reed Farrel Coleman, Kathleen George, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

A bit later this year, the The Watermill resort at Posara in Tuscany is holding its second annual Meg Gardiner Crime Writing course from October 4-11. The course features modules on plot, characters, generating suspense, writing dialogue, and tips on getting published in the 21st century, and author Gardiner will analyze a synopsis of your current work-in-progress.

The Missouri writers group Sleuths Ink is taking submission for their annual Whodunnit? mystery writing contest. Stories are fun and interactive with a maximum word count of 700, including the narrative and the solution. There is a small entry fee for stories, with a deadline of May 31.

Sadly, w'eve lost another mystery writer; Diana Ramsay (the pen name of Rhoda Rebee Brandes), died recently at her home in Vermont. The Collins Crime Club published five suspense novels by Ramsay, and her novel Descent Into the Dark was the basis for the motion picture Noise, starring Ally Sheedy.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Fear as Loud as a Mugging" by Linda Lerner, while the latest pulp story at Beat to a Pulp is "Morgantown Massacre" by Fred Blosser and Bill Davis.

The Q&A roundup this week includes John Mantooth taking the "short, sharp interview" at Paul D. Brazill's blog, chatting about his novel The Storm, which contains horror along with "a healthy dose of mystery, Southern-fried grittiness, and some narrative experimentalism; fantasy short story writer Laird Barron is interviewed in Weird Tales Magazine; and Swedish crime fiction bestseller Camilla Lackberg discusses her love affair with crime that began at age seven.

Love to see your crime fiction on the big screen? Kenneth Wishnia chose "10 Great Crime Fiction Characters on Film" for the Huffington Post.

World Book Night

World Book Night U.S released an interactive map of participating book donors, official stores, and libraries taking part in the festivities later this month. According to Executive Director Carl Lennertz, the site is a great tool for all book lovers who can look up the resources contributing to the event in their own areas, which are broken down by zip code on the map. This year, there are a record 2,330 WBN host stores and libraries, many offering giveaway events, as well as over 25,000 individual book givers, all of which are easily discovered via the new map.

Lennertz added that "Along with the hundreds of store and library receptions, where media can interview givers, we feel these two new tools, along with very cool news for the givers still to come, will greatly magnify the sense of local pride in WBN and boost our social media traffic to new highs." The official WBN site also has a map of Kickoff Author events around the country, leading up to the April 23rd book donation main event.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Brie Larson has signed on to star in the indie drama Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, playing a woman kidnapped as a teenager and held captive for years in a tiny room with her 5-year-old son Jack. Emma Donoghue adapted the script from her own 2010 bestseller inspired by a real-life 2008 case.

Screenwriters Mark and Brian Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), are writing the script for Timecop, a remake of the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme time travel action movie, where time travel is regulated by a police force.

DreamWorks has optioned Anders Roslund and Stefan Thunberg's Swedish crime novel Made in Sweden, scheduled for publication in May in Europe (with U.S. publication at a later date). The story follows the true story of the largest wave of bank robberies in Sweden's history, pulled off by three brothers and their childhood best friend.

Sony Pictures is nearing a deal for the rights to Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, an adaptation of the financial thriller novel by Michael Lewis, published March 31.

Noomi Rapace is in negotiations to star in the spy thriller Unlocked, directed by Mikael Hafstrom. She will play a CIA interrogator duped into getting a terrorist to provide key information to the wrong side, putting her in the center of a plot to launch a biological attack in London.

Production on the indie courtroom drama The Whole Truth has been put on hold after star Daniel Craig dropped out one week before production began. Craig was set to play an attorney tasked with defending a teen boy who allegedly murdered his wealthy father.

Screen Gems is producing the thriller Padre, based on a  a spec script by Mike Maples and described as being in the tone of No Country for Old Men and A History of Violence. The story centers on a priest with a dark past on a quest for revenge against a group of thugs that left him for dead.  

A teaser trailer was released for A Most Wanted Man, a filmbased on John le Carré's novel about a Chechen Muslim who illegally immigrates to Hamburg and gets caught in the international war on terror. The project was one of the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's last films.

Sony Pictures released a trailer for the sequel to the comedy police procedural 21 Jump street, titled 22 Jump Street. In this outing, partners Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) head off to do an undercover mission at a local college.

TELEVISION

The UK's BAFTA TV Awards 2014 nominations were announced last week and include several nods to crime dramas Southcliffe, Ripper Street, Broadchurch, The Fall, The Great Train Robbery, and Top of the Lake. (Hat tip to It's a Crime.)

Law & Order: SVU is promoting Donal Logue to a recurring role playing Lieutenant Declan Murphy, who takes over from Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) as acting commander of the New York Special Victims Unit. The show has also hired Bradley Whitford to guest story in an upcoming episode, along with Ann Curry and Geraldo Rivera playing themselves.

Weinstein has acquired the rights to the crime drama series Gommora from Beta Film, which is based on the best-selling novel by Roberto Saviano about the Neapolitan crime organization Camorra.

The crime series Trapped, from Baltasar Kormakur's production company, has been given a 10-episode series order from Icelandic public broadcaster RUV. The show is set on remote island where a blizzard cuts off the town from the outside world before police can arrive to investigate the discovery of a man's body.

Mia Kirshner (The L Word) and  Waleed Zuaiter (Revolution, Homeland) will have recurring roles on Netflix’s untitled psychological thriller drama from the creators of Damages. The  13-episode series follows a close-knit family of four adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when the black sheep brother returns.

A&E renewed Bates Motel for a third season, with production beginning in the Fall. The show stars Freddie Highmore as a young Norman Bates and Vera Farmiga as Norman's mother.

Cobie Smulders, who played S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill on the big screen, will reprise the character in the Tuesday, April 29 episode of ABC TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Omnimystery News reported that French pay-TV service Canal Plus has given a 10-episode order to the UK-based crime drama Spotless, about a man in the crime scene cleaning business whose brother draws him into the deadly dynamics of organized crime.

TNT has ordered a series based on Noah Wyle's The Librarian movie trilogy, about an ancient organization beneath the Metropolitan Public Library dedicated to protecting an unknowing world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around. The cast includes Rebecca Romijn, Wyle, John Larroquette, Christian Kane, Lindy Boot, John Kim, Bob Newhart, and Jane Curtin.

Emily Bergl (Shameless) has landed a guest-starring role on Elementary playing an alternative tattoo artist who becomes a suspect in her ex-husband's murder—the same husband who was once tasked with keeping an eye on Sherlock Holmes.

UKTV’s pay channel Watch bought UK rights to the drama series Crisis, which stars Gillian Anderson and Delmot Mulroney. The story line follows the abduction of several children of Washington D.C.’s most powerful players, including the president’s son.

Fox TV released the first full-length trailer of its limited series 24: Live Another Day, which premieres May 5.

PODCASTS/VIDEOS/RADIO

This week's Crime and Science Radio, hosted by DP Lyle and Jan Burke, is titled "When Disaster Hits; Naming The Dead: An Interview With NTSB's Paul Sledzik." It takes a look at how forensic science works following the aftermath of disasters such as plane crashes, floods, hurricanes and other events that result in mass fatalities.

THEATER

Cast members from A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder will join the show's writers for a special May 11 discussion at the 92Y in New York City. Based on the 1907 novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman, the muiscal follows a trail of heirs, family money, and homicide.

Mystery Melange

The International Thriller Writers announced the finalists for the Thriller Awards, including Best Hardcover Novel contenders Linda Castillo – Her Last Breath; Lee Child – Never Go Back; Lisa Gardner – Touch and Go; Stephen King – Doctor Sleep; Owen Laukkanen – Criminal Enterprise; Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – White Fire; and Andrew Pyper – The Demonologist.

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers announced the nominees for the 2014 Scribe Awards, which recognize excellence in the field of media tie-in writing (i.e., books based on movies, TV shows and games). They include such titles as Murder She Wrote: Close-Up on Murder by Donald Bain and Mr. Monk Helps Himself by Hy Conrad.

Author/blogger Mike Ripley, in cooperation with the Margery Allingham Society, has completed a partial manuscript left unfinished by Allingham's husband and writing partner. Titled Mr. Campion's Farwell, the novel from Severn House is said to serve as "a fitting tribute to the brilliance of Albert Campion, one of the brightest stars in the rich firmament of British crime writing."

Thrilling Detective celebrated its 16th anniversary with a new issue online, featuring an essay on "Timothy Webster: The Pinkerton Detective and the Civil War Spy"; a look at gay crime fiction, by Josh Lanyon; a long-lost interview with Dashiell Hammett; a look into private detectives in hip hop music by Ray Garraty; and a review of Benjamin Black's continuation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe series.

This week's featured crime poem over at the 5-2 is "The Stainless Steel Wallet" by Amy Holman. And don't forget to check out the latest posting in the "30 Days of The 5-2" blog tour in celebration of National Poetry Month in the U.S.

One bit of sad news this week: mystery author Harold Adams has died at the age of 91. Adams penned a series with Great Depression sleuth Carl Wilcox, as well as standalone novels, and won the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award and a Minnesota Book Award.

The Q&A roundup this week includes "One Minute With: John Connolly" via The Independent; and Rachel Abbott chats with The Crime Scene blog about her series with DCI Tom Douglas.

Open Road Media prepared a handy "Edgars at a Glance" infographic in advance of the upcoming 2014 awards. They also posted a video on YouTube with sound bites from sound previous Edgar winners.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

rad Pitt and his Plan B production company will produce an adaptation of David Kushner's Rolling Stone article "Anonymous vs. Steubenville." The story follows Deric Lostutter, an Anonymous hacker involved in exposing a cover-up of the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, who received a harsher sentence than the rapists.

Brad Pitt is also interested in an untitled WWII romantic thriller from screenwriter Steven Knight, to be produced by Graham King's GK Films (Eastern Promise, The Hundred Foot Journey).

Zac Efron is spearheading an adaptation of John Grisham's 2009 legal thriller The Associate, serving as both star and producer of the film. He'll play up-and-coming young lawyer with a dark secret that catches up with him and threatens his career and his life. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

John Leguizamo, Lynn Collins, and Jim Belushi are joining the cast of the thriller The Man on Carrion Road. Directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego from a script by Nils Lyew, the plot centers on a botched Mexican cartel deal in the back roads of a border town.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (a 2014 Oscar nominee for 12 Years a Slave) is the frontrunner to play the villain opposite Daniel Craig in the next James Bond movie.

Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro nearing a deal to star opposite Emily Blunt in Denis Villeneuve's thriller Sicario, about a SWAT officer (Blunt) who travels to Mexico with a pair of mercenaries to track down a drug lord. Del Toro would play an assassin hired by the U.S. government to help bring down the Cartels responsible for the death of his family.

The Breaking Bad actor Jesse Plemons is in negotiations to co-star with Johnny Depp in the upcoming gangster movie Black Mass. As Cinemablend reports, this may mean that the actor is no longer a contender for a role in the upcoming Star Wars film.

Fox Searchlight released the first trailer for The Drop, based on an original screenplay by author Dennis Lehane and directed by Michaël R. Roskam. The film stars Tom Hardy, the late James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace and Matthias Schoenaerts and follows an ex-con trying to go straight whose life gets upended by a robbery gone wrong.  

TELEVISION

David Duchovny is returning to network television for Aquarius, a gritty 1960s cop drama on NBC about a cop who goes undercover to track Charles Manson and the Manson Family before their infamous murder spree.  

Amazon signed an exclusive deal for all previous seasons of the Fox drama 24 to stream on Amazon Prime, along with the upcoming event series 24: Live Another Day.

Broadcast partners S4C and BBC Cymru Wales announced that the bilingual crime series Y Gwyll / Hinterland has been signed for a second season, with production to begin in September on a new five-part series. Richard Harrington will return to the role of DCI Tom Mathias

Homeland will move part of its production to Cape Town, South Africa, for the fourth season of the show – which will serve as a stand-in for the Middle East, specifically Turkey.

FX released another trailer to promote their upcoming series Fargo, based on the Coen Brothers movie of the same name, and starring Sherlock's Martin Freeman.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Mary Higgins Clark appeared on the Today Show to discuss her latest novel, I've Got You Under My Skin.

John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black, was a guest on KCRW's Bookworm to discuss his continuation of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow series with The Black-Eyed Blonde.

THEATER

Last week, I noted that Benedict Cumberbatch is scheduled to play Hamlet at London's Barbican Theater in 2015. Now comes word that his fellow Sherlock actor, Martin Freeman, will take on the role of Richard III in London's West End later this year. Apparently, not to be outdone, the BBC just announced that Cumberbatch will also play Richard III for BBC 2, in a production from Sam Mendes and Downton Abbey's Rupert Ryle Hodges.

 

Mystery Melange

 The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced the winners of the Derringers for 2014:

• Best Flash Story (Up to 1,000 Words): "Luck is What You Make" by Stephen D. Rogers (Crime Factory, May 2013)
• Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 Words): "The Present" by Robert Lopresti (The Strand Magazine, February-May 2013)
• Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 Words): "Give Me a Dollar" by Ray Daniel (Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold, Level Best Books, September 2013)
• Best Novelette (8,001-17,500 Words): "The Goddaughter's Revenge" by Melodie Campbell (Orca Rapid Reads, October 2013)

If you're a new author trying your hand at writing a thriller, you may be interested in the International Thriller Writers' Online ThrillerSchool. You still have time to register for the course, which will take place from April 7 to May 23. Several bestselling thriller authors will be taking part, but note that attendance is limited. (And there is a not-insubstantial fee for participants.)

Sad news from the bookstore world: Book'Em Mysteries in South Pasadena, California, will close its doors on April 30, after 24 years in business. Naomi Hirahara, Wendy Hornsby, Sue Ann Jaffarian will be featured at a farewell book signing on April 6.

One more "closing" to report, in a different vein: editor/publisher Anthony Neil Smith announced that the upcoming issue of Plots With Guns will be its last, with submissions accepted through April 10.

The Strand has developed a tradition of publishing previously-unpublished works by famous authors, such as "Never Kick a Dick" by Cornell Wollrich and "So I Shot Him" by Dashiell Hammett. The latest offering is a short story by Tennessee Williams titled "Crazy Nights," written in the 1930s.

Along those same lines, a previously-unpublished Samuel Beckett story,"Echo's Bones" will be published by by Faber & Faber 80 years after it was rejected.

Mike Ripley's latest "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots eZine has a wrap-up of the Essex Book Festival where Natasha Cooper gave the annual Dorothy L. Sayers lecture in Witham Library. The "Ripster" also offers up a review of the latest Bryant & May novel by Christopher Fowler, as well as a lot of other goodies.

A collection of Ian Fleming's letters and photographs will be auctioned at the New York antiquarian book fair next week. Some of the letters detail the James Bond creator's tempestuous love affair with Edith Morpurgo (who tragically later died in Auschwitz with her husband and daughter). Book fair spokesman Adam Douglas noted that "I don't think the general public had any idea of what the character of the writer of James Bond was like. It's rather amazing how much like James Bond he is."

The featured weekly crime poem over at the 5-2 is "Sermon Notes" by Randall Compton, while the new story over at Beat to a Pulp is "Morgantown Massacre" by Fred Blosser and Bill Davis.

As part of the Q&A roundup this week, Hank Phillippi Ryan continues her series for the Sisters in Crime New England blog by interviewing Rosemary Harris; and Bruce DeSilva visits The Mystery People to talk about his latest book involving Rhode Island newspaper man Liam Mulligan, Providence Rag.

Here's a little quickie, fun stress reliever via a Buzzfeed quiz: Which TV Detective Are You?

Poems from the Dark Side

It's National Poetry Month, and that means it's also time for the third annual blog tour for the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly. The 5-2 site, edited by Gerald So and the occasional guest editor, publishes an original poem every Monday. (5-2 refers to 52 weeks of the year, as well as being a nod to police radio codes.)

The blog tour also has another bonus: All April revenue from 5-2 and Lineup poetry anthology books and merchandise is donated to the nonprofit Academy of American Poets, supporting poets at all stages of their careers and fostering the appreciation of contemporary poetry. If you’re on Twitter, follow @poemsoncrime or visit the site link above for the latest posts.

Why crime poetry?

Poetry is a combat sport in many parts of the world. You have to look no further than a recent news story from Russia where a former teacher stabbed an acquaintance to death in a dispute about literary genres. The victim insisted that "the only real literature is prose," while the murderer favored poetry. And just last week, poets protested outside London's Pentonville prison against the UK ban on sending books to prisoners.

Poetry is dangerous. So far in 2014, poet Muhammad al-Ajami remains in a Qatar prison, Iranian poet Hashem Shaabani was executed for being an enemy of God and the state, and Egypt's Arabic Network for Human Rights Information declared that "writing poetry has become a more serious crime than murder," after two police officers were suspended for their poems.

Poetry is also one of the most personal and liberating forms of literary expression. This is something Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno learned in writing her collection Slamming Open the Door, which documents the aftermath of the murder of her daughter Leidy in 2003. Bonanno's words run the gamut of emotions throughout the poems, starting with her daughter's nursing-school graduation party where she met her future killer, a "nice young man . . . / [who] smiles and raises his glass," with later poems working their way through the investigation and the trial, where Bonanno is surprised to find herself hugging the killer's mother.

The first poem, "Death Barged In," sets the tone and provides the title for the book, opening with:

Death Barged In

In his Russian greatcoat,
slamming open the door
with an unpardonable bang,
and he has been here ever since…

…he stands behind me
clamping two colossal hands on my shoulders
and bends down
and whispers to my neck:
From now on,
you write about me.

Bonanno also draws portraits of people no parent ever wants to meet, as in "Homicide Detective":

…But his is the voice of water.
Only he knows the right words to say,
and he says them:
I promise we will get this guy.

When I show him a photo
he says, She's beautiful;
almost how she looked
when we found her.

And now I know who to believe.
What does the coroner, who says
she had maggots in her mouth,
know about the truth?

 

Poetry is catharsis-in-words, or as Bonnano said in her preface, her poems transcend judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.

For more examples of combat poems, dangerous poems, personal poems and catharsis poems, head on over to the 5-2. If you're enraged, if you're moved, if you're inspired, great; the poems have done their job. Then pick up a pen and some paper and try it for yourself.