Mystery Melange

The Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival announced the shortlist for the third annual Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year, including: Chris Brookmyre, Flesh Wounds; Neil Broadfoot, Falling Fast; Natalie Haynes, The Amber Fury; Peter May, Entry Island; Louise Welsh, A Lovely Way To Burn; and Nicola White, In The Rosary Garden. (Hat tip to EuroCrime.)

Meanwhile, as Mystery Fanfare reports, the organizers of  the Iceland Noir festival in Reykjavik announced the finalists for the inaugural Icepick Award celebrating translated crime fiction.

If you happen to be in Melbourne, Australia, next Thursday, U.S. crime writer Karin Slaughter will be featured in conversation with Aussie true crime author Vikki Petraitis in an event sponsored by Sisters in Crime Australia and the Athenaeum Library.

Three Finnish crime authors will be in Minneapolis in August to participate in Finnfest USA. Even if you don't have tickets to that event, you can catch Antti Tuomainen (author of the dystopian-romantic-noirish novel The Healer), Jarkko Sipila (author of the Helsinki Homicide police procedural series), and Jari Tervo (whose first English-language translation was just publised) at the Once Upon a Crime bookstore on August 9th.

The summer issue of Suspense Magazine features interviews with bestselling authors Craig Johnson, Camilla Läckberg, Marcus Sakey, Amanda Kyle Williams, and Maegan Beaumont; another edition of "Face-Off" with Steve Berry vs. James Rollins; the ITW Reader's Corner, which gets invaded by Meg Gardiner; "Across the Pond" guest author AJ Waines; forensics with D.P. Lyle; and Sheila Lowe uncovers handwriting mysteries.

Speaking of Dr. D.P. Lyle and forensics, he penned an article titled "Don’t Do This: The 3 Most Common Medical Mistakes Writers Make" for The Thrill Begins Blog.

Amy Gentry of the Austin Chronicle profiled Patricia Highsmith with a look at her style and themes and the continued revival of interest in her works, incuding two new upcoming films based on her books.

Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman are launching Brash Books in September with twenty-eight reprints and two original novels, including works by such authors as Bill Crider, Gar Anthony Haywood, Tom Kakonis, Dick Lochte, and Michael Stone. (Hat tip to Gerald So.)

Untreed Reads posted a call for submissions for a new upcoming anthology, "Haystacks and Homicide: Short Tales of Farmland Crime." As the title suggests, stories of between 1,500-5,000 words must take place on a farm or be farm related.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is  "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Paul Hostovsky, and the featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Cigarettes" by Keith Rawson.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Belinda Bauer, in conversation with The Independent; BBC crime correspondent and detective writer Simon Hall chats with the North Devon Journal's Lyn Callaghan; and Chip Hughes stopped by Songs of Spade to talk about his his surfing detective Kai Cooke.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Legendary Pictures has given a name to its upcoming hacker movie:  Blackhat. Directed and produced by Michael Mann, the cyber-thriller project stars Chris Hemsworth who becomes involved in a high-level global cyber-crime network.

TriStar picked up Jodie Foster's project Money Monster, starring George Clooney as a TV personality who is taken hostage live on the air.

Denmark director Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) will direct Deity, an English-language remake of the Bollywood thriller Kahaani. The story centers on a pregnant American woman who goes to Kolkata in search of her missing husband.

Tommy Lee Jones has joined Kevin Costner and Gary Oldman in Criminal, about a dead CIA operative's memories, secrets and skills implanted into a dangerous prison inmate in hopes he can stop a diabolical plot. Jones will play the neuroscientist who transplants the memories.

Although it took a decade for the sequel to Sin City, the upcoming Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, producers Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are already talking about making Sin City 3.

The Robert Downey Jr. star vehicle The Judge will open the Toronto Film Festival in early September. Downey Jr. plays an attorney who returns to his childhood home where his estranged father (Robert Duvall), who is also the town’s judge, is suspected of murder.

A trailer was released for November Man, the upcoming film in which Pierce Brosnan returns to spydom as an ex-CIA agent.

Open Road released a trailer for the crime drama Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhall as a member of LA’s underground world of freelance crime tele-journalism.

TELEVISION

CBS Television Studios signed a multi-year, first-look deal with James Patterson Entertainment, giving them first rights to the author’s extensive library for series source material.

Angus Macfadyen (Turn) will star in The Pinkertons, a 22-episode series based on the real-life cases of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which premieres in first-run syndication in the U.S. this fall.

Melissa Gilbert is joining ABC's midseason replacement series Secrets & Lies, about a father (Ryan Phillippe) who becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a young boy when he finds the body. Gilbert will play a hardworking mom taking care of her two sons on her own.

NBC announced that that Mary-Louise Parker will join The Blacklist for Season 2 of the series in a recurring role as a mysterious character named Naomi Highland.

Portia de Rossi is joining Scandal during Season Four for a "top secret" arc, according to ABC.

Charley Koontz (Community) will join Patricia Arquette in the cast of  in CBS’ upcoming CSI spinoff, CSI: Cyber, playing Agent Daniel Grummitz, a social introvert and a tech genius.

Sonya Walger (Lost) and Zak Orth (Revolution) have landed guest-starring roles on Elementary. Walger will play an Assistant U.S. Attorney, while Orth will take on the role of a distraught father whose family was torn apart by tragedy.

Several of the stars and creative team behind Hannibal were on hand at Comic Con to talk about the upcoming season two of the series, with hints of storylines and who may have lived or died in the season one finale.

Fox released a trailer for the Season 10 premiere of Bones, which picks up four months after the events occurring in the Season 9 finale and finds FBI agent Booth in jail.

THEATER

Emmy nominee Robert Newman (Homeland) will play Inspector Archer in Off-Broadway’s longest running play, Perfect Crime, a whodunnit that New York Magazine calls "a true New York murder mystery."

Mystery Melange

The Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year was awarded to Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer at this past weekend's conference in Harrogate. The other finalists included The Red Road by Denise Mina; The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay; The Chessmen by Peter May; Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths; and Eleven Days by Stav Sherez. (Thanks to Karen Meek at EuroCrime.)

The British publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson (with HarperCollins handling U.S. distribution) has acquired 15 unpublished early stories written by the late Elmore Leonard, most written while Leonard was working as a copywriter at a Detroit advertising agency in the 1950s. The book is scheduled to be released in Fall of 2014.

MysteriousPress and Open Road Media are bringing The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Series by Ellis Peters to ebooks for the first time.

The saga of publication rights to Sherlock Holmes continues with one more legal gambit by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate.The 7th Circuit of Appeals ruled in June that Holmes stories written prior to 1923 are in the public domain and therefore can be used by anyone (media, pastiches, new stories, etc.). However, Doyle's estate is taking their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a temporary stay of the appeal court ruling while they file an appeal before SCOTUS. (Hat tip to Mike Stotter at Shots Mag.)

Author Val McDermid has a new item to add to her resume: she won the University of Dundee's naming contest, and their new morgue will be christened in her honor. The new Val McDermid Mortuary will also include the Stuart MacBride Dissecting Room and submersion tanks named after other authors, including Jeffery Deaver, Kathy Reichs, and Harlan Coben. It's all part of the university's efforts to raise £1 million to build the new facilities, asking members of the public to vote for the writer for whom they would like the morgue to be named and donate money.

The Weekly Lizard suggested "6 Scandinavian Crime Novels for Fans of Jo Nesbø’s Police."

Crime Fiction Lover has a recap of the recent Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, noting "16 wonderful things about Harrogate 2014."

As the Criminal Element blog notes, London is gussying up some of their public benches with literary makeovers. They include classics such as Shakespeare and Dickens, but will also feature Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, Ian fleming's James Bond stories, and Anthony Hurowitz's Alex Rider series.

Some good news for both authors and readers: the latest American Association of Publishers report indicates that trade publishing sector revenues grew by 6.5% in the first quarter over the same period past year, audiobooks sales grew by 24.8%, and ebooks increased by 5.1%. Meanwhile, across the Pond, book sales soared to £23m last week in the UK, 8.4% up on the same week last year.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 this week is "Incident At A Polling Place, After The Supreme Court Ruling Against The Voting Rights Act" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup this week, Declan Burke interviews author Chris Pavone on how a cookbook editor wound up writing crime thrillers; Mav Skye takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview Challenge" about her new suspense novella.

Word Crimes

 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Christian Bale is in talks to portray the iconic private eye Travis McGhee in the film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's novel The Deep Blue Good-By. Leonardo DiCaprio is producing, and Dennis Lehane wrote the most recent draft of the script.

MGM is developing Terry Hayes’ international bestselling spy thriller I Am Pilgrim, with Hayes adapting his novel for the big screen. Hayes is also an award-winning screenwriter with credits such as Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Dead Calm. The plot centers on a man who once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence but is called back from retirement and gets caught in a race-against-time to save America from destruction. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

George Clooney and his production company partner Grant Heslov tapped Debora Cahn to write the screenplay for their upcoming drama Coronado High, based on the real-life case of a hippie teacher and swimming coach in 1969 Cornado, California, who enlisted his students in a plan to smuggle pot from Mexico.

The New York Film Festival chose David Fincher‘s adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl to open the fest, and also just added the Paul Thomas Anderson adaptation of Inherent Vice to be the festival’s centerpiece film.

A new trailer for the adaptation of Gone Girl shows Ben Affleck as Nick being questioned about the disappearance of his wife, whom he's suspected of murdering.

The first official trailer was released for the movie Kite, starring Samuel L. Jackson as a jaded cop looking out for his dead partner's daughter who has morphed into a deadly assassin.

TELEVISION

UK-based Red Union Films and Pinewood Pictures announced plans to co-produce eight-part crime thriller The Killing Pool, set in Liverpool. The project is based on the novel by Kevin Sampson featuring drug surveillance specialist DCI Billy McCartney.

The spinoff show NCIS: New Orleans has added a new series regular, played by Rob Kerkovich (Chasing Life) and has plans to send NCIS stars Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette and David McCallum to the Big Easy for a crossover.

Amanda Setton (formerly of The Crazy Ones) is joining the cast of Hawaii Five-0 for its fifth season, playing medical examiner Dr. Mindy Shaw, who will be Max's (Masi Oka) new trainee.

TNT announced they were renewing Major Crimes for another season, along with The Last Ship, based on the novel of the same name by William Brinkley, and the sci-fi thriller Falling Skies.

Showtime released a trailer for season 4 of Homeland starring Claire Danes, which will premiere Sunday, Octobter 5.

The online media distributor Crackle released a trailer for its new legal thriller Sequestered, starring Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as a juror forced to choose between her beliefs and the safety of her family. Also is in the case is Jesse Bradford (Bring It On), playing an attorney who discovers a political conspiracy. Six episodes will premiere on August 5, followed by another six episodes in October.

Finally, fans of the private series The Rockford Files from the 1970s were sad to hear about the death of series star James Garner at the age of 86. The Hollywood Reporter has An Appreciation look back.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Daniel Silva appeared on the Today Show and CBS This Morning to talk about his latest book, The Heist.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson welcomed Marcia Clark, author of Killer Ambition.

Karin Slaughter is on tour for her latest book Cop Town and joined ExpressUK for a look at her new cast of characters.

WYNC in New York featured The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik talking about seedy, wacky face of Sunshine State crime fiction.

THEATER

New York's Second Stage Theatre will present the U.S. premiere of the musical based on the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, later made into a film with Christian Bale. The original theatrical production debuted in London last year starring Dr. Who's Matt Smith, althoughn no casting has been announced for the Off-Broadway performances.

Little Free Libraries

I love the recent trend of "little free libraries" that are popping up around the globe. Although I still believe in traditional libraries due to the greater depth of their offerings and resources, these micro-libraries are a great idea for areas that aren't served by traditional institutions because of their remoteness, natural disasters, or budget cuts.

What is a "little free library"? Although the idea probaby isn't new, the nonprofit group that started actively promoting them was formed in 2009 by Todd Bol and Rick Brooks in Wisconsin in an effort to promote literacy. Some are as small as a mailbox, some as "large" as a phone booth, but they all share the "take a book, return a book" philosophy. You can buy a box directly from the Little Free Library website, download plans to make one, or create one yourself.

Their original goal was 2,150 little libraries, but as of January of this year, there were over 15,000 in all 50 states and 40 countries. For a small fee, Little Free Library owners can put their library in a database so that others can find them, and the website even maintains a map.

They're not completely without controversy, though, as some such efforts, including one set up by a 9-year-old boy, have run into local opposition due to concerns about ordinance violations and — yes, unfortunately — NIMBYism.

Mystery Melange

Tomorrow night, the Eight Cousins bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts, presents International Crime Night with with book talks, free books, and other giveaways. The lineup includes Featuring Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis's The Boy in the Suitcase (Denmark), Colin Cotteril's The Coroner's Lunch (Laos), Cara Black's Murder in the Marais (Paris), Timothy Hallinan's Crashed (Hollywood, CA), Peter Lovesey's The Last Detective (Bath, England), and Stuart Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast (Belfast, NI).

The Strand Magazine Critics Awards announced last week went to The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes for Best Novel; Ghostman by Roger Hobbs for Best First Novel; and the Lifetime Achievement Awards were handed out to R.L. Stine and Peter Lovesey.

The Thriller Awards were also announced at this past weekend's Thriller Fest, including:

• Best Hardcover Novel – The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper  
• Best First Novel – Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews  
• Best Paperback Original Novel – The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon  
• Best Short Story – “Footprints in the Water” by Twist Phelan  
• Best Young Adult Novel – All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill  
• Best E-Book Original Novel – The World Beneath by Rebecca Cantrell 

The upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego isn't just for films, TV and graphic novels. There are other interesting panels on writing, including "101 Ways to Kill a Man," on Friday, July 25 at 1p.m. Taking place in the discussion are thriller authors Tobias Buckell (Hurricane Fever), Alex Hughes (Marked), M. A. Lawson (Rosarito Beach), Stephen Blackmoore (Broken Souls), Gregg Hurwitz (Don't Look Back), and moderator Jeff Ayers (Long Overdue). Gregg Hurwitz will also be interviewed by Howard Chaykin on Thursday.

On July 31, the Pasadena, California Central Library will present a panel of experts discussing 20th century crime fiction set in California. The panel guests include Denise Hamilton (editor, L.A. Noir), who leads a conversation between Julie M. Rivett (Dashiell Hammett scholar and granddaughter, editor of The Hunger & Other Stories), Kim Cooper (Esotouric crime historian, author of The Kept Girl) and Tom Nolan (author of Ross Macdonald: A Biography).

Norwich was named a UNESCO City of Literature, and now the city is holding its first-ever Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, with plans to celebrate noir and crime writing over five days of events, film screenings and writing workshops. The event features authors John Curran, Tom Benn, Eva Dolan, Oliver Harris, Sophie Hannah, Val McDermid, Simon Brett, John Harvey, and Megan Abbott and is scheduled for September 10-14. (Hat tip to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine.)

The summer issue of Mystery Scene Magazine features a look at Ben Winters and the final book in his highly praised Last Policeman triology featuring detective Hank Palace and his lone crusade to bring order to the apocalypse; a look at the historical mystery writer Lillian de la Torre; Sarah Weinman's profile of mystery author Dorothy Salisbury Davis, popular during the '60s and '70s; Ed Gorman's interview with Katherine Hall Page; a Lynn Kaczmarek profile of Maine author Paul Doiron, and much more.

Deborah Halber stopped by the Omnivoracious blog to discuss her new nonfiction book The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases. The book profiles the network of self-made detectives who work to solve mysteries of unidentified human remains and the various modern tools they use in their quest.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Alphabet of Murder" by Nancy Scott, and the featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "The Angry Guns" by Jason Duke.

Another sad farewell this week, to Canadian mystery author Lou Allin, who lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. Allin wrote the Belle Palmer series, featuring a realtor and her German shepherd, and another series with RCMP Corporal Holly Martin. Janet Rudoloph at Mystery Fanfare has a remembrance.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Brad Taylor, chatting with the Minneapolis StarTribune about how he draws on his own special operations experience in the Mideast for his Pike Logan novels; Michael Connelly spoke with The Huffington Post about his series with Harry Bosch ad Mickey Haller; and Chris Culver, author of the Ash Rashid series of mysteries, spoke with the Crime Thriller Girl.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

British actor Jack O'Connell plays the lead in Starred Up, the prison drama that's already a hit on the film festival circuit and will be available in the U.S. in a limited release starting in New York City on August 29. O'Connell also stars in the upcoming World War II film from Angelina Jolie titled Unbroken.

Mission: Impossible 5 has hired its new female lead, Rebecca Ferguson, who starred in the BBC series The White Queen. The producers have also signed Alec Baldwin for the cast, playing the head of the CIA.

Warner Brothers picked up U.S. and Canadian rights for The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the period noir story of a private eye who investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in '70s L.A. and uncovers a conspiracy.

Gary Oldman is joining the cast of Criminal, starring Kevin Costner as a prison inmate who is implanted with memories, secrets and skills of a dead CIA agent and then hired by the Agency to help stop a villain's evil plot. Oldman would play the CIA chief in charge of the project.

Penelope Cruz is in final negotiations to join Sacha Baron Cohen in the spy comedy Grimsby.

The first image was released of Sir Ian McKellen portraying an older Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming film A Slight Trick of the Mind, scheduled for 2015. The film is adapted from Mitch Cullin's book about a 93-year-old Holmes who is haunted by an unsolved case from 50 years ago. Meanwhile, it was announced that Hiroyuki Sanada (of 47 Ronin and The Wolverine) is joining the cast.

A trailer was released for Atom Egoyan's kidnapping thriller The Captive, starring Ryan Rehnolds, Rosario Dawson, Scott Speedman and Mireille Enos.

TELEVISION

The Emmy Award nominations were announced last Thursday, with crime-themed program well represented, including Breaking Bad and True Detective for Best Drama Series and Orange is the New Black for Best Comedy Series. In the miniseries category, the contenders include Fargo, Luther, Bonnie and Clyde. Sherlock: His Last Vow was also nominated in the Television Movie category. Best Acting nominations (leading and supporting) went to Bryan Cranston, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Clare Danes, Aaron Paul, Mandy Patinkin, and Anna Gunn in the series categories. Sherlock's Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch were nominated for Best Miniseries/Movie acting. For all the Emmy nominees, check out the official website. Idris Elba, Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Uzo Aduba and Laverne Cox from Orange Is The New Black were among a record eleven African-American actors with Emmy nominations.

As Ominimystery News reminds us, Agatha Christie's Poirot concludes its run this summer, with the final five episodes starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot airing on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! and Acorn TV, beginning July 28.

Colin Farrell and Taylor Kitsch are in talks for the second season of True Detective. Show creator Nic Pizzolatto has said there will be four leads, so that would mean two down, two to go.

Gillian Flynn's debut 2006 novel Sharp Objects is being developed as a one-hour drama series by eOne Television, with Flynn serving as executive producer. The story follows a reporter recently released from a psych hospital given an assignment to cover the murders of two preteen girls in the same small hometown where her estranged family lives.

AMC released more information about the plot and actors, as well as two new photos, for their Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, starring Bob Odenkirk as the shady attorney Saul Goodman, six years before he met the teacher-turned-meth-cook Walter White.

Gina Gershon has landed a guest-starring role on Elementary playing a socialite whom Joan (Lucy Liu) suspects of running a notorious drug cartel. The show's producers also announced that British actress Ophelia Lovibond will join the series in a recurring role, playing Kitty Winter, Detective Sherlock Holmes’ new apprentice in New York, who immediately becomes rivals with her predecessor, Joan Watson.

TNT's Major Crimes is adding Canadian actor Ryan Kennedy (Caprica, Hellcats) to the cast to play Ricky Raydor, the son of Mary McDonnell's Capt. Sharon Raydor.

BBC America is developing the mystery series Tatau, a drama from the producers of Being Human. Set in the Pacific's Cook Islands, the plot centers on two globetrotting friends, Kyle Connor and Pete "Budgie" Griffiths, who stumble on a mysterious chain reaction of events after Kyle gets a tattoo that elicits a strange reaction from the local people. When Kyle finds a girl who's been murdered, but the body disappears Kyle begins to believe that he instead has seen into the future and he and Budgie race to prevent the girl's death. (Hat tip to Omnimystery Ne
ws.)

BBC America also annouced it was renewing the mystery series Orphan Black for a third season and the police drama Broadchurch for a second season.

HBO announced that the fifth and final season of the Prohibition Era Boardwalk Empire will premiere in early September.

Fox announced its fall premiere dates including Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, Bones, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the ten-part mystery "event series" Gracepoint.

Investigation Discovery announced they are adapting Vanity Fair magazine’s crime stories to the small screen in a new series called Vanity Fair Confidential.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

CBS' Face the Nation featured crime writers Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter, and David Ignatius discussing which thrillers are on their reading list this summer. (Hat tip to Crime Watch.)

The latest installment in NPR's summer "Crime in the City" series features Crime writer Ann Cleeves, who sets her mysteries in Shetland.

NPR also had a feature on the tenth anniversary of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.

This week's Crime and Science Radio program featured a conversation with Deborah Halber about amateur sleuths who are helping to solve cold cases.

THEATER

The Milwaukee-based Peninsula Players' next production is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, which runs through July 27.

St. Louis, Missouri's New Line Theatre announced its 24th season of alternative musical theatre, including the St. Louis premiere of the new musical Bonnie & Clyde.

GAMES

The producers of the Battlefield series are taking it in a new direction with Battlefield Hardline. The team at Visceral Games is collaborating with Bill Johnson (Justified), Kelly Hu (Arrow), Eugene Byrd (Bones), and Benito Martinez (House of Cards) to "fuse the interactive medium of video games with the creative presentation of TV crime dramas to deliver a wholly new and unique experience to gamers…about the war on crime in the gritty and glamorous streets of LA and Miami."

EVENTS

Comic-Con 2014 (July 24-27 in San Diego) released its full program schedule, which includes stars and creative forces behind several crime dramas and films. Some of the TV shows represented include Bones, Bates Motel, Sleepy Hollow, Orphan Black, 24, Grimm, and The Blacklist. Films represented include Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Hitman: Agent 47.

Mystery Melange

If you're in the UK on July 17,  pop on over to Heffer’s Cambridge for the "What's Your Poison Summer Crime party." In addition to fifteen crime fiction authors on hand, the public is urged to join in the fun for "Pimms, strawberries and poisonous quizzes."

The latest installment in NPR's summer "Crime in the City" series features crime writer Ann Cleeves, who sets her mysteries in Shetland. For previous broadcasts, check out the NPR website for the series.

The Independent took a look a recent crime fiction debuts, "the best noir newcomers from Mississippi to Scandinavia."

Simon & Schuster and the late author Vince Flynn’s estate have commissioned thriller writer Kyle Mills to complete Flynn’s unfinished novel, The Survivor, and to write two more books in his series featuring terrorist-fighting Mitch Rapp.

If you're a fan of graphic novels, Marvel Comics' Icon imprint is planning a gritty crime fiction limited series titled Men of Wrath. Written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Ron Garney, the tale features an undaunted professional killer.

Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid told The Telegraph she "wouldn't have a career" if she started writing today, because the industry demands instant results and no longer allows for slow-burning careers. Although McDermid has sold 10 million copies and her series about psychological profiler Dr. Tony Hill was turned into the ITV drama Wire In The Blood, she wasn't able to give up her day job for several years after her first novel was published.

The Big Click ezine is publishing its July issue in stages: first up is short fiction by Cameron Pierce ("Drop the World"). The story "How to Know You’re a Killer" by Stephen Graham Jones that will be available a little later this month, as well as more essays and reviews.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Lew Archer Writes a Poem" by Tom Brzezina, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "An Open Door" by Chris F. Holm.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Howard Linskey, taking the "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge by Paul D. Brazill; Scottish author Douglas Lindsay chats with Crime Fiction Lover about his Barney Thomson series and his new standalone mystery, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!; and Jeff Abbott joins The Mystery People to talk about his the latest book in his Sam Capra series, Inside Man.

Carl Zimmer of the New York Times wrote about new research on the neuroscience of creative writing. The scientists found that a broad network of regions in the brain work together as people create stories, but the inner workings of professionally trained writers have similarities to people skilled at other complex actions, like music or sports.

Finally, a sad farewell to Frank M. Robinson who recently died at the age of 87. He was a mystery and sci-fi author and also a pulp magazine scholar, with such books as Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines.

Locked Room Mysteries

 

PJ Bergman runs the impossible crime website TheLockedRoom.com and is currently writing his debut novel of the same name. In the book, disgraced military detective Kenneth Rhys investigates a series of locked room mysteries and impossible crimes as he attempts to repay a debt to his volatile friend Mitchell. He stopped by In Reference to Murder to talk about "locked room" crime fiction and what inspired him to take on this project:

 

What is a locked room mystery?

Locked room mysteries and impossible crime stories are a subset of detective fiction. The plots commonly involve an event or crime that seems to have occurred outside of what is physically possible. The locked room conundrum - a body is found alone inside a locked room with no possible escape route for their attacker - is generally the most popular of these and the various solutions provide some of the greatest examples of the genre.

Why choose this genre?

Locked room mysteries have always held a certain appeal. Generally the stories focus on the how of the crime rather than the who or the why, which creates a unique dynamic between the author and the reader. The reader is presented with the same facts as the detective in the story, and is challenged to work out how the crime was committed before the author reveals all.

Being baffled by an impossible crime, only to find an elegant but ingenious solution, makes for a hugely rewarding read. I’ve found that this challenge/reveal mechanic works most effectively in short stories so decided to structure my novel as episodic mysteries, each featuring its own impossible crime.

How did you research the project?

The impossible crime genre, though relatively niche now, was extremely popular in the early 1900s. Before I started writing I read as many of these examples as I could, working my way through the stories of John Dickson Carr, Jacques Futrelle, Arthur Conan Doyle and many others. More recent examples include television shows like BBC’s Jonathan Creek and Death In Paradise, or the U.S. show Monk. These were really good points of reference for modernising the concepts that were created over a hundred years prior. Detective stories before the advent of DNA and forensics often allowed a lot more flexibility for the author.

Part of the reason I launched TheLockedRoom.com was to force myself to read more frequently -  a steady stream of content and reviews requires a lot more research. Through the site I’ve come across fans of the genre, many of whom have their own suggestions or recommended reading. It’s been fantastic to engage with the community who share a passion for ingenious and unpredictable stories.

Once a few of my stories were complete (the first three impossible crimes are available for free online) I reached out to the contacts I had accrued for feedback and suggestions. This was also a really helpful process that informed a number of fundamental changes to the book.

I’d definitely encourage aspiring writers to start a site or blog about their topic of choice. Interacting with like-minded people and examining similar works has helped me to refine my own. The Locked Room is now well underway, and I’m hoping to have it finished towards the end of 2014.

 

Bio:

PJ was born in Boston (the town in Lincolnshire, UK, not the USA version) and moved to Dublin, Ireland in 2011 to work for Google. He is currently writing the upcoming novel The Locked Room and launched the website of the same name to share progress, talk about the genre, and generally avoid actually writing the book.

The first three stories from The Locked Room are available online for free. TheLockedRoom site also host a huge library of articles, reviews, and short stories from some of the genre’s most acclaimed authors.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson are heading "out West" for the revenge action thriller By Way Of Helena. Directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith from a script by Matt Cook, the film follows 1880s Texas Ranger (Hemsworth) sent to an isolated frontier town to investigate a series of mysterious murders and squaring off against a local villanous preacher (Harrelson).

The Johnny Depp drama Black Mass has been given an official release date of September 18th, 2015. The movie is based on the non-fiction book Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, The FBI And A Devil's Deal by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill.

A trailer was released for Before I Go to Sleep, based on the novel by S.J. Watson. The film stars Nicole Kidman as a woman who suffers a brutal attack and develops a form of amnesia that makes her wake up each day stripped of her memories. During each daytime, she must try to piece together who tried to kill her, even as her husband (Colin Firth) seems to be keeping secrets about her past. The cast also include Mark Strong playing a doctor trying to help her sort through her memories in in hopes of discovering those secrets.

A new trailer was also released for the upcoming noir sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, starring Jessica Alba (with a cameo by Bruce Willis in the clip). Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller, the film brings back many stars from the first Sin City film as well as new cast members, including Mickey Rourke, Josh Brolin, Rosario Dawson, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Jaime King, Stacy Keach, Eva Green, Ray Liotta, and Lady Gaga.

TELEVISION

CBS has given a straight-to-series order for 13 episodes of Zoo, an adaptation of James Patterson's bestselling novel. Scheduled to air next summer, the plot of what CBS calls this "blockbuster summer event" centers on escalating animal attacks on humans around the globe and how a young biologist tries to warn world leaders before it's too late.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Martin Freeman said that there will be a Sherlock Christmas special in 2015, which is great news (the BBC officially confirmed it later). The bad news is that Series 4 won't appear likely until 2016. Both Freeman and his co-star Benedict Cumberbatch are extremely busy right now. Both actors will be appearing in Shakespeare productions soon, Freeman in Richard III at London's Trafalgar Studios next month, and Cumberbatch as Richard III in a BBC production to be broadcast next year.

Omnimystery News reported that Marek Krajewski's series of crime novels set in 1930s Breslau (when the current Polish city now known as Wroclaw and part of Germany) is being adapted for television by Warsaw-based ATM Grupa.

Amazon added the hour-long dramatic thriller Hysteria to its third pilot season. From Shaun Cassidy, and starring Mena Suvari, James McDaniel, Josh Stewart, Adan Canto, Laura San Giacomo, and T.R. Knight, the show is set in Austin, Texas, where members of a girls’ competitive dance team are stricken with a strange, psycho-physiological illness that manifests in violent fits and spasms. When neurologist Logan Harlen (Suvari) is called back to her hometown to investigate the cause, she has to fight her own demons and the growing manipulation of a brother on death row.

The Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, starring  Bob Odenkirk, is using a "roaming timeline" that will allow characters from the original series to return for cameos, possibly even opening the door for a Bryan Cranston appearance.

Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica, Law & Order: UK) will join Rizzoli & Isles for a multi-episode arc, playing Paul Wescourt, a prosecutor accused of killing his mistress.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is joining the cast of Criminal Minds as a series regular for the 10th season, taking on the role of seasoned undercover agent Katie Callahan.

James Callis (of Battlestar Gallactica fame) has been added to the cast of the El Rey Network's Matador, the series from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Sleepy Hollow) about a CIA agent (Gabriel Luna) who goes undercover as a soccer star on a team owned by a corrupt billionaire (Alfred Molina). Callis will play a mysterious man with influence over a global fraternity of elite businessmen and politicians.

Despite giving the drama Heiroglyph a straight-to-series order last year, Fox has decided not to broadcast the mid-season replacement program. The action-adventure drama is set in Egypt, and starred Max Brown as a notorious thief pulled out of prison to serve the Pharoah (Reece Ritchie).  

The last season of the The Killing starts in August, but fans can bide their time with the help of this new trailer.

VIDEOS/PODCASTS/RADIO

A featured guest on NPR's Morning Edition was Peter Temple, author of White Dog: The Fourth Jack Irish Thriller. The interview was part of NPR's summer "Crime in the City" series.

THEATER

The Hollywood Reporter took a look at the upcoming 2014-2015 Broadway schedule, which includes the dark comedy The Killer, written by Eugene Ionesco, directed by Dark Tresnjak, and starring Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon as a man attempting to track down a serial killer.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books, Fourth of July Edition

Want a little Fourth of July murder mystery to go with that hot dog and watermelon? You can't go wrong with the likes Bill Crider, whose protagonist Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to face personal fireworks around the Fourth Holiday when accused of corruption in the novel Red, White, and Blue Murder. But when the charred body of the county commissioner is found among the ashes of his torched fishing cabin, Rhodes suspects July's fireworks are only getting started.

If you overdose on too much sugary ice cream and pie, you might clear the palate with the noir crime fiction novel King Suckerman by George Pelecanos, which delves into the drug scene in D.C. during the Bicentennial celebration. (Booklist said "this wildly violent crime novel effectively evokes the comic-book heroics of the Superfly era while at the same time sucker punching us with the humanity at its core.")

If cozies are more your thing, Carolyn Hart's Yankee Doodle Dead may be the ticket, as mystery-bookstore owner Annie Darling tries to solve the murder of a retired Brigadier General at the annual Fourth of July festival in the South Carolina resort town Broward's Rock.

Former army nurse Sharon Wildwind's debut mystery novel Some Welcome Home features former Vietnam nurse Captain Elizabeth "Pepper" Pepperhawk who return from her tour in Vietnam to serve as head nurse at an army hospital in Fort Bragg around the Fourth. Before she can report for duty, though, the dead body of a soldier appears in her hotel bed.

And for an oldie but goodie, check out the "Fourth of July Picnic," one of four novellas by Rex Stout featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, bundled into the volume And Four to Go, wherein a murder occurs during a restaurant workers union picnic where Wolfe has agreed to speak.

But wait…there's more! You can find additional titles for the Fourth and summer in general via the following list from Mystery Fanfare.

Author R&R with Glenn Cooper

Glenn Cooper takes some "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) on In Reference to Murder today. Glenn has a degree in archaeology from Harvard and practiced medicine as an infectious diseases specialist. He was the CEO of a biotechnology company for almost twenty years, has written numerous screenplays and has produced three independent feature films. His novels have sold six million copies in thirty-one languages. 

Glenn uses his archaeology background in his latest thriller, The Tenth Chamber. It's set in Abbey of Ruac, rural France where a medieval script is discovered hidden behind an antique bookcase. Badly damaged, it is sent to Paris for restoration, and there literary historian Hugo Pineau begins to read the startling fourteenth-century text. Within its pages lies a fanciful tale of a painted cave and the secrets it contains – and a rudimentary map showing its position close to the abbey. Intrigued, Hugo enlists the help of archaeologist Luc Simard and the two men go exploring.

When they discover a vast network of prehistoric caves, buried deep within the cliffs, they realize that they’ve stumbled across something extraordinary. And at the very core of the labyrinth lies the most astonishing chamber of all, just as the manuscript chronicled. Aware of the significance of their discovery, they set up camp with a team of experts, determined to bring their find to the world. But as they begin to unlock the ancient secrets the cavern holds, they find themselves at the center of a dangerous game. One "accidental" death leads to another. And it seems that someone will stop at nothing to protect the enigma of the tenth chamber.

Glenn talked about the inspiration for the book in this "Behind the Scenes" look:

This painting which hangs over my desk was the inspiration for The Tenth Chamber.

It’s called Lascaux – The Bison Hunter, by the American artist, Thomas Baker, and it’s a faithful adaptation of one of the frescoes from Lascaux cave in France. It’s dated to 18,000 BP and is located in one of the most remote chambers in Lascaux. One of the things that makes it very special is that it’s the only human figure in the entire cave. It shows a strange priapic birdman killing a bison with a spear. Is it a faithful rendition of a warrior in a mask? Or does it represent a spiritual or magical conception? We will surely never know.

But I knew this. Ever since I first began to seriously study archaeology at university I was fascinated with Lascaux and the painted caves of France and Europe. While the birdman is primitive, the bison, horses, deer, and antelope are major works of naturalist art which place the prehistoric painters in the same league as the great masters of the Renaissance. I also knew that I wanted to write a book which had an archaeologist protagonist, not a cartoon archaeologist like Indiana Jones, but a real man, an amalgam of many of the notable archaeologists I’ve known and worked with over the years.

So I had the idea. What if a handsome, young French archaeologist named Luc Simard discovered a new cave in the Perigord, even more spectacular than Lascaux, one that’s been guarded by the residents of the nearby village for hundreds of years? And what if that cave hid a secret so dangerous that everyone involved with the discovery was in mortal danger? And what if the secret of the Tenth Chamber was so devastating that the entire world might be threatened by its revelation?

The book shuttles between the present, medieval France and the Upper Paleolithic period, some 30,000 years ago, to construct a highly researched and fast-paced thriller.

Early on in the book, the fire brigade is called out to an electrical fire at an ancient church in the fictional village of Ruac in the Black Périgord region of France. The books in the small library, including one long-lost medieval manuscript discovered behind a smoldering bookcase, sustain smoke and water damage. The local bishop has the damaged books sent to Paris for cleaning and restoration and there, an expert in medieval manuscripts, Hugo Pineau, picks up the enigmatic damaged manuscript and begins to read the startling 14th century text: “I, Berthomieu, friar of Abbey Ruac, am two-hundred-thirty years old.”

Pineau discovers the manuscript to be a fanciful tale of a painted cave and the secrets it contains. There is mention of potions and infusions and their remarkable effect on body and spirit. Included, is a rudimentary map showing the position of a cave along the Vézère River. The Black Périgord is a region swimming in Paleolithic cave art and home to the famous Lascaux Cave, and Hugo is intrigued enough to enlist the interest of a school chum and archaeologist, Luc Simard, son of an American mother and French father, comfortable in many cultures.

The two of them go exploring and find a long-buried cave mouth in the wooded cliffs above the river. Inside is a wonder, a unique treasure-trove of wildly-vivid cave art – bison, bulls, Chinese horses, stags and evocative human forms together with beautifully-rendered flowers and bushes. Luc immediately recognizes the significance of the find from Chatelperronian stone artifacts on the cave floor: this is 20,000 years earlier than Lascaux, perhaps the earliest example of cave art ever discovered, yet, far from primitive, it exceeds the younger sites in artistic grandeur. Also, the rich depiction of flora in the deepest Tenth Chamber is highly unusual. When they must leave, they cover the cave mouth and climb down to the valley but Luc has a strong sense they are being watched as they descend and stop for a meal in the unfriendly village.

Luc adds one more member to the team, an American paleobotanist, Sara Graham,  a visiting professor at the University of Paris, and uncomfortably, an ex-girlfriend. The three of them begin a dangerous journey of discovery where little-by-little they unlock the incredible secrets of Ruac Cave and the Tenth Chamber. The story flashes back and forth through time: to thirty-five thousand years ago to the prehistoric where the DaVinci and Einstein of his time makes a discovery and invents an art form; to the 12th century where a rebellious and brilliant young monk finds a cave above the Abbey Ruac and re-discovers its ancient mysteries; to the 14th century where the knowledge of the cave proves deadly to the local monks; to the present where these secrets, re-discovered yet again, point to an untapped potential locked within the mind and body of modern man. Luc, Sara, and Hugo find themselves at the center of a dangerous game as people within their inner circles are killed one by one. Someone wants them dead and someone wants to desperately protect the secrets of the Tenth Chamber.

Happily, writing the book required a long research trip to the Dordogne region of France. There, I reacquainted myself with the painted caves of the region and toured some for the first time. Unfortunately, access is no longer permitted to Lascaux which has been sealed to protect the cave from environmental mold contamination. However, a replica cave, Lascaux II, is a grand substitute and many original caves can still be toured in the Vézère valley-- Rouffignac cavern, Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, Abri de Cap Blanc, Grotte de Villars, and others. I also wanted to depict the people and villages of modern-day Périgord and while none are so sinister as my fictional village of Ruac, I needed to soak up the culture via food, drink, and conversation (yes, the really tough part of being a novelist).

Back home, there was quite a lot of research to do to write the parts of the book based in medieval France. I chose to anchor this section in the 12th century and populate it with the historical figures of the great cleric, Bernard of Clairvaux and the star-crossed lovers, Abelard and Heloise, whose deeply romantic love letters are still as fresh and powerful today as they were hundreds of years ago. Finally, I brushed up on my Paleolithic archaeology, particularly the transition period between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, and I read extensively on ethnobotany, pharmacology, and herbal medicines.

Most of my books have a kernel of fantasy or mysticism but The Tenth Chamber is  100% rooted in the hard science and fact. It’s not that everything in the book is true, but all of it could be true. The archaeologist and physician parts of me are proud of the book’s bones and the novelist part of me thinks it’s a damned good read.

Tell me what you think.

 

You can read more about the book and the author via his website, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. The Tenth Chamber is on sale now in bookstores and online.

Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers Association announced the winners for five Dagger Awards categories: Historical Dagger: The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson; International: The Siege, by Arturo Perez-Reverte, translated by Frank Wynne; Non-fiction: The Seige, by Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark; Short Story: "Fedora," by John Harvey (from Deadly Pleasures, edited by Martin Edwards; and the Debut Dagger: The Movement, by Jody Sabral. Simon Brett also received 2014 the Diamond Dagger, which celebrates an author with an outstanding body of work in crime fiction. For the complete list of nominees, check out the Rap Sheet – and congratulations to them all.

The shortlist for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2014 was announced last week: The Red Road by Denise Mina; The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay; The Chessmen by Peter May; Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer; Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths; and Eleven Days by Stav Sherez.

The Wolfe Pack announced the 2014 finalists for the Nero award, presented each year to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre. The award is presented at the Black Orchid Banque on Saturday, December 6, 2014. The finalists include: Ask Not, Max Allan Collins; Three Can Keep a Secret, Archer Mayor; Murder as a Fine Art, Charles Morrell; A Study in Revenge, Kieran Shields; and A Question of Honor, Charles Todd. Previous winners have included Lee Child, Walter Mosley, and Linda Fairstein.

PulpFest 2014 announced the list of eight nominees for the Munsey Award, presented to a deserving individual who has given of himself or herself for the betterment of the pulp fiction community. The conference organizers also nominated J. Barry Traylor for the Rusty Hevelin Service Award, designed to recognize individuals within the pulp community who work long and hard "with little thought for individual recognition." Winners will be presented on Saturday, August 9, during the PulpFest conference in Columbus, Ohio.

The next Noir at the Bar event in the U.S. of A will take place in Austin, Texas, Monday, July 7th at Opal Divine’s. Authors on hand will include Dan O’Shea talking his latest novel Greed, featuring detective John Lync; Tim O’Mara, whose ex-cop turned teacher Raymond Donne appears in his new ovel Crooked Numbers; and Jonathan Woods, author of the story collections Bad JuJu and Phone Call From Hell.

Akashic Books announced the latest in its "city noir" series will be Prison Noir, stories of prison literature edited by Joyce Carol Oates.  As the publisher notes, "Some prisoners are encouraged to write, but few are encouraged to write crime fiction set behind bars—in some institutions, doing so is even prohibited. With Prison Noir, Joyce Carol Oates has done an outstanding job of curating a top-notch collection of stories that evokes an absolutely new perspective on prison literature."

The Guardian took at look at why women are such fans of crime fiction in the piece, "Women's appetite for explicit crime fiction is no mystery." One of the reasons, according to article author Melanie McGrath, is due to the fact in part "because we understand what living with fear feels like so much better than men."

Mike Ripley's latest "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine shows the Ripster is living the high life across the Pond, attending a "More Bloody Foreigners" panel led by Jake Kerridge at the London Review Bookshop, and a champagne reception for Lisa Jackson in honor of her new novel Deserves to Die. Coming up later this month, the "What’s Your Poison?" summer Crime Party at Heffers Bookshop in Cambridge. The column also has the usual books news and reviews.

Hey Dead Guy's Jessy Randall continues with the "Reference Book Grudge Match." In the third installment, she compares Sleuths, Sidekicks and Stooges: An Annotated Bibliography of Detectives, Their Assistants and Their Rivals in Crime, Mystery and Adventure Fiction, with Google searches.

Crimespree Magazine posted a guide to Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, U.K., coming up July 17-20. As the article noted, "The atmosphere at Harrogate is quite special, with authors mingling between panels and more fascinating conversations than you can shake a stick at."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Left Hook Tony" by Catfish McDaris.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Alison Gaylin chatting with The Mystery People and Omnimystery News about her series featuring Brenna Spector, a missing persons investigator; Meg Gardiner also joined TMP for a discussion of her latest, Phantom Instinct.

The ‘Zine Scene

The latest Thuglit, edited by Todd Robinson a/k/a "Big Daddy Thug," features original stories by Leon Marks, Rob Hart, Justin Porter, Mike Miner, Edward Hagelstein, Kevin Garvey, T. Maxim Simmler, and J.J. Sinisi.

Pulp Literature's summer issue is out, including Joan MacLeod’s "The Salt Tour," a story from the golden age of European backpacking, and "The Poison Pen Affair," where Mel Anastasiou’s intrepid amateur sleuth Stella Ryman defies the constraints of her care home. Plus, there are stories from Bob Thurber, Susan Pieters, Conor Power-Smith, Deborah Walker, and Fred Zackel, as well as a graphic novel adaptation of Sylvia Stopforth’s "Dragon Rock" and some original poems.

Kevin Burton Smith added new essays to his Thrilling Detective website, in a tribute he calls "Those '70s Show: The Decade the Private Eye Film Came of Age." The contributions include Fred Zacke, who looks back at the 1974 film Chinatown; Thomas Pluck, who takes on Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye; Ben Solomon and his impressions of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation; and Daniel Moses Luft with a look at Night Moves.

The new issue of Pulp Modern explores the lives of thieves and liars in new fiction from Tom Barlow, Patrick Chambers, C.J. Edwards, Richard Godwin, Edward A. Grainger. Ken Miller, Ross Peterson, Chris Rhatigan, Mike Sheedy, Gerald So, and Robb White.

Crime Review's newest edition has sixteen book reviews and a Q&A with author Julia Crouch.

Although it looked as though Grift Magazine had folded, editor John Kenyon announced that the 'zine is back with plans for a  third print issue with a theme focused on music. Submissions will be open during July, with a planned October publication date.

Plus, a big HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY to Crimespree Magazine! Hop on over to the website for a chance to win a subscription, books, and other great prizes.