Mystery Melange

Left Coast Crime 2015 announced the nominees in four categories that will be handed out at the 25th annual LCC convention in Portland in mid-March, including The Lefty for best humorous mystery novel, a tradition since 1996. Others this year include the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, The Rose, for the best mystery novel set in the LCC region, and The Rosebud, for the best first mystery novel set anywhere in the world.

If you're in London on February 5, you'll have an opportunity to attend The Guardian Book Club event featuring Booker winning novelist John Banville discussing Raymond Chandler’s iconic private detective, Philip Marlowe.

The latest Mystery Writers of America University heads to Boston on Valentine's Day, only this event is the first ever "2.0 Version," a new format designed for people who've already completed the original MWAU program or anyone wanting a bigger challenge. Jess Lourey will teach a class on the special problems of writing genre fiction; Louis Bayard has tips on handling backstory and multiple timelines; Julie Hyzy bring ideas for creating unforgettable supporting characters; and Allison Gaylin has the secret to creating suspense. In the afternoon, editors, agents, and authors will lead small-group critiques. For more information, check out the MWA website. Registration is limited to the first 100 people who register.  

More sad news to report, with the passing of the prolific Scottish mystery writer Gerald Hammond. Paul Bishop has a remembrance of the author best known for his two mystery series characters: Gunsmith Keith Calder, and Three Oaks dog kennel owner John Cunningham.

The folks behind the Killer Nashville conference are set to launch a new monthly international online magazine in February, which is described as a "magazine by writers as a voice for writers."

Publishers Weekly reported on "The Hottest (and Coldest) Book Categories of 2014," taken from a survey of print books at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. Although Mystery/Detective and Suspense/Thrillers had small decreases (4%, 9%), they were still among the top bestselling categories in adult print fiction.

Criminal Elements makes note of the early 20th-century actor who saved Sherlock Holmes, and no, it's not Basil Rathbone.

The new edition of Crime Review this week includes 16 reviews and Simon Kernick in the Countdown interview hot seat.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Great Steak Heist at Trenton High" by Nancy Scott.

Need something to keep you warm and entertained during winter weather? Bookriot has a variety of "books and tea inspired swag that will make your heart go all soft and fuzzy."

In the Q&A roundup this week, Omnimystery News welcomes cozy mystery author Dianne Harman, procedural writer Valeria Wenderoth, and former police officer/author BJ Bourg; Lee Matthew Goldberg takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge to discuss his debut novel Slow Down, just published by New Pulp Press; Zoe Sharp and Antti Tuomainen both stopped by Crime Watch for a 9mm Interview; Lisa Gardner explained to the Huffington Post how she got started writing at such a young age; Swedish crime writer Hakan Nesser spoke bout why why he is not a political writer and why turning to the real life crime in Sweden for ideas is futile; and Craig Johnson was roped in by The Mystery People.

Media Murder for Monday

AWARDS

Congratulations to all the film and television winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards handed out last night in Los Angeles. For the complete list, check out the SAG awards website.

MOVIES

The complete version of a rare narrative film from 1919 starring fabled escape artist Harry Houdini has been rescued and restored and will soon see the light of day on Turner Classic Movies. Titled The Grim Game, Houdini plays a young man who is framed for murder, escapes from the police and goes after the gang of men who framed him.

Starz Digital Media has acquired all North American rights to Jay Martin’s crime thriller 7 Minutes, to be released this summer. Starring Luke Mitchell, Jason Ritter, Leven Rambin (The Hunger Games), Kris Kristofferson and Zane Holtz, the film follows three men forced by circumstance to commit a brazen robbery. But as each minute of the event unfolds, their simple plan goes awry and becomes a dangerous game of life and death.

The distributor Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to the South Korean thriller A Hard Day. According to Deadline, the film centers on homicide detective Geon-soo Go who receives a divorce notice from his wife, his mother passes away, and he becomes the focus of a police investigation over alleged embezzlement, all within 24 hours. On his way to his mother’s funeral, he commits a fatal hit and run and then tries to cover it up by hiding the man’s corpse in his deceased mother’s coffin. But when he gets a mysterious call from a person claiming to be the sole witness of the crime, he realizes someone has been watching him all along.

A trailer was released for Michael Almereyda's film Anarchy, described as a a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The film is set in contemporary Americand and stars Milla Jovovich, Ed Harris, Dakota Johnson, Penn Badgley, Anton Yelchin, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo and Bill Pullman in a battle between dirty cops and a drug dealing biker gang.

TELEVISION

PBS announced a couple of additional new offerings for 2015, including Arthur & George, which stars Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) as world-famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The three-part adaptation of Julian Barnes’ acclaimed novel will follows the separate but intersecting lives of two very different men: a half-Indian son of a vicar who is framed for a crime he may or may not have committed, and Doyle, who investigates the case.

Fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, who've been (not so patiently) waiting for Amazon Prime's television adaptation, don't have to wait much longer. The series starring Titus Welliver as Bosch will premiere February 13 on Amazon Prime Instant Video in the USA, the UK, and Germany. (Hat tip to Crimespree.)

Harlan Coben is set to write his first original TV script, The Five, which follows a circle of friends and their shared experience of a tragic accident. It's slated to air on the British network Sky Living in late 2015.

Fox has hired Richard Shepard to direct Rosewood, a procedural written/executive produced by Todd Harthan (Psych). The show follows brilliant Dr. Beaumont Rosewood, Jr., the top private pathologist in Miami who owns one of most sophisticated, state-of-the-art independent labs in the country and finds secrets in bodies others usually miss.

Emmy Award-winning writer/showrunner René Balcer (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) is spearheading a new project titled The Council. The one-hour international thriller for the CBC woven around a murder in a remote Canadian Arctic town that turns into an international conspiracy to control the vast natural resources of the Arctic.

Showtime is developing a crime drama titled Lonely Hearts Killers, based on the true story of a 1940s sexy, violent grifter and a quiet, love starved Dairy Plant employee on a cross-country crime spree, seducing and murdering as many as 20 women.

NBC gave the go-ahead to the pilot Game Of Silence, from Carol Mendelsohn (CSI). Based on the Turkish drama Suskunlar, it's about a rising attorney on the brink of success who could lose his perfectly crafted life when long-lost childhood friends threaten to expose a dark secret from their violent past.

In more pilot news from the Peacock Network, NBC handed out a pilot order to the drama Endgame, described as a high-octane thriller set in the high stakes world of Las Vegas where a former sniper turned security expert gets drawn into a mysterious conspiracy; and also Blindspot, centering on a beautiful woman with amnesia found naked in Times Square, her body fully covered in intricate tattoos, which leads the FBI to use the road map on her body to reveal a larger criminal conspiracy.

Meanwhile, ABC's new pilot orders include Quantico, described as "Grey's Anatomy meets Homeland"; Runner, which centers on the traditionally masculine world of arms dealing through the unexpected lens of a woman; and L.A. Crime, a true-crime procedural "that explores sex, politics and popular culture across various noteworthy eras in L.A. history."

Fox greenlighted a pilot for an American remake of the popular BBC procedural Luther, which originally
starred Idris Elba, who will executive-produce the pilot.  

If it worked once, do it again – following November's three-way crossover episode between Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: SVU, the three NBC dramas will be joining forces again later this season. Chicago Fire/P.D. showrunner Matt Olmstead teased a few details: "There's a Ted Bundy-esque character who hunted in New York and hunted in Chicago, and it's the pursuit of a character like that."

Showtime Networks bought the rights to Dreamcatcher, the Sundance premiere documentary about former Chicago prostitute-turned-advocate Brenda Myers-Powell and her efforts to fight the sexual exploitation of at-risk youth.  

A trailer was released for the third season of Hannibal, with Will (Hugh Dancy) desperately tracking the whereabouts of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR reporter Martin Scholz talked with internationally best-selling author Henning Mankell (of the Wallander series) about his writing and the "catastrophe of cancer" in his battle with the disease.

Open Road Media posted a video of Rand Lee, son of Manfred Lee, talking about his famous father who was one half of the creative team behind Ellery Queen.

Mystery Melange

The Love is Murder conference announced the finalists of the Lovey Awards in various categories. Janet Rudolph posted an at-a-glance listing on Mystery Fanfare.

The application deadline for the Helen McCloy/MWA scholarship is coming up on February 28. The award is intended to nurture talent in mystery writing (fiction, nonfiction, playwriting and screenwriting) and to offset tuition and fees for writing classes, seminars and writing programs. You don't have to be a member of MWA to apply. For more information and how to apply, check out the Mystery Writers of American website.

The Guardian's Book Club will feature novelist John Banville discussing Raymond Chandler’s iconic private detective, Philip Marlowe on February 5 at London's The Tabernacle.

Peter Porco, writing for the Alaska Dispatch News, penned an essay about a then-Cpl. Dashiell Hammett during WWII and his time spent in the Aluetians working on the newspaper The Adakian for the troops. His paper "gave its readers more news of the war than military readers at other posts got and delivered it to them a lot sooner."

Author and librarian Rob Lopresti has started a new crime fiction blog he's calling "Today in Mystery History."

The multi-author blog Mystery Lovers Kitchen has added a new blogger to their roster, Leslie Budewitz, who writes the Food Lovers Village Mysteries.

Hat tip to Clare Toohey for taking note of the brand-new anthology 10-CODE, the first collection of stories written by real-life cops honoring officers killed in the line of duty. All proceeds benefit the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C.

Marilynne Robinson wrote an essay on Edgar Allan Poe for The New York Review of Books, calling "a turbulence, an anomaly among the major American writers of his period, an anomaly to this day."

James Patterson is offering up a special edition of his new novel Private Vegas: it will include a five-course dinner with the author, gold binoculars – and a very limited time to read it because it will self-destruct 24 hours after the purchaser starts reading. And all you need is to bid on this offer is $300,000.

You can grab the latest issue of All Due Respect for your Kindle. Editors Chris Rhatigan and Mike Monson have gathered new noir stories from Steve Weddle, Joe Sinisi, Paul Brazill, Gabino Iglesias, Angel Luis Colón, Garnett Elliott, and Keith Rawson.

Fans of print books will rejoice to hear a Nielsen BookScan survey found unit sales of print books in the U.S. rose 2.4 percent in 2014, an increase largely driven by retail and club sales, which were up 3.4 percent last year. The UK's Waterstones bookstore chain also reported an increase in print book sales last year.

We lost another mystery author too soon, with the death of Sharon Zukowski, who was only 60. She authored several mystery novels, including a series featuring private investigator Blaine Stewart.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 is "Up and Down at the Empire State Building" by Bruce Harris.

The Q&A roundup includes W.E.B. Griffin chatting with the Huffington Post, who has published over 40 lilitary and detective fiction novels (under that name), about his latest work The Assassination Option; British poet and mystery novelist Sophie Hannah stopped by the Huffington Post to discuss her latest book The Carrier; other HuffPo guests included Tami Hoag, talking about her new work, Cold Cold Heart, and James Grippando, chatting about his new legal thriller, Cane and Abe; Danish crime writer Jakob Melander stopped by Nordic Style Magazine with a behind-the-scenes look at his debut novel, The House That Jack Built; and Mette Ivie Harrison was snared by The Mystery People to talk about her novel The Bishop’s Wife, which is the MP January Pick of the Month.

And the Nominees Are…

Mystery Writers of America just announced the nominees for the 2015 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television. The Edgar® Awards will be presented to the winners at the 69^th Gala Banquet, April 29, 2015 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST NOVEL

• This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
• Wolf by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
• The Final Silence by Stuart Neville (Soho Press)
• Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown)
• Coptown by Karin Slaughter (Penguin Randomhouse – Ballantine Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

• Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (W.W. Norton)
• Invisible City by Julia Dahl (Minotaur Books)
• The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)
• Bad Country by C.B. McKenzie (Minotaur Books – A Thomas Dunne Book)
• Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh (Crown Publishers)
• Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver (Minotaur Books – A Thomas Dunne Book)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

• The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Albani (Penguin Randomhouse – Penguin Books)
• Stay With Me by Alison Gaylin (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
• The Barkeep by William Lashner (Amazon Publishing – Thomas and Mercer)
• The Day She Died by Catriona McPherson (Llewellyn Worldwide – Midnight Ink)
• The Gone Dead Train by Lisa Turner (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
• World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books)
  

BEST FACT CRIME

• Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America by Kevin Cook (W.W. Norton)
• The Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman (HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow)
• The Other Side: A Memoir by Lacy M. Johnson (Tin House Books)
• Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood
• by William Mann (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)
• The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation
• by Harold Schechter (Amazon Publishing – New Harvest)
  

 BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

• The Figure of the Detective: A Literary History and Analysis by Charles Brownson (McFarland & Company)
• James Ellroy: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Jim Mancall (McFarland)
• Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: Classic Film Noir by Robert Miklitsch (University of Illinois Press)
• Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and Film by Francis M. Nevins (Perfect Crime Books)
• Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe by J.W. Ocker (W.W. Norton – Countryman Press)
  

BEST SHORT STORY

• "The Snow Angel" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)
• "200 Feet" – Strand Magazine by John Floyd (The Strand)
• "What Do You Do?” – Rogues by Gillian Flynn (Penguin Randomhouse Publishing – Ballantine Books)
• "Red Eye" – Faceoff  by Dennis Lehane vs. Michael Connelly (Simon & Schuster)
• "Teddy" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Brian Tobin (Dell Magazines)

BEST JUVENILE

• Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Space Case by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Greenglass House by Kate Milford  (Clarion Books – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers)
• Nick and Tesla’s Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith  (Quirk Books)
• Saving Kabul Corner by N.H. Senzai (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books)
• Eddie Red, Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile by Marcia Wells (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

• The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano (Penguin Young Readers Group – Kathy Dawson Books)
• Fake ID by Lamar Giles (HarperCollins Children’s Books – Amistad)
• The Art of Secrets by James Klise (Algonquin Young Readers)
• The Prince of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

• “The Empty Hearse” – Sherlock, Teleplay by Mark Gatiss (Hartswood Films/Masterpiece)
• “Unfinished Business” – Blue Bloods, Teleplay by Siobhan Byrne O’Connor (CBS)
• “Episode 1” – Happy Valley, Teleplay by Sally Wainwright (Netflix)
•  “Dream Baby Dream” – The Killing, Teleplay by Sean Whitesell (Netflix)
• “Episode 6” – The Game, Teleplay by Toby Whithouse (BBC America)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD 

"Getaway Girl" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine By Zoë Z. Dean (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER

• Lois Duncan
• James Ellroy

RAVEN AWARDS

• Ruth & Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine
• Kathryn Kennison, Magna Cum Murder

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Charles Ardai, Editor & Founder, Hard Case Crime

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

• A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton (Minotaur Books)
• The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey (Minotaur Books)
• Invisible City by Julia Dahl (Minotaur Books)
• Summer of the Dead by Julia Keller (Minotaur Books)
• The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day (Prometheus Books – Seventh Street Books)

Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest news of crime dramas on the screen, on stage, and on air:

AWARDS

The Academy Award nominations included many of the same frontrunners that have percolated through awards season to date. American Sniper, a late-year release was added to the Best Picture category, joining other dramas such as The Imitation Game. Best Actor nods included Steve Carell for Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, and Benedict Cumberbatch for Imitation Game. Rosamund Pike was nominated in the Best Actress group for her role in Gone Girl. Other crime dramas up for various awards are The Judge (for Robert Duvall), and Inherent Vice and Nightcrawler (for writing).

The Critics Choice Awards were handed out by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and you can see all the winners via this link. It was nice to see that Gillian Flynn won Best Adapted Screenplay for her novel Gone Girl, despite being shut out of that category at the Oscars. Best Actor in an Action Movie also went to Bradley Cooper, for American Sniper, one of the few crime drama winners making the list.

MOVIES

Ben Affleck and David Fincher are re-treaming on a Warner Bros remake of the Hitchcock classic thriller Strangers On A Train, with Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) in talks to write the script.

In more Ben Affleck news, he's taking on the lead role in action-thriller The Accountant, where he'll star as a mild-mannered, socially-weird government accountant who moonlights as a highly trained assassin. Gavin O’Connor is set to direct, with John Lithgow, Anna Kendrick, Jeffrey Tambor, Jon Berthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and J.K. Simmons rounding out the cast.

Fresh off his role in Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to to replace Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg in Suicide Squad after Hardy had to drop out due to schedule conflicts. The Flagg character is the leader of the Suicide Squad, a team of antihero villains who carry out dangerous missions for the U.S. government in exchange for commuted prison sentences.

The official poster was released for the crime thriller The Gunman. Penn stars as an ex-special ops soldier who’s pitted against his former organization that is looking to silence him for good. The cast also includes Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance.

TELEVISION

Stephen King's novel, Mr. Mercedes, which King describes as his first hard-boiled detective tale about a psychopathic killer, is set to become a limited series for television. David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal and The Practice) will pen the script, and Jack Bender (Lost and Under the Dome) will direct.

Gary Sinise may have said good-bye to the character of Det. Mac Taylor in CBS' CSI:NY after the show was canceled in 2013, but apparently CBS wants him back. The network has hired him to play Jack Garrett, the leader of a division of the FBI's Analysis Unit in the new internationally-set Criminal Minds spin-off.

CBS has given the go-ahead for a second season of its freshman spinoff series, NCIS New Orleans.

Fox announced it's renewing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Empire and Gotham. Bones hasn't been slotted for renewal yet, due to "reaching another deal with its stars," while Sleepy Hollow is getting some mid-season tweaks to see if they revive the show's ratings enough for a third season.

In the same Fox publicity release, the network indicated that Wayward Pines, the mystery series by M. Night Shyamalan, about a Secret Service agent (Matt Dillon) who finds himself in a town he can't escape, will be Fox's centerpiece for scripted programming this summer.

Fox is also considering some reboots, including 24 (minus Jack Bauer), Prison Break, and the X-Files. The X-Files reboot is actually looking a lot more likely, with serious talks underway with creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

Kyle Maclachlan made it official that he will indeed be returning in the Twin Peaks limited-series sequel, playing FBI Agent Dale Cooper. Series mastermind David Lynch has also hired Sheryl Lee and Dana Ashbrook, who played teen lovers Laura Palmer and Bobby Briggs, to participate in the reboot.

Last week, we bid a sad farewell to screenwriter Brian Clemens who died at the age of 83. Clemens was a driving creative force behind The Avengers and co-creator of The Professionals, and wrote for Remington Steele, the Father Dowling Mysteries and Diagnosis Murder, among his many other influential projects.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Jan Burke and DP Lyle welcomed former FBI profiler Mark Safarik on Crime & Science Radio.

Paula Hawkins stopped by NPR to discuss h
er novel Girl on the Train and why it's being called "the next Gone Girl."

To mark the occasion of the University of South Carolina receiving Elmore Leonard's papers and library, Otto Penzler spoke about his friendship with the author and his contribution to the crime fiction community.

THEATER

The Arena Stage in Wasington, D.C. is presenting a new play frrom award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), a fast-paced comedy about everyone’s favorite detective solving his most notorious case, the Hound of the Baskervilles. Five actors play Sherlock, Watson, and a total of more than 40 characters.

The Guardian reported on a new improv murder mystery at the speakeasy-style back room of the Wenlock & Essex bar in London. The mystery show Criminal is hosted by Liam Williams and features five comedians improvising the investigation of a crime, inventing dubious alibis and plausible modus operandi for "what’s essentially a macabre, live version of Would I Lie to You?" The show debuted January 17 and will continue at the venue monthly.

Mystery Melange

Writer and licensed psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo wrote an article for Fiction Southeast he titled "Through a Glass Darkly: Crime Fiction as a Window on American Culture," about how great crime fiction offers what no sociology text can provide.

The New York Times profiled television and movie book tie-ins, a practice long viewed with disdain in literary circles, and how it's gaining respectability with the influx of new writers and critically-acclaimed TV shows such as Sons of Anarchy, Broadchurch, Homeland, and even the venerable Murder She Wrote.

Tor.com announced the publication of the 2014 edition of "Some of the Best from Tor.com," an anthology of twenty-six of the site's favorite short stories, novelettes, and novellas, selected from the seventy-plus stories published last year.

Blogger, journalist, and author Sarah Weinman has started a new crime fiction newsletter via free online subscription. You can sign up for "The Crime Lady" via this link, and receive her "weekly-ish newsletter about crime fiction and true crime, current and long-ago releases, stuff I'm working on, and other related things."

Martin Edwards reported the deaths of two friends of the crime fiction community last week: Bob Adey, author of the reference anthology Locked Room Murders and an editor of several other works; and novelist and short-story writer Robert Adams.

The Wall Street Journal reported on how Penguin is reissuing all 75 of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels. Simenon (1903-1989) was one of the most prolific crime writers, publishing over 200 novels and numerous short stories.

Elizabeth Foxwell noted that, according to Americana Exchange, some of the top 500 manuscript auctions for 2014 included an original drawing and a signed manuscript for Arthur Conan Doyle works and the screenplay by William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett of The Big Sleep.

Former LA Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is teaming up with screenwriter Anna Waterhouse to write a Sherlockian crime novel titled Mycroft Holmes. It will be published in October by Titan Books. Abdul-Jabbar has apparently been a huge Holmes fan since his first season in the NBA back in 1969.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Rules of Etiquette" by Lisa Olsson.

Think you know a lot about international crime fiction? The Irish Times has a crime fiction book quiz for you, "From Scandinavian noir to Stringer Bell."

If you're a fan of the Murder She Wrote series starring Angela Lansbury (see above tie-ins), you'll probably enjoy this loving and tongue-in-cheek homage to the series created by super-fan Isaac Royffe—a series of all of Jessica Fletcher's "epiphanies" stitched together into one video.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Tess Gerritsen talking with Traverse Magazine about her books, including the latest in the Rizzoli & Isles series, Die Again; Lynn Chandler Willis stopped by the Sons of Spade blog to talk about her debut featuring private eye Gypsy Moran, Wink of an Eye; mystery author and homicide cop TJ O'Connor chatted with Omnimystery News about the second mystery in his Gumshoe Ghost series, Dying for the Past; and Mike Blakely, who is also an accomplished traditional western singer/songwriter, talks with The Mystery People about his latest novel, A Song To Die For, which uses the Austin music scene of the Seventies as its backdrop.

Crime Time in India

This week, India joins the list of countries with their own crime writing festival. The inaugural two-day Crime Writers Festival in Delhi grew out of the Jaipur Literature Festival, where one of the new festival's directors, Namita Gokhale, conducted a session on "Crime and Punishment."  Gokhale added, "It’s an important subset of literature and also serves as a barometer for the society . . . something that’s definitely worth exploring."

The event brings together crime reporters and journalists, authors, film directors, publishers, agents, and curators and collectors of crime stories. Ashwin Sanghi, another of the festival advisors and speakers, said, "Commercial writing in general did not take off (in India) primarily because of our snobbish attitude towards it. Most Indian authors were busy churning out literary fiction and publishers continued actively searching for the next Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, or Jhumpa Lahiri. They could hardly be bothered with finding the Indian equivalent of Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, or Tom Clancy."

Featured guests include international crime authors such as Håkan Nesser, Caryl Ferey, and David Stuart Davies, who will join Indian authors Amrita Chowdhary, Amrita Tripathi, Aroon Raman, Ashwin Sanghi, Hussain Zaidi, Jerry Pinto, Lady Kishwar Desai, Mahendra Jakhar, and many more. Film directors Dibakar Banerjee and Piyush Jha will also be on hand, representing the crime-on-film section.

Best of all, if you happen to be in the area and can take advantage of the festival's many programs, they are all free and open to the public.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest roundup of crime-themed dramas on stage and screen:

AWARDS

The Golden Globes were handed out last night. For all the nominees and winners, check out the complete list here.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced the nominations in the various film categories, with the Imitation Game and Benedict Cumberbatch collecting more honors. Author Gillian Flynn was also nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category for Gone Girl.

MOVIES

Elmore Leonard's novel Bandits is finally getting the big-screen treatment, thanks to Bruce Willis who optioned the novel. He'll also play the lead, an ex-con turned mortician in his brother’s funeral home, who gets sucked back into the underworld after an encounter with a gorgeous lapsed nun on the run from a Nicaraguan military criminal.

British actor Idris Elba has optioned Poe Must Die by Marc Olden for three feature films, according to Publishers Marketplace (and via Mysterious Press). The tagling for the book is "A satanist threatens the planet, and only Poe has the imagination to stop him."

Scarlett Johansson will play the lead role in the live action American remake of the classic Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell. She'll portray a character based on the series' cyborg detective, Major Motoko Kusanagi, leader of a Japanese counter-terrorism organisation focused on cybercrime in a futuristic world.

Sons of Anarchy star Theo Rossi has joined the cast of psychological thriller When The Bough Breaks, directed by 24's Jon Cassar. The film is about a professional couple who hire a blue collar woman to act as their surrogate, but she develops a violent fixation on the husband before the baby is even born.

Ansel Elgort (of The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent), has signed to star with Chloë Grace Moretz in November Criminals, the teen thriller adaptation of Sam Munson’s 2011 novel about two teenagers who venture into the seedy underbelly of Washington, D.C. to investigate a friend’s murder while falling in love for the first time.

The first trailer was released for the dark comedy The Voices, starring Ryan Reynolds as a a crazy guy who kills people when his cat and dog tell him to.

TELEVISION

The second season of Fargo has filled out its cast, adding Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, and Jean Smart as regulars alongside newly-added recurring characters played by Nick Offerman, Brad Garrett, Kieran Culkin, Bokeem Woodbine, Jeffrey Donovan and Angus Sampson.

ITV has found the lead for its 10-part series Jekyll & Hyde, in the form of Da Vinci’s Demons star Tom Bateman. He’ll play Robert Jekyll, the grandson of the original doctor with the dual personality.

Fox ordered a pilot based on Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, originally made into a film starring Tom Cruise. It's said to be a sequel to the film, set 10 years after the end of Precrime in DC. As one of the Precogs struggles to lead a normal human life, he remains haunted by visions of the future until he meets a detective haunted by her past who may help him find a purpose to his gift.

Hallmark Channel is optioning another original movie franchise, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, based on the books by Joanne Fluke. The series will star Alison Sweeney as Hannah Swensen, shop owner of the Cookie Jar who turns into a culinary detective and finds herself trying to solve a crime while getting caught in an unexpected romantic mystery of her own.

Emmanuelle Chriqui (formerly of Entourage) has joined the cast of TNT’s crime drama series Murder In The First as a regular for the upcoming second season opposite Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson. She'll play a "brash, daring and a total bad-ass" officer with the SFPD Gang Task Force.

John Travolta is set to star as Robert Shapiro on FX’s miniseries American Crime Story miniseries about the O.J. Simpson trial. He joins fellow cast members Cuba Gooding Jr., David Schwimmer and Sarah Paulson.

AMC has ordered a Making of the Mob docudrama, that will blend dramatic scenes with interviews and archival footage as it traces the rise of the American mafia.

Lifetime has ordered two additional episodes of its new series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.

A&E announced the return dates of The Bates Motel and The Returned back-to-back on March 9.

USA's series Covert Affairs just wrapped up its fifth season with a cliffhanger episode, but it will have to stay "hung" after the network decided not to renew the show for a sixth season. The show center on a young CIA worker, Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) who eventually graduated to working undercover as an importer and exporter under her handler, Auggie (Christopher Gorham).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

William Kent Krueger joined Libby Hellmann on the program Second Sunday Crime, a new podcast from Authors on the Air, to discuss his multi-award-winning novel Ordinary Grace and other writing.

George Pelecanos sat down for an interview with NPR's Fresh Air program to talk about his latest publication, The Martini Shot: A Novella and Stories.

The WTF podcast with Marc Maron recently featured an in-depth (two-hour) interview with director Paul Thomas Anderson, whose latest project is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice about stoner private eye Doc Sportello in a 1970's "part noir, part psychedelic romp" detective story set in L.A.  The cast includes Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short and Katherine Waterston

Margaret Maron appeared on UNC Public Radio's Bookwatch program, talking about her latest novel, Designated Daughters.

THEATER

At London's Donmar Warhouse Theater, the musical City of Angels began its run in December and continues through February 15. With a book by Larry Gelbart, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by David Zippel, the play features a double plot about a writer trying to adapt his private eye novel into a Hollywood movie, and the private eye trying to find a missing daughter despite increasing complications with women.

Also in London, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins continues its run through March 7. Assassins focuses on the tales of men who tried to assassinate a President of the United States, from John Wilkes Booth (played by Aaron Tveit) to Lee Harvey Oswald (Jamie Parker).

KNPR had a profile of Las Vegas' longest-running dinner theater show in town, Marriage Can Be Murder.

Celebrate National Readathon Day!

Mark your calendar for the first-ever National Readathon Day. On Saturday, January 24, you can join readers across the country who will be reading in solidarity for literacy from noon to 4 p.m. (in your own time zone). National Readathon Day is partnered with FirstGiving.com, with all money raised going to the National Book Foundation's projects to improve literacy and reading proficiency for millions of Americans who lack basic skills. At the most basic level of participation, all you need to do to is pick a book and read it on January 24. But there are also local readalong events, and you can also make a donation, create a fund-raising team on FirstGiving.com, or host your own "reading party."

Many Americans fortunate enough to have benefited from a good education may be unaware of how much of a problem illiteracy remains. According to a study conducted in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can't read, or 14 percent of the population. In addition, twenty-one percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level. Even worse, the current literacy rate isn't any better than it was 10 years ago. 

So, on January 24, read a book and consider making a donation to FirstGiving or other literacy organizations in your area.

Mystery Melange

Continuing on from last week's links to crime fiction titles we can look forward to in 2015, The Rap Sheet jumps into the fray with a long list of upcoming books with publication dates in the U.S. and U.K. through the first quarter (March).

Mike Ripley has his first "Getting Away with Murder" column from Shots Magazine for 2015. The New Year edition features a look back at the "Christmas Chrime" at Heffer’s Bookshop in Cambridge and the recent official launch of the anthology Bodies in the Bookshop, inspired by Heffers' Richard Reynolds and edited jointly by the Detection Club’s L.C. (Len) Tyler and Shots’ own Ayo Onatade. He also highlighted the news that Vintage announced it's reissuing eleven of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion novels this year and nine in 2016.

The Malice Domestic Conference Board of Directors reported that after a fifteen-year haiatus, they will be sponsoring a new Malice Domestic Anthology, to be published in 2016. Presented by Katherine Hall Page and published by Wildside Press, the anthology will include stories from unpublished and published authors alike. The title is Murder Most Conventional, which means that submited stories must take place at or have some relationship to a convention (of any type). Stories of 3,500 to 5,000 words should be sent in by May 1, 2015. For more information check out the PDF on the official Malice website.

Lee Lofland posted a first look at the new venue for 2015's Writers' Police Academy at the Fox Valley Technical College Public Safety Training Center in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Plan B Magazine editor Darusha Wehm announced the publication has reopened to submissions for Volume V. All crime fiction short stories—detective, crime, mystery, thriller, suspense, police procedurals—are welcome. You can check the guidelines here.

Elizabeth Foxwell ("The Bunbuyist") noted that former English instructor Chris Willerton is proposing the panel "Remapping Culture with Detective Fiction" for the 2015 Christian Scholars Conference at Abilene Christian University in Texas in June.

The new poem up at the 5-2 crime poetry blog is "The Song O' No One's Daughter," by Johnny Longfellow, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "The Ralph's On Third and Vermont" by Alec Cizak.

The Q&A roundup includes mystery author Tracy Weber discussing the latest installment in her downward dog series (featuring yoga instructor Kate Davidson), Killer Retreat, with Omnimystery News; John Floyd chats with The Clarion-Ledger about his writing and his new compilation of 50 brief "whodunits"; Ian Rankin, whose latest Inspector Rebus novel is Saints of the Shadow Bible, gets "The Third Degree" from Crimetime Preview; and Brad Taylor was put on the interview hot seat by The Mystery People to talk about his new Taskforce novel, No Fortunate Son.

Wanna Buy a Bookstore?

Here's your chance, and it's a perfect opportunity to help a great bookstore tradition continue. Reblogging from Shelf Awareness:

Mystery Lovers Bookshop Would Love New Owners

Laurie Stephens, owner of Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pa., near Pittsburgh (one of the largest specialty mystery book stores in the country), for the past two and a half years, is putting the store up for sale. "Now in 2015, it is time for me to begin a new chapter in my life," she wrote in an e-mail to store customers.

"The key ingredients that will contribute to the success of a new owner are all in place: a loyal customer base, a dedicated, hard-working staff, the technology tools to remain current and relevant, and an environment that appeals to customers of all ages," she continued. "All it will take is someone who is passionate about books, who genuinely loves people, and who has enough good judgment and business sense to lead a team of top-notch booksellers. I know how much you care about Mystery Lovers Bookshop, and hope you can help find the right person who would enjoy being the store's new owner."

Founders Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman, who owned the store for 22 years, sold it to Stephens in April 2012. At that point, in her 35-year career, Stephens had been a bookseller, librarian and director of a lecture series and had long wanted to own a bookstore. In 2013, Stephens remodeled the store, dismantling the café, moving the kids' section and cash register, and creating more event space.

For more information, contact laurie@mysterylovers.com or 412-828-4877.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest roundup of crime-themed dramas on the big screen and small screen:

MOVIES

Awards season continues with the 19th annual Capri Hollywood International Film Festival naming The Imitation Game as Best Picture and the film's Morten Tyldum as Best Director.

The American Cinema Editors also announced nominations for their 65th annual ACE Eddie Awards, which recognize the year’s outstanding editing in 10 film, TV and documentary categories. American Sniper, Gone Girl, The Imitation Game, Nightcrawler, and Inherent Vice were among the nominees.

Mark Wahlberg is hinting that HBO's recently-concluded Boardwalk Empire series might be heading to the big screen and would love to have Martin Scorsese on board as director. Scorsese actually directed Boardwalk Empire’s pilot episode back in 2010.

A series of posters for Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's "twisty-turny detective adventure" highlight the variety of the story's "kooky characters."

TELEVISION

New guest stars for upcoming Hawaii 5-0 episodes include Michael Imperioli as an ex-con and Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) an ex-Congo warlord who supposedly died several years ago.

Cinemabland wrote a behind-the-scenes piece on how FX’s espionage thriller The Americans, which was created by former CIA officer Joe Weisberg, keeps the CIA busy reading all of Weisberg’s scripts beforehand to make sure he’s not giving out secrets.

Cinemablend's Mark Rawden also chose his list of "The 10 Best Crime-Solving TV Shows Of 2014."

Entertainment Weekly has a look at the mid-season TV lineup in the U.S., with all the premiere dates, both new and returning shows.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

"Inside the World of Raymond Chandler" was the topic of a recent program on Southern California Public Radio, with author Denise Hamilton and Barry Day, who edited the new book, The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words.