The Mysteries of Pinterest

Pinterest isn't all just recipes and fashion - it can be a treasure trove of research for crime fiction authors. I have boards there for my Scott Drayco series research and another for Drayco's world, but also ones for Writing Prompts, Mystery Research, and some "just for fun" boards.

Other authors use Pinterest boards to post images related to their books, like Debbi Mack and her board for her character Sam McRae, Kristi Belcamino with a board on casting her novels, and Laurie R. King on various aspects of her Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series.

 If you're interested in historical fiction, you can search for information on style and culture of, say, the 1920s or conduct a search on World War II and find images of people, documents, posters, aircraft, even games. Researching archaeology turns up fascinating artifacts and dig sites from around the world, helpful if you're writing a novel on that theme.

Searching for noir novels or pulp fiction novels provides a virtual library of hundreds (thousands?) of classic and not-so-classic covers spanning the history of those genres. Or pick an iconic author like Edgar Allan Poe or Raymond Chandler and there will be quotes, gravesites, childhood photos, movie posters, and the occasional video (and yes, scads of merchandising).

Want to know more about serial killers, past and recent? Or other aspects of true crime? Perhaps you want photos of settings in Edinburgh, from the underground vaults to Edinburgh Castle to pubs. There's also plenty of information, photos, and links about various weapons like Glocks or daggers.

Lest you also think Pinterest is only for women with children (which started out being the social network's core base), the number of U.S. men on Pinterest increased 73% in 2014, and the company says that more men are using Pinterest in the U.S. than read Sports Illustrated and GQ combined (via TechCrunch). Check out these boards from crime fiction authors Ed Lynskey, Lee Goldberg, T.E. Avery, and tech rockstar author Guy Kawasaki.

Plus, Pinterest is the second-largest growing major social network, with a jump of 7% in the past year (just behind Instagram at 9%). So there will continue to be plenty of research opportunities for writers and readers of all stripes. Just be sure and set a timer, because it's easy to fall into the Pinterest universe and get sucked in for hours.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's your latest weekly wrap-up of crime fiction news on stage, screen, and video games:

MOVIES

Steven Spielberg is developing author Michael Crichton’s thriller Micro at DreamWorks. The story "follows a group of graduate students lured to Hawaii to work for a mysterious biotech company, only to find themselves miniaturized and cast out into the rainforest, with nothing but their wits and scientific expertise to protect them."

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is joining Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce in the upcoming thriller Brimstone. He'll play an outlaw who has a crucial role in the tale of retribution, replacing Robert Pattinson. Fanning stars as Liz, a heroine on the run from her past who's chased by the evil Preacher (Pearce). 

Josh Brolin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Olivia Munn have rounded out the cast of Otto Bathurst’s crime thriller Three Seconds, based on the bestselling novel by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom. The story follows an ex-con, working undercover for the police, who is sent into a maximum security prison to break a criminal organization’s stranglehold on amphetamine dealings.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have signed on to produce a Warner Bros. adaptation of House of Deceit, a book proposal by BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger about the FIFA soccer (a/k/a football) corruption scandal. Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant) has been hired to direct, with Anthony Tambakis on board to pen the script.

Another week, more Bourne casting news: the franchise starring Matt Damon (not the Jeremy Renner reboot) is allegedly in talks to sign on Viggo Mortenson as the bad guy, and Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander has landed the critical co-starring role.

Robert Downey Jr. has a project in the works based on David Howards' upcoming book, Chasing Phil: The World’s Greatest Con Man, Two Undercover FBI Agents, And Their Amazing Around The World Adventure. The book centers around the FBI’s first foray into white-collar crime using young agents as undercover operatives tasked with infiltrating the shady world of a rich con man.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on to star in 478, a revenge thriller based on a script by Javier Gullon. The story follows a man whose wife and child are killed in a plane crash, which leads Schwarzenegger’s character to pursue the air traffic controller responsible for the tragedy.

A new trailer was released for Hitman: Agent 47, starring Rupert Friend as a mysterious assassin genetically engineered to be the perfect killer.

The upcoming latest installment of Mission Impossible (titled Rogue Nation) also released a new trailer.

TELEVISION

Despite never having achieved huge ratings, this news is a bit of a shocker: NBC is cancelling Hannibal after three seasons. The season’s final episode will be shown on September 3, although showrunner Bryan Fulmer hinted that the show could return in another form or on another network, and Deadline reported there "has been a significant interest in Hannibal from other outlets."

NBC spared Aquarius the same fate however, renewing the David Duchovy-starring series about Charles Manson for a second season.

Bryan Cranston and David Shore’s pilot Sneaky Pete was given a pass by CBS, but Amazon may pick up the drama about a con man (Giovanni Ribisi) released from prison who assumes the identity of a cellmate. Amazon's streaming service will ultimately make the decision where to turn the pilot into a series based on account viewing data and customer feedback.

Another potential CBS project going through a transformation of a different sort is the legal drama Doubt, written by longtime Grey’s Anatomy executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater. The network is looking to recast both lead roles, played in the original pilot by KaDee Strickland and Teddy Sears.

Justified executive producer Chris Provenzano is working on another Elmore Leonard adaptation for a new AMC series called Gunsights. Based on Leonard’s Western novel set in 1893 Arizona, the plot centers on Army officer Brendan Early and scout Dana Moon, who used to work together for the 10th Cavalry until they find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict between mining company thugs and a group of settlers.

Director David Fincher is taking on a new HBO project, the remake of Dennis Kelly’s U.K. mystery thriller series, Utopia. Rooney Mara is eyeing an unspecified starring role that would reunite her with Fincher for the first time since 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher, who intends to direct every episode of Utopia's first season, is also re-teaming with Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn to adapt the Channel 4 series.

ITV announced that Stephen Mangan and Michael Weston are to star in the 10-part, supernatural crime drama series Houdini & Doyle, from House creator David Shore. The series focuses on the relationship between early 20th century illusionist Harry Houdini and mystery writer Arthur Conan Doyle.

Blythe Danner has come aboard the Bernie Madoff miniseries to play Ruth Madoff, the convicted Ponzi schemer's wife.

Alana De La Garza (Forever) will take on a recur
ring role on the second season of CBS’ Scorpion. She'll play the smart, tough and driven new Head of Homeland Security "who needs the Scorpion team to be successful, but is it because it’s best for the team or because it’s best for her?"

Lili Taylor's is being promoted to a cast regular for the second season of American Crime. In the first season she played a victims rights advocate, but will have a different role in Season 2.Cast members Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Regina King, Elvis Nolasco and Richard Cabral have previously been confirmed to return in new roles for the second season.

Channel 4 has commissioned a second season of Paul Abbott's police procedural No Offence.

NBC announced its fall premiere dates, including The Mysteries of Laura and Law & Order: SVU (September 23); The Blacklist (September 24); Chicago P.D. (September 30); Chicago Fire (October 13); and Grimm (October 30).

Rolling Stone magazine profiled HBO's True Detective series, the shady history of California noir, and how the show's new season draws on everything from Chandler to Chinatown.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR's Scott Simon chatted with crime novelist Val McDermid about her new book, Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime.

Another NPR interview focused on Daniel Silva about the "double-edged sword" Of writing an Israeli spy protagonist.

The Canadian Broadcast Company's Mystery Book Panel returned with their annual summer reading list.

Mary Higgins Clark appeared on the Today Show to discuss her latest book, The Melody Lingers On.

NPR's Fresh Air program welcomed Noah Charney, author of The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives and Methods of the Master Forgers.

THEATER

Three-time Emmy Award winner Laurie Metcalf has replaced Elizabeth Marvel as the leading lady to Bruce Willis in the new Broadway adaptation of Stephen King's Misery. She'll play the role of the obsessed fan played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 film version.

GAMES

Sam Barlow, writer and lead designer of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Aisle, launched his first indie title Her Story. Playing like an interactive true crime documentary, the game lets you go hands-on with a police database full of live action video footage.

Tin Man Games is developing the popular TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is based on a series of historical detective novels by Kerry Greenwood. The game will be called Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze, and will be a "chooseable-path adventure and visual novel."

Michael Connelly's Advice for Young Writers

 

This is one of the Mystery Author Interviews I've been adding to my YouTube Channel.

Mystery Melange

The winners of the Lamda Awards for LGBT fiction were announced last week, with The Old Deep and Dark: A Jane Lawless Mystery by Ellen Hart named best Lesbian Mystery, and Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery by Katie Gilmartin, named Best Gay Mystery.

The finalists for the Macavity Awards were also announced, based on votes from members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal, and friends and supporters of MRI. The candidates for Best Novel includeThe Lewis Man, by Peter May; The Last Death of Jack Harbin, by Terry Shames; The Killer Next Door, by Alex Marwood; The Day She Died, by Catriona McPherson; The Missing Place, by Sophie Littlefield; and The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny. For the complete lists in all the categories, check out the Mystery Fanfare blog.

FYI, Mystery Fanfare also posted links to all the Macavity-nominated short stories that you can read for free.

The inaugural St. Albans Writers' Festival in Australia will include a crime writing panel on Saturday, September 19, featuring authors Nigel Bartlett, Barry Maitland, PM Newton and Michael Robotham in conversation with crime fiction aficionado Rachel Franks.

As part of the 125th anniversary celebrations for Agatha Christie, a "treasure trove" of photos of the author from the her private collection will go on display at the Bankside Gallery in London August 26 – September 6. Titled "Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portrait," the exhibition will include notes from her unpublished private correspondences and a timeline highlighting key moments in her career. The collection will then move to the Agatha Christie Festival for display in September. (HT to Crime Fiction Lover.)

Martin Edwards, author of The Golden Age of Murder, spoke with the BBC's history magazine about Agatha Christie and The Detection Club, the "mysterious" social network to which Christie and other major Golden Age writers belonged.

Crime fiction author Mark Billingham, who has also worked as a standup comedian, chatted with The Guardian about a comedy/crime theme running throughout the Theakstons Old Peculier Harrogate crime writing festival this year.

The Journal of the Academic Anglophone Society of Romania is seeking submissions for a special 2017 issue on Contemporary Crime Fiction, guest edited by Dr Charlotte Beyer. The special issue will focus on contemporary crime fiction and trace thematic and formal priorities that emerged during the late 20th to early 21st Century. The deadline for papers is October 1. (HT to Sandra Seamans.)

Writing for the blog of the Library of America, Tom Nolan discussed husband-and-wife mystery authors Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar and "the traumas that encompassed literature and life" for the successful duo.

The Guardian's Sam Jordison makes the case that Patricia Highsmith’s book Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction is an inspiring primer for budding psycho-crime novelists.

Inkshares is a new company that will offer indie booksellers their own imprint. Seattle-based Ada’s Technical Books became the first to come on board, and the Seattle Mystery Bookshop could be next. The Mystery Bookshop's owner J.B. Dickey explained that an Inkshares imprint could be an opportunity to help midlist authors at a time when so much of publishing seems to focus on bestsellers.

Mental Floss had fun with the article "15 Curious Facts About Sherlock Holmes and the Sherlockian Subculture."

Cannon Hall, the childhood home of Daphne Du Maurier (author of Rebecca and "The Birds"), has sold for around £28million. Regarded by some experts as one of London's finest period homes, the property was a key location in Otto Preminger's 1965 movie thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing, starring Laurence Olivier.  

The new e-issue of Yellow Mama is out, with new crime short stories and poems.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ice Cream People" by Jennifer Lagier.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People chatted with James W. Ziskin about his series with Sixties-era “girl reporter” Ellie Stone, and also with Mark Pryor about his latest Hugo Marston novel; Col Bury took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge; Steven Tyler spoke with Omnimystery News about his new murder mystery featuring amateur sleuth Luna Susan George; South Africa's BooksLive spoke with Joanne Macgregor about her psychological thriller Dark Whispers, recently translated into Afrikaans; Ragnar Jónasson discussed his writing with the Irish Times and how The Murder of Roger Ackroyd had a great impact on him; and the Huffington Post interviewed Don Winslow about his latest drug trafficking novel, Cartel.

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Author R&R with Kate White

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of ten works of fiction—six Bailey Weggins mysteries and four suspense novels. For fourteen years she was the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and though she loved the job (and the Cosmo beauty closet!), she decided to leave in late 2013 to concentrate full time on being an author.

Her books have received starred reviews from a variety of publications and she has been covered everyplace from The Today Show to The New York Times. Her first Bailey Weggins mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was named as the premier Reading with Rippa selection. Kate is also the editor of the recently-released Mystery Writers of America cookbook.

Her new novel The Wrong Man follows the mild-mannered owner of a Manhattan boutique interior design, Kit Finn. While on vacation in the Florida Keys, Kit resolves to do something risky for once, and when she literally bumps into a charming stranger at her hotel, makes good on her promise and acts on her attraction. But back in New York, when Kit arrives at his luxury apartment ready to pick up where they left off in the Keys, she doesn’t recognize the man standing on the other side of the door. She soon realizes she’s been thrown into a treacherous plot, deeper and deadlier than she could have ever imagined.

Kate stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about writing her new book:

 

What I Learned at the Morgue One Morning

There are probably very few people who have sat in the viewing room of a morgue and realized that it was the perfect place for them to be at the moment, but I guess I’m one of them. It happened last October when I was doing research for my new book, The Wrong Man. I’d arranged to stop by the Miami morgue and not only check out the viewing room but also interview a couple of people who worked there, who, by the way, turned out to be incredibly helpful. The end result: I was able to write a scene for my book far more accurately than I would have otherwise.

I know there are some mystery and suspense writers who don’t believe in doing a lot of research and I can understand that. There’s a certain purity (and fun) to letting your imagination run wild and just making it up--based, of course, on a certain amount of knowledge from years spent living on the planet. Plus, writers are aware that readers generally (and generously) allow them some poetic license. When I interviewed Lee Child recently at the 92nd Y in New York City, he said that he doesn’t research but relies on all the data he’s collected in his brain over the years. And what a brain that is!

And of course research can sometimes get in your way. While talking to Harlan Coben for same series, he pointed out that research is often an excuse for not plopping your butt in the desk chair and just writing. So true.

But I have a confession: I absolutely love researching. There’s something about the process that I find both fascinating and also relaxing. Maybe because it’s methodical, and there never seems to be a lot of pressure when I’m doing it. My pulse rate goes down when I research and I find myself in almost a Zen state.  Plus, on more than a few occasions, it’s spared me from making a big mistake in my writing.

Take the morgue visit. When you view a body in some cities (like New York), you stand on the other side of a window. (You’ve probably seen that on old Law and Order episodes.) That’s how I originally planned to set the scene in The Wrong Man. But I wanted to be on the safe side so I scheduled a trip south and that’s where I learned that in Miami, family members of the deceased are shown photos instead. I was so glad I discovered that piece of info.

But to me what’s most exhilarating about research is that it sometimes provides details that can turn into fabulous plot points, stuff you might not have discovered if you hadn’t set off exploring. Lately I did some research on twins for a future book, and four or five Google pages down I discovered the most intriguing piece of information, something I’d never heard of. It has the potential to be an incredible plot twist.

Oh, I’d tell you what it is but then I’d have to shoot you—because I intend to use it in one of my next books!

 

To learn more about Kate White and her latest novel, visit her website where you'll also find purchase links and her tour schedule.

Media Murder for Monday

Hard to believe another week has gone by, but that means it's once again time for Media Murder for Monday, with a wrap-up of the latest crime drama news:

MOVIES

Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct a new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express from Ridley Scott, Simon Kinberg and Mark Gordon, who are producing the detective movie for 20th Century Fox. Michael Green (who wrote the new Blade Runner sequel for Scott) has been tasked with adapting Christie’s 1934 Hercule Poirot detective novel.

Robert Downey, Jr., says there is a Sherlock 3 in development, but the actor is also working on developing a Perry Mason project based on the novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, "as kind of a pre-Chinatown gumshoe thriller with some courtroom stakes, and action sequences.”

Van Diesel's big-screen adaptation of the hit 70s police detective TV show Kojak apparently still has some life, with Universal hiring Philip Gawthorne to write the script. Gawthorne has written for several long-running BBC series such as Eastenders, Casualty and Holby City.

The confusing Bourne saga continues:  after Matt Damon signed off the spy franchise, Jeremy Renner took over with the spin-off The Bourne Legacy. When Damon decided to come back to the series, Renner's future was cast into doubt, but it appears now that both franchises are moving forward. In more Bourne news, the Damon project will be bringing back Julia Stiles to reprise her role as covert agent Nicky Parsons.

A trailer was released for the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places starring Charlize Theron, which hits DirecTV on June 18th and opens in cinemas on August 7th.

TELEVISION

ITV is producing a prequel to its popular series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in the Metropolitan Police. That series was partially written by author Lynda La Plante, who will also pen eisodes of the prequel Tennison, which follows the young detective as she begins her career.

ITV also announced it has commissioned the drama series Marcella from Hans Rosenfeldt, the writer of The Bridge. The project will be set in contemporary London with a British Metropolitan Police Officer at its heart, and is described as "Scandinavian noir on the streets of Britain."

ABC has picked up a detective drama project for development from American Crime creator John Ridley. Titled Presence, it's described as "a stylish update of the classic detective genre," and follows Presence Foster, a former Army Counter Insurgency Operative who unintentionally begins a career as an unlicensed private investigator in LA.

Even before escaped murders David Sweat and Richard Matt have been recaptured, news comes that Lifetime is already planning a TV movie based on the escape, manhunt and (hopefully) eventual capture from the vantage point of Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who helped them.

CBS drama NCIS: New Orleans is promoting recurring players Shalita Grant and Daryl Mitchell to full-cast regulars. They join returning stars Scott Bakula, Lucas Black, Zoe McLellan, Rob Kervovich and CCH Pounder.

A&E announced they’ve renewed Bates Motel not only for a fourth season of 10 episodes (to start in early 2016), but they're also putting in an order for Season 5 (coming in the first months of 2017).  

Charles Grodin is the latest addition to the ABC miniseries Madoff, inspired by ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross’ reports and his book The Madoff Chronicles, about now-imprisoned swindler Bernie Madoff (played by Richard Dreyfuss).

FX released a short trailer for the second season of Fargo, starring Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, with Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman and Jean Smart also on board.  The second series is set around the 1979 Sioux Falls incident teased in the first season and features a young Lou Solverson (Wilson), the former state trooper played by Keith Carradine in the first season.

PODCASTS

Minnesota Public Radio profiled true crime writer James Tully, whose new book The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte tries to make the case that Charlotte Bronte poisoned her famous siblings due to rivalry, jealousy, greed and betrayal.

Ari Shapiro interviewed Kate Atkinson on the Morning Edition book club about her new novel A God in Ruins and how she crafts her characters.

This week's Crime and Science Radio featured image enhancement expert Douglas Carner discussing tampered evidence and industry secrets.

Author R&R with Patti Abbott

Blogger Patricia "Patti" Abbott is the creator and host of the regular Friday's Forgotten Books feature, but she's also a prolific author of crime short stories (with over 100 published!) and received a 2008 Derringer Award for her story “My Hero.” Her debut novel Concrete Angel from Polis Books has been a long time coming, but it's worth the wait for both Patti and crime fiction fans.

For the book, Patti drew upon her experiences of growing up in Philadelphia and was inspired by a news report of a mother and daughter charged with credit-card theft, where the daughter told the court her mother made her do it. Concrete Angel takes that concept and runs with it, delving into a family torn apart by a murderous mother straight out of "Mommy Dearest" and her children, especially her daughter Christine, who are victims until they learn that fighting back is the only way to survive.

Patti is currently on a blog tour and stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R and discuss researching and writing the book:

 

CONCRETE ANGEL takes place in Philadelphia and its suburbs in the sixties and seventies. I grew up in Philadelphia, a decade after the mother in the book, Eve Moran, and a decade and a half before her daughter, Christine. Not coinciding exactly in age with either character allowed me to take a step back from recreating myself too much. I wanted their reactions to come from my imagination rather than my experiences.

Getting Philadelphia and Bucks Country right was very important to me although I mostly used my memories of the city in that era to do that. Downtown Philly features prominently in several sections so I spent a lot of time reviewing maps of the downtown in that era. Online research is a god send. Of course, the town of Shelterville only exists in my mind as do various schools I mentioned. Very real though was the four department stores of my youth: John Wanamakers, Gimbels, Strawbridge and Clothier, and Lit Brothers.  It is hard to get across how much those stores defined Philadelphia in the fifties and sixties. So too the extravagantly gorgeous movie theaters and restaurants.

Mental illness plays a large part in this story. I relied on two books for help with the treatment of mental illness at the time. WOMAN AND MADNESS by Phyllis Chesler was the first to ask questions about women and mental health. It combined patient interviews with a history of women's roles in history, society, and myth. Chesler writes that there is a terrible double standard when it comes to women's psychology. Some of the treatment women received at the hands of their therapists was abusive if not felonious. The second book I read was MADWOMAN IN THE ATTIC. Now this book looks at the treatment of women in 19th Century literature and was not relevant to this era, but it helped me to form the character if not her treatment.

Although I read a news story about a mother and daughter arrested for various crimes they committed together, I deviated from their tale pretty quickly. I didn't relate much to the crimes themselves but more to the personalities of the women who would commit them, and what kind of relationship would lend itself to such crimes. And it was then that I remembered a childhood friend and her mother. Their relationship had the twisty, complicated nature of Eve and Christine's. Here was a mother who exerted exactly this type of control over her daughter even if it didn't lead to crimes.

Finding the humanity in Eve was important to me. She is a villain but why. I tried inject enough sympathy into her portrait to make her feel human. Is someone suffering from a undiagnosed disorder responsible for their crimes? If the era couldn't define her issues or treat them, should we hate her? I'll leave it to you to judge.

 

Pick up a digital or paperback copy of Concrete Angel today via all major online and brick-and-mortar stores - just follow the "buy" links on the Polis Books website.

Mystery Melange

This was a big week for crime fiction award nominations, with at least five different groups offering up their "bests" of the year:

The CWA Gold Dagger longlists for the best crime novel of the year were announced this week, including some familar bestsellers such as Stephen King and Robert Galbraith (a/k/a JK Rowling). The Crime Writers Association also released the longlists for the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger for spy/action thrillers and the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for debut novels.

The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year announced its shortlist on Monday. The list was whittled down from a longlist of 18 crime novels published by British and Irish authors over the last year and includes three debuts:

• The Facts Of Life And Death, Belinda Bauer
• The Axeman’s Jazz, Ray Celestin
• The Outcast Dead, Elly Griffiths
• Someone Else’s Skin, Sarah Hilary
• The Devil in the Marshalsea, Antonia Hodgson
• Entry Island, Peter May

The Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin appreciation society, The Wolfe Pack, announced the list of finalists for the 2015 Nero Award, handed out annually "for the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories":

• Herbie’s Game, by Timothy Hallinan  
• The Detective & the Pipe Girl, by Michael Craven  
• First Light, by Al Lamanda
• The Detective, by James Patrick Hunt  
• Peter Pan Must Die, by John Verdon

The Deadly Ink Conference announced the finalists for this year's David Award for best crime novel of the year:

• Blood Rubies by Jane Cleland
• The Question Of The Missing Head by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen
• Circle Of Influence by Annette Dashofy
• Death And White Diamonds by Jeff Markowitz
• The Roar Of The Crowd by Janice MacDonald
• The Outsmarting Of Criminals by Steven Rigolosi

Paula Hawkins, Steve Cavanagh, Clare Mackintosh and Jo Nesbo are among the writers in the running for the inaugural Dead Good Reader Awards. The awards in six different categories are nominated and voted on by readers and will be presented in Harrogate at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in July.

And in other news:

Craig Johnson, author of the Sheriff Walt Longmire series (which was the inspiration for the popular TV drama), will host the fourth annual Longmire Days in Buffalo, Wyoming. The event takes place June 17-19 and is expected to draw over 8,000 fans and several Hollywood actors. In addition to the parade, there will be a "poker school for novices," trap shooting, and more. A charity is chosen to receive funds from each festival, and this year, it's the American Indian College Fund.

On July 10, Edinburgh University will host Protect and Serve: Crime Fiction and Community, a one-day symposium exploring how ideas of community feature in crime fiction. The panels will include "Criminalising Communities," "Arab Noir," "Femmes and Men Fatales," "Border Control," and "Imagined Communities."

The Edinburgh International Book Festival just announced its schedule for the next event, scheduled for August 15-31. The lineup includes Val McDermid discussing her new crime novel with the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon; Ian Rankin chatting with some of his favorite writers and musicians; S.J. Watson explaining how "Honesty is Not the Best Policy in Crime Fiction"; Staurt MacBride talking about his crime fiction works set in Scotland; Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson and Scottish author Malcolm Mackay discussing the "International Language of Murder" and much more.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature released the early lineup for the 2016 festival in Dubai, March 8-12. Festival fave crime writer Ian Rankin will be returning with another Detective Rebus mystery, and he'll be joined by Anthony Horowitz, author of the new James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis.

Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch and Amerian Gangster's Chiwetel Ejiofor were both awarded CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours, announced June 13 by Buckingham Palace. American actor Kevin Spacey was also bestowed with an Honorary Knighthood.

Jeffrey Marks is working on a biography of Ellery Queen, the pen name of authors Fred Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. In an article for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's blog, Marks discussed Dannay and his pioneering efforts to collect, document, and pubicize short crime fiction.

The Film Noir Foundation's quarterly magazine is called Noir City and previously was available only by subscription, but now readers can purchase individual back issues. Topics have included silent movie noir, the unsung directors known as the Poverty Row Professionals, and articles from crime writers like Christa Faust, who discussed noir vixens of recent vintage. You'll also find an overview of heist movies from Ken Bruen, Laura Lippman and Scott Phillips, and a regular "Five Favorites" feature with masters like Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly and Lawrence Block giving you their noir picks. (HT to co-managing editor Vince Keenan)

The Irish times profiled Patricia Highsmith 20 years after her death, with a look at her books that created what Graham Greene called “a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger." Virago has reissued six of her novels, including The Blunderer, Deep Water and a "gorgeous hardback" of The Talented Mr Ripley.

The Agatha Christie Festival in September in Torquay will include a cooking demonstration with poisonous twist as French writer Anne Martinetti recreates recipes from the Queen of Crime’s books that are well suited for concealing poison. For the full schedule, which was just released, check out the festival website.

AARP Magazine profiled six bestselling female crime authors, which article writer Deirdre Donahue called the "A-team of crime and punishment."

Sarah Weinman penned an article for The Guardian titled, "The anti-Gone Girl: Mary Higgins Clark's likeable heroines are key to her longevity." Clark turns 88 this year and reflects on the secrets to her success after forty years in the publishing business.

Although the late Ruth Rendell was arguably best known for her Inspector Wexford series, she also wrote a series of standalone suspense novels. Leo Robson, writing for Guardian Books took a look at how these novels made her the "favorite" of French cinema, including the latest adaptation, François Ozon’s film The New Girlfriend.

Via Mental Floss:  "How Edgar Allan Poe Inspired Scrabble." (Hint: Poe’s short story “The Gold-Bug,” uses a cipher based on the popularity of English letters.)

Who says crime fiction isn't sexy? Lingerie company Passionata released a crime thrillers collection.

This week's featured poem at the 5-2 is "Confidence" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, historical thriller writer Jerry Amernic chats with Omnimystery News; Kevin Cummings took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge; Grant Blackwood chatted with the Huff
ington Post about taking over Tom Clancy's novel franchise; and Terry Shames was snared by the Mystery People to discuss her latest book A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town

I watched a little gem of an animated feature-length movie on TCM the other night titled Mr. Bug Goes to Town. Never heard of it? I hadn't either, and as it turns out, very few people have any inkling the film ever existed. Why is that, you say? The film was plagued with production problems from the outset, but the real problem was that it was released on December 5, 1941 - two days before Pearl Harbor.

After untold hours of painstaking animation (this was way back before computers, remember), and all the loving touches that are so evident in the film, it's a little heartbreaking to think that it became another casualty, of sorts, of World War II. It was re-released in 1946 as Hoppity Goes to Town by Paramount, but was deemed a box-office failure and relegated to deep in the film archives.

The heart of the story has a little bit of crime in it, with a happy and innocent band of insects living in the "lowlands" of a garden near Broadway in NYC until a broken fence leads to The Humans tromping on their territory and disrupting their community. Our plucky protagonist, Hoppity (a grasshopper, natch), is in love with the beautiful Honey (Bee), but he's not the only resident of Buggsville who has his eyes on Honey - so does the rich and evil C. Bagley Beetle.

The plot piles layer after layer of trouble and mayhem onto the Buggsville residents that Mr. Beetle happily fosters (with the help of his hapless henchmen Swat and Smack) because it all ties into his plot to make Honey's father Mr. Bumble so destitute that he's forced to have Honey marry the rich shyster to save both their home and their little "town."

Fleischer Studios is the creative force behind Mr. Bug Goes to Town, headed by the often-quarreling brothers Dave and Max. (The Fleischers were forced to sell their studio to Paramount mid-way through production on Mr. Bug due to financial problems). Max Fleischer was one of the pioneers of animation, creating Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, with the Fleischer studio also behind the popular Popeye cartoons in the 1930s and the better-known animated feature film Gulliver's Travels.

Under the reissue title, Hoppity had multiple re-releases on home video with inferior quality throughout the 1970s and had a more recent DVD release by Legend Films, re-titled as Bugville. The film has now become a cult favorite with a younger generation of animation buffs and was transferred from an original 35mm Technicolor release print owned by the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. That version was shown in 2012 for the first time on television in a special hosted by Robert Osborne and Jerry Beck dedicated to rare animated films, including Gulliver's Travels.

Todd Mason has a regular Tuesday "Forgotten Films" feature on his blog, and you can check out more neglected masterpieces via this link.

Media Murder for Monday

We start off the week with the latest news of crime dramas on the big and little screen:

MOVIES

Australian author Anna Snoekstra’s debut novel The New Winter (to be published by Harlequin imprint Mira in June 2016) has been optioned by Universal Pictures. The story centers on a 25-year-old runaway claiming to be a girl who disappeared 11 years ago, but when her family takes her in, family secrets that led to the daughter’s disappearance begin to surface.

Sony Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to Branden Kramer’s cyber-suspense thriller Ratter, starring Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Matt McGorry (Orange is the New Black) and Rebecca Naomi Jones (The Switch). Kramer directed from his own script (based on the short online film Webcam), with Benson taking on the role of a graduate student living alone in New York City, where she’s watched by a “ratter” who stalks her by hacking into all of her personal technology, eventually going from virtual stalking to physical stalking.

Marion Cotillard is in negotiations to co-star with Brad Pitt in Paramount, New Regency and Graham King’s untitled period spy thriller. Robert Zemeckis is directing the film from a script by Steven Knight, although the plot and full details of the project have been kept under wraps.

Lou Diamond Phillips has signed on to star in the thriller The Night Stalker, with production slated to begin this summer. He'll take on the role of real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez, dubbed “the Night Stalker” by the Los Angeles press during his 1985 killing spree.

Irish actor Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction) has joined the cast of Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, set in Boston in the late seventies. Those already signed include Brie Larson, Noah Taylor, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Enzo Cilenti. Larson plays a woman who has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen and a gang that is selling them a stash of guns. But when shots are fired in the handover, a game of survival ensues.

London Has Fallen, the thriller sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, is moving to a 2016 release date, thanks to schedule conflicts with films like Fox's The Martian and Sony's The Walk. London Has Fallen once again stars Gerard Butler as former Special Forces soldier Mike Banning, who in this outing must thwart a plot to assassinate world leaders gathering for the Prime Minister’s funeral in London.  

Speaking of dates in the future, Sony has set a Sept. 29, 2017 release date for its sequel to the Denzel Washington thriller The Equalizer, with Washington expected to reprise his role as vigilante Robert McCall.

Robert Redford has bowed out of directing the 9/11 thriller, Against All Enemies, due to scheduling conflicts. Redford is the latest in a long line of director/actor shakeups for the project, which is based on Richard A. Clarke's bestselling memoir.

Daniel Craig returns for his fourth outing as 007 in a new TV spot for Spectre.

A trailer was released for Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan’s action thriller No Escape.

A new trailer was released for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the spy thriller based on the 1960s hit television series.

In the trailer for Alejandro Amenabar’s upcoming thriller Regression, Emma Watson struggles to access repressed memories after she accuses her father of a crime. The film also stars Ethan Hawke as Detective Bruce Kenner, David Thewlis as the psychologist, and David Denick as the father.

TELEVISION

Blythe Danner (Meet The Parents) and Lyne Renee (Strike Back) have joined the cast of ABC’s Madoff miniseries, which is based on the infamous swindler Bernie Madoff and the $65 billion Ponzi scheme he masterminded. Danny Deferrari and Stephen Gevedon have also come on board the project, which stars Richard Dreyfuss as Madoff.

It appears that fans of the supernatural private eye drama Constantine (starring Matt Ryan) on NBC are finally out of luck. There were encouraging signs the producer might be able to get another network to pick up the show after NBC canceled it, but those efforts didn't pan out. Executive producer Daniel Cerone announced the show’s official end and thanked fans for the support.  

On the other hand, fans of the crime drama Power on Starz will be relieved to hear the network has renewed the series for a third season. The show stars Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren and Naturi Naughton and is set in two different worlds, the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade.

Leonard Roberts (American Sniper) has been added to the cast of another show based on a true-life case, Ryan Murphy’s FX drama American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson. Roberts will play Dennis Schatzman, the journalist who jumped on the O.J. Simpson soapbox to cry out about the LAPD’s war against African-Americans.

The latest trailer for New Detective's Season Two (which premieres on June 21) is a "wordless, pulse-pouding look at the four main characters," including Ventura County Sheriff’s detective Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and motorcyle cop Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), as they skirt the line between the law and crime.

CBS announced the premiere dates for its fall schedule including Scorpion and NCIS: Los Angeles (September 21); NCIS, NCIS: New Orlean
s, and Limitless (September 22); Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods (September 25); Criminal Minds (September 30); CSI: Cyber (October 4); and Elementary (November 5).

ABC also announced its fall schedule, with Castle premiering on September 21; How to Get Away with Murder on September 24; and the debut series Quantico on September 27.

Fox Tweeted a "first look" photo of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully during production on the upcoming X-Files limited series.

Good Things Comes in Small Packages

There are so many comings and goings in the publishing world, it's hard to keep track of them all. Still, I'm always interested to hear of new indie publishers in the crime fiction realm, and three of those young whipper-snappers have crossed my desk recently. They're worth keeping your eye on, and I hope they can bring forth many interesting new (or reissued) titles in the genre, whether it's novellas, classics, or pulp.

If you like your crime on the short side, Number 13 Press has your number. They are an e-publishing company whose stated aim is to "build a list of 13 quality crime titles, to be published consecutively on the 13th of each month, starting in November 2014." They've kept that pace so far, with seven titles available, starting with Of Blondes and Bullets by Michael Young (with "a touch of David Goodis’s everyman-noir, a dash of Brit Grit, and a whole lot of hardboiled") up through Redbone by Matt Phillips, a "captivating murder ballad-noir."

Chalk Line Books specializes in republishing vintage crime fiction classics with ten evocative illustrations in each book. Their goal is to become the best publisher of vintage crime fiction by bringing you a high-quality selection of "Books to die for!" (a la Black Lizard Books). The first novels out of the starting gate were Jim Thompson's Sharecropper Hell and David Goodis' The Secret Squad, with newer titles and more to come from James M. Cain, Charles Williams, Ed McBain, Peter Rabe, and more.

Bitter Lemon Press has been around since 2003, making it the "oldest" of these three publishers. The London-based press was established to bring readers high quality thrillers and other contemporary crime fiction books from abroad and explore the "dark, sexy and often humorous novels that expose the seamier side of society." Bitter Lemon Press recently signed a series of deals for female crime writers from around the world, including Brazil's Patrica Melo, Turkey's Esmahan Aykol and Argentina's Claudia Piñeiro.

Mystery Melange

The 13th edition of the Crime on the Beach Festival in Le Havre starts today and will host illustrators, artists, actors, and French and international crime novelists.

Tomorrow night in Glasgow (June 11), a Noir at the Bar event will be held at the Raven bar on Renfield Street at 7pm. Authors who will be reading from their works include Denise Mina (The Red Road), Christopher Brookmyre (Dead Girl Walking), Helen Fitzgerald (The Exit), Kirstin Innes (Fishnet) and Graeme MacRae Burnet (The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau).

The International Crime Fiction Research Group will hold its next conference June 26-27 at the University of Limerick. Titled "Consuming Crime," the event will include sessions on Crime and the Media, Food in Crime Fiction, and a look at consumption in the genre.

The Bloody Scotland conference announced the lineup for its fourth annual event this September. Highlights will include an all-woman panel of writers tackling the topic, "Killer Women – Deadlier Than The Male?"; a celebration of the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s birth with talks by research chemist Dr Kathryn Harkup (whose book A is for Arsenic looks at Christie's obsession with poison), and Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson, who's translated 14 of Christie’s books; writers and comics will join forces to improvise the plot of a crime novel on stage; and the event culminates with the Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year awards dinner. The Conference also announced it's giving away free tickets to the unemployed.

A record 96 crime books are in the running for Sisters in Crime Australia's 15th Davitt Awards, with finalists to be presented by at a gala dinner in Melbourne on Saturday, August 29.

BritCrime 2015 is a free online festival taking July 11-13, featuring live Q&A panel discussions with forty crime authors hosted on Facebook, as well as informal "Meet us in the bar" sessions for late night chat, giveaways, and more. The festival will provide updates from BritCrime authors attending New York’s ThrillerFest, as well as a look ahead to Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate the following week, where many BritCrime authors will be in attendance.

A new free online course from Dundee University's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) takes its inspiration from a crime novel by author Val McDermid. Interested students can register for the "Identifying the Dead" course, which begins in September, and will "pick their way through the plot, which will unfold over six weeks and require them to solve the mysteries presented by the dead body. They will be presented with pieces of evidence and video footage around the case."

For more than a century, the Crime Museum inside London police headquarters has been available only to Scotland Yard staff and invited guests. That will change this October when hundreds of objects from the museum will be part of exhibition at the Museum of London, including the death masks of executed murderers, a pistol used in an attempt to kill Queen Victoria, and notes from a senior detective on the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders.

Also in London, you can catch the exhibition "A Dickens Whodunit: Solving The Mystery of Edwin Drood," at the Charles Dickens Museum through November 22. The exhibition is curated by Dickens specialist Pete Orford (University of Buckingham) and features clips from adaptations of Dickens novels and also discussions of various theories about the perpetrator in Dickens's unfinished work. Visitors can also see the desk on which Dickens wrote Drood. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell, a/k/a The Bunburyist Blog)

Inkitt is a Germany-based website similar to Wattpad where writer-members can read and share short fiction in a variety of genres. They also sponsor the occasional short story contest, and the latest is for mystery and thriller authors. The rules are pretty simple: submit original short stories of any length on the theme of "Fated Paradox: Tales of gripping suspense" from now through July 4th. Reader votes will determine the top tier, with the Inkitt staff choosing the first, second, and third prize winners.

This week's crime poem over at the 5-2 is "Love Me Like a Murder Scene" by Sara J. Tantlinger.

The Q&A roundup includes an Examiner interview with Kate Carlisle about the new bibliophile mystery; Gerald So chats with Patti Abbott about her debut novel, Concrete Angel; Chris Culver stopped by Omnimystery News to talk about his latest Ash Rashid mystery; Jeffery Deaver talked with Hot Press about how he got into writing and how a stalking incident inspired his third Kathryn Dance novel; and Peter James told the The Telegraph about his fascination with murder and how a burglary led to his new novel You Are Dead.

Media Murder for Monday

 

Happy Monday! Time once again for this week's crime-drama news:

MOVIES

Emily Blunt is in talks to take on the starring role in the movie version of Paula Hawkins' bestseller, The Girl on the Train, directed by Tate Taylor. There are two additional "meaty roles" for actresses, but there's no word on who else will be hopping on board to join the cast.

The first trailer was released for Spielberg’s Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies, which reunites the director with frequent collaborator Tom Hanks in the project based on the real-life 1960 case of downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.

New photos and a trailer were released for the upcoming Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

A trailer was released for the revenge drama Lila & Eve starring Viola Davis (Lila) and Jennifer Lopez (Eve) as a grieving mother and her friend who take matters into their own hands to track down the killers of Lila's son.  

TELEVISION

Fox is developing a new 24 spin-off that will revolve around a new, twenty-something male terrorist hunter working alongside an older, more seasoned female agent. Although there are no current plans for Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer to be a regular character, he might appear in a guest-starring role.

Fringe star John Noble will join the cast of CBS' drama Elementary as a series regular for the upcoming fourth season, playing Sherlock Holmes’ wealthy, estranged father.

USA Network is developing the drama Apex, which centers on a female assassin who saves the life of a teenage outcast and the two form an unlikely bond. Finding themselves at the heart of a dangerous conspiracy, the duo fights for their survival while uncovering the truth.

Filming has begun on Dickensian, which Deadline called "a sort of super-literary-hero mash-up." The 20-part BBC One period drama brings together some of Charles Dickens' most iconic characters, using plots culled from backstories from Dickens' novels. The cast includes Stephen Rea as Inspector Bucket from Bleak House, Pauline Collins as Mrs. Gamp from Martin Chuzzlewit, Caroline Quentin as Oliver Twist's Mrs. Bumble, and Peter Firth (Spooks) and Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game).

Showtime’s CIA drama Homeland is not only adding a new locale for Season 5 (Germany), the show is adding four new series regulars, including a new boss and a new love interest for Carrie. The new additions are Miranda Otto (The Lord Of The Rings), German actor Sebastian Koch, Alexander Fehling (Inglorious Basterds) and Sarah Sokolovic, who join returning stars Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, F. Murray Abraham and Mandy Patinkin.

Joel McHale has signed up for a guest-starring stint on Fox’s new six-episode installment of The X-Files, which reunites original stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. McHale will play the anchor of a popular conservative Internet news network who becomes an unlikely ally for Fox Mulder.

Justified's Nick Searcy has joined the cast of the Hulu event series 11/22/63, from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and author Stephen King, based on King's alternate-history novel.

Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt has signed up to play the real-life Victorian era serial killer Mary Ann Cotton in Dark Angel, a two-part drama from ITV.

Tomorrow night, BBC2's new two-part thriller Stonemouth premieres (based on the novel by Iain Banks), and star Christian Cooke (Doctor Who) talked about the project and his role.

CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, unveiled its lineup for the fall with new additions that include the mystery thriller Blindspot by Greg Berlanti (producer of The Flash and Arrow); the FBI thriller Quantico, about top new recruits; Shonda Rhimes' new show The Catch, about a forensic accountant who exposes fraud; and the supernatural police procedural Lucifer from CSI's Jerry Bruckheimer.

Speaking of Quantico, ABC tweaked its fall schedule and moved the FBI drama to Sunday into the 10 p.m. hour after production on the period piece Of Kings and Prophets, the show originally scheduled for that slot, was delayed.

Female-driven WE-TV ordered two unscripted series set in the legal world, both set to premiere in 2016. Ladies Of Law follows a group of four interconnected, powerful and glamorous African American female lawyers specializing in entertainment law in New York City, while Sisters In Law is set in Houston.

Former U2 manager Paul McGuinness is producing a TV crime drama series with a team that includes director Neil Jordan and crime author John Banville. Titled Riviera and set in the south of France, the series centers on a large Franch/Italian seemingly legitimate family business empire that conceals a criminal enterprise.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest Crime and Science Radio is titled "The Anatomy of Innocence: An Interview with Author, Legal Scholar, and Advocate Laura Caldwell."

From Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Passport to Crime department, a podcast of a story in translation
. “Checkmate in Chimbote” by Belgium’s Bob Laerhoven, past winner of the Hercule Poirot Prize, is read by his translator, Josh Pachter. (The story first appeared in English in EQMM’s June 2014 issue.)

THEATER

The Tony Awards were handed out last night, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was a big winner (Best Play, Best Actor for Alex Sharp, Best Director for Marianne Elliot, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design). The work is based on the novel by Mark Haddon about a boy with an Asperger-like condition who tries to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog.

The Idaho Shakespeare Festival is staging a production of Dial M for Murder through August 2. The play was written by Frederick Knott and first performed on stage in 1952 before he later adapted the work for an Alfred Hitchcock-directed film version in 1954.

Peter Colley’s comic thriller I’ll Be Back Before Midnight! is part of Valley Summer Theatre’s lineup in Nova Scotia, with a run from July 8 through August 2. The play premiered in 1979 and has since been produced in 30 countries, 48 U.S. states and was made into a Hollywood film. 

An adaptation of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None comes to the New Theatre, Cardiff, for a brief stint running June 30 through July 4. The top-notch cast is headlined by BAFTA-nominated actor Paul Nicholas.

Shamus Award Finalists

 

The Private Eye Writers of America have announced the finalists for the 2015 Shamus Awards. I am incredibly, humbly honored to be included this year in the Best Indie P.I. Novel category, but the list of all nominees is filled with some of the best writing in the genre today - congratulations and best wishes to all:

Best Hardcover P.I. Novel

• The Hollow Girl by Reed Farrel Coleman
• The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
• Toyko Kill by Barry Lancet
• Hounded  by David Rosenfelt
• Peter Pan Must Die by John Verdon

Best First P.I. Novel

• Invisible City by Julia Dahl
• Bad Country by C.B. McKenzie
• Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe
• Wink of an Eye by Lynn Chandler Willis
• City of Brick and Shadow by Tim Wirkus

Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel

• The Detective and the Pipe Girl by Michael Craven
• Beauty With A Bomb by M.C.Grant
• Critical Damage by Robert K. Lewis
• Street Justice by Kris Nelscott
• Moonlight Weeps by Vincent Zandri

Best P.I. Short Sory

• “Clear Recent History” by  Gon Ben Ari in Tel Aviv Noir
• "The Ehrengraf Fandango " by Lawrence Block  in  Defender of the Innocent
• “Fear Is The Best Keeper of Secrets ” by Vali Khalili in Tehran Noir
• “Mei Kwei, I Love You” by Suchen Christine Lim in Singapore Noir
• “Busting Red Heads” by Richard Helms  in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

Best Indie P.I. Novel

• The Shadow Broker by Trace Conger
• Nobody’s Child by Libby Fischer Hellmann
• Played To Death by BV Lawson
• The Kids Are All Right by Steve Liskow
• Get Busy Dying by Ben Rehder

Mystery Melange

Congratulations to the winners of this year's Arthur Ellis Awards for excellence in Canadian crime writing. Best Novel went to C.C. Humphreys for Plague; Best First novel to Steve Burrows, Siege of Bitterns; Best Novella to Jas. R. Petrin, "A Knock on the Door," Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; Best Short Story to Margaret Atwood, "Stone Mattress." For all the winners and nominees, check out this list from CrimeSpree Magazine.

Sophie Henaff is the recipient of the 10th Arsène Lupin Prize for Crime Fiction for her novel Grilled Chicken, published by Éditions Albin Michel. The prize was established in honor of author Maurice Leblanc and his fictional creation Detective Lupin, often called the French version of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.

The winners of the Lamba Liberary "Lammy" Awards celebrating LGBT fiction were announced, including the winners of the Best Gay Mystery Novel, Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery, by Katie Gilmartin, and Best Lesbian Mystery, The Old Deep and Dark-A Jane Lawless Mystery, Ellen Hart.

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners for its 2015 Audie Awards honoring spoken word entertainment, including Best Mystery, The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith as narrated by Robert Glenister; and Best Thriller, Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta, as narrated by Robert Petkoff.

Australian author Jane Harper was awarded Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, receiving $15,000 for her crime novel, The Dry.

Kate Flora won the Crime Fiction Book Award category in the 2015 Maine Literary Awards for her book And Grant You Peace. (HT Mystery Fanfare)

Mystery Readers NorCal's next Literary Salon will feature Carola Dunn on Thursday, June 11 in Berkeley, CA. Carola Dunn is the author of over 50 mysteries, including the latest in her Daisy Dalrymple series, Superfluous Women.

The British Library is re-issuing Lois Austen-Leigh’s The Incredible Crime, hailed as “the very essence of mystery” when it was first published in 1931. Austen-Leigh is the granddaughter of Jane Austen’s nephew, and her mystery hasn't been in print for eighty years.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Ezine includes recaps of the launch of Killer Women, a group of London-based female crime writers, and also the Margery Allingham Society’s commemoration of what would be the 111th birthday of one of the great "Queens of Crime." As Ripley notes, all of Allingham's novels are being reissued by Vintage over the next twelve months.
 
Publishers Weekly profiled Crooked Lane Books, a new crime fiction imprint that debuted at BEA with its fall titles.

Keith Rawson, writing for LitReator, profiled "5 Crime Short Story Writers You Should Be Reading Right Now," including Friday's Forgotten Books' own Patti Abbott.

Elizabeth Foxwell notes that the people behind the Johannsen and LeBlanc dime novel collections at Northern Illinois University are inviting reviews by scholars, students, and fans of the 19th- and 20th-century dime novels offered on its revamped Web site. So far, they've scanned 1,000 items in the collection.

Dennis Lehane told the Hay Festival how he went from working class Boston to a life of literary acclaim as he offered up "10 rules for making it as a writer."

Thanks to the success of the first national Independent Bookstore Day held last month in the U.S., plans are in the works for a second annual event on Saturday April 30, 2016.

Amazon compiled its annual list of the "Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities" in the U.S., based on sales for all books, magazines and newspapers sales in both print and Kindle format.

Some James Bond fans will be happy to hear that Pussy Galore is making a comeback. Anthony Horowitz, the latest contemporary novelist to be officially commissioned by the Fleming estate to write a continuation novel, has revealed that the femme fatale will return in Trigger Mortis, which sees the British spy return to 1957 (two weeks after Goldfinger).

The professional hit is the trademark of organized gangs from the Mafia to the Hell’s Angels, and Listverse offered up ten unsolved murders linked to organized crime.

The world's oldest crime? Lethal wounds on a skull may indicate a 430,000 year-old murder.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 is "We Didn't Know" by Bill Baber, while this month's featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Stray Bullet" by Jerry Bloomfield.

The Q&A roundup includes Catriona McPherson chatting with The Examiner about the award-winning author's mysteries in multiple genres, as well as food, culture, and the crazy ways they can clash; and Suzanne Munshower stopped by Omnimystery News to discuss her new novel Younger.