Mystery Melange

Congratulations to Oakmont, Pennsylvania's Mystery Lovers Bookshop, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Halloween with a free all-day event. Features will include author Nancy Martin reading from her new novel, Miss Ruffles Inherits Everything, and store founders Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman will participate in a meet and greet and a "very special announcement." There will also be a 10-Cent Book Sale, with all proceeds going to charity. (HT to Shelf Awareness.)

Don Winslow has won the 2015 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for The Cartel. The other finalists in the annual award handed out by the the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association were Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flett-Giordano and The Replacements by David Putnam.

Janet Rudolph has a list of dozens of Halloween Crime Fiction titles on her Mystery Fanfare blog for you, enough to haunt you for weeks.

Suspense Magazine kicked off the holiday season handing out treats like exclusive interviews with Karin Slaughter, Sandra Brown, Simon Toyne, Matthew Palmer, and Pan Jenoff. There are also columns on forensics from Dr. D.P. Lyle, thriller news from Jenny Milchman, and over 20 pages of book reviews, short stories, and other articles; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about his new mystery featuring Mycroft Holmes; and much more.

If you're near Berkeley, California, tomorrow evening, join Mystery Readers NorCal for a panel on Jewish Noir. The panel is in celebration of a new anthology featuring contemporary tales of crime and other dark deeds and will feature editor, Kenneth Wishnia, and co-conspirators Summer Brenner, Michael J. Cooper, Steven Wishnia, Melanie Dante, Wendy Hornsby and Stephen Jay Schwartz.

The fall edition of Mystery Scene magazine features an Oline Cogdill interview with author Craig Johnson, as well as Robert Taylor, who plays the Johnson's Wyoming sheriff in the Netflix series Longmire; and Michael Mallory offers an overview of Bradbury’s early pulp short stories and innovative mystery novels.

Wondering what to serve at your Halloween party this year? Mashable has an assortment of Halloween cocktails inspired by your favorite horror movie villains, and the Mystery Lovers Kitchen has healthy Edible Witches' Brooms and decadent spider cookies.

If you're panicking over your Halloween costume and Jack o'Lantern carving, Book Riot has a scary array of literary Halloween costumes you can wear year 'round, and Mashable has three no-carve pumpkin ideas (no guts!).

If you're mood for a classic horror flick on Halloween the Classic Film and TV Cafe blog lists and ranks the Dracula films.

This obituary notice came too late for last week's Melange blog post, but mystery author Joyce Lavene, wife of Jim Lavene, has passed away. The couple authored over 60 novels including the Pumpkin Patch Mysteries; Purple Door Detective Agency, Taxi for the Dead Paranomal Mysteries, Retired Witches Mysteries, Missing Pieces Mysteries, Renaissance Faire Mysteries, Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries, and Sharyn Howard Mysteries, and much more.

The crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Ode to the Homicidal 'Gentlemen'" by Tonia Kalouria. Also, editor Gerald So put out a call for poems about James Bond, Ian Fieming, the theme songs, the movies vs. reality, etc. by November 6, 2015, the U.S. premiere date of SPECTRE. Accepted poems will appear on the site in December and beyond.

The Q&A roundup this week includes Jimmy Vargas taking Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge; Kevin Hurley stopped by Ominimystery News to talk about his new thriller Cut and Cover; and the San Diego Tribune chatted with Elizabeth George about her latest book in the Inspector Lynley series, A Banquet of Consequences.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for the latest news about crime dramas on screens, big and small, and on the air:

MOVIES

George Clooney has come on board the latest Coen Brothers film - this time to direct. The project is based on the Coens' script Suburbicon, a noirish, small crime drama set in the 1950s.

Indican Pictures has snapped up film rights to This Last Lonely Place, a noir thriller executive produced by the Santana film division of the Humphrey Bogart Estate, with hopes for an early 2016 release. Directed and written by Steve Anderson, the project tells the story of an unsuspecting cab driver (Rhys Coiro) who, on his last night on the job, finds himself roped into helping a wealthy investment banker (Xander Berkeley) cover up a brutal crime.

Hollywoodland screenwriter Paul Bernbaum is penning the screenplay for a new period noir thriller, Skin Trade, based on the true story of FBI agent Pat Livingston and the Mafia-related pornography sting that nearly claimed his life.

Veteran character actor and Oscar winner Chris Cooper is joining Ben Affleck’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel, Live By Night. Cooper joins an all-star case headed by Affleck, Chris Messina, Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller and Zoe Saldana. The story follows a young gangster’s climb up the ranks during the Prohibition era.

The next Jack Reacher film added its final cast members just in time for production to start in New Orleans. Holt McCallany signed on for the sequel to the 2012 Tom Cruise film and will play one of the villains. The second Reacher outing finds returning to his old army base and ends up being accused of the murder of his old friend, so he must solve the mystery of the murder while also running from the law.

Scott Shepherd has been added to the cast of the new Jason Bourne movie in a role that’s rumored to be the director of the CIA. He joins Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, and Tommy Lee Jones for the project.

TELEVISION

Fox is developing a drama from writer David Slack (Person Of Interest) and Sleepy Hollow co-creator and executive producer Len Wiseman. Inspired by the July New York Times Magazine article, “Who Runs the Streets of New Orleans” by David Amsden, the show will explore what happens "when an enigmatic tech billionaire makes a deal with a bankrupt, dying city to provide a privately owned-and-operated police force."

Fox also put in development the pilot Incrimination, an hourlong legal drama from Mistresses executive producer Rina Mimoun and writer-producer Justin Lo. The project is described as "a salacious soap" and centers on a young woman with narcissistic personality disorder who infiltrates a law firm in order to find the truth behind her sister’s murder.  

CBS gave a full season order to Limitless, the follow-up to the 2011 Bradley Cooper film of the same name, about a slacker who unlocks the full potential of his mind when he takes a brain-enhancing drug called NZT and sets about helping the FBI solve their most complex cases.

Anne Heche has signed on to guest-star on Quantico, playing a former FBI agent and medical examiner named Dr. Susan Langdon.

The BBC is working on a deal with China to release the Sherlock Victorian Christmas special in movie theaters there, part of the global cinema event executive producer Steven Moffat talked up at Comic-Con in July that will see the project released in “select theaters” around the world.

Meanwhile, PBS revealed the broadcast date for the Sherlock Victorian special as January 1, meaning it will premiere in both the U.S. and the U.K. on the same date. Shooting for season 4 of the series will begin in the spring.

Misha Glenny's non-fiction 2008 book McMafia is going to be adapted for a BBC1 drama series with eight 60-minute episodes centering around one Russian family living in exile in London. The Mail praised the book as "organised crime's version of Fast Food Nation" for its hard-hitting look at global crime and its far reaching influence. The project has an impressive pedigree, with creators Hossein Amini (Snow White And The Huntsman) and James Watkins (The Woman in Black) and writers David Farr (Spooks), Peter Harness (Doctor Who) and Laurence Coriat (Me Without You).

B.D. Wong will be making a guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU this November, reprising his role as SVU resident head shrinker Dr. George Huang.

FX released two new teaser clips for the upcoming American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. The videos don't show Cuba Gooding Jr., who stars as O.J. Simpson, although they do show John Travolta's as Simpson's lawyer Robert Shapiro.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Hank Phillippi Ryan was the latest guest on Crimefiction FM, discussing the new (and fourth) book in her suspenseful Jane Ryland series, What You See.

The most recent Speaking of Mysteries podcast profiled the new work, Women Crime Writer’s: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman.

New York Times bestselling author Russell Blake joined CrimeFiction.FM to discuss his new book, the fifth in the Artemis Black Mystery series, Black in the Box.

Debbi Mack's Crime Cafe featured a rebroadcast of the classic, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe - "Who Shot Waldo?", courtesy of Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

Crime and Science Radio offered Part Two in an interview with the FBI’s Betsy Glick and Edward You, and Biotech Futurist Andrew Hessel.

Suspense Radio One on One featured a discussion with two mystery authors, George Chronis and Melissa Lenhardt.

Mystery Melange

If you'll be in the Dallas, Texas, area on November 12, mark your calendar for the Noir at the Bar event at The Wild Detectives. The event will feature readings from several dark fiction authors, including Harry Hunsicker, Eryk Pruitt, Opalina Salas, Jedidiah Ayres, Joe Lansdale, and others (final lineup still pending) and will be hosted by David Hale Smith and Eryk Pruitt

Intellect Books in the UK is launching a new nonfiction series in November titled Crime Uncovered. The project's aims are to explore the genre "in an intelligent, critical and accessible manner." The first two volumes will be on the antihero and the detective, followed in March by a volume on the private investigator. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

Scott S. Smith penned an essay for Investors Daily about Ross Macdonald as part of a celebration of the centennial of Macdonald's birth this year, including an overview of his writing and how he influenced many of today's top crime fiction authors.

A group of bestselling authors have joined Pen International’s new "writers circle," to offer financial support to Pen’s work defending freedom of expression around the world. Authors on board the initiative include Salman Rushdie, Colm Tóibín, Alexander McCall Smith, Margaret Atwood and Ian Rankin. As bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak noteed, it's a chance for writers to "connect across borders," evoking a “turbulent period in world history in which storytellers, east and west, need to speak louder, bolder.”

Stieg Larsson's Millennium series is getting additional sequels, according to Swedish publisher Norstedts. David Lagercrantz, who took on the franchise after Larsson’s death with The Girl in the Spider’s Web, will write two more books featuring Lisbeth Salander, tentatively scheduled for publication in 2017 and 2019.

The Mystery People blog will celebrate its 5th anniversary on November 7th, with a panel discussion, trivia, and giveaways. They will also their list of "Mystery People’s Top 100 Greatest Crime And Suspense Books," a list culled from top twenty lists contributed by critics, writers, and Mystery People staff. Throughout the rest of October and into November, they'll post the various offerings, beginning with a "Top 21" list by bestselling author Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series.

In light of the release of a new 007 film and a John le Carré biography, The Guardian took a look at the history of the British spy and how a national obsession led to Bond, Smiley, and an enduring love for tales of espionage.

Speaking of things spy-related, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Archive founder, Richard Rhys Davies, will be releasing a massive, two-volume, fully-illustrated, full-color tome The International Spy Film Guide 1945 - 1989. The project will be a huge resource for students of Cold War spy cinema, spanning from the end of WWII to the fall of the Berlin wall and covering over 2,000 films from 65 Countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain.  (Hat tip to the Double O Section blog.)

We lost Canadian crime author Eric Wright last week, who died at the age of 86 from kidney cancer. Wright was best known for his Toronto Inspector Charlie Salter mystery series and won several Arthur Ellis Awards for his books as well as the Derrick Murdoch Award for his body of work.

To no one's great surprise, forty-eight percent of British crime fiction fans chose Sherlock Holmes as the greatest detective of all time in a new survey. Dame Agatha Christie was named greatest crime writer and her Murder On The Orient Express the greatest crime novel.

The new online issue Of Yellow Mama is out with a roster of new crime shorts and poems.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Daughter of the Confederacy" by Clarinda Harriss.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sons of Spade blog chatted with George Snyder about his three different hardboiled series; The Mystery People welcomed Bryon Quertermous to talk about his debut, Murder Boy, which follows struggling writer Dominick Prince, who attempts to kidnap his instructor in order to pass his class; The Mystery People also sat down with Allen Eskens to discuss the follow-up to his award-winning debut; Kathleen Ernst stopped by Omnimystery News to discuss her sixth mystery in her Chloe Ellefson series; and Jason Starr joined up with Crime Fiction Lover to discuss Savage Lane, his latest thriller.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's this week's news from the world of crime dramas on screen and on the air:

MOVIES

20th Century Fox is rebooting the Die Hard series with a prequel, Die Hard Year One. The project will once again center on protagonist John McClane's story, but the new Len Wiseman-directed prequel will star a younger actor to depict how McClane "became a die hard kind of guy."

Neil Cross, the creator of the BBC crime series Luther, has been tapped to pen Escape from New York, 20th Century Fox’s remake of the 1980s cult classic originally written and directed by John Carpenter (along with co-writer with Nick Castle). The studio is  hoping to relaunch the property as it did with its Planet of the Apes movie series.

Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron is in talks for the lead role in The Gray Man, a role that was originally filled by Brad Pitt. Written by Captain America helmers Joe and Anthony Russo, the project centers on a CIA agent-turned-assassin who must save daughters he didn't know he had, although details haven't been revealed on how the storyline will be revamped for Theron.

A new trailer/featurette has been released for Secret in Their Eyes, a film based on the book by Eduardo Sacheri and adapted by director and screenwriter Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games). The crime novel also inspired El secreto de sus ojos, the 2009 Oscar-winning Argentinian film, and follows a tight-knit team of rising investigators and their supervisor who are suddenly torn apart when they discover one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.

TELEVISION

ABC has picked up its freshman drama Quantico for a full season, following its impressive start as Sunday’s number one broadcast program in the coveted 18-49 demographic. The series follows a diverse group of FBI recruits in training at Quantico headquarters - one of whom is suspected of masterminding the biggest attack on New York City since 9/11.

Likewise, Fox picked up the freshman drama Rosewood for a full season. The procedural stars Morris Chestnut as Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., a Miami pathologist with a heart condition who assists Det. Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz) solve cases. Lorraine Toussaint, Domenick Lombardozzi, Anna Konkle and Gabrielle Dennis also star, and in a few episodes, the drama will also introduce Taye Diggs in a recurring role.

The Canadian cop drama Rookie Blue's recent sixth season finale will serve as a series finale. Producers Entertainment One and U.S. distributor ABC have opted to cancel the series after six seasons and 74 episodes. The producers indicates that the homegrown cop drama had reached a "natural conclusion," especially with  Andy (Missy Peregrym) and Sam (Ben Bass) getting married in the season-six finale.

Kris Polaha (Life UneXpected and Ringer) has landed a recurring role on Castle. He'll play Caleb Brown, a public defender who will go toe-to-toe with Captain Beckett (Stana Katic) by mere virtue of his job and the criminals he represents.

Fox unveiled a stylish new X-Files promo.

PODCASTS/RADIO/VIDEO

CrimeFictionFM welcomed author Nikki Nelson-Hicks to discuss her new book, the first volume in the Accidental Detective series.

Flash and Bang and a Day of Wrath

Sometimes, crime occurs with the sound of a drip of poison, or the whispering whistle of a knife moving through the air. And, sometimes, it happens with a “flash and bang.”  Flash and Bang is the title of a new anthology of short crime fiction from The Short Mystery Fiction Society, founded in 1996 by Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine editor Margo Power. Members went on to found Mysterical-e online magazine as well as to win many awards in the genre. Starting off the rhyming flash piece,"The Perfect Crime," by Herschel Corzine and wending its way through 18 other stories, Flash and Bang has a little something for everyone. I'm proud to say that my own Scott Drayco short, "Silent Measures," is among the stories chosen for this anthology.  (Publisher Untreed Reads has also previously published another Scott Drayco story, "Ill-Gotten Games.")

And speaking of Scott Drayco, the crime consultant is back in novel-length form with the release today of Dies Irae, the third installment in the series. The debut book, Played to Death, was a Shamus Award finalist and named Best Mystery in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The short blurb:  A mysterious and deadly music puzzle forces Drayco to work with his estranged FBI partner to catch a madman ... before the partner's daughter becomes the next victim. It's a fitting Halloween mystery read, and I hope you'll consider picking up the ebook or trade paperback (hardcover coming soon!).

Mystery Melange

Marlon James became the first Jamaican author to win the prestigious Man Booker Prize with his literary crime novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, inspired by the attempted assassination of the legendary singer Bob Marley in the 1970s. (Hat top to Craig Sisterson.) As The Guardian noted, James said he nearly gave up writing after his first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was rejected 78 times by publishers.

Another Bouchercon has come and gone, but the glow of the awards lingers on. The annual conference sees the handing out of the Macavity, Shamus, Barry, and Anthony Awards, each honoring some of the finest crime fiction of the year. The Macavity Novel of the Year went to Alex Marwood for The Killer Next Door (for all the winners and finalists, follow this link); the Barry Award for Best Novel was Natchez Burning by Greg Iles (check out the other nods here); the Shamus Award for Best Hardcover was handed out to Hounded by David Rosenfelt (see other winners/finalists here); and the Anthony Award for Best Novel went to After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (for the rest, clickee here).

John le Carré will reveal his "secret world" in the memoir The Pigeon Tunnel, to be published in 2016. The book will detail the real-life experience of spying for MI5 and MI6 and how they inspired his thrillers.

HarperCollins signed a deal with novelist Sophie Hannah for a second Hercule Poirot title, The Closed Casket. Hannah's first Poirot mystery, The Monogram Murders, was the first authorized reboot of one of Christie’s characters and has been translated into 34 languages.

Minnesota Public Radio's "The Thread" weekly feature tackled the question of "Why aren't there more evil women characters in literature?" The topic was inspired by a recent post by crime writer Melanie McGrath in Aeon magazine, wondering why female thrill-killers are rare in crime fiction.

Here's some good news regarding censorship: libraries and bookshops in New Zealand are celebrating as they put Ted Dawe’s award-winning coming-of-age novel Into the River back on shelves after a ban was reversed. The government's restriction order was originally imposed after a campaign by a conservative religious lobby group.

The Guardian and Observer critics chose a list of the "Top 10 film noir," starting off with They Live by Night at number ten and moving down to ... well, you'll find out when you read the article, although you probably have your own favorites (chime in with the comments, if you do).

If you're going through Sherlock withdrawal waiting for the next season in the BBC series, Mashable selected "3 Streaming Shows for Sherlock Fans" for you.

Think your favorite bookstore is the best? The London Book Fair announced a search for the world’s best bookstore and has posted an online form where you can nominate a store (with submissions accepted through January 16). Entree will be judged in a range of areas, "including customer service, staff knowledge, events, display, outreach, atmosphere, innovation, imagination, incorporation of digital, style and flare."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Snipping Buttons" by Nancy Scott, and the pulp of the month at Beat to a Pulp is "Little Troubles" by Steve Weddle.

In this Q&A roundup, Linda O. Johnston stopped by Omnimystery News to talk about Knock on Wood, the second in her Superstition series; Crime Watch's 9mm Interviews welcomed British author Matthew Frank to discuss his series with London detective Joseph Stark, a veteran of the Afghan war; Crime Watch also scatted with New Zealand thriller writer Thomas Ryan; The Mystery People grilled author and journalist R.G. Belsky about his series with Gil Malloy, a disgraced journalist for the New York Daily News, and they also spoke with Wallace Stroby, author of the Crissa Stone novels.

Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest roundup of crime drama news:

MOVIES

Wolf of Wall Street producer Red Granite is developing a remake of the prison drama Papillon with Danish director Michael Noer attached to helm the project and Aaron Guzikowski (who wrote Denis Villeneuve's 2013 thriller Prisoners) penning the script. The original 1973 film, based on the autobiography by the French convict Henri Charriere, starred Steve McQueen as a criminal unjustly convicted of murder and condemned to life in a South American prison, with Dustin Hoffman playing a counterfeiter who agrees to finance his prison escapes in exchange for protection.

Saban Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to writer-director Adam Alleca’s Standoff, a thriller starring Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane, with an early 2016 release. Jane plays a troubled veteran who gets a chance at redemption by protecting a 12-year-old girl from a vicious assassin (Fishburne) after she witnesses a murder.  

STX Entertainment acquired North American rights to the immigration thriller Desierto, written by Gravity's Jonás Cuarón and starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The story follows a group of would-be immigrants whose dream of entering the U.S. turns into a desperate fight for their lives when a deranged vigilante begins stalking and preying upon the group as they trek across the harsh Sonoran Desert.

Keanu Reeves hinted at a few details about the sequel to the 2014 vengeance thriller John Wick, where Reeves played a hitman pulled out of retirement by criminals who steal his car and kill his dog. The follow-up film will apparently deal more with Wick's past and how it "comes and infiltrates John’s life and John Wick, in a way, has to fight for John."

A rebooted Danger Mouse series premiered just last month, and producers are apparently eyeing a big screen debut for the world’s smallest secret agent. The animated "origin story" will look into the agent so secret that his codename has a codename and who also happens to be a mouse living underneath MI6 headquarters.

TELEVISION

Tired of reboots yet? If not, you're in luck! CBS is teaming with Grey's Anatomy alums Joan Rater and Tony Phelan for a Nancy Drew TV series, with a catch: now in her '30s, Nancy is a detective for the NYPD where she investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills.

Continuing the age-reversal theme, CBS had put in a development order for a series based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Only she’ll be recast as a much younger woman who inherits her grandmother’s old small town book store in California and solves cases in a mystery-of-the-week type format.

Steven Soderbergh's 2011 action thriller Haywire (that starred Channing Tatum and Gina Carano), is also getting a small-screen adaptation. The original story starred Carano as a secret agent on a revenge spree after her agency betrayed her.

Tandem Productions has optioned Ken Follett's 2000 novel Code to Zero to be adapted as a limited series, set in the present day rather the original story's 1958. The story centers on a man who awakens to find himself lying on the ground in a railway station with amnesia and rediscovers his entire life through detective work, uncovering secrets of a conspiracy behind a battle for global space supremacy between the U.S. and China.

CBS has given a 13-episode straight-to-series order to the murder mystery drama American Gothic, from writer Corinne Brinkerhoff (Jane The Virgin) and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV. The story centers on a prominent Boston family trying to redefine itself in the wake of a chilling discovery that links their recently deceased patriarch to a string of murders spanning decades — amid the mounting suspicion that one of them may have been his accomplice.

UK-based Catalyst Global Media is partnering with John Woo and his L.A.-based team for the crime thriller Cognition. The eight-part series, based on an original idea by Alex Garcia Lopez (Utopia, Misfits), is described as a neo-noir and follows two serial killer investigations set in stylistically contrasting worlds — the vast and desolate lands of America’s declining Midwest, and the thriving and overpopulated streets of the Far East.

ABC picked up the legal drama Conviction, co-created by Liz Friedman (Elementary), who will write the project, and Liz Friedlander (The Following), who is attached to direct the potential pilot. The project follows a brilliant but rebellious daughter of a political family who is forced to take a job as head of LA's newly created Conviction Integrity Unit and has two weeks (along with her team of lawyers, investigators and forensic experts) to examine cases where there’s credible suspicion the wrong person may have been convicted of a crime.

Cinemax ordered an adaptation of Skin Trade, a so-called "werewolf noir" novella written by Game Of Thrones’ George R. R. Martin back in 1988. The story centers on on Willie Flambeaux, "a collections agent who happens to be a werewolf, and his friend, Randi Wade, a private investigator, who discover a dark secret behind a series of grisly murders in their decaying industrial city."

Showtime is adding another famous face to its all-star revival of the cult series Twin Peaks in the form of Peter Sarsgaard, who joins Amanda Seyfried, Balthazar Getty, and Robert Knepper, as well as original series lead Kyle MacLachlin.

It's no surprise that NBC’s Blindspot, the fall season’s top-rated new series in adults 18-49, has become the first freshman series to get an increased episode order pickup, bringing its first-season order to a full-season 22 episodes. The crime drama centers on Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander), a woman with no memories whose tattooed body holds the key to her past and to a vast and complex mystery. Sullivan Stapleton co-stars as FBI special
agent Kurt Weller, the leader of an elite FBI unit investigating the woman's case. It was also just announced that The Borgias alum Francois Arnaud has booked a recurring role on the series playing a mysterious character from Jane’s distant past.

Boardwalk Empire alum Stephen Graham is set to star in USA Network’s supernatural procedural pilot Brooklyn Animal Control, based on the IDW Publishing comic created by JT Petty, with Brian Kirk (Game Of Thrones) on board to direct the pilot. The story follows the inner workings of a secret subdivision of the NYPD that functions as social services for some of the city’s most unique citizens — werewolves. In the center of it all is John Crean (Graham), an officer of the BAC who is well-acquainted with the small community of werewolves to which he plays cop, counselor, and diplomat.

Lusia Strus (50 First Dates) and Terry Kinney (Show Me A Hero) have been cast opposite Michelle Dockery and Juan Diego Botto in the TNT drama pilot Good Behavior. The project is based on the Letty Dobesh books by Wayward Pines author Blake Crouch centering on a female thief and con artist.

NCIS is bringing back Tony DiNoz's ex, Scottie Thompson, who will return in November for a possible multi-episode arc. She first appeared in Season 4 as Jeanne, a doctor and the daughter of an arms dealer, who developed a relationship with Tony that turned complicated when she learned Tony was an NCIS agent set to take down her father.

Gracepoint alum Kevin Rankin has joined the cast of Fox’s drama series Lucifer as a regular. The project centers around Lucifer (Tom Ellis) who, bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, resigns his throne to get his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals. Rankin will play Malcolm Graham, a decorated detective with an ends-justify-the-means approach to the law

The Twin Peaks mini-series has recast a major role, that of Sheriff Harry Truman. Michael Onktean, who played the character in the original series, has retired from acting and declined to reprise his role. The current rumors are that Robert Forster (Heroes, Karen Sisco) will take his place.

The BBC dropped a new trailer for the Victorian Sherlock special starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The FBI is joining Crime and Science Radio to discuss Biotechnology and BioSynthetic WMDs. Part 1 was this Saturday (October 10) and Part 2 will air on October 24.

Jeff Cohen was the guest on Debbi Mack's Crime Cafe podcast this week, chatting about his Asperger's mysteries and other crime fiction series.

The latest Speaking of Mysteries podcast featured John Katzenbach talking about his new thriller, Dead Student.

The new Crime Vault podcast hosted by Mark Billingham and Michael Carlson includes an interview with the brilliant Val McDermid; a discussion on franchise novels or "when is a Bond not a Bond?"; reviews of new releases including The Crossing by Michael Connelly, Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell and Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Anna Waterhouse; plus there is a review of classic audio title Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh, listener questions and much more.

Mystery Melange

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers announced that Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King is the winner of the annual Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing. The other finalists included Wayfaring Stranger: A Novel, by James Lee Burke; Smoke River, by Krista Foss; Gangsterland: A Novel, by Tod Goldberg; and Goodhouse: A Novel, by Peyton Marshall. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare)

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) announced the finalists for the T. Jefferson Parker Award, which recognizes excellence in books that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle: Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flett-Giordano; The Replacements by David Putnam; and The Cartel by Don Winslow. The winner will be announced on October 24.

Paul Cleve is the winner of this year's Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel by a New Zealand author or resident. This is the author's second such award, having previously won in 2011 for Blood Men. For a list of the other finalists, check out award founder Craig Sisterson's blog.

Peter May's Entry Island won the Trophée 813, awarded for the last 20 years by the French crime writing review magazine, Review 813. The trophy was awarded at the annual crime writing festival at Villeneuve les Avignon.

We lost another crime fiction icon this week, with the death of Henning Mankell from cancer at the age of 67. Mankell's books and his plays have sold more than 40 million copies and been translated into 40 languages. His popular series featuring police inspector Kurt Wallender, said to have helped created the Nordic noir genre, was turned into a TV series starring Kenneth Brannagh. There are many tributes and obits pouring in, including The New York Times and the BBC.

Noir at the Bar invades Queens on Friday, October 16th, at 7pm, at Astoria Coffee (30-04 30th Street, Astoria). The lineup incudes Lawrence Block, Rob Hart, Jason Starr, Dennis Tafoya, SJ Rozan, Henry Chang, Julia Dahl, Jill Block, Nancy Bilyeau, and Arthur Nersesian, with Alex Segura serving as emcee.

Thrillerfest announced new spotlight guests for the 2016 festival, including C.J. Box, Gillian Flynn, and Walter Mosley. There will also be a new feature this year, a special screenwriting class at Master CraftFest taught by Richard Krevolin. Early bird registration is open until midnight EST on October 31st.

A few years ago, David F. Walker and Bilquis Evely teamed up for the graphic novel Shaft: A Complicated Man, focused on the first case for the legendary private eye. Yesterday, Dynamite Entertainment announced that Walker will return to Shaft with Imitation of Life, a new comic with artist Dietrich Smith, as well as penning Shaft’s Revenge, the first new prose novel about the character in over forty years. The character of Shaft first appeared in a 1970 novel by Ernest Tidyman and was adapted into an iconic film starring Richard Roundtree a year later.

Pulp Modern editor Alec Cizak announced he's returning the publication to feature strictly crime-themed stories (no mysteries), i.e., hard-core stories "about criminals and the wonderful decisions they make." The next reading period for submissions will be December 1-31.

Simon Winder (author of The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal History of James Bond) penned an essay for The Guardian on "Why James Bond is a religion."

Via Bustle: "15 Books For Twin Peaks Fans To Enjoy With A Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee."

The Irish Times profiled "Dead man’s shoes: a top 10 of literary ventriloquism." In honor of Anthony Horowitz joining the list of Bond authors with his new novel Trigger Mortis, the Times offered up a list of ten books that have brought back the voices of much loved works.

In the first of what will undoubtedly be many such commemorations, one of the UK's iconic blue historic plaques will be created in honor of the late Ruth Rendell and placed on a house in Millsmead Way, Loughton, where Mrs Rendell lived when she was married.

The new crime poem at the 5-2 is "Failure" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup this week, Australian crime writer Leigh Redhead spoke at Belfast’s “Setting the Scene” conference, organized by the ICRH at Queen’s University; the Mystery People welcomed Nathan Ward, author of The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett; Jake Needham, who is one of the biggest-selling English-language authors in Asia, stopped by Crime Watch; and Teresa LaRue visited Omnimystery News to promote her new series that begins with A Talent for Murder.

Media Murder for Monday

Start off your week with the latest in crime drama news from stage and screen:

MOVIES

Reese Witherspoon is developing a movie based on Ruth Ware’s mystery novel In a Dark, Dark Wood. The story centers on a reclusive writer who accepts an invitation to a bachelorette party of her best friend from high school, whom she hasn’t seen in 10 years. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive with the knowledge that someone is dead - and tries to piece together the events of the past weekend.

Fargo star Jean Smart has joined the cast of The Ones Above, an indie thriller that has started filming in Los Angeles. She'll play the missing widowed mother of a struggling family man who returns to his hometown to find his mother with help from his estranged brother.

According to Daniel Craig, Spectre won't be his last James Bond adventure. In a recent interview, he said he isn’t ready to give up the coveted role just yet, and “I’m contracted for one more — but I’m not going to make predictions."

Speaking of Spectre, the final trailer was released this past week. Meanwhile, in a jaw-dropping report, the movie allegedly destroyed $34 million dollars' worth of cars in making the film, which is said to have a total budget of over $300 million, making it the most expensive Bond film to-date.

TELEVISION

After three seasons on the air, USA has decided to cancel Graceland, which followed a group of undercover agents from various law enforcement agencies living together in a confiscated Southern California beach house known as "Graceland".

Bones creator Hart Hanson and Bones writer Gene Hong are teaming up for a new comic police procedural at Fox. The untitled one-hour show centers on a socially inept billionaire who helps the LAPD solve crimes.

The TV reboots also continue this week, with two announcements: a small-screen version of Lethal Weapon is in the works at Fox; and a new MacGuyver series is in development at CBS, with NCIS: Los Angeles' R. Scott Gemmill writing the script, and Henry Winkler, who exec produced the original series, on board to serve in the same capacity this go'round.

Last week, we learned that author Tom Clancy's CIA hero Jack Ryan was heading to the small screen, with multiple broadcasters interested. This week, it was announced that Amazon has handed out a straight-to-series order for the project, which is spearheaded by the former Lost duo of co-showrunner Carlton Cuse and writer Graham Roland.

The resurrected Unforgettable will make its new season premiere on Friday, November 13 via its new home on A&E, which will debut the 13-episode Season 4 with back-to-back episodes at 8 PM and 9 PM. Poppy Montgomery returns as NYPD Detective Carrie Wells, and Al Burns reprises his Dylan Walsh character.

Michelle Page has booked a recurring role on Amazon’s drama series Bosch, playing an exotic dancer. Bosch is based on the LAPD police detective from Michael Connelly's bestselling novel series.

Fox revealed a two-part trailer for the upcoming X-Files sequel mini-series that features the return of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), the basement office, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and more.

TNT released a first look at Sharon Stone playing the Vice President on Agent X, which also features the titular spy John Case (Jeff Hephner) who "serves as a suave and skilled secret weapon" for the VP.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Laura Lippman was featured on WBAL-TV talking about her new Tess Monaghan novel, Hush, Hush.

Frank Zafiro chatted with host Debbi Mack on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Author and former LAPD Top Cop Paul Bishop stopped by the CrimeFiction.FM podcast to discuss his new book, Lie Catchers. The podcast also featured thriller author Taylor Stevens talking about goals and how powerful they can be when it comes to maintaining your focus on what’s important.

Louisville lawyer Robert McClure spoke with WAVE-TV about Deadly Lullaby, his new crime fiction eBook released by Penguin Random House.

THEATER

The Hubris Theatre Company will present a stage adaptation of Anthony Burgess' classic novel, A Clockwork Orange, penned by the author himself. Set in a dystopian future, the story follows Alex and his ultra-violent gang as they roam the streets terrorizing innocent people. Performances of A Clockwork Orange are at the Roy Arias Stage 7 in Times Square through October. 31.

Via Deadline: Melinda Page Hamilton, best known as the wife of the real Don Draper who befriends Jon Hamm’s identity thief in Mad Men, has been cast as the female lead opposite Kevin Bacon in Hartford Stage’s world premiere production of Rear Window. Playwright Keith Reddin’s adaptation is based on the Cornell Wollrich short story about a man confined to his New York apartment who believes he’s witnessed a murder (which also served as the basis of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film).

The serial-killer musical American Psycho, starring Benjamin Walker as serial killer Patrick Bateman, will start previews March 24, 2016 (a month later than previously announced) at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway.

The final cast was announced for the new touring production of a Sherlock Holmes stage show: David Arquette will play the iconic detective, James Maslow will take on the role of Dr. Watson (replacing Michael Trevino), and Renee Olstead will play Lady Irene St. John, the American wife of Lord Neville St. John who goes missing.