Happy 25th Birthday to Mystery Loves Company

Mystery Loves Company Booksellers in Oxford, Maryland, will celebrate its 25th birthday this year, which owner and co-founder Kathy Harig is commemorating with a party and book signing on July 4 reaturing author Fran White. The store, which opened in 1991 in Baltimore before moving to its present site in 2006, offers books on the Eastern Shore’s history, flora and fauna, and fiction for all ages, as well as an in-depth collection of mysteries, both new and gently used in hardback and paperback. The store also supports mystery authors throughout the mid-Atlantic with signings and by sponsoring special mystery events, as well as offering a monthly email newsletter of events, recommendations and new mystery titles. Even if you can't make it to the store in person, it recently added an online ordering system, so order a book today as a thank you and birthday tribute.

 

Mystery Melange

The Bouchercon Board of Directors announced that Otto Penzler is the recipient of its 2016 David Thompson Special Service Award for "extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the crime fiction field." Penzler is the proprietor of New York City’s The Mysterious Bookshop, the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975), and has edited numerous anthologies. He also published The Armchair Detective, a quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, in addition to many other contributions to the crime fiction genre. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

Foreword Reviews announced the IndieFab Award winners for 2016, including those in the Mystery and Thriller/Suspense categories. For both winners and finalists, check out the official IndieFab link.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards and Reykjavik City Library are offering booklovers a special Ngaio Marsh Awards edition on June 30 of the Library's popular "Dark Deeds" summer walking tours. The walks are centered on dark deeds of various kinds in Icelandic fiction, happening in or around Reykjavík, and give a taste of Icelandic crime fiction, ghost stories and history.

Crime Fiction Lover decided it was time to celebrate UK crime fiction rather than add to the Brexit debate with a listing of "12 Great British Cities, 12 Great British Novels."

Barry Forshaw penned an essay for The Independent adding more fuel to the literary fires that have burned lately for the feminine side of crime fiction. The piece, titled "Are we in a new Golden Age of women crime writers? The five new crime novels you must read," takes a closer look at novels by Ruth Ware, Megan Abbott, Sharon Bolton, Cecilia Ekbäck, and Helen Callaghan.

The New Yorker profiled James Renner’s book True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray and tackled the "serious problem" of internet sleuths, with a profile of amateur efforts at investigating crime, from Truman Capote to the podcast Serial. The essay noted that many such efforts are drawn to the most dramatic possibilities and ignore more tedious solutions.

Another New Yorker piece reviewed The Annals of Murder, a new reference work they called an "indispensable guide to early American murder," with its inventory of more than two hundred years of homicide. Reference lovers will appreciate "the bibliographies of all the pardon-seeking confessions, moralizing execution sermons, self-justifying stories crafted by law enforcement, tell-alls seeking pardons for the accused, and salacious trial transcripts revised and revisited by printers across multiple editions."

In a Q&A for Electric Literature, authors Emelie Schepp and Joakim Zander talked about what it means to be part of the "Nordic noir" literary legacy of Sjöwall, Mankell, and Larsson, about their writing influences, and about how they weave issues of immigration, refugees, ISIS, poverty and radicalization into the contemporary nordic landscape.

Barnes & Noble is betting on physical bookstores to improve profits and boost its bottom line, with a twist: it's opening new stores with cafés that serve beer and wine. Of the company’s four new prototype stores, the first will open in Eastchester, N.Y., in October with additional concept stores, whose footprint will be about 20%–25% smaller than a typical B&N superstore, planned for Edina, Minnesota, Folsom, California, and Loudon County in Virginia.

The Bookshy Books blog compiled "Six More Crime Novels by African Women Writers to Add to Your List."

Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy created a list of  "Top Boston crime novels" for The Strand Magazine.

Apparently, a Taylor Swift-themed graphic novella mystery is in the works, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign. The story is being penned by Larissa Zageris, with illustrations by Kitty Curran, and is envisioned as a modern-day Nancy Drew project.

The new weekly crime poem at the 5-2 is "Big Brother is Still Watching You" by Tonia Kalouria, and the latest monthly story at Beat to a Pulp is "Neighbors" by Mel Odom.

In the Q&A roundup, Omnimystery News welcomed Andrez Bergen to talk about his new crime noir, Black Sails, Disco Inferno; Criminal Element held a Q&A with Spencer Kope, author of Collecting the Dead; and Catherine Bruns stopped by Writers Who Kill to discuss her series with real estate agent Cindy York.

Blood on the Bayou

 

I was thrilled to learn one of my short stories was chosen for the upcoming Bouchercon Anthology. Here's the official press release for the book:

Bouchercon will be invading New Orleans for its annual world mystery convention this September where every year readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and other lovers of crime fiction gather for a weekend of education, entertainment, and fun! It is the world's premiere event bringing together all parts of the mystery and crime fiction community.

In conjunction with this year's event, Down & Out Books will be publishing BLOOD ON THE BAYOU: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 edited by Greg Herren.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to edit this outstanding collection of stories," said Herren, an award-winning author of mystery and suspense novels. "It demonstrates the deep appreciation each of the contributing authors has to their craft."

"This is the third year that we have had the privilege of publishing Bouchercon's official anthology," added Eric Campbell, publisher of Down & Out Books, "and I share in Greg's enthusiasm for these stories."

Nearly 100 authors blindly submitted a story for consideration by three industry professionals, who had the incredibly difficult task of narrowing the list down to just 22 stories. Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O'Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Mike Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey and Elaine Viets were chosen to have their stories included in the anthology. New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham will write the introduction.

Each of the selected authors contributed their stories to the anthology and the Bouchercon Committee and Down & Out Books have agreed that all proceeds from the sale of BLOOD ON THE BAYOU will go to support the New Orleans Public Library system and by extension readers and writers everywhere.

Founded in 2011, Down & Out Books (DownAndOutBooks.com) is an independent publisher of crime fiction based in Tampa, Florida.

Media Murder for Monday

Top o'the week means it's time once again for a quick look at news from the crime drama scene:

MOVIES

Two different movies based on the life of Agatha Christie are in the works, although they have to require approval from the Christie estate before going ahead. The Sony project is in talks with Alicia Vikanderto play a proto-feminist Christie uninterested in a traditional wife role (instead she intersects with the likes of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill). The Paramount version is eyeing Emma Stone to play the British literary icon, with the story postulating what happened to Christie during the 11 days she went missing in 1926.

Nordisk Film has acquired the remaining Danish language adaptation rights to Jussi Adler-Olsen’s bestselling "Department Q" book series. When finished, the  series will comprise ten volumes, and Nordisk Film expects to produce up to six films from that lineup.

Eli Roth is set to direct Death Wish, the MGM/Paramount remake of the 1974 hit, with Bruce Willis playing the reluctant vigilante made famous by Charles Bronson. Roth takes the job after the exit early last month of Big Bad Wolves helmers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, who left over creative differences when they wanted changes in a script Willis had signed off on.

Actor and Golden Globe nominee Michael Sheen is making his feature directorial debut with Green River Killer and will also star in the film. The movie is based on real-life serial killer Gary Ridgway (who was convicted of 49 murders in the Seattle area in the 1980s and 1990s) and the police detective Tom Jensen, who spent 20 years looking for the notorious killer. Sheen is adapting the project from the graphic novel Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jensen’s son Jeff Jensen and artist Jonathan Case.

John Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VIII and the Pacific Rim sequel), has been cast in Kathryn Bigelow’s next as-yet-untitled film, a crime drama written by Mark Boal for Annapurna. The picture that shoots this summer is set against the backdrop of Detroit in 1967 amid the city’s devastating riots that took place over five summer days.

Ben Affleck's next standalone Batman film is returning to its noir detective roots. According to the actor, "the world's greatest detective aspect of Batman is more present in this story (Justice League) than it was in the last one and it would probably be expanded upon further in the Batman movie that I direct. All great Batman stories are, at their heart, detective stories, almost noir movies in a way. It feels like The Maltese Falcon."

The new Inferno trailer was released, with Tom Hanks once again starring as the symbologist Robert Langdon from Dan Brown's novels who must solve a deadly puzzle to avert a global plague.

TELEVISION

Netflix and Canadian broadcaster CBC have teamed up to greenlight Alias Grace, a six-hour miniseries inspired by the true story of convicted murderer Grace Marks and based on Margaret Atwood’s titular novel.The story follows Grace Marks, a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer and his housekeeper in 1843. James was hanged while Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment. Grace became one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of 1840s Canada for her supposed role in the sensational double murder, and was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail.

BBC One announced they are adapting Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution, which was originally a short story before being adapted into a play and later a 1957 movie starring Marlene Dietrich. Set in 1920s London, the story focuses on the murder of an heiress and the main suspect, the man set to inherit the family fortune should she perish, who believes he can prove his innocence. 

Hulu announced the premiere date of Hugh Laurie's new ten-part psychological thriller Chance, set for Wednesday, October 19.  Laurie will star as forensic neuropsychiatrist Dr. Eldon Chance, who is dragged against his better wishes into an extremely dangerous world of corrupt cops, mistaken identities and mental illness. The cast also includes Gretchen Mol as Jaclyn Blackstone, the abused wife of a detective (Paul Adelstein) whose possible dissociative identity disorder causes big problems for the doc. Chance was created by Desperate Housewives and Bates Motel writer/director Alexandra Cunningham and author Kem Nunn, who wrote the novel that the show is based on.  

Graceland alum Vanessa Ferlito has signed on to CBS’ NCIS: New Orleans as a new series regular for the upcoming third season. Ferlito will play a sexy, tough and acerbic FBI Special Agent who is sent down to New Orleans from DC to investigate the NCIS team. A by-the-book bureaucrat, she’ll bring a completely different way of doing things (as well as a mysterious past) to New Orleans, which will put her at odds with both the team and the town.  

Regina King, who won an Emmy for the first season of ABC’s American Crime, is the first cast member to sign on for the upcoming third installment of John Ridley’s critically-acclaimed anthology series. In the first two seasons, the drama tackled such tough issues as race and class though the prism of crimes committed, although the story line for the third outing has yet to be announced. Fellow stars Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton have yet to sign, but they too are expected to return in new roles.  

The Good Wife alumna Archie Panjabi has been tapped for a major recurring role in Season 2 of NBC’s thriller drama Blindspot. She will play the head of a secret division of the NSA that has been tracking the case of Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander), the tattoo-covered woman whose mysterious past forms the basis of the show.  

NCIS co-stars Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray, Rocky Carroll and David McCallum have all signed new two-year deals to continue on CBS’ flagship drama series, which returns for Season 14 in the fall. Harmon inked a new 2-year pact in February, triggering a two-year renewal for NCIS. The new contracts for Perrette, Murray, Carroll and McCallum assure that NCIS is set for Seasons 14 and 15 with its core cast on board. (The rest of the series’ cast members, Brian Dietzen and Emily Wickersham, are on a different contract cycle.)  

USA announced that Mr. Robot will be getting some extra add-ons. Season 2 of the computer hacker drama, which premieres July 13, has had two episodes added to its running order, bringing its Season 2 total to 12. In addition to the expanded order, the season premiere will get a live special aftershow called "Hacking Robot" that will complement the documentary special called Mr. Robot_dec0d3d.doc, exploring the authenticity and social impact of the show.  

Gracepoint vet Virginia Kull is set for a recurring role opposite Giovanni Ribisi on the upcoming Amazon drama series Sneaky Pete, which centers on Marius (Ribisi), a con man who after leaving prison takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his cellmate, Pete. He moves in with Pete’s unsuspecting family and is roped into the family’s bail bond business. In order to keep the charade up, he plays the part of a skip tracer, taking down criminals worse than himself — and discovering a family life he’s never had. Kull will play Katie Boyd. who used to run cons with Marius until she went straight.

Hawaii Five-0's Catherine (Michelle Borth) didn't return for the season 6 finale, but according to showrunner Peter Lenkov, "She's still a part of our show. ... The idea is to push that story line until next year."  

Dexter star Aimee Garcia has joined the cast of Fox’s comic book-themed drama Lucifer as a new series regular for Season 2, playing Ella Lopez, the department’s new forensic scientist. Her mutual belief in both faith and science proves a point of interest to Lucifer (and the rest of the department) as they get to know and love her quirky ways. The show recently added another key recurring actor, Tricia Helfer, as Lucifer’s mom.  

After kicking off the 2015-16 TV season with the two-hour CSI movie/finale, CBS again is opting for event programming in September, scheduling its three-part, six-hour unscripted true-crime limited series Case Closed (which revisits the JonBenet Ramsey murder on its 20th anniversary), for the Sunday before the start of the season.  

If you've got a little extra time on your hands, The Wrap has a slideshow of photos for "61 Fall TV Shows: Every New and Returning Series."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Basketball star-turned writer Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and author Walter Mosley chatted at the flagship Shwartzman Building on Fifth Avenue in a conversation about writing, craft and music.

The It's a Mystery to Me podcast with Stacy Verdick Case welcomed Edgar Award winning author Lori Roy to discuss her latest release Let Me Die In His Footsteps.

Anthony nominee Brian Panowich (Bull Mountain) and his tour partner author J. Todd Scott (The Far Empty) stopped by Authors on the Air to discuss their latest work.

Noir on the Radio presented Dames in the Dark, a no-holds-barred flash fiction throw down, hosted by Greg Barth and featuring Vicki Hendricks, Dharma Kelleher, Amanda Gowin, and S.L.Coney.

If you're a fan of true crime stories, check out Mashable's list of "nine true-crime podcasts you should listen to now."

Mystery Melange

Sisters in Crime Australia and Booktopia announced the longlists for the 16th annual Davitt Awards that celebrate excellence in Aussie crime writing. A short list will be announced mid-July, and the Davitts Award ceremony and presentation of winners will take place on August 22.

The UK's Dead Good Reader Awards are back this year, and the public can vote on the shortlists. Over 2,000 DGR readers nominated their favorite books and authors for the awards.

The July 1 deadline for entering the Golden Donut Short Story Contest is fast approaching. But you only need to write 200 words (exactly 200 words) to enter, with the top 12 entries sent along to final judge, best-selling author Tami Hoag, to choose a winner. The winning entry will receive free registration for a 2017 Writers' Police Academy event. For more information on how to enter, follow this link.

First Monday is a new monthly crime fiction/thriller night held in Central London at the College Building of City University. The upcoming July 4th event, sponsored by Killer Reads, will feature award-winning authors Andrew Taylor, Stephen Booth, Anna Mazzola, and Beth Lewis. The evening will be chaired by Claire McGowan, bestselling author of the Paula Maguire series and senior lecturer on the City University Crime Writing MA course.  (HT to Shots Magazine.)

Last week, we received the sad news that the Mystery Writers of America 2015 Grand Master award recipient Lois Duncan had passed away (April 28, 1934 - June 15, 2016). Duncan was an American writer of children's books, best known for young-adult novels of suspense, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted into the 1997 film. Mystery Fanfare, Writers' Digest, and NPR are among the many tributes that have paid their respects.

In the New Yorker, true crime writer Skip Hollandsworth (The Midnight Assassin) explained why he feels people are fascinated with serial killers. He asserts that serial murder has a special appeal to writers for fairly simple reasons:  "Serial killers create better chronological narrative," and the structure lends itself to drama.

New Zealand's Stuff entertainment magazine profiled New Zealand crime fiction - after looking at the depth and talent of the country's writers, why aren't New Zealanders as supportive of their home-grown talent as readers in other countries? That's one reason Craig Sisterson set up the Ngaio Marsh Award in 2010 to celebrate Kiwi noir.

Terrence Rafferty's essay in The Atlantic made the case for women writing the best crime novels. He posits they don’t seem to believe in heroes as much as their male counterparts, which in some ways makes their storytelling a better fit for the times, with Gone Girl and Girl on a Train only scratching the top of the surface. "Their books are light on gunplay, heavy on emotional violence. Murder is de rigueur in the genre, so people die at the hands of others—lovers, neighbors, obsessive strangers—but the body counts tend to be on the low side."

Not to neglect the male half of the species, Lisa Levy wrote an profile of James Sallis for Lithub, an author she feels should be taking his rightful place alongside his American contemporary paranoids and peers, Don DeLillo (b.1936) and Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937).

A play by Henning Mankell about a Swedish couple struggling to understand the Africa where they have lived for more than a decade is being published in English for the first time in the new issue of Index on Censorship’s quarterly magazine. Best known for his crime novels about Inspector Wallander, Mankell was also a dramatist, with more than 30 plays to his name.  

Writing for The Strand Magazine, William Lashner listed "Ten Things to Learn from Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett."

Sherlock Holmes fans will appreciate an infographic about some of the surprisingly sophisticated scientific methods Holmes used to crack his cases.

The June issue of Yellow Mama features the hit man story "Flint Hills Express,” by Kenneth James Crist, a procedural from Tendai Huchu, “The Best One Can Do, Under the Circumstances,” and other new stories by Jim Wilsky, Ciro DiLorenzo, Richard Godwin, Dr. Mel Waldman, and Lee Todd Lacks. There's also new poetry from Phillip J. Ammonds, Marc Pietrzykowski, and Judith Partin-Nielsen.

The featured weekly crime poem at the 5-2 is "Obama Responsible for Flint: A Patriot News Television Exclusive" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup this week, the Mystery People were busy, busy people, lassoing Timothy Hallinan to discuss King Maybe, his latest novel featuring L.A. burlgar Junior Bender, as well as Lisa Sandlin chatting about new novel The Do-Right, and Laura Lippman talking about her latest, Wilde Lake; Omnimystery News welcomed authors Amy Metz (Rogues & Rascals in Goose Pimple Junction) and Jody Wenner (Painting the Lake); and Patti Abbott stopped by Dana King's blog to discuss her newest novel Shot
in Detroit, from Polis Books.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Paramount has secured the rights to the book series The Saint by Leslie Charteris, which has previously served as the basis for several radio dramas, films, and a 1960s TV version starring future James Bond, Roger Moore. The Saint is the story of Simon Templar, a Robin-Hood-like smart, quick-witted man who goes after corrupt politicians, war profiteers, drug runners, and other evildoers to benefit his country (the UK) and the greater good. Paramount is currently in the process of working out production deals, but it appears that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Brad Krevoy and Robert Evans will server as producers in what the studio hopes will become a franchise success.

Action thriller Smart Chase: Fire & Earth has signed Orlando Bloom to star and co-produce the film through his newly launched BlissBloom Productions. Bloom will play a washed-up security agent who is ambushed as he attempts to escort a pricey Chinese antique out of Shanghai.  

Sicario was a critical and commercial success, but the in-development Sicario 2 won't be a standard sequel. According to the director of the new film, Stefano Solima, the follow-up, titled Soldado, will be another chapter in the lives of a couple of the same characters and be "something you can catch and enjoy even if you haven't watched the first one."

Netflix has picked up the detective comedy Handsome, directed by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin. Part mystery, part comedy, the film stars Garlin as the titular Gene Handsome, a Los Angeles homicide detective trying to figure out his life while he solves crimes. The film boasts an all-star cast of comedians and actors including Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Leah Remini, Steven Weber, Eddie Peppitone, and Christine Woods. Garlin is set to produce alongside David Miner and Vern Davidson.

Jack Quaid is the latest actor to join the growing ensemble of Steven Soderbergh's heist film Logan Lucky. The all-star cast includes Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Hilary Swank, Daniel Craig, Katherine Heigl as well as Soderbergh regulars Channing Tatum and Riley Keough. The story centers on two brothers who attempt a crime during a NASCAR race.  

The first trailer for the Jack Reacher 2 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, was released. In this story, based on the Lee Child's book Never Go Back, Reacher (Tom Cruise) heads back to Virginia where he once served as a military investigator to help out a woman named Susan (Cobie Smulders) who he really only knows from various phone conversations.

TELEVISION

A&E has passed on the hip-hop crime drama pilot The Infamous, from A+E Studios, although the project’s producers are shopping the pilot starring Bokeem Woodbine and Jason O’Mara elsewhere. Written by Joshua Zetumer and directed by Anthony Hemingway, The Infamous is set against real events in turbulent 1990s Los Angeles leading up to the L.A. Riots and revolves around two complicated men on a collision course: an ambitious reformed gangster (Woodbine) poised to break out of South Central and the LAPD detective (O’Mara) hell-bent on taking him down.

Rowan Atkinson will return as Maigret in two new TV movies on ITV, reprising his role as the detective in 2017. The TV films will see Atkinson return to the lead role as Georges Simenon's sleuth Jules Maigret, often called a French version of Sherlock Homes.

Wilmer Valderrama has joined the cast of veteran CBS drama NCIS as a series regular for the upcoming Season 14, playing a once grounded NCIS field agent who accepted a deep cover assignment years ago and never resurfaced. Many agents don’t know he’s still on the job or that he’s even alive. Now, he’s back and his dedication to job and country has left him an unpredictable, charismatic loose cannon.

NBC has tapped Scott Ellis to direct their live adaptation of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, originally performed as a Broadway play before it was adapted into the film starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore.  The story revolves around the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients.

Nicole Kidman is re-teaming with Portrait Of A Lady director, Jane Campion, for the second season of the BBC thriller Top Of The Lake. The story will see Detective Robin Griffin (Elizabeth Moss) investigating the case of an unidentified body which washes up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. As previously reported, the second installment also features Game Of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie in a major role.

Justin Hires (Rush Hour) is returning to CBS to co-star opposite Lucas Till and George Eads in the network’s new fall series MacGyver, a reimagining of  the 1985 show about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife.

Many of the original cast of American Crime Story‘s debut season, The People V. O.J. Simpson, are expected to reassemble for the next chapter in the Ryan Murphy-produced anthology show. Producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson confirmed that writers went to New Orleans last week on a research trip for Season 2, which will tell of the American response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Jennifer Lopez-starring NBC drama Shades of Blue is adding Breaking Bad alum Anna Gunn for the second season of the cop drama, playing a city councilwoman who has has her eye on the Mayor's office. She also happens to be a former m
ember of the crew of dirty cops that Jennifer Lopez's character, Harlee, is a part of, as well as a former protege of Wozniak's (Ray Liotta) who's gone on to bigger and better things than taking protection money off of drug dealers and thugs.

BBC America’s hit series Orphan Black will have a fifth and final season set to premiere in 2017. The series follows a streetwise hustler who's pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her. The show stars Tatiana Maslany as protagonist Sarah Manning, in addition to Ari Millen, Jordan Gavaris, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Skyler Wexler, Kevin Hanchard, Evelyne Brochu, Kristian Bruun, and Josh Vokey.

CSI and its various spinoffs may have ended their run on American television (for now), but they are hardly forgotten. The mothership series was once again named most watched drama series in the world at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival, a sixth win for the series, more than any other show by a mile.

NBC revealed the premiere dates for their fall schedule which will begin mid-September, including returning crime dramas Law & Order: SVU, Chicago P.D. (and its spinoffs Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago Legal), The Blacklist, and new series Timeless.

Fox also released their fall schedule premiere, including Gotham, Lucifer, Lethal Weapon, and Rosewood.

The CW's announced fall schedule doesn't include much in the way of crime dramas, with the exception of the new series Frequency, in which Detective Raimy Sullivan discovers she can speak to her deceased father Frank Sullivan by ham radio. They forge a new connection and work together on an unresolved murder case.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR had a remembrance of Lois Duncan, "The Queen Of Teen Suspense," who died last week at the age of 82.

Laura Lippman spoke with Boston's public radio station WBUR about her latest crime fiction title, Wilde Lake, her twenty-first published novel.

The Orange County Register posted a video of Michael Connelly speaking at the Register Book Club in The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, talking about his journalism days and his Bosch book/TV series.

Authors on the Air featured Todd Robinson, the creator and Chief Editor of the multi-award winning crime fiction magazine Thuglit and a writer himself of countless published short stories and the novels The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade.

Beyond The Cover hosts John Raab and Jeff Ayers spoke with author Boyd Morrison about the latest book he co-authored with Clive Cussler, The Emperor's Revenge.

THEATER

Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois' Drury Lane Theatre has revived Deathtrap, the play by Ira Levin that was later made into the 1982 American thriller film starring Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve. The revival, which runs through August 14, centers on a Broadway playwright who makes murder part of his plan to take credit for a student's script.

The Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, California, is presenting The Mousetrap through July 3 in a production directed by John Eslick, who also designed the elegant sets. Elite's production stars Brittany Danyel and Peter Vandehei as manor house owners Mollie and Giles Ralston and Eric McGowan as Christopher Wren. The classic Agatha Christie made its debut in London's West End in 1952 and is still produced around the world 60+ years later.

GAMES

Mashable reviewed the indie game "Beat Cop," which centers around Officer Jack Kelly. Formerly a detective, he’s been demoted and shunned by his colleagues after being framed for murder, his ex-wife is demanding alimony, his new boss hates him, and on the first day of his new beat, another cop takes a bullet meant for him. He’s got 21 days to figure out who’s trying to kill him and why he’s being framed. Jack Kelly’s going to get his old life back or die trying.

Mystery Melange

Awards were once again in focus this past week, with several announcements including:

• The Private Eye Writers of America's finalists for the 2016 Shamus Awards in the categories of Best Novel, Best Paperback, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story. The winners will be handed out at the annual PWA banquet during the Bouchercon Conference, this year held in New Orleans in September.  (Hat tip to Guns, Gams & Gumshoes.)
• The Macavity Award finalists, as nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be handed out at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon.
• The longlist for the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Award established in 2010 and made annually for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novels written by New Zealand citizens and residents. (Hat tip to Craig Sisterson over at Australian Crime.)
• At this past weekend's Key West Festival, the Whodunit Award was handed out to Tequila Mockingbird by Lewis C. Haskell. The award is supported by the Marion Stevens Fund at the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare, which has a list of all the finalists.)

There will be a Noir at the Bar as part of the Belfast Book Festival tonight, moderated by Gerard Brennan and featuring Northern Irish crime fiction authors Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Steve Cavanagh, and Kelly Creighton.

Down the road a ways, the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs from August 13 to 29, will feature over 800 writers, poets, illustrators, politicians, journalists, historians, scientists, philosophers and playwrights from 55 countries. Crime Fiction Ireland takes a look at this year's crime fiction highlights.

The Crime Fiction Lover blog has a sneak preview of the upcoming ultimate Nordic crime fest, Iceland Noir, to be held November 17-20 in Reykjavik. The main panel at the event will be women authors to include Val McDermid (Scotland), Viveca Sten (Sweden), Leena Lehtolainen (Finland) and Sara Blaedel (Denmark). They’ll be talking about their dark authorly dealings at the darkest time if year.

The Mysterious Press has just released the bulk of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op stories in digital reading formats. The Op was a nameless detective Hammett described as "a little man going forward day after day through mud and blood and death and deceit—as callous and brutal and cynical as necessary," born in the pages of Black Mask in 1923, predating Hammett's most famous creation, The Maltese Falcon's Sam Spade. The Op stories are split into eight volumes and include introductions from Richard Layman, along with Julie M. Rivett, Hammett's granddaughter.  

James Patterson's new imprint with Hachette, BookShots, focuses on producing short, plot-heavy, cinematic novellas, making Flavorwire ponder if it's "the Second Coming of Pulp Fiction."

Modern technology like CCTV, DNA profiling and in the internet make committing crime harder but also more boring to solve according to best selling crime writer Simon Kernick, who writes "How committing, fighting and writing about crime has been changed by modern technology" for the Mirror.

Prefer female protaongists in your crime fiction? If so, Bookriot has a list of "Favorite thrillers with female lead characters."

If you're a fan of hit men crime fiction, you'll want to check out the suggestions from 280Steps on "10 Hitman Novels That Everyone Should Read."

In the Q&A roundup, Jacqueline Seewald interviewed writer B. J. Bourg, a twenty-five-year veteran of law enforcement, as well as a former professional boxer and a lifelong martial artist; The Bay Net spoke with Laura Lippman author of the "Tess Monaghan" series, whose bestselling novels have garnered the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, and the Shamus Awards, among other honors; and The Mystery People chatted with Flynn Berry about her debut novel, Under the Harrow, a "powerful novel about women, their choices, and their relationships with each other."

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Studio 8 has preemptively acquired the rights to Patrick Hoffman's upcoming crime thriller Every Man a Menace, due to hit stores in October. The story centers on an ecstasy smuggling ring on the eve of the biggest shipment of MDMA to hit the U.S. and a global mix of criminal opportunists who scramble to leverage the chaos, eliminate their competition and make the big score. The globe-trotting thriller, which stretches from Bangkok to Miami to San Francisco, is said "to have elements of Traffic and Sicario, with a dash of dark humor from a Coen Brothers movie and the twists of The Usual Suspects." (How's that for a tagline?)

Netflix has a preemptive film rights offer for another yet-to-be-published manuscript by newcomer author Rimma Rose, described as The Godfather meets Eastern Promises (and billed as book one of a planned three-book series). The story is set in the world of the Russian Mafia, in which a "Vor" is an honor only given when the recruit shows loyalty beyond measure, with members of the Vor-world accepting the code of the "Thief within the Law."  

Angelina Jolie is in talks to board Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit Murder on the Orient Express. The classic Christie tale features the erstwhile Belgian detective of curly moustache and inquisitive demeanour Hercule Poirot (Branagh), who is called into action after an American tycoon is found murdered, stabbed multiple times, in his locked compartment from the inside on-board the luxurious Orient Express train.

Stephen Soderbergh's NASCAR heist thriller Logan Lucky had previously signed Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum as a pair of brothers who stage a daring robbery during a major NASCAR race. But the flick has recently filled out the supporting roles in the ensemble with an all-star roster including Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Katherine Heigl, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, and Riley Keough.

Likewise, the female-led Ocean's Eleven remake, which had earlier announced Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett would play starring roles, has also padded its the cast with more stars including Elizabeth Banks, Helena Bonham Carter, and Mindy Kaling.   

Focus Features announced August 11, 2017 as the release date for David Leitch’s The Coldest City. The film stars Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton, a top-level MI6 spy who heads to Berlin on the eve of the Wall’s collapse to take down an espionage ring that just killed an undercover agent. Lorraine is ordered to cooperate with Berlin station chief David Percival (James McAvoy), and the two form an uneasy alliance, unleashing their full arsenal of skills in pursuing a threat that jeopardizes the West’s entire intelligence operation.

The Hollywood Reporter had some fun taking a look at the possibility of a female version of James Bond and a list of "13 Stars With the 007 Chops."

TELEVISION

Pierce Brosnan is returning to television for the first time since the 1982 private eye show Remington Steele as the lead of AMC’s upcoming drama series The Son. The former James Bond is replacing Sam Neill who had been originally cast in the role but left for personal reasons. Based on the book by Philipp Meyer and written by Meyer, Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy, The Son is a multi-generational epic tale of the story of America’s birth as a superpower through the bloody rise and fall of one Texas family.

CBS has come on board as the U.S. broadcaster of Ransom, a 13-episode suspense series starring Luke Roberts (Black Sails, Game Of Thrones), from Entertainment One and The X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz. Ransom follows crisis and hostage negotiator Eric Beaumont (Roberts), whose considerable powers of manipulation make him the best at what he does professionally but often complicate his relationships with family, friends and colleagues.

Amazon has picked up five new pilots, including A Killing on Carnival Row, set in the future in a city called the Burgue that's inhabited by humans and other legendary-logocreatures with a serial killer on the loose; and Tropicana, set in pre-revolutionary Cuba in and around the world of The Tropicana nightclub and its intersection of entertainers, the mob, Batista loyalists, Castro revolutionaries and the American CIA.

Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami) is coming back to CBS, joining Criminal Minds as a series regular in Season 12. He’ll play a special agent and member of the FBI Fugitive Task Force who joins the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Rodriguez is taking the place of cast member Shemar Moore who just departed the series after 11 seasons.

24: Legacy executive producer Howard Gordon has revealed there is a plan in place to bring Jack back if actor Kiefer Sutherland can make it happen with his schedule. Although the 24: Legacy spinoff features all-new characters led by a new hero (Corey Hawkins), Gordon has an arc in mind for the second part of 24: Legacy's 12-episode first season that could involve Bauer if a deal comes together.

Tom Riley, who played the title role on the Starz drama series Da Vinci’s Demons for three seasons, is set to play the title role in another drama series project, Wagstaffe, a two-hour pilot for UK’s ITV Encore. Based on the books by crime author Adam Creed, the character-driven dark drama centers on the life and work of Will Wagstaffe (Riley), a London detective who has suffered terrible personal tragedy with the murder of his parents and his team.

Former profession
al soccer player and Scottish actor Martin Compston is set to play a serial killer for ITV. Compton (who plays DS Steve Arnott in the BBC's Line Of Duty) will take on the role of American-born Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, dubbed "the Beast of Birkenshaw," who was convicted of murdering seven people across Scotland between 1956 and 1958. Douglas Henshall, the star of BBC One’s Shetland, is also in the cast, playing the police officer on the killer's trail.  

Netflix is putting the finishing touches on a deal to acquire the Paolo Bacigalupi short story "Mika Model." Described as an intelligent dystopic sci-fi story in the vein of Ex Machina, Mika Model is the story of a young woman—or is she a robot?—who walks into a police station and confesses to a murder, creating an unprecedented dilemma for the cop who must decide how to resolve the case. The story was first published by Slate in April.

CBS has put into development a new drama series based on the life of Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, who was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a terrorist organization. While the FBI and police searched for Patty Hearst, she was converted into an SLA sympathizer and ultimately arrested for aiding the organization in criminal activity.

NCIS: Los Angeles showrunner Shane Brennan is stepping down from his position, with fellow TV vet R. Scott Gemmill being ushered in to fill the role. Gemmill, who has written more than 30 episodes of NCIS: LA, already has some plans for the show's upcoming eighth season such as "a proper proposal" between Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen).

Raymond J. Barry (Justified) has booked a recurring role on Season 4 of Showtime drama series Ray Donovan, playing a high-ranking Russian mobster. Ray Donovan stars Liev Schreiber as L.A.’s best professional fixer, with Jon Voight, Paula Malcomson, Eddie Marsan, Dash Mihok, Steven Bauer, Katherine Moennig, Pooch Hall, Kerris Dorsey and Devon Bagby rounding out the cast.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NY Times bestselling author Lisa Unger stopped by the 2nd Sunday Crime podcast to talk about her latest thriller, Ink and Bone.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer spoke with Iain Reid about his debut creepy psychological thriller, I'm Thinking of Ending Things.

THEATER

The Tony Awards were handed out last night at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The hip-hop musical Hamilton, which tells the story of one of America's founding fathers who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, led all winners with 11 total nods.

Double Indemnity is being presented by the by Melbourne Theatre Company at the Arts Centre Playhouse until July 2. It's a stage adaptation by playwright Tom Holloway of James M. Cain’s 1943 novel, which in turn inspired the 1944 film. The stage show follows the story of the book, in which insurance salesman Walter (played by Leon Ford) becomes entangled in a murderous scheme when he falls for Phyllis (Claire van der Boom), who wants to kill her husband (Richard Piper) and live off the insurance.

Mystery Melange

Sara Paretsky and Christine Carbo have won the Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, sponsored by the Women's National Book Association of New Orleans in honor of Diana Pinckley, longtime crime fiction columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Paretsky won the Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work, while Carbo won the Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for her book, The Wild Inside, published by Atria.

The winners of the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the "Lammys") honoring excellence in LGBT literature were announced on June 7th. The Best Lesbian Mystery was a tie between Ordinary Mayhem by Victoria Brownworth and Tarnished Gold by Ann Aptaker, while the Best Gay Mystery was awarded to Boystown 7: Bloodlines by Marshall Thornton.

Ian Rankin is urging Scots to sign up for night-time fundraising walks for cancer charity Maggie’s by offering a personal Rebus tour of the capital city as an incentive. Everyone who registers for one of the events by June 30 will be entered into a drawing to win one of six places on the exclusive tour led by the author.

Book publishers SoHo Press, Europa Editions, Melville House, and Akashic have established June as International Crime Fiction Month. To celebrate, the Mystery People bookstore in Austin, Texas, is featuring book club discussions of novels from international crime writers all month long. There will be numerous other in-store events with bestselling authors, as well as a double feature summer film series that opens with a screening of the classic gothic noir, Rebecca. Store owner Scott Montgomery kicked things off a list of his "Top Five International Crime Novels."

Issue four of the quarterly Crime Scene magazine is out, with a focus on crime media (the Lethal Weapon reboot, Peaky Blinders, a good-bye to Wallander, an interview with Rowan ‘Maigret’ Atkinson, a fun round-up of food detectives on the box, Anthony Horowitz’s iPlayer series New Blood, and more). There's also a feature interview with Val McDermid, who talks about the crime writing community, as well as new essays and book reviews aplenty.

If you're a fan of Sue Grafton's "alphabet" mystery series, heads up: Criminal Element is offering a chance to win paperback copies of all of the books in that series (to date).

The Short Sharp Stories Awards is an annual short story competition made possible by the National Arts Festival of South Africa, and they recently announced the shortlist for this year's anthology of humorous mystery stories, Die Laughing.

Book Riot Live!, the upcoming event on November 12-13 in New York City, has added Walter Mosley to the roster. Mosley, known for his Easy Rawlins series, will join other bestselling authors taking part in panels, author signings, games, how-tos, and meet-and-greets.

Rotten Tomatoes is a popular website that gives moviegoers a chance to rate current movies, and now there's going to be a "rotten tomatoes for books." Lit Hub announced the creation of Book Marks, which will "showcase critics from the most important and active outlets of literary journalism in America, aggregating reviews from over 70 sources—newspapers, magazines, and websites—and averaging them into a letter grade, as well as linking back to their source."

The Wall Street Journal's article "The Skeptical Detective" profiled Golden Age author Josephine Tey (author of The Daughter of Time), who "cared less about clues than about characters, less about logical puzzles than puzzles of human nature."

Baylor philosophy professor Richard T. Whittington offered up his take on "Bayou Noir," the Catholic mysteries of James Lee Burke, who "stands out as a contemporary crime writer with claims to transcendence."

In an essay for the humanities publication Zócalo Public Square, Naomi Hirahara (Edgar Award-winning author of the of the "Mas Arai" series) discussed "What Raymond Chandler’s Detective Novels Don’t Get About L.A.'s Mystery."

Although indie bookstores are holding their own in many parts of the U.S., some aren't as lucky. Mystery and Imagination & Bookfellows in Glendale, California, has announced they are closing their bricks-and-mortar store and will only sell online. The store, founded in 1975, has specialized in mostly used (but some new) mystery, detective, science fiction, fantasy and horror titles. (HT to Shelf Awareness.)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Good Cop, Bad Cop" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, John Connolly stopped by Shots Magazine to discuss his 14th Charlie Parker thriller; author Rich DiSilvio joined Omnimystery News to chat about his new dark thriller, My Nazi Nemesis; and Paul D. Brazill answered questions about his Brit Grit "dark comedy" crime fiction over at the Dorset Book Detective.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for the latest news of crime dramas on the air, stage and screen:

MOVIES

STX Entertainment is in final negotiations with Captain America filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo to make 17 Bridges, written by Adam Mervis and described as "Inside Man meets The Fugitive." The thriller follows a disgraced detective in the NYPD who undercovers a massive conspiracy linking his fellow cops to a criminal empire and must decide who he is hunting and who is actually hunting him. During the manhunt, Manhattan is completely locked down for the first time in its history – no exit or entry to the island including all 17 bridges.

Warner Bros and Safehouse Pictures have tapped William Eubank to direct and Underground’s Joe Pokaski to write the feature film Count, a contemporary retelling of Alexandre Dumas' revenge tale classic The Count Of Monte Cristo that will be set in the criminal underworld.

Soldado, the sequel to 2015's Sicario, is moving forward with Stefano Sollima the front-runner to direct the second installment. The sequel will once again focus on Alejandro Gillick, the shadowy protagonist (Benicio Del Toro) and CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who in the first film established themselves as hellbent on hunting down cartel kingpins, no matter what. However, the principled FBI agent character, played by Emily Blunt, will not be returning for the follow-up.

Cinestar Pictures, the production company run by Zoe Saldana and her sisters Cisely and Mariel, are joining with producer-director Leslie Owen and her Owen Media Group to produce Gone Missing, a documentary investigating the epidemic of more than 4,000 documented cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls of Canada.  

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been hired to star in the film Doc Savage, directed by Shane Black. The 1930s pulp classic was inspired by notable literary and pulp heroes such as Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan and featured the adventuring polymath who was trained from early childhood to be at peak physical condition and is blessed with genius level intellect and an eidetic memory, abilities he uses to right wrongs and correct injustice wherever he happens to encounter them.

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett is circling a role in the all-female reboot of Ocean's Eleven, joining the previously announced Sandra Bullock in the cast. Neither woman is playing a gender-swapped version of Clooney or Pitt, but rather the roles are loosely modeled after the dynamic in Soderbergh’s films.

The upcoming political thriller Drone has added Mary McCormack and Joel David Moore to the project, joining Sean Bean and Patrick Sabongui. The story follows Neil (Bean), a high-level private drone contractor who divides his time between his work flying covert drone missions and suburban family life. His worlds collide when a leak causes a Pakistani businessman (Sabongui) to believe Neil is responsible for the death of his family, sparking a tense confrontation in Neil’s house. McCormack will play Neil’s wife, while Moore portrays Neil’s colleague.

A new poster and trailer were released for the upcoming heist thriller Marauders starring Bruce Willis as a bank owner and Christopher Meloni, Dave Bautista, and Adrian Grenier as FBI agents. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TELEVISION

Showtime has closed a deal for a 20-episode order for the drama series Purity, headlined by James Bond star Daniel Craig and based on the book by Jonathan Franzen. The story centers on Pip, a young American woman who does not know who she is, and Andreas Wolf, a charismatic German provocateur (Craig) who heads a South America-based organization trafficking in all the secrets of the world where Pip gets an internship in search of her identity. Purity will begin production in 2017 and will air in two installments over the course of two years.

The NBC News Peacock Productions division signed a deal with Denise Brown, sister of the late Nicole Brown Simpson, to develop an unscripted true-crime series. Since the trial of her infamous brother-in-law, OJ Simpson, who was accused of Nicole's murder, Denise has traveled the country speaking about domestic violence and working to help pass legislation to protect victims.

HBO has given a series order to Barry, its half-hour comedy hitman pilot starring, co-written, and directed by Bill Hader in the Saturday Night Live alum’s return to television. Barry centers on an ex-Marine who works as a low-rent hitman in the Midwest. Lonely and dissatisfied in his life, he begrudgingly travels to Los Angeles to kill someone and ends up finding an accepting community in a group of eager hopefuls within the LA theater scene.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

In the most recent Crime and Science Radio podcast, Jan Burke and Dr. Doug Lyle interviewed prominent forensic scientist Jay Jarvis, who has over 35 years of experience in working in the field.

A new Meet the Thriller Author podcast is up, featuring a conversation with Renée Pawlish, the award-winning author of the bestselling Reed Ferguson mystery series.

Tracy Mumford tried to answer for Minneapolis Public Radio the question of "What is 'grip lit' and why is it so popular?"

The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured A Department of First Stories tale, "Chung Ling Soo's Greatest Trick" by Russell W. Johnson (which went on to win the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best short story by a new American author).

THEATER

The Broadway adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho closed on June 5, barely a month after it opened to mixed reviews. Although it proved to be more successful with the original cast on the London stage, Ben Brantley wrote for the New York Times that the Broadway production "suffers from the weight of having to be a big Broadway musical," and "panders to audiences who are presumably partly made up of the affluent, heat-seeking souls it parodies." (Not to mention having to compete with the juggernaut known as Hamilton.)

Paid to Kill(er) Nashville

The Killer Nashville conference has been expanding each year and become one of the premiere events on the calendar for crime fiction fans. This year, organizers are offering two free scholarship opportunities for writers who want to attend but may not have the financial means. Winners will receive funds towards registration, breakout sessions, writing critique sessions, and lodging. If you're interested in either the Lisa Jackson Scholarship or Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship, write a 500-word essay that describes your financial need and why you'd like to attend the conference. Anyone is eligible to enter (traditionally or independently published or unpublished), but you must apply by July 1 for the Jackson award and July 31 for the Loftin award.

Killer Nashville takes place August 18-21, 2016, and is being held at the Embassy Suites Nashville South Cool Springs. This year's Guest of Honors are Janet Evanovich and Kevin O'Brien, with other featured guests to include 2016 John Seigenthaler Recipient Robert Randisi as well as Anne Perry and William Kent Krueger. Registration is now open for anyone who wishes to attend, and I should also note that there is a discounted conference fee for members of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.