Mystery Melange

The winners of the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Awards were announced this past weekend, following a record number of entries this year. Trust No One, a psychological thriller about a writer with early onset Alzheimer’s who starts confessing the murders in his novels were real, earned Paul Cleave his record third Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, while Ray Berard won the Best First Novel award for Inside the Black Horse.

Likewise, the winners were announced for the 2016 Davitt Awards, celebrating the best works by Australian women authors, and handed out annually by Sisters in Crime Australia. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic was a triple winner, taking home nods for Best Adult Novel, Best Debut Novel, and the Readers' Choice Award. Best Young Adult Novel went to Risk by Fleur Ferris; Best Children's Novel was won by Friday Barnes 2: Under Suspicion by R.A. Spratt; and the Best Nonfiction Book was given to Wild Man by Alecia Simmonds. Check out all the finalists via this list, courtesy of Fair Dinkum Crime.

Last, but not least, in the award winners list, the Australian Crime Writers Association handed out their annual Ned Kelly Awards this weekend. Best Fiction went to Before It Breaks by Dave Warner; Best First Fiction, Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic; Best True Crime, Certain Admissions by Gideon Haigh; S.D. Harvey Award for Short Stories: "Flesh," by Roni O’Brien; and Lifetime Achievement: Carmel Shute. For all the winners and finalists, click on over to the official Australian CWA website.

Meanwhile, crime writers Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnston, and E.S. Thomson have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The winner of the Scottish Crime Book of the Year will be awarded The McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney at the opening ceremony of Bloody Scotland. 

Noir at the Bar is headed to Osaka Restaurant in Brookline, Massachusetts, on September 11 at  7 p.m. Hosed by Brookline Booksmith, there will be readings from David Baillie, Joe Clifford, Rory Flynn, Stephanie Gayle, Bracken MacLeod, Tony McMillen, and Kim Savage.

Dean Street Press is publishing all six mysteries by a lost English Queen of Crime called Molly Thynne. Her rarely-found novels were originally published between 1928 and 1933 and are "classically delicious examples of the form." One highlight includes The Crime at the 'Noah's Ark', a Christmas mystery from 1932 in which a number of holidaygoers are forced by a snowstorm to take refuge in a rural inn over the holidays - with entertainingly murderous results. All feature a new introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

On the Mystery People blog, Molly Odintz updated her progress toward reading fifty books by women, and if possible, "fifty works of crime fiction by women; not just new releases, but also classic noir and domestic suspense," during 2016.  

Writing for the Pacific Standard Magazine, Jared Keller took a look at the HBO adaptation of the British drama The Night Of to show how it's a reflection of America’s abiding obsession with crime and punishment. The show comes in the midst of a true-crime revolution with mega-popular series like Making a Murderer and Serial, which have both brought the legal and moral ambiguities of murder investigations to hundreds of thousands of devoted followers each week.

Speaking of our fascination with true crime, JStor delved into the bloody, 450-year-old history of the genre and how the recent TV and web-based series are "merely the most recent iteration of a genre that has always been interested in more than bloody deeds and disfigured bodies."

Crime author Val McDermid took exception to a recent study that seemed to show reading "literary" fiction makes people more empathetic, but genre fiction doesn't. As she notes, not only did the research use old stereotypes, but in recent years, "most readers and critics have acknowledged the blurring of the outdated and misguided distinction between literary fiction and other genres. Good books make us care. It really doesn’t matter whether they include murderers, aliens, philosophers or kings."

The Vancouver Sun celebrated the release of Louise Penny's latest novel featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache with a look at how food has served as crucial an ingredient as the clues scattered about like brioche crumbs. But, as the article goes on to note, culinary crime novels have been served with crime ever since the first mystery novels appeared in the mid-19th century. (Bonus: there are recipes.)

Taiwan's first mystery-oriented independent bookstore, Murder Ink, opened in 2014 with a variety of mystery stories encompassing romance, crime, realism, suspense and detective genres from around the world. The store also regularly lists recommended books to readers of different age groups. The store is still going strong, as the China Post reports, and filmmakers have even used the store as a movie set.

Free books are being offered to Londoners in police custody via the Books in the Nick scheme. The program is the brainchild of Metropolitan police special constable Steve Whitmore, who had nothing to offer a teenager arrested on suspicion of assault and possession who asked for a book to read while being in custody. "The range and type of books available didn’t appeal to him, so I offered him my own book, The Catcher in the Rye, and told him to keep it," said Whitmore. "The look on his face was amazing, his attitude and hostility towards me completely changed and it created common ground for us to talk about. He said he’d never been given a book before to own, and that really moved me."

Free books are also the focus of a promotion in New York City, which is in the process of adding Wifi to its subway stations. To promote the new service, NYC hit upon the gimmick of offering free ebook excerpts to passengers.

Not to be outdone, The Australian organization Books On The Rail has established a campaign asking people to leave books on trains, trams and buses in an effort to get people sharing their most loved books.

Ever wonder what kinds of things librarians find in returned library books? Well wonder no more, because Diana Garrisi has spent the last two months visiting 20 public libraries and taking pictures of more than 100 objects found inside books.

The featured crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Waiting for Gale Outside the Bijou" by John Grey, and the latest featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Back Then, Our Monsters Were Real ..." by Gary Dobbs.

In the Q&A roundup, Aoife Clifford (author of the debut thriller All These Perfect Strangers) listed "10 Things I want my readers to know about me" for FemaleFirst; The National Book Review spoke with Julia Keller about the latest installment in her West Virginia mystery series, Ackers Gap; Jake Needham was interviewed by the Dorset Book Detective about his Jack Shepard and Inspector Tay novels set in Asia; and the CBC hosted Louise Penny to answer questions from readers about her writing and Armand Gamache's latest adventure, A Great Reckoning.

Media Murder for Monday

Hard to believe it's the beginning of another week, but happily, this also means it's time for the latest wrap-up of crime drama news:

MOVIES

James Franco is developing three movies based on novels by crime fiction writer Tom Franklin, with screenwriters already attached for each project and plans to shoot all three in the next one to three years:  Poachers is a collection of short stories, with the title story (which won the Edgar Award) focusing on three wild boys confronting a mythic game warden as mysterious and deadly as the river they haunt; Smonk is set in 1911 Alabama, where every Saturday night for a year, E.O. Smonk has been destroying property, killing livestock, seducing women, and beating men; and Hell at the Breech takes place in 1897 and focuses on a group of poor cotton farmers who form a secret society to punish townspeople believed responsible for murdering an aspiring politician.

Vincent D'Onofrio (Law and Order) and Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) have joined Bruce Willis in Paramount and MGM's revamp of the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish, which was in turn based on the book by Brian Garfield. Eli Roth has been tapped to direct the picture that follows a man whose life is destroyed by a violent crime against his wife and daughter and starts hunting for the perpetrators himself.

Dean Devlin's thriller Bad Samaritan has announced filming will start later this year in Portland, Oregon. Starring David Tennant (best known for his work on Doctor Who), the drama centers on two young car valets who use their business as a front to burglarize the houses of their unsuspecting patrons. Life is good for the petty thieves until they target the wrong house, changing their lives.

The North American rights to the action thriller Dog Eat Dog starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe have been acquired by RLJ Entertainment. Based on the novel by Edward Bunker, Dog Eat Dog tells the story of three ex-cons who mess up a kidnapping and lose a big payoff, then find themselves on the wrong side of the mob as they become the city's most wanted fugitives.

Horror movie veteran Tom Holland is making his way back to the big screen with Rock Paper Dead. The movie follows Peter Harris, who is also known as The Doll Maker, a serial killer who returns to his family estate after being released from the hospital for the criminally insane after 20 years. Once inside the old house, horrible memories from a tortured childhood and visitations from past victims torment him, but it isn't until the lovely young Ashley enters his life that Peter makes a fateful decision that rekindles old desires that always have ended in murder. (For fans with macabre sensibilities, you may be delighted to note that a line of serial killer-inspired dolls and masks based on the film will be available in stores on Halloween 2017).

Sarah Paulson (who starred in American Crime Story as Marcia Clark) is in talks to join Warner Bros.' all-female Ocean's Eleven spinoff, currently called Ocean's Ocho. Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and Awkwafina also are part of the Ocean's ensemble cast.

TELEVISION

The BBC has struck a deal for not one, not two, but seven Agatha Christie adaptations to be delivered over the next four years. Mammoth Screen (the producer behind the upcoming Christie-based film Witness for the Prosecution and last year's And Then There Were None), will be the creative team behind the new projects, to include Ordeal by Innocence, Death Comes As The End (set in ancient Egypt), and The ABC Murders, about a serial killer in 1930s Britain.  

In addition to the above-mentioned Witness for the Prosecution, the upcoming BBC slate of dramas includes the six-part contemporary thriller Bodyguard, which tells a fictional story following a team from the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service whose officers are tasked with protecting royals, politicians and diplomats; plus a move of the police procedural Line of Duty to BBC One from BBC Two for Season 4, with Thandie Newton joining the cast as Detective Chief Inspector Roz Huntley.

The busy Beeb also announced they are producing a six-part adaptation of Eleanor Catton's Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries. The project, which will also be  written by Catton, is a Victorian mystery tale set during the New Zealand gold rush. The New Zealand author became the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize at the age of 28 when The Luminaries won in 2013, and the 832-page book was also the longest work to win in the prize's history. The judges described it as a "Kiwi Twin Peaks".

The Departed, the Oscar-winning 2006 Martin Scorsese crime drama, is getting a TV series reboot at Amazon. Written by Detroit 1-8-7 creator Jason Richman, The Departed puts a new, updated spin on the two-way-undercover concept in the Scorsese movie and will be set at present-day Chicago, amidst the shifting tides of warring ethnic drug gangs. The story will center on a young cop who goes undercover to infiltrate a ruthless Latino gang, which simultaneously plants its own man in the police department. The show follows these two embattled moles as they attempt to fulfill their mission and stay alive.

The ITV and Netflix crime series Marcella has been picked up for a second eight-part season. Described as "Scandinavian noir on the streets of Britain," the first season of the series centered on troubled detective Marcella (played by Anna Friel) as she investigated a serial murder case upon returning to duty after a 10-year hiatus. Also appearing in the first season were Downton Abbey's Laura Carmichael, Nicholas Pinnock (Fortitude), Sinead Cusack (Eastern Promises), Nina Sosanya (Last Tango In Halifax), Ray Panthaki (Convenience), Jamie Bamber (Law & Order: UK), Patrick Baladi (The Office), and Harry Lloyd (Game Of Thrones).

Chris O'Dowd and Ray Romano are in negotiations to star in Get Shorty, Epix’s 10-episode original series based on Elmore Leonard’s 1990 bestselling thriller comedy novel. (The book was previously adapted by MG
M in a 1995 feature starring John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Gene Hackman, and Rene Russo.) Written by Davey Holmes, the TV version of Get Shorty centers on Miles Daly (O'’Dowd), who works as muscle for a murderous crime ring in Nevada. When he tries to leave the criminal life behind, he accidentally brings it with him to Los Angeles and his new job in the film industry. Romano would play Rick, a washed up producer of low quality films who becomes Miles' partner and guide through the maze of Hollywood.

Jennifer Lopez will serve as executive producer of a new legal drama at CBS from Michael Rauch. The story follows polar opposite identical twin brothers who duke it out in their personal lives but are at their best teaming up in the courtroom.

Former NFL player turned Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan is expanding his relationship with ABC, having sold his first scripted project, Hobbs, to the network. The drama centers on Tommy Hobbs, a former Heisman Trophy winner who joins the Miami police force after not being drafted by the NFL, as well as a meticulous, rule-following detective who has trained her whole life to become a police officer. Michael Caleo (The Sopranos, Rescue Me) will pen the script and exec produce.

A legal procedural is headed to NBC that's based on former prosecutor Marcia Clark's personal experiences and the events of her new novel Blood Defense. The project would follow the legal struggles of criminal defense attorney Samantha Brinkman who gained a reputation as a lawyer who will never give up on her clients but has to adjust her approach when she's handed an extremely high-profile Los Angeles murder case.

Star Trek actor John Cho is headed to a new series on the USA Network with Connoisseur, which explores the world of con artists. Cho will star as Clay Park, a man who pulls off his scheming cons by tricking the wealthiest people in the country to buy fake wine. But when his confidence trick forces him to cross paths with a crime syndicate, he gets involved with the FBI and learns about a tragedy that hurt his family years ago in Korea.

Toni Collette is set to star in and executive produce Unit Zero, an action dramedy for ABC from Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and supervising producer Lindsey Shockley. The project follows a brilliant, but unassuming CIA engineer and single mom, Jackie Fink (Collette), as she "leads a team of CIA underlings who are thrust into the field as first time spies. Each week, this team of zeroes races against the clock to gather intelligence and solve cases of national security. And they succeed partly because no one in their right mind would ever suspect they were spies."

Criminal Minds is looking to add two new characters in the wake of Thomas Gibson's firing earlier this month, with one of the characters eyed to succeed Hotchner as team leader. The changes come on the heels of other cast transitions following last spring’s departure of original cast member Shemar Moore, Adam Rodriguez’s full-time arrival as Alvez, Paget Brewster’s short-term return as Prentiss, and Aisha Tyler’s promotion to series regular as Dr. Tara Lewis.

Lifetime is developing an untitled movie about real estate magnate Robert Durst, subject of HBO’s The Jinx, who’s serving a seven-year prison sentence in Louisiana for weapons possession. Based on Matt Birkbeck’s book A Deadly Secret: The Bizarre and Chilling Story of Robert Durst, the film will tell the troubling story of Robert Durst through the eyes and relationship of his wife, Kathy Durst, who disappeared in New York in 1982. Robert Durst was a suspect in her disappearance, but was never charged. Durst was expected back in Los Angeles this month to be arraigned on murder charges in a separate case — the killing of his confidante, Susan Berman.

AT&T-owned DirecTV Latin America has acquired rights to European heist thriller The Last Panthers, marking a move by Sky and Canal Plus to partner on crime thrillers that have the authenticity of great U.S. modern TV classics but bring a distinctly European take. The Last Panthers kicks off with a daring diamond robbery in London, which has all the hallmarks of the Balkans' Pink Panthers, then transfers to Marseilles and the Balkans as a British loss adjuster is sent by her shady boss to investigate the crime. The project features a prestigious European cast – Samantha Morton, French star Tahar Rahim, Croatian Goran Bogdan, and John Hurt, and was shot in English, French and Serbo-Croat and set in London, Marseilles and the Balkans.

A&E is the latest network to mount a project on the JonBenét Ramsey murder case, titled The Killing Of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, a two-hour documentary set to premiere Monday, September 5 on A&E. It joins three other previously announced TV projects, from Lifetime, Investigation Discovery and CBS, as well as a feature project directed by Kitty Green, timed to the 20th anniversary of the six-year-old beauty queen's killing.

Another star of American Crime is set to return for the third installment of the ABC anthology series. Benito Martinez, who co-starred in the first season and guest starred in Season 2, joins fellow returning players Timothy Hutton, Felicity Huffman, Regina King, Lili Taylor, Richard Cabral and Connor Jessup in the acclaimed series, executive produced by John Ridley and Michael McDonald. His character provides a further glimpse into Season 3, which explores labor issues, economic divides and individual rights in North Carolina.

A trailer was released for the second season of Narcos, the crime drama about the criminal exploits of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The Cheat Sheet has trailers for 25 new show premieres coming in September, including Crackle's latest original series, Startup, which stars Martin Freeman as Phil Rask, an FBI agent who specializes in financial crimes; the Cinemax show Quarry, based on the novels by Max Allan Collins about a Marine who returns home to Memphis from Vietnam in 1972 and gets drawn into a network of corruption and killing spanning the Mississippi River; CBS's unscripted true-crime anthology series that will focus on the JonBenet Ramsey case; the legal drama Bull on CBS; ABC&
#39;s conspiracy thriller Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland; the Fox procedural series Lethal Weapon, based on the film of the same name; and the CBS reboot of MacGuyver.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The St. Hilda Mystery & Crime Conference, which was held over the weekend of August 19-21, has posted a link to the featured conference lecture, "Seven Million Years of Thriller Fiction" by internationally-bestselling author Lee Child, creator of the Jack Reacher series.

True crime author Denise Wallace chatted with author/screenwriter Debbi Mack on Crime Cafe about her debut true crime book and the events that inspired it.

Edgar-nominated novelist Duane Swierczynski joined the podcast Poets of the Tabloid Murder to discuss his new thriller, Revolver.

The Conan show welcomed Jeffrey Toobin, author of American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst.

THEATER

Peter James' The Perfect Murder is making its first-ever theatrical appearance in the U.S. at Abingdon, Virginia's Barter Theatre, beginning September 8. The comedy-thriller centers on Victor Smiley, who finds himself searching for a way to get rid of his wife Joan...forever. But, things don't always go as planned.

Blood on the Bayou - for a Good Cause

Bouchercon 2016 starts just three weeks from now, and this year’s anthology — BLOOD ON THE BAYOU — is a stellar collection of stories set in and around New Orleans, the host city for this year’s convention.

If you’re attending Bouchercon, you can pre-order the book and pick it up there; if you’re not attending, you can still pre-order the book and have it shipped to your home after it is published on September 15th.

Or if you prefer to read it on your favorite ereader, it is available to pre-order from all major vendors: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.

And remember, all proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the New Orleans Public Libraries.

Here’s the synopsis from the back of the book …

Bestselling novelists David Morrell, Alison Gaylin and Elaine Viets headline a new anthology of 22 tales exploring the unique aura of mystery of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou country.

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is being held in New Orleans in 2016. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad canopy across a wide variety of crime writers from across the country and around the world — including both veteran writers and the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field. These stories range from the light-hearted and fun to the darker side of crime, just as New Orleans and the bayou country can show both to the unsuspecting.

All participants contributed their efforts to support our charity — the New Orleans Public Libraries — and by extension readers and writers everywhere. ALL PROFITS GO TO THE LIBRARY.

Edited by Greg Herren with an Introduction by Heather Graham. Stories by 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.

(Reblogging from Down and Out Books)

Mystery Melange

Over at the Sleuthsayers blog, some of the authors nominated in the Best First Novel category for the Macavity and Anthony Awards talk about their books, what their favorite first novel is, and how that book has influenced their writing.

From the department of "it pays authors to set up a Literary Trust," Canelo imprint Abandoned Bookshop is on a quest to locate the surviving relatives of crime author Clifton Robbins as it prepares to republish two of his books which have been out of print for over 80 years. Dusty Death and The Man Without a Face are the first of five successful novels by Robbins from the 1930s featuring Clay Harrison, a London barrister-turned-detective, and his clerk, Henry.

Christopher Irvin's short story collection Safe Inside the Violence and Tara Laskowski’s collection Bystanders both came out within the last year, with one considered crime fiction and the other literary fiction. But when Laskowski started reading Irvin’s stories and realized there were many similarities in the ways they explored violence, the two authors started a discussion and exploration about the challenges of writing about crime, the weird and delightful, which was published in the LA Review of Books.

The rate and sheer number of technological changes in police procedures and forensics isn't that only thing giving contemporary crime fiction authors nightmares. In Scotland, changes to the structure of law enforcement has left many authors scrambling to keep up, something the Police Scotland chief addressed at a recent meeting of that nation's top crime writers. As bestselling author Ian Rankin noted, Chief Philip Gormley tried to "reassure" them over changes to force that had left them "horrified" about the future of their characters including Rankin's own Inspector Rebus whom the author feared might become a figure whose methods are increasingly outdated. (Another reason many top authors are beginning to set their novels in historical time periods.)

Twitter can be a harsh environment for many celebrities, but when internationally bestselling crime author Val McDermid was the victim of a sexist troll, she shut him down in "the best possible way," as Mashable notes, with other top authors Michael Connelly and JK Rowling coming to her defense. (The original poster's Twitter account has since been deleted.)

Another reason to go visit your local indie bookstore: Lit Hub wrote a piece about "the birth of a small town bookstore" and a behind-the-scenes look at what it took for a former nurse to bring Black Dog Books to Newton, New Jersey.

Scholars have spent their lives puzzling over one of the world's most mysterious books, the Voynich Manuscript, an intriguing mix of elegant writing and drawings of strange plants and naked women that some believe holds "magical powers." The book has been locked away in a vault at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, but now a small publishing house in Spain has secured the right to clone the document. The publisher's director explains that "Touching the Voynich is an experience...It’s a book that has such an aura of mystery that when you see it for the first time ... it fills you with an emotion that is very hard to describe."

Amazon’s Book Editors have rounded up their most anticipated books of the fall season, which includes several crime fiction titles from the likes of Carl Hiaasen, J.D. Robb, Harlan Coben, John Grisham, and many more.

"Independent bookstores are a great way to find new reading material while supporting local businesses," the Bluegrass Situation wrote, in compiling a listing of seven of their favorite independent bookstores in the U.S.

In one of The Strand's latest "best" lists, Jason Miller chose the "Top Ten Detective Duos,"  but as always, your mileage may vary.

New Zealand's Invercargill City Libraries and Archives decided that there was one important sport missing from the 2016 Olympics in Rio: synchronized shelving. The tongue-in-cheek effort wants to petition the IOC to recognize the event so that they can "send our boys to Tokyo 2020!" (Hat tip to Shelf Awareness.)

From the department of "life is stranger than fiction" comes a story of the mummified train robber who became a circus prop. (HT to Bill Crider.)

The new issue of Yellow Mama is out with new poetry and stories such as "The Hero" in Roy Dorman’s Walter Mitty-inspired tale; Liz McAdams’s "On the Ridge" with a likeable killer who preys on coworkers in a mental hospital; Kenneth James Crist’s "Tony Boy," where a biker outrider snakes the gang president’s girl with unforeseen consequences; and Steven M. Lerner’s "Jury Pool," where a blast from the past haunts a member of the jury.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Professions" by Sanjeev Sethi.

In the Q&A roundup, author Sandra Brown spoke with the Star Telegram about her new thriller and how she was able to turn a hit man into a hero; JR Lindermuth takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview Challenge"; Megan Abbott chatted with the Boston Globe about her new thriller You Will Know Me and about crime writing in general; and Judy Penz Sheluk stopped by Omnimystery News to discuss her new mystery series that starts off with Skeletons in the Attic.

Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday once again, which means we start off the week with the latest crime drama news:

MOVIES

20th Century Fox is closing on a deal that will have Ben Affleck directing and starring in Witness For The Prosecution, an adaptation of the Agatha Christie short story and play that first hit the big screen in 1957 (starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton with multiple Oscar nominations). This follows on the heels of the recent BBC announcement that they are producing an adaptation of the same work for BBC One (see TV casting note below).

The Clue remake has landed at 20th Century Fox after previously being under the Universal umbrella, although no director has been announced to helm the project. Clue is based on the popular murder mystery board game with one previous less-than-successful adaptation in 1985, a Paramount production released with multiple endings that starred Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, and Martin Mull.

In more remake/adaptation news, COPS is next in line to get the big screen treatment. Ruben Fleischer is set to direct the project and turn the long-time unscripted TV series into "an edgy narrative feature with a buddy comedy bent on the order of a Lethal Weapon."

Billy Crudup is set to star as the male lead opposite Naomi Watts in Gypsy, Netflix’s psychological thriller series. Gypsy follows the journey of Jean Holloway (Watts), a therapist who begins to develop dangerous and intimate relationships with the people in her patients’ lives. Crudup will play Jean’s husband Michael, who will "navigate their twisted and complicated marriage as well as his own morally gray relationships."

This year's Tony winner for Best Actor in a Musical (Hamilton), Leslie Odom Jr,  is in talks to board Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. The film is based on one of Christie’s best known books, which was first published in 1934. and revolves around a murder of an American businessman on board the famous train with multiple suspects.

Serious fans of the Sherlock Holmes canon and its many works inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's creations may be less than enthused about an upcoming Sony project, but all that aside, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are teaming up to play comedic versions of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson for the studio's Holmes and Watson. Etan Cohen will direct from his own script about the duo "that faces off against enemies from across the globe."

A dispute over salary between Tom Cruise and Paramount has halted pre-production on Mission: Impossible 6, which had slated a January 2017 production start. This is the second production issue this summer for the project, after it threatened to fall apart over "script issues" back in July.

Just for fun, IFC.com posted "The 10 Best Offbeat Spy Movies" (with trailers).

TELEVISION

HBO is developing a Perry Mason series from Robert Downey Jr. and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto that will be short-run installments in the vein of True Detective (whose seasons have consisted of 8 episodes each). The drama, based on the legal crime books by Erle Stanley Gardner, is being eyed as an ongoing series, with new seasons’ timing contingent on Downey’s availability,

True Blood star Anna Paquin has lined up her next big TV project, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace. She'll play Nancy Montgomery, a Canadian woman living in the mid 1800s who is housekeeper for Thomas Kinnear, a man who was famously murdered along with Montgomery. The novel is known for the way it is constructed, with a shifting point of view that looks at the murders and subsequent investigation.

Emmy-winning actor Aaron Paul is stepping behind the camera at NBC for a one-hour drama script at the network that he will produce. Titled Blackmail, the project centers on a young married couple who suffer a life-changing accident and decide to get back at the man responsible by threatening to reveal his infidelity to his fiancee, but a hitch in their plan turns into a dark game of cat-and-mouse.

Amazon has greenlit Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, a 10-episode reboot of the iconic spy character starring Jon Krasinski (The Office). The series will follow the CIA analyst as he tries to unravel a global terrorism plot, with planned shooting locations including the U.S., Europe and Africa.

The ratings were so good that midway through its second-season run, USA Network’s drama series Mr. Robot has been renewed for a third season to air in 2017. The hacker drama was recently nominated for six Emmys, including best drama series and best actor for star Rami Malek.

The second season of ABC's American Crime featured a notable cast of Timothy Hutton, Regina King, and Felicity Huffman, but some feel it was 22-year-old Connor Jessup who stole the show with his portrayal of a victim of sexual abuse. The show's producers announced Connor will return for Season 3 as they put the young man's character through the wringer again, helping to shed "new light on the opiate addiction epidemic that is plaguing America.”

Bosch (the titular character from the adaptation of Michael Connelly's novels) will have a new enemy to face in season three: Arnold Vosloo, who
will play Rafael "Rudy" Tafero, an ex-cop who has gone into private industry and now works as a security chief for director Andre Holland.  With a penchant for needling Bosch (Titus Welliver), Rudy might be dirty enough to have planted evidence against Bosch in a case.

Bosch's producers also announced that Jeffrey Pierce (The Tomorrow People) has booked a recurring role in the series, playing Trevor Dobbs, who is a former lieutenant with a tight knit Special Forces group in Anwar Province.

Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall and Toby Jones (Dad's Army) have come aboard the BBC’s two-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Witness for the Prosecution. Cattrall will play glamorous Emily French, the murder victim, while Jones is set to take on the role of the attorney who has to defend the victim's heir and chief suspect (Billy Howle). The project, which also stars Andrea Riseborough, Monica Dolan, and David Haig, recently began filming in Liverpool, with no broadcast date yet announced.

Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory has been set as the lead in ITV’s six-part legal thriller, Fearless. Written and exec produced by Homeland's Patrick Harbinson, it will center on Emma Blunt (McCrory), a solicitor known for defending lost causes who's investigating the killing of a schoolgirl in East Anglia and trying to free the man she thinks was wrongly convicted of the murder. As she digs deeper into the case, Emma begins to sense powerful forces, in the police and the intelligence services at home and abroad, who want to stop her uncovering the truth.

Robert Knepper has booked a recurring role on Season 6 of Showtime’s flagship drama series Homeland. The new season of the series, starring Claire Danes, is set following the U.S. presidential election with a newly elected female POTUS (Elizabeth Marvel).

For the first time, Amazon is making several original series pilot episodes available on Amazon Video’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, including Bosch, the Emmy-nominated series based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novels, following LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch.

Investigation Discovery gave the green light to Scene of the Crime with Tony Harris (working title), a six-part series that looks at the world behind and beyond the crime. The series starts production this summer, and will air exclusively on ID in 2017.

A trailer was released for Doubt, Katherine Heigl's return to the small screen playing a defense lawyer who she struggles with a case that gets a bit too personal when she falls for the client (Steven Pasquale) who is as dreamy as he is possibly murderous.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Obsessed with traditional crime writing as a child, author Leye Adenle explains on a BBC podcast why he chose to set his own crime fiction in Nigeria.

The Story Blender welcomed Kathleen Antrim, journalist and award-winning author of the bestselling political thriller, Capital Offense.

SoundCloud is currently featuring a drama performed by LA Theatre Works (which nabbed the 2015 Audie Award for Audio Drama with its production of The Hound of the Baskervilles):  Reginald Rose's juror drama Twelve Angry Men (1954) featuring actors Hector Elizondo, Robert Foxworth, and Joe Spano. It was directed by John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation), who can be heard on the program as the judge in the case. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell.)

THEATER

Casting was announced for The American Wife, a new thriller coming to London's Park Theatre September 7 to October 1. The show centers on San Diego housewife Karen Ruiz (Julia Eringer) who discovers that her soccer coach husband Eduardo (Vidal Sancho) has been arrested on terror charges. As she rushes to save him from the confines of his new Afghan prison, with the help of Press Association war correspondent, Mark Loomis (George Taylor), Karen has to navigate discrepant claims and accusations being made by governments, journalists and her own husband, making her wonder who she can believe when there is no unified official truth.

Mystery Melange

The Killer Nashville conference announced the finalists for the Silver Falchion Peer Choice and Judges Choice Awards in various categories. Winners will be announced at the Guest of Honor & Awards Dinner at the conference this Saturday. The event starts Thursday and is headlined by special guests Janet Evanovich, Kevin O'Brien, Robert Randisi, Anne Perry, William Kent Krueger, and Charles Todd. (A personal note: I'm thrilled to be included in the Best Mystery/Crime category and honored to be in such good company.)

Otto Penzler, president and publisher of Mysterious Press and owner of New York City's Mysterious Bookshop, announced finalists for the inaugural $25,000 Mysterious Press Award. The contest was open to novels by established authors and first-time novelists (submitted through accredited literary agents only). The winner will be announced at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair. The finalists include Alibi by Lee Goodman, The Downside by Mike Cooper, and Bright Like Blood by Leigh C. Rourks.

If you're a fan of Sue Grafton and her mystery series featuring Kinsey Milhone, Panmacmillan and ClassicFM have a contest just for you. To celebrate the release of Sue Grafton's book X, they're offering a chance to win the entire Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series so far plus a fantastic tech bundle including a Kindle Voyage if you enter by Sunday August 21. It's also a nice plug for ClassicFM, by the way - while you're there, take some time to look around (although note that live-streaming is only available in the UK).

Martin Edwards posted a review of a new book that will appeal to fans of Victorian mystery novels. Titled The A-Z of Victorian Crime, the project was compiled by four historians of crime - Neil R.A. Bell, Trevor N. Bond, Kate Clarke, and M.W. Oldridge.  

Book Riot took a look at another type of mystery, creating a list of "23 Favorite Missing Person Mysteries."

"Tartan Noir" is the phrase often used to classify Scottish crime fiction, and as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins, Stuart Macbride (author of the Logan McRae novels) tries to explain "what lies behind this publishing phenomenon, and whether it really exists at all."

The national Sisters in Crime organization recently released its annual Report for Change, this year on the subject of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Mystery Community.” Rather than point any fingers of blame, the object of the study is to bring the issues "to consciousness and bringing the membership of this organization and others out of that shade and into the light of open discussion," as Publishing Perspectives noted.

It's not too late to squeeze in that last summer read. To help you out, New York Times readers listed their favorite thrillers. And if you wondered what was on President Obama's summer reading list, he included one crime fiction title.

Want to learn how to be a spy? Or at least live and travel like one? Atlas Obscura compiled a map of all the places "where 007 drank, killed and shagged." (HT to Bill Crider)

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Short Lived" by Bill Baber.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mysterious People chat with Chris Grabenstein, former standup comedian and author of comedic crime novels as well as co-author of a number of books with author James Patterson; Michael Koryta spoke with the Portland Press Herald about his latest thriller, Rise the Dark, his writing in general, and using Maine as a setting in his books; Nick Kolakowski takes Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview challenge; the Mystery People snagged James Ziskin to talk about the latest in his series featuring early 1960s "girl reporter" Ellie Stone; and Crime Watch welcomed Argentina's bestselling crime writer, Claudia Piñeiro.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for the latest wrap-up of crime drama news:

MOVIES

The Magnificent Seven director Antoine Fuqua is in talks to direct Universal's Scarface reboot, which will be set in Los Angeles. The original 1932 film starring Paul Muni took place in Chicago, while the 1983 classic featuring Al Pacino as Tony Montana chronicled the Miami cocaine trade.

Harry Potter's Jason Isaacs has been tapped to join the cast of Hotel Mumbai, joining Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, and Nazanin Boniadi in the film based on the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai. The project is an account of the courageous actions of the hotel staff and guests during a terrorist attack on the iconic Indian landmark by Pakistani militants that resulted in hundreds held hostage for 68 hours and 160 deaths.

The all-female reboot of Oceans Eleven, starring Sandra Bullock, has added to its growing cast with Rihanna and Anne Hathaway in negotiations to join in the fun. They join the already-hired Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, and Nora Lum (better known by her rap name Awkwafina). The project will follow a similar path to the George Clooney-starrer about a group of thieves and cons who try to pull off a major heist.

Universal is pushing back the release date of the Tom Cruise movie Mena from January to September 2017 and giving it a new title, American Made. The project reunites director Doug Liman and Cruise after making 2014's Edge of Tomorrow, only this time Cruise stars as real-life American pilot and hustler Barry Seal, who ran drugs in the 1980s for cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and was recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in history.

A new fast-paced trailer has debuted online for Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Inferno, once again starring Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon.

A TV trailer-promo and poster were also released for the next outing of Tom Cruise playing Lee Child's literary creation in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

TELEVISION

Homeland is adding new characters to the cast for the upcoming sixth season. Limitless star Hill Harper (who joins the previously cast Elizabeth Marvel) will play the chief of staff to her president-elect, while The Flash actor Patrick Sabongui will team up with Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison to play a CUNY law professor and advocate for the Muslim-American community.

Homeland also got a bit of very good schedule news:  Showtime ordered up not just Season 7 of the political thriller, but also Season 8 before the sixth season even went into production (although the Season 6 release date has been announced, January 15, 2017). Showtime CEO David Nevins said there's an "open-ended expiration date" on the drama, specifically because there is no end to the headlines made by governments around the world."

Ray Donovan fans will also be happy with the news that Showtime renewed the series about Boston-bred fixer (Liev Schrieber) who makes bad stuff go away for his rich, high-profile L.A. clients. Production on the 12-episode season is set to begin next year.

Jennifer Lopez has signed on to star in an upcoming HBO TV movie about the life of one of the most powerful female drug lords of all time. Colombian drug kingpin Griselda Blanco, who became known as the "Cocaine Godmother," changed the rules of the drug trade in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s and was rumored to have been a black widow who killed a couple of her husbands.

The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli has committed to Season 2 of Fox’s supernatural procedural Lucifer, playing Angel Uriel, a brother of the titular devil (Tom Ellis). The casting makes sense in light of the fact that Season 2 will revolve around Lucifer Morningstar's mom (Tricia Helfer), according to producers at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.

If you're a fan of Criminal Minds and wonder why Aaron Hotcher goes missing for the next season, it's because the actor who plays the character, Thomas Gibson, was fired after an "altercation" on the set. The studio added that "creative details for how the character’s exit will be addressed in the show will be announced at a later date." Of course, that all may depend upon the actor's potential lawsuit.

A fan favorite character will be returning to the third season of FOX's Batman prequel show Gotham. Although the show seemingly killed off Jerome (who many felt was a younger version of the Joker), Gotham's Executive Producer John Stephens revealed that Jerome was definitely going to be back on the show at some point.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Jan Burke and Dr. D.P. Lyle welcomed Dr. Katherine Ramsland to the Crime & Science podcast to discuss Ramsland's years of research into one of America’s most notorious serial killers Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, and the book that resulted form her work.

Mystery author C.L. Shore chatted with author/screenwriter Debbi Mack about her crime fiction and career for the Crime Cafe podcast.

On this week's FBI Retired Case File Reviews, host Jerri Williams spoke with retired agent Shawn Henry, who served in the FBI for 24 years, most recently as an Executive Assistant Director overseeing all criminal and cyber investigations worldwide.

Haunted Nights Live welcomed F. Paul Wilson, the author of fifty-plus books and numerous short stories spanning science
fiction, horror, adventure, medical thrillers, and virtually everything between, to talk about his new thriller, Mother.

On the most recent Thrill Seekers podcast, host Alex Dolan snagged Tom Pitts, an acquisitions editor at Gutter Books, editor of the Flash Fiction Offensive, and author of the crime novel Hustle.

Mystery Melange

For the second year in a row, the Deadly Ink Conference's David Award, presented to the best mystery published in 2015, ended in a tie: Jack Getze, for Big Shoes, and A. J. Sidransky, for Forgiving Mariela Camacho. The runners-up included Jane K. Cleland, for Ornaments of Death, Hank Phillippi Ryan, for What You See, and Karin Slaughter, for Pretty Girls. (Hat tip to Classic Mysteries)

A group of 15+ women mystery writers are set to participate in the third annual Ladies of Intrigue event on Sunday, October 2, in Huntington Beach, California. The list of attending authors special guests Agatha Award winner Carolyn Hart (interviewed by Rhys Bowen) and Robin Burcell, the author of The Last Good Place, a 2015 work continuing the Al Krug/Casey Kellog police procedural series created by Carolyn Weston. Also appearing will be Kathy Aaron, Lisa Brackmann, Ellen Byron, Kate Carlisle, Donis  Casey, Hannah Dennison, Kate Dyer-Seeley, Earlene Fowler, Daryl Wood Gerber, Naomi Hirahara, Linda O. Johnston, Carlene O'Neil,  Laurie Stevens. and Pamela Samuels Young.

With the 2016 Summer Olympics in full swing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare blog has a listing of Olympics-themed mysteries.

New imprint Syndicate Books is publishing the complete works of MWA Grandmaster Margaret Millar, with a special offer for readers: you can pre-order the series and receive each book one month before its on-sale date. Order now and receive one book every two months, or order at any point later and receive all released volumes and then the rest as they publish.

Mike Ripley’s August "Getting Away with Murder" column for Shots Magazine includes his wrap-up of the recent Heffers of Cambridge crime-fiction summer party; a look at classic works by Fergus Hume and Anna K. Green; news about Ostara Publishing’s reprints of Frank McAuliffe's classic novels; and reviews of new releases from Rod Reynolds, Ray Celestin, Steven Price, Paul Doherty, and more.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Klavan penned an essay titled "The Unblinking Private Eye" on the literary private eye novels of Ross Macdonald, who refined the genre to the point where it became a rich commentary upon itself. (Subscription)

Ahead of the Bouchercon Conference, you can read online all of the Macavity Award-nominated short stories via these links.

For authors writing on books on skip tracing and private eye techniques, Sarah Weinman has a timely article about a woman who faked her own death and wound up writing a book about it, Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. The book also features a "motley cast of Ponzi schemers, insurance fraudsters, celebrity hoaxers and the people who love them, believe in them, or hunt for them, in various straits of desperation and skepticism."

Forget the gym, just read books! According to a new report, researchers used data on 3,635 people over 50 participating in a larger health study who had answered questions about reading. The scientists found that folks who read for up to three and a half hours a week were 17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. Book readers lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all.

Got a spare £1million? The Chelsea Art Deco apartment where Agatha Christie set her Poirot novel Third Girl is on the market. The legendary crime author also penned other famous works including The Mousetrap during her 28 years living there.

Want to know what the "most beautiful" library is in your state? Tech Insider compiled a listing of all 50 states.

The featured crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Pied Piper" by Jonel Abellanosa, and this month's featured story at Beat to a Pulp is "Back Then Our Stories Were Real ..." by Gary Dobbs.

In the Q&A roundup, David Swinson chatted with the Mystery People about his new books featuring private detective and drug addict Frank Marr; the MP also snagged author Shaun Harris, to discuss his recently released debut crime novel, The Hemingway Thief; Lisa Alber stopped by Omnimystery News to give more details about the second mystery in her County Clare series, Whispers in the Mist; and Criminal Element sat down with Donna Andrews to talk about her 20 Meg Lanslow mysteries and how she comes up with her "punny" titles.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in and produce a film adaptation of Rogue Male, the 1939 English novel by Geoffrey Household. The story follows a hunter who attempts to assassinate a dictator (Household has said the dictator was intended to be a stand-in for Adolph Hitler) but is caught, tortured and left for dead; when he escapes back home to England, he must hide out in a harsh countryside with enemy agents and police in hot pursuit.

Angelina Jolie has departed Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express. She was reported as being in negotiations to join the cast but the studio will now turn to other big names to fill the void, with Charlize Theron among those in consideration. Branagh will star as Detective Hercule Poirot in addition to directing the adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel that has a script from Michael Green.

Jessica Chastain has joined the cast of Ubisoft's film adaptation of the Tom Clancy video game The Division. Released on March 8 this year, the game was an instant success, with the highest number of first-day sales on record for the gaming company. The Division takes place in the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. Players attempt to rebuild, investigate and fight crime in the city.

Sony Pictures and Misher Films are moving forward with a remake of director Gerardo Naranjo's 2011 Mexican crime drama Miss Bala, with Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer adapting the screenplay from the original script by Naranjo and Mauricio Katz. The story is loosely based on a real incident and stars Stephanie Sigman as a young woman who dreams of becoming a beauty queen, but when she witnesses a gang hit in a nightclub, the mob rigs an upcoming pageant and she’s dragged into the world of drug cartels and corrupt cops.

Mark Wahlberg is attached to star in and produce the thriller Home Invasion, re-teaming the actor with Contraband scribe Aaron Guzikowski. Pitched as "Panic Room meets Die Hard," Wahlberg will play a contractor whose artist wife suffers from an illness that prevents her from being in the sunlight and builds a futuristic house for her that blocks out any natural light. When a band of criminals attempts to break into the house to steal one of his wife’s valuable sculptures, he must evade and outsmart them to protect his home.

Mr. Robot star Rami Malek is in talks to join the remake of Papillon alongside Charlie Hunnam. Malek would play Louis Dega, the role made famous by Dustin Hoffman in the 1973 original, with Hunnam taking on Steve McQueen's role of Henri Charrière. The remake will be a modern take on the original film, which was based on the memoirs of a convicted felon (Charrière) who escaped from Devil's Island, a South American settlement for exiled prisoners, aided by Malek's character (Dega), a counterfeiter.

Joel Edgerton is in early talks to join Jennifer Lawrence in the adaptation of the Jason Matthews spy novel Red Sparrow, with Francis Lawrence attached to direct the script by American Hustle scribe Eric Warren Singer. The book is set in contemporary Russia where state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the cast-iron bureaucracy of post-Soviet intelligence. Drafted against her will to become a "Sparrow," a trained seductress in the service, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the agency’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence.

Linda Cardellini (Bloodline) has been cast in the action thriller Hunter Killer, an adaptation by Peter Craig and Jamie Moss of the novel Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith. The story revolves around an American submarine commander (Gerard Butler) sent into Russian waters to save the Russian president (Gary Oldman) in the midst of a military coup. Cardellini will play Jane Norquist, a NSA senior analyst and Russia expert. Toby Stephens, Billy Bob Thornton, Common, Ryan McPartlin and Gabriel Chavarria will also co-star.

Don Johnson is in talks to join Vince Vaughn in the indie action thriller Brawl in Cell Block 99 from S. Craig Zahler, the writer and director of the critically acclaimed 2015 cannibal Western Bone Tomahawk. Vaughn plays Bradley, a former boxer who goes to work for an old friend as a drug courier who winds up in prison and is forced to commit brutal, violent acts. Johnson would play the role of the prison warden in the film, which is set to start production next month in New York City.

Vancouver's Cinematheque is offering its annual summer celebration of the "giddy, gloomy, seductive glories of Film Noir" through August 22. Highlights include The Big Sleep, based on the Chandler novel and starring Bogart and Bacall, and Shadow of a Doubt, Alfred Hitchcock's favorite of his own movies.

TELEVISION

The Closer star Kyra Sedgwick is returning to primetime as the star of another series, ABC's thriller Ten Days In the Valley, with a deal for a 10-episode straight-to-series order. The project comes from Tassie Cameron, co-creator and head writer of hit cop series Rookie Blue, and follows Jane Sadler (Sedgwick), an overworked television producer and single mother in the throes of a fractious separation whose young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night.

James Norton (Grantchester, War & Peace, Happy Valley) has been cast as the lead in BBC One's upcoming event series McMafia, inspired by Misha Glenny's bestselling book. The project is a hard-hitting look at global crime and its far reaching influence and is being spearheaded by Hossein Amini (Drive) and James Watkins (The Woman In Black), who will also direct.

Investigation Discovery is joining forces with bestselling author James Patterson, who will write and executive produce a six-part scripted true crime series for the network based on Patterson’s new line of novella-length BookShots.

Invesitgation Discovery also greenlighted the drama special Black and Blue, with investigative reporting from Emmy-winning journalist Tony Harris. He will travel the country to reveal how police shootings impact African American families in their homes and communities across the U.S., while also giving viewers a first-hand look into what it’s like to be a law enforcement officer working to protect our not-so-united municipalities in these troubling times.

L.A. Law, which ran on NBC for eight seasons starting in 1986, may get a new life through a reboot according to series creator Steven Bochco. The new project is in the works with 20th Century Fox Television, which owns the franchise, but it is in the very early stages of development. Bochco hopes to have the pilot script ready for contention in next year's crop of new shows. Bochco also said that he wouldn't rule out bringing back some of the original cast and characters from the first iteration of L.A. Law, which included Corbin Bernsen, Jimmy Smits, Harry Hamlin, Susan Dey. and Blair Underwood.

After a mildly successful foray into dark serialized dramas like Animal Kingdom and Good Behavior, TNT announced it will gradually bring back procedurals and lighter fare such as Rizzoli & Isles. The plan is to introduce a new procedural drama on the network in late 2017 or early 2018.

USA Network has set an October premiere date for its new original crime thriller series Eyewitness from executive producer Adi Hasak (Shades of Blue). The 10-episode drama series delves into the lives of two teenage boys after they secretly meet up in a cabin, witness a shooting, and barely escape with their lives—then learn the efforts to keep their secret are worse than they'd bargained for. Adapted from the critically acclaimed Norwegian drama Øyevitne, the series stars Julianne Nicholson, Gil Bellows, Tyler Young and James Paxton.

Sleepy Hollow has found Crane’s new archenemy in Jeremy Davies (Lost, Justified). Davies' recurring character, Malcolm Dreyfuss, is described as an eccentric and outspoken tech mogul who became a billionaire before the age of 30 and has since been seeking other worlds to conquer.  

Willem Dafoe has closed a deal to voice Ryuk the Shinigami in Adam Wingard's adaptation of the popular Japanese manga Death Note that will debut next year on Netflix. Ryuk is a supernatural god of death who accompanies protagonist/anti-hero Light Turner (Nat Wolff), a high school student who comes into possession of a powerful, unholy "Death Note" that kills anyone whose name is written into it. Drunk on power, he begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life. In addition to being a supernatural horror, Death Note is also a police procedural, as Light's own father is tasked with finding the serial killer who the public believes is behind the sudden string of murders.

Director Antoine Fuqua (The Magnificent Seven, Training Day) has received a 10-episode straight-to-series order from the AT&T Audience network for a crime drama that dives deeply into the underbelly of the Los Angeles diamond trade via the members of the Green family. Production is set to begin this month and is slated for release later this year.

Dick Wolf will continue his crime-oriented franchise slate with a New York-set crime drama that focuses on the FBI. Wolf already has actively been researching the subject, meeting with FBI executives and other sources, including FBI director James Comey. Because of how full Wolf’s plate is, the new FBI drama is eyed for the 2018-19 season, with the possibility that the new show would be introduced on Wolf's Law & Order: SVU, which is also set in New York.  

Meanwhile, Wolf said he thinks there will "definitely" be a four-way crossover between his three existing Chicago shows - Fire, P.D. and Med - and new spin-off Chicago Justice next year, after the latter premieres mid-season.

Casey Bloys, HBO's new president of programming, told reporters that Nic Pizzolatto's crime drama True Detective is not dead. He added, "It’s a really valuable franchise for us. I think both seasons average about 11 million viewers an episode. So not dead. Just I’m not sure we have the right take for a third season yet."

Emmy-nominated Lili Taylor will return to American Crime for the upcoming third season, joining previously announced Timothy Hutton, Felicity Huffman, Regina King and Richard Cabral in the critically-praised anthology series from John Ridley and Michael McDonald.

There will no second season for Fox's literary adventure drama series Houdini & Doyle, which was canceled by the network after being plagued by soft ratings throughout its freshman run. The series focused on the unlikely real-life friendship between master illusionist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) as they grudgingly joined forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant.

Investigation Discovery has set a three-night television event series focusing on the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation for premiere on September 12, which will reexamine the evidence in the case that gripped the nation of a 6-year-old beauty queen mysteriously murdered in her own home the day after Christmas 1996.  

Alexandra Metz has landed a recurring role in the CW's new drama series Frequency, a re-imagining of the 2000 New Line Cinema film, which centers on a female police detective who discovers she can speak via a ham radio with her estranged father (also a detective) who died in 1996. They forge a new relationship while working together on an unsolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the "butterfly effect" wrea
k havoc in the present day. Metz will play Maya, a college student desperate to prevent herself from becoming a victim of a violent crime.

Author M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin now has her own TV series, Agatha Raisin: The Quiche of Death, which premiered on Acorn TV. Ugly Betty’s Ashley Jensen stars as the London PR executive attempting to retire peacefully in a small Cotswold village, but has trouble winning the townsfolk over—not to mention the encountering of dead bodies. You can watch the trailer and the entire first episode for free on Acorn TV.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

D.P. Lyle and Jan Burke presented a Live Crime & Science Radio Podcast with special guest interviewee Criminalist and Forensics Professor Don Johnson at a MWA-LA meeting on August 7. You can listen to the archived version via this link.

Retired agent Bea DeFazio served in the FBI for 23 years, seven as a member of the Special Surveillance Group (SSG) following spies in New York and 16 as a special agent, as well as working undercover to ferret out child predators trolling in online chat rooms. She stopped by fellow retired FBI agent Jerri Williams' podcast "FBI Retired Case File Review."

THEATER

Australia's Sydney Theatre Company is currently presenting The Hanging by award-winning playwright Angela Betzien through September 10. The story follows two school girls who go missing in Melbourne’s hinterland with the only clue being the girls' closest friend and confidante. Beguiling and quick-witted, this 14-year-old ingénue (played by Ashleigh Cummings) won't give up her secrets easily - and what does her English teacher (Genevieve Lemon) have to hide?

RIP, Rautavaara

Einojuhani Rautavaara died on July 27. Although not as much of a household name as Jean Sibelius, Rautavaara has been called the greatest Finnish composer since his more famous predecessor. Some more traditional classical fans might have been turned off by his earlier twelve-tone experimentation, but his later works were more of a neo-Romantic style with mystical overtones.

To give you a little taste of his works, I've included a piano piece titled Passionale (I'll have to ask Scott Drayco if he's played this one), followed by the short choral piece Credo, and finally the fourth movement from what many consider to be his best-known work, the Symphony No. 7, "Angel of Light."