Media Murder for Monday

It's a "light" news week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, but here's some of the latest crime drama action making headlines:

MOVIES

Centropolis Entertainment picked up film rights to the spec script Scarletville from screenwriter Jason Young. Described as a thriller in the vein of Blood Simple or Red Rock West, the project centers on a deadly criminal who shows up in the deceptively-quiet, small town of Scarletville, leading a diner owner named Hank to spin a series of dark and twisted stories in order to delay the felon long enough for the law to arrive.

Enrique Murciano is the latest to join the cast of Netflix’s David Ayer-directed film Bright, playing a gang leader named Poison. Will Smith, Joel Egerton and Noomi Rapace also star along with Edgar Ramirez, Lucy Fry and Ike Barinholtz. The project was written by Max Landis and is styled as a "fantasy cop thriller set in a world where human and mythical creatures co-exist."

Sylvester Stallone has walked away from the action film Godforsaken less than two weeks before production was set to begin. He was to play an ex-con who learns that his estranged son has been killed and sets out on a mission to protect his remaining family while also seeking vengeance against his son’s killers.  

The sequel to the 2015 surprise box office hit Kingsman: The Secret Service has had a bit of a delay in release date. The Golden Circle was originally supposed to be released on June 16, 2017, but Fox announced it will be delayed until October 6, giving it a spot in the fall schedule away from all the other highly-anticipated blockbusters hitting theaters in the summer.

TELEVISION

ABC has bought the thriller drama Salamander, which is based on the 2012 Belgian series. Salamander centers on a brilliant but misanthropic engineer "who recruits a skeptical female FBI therapist to help him track a mysterious bank robber whose theft of 66 specific safety deposit boxes, belonging to the rich and powerful, sets in motion a series of blackmails that may be linked to a greater conspiracy."

Michael Milligan (SiREN) has booked a recurring role on Fox’s 24: Legacy, the real-time limited series that chronicles a race against the clock to stop a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Milligan will play Theo Sterling, a new programmer at CTU headquarters described as a strange combination of computer geek and Fifth Avenue chic.

The third season of Gotham will be adding another new face in the form of Dexter alum James Remar, who has signed on to play Frank Gordon when Gotham returns from winter hiatus in 2017. Frank is the long-absent uncle of Jim Gordon who left Gotham after the death of his brother.

Penelope Ann Miller is set to star in Lifetime network’s latest ripped-from-the-headlines TV movie, Prison Break: The Joyce Mitchell Story. The project is inspired by the infamous 2015 jailbreak in upstate New York pulled off by convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat that launched a 21-day manhunt for the pair. Matt was found and killed in the attempt to apprehend him, and Sweat eventually was found and taken into custody.

Ahead of the Season 1 finale on December 10, BBC America has ordered a 10-episode second season of the original scripted series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for premiere in 2017. The order will be an increase of two episodes from the freshman year's eight total.

A first look at Uncle Sherlock, perhaps? In a teaser photo released from Season 4 of the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman drama Sherlock, the crime-fighting partners are seen with John Watson's wife Mary (Amanda Abbington) and a baby strapped to John's chest. Mary’s pregnancy was announced in the Season 3 finale so the appearance of the baby seems to indicate Season 4 will jump ahead in time a few months.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Noir on the Radio host Greg Barth welcomed crime viction author Elka Ray, a UK/Canadian author and illustrator based in Hoi An, Vietnam.

The Guardian Books podcast investigated Nordic noir with Kati Hiekkapelto and Antti Tuomainen, two of Finland’s rising literary stars.

Alex Dolan, host of The Thrillseekers podcast, chatted with Laura McHugh, the author of The Weight of Blood and Arrowood and winner of the International Thriller Writers Thriller Award and also the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel.

Mystery Melange, Thanksgiving Edition

Janet Rudolph has compiled her latest list of Thanksgiving mysteries and crime fiction on her blog Mystery Fanfare. You can also check out last year's list link here.

The Mystery Lovers Kitchen group has posted several Thanksgiving recipes for you to try, from pumpkin crunch cake to Irish cranberry bread to leek pepper biscuits, paleo autumn quiche, and more.

Kings River Life published a couple of Thanksgiving short stories online, "Holiday Summons" by KM Rockwood and "Felony at Farquhar Farms" by Andrew MacRae.

The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards were announced last week, including the winner of the Crime Fiction Book of the Year, The Trespasser by Tana French. Also among the winners, The Ryan Tubridy’s Listener’s Choice went to Liz Nugent for her psychological thriller, Lying In Wait.

Congratulations also to Ann Cleves, who was announced the winner of Iceland Noir's first-ever Honorary Award for Services to the Art of Crime Fiction.

The Washington Post editors chose their "best mystery books and thrillers of 2016," with ten titles in all.

Amazon announced its choice for the "top ten books of 2016," with the year's most-buzzed book The Underground Railroad by Colson Whithead taking the top spot. But also on the list are the thriller titles The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis and Before the Fall by Noah Hawley.

One sad note this week: as many of you may have heard by now, 28-year-old crime fiction author Roger Hobbs, author of the thrillers Ghostman and Vanishing Games, died of an overdose on November 14 in Portland, Oregon. Hobbs was an up-and-coming bright light, becoming the youngest person ever to win a CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, in 2013. In 2014 he won the Strand Critics award and was also nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Anthony awards. In 2015, he became the youngest person ever to win the Maltese Falcon award. Needless to say, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

By way of celebrating the Scottish Book Trust's Book Week Scotland taking place from 21 to 27 November, Ion Magazine delved into Scottish crime fiction, a/k/a "targan noir," by taking a look at places and landscapes that inspired them via an interactive map.

Speaking of Scotland, the new book festival Granite Noir, which will take place over two days from February 24, will feature famous literary guests including Denise Mina, Christopher Brookmyre, and Stuart MacBride. As well as Scottish authors, the event will invite Scandinavian crime writers to talk to audiences about their novels and working methods. Visitors will also be able to attend film screenings, workshops.

A lot has been made lately about print vs. ebooks in terms of popularity and where publishing is headed, but as an article on JStor points out, the future of books may be won by  ... audio.

Speaking of the future and technology, The Atlantic took a look at the computational tools being used to analyze books’ emotional arcs but so far, the data is unclear as to what they can really find out about literature.

Neil S. Plakcy penned a guest post for Criminal Element, discussing the history of homosexuality in crime fiction and how the trailblazers in the genre inspired his own writing.

Mashable investigated "Film noir, Nancy Drew and the evolution of the aesthetics of mystery."

Bustle rounded up a list of "10 terrifying thrillers for winter guaranteed to keep you up all night."

In the Q&A roundup, Ominimystery News welcomed authors Carl Schmidt to discuss his private eye series and Joe Cosentino to talk about his Jana Lane series; Ian Rankin chatted with the Vancouver Sun about mortality, Rebus, and Scottish crime; The Clarion Ledger welcomed author Beverly Lowry to discuss her new book, Who Killed These Girls? Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders, based on the still unsolved 1991 case of the deaths of four Austin, Texas, girls that has left the families and community without answers for 25 years.

Media Murder for Monday

Start off your Thanksgiving week with the latest crime drama news:

MOVIES

Awesomeness Films is adapting Teresa Toten’s YA novel Beware That Girl, eyeing Elle Fanning for the starring role. Cut from the same cloth as psychological thrillers Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, the film follows two girls at an elite Manhattan private school as they manipulate each other in a game of cat and mouse: Kate is a scholarship student who survives by lying her way into friendships with wealthy classmates while Olivia is the "it" girl of the Upper East Side with a dark and mysterious past. When a charming and handsome new faculty member joins their school, the girls are forced to bring their secrets to light.

Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey is in negotiations to take a critical role in White Boy Rick from director Yann Demange. The film is based on a spec script by Logan and Noah Miller that's based on the real-life story of Richard Wershe Jr. Set in the mid-1980s, the story follows Wershe Jr. when he became an undercover informant for local and federal law enforcement agencies at the age of 14 only later to become a major drug dealer, arrested after officers found 17 pounds of cocaine on him (at the age of 17), receiving a sentence of life in prison.  McConaughey is being eyed for the role of the senior Wershe, a blue-collar factory worker, struggling with the collapse of the auto industry as he tries to keep his family together.

Screenwriter Derek Kolstad is teaming up with Alan and Peter Riche to take on an adaptation of Tim Lebbon's novel Endure. Pitched as an intense and relentless action thriller in the vein of Deliverance and The Most Dangerous Game, the story centers on a female lead out to get revenge on a group that organizes human trophy hunts for the elite and wealthy, and may be responsible for the disappearance of her husband. It’s being pitched as a potential franchise-starter that could introduce the world to a female John Wick.

Laurence Fishburne is set to star alongside Royalty Hightower in the indie film Ruby In Murdertown, a crime thriller that marks the feature directorial debut of Leah Rachel, who also wrote the script. Production on the indie is slated for next year. Hightower, the 11-year old who had a breakout turn in the Sundance film The Fits (and was just nominated by the Gotham Awards in the Breakthrough Actor category), plays a young drifter driving around in her '77 Chevy Caprice, who decides to take action after her father (Fishburne) is framed for murder in a crime-ridden Midwest wasteland. 

Scott Adkins, who was recently seen in Doctor Strange, has joined the cast of Accident Man, based on a character from the graphic novel by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner. He joins Ray Stevenson, Ashley Greene, David Paymer, Amy Johnston, Ray Park and Michael Jai White in the film, which is directed by Jesse Johnson and set to go into production this month in the UK. Stu Small co-wrote the script (with Adkins) which follows the story of hitman Mike Fallon, known for making assassinations look like unfortunate accidents. His cavalier attitude changes the day his ex-girlfriend, Beth, is murdered by his own crew.

Forest Whitaker is in talks to join Johnny Depp in Labyrinth, the real-life drama based on the criminal investigation behind the murders of rap legends Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.  Whitaker would play a journalist who teams with Depp's disgraced LAPD detective, who has been unable to solve the mysterious deaths of two of hip-hop's biggest stars. The project is based on journalist Randall Sullivan’s book LAbyrinth - A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal.

At least one of the original male stars from Ocean's Eleven is headed to the (mostly) all -female spinoff in the franchise, Ocean's Eight. Matt Damon will have a bit part in the upcoming film, which stars an army of illustrious A-listers ranging from Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock to Anne Hathaway and Rihanna.

Mark Wahlberg, J.K. Simmons, John Goodman and Kevin Bacon go on a manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers in the new trailer for Patriots Day, based on the true story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

TELEVISION

Amazon Studios picked up the Hitchcockian spec script Holland, Michigan, with Peter Dealbert attached to produce. Written by Andrew Sodroski, the thriller centers on a housewife in the midwest who suspects her husband is having an affair, but as the story unfolds, she learns that her husband might be leading a secret life. Errol Morris was previously announced as director and Bryan Cranston, Naomi Watts, and Edgar Ramirez are attached to star. Amazon is looking to start production in the spring.

The team behind fantasy procedural drama Grimm are developing a new series for NBC titled Treasure. The mystery series follows a group of grad students in Washington, DC who accidentally uncovers a 40-year-old secret which leads them on a wild ride through real history as they attempt to unravel an unsolved murder, find hidden blood money, and avoid being killed by an assassin from the past.
 
Fox has put in development the legal drama Hawk from Rosewood executive producer Andy Berman and creator/executive producer Todd Harthan.Written by Berman, Hawk is described as a law show with a twist, centering on a con man with special skills, who tries to reconcile his criminal past when he becomes the in-house legal investigator for the glossy LA firm he almost took down.

BBC America greenli
t an eight-episode dramatic thriller series Killing Eve to premiere in 2018. Based on the novellas by Luke Jennings, Killing Eve revolves around Villanelle, a psychopathic assassin, and Eve, the woman charged with hunting her down. Eve is a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade security services operative whose desk-bound job doesn’t fulfill her fantasies of being a spy. Villanelle is an elegant, talented killer who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her. The two fiercely intelligent women, equally obsessed with each other, go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse. 

In other news from The Beeb, AMC has closed a co-production deal with BBC Worldwide North America for BBC One's drama series McMafia created and written by Oscar-nominated Hossein Amini (Drive) and James Watkins (The Woman in Black) and starring James Norton (Grantchester, War & Peace). Inspired by Misha Glenny's 2008 best-selling book, the organized crime series that centers on the English-raised son of Russian exiles with a mafia history, who has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of that criminal past, building his own legitimate business and forging a life with his girlfriend Rebecca. But when his family’s past murderously returns to threaten them, Alex is drawn into the criminal world and forced to confront his values to protect those he loves. The series will also star David Strathairn, Juliet Rylance, Aleksey Serebryakov, Marie Shukshina, and Faye Marsay.

Meanwhile, UK's ITV has given the green-light to Bancroft, a four-part police thriller with two women at its heart: Elizabeth Bancroft, a respected DCI who has given her life to the police force and is trusted and adored by her colleagues; and DS Katherine Stevens, an ambitious, fast-tracked recruit whose assignment to cold cases disturbs the ghosts of the past including those among the lives of her colleagues.

Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) is set to star in an unusual drama for Syfy titled Happy!. Meloni will play Nick Sax, once the top detective in a big city police department but after losing everything he holds dear, he becomes a hit man for the mob and uses his earnings for drugs and booze on the wrong side of town. Sax manages to survive a hit that goes horribly wrong...only to have his life changed forever when he begins to see an imaginary blue-winged horse.

One longtime cast member of Hawaii Five-0 is moving on, as Masi Oka, who plays Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Max Bergman on the CBS police procedural, will be leaving the show after seven seasons as a series regular. The show's creative team insist that Max's story arc will be given a proper conclusion on the show as he rides off to greener pastures. 

The CW network announced its midseason schedule, and things don't look good for the freshman show Frequency, which has essentially been canceled and will have its finale Wednesday, Jan. 25. Peyton List stars as NYPD Detective Raimy Sullivan who discovers she is able to speak to her deceased father Frank Sullivan in 1996 via his old ham radio. Her attempts to save his life trigger the "butterfly effect", changing the present in unforeseen ways and to fix the damage, she must work with her father across time to solve a decades-old murder case.

Fox released a trailer for the final season of Bones, which premieres January 3.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Libby Fischer Hellmann, who hosts the Second Sunday Crime podcast, had the tables turned as Authors on the Air host Pam Stack interviewed Libby about her thirteen thrillers and numerous short stories, as well as what it's like to be a writer in this brave new world of publishing.

The Thrill Seekers podcast welcomed Charles Belfoure,the bestselling author of The Paris Architect and House of Thieves, who is also an architect by profession.

A Stab in the Dark's Mark Billingham chatted with Michael Connelly as the two crime writers discussed U.S. crime drama, Raymond Chandler, jazz versus country and Michael's adaptations which star Titus Welliver, Matthew McConaughey and Clint Eastwood. Paul Hirons also spoke with to Rosewood's leading man Morris Chestnut, who reveals what it's like to work with co-star Jaina Lee Ortiz and what a location gives to a crime drama.

Crime Cafe host and author Debbi Mack interviewed thriller author Reece Hirsch on the Crime Cafe podcast.
 
THEATER

The Vertigo Theatre, located at the base of the Calgary Tower in the heart of downtown Calgary, is staging a production of Agatha Christie’s mystery classic The Hollow, as part of the company's BD&P Mystery Theatre series. The story follows an unhappy game of romantic follow-the-leader that explodes into murder one weekend at The Hollow, home of Sir Henry and Lucy Angkatell.  

A pairing of one-act thrillers by Agatha Christie, The Rats and The Patient, are heading to the West Valley Playhouse in Canoga Park, California, opening on November 26 with a run through December 18. The Rats is about an adulterous pair of lovers who are asked individually, to a London flat for drinks but soon realize that they have been set up as victims, while The Patient deals with a woman severely injured in a fall (an accident, attempted murder, or suicide?) who's unable to speak, but with the aid of Dr Ginsberg's ingenius device, tries to solve the attempted murder.

GAMES

Put your detective skills to the test with Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders, a point-and-tap mystery adventure that seamlessly moves participants through the classic murder novel in the shoes of Christie’s famous protagonist, Hercule Poirot. Players take on the role of Poirot, an eccentric Belgian detective with a Watson-like assistant and a sharp mind, and are tasked with figuring out the identity of a serial killer who chooses his victims based on the first three letters of the alphabet.

Mystery Melange

Ana Ballabriga and David Zaplan's Ningún Escocés Verdadero—a thriller that involves religion, mystery, art and deception—has won the Third Indie Literary Prize for Spanish-language authors worldwide, awarded by Amazon. More than 1,400 authors from 39 countries participated using Amazon’s self-publishing service Kindle Direct Publishing platform.

While we're on the subject of Spanish crime fiction, The Mystery People's "Director of Suspense," Molly Odintz, noted that 2016 has been a prolific year for crime fiction set in Spain, ranging from tales of 16th century rebellion against the Inquisition to 1970s punk protests of Franco’s fascist regime, which make fascinating backdrops to murder.

The Black Week Festival returns to Istanbul this December 1-3 for its second year of celebrating crime fiction. Last year's event was in honor of Agatha Christie, while this year's fest will commemorate Georges Simenon. The setting will be the historic and luxirious Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah, where Simenon stayed in 1933 on a visit that impressed him so much, he wrote two novels set in Turkey.

Moving over to India, Arjun Raj Gaind posits that "Indian historical crime fiction has come of age, as these sleuths prove."

The November issues of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine are now available. The EQMM issue, the penultimate in the 2016 celebration of the 'zine's 75th anniversary, honors those who have contributed to the mystery-fiction world in areas other than fiction writing: the historians, critics, reviewers, and biographers of the field; and AHMM offers up the theme of criminals and writers who employ misdirection, as a number of this month’s stories demonstrate.

The holiday season is a time for being thankful and giving to others, so you might take a look at Bookriot's list of "Bookish Charities You Can Donate to Right Now."

UK law enforcement officer Stefan Kyriazis pointed out "Seven huge mistakes crime novels make" regarding police procedures.

If you're a fan of mysteries, the UK, and remote settings, you'll have fun with a list compiled by author Ann Cleves of "Britain's 10 most mysterious islands."

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "There is a Thief Amongst Us" by J.H. Johns, and the featured story at Beat to a Pulp is an excerpt from Christmas in the Lone Star State by Jason Manning.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element spoke with Rebecca Zanetti, author of Deadly Silence; SFF World talked with Bullet Gal author Andrez Bergen about the work, originally a 12-issue comic series that was turned into a novel; Benedict J. Jones took Paul D. Brazill's Short, Sharp Interview challenge about his latest book The Devil's Brew; Timothy Hallinan stopped by Julia Buckley's blog, Mysterious Musings, to discuss his Christmas mystery, Fields Where They Lay, featuring his burglar/private eye protagonist, Junior Bender; Big Issue North snagged writer, musician and journalist Doug Johnstone for a chat about his new novel, Crash Land; and the Mystery People welcomed Lance Hawvermale to discuss his new thriller Face Blind.

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

I came across some articles recently containing fascinating tales from historical crime blotters, and since true crime dramas are popular right now, I thought I'd share:

Ireland’s Eye mystery - A murder that gripped Victorian Dublin as the small, picturesque island off Howth was once synonymous with "one of the foulest and strangest murders that have ever been perpetrated" (according to The Weekly Irish Times in 1904), in a case involving infidelity and a secret double life.

Edgar Allan Poe's death is still his greatest unsolved mystery. The author's death was devoid of answers and filled with disturbing possibilities, with literary theorists and experts blaming everything from alcohol to carbon monoxide poisoning and even one doctor posthumously diagnosing Poe with rabies.

The Mystery Behind the Missing Corpse of one of the richest men ever: In the mid-19th century, Alexander Stewart ran a vast business of factories and stores selling clothing and dry goods in New York City, leaving behind a fortune worth $46 billion dollars in today's money. when he died in 1876. Two years later, the grave was unearthed by unknown persons, and Stewart's corpse was missing.   

 

 

 

Media Murder for Monday

I just updated the post to add the 22nd annual Critics’ Choice Award nominations, handed out by the Broadcast Television Journalists Association, which were just announced this morning:

AWARDS

The People v. O.J. Simpson led all programs in television nominations for the Critics’ Choice Awards (in the movie or limited series categories) with a program nomination and five acting nominations including lead actors Cuba Gooding Jr. and Courtney B. Vance, lead actress Sarah Paulson and supporting actors Sterling K. Brown and John Travolta. AMC's miniseries The Night Manager, based on the spy thriller by John le Carré, also landed five nominations (including lead actor Tom Hiddleston). The Best Drama crime drama nods included Better Call Saul and Mr. Robot, with acting nominees led by Rami Malek and Christian Slater, Mr. Robot; Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul; Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, The Americans; Liev Schreiber and Jon Voigt, Ray Donovan; Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder; and Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride.

MOVIES

Warner Bros., Margot Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment, and producer Denise Di Novi are teaming up to adapt Gin Phillips' thriller novel, Beautiful Things. The story is set over three hours and tells of a mother and son who are trapped in a zoo with a gunman on the loose.

Sylvester Stallone has signed on to play a Chicago mob boss in Idol's Eye, the upcoming heist thriller from French director Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper). Stallone will replace Robert De Niro, who was originally attached to the film, and star alongside Robert Pattinson and Rachel Weisz. The story centers on Pattinson's thief who unknowingly steals a blue diamond from Chicago mob boss Tony Accardo (Stallone), setting off a war between the two men as they both try to keep one step ahead of the FBI. 

Imperative Entertainment acquired the film rights to Tangerine, Christine Mangan’s debut novel, with Scarlett Johansson attached to star. Publishing rights were sold to Ecco (HarperCollins) only last week for the psychological thriller, which is set against the simmering political climate of 1950s Morocco.

Jessica Chastain will star in and produce the drama Painkiller Jane, based on the graphic novel series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada. In the original 1995 story, the lead character is an undercover police officer infiltrating a mob who doesn’t realize an explosive device has been planted on her. She’s severely injured, but her target manages to revive her and give her superhuman regenerative powers that turn her into the vigilante "Painkiller Jane." The graphic novel was previously adapted into a Syfy channel TV movie starring Emmanuelle Vaugier and later Kristanna Loken.

The cast for the Kenneth Branagh remake of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express just added another A-lister in the form of Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz. Branagh takes on the role of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, with other train passengers to be played by Johnny Depp (the man who is murdered), Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Michael Pena, Judi Dench, Leslie Odom Jr., and Josh Gad. Cruz’s role has yet to be revealed.

Focus Features announced it's moving the release of David Leitch’s The Coldest City starring Charlize Theron to July 28, 2017, two weeks earlier that originally slated. The spy thriller now will bow against Sony’s Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower and Disney’s untitled live-action fairy tale film. Theron plays 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, and has to form an uneasy alliance with Berlin station chief David Percival (James McAvoy).

Lionsgate has released the trailer for its upcoming psychological thriller Solace, directed by Afonso Poyart with a script from Sean Bailey and Ted Griffin. The film stars Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish and Colin Farrel in the tale of a retired physician with psychic powers who partners with an FBI special agent to stop a vicious murderer.

A24’s Free Fire, the thriller directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson, is now scheduled for release nationwide on March 17. The distributor released a poster for the action film, which also stars Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Armie Hammer and Sharlto Copley, that's set in a warehouse full of guns after an arms deal goes wrong in 1978 Boston.

The heavy metal group Slipknot and Mark Neveldine, co-director of the cult action film Crank, partnered together to adapt the hyper-violent graphic novel, Officer Downe, for the big screen. A trailer was released for the film which stars Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy) as Officer Downe, a deceased police officer resurrected from the dead to keep fighting crime.

Live by Night got its final trailer ahead of its Christmas Day launch date. The thriller is based on the book by Dennis Lehane and stars Ben Affleck (who also directs) in the Prohibition Era story centered around a group of individuals and their dealings in the world of organized crime.

TELEVISION

Amazon has landed a drama series package from David O. Russell that stars Oscar winners Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore. The untitled drama, said to be a mafia crime project, received a two-season order of eight episodes each, with Russell himself serving as writer-director.

USA Network is jumping into the true crime drama genre with a pilot order for Unsolved, with the pilot directed and exec produced by Anthony Hemingway, who spearheaded The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Written by Kyle Long (Suits), Unsolved is based on the experiences of former LAPD Detective Greg Kading, author of the book Murder Rap: The Untold Story of Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations, who led multipl
e law-enforcement task forces investigating the murders.

ABC announced it has decided not to move forward with the struggling Hayley Atwell series Conviction. The network will go ahead and produce and air all thirteen episodes that were initially ordered, but has no plans of ordering additional episodes at this time. ABC had also previously trimmed the episode order for fellow freshman legal drama Notorious from thirteen to nine. Conviction stars Atwell as a former first daughter who is blackmailed into running the Conviction Integrity Unit, an organization dedicated to investigating and overturning wrongful convictions. Shawn Ashmore, Merrin Dungey and Emily Kinney also star.  In an interview with TVGuide.com, Dungey, who plays Conviction Integrity Unit investigator Maxine Bohen, said that the finale will be "open-ended."

The CW has put in development Criminal Magic, an hourlong drama from iZombie writer Graham Norris, creator/executive producer Rob Thomas and executive producers Danielle Stokdyk and Dan Etheridge. The Los Angeles-set project is described as "The Departed meets The Vampire Diaries," and revolves around two warring street gangs who fight the cops and each other to corner the market on the most lucrative contraband of all: magic. A young woman hiding spectacular magical powers and an undercover cop must try to survive this glamorous world of speakeasies, crime and danger. 

Jonathan Howard has booked a recurring role on TNT’s drama series The Last Ship, based on William Brinkley’s novel. The story chronicles the aftermath of a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population where Captain Tom Chandler (Eric Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors. Howard will play James Fletcher, a British Royal Navy commander and MI-6 agent who must work with the crew of USS Nathan James to recover stolen items that are crucial to the survival of the planet.

The Good Wife and The Walking Dead alum Dallas Roberts has been cast opposite Felicity Huffman on the upcoming third installment of John Ridley’s ABC anthology drama series American Crime. Roberts will recur as Carson Hesby, the husband of Jeanette Hesby (Huffman) in the new season that will explore labor issues, economic divides and individual rights in North Carolina.

Leonard Roberts (American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson) has joined the cast of TNT’s drama series Major Crimes for a key recurring role in Season 5 that may turn into a regular position if the series is picked up for a sixth season. Roberts will play charismatic Commander Leo Mason, who heads up the Criminal Intelligence Division of the LAPD and, along with Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), is being considered for the job of New Assistant Chief.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

John Grisham stopped by the Diane Rehm show on NPR to talk about his new book, The Whistler.

Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomed Mike McCrary, to discuss his noir crime fiction novels, "stories about questionable people who make questionable decisions."

Ryan Aldred was also a guest of Authors on the Air recently, discussing his debut novel Rum Luck.

The latest Crime and Science Radio podcast was titled "Should We Abandon Use of Lie Detector Tests As Junk Science?" and features an Interview With Morton Tavel, M.D.

Mystery Melange

North American writer Dennis Lehane has won the 2017 Pepe Carvalho Award. The prize is given by the Barcelona City Council and aims to give particular recognition to prestigious national and international crime fiction writers.

The tenth annual Crime & Justice Festival starts tomorrow in Melbourne with panels on Scandinavian Noir, Aussie Noir, Asian Noir, The Law on the Page, and more.

Coming on the 18th of this month, Australia will also be the home to the Sisters in Crime Australia SheKilda 3: One Day Crime Spree. The event features more than 40 leading novelists, true-crime writers, screenwriters, producers, publishers, lawyers, and scholars participating in writing workshops, author panels, book launches, publisher pitching sessions, and the great Dames versus Dicks debate.

Leïla Slimani, a French-Moroccan novelist, was awarded France's top literary accolade, the Prix Goncourt, on Thursday for her book Chanson Douce (Sweet Song), a thriller that opens with the killing of two young children by their caretaker. The novel, which draws on elements from the real story of a nanny from the Dominican Republic who has been accused of killing two children under her care in New York in 2012, pieces together disparate events that culminate in a nightmarish outcome.

The Iceland Noir crime fiction festival will take place on November 17-20 in Reykjavik. Iceland Noir was born in 2013 over a curry in one of Reykjavík’s Indian restaurants when Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates wondered why Iceland had never had its own crime fiction festival. The idea morphed into the Iceland Noir event which this year includes authors Val McDermid, Leena Lehtolainen, Viveca Sten, Sara Blædel, Alexandra Sokoloff, John Gilstrap, William Ryan, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Zoe Sharp, and more.

The crime and noir independent publisher, No Exit Press, has launched a new classics imprint noeXit2. The new imprint plans for around four new titles a year featuring Ace Double editions (two books in one volume) from iconic authors in an upside down and back to front style known as tête-bêche. The new imprint will give titles "a new lease of life" in this format, according to No Exit Press, hoping to introduce its authors to new audiences while attracting authors to the list. It will launch this series with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Robert Olen Butler’s Severance / Intercourse on December 5.

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin is planning a Rebus Festival to celebrate his most famous creation, planned for 2017. The author added, "I’d like to have a Festival in Edinburgh one weekend in June as part of it. I’m still working on it but I could do some talks, we’d have some music and maybe get some of the actors who’ve done it on TV or radio to come along."

The Independent concludes that "Unlike the unfortunate victims who haunt its pages, Irish crime fiction is in great health, and it is women who are leading the way."

The Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading, which will present more than 50 authors November 12 at the University of South Florida, asked Ace Atkins, Tim Dorsey, Michael Koryta, Lisa Unger to explain what books led them to write crime fiction.

Martin Edwards has been helping to spearhead a series of reissued classics via the Classic British Library Crime Classic series. Last week saw the latest installment, Crimson Snow, an anthology of winter mysteries Edward put together on behalf of the Library.

Writing for the New Yorker, John Lanchester takes a look at "How Jack Reacher was Built."

Lisa Rosman makes a good case for "Why It’s the Right Time for an Easy Rawlins Film Franchise."  

Although many people may not be aware of it, there is a crime fiction tradition in West Africa, which Professor Lindsey Green-Simms discusses in an online article with books and resources.

Elizabeth Foxwell has the interesting story of the mystery novel penned by a silent film actor.

The Guardian checked into "Dining with death: crime fiction’s long affair with food," noting that from Sherlock Holmes to Inspector Maigret, fictional detectives often have healthy appetites, while "culinary cozy" combines murders with recipes.  

Book Riot compiled a list of 100 Must-Read Works of Noir during Noirvember.  

Writing for The Strand magazine, Rebecca Top looked at the more dangerous end of the traditional mystery set with  "A Cozy Author Goes Dark: Ten Dark Mystery Favorites."

The spy-oriented blog The Double O Section is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a list of the  "Top 10 Spy Novels of the Past Decade."

With the objective to make reading a daily habit for its citizens, the United Arab Emirates announced a new "national law of reading" earlier this week. The law will give government employees dedicated time to read during work hours, as well provide "knowledge briefcases" of books to children at birth, among other measures intended to encourage a love of reading.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "One Gunman's God" by Ted Davis.

In the Q&A roundup, Ben Winters interviewed fellow crime author Joe Ide about his new novel IQ, which has been getting lots of buzz; Omnimystery News welcomed back author Kim Krisco to talk about his new book Irregular Lives that takes a fascinating look at the Baker Street Irregulars; ON also sat d
own with David Hagerty to chat about the second in his trilogy of crime novels featuring Illinois governor Duncan Cochrane, They Tell Me You Are Crooked; E. B. Davis of the Writers Who Kill blog interviewed Susan Van Kirk about her new book Marry in Haste that tells the story of two lives over a hundred years apart in the same small town; and over at the Femmes Fatales blog, Jean Rabe, who is an accomplished SF/F writer, stopped by to discuss her first mystery, Dead of Winter, featuring Piper Blackwell.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all, with a look at the latest crime drama news on air, on stage, and on the screen:

MOVIES

Don't Breathe director Fede Alvarez in talks to helm The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sequel. Similar to Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, Sony is skipping over two of the books in the series and adapting the latest book, The Girl in the Spider's Web, written by David Lagercrantz. The plot of the book involves Mikael Blomqvist's reporting of a brilliant computer scientist who's under threat by an organization Lisbeth Salander is working with in order to find someone from her past. There's no word on whether Sony will be offering Rooney Mara and her fellow Dragon co-star Daniel Craig roles in the sequel.

Patrick Dempsey has signed on as the lead in The Postcard Killings, directed by Janusz Kaminski from a script by Andrew Stern. Based on James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s novel, the film is about New York detective Jacob Kanon (Dempsey), who investigates the murder of his newly married daughter and discovers a trail of similar crimes reported throughout Europe — each killing accompanied by a postcard delivered to a local reporter.

Last week, it was announced that Gerard Butler would be returning to the Olympus Has Fallen action-spy franchise with a third installment, and now it appears Butler will also be heading to Scotland for the psychological thriller Keepers. Helmed by award-winning Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm (The Killing) and based on a true account, the film will see Butler playing one of a trio of lighthouse keepers, along with Peter Mullan and Joe Alwyn, who settle onto an island what should be a normal six-week stint - until they stumble upon something that leads to a battle for survival as personal greed replaces loyalty and three honest men are led down a path to destruction.

Ben Briand’s action-thriller Fever Heart has booked Alexander Skarsgard and Cara Delevingne in starring roles. The story follows an amnesiac (Skarsgard) who teams up with a quick-witted circus sharpshooter (Delevingne) to uncover his lost memories as they are dogged in violent pursuit by a charming and malevolent tracker. The film is set to begin shooting in 2017.

After finding success with The Raid, director Gareth Evans is returning to the big screen with the period thriller Apostle. The story centers around a mysterious man who travels to a remote island in search of his missing sister after she’s kidnapped by a religious cult, which is demanding a ransom for her return. But it soon becomes clear that the cult will regret the day it baited this man, who digs deeper and deeper into the secrets and lies upon which the commune is built.

TELEVISION

The CW is developing Marlowe, a drama series that's not based on the famous Raymond Chandler character Philip Marlowe but on the real-life African-American private investigator — a Jamaican immigrant and World War I veteran — who allegedly inspired him. Marlowe is a character-based procedural with a modern feel and contemporary soundtrack and "follows Samuel Marlowe from the mansions and red carpets of Beverly Hills to the jazz clubs and back alleys of Little Harlem, where he navigates crimes, mysteries and social issues ripped from today’s headlines through the prism of 1937 Los Angeles."

The CW has also bought a procedural drama from Dexter co-executive producer Lauren Gussis and Ryan Seacrest Productions. Titled Insatiable, the series is inspired by a real-life southern lawyer and top beauty pageant coach, Bill Alverson, who has been seen in the TLC reality series Coach Charming. The show centers on a disgraced, dissatisfied civil lawyer-turned-beauty pageant coach who takes a vengeful, bullied teenager as his client, with no idea of what he’s about to unleash upon the world.

Netflix has renewed the crime thriller Longmire, starring Robert Taylor and Katee Sackhoff, for a 10-episode sixth season, but it will be its last, premiering in 2017 in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The show is based on the characters created by Craig Johnson and featuring Walt Longmire, the Sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County.

Patrick Heusinger (Jack Reacher 2) has been cast as the male lead opposite Stana Katic in Absentia, a 10-episode straight-to-series crime thriller for Sony Pictures Television Networks’ AXN. Absentia centers on an FBI agent, to be played by Katic, who disappears without a trace while hunting a serial killer and is declared dead. Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the woods, barely alive and with no memory of the years she was missing. Returning home to learn her husband (Heusinger) has remarried and her son is being raised by another woman, she soon finds herself implicated in a new series of murders. 

British actress Holliday Grainger is set as the female lead opposite Tom Burke in Cormoran Strike, BBC One’s new limited series based on J.K. Rowling’s bestselling crime novels (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith). Cormoran Strike centers on Strike (Burke), a war veteran turned private detective operating out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Though he’s wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike’s unique insight and his background as an SIB Investigator prove crucial in solving three complex cases which have eluded the police. Grainger will play Robin Venetia Ellacott, Strike’s assistant and secretary. 

Author Lynda La Plante has quit ITV’s Prime Suspect prequel after an alleged row over the portrayal of the early days of her heroine Jane Tennison, to be played by Stefanie Martini as a younger version of the role made famous by Dame Helen Mirren in the original series. La Plante had apparently been enthusiastic about the project until she got wind of how her character will be adapted.

Kamar de los Reyes (Salt) has landed a key recurring role on the upcoming fourth season of Fox genre series Sleepy Hollow, playing Jobe, the burly bodyguard for Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies). Jobe is the heavy who takes care of people (like Tom Mison’s Ichabod Crane) who stand in the way of Malcolm’s big plans. Currently filming in Atlanta for a 2017 return, Sleepy Hollow heads in
to its fourth season after some major changes, with most of the cast having been revamped, the premise adjusted somewhat, and the setting moved to Washington D.C., which opens new storyline possibilities.

UKTV, has commissioned a new comedy drama, Murder on The Blackpool Express, for its comedy channel Gold. The two-part UKTV Original, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, is a mixture of comedy and classic murder mystery and is set on a guided tour coach trip to Blackpool.

Fox has unveiled its mid-season schedule which includes highly anticipated premieres on the way, including Sleepy Hollow, 24: Legacy and the final season of Bones, as well as the season finale dates for shows such as Lethal Weapon, Gotham and Lucifer.

Lady Gaga is set to appear in the third season of American Crime Story, playing the legendary couture designer Donatella Versace. The storyline will tackle the murder of Donatella's brother, Gianni Versace, by the serial killer Andrew Cunanan on the steps of his Miami Beach home. Meanwhile, Season 2 of American Crime Story will focus on Hurricane Katrina and is aiming to film alongside Season 3 in early 2017. 

NCIS veterans George Schenck and Frank Cardea have been named co-showrunners of the long-running CBS drama series after the sudden death of showrunner Gary Glasberg at the age of 50. "The NCIS family suffered a tragic loss with the sudden passing of our showrunner, Gary Glasberg," Schenck and Cardea said. "It’s with heavy hearts that we assume his duties. We are fortunate to be surrounded by an incredibly talented and dedicated cast and crew, which will make the transition that much easier. Thank you to the NCIS fans for the outpouring of love we have all received."

A trailer was released for Season 6 of Homeland, which sees Claire Danes' tireless C.I.A. agent iving in Brooklyn to help Muslims living in the States. The entire season will take place between Election Day and Inauguration day, though it releases close to the latter in real time. Homeland Season 6 premieres on Jan. 15.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

John Grisham chatted with host Brian Koppelman on the podcast The Moment, talking about whether or not he has a mission in his writing, when he first started thinking of himself as a writer, and the issues in our justice system that he continues to wrestle with 25 years later.

The A Stab In The Dark crime podcast host Mark Billingham was joined by Shetland author Ann Cleeves and Nordic Noir author Yrsa Sigurdardottir to discuss being marooned with murder. Both Ann and Yrsa have strong ties to two islands, Shetland and Iceland, and they discussed what it's like to write fiction based there and how islands influence crime stories. Paul Hirons also visited Killer Women and revealed more about this new festival.  

THEATER

David Hare's new play The Red Barn is showing at the UK's Lyttelton Theatre until January 17. The play is based on the Georges Simenon psychological thriller novel La Main, which follows two couples on their way back from a party as they struggle home through the snow ... only not everyone arrives safely. The cast includes Mark Strong (A View from the Bridge), Hope Davis (God of Carnage), and Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager).

Mystery Melange

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers announced that Lisa Sandlin's The Do-Right has won the 2016 Hammett Prize, which recognizes a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing.

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) has awarded the 2016 T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award to Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. The other nominated novels included Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz and The Promise by Robert Crais. The Parker Award recognizes excellence in books that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle from authors living within the SCIBA region.  (HT to the Gumshoe.)

The Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 has announced the finalists in various categories, including Mystery/Thriller. Members can vote for their favorites during the opening round (including write-in candidates) which will narrow the list to the top ten books in each category with one last chance to vote for the winner.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column for Shots Magazine lets us live vicariously through two recent book launches on the other side of the Pond for authors Anthony Horowitz and Martina Cole; there's also a look at vintage crime, thanks to a rare showing of the film The Tiger in the Smoke based on Margery Allingham's book and a new reissue of Lady Winifred Peck's Arrest the Bishop; plus new Italian and Nordic crime fiction, a tribute to the late Ed Gorman, and more.

Philadelphia has chosen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon as the featured selection for its "one book" program in 2017. Celebrating its 15th anniversary next year, One Book, One Philadelphia is a signature event of the Free Library of Philadelphia that promotes literacy, library usage, and citywide conversation by encouraging the entire greater Philadelphia area to come together through reading and discussing a single book. From January 25 to March 23, nearly 100 events and programs will center around Haddon's novel.

The Washington Post reviewed a new anthology of four "perfectly drawn" short stories by the late P.D. James, two of which feature James' stalwart Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.

The London-based Killer Women' Writers Collective is trying to steer the genre away from misogyny in books and sexism in book reviews. The group started a few years ago as a way for writers to combat the loneliness that comes from the isolation of fiction writing but has grown into something much bigger since: a 16-strong group of writers including The Girl on the Train's Paula Hawkins.

Author Amy Gentry took a closer look at domestic thrillers at the cinema that foreshadowed the current similar trend in fiction in an article titled "Breast-feeding Noir" for The Paris Review.

The Washington Post investigated "Blue lives: Pop culture’s minority cops," a look at how non-white officers have been portrayed on TV and film and how they "show us the camaraderie and job satisfaction black or female cops get from buying into institutions that previously barred them. But they don’t tend to inquire deeply into the limits of the citizenship that come with being a police officer or the compromises minority officers must make for that citizenship."

If you can find a copy of the latest issue of Medical Humanities, there's an article titled "Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource."

"The Gone Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the Train":  Five-Thirty-Eight did an analysis of fiction titles and concluded that we're not done yet with the recent "Girl" titled suspense novels, using statistics and insights from the industry such as a bookseller who noted five different galleys on the shelf with "girl" in the title pubbing this fall.

Writing for the BBC, Martha Kearney wonders why so many crime fiction titles have been inspired by the East Anglia region, where the crime rate there is so low.

Ever wonder how chloroform evolved from a beloved sedative to a crime-fiction trope?

The spy who couldn’t spell: how the biggest heist in the history of US espionage was foiled.

Might want to start looking for a new line of work, 007.

It's a bit early for folks like me to be thinking about Christmas, but you might want to pick up tickets soon for the second annual Murder Under the Mistletoe, the Christmas party at Heffers' bookstore in London on December 8th. Although participating authors haven't been announced yet, last year's guests included Susan Grossey, Charlot King, Mike Ripley, Nicola Upson, Mandy Morton, Suzette Hill, Mark Ellis, Miranda Carter, Alison Bruce, Michelle Spring and Kate Rhodes.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Costume" by David Rachels.

In the Q&A roundup John DeDakis chatted with Blog Critics about his Lark Chadwick mystery series; Otto Penzler, crime fiction editor and owner of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press spoke with the New York Times and says the last book that surprised him was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; Big Issue North snagged Ann Cleeves for a Q&A about her series set in the Shetland region that was brought to life on BBC One’s Shetland; Eric Beetner discussed his new novel Rumrunners and Midwestern settings with Steph Post; and Crime Watch's latest "9MM Interview" target was British author Jessica Mann who recently brought back her archaeological sleuth Tamara Hoyland, a former secret agent who appeared in six adventures between 1981 and 1991.

Ed, We Hardly Knew Ye

As many of you have heard, the crime fiction community lost a VIP last month when author, editor, and blogger Ed Gorman died following a long battle with cancer. Since today would have marked his 75th birthday, Patti Abbott is collecting links of tributes and remembrances, which you can check out over here. In addition to penning dozens of mystery novels, including the Sam McCain, Jack Dwyer and Dev Conrad series, Ed was a frequent contributor to the Friday's "Forgotten" Books feature hosted by Patti, something I've been a part of for about eight years. I never had the pleasure to meet Ed and am depressed that now I'll never get the chance. 

Ed was involved with many anthologies through the years, often partnering with Martin H. Greenberg and others. I've featured some of those on this blog several times, as well as mentioned some of Ed's interviews with authors such as John D. MacDonald in Mystery Scene and other publications. I've collected a few of those snippets from the In Reference to Murder archives:

One of the Gorman/Greenberg collaborations were two books of interviews with well-known crime fiction authors, Speaking of Murder: Interviews with the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, published in July 1998, and Speaking of Murder II, which came out the following year. The first volume is introduced by Ed, who tells the story of how a Chicago talk show producer once told him that writers made dull guests. Ed allowed as how he agreed, since "compared to cross-dressing prostitutes, mothers who sleep with their daughter's boyfriends, and UFO abductees who have mysteriously started to dress like Elvis, I guess most of us writers do lead pretty uneventful lives." He goes on to add that writers are interesting because they're quiet and introspective.

Ed and Martin were also frequent editor of the annual anthologies of the best crime fiction short fiction. One such volume was 2008's A Prisoner of Memory: And 24 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, which included a roll call of the bestselling mystery authors today, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Anne Perry, Marcia Muller, and many others. 

Ed's interviews with authors in Mystery Scene Magazine were certainly highlights of the publication. Some of his Q&As included an interview with Mary Daheim (IRTM blog link), chatting about the writing life and her new Bed-and-Breakfast mystery; Ed interviewing prolific author and mystery genre advocate, Robert Randisi (blog link); and Ed making an interesting connection by proposing we look at Charlotte Armstrong as a purveyor of suburban noir instead of traditional mysteries (blog link here).

In another blog post, I once noted that Ed had interviewed iconic crime fiction author John D. MacDonald, which you can still read over at The Mystery File. The prolific author actually got his start writing short stories - while he was in the Army in 1945, he sent a short story home to his wife, who promptly typed it up and submitted it to Story magazine. The editors bought it for $25, thus giving MacDonald the idea that he could make a career as a writer. He told Ed that after leaving the Army, "I wrote eight hundred thousand words of short stories in those four months, tried to keep thirty of them in the mail at all times, slept about six hours a night and lost twenty pounds."

Plus, there were many, many more times I mentioned Ed in this blog for various reasons:

• He was one of the authors who donated an autographed book for the Authors Love Teachers OK Tornado Relief Auction following the tragedy at the Plaza Towers Elementary School and Briarwood Elementary School affected by an EF5 tornado in Oklahoma
• Ed and Stephen Gallagher wrote about what it takes to start and finish that first novel in the book Writing Crime Fiction.
• Ed was a friend of actor Kevin McCarthy, best known as the star of the 1956 science fiction movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and worked with Kevin writing a book about the actor's early days with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and starting the early version of The Actors' Studio, as well as McCarthy's work on the Body Snatchers movie. Ed later had a nice tribute on his web site after McCarthy's passing.
• Ed was not only an editor of anthologies, he also contributed several stories to such works, himself. I've noted several of those on this blog, including the Murder Past, Murder Present anthology, edited by R. Barri Flowers and Jan Grape, which included stories by members of the American Crime Writers League - the organization that Ed and Robert Randisi co-founded in the late 1980s. (Blog link here.)

There are countless authors who have been sharing their encounters with Ed, either in person or online, and how willing he was to help others as they stumbled through their literary journeys. We've not only lost an outstanding author and editor and a passionate book advocate, we've also lost a fine human being. Requiescat in pace, Ed.