Mystery Melange

Left Coast Crime 2018, "Crime on the Comstock," awarded four Lefty awards at the 28th annual LCC convention at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno/Sparks, Nevada. The Leftys are for books published in 2017:

• Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Ellen Byron, A Cajun Christmas
• Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial) for books covering events before 1960: Rhys Bowen, In Farleigh Field
• Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Kellye Garrett, Hollywood Homicide
• Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): William Kent Krueger, Sulfur Springs

The winner of the annual Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award this year is Brendan DuBois for his short story "Flowing Waters." In second place was Doug Allyn, with his story "Tombstone," and Dave Zeltserman took third with a new entry in his Shamus and Derringer Award winning Julius Katz and Archie series (a Nero Wolfe homage), "Cramer in Trouble." (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

We've been losing too many bright lights in the crime fiction community recently, and there was another sad milestone this past week as we mourned the loss of Philip Kerr, author of the historical crime fiction series featuring Bernie Gunther, an investigator with the Kriminalpolizei who must carry out his work during the political turbulence of 1930s Germany. Kerr wrote thirteen Gunther books, eventually evolving the character into a private detective in post-War Germany. Kerr's bestselling and beloved novels won many crime fiction honors during his too-short career, including the British Crime Writers' Association's Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award. Several sites are offering up tributes, including Shots Magazine, Crime Fiction Lover, and The Guardian.

Join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, on April 3 at New York City's KGB Bar for another thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by some of the chapter's talented members. The lineup includes R.G. Belsky, Laura K. Curtis, L.R. Hieber, Tim O’Mara, Thomas Pluck, Alex Segura, Carrie Smith, and Walllace Stroby. Hosted by Scott Adlerberg, this event is free and open to the public.

A few days later, on April 6, Missoula, Montana's indie bookstore Shakespeare & Company will present an evening of crime fiction featuring readings from authors Gwen Florio, Alec Cizak, and Russell Thayer.

On April 10, Portland, Maine's Rising Tide Brewing will host a "Cozy Mystery Author Palooza" featuring twelve authors talking about and signing books. The event is co-sponsored by Print: A Bookstore and Kensington Publishing.

The one-day symposium "Crime and the City" at the University of London on Friday, June 22, has put out a call for papers. The urban city is one of the most characteristic settings of crime fiction, from nineteenth-century Newgate Novels to late-Victorian detective stories, from twentieth-century noir and hard-boiled fiction to recent police procedurals. This one-day symposium brings together crime fiction critics and writers to examine the relationship between crime writing and the city, and organizers are seeking proposals for 20-minute papers or for conference panels on any aspect of urban crime writing from any period.

In addition to Mystery Fanfare's annual list of Easter-themed crime fiction, the blog also has a list of Passover-themed crime stories. This year, the two observations coincide on the calendar, with Passover spanning March 30-April 7, and Easter falling on April 1.

The latest issue of Noir City, the publication of the Film Noir Foundation, has a "blonde" themed issue, with a "troika of fair-haired silver screen goddesses for you to (re)consider."

Pittsburgh's NPR affiliate, WESA-FM, profiled Gloria Stoll Karn, a 94-year-old Pittsburgh artist who was one of the few women – let alone teenagers – in the field of pulp novel illustrators in the 1940s. Stoll went on to create more than 100 full-color covers for both romance and mystery magazines.

While we're on the subject of pulp fiction, did you know there is a database for the genre? Open Culture took readers into the Pulp Magazine Archive featuring over 11,000 digitized Issues of classic sci-fi, fantasy, and detective fiction.

Just in time for all those summer vacation trips to Florida, Crime Reads has a "guide to the madness" that often characterizes Sunshine State crime fiction.

Also great for beach vacations are quick reads, and the Crime Reads blog has a listing of "25 classic crime books you can read in an afternoon."

My own bucket list of travel destinations keeps growing longer, and this DreamTrip of Malmo and Southern Sweden notes that among the many other highlights of the tour, you can "Use your free time in Ystad to walk the streets of this town that helped put Nordic Noir crime fiction on the map."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Working Backwards" by Charles Cline.

In the Q&A roundup, Alex Segura took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview," talking about prepping for the launch of Blackout, his fourth Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery; Tripwire returned the favor, interviewing Brazill about his writing career and what it’s like being a Brit in Poland; and Ruth Downie chatted with Ruth Downie, the author of the new mystery novel Memento Mori, the latest in her Gaius Ruso series set during the Roman Empire.

Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday again, folks, which means it's time for your weekly crime drama roundup:

MOVIES

Birth of a Nation filmmaker Nate Parker is attached to direct Black & Blue, a feature inspired by the life of decorated LAPD detective Ralph Waddy and based on a script originally penned by Jim McGrath. Black & Blue will revolve around Ralph Waddy’s life, a true hero at the LAPD, during what was the most racially charged period in the city’s history as it dealt with the Watts riots, Robert Kennedy’s assassination at the Ambassador Hotel, the rise of the Black Panthers, the capture of the Skid Row Slasher, and the Manson Murders (which Waddy connected to Charles Manson and his followers). 

The production company Studio 8 has acquired the action/thriller Champion about two American brothers, wrongly sentenced to prison in Thailand, who are then forced to compete in Thai boxing for a chance to win their freedom. No director has been attached to the project just yet.

UK production company Working Title (The Darkest Hour) has optioned the slasher satire My Sister, The Serial Killer with a view to turning the upcoming book into a feature. The debut novel of Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite follows a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has an inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. The darkly comedic story, buzzed-about in publishing circles, was previously snapped up by U.S. publisher Doubleday as part of a significant five-figure advance and is set to hit shelves stateside later this year

It was recently reported that Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe would team for filmmaker Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's thriller Villains, playing amateur criminals who get more than they bargain for when they meet a couple homeowners with a disturbing secret. This past week, the project's producers announced that Emmy-winning actor Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice have also been cast as the homeowners, who will do anything to keep their secret.

Actor Michael Landes has been cast in the next installment in the Olympus Has Fallen film series, Angel Has Fallen, which has Gerard Butler returning as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning as well as Morgan Freeman as President Trumbull. Landes will play Sam Wilcox, the Chief of Staff to President Trumbull in the Ric Roman Waugh-directed sequel. This time, Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President and must elude his own agency and the FBI as he tries to uncover the real threat.

Craig Di Francia (Power) will appear in Martin Scorsese’s Netflix film The Irishman starring Robert De Niro as Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a reputed hitman suspected of involvement in the 1975 disappearance of the Teamsters leader. The pic is based on Charles Brandt’s novel, I Heard You Paint Houses, which Steve Zaillian adapted for the screen. No word on a release date yet for the project that also includes Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel in the stellar cast.

STXfilms and Lakeshore Entertainment have set a release date of September 7 for the Jennifer Garner action-thriller Peppermint, which is the weekend following the Labor Day stretch. Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, The Gunman), Peppermint tells the story of young mother Riley North (Garner) who awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack on the family. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerilla as she methodically delivers her personal brand of justice.

Hunter Killer has also gotten its release date of October 26. The Donovan Marsh-directed action thriller stars Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Michael Nyqvist in the story of an untested American submarine captain who teams with Navy SEALs to rescue the Russian president, who has been kidnapped by a rogue general.

A trailer was released for David Robert Mitchell's contemporary fever-dream thriller, Under The Silver Lake, which stars Andrew Garfield in the neo-noir story of a man searching for the truth behind the mysterious crimes, murders, and disappearances in his L.A. neighborhood. 

The Warner Archive Collection has released new restorations in 1080p transfers of Paul Newman starring as P.I. Lew Harper in the movies Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975), based on Ross Macdonald's novels featuring hardboiled P.I. Lew Archer. Virginia-Pilot contributor Kay Reynolds profiled the new color-rich restorations.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The BBC has ordered four new dramas for BBC One, including the spy surveillance thriller The Capture, the brainchild of writer-director Ben Chanan (Cyberbully). The project begins with the unjust arrest of an innocent man and escalates into a multi-layered conspiracy of manipulated evidence, and has been described as "research based but with huge flair in its storytelling. The Capture shines a light on surveillance culture and asks what happens in a world where we can no longer trust the evidence in front of us."

Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald is set to star in another BBC One project, the legal drama The Victim, created by The Man In The High Castle writer Rob Williams. Macdonald will play Anna Dean, a Scottish mother whose nine-year old boy was murdered fifteen years ago by a 13 year old. Years later, having campaigned to be told of the killer’s new identity, she is accused of revealing his new name online. James Harkness plays Craig Myers, who is attacked after Macdonald’s Dean accuses him of being the child killer, while John Hannah (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) plays D.I. Steven Grover, the detective in charge of the case. 

Another new BBC program, Elizabeth Is Missing, combines a mystery plot line with a tough look at a woman’s struggle with dementia. When her best friend Elizabeth goes missing, Maud is convinced that something terrible has happened and sets out to solve the mystery. But with her dementia worsening, Maud’s search takes on a poignant urgency. Based on the best-selling novel by Emma Healey, the drama is written by Andrea Gibb (Swallows And Amazons) and made by STV Productions.

Amazon Prime Video has booked the Mexican crime drama Falco, a remake of German procedural The Last Cop. The 15-part series will star Michel Brown and is directed and showrun by El Chapo’s Ernesto Contreras. The drama, which is set in 1994, follows a policeman with a promising future and a young family who must rebuild his life in 2018 after he wakes up from a 24-year coma after being shot in the line of duty.

Former Major Crimes star Kearran Giovanni has landed a lead role opposite Derek Luke, Jeri Ryan, and Paula Newsome in NBC’s drama pilot, Suspicion. Based on the book by Joseph Finder and directed by Brad Anderson, Suspicion is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. After Danny Goldman (Luke) accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, he gets a visit from the FBI and learns that the decision is one he will regret for the rest of his life. Coerced to work as an informant for the FBI to earn back his freedom, Danny is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption while trying to protect his family. Giovanni will play Lucy Fletcher, a psychotherapist.

Stephen Hill (Law & Order: SVU) is set as a series regular opposite Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot, the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series. The show will feature the same central quartet of characters as the original, but instead of four guys, it consists of three men and a woman, with Jonathan Higgins reconceived as Juliet Higgins (Weeks). Hill will play Theodore "TC" Calvin, a former Marine Corps chopper pilot and one of Magnum’s group of loyal friends who bonded when they were all POWs in Iraq.

Another fan favorite recurring character from The Good Wife is returning to the CBS legal drama’s sequel series on CBS All Access. Mike Colter is set for a guest arc on the upcoming second season of The Good Fight, reprising his role as Lemond Bishop, a powerful Chicago drug lord who was a controversial major client of Lockhart/Gardner. He first appeared toward the end of the first season and quickly grew into a major recurring character, appearing in 21 episodes of the series’ first six seasons. Bishop’s Good Wife story left off with him in prison; it will now be picked up on The Good Fight, which stars The Good Wife’s Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo.

CBS has set the finale dates for some of your favorite shows including its many crime dramas.

Meanwhile, USA Network announced premiere dates for summer series including Queen of the South (June 21), which tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America, and Shooter (June 21), which follows the journey of Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe), a highly decorated veteran who must confront a nemesis from his past in order to return to a life of normalcy.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Meet the Thriller Author podcast host Alan Petersen welcomed David Banner, an author living in the Coastal Southeast who "spends way too much time playing catch on the sand with his Airedale terrier." Banner is the author of the Dangerous Waters thriller series set in the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Spybrary spoke with Joyce Wayne about her spy novel Last Night of the World, which isn't set in the usual spy-centric settings of Berlin, DC, London or Moscow but rather in Ottawa, Canada, and how it's based on true events and real people.

The Crimetime podcast had reviews of "lying" crime fiction as well a profile of the Lucifer television series.

THEATER

The rarely-seen Love From A Stranger, by Agatha Christie, is coming to The Marlowe Theatre in Canberbury with a run from Tuesday April 3 to Saturday April 7. The story tells of Cecily Harrington's whirlwind romance with a handsome and charming stranger. Swept her off her feet, she recklessly abandons her old life to settle in the remote and blissful surroundings of a country cottage. However, Nigel Lawrence, her newfound love, is not all that he seems. This edge-of-your-seat drama has been rediscovered in a new production by Lucy Bailey and adapted by Frank Vosper, drawing on both Agatha Christie's short story "Philomel Cottage," and Christie's own recently discovered stage adaptation of the same short story, The Stranger. 

Mystery Melange

Colin O'Sullivan's debut novel Killarney Blues (Foreign Novel) and Franz Bartelt's The 'Hôtel du Grand Cerf (French Novel) were awarded the 2018 Prix Mystère de la critique in France. The award was established in 1972 by the magazine Mystère, making it one of the oldest French awards for a detective novel, and continues to be awarded each year by its founder, Georges Rieben and a jury of reviewers.

The British Book Awards unveiled the nominees for 2018, including those in the Crime & Thriller category: J P Delaney's The Girl Before; Lee Child’s The Midnight Line; Jane Harper’s The Dry; Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes; Mick Herron’s Spook Street; and Erin Kelly’s He Said/She Said.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) unveiled nods for their annual Ben Franklin Awards for best novels of the past year, including Mystery/Suspense: Death on West End Road: A Hamptons Murder Mystery by Carrie Doyle; Full Service Blonde: A Copper Black Mystery by Megan Edwards; The Old Cape Hollywood Secret by Barbara Eppich Struna; and The Ploy by Marilyn Jax.

Foreword Reviews also announced the Foreword Indie Awards finalists in various categories, including Best Thriller/Suspense and Best Mystery.

Editors Sandra Ruttan and Brien Lindenmuth, formerly of Spinetingler Magazine, are starting up a brand-new publication titled Toe Six Press. They will be accepting submissions soon for short crime fiction, and in the meantime, they have some Author Snapshots up on the website.

Open Road Integrated Media has acquired U.S. ebook rights to 27 titles by the iconic British journalist-novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991), whose works have never before been published in ebook format in the States. The first three are among Graham’s most recognized works: The Quiet American, The Power and the Glory, and The End of the Affair. On April 10, The Heart of the Matter, Brighton Rock, Travels With My Aunt, and other titles will be released, with more than 15 titles to be added during the year.

Jeffery Deaver will be headlining a series of workshops for the Mystery Writers of America titled "Writing Commercial Fiction." In each case, the award-winning author will lead groups in a morning session and will be joined in an afternoon session (on publishing options and a Q&A) with a panel of other authors. Coming up next is Newton, Massachusetts, where the New England Chapter of MWA will host the workshop on March 24, and then the Rocky Mountain Chapter will sponsor the event in Denver on April 7.

If you're a writer who wants to attend a conference but has a hard time traveling, the Writers Digest University is offering its annual mystery/thriller online workshop April 6-8. Participants will spend the weekend learning techniques for honing their craft from bestselling authors and then pitch their novel via query letter to a literary agent specifically looking for material in the mystery or thriller genre.

The 2018 Bay Area Book Festival on April 28th and 29th in Berkeley, California, will include panels of interest to mystery readers, several sponsored by Mystery Writers of America, Northern California Chapter. Among the highlights will be Catherine Coulter being interviewed by Laurie R. King; a panel titled "Insider, Outsider: Do PIs or Cops Do It Better?" with Cara Black, Candice Fox, Matt Goldman, and Rachel Howzell Hall, moderated by Bill Petrocelli; and "Women Plot the Crime" with Sara Blaedel, Anne Holt, and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, moderated by Cara Black. There will also be a Noir at the Bar event on the 28th. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

It’s March Madness season, and Writers' Digest got in on the action, writing style, with "Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers."

Ruth Downie is the author of a series of mysteries featuring Roman Army medic and reluctant sleuth, Gaius Petreius Ruso, including the newly released Memento Mori. Downie applied the Page 69 Test to Memento Mori and reported the results.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Dogs to the Chain" by John Patrick Robbins.

The annual Malice Domestic conference is coming up April 28-29, and The Stiletto Gang posted interviews with all of the nominees for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

In other Q&A roundup items, the Mystery People's Matthew Turbeville interviewed Bob Kolker about his true-crime book Lost Girls; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Robert Goddard, whose crime novels across the UK and around the world, including his latest and 27th book, Panic Room, a contemporary thriller based in Cornwall; and Writers Who Kill blogger E.B. Davis spoke with Shawn Reilly Simmons as they discussed Simmons' Murder On The Rocks, the fifth Red Carpet Catering Mystery

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Amma Asante has been set to direct the upcoming film adaptation of David E. Hoffman’s drama thriller The Billion Dollar Spy, which tells the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Hoffman is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and contributing editor to The Washington Post, who won the Pulitzer in 2010 for his book about the arms race The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. The film adaptation, scripted by Ben August (Remember) will be produced by Walden Media and Akiva Goldsman. 

Four-time Oscar nominee Ridley Scott is in talks to direct 20th Century Fox’s spy thriller Queen & Country, based on the award-winning graphic novel by Greg Rucka that follows a British female intelligence agent used as bait to lure the mastermind behind a terrorist attack in London out of hiding. Queen & Country: Operation Broken Ground won the 2002 Eisner Award for Best New Series.

French actress/director Melanie Laurent is putting her Gallic spin on the feature adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto’s noir novel Galveston. The project follows Roy (played by Ben Foster), a New Orleans ex-con who is intended to go down in a set-up by his kingpin Stan (Beau Bridges); however, he comes up the survivor with some valuable documents in hand alongside call girl Raquel (Elle Fanning). They flee Louisiana and wind up in the latter’s hometown of Galveston, where he plots his revenge as he is slowly dying.

Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren have been cast in The Good Liar, a Bill Condon-directed thriller set up at New Line Cinema to be adapted from Nicholas Searle’s debut novel. The pic reunites McKellen and Condon from their collaborations on Gods and Monsters and Mr. Holmes. Jeffrey Hatcher wrote the script, which is about career con artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen), who can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Mirren) online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.

The Josh Trank written and directed Al Capone biopic, Fonzo, is boosting its cast with the addition of Matt Dillon (Wayward Pines), Linda Cardellini (Bloodline), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Katherine Narducci (The Sopranos, HBO’s Wizard Of Lies). They join previously announced Tom Hardy as the title character of iconic Chicago gangster Al Capone, who sees dementia rot his mind after a long incarceration as his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. Cardellini will play Capone’s long-suffering wife Mae; Dillon is his closest friend Johnny; MacLachlan plays his doctor Karlock; Narducci plays Rosie, one of his sisters.

Oscar-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri has signed on for the indie film Vault, joining Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, and Samira Wiley, and Don Johnson in Verdi Productions’ crime drama directed by Tom DeNucci. Inspired by true events, the pic is about a group of small-time criminals, who in 1975 attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia. Palminteri will play Raymond Patriarca in the film, which is slated to begin filming this month in Rhode Island.

Abi Morgan, the playwright and screenwriter whose big-screen credits include The Iron Lady, Shame and most recently Suffragette, has been set to adapt Tangerine, the upcoming Christine Mangan debut psychological thriller novel (due March 28) that Imperative Entertainment scored rights to in November 2016. The drama is set against the simmering political climate of 1950s Morocco and follows two female characters, once inseparable roommates, who after an unexpected encounter in Tangier attempt to rekindle their friendship only to find their dark, tangled backstory reemerges, and quickly devolves from obsession to madness. 

20th Century Fox has chosen Scott Frank to rewrite The Force, the adaptation of the bestselling NYPD corrupt cop thriller novel by Don Winslow. James Mangold has been developing to direct, and this reunites him with Frank after they shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination with Michael Green for Logan, Hugh Jackman’s farewell to his signature X-Men character Wolverine. The book tells the story of a corrupt detective in the NYPD’s most elite crime-fighting unit, Sgt. Denny Malone, who is forced to choose between his family, his partners and his life.

Harry Shum Jr. and Shiloh Fernandez have signed on for key supporting roles in the Mike Gan written and directed thriller Plume, joining previously announced cast Josh Hutcherson, Suki Waterhouse, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey. The film follows a lonely, unstable gas station attendant Melinda (Cobham-Hervey), tired of being overshadowed by her more confident, outgoing co-worker Sheila (Waterhouse). When the gas station is held at gunpoint by Billy (Hutcherson), a desperate man in need of quick cash, Melinda finds an opportunity to make a connection with the robber, regardless of who gets hurt. Shum Jr. will play Officer Liu, a wholesome local police officer subject to the obsessive affections of Melinda. Fernandez plays Perry, Sheila’s boyfriend who finds himself unwittingly enmeshed in Melinda’s dangerous games.

Will Sasso has booked a role in Boss Level, the action thriller starring Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo from writer-director Joe Carnahan. The film follows a retired Special Forces veteran (Grillo) who is trapped in a never-ending loop resulting in his death. To end his suffering, he must figure out who is responsible and stop them. Gibson is Col. Clive Ventor, the powerful head of a shadowy program. Sasso will play Brett, Ventor’s confident, arrogant and a touch sadistic second-in-command.

TELEVISION

Epix will air the eight-episode espionage drama Deep State in the U.S. The project stars Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Game of Thrones' Joe Dempsie, and is described as a "grounded, visceral thriller, moving between the deeply personal story of a family man fighting to escape his past and the violent, dark excesses of government and global corporate power."

Nicole Kidman is reuniting with Big Little Lies showrunner David E. Kelley for another HBO limited series. The actress is set to star in and executive produce The Undoing, an adaptation of the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz that follows Grace Sachs, a successful therapist who’s on the brink of publishing her first book when a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations.

Frequency's Peyton List has been tapped as the female lead opposite Joseph Morgan in Fox’s untitled drama pilot based on the best-selling book Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. Laysla De Oliveira also has been cast as a series regular in the project, from 20th Century Fox TV and Miramax, which was behind the 2007 movie adaptation directed by Ben Affleck. Written by Black Sails co-creator Robert Levine and directed by Phillip Noyce, the untitled project centers on private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Joseph Morgan) and Angela Gennaro (List) who, armed with their wits, their street knowledge and an undeniable chemistry, right wrongs the law can’t in the working-class Boston borough of Dorchester. 

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Ten Days in the Valley) is set for a lead role opposite Robin Tunney and Adam Rayner in the ABC drama pilot, The Fix. Described as "part legal thriller, part confessional, and part revenge fantasy," The Fix is written by Marcia Clark, Elizabeth Craft, and Sarah Fain and directed by Larysa Kondracki. After losing the biggest case of her career and being shredded by the media, former prosecutor Maya Travis (Tunney) has left Los Angeles for a quiet life in rural Oregon. Eight years after her devastating defeat, the murderer strikes again, forcing Maya to return to L.A. to confront him one more time. Akinnuoye-Agbaje will play Steven "Sevvy" Johnson, a charismatic Oscar-winning actor who was accused of murdering his wife and another woman. 

Soon-to-be-former Grey’s Anatomy cast member Sarah Drew has been tapped as co-lead Cagney in CBS’ Cagney & Lacey drama pilot, with Blindspot alum Michelle Hurd already cast as fellow co-lead Lacey in the reboot of the iconic 1980s police procedural. Written by Bridget Carpenter and directed by Rosemary Rodriguez, the new Cagney & Lacey will follow the two female police detectives and friends who keep the streets of Los Angeles safe. 

Former Rookie Blue star Missy Peregrym will lead the cast of F.B.I., Dick Wolf’s upcoming 13-episode CBS drama series that chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Peregrym will play the female lead, FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell, who engages immediately and commits deeply to the people she works with and is protecting. Maggie came to New York with conviction – and is working incredibly hard not to let a recent personal tragedy derail her new life, personally or professionally. 

Damnation's Sarah Jones is set as a female lead in the CBS drama pilot L.A. Confidential, based on James Ellroy’s classic noir novel that follows three homicide detectives, a female reporter (Alana Arenas), and a Hollywood actress (Jones) whose paths intersect as the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950s Los Angeles. Jones’s Lynn is a sharp Veronica Lake-like beauty, an aspiring Hollywood actress – and not one to compromise her principles. When she finds a best friend brutally murdered and Jack Vincennes (Walton Goggins) unexpectedly at the scene before she’s had time to call the police, Lynn knows she has something on the LAPD detective – and decides to use it to help solve the horrible crime. The role of Lynn was played by Kim Basinger in the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential, earning her an Oscar.

Happy Endings alum Zachary Knighton is set as a lead playing Rick Wright, opposite star Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks, in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot. Directed by Justin Lin, the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series follows Thomas Magnum (Hernandez), a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. With help from fellow vets Theodore "TC" Calvin and Orville "Rick" Wright, as well as that of disavowed former MI-6 agent Juliet Higgins (Weeks), Magnum takes on the cases no one else will, helping those who have no one else to turn to.

Former Wings star Steven Weber is set for a key series regular role opposite Kylie Bunbury, along with Lisseth Chavez (The Fosters) and Dennis Oh (NCIS: New Orleans) in Get Christie Love, ABC’s reboot drama pilot. The new Get Christie Love is an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. Weber will play Steve, Christie’s law school teacher a decade ago, and now serves as her mentor and day-to-day confidant. 

Good news for fans of Netflix's The Sinner:  a second season is on the way. Picked up from the USA Network, the first season (adapted from a book by German writer Petra Hammesfahr) followed Jessica Biel, playing Cora Tannetti, a mother and wife who was raised in an incredibly religious family who commits a murder for what appears to be no reason. The second season would follow Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) who is called back to his hometown in distant rural New York to assess a disturbing new crime: an 11-year-old boy's horrific double-homicide and his seemingly inexplicable motive. As Ambrose comes to realize there's nothing ordinary about the boy or where he came from, his investigation leads him straight into the hidden darkness of his hometown and pitting him against those who'll stop at nothing to protect its secrets.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Joined Up podcast welcomed psychological thriller writer, Sam Carrington, to talk about her work and how her background in UK's prison service as an Offending Behavior Facilitator informs her writing.

Gillian Flynn shared details on Windy City Live about her next novel and an HBO series she's working on with Amy Adams.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host Luca Veste was joined by bestselling crime writer Angela Clarke to talk about book releases, the Staunch prize, infamous people and what they were reading, and much more, including special guest Katerina Diamond.

Suspense Radio welcomed Laura Childs, to talk about the latest in her Tea Shop Mystery series, and also Dennis Palumbo, discussing the fifth book in his Daniel Rinaldi mystery series.

Writer Types chatted with authors Alison Gaylin, Owen Laukkanen, Peter Swanson, and Dharma Keller, and the weekly "Unpanel" featured contributors to the anthology "novel in stories," Night of the Flood.

Book Riot's Read or Dead podcast hosts Rincey and Katie flailed over the potential of new Gillian Flynn books, discusssed the new Obama/Biden buddy mystery, and talked about some great mystery comics.

Mystery Melange

 

This Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and Mystery Fanfare has a roundup of all St. Patty's related crime fiction for you.

Mystery Fest Key West (set for June 22-24) has announced a call for entries for this year’s Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. The winner will claim a book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, free Mystery Fest Key West 2018 registration, airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights, meals and a Whodunit Award trophy to be presented at the 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 22-24 in Key West, Florida. But you'll need to hurry - the submission deadline is no later than April 15, 2018.

Via Janet Rudolph and her Mystery Fanfare blog, I learned of the deaths of three bright lights in the crime fiction community, two of whom passed away on the same day: Kate Wilhelm, who wrote the Barbara Holloway legal mystery series and Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn private eye/psychologist series, as well as various short stories and standalone mystery/suspense novels (Wilhelm was married to Damon Francis Knight, an American science fiction author whose story "To Serve Man" became an iconic adaptation for The Twilight Zone); Peter Temple, who became the first Australian writer to win the British Crime Writers’ Gold Dagger Award and is perhaps best-known for his Jack Irish novels (adapted for television with Guy Pearce as the titular lead); and Robert S. Levinson, creator of the Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner series of mystery-thrillers and also a Shamus award nominee and prolific short-story writer who won an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award winner three consecutive years.

Sad news also from Spinetingler Magazine: although they'd recently resurrected the print 'zine after being online-only for some time, the recent resignation of founder Sandra Ruttan means the publication will cease sometime this spring. We certainly wish all those involved the best and thank them for years of service to the crime fiction community.

Writing for the Washington Post, Sarah Weinman profiled a new biography, A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson, and the book's take on Agatha Christie’s life, which rivaled the immortal mysteries she created.

The Guardian featured Belfast's No Alibis bookstore, which specializes in mystery and detective fiction.

When Emma Hardy and Grace Harrison noticed the trend of true-crime podcasts and TV series, while working for a magazine publisher in London, they hatched the idea for a periodical on the subject. The result is the quarterly Foul Play, which proposes to "satiate our fascination with real life murders without resorting to sensationalism."

Although print books still rein supreme in general, a new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that one in five Americans have listened to an audiobook, and one in four have read an ebook.

Here's something for your Bucket List: plan on visits to the "10 Most Famous Bookstores in the World."

Are these "23 of the Oldest Words Ever Spoken"?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Poor Afrikka Hardy Did Not Die in Vain" by Joseph S. Pete.

In the Q&A roundup, Murder and Mayhem in Chicago conference co-founders Lori Rader-Day and Dana Kaye discussed Chicago’s Vibrant Crime Fiction Scene; Criminal Element quizzed Sebastian Rotell, author of Rip Crew; The Rap Sheet's Jeff Pierce chatted with author Max Allan Collins - 2018 marks the centennial of Mickey Spillane's birth, and Collins discussed his experiences continuing Spillane's Mike Hammer series; Richard Godwin took Paul D. Brazill's Short, Sharp Interview challenge about new sci fi dystopian thriller Android Love, Human Skin; Omnimystery News welcomed mystery author Leslie Karst to discuss her latest book to feature restaurateur Sally Solar, Death al Fresco; and the Jungle Red Writers' Ingrid Thoft chatted with Mike Lawson, winner of a Spotted Owl Award for the Best Mystery by a Pacific Northwest Writer, whose latest book, House Witness continues the adventure of Joe DeMarco, a fixer for a corrupt politician.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all! Looks like it's time for another roundup of crime drama news:

MOVIES

David Chase is returning to the New Jersey turf of his iconic television creation, The Sopranos, with a prequel titled The Many Saints of Newark that's set in the era of the Newark riots in the '60s. Some of the beloved characters from the award-winning series will appear in the film, and although no stars have been announced yet, the time period could make room for Tony Soprano’s father, Giovanni "Johnny Boy," the former captain of the Soprano crew (played in flashbacks by Joseph Siravo), and a younger version of his wife Livia (played in the show’s first season by Nancy Marchand), and Tony’s uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese. Chase will serve as producer as well as co-writer, and he will be involved in selecting a director.

20th Century Fox has won the rights to Christian Cantrell’s short story "Epoch Index", hiring Justin Rhodes (writer of the upcoming Terminator reboot and remake of Fantastic Voyage) to adapt Cantrell’s story to the screen, and San Andreas director Brad Peyton to direct. Cantrell self-published "The Epoch Index" in 2010, generating interest from various studios for the story that follows CIA analyst Quinn Mitchell as he tracks down an assassin with victims that seem random - but each victim has a numbered tag attached to them.

Tom Shepherd has been hired to pen Matt Helm, a film adapted from Don Hamilton’s spy novel series that has been in the works at Paramount with Bradley Cooper attached to star. George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are serving as executive producers, and Steven Spielberg is also involved in some form. There are 27 published Matt Helm novels that Hamilton wrote from the 1960s to the 1990s, with four of the books made into films starring Dean Martin. Hamilton’s original Helm character was a U.S. special agent/assassin during World War II who left the life to raise a family in Santa Fe but is forced to return to his former life.

eOne and Mark Gordon have tapped Oscar-nominated Ralph Fiennes and Matthew Good to join Keira Knightley and Matt Smith in the thriller Official Secrets, directed by Gavin Hood. The project tells the true story of British intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun (Knightley), who, during the immediate run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US.-U.K illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council.

Actor Don Johnson has been cast in director Tom DeNucci’s Vault, joining co-stars Theo Rossi, Clive Standen and Samira Wiley. Inspired by true events and written by DeNucci and B. Dolan, Vault follows a group of small-time Rhode Island criminals who in 1975 attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia.

Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe are set to star in Villains, a darkly comedic thriller to be directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, based on their screenplay which made the Black List in 2016. Villains follows a pair of amateur criminals who, after breaking into a suburban home, stumble upon a dark secret and two sadistic homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.

Robert Downey, Jr. recently told Entertainment Weekly that he has a slew of projects in the works, including the rumored Sherlock Holmes 3. Although falling short of an official announcement, it indicates the actor is still planning on doing another film in the franchise.

A trailer dropped for the upcoming latest installment in the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, once again starring Tom Cruise in the lead role of U.S. government operative Ethan Hunt.

TELEVISION

Netflix has picked up the action-thriller Close from West End Films for streaming in the United States, the UK and Australia. Close is a female-led action-thriller starring Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) that was produced under West End’s female-based WeLove brand, which develops and produces female-specific content and promoting female talent. Vicky Jewson (Born of War) co-wrote the script with Rupert Whitaker and directed the film, in which Rapace plays a character based on Jacquie Davis, one of the world’s top female bodyguards, who's tasked with protecting a young heiress (Sophie Nelisse).

TNT has opted not to renew The Librarians for a fifth season, but fans can take heart in the fact that series executive producer Dean Devlin announced on Twitter that he will be launching an effort to find a new home for the adventure drama. The fourth season finale, and now the TNT series finale, aired February 7.

Law & Order's Jeremy Sisto is reuniting with Dick Wolf for a starring role opposite Zeeko Zaki in F.B.I., Wolf’s upcoming 13-episode CBS drama series that chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sisto will play FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, whose ability to relate and engage easily to subordinates and superiors makes him "good glue" and sets him up as the nerve center of the office.

Former CSI star Jorja Fox is returning to CBS and reuniting with former CSI executive producer Carol Mendelsogn for a starring role in the drama pilot Chiefs. Fox has been tapped as one of the three leads opposite Alana De La Garza and Aunjanue Ellis in the pilot that explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful but very different women (De La Garza, Ellis, Fox) who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. Fox will play Vicky, the Santa Monica Chief of Police, a role which was reworked for her.

Khandi Alexander (Scandal) is set to co-star opposite Kylie Bunbury in ABC’s Get Christie Love reboot drama pilot inspired by the cult 1974 blaxploitation-themed TV movie and subsequent series. The new Get Christie Love centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. Also recently cast in the show is Juan Javier Cardenas (Snowfall), playing Jonas, the oldest member of the counterintelligence unit.

The Wire alum Wood Harris has been cast as a lead opposite Lynn Collins in ABC’s cop drama pilot The Mission. Written by Jason Richman and directed by Michael Offer, The Mission chronicles the colorful, complicated lives of cops on and off the beat as we follow them into harrowing, emotional and often humorous situations. It centers on Oriana "Ori" Cloverfield (Collins), who gave up a legal career to become a rookie cop — or so it seems. Harris plays Sgt. Frank Griffith aka Griff, Ori’s training officer, a veteran cop whose lackluster enthusiasm for the job rankles her. Also previously cast in the pilot are Aasif Mandvi, Kris Lofton, Josh Randall, Vannessa Vasquez and Alexander Karim.

Body of Proof star Jeri Ryan has been tapped for a leading role opposite Derek Luke and Paula Newsome in NBC’s drama pilot Suspicion. Based on the book by Joseph Finder and directed by Brad Anderson, Suspicion is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. After Danny Goodman (Luke) accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, Tom Canter, he gets a visit from the FBI and learns that the decision is one he will regret for the rest of his life. Coerced to work as an informant for the FBI to earn back his freedom, Danny is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption while trying to protect his family. Ryan will play Tom Canter’s wife, Celina.

Noah Wyle is returning to television in Red Line, which will focus on the racial issues surrounding police shootings, offering different perspectives on the aftermath of the shooting. Wyle will star as Daniel Calder, described as "a dedicated high school teacher who is mourning the loss of his innocent African-American husband," meaning there will also be an interesting LGBTQ component built in to the story.

Marc Blucas (Underground) has landed a series-regular role in ABC drama pilot The Fix, described as part legal thriller, part confessional and part revenge fantasy. After losing the biggest case of her career and being shredded by the media, former prosecutor Maya Travis has left Los Angeles for a quiet life in rural Oregon. Eight years after her devastating defeat, the murderer strikes again, forcing Maya to return to L.A. to confront him one more time. Blucas will play Riv, Maya’s (yet to be cast) partner on the farm in Oregon.

The West Wing alum Kathleen York and Derek Webster (NCIS: New Orleans) are set for key series-regular roles opposite Perry Mattfeld in the CW pilot In the Dark, from CBS TV Studios and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Written by Corinne Kingsbury and directed by The Big Sick helmer Michael Showalter, the show centers on Murphy (Mattfeld), a flawed and irreverent young woman who just happens to be blind and is the only "witness" to the murder of her drug-dealing friend, Tyson. York will play Murphy’s mother, Joy.

Peter Gallagher (Covert Affairs) has been tapped for a co-starring role opposite Bokeem Woodbine and Timothy Hutton in CBS’ legal drama pilot Main Justice. Written by Sascha Penn and inspired by the life and work of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Main Justice centers around Miles Blair (Woodbine), the recently sworn-in U.S. Attorney General. Gallagher will play President Whitbeck, The President of the United States, who feels good about newly sworn-in Attorney General, and is happy to finally have a real cop in the position. However, when Miles makes some unorthodox decisions that have far-reaching effects on the President’s domestic and international agendas, he begins to have some reservations about his pick for AG.

Emily Althaus (Orange Is the New Black) has booked a series-regular role opposite Charity Wakefield, Will Patton, Toby Kebbell and Jim Belushi in the ABC drama pilot Salvage from writer-producer Don Todd and ABC Studios. Salvage centers on ex-cop Jimmy Hill (Kebbell), who just wants to be left alone after moving back home to rural Florida. But when a local murder is linked to the sunken treasure of a lost Spanish galleon, he’s drawn into the investigation by an idealistic deputy and pitted against the powerful town patriarch, outside criminal agents and his own father. Althaus will play Missy Hill, Jimmy’s little sister who loves her brother to death and always meant to leave their town of Bel Grove, but has been too busy making poor decisions to get around to it.

Deadline reported that Michael Beach has joined ABC’s Holmes drama pilot, and Justin Johnson Cortez has joined Staties. Holmes explores the lives of five African-American sisters, all officers in the NYPD, with Beach playing Langston Graves, husband to one of the sisters, Sgt. Ella Kendrick Graves (Amirah Vann). Staties centers on a hard-charging NYPD detective (Annie Ilonzeh) who’s banished to the boonies after a high-profile mistake and is paired with a new partner, Oregon State Trooper Sam King (Andy Karl), with Cortez playing Richard Spruce, the cop in charge of a robbery at the River Run Tribal Gaming Casino.

HBO has set an April 6 return date for Season 6 of Vice, its Emmy-winning weekly news magazine that this season will include 35 episodes, a boost of five over last year. The new season will continue the series’ commitment to under-covered global stories with exclusive reports from Iraq, Russia, the Central African Republic and China. Domestic issues covered in the new season will include gun laws, immigration, economics, education, civil rights and "America’s place in the world."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

USA Today's geek culture podcast, MotherShip, welcomed best-selling author and comic-book writer Brad Meltzer to chat about his newest thriller, The Escape Artist. And on that theme, he and the rest of the crew broke down their favorite pop-culture escapes from our increasingly crazy real world.

The Story Blender featured special guest Carter Wilson to discuss his latest chiller Mister Tender’s Girl, inspired by the Slender Man attacks.

Sarah M. Chen stopped by Authors on the Air Radio passes through the Corner to discuss The Night of the Flood, a "novel-in-stories" from Down & Out Books, which she co-edited with E.A. Aymar.

Crime Friction chatted with Naomi Hirahara whose final book with amateur sleuth Mas Arai, Hiroshima Boy, is out tomorrow.

Meet the Thriller Author's latest guest was Philip Donlay, a pilot who has combined his passion for flying and writing including his latest novel, Speed the Dawn, a breakneck thriller featuring pilot Donovan Nash.

The Writers Digest podcast spoke with James Scott Bell, a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the #1 bestselling author of Plot & Structure.

THEATER

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas is presenting a production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution March 13-31. The story centers on Leonard Vole, who's on trial for the grisly murder of esteemed London socialite Emily French. While facing these vicious allegations, only one thing stands between Leonard and the end of a rope ... his wife. Will she come to his defense even though she is a witness for the prosecution?

The UK's Belgrade Theater in Coventry is presenting a psychological drama by the bestselling author of the Alex Rider series and the brain behind BBC shows Foyle’s War and New Blood. Anthony Horowitz's Mindgame tells the story of true crime writer Mark Styler and his efforts to gain an interview with a notorious serial killer. But in order to reach the man and claim his prize, he must first find a way to get past Dr. Farquhar (Michael Sherwin), the quixotic head of the Fairfields asylum where Easterman is being kept. The production runs from Wednesday, March 14 until Saturday, March 17.

Montville, New Jersey's Barn Theater is presenting the Alfred Hitchcock spoof, The 39 Steps, with performances through April 7. The entire cast consists of four actors, one who plays Richard Hannay, a man caught up in a web of international intrigue, while an actress plays three different women who enter Hannay’s life, and all the other characters are played by two people who take on series of rapid costume changes. Director Ron Mulligan describes it as "Monty Python meets Hitchcock meets Benny Hill and The Carol Burnett Show."

Mystery Melange

 

Michael Connelly has been chosen by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) to receive this year’s Diamond Dagger award for sustained excellence in the crime fiction-writing field and will be presented with the award during a ceremony in London on October 25. Connelly joins a distinguished list of previous Diamond Dagger recipients that includes Dick Francis, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, P.D. James, Peter Lovesey, Sara Paretsky, Andrew Taylor, Ian Rankin, and last year’s recipient, Ann Cleeves.

The finalists for the Hammett Prize were just announced and include The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne; The Tragedy of Brady Sims by Ernest J. Gaines; August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones; and Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis. The awards are handed out annually by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author.

Finalists for the 30th annual Lambda Literary Awards that "identify and celebrate the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the year and affirm that LGBTQ stories are part of the literature of the world," have been chosen in 23 categories, including

Lesbian Mystery

• A Quiet Death, Cari Hunter
• Fever in the Dark, Ellen Hart
• The Girl on the Edge of Summer, M. Redmann
• Huntress, E. Radley
• The Last First Time, Andrea Bramhall
• Murder Under the Fig Tree: A Palestine Mystery, Kate Jessica Raphael
• Odd Numbers, Anne Holt
• Repercussions, Jessica L. Webb

Gay Mystery

• Boystown 10: Gifts Given, Marshall Thornton
• Long Shadows, Kate Sherwood
• Love is Heartless, Kim Fielding
• The Mystery of the Curiosities, C. S. Poe
• Night Drop, Marshall Thornton
• Ring of Silence, Mark Zubro
• Street People, Michael Nava
• Tramps and Thieves, Rhys Ford

Winners will be announced June 4 at the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York City.

This month, Literary Hub is launching CrimeReads, a new website dedicated to showcasing the best writing from the worlds of crime, mystery, and thrillers, "a literary culture that’s more robust than ever, but diffuse." The site will publish a daily slate of features, excerpts, interviews, reading lists, critical essays, and news from around the crime fiction community, including articles from authors including Laura Lippman on the transgressive legacy of James M. Cain, Val McDermid on the birth and boom of Tartan Noir, and Jason Overstreet on spy fiction and the black American experience. CrimeReads is partnering with publishers, booksellers, journals, author organizations, festivals, librarians, and critics, and is advised by a board of distinguished authors, including Megan Abbott, Lee Child, Carl Hiaasen, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, Ruth Ware, and Daniel Woodrell. The Masthead also includes Senior Editor: Dwyer Murphy; Associate Editor: Molly Odintz; and Contributing Editors: Lisa Levy and Sarah Weinman.

The selected stories for the 2018 Bouchercon conference anthology Sunny Places, Shady People were announced this week, with many familiar names on the list in what promises to be a fantastic lineup of short crime fiction. Editor Greg Herren added that "we had a record number of submissions, and choosing from this embarrassment of riches was a monumental task."

The new Scandi noir? Korea is reinventing the thriller, emerging as a surprising literary force when a novel by the ‘Korean Henning Mankell’ bags a six-figure deal and sparks a global bidding war.

The New Zealand Herald profiled author Stella Duffy, who was commissioned by the Ngaio Marsh estate to complete Marsh's unfinished 1940s manuscript Money in the Morgue, about how she went about approaching the task of maintaining Marsh's style while incorporating modern sensibilities. Less troublesome was Marsh's signature character gentleman detective Roderick Alleyn, who Duffy describes as a "really juicy interesting character" to write.

Author Brad Meltzer discovered a surprising - and rather touching - secret tied into the 9-11 attacks while researching his latest thriller.

Nancy Drew, the teenage detective who first entered American fiction in 1930, will return to the page in comic book form. Publisher Dynamite Entertainment will be releasing the book in June, with writer Kelly Thompson and artist Jenn St-Onge attached to the creative team, and in fact, the entire project is being led by an all-female creative team (with the exception of editor Nate Crosby). In the new take on the iconic character, Nancy hasn’t aged a day over seventeen and returns to her hometown to crack a case involving people from her past — her childhood friends and enemies. In true mystery-noir fashion, the story involves someone who is trying to end Nancy’s career as an amateur sleuth … as well as her life.

From the "forensics of the (near) future" department comes this news nugget: "Crime happens, and there is a witness. Instead of a sketch artist drawing a portrait of the suspect based on verbal descriptions, the police hook the witness up to EEG equipment. The witness is asked to picture the perpetrator, and from the EEG data, a face appears." New research from the University of Toronto Scarborough has brought that scenario one step closer to reality by using EEG data ("brainwaves") to reconstruct images of faces shown to subjects. In other words, they’re using EEG to tap into what a subject is seeing.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Alexander Berkman: Deported by God" by Charles Rammelkamp, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "Cold Turkey" by Keith Rawson.

In the Q&A roundup, Omnimystery News welcomed Michael Niemann, whose third novel in his series of international thrillers featuring Valentin Vermeulen, Illegal Holdings, was just released; the Weekly Standard snagged an interview with 63-year-old first-time novelist Stephen Mack Jones to discuss second careers, Detroit, and his protagonist, August Snow; and the CBC had eight authors quiz fellow scribe Nathan Ripley about his debut thriller Find You in the Dark.

Author R&R with Patti Abbott

Patti Abbott is no stranger to this blog and its readers, since IRTM has been a participant in Patti's Friday's "Forgotten" Books features on her blog for some time. In addition to being a blogger, Patti is an outstanding author of short crime fiction and has published over 125 stories online and in print journals in various anthologies, winning a Derringer for her story "My Hero." She's also published two print novels, Concrete Angel (2015), nominated for an Anthony and Macavity Award, and Shot in Detroit (2016), nominated for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award in 2017. She's also authored two ebooks, Monkey Justice and Home Invasion, and co-edited the anthology Discount Noir. 

Her latest literary endeavor is a collection of twenty-six of her stories, titled I Bring Sorrow: And Other Stories of Transgression, published by Polis Books, which Publishers Weekly called "A sparkling collection from Edgar-finalist Abbott...This brilliant collection is sure to boost the author’s reputation as a gifted storyteller." From a daughter who finds a way to save a mother who no longer knows her name, to a father who eases his grief through an act of kindness that few will judge kindly, to an uxorious husband who finds the limits of his love, the collection promises to take you "into the deepest, darkest corridors of the heart."

Patti stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about one of the stories in that collection and how it came to be:

 

"Um Peixe Grande"

From I BRING SORROW AND OTHER STORIES OF TRANSGRESSION

Early in my writing career, such as it is, I wrote a story for a specific challenge. The instructions were to choose a fairy tale or a myth and base a crime story on the tale. I chose Hansel and Gretel (along with half of the eventual entries) and wrote a story about two city kids whose mother is pretty much the witch. I had fun doing it and resolved to try my hand at it again.

So a few years later, I chose Grimm’s story "The Fisherman and His Wife" to update. And my first attempt pretty much followed the story’s structure. In the tale, a fisherman sets a caught flounder free and when he returns home his wife tells him he should have demanded a prize for his good deed. He returns to the water and demands a prize, which he gets, and the demands and the prizes escalate until it spins out of control.

I wasn’t happy with my story. It turned out to be too much about the harridan wife. It seemed like a cliché-filled short story when I was done. So my story eventually became more about the fisherman and the fish. The fish becomes a crime boss and the lakes of Maine a scene for certain sorts of crimes. I made the fisherman Portuguese, which felt authentic. His wife’s role is largely trying to persuade him to work for a fish farm. I was pretty happy with this story and happier still when PLAN B who published it had it read online by a fellow who perfectly got the voice that had only existed in my head. Incidentally, a certain B.V. Lawson has a story in the same collection. Thanks to Bonnie for hosting me.

 

You can follow Patti on her popular blog, or on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. I Bring Sorrow and Other Stories of Transgression is available now via Polis books and all major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for the latest roundup of crime drama news, including some Oscar results:

AWARDS

Although the winners were fairly evenly spread out among the various films at the Academy Awards last evening, crime dramas made a showing via Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri for Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Supporting Role (Sam Rockwell). For the full list of nominees and winners, head on over to the Academy's website.
 

MOVIES

Universal Pictures is developing a new take on Fear, the 1996 thriller that starred Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg, and has set Oscar-nominated Straight Outta Compton co-scribe Jonathan Herman to write the script. In the original film, Witherspoon met Wahlberg’s character in what seemed to be a perfect love match — until his darker side emerged and it all went off the rails. William Peterson and Alyssa Milano co-starred in the original, which was produced by Brian Grazer, who will return to produce again for Imagine Entertainment. Although the "new take" aspect of the pic is being kept under wraps, it will apparently be told from a female perspective.

Greg Silverman’s Stampede Ventures pre-empted the unpublished female-driven thriller This Red Fire from author Nicolina Torres (via Inkshares and The Launch Pad Competition). This Red Fire, which as been compared to Insomnia, is a story set in Calliope, Nebraska, and follows small-town sheriff Evie Hartley who arrives to find the entire town murdered—save for two children, missing young siblings. As federal authorities swoop in to search for the perpetrators, the sheriff—herself recently having lost a child—sets off after the missing kids. 

Tina Mabry, a writer-director-producer on OWN’s drama series Queen Sugar, has been set to adapt Code of Silence, a feature film in the works at MWM Studios. The project is based on a four-part 2016 article by Jamie Kalven in The Intercept and tells the true story of Chicago police officer Shannon Spaulding’s experience as a whistleblower and how she, along with her partner and the community, exposed corruption and a cover-up within the Chicago PD.

The Will Smith-starring action thriller Gemini Man has added Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) to the cast as production has officially begun. Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is at the helm of the project, which follows Henry Brogan (Smith), an elite assassin who suddenly is targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative who seemingly can predict his every move. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Clive Owen co-star in the film, which is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison.

Actors James Badge Dale (Only The Brave) and Brian Geraghty (The Alienist) have been tapped to star in the indie drama, The Incident At Sparrow Creek Lumber from writer-director Henry Dunham. The story is described as having a locked-room paranoia in a Reservoir Dogs vein with the gritty intrigue of classic espionage fiction. It follows reclusive ex-cop Gannon (Dale), who’s forced out of retirement after he realizes a mass shooting at a police funeral was committed by a member of the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in the remote lumber mill where he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer.

Andrea Riseborough is eyeing a role in Sony’s remake of The Grudge with Nicolas Pesce aboard to direct and rewrite for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. It’s a new take on the 2004 pic (itself based on the 2002 Japanese original Ju-on), which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse in Tokyo who is afflicted by a curse that created uncontrollable homicidal rage. Riseborough is eyeing the role of a detective and young single mother.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Apple has ordered a 10-episode straight-to-series order for an untitled half-hour psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan and British TV writer Tony Basgallop. Plot details for the series are being kept under wraps for the project, which was created by Basgallop (24, To The Ends of the Earth).

Bobby Cannavale (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and Dallas Roberts (Dallas Buyers Club) have joined the cast in key roles for the noir thriller Motherless Brooklyn, which is filming in New York City. Cannavale plays Tony Vermonte and Roberts plays Danny Fantl, both characters from the book by Jonathan Lethem. Edward Norton, who is directing the film, will also play the Tourette-stricken private eye protagonist Lionel Essrog, who tries to solve the murder of his only friend, Frank Minna. The pic is set in 1950s New York, and the case leads Essrog from gin-soaked jazz clubs in Harlem to the hard-edged slums of Brooklyn and, finally, into the gilded halls of New York’s power brokers.

The Originals star Joseph Morgan has landed the lead role in the TV adaptation of Gone Baby Gone, playing private eye Patrick Kenzie, the role played by Casey Affleck in the original 2007 film. Based on the book by Dennis Lehane and adapted for television by Black Sails co-creator Robert Levine, Gone Baby Gone follows Boston detectives Kenzie and Angela Gennaro who investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally. 

Toby Kebbell is heading to the small screen and has landed the lead role on Salvage, an ABC drama pilot that follows ex-cop Jimmy Hill (Kebbell), who just wants to be left alone after moving back home in rural Florida. But when a local murder is linked to the sunken treasure of a lost Spanish galleon, he’s drawn into the investigation by an idealistic deputy and pitted against the powerful town patriarch, outside criminal agents, and his own father. Kebbell joins the previously-cast Charity Wakefield, who plays Jimmy’s ex, Gwen.

Battlestar Galactica alum Michael Trucco is set as a series regular opposite Aunjanue Ellis and Alana De La Garza in the CBS drama pilot Chiefs, from David Hudgins and Carol Mendelsohn. Written by Hudgins and directed by Zetna Fuentes, Chiefs explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful but very different women, who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. Trucco will play Detective Keele, who works closely with Chief of Police Kendra Downes (Ellis) and is sharp as a tack and devoted to the job. 

Dexter alumna Luna Lauren Velez and Pallavi Sharda (Pulse) have booked series-regular roles opposite Michael Chiklis and Teyonah Parris in CBS' drama pilot Murder, from Lin Pictures and Warner Bros. Written by Amanda Green and based on the British miniseries, this new take on the investigative drama explores crime through the unique and often-conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family. Shot like a true-crime documentary, the series centers on Detectives Mason Garrity (Chiklis) and Ayana Lake (Parris), with Velez playing Capt. Lili Alvarez, a trailblazing leader for women in the NYPD who is a strong and supportive squad boss, and Sharda portraying Dr. Parvati Agrawal, a meticulous forensic pathologist who sees herself as the final doctor for each homicide victim. 

Also boarding the Murder train are Leonard Roberts (Major Crimes) and Australian actress Andrea Demetriades (Pulse). Roberts takes on the role of Assistant District Attorney Malachi Sandel, a talented, charismatic homicide prosecutor whose persuasive skills and charm extend from the courtroom to his active social life, and Demetriades will play Raquel Bennett, a Legal Aid defense attorney, who’s both highly skilled and deeply passionate about advocating for her clients. 

Former Daytime Divas star Camille Guaty has been cast as a series regular opposite Kylie Bunbury in ABC’s Get Christie Love reboot drama pilot, an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African-American CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. She transforms into whomever she needs to be to get the job done, especially when it’s down to the wire and the stakes are life and death. Guaty will play Juana, Christie’s best friend and closest female confidante. Also joining the Get Christie Love reboot is Thomas Cocquerel (Table 19), who will play Adam, one the youngest team members of Christie’s counterintelligence unit who is young, smooth, and just a bit cocky.

In his first series regular role, Zeeko Zaki (Valor, Six) is set as the male lead in F.B.I., CBS’ upcoming 13-episode drama series from Dick Wolf, boss of the Law & Order and Chicago franchises. The series chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Zaki will play FBI Special Agent OA, who made it from Bushwick to West Point, and has both the confidence – and the will – of someone who’s had to fight every step of the way. After spending two years undercover, the DEA abruptly ripped him out, and he was cherry-picked by the FBI. 

Andrea Riseborough is in talks to join the Amazon-Sky miniseries Zero, Zero, Zero, set to air on Canal Plus and Sky Network in the UK, Italy, Germany and other European regions. The project is based on a book by Gamorrah author Roberto Saviano set in the world of international cocaine trafficking. Riseborough would play Emma Landry, the no-nonsense operations manager of her family’s financial empire.

British actress Perdita Weeks is set as the female lead opposite Jay Hernandez in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot. The reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series will feature the same central quartet of characters as the original but, instead of four guys, it consists of three men and a woman, with Jonathan Higgins reconceived as Juliet Higgins (Weeks), the "majordomo"for the large Hawaiian estate of writer Robin Masters, for whom Magnum (Hernandez) ostensibly works security and lives in his guest house. She is commanding, confident, tough, uses sarcasm to deflect emotion and is hard to get to know – but it’s worth it in the end.

Former Fear the Walking Dead star Mercedes Mason has booked a series-regular role in ABC’s straight-to-series light crime drama The Rookie, starring and executive produced by Castle alum Nathan Fillion. Written by former Castle executive producer/co-showrunner Alexi Hawley and directed by Liz Friedlander, The Rookie stars Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. At an age where most are at the peak of their career, Nolan cast aside his comfortable, small town life and moved to L.A. to pursue his dream of being a cop.

Alexander Sokovikov (House of Cards) has joined the series regular cast of ABC’s drama pilot Staties, from Matt Partney & Corey Evett, Maniac Productions and ABC Studios. Written by Partney and Evett and directed by Rob Bowman, Staties centers on Eliza Cortez (Annie Ilonzeh), a hard-charging NYPD detective who’s banished to the boonies after a high-profile mistake and is paired with a new partner, Oregon State Trooper Sam King (Andy Karl). Sokovikov will play Senior Trooper Yuri Kinbote, a gruff Russian trooper who’s skeptical of the new statie in town.

In her return to series television almost two decades after a breakout starring turn in Fox’s Dark Angel, Jessica Alba has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Gabrielle Union in NBC’s untitled Bad Boys spinoff drama pilot. The project centers on a free-spirited former DEA agent (Union) who has a fresh start in her new job as an LAPD detective. She’s partnered with Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom who can’t help but look at Syd’s freedom with some grass-is-greener envy. These two have totally different lifestyles and approaches, but they both are at the top of their fields in this action-packed, character-driven procedural. 

Paula Newsome (NCIS) is set as a series regular in the NBC drama pilot Suspicion, based on the book by Joseph Finder, which is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. After Danny Goldman accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, he gets a visit from the FBI and learns that the decision is one he will regret for the rest of his life. Coerced to work as an informant for the FBI to earn back his freedom, Danny is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption while trying to protect his family. Newsome will play Agent Peters. With a calm demeanor, Agent Peters still makes Danny uneasy despite her efforts to be honest and straightforward.

SundanceTV has given the green light to No One Saw A Thing (working title) a true crime docuseries from Blumhouse Television, with Israeli filmmaker Avi Belkin attached to direct and executive produce. The six-episode series examines an unsolved and mysterious death in the American Heartland and the corrosive effects of vigilantism in small town America. The case garnered international attention in the early 1980s after a resident was shot dead in front of almost 60 townspeople who deny having seen anything, to this very day. 

PBS announced it has acquired the North American distribution rights to Kimberly Reed’s documentary Dark Money which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which won the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award, follows a Montana-based reporter’s investigation of one of the greatest present threats to American democracy—the influence of corrupt money on our elected officials. A century ago, secret money swamped Montana’s legislature, but citizens rose up to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — which allows unlimited, anonymous money to pour into elections nationwide — Montana is once again fighting to preserve open and honest elections.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The new official Crime Syndicate Magazine podcast, hosted by Editor Michael Pool, plans to feature readings, interviews, and book reviews from crime fiction authors and other industry professionals. The debut episode featured a live interview with crime fiction author Eryk Pruitt, and the most recent installment welcomed Canadian crime fiction author Sam Wiebe to discuss the second in the PI Dave Wakeland series, Cut You Down.

Another new podcast that's near and dear to my heart since it features music mysteries (and my own Scott Drayco mystery series has a music component), is Classic FM's Case Notes that delves into the darkest mysteries and murkiest stories from the history of music. Topics will cover such unusual cases as Haydn’s missing head that was taken from his grave by one of his best friends and a composer who was so obsessed with black magic his friends feared for his life.

Episode 14 of Writer Types features guests Hilary Davidson, Andrew Nette, Ivy Pochoda, and Scott Adlerberg, with special visits from Hollie Overton and Tod Goldberg. Plus, the Malmons go to Planet ComicCon in Kansas City and the show's Unpanel this week is all about anthologies.

Debbi Mack welcomed mystery author Richard Helms on Crime Cafe to talk about the latest installment in his series with Police Chief Judd Wheeler set in tiny Prosperity, North Carolina.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone regular host Luca Veste was joined by guest host Stuart Neville. The duo tackled the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, music, scary taxi drivers on US book tours, ebooks, and writing controversial articles around book publication dates.

2nd Sunday Crime with host Libby Fischer Hellman welcomed Melanie Benjamin to discuss her latest, The Girls in the Picture, set in 1914 Hollywood.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey chatted all about all things noir: what’s considered noir, classic noir and more modern noir books.

THEATER

The Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple in the UK is presenting a new production from Bill Kenwright’s Classic Thriller Theatre Company. Edgar Wallace’s The Case of the Frightened Lady, which opens with a week-long run on Monday, March 12, features a star-studded cast including TV favorites Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street); Rula Lenska (Doctor Who, EastEnders); Denis Lill (The Royal); Charlie Clements (EastEnders); Philip Lowrie (Coronation Street); April Pearson (Skins); Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier); and Glenn Carter (Jesus Christ Superstar). The story follows Inspector Tanner as he's called in to investigate a ruthless murder at the grand ancestral home of the Lebanon family, quickly discovering that nothing is quite as it seems.

The Vertigo Theater of Calgary's Mystery Series will present The Lonely Diner beginning March 10 with a run through April 8. Written by Beverley Cooper and directed by Kelli Fox, the story is set in a quiet little rural Canadian diner where Lucy yearns for the glitz, glamour and excitement of America’s roaring cities. Prohibition has just been lifted in Ontario, but across the border mob bosses battle for the illicit trade of alcohol. Lucy’s husband, Ron, and her daughter, Sylvia, seem content to live their quiet life, but an infamous gangster - and his stolen whiskey - is about to bring Lucy’s far-off dreams into sharp, dangerous focus.