Media Murder for Monday

Greetings and welcome to the latest roundup of crime drama news:

MOVIES

Amy Adams will play the lead in Fox 2000’s The Woman In The Window, an adaptation of A.J. Finn’s best-selling novel, with Joe Wright directing from a script by Tracy Letts.  Adams is set to play Anna Fox, an agoraphobic child psychologist who lives alone in a New York suburb. Afraid to leave home, she fills her day watching film noir classics and spies on her neighbors like they do in the movies she loves. She thinks she witnesses a murder through her window but she can’t be quite sure because she also is an alcoholic and takes prescription narcotics.

Tucker Tooley Entertainment has picked up the crime drama film spec script Thug for Den of Thieves writer/director Christian Gudegast to helm. Thug follows an ex-journeyman boxer and aging enforcer for a San Pedro gangster who attempts to get back into the lives of his estranged children and clean up the messes of his past. To do so, he must come to terms with the ruined landscape of his twenty-year career in crime - if the criminal underworld will loosen their hold on him.

Alicia Coppola (Shameless) has been cast in Andrea Berloff’s New Line film, The Kitchen, also starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss. Domhnall Gleeson, Margo Martindale, Bill Camp and Brian d’Arcy James also co-star in the DC/Vertigo comic book based film about wives of Irish mobsters who team up to take over running the business after their husbands are arrested and sent to prison.

Guy Pearce, Claes Bang, Vicky Krieps and Roland Møller are set to star in Lyrebird, the true story about an art forger who victimized the Nazis, with Dan Friedkin marking his directorial debut. The story centers on Dutch folk hero Han van Meegeren swindled millions of dollars from the Nazis by selling them forgeries of Johannes Vermeer paintings and is considered the most successful art forger of all time.

Actor Jim Klock has joined Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Brad William Henke and Karl Glusman for Annapurna’s untitled thriller written and directed by Babak Anvari. Set for release March 29, 2019, the pic follows a New Orleans bartender (Hammer) who experiences a series of disturbing and inexplicable events, after picking up a cell phone left behind in his bar, that begin to unravel his life. The film is based on Nathan Ballingrud’s novel The Visible Filth.

Claes Bang has come aboard The Burnt Orange Heresy, the neo-noir thriller from Giuseppe Capotondi. The Danish actor joins Christopher Walken and Elizabeth Debicki in the picture, which is based on the Charles Willeford novel. Bang will play James Figueras, a charismatic and fiercely ambitious art critic who is offered a career-changing introduction to reclusive artist Jerome Debney (Walken). In return for the introduction, however, he must steal a masterpiece from the artist’s studio.

If you'd like to plan your movie-going in advance, the Baltimore Sun compiled a handy sneak preview listing of upcoming summer movies that include the crime thriller Bad Samaritan with David Tennant; a restored version of the 1943 French crime drama Le Corbeau, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; the European crime drama Racer and the Jailbird, directed by Michaël R. Roskam; the thriller Terminal starring Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg, Mike Myers, and Max Irons; and many, many more.

A trailer was released for Steven Soderbergh's latest psychological thriller, Unsane, which has the distinction of being the first full length feature film to ever be shot on an iPhone 7 plus. The film stars The Crown’s Claire Foy as a woman who ends up committed in a psychiatric ward but is convinced she was being stalked and that the stalker is part of the staff.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Before John Krasinski's new series Jack Ryan even had a chance to premiere on Amazon Prime, the streaming service has already given the go-ahead for a second season of the action series. Jack Ryan is the first television adaptation of author Tom Clancy's popular protagonist and stars Krasinski in the title role as he's thrust into the eye of a startling mystery involving suspicious bank transfers and a potential terrorist attack. The series' second season renewal comes amid a banner month for Krasinski, whose horror film A Quiet Place has been a huge hit at the box office. 

Epix has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to crime drama Godfather of Harlem, with Forest Whitaker attached to star and executive produce. The series hails from Narcos creator Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, and ABC Signature Studios. The project tells the true story of infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson (Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from ten years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles. With the streets controlled by the Italian mob, Bumpy must take on the Genovese crime family to regain control. During the brutal battle, he forms an alliance with radical preacher Malcolm X – catching Malcolm’s political rise in the crosshairs of social upheaval and a mob war that threatens to tear the city apart.

The top-rated Lethal Weapon series was on the fast-track for renewal on the Fox network, but a behind-the scenes issue involving one of the two leads, Clayne Crawford, is making a third season uncertain. Crawford has had a history of bad behavior on the show, and that he has been disciplined several times over complaints of emotional abuse and creating a hostile environment. The problem is threatening the future of the show, with a recasting — a rare and dramatic move when involving a lead of an established series — being explored. 

Oxygen Media has picked up new seasons of reality series Cold Justice and Criminal Confessions from executive producer Dick Wolf. Cold Justice follows veteran prosecutor Kelly Siegler, who partners with seasoned detectives, to dig into murder cases that have lingered for years without justice. Together with local law enforcement from across the country, the Cold Justice team has successfully helped generate approximately 35 arrests and 18 convictions. As the title suggests, Criminal Confessions delves into the psychological showdown that transpires inside actual police interrogation rooms between investigators and suspects and the process of pursuing a confession to solve cases.

Starz has opted not to proceed with Family Crimes, its drama series project from Suicide Squad writer-director David Ayer and Jerry Bruckheimer Television. Family Crimes already had a writers room up and running and a casting director had been hired and working when Starz notified the producers of its decision not to move forward with the series, citing "creative reasons." Written by Ayer, Family Crimes centers on a young privileged Latina who must reinvent herself in order to save her family when the feds close in on their business with the Mexican mob. She quickly learns to navigate the criminal underworld and finds herself trapped in a web of complex rules, rivalries and deep politics.

The first trailer has been released for HBO's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Sharp Objects. The film stars Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen, Elizabeth Perkins and Matt Crave in the tale of a newspaper journalist who must return to her hometown to report on a series of brutal murders. The eight-episode series is written by Flynn and Marti Noxon and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Big Little Lies).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Tori Telfer, author of Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History, is launching the true crime podcast called Criminal Broads on May 1. Installments will focus on "wild women who’ve ended up on the wrong side of the law, whether for leading a cult, serially murdering their husbands, swindling billionaires, or faking ectoplasm."

Acclaimed author Chesya Burke joined Alex Dolan on Thrill Seekers. Burke has published nearly a hundred fiction pieces and articles within the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Her new historical mystery novel, The Strange Crimes of Little Africa, is garnering critical acclaim. 

Episode 16 of Writer Types featured megastar Gillian Flynn; Michael Kardos and his new novel Bluff; John Shepherd with his new novel Bottom Feeders; a dispatch from the LA Times festival of books; Bob Hartley; and a trio of short fiction publishers on what makes a great story.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey talked about the shocking developments with the Golden State Killer case, how Amy Adams is starring in all the book adaptations and also discussed the Edgar Awards. 

GAMES

Indie video game developer Eggnut has launched a Kickstarter project for Backbone, a pixel-art adventure that lets players solve crimes as Howard Lotor, a Raccoon private investigator and a member of a dystopian animal society based in "retrofuturistic" Vancouver.

Mystery Melange

The 38th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded this past Friday at the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium. The Mystery/Thriller category winner was Joyce Carol Oates for A Book of American Martyrs.

The Crime Writers of Canada announced the finalists for the annual Arthur Ellis Awards, which recognize the best in mystery, crime, and suspense writing in fiction and non-fiction by Canadian writers. Winners will be announced on May 24th at Arthur Ellis Awards Gala in Toronto. The books competing for Best Crime Novel include The Winners’ Circle, by Gail Bowen; The Party, by Robyn Harding; The White Angel, by John MacLachlan; Sleeping in the Ground, by Peter Robinson; and The Forgotten Girl, by Rio Youers.

Also from Canada, we have news of the 2018 nominees for the Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (fondly known as the Bony Blithe Award), which celebrates "light" crime fiction (cozies, capers, satires, and humorous books). The finalists include Cathy Ace, The Case of the Unsuitable Suitor; E.C. Bell, Dying on Second; Rickie Blair, Digging up Trouble; Vicki Delany, Hark the Herald Angels Slay; and Elizabeth J. Duncan, Much Ado About Murder. The award will be presented at the Bony Blithe Mini-con & Award Gala on May 25th in Toronto, Canada.

The 2018 Colorado Book Award Finalists include a category for Best Mystery and Best Thriller, and the nominees this year are mystery novels Dead Stop by Barbara Nickless, Fractured Families by Charlotte Hinger, and Hunting Hour by Margaret Mizushima; and thrillers Broken Slate by John A. Daly, Red Sky by Chris Goff, and Trafficked by Peg Brantley.

The 2018 CrimeFest Awards shortlists were also announced ahead of the annual event which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary on May 17-20 in Bristol, UK. The awards include the Audible Sounds of Crime for audiobooks, the eDunnit Award for ebooks, the Last Laugh Award for humorous crime, the H.R.F. Keating Award for nonfiction crime reference/true crime, and also awards for Best Children's and YA books. The winners will be announced at the CrimeFest Gala Awards Dinner hosted by Robert Thorogood on Saturday 19th May.

As part of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate in July, Dead Good Books is bringing back the Dead Good Reader Awards where the public can nominate authors and books in the various categories and win a chance of snagging £200 worth of crime books and DVDs. Nominations close Friday May 21, 2018.

Ace Atkins is this year's Keynote Speaker at 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West June 22-24. Atkins is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one novels, including the recent Robert B. Parker "Spenser" mysteries. Other headliners of the event include editor and publisher Otto Penzler, proprietor of the Mysterious Book Shop in New York City, and Special Guest Presenter Heather Graham. In addition to the usual panels and book signings, the festival includes a Conch Train mini-tour of Key West, an ice-cream social event with Ace Atkins and Otto Penzler at the historic Key West Lighthouse, and a Bloody Mary Morning breakfast at Key West’s historic Schooner Wharf Bar.

Unfortunately, the news isn't as good for another conference; NoirCon's Lou Boxer posted on Facebook that they are cancelling this year's event that was slated for the fall due to the passing of NoirCon co-founder and co-director. Those who have already registered will be refunded in full, but Boxer added that "Please note that NoirCon as an organization is not over. Deen would not have wanted what she helped build to fall. Once we reorganize, we will return."

Over on Elizabeth Foxwell's blog, The Bunburyist, she profiles a 1977 Los Angeles Times article in which author-critic Dorothy B. Hughes chose 23 selections for a "classic mystery library."

Although DNA has helped convicted many bad guys and exonerated innocent people, the forensic technology still has flaws. In once case, a man was framed by his own DNA for a brutal murder he didn't commit.

Here's a fun site to put on your bucket list: One of the foremost Sherlock Holmes collections is hidden away at a Toronto library.

Did you know your brain needs you to read every day? Well, now you do.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Picnic" by Gail Aldwin.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed author Tina Whittle over at Writers Who Kill about the sixth book in her Tai Randolph/Trey Seaver series, Necessary Ends; Graphic Policy welcomed Megan Abbott and Alison Gaylin to discuss writing Normandy Gold, a gritty vigilante thriller graphic novel from Hard Case Crime (with illustrations by Steve Scott); the Dorset Book Detective chatted with Paul D. Brazill about his writing, translations, and Brit Grit; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Sara Blaedel, author of the the Detective Louise Rick series who's penned a novel in a new series, The Undertaker's Daughter.

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to another Monday and another roundup of the latest in crime drama news:

MOVIES

Amy Pascal and Neal H. Moritz have teamed up to acquire film rights to Long Bright River, the upcoming suspense novel from Liz Moore that just sold at auction to Penguin Random House imprint Riverhead Books for seven figures. Moore is also set to adapt the book, which is set in her native Philadelphia and revolves around two sisters — one, an addict who has gone missing and the other a police officer who must find her. 

Sophia Lillis, last seen as Beverly Marsh in Warner Bros’ blockbuster picture It, has been tapped as the title character in the studios’ Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase film adaptation, based on the popular Nancy Drew books. Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Kleeman, and Chip Diggins are on board to produce the project, which is expected to begin filming soon. Warner Brothers made a film adaptation of this book in 1939 directed by William Clemens and starring Bonita Granville, who had toplined the previous Nancy Drew films.

Jake Gyllenhaal will produce and star in the film adaptation of To Die in Vienna, based on the Kevin Wignall novel set to be published in June by Amazon Publishing imprint Thomas & Mercer.  Gyllenhaal will play Freddie Makin, a man who is hired to place Jiang Cheng, a Chinese academic, under constant surveillance. When Freddie returns home early one day, he interrupts a break-in at his apartment. The intruder escapes but then comes back to get his revenge, and Freddie becomes a hunted man. When Jiang Cheng mysteriously disappears, Freddie realizes the CIA may be involved, and his only hope is that nobody discovers the past he has been hiding for so long.

MGM has just closed a deal for James Gray to direct I Am Pilgrim, an adaptation of the espionage novel trilogy by Terry Hayes. Pilgrim is the code name for a man who doesn’t exist and refers to the adopted son of a wealthy American family who once headed a secret U.S. espionage unit. Now in anonymous retirement, he is called upon to lend his expertise to an unusual investigation but ultimately is caught in a race against time to save America from oblivion.

IFC Midnight is acquiring U.S. rights to What Keeps You Alive, the Colin Minihan-directed thriller that stars Hannah Emily Anderson and Brittany Allen as a same-sex couple pitted against one another on their one-year anniversary. 

Denzel Washington is back in the first trailer for Sony Pictures’ The Equalizer 2. In the trailer, intelligence officer Robert McCall helps people and seeks justice for those who are committing crimes, starting with a Turkish mob that has kidnapped a young American girl. But when it involves someone he loves, he must see how far he will go. The Equalizer 2 hits theaters on July 20.

Old Man & The Gun has been slated for a fall release date by Fox Searchlight. The ensemble heist thriller led by Robert Redford and written and directed by David Lowery also stars Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, and Tika Sumpter. The film is based on a David Grann short story in The New Yorker that was inspired by the true story of Forrest Tucker (Redford), who escaped from San Quentin at the age of 70, and the unprecedented string of heists that perplexed law enforcement and enamored the public. Pursuing Tucker was detective John Hunt (Affleck). Spacek plays the love interest of Tucker.

A new clip was released from Mitzi Peirone’s thriller Braid starring Handmaid’s Tale actress Madeline Brewer as a woman named Daphne who reunites with her childhood friends who have since become drug dealers. As she hosts her friends (played by Imogen Waterhouse and Sarah Hay), they begin to play a game, but it soon becomes clear Daphne is in a disturbed mental state, and the game make-believe turns into a twisted, demented maze of hallucinations, role play, torture … and murder.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon Studios has given a nine-episode series order to a U.S. adaptation of Utopia, written by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, with Flynn also serving as executive producer and showrunner. It will be the first project under an overall TV deal she has signed with Amazon Studios. Utopia follows a group of young adults who meet online that are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel. Within the comic’s pages, they discover the conspiracy theories that may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world. 

Netflix has preemptively acquired film rights to Tell Me Everything, an upcoming thriller novel from Cambria Brockman. Michael Sugar’s company Sugar23 brought in the project and will produce the adaptation with Anonymous Content and Aevitas Creative Management. Brockman’s debut novel, which Ballantine recently acquired at auction for a June 2019 street date, is set at an elite college in small-town New England and follows the shifting alliances and romantic entanglements of six tight-knit students — until one of them is murdered.

Netflix is not moving forward with a second season of the crime drama Seven Seconds, created and executive produced by The Killing's Veena Sud. Written by Sud and starring Regina King, Seven Seconds chronicles tensions running high between African-American citizens and Caucasian police in Jersey City, where a teenage African-American boy is critically injured by a cop. 

Among the new shows Netflix is picking up are an untitled docuseries based on one of the biggest cold cases in French history, the murder of Grégory Villemin in 1984; The Staircase, the compelling story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16-year judicial battle that followed; and 13 Novembre: Fluctuat Nec Mergitur, a three-part documentary exploring the human stories behind the Parisian terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015, which will launch on the service on June 1, 2018. 


Netflix had previously announced Sacha Baron Cohen would topline the six-episode limited series The Spy, and this past week, the company announced that The Americans standout Noah Emmerich has signed on to star opposite Cohen. Written and directed by Gideon Raff, creator of the Israeli drama Prisoners of War on which Showtime’s Homeland was based, The Spy tells the story of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen (Baron Cohen). Eli Cohen lived in Damascus undercover in the beginning of the ’60s, spying for Israel and managed to embed himself into Syrian high society until he was uncovered by the Syrian regime, sentenced to death, and publicly hanged.

Cinemax has given a straight-to-series order to the drama Jett, from Snakes on a Plane and Gothika scribe Sebastian Gutierrez, with Carla Gugino attached to star and executive produce. Written by Gutierrez, The story centers around world-class thief Daisy "Jett" Kowalski (Carla Gugino), fresh out of prison, who's forced back into doing what she does best by dangerous and eccentric criminals determined to exploit her skills for their own ends. 

Dane DeHaan is set to star in Sky's brand-new crime thriller ZeroZeroZero. The upcoming series, based on a novel by Roberto Saviano, follows a number of power-hungry criminals and the product that links them all: cocaine. Joining DeHaan in the new eight-episode drama are Andrea Riseborough (The Death of Stalin), Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspect), and The Missing's Tchéky Karyo. 

CBS has renewed eleven returning series for 2018-2019, including its entire Friday lineup of dramas, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O, and Blue Bloods, along with Bull, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Los Angeles, and Madam Secretary, They join previously announced renewals of NCIS, SEAL Team, and S.W.A.T., among other non-crime dramas. Veteran drama Criminal Minds and the techno-thriller series Scorpion are both still on the "bubble."

NBC has pulled the action drama Taken off the schedule, effective immediately. The series — a prequel to Luc Besson’s hit movie franchise — was retooled heading into Season 2 with a new showrunner and a casting shakeup. The story follows the origins of younger, hungrier former Green Beret Bryan Mills (Clive Standen) as he deals with a personal tragedy that shakes his world. As Mills fights to overcome the trauma of the incident and exact revenge, he is pulled into a career as a deadly CIA operative, a job that awakens his very particular, and very dangerous, set of skills. In 30 years, this character is destined to become the Bryan Mills in the Taken films starring Liam Neeson.

Michael C Hall, best known for playing the forensic technician/serial killer on Showtime’s Dexter, is running around the British countryside looking for his daughter in the first trailer for Netflix’s forthcoming crime thriller Safe. Hall stars alongside Sherlock’s Amanda Abbington in the eight-part drama that centers on Tom, a pediatric surgeon who is raising his two teenage daughters in a picturesque gated community after the death of his wife. Everyone seems to be recovering and thriving, until one evening, one daughter sneaks out to a party. A murder and a disappearance ensue, bringing buried secrets to the surface. Harlan Coben exec produces alongside Hall, Nicola Shindler, Danny Brocklehurst, and Richard Fee. The series launches May 10.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Crime Friction podcast welcomed Art Taylor, whose latest stories can be read in Down & Out The Magazine and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. Taylor has won four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, two Macavity Awards, and three consecutive Derringer Awards for his short fiction, and his work has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories

Meet the Thriller Author host Alan Petersen welcomed Thomas Greanias, a New York Times bestselling novelist and one of the world’s leading authors of adventure. His books in print have been translated into multiple languages and sold in 200 nations around the globe. A former journalist and on-air correspondent for NBC, Greanias infuses his international thrillers with provocative issues ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.

In the latest edition of Crime Cafe, host Debbi Mack interviewed crime fiction author David Swinson about his writing and series with Frank Marr, a retired D.C. police detective working as a private eye for a defense attorney.

THEATER

The world premiere of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Wednesday, April 25 to Saturday, May 5. In this production from award-winning dramatist Simon Read (who wrote the play on a commission from the Theatre), Robert Powell stars as Holmes, who lives in retirement on the South Coast. All too aware that he’s older and slower, he’s concerned that he might have lost his touch, paranoid that he is an easy target for his enemies. So when Mary Watson (wife of his former associate Dr. John Watson and played by Liza Goddard) tracks him down to tell him she has seen her long-dead son through the window of 221B Baker Street, apparently alive and well, Holmes is determined to solve the mystery and confront his own demons at the same time.

Mystery Melange

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival announced the longlist for the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, with the winner to be announced at the festival in Harrogate in July. The prize was created to celebrate "the very best in crime fiction" and is open to UK and Irish crime authors. For the entire list of the eighteen finalist books, follow this link to the official festival website.

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced this year's finalists for the Derringer Awards, honoring the best in mystery, thriller, and suspense short stories, with categories for Best Flash Fiction, Best Short Story, Best Long Story, and Best Novelette. The complete honoree list is available via the SMFS website, with the winners to be announced in May.

The ITW Thriller Fest Conference organizers announced that the 2018 Thriller Legends are Bob and Pat Gussin from Oceanview Publishing for their unparalleled contributions to the crime fiction world, the writers, and the art of the thrill. Oceanview Publishing was established in 2006 and has received many awards and nominations such as Independent Publishers Awards, Indie Excellence Awards, and ALA Book of the Year. The Gussins will be honored at the awards banquet on the Saturday evening of ThrillerFest, which runs July 10 – 14.

One of this year's Sarton Women's Book Awards that are sponsored by the Story Circle Network, an international nonprofit association of women writers, was Christine Evelyn Volker for her crime fiction work, Venetian Blood: Murder in a Sensuous City. The award program is named in honor of May Sarton, who is remembered for her outstanding contributions to women's literature as a memoirist, novelist, and poet.

The Florida Book Awards also announced this year's winners, including those in the Popular Fiction category. The Gold Winner was Patricia Gussin for her book Come Home (Oceanview Publishing); the Silver award went to Robert Macomber for An Honorable War (Pineapple Press); and the Bronze winner was Ward Larsen for Assassin’s Code (Forge Books).

Ace Atkins, the bestselling author of two dozen mysteries and thrillers, will receive the Hall-Waters Prize from Troy University on April 20, 2018 and speak the following day at the Alabama Book Festival, in Montgomery, Alabama. The award is presented regularly to a person who has made significant contributions to Southern heritage and culture in history, literature or the arts.

Tonight at St. Johnsbury, Vermont's Athenaeum, it's an "Evening of Pulp Fiction." Editor Dan Szczesny, along with authors S. J. Cahill and Judith Janoo, will hold a multi-media presentation including readings centered around Murder Ink, a three-volume anthology of newsroom detective short fiction told by authors from around New England.

Amazon’s Kindle Storyteller Award will return for a second year. Celebrating the work of self-published authors, independent of genre, the £20,000 prize drew thousands of entries in its inaugural year, and in 2018, Amazon will also award £5,000 to a second title in what it is calling a Judge’s Prize. The next Kindle Storyteller Award is open to all authors who publish their book through Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.co.uk from May 1st to August 31st, 2018. Last year's winner was David Leadbeater for his Crime Thriller The Relic Hunters.

National Book Foundation’s "‘Book Rich Environments" is entering its second season. The program is designed to distribute free, new books to young readers through public housing authorities in the United States to combat lack of literary access, often termed "book deserts," by connecting communities with resources that help foster lifelong, joyful relationships between readers and books. The number of books handed out will jump from 270,000 last year to 422,000 this year, with programming at 37 sites in 19 states.

Crime fiction has become the most popular fiction genre for the first time in the UK, according to data revealed at The London Book Fair. Sales of crime and thriller books have increased by 19% since 2015, marking the first time the genre has overtaken sales of general and literary fiction. Last year some 18.7 million units of crime fiction were sold, compared to 18.1 million general and literary fiction, according to data from Nielsen BookScan.
 

Writing for The Guardian, Henry Sutton, a senior lecturer in creative writing at UEA and director of the MA Crime Fiction, also noted the reasons why "thrillers are leaving other books for dead," noting that crime fiction is "fast developing as the most versatile narrative of our times."

A librarian, hoping to solve an odd book mystery pointed out by one of her patrons, discovered the secret codes used by elderly library-goers.

The Washington Post reported on a book mystery of a different sort: why is a small town in Virginia, population 4,000, responsible for producing some 140 million books a year?

NPR reported on the Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and their sometimes-funny, sometimes-touching typewriter experiment that has resulted in the book Notes From a Public Typewriter.

The Paris Review took a look at William Shakespeare's Twitter account. You read that right.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Anatomy of a Good Thing Gone Bad" by John Dorroh. And don't forget to check out the 30 Days at the Five-Two series of posts celebrating National Poetry Month.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to you! Here's a roundup of the latest crime drama news to start off your week:

MOVIES

Castle alum Stana Katic, Sarah Megan Thomas, and Radhika Apte are set to star in an untitled female-driven WW II spy drama based on the real-life spies in Winston Churchill’s "secret army." The film centers on British intelligence officer Vera Atkins (Katic) and two of the women she sends to France as spies, Virginia Hall (Thomas) and Noor Inayat Khan (Apte). Atkins is a crafty recruiter with a secret of her own; Hall is a daring American with a wooden leg who was the first female field agent and ultimately the spy the Nazi’s dubbed "the most dangerous of all"; and Khan is a pacifist of Indian descent who was the first female wireless operator. These civilian women form a sisterhood while entangled in missions to turn the tide of the war. Thomas wrote the screenplay and will produce with Lydia Dean Pilcher (Queen of Katwe) who is set to direct.

Following the success of director David Leitch’s 2017 action-thriller Atomic Blonde, about an undercover MI6 agent sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent, star Charlize Theron has confirmed that plans are moving forward on a sequel. An adaptation of the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, the film was praised for the performances of Theron, James McAvoy and John Goodman, and for its action sequences, and earned more than $98 million worldwide. 

Jaime King has been cast as the female lead in Cutman, the indie drama starring Ray Liotta that comes from producer-director Michael Mailer. The script, written by Tiffany Heath, follows a retired boxer who is dying of cancer and working as an enforcer for low-level mobsters who just wants to die in peace before he meets a junkie and her daughter as they all search for meaning and revenge. King will play the junkie Josie, who uses her combination of feminine wiles and fierce will to complete a dark mission. 

Riverdale star K.J. Apa has been tapped to replace YouTube phenom Kian Lawley in Fox 2000’s drama The Hate U Give after Lawley was dropped due to videos of him making racist remarks. George Tillman Jr. is directing the adaptation of the Angie Thomas novel, which stars Amandla Stenberg as a teen who witnesses a police officer kill her best friend and undergoes a political awakening. 

Jim Carrey makes his return to the big screen in the new thriller Dark Crime from director Alexandros Avranas, as seen in a new trailer. The film, based on the 2008 New Yorker article "True Crime" by David Grann about real-life murderer Krystian Bala, follows Tadek (Carrey) as a Polish detective who becomes obsessed with solving a grisly murder and finds similarities between the murder and a crime in a book by famous author Krystov Kozlow (played by Marton Csokas). His journey down the rabbit hole eventually leads him to uncover a tangled web of lies and corruption. Dark Crimes is The film is set to hit Direct-TV April 19 and opens in theaters May 18. 

The first trailer has landed for the well-received Sundance crime thriller American Animals from director Bart Layton. Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters and Blake Jenner star in the genre-bending movie that's based on the true story of four teenagers in Lexington, Kentucky, who tried to strike it rich by pulling of a $10M heist centered on a library. 

A new trailer was released for Ocean’s 8, the female-driven offshoot from the mega-successful 2000s film series that itself was spawned from the 1960 Rat Pack picture. The heist yarn stars Sandra Bullock as convicted felon Debbie Ocean, along with Cate Blanchett and their merry sisterhood of thieves including Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Jaime King and Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter. Anne Hathway plays their self-absorbed mark.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NCIS star and executive producer Mark Harmon has signed a new agreement to continue on the CBS Studios series. With him on board, the long-running crime procedural drama has been renewed for the 2018-2019 broadcast season for its sixteenth year. According to Forbes, Harmon earned $19 million from NCIS in 2017, which makes him the seventh highest-paid actor on TV, behind only Sofia Vergara and the principal cast of The Big Bang Theory. NCIS has been the most-watched scripted drama series on television since 2009 and is the most-watched show worldwide. Season 16 will be NCIS' first without star Pauley Perrette, who announced she would leaving at the end of Season 15, leaving Harmon and David McCallum as the only remaining original cast members. 

ITV announced that Grantchester, based on the novels by James Runcie and starring James Norton and Robson Green, will return for a fourth series. However, it will be James Norton’s final episodes as character Sidney Chambers, the charismatic, jazz-loving clergyman, and one half of the unlikely crime-fighting duo based in 1950s Grantchester. Casting of the new vicar arriving in the hamlet of Grantchester will be announced shortly, ITV has said. Along with Robson Green, who plays Detective Geordie Keating, returning members of Grantchester’s ensemble cast include Al Weaver, Tessa Peake-Jones and Kacey Ainsworth.

USA Network has ordered four hourlong scripted pilots, including Treadstone, an action-packed drama that delves into the CIA black ops program known as Operation Treadstone from Universal Pictures’ Bourne film franchise; Erase, a crime thriller-with-a-twist starring Denis Leary as a dirty ex-cop who decides to do the right thing and bring down his complicit superior officers until his best weapon in this battle – a photographic memory – is suddenly compromised by symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s; Briarpatch, based on the Ross Tom novel about a dogged investigator returning to her border-town Texas home after her sister is murdered by a car bomb; and Dare Me, a drama based on Megan Abbott’s book set within the cutthroat world of competitive high school cheerleading.

HBO Documentary Films has acquired the rights to journalist Michelle McNamara’s bestselling true-crime book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, to develop as a docuseries. The project is a meticulous exploration of the case of an elusive, violent predator who terrorized California in the late 1970s and early '80s. McNamara, the late wife of Patton Oswalt, was in the midst of writing the book when she unexpectedly died in her sleep in 2016, leaving the book to be completed by McNamara’s lead researcher Paul Haynes and a close colleague, Billy Jenkin

Sacha Baron Cohen is set to headline the six-episode limited series The Spy, which will debut globally on Netflix (outside of France), and on OCS in France. Written and directed by Gideon Raff, creator of the Israeli drama Prisoners of War on which Showtime’s Homeland was based, The Spy tells the story of legendary Israeli spy Eli Cohen (Baron Cohen), who lived in Damascus undercover in the beginning of the 60s, spying for Israel. He managed to embed himself into Syrian high society and rise through the ranks of their politics until he was uncovered by the Syrian regime, sentenced to death, and publicly hanged in a Damascus square in 1965.

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, who recurred as powerful studio head Sam Winslow in Season 5 of Showtime's Ray Donovan, will reprise her role in Season 6 as a series regular. Production begins this month in New York on the show’s sixth season, which is slated for a fall premiere. The series, starring Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight, has relocated from Los Angeles to NYC for Season 6, following an emotional fifth season that culminated with Winslow (Sarandon) as one of Ray’s (Schreiber) last-standing clients, after the death of a young star left his career in jeopardy.

Michael McGrady, known his recurring role of Frank Barnes on Ray Donovan, has joined the cast of NBC’s hit series Chicago P.D. as a recurring character for the remainder of Season 5. McGrady will play Assistant State’s Attorney James Osha, a prosecutor described as formidable, ambitious, and intelligent. He’ll play a crucial role in the battle between Voight (Jason Beghe) and Woods (guest star Mykelti Williamson) that has waged on throughout this season.

Oxygen Media is further expanding its true-crime slate, adding ten new original series including Serial Killer with Piers Morgan that will feature Morgan going into some of the most dangerous maximum security prisons in the United States to explore the minds of three of America’s most depraved serial killers. Other series include In Defense Of, which explores the complex relationships between notorious criminals, including Timothy McVeigh and Jodi Arias, and the defense attorneys who represented them in court; and License to Kill featuring renowned plastic surgeon Terry Dubrow as he investigates cases of murderous doctors and nurses. For all of the upcoming shows, head on over to the full Deadline report.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste talk about all things Will Self and the dreaded "Death of the Novel," the difficulty of banning books, and much more in their latest podcast. Special guest Sarah Hilary talked about winning the Theakstons award with her debut novel, how she came to be a writer, and other inspiring info.

The latest Writer Types podcast Crime Quiz returned, this time live from Anne's Book Carnival in Orange County, with panelists Sue Ann Jaffarian, Rochelle Staab and Tyler Dilts.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey featured book news (including a new Tana French novel) in their latest podcast and discussed the trope of the unreliable, often female, narrator.

THEATER

Rebus, the abrasive, hard-drinking and brilliant Edinburgh detective created by Ian Rankin, is to be the star of a new stage play after Rankin's collaboration with the playwright Rona Munro. The production will feature a new crime story to be solved by the dour detective, the protagonist of 24 books that have sold more than 30 million copies across the world, who is now retired and working on cold cases. Rebus has twice been portrayed on television, by John Hannah and Ken Stott. Rebus: Long Shadows will premiere at the Birmingham Repertory theatre in September, directed by the Rep’s artistic director, Roxana Silbert. It is expected to tour the UK afterwards, including Rebus’s Edinburgh stomping ground. The actor Charles Lawson, best known as Jim McDonald in Coronation Street, will star in the title role.

Library Love

 It's National Library Week in the U.S, and 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the first such celebration. Today's specific theme is "Take Action for Libraries Day," a national library advocacy effort observed for the first time in 2017 in response to proposed cuts to federal funds for libraries. The American Library Association has some steps you can take to help online, but such efforts also start at the local level. Look around your community and see if there are ways you can support your public and school libraries through volunteering, civic action, or participating in local programs. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Mystery Melange

The International Thriller Writers have announced the 2018 Thriller Award finalists, including those for Best Hardcover Novel:  Dan Chaon — Ill Will; Denise Mina — The Long Drop; B.A. Paris — The Breakdown; Gin Phillips — Fierce Kingdom; and Riley Sager — Final Girls. For all the various category nods, including Best First Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story, Best Young Adult Novel, and Best E-Book Original Novel, follow this link to the official ITW website.

Likewise, the Strand Magazine Critics Award nominees were announced this past weekend. The finalists include:

Nominees for Best Novel

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré
The Late Show by Michael Connelly
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My Darling Detective by Howard Norman 
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 
Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda 

Nominees for Best First Novel

My Sister’s Bones: A Novel of Suspense by Nuala Ellwood 
Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito 
August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones
The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal 
Lola: A Novel by Melissa Scrivner Love
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt 

The Lifetime Achievement Award winners this year are J.A. Jance, whose four-decade career has a firm reputation among millions of fans as one of the finest practitioners of the suspenseful thriller, and also English author and Lovejoy creator Jonathan Gash. In addition, the Publisher of the Year Award goes to Tom Doherty, publisher of Tor/Forge books. The awards will be presented at an invitation-only cocktail party in New York City, hosted by The Strand Magazine, on July 11, 2018.

The Independent Book Publishers Association announced the winners of its annual Ben Franklin Awards, including those in the Mystery/Thriller category. The Gold Winner was Full Service Blonde: A Copper Jack Mystery by Megan Edwards; the Silver Winners were The Old Cape Hollywood Secret by Barbara Eppich Struna, and The Ploy by Marilyn Jax.

Bookriot is celebrating "a surge in the number of excellent mysteries and thrillers being published by diverse authors" by offering to give away all 15 titles in their "best of" list to one lucky reader. To enter, hop on over to this link and fill out the entry form through May 9th.

Shakespeare & Co. in New York City plans to open three new bookstores, two in New York City, and one in Philadelphia, and a stand-alone café in what the company, which currently operates a Lexington Avenue store across from Hunter College, describes as "the initial phase of a larger planned expansion." Each bookstore will be about 3,000 square feet and feature "well-stocked and exquisitely curated" book inventory, a literary café with seating and wi-fi, and Espresso Book Machine. (HT to Shelf Awareness)
 

If you're stuck trying to create an "elevator pitch" for a book, Electric Literature has a handy (and very tongue-in-cheek) chart that should help. (HT to Sisters in Crime)

Here's a bucket list for book lovers: "25 Libraries Every Voracious Reader Must Absolutely Visit."
 

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "The Sirens Never Sleep" by John Darling.
 

In the Q&A roundup, the Baltimore Fish Bowl queried Sujata Massey about her latest mystery novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill; Scottish crime writer Ed James chatted with The Edinburgh Reporter about James' Scott Cullen crime fiction series, which features an Edinburgh detective; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Becky Clark, author of the new mystery novel Fiction Can Be Murder.

 

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to the start o'the week and the latest crime drama roundup:

MOVIES

Focus Features has picked up film rights to the upcoming novel To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall and attached Jake Gyllenhaal to star in its movie adaptation to be titled Welcome to Vienna. Gyllenhaal is set to play Freddie, a civilian surveillance contractor who interrupts a break-in at his apartment while he's spying on a Chinese academic in Vienna. The intruder escapes, but then comes back and tries to kill Freddie, making the American contractor a hunted man. Freddie's only hope for survival is that his pursuer doesn't know the past he’s running away from.

Anonymous Content has acquired screen rights to Foe, the upcoming thriller novel by Iain Reid. The novel is set slightly in the future, after severe climate change has ruined the farmlands across the north and created devastating fires that has scarred the landscape. A farmer and his wife live a solitary life, struggling on one of the last remaining farms, where they raise cattle and harvest grain, until a knock on the door changes things. A stranger tells the farmer he has been selected to travel far from the farm, with a group of settlers looking to relocate. Arrangements have been made so that when he leaves, his wife won’t miss him because a "replacement" has been arranged, who’ll join the wife on the farm while he’s gone.

Sony Pictures is in the early stages of mounting a remake of the 1985 thriller Jagged Edge as a star vehicle for Halle Berry. Directed by Richard Marquand from a Joe Eszterhas script, the original starred Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges and Robert Loggia, the latter of whom got an Oscar nomination. In the story, after a San Francisco heiress is brutally murdered in her remote beach house, her dashing newspaper publisher husband Jack is accused of committing the gruesome crime. He hires lawyer Teddy Barnes to defend him, and their chemistry spills into an affair. Even though the lawyer is falling in love, can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right with the case, with the killer sending anonymous notes pecked out on an old typewriter. Is Jack the key to a happy future for the lawyer if she can get him acquitted in a courtroom, or is he a sociopath?

Ray Liotta has been cast in the indie film Cutman for producer-director Michael Mailer (Blind). The script, written by Tiffany Heath (Cut Her Out), follows a retired boxer who is dying of cancer and working also as an enforcer for various low-level mobsters. He is haunted by the death of his "cutman" (the guys in the corners during a boxing match who make sure the fighter is taken care of physically) and just wants to die in peace, before he meets a junkie and her daughter as they all search for meaning and revenge. 

The cast for Mary Hannon’s upcoming drama about the Charles Manson Murder trials, Charlie Says, also continues to grow. X-Files star Annabeth Gish has now joined the film to play Virginia Carlson, head of the California Institute for Women. Gish joins cast members Matt Smith as the notorious cult leader, Suki Waterhouse, Odessa Young, and Chace Crawford in the upcoming film from American Psycho director Mary Hannon. Written by Guinevere Turner the film will focus on three young women who were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in the Sharon Tate murder case when the death penalty was lifted. Virginia Carlson (Gish) pursues a young graduate student, Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever), to work with the incarcerated Manson girls.

For those of you in the southern California area, don't forget that the Los Angeles long-running Noir City: Hollywood film festival returns to the Egyptian Theatre for the 15th year beginning April 13th. This year's event features a fusion of films shot on the streets of Los Angeles, some rarities, and an appearance by the master of noir crime fiction, James Ellroy.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The 2018 British Academy Television Awards Nominations, or BAFTAs, announced nominations in the various categories last week. The BBC police procedural Line of Duty and Peaky Blinders, (which follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family), were both finalists for Best TV Drama; Jack Rowan was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Born to Kill as a seemingly ordinary 16-year-old who appears to harboring secret psychopathic tendencies; the Best Actress nods included Molly Windsor, nominated for her role in Three Girls, which deals with child sex trafficking, Sinead Keenan, for the murder drama Little Boy Blue, and Thandie Newton for Line of Duty. For all the finalists, head on over to the official BAFTA website.

Top Of The Lake and Lion producer See Saw Films has picked up TV rights to Lucy Foley’s upcoming murder mystery novel The Hunting Party (pre-empted in a strong six-figure deal in December 2017 and slated for hardback publication in 2019). The plot of the Scottish highlands-set murder mystery unfolds over New Year’s Eve as a tight-knit group of Oxford university alumni celebrate in the impressive wilderness of the Loch Corrin Estate. In the wild terrain the group reminisce, go deer stalking, and hide friendship-destroying secrets; secrets that set a dangerous sequence of events in motion, culminating with a broken body in the snow. Best known for her sweeping wartime historical fiction, The Hunting Party sees Foley make her crime debut.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s production outfit SunnyMarch has pre-empted the TV rights to Ambrose Parry’s (a collaboration between author Chris Brookmyre and consultant anaesthetist Marisa Haetzman) upcoming novel, The Way Of All Flesh. The book is the first in a new historical series set in the medical world of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1840s and based on historical figures. Medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant professor of midwifery, Dr. James Young Simpson, at Simpson’s unusual clinic on Queen Street, where patients range from the richest to the poorest. There, Raven meets Sarah Fisher, officially housemaid and unofficially clinical assistant to Dr. Simpson, determined to improve her station in life. After a string of mysterious deaths in the city, Raven and Sarah are propelled into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh’s underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive.

More casting news for the second season of HBO's Emmy-winning limited series Big Little Lies: Kathryn Newton, Robin Weigert, Merrin Dungey, and Sarah Sokolovic are set to return and Crystal Fox (The Haves and the Have Nots) and Mo McRae (Den of Thieves) have also joined the project. They join previously announced returning cast members Nicole Kidman as Celeste Wright, Reese Witherspoon as Madeline Martha Mackenzie, Adam Scott as Ed MacKenzie, Laura Dern as Renata Klein, Shailene Woodley as Jane, Zoë Kravitz as Bonnie Carlson. Previously announced Meryl Streep joins Season 2 as Mary Louise Wright, along with Douglas Smith as Corey Brockfield.

Hustle and Life on Mars creator Tony Jordan is spearheading a 12-part Gomorrah-esque drama for Eastern European broadcast group Antenna. The crime drama is titled Besa and will tell the story of the Albanian mafia – one of the most secretive and most feared criminal networks in the world. Jordan has written the show with a team of local writers and it will be shot on location across south East Europe for a September debut.

Fargo and The Punisher helmer Dearbhla Walsh is to direct Channel 4’s period espionage epic Jerusalem, marking her first return to British television in three years. The six-part series stars Shape of Water’s Michael Stuhlbarg, as well as Matt Lauria, Emma Appleton, and Luke Treadaway in the story set in the aftermath of WWII, when Britain was struggling to define itself in a new world order. Appleton plays Feef Symonds, a bold and ambitious 20-something woman who joins the Civil Service in 1945, just as Attlee’s Labour party sweeps to victory, while Lauria stars as her American lover Peter and Stuhlbarg plays fellow American and zealot Rowe. Feef agrees to spy on her own government for the Americans, who are determined to make sure England’s burgeoning Socialist ambitions don’t play into Soviet hands, quickly learning that no one is what they seem. 

Apparently, some fans aren't happy that the BBC changed the killer for the network's dramatization of Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence. But even the experts don't agree on this approach; Christie biographer Laura Thompson said: "Changing the identity of the murderer, however good for publicity, is a bit much" while Christie expert Dr. Jamie Bernthal-Hooker said the changes "could bring the original work to a whole new audience."

Last week, we saw the passing of Steven Bochco, whose name became synomyous with TV crime dramas, including Columbo, McMillan & Wife, Bay City Blues, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, Murder One, and Murder in the First. His work helped define the modern TV drama, especially the crime drama genre, and helped him win 10 primetime Emmys, another 15 wins from other organizations including the Edgars and Writers Guild of America, and 49 nominations from various media organizations. Bochco was 74.

Appropriately, the New York Times listed "11 Great Foreign Police Shows to Stream Tonight" to add to your watch list.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday chatted with Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian author widely celebrated as the king of Nordic Noir, who was tasked with re-imagining Macbeth for a 21st-century audience as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series.

Novelist Nathan Ripley, whose real name is Naben Ruthnum, spoke with CBC Radio to explain why he adopted an alias for his debut crime thriller Find You in the Dark and what it says about the ways writers of South Asian descent are stereotyped in the publishing industry.

The featured guests on the latest Suspense Radio edition included Rob Leininger (the Mortimer Angel private eye series), Charles Salzberg (known for his Henry Swann detective novel series), and K.J. Howe (author of a series with Thea Paris, a kidnap and ransom specialist).

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack welcomed translator and crime fiction publisher Anne Trager, whose latest project is Minced, Marinated, and Murdered authored by French writers Noel Balen and Vanessa Barrot.

The Spybrary podcast had a field report from the inaugural Spy Con in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Crime Syndicate podcast caught up with authors E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen to discuss the novel in stories they edited and contributed to, The Night of the Flood, as well as read an excerpt from their own contribution.

In the third episode of Case Notes, we learned what happens when violinist Min Kym's instrument was stolen - a Stradivarius worth £1.2m ($1.7m U.S. dollars).

The latest Meet the Thriller Author spoke with David E. Berens, a Knoxville-based author who writes a series about Florida-based private eye, Troy Bodean.

THEATER

Murder! at The Strand, an immersive theatrical who-dun-it, is coming to Marietta, Georgia's historic theater for a limited run April 12-15. Using all of The Strand—including its 500-seat auditorium and proscenium stage—this interactive, world-premiere event challenges the audience to identify the true story behind a nefarious crime and the true criminal with a nefarious motive. Eight "celebrity victims" will meet their demise over the course of the nights. Created by director and playwright Corey Bradberry and escape room designer Jeremy Ledbetter, this 75-minute interactive experience will invite patrons to take on the roles of audience members, witnesses to a crime and ultimately investigators following clues, interacting with the actors and examining the space to identify the culprit.

Mystery Melange

The 10th Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, the world's biggest prize for younger writers, announced its 2018 shortlist. Two authors from the U.S. both made the cut with their thrillers, debut American novelist Emily Ruskovich for her thriller hit Idaho, which tells the story of a mother suddenly killing her six-year-old daughter, and Gabriel Tallent has for his debut novel My Absolute Darling, called "the year’s must-read novel" by The Times and "a masterpiece" by Stephen King.

Noir at the Bar Dallas is back Wednesday, April 18 from 7:30 - 10:30 PM CDT at The Wild Detectives with live crime noir fiction readings from local and international authors. Authors scheduled to participate include Michael Pool, Michael Bracken, Eryk Pruitt, Tim Bryant, Carlos Salas, Lyndee Walker, and Clay Reynolds. The organizers encourage you to "Come have some drinks and hear some stories of crime and debauchery read live."

Clay Stafford, founder and CEO Killer Nashville, has announced the launch of the independent publishing house Clay Stafford Books. Stafford said he sees the formation of the book unit as an extension of the Killer Nashville Claymore Award, which was founded in order to help to discover unpublished authors. Clay Stafford Books will release five books this year, including three novels, Paid in Spades by Richard Helms, The Damage Done by P.J. Parrish, and Bar None by Cathi Stoler. In addition to the novels, Clay Stafford Books will also release the first installment of its "Killer Nashville Presents…" series, a short story anthology featuring works from Jeffrey Deaver, Robert Dugoni, Steve James, Anne Perry, John Gilstrap, and more. There are also plans to release the inaugural edition of Broken Ribbon, a literary journal, which was created in order to give a platform for new and emerging voices in the writing community.

Happy 20th anniversary to The Thrilling Detective website! The brainchild of Kevin Burton Smith, the site promotes the world of private-eye fiction—past, present and future. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

Unfortunately, I also have a sad milestone to report: Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced it would be closing after 26 years in the business. Owners Robin and Jamie Agnew explained that "there are many culprits for our demise – we are getting older; constant street construction; Amazon; and fierce local competition. We hope you will keep local bookstores vital and alive by patronizing the many exciting stores that remain open." (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

It's been said before, but it's nice to see science continuing to back up the idea that reading books not only has various mental and physical benefits, you should make it a priority ... if you know what's good for you.

A new startup has a new way of reading all those good-for-you-books: combining three of the most popular methods of delivering stories into one hybrid form called the cine-book. It enables readers to read, listen to, or even watch a book within a single mobile app for iOS, Android, Amazon, browser, or share a book with others on a TV or other big screens via AirPlay and Chromecast. In April, Cine-books will launch a publishing platform to unite self-published authors, literary rights holders, readers, photo and film production studios, and media content investors in a B2B marketplace.

Each April, the Academy of American Poets' celebrates National Poetry Month, and the crime poetry weekly, The Five-Two, has a blog tour in honor of the event. Check out the full schedule here, including the latest Poem of the Week, "The Homeless Artist," by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, the Library Journal quizzed Brad Parks, winner of the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, about his inspiration for his new book, Closer Than You Know, as well as his writing background; and Inside Hook chatted with with Jim Heimann about his new book Dark City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, which features photographs of the real-life locations that inspired writers, including those used by Raymond Chandler and those related to the Black Dahlia case (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell).

Media Murder for Monday

Happy Monday to you! Here are some crime drama updates to start off your week:

MOVIES

Kevin Bacon is producing and starring in the horror-thriller You Should Have Left, with David Koepp directing from his own script for Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions. The project is based on Daniel Kehlmann’s 2017 novel, which centers on a screenwriter in a remote house in the Alps working on a sequel to his hit film, who begins to lose his bearings thanks to unexplained occurrences. Koepp has writing credits on Jurassic Park and Spider-Man and directing credits on The Trigger Effect and Secret Window. Blumhouse scored last year with Get Out and Split, both low-cost projects that became box office sensations.

Fresh off her Oscar-nominated role in I,Tonya, Margot Robbie returns to the screen as a fictional femme fatale in the official Terminal trailer. The neo-noir thriller follows the twisting tales of two assassins carrying out a sinister mission, a teacher battling illness, a mysterious janitor, and a curious waitress leading a dangerous double life. Deadly consequences unravel in the dead of night as their lives all intertwine at the hand of a mysterious criminal mastermind. Writer-director Vaughn Stein makes his feature directorial debut in the project, which also stars Simon Pegg, Mike Myers, Max Irons, and Dexter Fletcher. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES 

Netflix has acquired the live-action feature film rights to Carmen Sandiego and has attached Golden Globe winner Gina Rodriguez to star as the title character. The project is based on the book series produced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that centers around the fictional thieving villain of the same name, who is the ringleader of the criminal organization V.I.L.E. and must battle agents of the ACME Detective Agency as they try to thwart the crooks' plans to steal treasures from around the world - and ultimately capture Carmen Sandiego herself.

CBS has renewed its top two freshman dramas, SEAL Team and S.W.A.T., for second seasons. The military drama SEAL Team stars David Boreanaz and follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous missions that our country can ask of them. S.W.A.T. stars Shemar Moore as the locally born and raised sergeant tasked with running a specialized tactical unit that is the last stop in law enforcement in Los Angeles.

Amazon’s upcoming TV series Homecoming has added a second Oscar-winning actress, with Sissy Spacek set to recur opposite Julia Roberts in the project from Universal Cable Productions, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, and Anonymous Content. The half-hour drama, which also stars Bobby Cannavale, Stephan James, and Dermot Mulroney, is based on Gimlet Media’s breakout psychological thriller podcast that centers on a caseworker at a secret government facility (Roberts) and a soldier (James) eager to rejoin civilian life.

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are set to star in the action comedy Murder Mystery at Netflix. Sandler will play a NYC cop who finally takes his wife (Aniston) on a long promised European trip. A chance meeting on the flight gets them invited to an intimate family gathering on the Super Yacht of elderly billionaire Malcolm Quince, but when Quince is murdered, they become the prime suspects in a modern day whodunit.

Alison Sweeney, who toplined the Murder She Baked franchise for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, is returning as star and executive producer for a new movie franchise, The Chronicle Mysteries. Written by Melissa Salmons, The Chronicle Mysteries stars Sweeney as Roberta "Robbie" McPherson, a novelist and podcaster who’s researching the cold case of Gina DeSavio, a girl she knew while they were growing up together in a small town.

CBS All Access has rounded out the cast and begun production on its new mystery thriller drama series $1. Nike Kadri (Seven Seconds), Joshua Bitton (The Night Of) and Hamilton Clancy (Orange Is the New Black, Bridge of Spies) are set as series regulars and Ashlie Atkinson (Bull, Blue Bloods) will recur. They join previously announced series regulars John Carroll Lynch, Nathaniel Martello-White, Philip Ettinger, Chris Denham, Kirrilee Berger and Gracie Lawrence, along with recurring cast Leslie Odom Jr., Jeff Perry and Sturgill Simpson. Created by Jason Mosberg, $1 is set in a small Rust Belt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing hands connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder. The path of the dollar bill, and point of view in each episode, paints a picture of a modern American town with deep class and cultural divides that spill out into the open as the town’s secrets get revealed. 

The Bravo network has tapped Connie Britton to star in the first season of its true-crime scripted anthology series, Dirty John. Written by Chance co-creator Alexandra Cunningham, Dirty John is based on the articles and breakout true crime podcast from Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard. Season 1 tells the story of Debra Newell (Britton), a successful interior designer and single mom from Orange County who falls in love with John Meehan, a romance that soon spirals into secrets, denial, and manipulation. 

Raymond J. Barry is set for a recurring role in Season 3 of USA Network’s popular drama series Shooter. Based on the best-selling novels by Stephen Hunter and the 2007 Paramount film starring Mark Wahlberg, Shooter 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. In Season 3, mysterious details are revealed surrounding his father Earl’s death, leading Bob Lee towards a startling conspiracy that hits close to home. Barry will play August Russo, formerly a member of Earl Swagger’s unit in Vietnam, who now uses the skills he developed in wartime to train operatives at a secret facility.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

SBS Radio has launched Noir Hear This, an original eight-part Nordic thriller podcast series that delves deep into the Scandinavian crime genre. Hosted by Johan Gabrielsson, each episode visits a different Scandinavian location and features conversations with novelists, screen writers, critics and thinkers, who discuss the psyche and craft behind this successful crime fiction genre. A new episode of Noir Hear will be available every Wednesday through May 16 across SBS Radio app; Android, iTunes and Pocketcasts.

The Virginia Festival of the Book was featured on C-Span's Book TV, including a live in-depth Q&A with Walter Mosley, author of the bestselling private eye Easy Rawlins crime novels and most recently, Down the River unto the Sea.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste journeyed to Belfast to interview ace writer Gerard Brennan for a live event in the legendary bookshop No Alibis. They discussed The Bone Keeper, research, lounge pants, the genesis of TCWAAM, and much more.

Beyond the Cover chatted with bestselling author Steve Berry about his iconic fictional hero, Cotton Malone, and also spoke with award winning author Kelli Stanley about her historical crime fiction and the Miranda Corbie series, set in Kelly's adoptive hometown San Francisco.

On the latest Read or Dead podcast, hosts Katie and Rincey talked about The Woman in the Window movie adaptation, a new Cormoran Strike book, and they also did a bit of a backlist dive.

THEATER

Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Brian Tyree Henry, and Bel Powley star in Lobby Hero, the inaugural production of Second Stage's new Broadway home at the Helen Hays Theatre. Lobby Hero is written by Kenneth Lonergan (2017 Oscar-winning writer of Manchester By the Sea) and is set in the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building, which is much more than a waiting area for four New Yorkers involved in a murder investigation. It’s a testing ground for what happens when personal and professional personas find themselves at odds. A young security guard with big ambitions (Cena) clashes with his stern boss (Henry), an intense rookie cop (Powley), and her unpredictable partner (Evans).

Sydney, Australia's Genesian Theatre is presenting Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band April 7-12, an adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle story by Max Gee. The story has Holmes and Watson trying to discover the mystery behind the death of a young woman who tragically dies under mysterious circumstances on the eve of her wedding, with the only clues being a low whistle and a heavy metallic clang. 

The Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel, Indiana is presenting a stage version of the "The deliciously dark" Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None through April 8. The iconic tale follows ten strangers who find themselves trapped on an English island with a killer in their midst, only to soon realize not all is as it seems when they are all accused of committing various murders.