Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers of Canada announced this year's winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards, which recognize the best in mystery, crime, and suspense writing in fiction and non-fiction by Canadian writers. The Best Crime Novel went to Sleeping in the Ground, by Peter Robinson, while the Best First Crime Novel was given to Full Curl, by Dave Butler. For all the honorees, follow this link.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate announced the shortlist for the 14th annual Crime Novel of the Year, which celebrates the best crime writing from British and Irish authors. The six titles include A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee; The Long Drop by Denise Mina; Spook Street by Mick Herron; The Intrusions by Stav Sherez; Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner; and Insidious Intent by Val McDermid. The shortlist will feature in a six-week promotion in libraries and in WHSmith stores, with the overall winner to be decided by the panel of Judges, alongside a public vote.

The Private Eye Writers of America announced the 2018 Shamus Award nominees including Best Novel finalists Dark Water by Parker Bilal; Blood Truth by Matt Coyle; Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton; The Room of White Fire by T. Jefferson Parker, and Monument Road by Michael Wiley. For the full list, including nods for Best Paperback Original, Best First Private Eye Novel, and Best P.I. Short Story, head on over to the Writing PIs website. Winners in the various categories will be announced at the PWA Banquet at Bouchercon in September.

French crime writer Fred Vargas, the pen name of Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau, has won Spain's prestigious Asturias prize for literature. The award foundation said that Vargas, who is also a distinguished archaeologist, perceives society as "a mysterious and complex ecosystem" and her detective stories possess original plots and irony in their description of characters, as well as abundant imagination. Vargas has won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association.

Down & Out Books announced that New Wave Crime will join its publishing family. Founded and edited by Chantelle Aimée Osman, New Wave Crime will focus on diversity of plot, culture, and character, and champion new voices in the crime genre. Osman is currently seeking submissions, which may be sent to newwavecrime@downandoutbooks.com, and expects the first titles to be published in early 2019.

Sadly, it appears that Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, is on the market yet again. Mystery Lovers was founded in 1990 by Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman, who sold the store in 2012 to Laurie Stephens, a bookseller and former librarian. In 2015, Natalie Sacco and Trevor Thomas purchased the store from Stephens but have decided to sell the store due to "family circumstances and new plans for the future." Thomas and Sacco said that their only requirement for a successor is that they be "passionate about books and the Mystery Lovers community," and assured customers that while the search for a buyer is in progress events will go on as scheduled. If you're an interested buyer, contact Natalie Sacco at natalie@mysterylovers.com. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

In writing for the New York Times, Russian scholar Jennifer Wilson makes the case for Dostoyevsky predicting the current "true crime" craze.

In light of the upcoming mystery novel penned by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson, the New York Times took a look at the long tradition of chief executives devouring thrillers, mysteries and detective stories.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Not for Vegas" by Rachel Lynn McGuire.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Jill Orr, who is the author of the new mystery novel The Bad Break, the second in her Riley Ellison series; the New York Times chatted with Louise Penny, author of the Inspector Gamache mystery series; and the Christian Science Monitor interviewed Anne Hillerman, daughter of author Tony Hillerman, about keeping her father's mysteries alive and putting the focus on a new female character.

 

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all! For those of you in the U.S. who are observing Memorial Day, I hope you are taking time to remember the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces, as well as enjoying some quality time together with family and friends.

And now, here's a roundup of the latest news of crime dramas, on the big and small screens, as well as podcasts and the stage:

MOVIES

MGM is re-launching Orion Classics, with a focus on multi-platform and specialized releases and acquisitions, and has named Mike P. Nelson’s thriller The Domestics as its first release. The Domestics is set in a terrifying post-apocalyptic world inhabited by murderous gangs divided into deadly factions, where Nina (Kate Bosworth) and Mark (Tyler Hoechlin) race desperately across the lawless countryside in search of safety. Rounding out the cast are Lance Reddick (The Wire), Sonoya Mizuno (Ex Machina), Dana Gourrier (The Hateful Eight), Thomas Francis Murphy (True Detective) and David Dastmalchian (The Belko Experiment). 

In the last John Wick installment, the retired hit man was declared officially excommunicado from the Continental and dealing with a global contract out on his head. The next installment, John Wick: Chapter 3 will pick up after the events of the last film and find Keanu Reeves' character facing countless threats with no sanctuary to turn to. Joining the action franchise this time around are Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston, who will work with returning members Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, and Lance Reddick.

It's been almost two years since the last James Bond outing, and during the time since, there's been a lot of talk around who would direct the next film (Danny Boyle), whether Daniel Craig would be returning to the role for a fifth installment (yes, he is), and if we'd be seeing it any time soon. Regarding the last question, the tentatively titled Bond 25 has officially been set for release on October 25th, 2019 in the UK and two weeks later on November 8th in the U.S.

Al Pacino’s Scarface will be re-released June 10-13 to mark the film's 35th anniversary. Brian De Palma’s movie, based on a screenplay by Oliver Stone, is a gangland classic that stars Pacino as a Cuban gangster who rises through the ranks of the drug trade in Miami in the 1980s. The re-release is being presented by Universal Pictures, which is also producing a new version of De Palma’s film, directed by Antoine Fuqua.

A trailer was released for City of Lies (based on the novel of the same name by journalist Randall Sullivan) starring Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker as they take on one of the most notorious unsolved cases in Los Angeles history: the murder of Biggie Smalls. Depp will play Russell Poole, a real-life detective who spent years trying to crack the mystery, who teams up with a desperate reporter (Forest Whitaker) to solve the mystery of Biggie Smalls’ death and the conspiracy to cover up the case.

The first trailer is out for Papillon, a remake of the classic 1973 film that was based on the memoirs of convicted felon and fugitive Henri Charrière. Directed by Michael Noer (Northwest) from a script by Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners), the film stars Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Yorick Van Wageningen, Roland Moller, Tommy Flanagan and Eve Hewson, and opens in theaters August 24.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Ryan Reynolds and Michael Bay are heading to Netflix to star in Six Underground, a Bay-directed action picture that has Skydance Media partnering with the streaming giant. Reynolds will be reunited with his Deadpool and Deadpool 2 writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, who penned the script that centers on six billionaires who fake their own deaths and form an elite team to take down bad guys.

The next installment in BBC One’s collection of Agatha Christie stories, The ABC Murders, has signed John Malkovich to play Hercule Poirot and Rupert Grint to portray Inspector Crome. Filming is due to begin in June on the three-part drama that is set in the 1930s at a time when Britain is dangerously divided and suspicion and hatred are on the rise. The story sees Poirot face a serial killer known only as A.B.C. As the body count rises, the only clue is a copy of The ABC Railway Guide at each crime scene.

Season 9 has been confirmed for ITV's award-winning crime drama VERA, with Brenda Blethyn returning once again to play the unorthodox but brilliantly perceptive Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. The four-part season centers on the death of Joanne Caswell a newly qualified HMP forensic psychologist working in Newcastle, who'd been looking into the crime of a former patient who had recently committed suicide. Kenny Doughty returns as Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy, who over the years has proved himself to be a strong and reliable partner to DCI Stanhope. Doctor Who’s Peter Davison, James Atherton (The Crown), Adrian Lukis (Little Boy Blue), and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones) will lead the all-star guest cast.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced its fall slate including Coroner (winter 2019), an hourlong procedural series based on former barrister-turned-acclaimed crime writer M.R. Hall's bestselling Jenny Cooper novels, about a former ER doctor newly appointed as a coroner investigating suspicious deaths. The CBC also renewed the Frankie Drake Mysteries and the Murdoch Mysteries for an additional season each.

Independent drama producer Kudos has won the television adaptation rights to Diane Setterfield’s new suspense novel Once Upon a River. The story is a period mystery set in an inn on the River Thames where the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child, although hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can it be explained by science? Setterfield’s debut 2006 novel The Thirteenth Tale was adapted into a BBC TV drama starring Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Coleman.

Only a short time after Syfy canceled The Expanse beyond its upcoming third season, Amazon announced it was picking up the critically praised series for Season 4. Co-created and written by Oscar-nominated screenwriting duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men), the series is based on the bestselling book series by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). The project stars Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham, Frankie Adams, and Thomas Jane in the police detective set in the asteroid belt where the first officer of an interplanetary ice freighter and an Earth-bound United Nations executive slowly uncover a vast conspiracy that threatens the Earth’s rebellious colony.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The New York Times profiled the podcast My Favorite Murder, which has legions of female fans who call themselves Murderinos and have turned the show’s hosts, Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, into global stars.

The Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste talked about Cocky Cowboys, trademark bullying, Ian McEwan's disappointing grades, and much more. Craig Sisterson also reviewed Dark Pines by Will Dean and Paper Ghosts by Julia Haeberlin, and special guest Simon Toyne chatted about the Solomon Creed novels, working in TV and the vagaries of that business, plus basing books on true crimes.

Suspense Radio's Inside Edition was joined by Sisters in Crime talking about the organization and also welcomed author Charlie Donlea to discuss his latest novel, Don't Believe It, in which a filmmaker helps clear a woman convicted of murder—only to find she may be a puppet in a sinister game.

Debbi Mack interviewed crime fiction author David Swinson on the Crime Cafe podcast. Swinson's new novel Crime Song is the follow up in his D.C.-set series featuring Frank Marr, a retired cop turned PI, who was a burglar in his former life.

Read or Dead discussed books by Asian and Asian American writers in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

THEATER

The Strand Theater in Marietta, Georgia, is presenting encore performance of Murder! at The Strand, an immersive theatrical whodunit that sold out during its initial run in April. The additional performances June 7-10 will once again allow the audience to identify the true story behind a nefarious crime and the criminal with the motive to commit it.

Chicago's Lifeline Theatre is mounting a revival of its 2010 hit adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel, Neverwhere, itself based on the 1996 BBC television series in which a man and woman find themselves trapped in a shadowy underworld beneath London’s streets where rogues and assassins roam. Robert Kauzlaric’s adaptation is directed by Ilesa Duncan with a run from May 25-July 15.

Mystery Melange

News of crime fiction awards have been coming so fast, it's almost impossible to keep up, but here are a few of the most recent:

The UK's CrimeFest conference announced the winners of its annual awards at a ceremony held this past weekend. The eDunnit Award for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hard copy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2017 went to Michael Connelly for The Late Show; the Audible Sounds of Crime (for audiobooks) winner was J.P. Delaney, The Girl Before, read by Emilia Fox, Finty Williams & Lise Aagaard Knudse; the Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel was handed out to Mick Herron for Spook Street; the H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book was won by Mike Ripley, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; the Best Children's Novel winner was Helena Duggan, A Place Called Perfect; and the Best Young Adult novel winner was Patrice Lawrence, Indigo Donut.

Also at the Gala Dinner at CrimeFest, Petrona Award judges Barry Forshaw and Sarah Ward announced the winner of the 2018 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The winner is Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles and published by Simon & Schuster. Malin Persson Giolito and Rachel Willson-Broyles will also receive a cash prize. (HT to the Rap Sheet, which also lists the other finalists.)

The Crime Writers Association announced the longlists for this year's Dagger Awards for the Gold, Ian Fleming, John Creasey, International, Historical and Short Story Daggers plus the Dagger in the Library. Shortlists for the Daggers will be released in July and the winners announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London in late October. If you'd like a quick at-a-glance summary of the lists, Karen Meeks at EuroCrime has a rundown.

We also now know this year’s longlist of ten titles for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel written by a New Zealand author. The finalists will be announced in July, along with the finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, and the winners announced as part of a special event at the WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 29 to September 2.

The ABA Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction announced the shortlist of three novels and has opened up voting by the public who serve as a collective "fifth juror" for determining the winner. This year's finalists are Proof by CE Tobisman; Testimony by Scott Turow; and Exposed by Lisa Scottoline.

In other crime fiction and book world news:

Join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, for a "thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by our talented members" next month. The lineup includes Jill Block, Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Brown, P.D. Halt, Michael O'Keefe, and Jeff Soloway. Hosted by Jeff Markowitz, this event, to be held June 7 at the KGB Bar, is free and open to the public.

It was only a week or two ago that I noted the most recent RT Book Review Award announcements, which included both career achievement and the annual yearly winner nods for crime fiction works. Unfortunately, last week came news that RT Book Reviews parent company Romantic Times is shutting down after 37 years, which will mean the end to those two endeavors plus the RT VIP Salon. It would also mean the end to the annual RT Booklovers Convention, but according to Shelf Awareness, at least one of the people behind the RT conventions plans to launch a successor convention called "BookLoversCon" next year. Let's hope someone comes through for the review end of the company, as well, since book review and discovery outlets are continuing to rapidly shrink in number.

Ambient Lit is an ambitious project that hopes to redesign fiction for phones by customizing a reader's experience by using their location, weather, and season. Will it take off or just be another interesting but passing experiment? And what would it mean for writers?

The Conversation magazine profiled the interesting history behind an Agatha Christie anomaly: When the ancient Egyptian priest Heqanakhte wrote a series of letters to his family during the 12th Dynasty (1991-1802BC), he couldn't have imagined he was creating the framework around which the British crime writer Agatha Christie would weave one of the world’s first historical crime novels, some 4,000 years later.

If you want to own a literal piece of Agatha Christie's world, the seaside home overlooking the island where Agatha Christie wrote And Then There Were None is on the market. All you need is £2million ($2.7 million U.S.). Onnalea is a four-bedroom abode in the Devon area with views over Burgh Island where the author penned her 1939 crime fiction masterpiece.

You've probably heard of the phrase "bats in the belfrey," but you probably haven't heard about bats in the library. And it's all for a good cause.

Speaking of libraries, the Guardian reported on "Bacon, cheese slices and sawblades: the strangest bookmarks left at libraries."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Consensual Crime" by J.H. Johns.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, and Antonio Banderas are all in talks to star in The Laundromat, a Steven Soderbergh-directed drama about the Panama Papers scandal. The script, by Scott Z. Burns, is based on Jake Bernstein's book Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite. The drama is the story of the revelations of reams of documents leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca by an anonymous whistleblower that bared embarrassing details on investments and money trails from politicians the world trying to evade taxes.

Sony’s Screen Gems picked up a worldwide rights deal at Cannes for The Intruder, a Deon Taylor-directed thriller that stars Dennis Quaid, Meaghan Good, Michael Ealy, and Joseph Sikora. The project is a psychological thriller about a young married couple who buys a beautiful Napa Valley home only to find that the man they bought it from refuses to let go of the property as he slowly terrorizes them. Quaid plays the seller, with Good and Ealy playing the couple who discover that the motivated seller has no intention of vacating the premises.

British filmmaker Gerard Johnson is set to direct the true-crime thriller Three Rivers, with Robbie Brenner (Dallas Buyers Club) and Michael Keyes producing. Although the exact plot details are being kept under wraps, the dark and gritty thriller is based on actual events and follows three troubled and volatile individuals whose lives collide in a series of tragic and fateful events that took place in the Pittsburgh.

Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg will star in the feature film Shirley about the famed horror author Shirley Jackson. Based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s book of the same name, the film tells the story of a young couple who move in with Jackson and her Bennington College professor-husband, Stanley Hyman (Stuhlbarg), in the hopes of starting a new life. Instead, they find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Jackson’s next major novel.

Bradley Cooper may reunite with Clint Eastwood in his next film, as he's in talks to join the Eastwood-directed The Mule. The movie follows 90-year-old drug courier Earl Stone (to be played by Eastwood), an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran, who is broke, alone, and facing foreclosure of his business when he's offered a job that simply requires him to drive—easy enough but, unbeknownst to Earl, he’s just signed on as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel, and also hit the radar of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates (Cooper).

Famke Janssen and Robert Patrick have joined John Travolta and Morgan Freeman in the crime thriller The Poison Rose. Travolta will play a private investigator who enjoys his share of drinking, smoking, and gambling, as well as women in distress. Janssen will play Travolta’s former love interest in the film, who hires him to investigate a murder. George Gallo will direct from a script he wrote with Richard Salvatore, based on Salvatore’s novel of the same name.

Sony Pictures has released an official trailer for their upcoming thriller, Searching, starring John Cho (Star Trek) as a father trying to find his missing 15-year-old daughter through clues left behind by her digital footprint.

A trailer was also released for The Happytime Murders, the Muppets movie that stars Melissa McCarthy playing Connie Edwards, a law enforcement officer. When Edwards is asked to investigate the mysterious deaths of Hollywood puppet personalities, she soon realizes that these are no coincidence – someone is targeting them. The trailer also features Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, and Leslie David Baker. Parents should take note that this is an R-rated version that promises "No Sesame, All Street," and even some Muppet copulating.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon Studios has landed The Hunt, a vengeance-driven Nazi hunting series executive produced by Oscar-winning Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele, with a 10-episode straight-to-series order. Based on an original idea, drawing from real-life events, The Hunt follows a diverse band of Nazi Hunters living in 1977 New York City who have discovered that hundreds of high ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.

CBS picked up some of its drama pilots to series including the crime dramas, F.B.I., Magnum PI, The Red Line, and The Code. One of the highest-profile pilots that did not get picked up is the 1950s drama LA Confidential, based on James Ellroy’s classic novel. Deadline reports that although the project drew the same reaction throughout pilot season – from script stage to network screenings – that it's a great show, there were doubts it belonged on CBS. Because of its strong critical praise there is speculation that LA Confidential could go to CBS’ streaming sibling CBS All Access or another digital platform.

After three seasons on SundanceTV, Hap and Leonard won’t be getting another renewal notice. The noirish series stars James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams as amateur investigators and is based on Joe R. Lansdale’s 1980s set novels of two mainly unlucky Lone Star state buddies’ misadventures. Although it became the highest rated original series in Sundance TV’s history, it was apparently not enough to save the fan-favorite show.

TV Line had a partial listing of all the pilots that didn't get picked up to series, including some surprises such as the reboots of Get Christie Love, Greatest American Hero, Cagney and Lacey, and LA's Finest. I can't help but noticing a theme here (also including the non-crime dramas Mix Tape and Wayward Sisters), that all of those shows are "diverse" and female-centric, something that Hollywood has said it was going to work to increase.

Jennifer Love Hewitt has joined the cast of 9-1-1 for Season 2 for a lead role opposite Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, and Oliver Stark. She steps in for Connie Britton, who is departing the Ryan Murphy-produced series at the conclusion of her one-year deal. Hewitt will play Maddie, the sister of firefighter Evan "Buck" Buckley (Stark), who is starting her life over as a 911 operator. 9-1-1 explores the high-pressure experiences of police officers, firefighters and emergency operators who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. 

The CW is making a casting change on its newly picked up drama series In the Dark, from CBS TV Studios and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Austin Nichols, who co-starred in the pilot, is leaving and his role, Dean, will be recast. Written by Corinne Kingsbury and directed by Michael Showalter, In the Dark centers on Murphy (Perry 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. When the police dismiss her story, she sets out with her dog, Pretzel, to find the killer.

Fox’s Lethal Weapon has hired a new co-lead, tapping American Pie's Seann William Scott to replace fired star Clayne Crawford. With Scott — who will be playing a new character (possibly Riggs’ brother) — in place, Fox has renewed Lethal Weapon for a third season. The recasting caps a tumultuous two weeks for Fox’s sophomore drama that began with an explosive Deadline report that detailed Crawford’s alleged bad behavior on the show’s set.

The recasting news continues as Dick Wolf’s new CBS drama series F.B.I. recasts a co-starring role. The part of Ellen, who was played in the pilot by Connie Nielsen, is FBI Special Agent in Charge at the New York Bureau, a deeply respected boss who is elegant, cultured, and operates under massive pressure. The cast of the show includes Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki, Jeremy Sisto and Ebonée Noel.

HBO is taking on one of the most famous cases in America with The Case Against Adnan Syed, a four-hour documentary series directed by Oscar nominee Amy Berg. The series will explore the 1999 disappearance and murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed. The case gripped the nation when it became the subject of the popular podcast Serial. 

Shades of Blue and Eyewitness creator Adi Hasak is teaming with Dynamic Television (SyFy’s Van Helsing, Wynona Earp) for a U.S. version of German series Tempel. The project tells the story of Mark Tempel, an ex-con who struggles to pay the bills working as an elderly care giver. When his family is terrorized by thugs hired to scare working class families into moving out of Los Angeles’ Frogtown neighborhood — Tempel is drawn back into the underground world of cage fighting in order to provide for his family. But what begins as a struggle to replace his daughter’s shattered violin becomes a battle against the evil forces of gentrification.

If you're still confused by all of the whirlwind network fall schedule news, TV Guide has links for schedules, trailers, and other articles for ABC, CBS, the CW, Fox, and NBC.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Peter James was featured in a Q&A with London Live, chatting about researching his latest thriller that took him all the way to Albania.

Big Blend Radio’s Toast to The Arts show welcomed acclaimed novelist Mike Nemeth to discuss his new crime thriller The Undiscovered Country (a follow up to his best-selling debut novel, Defiled), which explores the complexities of families, the depth of secrets they hide, and the sacrifices they make to keep them buried.

On episode 17 of Writer Types, the special guests were Kellye Garrett, Alex Segura, and Naomi Hirahara, plus the Unpanel featured comedic crime writers Bill Fitzhugh, Ellen Byron, Mike McCrary and Alex Shaffer.

Mystery Melange

The recently announced British Book Awards included a win for The Dry by Jane Harper in the Crime and Thriller category. The winner of the Best Fiction award went to Jon McGregor for Reservoir 13, about the aftershocks of a girl's disappearance in an English village.

The Short Mystery Fiction Society announced this year's winners of the Derringer Awards for short crime fiction. Best Flash Story was "Fishing for an Alibi" by Earl Staggs (Flash Bang Mysteries); Best Short Story was "The Cop Who Liked Gilbert and Sullivan" by Robert Lopresti (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #23); Best Long Story was "Death in the Serengeti" by David H. Hendrickson (Fiction River: Pulse Pounders: Andrenaline); and Best Novelette was "Flowing Waters" by Brendan DuBois (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine). Read the lists of all the finalists in the various categories here.

The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers' announced their annual Scribe Award Nominees. Included among the books of interest to crime fiction fans are Don Pendleton’s The Executioner: Fatal Prescription, by Michael A. Black; The Will to Kill, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; and Robert B. Parker’s The Hangman’s Sonnet, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam). Winners of all the 2018 Scribe Awards will be declared during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, July 19-22. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

A new festival is headed to Cardiff, Wales on June 1-2. The Crime and Coffee festival is the first such event to be held in Wales and will include panels, workshops, and readings with such authors as Belinda Bauer, Christopher Fowler, Rebecca Tope, Kate Hamer, Mark Ellis, Katherine Stansfield and many more.

The Southbank Centre has scheduled a special event featuring internationally best-selling authors Lee Child (Jack Reacher novels) and Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus) in conversation as they consider the art of creating suspense and discuss the real world that their novels reflect. Although the event won't take place until November 15 at the Southbank Center's Queen Elizabeth Hall in the UK, tickets have already gone on sale.

Book publisher, editor and bookstore owner Otto Penzler has started another new initiative, Penzler Publishers, which will release its first six books this fall under the American Mystery Classics imprint. The imprint will focus on traditional mystery stories from the "golden age of detective fiction," to be released in both hardcover and trade paperback but not as e-books. Penzler said his inspiration to launch the imprint by the fact that British publishers have been successfully releasing mystery reprints from this time period but none so far in the U.S. Instead of hardboiled titles like Vintage, the imprint will focus on authors such as Ellery Queen and Mary Roberts Rinehart with the goal toward releasing 24 books annually by 2020.

The Lawrence Library in Pepperell, MA, is hosting the exhibit "Mysteries Revealed Book Illustration: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys," through June 8. The exhibition of original cover art and first editions of both children's series is drawn from a collection by Jim McNamara, who owns nearly 4,000 Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books from the 1920s to now and written in several languages. He also collects memorabilia and cover artwork from each decade, dating back to the 1950s.  (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist)

NoirCon, which cancelled this year's event due to the death of co-founder, Deen Kogan, has launched a new online journal, Retreats from Oblivion. NoirCon is a biennial conference devoted to noir and its creative expressions, and the journal will spotlight newly published work as well as highlights from past NoirCon catalogs. Offerings will include short stories, critical essays (not single-title reviews), poems, photographs, comics, artwork, interviews, songs, and much more. First up is the story "Easy Go" by Rick Ollerman.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of CrimeFest this year, organizers tapped Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller to edit an anthology of short crime fiction titled Ten Year Stretch. The work includes stories by Bill Beverly, Simon Brett, Lee Child, Ann Cleves, Jeffrey Deaver, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Peter Guttridge, Sophie Hannah, John Harvey, Mick Herron, Donna Moore, Caro Ramsay, Ian Rankin, James Sallis, Zoë Sharp, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Maj Sjöwall, Michael Stanley, and Andrew Taylor. All royalties from this collection go to the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Murder on the Beach mystery bookstore in Delray Beach, Fla., was part of a feature by Atlas Obscura of "62 of the World's Best Independent Bookstores" as recommended by the Atlas Obscure readers. To celebrate that honor, Boca Magazine also featured a Q&A with bookstore owner Joanne Sinchuk. To see more of the indie bookstores named in the article - and whether your favorite was included - follow this link.

A possible plot for your next thriller - or maybe, it's more like your next sci-fi novel, depending upon your viewpoint. A prominent geneticist, who helped pioneer the use of the Crispr technique, said recently that criminals could alter their DNA to evade justice with new genetic editing tools. Not so fast, says Dr. Caitlin Curtis, a geneticist who studies privacy and data protection issues.

Speaking of thrillers, at least of the spy variety, Newsweek reported on a recently-outed spy whose name was included in the release from the National Archives of thousands of documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Not only is the spy still alive, he is a former editor at the Agence France-Presse and was friends (or frenemies) with Richard Wright, the acclaimed author of Native Son and Black Boy, and Chester Himes, the ex-convict turned author of hard-boiled detective fiction.

You probably don't give your fingerprints much thought. But Chantel Tattoli, writing for the Paris Review, invites you to take a look at "The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Northern Bride" by Colin James.

In the Q&A roundup, Rob Hart interviewed fellow author Owen Laukkanen for Lit Reactor, talking about boats, trains, dogs, and his latest novel, Gale Force. Lit Reactor also featured an interview with Jeffery Hess about Tushhog, a follow-up to his 2016 debut novel Beachhead; Crime Fiction Lover's Catherine Turnbull chatted with Isbelle Grey, a prolific writer with a series featuring detective Grace Fisher, as well as standalone psychological thrillers and television writing credits that include over 35 episodes of series such as Midsomer Murders; and Alex Segura was snagged by the Mystery People to discuss Blackout, his latest book to feature private eye Pete Fernandez.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news, and if you're a fan of TV crime, you'll especially be interested in the announcements about show pickups, renewals, and cancellations that came fast and furious during the past week. First, the big screen:

MOVIES

Brainstorm Media has optioned Stephen King's 2007 novella "The Gingerbread Girl" for film and hired King to co-write the script with frequent collaborator Craig R. Baxley, who will also direct.  Mitchell Galin, serving as producer, also handled the previous adaptations of King’s Pet Sematary, The Stand, and more. "The Gingerbread Girl" focuses on Emily, a woman recovering from a recent loss in a secluded house in the loneliest stretch of New England. She avoids contact with her husband and her father and channels her grief into a grueling daily running regimen until one day she makes the mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Pickering. Pickering also enjoys privacy, but the young women he brings to his home suffer the consequences of knowing him. Will Em be next?

Australia’s Hopscotch Features has optioned rights to the hot debut novel The Ruin from Dervla McTiernan with plans to adapt it for the screen. The crime thriller by the Irish author is set in Galway and follows detective Cormac Reilly as he is thrown back into a case from 20 years ago involving two children whose mother died of an overdose. It’s a twisting tale that delves into the dark heart of Ireland, examining police corruption and the abuses of the church through the eyes of Reilly — "the kind of cop you’d trust with your life, and follow to hell and back."

Saban Films has picked up the North American rights to Gerard Butler’s Keepers. Kristoffer Nyholm directed the film (which also stars Peter Mullan and Connor Swindells) that was inspired by the Flannan Isle mystery where three lighthouse keepers arrive on an uninhabited island for a six-week shift but then discover something life-changing that isn’t theirs to keep. Soon, they have to battle paranoia and isolation to survive.

Saban Films also has acquired the North American rights to the thriller Siberia, which stars Keanu Reeves, Ana Ularu and Molly Ringwald. Matthew Ross directed the romantic crime-thriller that was written by Scott B. Smith from a story by Stephen Hamel and Smith. Siberia follows Lucas Hill (Reeves), an American diamond trader who sells blue diamonds to buyers in Russia. He soon begins an obsessive relationship with a Russian cafe owner while dealing with the dangerous world of diamond trade.

Warner Bros. has just made it official that they’re releasing Sherlock Holmes 3 on December 25, 2020. Both lead actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are returning, but there's no word yet on whether Guy Ritchie is set to return as director. Narcos co-creator Chris Brancato is credited as screenwriter, with Joel Silver, Susan Downey and Lionel Wigram returning as producers. 

Arclight Films has picked up worldwide rights to the thriller Furie. Directed by Le Van Kiet (The Rich Woman), Furie stars Veronic Ngo as a gangster who is lying low in the countryside after becoming a mother, but can’t escape her violent past when her daughter is kidnapped in front of her eyes. 

British director Justin Chadwick has been tapped to direct the mystery thriller Dead House, slated to being production later this year. Set in 1885 Pennsylvania, the pic follows Annaliese Kruger who, after witnessing the brutal slaughter of her husband and children, finds employment in the confines of the town’s dead house, a morbid dwelling where bodies are kept for 48 hours to make certain they have passed. But any semblance of normalcy is shattered when Annaliese sleuths out the psychopath who killed her family. Driven to save other families from her fate, she will have to catch the killer herself … if she can stay alive.

A trailer was released for The Spy Who Dumped Me starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon as two 30-year-old best friends from Los Angeles who end up embroiled in a deadly (and funny) international conspiracy after Audrey's ex-boyfriend shows up at their home while being trailed by a gang of assassins. The project also stars Sam Heughan, Justin Theroux, Gillian Anderson and Hasan Minhaj.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out its annual BAFTA Awards for Television this past weekend. The winner of Best Drama was Peaky Blinders (see Theater below for a tie-in news item), the series about a criminal gang based in Birmingham, England, during the Victorian era. The winner for Best Single Drama (TV Movie) was Murdered for Being Different, based on the true story of the murder of 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster and the beating of her boyfriend in 2007 all because they were dressed as Goths. Three Girls was also a winner in the Mini-Series and Leading Actress Awards (Molly Windsor); the project was also based on a real-life story surrounding the Rochdale child sex abuse ring. Brian F. O'Byrn also won a Supporting Actor nod for his performance in Little Boy Blue playing the father of murdered school boy Rhys Jones, based on another true story of the 11-year-old who was murdered by members of a gang.

Castle star Nathan Fillion is officially back on ABC with the new light crime drama series, the Rookie, aftter the network has given a formal series order to the pilot from former Castle executive producer/co-showrunner Alexi Hawley, Entertainment One and ABC Studios. Written by Hawley, The Rookie is inspired by a true story and follows John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. Starting over isn’t easy, especially for small town guy John Nolan who, after a life-altering incident, is pursuing his dream of being an LAPD officer. As the force’s oldest rookie, he’s met with skepticism from some higher-ups who see him as just a walking midlife crisis. The series co-stars Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Wade Grey, Titus Makin as Jackson West, Mercedes Mason as Captain Zoe Andersen, Melissa O’Neil as Lucy Chen, Afton Williamson as Talia Bishop and Eric Winter as Tim Bradford.

The slate of fall shows began to be firmed up last week, although many final schedules won't be announced until next week. ABC did announce it was cancelling the FBI drama Quantico after three seasons, the magician-sleuth series Deception after only one season, and the crime drama The Crossing. The drama How to Get Away with Murder was spared the axe and renewed for a fifth season, and ABC also picked up the legal drama The Fix, headlined by former Mentalist star Robin Tunney.

CBS picked up the Magnum, P.I. reboot to series, starring Jay Hernandez in the title role played by Tom Selleck in the original. CBS has one of the largest share of crime dramas on TV, and if you're wondering where your favorite show stands in the renewal-or-cancellation cycle, the Hollywood Reporter is keeping track

CBS gave a surprising renewal for a seventh season of Elementary, the Sherlock Holmes update starring Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. As TV Guide noted, "Despite currently being CBS' lowest-rated drama, Elementary still manages to rake in money with its international success and syndication, which is no doubt how this bubble show snagged a last-minute renewal." Also a bit of a surprise was Criminal Minds, which had been on the bubble, but the show was officially renewed at the end of last week.

The CBS drama Scorpion wasn't so lucky, getting the axe after four seasons, seven episodes shy of its 100th episode, a milestone that has traditionally been met with syndication. The project, which focused on Homeland Security's new think tank that helped defend against the high-tech threats of the computer age, will end on something of a minor cliffhanger, that is sure to further displease fans.

NBC picked up two pilots to series, including The Enemy Within. Written and executive produced by Woodruff and directed by Mark Pellington, The Enemy Within is a fast-paced thriller set in the world of counterintelligence and centers on Erica Shepherd (Jennifer Carpenter), a brilliant former CIA operative, now known as the most notorious traitor in American history and serving life in a Supermax prison. Against every fiber of his being but with nowhere else to turn, FBI Agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut) enlists Shepherd to help track down a fiercely dangerous and elusive criminal she knows all too well.

NBC has also renewed all four of its Dick Wolf series including Law & Order: SVU, picked up for a 20th season, tying the record for longest-running drama series, held jointly by Law & Order and Gunsmoke. The other returning three Windy City-set drama series for next season are Chicago Fire (returning for Season 7), Chicago P.D. for Season 6 and Chicago Med for Season 4.

One NBC shocker was the decision not to move forward with the Bad Boys offshoot pilot, LA’s Finest, starring the films’ Gabrielle Union and fellow movie star Jessica Alba. However, the producers are already fielding interest in the property from other networks for the drama that features two diverse female leads.

Fox has picked up the thriller The Passage, based on Justin Cronin’s trilogy of the same name, which follows a secret government medical facility experimenting with a dangerous virus. The series focuses on a 10-year-old girl named Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney), who is chosen to be a test subject for this experiment and Brad Wolgast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), the federal agent who becomes her surrogate father as he tries to protect her.

Fox broke the hearts of Lucifer fans, however, not only by cancelling the show after three seasons but showrunner Joe Henderson says his team created a season finale "with a huge cliffhanger that’s going to "frustrate the hell" out of the show's supporters.

The CW has axed another show, announcing that Valor will not receive a Season 2 renewal. Valor told the story of two elite military helicopter pilots Leland Gallo (Matt Barr) and Nora Madani (Christina Ochoa) caught up in a government conspiracy after a botched rescue mission in Somalia. 
 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Suspense Radio welcomed authors Jon Land (A Date With Murder: A Murder She, Wrote mystery book), Matt Ginsberg (Factor Man) and Seamus Hefferman (Napalm Hearts) to discuss their new novels.

Crime Friction hosted S.J. Rozan, Alex Segura, Jedidiah Ayres, and Josh Stallings to offer readings from their latest novels.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey discussed the latest crime fiction news including award winners and all of the adaptations, plus chatted about their experiences reading funny mystery books.

The latest Spybrary guest was author, spy fan and political editor of the Sunday Times, Tim Shipman.

THEATER

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed plans for a ballet version of the hit Birmingham gangster TV show. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter said the Rambert dance company had approached him with plans for a ballet based on the Shelby crime family. Knight also told the Birmingham Press Club he is planning three more series of the drama and is lobbying the BBC to film more of the show in his home city.

Mystery Melange

This year's Bouchercon organizers have announced the finalists for the annual Anthony Awards, with winners to be announced at the conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, September 5-9. The nods for Best Novel include The Late Show by Michael Connelly, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, Glass Houses by Louise Penny, and The Force by Don Winslow. For all the finalists in the various categories, head on over to the official conference website

Booklist has an annual "Best Crime Fiction Novels" list, but instead of a calendar year, the qualifying books are published from May of the previous year (2017) through April of the current year. You can find the organization's latest list of the top 10 crime novels and also the top 10 debut crime fiction titles via this link.

Kobo announced the finalists for its $10,000 emerging writer prize for Canadian writers, including the genre category. The nods there include the crime fiction titles Our Little Secret by Roz Nay; Full Curl: A Jenny Willson Mystery by Dave Butler; The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal; Ragged Lake: A Frank Yakabuski Mystery by Ron Corbett; and The Twelve Man Bilbo Choir, by Peter Staadecker.

RT Book Reviews announced the 2017 Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Winners, which include a career award to Catherine Coulter for Suspense novels, Christina Dodd for Romantic Suspense, and F. Paul Wilson for Thrillers. The winners of the this year's Mystery/Thriller/Suspense Reviewers' Choice Awards are The Guests on South Battery by Karen White (Mystery); The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg (Historical Mystery); A Room with a Brew by Joyce Tremel (Amateur Sleuth); Shattered by Allison Brennan (Suspense); and The Lost Order by Steve Berry (Thriller). The award ceremony will take place at the RT Booklovers Convention in Reno on Friday, May 18.

I missed this news tidbit back in March, but Friends of Mystery announced that the 2018 Spotted Owl Award Winner is Ingrid Thoft for her novel, Duplicity. The honor is handed out annually to an author whose primary residence in the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or the Province of British Columbia. For the list of the 10 other finalists, check out the FOM awards page. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

The Daily Mail and Penguin Random House have launched the third year of their nationwide competition to search for a new writing talent. Submissions can be of any adult genre except for saga, science fiction and fantasy, and entrants must not have had a novel published before. The winner will receive a £20,000 advance and publishing contract with PRH imprint Century and the services of literary agent Luigi Bonomi. The inaugural winner was Amy Lloyd for her psychological thriller, The Innocent Wife.

Festival organizers announced last week that the second edition of the Mediterranean Book Festival, to be held in Croatia's Adriatic city of Split on May 9-13, will offer a number of workshops and panels and feature Norway's crime fiction superstar Jo Nesbø as a special guest.

Following controversy, scandal, and allegations of sexual misconduct against the husband of a Swedish Academy member, the Nobel Prize committee has decided not to award a Nobel for Literature this year. It will be the first time that the academy has declined to give out a literature prize since World War II.

Mystery Readers Journal editor, Janet Rudolph, has issued a call for articles for the next issue, which is themed around spies and secret agents. If you'd like to contribute a review, article, or Author! Author! essay, Janet has all the details on her Mystery Fanfare blog. The deadline is June 20.

May is Short Story Month, and to celebrate, the Short Mystery Fiction Society is highlighting one or more members' online stories per day. Check them out here.

"Listicles" - blog posts with lists of one kind or another - are all the rage right now, but some can be fun and serve as a bit of an overview or introduction to a particular book genre or sub-category of crime fiction. So, I give you Crime Fiction Lover's list of Five Nigerian Noir Books; Portside's "Radical Noir: 26 Activist Crime Novels"; Book Riot's "50 Must-Read Young Adult Mysteries" and "10 Murder Mystery Comics"; and Barnes and Noble's "10 of the Best Political Thrillers Ever." Enjoy!

Some unhappy magazine news: unless Crime Syndicate editor Michael Pool can find someone else to take over the editorial duties, the magazine will be closing its virtual doors, and the fourth issue won't be published. Pool is leaving the post to focus more on his own writing but also continue to produce the Crime Syndicate Podcast.

NPR reported on "The Right to Browse": what happened when one library put its books into storage and made the readers cry foul.

Did you ever notice that there's one thing most serial killers seem to have in common?

They do say truth is stranger than fiction, as some FBI agents may have recently discovered. Let's just say that the title of a new movie coming soon could well be "The Drone Wars."

I am truly awed and inspired by this - and something for all of us to aspire to in life.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Grime" by Patricia Lacy.

In the Q&A roundup, Elena Hartwell interviewed Jenny Milchman, the author of Cover of Snow which won the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and As Night Falls, the recipient of the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best novel, about her latest work, Wicked River, which was inspired by the author's aborted honeymoon in 1994; Hot Press quizzed David Baldacci about his latest novel, The Fallen, and tackling Trump's America; and the New Zealand Herald chatted with Jane Harper, author of the award-winning and critically-acclaimed novel, The Dry.

Media Murder for Monday

As we start another new week, it's time to tackle a new roundup of the latest crime drama news, from screen to stage:

MOVIES

Imagine Entertainment won a bidding competition for screen rights to the upcoming Rob Hart novel, The Warehouse, as a directing vehicle for Ron Howard. The story is set  in a near-future America ravaged by political strife and climate change, where an online retail giant named Cloud brands itself a global savior but hides a dark truth. Two of its employees, one in security and the other a spy, meet and fall in love, but their relationship is threatened by the deadly nature of the spy’s mission and the all-powerful mega-corporation they both work for. Hart is the author of the Ash McKenna private detective series and is also the publisher of Mysterious Press.com.

One of the hot properties at Cannes next week, which is also expected to grab a rights bidding competition, is the large-scale espionage film 355 that Simon Kinberg will direct with an all-star international cast of Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyong’o. They’ll play international agents in a grounded, edgy action thriller that aims to alter a male-dominated genre with a true female ensemble, in the style of spy franchises The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible, and James Bond. 

IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to The Catcher Was a Spy, starring Paul Rudd, Sienna Miller, Jeff Daniels, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti. Directed by Ben Lewin and written by Robert Rodat, the film is adapted from the WWII-set non-fiction bestseller by Nicholas Davidoff and is based on the true story of Major League Baseball player Moe Berg, who joined the U.S. in its wartime efforts to defeat the Nazis. But once he ascertains how close the Nazis are to building an atomic bomb, he has to make the life-or-death decision that will impact the rest of humanity.

Number 37, described as a Hitchcockian South African crime thriller, is heading to theaters in the U.S. after Dark Star Pictures picked up all North American rights. The film is the directorial debut of Nosipho Dumisa and is an homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, centering on Randall, a low-level criminal recently crippled in an illicit deal gone wrong. Cooped up in his apartment in a rough Cape Town neighborhood, he is heavily indebted to a loan shark named Emmie with the clock ticking for him and his girlfriend Pam to pay the money back. A gift of a pair of binoculars presents him with an opportunity to get his hands on the cash, but at great risk.

Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play Cold War spy Greville Wynne in Ironbark, which is based on the true story of the British businessman who helped the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program during the Cold War. Wynne and his Russian source, Oleg Penkovsky (codenamed Ironbark), provided crucial intelligence that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Cumberbatch's partner-in-crime in the BBC Sherlock series, Martin Freeman, will star opposite Diane Kruger in the espionage-thriller, The Operative, from director Yuval Adler. The film follows Rachel (Kruger), a rogue spy from Israel’s feared national intelligence force Mossad, who vanishes without a trace while attending her father’s funeral in London. The only clue to her whereabouts is a cryptic phone call she places to her former handler Thomas (Freeman), who is then summoned from Germany to Israel by Mossad. Adler adapted the screenplay from the Israeli best-seller, The English Teacher, written by former Israeli intelligence officer Yiftach Reicher Atir.

Liam Neeson will take the leading role and Tarik Saleh will direct in the film Charlie Johnson in the Flames, an adaptation of the Michael Ignatieff thriller novel. Neeson will play the title character, a peerless BBC war correspondent covering civil unrest in the Congo. When the death of an innocent woman shakes him to his core, he risks everything to expose the truth, only to find himself embroiled in a network of murder, corruption, and violence that forces him to question his humanity.

John Woo's remake of his 1989 classic, The Killer, is in negotiations to snag Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o as its lead. The original version of The Killer told the story of an assassin protecting the life of an innocent bystander after accidentally blinding them during a botched hit. Nyong’o would take on the role of the assassin, played by Chow Yun-fat in the 1989 version.

Gravitas Ventures has acquired the feature thriller Broken Star which stars Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) for theatrical release this summer. The film is a psychological thriller that follows a young actress who goes to great lengths in order to ensure everlasting fame. Directed by first-time feature film director Dave Schwep and written by David Brant, the film also stars Tyler Labine, Monique Coleman, and Lauren Bowles. 

John Cena is set to replace fellow WWE star Dwayne Johnson in an adaptation of The Janson Directive. Written by Jason Bourne author Robert Ludlum, The Janson Directive novel focused on Paul Janson, an ex-Navy SEAL and former member of a covert government agency Consular Operations who becomes a corporate security consultant and takes a job rescuing an important man. When the mission goes awry, Janson is targeted for a "beyond salvage" termination order and has no choice but to follow the clues that lead him to a massive scandal.

An official trailer was released for Gotti, starring John Travolta in the title role as the Italian-American gangster who became boss of the powerful Gambino crime family in New York City.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

An adaptation of the work of novelist Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist) is headed to the small screen, the first-ever TV drama series based on his books. Exploring themes and characters from Coelho’s novels The Devil and Miss Prym, Brida, and The Witch of Portobello, the yet-untitled crime drama follows a young priest who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption – ostracized by his church, a fugitive from the law, and hunted by a powerful crime family. Meanwhile, the CIA agent chasing him discovers mysterious powers, and a more profound connection to the priest than she ever thought possible. 

HBO is turning late crime author Michelle McNamara's book on the Golden State Killer into a docu-series. The adaptation of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer was announced just a month after purchasing the rights and mere days after former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested on eight counts of first-degree murder based on DNA evidence. The book chronicled McNamara's obsessive journey to find the man responsible for committing over 50 sexual assaults, at least 12 murders and over 100 burglaries in California during the '70s and '80s. The case had gone unsolved for more than 30 years until DNA evidence connected DeAngelo to the crimes, leading to his arrest by the Sacramento Sheriff's Office on April 24. McNamara, who dubbed the serial killer behind these crimes as the Golden State Killer in her book, died suddenly in her sleep in 2016 before she could finish it. The book was completed by those closest to her including longtime researcher Paul Haynes, colleague Billy Jensen, writer Gillian Flynn, who penned the introduction, and her husband Patton Oswalt, who wrote the afterword.

Sony Pictures Television Networks has ordered Reckoning, a 10-episode straight-to-series psychological thriller drama, from writer David Hubbard (Noel) and veteran showrunner David Eick (Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies). Written by Hubbard, who serves as showrunner with David Eick, Reckoning explores the darkest corners of the male psyche through the eyes of two fathers, one of whom is a serial-killer. Like most men, Leo and Mike try to do what’s best for the people they love, the families they protect. But as both struggle to suppress their inner demons, the murder of a local teenager sets them on a course of mutual destruction that will emanate through every facet of their quiet, suburban community.

The Scandinavian terror thriller Greyzone is heading to the UK after Walter Presents acquired the ten-part series from distributor ITV Studios Global Entertainment. The show, set in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Frankfurt, stars Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Victoria, a drone engineer who is taken hostage by terrorists in her own home but manages to get a message to the secret services, who desperately try to prevent an attack on Scandinavian soil. 

Roseanne star John Goodman and Chewing Gum creator Michaela Coel are joining the Netflix and BBC drama Black Earth Rising. The story, which is set across the UK, Europe, Africa and the U.S., centers on Kate Ashby (Coel), who was rescued as a young child during the Rwandan genocide and adopted by Eve Ashby (Harriet Walter), a world-class British prosecutor in international criminal law. Kate was raised in Britain and, now in her late 20s, she works as a legal investigator in the law chambers of Michael Ennis (Goodman). When Eve takes on a case at the International Criminal Court, prosecuting an African militia leader, the story pulls Michael and Kate into a journey that will upend their lives forever.

Australian broadcaster ABC has confirmed a second season of the crime drama Harrow, which stars Ioan Bruffudd as Dr. Daniel Harrow (Gruffudd), a brilliant but highly unorthodox forensic pathologist. When a terrible secret from his past threatens his family, his career and himself, Harrow needs all his wit, wile and forensic genius not to solve a crime but to keep it buried.

Ahead of The Good Fight's Season 2 finale on May 27, the legal drama series has been renewed for a third season by CBS All Access. A spinoff from CBS' acclaimed drama The Good Wife, the follow-on drama has been well received by critics and tackled current events, including the Donald Trump presidency. The show stars Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Rose Leslie, Audra McDonald, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Michael Boatman, Nyambi Nyambi, and Delroy Lindo.

BBC One has ordered an eight-episode second season of Russian crime drama McMafia. The series airs on AMC in the U.S, but the network has not yet made a decision on a renewal. The series charts the journey of Alex Godman, played by James Norton, as he plunges deeper and deeper into the world of organized crime, eventually finding himself unable to resist the lures of corruption. The project was created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins and is based on the book by Misha Glenny.

Fans of the medical examiner "Ducky" on NCIS will be pleased to hear that actor David McCallum, who's played the iconic character for the past 15 seasons of the show, is returning for the 16th season, as well. With Pauley Perrette leaving the crime procedural at the end of the current fifteenth season, McCallum and NCIS star Mark Harmon are now the only remaining original cast members.

John Hoogenakker, who recurs in Season 1 of Amazon’s drama series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, has been promoted to series regular for Season 2. Hoogenakker plays Matice, a tough and salty American who works black ops for the CIA. At first skeptical of what appears to be a desk-jockey, he quickly develops a new respect for Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) after seeing him handle himself in the field.

Carrie Coon (Gone Girl) has been tapped as the female lead opposite Bill Pullman for the second installment of USA Network’s breakout drama series The Sinner. Season 2 lures Detective Harry Ambrose (Pullman) back to his hometown in rural New York to assess an unsettling and heart wrenching crime — parents murdered by their 11-year-old son, with no apparent motive. As Ambrose realizes there’s nothing ordinary about the boy or where he came from, the investigation pulls him into the hidden darkness of his hometown, and he’s pitted against those who’ll stop at nothing to protect its secrets.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Sasscer Hill, an author, former thoroughbred breeder, and amateur steeplechase jockey, spoke with the Because Of Horses podcast about her novels that are set against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her first book in the "Nikki Latrelle" series, Full Mortality, was nominated for both an Agatha and a Macavity award.

Crime writer Baron R. Birtcher was the latest guest on Crime Corner hosted by with Matt Coyle. Birtcher spent a number of years as a professional musician, and founded an independent record label and management company. His crime fiction titles Hard Latitudes, Rain Dogs, and Angels Fall have been nominated for a number of literary awards, including the Nero, Claymore, Left Coast Crime Lefty Award, and Silver Falchion Award in 2016.

On Episode 41 of the Spybrary podcast, the show featured a recorded panel discussion from Spycon 2018 with Spybrary host Shane Whaley joined by authors Mike Brady (Into the Shadows) and C.G.Faulkner (The Edge of Reality).

On the fourth episode of the Crime Syndicate podcast, C.S. DeWildt stopped by to read from and chat about his new novel, Suburban Dick. 

THEATER

The Vertigo Theater's Mystery Series will present the Canadian premiere of Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem from May 12 through June 16. The play is set in 1887 during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, when American performer Anne Moses (a.k.a. Annie Oakley) needs the help of the World’s Greatest Detective. But the simple case of a missing brother quickly leads to extraordinary inventions, robbery, and murder.