Mystery Melange

Liam McIlvanney has won the Scottish crime fiction award named in honor of his father, William McIlvanney, the late "godfather of tartan noir," with his novel The Quaker, based on the Bible John murders. McIlvanney won over the other shortlisted writers including Lin Anderson and former winners Chris Brookmyre and Charles Cumming.

The annual ThrillerFest conference announced that early bird registration is open for next year's event and also that Harlan Coben will be the 2019 recipient of the Silver Bullet Award. For more info and to keep track of all the special guests and participating authors as they are posted, check out the official conference website.

Mystery Writers of America NorCal and Lit Quake are sponsoring a Noir at the Bar on October 20 as part of MWANorCal's Mystery Week. Authors scheduled to appear include moderator Laurie R. King, Heather Haven, Terry Shames, Mary O’Shaughnessy, Pamela O’Shaughnessy, Gigi Pandian, Kirk Russell, Sheldon Siegel, and Jacqueline Winspear.

On Sunday October 21st, the historic Courtrooms above Browns Restaurant in Covent Garden will be the site of a series of panels devoted to crime novels, crime audio, crime television, and true crime, for the Killer Women Festival 2018. In addition to bestselling authors, events will include true crime documentaries and podcasts, a live CSI, and talking to police experts, forensic scientists and criminologists.

Terry Gilman and Maryelizabeth Yturralde, longtime owners of Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, have put the 25-year-old store up for sale to "pass the torch to a new owner, someone who can write the next chapter of Mysterious Galaxy's story." They reassured customers there was no threat of store closure, and they will be available to help the new owner through the transition. Gilman and Yturralde plan to focus on their other main venture, an events business and bookstore in Redondo Beach that brings books and authors to various community and corporate venues. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

London’s newly launched crime and thriller festival Capital Crime is preparing a new social outreach initiative to provide school students with insights into how they might be able to pursue careers in writing or publishing. In early 2019 Capital Crime will ask ten London comprehensive schools to each select two sixth-form students with "some recognised ability in creative writing." In spring 2019, those 20 students will then be invited to attend a seminar evening in central London where they will have the opportunity to hear from authors and publishing professionals and be given an insight into how they might be able to pursue writing/publishing careers.

Being a forensic pathologist can be very rewarding work and is a much-needed service for the community and families of victims, but the UK's Richard Shepherd points out the darker side, noting that his career let him to a diagnosis of PTSD. During his 30 years of work on some of the most high-profile cases, he says it's hard to describe the steady buildup of emotional damage from putting 23,000 dead bodies under the knife.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Terracide" by Gerard Sarnat.

In the Q&A roundup, Felix Francis, son of legendary crime writer Dick Francis, spoke with the Daily Record about the "daunting task" to keep his father's crime legacy alive; Craig Johnson chatted with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle about how he's not all that far removed from his his character Walt Longmire; Liam McIlvanney, the newly-crowned winner of the Bloody Scotland festival's McIlvanney Prize (named after the author's father), stopped by the Live and Deadly blog to talk about his prize-winning book, The Quaker; and the Mystery People welcomed Sara Gran to chat about her latest Claire DeWit novel, The Infinite Blacktop.

Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday again and that means it's time for the latest crime drama roundup:

THE BIG SCREEN

Sony is developing the film, Storming Las Vegas, based on the 2008 book from John Huddy. Dennis Lehane has been hired to adapt the book that follows a series of daring Las Vegas casino robberies masterminded by Jose Vigoa over the span of 16 months. The Cuban-born Vigoa and his crew evaded police as they stole millions from some of the biggest players on the strip until Lt. John Alamshaw and a team of Vegas' robbery detectives brought Vigoa to justice.

Another Tom Clancy character is headed to Hollywood after Paramount Pictures tapped Michael B. Jordan to play Clancy hero John Clark in a new two-film series. The studio is developing the two pics based on the Clancy books Rainbow Six and Without Remorse, both novels in which Clark is the main star. Without Remorse will be the first film of the two, serving as an origin story for the character of Clark, a.k.a. John Terrence Kelly, an ex-Navy Seal-turned-operations officer for the CIA.

Last Monday, I noted that the latest James Bond movie seemed to be back on track following the departure of director Danny Boyle, after longtime Bond sreenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade had been tasked with crafting a new script. On Thursday, producers announced that True Detective director Cary Joji Fukunaga had been hired to direct the still-untitled 25th film in the franchise, becoming the first American filmmaker to take on that role. The new film, in which Daniel Craig returns for his fifth (and likely final) outing as secret agent 007, will begin shooting on March 4, 2019 with a current release date of February 20, 2020.

Angelina Jolie is attached to star in The Kept, a period revenge thriller based on the 2014 James Scott novel of the same name, with Alice Birch (who wrote the Florence Pugh-starring period drama Lady Macbeth), to pen the screenplay. Set in the winter of 1897 in rural New York, the story is set in motion when a woman returns to her isolated homestead to discover that her husband and four of her children were murdered. The woman is shot and tended to by her remaining son, Caleb, who survived by hiding in the pantry. With her 12-year-old by her side, the woman sets out to find those responsible, but the gritty journey in blizzard conditions to a lake town will reveal secrets that will test the bond of mother and son.

Cinemablend reported that Fox's untitled Kingsman movie (the third in the franchise) is set for release just over a year from now, on November 8, 2019. Writer-director Matthew Vaughn is returning to return to pen the screenplay and direct the film, thus completing the trilogy. There isn't an official plot description yet, but the director has spoken in the past about the third film in the franchise taking the characters on a journey to a place we've never seen them before, and it would presumably conclude the Harry Hart-Eggsy relationship.

Oscar-winner Allison Janney will play trailblazing feminist lawyer Susan Estrich in an untitled project about the women who took on Fox News kingpin Roger Ailes and the toxic male culture at the network. Author and liberal commentator Estrich, who was the first female President of the Harvard Law Review and the first woman to manage a presidential campaign, surprised many by representing Ailes even after a slew of sexual harassment allegations surfaced against him. I, Tonya and Mom star Janney bolsters an A-List cast which already includes Charlize Theron (as Megyn Kelly), Nicole Kidman (as Gretchen Carlson), Margot Robbie (as a Fox News associate producer) and John Lithgow (as Ailes).

Andie MacDowell has signed on to co-star in the genre thriller Ready or Not, joining Samara Weaving in the cast. Ready or Not tells the story of a young woman, who on the night of her wedding, is invited to her new in-laws time-honored tradition which turns into a lethal game of survival. MacDowell will play the mother-in-law to Weaving’s protagonist.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Apple has given an eight-episode straight-to-series order to Defending Jacob, headlined and executive produced by Chris Evans. Created and written by Mark Bomback (Planet of the Apes trilogy) and based on William Landay’s bestselling novel, the project tells the story of a father dealing with the accusation that his son is a 14-year-old murderer.

Hulu has given a direct-to-series eight-episode order to a Veronica Mars revival slated to premiere in 2019, with Kristen Bell reprising her role as the title character. Hulu also landed streaming rights to the complete series in a new deal with original series producer Warner Bros. TV, as well as SVOD rights to all past episodes of the original Veronica Mars. The revival hails from the cult favorite’s original’s creator Rob Thomas, who will pen the first episode in which spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. 

NBC has put in development Strong Justice, an hourlong drama from Wendy Calhoun (Empire), Elizabeth Banks, and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions and Warner Bros. TV. Written by Calhoun, Strong Justice centers on FBI’s first-ever mother-daughter duo, Special Agents Etta and Memphis Strong, who strive to be exceptional investigators despite sexist and racist hurdles.

Fox has put in development Switch, an hourlong drama from former Underground executive producers Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell, Len Wiseman and Warner Bros. TV. The "adrenaline-fueled procedural" deals with the exploits of the FBI’s newest undercover unit, the Switch Division, a task force created to allow an agent to go undercover inside the body of another human being. Although hard pressed at first to find anyone insane enough to try the new technology, a former undercover burnout named Harry “Mac” Macallister takes up the challenge and the opportunity to spend each week inside the bodies of various criminals.

CBS is developing the drama Far Rockaway, from writer David Wilcox (CBS’ Bull), Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek: Discovery) and CBS TV Studios. Written by Wilcox, Far Rockaway is based on the Spanish format titled Estoy Vivo and is set in Far Rockaway, where a workaholic NYPD detective killed in the line of duty is granted a second chance to return to earth in the body of another cop in order to bring his killer to justice and heal the fractured family he left behind.

What do Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the disembodied voice of Bosley (as first seen in the original TV Charlie's Angels) have in common? Patrick Stewart, it seems. Stewart has joined the Charlie's Angels project to play the familiar role of Bosley. While that in itself isn't unusual, director Elizabeth Banks was, and still is, planning to play the same role. So, it appears that the plan is for the new Charlie's Angels to have multiple Bosleys, with Banks playing one and Patrick Stewart playing another, and perhaps other actors playing the role as well.

The breakout BBC One drama Bodyguard is headed to Netflix. The streaming network will carry the terror thriller starring Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden and Line of Duty’s Keeley Hawes outside of the UK and Ireland with a premiere set for October 24. Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the fictional story of David Budd (Madden), a heroic but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty and Specialist Branch (RasP) of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague (Hawes), Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, could he become her biggest threat?

Sony Crackle's original streaming series StartUp has added Mira Sorvino for its upcoming third season and released a trailer. Mira Sorvino appears in the 10-episode season in a guest star role as NSA Agent Rebecca Stroud, who is investigating the show’s centerpiece outfit ArakNet. Stroud, as the trailer shows, is prepared to go to any lengths to try to bring down ArakNet, the creation of a group of tech entrepreneurs. The show will begin streaming on Crackle on November 1, after a preview period on Amazon devices starting October 22.

Netflix has handed a Season 2 renewal to its gritty Indian crime drama Sacred Games. Based on Vikram Chandra’s best-selling novel, it’s described as a tale of betrayal, crime, passion and a thrilling chase through Mumbai’s underbelly.

ITV is bringing back hit cop drama Unforgotten for a fourth season. The series (which is being developed in the U.S. for ABC by Josh Berman, Sony Pictures Television and BBC Worldwide Productions), has been handed a six-episode run following the success of the third season. Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar return as two London detectives, who work together to solve cold case murders and disappearances.

Tiya Sircar, who currently recurs on NBC’s The Good Place, has been tapped as the lead in Good Sam, a Netflix feature based on the mystery book series of the same name by Dete Meserve. The film follows Intrepid TV news reporter Kate Bradley who is assigned to uncover the identity of a mysterious Good Samaritan—Good Sam—who has been anonymously leaving $100,000 cash gifts on the doorsteps of seemingly random New Yorkers. As interest in the extraordinary gifts sweeps across the country, as Kate seeks to unravel the identity of Good Sam and the powerful and unexpected reasons behind the extraordinary gifts.

Coming off a key recurring role on The Americans, Laurie Holden is set for another major recurring part opposite Kelsey Grammer on Fox’s new legal drama series Proven Innocent, from Empire co-creator Danny Strong and writer David Elliott. Written by Elliott, Proven Innocent follows a criminal defense firm led by Madeline Scott (Rachelle Lefevre), a fierce and uncompromising lawyer with a hunger for justice. Holden will play Greta Bellows, the wife of Gore Bellows (Grammer), the hard-as-nails and tough-on-crime state’s attorney, a "Lady Macbeth type" who wants her husband to win the Attorney General race, possibly even more than he does.

Ahead of the Season 3 premiere of Live PD, A&E gave another massive order to its flagship series, picking up an additional 150 episodes of the hit real-time reality police docuseries. Totaling 450 hours, the deal extends the series’ run into 2019, with the new order bringing the number of commissioned episodes to date to 293. Hosted by Dan Abrams with analysis from Tom Morris Jr. and Sgt. Sean ‘Sticks’ Larkin, Live PD follows diverse police departments from across the country in real time as they patrol their communities.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Val McDermid chatted with the BBC's A Point of View podcast to make the case that "crime fiction isn't really about murder at all."

Beyond the Cover welcomed special guests Boyd Morrison (co-author with Clive Cussler of Shadow Tyrants) and PJ Tracy (The Guilty Dead).

Criminal Mischief, hosted by DP Lyle, investigated the POV authors choose for crime fiction manuscript and how it can make or break your story.

The Mysteryrats Maze Podcast podcast featured the first chapter of the mystery novel Murder at the Driskill by Kathleen Kaska, read actor Casey Ballard.

Mystery Melange

Sisters in Crime NorCal is sponsoring a Mystery Writing Intensive Workshop, October 6, in Daly City, CA. The special guest authors and workshop leaders include Jessica Lourey, Catriona McPherson, Gene Brenek, and Marla Cooper. The one-day event includes craft workshops and discussions geared toward writers at any stage of their journey, a wine reception, and even door prizes.

Belfast’s NOIRELAND International Crime Festival is switching to spring (March 8-10) for the 2019 conference and will once again take place once again at Belfast’s iconic Europa Hotel. Although the full guest lineup won't be named until November, the weekend event will feature interviews and discussions with some of the greatest names from page and screen. The October 2017 included a Line of Duty event with its BAFTA-winning creator Jed Mercurio and star Adrian Dunbar, author panels with Robert Crais, Benjamin Black, Adrian McKinty, Arne Dahl and Liz Nugent, and a closing event with internationally renowned actor Aidan Gillen. 

Canongate is launching the crime fiction imprint Black Thorn in May 2019. The Bookseller reported that Black Thorn will publish a wide range of titles from Severn House, which Canongate acquired in 2017, in paperback for the first time. Two of the list's titles will be released each month, marking "the first time that many of these Severn House titles have been available to the trade." The 2019 lineup will launch with Catherine O'Connell's The Last Night Out and The Savage Shore by David Hewson. Publishing Coordinator Holly Domney said the variety of titles within Black Thorn's catalogue will "feed the hungriest of crime fiction readers who need to devour one mystery, then reach for the next one."

Oldcastle Books is launching a new digital-only genre imprint, Verve Books, which aims to publish "great, original, page-turning fiction." The imprint will launch with the spy thriller The Righteous Spy by Merle Nygate. (HT to the Bookseller)

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal (Volume 34:3) will focus on mysteries that take place in the Far East, and editor Janet Rudolph is looking for Reviews, Articles, and Author! Author! essays. The deadline for submissions is October 10.

An army veteran and longtime detective-turned true crime writer who helped in the Ground Zero relief efforts has died following a long battle with a 9/11-related illness. Mark Gado would work his shift for the police department and then head to Ground Zero, where he’d spend the night volunteering before sleeping in his van. He was a proud Army combat veteran who also spent two years with the Drug Enforcement Agency, and became a true crime writer later in life. He authored several books, including Killer Priest: The Crimes, Trial, and Execution of Father Hans Schmid, about the only Catholic priest to be executed for murder in American history.

Writing for the Paris Review, Anne Diebel took a look at Dashiell Hammett's strange career path from messenger boy to Pinkerton National Detective Agency operative, to crime author.

Authors on the shortlist for this year's McIlvanney Prize For Crime Fiction offered up their respective takes on "the perfect crime."

The city of Wallingford in the UK may be getting its own Agatha Christie statue. The Queen of Crime lived in town, and the Wallingford Museum sponsors an annual Agatha Christie festival in the author's honor. Now, the same artist who created a memorial to Agatha Christie in London (a memorial in the form of a large bronze book, featuring the crime writer’s face) is being asked to complete a similar tribute in Wallingford which will likely take the form of the author seated on a bench reading a book.

Spy novelist Tom Clancy's 537-acre Chesapeake Bay estate could be yours for $6.2M

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Four More Years" by Robert Cooperman.
 

In the Q&A roundup, Lizzie Sirett chatted with Louise Penny on the eve of her appearnace at the Bloody Scotland festival coming up this weekend; it was the battle of the Pauls as Paul Heatley took the "Short Sharp Interview" challenge from Paul D. Brazill; and Sarah Weinman spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about her new book The Real Lolita, which makes the case that Vladimir Nokokov's inspiration for his classic Lolita novel was derived from a real-life kidnapping.

 

Media Murder for Monday

Hope all those of you in the path of Florence and the storm's aftermath are safe this Monday morning (and it's always good to remind folks that the American Red Cross needs your help in times of disaster relief situations).

Meanwhile, here's the stormy Media Murder for Monday roundup of the latest crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

IIFC Films has acquired domestic rights to Judi Dench’s period spy thriller Red Joan for a 2019 theatrical release. Loosely inspired by the biography of British KGB agent Melita Norwood, the film is directed by Trevor Nunn and had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Written by Lindsay Shapero and based on Jennie Rooney’s best-selling novel of the same name, the story follows a retired scientist living in a London suburb who is arrested for crimes committed many years ago. 

Singer and actress Idina Menzel (Frozen) is joining Adam Sandler, Eric Bogosian, Lakeith Stanfield and Judd Hirsch in the cast of Uncut Gems. Set in the Diamond district of New York City, Sandler will star as a jewelry store owner with a gambling addiction who is juggling two relationships and escalating debts, with Menzel playing Sandler’s wife. 

Good news for James Bond fans who feared chaos after the departure of Danny Boyle from the upcoming Bond 25 film. Screenwriter Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who’ve been aboard the 007 franchise as story writers since 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, are now turning their approved Bond 25 treatment into a script with elements from Boyle’s script and working them all into a new movie. A search is still underway by Eon and MGM for a new director and Deadline has heard that such names as Edgar Wright, Yann Demange, and David Mackenzie’s have been floated. 

Academy Award winner Melissa Leo and Bella Thorne have been tapped to star in Leave Not One Alive, an indie revenge thriller written and directed by Jordan Galland. The plot follows a theater actress, Lillian Cooper (Leo) whose son dies mysteriously. When the investigating officer (Michael Potts) rules the cause of death an accidental overdose, Lillian conducts her own investigation which leads her to an unlikely alliance with her son’s former drug dealer (Thorne). On her quest for answers, Lillian hallucinates some of the iconic characters she’s played on stage which serve as her inner voice, urging her to avenge her son’s death.

Pretty Little Liars alum Keegan Allen will star in an untitled social media thriller film along with Holland Roden, Ronen Rubinstein, Denzel Whitaker, hip hop recording artist Siya, social media star George Janko and Pasha Lychnikoff. The story centers on a social media personality who, along with his close friends and millions of online followers, travels to Moscow to capture new content for his successful vlog. Pushing the limits to excite and engage his growing audience, the group enters a cold world of mystery and excess at every turn, blurring the lines between game and danger until all of them must fight to survive. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) is set to star in and executive produce The Banker’s Wife, a high stakes international thriller drama series based on Cristina Alger’s book. The project (which has also snagged top TV writer-creator Meredith Stiehm and top TV director Lesli Linka Glatter) is inspired by the Panama Papers and set in the world of global finance from Geneva to Paris, London and New York, with two women racing for answers when a mysterious plane crash sets them off on parallel pursuits of truth. 

Grey Matter Productions and Topic Studios have set writer-director Oren Moverman to adapt The Good Girl, the debut thriller novel from Mary Kubica, into a thriller drama series. The story centers on the kidnapping-gone-wrong of Mia Dennett, the perfect daughter of a prominent Chicago judge. When she is abducted as part of a wild extortion plot, her kidnapper unexpectedly decides to hide her in a remote cabin for months, evading both the police and the criminals who want to use her to get to her father. The plot alternates timelines and the shifting points of view of Mia’s mother, her kidnapper, and the detective tasked with finding her in a quest to find out what really happened to Mia and how, even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

Fox has given put-pilot commitments to two high-profile cop drama projects, Connect and Prodigal Son. Connect described as "a high concept, adrenalized procedural" about a brash hero with a gift that he will use to assist his cop brother with whom he has a troubled relationship. Prodigal Son centers on Malcolm Bright who has the gift of knowing how killers think and how their minds work; his father was a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon,” which led Bright to become the best criminal psychologist around since murder is the family business. 

Fans of the thriller Absentia can breathe a sigh of relief because Amazon has finally picked up a second season of the show starring and executive produced by Castle alumna Stana Katic.  New cast members joining season two — currently filming in Sofia, Bulgaria — include Matthew Le Nevez (The Widow) and Natasha Little (The Night Manager). Patrick Heusinger returns for season two as Emily’s (Katic) ex-husband and Special Agent Nick Durand. In season two, Emily's obsessive investigation into the questions that haunt her uncovers a serial killer and a spiraling conspiracy that threatens more than just her family. 

Oscar nominee Chloë Sevigny and The Carrie Diaries star AnnaSophia Robb are set to co-star opposite Patricia Arquette and Joey King in the first season of The Act, Hulu’s character-based anthology series that tells startling, stranger-than-fiction true crime stories. The first season is based on Dean’s 2016 Buzzfeed article “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered.” It follows Gypsy Blanchard (King), a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother, Dee Dee (Arquette). Her quest for independence opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, one that ultimately leads to murder.

The reboot of Charlie's Angels is going to have more than just three angels. Freshly-named Charlie's Angel Kristen Stewart explained in an interview with Variety that the reboot will feature a whole network of angels around the world who work together to get the job done. 

Amazon dropped a video trailer for the psychological thriller Homecoming starring Julia Roberts a caseworker at a secret government facility who works with a soldier eager to rejoin civilian life.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste welcomed special guest Elly Griffiths, who talked about her Ruth Galloway series, her upcoming standalone novel, archaeology, her Italian roots and much more.

The Story Blender spoke with author KJ Howe about the follow-up to her exhilarating debut, The Freedom Broker.

Author Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Elka Ray on the Crime Cafe podcast. Ray is the Canadian author of two novels, Saigon Dark and Hanoi Jane, a collection of short crime stories and has a romantic mystery coming out with Seventh Street Press in early 2019.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham discussed historical mysteries, Serial season 3 and more.

Speaking of Mysteries grilled Margaret Mizushima about her fourth Timber Creek K-9 mystery feauturing Officer Mattie Cobb and Robo, her German Shepherd partner.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Bob Mayer, the NY Times bestselling author of the series Area 51, The Green Berets, Atlantis and the Time Patrol.

Spybrary listeners voted overwhelmingly for Len Deighton's Berlin Game to be the first spy book to be discussed in the podcasts Spybrary book club edition, and a panel that includes Spybrary host Shane Whaley, Deighton expert Rob Mallows, and spy genre expert Peter Newman, take on the challenge.

Mystery Melange

 

Canongate is launching a new crime fiction imprint called Black Thorn in May 2019, following its acquisition of fiction publisher Severn House in 2017. Publishing a wide range of titles from Severn House’s list into paperback for the first time, Black Thorn will release two of the list's paperbacks each month, beginning with Catherine O’Connell’s The Last Night Out, and The Savage Shore by David Hewson, author of The Killing trilogy.

Penn State Professor of English Emeritus Richard Kopley was recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement and Service Award by the Poe Studies Association at the 2018 International Poe and Hawthorne Conference in Kyoto, Japan. Kopley is an internationally known author and literary scholar with expertise in classic American literature and one of the world’s foremost experts on Edgar Allan Poe. His published works include Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries, which takes an in-depth look at Poe’s detective stories that helped inspire the entire detective genre.

Internationally acclaimed thriller author Ken Follett has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire. More than 160 million copies of his 31 books have been sold in more than 80 countries and in 33 languages. In June this year, Follett was also made a CBE for services to literature and charity and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

From the truth is stranger than fiction department: Nancy L. Crampton Brophy, a romantic suspense author, was arrested for the murder of her culinary-instructor husband. Before her arrest, she had posted on Facebook about how devastated she was by his death and attended a candlelight vigil.

The New York Post reported on a political columnist, who also penned a spy novel, who was secretly a government spy.

Here's some happy bookseller news: Nearly one year after wildfires devastated communities in Northern California, bookstores have largely recovered, thanks to loyal customers, community support, and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc). The Ann Arbor-based nonprofit aids booksellers around the country in times of need, but the foundation faced what it called unprecedented demand last year due to wildfires, floods, and mudslides. In 2017, the foundation distributed more than $234,000 to support 94 booksellers and booksellers’ families in need—more than Binc had distributed the two previous years combined.

The Feedspot website has a listing of crime fiction blogs and I'm pleased In Reference to Murder is listed among them. If you check out the link, you might find some new blogs of interest to follow.

Some "fun" true crime, for a change; is this quite possibly the worst robber of all time?

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "The Good Old Days" by Etta Abrahams.
 

In the Q&A roundup, Alex Aster quizzed The Woman in Cabin 10 author Ruth Ware about her writing process, next novel, and advice to young writers; authors Dietrich Kalteis (Poughkeepsie Shuffle) and Alex Shaw (Cold East) took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge; and Reed Farrel Coleman chatted with the Mystery People about his latest novel, Colorblind.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings and welcome to the latest crime drama roundup:

THE BIG SCREEN

Media Rights Capital won a bidding war at the Toronto Film Festival for the world rights to Knives Out, a contemporary murder mystery that will star Daniel Craig as a detective assigned to solve the crime, with Star Wars: The Last Jedi's Rian Johnson directing from his own script. Johnson told Deadline he's been a long-time Agatha Christie nut and over the summer scripted his contemporary version of the locked door mansion murder mystery.

The screen rights for the thriller novel The Nowhere Child by Christian White have been snapped up by Australian production company Carver Films and US-based production company Anonymous Content. The Nowhere Child tells the story of a kidnapped child and according to the publisher, has broken the record for the fastest-selling Australian debut novel ever, with over 25,000 sales in its first eight weeks. The novel also won Australia’s Victorian Premier’s Award, awarded to an unpublished manuscript. Previous winners include Jane Harper’s The Dry and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project.

UK's Bad Penny Productions has optioned British writer Lawrence Osborne’s well-reviewed Cambodia-set thriller Hunters In The Dark, with Osborne and Ben Cookson (Waiting For Anya) adapting the novel for the screen. The novel takes place in modern day Cambodia and sees an English teacher, Robert Grieve, win a satchel’s worth of money and decide to take a journey deeper into the wilder side of the country. Coming up against a scheming American, a crooked police officer and a darker side of Cambodia, Grieve follows his journey to a dramatic climax.

Animal Kingdom and Playtime are spearheading an English-language remake of the Austrian psychological chiller Goodnight Mommy, with Matt Sobel, director of 2015 Sundance drama Take Me To The River, attached to direct. The story follows Elias and his twin brother Lukas who arrive at their mother’s house to find her face covered in bandages - the result, she explains, of recent cosmetic surgery. Lukas delights in their mother’s uncharacteristically lax house rules, but n Elias’ mind, a dreadful thought takes root: the sinking suspicion that this woman beneath the gauze, who’s making their food and sleeping in the next room, isn’t really their mother.

Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Evans and Tracy Letts are in talks to star in The Devil All the Time, an adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 novel. Based on a script adaptation by Antonio Campos (who will also direct) and Paulo Campos, the story follows a man desperate to save his dying wife whose prayers turn to sacrifice, drawing in his vengeful son, a serial killer couple, a faith-testing preacher and a corrupt local sheriff in a story told across two decades.

An indie thriller is in the works about The Cuban Five, a group of Cuban agents sent to south Florida by the Castro government to spy on exile groups in the 1990s. The film will be directed by Clement Virgo from a Barrie Dunn screenplay, which is based on Stephen Kimber’s book What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of The Cuban Five. The agents were arrested by U.S. authorities in 1998, convicted and jailed, only to be released in 2014 as part of a spy exchange negotiated by then president Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro to improve relations between the two countries. In March 2015, Dunn and Kimber met in Havana with the five agents, who agreed to work with the Canadian film producers to make the film about their story.

Patrick Melrose Emmy nominee Edward Berger has been set to direct Rio, the Steven Knight-penned psychological thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal as two old friends who meet again in the titular city. One is a journalist, the other a hugely successful financier. Plot details are under wraps, although there is also a strong female lead character.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has signed on to the Giuseppe Capotondi-directed film The Burnt Orange Heresy, joining Claes Bang and Elizabeth Debicki. The neo-noir thriller is based on Charles Willeford’s novel, which was adapted for the screen by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Scott B. Smith. Set in present-day Italy, the pic follows an ambitious art dealer who is hired to steal a rare painting from one of most enigmatic painters of all time, but becomes consumed by his own greed and insecurity as the operation spins out of control.

The trailer has arrived for Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman’s action thriller Hunter Killer, based on the novel Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith

The first clip has been released for Out of Blue, which is based on the Martin Amis's novel Night Train. Directed by Carol Morley (The Falling), the "neo-noir metaphysical mystery" stars Patricia Clarkson as a homicide detective called to investigate the shooting of leading astrophysicist and black hole expert, but once on the case, she’s affected in ways she struggles to comprehend. The cast also includes Jacki Weaver, James Caan, Toby Jones, Aaron Tveit, Mamie Gummer, Jonathan Majors, and Devyn A. Tyler.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The BBC is developing a detective drama series based on the classic 1938 mystery novel The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake, the nom de plume of poet Cecil Day-Lewis, father of Daniel Day-Lewis. The adaptation is being written by Gaby Chiappe, who has written on a number of British crime dramas, including ITV's Vera as well as BBC's Shetland. Nathaniel Parker, the actor who played the lead role in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, is an executive producer for the project, which is likely to be five or six episodes. Deadline added that the "series could turn into a long-running franchise for the BBC as Blake/Day Lewis wrote 15 books featuring the detective."

The CW is developing a drama inspired by the classic Nancy Drew mysteries, adapted by by Noga Landau (The Magicians). Launching a Nancy Drew TV series has been a priority for CBS TV Studios, which has the rights to the the classic YA mystery books and has developed two Nancy Drew series over the past three years, Drew at CBS during the 2015-16 development season, which went to pilot starring Sarah Shahi and got close to a series order, and Nancy Drew at NBC this past season. Both incarnations were conceived as sequels to the books, with an adult Nancy Drew at the center, whereas the CW version stays closer to the source material, with Nancy just out of high school.

Doctor Who's Alice Troughton has been set as lead director of Channel 4’s crime thriller Baghdad Central as filming kicks off in Morocco. The drama, written by The Last Kingdom scribe Stephen Butchard and based on the novel by Elliott Colla, is set in 2003 Baghdad after Saddam Hussein has fallen and the city lies at the center of the coalition’s efforts to secure the region. In the midst of this chaos, crime and paranoia, Iraqi ex-policeman Muhsin al-Khafaji (played by Waleed Zuaiter), has lost everything and is battling daily to keep himself and his sick daughter safe. But when he learns that his estranged elder daughter is missing, Khafaji is forced into a desperate search to find her.

The Voice judge Adam Levine's company, 222 Productions, and Universal TV have optioned the rights to the Thorn series of novels by James W. Hall, which will be developed for television. There are 14 books in the series, which began with Under Cover of Daylight in 1987. The series follows Thorn, a fishing guide in the Florida Keys with a dark past. When that past comes back around in the form of new violence that rips his world apart, Thorn has to take drastic steps to protect and avenge his chosen family. A writer and cast for the project will be announced later.

NBC is expanding the Law & Order franchise with a 13-episode order to Law & Order: Hate Crimes, based on New York’s actual Hate Crimes Task Force, the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S. The unit, which pledges to uphold a zero tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, works under the NYPD’s real Special Victims Unit and often borrows SVU’s detectives to assist in their investigations. The new Law & Order series will be introduced as a planted spinoff from SVU, with the first incarnation of the new unit appearing in the latter part of the upcoming season of the Mariska Hargitay-starring series.

Phoenix Pictures and Renaissance Literary & Talent are teaming to develop a television anthology based on a series of short stories by prolific mystery writer Cornell Woolrich. The Woolrich library has been a complicated rights issue with more than five owners controlling the nearly 300 properties in the Estate.  Woolrich is the most adapted crime author in the film noir era, with Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black as examples of his classics. His stories were also prominent on one of the Golden Age of radio’s classic shows, Suspense.

Oxygen Media has inked an overall development deal with Paul Holes, the hero detective who helped bring the Golden State Killer to justice. Holes said, "I’m retired now, and am looking forward to this next chapter of my career where I can help shine a light on cases that deserve national exposure.” 

Patricia Arquette will star in Hulu’s true-crime series, The Act, a seasonal anthology, with the first season based on Dean’s 2016 BuzzFeed article “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered.” It follows Gypsy Blanchard, a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother. Her quest for independence opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, one that ultimately leads to murder. 

Casting was announced for Acorn's adaptation of the British drama series Queens of Mystery, with Julie Graham, Siobhan Redmond, Sarah Woodward and Olivia Vinall in the leads as the eponymous Queens. Queens of Mystery follows a perennially single female detective (Matilda Stone) and her three aunts (Cat, Beth and Jane), who are well-known crime writers that help her solve whodunit style murders as well as set her up on blind dates.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Author Debbi Mack interviewed thriller author Jame DiBiasio on the Crime Cafe podcast, chatting about his latest novel, Bloody Paradise, a tropical noir set in Thailand.

Writer Types welcomed a trio of authors including Aaron Phillip Clark, Nick Kolakowski and Eva Montealegre.

Robert Olen Butler stopped by Speaking of Mysteries to discuss Paris in the Dark, Butler’s fourth Christopher Marlowe Cobb thriller.

In episode #3 of Criminal Mischief: The Art & Science of Crime Fiction, host D.P. Lyle talked about a medical examiner's three most important determinations: cause, manner, and time of death.

On the Crime Syndicate podcast, Canadian crime author Dietrich Kalteis stopped by to discuss his latest novel, Poughkeepsie Shuffle, with host Michael Pool.

The latest Mystery Rats Maze episode featured the mystery short story, "Doggy DNA", written by mystery author Neil Plakcy and read by actor Thomas Nance.

This is Criminal welcomed three of America’s most experienced trauma surgeons speak to talk about what happens when someone is shot.

THEATER

The full cast was recently announced for the world premiere UK Tour of Rebus: Long Shadows: Dani Heron (Angela), Eleanor House (Heather/Maggie) and Neil McKinven (Mordaunt) join Charles Lawson (John Rebus), John Stahl (Big Ger Cafferty) and Cathy Tyson (Siobhan Clarke). The play is directed by Robin Lefevre and opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on September 20 with a run through November 24.

The UK's Blackeyed Theatre is touring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of Four, to venues including Worthing’s Connaught Theatre (Thursday-Saturday, September 20–22). In the play, when Mary Morstan arrives at Baker Street to request help following the mysterious disappearance of her father, Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson are plunged into a murky world of deception and a complex plot involving murder, corruption and stolen jewels.

The Lincoln, Nebraska area is having a mini Agatha Christie play cycle, with three works by Agatha Christie performed this fall beginning with the Southeast Community College theater students, instructors and community members present the radio play series "Murder in the Studio" this past weekend. Then, starting in October, the Lincoln Community Playhouse and Beatrice Community Players will tag-team stages to present Christie's Black Coffee and Murder is Announced.

Greensboro, North Carolina's Triad Stage is also presenting an Agatha Chrsitie classic, And Then There Were None, September 14 - October 7. In the classic tale, a group of characters stranded on an island realize that one of their number has to be the killer, and race to solve the crime before they become the murderer’s next victim.

Dame Agatha is also on stage at the Granite Theatre in Westerly, Rhode Island, with a production of the Miss Marple mystery A Murder is Announced through September 30.