Mystery Melange

 

At the 3rd annual Murder and Mayhem in Chicago event this past weekend, The Paretsky Award, which honors mysteries set in the Midwest, was handed out to bestselling author Scott Turow. Turow is the author of eleven legal thrillers, including Presumed Innocent, made into a 1990 film starring Harrison Ford. The award is named after Sara Paretsky, the award-winning author of the V.I. Warshawski series. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The finalists for the 2019 British Book Award were announced this past weekend. The nods in the Crime & Thriller category include:

Our House by Louise Candlish 
The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn 
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Close to Home by Cara Hunter
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo 
In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin

Mystery Fest Key West has announced a call for entries for the 2019 Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. The winner will claim a book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, free Mystery Fest Key West 2019 registration, airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights and a Whodunit Award trophy to be presented at the 6th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 28-30 in Key West, Florida. The deadline for entries of the first three pages (maximum 750 words) of a finished, but unpublished manuscript, is April 15, 2019.

The Left Coast Crime is being held this weekend in Vancouver, and as part of that event, there's a Noir at the Bar open to the general public scheduled for this evening from 7:30-9:30 at the Hyatt Regency. The authors scheduled to attend and read from their writing include Blake Crouch, Kellye Garrett, Rob Hart, Vicki Delany, Deitrich Kalteis, Robin Burcell, Thomas Pluck, Hilary Davidson, Sam Wiebe, Lisa Brackmann, Frank Zafiro, and S.J. Rozan.

Noir at the Bar also returns to Philadelphia at the Misconduct Tavern on April 14. The event will be hosted by Jon McGoran, with the author lineup to include Bill Lashner, Jen Conley, Merry Deedee Jones, Don Lafferty, Erik Arneson, Kelly Simmons, Jane Kelly, Lanny Larcinese, Tony Knighton, Matty Dalrymple, and Dennis Tafoya.

Tuesday April 16, a special Brighton Crime Wave event at the Brighton Waterstones will celebrate the launch of four crime author's new releases, including The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths, the latest in her Ruth Galloway series; William Shaw’s Deadland, the second in his acclaimed DI Alex Cupidi series; The Playground Murders, the latest in Susan Wilkin's series with cleaner and sleuth Stella Darnell; and the debut of DC Jo Boden in Should Have Been Me by DC Jo Boden.

Also over in the UK, on Saturday June 8th, fifteen crime writers will descend upon Cambridge for a murderously good day of panel discussions and book signings. Authors scheduled to appear include Fiona Barton, Simon Brett, Julia Chapman, Rory Clements, Mick Finlay, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Mick Herron, Lisa Jewell, Gytha Lodge, Alex Michaelides, Anthony Quinn, William Shaw, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, and L C Tyler.

Blockchain technology is all over the new these days, and Publishers Weekly took a look at how it could be used in publishing applications.

More places to put on your bibliophile bucket list: "The 25 Most Beautiful Libraries in America."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Murder at the Monastery" by Gregory Cioffi.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb interviewed Samantha Downing, the New Orleans-based author who just released the new thriller, My Lovely Wife; E. B. Davis chatted with author Sarah Graves for the Writers Who Kill Blog, talking about Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, the second book in Graves's Death by Chocolate cozy mystery series; and the Sleuthsayers welcomed Glen Erik Hamilton to discuss his Van Shaw books set in and around Seattle.

 

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Will Fetters, who with Bradley Cooper and Eric Roth adapted the Oscar-nominated screenplay for A Star Is Born, has been tapped to rewrite Tell No One, a Universal pic based on the 2001 Harlan Coben thriller novel. The book was first turned into a 2016 French film by Guillaume Canet, and at one point Liam Neeson was attached to star as a doctor who receives a strange message that leads him on a dangerous quest to find out the truth behind his wife's death.

Principal photography is now underway on The Postcard Killings, an adaptation of James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s bestselling thriller novel The Postcard Killers. Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land, Death in Sarajevo) is directing the film, which follows a hardened New York Detective (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he investigates the death of his daughter who was murdered while on her honeymoon in London. Along the way, he recruits the help of a Scandinavian journalist when other couples throughout Europe suffer a similar fate.

Jeff Wadlow is set to direct Danger Girl, adapted from the namesake comic book series that follows the adventures of Abbey Chase, who's reluctantly recruited into an all-female secret organization. The daring Chase finds herself teamed with a trio of elite operatives — Sydney Savage, Natalia Kasstle, and “Silicon” Valerie — and dispatched on a globe-trotting adventure to find and secure a series of objects with destructive power coveted by the evil neo-nazi collective called the Hammer Syndicate.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the film Booker at a competitive auction. The project is described as "a John Wick-esque hard-boiled action film with an African American male lead." Derek Kolstad, who scripted the first two John Wick films, is writing this one with Gerard McMurray, who’ll direct the film as his follow-up to The First Purge.

New Line has set Tony-winning actor Leslie Odom Jr. for a starring role in The Many Saints Of Newark, the prequel film to David Chase’s iconic HBO mob series, The Sopranos. He joins Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, John Magaro and Michael Gandolfini, the latter of whom is reprising the Tony Soprano role originated by his late father, James Gandolfini.

The first trailer was released for the mystery/drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which follows former Western TV star Cliff Booth (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Rick Dalton (Brad Pitt) as they navigate a city and industry they hardly recognize anymore. Margot Robbie also stars as the late actress Sharon Tate, who in 1969 was murdered by members of the Charles Manson-led Manson family.

In the new trailer for John Wick 3: Parabellum, every assassin in the world is after the bounty on Wick's (Keanu Reeves) head. New characters include Asia Kate Dillon, Halle Berry, and Angelica Huston, who join returning actors Lawrence Fishburne and Ian McShane. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian will write and direct a straight-to-series project that focuses on Tom Ripley, the sociopath anti-hero of the Patricia Highsmith crime novel series. Zaillian will use the five novels written by Highsmith — The Talented Mrs. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, and Ripley Underwater — as a road map to show Ripley’s progression from con artist to serial killer.

Canadian production company New Metric Media is launching an U.S. division with a trio of projects including two crime dramas. The company is developing a Nashville-set drama based on criminologist Dr. Michael Arntfield’s book Monster City and also a series of crime thrillers based on the books of Peter Edwards, who wrote Bad Blood: The End of Honour.

The Fox artificial intelligence drama neXt is adding to its cast. neXt is described as a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research, featuring a brilliant but paranoid former tech CEO, Paul Leblanc, who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team to stop the world’s first artificial intelligence crisis. Mad Men alum John Slattery has been hired as the lead, while Jason Butler Harner (Ozark) has been added to play his somewhat narrow-minded younger brother who is a corporate executive at a tech company.

Writer and producer Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones) has been tapped to direct and executive produce Perry Mason, HBO’s limited series starring Matthew Rhys in the title role. Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, the project follows the origins of American Fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason (Rhys). When the case of the decade breaks down his door, Mason’s relentless pursuit of the truth reveals a fractured city and just maybe, a pathway to redemption for himself.

Alive, TV’s latest attempt at a Frankenstein-inspired series has hired Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) to star as San Francisco homicide detective Mark Escher, who’s mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty. As Mark and his wife realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection: Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Arrow alumna Katrina Law will portray Mark’s spouse Elizabeth Lavenza, a pathologist  who is stunned when her husband returns from the dead. Mad Men vet Aaron Staton will co-star as the brilliant, slightly odd and possibly obsessed Dr. Frankenstein, who is on the run from an ethics board in China. 

Downton Abbey alumna Michelle Dockery and It star Jaeden Martell are set as leads opposite Chris Evans in Defending Jacob, Apple’s limited drama series based on William Landay’s bestselling novel. The book tells the story of a father, Andy Barber (Evans), dealing with the accusation that his son, Jacob (Martell), is a 14-year-old murderer. Dockery will play Laurie Barber, Andy's wife and Jacob's mother.

Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things) and Natalie Paul (The Sinner, You) are set to recur on the upcoming third season of AT&T Audience Network’s critically praised drama series, Mr. Mercedes, which is based on the Stephen King novels. Season 2 took place a year after Brady Hartsfield’s (Harry Treadaway) thwarted attempt to perpetrate a second mass murder in the community of Bridgton, Ohio. Retired Detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) did his best to move on from his Brady obsession, teaming up with Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe) to open Finders Keepers, a private investigative agency. But when unexplainable occurrences began to affect hospital staff members attending to Brady, Hodges was haunted by the feeling that Brady was somehow responsible.

Pepe Rapazote (Narcos) and Alimi Ballard (Numb3rs) are set to recur in the upcoming fourth season of USA Network’s Queen of the South starring Alice Braga. Based on the bestselling book La Reina del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, the show tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America. Rapazote will play Raul “El Gordo” Rodriguez, a Cuban drug dealer out of Miami who has ties to all the kingpins on the East Coast. Ballard will portray Marcel Dumas, a slick and measured Creole leader of a New Orleans street gang and owner of a hip jazz club.

The Brave alum Tate Ellington is returning to NBC as a series regular opposite Russell Hornsby and Arielle Kebbel in Lincoln, a drama pilot based on Jeffery Deaver’s bestselling The Bone Collector book series. Lincoln follows legendary forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Hornsby), who was seriously injured during his hunt for the diabolic serial killer known as the Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Lincoln forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs (Kebbel), a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD. Ellington will play Felix, part of the CSI team and quick to speak his mind.

Simone Missick is set as the lead in CBS’ legal drama pilot Courthouse, which follows the dedicated, chaotic, hopeful and sometimes absurd lives of the judges, assistant district attorneys and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles. Missick will play a Deputy District Attorney who's become a newly appointed judge and pushes boundaries and challenging expectations of what a judge should be. She joins previously announced series regulars Marg Helgenberger, Jessica Camacho, Wilson Bethel, and J. Alex Brinson. 

We’re getting the first look at Oscar winner Forest Whitaker as crime boss Bumpy Johnson in a teaser trailer for Epix’s new straight-to-series crime drama Godfather of Harlem. From Narcos co-creator Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein and ABC Signature Studios, Godfather of Harlem is inspired by the story of the infamous crime boss Johnson (Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from ten years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles. With the streets controlled by the Italian mob, Bumpy must take on the Genovese crime family to regain control. Nigel Thatch, Vincent D’Onofrio, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Sorvino, and Ilfenesh Hadera also star.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Authors of the Pacific Northwest welcomed crime author Frank Zafiro to chat about his gritty River City series, giving back to the author’s community, and Frank's own podcast, Wrong Place, Write Crime.

The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features a baseball mystery short story called “Two Men On, One Man Dead” by Jack Bates, as read by Ariel Linn.

The CBC took a look at the forgotten history of Nancy Drew, the iconic teenage detective who “turns 90” soon.

On the latest Partners in Crime podcast, hosts Adam Croft and Robert Daws hosts debated the emotional price of true crime versus fictional and explored the “tortured detective”  cliché – or maybe it's a trope.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro welcomed Colin Conway to discuss the re-issue of his novel, Some Degree of Murder.

In the latest Criminal Mischief podcast, host DP Lyle took on the topic of how to create memorable first impressions in your crime novel.

THEATER

The Kings Theatre in Edinburgh is staging a production of The Girl on a Train, adapted from the bestselling suspense novel by Paula Hawkins. The play will run from March 25-30 and stars Samantha Womack and Oliver Farnworth.

GAMES

The classic action film Die Hard is being turned into a tabletop board game. Titled Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game, publishers at OP Games (aka USAopoly) tell Polygon that it will be a “one-versus-many asymmetric experience.”

Mystery Melange

 

The Independent Book Publishers Association officially announced finalists for the Benjamin Franklin Awards program, recognizing excellence and innovation in independent publishing. The nods in the Mystery/Suspense category include An Accidental Corpse by Helen A. Harrison; Black Hearts White Minds: A Carl Gordon Legal Thriller by Mitch Margo; Burning Ridge: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima, and Welcome to Sugarville: A Novel in Stories by J.J. Haas.

Bestselling author James Patterson is working with the Booksellers Association to create an award to celebrate young booksellers new to the book selling field in the UK and Ireland that are 25 or younger and have been selling books for at least 12 months. This isn’t the only time Patterson has given love to bookstores, previously donating over $1.5m to bookshops in the US, UK, and Ireland.

Registration is now open for the ITW's Sixth Annual Online Thriller School. The seven-week program, which begins March 25, focuses on the craft of thriller writing via a Facebook Live video, written materials that include further reading and study suggestions, and an entire week of on-line Q&A. This year's faculty include Steve Berry, Grant Blackwood, F. Paul Wilson, Hank Phillippi Ryan, David Corbett, Gayle Lynds, James Scott Bell and Kathleen Antrim.

Sisters in Crime have opened the submission period for the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, an annual grant of $2,000 for an emerging writer of color. An unpublished writer is preferred, although publication of one work of short fiction, an academic work, or up to two self-published or traditionally published books will not disqualify an applicant. For more information, check out the official SinC website.

Eighty years after the publication of Raymond Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, the Saturday Evening Post profiled the iconic author's “two-fisted legacy” that combined his colorful life and English education to elevate the hard-boiled school of detective fiction.

Speaking of Chandler, at the recent literary auction which included books from Otto Penzler, a first edition of The Big Sleep, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, doubled its pre-auction estimate when it brought $57,500. Among the other prizes to be had were a rare first edition in the original first printing dust jacket of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest that netted $75,000. The rare copy is in such exceptional condition that Penzler himself called it “the world’s best copy.”

The theories as to the real identity of Jack the Ripper are far more numerous than the serial killer's number of victims. Various experts have linked Queen Victoria's grandson, American quack-doctor Francis Tumblety, radical religious poet Francis Thompson, and many more. Now, evidence from a blood-covered shawl found at one of the murder scenes that's believed to contain DNA from both butchered victim Catherine Eddowes and the world's most infamous serial killer, may solve the mystery once and for all.

In a somewhat unrelated but relevant essay, Smithsonian magazine looked into “The Myth of Fingerprints” and the perils of relying on that forensic tool as well as its more recent counterpart, DNA evidence.

Thriller author Karen Ellis (a pseudonym of author Katia Lief) applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Last Night.

There are subscription services for just about everything these days - clothing, razors, food, music, books, you name it. Now, an endeavor called Hunt A Killer lets you play armchair detective without having to leave your home. Each month, subscribers receive a box ("episodes") that includes items related to the story and the mystery you're trying to solve. Each storyline lasts six episodes with each episode building on the one before leading up to an exciting season finale. It's an alternative to shy folks who might be too leery of the "escape room" experiences popping up around the world. Plus, for every episode of Hunt A Killer delivered, portions of the proceeds fund the cold case efforts at Cold Case Foundation.

If you're a fan of the game Clue and not shy, you might be interested in an event coming to Pittsburgh this summer. Based on a concept that started in the UK, CluedUpp is a game as billed as a “giant, outdoor version of the board game Clue.” It requires a team of two to six people to play detectives and a smartphone with the CluedUpp app. Participants are asked to come up with a “fantastically clever team name” and encouraged to dress in 1920s-inspired clothing. Organizers expect more than 100 teams to take part.

Via BookRiot, this little time-wasting quiz: “Which Kickass Literary Investigator Are You?”

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “Search the Hollow” by Benjamin Welton.

In the Q&A roundup, Gregg Hurwitz spoke with the Daily Mail about his meticulous research and the rules of creating a bestseller; Crime by the Book welcomed Emily Carpenter to talk about her addictive new suspense novel, Until the Day I Die; Kittling: Books asked Wendall Thomas for a Scene of the Crime interview about her Cyd Redondo mysteries, her favorite recurring character in crime fiction, and more; and Harlan Coben chatted with Ali Karim for Shots Magazine about his latest thriller, Run Away.

 

Author R&R with Patti Abbott

 

Patricia “Patti” Abbott is no stranger to this blog, being the organizer and shepherd of the Friday's Forgotten Books feature that I've participated in over the last ten years. Patti is also a very fine author whose novels Concrete Angel (2015) and Shot in Detroit (2016) were published by Polis books and shortlisted for the Anthony, Macavity, and Edgar Awards. Long before that, she was a Grande Dame of short crime fiction, with more than 150 short stories that have appeared in print and online publications, including the Derringer Award-winning “My Hero.” She is also the co-editor of the e-anthology Discount Noir.

Patti's Monkey Justice was just released by Down & Out Books, a collection of twenty-three short crime tales that explore the dark side of human behavior and are more about victims than perpetrators of crime: a father oversteps his proscribed duties; a young woman awakens something dormant in an older man; a young man saves his family but loses himself; a boy is a stranger in his newly configured house; a man misunderstands the marital situation he is drawn into; a squatter pleads for our pity but in the end betrays it; two old men compete for attention in a nursing home.

 

Patti stops by In Reference to Murder to talk more about this work and her writing in general:

 

How did this collection come about?

MONKEY JUSTICE was originally published nearly a decade ago by Snubnose Press as an electronic collection of stories. It represents twenty-two of my earliest crime fiction stories. All of them had already been published online, in anthologies, and in crime and literary magazines. When Snubnose Press went out of business, the manuscript disappeared, an event that had never occurred to me. It existed only on the ebook readers of the people who purchased it. Down and Out Books was kind enough to offer publication of a new print and ebook edition. If not, for them, this collection would be gone. In fact, the press had to use my own kindle to get to the manuscript. Too many years, computers, floppy disks, CDs and flash drives had come and gone.

 

Where do the ideas for your stories come from?

This is a question often posed to writers. At the time they were written, I was often on a bus to work two hours a day. Most of the stories emanated from the world that I passed through as I moved from a upper- middle class suburb into the city of Detroit. The entry into southeastern Detroit from Grosse Pointe Park is one of the most dramatic transitions you can imagine. It can't help but spur ideas. The title story, in fact, was one I overheard between two people on the seat in front of me. It was such an amazing story, I could hardly wait to get to begin writing it. Although all of these stories have a flash of inspiration or a detail or two from my life, none are about me. Some are from a male point of view, something that just happens now and then. Do I feel empowered by putting a male at the helm? Or do my stories speak to the dominance of males in crime? The most evil character in the book is a woman, however, and certainly not a victim.

 

Why are your stories so dark?

My mother always bemoaned the fact that I didn't write uplifting stories. But I think she read them incorrectly. My stories are often about the victim of a crime. Or someone trying to redress a crime. The very first story LIKE A HAWK RISING is about a thief, yes, but he is trying to save a boy he sees being mistreated. I have to admit to stealing "Souris" from a former family member in its entirety. Sometimes you hear a story that is so wonderful  you can barely bring yourself to change a word. Also mostly true is "The Squatter" and I apologize for reminding a dear friend of a bad incident in her life. "The Tortoise and the Tortoise" incorporates incidents from my father's time in assisted living. But definitely not the character's solution to his problems. So each of the stories borrow something from my life or the lives of people I know, but they are fiction. Or so I tell myself.

 

I thank Bonnie for giving me a platform to announce the publication on my collection. If it wasn't for the kindness of friends, it would indeed be a dark life.

 

Sophie Littlefield, author A Bad Day for Sorry, said of Monkey Justice, “In this collection of short contemporary noir fiction, Patti Abbott distinguishes herself as an extraordinary storyteller of the dark recesses of the human heart. Abbott’s characters hit hard, fight dirty, and seek a brand of hardscrabble justice that will leave you both wincing and wishing for more.” Author/editor Chris Rhatigan added, “Patti Abbott is one of the premier practitioners of the American crime story. The staggering level of care she invests in her craft is always evident from the first sentence to the last. She writes smart, dark tales with frighteningly real characters and vivid settings.” 

You can experience those smart, dark tales by grabbing your copy of Monkey Justice via all major booksellers and also follow Patti on Facebook and Twitter, as well as her blog which is where you'll find many of the Friday's Forgotten Books offerings.

Media Murder for Monday

It’s the start of a new week and that means it’s time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Tom Holland is in talks to star in a new film from Avengers directors Anthony and Joe Russo, the heist movie Cherry. Based on the 2018 novel by Nico Walker, the story centers on a former Iraq War Army medic who turned to robbing banks to pay for his increasing medical bills and to cope with his PTSD. While fictionalized, the book parallels the true story of its author, who himself was an army medic convicted for bank robbery and is currently serving out the last two years of his 11-year prison sentence.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Avengement, an action thriller starring Doctor Strange’s Scott Adkins and directed by Jesse V. Johnson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Stu Small. The film centers on a lowly criminal named Cain Burgess (Adkins) who evades his guards while on furlough and returns to his old haunts to take revenge on the people who made him a cold-hearted killer. Nick Moran, Thomas Turgoose, Kierston Wareing and Louis Mandylor co-star.

Killing Ground helmer, Damien Power, is attached to direct 20th Century Fox’s No Exit, a thriller based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Adams. The project follows several strangers stranded at a rest stop during a blizzard, where a young woman discovers a kidnapped girl and must determine who the kidnapper is and plot their escape.

Denzel Washington is in talks to star in John Lee Hancock’s cop thriller Little Things, taking on the role of Deke, a burned out Kern County sheriff who teams with LA County Sheriff’s Department detective, Baxter, to reel in a wily serial killer. Deke’s nose for the “little things” (hence the title of the movie) proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma, even as Deke wrestles with a dark secret from his past. The role of Baxter has yet to be cast.

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman has signed on for The Hitman’s Bodyguard sequel from Lionsgate and Millennium Films. Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek are set to reprise their roles with Patrick Hughes returning to direct from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor. The latest installment, which is slated to begin filming this month, will follow Michael Bryce (Reynolds) who joins Darius (Jackson) and his wife Sonia (Hayek) on a mission along the Amalfi Coast.

John Magaro has been cast in The Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, reteaming with David Chase after their 2012 movie Not Fade Away. There’s no word on who Magaro is playing, but he joins Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen and Michael Gandolfini in the cast. The project is set in the era of the Newark riots in the 1960s, when African Americans and Italian Americans in the city were at each other’s throats.

Denis O’Hare, Naomi Battrick and Ruairi O’Connor have joined Danis Tanovic’s The Postcard Killings. The trio will star alongside Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Connie Nielsen and Cush Jumbo in the adaptation of the James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestseller which follows a hardened New York Detective (Dean Morgan), in search of the person responsible for the murder of his only daughter. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Riven Rock Projects is moving into the action-thriller arena with the acquisition of Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series. The books, which consist of 14 installments including the recent Malta Exchange, focus on former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, who partners with Cassiopeia Vitt to take down the world’s deadliest terrorists, assassins and con men, unraveling along the way some of history’s most legendary and iconic mysteries.

Indie producer Stampede has acquired bestselling author Ragnar Jónasson’s Icelandic thriller The Darkness and will adapt it as a local-language series. The Darkness, which was published last year, is Jónasson’s first in a planned trilogy focusing on Reykjavik detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir, a dedicated investigator forced into early retirement who takes on a final cold case centered on the mysterious death of a young Russian asylum seeker. 

NBC has given an early Season 7 renewal to veteran thriller drama The Blacklist. Series star James Spader had renegotiated his deal early on, adding an extra year, but the rest of the show’s original cast members’ contracts were up at the end of the current sixth season. In addition to headliners Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, and Harry Lennix, The Blacklist cast also features Amir Arison, Mozhan Marnò and Hisham Tawfiq.

Michael Ealy and Mark Webber are set as leads opposite Cobie Smulders in Stumptown, ABC’s drama pilot inspired by the graphic novels published by Oni Press. It follows Dex Parios (Smulders), a strong, assertive, and sharp-witted Army veteran working as a PI in Portland, OR. Ealy will play Miles Hoffman, a detective with the Portland Police Department who is looking for escaped convict Samuel Kane, while Webber’s Grey McConnell is Dex’s best friend and has an unrequited crush on her. It was also announced last week that The Practice alumna Camryn Manheim is set as a lead in the project.

Last week I reported that Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones had signed on to star in Fox’s crime drama pilot Prodigal Son, but the network announced four days later they’d changed their minds and have replaced him with Walking Dead star Tom Payne. The project centers on Malcolm Bright, who has a gift of knowing how killers think and how their minds work because his father Martin Whitly (played by Michael Sheen) is one of the worst — a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” Also starring in the pilot as previously announced are Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, and Frank Harts.

And in other recasting news, Fox’s drama pilot, Deputy, is recasting one of the female leads opposite star Stephen Dorff. Bex Taylor-Klaus has been cast as Deputy Breanna Bishop, replacing Jasmine Kaur, who originally was cast in the role. Deputy centers on Deputy Bill Hollister (Dorff), a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors yet utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the L.A. County sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West. Taylor-Klaus’s Deputy Breanna Bishop is the smartly dressed, sarcastic, “quietly badass” driver in charge of newly appointed Sheriff Hollister’s security detail

Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny and Joon) is set as a lead opposite Nicholas Pinnock and Indira Varma in ABC’s untitled legal/family drama pilot from Hank Steinberg, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Doug Robinson, and Alison Greenspan. Also executive producing is Isaac Wright Jr., who was wrongfully convicted as a drug kingpin but got his conviction overturned while in prison and became a licensed attorney. Masterson will play Anya, the hard-charging Brooklyn District Attorney.

Former Midnight, Texas star Arielle Kebbel has been hired as the female lead opposite Russell Hornsby in NBC’s Lincoln, the drama pilot based on Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme book series that started with the 1997 novel The Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Lincoln forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs (Kebbel), a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD. Also joining the cast is Michael Imperioli, who will play Rick Sellitto, an NYPD detective who assists the title character, a quadriplegic forensic criminalist.

Freddie Prinze Jr. is joining the CW’s Nancy Drew project, playing Nancy's father Carson Drew. In the untitled pilot based on the series of mystery novels featuring the teen sleuth, Carson is a dynamic attorney who has become estranged from his daughter (Kennedy McMann) following the death of his beloved wife. His attempts to reconnect with Nancy run aground when her murder investigation reveals unsettling secrets from Carson's past. The cast also includes Leah Lewis (Charmed), Tunji Kasim, Maddison Jaizani and Alex Saxon. 

Joseph Lyle Taylor (Sneaky Pete) and David Fierro (The Knick) are set as series regulars opposite Edie Falco and Michael Chernus in the CBS drama pilot Tommy (fka Nancy), from the Bull team of co-creator Paul Attanasio and producer Amblin TV. Falco will play Abigail “Tommy” Thomas, a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles. Fierro’s Buddy is the brilliant, manipulative mayor of Los Angeles, who becomes a rival for power with the city’s first female police chief, while Taylor will portray Dudik, Buddy’s deputy.

Longmire and Saving Grace alum Bailey Chase and David Andrews (Shooter) have joined the Season 4 cast of USA Network’s Queen of the South drama series in key roles. Starring Alice Braga and based on the best-selling book La Reina Del Sur by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Queen of the South tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Braga), a woman who is forced to run from a Mexican cartel to seek refuge in America.  

Scrubs alum Donald Faison is set as a lead opposite Allison Tolman in Emergence, NBC’s mystery drama pilot. Emergence is a character-driven genre thriller that centers on Jo (Tolman), a police chief who takes in a young child, Piper (Alexa Skye Swinton), she finds near the site of a mysterious accident. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined.

Michael Mosley (Seven Seconds, Ozark) is set as a series regular in Fox’s artificial intelligence thriller drama pilot neXT. The show is described as “a propulsive, fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research.” Mosley will play CM, a Southern ex-con hacker with a genius IQ who works at the FBI cybercrime division. He joins previously cast series regulars Fernanda Andrade, Eve Harlowe, Aaron Moten, and Gerardo Celasco.

Joe Tippett (Rise) and Colony alum Alex Neustaedter are set as series regulars opposite Malin Akerman and Mykelti Williamson in NBC’s legal drama pilot Prism, inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa. Prism is described as a provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved.

A trailer was released for Charlie Says, a film which focuses on the females who fell prey to the manipulation of the infamous murderer and cult leader Charles Manson. American Psycho filmmaker Mary Harron directed the film, which stars The Crown’s Matt Smith as Manson.

A keynote lecture by James Naremore will be part of the second annual Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival  Wednesday, March 27. The event will be held at the Katharina Otto-Bernstein screening room at the Lenfest Center for the Arts in New York and features the talk “Into the Night: Cornell Woolrich and Film Noir.”

If you’re a fan of international crime dramas, check out this list from the New York Times of “5 New International Series [that] Visit 5 Far-Flung Crime Scenes.”

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Story Blender welcomed Liv Constantine, the internationally bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish, who follows that success with an addictive novel about the aftermath of a brutal high-society murder in The Last Time I Saw You.

Debbi Mack interviewed mystery author Phillippe Diederich (writing as Danny Lopez), author of the Dexter Vega mysteries, on the Crime Cafe podcast.

Writer Types hosts Eric Beetner and  S.W. Lauden welcomed the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to talk about their debut novel, Double Exposure; Wendall Thomas, author of the Cyd Redondo series; Jeffrey Fleishman to answer five questions about his novel My Detective; plus authors from the upcoming anthology Murder A Go-Gos.

Hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about the big college admissions scam and provided some creepy book picks for a reader’s book club on the Read or Dead podcast.

The latest two Speaking of Mysteries podcasts featured Jess Montgomery discussing The Widows, the first novel in a new series with Lily Ross, the first woman sheriff in Ohio; and Glen Erik Hamilton, talking about Mercy River, the fourth installment in his series about the former Army Ranger, Van Shaw.

Tell the Damn Story host Chris Ryan chatted with mystery author and ex-journalist, R.G. Belsky.

The latest edition of Michael Connelly’s Murder Book podcast focuses on the defense of Pierre Romain.

THEATER

The Kings Theatre in Edinburgh is staging a production of The Girl on the Train, adapted from Paula Hawkins’s novel about a woman who learns someone she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, embroiling her in a thrilling mystery. The show opens March 25 with a run through March 30.

GAMES

NEXT Studios has announced its upcoming narrative-centric detective game, Unheard, will be released on PC on March 29, 2019. Unheard combines story-driven audio drama with puzzle elements to create a unique experience where players take on the role of a time-traveling detective who is only able to use one sense—sound.

Mystery Melange

 

For over 30 years, the Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) have identified and honored the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender books. The organization recently announced the finalists of the 31st Lammys, culled from over 1,000 book submissions by 300 publishers, with winners to be announced at the Awards Ceremony and Gala the evening of Monday, June 3, 2019 in New York City. Here are the finalists for best Lesbian Mystery and Best Gay Mystery:

Lesbian Mystery

• A Matter of Blood, Catherine Maiorisi
• A Study in Honor: A Novel, Claire O’Dell
• A Whisper of Bones: A Jane Lawless Mystery, Ellen Hart
• Alice Isn’t Dead: A Novel, Joseph Fink
• Gnarled Hollow, Charlotte Greene
• The Locket, Gerri Hill
• Secrets of the Last Castle, A. Rose Mathieu
• Stolen: A Kieran Yeats Mystery, Linda J. Wright

Gay Mystery

• Black Diamond Fall, Joseph Olshan
• Boystown 11: Heart’s Desire, Marshall Thornton
• Death Checks In, David S. Pederson
• Dodging and Burning: A Mystery, John Copenhaver
• The God Game: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round
• Late Fees: A Pinx Video Mystery, Marshall Thornton
• Somewhere Over Lorain Road, Bud Gundy
• Survival Is a Dying Art: An Angus Green Novel, Neil S. Plakcy

 

Friends of Mystery, a non-profit literary organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon, announced its list of 10 finalists for the 2019 Spotted Owl Award. For a book to be considered, the author must have primary residence in the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or the Province of British Columbia. The winner will be awarded later this month from among the nominees:

• Baron Birtcher – Fistful of Rai
• Robert Dugoni – A Steep Price
• Warren Easley – Moving Targets
• G.M. Ford – Soul Survivor
• Elizabeth George – The Punishment She Deserves
• Stephen Holgate – Madagascar
• Mike Lawson – House Witness
• Martin Limon – The Line
• John Straley – Baby’s First Felony
• Jon Talton – The Bomb Shelter

 

Foreword Magazine released the list of finalists for the 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, including the fifteen titles in the Mystery category and the thirteen books in the Thriller category.

This coming Saturday, March 16th, the Murderous March 2019 Writers’ & Readers’ Confab, hosted by the Mavens of Mayhem (Sisters in Crime, Upper Hudson chapter) and the East Greenbush Community Library will take place in East Greenbush, New York. Canadian author Vicki Delany is the keynote speaker, with other featured authors to include Edwin Hill, Frankie Y. Bailey, Catherine Bruns, Debi Chowdhury, Denis Foley, and Kathleen J. Kaminski.

Portland, Maine’s Brownville Free Public Library will host a series of discussions themed around “Detective Fiction in the 20th Century: A Notion of Evil,” from April 16 - June 11, 2019. This series examines the enormous popularity of mystery/detective fiction and at the same time “provides a highly entertaining platform to consider the nature of a specific literary genre.” Organizers also hope participants will experience how literature grows out of and is changed by the cultural climate and historical moment from which it springs.

Yes Weekly profiled the “six-gun sisters and future female private eyes,” a/k/a the diverse pulp fiction of Nicole Givens Kurtz, whose novels include a rare black female protagonist in pulp fiction. 

A literary mystery solved? It's well known that literature was almost exclusively the realm of monasteries in medieval times, but it was primarily thought to involve male scribes. However, analysis of the fossilized dental plaque of a medieval woman reveals lapis lazuli, suggesting she was an accomplished painter of illuminated manuscripts. Christina Warinner of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author on the paper about the discovery, added, “This woman's story could have remained hidden forever without the use of these techniques. It makes me wonder how many other artists we might find in medieval cemeteries - if we only look.”

Mardi Gras 2019 may be history, but you can still check out more lists of the crime fiction of New Orleans and Carnival, courtesy of Crime Reads.

The Spectator has regular writing challenges for their readers, and the latest was to submit a short story in the style of hard-boiled crime fiction set in the corridors of power. According to the editors, “Raymond Chandler cast a long shadow over an entry bristling with stinging one-liners, dames, black humour and grandstanding similes laid on with a trowel. The mean streets of Westminster were the most popular setting, though there were glimpses of Brussels and the Oval Office too.”

Speaking of hard-boiled, Crime Reads offered up a list of “The 10 Best and Pulpiest Mickey Spillane Covers” in honor the iconic crime fiction author's birthday.

Folks in relatively low-crime areas often find entertainment from reading the local police blotter. YouTuber Michael McCurdy recently took this to another level and made a video featuring animated selections from the police blotter for Port Townsend, Washington, and surrounding Jefferson County. Watch as a tough local cop rescues an otter from a garbage can. Just another day on the job.

NPR has a series of puzzles online, and a recent one was based on the names of famous writers of mysteries, crime fiction, and spy novels, with their last names anagrammed. If you’re familiar with classic crime fiction, this should be a piece of cake (or cafe coke pie, if you prefer).

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “The Good, the Kind, the Peaceful” by David Cranmer.

In the Q&A roundup, David Roy of the Irish Times chatted with novelist Anthony Horowitz about his best-selling teen spy series Alex Rider and what it’s like penning new adventures for Ian Fleming’s James Bond; Donna Leon, author of the Guido Brunetti series, was the latest to participate in the New York Times's By the Book Q&A; Don Winslow was interviewed by GQ Magazine to chat about his latest novel (the third in his cartel trilogy), Trump, and becoming an accidental activist; Ann Cleves spoke with the Belfast Telegraph about the pain of losing her husband, what she makes of TV series inspired by her work and how commercial success hasn’t changed her; and William Kent Krueger sat down with the Minnesota Sun Sailor about the inspiration for his latest mystery and how his sense of rebellion still finds its way into his books.

Media Murder for Monday

It’s the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B (the creative team behind this year's Oscar winners Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk) are adapting the best-selling novel The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides to the big screen. The thriller centers on Alicia Berenson, a famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer with a seemingly perfect life - until one day she shoots her husband five times in the face and then never speaks another word. When she's sent to the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London, criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is determined to get her to talk and unravel the mystery behind her actions, a pursuit that threatens to consume him.

The upstart Solstice Studios has chosen its first homegrown picture, the action thriller Split Second. Scripted by former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune, Split Second centers on an assassin who suffers a psychological breakdown when he is ordered to kill the woman who is his lifeline. The story follows two versions of the same character: one who pulls the trigger and descends into madness, the other who takes the road to redemption and goes on the run with her.

Unified Pictures is developing the film noir thriller Whisper. The project stars Maia Mitchell, Joey Bicicchi, and Guy Burnet, with Azi Rahman making his feature directorial debut. Bicicchi plays Nick, a talented photographer who is new to Los Angeles and falls for Tessa (Mitchell), a free-spirited young woman who is no longer charmed by the city. Their worlds are turned upside down when she asks him to do the unimaginable, which forces the duo down a path of revenge and destruction.

Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike has been cast as the lead in the thriller I Care A Lot. Director J Blakeson (The 5th Wave) is also writing the project, which will begin shooting in June of this year. Oscar nominee Pike will play Marla Grayson, a highly successful legal guardian with a knack for using the law to her benefit and her clients’ detriment. But when she cherry picks her seemingly perfect client, she soon realizes looks can be deceiving.

James Moses Black has come aboard Black and Blue, a crime drama directed by Deon Taylor. Naomie Harris stars as a rookie cop in New Orleans who witnesses corrupt narc officers murdering a drug dealer, an event captured by her body cam. When they then fail to execute her and she escapes, the narcs pin the murder on her, and she is hunted both by the narcs who are desperate to destroy the incriminating footage, as well as the drug dealers out for apparent revenge.

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow announced the release of Sherlock Holmes 3 has been pushed back a full year. The still-untitled follow up to 2011’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will now hit theaters December 22, 2021, instead of December 25, 2020. The first two films were directed by Guy Ritchie and starred Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson, respectively. It's not been officially announced whether Downey and Law will return for the third outing.

If you're a fan of noir cinema, check out this list of the “10 best neo-noir films of all time: From Chinatown to LA Confidential.”

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

FX Networks has landed the rights to adapt Don Winslow’s acclaimed Cartel Trilogy into a TV series that will include Winslow’s 2005 novel The Power of the Dog, the 2015 followup The Cartel, and the just published conclusion, The Border. The book trilogy spans a 45 year period and follows DEA agent Art Keller through America’s long running war on drugs as well as his blood feud with Mexican drug kingpin Adan Berrera. The first two books were originally sold to be turned into a feature film by Fox, but the company ultimately decided it was too much material for a two-hour film and better suited for “an edgy Sons of Anarchy-style series” by sister company FX.

The classic British series Rumpole of the Bailey is returning to the small screen. The legal drama, which was created by writer and barrister John Mortimer, will be rebooted by Mortimer’s daughter, Emily. The original starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an elderly barrister in London who defended a weird and wonderful mix of clients. Polly Williams, eOne’s head of scripted development in the UK, told Deadline that Mortimer has “reimagined” the series and she and her sister Rosie were writing the script. “They have written a very modern take on Rumpole. I’m very excited to see how that turns out,” Williams added.

Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories has inked a deal with Agatha Christie Ltd. to develop a new Miss Marple TV series. The latest incarnation will be co-developed by the Big Little Lies producer and Endeavor Content. Christie’s books about the amateur detective have been in print for more than 90 years and are now in more than 100 territories worldwide. Numerous film and TV adaptations through that time have starred Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine McEwan, Helen Hayes, and Joan Hickson as the iconic amateur sleuth.

NBC has put the brakes on its plans for Law & Order: Hate Crimes, the greenlighted new Law & Order spinoff from the franchise’s creator Dick Wolf, which had already been given a 13-episode order. The project remains in active development at the network as everyone “needed more time to fresh (sic) out the concept.” Meanwhile, SVU has not been renewed, although it is considered to be likely so it can break the record for the longest-run drama series jointly held by Gunsmoke and Law & Order. It is thought the Hate Crimes spinoff could then be introduced during SVU’s 21st and likely final season.

A drama series starring Captain Marvel star Brie Larson has landed at Apple with a straight-to-series order. The untitled female-focused CIA drama is based on Amaryrillis Fox’s upcoming memoir, Coming of Age in the CIA, and draws upon the real-life experiences of undercover operative Fox as a young woman working up the ranks in the spy agency.

Podcast company Wondery is stepping up its television activities following the success of Dirty John and is in talks to adapt its latest hit, Over My Dead Body. The first season of the Over My Dead Body podcast tells the story of Dan Markel and his wife Wendi, two good-looking attorneys whose wedding is featured in the New York Times. But when this perfect couple’s marriage falls apart, it leads to a bad breakup, a worse divorce, and a murder case involving a menagerie of high-priced lawyers and unexpected co-conspirators.

USA Network has picked up a third season of its thriller drama series, The Sinner, and has tapped Matt Bomer as a new lead opposite Bill Pullman who will return as Detective Harry Ambrose. Bomer will play Jamie, an upstanding Dorchester resident and expectant father who looks to Ambrose for support in the wake of an accident. He succeeds Jessica Biel and Carrie Coon, who starred opposite Pullman in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively.

Russell Hornsby has been hired as the title character in NBC’s Lincoln, a drama pilot based on the bestselling book series by Jeffery Deaver (adapted into the 1999 movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie). Lincoln follows legendary forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Hornsby), who was seriously injured during his hunt for the diabolical serial killer known as the Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Rhyme forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs, a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD.

Nicholas Pinnock (Counterpart) has been cast as the lead in ABC’s untitled legal/family drama pilot that centers on Aaron (Pinnock), a prisoner who becomes a lawyer, litigating cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. One of the producers on the project is Isaac Wright, Jr., who was once wrongfully convicted as drug kingpin but got his conviction overturned while in prison and became a licensed attorney. It was also recently announced that Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) has been cast as the female lead in the pilot.

Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones has signed on to star in Fox’s crime drama pilot, Prodigal Son. The project centers on Malcolm Bright (Jones), who has a gift—he knows how killers think because his father Martin Whitly (played by Michael Sheen) is one of the worst, a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” Also starring in the pilot are Bellamy Young, Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, and Frank Harts.

ITV announced that Brenda Blethyn will return for a 10th series of Vera (based on the novels by Ann Cleeves), reprising her role as DCI Vera Stanhope. Four feature-length episodes, set in North East England, will begin production in April and will air in 2020. Returning alongside Blethyn are Kenny Doughty (DS Aiden Healy), Jon Morrison (DC Kenny Lockhart), Riley Jones (DC Mark Edwards), Ibinabo Jack (DC Jacqueline Williams), and Paul Kaye (Dr Malcolm Donahue).

Hellboy’s Ron Perlman and X-Men’s Famke Janssen are to star in BBC One's spy drama The Capture, joining previously announced Callum Turner and Holliday Grainger in the six-part series. The London-set spy thriller begins with the unjust arrest of an innocent man and escalates into a multi-layered conspiracy of manipulated evidence.

Sara Rue is set as a series regular in NBC’s Prism pilot. Written and directed by Daniel Barnz, Prism is inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa, and is described as a “provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved.”

Sofia Barclay has booked a series regular role on ABC’s NYPD Blue pilot, a new iteration of the iconic cop drama. The sequel centers on Theo (played by Fabien Frankel), the son of Dennis Franz’s Detective Andy Sipowicz character from the original series, who tries to earn his detective shield and work in the 15th squad while investigating his father’s murder.

Daredevil alum Wilson Bethel is set as a series regular in the CBS legal drama pilot Courthouse, a show that pulls back the curtain on the court system. It follows the lives of the judges, assistant district attorneys, and public defenders as they work with bailiffs, clerks, cops and jurors to bring justice to the people of Los Angeles. Bethel will play Mark, a roguish, highly successful Deputy District Attorney.

Maddison Jaizani and Alex Saxon are set as series regulars opposite Kennedy McMann and Tunji Kasim in the CW’s untitled Nancy Drew pilot inspired by the classic mysteries about the brilliant young sleuth. Jaizani will play Bess, a refined young woman whose wealthy background sets her apart from Nancy (Kennedy McMann) – but when they both become suspects in the same murder, Bess proves to be a spirited ally in the search for the real killer.

Chris D’Elia is set for a recurring role on the upcoming second season of Netflix’s You. D’Elia will play Henderson, a “designer hoodie, black Ray-Bans, expensive sneakers-wearing famous comedian.” You follows bookstore manager and stalker Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) and is based on Caroline Kepnes’s best-selling novels. The show’s second season will be loosely based on the author’s second book in the series titled Hidden Bodies, which follows Goldberg to Los Angeles where he meets Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), an aspiring chef who isn’t into social media like his previous leading lady.

Yara Martinez and Brian Van Holt will co-star opposite Stephen Dorff in Deputy, Fox’s police drama pilot from Bright helmer David Ayer, Aquaman writer Will Beall, and eOne. Written by Beall and directed by Ayer, Deputy centers on Deputy Bill Hollister (Dorff), a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors but utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the L.A. County sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West. Martinez will play Hollister’s wife, Dr. Paula Reyes, a trauma surgeon, while Van Holt will play former Marine-turned-Deputy Cade Walker.

Sarayu Blue has joined the cast of Medical Police, which has a 10-episode series order at Netflix and stars Childrens Hospital alums Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel. Medical Police is described as an action-packed thriller, mystery, and love story that centers on two American physicians (Hayes and Huebel) stationed at a pediatric hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, who discover a civilization-threatening virus. The duo are recruited as government agents in a race against time and around the world to find a cure and uncover a dark conspiracy.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

David Swinson was featured on WAMU public radio's Kojo Nnamdi Show to talk about his career, his characters, and the “good cop/bad cop” tropes of crime fiction.

On the latest Mysteryrat’s Maze podcast from Kings River Life magazine, actor Thomas Nance reads the first chapter of the mystery novel Fostering Death by K.M. Rockwood.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste welcomed guest Jo Spain, who talked about her road to being published, Brookside, and writing for TV.

Beyond the Cover chatted with Greg Iles about his latest novel, Cemetery Road.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed Dr. Ellen Kirschman, clinical psychologist and consultant, who's worked with law enforcement agencies for over 20 years, and has written mysteries and nonfiction books like I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief focused on “The Rules of Writing.”

Michael Connelly's Murder Book podcast continued the real life saga of a Hollywood killing that tested the limits of the American justice system.

THEATER

The Mystery Series at Calgary's Vertigo Theatre is performing Might as Well Be Dead: a Nero Wolfe Mystery, from March 16- April 14. Adapted by Joseph Goodrich from the Rex Stout novel, the story follows iconic P.I. Nero Wole and his assistant Archie Goodwin as they help a client whose estranged son has been charged with murder.

Mystery Melange

 

The British Crime Writers’ Association has selected author Robert Goddard as the recipient of its 2019 CWA Diamond Dagger, given to an author whose crime writing career has been marked by sustained excellence and who has made a significant contribution to the genre. Goddard will received the award during the CWA’s Dagger Awards ceremony on October 24 in London. Previous winners of the CWA Diamond Dagger include Michael Connelly, Ann Cleeves, Sara Paretsky, and Peter Lovesey.

The Carter Brown Foundation in conjunction with Brio Books and Stark House Press announced that the inaugural winner of the Carter Brown Mystery Writing Award is Wilson Toney for his novel, Alibi for a Dead Man. The judges praised the novel for its “snappy plotting, sharp dialogue and authentic characterization.” The award is named in honor of prolific Australian author Alan Geoffrey Yates, aka Carter Brown (1923-1985), who wrote over 350 novels and was posthumously awarded a Ned Kelly, Australia’s leading literary award for crime writing.

The winners of the Audie Awards, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association, were announced Monday night at the APA’s 24th annual Audies Gala. The winner in the Mystery category was The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George, as read by Simon Vance. The Thriller/Suspense award winner was Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, read by Euan Morton.

The McIlvanney Prize is launching a new award for 2019 for Scottish Crime Debut of the Year. The winner of the McIlvanney Prize, Bloody Scotland’s annual prize awarded to the best Scottish Crime book of the year, will be awarded £1,000, with the winner of the Crime Debut taking home £500. The Scottish Crime Debut of the Year will be judged by the board of Bloody Scotland including crime writers Lin Anderson, Craig Robertson, Gordon Brown and Abir Mukerjee.

An International Crime Fiction conference is headed to University College Dublin on March 29. Panel discussions will include such topics as “Contemporary Perspectives on French Crime Fiction,” “Italian and Irish Crime Fiction,” and more. This is a free event open to the public.

Crafting Crime Fiction: Mark Billingham and Erin Kelly will be in conversation with Libraries Sheffield on May 23, talking about writing crime fiction, adapting work for television, and their latest books. The authors are both Sunday Times bestselling authors and both published in over 25 countries.

HarperCollins imprint Avon is partnering with the Big Issue magazine to find a new crime writer in a competition launching this month. The winner will receive a two-book deal with the HarperCollins division. Submissions are invited from across the UK, with a deadline of May 31, 2019 followed by the shortlist and winner announcements in September and October, respectively. Judges for the award include books editor at the Big Issue, Jane Graham; Kingsford Campbell agent Julia Silk; author Katerina Diamond; and writer and editor M J Ford.

There is a call for papers for a special issue of Studies In Crime Writing: The True Crime Renaissance. This edition is devoted to scholarly explorations of the reasons for this popularity and a deep analysis of the genre in its present and multiple forms. The editors welcome submissions on any aspect of this phenomenon and seek 300-word abstracts and a 1-page CV by the deadline of June 30, 2019. First drafts of accepted essays will be due by September 30, 2019, and final drafts by January 31, 2020 for a 2020 publication date.

Author and editor Martin Edwards noted that among the upcoming titles in the British Library’s Crime Classic series is the first novel by John Dickson Carr, It Walks By Night, which introduced his first major series detective, Henri Bencolin. The new edition will also include a Bencolin short story.

Alan Nevins and his team at Renaissance Literary & Talent, who represent the various parties that control the Cornell Woolrich library, have worked tirelessly to track down and retrieve rights to Woolrich stories and collections that have been out of print for decades. They're making a major push to reintroduce Woolrich’s revolutionary work to new audiences with fresh collections of his most well-known and obscure short fiction. They already issued a couple of editions including a two-part series published on the 50th anniversary his death, An Obsession with Death and Dying, with more works schedule in the months to come.

The online publication My London News profiled Isokon, the London building that opened in 1934, where Agatha Christie and a Cambridge spy ring mastermind both lived. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Agatha Christie wrote her only spy novel, N or M?, during her stay there.

Speaking of Agatha Christie, her fans and readers can relax. HarperCollins Publishers has signed a new global deal with Agatha Christie Ltd to continue its exclusive English language publishing relationship until 2030. The company has been Christie’s publisher since The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published (under imprint William Collins) in 1926, and the deal for print, digital and audio formats continues one of the longest-running partnerships in publishing history.

Carol Westron penned a guest post on the Promoting Crime Fiction blog about how superstition, spiritualism, and the supernatural were used by many Golden Age authors but in particular, Ngaio Marsh.

Indie publisher Joffe Books has acquired the 350-strong Robert Hale crime and general fiction list from the Crowood Press. Hale’s publishing list was built up over the course of 80 years and included titles from big names like Jean Plaidy, Harold Robbins and Nicholas Rhea, as well as UK print rights to Robert Bloch’s classic, Psycho. Joffe Books, a digital crime specialist, plans to relaunch many of the titles over the next 12 to 18 months in both ebook and paperback editions.

We lost two fine crime authors last week when news came of the deaths of H. Terrell Griffin and Charles McCarry. Griffin was a former attorney and Army medic who later turned his hand to writing the award-winning Matt Royal mysteries set on the Florida Gulf Coast. (Here's an Author R&R post he shared with this blog back in 2008 after the publication of his novel, Blood Island.) McCarry was a former C.I.A. agent who used his Cold War experiences to pen his critically-acclaimed espionage novels, including the bestselling The Tears of Autumn, about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Just in time for Mardi Gras, Janet Rudolph has a list of Mardi Gras mysteries. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The Milwaukee Public Museum's new exhibit, “The Power of Poison,” opened this past weekend and runs through July 7. Organized by the American Museum of Natural History, the exhibit highlights the complex role of venom and poisons in nature, popular culture, medicine and history. There's a section on poison in myths and legends, highlighting how poisonings are critical plot points in the Harry Potter series, comic books, Sherlock Holmes stories, and Agatha Christie's novels.

A notebook of poetry penned by Bonnie Park and Clyde Barrow is set to go on auction in April. The volume features poems written by the outlaw duo during their Depression-era crime spree and also includes a treasure trove of photographs. Although most of the poems were written by Bonnie, the book also includes a poem ostensibly written in Clyde Barrow’s spelling error-filled scrawl.

My local library matched up readers up with book “blind dates” for Valentine's Day - but Tom Lee, owner of Troubadour Books and Records, has been wrapping some of his wares in brown paper and string for a while, with only a quote and some key words to entice potential readers, giving “mystery novel” a new meaning.

What a bargain! Late author Tom Clancy’s former penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore is now on the market for less than half its original asking price. The 12,000-square-foot condo is currently listed for $5.9 million and features views of the Inner Harbor, five bedrooms, two offices, three private elevators, and a 700-square-foot private gym and an in-home theater.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is “The Complex Solution is Sometimes Correct” by Nicholas Bush.

In the Q&A roundup, Crime by the Book welcome crime writer Camilla Grebe to discuss her brand-new Scandinavian mystery, After She's Gone; The Bookseller chatted with Karin Slaughter about her most recent novel, Pieces of Her, and the gendered questions she gets about the violence in her books; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with MJ Arlidge, the creator of the series of crime novels featuring DI Helen Grace and also a TV producer on shows such as Silent Witness; and the Mystery People’s Scott Butki interviewed Greg Iles, the bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy, who returns with a new novel, Cemetery Road, about friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town.