Mystery Melange

 

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) announced the shortlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards. The ten Daggers awarded annually by the CWA are regarded by the publishing world as the foremost British awards for crime-writing. The winners will be announced at the Dagger Award ceremony at the Grange City Hotel, London, on October 24, when Robert Goddard will also be presented with the 2019 Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement, the highest honour in British crime writing. Shots Magazine has a handy reference of all the finalists.

The International Association of Crime Writers, North America announced the winner of this year's Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing, this year dedicated to the late longtime Executive Director Mary A. Frisque. The winning novel was November Road by Lou Berney, with the other finalists including William Boyle's The Lonely Witness; Robert Olen Butler's Paris in the Dark; Lisa Unger's Under My Skin; Sam Wiebe's Cut You Down.

The finalists for the Macavity Awards, nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI, were announced with winners to be handed out at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Dallas, TX, October 31. For all the nominees for Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Nonfiction, Best Short Story, and the Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery, head on over to the Mystery Fanfare website.

The Australian Crime Writers Association has released the longlist for the 2019 Ned Kelly Awards, with winners to be announced September 6 during the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. To see the nominated titles in all three categories (Best Fiction, Best First Novel, and Best True Crime), follow this link.

The finalists for the 2019 Library of Virginia Literary Award were announced, including Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin, which also won the Edgar Award for Best Debut Novel.

Romance Writers of America announced the winners of the 2019 RITA Awards, including the Romantic Suspense category. The winner was Fearless by Elizabeth Dyer, with the other finalists including The Bastard's Bargain by Katee Robert; Before We Were Strangers by Brenda Novak; Consumed by J. R. Ward; Cut and Run by Mary Burton; Reckless Honor by Tonya Burrows; and Relentless by Elizabeth Dyer.

The Capital Crime festival announced the Amazon Publishing Readers Awards Shortlist, including in the Best Mystery, Best Thriller, and Best Crime Novel categories. Capital Crime festival pass holders will be able to vote for the winner in each category through 19th September. The winners of the awards will be announced at the festival on Saturday 26th September at a gala reception that marks the close of the event.

Sad news from the crime fiction community this past weekend: mystery author Sarah Andrews, her husband, and her son were killed in a plane crash in Nebraska. Andrews was a geologist who wrote 11 mysteries about forensic geologist Em Hansen. She also lectured part-time in the Geology Department at Sonoma State University and at public events and geological symposia. Andrews was 68. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Three articles of note from the New York Times (subscription required): They asked 13 Novelists, From Lee Child to Ruth Ware, "What’s the Best Murder You Ever Wrote?" (Karin Slaughter killed a character with antifreeze; Peter Swanson used cashews and a missing EpiPen); also, "What if Hercule Poirot Went Sleuthing on the L Train?" where Ali Fitzgerald imagines Agatha Christie’s famous detective on a hunt for clues through the New York City subways; and a listing of true-crime stories and books from every state.

For fans of forensics and true crime comes a tale with a bittersweet ending: using DNA, genealogists finally confirmed the identity of the "Belle in the Well," a mysterious woman found strangled 38 years ago.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Intuders in Akumal" by Clarinda Harriss.

In the Q&A roundup, The Bookseller had "Seven Questions" for David Baldacci; and over at the Mystery People blog, Billy Kring interviewed Stephen Hunter about his latest Bob Lee Swagger book, Game Of Snipers; Matthew McBride also sat down for a chat about his latest book, The End Of The Ocean, which takes place in Bali with an American who falls for an island woman and gets recruited by a drug-smuggling ring—in a country where drug trafficking is punishable by death.

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

Treehouse Pictures has acquired the 2010 John Grisham novel, The Confession, and will develop it as a film. The story follow Donte Drumm, a young black man whose own forced confession put him on death row for the rape and murder of a high school cheerleader, and whose execution is scheduled in four days' time. It’s a race against the clock to exonerate him after a man walks into a priest's office and confesses to the crime from ten years earlier.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are reuniting on-screen in The Last Duel, a project based on Eric Jager’s book, The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal and Trial by Combat in Medieval France, with Ridley Scott attached to direct. Damon and Affleck are also adapting the script with Oscar-nominated screenwriter, Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?). The story is set in the 1300s in Normandy and Paris and brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge.

The Other Side Of The Wind co-producer Dax Phelan is gearing up to direct his second feature, the suspense thriller, Kirkwood. The film follows former police detective Joe Dolan and his estranged teenage son, Max, who grow closer as they work together to cover up an accidental murder. When the family of the deceased hires a ruthless private investigator to re-examine the evidence in the case and the investigator begins to suspect the Dolans, Max’s sanity is pushed to the breaking point and Joe must go to extreme lenghts to keep their secret safe.

Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mob Girl by Teresa Carpenter.  Lawrence will also produce the film, which is based on the life of the mob wife turned police informant Arlyne Brickman, who grows up among racketeers on the Lower East Side of New York City where she’s drawn to the glamorous and flashy lifestyle of New York mobsters. Soon after, she begins dating "wiseguys" and running errands for them, before getting in on the action herself — eventually becoming a police informant and a major witness in the government’s case against the Colombo crime family.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Jeffery Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s Quibi short-form streaming service has picked up Skinny Dip, a comedy series based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2004 satirical novel. The project had been set up as a drama pilot at the CW in the 2018 cycle but did not move forward there. The series is described as a darkly comedic odyssey of revenge where a jilted woman miraculously survives a night in the open ocean after her husband suddenly flings her overboard on their anniversary cruise. Plucked to safety serendipitously by a retired cop, the two team up to gaslight her husband.

Robert Harris’s upcoming book, The Second Sleep, is being turned into a TV show by the producers of Downton Abbey. The Second Sleep follows a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, who arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with artefacts – coins, fragments of glass, human bones – which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the Ancients lead to his death? Did he discover something kept secret for centuries? The novel is described as "a genre-bending thriller that explores the devastating potential of misused and oppressive doctrine, whilst challenging our notions of liberty and history."

Big Talk Productions is adapting a series of crime novels from Nigerian author Leye Adenle for the small-screen. The book series, which includes Easy Motion Tourist and When Trouble Sleeps, are gritty and vivid crime novels that center around sassy heroine Amaka and her dangerous fight against corruption and exploitation. It goes from the gated mansions of Victoria Island where rich politicians plot to subvert democracy to the crowded streets of Ojuelegba where violent gangs fight for control.

Amazon has revealed its latest project, an adaptation of Cristina Alger's best-selling novel, The Banker's Wife. Set in the world of global finance, the thriller follows two women as they chase down answers following a mysterious plane crash. After shining a light on offshore accounts obviously meant to be kept in the dark because they're offshore accounts, the two find themselves in the crosshairs of a larger conspiracy involving money laundering, politics, and a complicated web of terrorists and criminals.

ITV is producing a new detective franchise, Invisible, written by Robert Murphy (lead writer on Left Bank’s long-running detective series DCI Banks) and starring The Crown’s Jason Watkins and Cold Feet’s Tala Gouveia. Set in Bath, Watkins plays the shy, modest DS Dodds, who is paired with the wildly ambitious DCI McDonald, played by Gouveia. Thrown together, boss McDonald and loyal sidekick Dodds forge a rumbustious, entertaining and ultimately effective partnership.

Jeff Bridges is set to star The Old Man, a new drama that has been ordered to series at FX. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry, the project centers on Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past. This will mark the first starring TV role of Bridges’ career, after being nominated for seven Academy Awards.

More cast additions to the upcoing Perry Mason series:  McMafia's Juliet Rylance is set as a series regular, and Andrew Howard (The Oath), Eric Lange (Narcos), Robert Patrick (True Blood) and Stephen Root (Barry) will recur opposite Matthew Rhys and John Lithgow. HBO’s limited series is based on the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, with the reimagined Perry Mason set in 1931 Los Angeles.

Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black) is set for a recurring role on Hulu’s upcoming femme fatale thriller series Reprisal, from The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer Warren Littlefield and A+E Studios. Created, written and executive produced by Josh Corbin (StartUp), Reprisal is a "hyper-noir" story that follows Katherine (Abigail Spencer), a relentless femme fatale who, after being left for dead, sets out to take revenge against her brother and his bombastic gang of gearheads. DeLaria will play Queenie, the crowned matriarch of The Banished Brawlers gang.

Jamie McShane (Bloodline) and Rudy Dobrev (NCIS: Los Angeles) are set for recurring roles on the upcoming third season of military drama series SEAL Team. Starring David Boreanaz, SEAL Team follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous missions that our country can ask of them. McShane will play Captain Lindell, a hard charging leader who’s dedicated to bringing a new generation of operational adaptability to the Navy’s Tier One Command; Dobrev will portray Filip, a tough, capable field agent for Serbia’s SIA. 

HBO unveiled a new documentary series about the Atlanta child murders, and also set its documentary slate for the rest of 2019, including other crime-related programs.

The first trailer for Why Women Kill has dropped for the CBS All Access show that stars Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time), Lucy Liu (Elementary), and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Killing Eve) as a trio of women living in three very different time periods, but who all suffer infidelity from their spouses and each have murder on their minds as a result

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Writers' Bone podcast featured Laura Lippman, a former Baltimore newspaper journalist turned crime fiction author, whose latest novel, Lady in the Lake, is set in 1960s Baltimore and based on a real unsolved case in which a woman was found dead in a fountain.

RNZ National's Nine To Noon podcast with Hist Kathryn Ryan welcomed James Ellroy, whose bestselling books like The Cold Six Thousand and the L.A. Quartet novels paint vivid portraits of the seedier side of Los Angeles and the underworld.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with James Swallow, a former journalist and award-winning writer including his Marc Dane novels featuring a former MI6 field officer turned private security operative.

The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the themes of "Writer's Detective Bureau Foreign Language Interviews, Long-term Undercover Investigations, and Witness Protection."

It Was a Dark & Stormy Book Club spoke with Bess Carnan, 2019 Winner of the William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers.

THEATER

The Dorset Theater in Dorset, Vermont, is presenting Mrs. Christie from August 1 through August 17. The production is based on Agatha Christie's myserious disappearance for eleven days in 1926. This is the world premiere of Heidi Armbruster’s classic new comedy showing Dame Agatha as she’s never been seen before.

Mystery Melange

At the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, Irish author Steve Cavanagh won the 2019 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for his latest book, Thirteen. This is the fifteenth year of the prize, which was created to celebrate the very best in crime fiction and is open to UK and Irish crime authors.

Also at the Theakston conference, the winners of the Dead Good Reader Awards were announced, including the Nosy Parker Award for Best Amateur Detective: The Suspect by Fiona Barton; The Jury’s Out Award for Most Gripping Courtroom Drama: Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh; the Dish Served Cold Award for Best Revenge Thriller: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing; the Cancel All Plans Award for the Book You Can’t Put Down: Skin Deep by Liz Nugent; the Cat and Mouse Award for Most Elusive Villain: Last of the Magpies by Mark Edwards; and the Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book: The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths. (Ht to Shots Magazine)

Sharon Bala won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for her debut novel, The Boat People. Lee authorized the award, which was first handed out in 2011 and is sponsored by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law, to be given "to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change."

The World Mystery Convention, Bouchercon, announced that Jenn and Don Longmuir are the recipients of the 2019 David Thompson Memorial Special Service Award. The honor is given by the Bouchercon Board to honor the memory and contributions to the crime fiction community of David Thompson, a beloved Houston bookseller who passed away in 2010. Recipients are recognized for their "extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the crime fiction field." The Longmuirs have been fixtures in the crime fiction community for more than a quarter-century, owning the Scene of the Crime Books in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and have also served as book room organizers, book sellers, and attendees at mystery conventions across North America. Don also served on the Bouchercon Board for five years.

The Killer Nashville Conference announced the finalists for the various categories in its annual Silver Falchion Awards for excellence in crime writing in various categories. For all the lists, including those in the Cozy, Mystery, Procedural, Suspense, Thriller and more, head on over to the official website.

Sisters in Crime Australia likewise announced the twenty-five crime books shortlisted for Sisters in Crime’s 19th Davitt Awards for excellence in crime fiction by Australian authors. The shortlist includes nine adult novels, five young adult novels, five children’s novels, and six non-fiction books. Twelve are debut books and are also battling it out for the best debut book award.

Andrea Camilleri, beloved creator of Inspector Montalbano, had died at the age of 93.  One of Italy’s most popular authors, Camilleri wrote twenty-three novels starring his Sicilian detective, selling more than thirty million copies around the world that have been translated into 32 languages. The Potter’s Field, translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli, won Camilleri the International Dagger, the highest foreign honour of the British Crime Writers Association. 

Also last week, we lost Howard Engel, author of the beloved Benny Cooperman series of mysteries, who died at the age of 88. In addition to his Cooperman mysteries, Engel also wrote fiction and non-fiction, including a memoir, The Man Who Forgot How to Read, detailing his experience suffering alexia sine agraphia, a neurological condition that robbed him of the ability to read while retaining the ability to write. Engel was the recipient of the Arthur Ellis Award and in 2007, he was invested into the Order of Canada. He was also the recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, an organization he founded.

Independent press Urbane Publishers has pulled "experienced criminal profiler" Paul Harrison’s true crime book from sale, after his claims to have interviewed serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Peter Sutcliffe were questioned. Described as "the master of the true crime genre" by Martina Cole, Harrison has written more than 30 books mostly about true crime, including his latest, Mind Games, published by Urbane in October 2018. 

Writing for CrimeReads, Nile Cappello profiled Kate Warne, America's first female detective and spy, who thwarted an assassination plot on Lincoln.

Writing for Mystery Scene Magazine, Oline Cogdill offered up a timely listing of some mysteries that include immigrants in their plots.

CrimeReads has more travel-themed mysteries appropriate for summer reading, including a list of Bali: The Darker Side of an Island Paradise, as well as the Miami-themed crime fiction of Edna Buchanan; while Mystery Tribune chimed in with "Top 10 Great Brazilian Crime Fiction Books."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Playgiarhythm" by Jim George.

In the Q&A roundup, the Wall Street Journal (subscription) interviewed Kate Atkinson, whose Big Sky, the fifth of her novels to feature the gruff, melancholy private eye Jackson Brodie, was just released; and Salon talked to former Baltimore journalist turned acclaimed crime novelist, Laura Lippman, about true crime, newspapers and her new book, Lady in the Lake.

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:

AWARDS

Nominations were announced for the 71st Emmy Awards, with several crime dramas leading the lists. In the Best Drama Series category, nods included Better Call Saul (AMC); Bodyguard (Netflix); Killing Eve (AMC/BBC America); and Ozark (Netflix). The Best Limited Series crime dramas include Escape at Dannemora (Showtime); Sharp Objects (HBO); and When They See Us (Netflix). Among the Best Actor in a Drama Series were Jason Bateman (Ozark) and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), while Best Actress nods include Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh (for Killing Eve); Viola Davis (How to Get Away With Murder); and Laura Linney (Ozark). For all the nominees, check out the complete listing here, and for a by-the-numbers look, check here. The 2019 Emmy Awards broadcast will air September 22.

THE BIG SCREEN

Oscar winners Matt Damon and Tom McCarthy are joining forces for Stillwater, a feature which Damon will star in and McCarthy will direct. The project centers on Oklahoma native Bill Baker (Damon), oil-rig roughneck who travels to Marseille where his estranged daughter is imprisoned for a murder she claims she did not commit. He makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter and along the way develops a friendship with a local woman and her young daughter and embarks on a personal journey of discovery and a larger sense of belonging in the world.

Australian actress Lucy Fry, who played opposite Will Smith in the Netflix film, Bright, has been added to the cast of Waldo, joining Mel Gibson, Charlie Hunnam, and Morena Baccarin. Tim Kirkby is directing the action-thriller, which follows a disgraced LAPD detective (Hunnam), who’s spent the past three years living off the grid until he's reluctantly pulled back into his old life by a former lover in order to solve the murder of an eccentric celebrity’s wife. Dominic Monaghan, Eiza Gonzalez, Clancy Brown, and Jacob Scipio also co-star in the film, which is based on the Howard Michael Gould's novel, Last Looks.

A new trailer for the upcoming STX Films crime thriller, 21 Bridges, starring Chadwick Boseman as an embattled NYPD detective thrust into a citywide manhunt for a pair of cop killers after uncovering a massive and unexpected conspiracy.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

In a competitive situation, Amazon has landed the rights to develop a script-to-series drama based on the Jack Reacher character from Lee Child’s bestselling book series (under the auspices of Scorpion creator Nick Santora). Tom Cruise starred in a pair of big-screen films based on the character, although last fall, Child said that he was looking to reboot "Jack Reacher" as a TV series with a new lead to replace Cruise, who he argued, "didn’t have that physicality" of the character. In his books, Reacher is frequently described as being 6 feet 5 inches tall (Cruise is 5 feet 7 inches).

Don Johnson is heading back to San Francisco for a revival of Nash Bridges via USA Network (the original series ran for on CBS from 1996-2001). The revival, currently just a two-hour special, is in early development, and it's possible that it could lead to a new ongoing series. Johnson will return as Bridges, set in the present day, while he is still running San Francisco’s Special Investigation Unit, albeit as he deals with a changed city, a new boss, and police work that focuses on modern data-crunching and predictive policing.

Quibi continues its content spree with a new series from The Killing creator Veena Sud, titled The Stranger, a shortform thriller from Fox 21 Television Studios. The logline: An unassuming young rideshare driver is thrown into her worst nightmare when a mysterious Hollywood Hills passenger enters her car. Her terrifying, heart-stopping ride with the stranger unfolds over 12 hours as she navigates the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles in a chilling game of cat and mouse.

The late Stan Lee’s Pow! Entertainment is developing a TV series about a Native American homicide detective based on characters created by Lee. Restless centers on homicide detective Adam Chaco who inherits the mystical powers of his American Indian ancestors after his estranged father dies, particularly those of his grandfather Mohe (Oscar winner Wes Studi), a powerful, revered shaman. Adam is forced to come to terms with a heritage he has long sought to escape, while facing down supernatural criminals he could never have imagined. The detective is aided by Interpol Special Investigator Bridghid Everly, a high-spirited descendent of a Druid Princess who also possesses extraordinary physical and psychic abilities

British broadcaster ITV and a slew of European networks have signed up to the remake of classic British detective drama, Van Der Valk. The three-part series follows a street smart and unapologetic Dutch detective (Marc Warren) as he navigates the lively and enigmatic city of Amsterdam solving mysterious crimes using astute human observation and inspired detection. The project is loosely based on the novels by Nicolas Freeling.

Viacom’s Channel 5 has picked up the four-part thriller, The Deceived. Set in Cambridge in the UK and Donegal, the northernmost county in Ireland, the contemporary psychological thriller follows a young English student called Ophelia, who falls in love with her married lecturer, Michael. However, when their affair results in a shocking and tragic death, Ophelia finds herself trapped in a world where she can no longer trust her own mind.

Luther creator Neil Cross is adapting his own novel of murder and the supernatural (Burial) into a four-part series for British broadcaster ITV. Retitled Because the Night, the show centers on Nathan, a well-meaning but aimless man who harbors a dark secret and is shaken when a figure from his past shows up on his doorstep.

FX has revealed the Season 4 cast for Emmy-winning limited series Fargo, toplined by Chris Rock. Joining Rock in the next installment are Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), Jason Schwartzman (Mozart in the Jungle), Ben Whishaw (James Bond: Skyfall), and also Jessie Buckley, Salvatore Esposito, Andrew Bird, Jeremie Harris, Gaetano Bruno, Anji White, Francesco Acquaroli, E’myri Crutchfield, and Amber Midthunder. Created, written, directed and executive produced by Noah Hawley (who also serves as showrunner), the fourth installment is set in 1950 in Kansas City, where two criminal syndicates have struck an uneasy peace - and to cement that peace, the heads of both families have traded their youngest sons.

Chicago P.D. has found its new interim superintendent following the death of Brian Kelton (John C. McGinley) in the show's Season 6 finale:  Prison Break alum Paul Adelstein will be joining the series in the recurring role of Interim Superintendent Jason Crawford. The show's former police superintendent, Kelton (McKinley), was apparently shot to death in his home by Voight (Jason Beghe) in the recent finale after he won the mayoral election and avoided being connected to the Intelligence Unit's investigation, culminating in what appeared to be a violent end to his feud with Voight.

Rose Leslie, who plays lawyer Maia Rindell on the CBS All Access legal drama, The Good Fight, won't be returning for Season 4. In Season 3’s finale, which served as Leslie’s swan song, she was sent to Washington, DC to launch a new firm with Michael Sheen’s Roland Blum.

Acorn TV announced its August 2019 slate, featuring the debut of My Life is Murder, starring Xena's Lucy Lawless as a fearless and unapologetic private investigator; the psychological thriller, Seesaw, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Deborah Moggach, starring David Suchet (Poirot) and Geraldine James; Thorne, series 1 & 2, starring David Morrissey as DI Tom Thorne in the gritty crime drama based on the bestselling series by Mark Billingham; plus, Neil Dudgeon's Top Ten, where Midsomer Murders star Neil Dudgeon introduces 10 standout episodes (one per week) from the macabre detective drama.

Warner Bros has debuted the second and final trailer for the NYC crime thriller, The Kitchen, based on a graphic novel by that same title. This is the feature directorial debut of Oscar nominated screenwriter Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton) and stars Elisabeth Moss, Melissa McCarthy, and Tiffany Haddish as the wives of mobster husbands who continue to run their racket after the men are sent to prison.

Netflix has released a scene from upcoming UK drama, The Stranger, based on the novel from Harlan Coben. Richard Armitage takes the lead in the psychological thriller as Adam Price who is living the perfect life — two great sons, a watertight marriage — until a stranger approaches him at a bar and reveals a shocking secret about Price’s wife, Corinne. As Price delves into Corinne’s deception, he soon realizes that he’s become entangled in a dark conspiracy that could risk the lives of those around him.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Writers Routine podcast welcomed Stuart MacBride, author of the "Logan McRae" series to talk about his new book, All That's Dead, work ethics, and switching up the process.

It was a Dark and Stormy Book chatted with Robert Dugoni, who most recent thriller is The Eighth Sister.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up, featuring the first chapter of Sifting Through Clues, a Cookbook Nook Mystery by Daryl Wood Gerber, who also serves as narrator.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about controversy around the Staunch Prize, James Patterson's book about Jeffrey Epstein, and some 2019 releases that they haven't gotten to yet.

The Spybrary podcast welcomed listener John Nordin to submit a "brush pass review" for The Spy Who Sat and Waited, by R Wright Campbell.

The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the themes of "Occult Killings, Private Eyes, and Releasing a Crime Scene."

THEATER

The UK immersive theater experience, The Wolf Of Wall Street, will take place in a Liverpool Street location spanning four floors and 25 rooms decked out to represent the world of infamous 1990s New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, whose flamboyant life was depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s movie of the same name. A cast of sixteen will play multiple characters as featured in Belfort’s memoirs, from his Stratton Oakmont players to the FBI, placing audiences into a world of greed, power and excess. Staged by Stratton Oakmont Productions, the event will begin its run September 5th and is already booking tickets.

Author R&R with Sheryl Browne

Author Sheryl Browne writes psychological thrillers and contemporary fiction, and her works include two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies as well as nine novels. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and previously writing for award winning Choc Lit, Sheryl also obtained a Certificate of Achievement in Forensic Science and – according to readers – she makes an excellent psychopath.

In Browne's suspense thriller, The Babysitter, Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?

As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.

But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants. Mark is in a race against time to protect his family. But what will he find as he goes back to his family home?

Sheryl Browne stops by In Reference to Murder take some Author R&R about her writing process and research:

 

I’m often asked what prompts me to write psychological thriller. I’ve always been fascinated by what shapes people and I like to strip away the layers and, hopefully, share with readers a little of what lies beneath the surface. A writer’s mind thrives on exploration. Every scenario, every face, every place tells a story. A walk through a cemetery or a glimpsed situation – an argument between a couple, for instance - and I have my stimulus for a book. Once I have an idea of the story I want to tell, I find the character tends to lead me. There are many facets to the human character; no one can be truly good or irretrievably bad. Or can they? The driving force linked to most murders, I’m reliably informed by a former DCI, is humiliation. How many of us haven’t felt humiliated at some point in our lives? Who hasn’t wished for revenge? In writing psych thriller, I’m exploring the darker side of human nature, looking at the nature vs nurture conundrum. Is badness in the genes? Is it brain function or childhood experience that creates a monster? A combination of all three?

In The Babysitter, we have Jade, whose childhood experiences definitely shaped her. Revenge plays a big part in the story, but is she fundamentally bad? I’m always interested to hear readers’ feedback on the subject. This wasn’t the easiest story to write as it does touch on subjects that some might find difficult to deal with, loss and mental issues. Having been a carer to someone struggling with mental illness and therefore very aware of the nightmare that finding the right balance of medication can be, I suppose you could say I’d already done my research. Even then, though, talking to people about their experience is important in order to write about such issues sensitively and honestly.

Similarly, The Affair deals with a particularly sensitive subject: that of the loss of a child. Without going into detail, again this is an area I am familiar with. In the writing, I felt Alicia’s every emotion. I struggled to live them alongside her. I’m not sure this is the right place for a dedication, but I’d like to leave one anyway: to any mother who has had to grieve the loss of a child at any stage from pregnancy and beyond. When the daily pace of life takes over, a short life lived and lost is often grieved silently. That life though, grown inside you, is never forgotten. The Affair obviously isn’t my story, but that was the nucleus that set the story in motion.

So, am I ‘writing what I know?’ To a degree, yes. In writing about people, you do draw on experience, but personally I find it terribly stifling. We have a world of information at our fingertips nowadays. We can travel anywhere. We don’t need to shy away from writing about a character’s job, era, or a situation that might challenge our experience of it. We can research it. The internet is a massive boon to writers nowadays, you can access some fascinating case studies and headline news stories which can spark an idea – I dread to think what my browsing history looks like. All that said, becoming a writer is a learning curve and I honestly think the best tool you have at your disposal is reading. The fact is, Stephen King is so right, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write”. Other authors can show you how to weave a story and they can be a massive inspiration for your own writing.

In regard to location, we have Google Earth, of course. You can’t quite get the real flavour of a place, though, I find. I may have to take a little holiday, therefore. All in the name of research, of course.

Just before I set off, for anyone needing info on story structure (and going cross-eyed on googling it), Into the Woods by John Yorke is a brilliant study of story construction. If you’ve ever had any issues with plotting and the development of your ideas then research no more. This was a subject covered on my MA course, but Into the Woods simplifies it beautifully.

Happy writing and reading all!

You can find out more about Sheryl Browne, The Babysitter, and her other writing via her website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The Babysitter and the author's other books are available via all major book retailers.

Mystery Melange

 

The International Thriller Writers (ITW) announced the winners of the Thriller Awards, handed out this past weekend at the annual Thrillerfest conference in New York City:

• Best Hardcover: Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
• Best First Novel: The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor
• Best Paperback Original Novel: The Lost Man by Jane Harper
• Best Short Story: "Nana" by Helen Smith (in Killer Women: Crime Club Anthology #2)
• Best Young Adult Novel: Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black
• Best E-book Original Novel: Pray for the Innocent by Alan Orloff

Previously announced awards included:

• ThrillerMaster: John Sandford
• Silver Bullet Award: Harlan Coben
• ThrillerFan Award: "Mystery Mike" Bursaw

During a cocktail party last week, The Strand Magazine announced the winners of its 2019 Strand Critics Awards. Best Mystery Novel was a tie: Transcription by Kate Atkinson and Sunburn by Laura Lippman. Best Debut Mystery Novel went to The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The David Award nominees for the best mystery are:  Yesterday's News by R.G. Belsky; Died in the Wool by Peggy Ehrhart; The Consultant by Tj O’Connor; Misty Treasure by Linda Rawlins; Second Story Man by Charles Salzberg; and Feral Attraction by Eileen Watkins. The award is named in memory of David G. Sasher, Sr., a great supporter of the mystery genre and of the early days of the Deadly Ink conference where the award is announced each year.

Ann Cleeves and Michael Fuller are among the writers added to this year's Killer Women Festival of Crime Writing and Drama line-up, as the event moves to a new date. Usually held in October, the next festival will take place on Sunday 15th March, 2020 at Brown’s Courtrooms, Covent Garden, London. Other special guests include Alison Levitt QC, chief counsel to the Crown Prosecution Service in the Savile enquiry; forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop CBE; and top criminologist and TV presenter Professor David Wilson. The festival will also celebrate the Killer Women mentoring scheme, which was launched this year to find and encourage new female voices in crime fiction from BAME and low income or working-class backgrounds.

Entries are now open for the 2019 New England (Australia) Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing. All genres of crime writing are eligible, from hard-boiled to comic, paranormal to rural, historical to contemporary, noir to cozy. Entries welcome from anywhere in Australia, from published or unpublished writers. Deadline for entries is October 7 with winners announced in mid-November.

The Margery Allingham Society has agreed with the Crime Writers’ Association to continue the popular short mystery competition for at least another five years, until 2024. The Society, set up to honor and promote the writings of the great Golden Age author whose well-known hero is Albert Campion, works with the CWA to operate and fund the writing competition that opens for entries in the autumn on the CWA’s website and closes every February.  The short story can be up to a 3,500 words long and must echo Margery Allingham’s definition of a mystery. (HT to Shots Magazine)

If you're a fan and collector of pulp fiction, check out this auction that ends on July 30. Items being offered up, from a Pleasant Valley, New York private collection of Pulp Art, include magazines such as Argosy,  Detective Fiction, Adventure, Street & Smith's Wild West Weekly, and more. The lot also features framed magazine covers, slides, posters, and photographs.

There's a call for papers for "The Absurdity of Racism: an International Chester Himes Conference" to be held June 4-5, 2020, at the American University of Paris. As the organizers note, "always controversial, combative and daring, Himes carved a niche for himself in the worlds of crime fiction and protest literature while negotiating the 'quality of hurt' of his black American and European expatriate worlds." Abstracts of 250 words, accompanied by a very brief bio, should be sent by October 15.

The summer edition of Suspense Magazine is out featuring new author interviews; articles by Dennis Palumbo, Ellen LaCorte, Natalie Walters, and Patricia Bradley; an Alan Jacobson piece with important information on author income trends ("Have You Heard?"); book excerpts (Patricia Bradley and Laura Elliot); plus authors Keith Raffel, Sheila Lowe and Sharon Love Cook share short stories, and there are also the latest book and movie reviews.

Dynamite Entertainments will continue the adventures of Agent 007 in graphic novel form by adapting Ian Fleming’s second Bond novel, Live and Let Die, with a publication date for this fall. Live and Let Die follows the successful Casino Royale release and agent 007 as he traces stolen pirate treasure from the smoky jazz clubs of Harlem all the way to the formidable shores of Jamaica. Writer Van Jensen returns for this entry following his critically acclaimed Casino Royale graphic novel with Dennis Calero, while Kewber Baal has been enlisted to provide art.

In more bucket-list items to consider for your travel plans this summer, if you find yourself in the rural Eifel area of Germany, check out the "Kriminalhaus" (House of Crime) in the small village of Hillesheim, near the famous racetrack Nuerburgring. Inside this old house there is a bookstore, a German crime fiction archive with over thirty thousand books, and the Cafe Sherlock decorated with memorabilia of Poirot, Mrs. Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Wallace, Alfred Hitchcock, and others. For more info and photos, click on over here.

In more travel things to do this summer, the Asiatic Library in Mumbai, one of the oldest literary societies of India, has been hosting "Night at the Library," a series of immersive experiences that will include readings, discussions, quizzes, and cosplay. On July 20, the subject will be Agatha Christie, with a torchlit tour of the library (which is also home to some priceless titles, like one of the only two original manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy) and other events themed around Dame Agatha.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Scenes From an Ongoing Moment" by Ken Meisel.

In the Q&A roundup, The Guardian spoke with Adrian McKinty about his life-changing phone call that set him on the road to literary success after almost quitting writing altogether; Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo tells the Irish Times why "The details of a murder don’t really disturb me"; and Michael Connelly chatted with The Bronzeville Bee about his Harry Bosch series and his past as a crime beat reporter.

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

Netflix has picked up Red Notice, which might arguably be seen as its biggest commitment yet to a feature film. The globetrotting action heist thriller, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, was picked up after Universal Pictures passed on the project and has since added Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, and Gal Gadot to star. After a recent controversy regarding whether Netflix films were eligible for Academy Awards, the academy decided not to change its policy, allowing Netflix to submit films like 2018's Roma, nominated for Best Picture and the winner of three other Oscars.

Dexter Fletcher, who most recently directed Rocketman, has been hired to direct Sherlock Holmes 3 at Warner Bros., with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law returning to star. Fletcher takes over for Guy Ritchie, who directed the previous two "Sherlock Holmes" films, with the third installment expected to hit theaters on Dec. 21, 2021.

Christoph Waltz is set to return as uber-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the still-untitled "Bond 25." Waltz first portrayed the iconic Bond archenemy in 2015’s Spectre (although Donald Pleasence, Max von Sydow, and Telly Savalas have all played the character in previous "Bond" installments). The 25th James Bond film stars Daniel Craig for his fifth (and final) entry in the Bond franchise, with Cary Joji Fukunaga directing and Oscar winner Rami Malek set to play the film’s new villain.

Vin Diesel announced on Instagram that Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren are returning for Universal’s Fast & Furious 9. Theron played cyberterrorist Cipher who forced Diesel’s Dom to turn coats on his street family and operate for her. Mirren played Magdalene Shaw, the mother of Deckard (Jason Statham) and Owen (Luke Evans). They join new castmember to the franchise, John Cena, whose role is under wraps. The first franchise spinoff title, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw hits theaters on August 2, pairing Johnson’s former U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs and Statham’s ex-MI6 agent Deckard Shaw, who join forces to take on Idris Elba’s international terrorist Brixton. (Mirren also stars in Hobbs & Shaw.)

The psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window, has had its release date pushed back to 2020 from its scheduled release date of October 4 of this year, following the decision to rework its structure. Based on a novel of the same name by A.J. Finn, the story follows a child psychologist who has become housebound due to suffering from agoraphobia, and spends her time spying her neighbors. While watching a seemingly perfect family who have just moved in, she witnesses a violent crime in their home but is torn over whether or not to call the police, since she is unable to trust herself enough to be certain of what she saw.

Two-time Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank is set to star in The Hunt, the political action thriller from screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse. Swank joins previously announced co-stars Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley, and Glenn Howerton, with Craig Zobel set to direct. The Hunt touches on the escalating tensions between the political left wing and right wing in modern-day America. Per Deadline, "Set in the same humans-hunting-humans vein as Battle Royale, The Belko Experiment, and The Purge, The Hunt will use status, political beliefs, and affiliations as the trajectory for the deadly pursuits."

A trailer was released for the espionage thriller, The Operative, based on Yiftach R. Atir's novel, The English Teacher, and starring Diane Kruger as an undercover Mossad agent in too deep and on the run.

A new documentary, Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire, recently screened as part of the sixth Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival, and reveals the man behind the myth of late author Stieg Larsson, who created the Millennium crime trilogy featuring Lizabeth Salander.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s short-form video platform Quibi has put in development The Fugitive, from Scorpion creator Nick Santora, Thunder Road Films, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Warner Bros. TV. In the same vein as the 1993 Harrison Ford-starring film and the 1960s TV series starring David Janssen, The Fugitive centers on blue collar worker Mike Russo, who just wants to make sure his wife, Allison, and 10-year-old daughter, Pearl, are safe, when a bomb rips through the Los Angeles subway train he’s riding on. But the faulty evidence on the ground and "tweet-now, confirm-later" journalism paint a nightmarish picture: it looks to all the world that Mike was responsible for the heinous act. Wrongfully—and very publicly—accused, Mike must prove his innocence by uncovering the real perpetrator, before the legendary cop heading the investigation can apprehend him. 

In further news from Quibi, the short-form service is developing an adaptation of Harriet Tyce’s psychological thriller novel, Blood Orange, with Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions. The adaptation is being pitched as a twelve-part series consisting of ten episodes. The novel, which was published earlier this year, follows Alison Wood, a criminal barrister taking on her first murder case.

The streaming service eOne has picked up Major Crimes, an original anthology series that will follow the most daring heists, robberies, and crimes in Los Angeles history. Chris Collins (The Wire, The Sopranos) will pen the project and serve as showrunner. Each season of Major Crimes will be built around a single crime and take an in-depth look at both the detectives and criminals behind the case.

British network ITV has renewed Grantchester for another year. The show’s fifth season is set in 1957, the year Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the British people that they had "never had it so good." For many of the residents of Grantchester, it really will feel like they’re in a delightful new Eden, but for all the talk of paradise on earth and faith-in-action, Geordie Keating (Robson Green) knows that trouble is never far away.

Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts) is set for a major role opposite Jude Law in the HBO and Sky drama, The Third Day, penned by Utopia writer Dennis Kelly. In the series, Law plays Sam, who is being drawn to a mysterious island off the British Coast and thrown into the unusual world of its secretive inhabitants. Isolated from the mainland, the rituals of the island begin to overwhelm him, and he is confronted by a trauma from his past. As the line between reality and fantasy blurs, Sam finds himself immersed in an emotional quest that puts him at odds with the islanders and begins to threaten their way of life. Waterston will play Jess, who Sam encounters on the island.

Netflix’s Mindhunter is set to return for its second season on August 16, nearly two years after the launch of the crime drama. The series, which stars Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, initially launched in October 2017 and was quickly renewed for a second season a month after its debut. The second season of the series, which is about the early days of the FBI’s criminal psychology and criminal profiling division, will center on the Atlanta Child Murders, a series of killings between 1979 and 1981 that slain African-American children, teenagers and adults.

Woody Harrelson will star opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Kate, the Netflix thriller about a ruthless criminal operative who, after she’s irreversibly poisoned, has less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies. In the process, she forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.

Hulu’s upcoming Abigail Spencer-led thriller series, Reprisal, has added four series regulars to its cast, including Craig Tate (12 Years a Slave), Wavyy Jonez (Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.), Shane Callahan (Outsiders) and Rory Cochrane (CSI: Miami). Created, written and executive produced by Josh Corbin, the "hyper-noir" Reprisal follows Katherine (Spencer), a relentless femme fatale who, after being left for dead, sets out to take revenge against her brother and his bombastic gang of gearheads.

Carrie-Anne Moss will join season 2 of CBS All Access’s Tell Me a Story, while Season 1 stars Danielle Campbell, Paul Wesley, Odette Annable, and Natalie Alyn Lind are set for a return to the anthology fairytale series that refashions the tales into darker stories of crime, sex, and murder. Season 2 will feature three iconic princesses: the ladies from "Beauty and the Beast," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella." Moss, the matriarch of the sophomore run, is tied to all of them. 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast welcomed S.C. Perkins, whose debut mystery novel, Murder Once Removed, was the winner of the 2017 Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery competition, and also Leslie Karst, discussing the latest in her Sally Solari culinary mystery series, Murder From Scratch.

The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of "Therapy, Overdose, and a Veiled Threat."

Thrill Radio had a ThrillerFest theme this week, including one of the founding members of the International Thriller Writers, bestselling author and creator of Rambo, David Morell, as well as Kimberly Howe, ThrillerFest's Executive Director.

Debbi Mack started off a new season of the Crime Cafe podcast with an interview of Andy Rausch, a film journalist, screenwriter, film producer, actor, graphic novelist, and crime writer of such novels as Elvis Presley, CIA Assassin.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed author Michael Lindley, who latest, Death on the New Moon, continues the story of attorney, Hanna Walsh, and Detective Alex Frank in the Low Country of South Carolina.

THEATER

The Hayes Theater in Australia is presenting Catch Me If You Can beginning July 20th. With book by Terrance McNally, lyrics by Marc Shaiman, and music by Scott Whittman and Marc Shaiman, the production is based on the true story of precocious teenager Frank Abignale, Jr., who ran away from home and posed as a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer using millions in forged checks – until Frank’s lies caught the attention of FBI agent, Carl Hanratty.

The Mars Theater in Lafayette, GA is staging a production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The classic tale of eight strangers stranded on an island with a murderer in their midst runs through July 21st.

Author R&R with Robert McCaw

Robert McCaw grew up in a military family traveling the world. After graduating from Georgetown University, he served as a lieutenant in the US Army before earning his law degree from the University of Virginia. Thereafter he practiced as a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, DC, and New York City, and maintained a home on the Big Island of Hawai’i. McCaw brings a unique authenticity to his Koa Kāne Hawaiian mystery novels in both his law enforcement expertise and his ability to portray the richness of Hawai’i’s history, culture, and people.

In Off the Grid, released this month, a scrap of cloth fluttering in the wind leads Hilo police Chief Detective Koa Kāne to the tortured remains of an unfortunate soul left to burn in the path of an advancing lava flow. For Koa, it’s the second gruesome homicide of the day, and he soon discovers the murders are linked. These grisly crimes on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island could rewrite history―or cost Chief Detective Koa Kāne his career as the CIA, the Chinese government, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, attempt to thwart Koa’s investigation and obscure the victims’ true identities.

Undeterred by mounting political pressure, Koa pursues the truth only to find himself drawn into a web of international intrigue. While Koa investigates, the Big Island scrambles to prepare for the biggest and most explosive political rally in its history. Despite police resources stretched to the breaking point, Koa uncovers a government conspiracy so shocking its exposure topples senior officials far beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Robert McCaw stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R and talk about writing and researching his novel:

For me research is a way of life. I’m always in research mode, whether walking the streets of New York or the beaches and villages of Hawaii, eating out in restaurants, online, in libraries, or even in the shower. Research for me is like street photography; it’s about seeing and capturing the moment. But we “see” with more than our eyes, and optimizing the value of our time spent researching, we must use our intellect to process information from multiple sources using all our senses to tease out the informative moment. That moment may be geographic as in the setting for a scene or personal as in transforming acquaintances or strangers into fictional characters. It can also be linguistic as in fashioning dialog or atmospheric as in describing sounds and smells. Often it is intellectual as in remembering a thought or emotion provoked by the immediate company or surroundings.

The seed that grew into the Koa Kāne mystery thriller series sprouted while I was on a star-gazing trip atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. In addition to visiting the Keck telescope, the largest optical telescope in the northern hemisphere, I saw quarries where centuries ago ancient Hawaiians manufactured stone tools from particularly hard lava found on the upper slopes of the 14,000-foot mountain. Fascinated by the contrast between the ancient and the modern, I set out to learn everything I could about both.

With respect to the quarries, I hit the Bishop Museum and the UH Manoa libraries, bought archaeological texts, searched online, and, of course, made a trip to the quarries. I studied stone tool-making, examined adzes in museum collections, and traced some of the far-flung places where implements from Mauna Kea have been recovered. In my research, I discovered a mystery the archaeologists have yet to solve: Why after centuries of production did the ancients abandon the Mauna Kea quarries, probably in the sixteenth century, long before the first western contact with the islands? And therein lies one of the central themes just beneath the surface of my first Koa Kāne mystery thriller, Death of a Messenger.

Astronomy is the career I didn’t pursue, and fascinated by the cutting-edge technology of Mauna Kea’s huge Keck telescope, I immersed myself in text books, magazine articles, and observatory websites, delving into segmented mirror technology, adaptive optics, artificial guide stars, and exciting modern discoveries about the cosmos. I visited observatories and talked to astronomers. Standing on the platform at Keck’s prime focus is a form of research that inspires imagination.  From these research moments emerged a whole cast of fictional characters, animated by professional jealousies, populating action scenes atop Mauna Kea in Death of a Messenger.

Newspaper research also yields great fonts of information. Dozens of news stories about a significant international event underpin the plot of Off the Grid, the second in the Koa Kāne series of mystery thrillers. Google maps and satellite views provide useful details. Tourist books often spark ideas about locations, offering brief insights into the history or significance of places that provoke follow-up research. Advertisements can reveal details about vehicles, communications gear, spy equipment, guns, explosives, and other implements of the thriller trade. Sirchie holds itself out as the global leader in criminal investigative solutions, and its catalogs and websites are full of information on forensic equipment and practices. Google images are a great sources of pictures of potential characters, their clothing, and jewelry.

Police and legal procedures differ widely from one jurisdiction to another, and Lee Lofland’s Writers’ Police Academy is a fabulous resource. At these annual conferences, federal, state and local law enforcement officers teach the basics of police work, including fingerprinting, ballistics, undercover operations, hand-to-hand combat, canine unit activities, drug interdiction, warrant execution, traffic stops, bomb disposal, and numerous other police activities. These seminars account for many authentic details in my novels.

The Big Island of Hawaii is a writer’s gold-mine of decisive moments, a place where one researches with one’s eyes, ears, and heart. Hours walking around Hilo, Hawi, Honakaʻa, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and the Green Sand beach lend visual and atmospheric authenticity to scene after scene in my novels. Watch hot lava creep across a barren landscape and it’s not hard to imagine it covering a body as in Off the Grid. Go to dinner at a local favorite restaurant only to find it closed because the law caught up with the owner, a fugitive from justice, and imagine other fugitives hiding out in a remote rain forest as in Off the Grid. Seek out an artist to commission a painting, and get a primer on how real people do in fact live off the grid.

Life is research if you open all your senses to it.

You can read more about author Robert McCaw and his books via his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Off the Grid is now available via Oceanview Publishing and can be purchased via all major book retailers.

Mystery Melange

 

The Force by Don Winslow has won this year’s Falcon Award, presented by Japan’s Maltese Falcon Society annually to an outstanding work of crime fiction. This is Winslow's fifth Falcon Award in addition to Missing: New York (no English version); The Winter of Frankie Machine; The Power of the Dog; and A Cool Breeze on the Underground. Other previous Falcon recipients include Roger Hobbs, S.J. Rozan, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Michael Z. Lewin, Joe Gores, James Crumely, and Robert B. Parker. (HT to The Gumshoe Site)

 The longlist titles were announced for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, awarded annually to an outstanding work of contemporary fiction in any genre. Crime fiction books on the list include Our House by Louise Candlish; Memo from Turner by Tim Willocks; The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven; The Poison Bed by Elizabeth Fremantle; Snap by Belinda Bauer; and The 7 ^1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association has scheduled a July 21 walking tour of areas in South Berkeley, California, that are associated with mystery/sci fi author, editor, and critic Anthony Boucher (a/k/a William Anthony Parker White). The walk will be guided by Randal Brandt, a librarian who curates the California Detective Fiction Collection at the University of Southern California at Berkeley's Bancroft Library. The tour will also cover sites associated with Boucher’s fellow mystery writer Mary Collins, the California Writer’s Club, pioneering film critic Pauline Kael, and others. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

 A set of "extremely rare" photographs showing crime writer Agatha Christie as a child is to go on public display in conjunction with the annual International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay in September. The pictures, taken between 1895 and 1898, show Christie at her childhood home of Ashfield in Torquay, Devon, where the author spent much of her life.

Lola Okolosie has won the inaugural Novel Studio scholarship from City University for her novel-in-progress, Returnees. The award, sponsored by thriller writer and course alumna Harriet Tyce, was set up to support a talented writer from a low-income household. The Novel Studio is part of City University’s programmes of short courses and has been running since 2004. Each year, the Novel Studio takes on 15 students, who are helped to develop their novels by professional writers and editors.

Up-and-coming authors are being given the chance to take to the stage and share their work with international bestselling crime authors during the Granite Noir festival in February 2020 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Applications have now opened for the "locals in the limelight" program, and those interested in applying should send an extract of their work, a one-paragraph biography and their contact information by noon on September 2.

Clitheroe is now home to one of only two specialized crime bookshops in the UK. Number 10 on Castlegate was recently opened by crime fiction buff Zoe Channing, who has 30 years' experience working in arts development. Number 10 - in the shadow of the castle - will specialize in contemporary and classic crime fiction, murder mysteries, and thrillers. Channing is a Scandi noir fan and is also looking at introducing a new wave of European crime writers to readers, as well as planning to arrange author events ranging from book signings to talks. 

Crime writers didn't react positively to claims from organizers of the Staunch Prize, launched last year to award crime books with no violence against women, that their books could bias rape juries and trials. As Kaite Welsh added in an opinion piece in The Guardian, "I can’t write about a world without rape – because I don’t live in one," adding that women read and write crime fiction as a way to understand real experience. In more fallout, Staunch Prize founder Bridget Lawless defended the prize to The Bookseller, even as authors like Angela Clarke doubled down by saying "Though the original intentions may have been good, it now feels like this prize and their repeated vocal attacks on the crime writing community are yet another way to silence women and not let them talk about the things we suffer and face. It feels like censorship." 

Summer is the time for travel, and CrimeReads has "6 Mysteries That Capture the Essence of England's Capital" as well as crime fiction from Dubai.

Of course, if you're like Clea Simon, you might think that "political chaos and international threats create too much anxiety to make summer thrillers enjoyable."

Life imitates crime fiction: Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn has spoken out about her novel being used as a sensationalized motive in the disappearance of Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos, who vanished after dropping her kids off at school on May 24. Flynn said she was "absolutely sickened" that lawyers for Dulos’s estranged husband and his girlfriend are using the book as a potential explanation for the disappearance. Both suspects have been charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution in the case and have pleaded not guilty.

More life imitates crime fiction: The suspect in the gruesome slaying of Utah college student Mackenzie Lueck self-published a novel about a teenager who witnessed his friend and his neighbor burn to death, and began advertising the story one year before Lueck was killed.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Denkmal" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sydney Morning Herald spoke with Mick Herron about his six Slough House spy thrillers and what it's like being compared to John le Carre; the Mystery People's Scott Butki chatted with Christina Alger, about her new novel, Girls Like Us, inspired by the real-life Gilgo Beach murders; Crime Fiction Lover welcomed Mike Craven, who had careers in the army, social work, and as a probation officer before turning his hand to a series of books about Cumbrian DI Avison Fluke; and Mark Billingham joined a Q&A with the Sunday Post, discussing how a chilling letter from killer Ian Brady sparked the idea for Billingham’s latest novel.