Mystery Melange, Thanksgiving Edition

Samantha Harvey’s The Western Wind has won the £1000 2019 Staunch Book Prize. The controversial award, now in its second year, is for a thriller novel in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered. The other contenders included Liar's Candle by August Thomas; Only To Sleep by Lawrence Osborne; Honey by Brenda Brooks; and The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre.

This past weekend, Sisters in Crime Australia handed out its 26th annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards for short fiction "written by Australian women and featuring a strong female protagonist." The top honor, the Swinburne University Award, went to “At Length I Would Be Avenged,” by Blanche Clark. For all the winners in the various categories, check out the full list on the SinC-Aussie website.

Forensic anthropologist and author, Kathy Reichs, was one of the most recent individuals to receive the Order of Canada. Reichs is perhaps best known for her series, Bones, and its TV adaptation. Reichs joined actors William Shatner and Donald Sutherland, as well as Christina Jennings, founder of the production company behind the Murdoch Mysteries, in the honor.

The Goodreads Choice Awards have narrowed the Best Mystery & Thriller nominees down to the list of finalists.

There will be a special post-show discussion/Q&A with three acclaimed Boston mystery writers after the Lyric Stage's performance of Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express, December 19. Participating will be Julie Hennrikus (the Theater Cop and Garden Squad series), Susan Larson, and Hank Phillippi Ryan (award-winning author of 11 mysteries including the latest, The Murder List).

Janet Rudolph has her annual list out of Thanksgiving-themed mysteries over at her Mystery Fanfare blog. Plenty of options there to enjoy while you're waiting for the turkey to cook.

Kings River Life has some free Thanksgiving short stories, including "Justice for Elijah: a Thanksgiving Mystery" by Earl Staggs and "Ya Never Know: A Thanksgiving Tale" by Gale Farrelly.

Mystery Lovers Kitchen has several recipes appropriate for the holiday. Sip on some Thanksgiving Cider by Krista Davis, enjoy some Roasted Sweet Potato and Squash Soup before the turkey, and finish up with some Pumpkin Bread Pudding or Pumpkin Cake.

Something else to be thankful for: "Bookstores are back and they're back in a big way."

Tired of the usual Thanksgiving football on TV? TV Guide has a list of all the marathons over the holiday, including Blue Bloods, Forensic Files, Homeland, Law & Order, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, and Law & Order:SVU among many, many more.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Appraisal" by J.D. Smith.

In the Q&A roundup, Lesa Holstine chatted with Diane Kelly, author of the Paw Enforcement series, as well as the Death and Taxes mysteries and the Home Flipper mysteries; the Dark Phantom blog had an interview with Deborah Serani, author of the psychological suspense novel, The Ninth Session; the Minneapolis Star Tribune spoke with Janet Evanovich, who is promoting her 26th Stephanie Plum novel, Twisted Twenty-Six; and Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series, explained to The National why "I'm fonder of Rebus than he would be of me."

Author R&R with Lisa Regan

Before turning her hand to writing crime fiction, Lisa Regan worked as a paralegal, martial arts instructor, certified nursing assistant, and bookstore manager. But she'd been writing novels since she was 11 years old when one of her parents brought home an old-fashioned typewriter. That love of writing morphed into her successful series, first with Claire Fletcher and Detective Connor Parks, and later with Detective Josie Quinn, all of which has led her to become a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. 

In Vanishing Girls, which has just been released in paperback by Grand Central Publishing, Isabelle Coleman, a blonde, beautiful young girl goes missing, and everyone from the small town of Denton joins the search. They can find no trace of the town's darling, but Detective Josie Quinn finds another girl they didn't even know was missing. Mute and unresponsive, it's clear this mysterious girl has been damaged beyond repair. All Josie can get from her is the name of a third girl and a flash of a neon tongue piercing that matches Isabelle's.

The race is on to find Isabelle alive, and Josie fears there may be other girls in terrible danger. When the trail leads her to a cold case labelled a hoax by authorities, Josie begins to wonder is there anyone left she can trust? Someone in this close-knit town is committing unspeakable crimes. Can Josie catch the killer before another victim loses their life?

Lisa Regan stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about "going undercover" — with dogs — to write and research the Josie Quinn series.

 

Shadowing Search and Rescue Dogs

Many of my books feature missing persons. In book 6 of my Detective Josie Quinn series, Her Silent Cry, a little girl goes missing from a park and in book 7, Cold Heart Creek, a camper goes missing in the woods. I knew that oftentimes; law enforcement can avail themselves of search and rescue dogs to aid in the rescue or recovery of missing persons. However, I didn’t know much at all about search and rescue dogs. I read many things online but still didn’t feel as though I had enough of a grasp on the subject to write about it in an authentic way. I started searching for organizations in my area, hoping that someone from one of them would be willing to answer my questions. I came across the website for Search and Rescue Dogs of Pennsylvania (sardogs.org) and sent them an email. In less than a day, I had an offer from Vicki Wooters to come and watch her and her husband, Chuck Wooters train their dogs.

 

I was thrilled and nervous. I brought my twelve-year-old daughter with me and we shadowed Vicki, Chuck, their intern, and their wonderful dogs for a few hours. The training that day took place on a large private property with lots of wooded areas and an obstacle course. Both Chuck and Vicki were wonderful, immediately giving us a detailed run-down of how searches are conducted and how the dogs carry out their work.

 

Quake searches the Obstacle Course looking for remains

 

We took an initial walk around the property with Chuck, Vicki, and their intern. The dogs stayed in their cages in the backs of Chuck’s and Vicki’s vehicles. Large, thick, silver tarps had been thrown over the vehicles. Vicki told me those were Aluminet tarps and they helped keep the inside of the vehicles cool during the summer. It was a very hot day, but peeking inside the backs of the trucks, the German Shepherds appeared perfectly comfortable. Chuck had human remains with him in a black box, which he went off to hide while the rest of us continued to explore. We found an area at the bottom of a very steep ravine where Vicki ordered her intern to stay. She explained that she would have her dog, Rini, do a “live find” using their intern.

 

We left the intern in the ravine and took the long walk back to the vehicles. Vicki got Rini out of the back of her vehicle. Rini is a beautiful, two-year-old red sable German Shepherd. At Vicki’s command, Rini immediately laid down in the grass to wait for further instruction. However, she was clearly anxious to get to work, as evidenced by her grousing. I had always thought that dogs needed a personal item, like an item of clothing the person had been wearing, to search and find that person. This is not true. Vicki said that Rini could scent a person from a door handle. Indeed, she was right. Vicki kept her on a long lead, guided her to the intern’s car, and let her sniff the door handle all while Vicki issued words of encouragement. Once Vicki put Rini’s harness on, Rini was ready to go. Vicki explained that the harness was Rini’s indicator that it was time to work. Rini took off immediately in the direction where we’d left the intern.

 

 

What was most fascinating to me was the laser focus with which Rini carried out her duties. Vicki explained that once she was “in-scent”, meaning she had picked up the person’s scent and was following it, she wouldn’t be distracted by anything. Watching Rini follow the intern’s scent with such concentration, I realized that you could probably dangle a juicy steak right in front of her face, and she’d bypass it without even a glance. Vicki was right. Once she was in-scent, there was no distracting her and no stopping her.

 

As Rini worked, Vicki gave us a crash course on search and rescue dogs. For example, there are different kinds of search dogs: cadaver dogs, water recovery dogs, trailing dogs and air scent dogs. Each dog has its own specialty. They can be dual-trained. However, not all search and rescue dogs are certified by national organizations which set standards for the training of search and rescue dogs such as the International Police Work Dog Association, North American Police Work Dog Association, International Rescue Dog Organization, and the United States Police Canine Association. If you ever need to hire a rescue dog, you should make sure they have certifications.

 

Vicki also showed us her “puff bottle” which was a small bottle of baby powder which she used to test which direction the wind traveled so she could guide Rini if necessary. Vicki also explained that people walk around with an invisible scent cloud around them, shedding their scent as they went. She told me to imagine Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. In the cartoon, he walks around in a cloud of dirt. A person’s scent, though invisible, is like this. We can’t see it or smell it but the dogs can hone in on a person’s unique scent immediately.

 

Also, search and rescue dogs have both active and passive indicators. This means when they find what they’re looking for, they’ll perform some action to indicate to their handler that they’ve achieved their mission. Rini had an active indicator, which was a bark. She found the intern within minutes and barked until we caught up with her. She was rewarded by getting to play with her pull toy.

 

Rini finds the intern, gives a bark for an active indicator

 

A passive indicator is when a dog sits or lays down upon finding their target. We got to witness this when we shadowed Chuck and his dog, Quake, an eight-year-old sable German Shepherd whose specialty is human remains detection. Chuck had hidden some human remains in the obstacle course. As soon as Chuck approached the back of the truck where Quake and one of his canine colleagues were crated, Quake got very excited, barking, and eager to go to work. Quake was every bit as well behaved, laser focused and enthusiastic about working as Rini. When Chuck put on a black vest over his white polo shirt, Quake knew it was time to work. “He’s always ready to work,” Chuck told me. Chuck put Quake on a lead until we got into the obstacle course. Once inside the area, he let Quake loose and we watched him lope gracefully through the area, searching for his quarry. After only a few minutes, Quake laid down beside one of the obstacles. This was called his “down”, meaning the passive indicator he gave when he found human remains.

 

Quake using his "down" indicator to show he's found the remains

 

Watching expert handlers, Vicki and Chuck Wooters train with their dogs was one of the most fun and fascinating experiences I’ve ever had. I am truly in awe of them. If I ever get lost or abducted, I’d really like the Wooters and their dogs on the case! I hope that one day I’ll be able to shadow them again during training. Before we left, I had one last question, which was: “Where does one get human remains for training purposes?”

Vicki answered, “Bone room dot com.”

Yes, it’s a real thing.

If you want to learn more about Search and Rescue Dogs of Pennsylvania, please visit their website: http://www.sardogs.org/home-.html

Also, SARDOGS is a non-profit organization and they offer their services completely free of charge. They rely on donations in order to continue to provide their invaluable services.

 

You can find out more about Lisa Regan and her books via her website and also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. Vanishing Girls and the other books in the Josie Quinn series are available via Grand Central and all major booksellers.

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/MOVIES

Robocop Returns has landed director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters), who takes over from Neil Blomkamp after he exited the project in August. The film is being developed as a direct sequel to the original 1987 movie, and the original film's screenwriters, Ed Neumier and Michael Miner will be producing. The original Robocop (directed by Paul Verhoeven) centered on a police officer who, on death’s doorstep, is used as an experiment to create a new type of half man, half machine officer who struggles with resurfacing memories and corrupt city officials.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley has added Holt McCallany (Mindhunters) to the Fox Searchlight film's cast of Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, and Willem Defoe. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, the project revolves around an ex-carnival con-man turned spiritualist (Cooper), who teams up with a female psychiatrist to scoop cash out of the wallets and lives of their wealthy marks with some less than holy moves – until things take a sour turn. McCallany will play Anderson, a get-the-job-done bruiser with more going on that is first apparent from his tough guy persona.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NBC has put in development Escape, an action thriller drama based on the 2015 Russian series Quest, from Lucifer executive producer Jason Ning. In the story written by Ning, six complete strangers wake up on the roof of a building in San Francisco and are told they have 36 hours to live unless they can solve a series of deadly games set throughout the city.

ITV-owned producer Big Talk and British writer Sean Conway (Ray Donovan) are working on a drama adaptation of Tade Thompson’s African noir novel, Making Wolf (to be published in May 2020). The book tells the story of Weston Kogi, a London security guard who returns to his West African home country and thinks telling people he works as a homicide detective is harmless hyperbole. However, he is kidnapped and forced by two separate rebel factions to investigate the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi. Solving the crime may tip a country on the brink into civil war and cost Weston his life.

Harrison Ford is headed for the first regular television role of his career. The star of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark is attached to star in a series adaptation of The Staircase, detailing the trial of American novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife in 2001. Peterson claimed his wife died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident. The project is currently being shopped to networks and streaming services.

Yorgos Lanthimos is set to direct an adaptation of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, in development at Fox Searchlight Television. Based on the best-selling book by Mark Seal, the limited series will tell the true story of Clark Rockefeller, a gregarious, successful, and mysterious descendant of the Rockefeller clan. When his wife Sandra begins to suspect that Clark isn’t who he says he is, his decades-long web of deception slowly begins to unravel.

Dr. Who and Good Omens star, David Tennant, is to play infamous Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the three-part ITV drama, Des. The project is based on the Brian Masters book, Killing For Company, in which the author cooperated with Nilsen to get inside the mind of a man who murdered at least 15 men and boys between 1978 and 1983 (Nilsen died in jail last year.) Joining Tennant is The Crown star Jason Watkins, who will play Masters, and Line Of Duty actor Daniel Mays, who features as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay.

Trainspotting and Broadwalk Empire actress, Kelly Macdonald, is to play the police officer suspected of corruption in season six of BBC One’s smash-hit crime drama, Line Of Duty. Macdonald will star as Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson, who draws the attention of anti-corruption unit AC-12 for her unconventional conduct during the investigation of an unsolved murder. Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar will return as the AC-12 officers investigating Macdonald’s character.

Quibi’s untitled action thriller starring Liam Hemsworth has added five new cast members: Jimmy Akingbola, Sarah Gadon, Zach Cherry, Christoph Waltz, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. The series from Scorpion creator Nick Santora follows Dodge Maynard (Hemsworth) who, out of desperation to take care of his pregnant wife before a terminal illness can take his life, accepts an offer to participate in a deadly game where he soon discovers that he’s not the hunter but the prey. Gadon is set to play Dodge’s wife Valerie, and Cherry will step into the role of Looger, Dodge’s best friend from childhood. Akingbola’s role is being kept under wraps.

Adam Rose and Taylor Black have been tapped for recurring roles opposite Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba on the upcoming second season of Spectrum’s action drama, L.A.’s Finest. Season one of the series follows Syd Burnett (Union), who was last seen in Miami taking down a drug cartel and left her complicated past to become an LAPD detective. Paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom with an equally complex history, Syd was forced to confront how her unapologetic lifestyle was masking a greater personal secret.

The trailer has dropped for Dare Me, the USA Network program based on Megan Abbott’s 2012 novel of that same name. Dare Me, which will follow the lives of some competitive high school cheerleaders in "a small Midwestern town," is set to debut on December 29, with Abbott as one of its executive producers.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Harlan Coben spoke with France 24 about his books and how "writers never like to admit it but all lead characters are based on them."

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of "The Cupid Caper" by Larissa Reinhart, read by actor Teya Juarez.

Elizabeth Zelvin’s short story, "A Work In Progress" (from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: May/June 2019) is the current selection for the AHMM Podcast.

Writer Types welcomed three authors for an interview, Nicci French, Nick Kolakowski, and Trey R Barker.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham gave some recommendations of books you can pick up during the holiday season to gift to the people in your life — or just get for yourself.

Suspense Radio's Beyond The Cover welcomed as special guest, the international bestselling author, John Connolly, to chat about the latest in his Charlie Parker series, A Book of Bones.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack chatted with true crime writer and private investigator, Dennis N. Griffin, about his books and founding The Transparency Project.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with Lou Berney, author of November Road, which this year won the Anthony, Barry, Left Coast Crime, and Macavity Awards for Best Mystery Novel, as well as the Hammett Prize.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with John Glatt about his latest true crime book, The Family Next Door, which tells the horrific story of the Turpin Family.

The Crime Time podcast reviewed the film adaptation of Doctor Sleep; the book, The Lying Room by married-couple authors, Nicci French; and Andrew McGahan’s The Rich Man’s House.

The latest Partners in Crime episode discussed the Golden Age of crime fiction, the comeback of audio fiction, and more.

Mystery Melange

The Golden Age writer, Dorothy L. Sayers, is apparently having something of a resurgence, possibly due to the renewed interest in fellow Golden Ager, Agatha Christie (and here's another take on that). The Seattle Times's Moira Macdonald has just discovered Sayer's creation, Harriet Vane, and the New Yorker profiled "An Overlooked Novel from 1935 by the Godmother of Feminist Detective Fiction."

Book Riot has an occasional feature they call the United States of a Mystery with "essential" books set in each state. The latest outing travels to Georgia.

Raymond Chandler spent a portion of his youth in the UK, and the Irish Times took a look at how that childhood may have affected Chandler's iconic detective fiction.

If you're a fan of the late author, Sue Grafton (of the Alphabet mysteries, beginning with A is for Alibi), her mansion is on the market. Grafton and her husband Steve Humphrey designed the mansion on a hill in Montecito, CA, which was listed with a new price of $6,999,000, after going on the market earlier this year with an $8.5 million price tag. The author died in late 2017, after completing Y is for Yesterday, her last novel in the series.

Hachette Book Group is offering a chance to win Michael Connelly's complete Harry Bosch series. One lucky winner will be drawn from random entries through December 1 (U.S. only).

As if you didn't need another reason to read, it seems that readers are more satisfied with their lives.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Page 8 Incident" by Allan Lake.

In the Q&A roundup, Lesa Holstine chatted with Lois Winston, author of the Anastasia Pollack mysteries; the Sunday Post spoke with Alex Gray about her latest thriller, The Stalker; and Declan Burke sat down with Queen's University's Dominique Jeannerod to discuss The Lammisters, his new comedic crime novel.

 

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/MOVIES

Beverly Hills Cop is returning after Paramount made a one-time license deal (with an option for a sequel) that will enable Netflix to make the fourth installment of the film with Eddie Murphy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The studio had been developing a reboot for a while, and Netflix jumped at the chance for a potential big-star franchise.

John Woo’s forthcoming remake of his 1989 crime drama, The Killer, has had a bit of setback after star Lupita Nyong’o had to back out of the project. The iconic director note that it was a scheduling problem because "she’s so popular right now" and script rewrites had taken longer than expected, affecting the star's availability. Woo's project is still being planned as a gender-flipped take on the classic drama starring Chow Yun-fat.

Screen Gems has preemptively bought Reparations, a script by Jeff Howard and Andre Owens described as "an action heist movie interwoven with a socially conscious theme." Although some details of the plot are sketchy, here's the pitch: When a lost cache of Confederate gold falls into the wrong hands, an amateur crew comes together to get the gold and use it to fund long overdue reparations.

Shailene Woodley is set to star in the title role of Girl Named Sue, the true story of California DEA agent Sue Webber-Brown and her role in creating the Drug Endangered Child (DEC) protocol. Set in the in the ’90s at the height of the crystal meth crisis, Webber-Brown fights her way into the boys’ club of law enforcement where she takes it upon herself to help the small children overlooked during raids, a decision that will change her life forever.

Filming is underway on Deep Water, the first movie from Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne in almost two decades. Adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel, the story follows Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas who play Vic and Melinda Van Allen, an attractive young married couple whose mind games with each other take a twisted turn when people around them start turning up dead.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has put in development Borrowed Time, a drama from writer Amanda Green, Elizabeth Banks, and Max Handelman. Written by Green, Borrowed Time follows a cop who wakes up in the body of a stranger with no memory of who she is. The search for her identity is complicated by someone who is trying to kill the person whose life she is inhabiting. She prevents the murder, only to awaken in a different body with a new mystery to solve.

Fox has given a script commitment plus penalty to Sometimes I Lie, a limited series starring and executive produced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The project, based on former BBC journalist Alice Feeney’s debut novel, stars Gellar as Amber Reynolds, who is in a coma. She can’t remember how she got there, but she knows it wasn’t an accident. Terrified and trapped in her own body, she tries to piece together her memories of the last week, knowing that someone is lying and that her life is still very much in danger.

Amazon Studios has picked up a fourth and final season of Goliath, its original legal drama series from David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro that stars Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton won a Golden Globe for playing McBride, the hard-living, once-famous L.A. lawyer with a complicated past who seeks redemption by solving cases nobody else can crack.

Gary Oldman is to star in the spy drama, Slow Horses, for Apple's new digital TV serivce with Justified’s Graham Yost exec producing. Based on Mick Herron’s spy novels, the project features Jackson Lamb, a brilliant but irascible leader of a group of spies, who end up in MI5’s Slough House, having been exiled from the mainstream for their mistakes.

Don Johnson, set to reprise the title role in USA Network’s upcoming Nash Bridges revival, confirmed today that longtime co-star Cheech Marin will be back for the reboot reprising his role as Inspector Joe Dominguez. The original series, which ran on CBS from 1996 to 2001, starred Johnson as an investigator in an elite Special Investigations Unit of the San Francisco Police Department.

ITV has cancelled Rob Lowe’s British cop drama, Wild Bill, after just one season. The West Wing star played high-flying U.S. cop Bill Hixon, who was appointed Chief Constable of the East Lincolnshire Police Force in the UK.

The pilot for Last Summer, the Freeform thriller from Jessica Biel and and Michelle Purple, has assembled a strong cast including Michael Landes, Brooklyn Sudano, Harley Quinn Smith, Chiara Aurelia, Mika Abdalla, Froy Gutierrez, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, and Nathaniel Ashton. Last Summer is an unconventional thriller that actually takes place over three summers in the '90s in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Abdalla), is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette (Aurelia), goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by ’95, the most despised person in America.

Tamara Podemski is set to co-star in Run, HBO’s romantic comedic thriller pilot from Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her frequent collaborator Vicky Jones. Run centers on Ruby (Merritt Wever), a woman living a humdrum existence who one day gets a text inviting her to fulfill a youthful pact, promising true love and self-reinvention, by stepping out of her life to take a journey with her oldest flame. Podemski plays Babe, a soft-spoken police detective with a dry sense of humor, whose first big case offers her the chance to show off her genuinely good police skills and also meet someone who might change her life forever.

Austin Stowell is joining the upcoming streaming drama, The Old Man, as a series regular, playing a younger version of Jeff Bridges’ character Dan Chase. The series is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Thomas Perry and centers on the titular "old man" (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and now lives off the grid. 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. Stowell’s story as the younger Dan Chase will take place thirty years prior to the events of the pilot, as he undertakes a dangerous mission against the backdrop of the Soviet-Afghan war.

Lorraine Toussaint, Chet Hanks, and Jimi Stanton are set to recur in Your Honor, Showtime’s limited series starring Bryan Cranston. Based on the Israeli drama format Kvodo, the legal thriller stars Cranston as a respected New Orleans judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

CBS will finally air a crossover between its Friday night, set-in-Hawaii dramas Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. Peter Lenkov, executive producer on both series, announced the crossover in an interview with TV Line, explaining that the story will involve the two sets of investigators converging on the same hotel. Lenkov described the event as "a big-stakes story that really feels like a two-hour movie." The episodes are set to air back-to-back on Friday, Jan. 3.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed Navada Barr, the award-winning novelist and New York Times best-selling author of the Anna Pigeon mysteries.

Dean Koontz was the guest on Meet the Thriller Author, discussing Nameless, his new series of short thrillers available for free to Prime and Kindle Unlimited members.

Write Place, Wrong Crime host, Frank Zafiro, chatted with John Sheppherd about his career in low budget movies, and his book Bottom Feeders, which is about a murder...on the set of a low budget movie.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, talked about the end of times; which crime writer they would like to team up with come the zombie apocalypse; trying not to slander Jeffery Archer; the vagaries of American toilets, and much more.

This week's topics on the Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, were "20BooksVegas, POIs and UNSUBs, and Wiretap Technicalities."

THEATRE

Baltimore, Maryland's Everyman Theatre continues its 2019/2020 season with Agatha Christie's famous whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express. Everyman's production, directed by Founding Artistic Director, Vincent M. Lancisi, was adapted by noted playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me A Tenor; Crazy For You), and runs December 3, 2019, through January 5, 2020.

Mystery Melange

 

Amazon announced its choices for "Best Books" of 2019, including those in the Mystery & Thriller category. For a listing of all of the top twenty crime titles, follow this link.

A week after winning the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction at Bouchercon 2019, Joseph S. Walker won the 2019 Al Blanchard Award presented at New England Crime Bake. The Al Blanchard Award, named after Al Blanchard, honors the best crime short story by a New England writer or with a New England setting. Mr. Walker’s winning short story, "Haven" is published in Seascape: Best New England Crime Stories. (HT to Kevin Tipple)

Sisters in Crime, New Orleans chapter, is sponsoring a one-day conference for writers and readers of crime fiction titled "A Journey into the Mystery of the Criminal Mind." Keynote speaker Hank Phillipi Ryan will be joined by local authors BJ Bourg, O'Neil De Noux, Jean M. Redmann, and Erica Spindler for disucssions such as "Mastering the Art of Addictive Suspense" and "Crafting the Dark Side: Creating Criminal Characters."

As one of the first initiatives under the leadership of new CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble has announced the shortlist for a new Book of the Year award. Books are nominated by B&N booksellers, who will also choose the winner, and represent "the title for which they are most proud to be selling," said Daunt. The prize replicates a similar prize offered by Waterstones in the U.K., which was launched in 2012. The shortlist for the inaugural award includes the crime novel, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, as well as The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, based on a true story about a violent and torturous reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow era.

Fifty years ago, CWA Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award-winner, Peter Lovesey, published his first mystery novel, Wobble to Death, after winning a first novel contest he stumbled across in an English newspaper. To celebrate Lovesey's incredible career and its unusual beginnings, Soho Crime has created the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest, in which one debut crime/mystery author will be awarded a publication contract with Soho Crime. All submissions must be received by 11:59pm EST on April 1, 2020. (HT to Mystery Fanfare, which has more info and links.)

I recently reported on The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, which bills itself as "the richest prize for a single short story in the English language" (the winner receives £30,000). However, on Victoria Strauss's Writer Beware blog, she notes something that authors should take into account: by agreeing to the terms and conditions, you are essentially granting a sweeping, non-expiring license not just to Times Newspapers Limited (The Sunday Times' parent company), but also to Audible to use your story or any part of it in any way they want, anywhere in the world, without payment to or permission from you.

There is a call for papers for the upcoming conference, The Golden Age of Crime: A Re-Evaluation. As well as interrogating the staples of Golden Age crime (the work of Agatha Christie and/or Ellery Queen, the puzzle format, comparisons to "the psychological turn"), this conference will look at under-explored elements of the publishing phenomenon. Organizers invite proposals for 20-minute papers or panel presentations of one hour. If you're interested, email your 200-word proposal and short biographical note to goldenageofcrime@gmail.com no later than 15th December. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Speaking of Golden Age authors: do you agree with The Guardian's list of the "Top 10 Golden Age Detective Novels?"

Sotheby's is selling an "extraordinary stash of letters" (160 plus) between James Bond creator, Ian Fleming, and his wife, Ann, that shine a light on the tangled relationship between them—from their intense and secret affair to the bitter end of their marriage. Gabriel Heaton, a specialist in books and manuscripts at the auction house, said the letters in their scope and scale provided what "must surely be an unmatchable record of the life of the author as his fortunes changed." They also provide insight into the rise of the iconic James Bond character.

Planet Word, a new Washington, D.C. language museum, is set to open in May 2020. The project has been spearheaded by Ann Friedman, who describes it as an interactive museum “that will bring language to life," now under construction at the historic Franklin School on the corner of 13th and K streets NW in downtown Washington. The museum is expected to open May 31 with 10 immersive galleries that will explore language in novel and entertaining ways. Visitors will be invited to solve puzzles, listen to poetry and paint pictures with words and encouraged to try their skills at delivering famous speeches and creating a marketing pitch. Planet Word will also have an auditorium, classrooms, a restaurant and gift shop, and admission will be free.

Finland has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, so of course, they'd build something incredible like this.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Sometimes I Think About Murder" by Terry Dawley.

In the Q&A roundup, Ivy Pochoda interviewed Alex Segura for the LA Review of Books about his series featuring private eye, Pete Fernandez; WAToday chatted with Garry Disher, "Australian crime fiction's quiet giant"; Shots Magazine had a Q&A with Atticka Locke, the author of five award-wining novels including Bluebird, Bluebird (2017) that won an Edgar Award, Anthony Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award; and Lena Gregory stopped by the Writers Who Kill blog to chat about her All-Day Breakfast Cafe Series.

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/MOVIES

Fox Searchlight has picked up Consume, based on an original idea by David Gelb who will also direct the project. it's described as a "contained thriller" that follows a group of thought leaders who are invited to an enigmatic billionaire’s Icelandic retreat for what they think is the trip of a lifetime. Little do they know that they are not guests, but the unwitting test subjects of a nefarious experiment.

Ben Affleck is set to star in the next film from director Robert Rodriguez, the "mind-bending" action thriller, Hypnotic. Rodriguez and Max Borenstein wrote the film that will star Affleck as a detective who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists.

Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo are leading the cast of Joe Carnahan’s thriller, Leo From Toledo. The film follows a former killer for the Kansas City mob, now hiding in witness protection, who has trouble with his memory. When his past catches up with him and he becomes a hunted man, he has little time to save the one thing he has left – his estranged daughter and granddaughter.

Scott Eastwood is set to star opposite Jason Statham and Holt McCallanay in Cash Truck, the Miramax action thriller directed by Guy Ritchie. It’s a revenge story that shifts across timelines and between various character’s perspectives. At the center is "H" (Statham), a cold and mysterious character who works at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week. McCallany will play Bullet, the head of transportation who hires H despite not fully trusting him, but Eastwood's role has yet to be announced.

Jason Sudeikis and Evangeline Lilly have been cast in Till Death, the action thriller being from Aharon Keshales, who co-directed 2013 breakout Israeli horror project Big Bad Wolves. In the film, convicted felon Jimmy gets early parole after serving twelve years for armed robbery. Upon his release, he vows to give Annie, his childhood love, now dying from cancer, the best last year of her life, but unfortunately it’s not that simple.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Sandra Bullock is reteaming with Netflix after the success of Bird Box and will star in an untitled drama for the streaming service about life after prison. Nora Fingscheidt will direct the film that’s based on a script by director Christopher McQuarrie who adapted the screenplay from the BAFTA-nominated British miniseries, Unforgiven. Bullock stars as Ruth Slater, a woman released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and who re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past. Facing severe judgment from the place she once called home, her only hope for redemption is finding the estranged younger sister she was forced to leave behind.

ABC has put in development Invisible, a thriller drama written and executive produced by the Burn Notice duo of Watkins and Raisani. Invisible is described as a "sexy, high-octane thriller" about an undercover federal agent going through an identity crisis as she struggles to find balance between her roles as a wife and mother and her calling as a high risk law enforcement officer.

CBS has put in development, Vanishing Point, from writer Breen Frazier (Criminal Minds). Vanishing Point revolves around a cavalier but brilliant behavioral psychologist and his methodical FBI agent ex-wife, who are forced to reteam on a missing-persons case that in fact might be the spark they need to rekindle their relationship and finally locate their own teenage son, who disappeared years before.

Adam Scott has teamed up with director Ben Stiller for the workplace thriller, Severance, which has been handed a series order by Apple. The series takes place at Lumen Industries, a company that’s looking to take work-life balance to a new level. Scott will play the lead role of Mark, an employee with a dark past trying to put himself back together.

NBC has put in development Quantum Spy, based on David Ignatius’s CIA thriller novel. Quantum Spy is centered around Harris Chang, a newly promoted Chinese-American CIA officer. After America’s top-secret quantum research lab is compromised, he’s tasked with finding the traitor and ends up in the middle of a global conspiracy that leads him to uncover dark secrets from his own past.

ITV is developing a "sweeping" adaptation of Lindsey Davis’ Falco Roman private detective novels, a project originally pitched to the BBC. Davis has published 20 Falco novels, starting with The Silver Pigs in 1989. Each tells a self-contained story about Marcus Didius Falco, a fictional Roman private detective who investigates crimes and acts as an often reluctant imperial agent across the Roman Empire in 70 AD and beyond.

US-based streaming service Sundance Now has acquired the rights to Norwegian TV series Wisting, based on the best-selling crime novels by Jørn Lier Horst. Wisting is a police procedural series about a former New York-based FBI agent (Carrie-Anne Moss) working with Norwegian homicide detective William Wisting (Sven Nordin) to catch a serial killer from the United States. The storyline is based on two of Lier Horst’s books, The Caveman and The Hunting Dogs.
 

CBS has put in development Clues, a drama based on an Israeli series, from Madam Secretary Barbara Hall and Madam Secretary executive producer David Grae. When a private investigator goes missing, his socialite wife and his blue-collar protégé are forced together to solve the mystery of his disappearance while also desperately trying to save the business. But each of the women holds a secret that could jeopardize their budding friendship and pursuit of the truth. 

Queen Latifah is set to star in and executive produce an Equalizer reboot currently in development at CBS. Described as a reimagining of the 1985 CBS series starring Edward Woodward, the reboot centers on Queen Latifah as "an enigmatic figure who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn." Castle duo Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller will serve as writers and showrunners on the reboot.

A new Revenge follow-up series is in the works at ABC. Written by the series creator Mike Kelley and Revenge alum Joe Fazzio, the new project will feature a new Hispanic immigrant character, in addition to at least one of the characters from the original show. The returning character, who has not yet been cast, will guide the new protagonist "as she arrives in Malibu to exact revenge on a Sackler-esque pharmaceutical dynasty, whose insatiable greed led to the murder of her biochemist mother, the destruction of her family, and a global epidemic."

ABC also put in development Ghost, a one-hour drama from writer Justin Britt-Gibson (Counterpart) and Blindspot creator-executive producer Martin Gero. Written and executive produced by Britt-Gibson, Ghost follows Elton Cleaver, a once-celebrated CIA officer who was betrayed and left for dead by a shadowy organization embedded within the Agency. Living under a new identity, Cleaver now uses his skills to protect everyday people from threats beyond the law’s reach.

James Nesbitt has been cast as the lead in new BBC One detective drama, Bloodlands. Dubbed an "Irish noir," Nesbitt will play Northern Irish police detective Tom Brannick who connects a suicide note with an infamous cold case with enormous personal significance. The discovery sparks an explosive hunt for a legendary assassin. 

Merle Dandridge has been set as a series regular opposite Kaley Cuoco in HBO Max’s thriller drama series, The Flight Attendant. The Flight Attendant is a story of a flight attendant (Cuoco) who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. The dark comedic thriller is based on the novel of the same name by New York Times best-selling author Chris Bohjalian. Dandridge will play Kim, a no-nonsense lead FBI agent who ends up revisiting some of her own mistakes while investigating all of Cassie’s. Griffin Matthews (Dear White People) has also been tapped as a series regular to play Shane Evans, Cassie’s flight attendant "work friend" and fellow nightlife compatriot. 

One of the original castmembers on NCIS: New Orleans has exited the popular CBS series after six seasons. Special Agent Christopher Lasalle met an untimely fate when he was fatally shot while trying to avenge his brother Cade’s murder by tracking the drug ring in Alabama he suspected was responsible. Actor Lucas Black, who played Lasalle, shared a heartfelt message on Instagram with fans after the episode aired, thanking them for their love and support.

The cast is growing for Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. Rachel Keller, Emily Bergl, Lena Georgas, Tiera Skovbye, and Chris Mason are set to recur opposite Amanda Peet and Christian Slater in the second installment of the anthology series which will air on USA Network. Like the first installment, which aired on Bravo and starred Connie Britton and Eric Bana, the second will be based on a true crime story featuring an epic tale of love gone wrong. In Season 2, it is the story of convicted murderer Betty Broderick (Peet) and her ex-husband (Slater) that spans the 1960s to the ’80s and chronicles the breakdown of their marriage that Oprah deemed one of "America’s messiest divorces" even before it ended in double homicide.

Ahead of its January premiere, NBC has retitled its new midseason drama, Lincoln. Now titled Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, the drama series is inspired by Jeffery Deaver’s bestselling book series, which had been previously adapted into the 1999 movie of the same name starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. The project follows former NYPD detective and forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme, played by Russell Hornsby, and his new partner, Amelia Sachs (Arielle Kebbel) in a cat-and-mouse game as they join forces to bring down a notorious serial killer

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Partners in Crime welcomed Adam Croft, who talks about the process of writing his new political thriller, Absolution; there was also a discussion of whether or not crime writers approve of murder and answer – in great detail – their least favorite question: where do you get your ideas from?

The recent Mysteryrat's Maze podcast episode featured the mystery short story, "Fig Newtons and Heavy Bags by Earl Staggs," read by actor Donna Beavers.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham talked about all of the recent mystery award winners and the books they picked up in honor of Nonfiction November.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack welcomed guest crime writer Les Abend, an airline pilot turned author of the novel, Paper Wings.

The latest Speaking of Mysteries guest was Frank Heller, whose first thriller, The Secret Empress, reimagines an alternate history where the last Emperor of China’s wife and child did not die in childbirth.

Linwood Barclay stopped by Beyond the Cover to chat about his new thriller, Elevator Pitch, in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.

The Meet the Thriller Author podcast featured Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson, the co-author team behind the #1 Bestselling Tier One series and other standalone thrillers.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief took on the topic of "Body Disposal."

Det. Adam Richardson, host of the Writers Bureau, answered questions about what constitutes a hate crime, how to use search warrants in a proactive investigation where a crime hasn’t occurred yet, and death investigations in paradise.

Terry Shames was interviewed by Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, to discuss her Samuel Craddock series.

Robert McCaw was the guest on It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club, chatting about his new novel featuring Hilo police Chief Detective Koa Kāne, Off the Grid.

Author R&R with Eugenia Lovett West

Today, my Author R&R features a very special guest, Eugenia Lovett West, who at age 96 is the author of the newly published Firewall: An Emma Streat Mystery. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Reverend Sidney Lovett, the widely known and loved former chaplain at Yale. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and worked for Harper's Bazaar and the American Red Cross. Then came marriage, four children, volunteer work, and freelancing for local papers. Her first novel, The Ancestors Cry Out, was published by Doubleday; it was followed by two mysteries, Without Warning (2007) and Overkill (2009), published by St. Martin's Press. 

 

Firewall is the third installment in a series centering on former opera singer Emma Streat, who has survived the murder of her husband and the destruction of her beautiful old house. Now a full-time single mother, she struggles to move forward and make a home for her two sons. Because of her detection skills, she has become a go-to person for help―so, when her rich, feisty, socialite godmother is blackmailed, she turns immediately to Emma. Soon, Emma finds herself thrust into the dark world of cybercrime. Mounting challenges take her to exclusive European settings where she mixes with the elite of the financial and art collecting worlds. When she is targeted by a cybercrime network using cutting-edge technology, it takes all of Emma's resilience and wits to survive and bring the wily, ruthless criminal she's hunting to justice.

 

Author R&R by Eugenia Lovett West

It’s never too late to create and publish. At age 96, I wake up every morning and look forward to sitting down at the computer and producing. Writing could be a compulsion that’s hard-wired in the brain. It’s certainly a life-changing commitment as to how one wants to spend time and energy.

To create a book, my sense is that it’s 10% talent and 90% applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. In a way, it’s like making a big stew. You put in the ingredients, stir, hope for a good result, but for most people it takes time and hard work to find one’s voice and one’s style. Through trial and error, I’ve learned to show rather than tell and to use dialogue that covers ground and moves the plot without an excess of description. I try to make the setting liven and illuminate the story,  while secondary characters add color, and the end is emotionally satisfying. I aim for drama and conflict in every chapter without stretching the reader’s credibility—and for me, suspense is key. I really want readers to be compelled to turn the page.

For historical novels, it can be a challenge to balance facts with imagination. For my thriller set in Jamaica, it was enough to read a few journals mostly written by English governor’s wives. On the other hand, American history demands extensive research. Any mistakes will quickly be found and noted. On the other hand, the mystery genre has different requirements. There should be sly red herrings, judiciously scattered clues, a surprise ending, and justice must always triumph. And—the reader should get a few hints as to who will emerge as the villain, not let him jump out on the last page. I actually got to the end of my first mystery with several candidates and had to do a lot of revising. No domestic violence. My mystery subplots must have a global theme like advanced weapons, lethal viruses, cybercrime. My detective character Emma Streat goes to many different countries, ones I visited on business trips with my husband, and it’s great fun to travel back in time.

As for process, I try never to sit at the computer staring into space. When problems arise, I take a sheet of paper and write “What If” at the top, then think up several possibilities. This usually works—and the time-honored long walk can clear the mind. I start with a general idea and let pictures run through my mind like watching a movie. Like painting a picture, there are layers and layers of process.  I don’t block out the plot chapter by chapter, it’s not set in concrete, but the overall structure should be there. It is said that there are only two master plots in existence: “A Stranger Comes to Town” and the “Hero’s Journey.” Readers and writers are setting out on a journey together, and the reader must care about the outcome.

One might say that being a writer is like living in two worlds—one is where you eat, sleep, and talk. The other is where you exist with a different set of people. I get to know them better than my own children, and my job is to guide them to their destinations. I believe, deeply, that a writer should try to provide the reader with something of value—entertainment, information, or just the chance to escape to a different world.

 

For more information about Eugenia Lovett West and her books, you can visit her website or follow her on Facebook. Firewall is now available via all major online and brick-and-mortar booksellers.