Mystery Melange

 

Crime Writers of Canada announced the winners of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Awards. The awards, established in 1984, are named after the nom de travail of Canada's official hangman and celebrate excellence in Canadian crime writing. The winners are listed below, and you can find all this year's finalists via this link.

Best Crime Novel: Michael Christie, Greenwood
Best Crime First Novel: Philip Elliott, Nobody Move
Best Novella: Wayne Arthurson, The Red Chesterfield
Best Short Story: Peter Sellers, "Closing Doors," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Best French Book: Andrée Michaud, Tempêtes
Best Juvenile or YA Book: Tom Ryan, Keep This to Yourself
Best Nonfiction Book: Charlotte Gray, Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island
Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript: Liz Rachel Walker, The Dieppe Letters

This evening, May 28, from 7-8 p.m. Eastern, Michael Connelly and CNN's Jake Tapper are teaming up for an online conversation that will benefit independent bookstores. The conversation will cover both authors' new books, the craft of writing, their move from journalism to fiction writing, how journalism informs fiction, and the importance of supporting independent bookstores now and always. Viewers will be encouraged to donate to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc). For more information about the free event on Crowdcast and to register, click here. (HT to Shelf Awareness.

The coronavirus is a crime for health and business, but one of its aspects, quarantine/lockdown, might wind up being the ideal setting for crime fiction. The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is presenting the Two Minutes in Quarantine Flash Fiction contest which opens today for submissions from Maine writers. Author Julia Spencer-Fleming (of the Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne series) has provided the opening line, and you provide the rest of the story in only 500 words. The submissions deadline for the fee-free competition is June 15. The winning story will be published in the Maine Sunday Telegram, plus included in a reading with a stellar group of crime writers on 6/25 for Maine Crime Online.

Authors are finding ways to help promote their books and bookstores during the pandemic. Following proper safety guidelines, the Seminary Co-op in Chicago, Ill., welcomed local author Sara Paretsky into the store lobby last week to sign copies of her new V.I. Warshawsky novel, Dead Land, while Paretsky's beloved golden, Chiara, kept an eye out. The Seminary Co-op remains closed to the public, but is filling online orders.

Another convention has fallen to the coronavirus. This, from Mike Chomko, PulpFest Marketing & Programming Director: "Throughout the latter months of 2019, PulpFest was planning for a banner year. From our vivacious Guest of Honor — Eva Lynd — to a significant estate auction and our the plethora of 'B’s' in our theme — 'Bradbury, BLACK MASK, and Brundage,' with a touch of 'Burroughs, Brackett, Baum, and a couple of 'B' movies,' PulpFest 2020 was going to be one 'B'eautiful convention. Alas, it was not meant to be. Or should we say, 'B?' Or maybe it should be 'C'  for coronavirus. We regret to announce that PulpFest is being postponed until August 2021...it will now take place August 5 - 8, 2021 at the DoubleTree in Mars, PA."

Holland House Books has launched a new digital crime imprint, PM Press. Editors Phaidra Robinson and Mia Skevington are seeking most types of crime and thriller fiction, "from the classic English whodunit through to police procedurals, or classic noir through to mind-bending psychological thrillers." You can read more about submission guidelines here or via Holland's website.

It's nice to know NASA has a sense of humor and a bit of an interest in crime fiction. Mars is a long way from 221B Baker Street, but one of fiction's best-known detectives will be represented on the Red Planet after NASA's Perseverance rover touches down on Feb. 18, 2021. An instrument called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) will, with the help of its partner-camera WATSON, hunt for signs of ancient life by detecting organic molecules and minerals. Together, they will study rock surfaces, mapping out the presence of certain minerals and organic molecules, which are the carbon-based building blocks of life on Earth.

Author and director of the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival and the Bute Noir fest, Craig Robertson, was asked to pick the ten best Scottish crime novels of all time for The Guardian, coming up with books that deliver all the gut-punch thrills of crime without forgetting its human cost.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "I Gave You Diamonds, You Gave Me Disease" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Michael Connelly stopped by the Los Angeles Times (reprinted in part here) to talk about "fake news"; Bosch; his newspaper reporter protagonist, Jack McEvoy; and the coronavirus. Over at the Writers Who Kill blog, E.B. Davis chatted with Bernard Schaffer about his Santero and Rein Thriller series which focuses on the crimes of those lost in criminal psychosis; Books & Beyond spoke with Paul Matthews, author of two comedy thriller-mystery series; and Jessica Riley Miller sat down with The Stiletto Gang's Paula Gail Benson to discuss her supernatural mysteries that are in the tradition of Charlaine Harris’s True Blood series.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Sony Pictures has acquired Armored, a film adaptation of the new audio book written by Mark Greaney (co-author of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels), with Michael Bay producing. The novel focuses on a high-risk security contractor suffering from old physical and mental wounds who reluctantly takes a job working on a heavily armed convoy shuttling UN delegates through Mexico’s "cartel country." But the mission turns into a desperate struggle for survival as corrupt police, rival gangs, and an enemy within all try to destroy the tiny motorcade before the peace talks bear fruit.

Paramount Pictures has boarded Flight, a film based on a spec script by Miles Chapman, the screenwriter behind the Sylvester Stallone-led Escape Plan movies. Piloted by producer Weed Road Pictures (Star Trek: Picard) and director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down), the story is described as "a contained thriller set on an international flight."

Nick Jonas (Jumanji) and Laurence Fishburne (Matrix) have signed on to star in the Pierre Morel-directed action-thriller, The Blacksmith. Actor-singer Jonas will play Wes Loomis, a "Blacksmith," the intelligence community’s go-to weapons expert. When his clandestine lab is destroyed and his colleagues are murdered, he must go on the run with only his unique set of technological skills and the help of a brilliant, young CIA analyst to keep him alive. The duo seek out Mather (Fishburne), a retired blacksmith and Wes’s mentor, to help guide them.

Esai Morales will replace Nicholas Hoult as the villain in Mission: Impossible 7, which is due to start production in late summer or early fall. When the coronavirus shut down the original production schedules on the film, it conflicted with another commitment for Hoult, and thus Morales had to be brought on board instead. The project, which sees Tom Cruise reprising his Ethan Hunt spy character, was set to be released in July 2021 but has since been rescheduled for November of next year.

After the wild success of Netflix's Tiger King documentary series, based on the exploits of convicted felon, Joe Exotic, several follow-on scripted projects about the same story and characters are being eyed by various TV and film producers. Although most of these are in the early stages, one such production is eyeing Sharknado star Tara Reid to play Carole Baskin, the big cat conservationist with whom Exotic had a bitter feud.

The mysterious Tenet film from Christopher Nolan has a new trailer that may reveal more about the project. The sci-fi crime drama stars John David Washington as the protagonist who is leading a group to track down Kenneth Branagh’s character, a Russian national who’s able to communicate with the future and appears to be a formidable opponent

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Deadline is reporting that Left Bank Pictures (The Crown) is closing a deal to adapt Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache crime novels for a series. However, the author herself on Facebook had this to say about the report:  "To be honest, that was premature. The discussions are ongoing and as I've learned, all sorts of things can go wrong." According to Deadline, the project's title is Three Pines, which would be a reference to the fictional French Canadian village in which Chief Inspector Gamache operates. The lead character is a French-speaking detective, but I'm assuming the production would look to hire a bilingual actor since Gamache also has English fluency (thanks to his Cambridge education). Chief Inspector Gamache has been reimagined for the screen previously: Canada’s CBC adapted Still Life for the 2013 television movie Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery, with Nathaniel Parker playing the fictional detective.

CBS announced its fall TV lineup, which includes most of its regular crime drama offerings as well as the new crime shows, The Equalizer and Clarice (in a mid-season slot TBA). CBS is planning to bring back the shows despite the ongoing production shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, CBS Entertainment president, Kelly Kahl, did not rule out the possibility that CBS could make changes should the network’s shows fail to restart production in time for fall launches. Fox and The CW are changing up their lineups with acquired series and other stopgaps in the event full-scale production is unable to resume any time soon.

ABC also announced a slew of renewals including The Rookie (starring Nathan Fillion as the titular rookie cop) and Stumptown (starring Cobie Smulders as a military intelligence veteran turned private eye). The network also picked up the new detective drama, Big Sky, from the prolific David E. Kelley, and a drama based on Erin Brockovich, Rebel, may also go forward at a later day. One show that was canceled is Emergence. The supernatural police drama starred Allison Tollman as a police chief who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened.

Fox picked up the serial killer thriller, Prodigal Son, for a second season. The project, which stars Michael Sheen and Tom Payne, is likely to be scheduled for a midseason slot as a result of the COVID-19 production shutdown. Prodigal Son follows Tom Payne’s Malcolm Bright, son of "The Surgeon" (played by Sheen), who as a child was responsible for enabling the police to arrest his serial-killer father. Now a profiler, formerly with the FBI and currently consulting for the New York Police Department, Bright is forced to confront his father after a copycat serial killer uses his methods of killing.

TNT has set the premiere date (July 26) and released a trailer for its follow-up to The Alienist, which will officially be titled The Alienist: Angel of Darkness. The initial series and the follow-on are based on Caleb Carr's series about a turn-of-the-century criminal psychologist (known as “alienists” in those days). The entire lead cast from the first project will return, including Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning.

Harry Potter producer, David Barron, is adapting Manda Scott's thriller novel, Treachery of Spies, for the small screen. The historical thriller starts with a murder in WWII France and unfurls its mysteries into the present day with a brilliant but haunted female detective as the lead. A Treachery of Spies is the second of Scott’s espionage thrillers to feature Detective Inspector Inès Picaut and the first to be adapted.

Olivia Holt (of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger) is returning to Freeform as a lead in Cruel Summer, the network’s upcoming thriller drama series, taking over a role originally played in the pilot by Mika Abdalla. Cruel Summer (previously titled Last Summer) is described as an unconventional thriller that takes place over three summers in the '90s in a small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate (Holt), is abducted.

While you're waiting for your favorite crime dramas to return, TV Guide has spoilers, premiere dates, photos, trailers, and casting news for season 18 of NCIS and season 7 of NCIS: New Orleans.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore's Barbara Peters has regular conversations with authors, linked on the store's website. Among the latest are the sisters Liz and Valerie Constantine who write as Liv Constantine; Kate White; Ian Rankin; Hank Phillipi Ryan; Angie Kim; Scott Turow; and C.J. Box.

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, chatted with Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author of thirty-five novels, including the Lincoln Rhyme series.

Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, spoke with authors Kimberly McCreight (A Good Marriage); Tom Pitts (Cold Water); and Mary Keliikoa (Derailed).

The hosts of the Read or Dead podcast, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, talked about Jane Harper’s new novel; the French serial killer expert who apparently isn’t an expert; and books featuring religious elements that are not by Dan Brown.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover welcomed back physician and author, Dr. D.P. Lyle, about his writing and his latest book, Rigged.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Andrews & Wilson, the bestselling co-author team of several covert ops and action-adventure thriller books in the Tier One series and other books. Brian Andrews is a US Navy veteran and former submarine officer, and fellow Navy vet Jeffrey Wilson has worked as an actor, firefighter, paramedic, jet pilot, and diving instructor, as well as a vascular and trauma surgeon.

Robin Burcell stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to discuss being the first female cop in her department; her experiences as a hostage negotiator and a forensic artist; her early novels; her collaboration with Clive Cussler; and what's next for her.

Writers Detective Bureau talked about who investigates the murder when the victim is a police officer of your own agency; how to best secure realistic props for filming; and tips for creating realistic testimony dialogue.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Sara Paretsky, best known for her groundbreaking series with female private eye, V.I. Warshawski.

The Tartan Noir Show sat down with Abir Mukherjee, recently nominated for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year for his third Sam Wyndham novel, Smoke and Ashes, set in the Raj era of India.

Mystery Melange

 

The coronavirus pandemic continues to hit many of the crime fiction conventions, conferences, and festivals. One of the latest is St Hilda's Crime in the UK, although organizers announced that a virtual event will still go on with live broadcasts, Q&As, lectures, entertainment, and a packed Crime Fiction Festival on August 15. Participating authors already confirmed include: Val McDermid, Mick Herron, Sarah Hilary, Jill Dawson, Tom Wood, Mary Paulson Ellis, Anna Mazzola, Andrew Wilson, Sara Sheridan, Vassem Khan,
and Andrew Taylor.

Over the past few years, independent publishers have won prizes, engaged readers, and published innovative and important books. But a survey on the impact of Covid-19 on small presses, carried out by the Bookseller and writer development charity Spread the Word, reveals that 60% of the small presses polled fear they could be out of business by the autumn, 75% don’t know if they will make it beyond March next year, while 85% of the publishers have seen sales drop by more than half. A key takeaway here is: shop your local indie bookstores! Many have online ordering and home delivery or curbside pickup.

Not all bookselling news is bad during the coronavirus: Unit sales of print books continue to defy expectations that the coronavirus crisis will lead to a plunge in sales. Last week, unit sales of print books had their second consecutive week of double-digit growth over the previous week at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. For the week ended May 9, 2020, print units were up 10.5% over the prior week, and rose 9.9% over the week ended May 11, 2019. (This, despite a downturn in overall brick-and-mortar bookstore sales due to partial shutdowns.)

Even better, according to a study in the UK, reading books has surged in lockdown. The survey reported that time spent with books has almost doubled, with thrillers and crime the favorite genres. More than half (52%) of the respondents said they were reading more because they had more spare time, 51% said it was because they wanted to stay entertained, and 35% felt books were providing “an escape from the crisis."

In more UK book news, Lee Child's The Midnight Line is the UK's most often loaned library book of 2018/19. Child dominated the ten most loaned print books, with fellow Jack Reacher novels Night School – the previous year's most borrowed book – at number seven and Past Tense at number five. NYPD Red by James Patterson, Dead if You Don’t by Peter James, Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves, Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly, and Dan Brown's Origin rounded out the top ten in the list.

Edinburgh-based crime writer Val McDermid is offering readers the chance to have a character named after them in her upcoming new novel. The author has teamed up with her hometown football club Raith Rovers for an auction, with the chance to appear in her upcoming Karen Pirie thriller, Still Life, up for grabs. The football club will share the proceeds from the auction evenly with the Homeless World Cup Foundation.

Did Agatha Christie "borrow" the plot for her novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Lucy Moffatt, a British translator living in Norway, has found a likely source for the famous solution to the murder in an early English magazine translation of a Stein Riverton story.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Ca" by Ron Riekki.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's Book Series Binge chats continued with Archer Mayor on the Joe Gunther Series; E. B. Davis interviewed James M. Jackson about his new Seamus McCree novella for the Writers Who Kill blog; Book Savvy Reviews spoke with Merry Jones about her latest domestic suspense novel, What You Don't Know; and Kathy Reichs sat down with the CBC to talk about how Montreal shaped her approach to writing bestselling crime fiction, including her Bones series.

Author R&R with Michael C. Bland

MICHAEL C. BLAND is a founding member and the secretary of BookPod, an invitation-only, online group of professional writers. He pens the monthly BookPod newsletter where he celebrates the success of their members, which include award-winning writers, filmmakers, journalists, and bestselling authors. One of Michael’s short stories, "Elizabeth," won Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest 2015 Popular Fiction Awards contest. Three short stories he edited have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, while another was adapted into an award-winning film.

Bland's debut novel, The Price of Safety, takes on the dark side of surveillance and the dangers of data mining. By 2047, no crime in the U.S. goes unsolved. No wrongdoing goes unseen. All because of the security systems that Dray Quintero helped build. Yet when Dray learns his 19-year-old daughter Raven committed a heinous act, he covers it up to save her life.

This pits him against the police he's respected since he was a child and places him in the crosshairs of Kieran, a ruthless federal agent searching for justice. Forced to turn to a domestic terrorist group to protect his family, Dray soon realizes the sheer level of control of his adversaries. Hunted and betrayed, with time running out, will Dray choose his family or the near-perfect society he helped create?

Michael C. Bland stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

I was familiar with both Los Angeles and San Francisco, having visited both locations. As I wrote The Price of Safety, I drew on those memories as well as Google Earth and Google street view. Of course, the bigger challenge was writing a story set in the future—with both the story and the setting heavily influenced by the technology of that time. The story is about how technology can be used against us if we’re not careful. To make sure the novel wasn’t too tech- heavy, I balanced the technology with Dray and his family’s relationship as the core of the novel.

Even though the technology in the novel doesn’t exist yet, I did a tremendous amount of research to make it as plausible as possible. I researched the latest advancements in science, computing, robotics, and other areas to determine the current state of communication, robotic, and other technologies including Google glass, nanotechnology, tube development, etc. I then tried to determine how much further those technologies will develop over the next thirty years, while making them relatable. As a gauge, I looked back to where we as a society thirty years ago. In 1990, the discman was big, cell phones existed but were clunky bricks, and the internet was in its infancy. Life now is drastically different in terms of technology compared to back then—and advancements are accelerating every year.

I also read articles that predicted the future. These are rarely accurate (I’m so sad we don’t have flying cars!), but they inspired me in terms of what my world of 2047 will look like. I examined the latest research on fusion as that plays a part in my novel. Another area is dark matter. Scientists still do not know for sure what dark matter is, but I studied scientific articles and journals, then crafted my own theory (based on theories of those way smarter than me) of what it is and how it reacts. I used this in my novel as one of Dray’s achievements and incorporated it into his fusion reactor and other inventions.

Lastly, a friend of mine is an engineer. He was generous enough to work though the mechanics of some things that occur in The Price of Safety (at least as much as could be, given the advanced nature of some of the devices I created), as well as helping me make sure an engineer’s thought process and approach to things were accurate.

In writing The Price of Safety, I was inspired by Minority Report and 1984, hoping to bring that kind of feel and threat to the near future—but with a difference. I focused my novel on family, placing them at the heart of the story and driving Dray’s every action.

The structure of The Price of Safety was a challenge due to the laws and logic of the world I created. In fact, the surveillance and technology I wanted to focus on were a major hindrance. I couldn’t pretend a character couldn’t get a hold of another because they’d left the house, as an example. They all have cell phones and other ways of communicating, so I had to find other ways of creating and sustaining tension that made sense. When I was outlining the story, I discovered flaws in my logic over and over, each of which would have caused the story to collapse. I had to go back and rework the story repeatedly to make sure every development made sense, not only from a logic sense but then a narrative sense—and make sure the characters’ actions remain believable. Over the course of a year, I generated sixteen outlines, each one of which fixed a flaw I discovered. Only after I had everything worked out, I began to write the rough draft.

An additional challenge was writing in first person. This was my first time writing in this manner, yet to me it best fit the story. Certain events in the story have the greatest impact via the first- person POV. It also brought intimacy and connection to the main character. To me, that connection and closeness magnified and contrasted the technology that becomes both a gift and hindrance to Dray’s family’s survival.

 

You can learn more about Michael C. Bland and The Price of Safety via the author's website, and you can also follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Price of Safety, the first installment of a planned trilogy, is currently available via many booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt production around the world, Enderby Entertainment has begun work on a feature film to be produced and shot virtually in six countries. Titled 92, the thriller project is led by Veronica Ferres and Aleks Paunovic in the ensemble cast and follows five characters connected only by their devotion to the late tech titan Finley Hart. Operating from bases around the world, the quintet must work together to shut down Hart’s most secret invention – a machine that is either the solution of mankind’s problems or the end of life on Earth. Producer Rick Dugdale will remotely supervise the virtual shoot in each country with the actors’ own homes serving as the set.

Call Me By Your Name Oscar nominee Luca Guadagnino is set to direct Universal Pictures’s "reimagination" of Scarface. In the original 1932 film, an Italian gangster (Paul Muni) took over Chicago, while in the iconic 1983 movie, Al Pacino starred as a Cuban gangster who cornered the cocaine trade in 1980s Miami. The new movie will be set in Los Angeles, although other project details are still being developed. The project's shooting script will be from Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s version, who’ve been with the long-simmering project for at least three years (with earlier drafts by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Jonathan Herman, and Paul Attanasio).

Until recently, it was looking like Christopher Nolan's movie, Tenet, was set to be the first film to screen in reopened theaters, but now it seems that Russell Crowe's Unhinged will beat it by two weeks (provided that either one is able to open in July). The psychological thriller centers around a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase between Crowe’s character, an unnamed stranger, and a woman named Rachel (Caren Pistorius), who provokes the stranger’s ire when trying to get around him in a traffic jam.

In more Russell Crowe news, it was announced the actor will headline the mob thriller, American Son. Based on Jacques Audiard’s French movie, A Prophet, American Son will be directed by Andrew "Rapman" Onwubolu, with Dennis Lehane writing the screenplay. The story follows a man who builds a multiracial crime syndicate after falling under the control of a mobster (Crowe). He takes down his mentor and earns a spot alongside the Italian and Russian mafias.

In a seven-figure deal, Netflix has acquired Our Man From Jersey, a star vehicle for Mark Wahlberg to be scripted by writer David Guggenheim (Safe House). Described as "a blue collar 007," the film will be produced by Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, who hatched the idea.

The Tax Collector, the gritty David Ayer-directed drama, has found a home via the AMC Networks division RLJE, with an expected release date in August. Scripted and directed by Ayer, the project centers on David (Bobby Soto) and Creeper (Shia LaBeouf), who are "tax collectors" for the crime lord, Wizard, collecting his cut from the profits of local gangs’ illicit dealings. But when Wizard’s old rival returns to Los Angeles from Mexico, the business is upended, and David finds himself desperate to protect what matters more to him than anything else: his family.

Vertical Entertainment has acquired the North American distribution rights to the Bella Thorne feature, Infamous, with a virtual cinema and VOD release date of June 12. Written and directed by Joshua Caldwell, the film stars Thorne as Arielle, a young woman who lives in a small Florida town, stuck in a diner job. When she falls for a recently paroled young criminal named Dean (Jake Manley), she drags him back into a life of danger, learning that posting their criminal exploits on social media is an easy way to viral fame. They embark on a dangerous adventure together that leads to robbery, cop chases, and murder.

Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. distribution rights to The Secrets We Keep, the period revenge thriller directed by Yuval Adler that stars Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, and Chris Messina. Rapace plays Maja, a woman rebuilding her life along with her husband, Lewis (Messina), in America after World War II. One day she encounters an eerily familiar figure (Kinnaman) from her past life – but is he really the man she thinks he is? Convinced he is, Maja takes things into her own hands and kidnaps him, setting in motion a series of memories and events that will change her whole perception of the truth.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

BritBox says it is going to house "the most comprehensive" collection of Agatha Christie adaptations in North America after inking a deal with the estate of the British author. The streaming service, which is operated by ITV and the BBC, has acquired further rights to films, TV series, and audio plays—including Seasons 9-12 of David Suchet’s depiction of legendary detective Poirot, meaning BritBox will eventually be the home to all-but-one series of the ITV show. BritBox will also add newly restored versions of ITV’s Marple and Partners In Crime, as well as TV movies such as The Seven Dials Mystery and The Secret Adversary.

The Inspector Ghote Indian detective novels are heading for series treatment through Endemol Shine India. The company has optioned the rights to the much-loved series of 25 novels written by journalist turned novelist H.R.F. Keating over a 45-year period and intends to develop them as a multi-part returnable series. No details are yet available about the series development schedule, talent attachments or broadcast partners. Introduced in the 1964 novel, The Perfect Murder, the books feature Ganesh V. Ghote as a middle-aged, married inspector in the Mumbai police force. A dogged crimefighter who is often under-estimated by society, Ghote spends almost as much time combatting bureaucracy as he does cracking cases.

Amazon Prime Video has secured UK rights to Alex Rider, a new spy thriller series based on Point Blanc, the second novel in Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series. Alex Rider will premiere on Prime Video in the UK on June 4, with all eight episodes available for UK Prime members to stream. Otto Farrant will star as Alex Rider, who is a teenager trained since childhood for the world of espionage. Rider is pressured to help investigate he is uncle's death and how it connects to the assassination of two high-profile billionaires.

The CW has given a straight-to-series order for Kung Fu, starring Olivia Liang. A life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.

Fans of Supernatural's Jared Padalecki are going to have to wait a little longer for his new show, a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger. The show has been officially bumped to midseason as a result of schedule shifting the network had to make in light of recent COVID-19 shutdowns. Padalecki will play Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two. After being undercover for two years, Cordell returns home to Austin in an attempt to reconnect with his children while dodging dust-ups with his conservative family.

USA Network has opted not to proceed with new seasons of two of its high-profile drama series, The Purge and Treadstone. The Purge series revolved around a 12-hour period when all crime, including murder, is legal in an altered America ruled by a totalitarian political party. It was developed as a companion to The Purge film franchise (which is still ongoing and a new installment coming up). Treadstone, based on the Bourne film franchise, explored the origin story and present-day actions of a CIA black ops program known as Operation Treadstone — a covert program that uses behavior-modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins.

Freeform has passed on Close Up, the suspense drama pilot executive produced by How to Get Away With Murder creator Peter Nowalk and partner Mary Rohlich. Written by Keith Staskiewicz, the series was set in Centreville, NJ, a suburban town just like any other … at least on the surface. Centreville high school student Rachel Guyer is on a mission to expose the truth about her seemingly normal hometown and turn her community inside out.

Actor Brian Cox has revealed he will be the new face of Scottish detective Rebus in a new online adaptation. Cox is working closely with author Ian Rankin on the virtual play, which will be performed as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s "Scenes for Survival" series. It comes more than a decade after Rankin first called on Cox to play the role back in 2008. Scenes for Survival will launch new pieces of work from creative talents online over the next few months, with all proceeds going to a hardship fund set up for artists and those working in the theatre industry who have been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis.

Bill Skarsgård, the actor who played Pennywise in the 2017 film, has been set to play Swedish criminal Clark Olofsson in a six-part Netflix series. Skarsgård will star in Clark, a Swedish language adaptation of Olofsson’s autobiography in which the convicted drug trafficker and bank robber reflected on his criminal escapades which began in the 1960s. Olofsson's exploits gave rise to the term "Stockholm syndrome," referring to hostages who forge an affinity with their captor.

The fifth season of the Italian crime hit, Gomorrah, is due to shoot at the end of the summer, although that could be the last we see of the mob drama, according to the show’s producer, Cattleya. Marco D’Amore, who plays iconic character Ciro Di Marzio in the drama, will return to direct the first five episodes with series regular Claudio Cupellini helming the other episodes.

CBS All Access has ordered a fifth season of The Good Fight. With the renewal, the series will be able to continue the story of season 4, cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the ongoing halt in the production since early March, season 4, intended to be a 10-episode season, will conclude with episode 7 on Thursday, May 28. The season four cast includes Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Sarah Steele, Nyambi Nyambi, Michael Boatman, Zach Grenier, John Larroquette, Audra McDonald and Delroy Lindo. Hugh Dancy also joined season four in a recurring role.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

This week on Writer Types, co-host Jennifer Hillier joined Eric Beetner for talks with legendary author Sara Paretsky and thriller writer Reece Hirsch; plus there were staff picks from Left Bank Books and Mysterious Galaxy.

In the latest episode of the Why I Write video series, CBC Books talked to Linwood Barclay about his latest thriller, Elevator Pitch, and his approach to writing crime fiction.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up, featuring the mystery short story "Busted at the Book Sale" by Margaret S. Hamilton, read by actor Donna Beavers.

Beyond the Cover featured author Joel Rosenberg. The Jerusalem Assassin is his latest political thriller and the third book in his Marcus Ryker series.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Kate Anslinger about her Grace McKenna novels.

The My Favorite Detective Series podcast welcomed Joseph Wambaugh, an author known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States.

Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, answered questions about detectives using their cellphones to take evidentiary photographs, whether real-life criminals leave red herrings, and where witnesses wait before testifying.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club was joined by authors Amy Engle (The Familair Dark) and Shauna Holyoak (Kazu Jones and the Denver Dog Nappers).

The Tartan Noir Show spoke with Helen FitzGerald, recently nominated for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the year (for the second time); and also heard from David Wilson, Scottish Professor of Criminology, in conversation with author Lin Anderson at last year’s Bloody Scotland International Crime Festival in Stirling.

Mystery Melange

 

The University of Alabama School of Law has named the finalists for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The three books chosen to compete for the prize are: The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey; The Hallows by Victor Methos; and An Equal Justice by Chad Zunker. The prize, previously authorized by Lee, is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change. Candice Robbins, Assistant Dean for Advancement at the Law School, said "The books represent a diverse offering in legal fiction, from a historical mystery series written by Massey, to a sharp legal thriller by Methos, and, finally, a fast-paced novel that explores the crisis of homelessness in the United States by Zunker."

The shortlist was announced for the Glass Key Award. The award, named after the novel, The Glass Key, by American crime writer Dashiell Hammett, is a real glass key given every year by the members of the Crime Writers of Scandinavia to a crime novel written by a Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish author. Each country's members put forth a candidate novel, making up the shortlist, which this year includes: Dødfunden (Found Dead) by Gretelise Holm (Denmark); Den åttonde tärnan (The Eight Bridesmaid) by Eva Frantz (Finland); Svik (Betrayal) by Lilja sigurðardóttir (Iceland); Kniv (Knife) by Jo Nesbø (Norway); and Skuggjägaren (Shadow Hunter) by Camilla Grebe (Sweden). The winner will be announced in August.

2020 Goldsbsoro Books Glass Bell Award shortlist includes a critically acclaimed debut, Oyinkan Braithwaite’s darkly comic My Sister, the Serial Killer, about a woman who must cover up her younger sister’s habit of killing her boyfriends. Also on the shortlist is Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, a historical thriller about the horrors of the slave trade. The prize rewards "compelling storytelling with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised" in all genres. The winner will be announced on Thursday, 2nd July and awarded £2,000 and a handmade, engraved glass bell.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance announced finalists for the Maine Literary Awards. This year, the awards will be live-streamed at 7 p.m. May 28 on Zoom. The alliance received more than 150 books and 135 short works, according to executive director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc. The Crime Fiction finalists are: Gerry Boyle, Random Act; Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Wake; and Joseph Souza, Pray for the Girl.

The CWA have announced the longlist for the 2020 Margery Allingham Competition and will pare it down to the shortlist and the winner over the coming weeks. Their mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery, one that fits into legendary crime writer’s definition of what makes a great story: "The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it."

Due to the pandemic this year, International Thriller Writers canceled the in-person ThrillerFest Conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, but they just announced there will be a virtual conference July 6 - July 14. Attendees will be treated to an outstanding array of guests and publishing professionals, including a Free Debut Authors' Presentation, Free ITW Author Videos, and a Free Awards Presentation. The usual Mega CraftFest, Master Class, Pitching Sessions, Consulting Sessions, and CareerFest will also all be offered this July. For more information and to register, follow this link.

The Scottish National Library is lifting the lid on a vast archive donated by crime author Ian Rankin. The collection, which fills 77 boxes in the National Library’s collection centre, includes an unpublished first novel by Rankin, original manuscripts, song lyrics, poems, and more. Highlights from the collection will be showcased in a major exhibition next year. One fun fact: the documents reveal Rankin considered killing his iconic Inspector Rebus in the very first novel.

It's Crime Reading Month in the UK, but it's also Crime Writing Month in Canada. Here's a list of 22 Canadian thrillers and mysteries to read to celebrate.

From the growing ranks of the literary fraud world, we recently learned that a French serial-killer expert whose books about murderers have sold millions, admits serial lies, including the murder of an imaginary wife.

Does lockdown provide the perfect conditions for a murder? Agatha Christie's biographer, Laura Thompson, weighs in.

TV often shows psychopaths as being violent and deadly; but you may have one living next door and never know.

Apparently, virtual murder-mystery dinners during lockdown are a thing.

The Page 69 test this week featured Kate White's Have You Seen Me: A Novel of Suspense.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Flawless Conviction" by William L. Domme.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Timothy Hallinan, who has been awarded the Lefty for Best Humorous Crime Novel and also nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, the Nero, and the Shamus, about the ninth and final book in his Bangkok series, Street Music; the Irish Mirror spoke with Val McDermid on how observation is key to her success; Lesa's Book Critiques hosted Arthur Ellis Award winner, A.J. Devlin to chat about his new novel, Rolling Thunder; Abby L. Vandiver, writing as Abby Collette, discussed the first book in her new series, A Deadly Inside Scoop; and On the Bookshelf welcomed Hannah Mary McKinnon to talk about her new thriller, Sister Dear.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Benedict Cumberbatch’s spy drama, Ironbark, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, has been given a theatrical release date and a new title. Lionsgate will release the Cold War espionage film as The Courier in theaters on August 28, 2020. The Dominic Cooke-directed thriller is based on the true story of Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch), an unassuming British businessman who is recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

David Ayer is set to write, direct, and produce with Chris Long (through their Cedar Park banner) an adaptation of the Harlan Coben bestseller, Six Years, for Netflix. The title refers to the number of years that passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Brokenhearted, he throws himself into his career as a college professor while keeping a promise to leave her alone while he simmers in a slow building rage. His hopes rise when he reads that her husband died, and unable to help himself, he goes to the funeral. But he discovers the wife of the deceased man isn’t the woman he fell in love with and becomes determined to find her and get the truth.

Netflix’s film division also won a very competitive auction for the Simon Kinberg speculative script, Here Comes The Flood, Kinberg’s first original screenplay since Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Deadline reported there is currently no talent attached to the project, but it holds promise for the kind of roles that attract stars. The storyline is described as "an elevated, character-driven love-story heist movie, with the heist playing out in increments."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Chris Pratt is heading to the small screen for Amazon Prime Video to star in the conspiracy thriller series, The Terminal List. Based on Jack Carr's bestselling novel of the same name, the story follows Pratt's character Reece, a Navy SEAL whose entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life but the lives of those he loves.

Nicolas Cage is set to star in a scripted series centered on Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. The eight-episode series is being produced by Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios and is based on the Texas Monthly article, "Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild," by Leif Reigstad.

The recent Chris Hemsworth-starring movie, Extraction, is on track to become Netflix's biggest movie ever, which of course means there will be a sequel. Joe Russo has now closed a deal to write the sequel, although details of the plot are sketchy. (SPOILER ALERT: Although Hemsworth's character appeared to perish in the film, the ending nonetheless left open the possibility for a return, and there are also opportunities for prequels.)

CBS renewed eighteen series including the crime dramas All Rise; Blue Bloods; Bull; FBI; FBI: Most Wanted; MacGyver; Magnum P.I.; NCIS; NCIS: Los Angeles; NCIS: New Orleans; Seal Team; and S.W.A.T. The network also canceled four shows including Edie Falco’s Tommy, about a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female police chief of Los Angeles.

Despite the coronavirus shutting down production on the majority of pilot season, CBS ordered three new series for next season, including its Silence of the Lambs sequel from Alex Kurtzman and also Queen Latifah’s reboot of The Equalizer. The "Lambs" sequel, titled Clarice, will follow Clarice Starling six months after the events of the movie, with Rebecca Breeds taking over the role famously played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 film. Kal Penn, Nick Sandow, and Michael Cudlitz were also recently added to the cast. The Equalizer will see Queen Latifah step into the lead role (played by Edward Woodward in CBS’ 1980s version and Denzel Washington in a pair of movies) of a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past who exacts justice on behalf of innocent people trapped in dangerous circumstances.

In more news on The Equalizer front, the Law & Order and Sex and the City alum, Chris Noth, is set to co-star opposite Queen Latifah in the reboot. Noth will play William Bishop, a quirky ex-CIA director who was Robyn’s first handler and has a father-daughter relationship with her.

Eric Lange (Escape at Dannemora) is set to co-star opposite Courtney B. Vance and Tosin Cole in AMC’s courtroom drama series, 61st Street, from BAFTA-winner Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice, The Night Of) and executive producer Michael B. Jordan. 61st Street follows a promising, black high school athlete who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system. Taken by the police as a supposed gang member, he finds himself in the eye of the storm as police and prosecutors seek revenge for the death of an officer during a drug bust gone wrong. Lange will play Lieutenant Tardelli, a supervisor at the police department.

The Blacklist is finding an unusual way to finish off its season after production stopped due Covid-19 shutdowns: it's using a live-action/animation hybrid episode for the finale, scheduled to air Friday, May 15. Cast members recorded dialogue from their homes for the animated scenes as editors and animators worked remotely. The thriller centers on one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), who offers to help the authorities if a specific rookie agent, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), partners with him. The cast also includes Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq and Harry Lennix.

A&E ordered 160 more episodes of Live PD, hosted by Dan Abrams with analysis from Tom Morris Jr. and Sgt. Sean "Sticks" Larkin. Live PD showcases the policing of America, following diverse police departments from across the country in real time as they patrol their communities. Using dash cams along with fixed rig and handheld cameras, the series captures the work of urban and rural police forces on a typical Friday and Saturday night.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone welcomed Fiona Cummins to talk about her favorite crisps, favorite chocolate, being a journalist, the difficult decisions to make post-lockdown, and what question she'd ask in a government briefing.

Special guest co-host, Erica Ruth Neubauer, joined Writer Types's Eric Beetner for a chat with authors Marcia Clark (Final Judgement), Jason Pinter (Hide Away), and Andrew Mayne (The Girl Beneath The Sea).

Read or Dead hosts, Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, discussed the Edgar Award winners, Tana French’s new book, and celebrated the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie's first novel.

Mariah Fredericks stopped by Speaking of Mysteries to talk about Death of an American Beauty, the third installment in the series about hardworking lady’s maid, Jane Prescott, that takes place in New York City during the second decade of the 20th Century

On the latest Criminal Mischief podcast, Dr. D.P. Lyle tackled the topic of "Identifying Skeletal Remains."

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Brenda Chapman to discuss her novels and educate host Frank Zafiro about some Canadian history.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviewed Ann Cleeves about The Long Call, the first book in the Two Rivers Series.

The Tartan Noir Show spoke with writer Denzil Meyrick, the creator of the DCI Jim Daley series and also heard from the American superstar of crime writing, David Baldacci, talking about his novel, One Good Deed, and his long writing career.

Mystery Melange

 

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year released the longlist for the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime novel award. Fans can vote on the eighteen finalists online, and the six books with the most votes will go forward onto the shortlist, which will be announced on June 8. Now in its 16th year, the award organizers received a record number of submissions, and the judges' list includes ten books by women; four former winners (Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, Val McDermid, and Lee Child); a Booker Prize contender (Oyinkan Braithwaite), and a couple of debuts to the list (Harriet Tyce, Laura Shepherd-Robinson).To vote, head on over to the official longlist website.

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week. Along with the list of excellence in journalism reporting, the winner of the Fiction Award went to The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead, which the committee called "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption." This is the author's second Pulitzer, winning in 2017 for The Underground Railroad.

The Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers for outstanding published crime fiction short stories. The winners included: Flash category (up to 1,000 words): Josh Pachter, "The Two-Body Problem," Mystery Weekly Magazine; Short category (1,001 to 4,000 words), John Floyd, "On the Road with Mary Jo," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; Long Category (4,001 to 8,000 words), Sandra Murphy, "Lucy’s Tree," The Eyes of Texas: Private Eyes from the Panhandle to the Piney Woods, Editor Michael Bracken; Novelette category (8,001 to 20,000 words), Brendan Dubois ,with "His Sister’s Secrets," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) announced the winners of the annual Ben Franklin Awards that recognize excellence in book editorial and design. The Gold Medal winner in the Mystery/Thriller category was A Veil Removed: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel by Michelle Cox (She Writes Press); the Silver Medal was won by The Last Getaway by Clay Savage (Ocean Park Press); and the Bronze Medal went to Bleed Through: Alex Greco, ADA Series Book 2 by Roger Canaff (Brooklyn Writers Press).

Minotaur Books and the Mystery Writers of America announced the winner of their First Crime Novel Competition for 2020. Kelley Ragland, Vice President, Associate Publisher for Minotaur Books, made the announcement following the MWA’s naming of their Edgar Award winners. The competition winner is Rebecca Roque, a nurse working in Arizona. Her winning novel, tentatively titled Till Human Voices Wake Us, will be published in 2021.

Tomorrow, Friday May 8, Mysterious Galaxy bookstore is celebrating its 27th birthday with a virtual event that will pay tribute to the store and its community. You can join in the fun by following them via social media @mystgalaxybooks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with giveaways, games, surprises, and more.

Although the Malice Domestic conference had to cancel this year's event (and announced the Agatha Awards winner online last week), organizers are looking ahead to the future with the announcement of the dates for next year, April 30-May 2, 2020, as well as the featured authors: Guests of Honor, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Rhys Bowen; Toastmasters, Jeff Cohen and Barb Goffman; Lifetime Achievement Recipients, Ellen Hart and Walter Mosley; Fan Guests of Honor, Dina Wilner and Dru Ann Love; and International Guest of Honor, Sophie Hannah.

There's still time to register for two upcoming Virtual Noir at the Bar Queens events, one on Friday May 8 and the other on Friday, May 15. Alex Segura will host both events with a roster of some of today's bestselling authors stopping by online to read from their works. There will also be a chance to buy books via the indie bookstore, Kew & Willow Books in Kew Gardens.

Last week, we lost crime fiction trailblazer Maj Sjöwall, widely regarded as the godmother of modern Scandinavian crime fiction. Along with her partner-husband, Per Wahlöö (who died in 1975), the duo's books paved the way for the likes of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson. Their ten detective stories featuring the Swedish policeman Martin Beck was as remarkable as much for the way they was written as for its impact on crime-writing internationally.

Another author we lost this week was Angela Zeman, wife of fellow writer, Barry T. Zeman, who succumbed to Covid-19. Zeman penned numerous crime short stories as well as a novel, The Witch and the Borscht Pearl, originally published by Pendulum Press. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Speaking of Scandinavian Noir, a la Maj Sjöwal and Per Wahlöö, the Paris Review featured a profile on "The Origins of Scandinavian Noir."

Many of the canceled crime fiction conferences due to the coronavirus are going into the virtual realm, and Crime Fiction Lover has a list of some of these to mark on your calendar. Most of these events also have plans to return again next year, circumstances (and viruses) willing.

Writing for CrimeReads, Guy Fraser-Sampson profiled England's four crime queens, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Josephine Tey. (As he notes, there was actually a fifth as well, Ngiao Marsh, but she has been often discounted since she was a New Zealander). The quartet of Crime Grandes Dames wrote mostly (but not entirely) during the "Golden Age," or the period between the two World Wars.

I've never been the biggest fan of the mass market paperback format, and older readers can find the smaller print to be a problem. Apparently, others feel the same way since traditional mass market paperback sales have been declining for years, but Kensington Publishing has a plan to change that. Beginning with titles going on sale on September 29 of this year, Kensington will replace the standard 4.125 by 6.75-inch mass market paperback with a larger 4.75 by 7-inch format called "Mass Max." They'll cost about a dollar more but the new format will feature an easier-to-read font and more spacing than current mass market titles. They're even being printed on trade presses rather than mass market equipment, according to Kensington CEO, Steve Zacharius.

The Mysterious Bookshop included a killer quiz in their latest newsletter, which you can take here. To signup for their newsletter, head on over here.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "When I Met Her in the Street" by Gabriel Hart.

In the Q&A roundup, Criminal Element's Book Series Binge continued with Tasha Alexander on the Lady Emily Series, and the webzine also had an interview with R.G. Belsky, author of The Last Scoop with series protagonist, Clare Carlson; On the Bookshelf spoke with Hannah Mary McKinnon about her new thriller, Sister Dear; and Debra Purdy Kong chatted with Canadian author A.J. Devlin about his second mystery, Rolling Thunder, due out next week.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Daisy Ridley is in talks to star in the psychological thriller, The Ice Beneath Her, that STX Entertainment acquired in a bidding war and will finance. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella — the filmmaker trio collective known as Radio Silence behind the 2019 thriller, Ready or Not — will direct and produce. The Ice Beneath Her is based on a 2015 novel by Swedish author Camilla Grebe and follows a criminal profiler brought in to help solve a murder case that bares a resemblance to a previously unsolved murder from 10 years earlier.

Signature Entertainment has acquired global rights, excluding North America, to the crime-thriller, Blood And Money, starring Oscar-nominee Tom Berenger (Platoon). The story centers on a retired veteran who discovers a dead body and a bag full of cash while he's hunting in the snowy outback of Northern Maine. Violence quickly escalates when a group of hardened criminals in search of the loot turn the hunter into the hunted in an already stark and deadly wilderness.

Director-screenwriter-producer James Wan is prepping a film adaptation of Frank M. Robinson’s time travel story, Hunting Season, with Transformers producer Don Murphy and John Wick franchise writer Derek Kolstad on board to script. The story follows a law officer who is sent back to the past where he must acclimate in order to survive after he's deemed an enemy of the state and faces execution.

Manhunt co-creator Andrew Sodroski has been hired to adapt the screenplay (based on a pitch from Past Midnight writer T.J. Fixman) for the action-thriller, Rogue, which Dean Israelite (Power Rangers) is set to direct. The film project revolves around a deep-cover CIA operative who is on the longest night of her life.

Quiver Distribution and Redbox Entertainment have picked up North American distribution rights to Becky, a thriller starring Lulu Wilson, Kevin James, and Joel McHale. Originally set to premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival from April 15-26 (before its cancellation due to the pandemic), it will now get a digital and on-demand release on June 5. Directed by Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott, the plot centers on spunky and rebellious Becky (Wilson) who is brought to a weekend getaway at a lake house by her father Jeff (McHale) in an effort to try to reconnect. The trip immediately takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts on the run, led by the merciless Dominick (James), suddenly invade the lake house.

Film premiere dates keep slipping due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the latest changes are John Wick 4, which will no longer open on May 21, 2021 but rather on May 27, 2022, Memorial Day weekend; and the Deon Taylor-directed Hilary Swank thriller, Fatale, which will stay in 2020 but switch from June 19 to Oct. 30. Wick 4 will continue the adventures of Keanu Reeves's hitman saga, while Fatale centers on a married man who finds himself living a nightmare as he is relentlessly compromised, out-witted, and morally manipulated by a mysterious woman with whom he had a wild one-night stand.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

In a big shocker, The Lincoln Lawyer is not moving ahead at CBS. The high-profile legal drama from The Practice creator David E. Kelley, based on Michael Connelly’s series of bestselling novels, had sold to the network a year ago and was in final stages of pre-production with the cast assembled and two scripts written. Once CBS settles the penalty for cancellation, the producers will likely shop the series elsewhere. The Lincoln Lawyer centers on Mickey Haller, an iconoclastic idealist, who runs his law practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car, as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles.

STX is developing Fast and Loose with 87North, the production label of Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch and EP Kelly McCormick. The project follows a man who wakes up in Tijuana after being left for dead with absolutely no memory. As he follows a string of clues to uncover his identity, he discovers that he’s been living two different lives: one, as a super-successful Crime Kingpin, surrounded by beautiful women, expensive toys, and a lavish lifestyle, and the other as an undercover CIA agent, but with a puny salary, no family or home life whatsoever and zero trappings of success. The problem is, he can’t remember which of these two personas is his true identity.

Netflix and SF Studios have set the cast for the streamer’s first Swedish feature, the action-thriller Red Dot, which will star Nanna Blondell, Anastasios Soulis, Tomas Bergström, Kalled Mustonen, Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Thomas Hanzon, and Anna Azcárate. Set in the Swedish mountains, the film follows David (Soulis) and Nadja (Blondell), a couple in their late twenties, who’ve been struggling with their marriage and try to rekindle their romance in the north of Sweden with a ski hike. But a quarrel with two local hunters turns into a nightmare as the couple is forced to flee into the unforgiving wilderness pursued by reckless shooters.

There will not be a second season of the USA drama series Dare Me after the network opted to cancel the series. Producer UCP is said to be shopping the series to other outlets. Based on the novel by Megan Abbott, who serves as writer and executive producer along with Gina Fattore, Dare Me is described as an unflinching exploration of teen angst, jealousy, loyalty, and the dynamics of power in a small Midwestern town.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast included the first chapter of "They Tell Me You Are Cunning" by David Hagerty, read by actor Thomas Nance.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured the story “Collector’s Find” by V. S. Kemanis, a former lawyer with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office who often writes fiction with legal themes.

On the latest edition of Writer Types, special guest co-hosts E.A. Aymar and Sarah Chen spoke with authors Sheena Kamal (Never Go Back) and Matthew Quirk (Hour of the Assassin).

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Andrew Mayne to chat about The Girl Beneath the Sea, his new novel featuring Sloan McPherson, an evidence-recovery diver for Lauderdale Shores PD.

Beyond The Cover spoke with #1 Bestselling Author Charlaine Harris.

Meet the Thriller Author featured Jason Pinter, bestselling author of Hide Away, the first Rachel Marin novel, as well as five novels in his Henry Parker thriller series and the standalone novel The Castle.

Chris Rhatigan stopped by The Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast to discuss the fine art of editing crime fiction.

Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, tackled questions about police officers carrying their own firearms on-duty and how a victim might get special protection.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed two Agatha Award nominees, Gabriel Valjan and Connie Berry.

The latest guest on The Tartan Noir show was James Oswald (of the Inspector McLean series and The Ballad of Sir Benfro series), talking about splitting his time between writing and farming; the show also spoke with Peter Robinson, Mari Hannah, and MW Craven about their detectives and story locations.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone celebrated their one hundredth episode with guest author Val McDermid, discussing how to reach readers in different ways, being in the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, hearing voices, and more.

The Agatha Awards Arrive

This year's Malice Domestic conference may have been canceled, but event organizers announced the winners of the annual Agatha Awards in a live event today online. Congrats to all winners and nominees:

Best Contemporary Novel

WINNER:  The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)
Fatal Cajun Festival by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
Fair Game by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press)
The Missing Ones by Edwin Hill (Kensington)
A Better Man by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

Best First Mystery Novel

WINNER:  One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House, a division of Harlequin)
A Dream of Death by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane Books)
Murder Once Removed by S. C. Perkins (Minotaur)
When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano (Encircle Publications)
Staging is Murder by Grace Topping (Henery Press)

Best Historical Mystery

WINNER:  Charity’s Burden by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink) 
Love and Death Among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen (Penquin)
Murder Knocks Twice by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)
The Pearl Dagger by L. A. Chandlar (Kensington)
The Naming Game by Gabriel Valjan (Winter Goose Publishing)

Best Nonfiction

WINNER:  The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton (Basic Books)
Frederic Dannay, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and the Art of the Detective Short Story by Laird R. Blackwell (McFarland)
Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrified Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin (Lyons Press)
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (Knopf)
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt)

Best Children/Young Adult

WINNER:  The Last Crystal by Frances Schoonmaker (Auctus Press)
Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers by Shauna Holyoak (Disney Hyperion)
Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen MacManus (Delacorte Press)
Top Marks for Murder (A Most Unladylike Mystery)
by Robin Stevens (Puffin)
Jada Sly, Artist and Spy by Sherri Winston (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Best Short Story 

WINNER:  "The Last Word" by Shawn Reilly Simmons, Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible (Wildside Press)
"Grist for the Mill" by Kaye George in A Murder of Crows (Darkhouse Books)
"Alex’s Choice" by Barb Goffman in Crime Travel (Wildside Press)
"The Blue Ribbon" by Cynthia Kuhn in Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible (Wildside Press)
"Better Days" by Art Taylor in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine