Mystery Melange

 

The winners of the 2020 Davitt Awards, organized annually by Sisters in Crime Australia, were announced this past weekend. The awards, meant to "provide some much-needed—and overdue—recognition for Australian women crime writers," included several categories including Best Adult Crime Novel: The Trespassers, by Meg Mundell; Best Young Adult Crime Novel: Four Dead Queens, by Astrid Scholte; Best Children’s Crime Novel: The Girl in the Mirror, by Jenny Blackford; Best Non-fiction Crime Book: Banking Bad: Whistleblowers. Corporate Cover-ups. One Journalist’s Fight for the Truth, by Adele Ferguson; Best Debut Crime Book: Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley; and the Readers' Choice Award (tie), Emma Viskic for Darkness for Light and Dervla McTiernan for The Scholar. You can check out both the longlisted titles and shorts here.

CrimeCon is partnering with Bonnier Books UK to launch its first true crime weekend in London next summer, featuring Lynda La Plante, Christopher Berry-Dee, Wensley Clarkson and Carl Chinn. The event, also partnered with true crime TV channel Crime + Investigation, will run from June 12th to 13th. London's CrimeCon will see criminologists, pathologists, leading law enforcement representatives, documentary makers, investigative journalists and crime podcasters creating over 50 hours of content through live shows, panels, and immersive experiences.

Join four veteran mystery writers as they discuss their new works and all that goes into writing a mystery series in the "Stone Cold Mystery Writers Panel." Archer Mayor (the Joe Gunther series), Paula Munier (the Mercy Carr series), Sarah Stewart Taylor (the Sweeney St. George mystery series), and ​Julia Spencer-Fleming (the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series) will be online in the virtual panel on Oct 7 at 7pm, Eastern Time.

The winners of the annual Writers Police Academy Golden Donut Awards were recently announced. The rules were simple—write a story about a provided photograph using exactly 200 words including the title, with the image being the main subject of the story. You can check out the first through tenth place winners here, as judged Linda Landrigan, editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

CrimeReads took note of "Ten Golden Age Detective Novelists Who Deserve to Be Better Known," as the unsung maestros of British mystery fiction, and also profiled "Ten American Masterpieces That Are Actually Crime Fiction."

CrimeReads also tackled the topic of the sexist books in contemporary crime fiction, putting together a panel for the first of a two-part discussion featuring Robyn Harding (The Swap), Alex Segura (Pete Fernandez series), P.J. Vernon (When You Find Me), Kelly J. Ford (Cottonmouths), Layne Fargo (Temper), and Laura Lippman (Sunburn).

Marketplace studied the Agatha Christie effect, pointing out that a century after her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, appeared in print, the Agatha Christie industry is still going strong, earning $33 million in royalties in the latest year it reported.

Robert Dugoni, author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series as well as the Charles Jenkins espionage series and the David Sloane legal thriller series, applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Last Agent.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Shot Three Times" by Terry Dawley.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Unger stopped by the Just Katherine blog to discuss her latest psychological thriller, Confessions on the 7:45; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Seraphina Nova Glass about her debut crime novel, Someone's Listening; Indie Crime Scene featured an interview with Daniella Bernett, author of Old Sins Never Die; and Ruth Ware sat down with CrimeReads to discuss locked room mysteries, ski chalets, and the evolution of voyeurism.

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

Jeremy Walters and Tommy Reid, the writer and producer behind the true-life mobster drama, Kill the Irishman, are partnering again for the independent feature, Bitter Sweet. The film follows an unassuming ex-cop who is mistaken for an infamous mob hitman and becomes entangled in a mystery in order to hunt the men who brutally murdered his wife. Walters will direct off a screenplay he wrote, with casting still underway.

Vertical Entertainment and Noriva are teaming for the US distribution of the FBI spy thriller, The Informer, starring Joel Kinnaman. The feature will be available November 6 via Comcast, ATT, DIRECTV, Dish, Spectrum, Verizon, Frontier, Amazon, FandangoNow, Vudu, Microsoft, Sony, and Redbox On Demand. Italian actor-turned-filmmaker Andrea Di Stefano directed and co-wrote with Matt Cook and Rowan Joffé. The project follows Pete Koslow (Kinnaman), who is a former special operations soldier working as an informant for the FBI to help dismantle the Polish mafia’s drug trade in New York. But when the FBI’s operation goes wrong, resulting in the death of an undercover NYPD cop, Pete is coerced into returning to the prison where he previously served time for manslaughter in order to take down the cartel from the inside.

Netflix has landed Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett to star in Spiderhead, the Joseph Kosinski-directed adaptation of the George Saunders short story. Spiderhead is set in the near future, when convicts are offered the chance to volunteer as medical subjects in hopes of shortening their sentences. The focus is on two prisoners who become the test patients for emotion-altering drugs that force the prisoners to grapple with their pasts in a facility run by a brilliant visionary who supervises the program.

Netflix also acquired the thriller, I Care a Lot, from the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie stars Rosamund Pike as Marla, who sets herself up as the legal guardian of elderly people in order to take advantage of them. But she makes a big mistake when she takes on the wrong elderly client. Eiza González, Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina, and Dianne Wiest also star in the film written and directed by J Blakeson.

Apple Original Films has acquired the rights to Cherry, a heist film directed by Avengers filmmakers, Joe and Anthony Russo, to be released in 2021. The project stars Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo and is based on a novel by Nico Walker that tells the story of a former Army medic who returned from Iraq with extreme undiagnosed PTSD, fell into opioid addiction, and began robbing banks.

Open Road Films’s action-thriller, Honest Thief, starring Liam Neeson, is set to go wide on October 16 at 2,000 theaters, which is a week later and in a lot more theaters than originally planned. The movie is from Ozark co-creator and producer Mark Williams and stars Neeson as a bank robber who tries to turn himself in after falling for a woman (Kate Walsh) who works at the storage facility where he’s stashed his money. Complications ensue when his case is turned over to a corrupt FBI agent (Jai Courtney) and he must go underground to save both himself and the woman he loves.

Screen Media has acquired U.S. rights to the thriller, Girl, written and directed by Chad Foust and starring Bella Thorne and Mickey Rourke. The deal came ahead of the film’s U.S. premiere later this week at Fantastic Fest, with a November release date in the works. Thorne plays a woman (she’s only known as Girl) who returns to her small hometown to exact revenge on her abusive father, only to discover someone murdered him the day before. As she searches for answers, she soon finds herself prey to a sinister sheriff (Rourke) and uncovers a disturbing family legacy more disturbing than she’d imagined.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO Max is developing a television drama inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic, Rashomon. The project has been in the works for about two years after the television arm of Steven Spielberg’s company announced that it had secured the rights to create a new series inspired by the film. The series will not be an adaptation but will retain the key plot device of the Kurosawa film – a drama centering on a grisly sexual assault and murder and the unraveling mystery seen through multiple characters’ competing narratives.

Peacock has acquired the David E. Kelley crime-thriller drama series, Mr. Mercedes, which is based on Stephen King’s bestselling Bill Hodges trilogy. The first two seasons will premiere exclusively on the NBCUniversal streaming service on Thursday, October 15, with a premiere date for Season 3 TBD. The fate of the series, which previously aired on AT&T Audience Network, had been in limbo since Audience announced in the spring that it was ceasing operations. Mr. Mercedes follows a retired detective who is tormented by a serial killer through a series of letters and e-mails, causing him to set out on a dangerous and potentially felonious crusade to protect his loved ones and himself.

ABC released a teaser trailer for Big Sky based on The Highway, the first book in C.J. Box's Cassie Dewell novel series. In the straight-to-series drama, written and executive produced by David E. Kelley, private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana.

Nicole Ari Parker (Empire) is joining NBC’s Chicago P.D. for a major recurring role on the upcoming eighth season of the Dick Wolf drama series. She will play Deputy Superintendent Samatha Miller, an ardent proponent of police reform who will not tolerate breaches of the new police guidelines and protocols. She will be tasked with reining in Detective Sergeant Hank Voight, who's known for his violent methods with criminals.

Aggi O'Casey and Tom Varey are set to star in the new BBC thriller, Ridley Road, based on the novel by Jo Bloom. The project follows a young Jewish woman who joins her boyfriend in fighting against neo-Nazism in post-war Britain and infiltrates a neo-Nazi group, a move that ends up challenging her courage and loyalties.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On September 30 at 6pm, Authors on the Air will present author and former cop, Bruce Robert Coffin, live in conversation with New York Times bestselling author, Craig Johnson. Johnson is best known for his Walt Longmire mystery series, which is the basis for the hit Netflix drama.

The new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast featured the first chapter of the mystery novel, Revenge On Route 66, by Kris Neri as read by actor Jasmine Swalef.

The Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast was joined by Stuart Neville, who discussed his new collection of short stories, The Traveller, as well as pancake recipes, nice tools, and class issues.

Rachel Howzell was the special guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing her latest thriller, And Now She's Gone.

Suspense Magazine's Beyond the Cover chatted with Shannon Kirk, whose dark novel, Method 15/33, was released to critical acclaim. Shannon is back with the sequel to that book, Viebury Grove.

The latest Criminal Mischief discussed author Gayle Lynds's “10 Rules For Writing A Best-selling Thriller.”

The latest episode of Wrong Place, Write Crime, welcomed author Lee Matthew Goldberg to talk about his new book, The Ancestor.

Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, talked about returning to old crime scenes, how police can track the cellphone of a missing person, investigating a child death, and reform.

Brad Parks stopped by It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club to discuss his latest novel, Interference, a mystery set in the world of quantum physics.

The latest guest on The Gay Mystery Podcast was Garrick Jones, a former opera singer turned author of The Cricketer's Arms: A Clyde Smith Mystery and more.

The featured guest on the latest Tartan Noir Show was Ann Cleeves, author of more than 30 novels and creator of the series characters Jimmy Perez (played by Douglas Henshall in the hit TV show, Shetland) and Vera Stanhope (played by Brenda Blethyn in TV’s Vera). Ann also chatted about her support for libraries, her love for Shetland and Fair Isle - even without amenities - and why, when she starts to write a novel, she never knows what will happen at the end.

Nikki Dolson, author of Love and Other Criminal Behavior, was interviewed by Robert Justice on the Crime Writers of Color podcast. Dolson is a writer primarily of short fiction, which has been published in places like Shotgun Honey, Tough, Thuglit, and Bartleby Snopes. She’s also written the quasi-novel, All Things Violent, in addition to her short story collection, Love, and Other Criminal Behavior.

Mystery Melange

During the online Bloody Scotland festival this past weekend, the winners of the 2020 Bloody Scotland prizes were announced in a virtual ceremony. They included the Debut Prize, won by Deborah Masson for her novel, Hold Your Tongue, while Francine Toon's novel, Pine, won the McIlvanney Prize for the best Scottish Crime book of the year. You can check out all of the shortlisted finalists for both prizes via this link.

HarperCollins Australia has named Dinuka McKenzie the winner of the 2020 Banjo Prize for her "gripping, pacy police procedural," Flood Debris. HarperCollins launched The Banjo Prize in 2018 in a quest to find Australia’s next great storyteller, offering the chance to win a publishing contract with HarperCollins with an advance of $15,000.

The Glass Key award is handed out annually to a crime novel by an author from the Nordic countries. 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. This year's winner is Swedish writer Camilla Grebe for Skuggjägaren (The Shadow Hunter). This was Grebe’s second Glass Key win following her triumph with the psychological thriller, Diary of My Disappearance. The only two other authors to win the price twice are Stieg Larsson and Arnaldur Indriðason. (HT to The Rap Sheet)

The Library of Congress National Book Festival is going online this year for three days starting Friday, September 27th. You can sign up for free registration to watch the livestreams with Colson Whitehead and John Grisham on Saturday and Walter Mosley and David Ignatius on Sunday, and there are many other authors in various genres joining in, as well.

Banned Books Week, the annual event celebrating the freedom to read, will be held September 27 to October 3 with the theme "Censorship Is a Dead End." The American Libraries Association has created a list of 40 virtual program ideas for Banned Books Week, including story time or Q&A with a banned author, a partnership with a local LGBTQIA+ group to address why LGBTQIA+ stories are overwhelmingly censored, an online bingo based on banned book titles, and a partnership with an organization that centers on Black voices to discuss racism. The ALA's program ideas in part reflect titles on its most challenged books of 2019 where eight of the 10 titles were challenged or banned because of LGBTQIA+ content. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

The in-person Writers' Police Academy conference has offered hands-on training to authors for over ten years, but due to popular demand and the success of the Virtual MurderCon event in August, organizers have put together a new lineup of online courses that everyone can attend. The Writers’ Police Academy Online will officially open its virtual doors on October 24, 2020 with the first daylong seminar called "Mystery and Murder: Transforming Reality into Fantastic Fiction." This first session will be live and interactive, meaning that instructors will deliver their presentations and respond to questions in real time. The all-new website is currently under construction and registration will soon be available soon.

International Thriller Writers is presenting a Virtual Winter Thrills event from January 11 to March 18, 2021. The online, ongoing conference will offer chances to participate in the Master Class, Practice PitchFest, and the brand new Thriller MBA course segments. The classes will be taught by ITW bestselling authors, agents, editors, and marketing professionals, including a critique of your query letter. Check out the lineup and register via the following link.

The Killer Nashville conference is now taking submissions for the 2021 Claymore Award for unpublished manuscripts. Created in 2009, the Killer Nashville Claymore Award assists new and rebranding English-language fiction authors to get published, including possible agent representation, book advances, editor deals, and movie and television sales. Submissions for Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Awards in various categories for published books opens September 25.

In light of Netflix’s new Sherlock-flanked detective adventure, Enola Holmes, escape room crew Escape Hunt UK has put together a fun little game that takes you across Victorian London on a hunt for the titular heroine, which you can play entirely within your own home. The free game, which somewhat takes cues from the film's narrative, comes in the form of a downloadable PDF, which includes a map, a copy of The London Gazette, and a series of clues and activities to solve on an answer sheet to find Enola somewhere in 1884 London.

The Folio Society is set to publish the first-ever illustrated edition of Mario Puzo’s genre-defining gangster novel, The Godfather, a brilliant and brutal story of Mafia feuds in post-war New York. This new title is lavishly illustrated with atmospheric artwork by Robert Carter and has an introduction by Jonathan Freedland.

Just in case you didn't think books were valuable comes this news item:  Stolen books worth £2.5m found under floor of Romanian house. About 200 "irreplaceable" books, including first editions of Galileo and Isaac Newton, were taken by thieves in January 2017 who cut holes in the roof of a warehouse in Feltham then abseiled in, dodging sensors. The men were identified as being part of a Romanian organized crime gang.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Bird Heart Racing" by Amy Holman.

In the Q&A roundup, Lynda La Plante chatted with The Telegraph about nudity, blindness, being barred from the set of her TV show after falling out with the show’s producers, and bringing up a teenager in La Plante's seventies; the Sunday Post spoke with Lee Child prior to his appearance on the last day of the Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival; and Hank Phillippi Ryan was interviewed by Rick Brown of Yard Light Media about her latest novel, First to Lie.

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

Compelling Pictures has closed a deal to produce a feature adaptation of Michael Connelly’s recent bestseller, Fair Warning, which is being seen as a potential franchise. Connelly will write the screen adaptation and serve as co-producer. Fair Warning is the third in Connelly’s series of books about investigative journalist Jack McEvoy and is set around the rapidly evolving "wild west" world of DNA sequence data harvesting—specifically in regard to such data being sold for profit within an industry that has no oversight.

Amazon Studios is set to produce All the Old Knives, starring Chris Pine and Thandie Newton. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same title by Olen Steinhauer, who also adapted the screenplay, the studio has tapped Janus Metz to direct the spy thriller. The story is set in the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea and follows ex-lovers Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison—he a CIA spy, she an ex-spy—who meet over dinner to reminisce about their time together. The conversation moves inevitably to the disastrous hijacking of Royal Jordanian Flight 127, which ended in the deaths of all on board. That failure haunts the CIA to this day, and Henry has come to Carmel to close the book on that seedy chapter. As they parry and flirt over California cuisine, it becomes clear that one of them is not going to survive the meal.

Break, one of Rutger Hauer’s final movies, will be getting a multiplatform release on January 5, 2021, via Conduit Presents. The Michael Elkin-directed crime sports drama follows a young inner city kid who is wasting his talents on petty crime. He has the ability to become a world-champion snooker player, if only he can overcome his circumstances, his ties to the mob, and himself. 

Andrew Koji has joined the cast of Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train action movie at Sony Pictures. David Leitch is set to direct the project, which is based on the Japanese novel, Maria Beetle, by Kotaro Isaka. Although plot details are being kept under wraps, the project is described as a contained thriller in the vein of Speed and centers on a group of assassins, with Koji playing one of the assassins along with Pitt. 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Stephen Graham (The Irishman) and  Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) are set to star in the BBC prison drama, Time, from Cracker creator Jimmy McGovern. The project is described as a high-stakes portrayal of life in the modern British penal system, seen through the eyes of two very different men. Bean plays Mark Hebden, a teacher, husband and father, who killed an innocent man in an accident, and consumed by guilt, accepts and even welcomes his four-year sentence. Separated from his family, he has no idea what to expect in this unforgiving new environment and needs to learn quickly how to survive. Graham plays Eric Reid, a prison officer. Caring and honest, Eric tries his very best to protect those in his charge, something which is a daily challenge in this understaffed and high-tension world. When one of the most dangerous inmates identifies Eric's weakness, Eric faces an impossible choice between his principles and his love for his family.

Filming has started ITV's drama series, Grace, an adaptation of Peter James's novels starring John Simm as tenacious detective Roy Grace. Screenwriter and Endeavour creator Russell Lewis has adapted two of the Pan Mac-published Brighton-based thrillers, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, into two-hour screenplays. The cast also features Richie Campbell, who takes the role of DS Glenn Branson, and Rakie Ayola as ACC Vosper.

Happy Face is the latest podcast series to be adapted for television. CBS All Access is developing the adaptation with Your Honor writer Jennifer Cacicio and The Good Fight creators Robert and Michelle King. The podcast, produced by iHeart Media, tells the story of Melissa Moore, who at age 15 discovered that her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was a serial murderer, known as the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on his letters to the media and prosecutors. As an adult, Moore has changed her name, guarded her secret, and cut off all ties to her father who is currently serving life in prison. But when he contacts her to take credit for more victims, she is pulled into an extraordinary investigation into her father’s crimes, the impact they had on his victims’ families and ultimately into reckoning with her own identity. 

Genevieve Padalecki will take on a regularly recurring role opposite her husband, Jared Padelecki, on his new CW series, Walker, a reimagining of CBS’s long-running 1990s action/crime series Walker, Texas Ranger. The series centers on Cordell Walker (Jared Padalecki), a widower and father of two with his own moral code, who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years only to discover there’s harder work to be done at home. Genevieve Padalecki will play Emily, Walker’s strong, capable, and generous late wife who is brave and focused on helping the disenfranchised. Appearing in flashback, Emily is a grounded and authentic hero in the Walker family.

Although Stumptown was picked up for a second season in May, ABC has ultimately decided to cancel the series after one season due to COVID-related circumstances. Based on the graphic novel series of the same name, Stumptown starred Cobie Smulders as P.I. Dex Parios, a "strong, assertive, and sharp-witted army veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt, and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon." Jake Johnson, Tantoo Cardinal, Cole Sibus, Adrian Martinez, Camryn Manheim and Michael Ealy also starred.

ABC has given a straight-to-series order to the Erin Brockovich-inspired drama, Rebel, starring Katey Sagal. Inspired by the present-day life of Erin Brockovich, Sagal will star as Annie "Rebel" Bello, a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree who is funny, brilliant, and fearless, caring desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. The drama is written by Krista Vernoff, showrunner for Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19, and is set to debut in 2021 under the direction of Tara Nicole Weyr.

Channel 4 has ordered an adaptation of the Swedish crime thriller, Before We Die. Lesley Sharp leads the cast in the Bristol-set series, playing detective Hannah Laing who becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation. Patrick Gibson plays her mixed-up son, Christian, while Croatian actor Toni Gojanović, who starred in HBO Europe’s Success, will take on the role of Davor Mimica, the leader of the criminal gang. Vincent Regan stars as Billy Murdoch, a non-conformist investigator, who is seconded to Hannah’s unit to advise on Eastern European drug gangs.

CBS Studios is adapting Ragnar Jónasson’s best-selling Nordic noir book, The Darkness. Andrea Janakas, who wrote the Amanda Seyfried-starring short film, Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, is attached to write the eight-part series set in Reykjavik, Iceland. It follows Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir, who is given—two weeks before retirement—the cold case of a young Russian woman whose body washes up on an Icelandic shore. Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. Even her colleagues in the police seem determined to put the brakes on her investigation.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone welcomed author Lisa Hall to talk about her psychological thrillers, trashy TV, the wonders of the show Naked Attraction, her journey to becoming a writer, and much more.

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, chatted with crime writer and artist Jessie Chandler.

Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, was joined by Nancy Stohlman to talk about flash fiction and her new book, Going Short; plus authors Beau Johnson and Ryan Sayles also stopped by.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Joshua Hood, author of The Treadstone Resurrection and Search and Destroy Series.

Walter Mosley was the special guest on Wrong Place, Write Crime, discussing Easy Rawlins, Leonid McGill, race relations in America, science fiction, the Bill Clinton boost, and Mosley's collection of short stories, The Awkward Black Man.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Julian Sher, an award-winning investigative journalist in TV, print, radio, and on the Web, who also co-authored two books on outlaw motorcycle gangs.

The Gay Mystery Podcast spoke with Christopher Rice (the son of author Anne Rice), whose two novels of dark supernatural suspense, The Heavens Rise and The Vines, were both finalists for the Bram Stoker Award.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club shared their current favorite crime reads.

The Tartan Noir Show returned with a look at the Bloody Scotland conference, which went online this year with panels and interviews featuring special guests Jeffrey Deaver, Attica Locke, Peter May, Ann Cleves, Jo Nesbø, Ian Ranklin, Robert Crais, Lee Child, and more.

Mystery Melange

 

Walter Mosley has been named winner of the 2020 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. He becomes the first Black man to win the foundation’s $10,000 lifetime achievement honor, which was first awarded in 1988. The author of more than 60 books, Mosley is best known for his mysteries featuring detective Easy Rawlins.

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation is mobilizing to help bookstore owners and staff affected by the wildfires in the western U.S. The foundation may be able to help owners or employees with personal household expenses related to the wildfires, assist with expenses directly related to the store in certain cases, and provide some expenses to help the store reopen more quickly after the threat passes. More information is available on Binc's assistance page.

Kings River Life profiled the Crime Writers of Color, a new organization of authors who support each other’s works and efforts. Author Elizabeth Wilkerson noted, "We’re a lively group with wide-ranging backgrounds and opinions, yet we share a passion: creating worlds that reflect our experiences and vision as observed through our own lens. I invite you to check out these upcoming books by CWOC authors. Ranging from cozy to cyber-thriller, the stories present a diverse and colorful universe."

Update on Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore and Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore in Minneapolis, which burned to the ground after the protests this summer following the murder of George Floyd by city police: Owner Don Blyly reported that after weeks of delays involving inexplicable water bills that had to be paid before a demolition permit for the site could be issued, a contractor will begin removing debris within a few days. Blyly has hired an architect and general contractor as well, and while he is still planning to rebuild in the same location, he has looked at a few other commercial properties for sale in Minneapolis and surrounding locations. Meanwhile, the store's GoFundMe campaign remains open, and Blyly adds that he's "eager to once again be a resource for new science fiction and fantasy titles as well as used science fiction, fantasy and mystery books." (HT to Shelf Awareness)

British crime author Ann Cleeves is financing the work of two bibliotherapists in northeast England who will connect people with books to help them with their mental health or chronic pain. The therapy service will be set up in five townships, including her own Northumberland, through the U.K.'s National Healthcare Service and the country's social prescribing system, which connects people to alternative treatment programs. General practitioners, nurses and other primary care professionals will be able to refer people to bibliotherapy if they are struggling with chronic pain, anxiety, stress, depression or loneliness

Publishers and authors are having to get a bit creative in the time of cholera the pandemic since book tours, signings, and in-person conferences are out. For instance, Pan Macmillan held a one-off virtual festival celebrating the publication of his Ken Follett's new Kingsbridge novel, The Evening and the Morning, for fans, bookshops and libraries around the world. The Kingsbridge Festival had Q&As, quizzes, partnerships with the Reading Museum and a virtual peek inside the Jorvik Viking Centre to immerse fans in the history of the book—including a virtual tour of the Bayeux Tapestry and a demonstration on Viking Weaponry. There were even downloadable “celebrate from home” packs.

Janet Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, has put out a call for "Mysteries set in Ireland." She's looking for reviews (50-250 words); articles (250-1,000 words); and Author! Author! essays (500-1,000 words). Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and your unique take on "Ireland' in your work. For more information, head on over to Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog.

The winners of the annual Bulwer Lytton contest, (where www means "wretched writers welcome"), were announced, including the Crime & Detective winner submitted by Yale Abrams: "When she walked into my office on that bleak December day, she was like a breath of fresh air in a coal mine; she made my canary sing." For all the other yowlers, including another private eye bit that won the Grand Panjandrum's Special Award, check out this link.

Jenny Milchman, the Mary Higgins Clark award winning author of five psychological thrillers, applied the Page 69 Test to her novel, The Second Mother.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Enter the Dove" by Matthias Regan.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People spoke with Joe R. Lansdale about his latest novel, More Better Deals, which takes a few cues from one of his influences—James M. Cain; and Writer Interviews chatted with Ellen Byron, author of Murder in the Bayou Boneyard: A Cajun Country Mystery, about coming up with titles for books and more.

Media Media 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

Robert De Niro, Colson Baker, and John Malkovich are set to star in the action thriller, Wash Me In The River, which hopes to begin production in November. Randall Emmett is directing and producing the film that tells the story of an opioid addict out for revenge against the dealers who sold him drugs that caused the death of his fiancée—all while two cops are hot on his tail. Additional casting is underway, including rapper Quavo (of the group Migos), who is also in talks to join the cast.

Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman and Batwoman star Ruby Rose are leading the cast in George Gallo’s action-thriller, Vanquish, which is currently filming on location in Biloxi, Mississippi. Freeman plays a retired police commissioner who blackmails his caretaker (Rose) by kidnapping her daughter, forcing her into helping him double cross his team of dirty detectives in an attempt to clean up the city.

Donnie Yen is set to star in the action thriller, The Father, alongside Alec Baldwin and Frank Grillo. Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters) will direct the film from a script by P. G. Cuschieri that’s described as "a fast-paced ode to ’80s action movies." Set against the Irish-American gangland of South Boston, the project charts the struggle of middle-class Hong Kong immigrant, John Chung (Yen), making the best of his family’s new American life while working as a modest fish broker in the city’s docklands. When his wayward teenage boys stumble upon four kilos of heroin, they’re hunted by a local crime ring and a group of corrupt cops. Forced to revive his past to protect his kin, John will stop at nothing until they are safe from harm.

Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Aksel Hennie (The Martian) have been set to co-star in director Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian-language thriller, The Trip. The story follows a dysfunctional husband (Hennie) and wife (Rapace) who head to a remote lakeside cabin under the guise of reconnecting, but each has secret designs to kill the other. Before they can carry out their respective plans, unexpected visitors arrive and the couple is faced with a greater danger than anything they could have plotted.

Colson Baker (The Dirt) and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) are set to topline the action-thriller, One Way, which will be directed by Andrew Baird from a script by Ben Conway. One Way will follow Freddy (Baker) who goes on the run with a bag full of cash and cocaine after a robbery of his former crime boss goes wrong. Suffering a potentially fatal wound, he slips onto a bus headed into the unrelenting California desert. With his boss and her henchmen hot on his heels and his life slipping through his fingers, he is left with very few choices.

Harry Styles has landed a lead role in the New Line thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, the next directing outing for Olivia Wilde. Styles replaces Shia LaBeouf, who had to depart the project due to a scheduling conflict. Styles joins Florence Pugh and Chris Pine in the cast, both of whom signed on earlier this year. Although little is known about the movie’s plot, Don’t Worry, Darling is set in an isolated, utopian community in the 1950s California desert. Katie Silberman wrote the screenplay based on a spec script by Shane and Carey Van Dyke.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Amazon Prime Video is developing a scripted series starring Nicolas Cage as the infamous Joe Exotic, made a household name by the hugely popular Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. The project, which had been in the works at CBS TV Studios, is based on the Texas Monthly article "Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild," by Leif Reigstad. Now in prison after being sentenced to 22 years for his role in a murder-for-hire plot, Joe Exotic continues to make headlines.

Singer-songwriter, Halsey, will co-star opposite Sydney Sweeney in The Player’s Table, a TV series based on Jessica Goodman’s bestselling debut novel, They Wish They Were Us. The project is a taut murder mystery set against the backdrop of an exclusive prep school on Long Island.

Actors Gary LeRoi Gray and Dawn Richard have joined the cast of the limited series, Trace, for the new streaming service, VIM2Tv. The crime thriller is written by Anthony Bawn and based on the unsolved murders of a serial killer, The Doodler, in 1970's San Francisco.

Caleb Castille, who recurred as the character Devin Rountree in last season's NCIS: Los Angeles, has been promoted to series regular for Season 12 of the CBS series. After Castille’s Devin Rountree appears on the radar of NCIS’s Office of Special Operations, Agents G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) decide that he be may a fit for their tight-knit group.

A trailer was released for Rebecca, Ben Wheatley’s Netflix update on the 1938 Daphne Du Maurier novel first adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, which stars Armie Hammer, Lily James, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Karin Slaighter joined WAMC's The Hudson River Sampler podcast to chat about her latest thriller, The Silent Wife.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "The Glass Slip Up," written by Chelle Martin and read by Sean Hopper.

Rhonda Evans and Frank Collerius, hosts of the New York Public LIbrary's podcast, The Librarian Is In, featured "a deep dive" into Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone were joined by John Connolly, author of the Charlie Parker series, chatting about his worst book events, his views on selfies, and how he met Stephen King.

Read or Dead talked about mysteries featuring technology and social media, along with some mixed feelings about adaptation news recently announced.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Thomas O’Callaghan, author of the series featuring NYPD Homicide Commander Lieutenant John W. Driscoll.

Oilvier Bosman was the special guest on The Gay Mystery Podcast, talking about his play, Death Takes a Lover, which was subsequently turned into the first D.S.Billings Victorian Mystery.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed August Norman to discuss Sins of the Mother, the second installment in the Caitlin Bergman mystery series.

Mystery Melange

 

The Strand Magazine announced the winners of the 2020 Strand Critics Awards via an online Zoom event, with Andrew Guilli and Hank Phillipi taking on hosting duties. The annual awards recognize excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing. The winners are listed below, and you can check out all the finalists via this link:

• Life Time Achievement Awards: Tess Gerritsen and Walter Mosley
• Best Murder Novel: The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
• Best Debut Novel: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
• Publisher of the Year: Bronwen Hruska of Soho Press

The deadline to submit to the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers is November 1st at 11:59 p.m. EST. Founded in 1993, the grant program is designed to foster quality Malice Domestic literature and to assist mystery authors on the road to publication. Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form. The grant includes a $2,500 award plus a comprehensive registration for the upcoming convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel. For more information, check out this link.

The International Thriller Writers and the Bouchercon crime festival have responded and regrouped following recent controversies surrounding racism and sexual harassment. In response to what many authors felt was an inadequate response to the issues on the part of the ITW, all but two members resigned from ITW's board in June. Some of the changes since then began when ITW members voted on a slate of 11 mystery and thriller authors who will join its board beginning in mid-October (half male, half female); a new diversity and outreach committee was created, headed by incoming board member Alexia Gordon; and a security and safety committee is drafting a comprehensive process for dealing with violations of its code of conduct policies. Because the sexual assault event occurred at the 2019 Bouchercon, that organization has also recently revised its Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy to make it more comprehensive and easier for victims to come forward.

I was sorry to learn of the deaths recently of two mystery authors. Gary Alexander passed away at the age of 79 after a short battle with cancer. Gary wrote 24 novels and some 200 short stories, including his most recent novel, Harry Saves the World Again. We also lost Dorothy Simpson at the age of 87. Dorothy's first book was the suspense novel, Harbingers of Fear, which was published in 1977, followed by installments in the Inspector Thanet series. (HT to Martin Edwards and Janet Rudolph)

Writing for CrimeReads, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and author of the thriller, Winter Counts, discussed "Why Indigenous Crime Fiction Matters."

Attention, crime writers: there was some interesting forensic science news last week. Search teams looking for human remains are often slowed by on-foot pursuits or aerial searches that are obscured by forest cover. But researchers could use tree cover in body recovery missions to their advantage by detecting changes in the plant's chemistry as signals of nearby human remains.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Crow" by Tad Tuleja.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sunday Post sat down with Andrew James Greig, one of the newest authors in Scotland’s Tartan Noir crime fiction scene; Writers Who Kill's E. B. Davis chatted with author Ellen Byron about her Cajun Country mysteries; Vanessa Lillie stopped by Deborah Kalb's blog to discuss her new thriller, For the Best; this week's guest on Author Interviews was Gerald Elias, chatting about his new thriller, The Beethoven Sequence; and Lisa Haselton interviewed thriller author Virginia Crow about her new novel, Baptism of Fire.

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

After launching their careers together on Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie are reuniting on the spy thriller, Five Eyes. Ritchie will direct and produce the project about an an agent (Statham) recruited by the global intelligence alliance, "Five Eyes," to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapon that threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with a high-tech CIA expert, he sets off on a globe-trotting mission to infiltrate a billionaire arms broker's crime syndicate.

Amazon Studios, Skydance TV, and Paramount TV Studios have found their Jack Reacher. Alan Ritchson (Titans) has been tapped for the title role in Jack Reacher, the streamer’s drama series based on the character from Lee Child’s international bestselling series of books. As conceived by Child, the imposing, 6'5"-tall, 250-pound character of Jack Reacher is a U.S. Army veteran investigating suspicious activities that frequently put him in danger. (Santora is 6’4” and 235 pounds). The role was played by the 5'7" Tom Cruise in the 2012 Jack Reacher feature film and the 2016 sequel.

Greenland star Gerard Butler and Captain America actor Frank Grillo are set to star in the Joe Carnahan-directed action thriller, Copshop. The story centers on a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between a professional hitman (Butler), a smart rookie female cop, and a double-crossing con man (Grillo), who seeks refuge behind bars when there's no place left to run. Casting for the female lead is still in progress.

Stephan James is in final negotiations to co-star with Russell Crowe in Paramount’s thriller, American Son, which is based on the critically acclaimed French film, A Prophet. Andrew "Rapman" Onwubolu is on board to direct the movie from a screenplay by crime author, Dennis Lehane. The film centers on a man (James) who falls under the control of a ruthless mobster (Crowe) while in prison and later builds a multiracial crime syndicate to take down his mentor and earn a place for his crew alongside the Italian and Russian mafias.

A new trailer was released for the next James Bond installment (and the last one for Daniel Craig), No Time to Die, giving fans a deeper look at the long-awaited 007 movie — and its scarred (both emotionally and physically) supervillain played by Rami Malek.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Skydance Television is developing an original hour-long series headlined and executive produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first major foray into scripted television. Created by Nick Santora (Scorpion), the series is said to be a global spy adventure with a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter at the center of the story. Preliminary casting is underway for the role of the daughter. 

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington and The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar are among the cast of the second season of Netflix’s police interrogation drama, Criminal, which just released a trailer. The drama takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. It is a stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question. Season two returns to the streamer on September 16.

Jess Ryder’s psychological thriller novel, The Ex-Wife, is getting the series treatment, with BlackBox Multimedia and Night Train Media teaming for an international co-production. New York Times bestselling author and actress, Catherine Steadman, known for roles in Downton Abbey and her novels including Something In The Water, has been drafted to pen the screenplay, marking her screenwriting debut. The Ex-Wife follows newlywed Tasha, who has the perfect house, a loving husband, and a beautiful little girl. She’d be set if it weren't for Jen, her husband's ex-wife who just won't leave them alone.

CBS has put in development The Bay, a one-hour police drama from director-producer Larry Teng (Nancy Drew); writer-producer Yalun Tu (Wu Assassins); and CBS Television Studios. Described as "The Good Wife meets NYPD Blue," the project centers on two newly partnered Chinese-American detectives who strive to overcome their gender, generational, and cultural differences as they work to bring justice to their dynamic and ever-changing San Francisco community. 

NBC has put in development a father-daughter murder mystery drama from Blindspot creator/executive producer Martin Gero and executive producer Alex Berger. Written by Berger, the story follows a dogged young reporter who witnesses the murder of her sister. As she launches an investigation to find the people responsible, she enlists the help of her estranged father – a legendary but reclusive investigative journalist.

Danish actor Roland Møller is set to co-star opposite Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Citadel, Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming global thriller series for Amazon Studios. Møller will play Laszlo Milla, a lead operative of Citadel’s rival intelligence agency, Manticore, who was incarcerated in a Citadel detention facility for years. Now liberated, Laszlo sets his sights on getting revenge on the man responsible for his capture, Mason Kane, and bringing down Citadel once and for all.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, interviewed crime writer Karen Neary Smithson.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed James R. Benn to talk about The Red Horse, the latest installment in Benn's Captain Billy Boyle mysteries set in World War II Europe.

My Favorite Detective Stories host John A. Hoda chatted with Mike Omer about his Zoe Bentley series.

Brad Parks stopped by Meet the Thriller Author to chat about his books, writing at Hardees, and how he tackled subjects like quantum physics to turn into a thriller.

Faye Snowden, author A Killing Fire, was interviewed by Robert Justice on the latest Crime Writers of Color episode.

The Gay Mystery Podcast welcomed Ellen Hart, often called "the LGBTQ’s answer to Agatha Christie" and the author of thirty-five crime novels in two different series.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover spoke with special guests Brian Andrews and Jeff Wilson, the authors behind the latest Tier One thriller, Collateral.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host Steve Cavanagh became a guest on the show to talk about his newly released thriller, Fifty Fifty.

The featured guest on It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club was Alex Gilly. One of his translations, Thierry Cruvellier's The Master of Confession, was longlisted for the 2015 PEN Translation Prize. His own latest crime novel is the thriller, Death Rattle.

The latest Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured Josh Pachter's "The Secret Lagoon."

Author R&R with August Norman

Originally from central Indiana, thriller and mystery author August Norman has called Los Angeles home for two decades, writing for and/or appearing in movies, television, stage productions, web series, and even commercial advertising. A lover and champion of crime fiction, Norman is an active member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime (National and LA), and regularly attends the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference. In addition, August is a founding member and regular performer with LA's longest running improv comedy show, "Opening Night: The Improvised Musical."

Last year, Crooked Lane Books released Come and Get Me, the debut novel in Norman's series featuring intrepid journalist Caitlin Bergman. On September 8, Caitlin returns in the follow-up novel, Sins of the Mother, about which Kirkus Reviews said, "Action-loving readers are the real winners in this offbeat thriller."

This time, the case is closer to home when Caitlin goes in search of her mother, whom she believed dead for the past forty years. But when a rural sheriff invites Caitlin to the woods of coastal Oregon to identify her mother's remains, Caitlin drops everything to face the woman she's spent a lifetime hating. Unfortunately, the body — abandoned on the land of a reclusive cult, the Daughters of God — was left faceless. Instead, Caitlin finds the diary of a woman obsessed with the end of the world, one that hints the cult's spiritual leader knows the identity of Caitlin's real father.

She's not the only one looking for clues in her mother's writing. Johnny Larsen, a violent white supremacist whose family runs the county, thinks the Daughters of God kidnapped his teen-aged daughter...and will do anything to get her back. Caught between the local white supremacists ready to take action and the radical cult her mother belonged to, Caitlin must unravel the town's secrets before the fiery prophesied end of days arrives.

August Norman stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

"The Cult Leader in Me"

While plotting my second Caitlin Bergman thriller, Sins of the Mother, I wanted to explore the relationship between the families we’re born into and the families we choose. I’d also been researching another type of chosen family at the time: religious cults. To combine the story of Caitlin’s search for her birth mother with that of a woman who would abandon her life in Los Angeles to commune with strangers in the woods of Oregon, I knew I needed to explore my own inner cult leader.

Like a hand held over a candle’s flame just until the point of pain, my fascination with people who blindly follow the dogma of self-professed prophets, often giving up friends, families, sexual boundaries, economic treasures, and original perceptions of reality, is thinly protected with a sense of “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Of course, I mean my God, not their God, because obviously my belief in a higher power that influences the World Series, but somehow ignores childhood diseases, is perfectly acceptable. See? There’s a fine, slippery, dangerous line between them, me, and a spiritual abyss. So, what is the difference between a mass theology and a cult?

Miriam-Webster defines a cult as a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous.

While the world’s major religions often require personal sacrifice through fasting, tithing, or adherence to regimented moral constructs, cults take the weirdness level up to the sky.

Does your religion have a sex-abstaining savior who walked the earth two thousand years ago? Ours lives amongst us in a compound, gets down with everybody, and thinks vows to anyone but himself are mere suggestions.

Do you believe in space travel? We think that evil souls from a galactic war latch onto everyday people and can only be detected by our scanning machine. For a little money, and the recorded confession of your darkest secrets that we swear won’t be used to manipulate you, we’ll be glad to remove them.

Does your clergy maintain that living a moral life means that time will continue as long as we are good to each other? Ours sets a date on a calendar when the world will end in fire, guarantees it will happen in our lifetime, and demands that we sell all of our earthly possessions to fund a theater where our leader can do his performance art.

If these examples sound familiar, that’s because they’ve been cherry-picked from genuine religious movements of notoriety from the last century. While I’m exploring these concepts with a tone of humor, the damage that these groups have created is devastating in its reach and duration. Losing a family member to a fringe religious group, let alone growing up under a cult’s indoctrination, is life-shattering, soul-crushing, and often requires hospitalization and life-long therapy.

(And yes, I’m aware that mainstream religions can and have been just as damaging, especially in the context of global warfare and oppression, but this is about cults!)

Sketching out my own group, the Daughters of God, I needed a leader that even I, a jaded crime fiction author, would find both believable and appealing. Like many other creative hopefuls, I moved to Hollywood in my early 20s only to be lost in a metropolitan area of 12 million people from every country on the planet amidst an extreme range of wealth and poverty. Like anyone, I wanted to feel unique and be recognized. A good cult leader knows where to find people looking for definition, and it will come as no surprise to anyone who’s studied these organizations to find that a great many have started and prospered right here in Southern California. Therefore, Desmond Pratten, my fictional guru, starts as a movie star-handsome yoga instructor in West Hollywood, an area where many people seek physical perfection, surrounded by young and beautiful hopefuls looking for their big break.

Beyond recognition, many in this clique of young Hollywood want another step up their moral ladder, a special purpose. Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re making the world a better place, especially when it doesn’t seem like stardom will arrive anytime soon? Not only are Desmond’s followers getting in shape, but each is told they’ve been brought to his circle for a special purpose – to gather those lost to society and save the environment.

Still, at that level not much is happening that’s worse than an accountability group, so Desmond offers his followers another incentive, a direct conduit to God. Driven mostly by the need to satiate a wealthy defense contractor’s widow who has guilt-ridden visions of an apocalypse fueled by her husband’s inventions, Desmond lets the woman’s dreams become the group’s mythology, stepping in as the guide toward her noble goals while partnering with her corrupt niece, a confident, sensual companion who will do anything to avoid working a legitimate job. With the widow’s delusions, her niece’s help, and Desmond’s ability to read the needs of his well-meaning, soul-searching followers, the Daughters of God could easily attract a broad variety of followers with a mix of free love, intense-to-the-point-of-hypnotic physical activity, and a connection with the divine. Throw in some rules keeping everything legal, such as mandatory birth control and no one admitted under the age of consent, and file for a religious exemption, Desmond could keep the whole thing going for the rest of his life.

Of course, the problem with building a religion on a woman’s belief that the world’s end is on the horizon is that she might actually name a date and time. What will happen to Desmond’s followers when the world doesn’t end, and what would he do to keep his kingdom intact? Above all, what would happen if an investigative reporter, searching for the woman who abandoned her as a child to join this cult, showed up to shine a light on the man behind the curtain?

The cult leader in me wouldn’t give up his life at the top of the mountain without a fight.

 

You can learn more about August Norman and his books via his website and also the upcoming virtual book launch hosted by Anne's Book Carnival in Tustin, CA. Or you can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Bookbub.

Mystery Melange

 

The 2020 McIlvanney Prize shortlist for Scottish Crime Book of the Year was announced yesterday, with the winner to be announced in a virtual event on Friday, September 18th. This year's finalist titles include Whirligig by Andrew James Greig; Pine by Francine Toon; A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone; and The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry, the pen name of husband and wife team, Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. You can read more about the books and the judges' comments via the Bloody Scotland Conference website.

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the opening of the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing, formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards. This will also be the first year for a new category: The Howard Engel Award, for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada, sponsored by the Engel Family with a $500 prize. The late Howard Engel was one of the founders of Crime Writers of Canada, a prolific author, former CBC producer, and the inaugural recipient of the CWC Grand Master Award. Other award categories and prizes include: $1000 for Best Crime Novel, sponsored by Rakuten Kobo; $500 for The Angela Harrison Memorial Award for Best Crime First Novel, sponsored by CWC member and author Maureen Jennings (Murdoch Mysteries); $200 for Best Crime Novella and $300 for Best Crime Short Story, both sponsored by Mystery Weekly; $500 for Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book sponsored by Shaftesbury Films; $500 for the Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author sponsored by ECW Press; and Best French Crime Book and Best Nonfiction Crime Book. Winners will be announced at a gala to be held in Toronto in May of 2021. Full details about the competition can be found on the Crime Writers of Canada website.

This 2020 BAD Sydney Crime Festival is going online and splitting into two parts. The International Festival will take place September 10-13 and feature such authors as Ann Cleeves, Don Winslow, Karin Slaughter, Jo Nesbø, Kathy Reichs, Camilla Läckberg, and Nicci French. The second part will be the Face to Face Festival from November 5-8 when the Danger Prize will be awarded for the best book, TV Series, podcast, or film about Sydney crime released in the previous year. (HT to Shots Magazine)

New York Times bestselling author and thriller writer Ruth Ware will be talking about her latest book, One By One, at the National Writers Series in an online live event to be held at 2 p.m. ET on September 13. The NWS is suggesting a donation for events this fall, to help them overcome the loss of ticket revenue from in-person events at the City Opera House. Money collected will be used for their Raising Writers programs, including Front Street Writers, poetry workshops, writing workshops, and Battle of the Books.

In keeping with many events this year, the International Agatha Christie Festival is going online. The free 2020 virtual festival will be live on the festival's new YouTube channel on September 15. To make sure you don’t miss out, you can subscribe now by visiting this link. Sophie Hannah, Laura Thompson, and Mathew Prichard are among the special guests with topics to include Christie’s Childhood; her home, Greenway; Hercule Poirot; and Christie’s plays, Witness for the Prosecution and The Mousetrap, among other subjects.

If you are a poet, short story writer, or novelist who lives in the United States and have not yet been published by a major publisher, the Key West Literary Seminar and Workshop has an Emerging Writers Award to which nominations may be sent until September 15. Here’s the link for all the information you need: full guidelines and a link to the application here. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

Investigation Discovery and James Patterson have partnered once again for a new series of books written by Patterson and inspired by the network’s library of true crime programming. The first of the three books, Murder Thy Neighbor, is set to be published on Tuesday, Sept. 15. According to ID, the book "profiles two twisted tales inspired by true-crime horrors: the first following a neighbors’ quarrel that turns violent and the second, cyber-bullying that explodes in a double murder." That will be followed by Murder of Innocence on November 17, 2020, and Till Murder Do Us Part on January 19, 2021.

The novel by Agatha Christie known to most people by the title And Then There Were None actually started out with a different title taken from a minstrel song. That original title is now considered offensive, which is why it has been changed everywhere—except in France. However, it was just announced that the book will finally be retitled there, in a decision made by Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, who heads the company that owns the literary and media rights to Christie’s works.

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "English Teacher, or an Institutional Nightmare," by Emory D. Jones.

In the Q&A roundup, Emma Cline stopped by The Guardian to discuss Harvey Weinstein, weathering a plagiarism allegation, and her new collection of suspense short stories, Daddy; Dwyer Murphy of CrimeReads chatted with Carl Hiaasen about "Palm Beach, Slithery Characters, and Florida Crime Fiction"; Brad Parks spoke with Deborah Kalb about quantum physics and his latest thriller, Interference; Cuban author Uva de Aragón opened up about her fun, independent, and food-loving female sleuth, María Duquesne; and Denise Mina talked about the fact she couldn't read until she was nine, her current writing projects, and her writing influences.