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

Broken English Productions has hired Anthony Nardolillo to direct the heist feature, Shelter, marking their second collaboration after the crime drama, 7th & Union. Shelter centers on the head of a secret organization who assembles a crew to steal back artwork plundered during World War II from a modern day, Neo-Nazi billionaire oligarch. Filming is scheduled to begin this summer in Los Angeles.

After the news broke that Amazon was buying MGM - home of the James Bond franchise - fans were fearful the spy series would move to streaming only. But Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (who co-own rights to the Bond properties) released a statement saying, "We are committed to continuing to make James Bond films for the worldwide theatrical audience."

A trailer was released for Gunpowder Milkshake which sees Karen Gillan (Dr. Who; Guardians of the Galaxy) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) as badass assassins.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

BritBox is adapting ML Longworth’s crime novels into a limited series titled Murder In Provence and have attached Shelagh Stephenson, whose credits include Downton Abbey, to write the project. Roger Allam (Endeavour) stars as Antoine Verlaque, Investigating Judge in Aix-en Provence, with Nancy Carroll (The Crown) playing his romantic partner, Marine Bonnet. Together, they investigate the murders, mysteries, and dark underbelly of their idyllic home in the south of France. Their efforts are aided by Hélène (Keala Settle), a detective and Antoine’s trusted confidante.

In a preemptive bid, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment has landed the rights to I Don’t Forgive You, the upcoming debut novel of former police reporter, Aggie Blum Thompson. Billed as "a psychological thriller with a female lead," I Don’t Forgive You is about a photographer struggling to fit in among the Mom cliques in her new D.C. suburb when she is framed for a neighbor’s murder and must frantically try to uncover who is destroying her life by impersonating her on social media.

Sony Pictures Television-backed Eleventh Hour Films has optioned Jane Casey’s novel, The Killing Kind, and will adapt it into a limited series. Screenwriters Zara Hayes (Showtrial) and Jonathan Stewart (Meet You In Hell) have been attached to reimagine the book, with the former set to direct. The story centers on a barrister, Ingrid Lewis, who defends John Webster against stalking charges, only to have Webster turn on her. When a colleague is run down on a busy London road, Lewis is sure she was the intended victim, but Webster claims he is the only one who can protect her from the killer.

Parker Posey is set to star alongside Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Juliette Binoche, and Rosemarie DeWitt in The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited series drama adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries. The eight-episode series from Christine director Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer Maggie Cohn explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette). Posey will play Freda Black, assistant district attorney and prosecutor in the Peterson case.

Director Brandon Cronenberg will adapt author J.G. Ballard’s thriller novel, Super-Cannes, as a limited TV series. Super-Cannes is set in an ultra-modern high tech business park in the hills above the French Riviera city famed for its film festival, where a global elite has gathered to form a closed, uber-capitalist and high-tech community. But beneath the seemingly ideal workers' paradise, all is not well.

Tyner Rushing has booked a recurring guest star role alongside Chris Pratt in the upcoming thriller drama series, The Terminal List, for Amazon Prime Video. Tyner will play James Reece’s (Pratt) close friend Liz Riley, a former Army pilot, who is described as being "equal parts wit and warmth." The Terminal List follows James, a Navy SEAL, after his entire platoon is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. When James returns home, he experiences conflicting memories of the event and questions his own culpability. As new evidence comes to light, he realizes there are dark forces working against him, endangering himself and the people he loves. The series is based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr, who serves as an executive producer alongside Pratt

Michiel Huisman (The Flight Attendant) has been tapped to star alongside Luke Evans in Apple’s action-thriller drama series, Echo 3, from Oscar winner Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), Apple Studios, and Keshet Studios. Echo 3 is set in South America and follows Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist, who is the emotional center of a small American family. When she goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border, her brother and her husband — two men with deep military experience and complicated pasts — struggle to find her in a layered, personal drama, set against the explosive backdrop of a secret war. Huisman will play Prince, a member of the "Echo 3" team and Amber’s husband

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode from Kings River Life magazine features the first chapter of The Big Dive, written by Bruce Most and read by actor Sean Hopper.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Ashley Weaver, author of the historical mystery, Peculiar Combination, which focuses on a professional safecracker and lockpicker who is asked to ply her trade for Britain’s war effort in WWII.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed bestselling YA author, David Yoon, about his first adult thriller, Version Zero.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Barbara Wilson, author of a series featuring translator-sleuth Cassandra Reilly, which was made into a movie starring Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Hardin. She is a winner of two Lambda Literary awards and the British Crime Writers’ award for best thriller set in Europe.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Craig Faustus Buck about his career writing in television and his novels and short stories.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured Timothy Miller's The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle, an entertaining escapade starring some of Victorian literature’s most beloved characters, from Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Jekyll.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed The Thursday Murder Club author and Pointless star, Richard Osman, and also chatted with authors Rahul Raina (How to Kidnap the Rich) and Ajay Chowdhury (The Waiter).

THEATRE

You know things are opening back up and returning somewhat to normal when live theatre events are available once again. The Spoleto Festival USA’s opening weekend will see a staging of The Woman in Black at Festival Hall (formerly Memminger Auditorium). Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of the 1938 thriller novel by Susan Hill runs May 27 through June 13. With a nod to the pandemic, tickets for this performance are being sold in physically-distanced pods of two and four seats. All seats within a pod must be purchased at the same time in the same order, and face masks will be required for all ticket holders.

Likewise, the long-running Mousetrap by Agatha Christie has returned to London at the St. Martin's Theatre as the West End starts to welcome back live audiences. The world's longest-running show returns with two different casts and a host of U.K. stars (and social distancing for the audience).

Mystery Melange

 

The Margery Allingham Short Story Mystery Competition shortlist has been announced. The mission of the annual contest is to find the best unpublished short mystery – one that fits into legendary crime writer Margery’s definition of what makes a great story. The finalists include Antony M Brown for "For Laura Hope"; Chris Curran for "All the Little Boxes"; Camilla Macpherson for "Heartbridge Homicides"; and Hazell Ward for "As Dead as Dodo." The winner will be announced on July 1.

Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) has been stepping up its game to help provide a lifeline to indie booksellers during the pandemic. The Unlikely Bookstore is sponsoring an online auction to help raise funds for Binc so they can continue to help more indies. Some of the fun items include an autographed basketball and book by John Grisham; a chance to have a character named after you in an upcoming novel by Hank Phillippi Ryan or book club Zoom call with Ryan; a signed copy of Lisa Unger's Confessions on the 7:45; some thriller book bundles, and much more.

The Nick Linn Lecture Series in Collier County, Florida, announced it will return to its luncheon-and-lecture format at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in North Naples, as well as also offering virtual access. The upcoming featured lecturers include Brad Taylor, a retired Special Forces lieutenant colonel and author of American Traitor and End of Days, on Monday, February 28, 2022; and also Scott Turow, the master of legal thrillers from Presumed Innocent to The Last Trial, on Monday, March 21, 2022.

The Guardian is sponsoring an online masterclass for aspiring crime writers to help take you from idea to publishing deal. Novelist and screenwriter, Claire McGowan, will offer actionable and practical advice for creating a compelling, page-turning and marketable crime novel from start to finish. Sign up here for the workshop, which takes place July 17-18.

Crime fiction author Harlan Coben is apparently taking over Netflix. Fourteen of Coben’s best-sellers will soon be on the streamer, including several adaptations of his books already on Netflix, such as Safe, starring Michael C. Hall, The Stranger, starring Richard Armitage and Spanish-language series, The Innocent. Unfortunately for Myron Bolitar fans, no projects based on the author's series books featuring the sports agent detective are part of the Netflix deal.

Years before becoming one of America’s most celebrated authors, John Steinbeck wrote at least three novels which were never published. Two of them were destroyed by the young writer as he struggled to make his name, but a third – a full-length mystery werewolf story entitled Murder at Full Moon – has survived unseen in an archive ever since being rejected for publication in 1930. Although Steinbeck’s literary agents, McIntosh & Otis are still stating they will not be releasing the book, there are growing cries for the author's estate to relent and allow the book to be published. One of those is Professor Gavin Jones, a specialist in American literature at Stanford University, who writes about the work in his own upcoming nonfiction book, Reclaiming John Steinbeck: Writing for the Future of Humanity.

The New York Times took at look at the first mentions of famous authors in the newspaper through the years. Included among those is Agatha Christie, first mentioned in the gossipy Books and Authors column from Aug. 8, 1920, in which the Book Review reported, "An interesting story is told about how ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie, a detective novel announced for Fall publication by the John Lane company, came to be written. The author had never before attempted to write a book, but made a wager that she could write a detective story in which the reader would not be able to pick out the murderer, although having knowledge of the same clues as the detective. She was at least successful enough to have her work chosen by The London Times as a serial for its weekly edition.”

Some new research shows that with clever science, a single fingerprint left at a crime scene can be used to determine whether someone has touched or ingested class-A drugs.

Speaking of drug offenders, maybe all the police need is a good hand selfie.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Joan of Arc (Or the Law of Unintended Consequences)" by Tony Dawson

In the Q&A roundup, Murder & Mayhem spoke with British crime writer, Zoë Sharp, about her Charlie Fox series; Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed author Debra H. Goldstein about her cozy mystery, Four Cuts Too Many; and Author Interviews chatted with David Gordon, whose first novel, The Serialist, was a finalist for an Edgar Award and made into a major motion picture in Japan.

Criminally Good Canadians

 

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) have announced the winners of the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Formerly known as the Arthur Ellis Awards, the Awards launched in 1984 and recognize the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors. Here are the honorees:

Best Crime Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo, with a $1000 prize

Winner: Will Ferguson, The Finder, Simon & Schuster Canada

Also nominated:

• Marjorie Celona, How a Woman Becomes a Lake, Hamish Hamilton Canada; Penguin Canada
• Cecilia Ekbäck, The Historians, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Thomas King, Obsidian, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Roz Nay, Hurry Home, Simon & Schuster Canada

Best Crime First Novel sponsored by Writers First, with a $500 prize

Winner: Guglielmo D’Izza, The Transaction, Guernica Editions

Also nominated:

• Raye Anderson, And We Shall Have Snow, Signature Editions
• Chris Patrick Carolan, The Nightshade Cabal, Parliament House Press
• Russell Fralich, True Patriots, Dundurn Press
• Emily Hepditch, The Woman in the Attic, Flanker Press

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada sponsored by The Engel Family with a $500 prize

Winner: Katrina Onstad, Stay Where I Can See You, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Also nominated:

• Randall Denley, Payback, Ottawa Press and Publishing
• Helen Humphreys, Rabbit Foot Bill, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Ann Lambert, The Dogs of Winter, Second Story Press
• Kevin Major, Two for The Tablelands, Breakwater Books

Best Crime Novella sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $200 prize

Winner:  Sam Wiebe, Never Going Back, Orca Book Publishers

Also nominated:

• C.C. Benison, The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, At Bay Press
• Vicki Delany, Coral Reef Views, Orca Book Publishers
• Winona Kent, Salty Dog Blues, Sisters in Crime - Canada West

Best Crime Short Story sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $300 prize

Winner:  Marcelle Dubé, Cold Wave, Sisters in Crime - Canada West

Also nominated:

• Twist Phelan, Used to Be, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
• Zandra Renwick, Killer Biznez, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
• Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Days Without Name, Carrick Publishing
• Sarah Weinman, Limited Liability, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Winner: Roxanne Bouchard, La mariée de corail, Libre Expression

Also nominated:

• Stéphanie Gauthier, Inacceptable, Éditions Québec Amérique
• Christian Giguère, Le printemps des traîtres, Héliotrope NOIR
• Guy Lalancette, Les cachettes, VLB éditeur
• Jean Lemieux, Les Demoiselles de Havre-Aubert, Éditions Québec Amérique

Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction) sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize

Winner: Frances Greenslade, Red Fox Road, Puffin Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House

Also nominated:

• Janet Hill, Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House, Tundra Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House
• Sheena Kamal, Fight Like a Girl, Penguin Teen, an imprint of Penguin Random House
• Kelly Powell, Magic Dark and Strange, Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc.
• Tom Ryan, I Hope You're Listening, Albert Whitman & Co.

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book sponsored by Simpson & Wellenreiter LLP, Hamilton, with a $300 prize

Winner: Justin Ling, Missing From the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto's Queer Community, McClelland & Stewart

Also nominated:

• Jeff Blackstock, Murder in the Family: How the Search For My Mother's Killer Led to My Father, Viking Press
• Norm Boucher, Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip, NeWest Press
• Silver Donald Cameron, Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, Viking Press
• Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell, Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett, University of Regina Press

The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize

Winner:  The Future by Raymond Bazowski

Also nominated:

• Predator and Prey by Dianne Scott
• Notes on Killing your Wife by Mark Thomas
• A Nice Place to Die by Joyce Woollcott
• Cat with a Bone by Susan Jane Wright

 

Mystery Melange

 

The British Book Awards announced the winners of this year's contest last week. Top honors in the Crime & Thriller category went to Robert Galbraith (a/k/a JK Rowling) for Troubled Blood. The other finalists included: The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child; The Patient Man by Joy Ellis; The Guest List by Lucy Foley; The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman; and A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin.

The International Crime Fiction Research Group posted an overview of crime fiction in Argentina, noting that Argentinian fiction has been characterized as peripheral in the global domain even though this country presents a vigorous and complex tradition in the genre."

Rachel Mills Literary Agency and adult education centre Morley College are launching the BME Unpublished Fiction Prize, a contest for aspiring writers from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds seeking to break into publishing. The annual prize will award £500 to a previously unpublished author, and is intended to nurture and provide opportunities for aspiring novelists, promote diverse fiction across the broader literary landscape of Britain, and support Morley College’s ambitions to build an annual festival celebrating diversity in Britain. Applicants should submit a manuscript of the first 30 to 50 pages of an original novel, as well as a three-page maximum outline of the whole plot of the novel. Applications close on August 22.

A literary auction raising money to help vaccinate the world against coronavirus offer opportunities for book lovers to win signed novels by authors including Hilary Mantel and Robert Galbraith, as well as mentoring sessions from star publishers and agents. Bidding at Books for Vaccines runs until May 21. Since the auction is UK based, physical prizes can only be shipped to UK addresses, but the digital prizes such as Zoom calls, mentoring, and online critiques are open internationally. All money raised is going to Care International, a charity working to tackle vaccine inequality in poorer nations. (HT to The Guardian)

The American University in Dubai is hosting a Zoom conversation with Jasper Fforde (creator of Thursday Next), Leigh Perry (creator of Sid the Skeleton) and award-winning short story writer and editor, Josh Pachter, this Sunday, May 23, at 11 AM Eastern time. Registration is required but free, and you can sign up via this link.

One last final John le Carré novel, Silverview, is set to be published in October. Finished before his death in December, le Carré gave his blessing to publish the novel, which follows a bookseller who becomes embroiled in a spy leak. "The book is fraught, forensic, lyrical, and fierce, at long last searching the soul of the modern Secret Intelligence Service itself. It’s a superb and fitting final novel," said his youngest son Nick Cornwell, a novelist who writes under the pen name of Nick Harkaway. "This is the authentic le Carré, telling one more story."

Since my late mother was a librarian, I'm rather pleased to see Janet Rudolph's list of Library/Librarian Mysteries over at the Mystery Fanfare blog.

Nick Pirog, bestselling author of the Thomas Prescott series, the 3:00 a.m. series, and The Speed of Souls, applied the Page 69 Test to his new thriller, Jungle Up.

Art thieves have a new reason to look over their shoulder. Interpol’s new ID-Art app allows amateur sleuths, collectors, and dealers to access the international organization’s database of 52,000 stolen artworks. This official catalogue runs the gamut from looted antiquities to the subjects of well-known heists, such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884), which was stolen from a Netherlands museum during Covid-19 lockdown.

I didn't know that book nook shelf inserts were a thing, but apparently they are; and some of them are actually pretty clever.

This sounds like it came right out of a crime caper novel: A man suspected of burglarizing a Milwaukee bakery has been arrested after the owners of the establishment cooked up a scheme to identify the thief by printing his image on their sugar cookies.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Food Shopping in a Time of Pandemic" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Megan Abbott chatted with CrimeReads about her writing process, making "weird" choices, and her Diet Coke habit; and Author Interviews spoke with Linda L. Richards about her new novel, Endings, which follows a woman who reinvents herself as a killer for hire.

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

Twilight franchise actor, Peter Facinelli, has signed on to direct his third feature film with the crime thriller, Headhunter. The story follows a twisted murder who sends three detectives on a whirlwind investigation revealing dark secrets and turning everyone into a possible suspect. Rich Ronat (Grand Isle) penned the script.

Fresh off his Oscar nomination for his performance as Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami, Leslie Odom Jr. has joined the growing ensemble of Knives Out 2. Daniel Craig returns to star as super sleuth, Benoit Blanc, with Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, and Edward Norton also recently joining the cast. It was also announced just a few days ago that Kate Hudson will be involved with the project, although the plot and therefore all of the various actor roles are still under wraps.

Mel Gibson and Elisha Cuthbert are joining Josh Duhamel in the heist thriller, Bandit. The project is based on author Robert Knuckle’s novel and journalist Ed Arnold’s interviews with Gilbert Galvan Jr., who went by the name Robert Whiteman. Whiteman (to be played by Duhamel) was dubbed the Flying Bandit for successfully pulling off over sixty bank and jewelry heists during a notorious crime spree after he became involved with a lifetime gangster (played by Gibson).

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Synchronicity Films is following up its BBC drama, The Cry, with another Helen Fitzgerald television adaptation, this time based on her 2009 novel, Bloody Women. The production company has signed up Lorna Martin, the co-creator of Women on the Verge alongside Sharon Horgan, to adapt the novel into an eight-part, darkly comedic thriller. Bloody Women tells the story of 33-year-old Cat Marsden, who decides to lay her past to rest before settling down to a new life in Italy with her fiancé. She decides to meet up with her previous partners, but on the morning of her wedding, Cat is arrested for murder - not just one murder, but three, with all of the victims ex-boyfriends who were viciously mutilated. Now she’s in jail, and the woman who is writing her biography has interviewed many people in Cat’s life—but no one is telling the truth

Netflix has given an eight-episode series order to an untitled global spy adventure starring and executive produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first major foray into scripted television. In the series, created by Nick Santora (Jack Reacher; The Fugitive), a father (Schwarzenegger) and daughter (Monica Barbaro) learn that they’ve each secretly been working as CIA Operatives for years and realize their entire relationship has been a lie. Forced to team up as partners, the series "tackles universal family dynamics set against a global backdrop of spies, fantastic action, and humor."

ITV is adapting Graham Norton’s novel, Holding, for television. The four-part series will star Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones; Dublin Murders; Vienna Blood) who will take the leading role of local police officer, Sergeant PJ Collins, a gentle mountain of a man, who hides from people and fills his days with comfort food and half-hearted police work. When the body of long-lost local legend Tommy Burke is discovered, PJ is called to solve a serious crime for the first time in his career and has to connect with the village he has tried hard to avoid.

Kathleen Turner has been tapped for a lead role opposite Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, and Domhnall Gleeson in The White House Plumbers, HBO’s five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. Turner will play Dita Beard, a crusty, foul-mouthed lobbyist for the ITT corporation involved in some dirty deals with the Nixon Administration.

Alison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison are back in a new Hallmark mystery titled Murder, She Baked. The stars are reprising their characters from the popular Hallmark Movies & Mysteries franchise based on the Hannah Swensen mystery novels by Joanne Fluke. Sweeney will again play Hannah Swensen, with Mathison returning as Mike Kingston and Barbara Niven as Hannah's mother, Delores Swensen. Production begins this week in Vancouver on the movie, which will premiere this summer on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, and Jamie Hector have been tapped as the leads of HBO’s We Own This City limited series from The Wire’s EP David Simon and producer George Pelecanos. Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men) is set to direct and executive produce the series, based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption. The project chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force — and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

Bruce McGill (Rizzoli & Isles), Maria Sten (Swamp Thing), and Hugh Thompson (Chapelwaite) have been tapped as series regulars opposite Alan Ritchson in the upcoming Amazon original series, Reacher, based on the Jack Reacher character from Lee Child’s international bestselling books. The first season, written and exec produced by Nick Santora (who also serves as showrunner), is based on the first Reacher novel, The Killing Floor, set in Georgia.

Juliette Binoche is set to star alongside Toni Collette, Colin Firth, and Rosemarie DeWitt in The Staircase, HBO Max’s drama adaptation based on the French true-crime documentary series. The eight-episode project from Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer, Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette).

Alexa Mansour has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s Home Before Dark. Set to return on Friday, June 11, season two of the mystery drama follows reporter, Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince), as she seeks to learn more about a mysterious explosion that hits a local farm. The investigation leads her to fight a powerful and influential corporation, jeopardizing the health of her family and Erie Harbor. Inspired by real-life young investigative journalist Hilde Lysiak, Home Before Dark also stars Abby Miller, Kylie Rogers, Aziza Scott, Michael Weston, Joelle Carter, Jibrail Nantambu, Deric McCabe, and Rio Mangini.

Betty Gabriel (Get Out) has been tapped for a regular role in the upcoming third season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski. Gabriel, who will play Elizabeth Wright, the Chief of Station, replaces Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who was originally hired for the part last fall but exited the series over creative differences. Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds the iconic spy (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time when Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold.

The NBCUniversal streaming service, Peacock, has released a trailer for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. The project (formerly known as Dan Brown's Langdon) follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Ashley Zukerman), who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy. The cast also includes Valorie Curry, Sumalee Montano, Rick Gonzalez, Eddie Izzard, and Beau Knapp.

The BBC released a first-look image for the Martin Freeman drama, The Responder. Freeman stars as Chris, a crisis-stricken, morally compromised, unconventional urgent response officer tackling a series of night shifts on the beat in Liverpool.

Also, CBS released trailers for its new series including NCIS: Hawai'i, FBI: International, and CSI: Vegas.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Ellen Byron joined Eric Beetner as co-host of Writer Types to talk cozy mysteries and help introduce legendary thriller writer, Linwood Barclay (Find You First), and debut author, Mia Manansala (Arsenic and Adobo). Eric and Ellen were also joined by Jennifer J Chow and Olivia Matthews to discuss the origins of the cozy mystery as we know it today.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Alan R. Warren, author of several true crime books and host of the radio show, House of Mystery, now is in its tenth year on NBC in Los Angeles and other stations around the country.

Read or Dead took a look at reads set in the wilderness, particularly national parks.

Suspense Radio welcomed Cate Holahan, formerly an award-winning journalist and lead singer of Leaving Kinzley, an original rock band in NYC, turned bestselling author of domestic suspense novels. Holahan's fifth book, Her Three Lives, was just published in April.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Jeffery Deaver, bestselling author and creator of the Lincoln Rhyme series, about The Final Twist, the latest Colter Shaw novel which was published on May 11th.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Elizabeth Splaine about her various books, including Devil's Grace and the forthcoming, Swan Song.

The latest episode of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine podcast featured James Tipton reading from his series featuring Dr. John Watson, the story "The Beast of Easedale Tarn."

Crime Time FM sat down with Tim Glister to discuss his new novel, Red Corona, and the eight books that set him on the path to becoming a spy writer.

Dagger Delights

 

The Crime Writers Association (CWA) Dagger Awards, the premier literary crime-writing awards in the United Kingdom, announced this year's shortlists. There are four Daggers which are not nominated by publishers: the Debut Dagger for unpublished works; the Dagger in the Library, nominated by librarians; the Publishers’ Dagger, nominated by an industry committee; and the Diamond Dagger for a lifetime contribution to crime writing, nominated by CWA members. Winners in all categories will be announced in a virtual live ceremony on Thursday, July 1. Here are the finalists:

CWA GOLD DAGGER

• S A Cosby: Blacktop Wasteland (Headline, Headline Publishing Group)
• Ben Creed: City of Ghosts (Welbeck Fiction, Welbeck Publishing Group)
• Nicci French: House of Correction (Simon & Schuster)
• Robert Galbraith: Troubled Blood (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)
• Elly Griffiths: The Postscript Murders (Quercus)
• Thomas Mullen: Midnight Atlanta (Little, Brown, Little, Brown Book Group)
• Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End (Zaffre, Bonnier)

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

• Robert Galbraith: Troubled Blood (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)
• Michael Robotham: When She Was Good (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)
• Catherine Ryan Howard: The Nothing Man (Atlantic Books)
• Stuart Turton: The Devil and the Dark Water (Raven Books, Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Ruth Ware: One by One (Vintage, Harvill Secker)
• Chris Whitaker: We Begin at the End (Zaffre, Bonnier Books UK)

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

• Eva Björg Ægisdóttir: The Creak on the Stairs (Orenda), Translator: Victoria Cribb
• Ben Creed: City of Ghosts (Welbeck Publishing)
• Egan Hughes: The One That Got Away (Sphere, Little, Brown Book Group)
• S W Kane: The Bone Jar (Thomas & Mercer, Amazon Publishing)
• Stephen Spotswood: Fortune Favours the Dead (Wildfire, Headline)
• John Vercher: Three-Fifths (Pushkin Press)

CWA SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER

• John Banville: Snow (Faber)
• Vaseem Khan: Midnight at Malabar House (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Chris Lloyd: The Unwanted Dead (Orion Fiction, The Orion Publishing Group)
• Michael Russell: The City Under Siege (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)
• David Stafford: Skelton’s Guide to Domestic Poisons (Allison & Busby)
• Ovidia Yu: The Mimosa Tree Mystery (Constable, Little, Brown Book Group)

CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

• Sue Black: Written in Bone (Doubleday, Penguin)
• Becky Cooper: We Keep the Dead Close (William Heinemann, Penguin)
• Andrew Harding: These Are Not Gentle People (MacLehose Press, Quercus)
• Debora Harding: Dancing with the Octopus (Profile Books Limited)
• Nick Hayes: The Book of Trespass (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Ben MacIntyre: Agent Sonya (Viking, Penguin)

CWA CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

• Fredrik Backman: Anxious People, translated by Neil Smith (Michael Joseph, Penguin)
• Roxanne Bouchard: The Coral Bride, translated by David Warriner (Orenda Books)
• Yun Ko-eun: The Disaster Tourist, translated by Lizzie Buehler (Serpent's Tail)
• D A Mishani: Three, translated by Jessica Cohen (Riverrun, Hachette Book Group)
• Mikael Niemi: To Cook a Bear, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (MacLehose Press, Quercus)
• Agnes Ravatn: The Seven Doors, translated by Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books)

CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER

• Robert Scragg: ‘A Dog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas’ in Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds Group)
• Elle Croft: ‘Deathbed’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg & Various (Criminal Minds Group)
• Dominic Nolan: ‘Daddy Dearest’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg & Various (Criminal Minds Group)
• Victoria Selman: ‘Hunted’ in Afraid of the Christmas Lights, edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds Group)
• Clare Mackintosh: ‘Monsters’ in First Edition: Celebrating 21 Years of Goldsboro Books (The Dome Press)
• James Delargy: ‘Planting Nan’ in Afraid of the Light, edited by Robert Scragg & Various (Criminal Minds Group)

CWA PUBLISHERS DAGGER

• Faber & Faber
• Head of Zeus
• Michael Joseph
• No Exit Press
• Raven 
• Viper

CWA DEBUT DAGGER

• Ashley Harrison – The Looking Glass Spy
• Fiona McPhillips – Underwater
• Biba Pearce – Rough Justice
• Hannah Redding – Deception
• Edward Regenye – Lightfoot
• Jennifer Wilson O’Raghallaigh – Mandatory Reporting

CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

• C L Taylor
• Peter May
• Lisa Jewell
• James Oswald
• Denise Mina
• LJ Ross

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

Bruce Willis and John Travolta are teaming up for the first time since Pulp Fiction in the Chuck Russell-directed action film, Paradise City. Willis plays renegade bounty hunter, Ryan Swan, who must carve his way through the Hawaiian crime world to wreak vengeance on the kingpin who murdered his father (played by Travolta). Deadline noted that the project is billed as "being similar to Miami Vice but with bounty hunters instead of cops." Thai actress and model, Praya Lundberg, has landed the lead female role.

Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, and Kathryn Hahn are set to join Daniel Craig in the next Knives Out installment from Netflix. Dave Bautista was also recently cast, joining Craig who is reprising the role of super sleuth Benoit Blanc. Rian Johnson is back to write and direct the pic and will produce with his partner Ram Bergman. Plot details for the sequel are unknown at this time, other then Craig’s Blanc returning to solve another mystery revolving around a large cast of suspects. It is also unknown who Norton, Bautista, Monáe, and Hahn will be playing in the project.

Russell Crowe has committed to star in Poker Face, a Gary Fleder-directed thriller. The film has Crowe playing Jake, a tech billionaire who gathers his childhood friends to his Miami estate for what turns into a high stakes game of poker. Those friends have a love-hate relationship with the host, a master game-player/planner who has concocted an elaborate scheme designed to bring a certain justice to all of them. However, Jake finds himself re-thinking his strategy when his Miami mansion is overtaken by a dangerous home invader whose previous jobs have all ended in murder and arson.

Focus Features has set The Northman for release in April 2022. The film is a Viking revenge drama directed by Robert Eggers that stars Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Björk, the Icelandic singer who is appearing in her first film since 2005. It was shot in Iceland and is described as an "epic revenge thriller" that explores how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Working Title Television has nabbed rights to Stacey Abrams’s new novel, While Justice Sleeps, to adapt as a television series. The legal thriller follows Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, who is doing her best to excel in an arduous job with the court while also dealing with a troubled family. When the shocking news breaks that Wynn – the cantankerous swing vote on many current high-profile cases – has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down. She is immediately notified that Wynn has left her with power of attorney and instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian.

Netflix and Legendary Productions are moving forward with a sequel to Enola Holmes, and Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill are set to reprise their roles as Enola and Sherlock Holmes. Harry Bradbeer is returning to direct, with Jack Thorne, who penned the first, writing the script for the sequel. The film is based on Nancy Springer’s Edgar Award-nominated book series, The Enola Holmes Mysteries, which comprises six books in total.

Peacock is back for more of the dramedy private eye series, Psych, ordering a third movie based on the cult favorite USA series. Psych 3: This Is Gus will be the second film to be available on the NBCUniversal-backed streaming service. In preparation for a shotgun wedding before the birth of Baby Guster, Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Groomzilla Gus (Dulé Hill) go rogue in an attempt to track down Selene’s (Jazmyn Simon) estranged husband, as Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) grapples with the future of his career.

24's Kiefer Sutherland will play a private spy in his latest TV series in an untitled espionage drama that has been ordered by Paramount+. It is Sutherland’s latest small-screen role after a brief stint on Quibi’s The Fugitive, which premiered on the short-lived shortform service last August. The series stars Sutherland as private espionage operative, James Weir, who finds himself in the midst of a battle over the preservation of democracy in a world at odds with misinformation, behavioral manipulation, the surveillance state, and the interests that control these extraordinary powers.

In more Paramount+ news, CBS announced that the dramas SEAL Team and Clarice will be moving from CBS to the streaming service in their next seasons. Clarice, based on the character from The Silence of the Lambs by author Thomas Harris, will move to Paramount+ beginning with its upcoming second season. SEAL Team, currently in its 4th season, will kick off season 5 in the fall with a run of episodes aired on CBS, before making the jump to Paramount+.

CBS also announced it is cancelling All Rise after two seasons. All Rise followed the chaotic, hopeful, and sometimes absurd lives of its judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, as they work with bailiffs, clerks, and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal process. It starred Simone Missick as Judge Lola Carmichael.

ITV announced lead casting for the adaptation of Val McDermid’s DS Karen Pirie series (based on the author's first Pirie novel, The Distant Echo). Outlander actress, Lauren Lyle, will play Pirie, who is tasked with reopening an historic murder investigation that has been the subject of a provocative true crime podcast.

Betty Gilpin and Dan Stevens have joined the cast of Starz’s upcoming Watergate series, Gaslit. Based on Slate’s "Slow Burn" podcast, Gaslit stars Sean Penn as Richard Nixon’s loyal attorney general, John Mitchell, with Julia Roberts playing Mitchell’s Arkansan socialite wife, Martha. Gilpin and Stevens will play the infamous couple, Mo and John Dean, the young duo who were wrapped up in the political scandal while John was serving as a White House lawyer under the Nixon administration. Also joining the cast as series regulars are Shea Whigham as G. Gordon Liddy and Darby Camp as Marty Mitchell.

Brian Van Holt has been tapped for a key role opposite Kate McKinnon’s Carole Baskin and John Cameron Mitchell’s Joe "Exotic" Schreibvogel in Joe Exotic (working title), Peacock’s limited series based on the Wondery podcast. Holt will play John Reinke, the zoo manager at Joe’s (Mitchell) zoo, a loyal worker and friend until things go too far.

Amazon announced that the seventh and final season of the acclaimed cop drama, Bosch, will launch all eight episodes on Amazon Prime June 25. The series is based on the novels by Michael Connelly and stars Titus Welliver as Detective Harry Bosch.

ABC cancelled the legal drama, For Life, but Sony Pictures TV, which co-produces the show with ABC Signature, said they will shop the series to other buyers including Hulu. The series was inspired by the life of Isaac Wright Jr., who was wrongfully convicted as a drug kingpin but got his conviction overturned while in prison and became a licensed attorney. The show centers on an imprisoned man, Aaron Wallace (played by Nicholas Pinnock), who becomes a lawyer litigating cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit.

Five episodes into its freshman run, ABC’s Katey Sagal-starring drama Rebel has also been cancelled. Inspired by the life of activist Erin Brockovich, the series centers on Annie "Rebel" Bello (Sagal), a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves.

ABC also took a pass on the crime drama pilot, Acts of Crime, written and directed by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. The project was described as "a unique spin on the crime procedural," although no other details had been revealed.

However, ABC has picked up a fourth season of cop drama, The Rookie. Created by Alexi Hawley, The Rookie stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department.

NBC has given a second-season order to Law & Order: Organized Crime, the series that brought Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler character back to the venerable franchise for the first time in 10 years. The show revolves around the NYPD organized crime unit led by Stabler, with Danielle Moné Truitt, Tamara Taylor, Ainsley Seiger, and Dylan McDermott also starring.

Fox has ordered the anthology series, Accused, from Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, and Alex Shore, the minds behind House and 24. The project is based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, where each episode opens in a courtroom, with the accused not knowing their crime or how they ended up on trial, and is told from the defendant’s point of view.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Gar Anthony Haywood, author of In Things Unseen, was interviewed by Robert Justice on the Crime Writers of Color podcast.

The latest Mysteryrats Maze podcast features the first chapter of the mystery novel, In Dog We Trust, by Neil Plakcy, as read by actor Thomas Nance.

Suspense Radio welcomed Phillip Margolin to the show for the first time to talk about his latest book, A Matter of Life and Death.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Carter Wilson, author of seven critically acclaimed, standalone psychological thrillers, including his latest, The Dead Husband.

P. J. Vernon was the featured guest on Queer Writers of Crime. Called a "rising star thriller writer" by Library Journal, Vernon's debut, When You Find Me, was both an Audible Plus #1 Listen and an Associated Press Top Ten U.S. Audiobook.

Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with Abir Mukherjee about his award-winning historical Wyndham and Banerjee series, his podcast (The Red Hot Chili Writers), tolerance, laziness, and a little bit of both Scottish and British history.

My Favorite Detective Stories sat down virtually with Lisa Gray, who previously worked as the Chief Scottish Football Writer at the Press Association and books columnist at the Daily Record Saturday Magazine. Her debut novel, Thin Air, was a besteseller, with the follow-up novel, Bad Memory, long-listed for the McIlvanney Prize.

Writer's Detective Bureau host, Adam Richardson, talked about processing a crime scene in a car when it's raining; who works a homicide case involving a white-collar crime suspect; strategies for writers to engage with cops about writing; and details about the two new courses he's launching this summer.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed The Last Tea Bowl Thief by Jonelle Patrick.

Edgar Award Winner, Rosalie Knecht, talked to Crime Time FM host, Paul Burke, about her new novel, Who is Vera Kelly; New York in the 60s; CIA and US foreign policy; and noir fiction.