Mystery Melange - Halloween Edition

Noir at the Bar Dallas is coming up on Sunday, November 7, hosted by David Hale Smith. Writers in the crime and mystery genres scheduled to read from their works at Dallas’s indie bookstore, The Wild Detectives, includes Harry Hunsicker, Kathleen Kent, Eryk Pruitt, Alexandra Burt, Jim Nesbitt, Valerie P. Chandler, Kevin R. Tipple, Graham Powell, Opalina Salas, and James Barrett Rodehaver.

This is more of a "treat" than a "trick": You still have a few days (until November 1) to send along a submission for the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers. Restrictions: Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form, and the genre must be mystery stories of the Agatha Christie type—i.e., "traditional mysteries" (no excessive gore, gratuitous violence, or explicit sex). Each grant currently includes a $1,500 award plus a comprehensive registration for the following year's convention and two nights' lodging at the convention hotel, but does not include travel to the convention or meals.

The Glencairn Glass, headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prize, is launching a new crime short story competition in partnership with Scottish Field Magazine. The first prize winner will receive £1000 and publication, and the two runners up will each receive £250. All three winners will also receive a set of six engraved Glencairn Glasses to enjoy their favorite dram with. Stories on the theme of "A Crystal-Clear Crime" with a maximum of 2,000 words can be submitted through December 31st, with winners to be announced in March 2022.

Crimefest will be held in person once again next year, and tickets have just recently gone on sale. Scheduled for May 12-15, 2022, the conference's headline guest is Ann Cleves, author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which were adapted for television. Zoë Sharp has agreed to resume the Toastrix role, and there will be the rescheduled Diamond Dagger recipient interviews with Martin Edwards and Robert Goddard.

A bonus episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up with a Halloween mystery short story called "Halloween Justice," written by Sharon Marchisello and read by actor Donna Beavers. The podcast's originator, Kings River Life magazine, also has some Halloween short stories online, including "Who Is Itt?" by Elena E. Smith, and "The Hound of Bakersfield: Halloween Mystery Short Story" by Pamela Ebel.

Janet Rudolph has an ever-expanding list of Halloween themed crime fiction to add a little extra spookiness to your holiday.

The Halloween issues of Yellow Mama (featuring three stories from vengeance from beyond the grave and more) and Black Petals (with new speculative fiction stories) are now available online. The Dark City's October print 'zine is also available (via Amazon), with more tales from "the darker side of reality."

The Special Collections of the University of Florida-Tampa Libraries has assembled a "Women & Crime Fiction" online exhibition featuring mystery highlights of its collection that focus on female authors, female detectives, femme fatales, and female victims. Some of the works featured are by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Vera Caspary, Lillian de la Torre, Anna Katharine Green, Margaret Millar, and Ellis Peters. Unusual items include The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah, which offers Captain Kirk as detective, and an April 1960 letter from Columbia University student, Leigh Marlowe, to mystery author Baynard Kendrick related to her study of villains. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The authors over at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog have some scary-good holiday treats for you to try, including Cleo Coyle's Pumpkins Spice Soul Cakes; Molly McRae's Ghost Cookies; and Leslie Karst's Pumpkin Soup with Brown Butter and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds.

Many bookstores have mascots in the form of cats of dogs, but what about a bookstore bat? Next Page Books & Coffee in Calgary, Canada, found a Little Brown Myotis bat sleeping on its front door. The bat was roosting in an open location because it was too cold to fly, and the bookstore team put a sign on the front door requesting shoppers open the door carefully to avoid disturbing it. The Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation later rescued the bat, and found it to be in good health. (HT to Shelf Awareness)

Books & Company in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, got literary with their Jack O'Lantern carvings this year. You can see some of their spooky creations here, here, here, and here.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Ready to Go" by Peter M. Gordon.

In the Q&A roundup, Kathleen Kaska, author of Murder at the Galvez (A Sydney Lockhart Mystery), stopped by the Indie Crime Scene; Nicci French, the wife-and-husband writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, chatted with Deborah Kalb about their latest novel, The Unheard; E.B. Davis interviewed Krista Davis for Writers Who Kill about the third installment of her Pen & Ink mysteries, Murder Outside the Lines, a spooky Halloween mystery set in Georgetown; and Terrie Farley Moran chatted with Lesa Holstine about the cozy mystery series she co-writes with Laura Childs and about taking on the Murder She Wrote tie-in novels.

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

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to For the Love of Money, a crime drama directed by Leslie Small that stars Keri Hilson and Katt Williams. The distributor plans to release the film in 750 theaters nationwide on November 24, marking the company’s first theatrical release in more than a year owing to the pandemic. The story centers on a single mother (Hilson) who, when pushed to her limits out of the need to protect her daughter (Jazzy Jade), returns to a world she’s spent a lifetime running from. LisaRaye McCoy, Rotimi, Jason Mitchell, DC Young Fly, and Cedric Pendleton also star, with appearances by musical artists Keith Sweat, Latto, and Lyfe Jennings.

Avan Jogia and Ajani Russell have been set for the title roles in the crime feature, Johnny & Clyde, also starring Megan Fox and Tyson Ritter. Currently in production, the movie is a spin on the iconic Bonnie and Clyde story and follows two serial killers who are madly in love and on a shocking crime spree. They ultimately set their sights on robbing a prosperous casino run by crime boss, Alana (Fox), and her head of security, Guy (Ritter).

Kathryn Morris has signed on to the ensemble independent film, Hayseed. The dark comedy murder mystery comes from first-time writer-director Travis Burgess. Set in a small town in Michigan, the film follows the investigation of a church congregation after their reverend is found dead. Morris plays Joyce Metts, a former beauty queen now a waitress at the local diner and a jealous type, prone to gossip. She is protective of her daughter Willa, who is a high school senior ready to leave town on her athletic scholarship.

Clayne Crawford, Max Martini, and Hakeem Kai-Kazim have joined the cast of the crime feature, The Channel. The story is set in motion after a bank heist goes wrong, when a desperate criminal (Crawford), his out-of-control brother (Martini), and their motley crew of ex-marines must escape New Orleans and the determined FBI agent (Kai-Kazim) who pursues them. William Kaufman (The Hit List) will direct the film from a script he wrote, from a story by Paul Reichelt.

Lionsgate has acquired Paradise Highway, a thriller starring Juliette Binoche, Morgan Freeman, and Frank Grillo, grabbing North America distribution rights and international sales. Written and directed by Anna Gutto, the story centers on Sally (Binoche), a truck driver who's forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother Dennis (Grillo) from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operative Gerick (Freeman) hot on her trail, Sally’s motivations and conscience are challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl (Hala Finley).

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The DI Hillary Greene book series from British author, Faith Martin, is to be turned into a drama by Southwell Neal Entertainment (Becky Southwell and Dylan Neal), which optioned the film and TV rights to the 18-book series. The stories follow the brilliant cold case detective’s exploits alongside former LAPD detective, John Sullivan, and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Southwell and Neal are also the writers and execs behind Hallmark’s Gourmet Detective series.

The crime novel, Cell 8, by Swedish authors Roslund & Hellström is being adapted by Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group). The gritty crime drama will feature a Nordic cast and premiere exclusively on NENT Group’s Viaplay streaming service in 2022. In Cell 8, a man presumed dead is arrested on a ferry between Sweden and Finland, throwing detectives Mariana Hermansson (Mimosa Willamo) and Ewert Grens (Leonard Terfelt) into a mysterious and increasingly dark series of events. The case soon reveals a personal connection not only to Hermansson herself, but to a Death Row prisoner in the U.S. and a grieving parent consumed by the quest for revenge.

David Heyman’s Heyday Television has optioned four novels from award-winning Spanish noir author, Dolores Redondo, including The North Face Of The Heart. The story follows a yet-to-be-cast Spanish detective, Amala Salazar, as she helps the FBI track an extraordinary serial killer in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. Salazar joins a high-profile team led by FBI agent Aloisius Dupree, whose own complicated past is entwined with the communities struggling to defend their homes as the flood waters rise.

The Sopranos series creator, David Chase, is in talks with WarnerMedia about another project set in his iconic mob-drama world to become a series on HBO Max. Chase previously said that going back to The Sopranos world would only be done in prequel form, whether it were another film or a series, set in the ’60s and ’70s before the events of the original eries. However the CEO of WarnerMedia Studios, Ann Sarnoff, said no decision has been made regarding whether or not Chase’s next "Sopranos" project would become a series or another prequel film like the newly released Many Saints of Newark.

Starz and Lionsgate’s upcoming three-night John Wick prequel event, titled The Continental, has found its young Winston Scott in actor Colin Woodell (The Flight Attendant). Mel Gibson is also set to star on the John Wick origin series, playing a character named "Cormac." The project, which is set 40 years before the events of the Keanu Reeves-led John Wick films, will be a three-night special exploring the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins—the centerpiece of the "John Wick" universe—through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the films) who is dragged into the Hellscape of 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Each episode will be feature-length installments and boast feature-film budgets.

Corbin Bernsen is set as a lead opposite Blair Underwood in L.A. Law, a new incarnation of the iconic Steven Bochco legal drama, which was officially picked up to pilot by ABC earlier this month. Underwood and Bernsen, reprising their roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, respectively, are believed to be the only original cast members who are series regulars in the sequel pilot. (More are expected to make guest-starring appearances on the potential series.) In the pilot, written by Marc Guggenheim and Ubah Mohamed and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman—now named Becker Rollins—reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases.

Diany Rodriguez (Law & Order: Organized Crime) has joined the upcoming ninth season of NBC’s long-running drama series, The Blacklist, in a recurring role. Rodriguez will play Weecha Xiu, who is more than capable of defending herself against anyone who might threaten her or her associates. The premiere of season 9 of The Blacklist, starring James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff and Amir Arison, recently returned with a jump forward two years. Following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington (Spader) and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded—their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters.

Lifetime has ordered three original thrillers, all set for a winter 2022 premiere. In the first, Single Black Female, Monica (Raven Goodwin), still reeling from the death of her beloved father and a difficult breakup, tries to move forward with her life as the new host for an afternoon talk show. But her new assistant, Simone (Amber Riley) harbors a dark secret, and as time goes on cracks in her façade begin to appear. The second program, Line Sisters, features LeToya Luckett, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Ta’Rhonda Jones, and Drew Sidora as four sorority sisters who reunite at a Black Greek Weekend celebration 15 years after the mysterious death of the dean of pledges. But the past comes knocking on their door as strange things begin to happen, threatening to unearth the deadly secret that may tear them apart. The third thriller is Vanished: Searching for My Sister stars Tatyana Ali as twins Jada and Kayla. When Kayla goes missing and the police investigation is at a standstill, Jada takes matters into her own hands and gets pulled into a world of drugs and deceit in order to learn the shocking truth about what really happened to Kayla.

Breathe: Into The Shadows, the Amazon Prime thriller out of India, has been commissioned by the streamer for a second season. The first season of the crime thriller followed Dr. Avinash Sabharwal (Abhishek Bachchan), whose 6-year-old daughter, Siya, has been kidnapped by a masked man demanding Sabharwal kill someone in order to get his daughter back.

Jonathan Tucker is set as a lead opposite Michelle Monaghan in Echoes, Netflix’s psychological thriller limited series from 13 Reasons Why showrunner, Brian Yorkey. Created and written by Vanessa Gazy, Echoes is a mystery thriller about identical twins Leni and Gina (both portrayed by Monaghan), who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: They share two homes, two husbands, and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. Tucker will play Dylan James, a troubled and mysterious local townie and childhood associate of Leni and Gina.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of a Halloween mystery, Murder in the Mystery Suite, by Ellery Adams, as read by actor Ariel Linn.

Writer Types welcomed bestselling author, Anthony Horowitz (A Line To Kill); Kimi Cunningham Grant (These Silent Woods); Ted Flanagan (Every Hidden Thing); and Raquel Reyes (Mango, Mambo and Murder).

Read or Dead tackled horror and suspense reads set in haunted houses just in time for Halloween.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Taylor Moore, a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations. Down Range is Taylor’s debut novel, and the first of a series featuring DEA agent Garrett Kohl.

Wrong Place, Write Crime chatted with Matt Fitzsimmons about his newest release, Constance.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club featured a "Gothic Mystery Roundup."

On Crime Time FM, Felix Francis (son of the late author, Dick Francis) spoke with Paul Burke about his new psychological crime novel, Iced; taking on his father's thriller legacy; the home fiction factory; tea with Agatha Christie; and marbling.

Author R&R with Robbie Bach

Robbie Bach is best known for founding and leading the team that created the Xbox. Today he is an entertaining storyteller and catalyzing voice who writes books and speaks to audiences on leadership, creativity, strategy, and civic issues. He also serves on the national board of governors for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Magic Leap, an augmented reality company, and is the co-owner of Manini’s, Inc., a gluten-free pasta and baking company. In 2015, he published his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal. His first thriller novel, The Wilkes Insurrection, debuts today.

In the novel, the relative calm at Offutt Air Force Base is shattered when commercial Flight 209 crashes down onto its runway. From the flaming wreckage, Major Tamika Smith must try to rescue survivors and make sense of the tragedy. But this isn't just an isolated incident. In a time of national unrest and division, a cunning shadowy mastermind is tearing down the United States from the inside out, playing law enforcement like puppets. Soon, thousands are dying and there are precious few leads. Can Tamika and an unlikely collection of committed Americans stop the destruction in time to rescue a nation descending into chaos?

Robbie stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing the book:

 

People, Places and Things

By nature, I’m a detail oriented person, so when I set out to write my debut novel, The Wilkes Insurrection, I made an early commitment to getting things “right.”  For fiction to be believable, it has to have a level of accuracy that commands the reader’s respect and attention.  Since my storyline involves avionics, virtual reality, the military, politics, the dark web, and more, it required substantial research to augment whatever knowledge I already possessed in those areas.  And I used the full range of techniques to gather the data I needed.  Think of this as the “People, Places, and Things” of an authentic story.

My writing actually began with a number of short chapters for four or five characters that were running around in my head.  At the time, I had no clue how they might fit together or how a plot would develop.  But each of them had a profession, a personal background, and a life history that needed to be genuine.  Some of that I could create out of thin air – but I quickly ran into the constraints of facts and reality.  As an example, my main protagonist, Major Tamika Smith, is a reservist in the Air Force.  Since I’ve never served in the military, I did plenty of web-based research on ranks, functions, and base locations.  I also interviewed or received written feedback from two Generals, a Lieutenant Colonel, and two Captains in the Air Force with particular focus on military etiquette, communications, and procedure.  Making the People believable – likeable in some cases and despicable in others – was foundational for the plot.

The Wilkes Insurrection takes place all over the United States – and also has a scene in Afghanistan.  Strong fiction requires putting the reader “on location” by describing the scene well and creating a sensory image for them.  While I had been to some of my plot locations, many others were new for me.  In some cases, like Kandahar, Afghanistan, I relied on internet imagery, location descriptions, maps, and other forms of research to create a picture in my own mind.  But as often as possible, I visited my sites personally.  I went to Washington, DC for a Boys and Girls Club Board of Governors meeting.  I spent hours during breaks Ubering between Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Pentagon (in a suit in August, no less!) taking pictures and notes on various locations.  The next morning, I got up early and took a 7 AM Amtrak train to Baltimore, again to familiarize myself with the train (spoiler alert:  and it’s bathrooms).  Making the Place real – sometimes glorious and sometimes in destruction – is essential for a thriller.

Beyond the characters and locations, I was very focused on various technical details.  For a reader, there is nothing worse than going through a story and thinking, “Oh, I know that’s not right.”  I worked for Microsoft for 22 years, including being a founding leader and Chief Xbox Officer for that business, so people assume I understand technology deeply.  In fact, I have no formal technical training and don’t play video games(!).  So when I delved into the dark web, cybersecurity, and virtual reality in my novel, I had more exploration to do.  As an example, I met with over a dozen startup CEOs in the Seattle area who were building virtual reality products to understand the business and technical challenges they were facing.  From these interviews, I created a series of business issues for a mythical company, Cybernoptics, that framed an important portion of The Wilkes Insurrection plot.  Because of my background, I know that plenty of people with technical skills will read my book – and I want them to know that getting the Things accurate mattered to me.

Not all research and reference work requires extensive effort.  The internet, if used carefully, has a wealth of information that can fill in small gaps.  This was immensely helpful as I worked to get some very specific details correct.  So how many passengers can fly on a 757? How fast can world class female sprinters run the 400?  Or, how tall is the Oroville Dam?  There are also some areas where being less specific is helpful.  A successful author once told me that you either have to say “they made love,” or take the risk of getting very, very specific.  I choose the latter!!

Finally, I will point out, that despite my search for accuracy, I believe in literary license.  As an author, I had to gauge the fine line between authenticity and a reader’s willingness to suspend disbelief in the rush of a great plot.  That is an essential part of the art of writing great fiction.

 

You can find out more about the author and the book via this website, and also follow the author on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The Wilkes Insurrection is currently available in hardcover for in-store pick-up or shipping from all major booksellers. The ebook version will be available November 2.

 

Minotaur Books announced that Christina Estes’s novel, Off the Air, has won the 2020 Tony Hillerman Prize for a best first mystery novel. Minotaur Books is planning to publish Estes’s debut in 2023. Estes is an Emmy award-winning reporter who lives in Phoenix, and is also a founding member of Sisters in Crime Grand Canyon Writers. Off the Air is the story of a local TV news reporter who gets the scoop of a lifetime while investigating the murder of a popular radio talk show host—but the killer is determined to keep her silent.

Capital Crime has announced that London-based journalist and writer, Darren Boyle, has won the 2021 Amazon Publishing New Voices Award for his thriller, The Black Pool. He will receive a £1,000 cash prize, a trophy, and a potential offer of publication from Thomas & Mercer, the mystery and thriller imprint of prize sponsor Amazon Publishing, whose authors include Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, Dreda Say Mitchell, and Damien Boyd. The Black Pool is set is set in contemporary Dublin and features a journalist protagonist who ventures deep into the murky world of organized tiger raids gang—but how much is he willing to risk for the ultimate story? The Amazon New Voices Award is open annually to unpublished mystery, thriller, and crime fiction manuscripts in English from writers around the world.

The million euro literary Planeta prize has lured three Spanish men out of anonymity to reveal that they are behind ultra-violent Spanish crime thrillers marketed as the work of female author, Carmen Mola, which roughly translates as "Carmen’s cool." When one of their books won the lucrative award, the trio went public to pick up the check at a glitzy ceremony attended by the Spanish king. However, not everyone was thrilled with the unveiling. Beatriz Gimeno, a feminist, writer, activist—and former head of one of Spain’s national equality bodies, the Women’s Institute—attacked the men for creating a female persona in their publicity for Carmen Mola books over several years. "Quite apart from using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing interviews. It’s not just the name—it’s the fake profile that they’ve used to take in readers and journalists. They are scammers."

Tomorrow, the New York Adventure Club is offering the virtual webinar, "Agatha Christie: Unraveling the Mystery Behind the Queen of Crime," with tour guide Simon Whitehouse. It will include London locales of Christie's works and life, including where the royal premieres of film adaptations were held, as well as background on her career and 1926 disappearance. Tickets are $10, with access to the webinar available for a limited time after the event. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The final Inspector Montalbano novel, finished years ago by author Andrea Camilleri, has been published in the UK. Camilleri was determined that his crime series not be continued by another writer and left his concluding novel with his publisher long before his death in 2019. The series, following the food-loving Sicilian detective as he solves crimes against the backdrop of a changing Italy, has been translated into 32 languages, with more than 65 million copies sold around the world. Camilleri wrote the first book about Salvo Montalbano in 1994 at the age of almost 70; he began writing the 28th in 2004, depositing the manuscript at his publishing house in Palermo on the promise that it would be kept in a locked safe and only published after his death.

The year's "best of" book lists are already starting to pop up, including Barnes & Noble, which compiled an overall list as well as one specific to Mysteries and Thrillers. You can find those top ten crime fiction titles here.

The Rap Sheet offered up a tribute to "A Steward of Hammett’s Digs, Now Gone." William P. "Bill" Arney, who is said to have reclaimed the apartment at 891 Post Street in San Francisco (once occupied by Dashiell Hammett and his private-eye creation, Sam Spade), passed away this last September 28. Arney’s studio became a periodic stop on literary historian Don Herron’s popular Dashiell Hammett Tour.

Here's a pandemic surprise: there's been a mini-indie bookstore boom.

Cross-Examining Crime has a fun classic crime quiz this week on the theme of Sherlock Holmes, in particular the artwork used to accompany the short stories. The quiz uses images from the short stories, most of them drawn by Sidney Paget.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Carpet Jones" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, S.A. Cosby chatted with CrimeReads' Eli Cranor about his latest novel, Razorblade Tears, but as Cranor noted, Cosby was a bit late to the interview thanks to some real "dead bodies"; Writers Who Kill spoke with Lorie Lewis Ham about her debut novel, One of Us, and also M. E. Browning about her latest book, Mercy Creek; and the Indie Crime Scene interviewed Kathleen Kaska, author of Murder at the Galvez (A Sydney Lockhart Mystery).

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

Mel Gibson will take on another big action role in the thriller, Hot Seat, starring alongside Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), with James Cullen Bressack set to direct. Based on a story by Leon Langford and Collin Watts, Hot Seat centers on an ex-hacker forced to break into banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson’s character plays the man who must try to enter the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the "hot seat."

Mike Pniewski, Thad Luckinbill, Sky Ferreira, James Devoti, and Michael Beasley will round out the cast of Netflix’s crime thriller, Reptile (appearing alongside previously announced cast members Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Ato Essandoh, Frances Fisher, Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, Karl Glusman, Matilda Lutz, Owen Teague, and Catherine Dyer). The story is set in motion by the brutal murder of a young real estate agent and centers on a hardened detective (Del Toro) as he attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems. In doing so, he finds himself dismantling the illusions in his own life. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Grant Singer, known previously for his work in directing music videos and commercials.

Tony Goldwyn and Paul Ben-Victor have joined Gerard Butler in Lionsgate’s action thriller, The Plane. Goldwyn will play Scarsdale, an ex-Special Forces officer who is now a corporate crisis manager and fixer. Ben-Victor will play Hampton, owner of the airline. The Plane, directed by Jean-François Richet, follows commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Butler) who, after a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in hostile territory, finds himself threatened by militant pirates who are planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage. As the world’s authorities and media search for the disappeared aircraft, Brodie must rise to the occasion and keep his passengers safe long enough for help to arrive.

Mayans M.C. star, JD Pardo, has come aboard the Robert Rodriguez action-thriller, Hypnotic, joining Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, Dayo Okeniyi, William Fichtner, and Hala Finley. Currently filming in Texas, Hypnotic follows a detective (Affleck) who becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter (Finley) and a secret government program—while investigating a string of impossible high-end crimes.

Mena Suvari will star alongside Dermot Mulroney and Darren Mann in Breakwater, an indie project from writer-director James Rowe and Loose Cannon Pictures. The crime thriller revolves around Dovey (Mann), a young ex-con who breaks his parole and crosses state lines in order to track down the estranged daughter of fellow inmate Ray Childress (Mulroney). Suvari will portray Kendra, the audacious and alluring manager of a restaurant near the state prison, who offers newly released inmates their first taste of the outside world.

Abbie Cornish and Laz Alonso have signed on to headline Detained, a psychological thriller from director Felipe Mucci. The film follows a woman (Cornish) who wakes up in an isolated police interrogation room with no memory of the night prior. The cops in the station proceed to make some wild allegations as they interrogate her, and there's an eerie vibe that there's something "not quite right" about this particular station or the cops who are running it.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICE

Entertainment One has acquired the rights to bestselling author Lisa Gardner’s novel, Before She Disappeared, with Oscar-winner Hillary Swank set to star and executive produce via her Film Bandits banner. Gardner’s novel follows Frankie Elkin, a recovering alcoholic who travels light and is obsessed with locating missing people whose cases have been dismissed, overlooked, or marginalized.

HBO Max is developing Aloha MotherF**ker, a drama series based on Jason Ryan’s best-selling novel, Hell-Bent. The story centers on Renee, a divorced mom in her 40s, who heads to Hawaii to start her own investigation when cops fail to find her son’s killers. She uncovers rampant disorganized crime and systemic corruption within the police and legal system, before inadvertently finding a new place for herself in the world.

Although it had been announced before the start of the latest NCIS season, its 18th, that star Mark Harmon (playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs) would be appearing in fewer episodes, it turns out last week's is going to be his last. Harmon reportedly was ready to hang up Gibbs’s cap after last season, but learned that if he did so, CBS might not renew NCIS at all. As such, he agreed to return in a limited capacity. But in the fourth episode of Season 19—after Gibbs and the team solved the case of a contract killer hired by a conglomerate to clear the way for an environment-poisoning copper mine—Gibbs decided not to take back his badge, gun and job, when offered by Director Vance, but stay put in "the middle of nowhere" in Alaska, where this multi-episode arc had most recently led him.

Emma Corrin will star in FX’s limited series, Retreat. The project centers on the "Gen Z amateur sleuth," Darby Hart (Corrin), who is invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must fight to prove it was murder against a tide of competing interests and before the killer strikes again.

ABC is developing a legal drama written and executive produced by Bill Chais (a former public defender), and Pat Cunnane, who was President Barack Obama’s Senior Writer and Deputy Director of Messaging at the White House. In the untitled project, a brash Bronx public defender comes to North Carolina to reform a dysfunctional, seriously underfunded criminal justice system, putting him on a collision course with the tough-on-crime governor. Desperate and out of options, he invokes an arcane law that can compel any attorney to serve as defense counsel in criminal trials…and assigns the first case to the governor herself, an attorney in good standing.

Lin Shaye is set to star in and exec-produce the action-thriller, Ellen. The six-episode series will follow a nefarious land developer who gets more than he bargained for when he tries to intimidate an 80-year-old widow (Shaye) into abandoning her Montana ranch. The series will be directed by the filmmaker duo, Clif Prowse and Derek Lee (Afflicted), with a script from Tim Walker.

Just days before the premiere of You season 3, Netflix has renewed the stalker drama for a fourth season. The series, which is based on Caroline Kepnes's novels, follows Joe (Penn Badgley) as he quite literally does anything for love—and then deals with the consequences. 

Octavio Pisano, who portrays Detective Joe Velasco on Law & Order: SVU, has been promoted to series regular on the NBC procedural. Pisano’s Velasco is a former undercover cop and detective under Chief McGrath (Terry Serpico) who’s been assigned to the SVU and has appeared in 3 episodes so far, beginning with the season 23 premiere. Season 23 picked up mere hours after last season’s finale, where Catalina Machado (Zabryna Guevara) was arrested for trafficking single mothers living in shelters in a complex housing-for-sex scheme. She now wants to flip on her superiors in exchange for a deal with the feds, and names a powerful congressman as the big fish. It’s a make-or-break case for the NYPD and puts enormous pressure on the entire SVU squad to get a conviction.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski, has been renewed for a fourth season ahead of the show's Season 3 premiere on Amazon Prime Video. Additionally, Michael Peña is set to join the Season 4 cast in an undisclosed role. Season 3 finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time when he's wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction he's uncovered, Jack is forced underground in Europe while trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict. Also set to return for the third season are Wendell Pierce as James Greer and Michael Kelly as Mike November.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed William Kent Krueger to talk about his Cork O'Connor series; his novel, Saving Grace; and writing, logging, and nostalgia. Plus Maria Marotti discussed her book, The Etruscan Princess; Lance Wright shared some new releases from Down & Out Books; and Elizabeth Splaine, James Swallow, Sarah Adlahka, and Sheila Lowe offered up some book recommendations.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Rory Clements, a British author of historical thrillers. He won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2010 for his novel, Revenger, and the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018 for Nucleus. His latest novel, A Prince and a Spy, is his first novel to be published in America, but it’s the fifth book in his Tom Wilde series.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with historical novelist, Elodie Harper, about The Wolf Den, set in the brothels of ancient Pompeii. They also discussed French literature and the podcast's own Abir Mukherjee's recent trip to France.

On the latest Crime Time FM, Paul Burke shared his thoughts on some of the new crime, mystery, and thriller releases.

THEATRE

The world premiere theatrical adaptation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is set to tour the U.K. January 10 – November 12, 2022. Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel have adapted the best-seller, about a professor and symbologist trying to crack the code to solve a murder and reveal a well-guarded, centuries-old religious mystery. Olivier winner Nigel Harman will play professor Robert Langdon, Danny John-Jules will play Sir Leigh Teabing, and Hannah Rose Caton will play Sophie Neveu.

Author R&R with James McGrath Morris

James McGrath Morris is a biographer and award-winning writer of narrative non-fiction. His works include The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism, which was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year; and, Jailhouse Journalism: The Four Estate Behind Bars. He is also the author of the Kindle Singles Revolution by Murder: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and the Plot to Kill Henry Clay Frick. In 2019 he received the BIO Award, which is given to a writer who has made a major contribution to the advancement of the art and craft of biography. 

His newest book is Tony Hillerman: A Life, which offers a balanced portrait of Hillerman’s personal and professional life and provides a timely appreciation of his work, including the almost accidental invention of Hillerman’s iconic detective Joe Leaphorn and the circumstances that led to the addition of Jim Chee as his partner. Hillerman’s novels were not without controversy, and Morris examines the charges of cultural appropriation leveled at the author toward the end of his life. Yet, for many readers, including many Native Americans, Hillerman deserves critical acclaim for his knowledgeable and sensitive portrayal of Diné (Navajo) history, culture, and identity.

James stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about "How Hillerman Taught Me To Accept My Mistakes":

 

In 1979, I wrote Tony Hillerman a fan letter. I was then working as a reporter in Jefferson City, MO, and I was curious to find out if the state’s capitol had been the model for his book The Fly on the Wall.

Apparently I wasn’t the only person to ask this question. “I run into reporters all over who say, ‘I know which State Capitol you are using. You use Jefferson City, Missouri or . . . ,’” said Hillerman. “You know they tend to be alike. It was actually based on the Capitol at Oklahoma City, where I had worked.”

I had briefly meet Hillerman the previous year or two when I was working as a journalist in Albuquerque, NM, where he lived. In my letter I reminded him of our passing acquaintance and asked about the possible connection between his book and Missouri’s capitol.

He replied. This was several years before his Navajo mystery novels became best-sellers generating such extensive fan mail that he ceased being able to write back. In his letter to me, Hillerman, unfailingly polite, said his fictitious capitol building might include some similarities with Missouri’s but was based on Oklahoma’s.

Then Hillerman asked if I had spotted the mistake in the book? I had not. So as not to give it away instantly, the author had taken the sheet of stationery out of his typewriter and put it back in upside down. That way the answer appeared upside down so I could not read it immediately.

When I flipped the page, I learned that the protagonist John Cotton had removed his shoes in a nighttime visit to the capitol, so that the men chasing him would not hear his steps on the marble floor, but he never put them back on. He then walked through streets wet with sleet, took a cab ride, and arrived at the final scene in the house of the Democratic Party state chairman, all in stocking feet.

“Readers do pay close attention. I get letters from ones who just read to find errors,” Hillerman said. “The best one I’ve ever had,” Hillerman commented with regard to reader complaints, “was when I got a call at 10 p.m. one night. The fellow said, ‘I used to have a lot of respect for you until I’ve just been reading Dance Hall of the Dead. Don’t you know deer don’t have gall bladders?’”

Over the course of eighteen Navajo novels, Hillerman would err no more than most writers but his immense readership included many eagle-eyed fans who eagerly pointed out mistakes. Re-reading Hillerman’s books and studying his papers in the course of preparing  a biography of his life, I found the author had a healthy attitude about the small errors he made. He accepted the fact that they were inevitable and unless they were major, errors could make for a good story. And, Tony Hillerman loved a story.

I’ve come to adopt his approach and often think about how, usually with a laugh, he recounted to audiences some of the mistakes he had made in his books. Over time, he grew fond of the one involving John Cotton’s shoeless night trek through bad weather, frequently sharing it with readers, like with the fan who wrote him in 1979.

 

You can learn more about Morris and his work via his website, and also follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Tony Hillerman: A Life is available today from the University of Oklahoma Press via all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

 

Sisters in Crime Australia announced that 26 stories by 23 authors have been shortlisted for its 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories written by Australian women. This year 241 stories – equal to last year’s record – are competing for a record $11,910 in prize money. Awards are presented in the following categories: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Young Writer (under 19), and Emerging Writer (19-25); Art and Crime; Best Environmental Mystery "Body in The Library" (including runner-up); Most Satisfying Retribution; Mystery with History; Malice Domestic; Cross-Genre; Thriller; Great Film Idea; and Best Disabled Protagonist. The winners will be revealed in an online ceremony, Saturday, November 27, on YouTube and on Facebook.

In more news from Australia, the Aussie publishing news website Books + Publishing (and The Society of Women Writers NSW) reported that the Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) is sponsoring a new flash fiction crime writing prize, the Louie Award. Sponsored by ACT president of the Australian Medical Association Antonio Di Dio, the annual award celebrates his late father Luigi who was an avid crime fiction reader. The award is open to Australian crime writers and will seek short story submissions of up to 500 words. The winner will receive $750. Entries for the inaugural award is expected to open this month on the ACWA website, although there is no information listed there just yet.

Tomorrow, October 14, the Atwater Library in Montreal will host an Online Panel Discussion with Delvin Chatterson and other Montreal-area members of Crime Writers of Canada discussing the pleasures of reading and writing crime fiction.To register and get the Zoom link, click on over here.

On October 27, you can book your free ticket for an evening with Danish crime authors Heidi Amsinck and Katrine Engberg in conversation with broadcaster, journalist, and writer, Lone Theils. The event is sponsored by Barnet Libraries and will also be offered online.

 

Looking ahead to November 8th, pencil in the date for the online Murder One 21: Murder in the Library. The event is offered in conjunction with the Dublin Book Festival and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and is also free (with required registration). Adele Parks and Jane Casey will be in conversation with Vaseem Khan. But wait, there's more! Check out the registration link for additional Murder One free online events scheduled throughout November,

 

Liverpool’s First Ever Crime Fiction Day, Perfect Crime UK, is slated for November 13. Featured authors include Ann Cleves, Elly Griffiths, Sophie Hannah, Mel Sherratt, Martin Edwards, M.W. Craven, and more, participating in a variety of panels. Note that this is an in-person event only. For tickets, head on over to this link.

The latest issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection has been published. The new executive editor, Caroline Reitz, has included essays profling authors such as Lois Austen-Leigh, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Didier Daeninckx, Fergus Hume, Philip Kerr, Peter Robinson, and Arthur Upfield.

In a couple of posts last week, I highlighted several newish anthologies (some for charity, others more general), and I don't want to just repeat the work Richie Naravez had already done with his list of "Latinx Crime Fiction Anthologies" for CrimeReads, but do head over there and check them out.

Washington Post book critic, Ron Charles, reviewed State of Terror, the political thriller written by Hillary Clinton with Louise Penny, calling it "a thinly veiled jab at a Very Stable Genius."

Meanwhile, The Guardian's Anthony Cummins reviewed John le Carré's posthumous and final full-length book, "a precision-tooled cat and mouse chase from a bookshop in East Anglia to the old eastern bloc." As Cummins notes, however, "If we’re left dangling by the end, there’s an added tease of sorts in the novel’s billing as le Carré’s 'last complete masterwork' – on the strong side, no doubt, but a tag that nonetheless holds out the prospect of rougher treasures still awaiting the light."

Writing for The Economist, C.T. Scott profiled the story of Sherlock Holmes's "real-life secretary." Chris Bazlinton had a shock when he was offered a public relations job at Abbey National, a British building society, and learned that as part of his duties, he would "also have to act as secretary to Sherlock Holmes, answering the mail that comes in for him." It all started in 1932, when Abbey opened its grand, white-marbled headquarters on Baker Street. The art-deco building was so large that it had been assigned ten street numbers, from 219 to 229. Overnight, one of the most famous literary addresses in history – 221b Baker Street, home of Holmes and his partner, John H. Watson – became a real place for the first time. Bazlinton, was the seventh secretary to Holmes, serving until 1982, and during his tenure, he estimated he received nearly 6,000 pieces of mail and replied to each one.

It seems like every single celebrity on the planet these days (from TV actors and presenters to astronauts to politicans) is dipping their quill into the crime fiction well these days. It appears the latest will be Britney Spears.

How much time should you give a devastatingly boring book? Crime novelist, Mark Billingham, advises readers to angrily launch a book across the room after 20 non-gripping pages, but studies show that almost 40% of people will keep going right to the end.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Nocturne" by J.M. Jordan.

In the Q&A roundup, Indie Crime Scene interviewed Harry Navinski, author of The Duty: A not so Scottish Murder, which is the second novel in the DCI Suzanna McLeod series; Deborah Kalb chatted with Ashley Elliott, the co-author (with Michael J. Coffino), of the new true crime book The Demon in Disguise: Murder, Kidnapping, and the Banty Rooster, which focuses on the murder of Elliott's father in 2002; Nowegian author Jo Nesbo (creator of the Harry Hole series), spoke with The O.C. Register about his new work, The Jealousy Man, a collection of dark short stories and novellas that reveal the worst in human nature; Lori Rader-Day sat down The Nerd Daily about her latest book release, Death At Greenway, which she calls "Agatha Christie noir"; and the Vancouver publication, George Straight, had a Q&A with Linwood Barclay about being influenced by Ross Macdonald, inspired by Stephen King, and shaped by deadlines.

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

Keira Knightley is set to star as the lead in the 20th Century Studios film, Boston Strangler, that recounts the real-life Boston Strangler murders in the 1960s. Knightley will portray Loretta McLaughlin, who was the first reporter to connect the murders and break the story of the Strangler. She and fellow reporter, Jean Cole, challenged the sexism of the early ’60s to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer and worked tirelessly to keep women informed. McLaughlin pursued the story at great personal risk and uncovered corruption that cast doubt on the true identity of the killer. Matt Ruskin (Crown Heights) will write the original screenplay and direct the film.

Mischa Barton has been tapped to lead the crime thriller, Invitation To A Murder, which is being directed by Stephen Shimek (The Adventure of A.R.I.: My Robot Friend). Brian O’Donnell penned the script, which is based on an original story by Gérard Miller. When a reclusive billionaire invites six seemingly random strangers to his island estate, intrepid, aspiring detective Miranda Green (Barton) finds the mysterious invitation too alluring to pass up. When another guest turns up dead, Miranda must get to the bottom of the malicious plot behind the gathering to prove herself and maybe save her life.

Actress Louise Linton has found her next film role, a murder-mystery movie called, Out of Hand. Linton will star alongside Pierson Fodé and William Baldwin, with Brian Skiba directing the project for Toric Films. Described as being in the vein of "Basic Instinct meets Cape Fear," the project tells the story of a professor of literature and psychology at Berkeley, Dr. Valerie Cross (Linton), and her oppressive lover, David (Fodé), who become suspects in the vicious murder of one of her female students.

Focus Features has set a release date of February 25, 2022 for the gritty drama, The Outfit. The pic marks Graham Moore’s directorial debut, and follows Leonard, played by Mark Rylance, an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: A family of vicious gangsters. Moore, who won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Imitation Game, co-wrote the screenplay with actor/writer Johnathan McClain (Mad Men). The cast also includes Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Simon Russell Beale.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, A+E Studios has landed exclusive rights to the late bestselling author Sue Grafton’s alphabet book series featuring private investigator protagonist Kinsey Millhone. Under the pact, the studio can develop and produce the entire library of Grafton’s wildly popular alphabet mysteries for television. This marks the first time the screen rights to the book series has been made available, with Steve Humphrey, Grafton’s husband for more than 40 years, serving as executive producer on the adaptations. As Grafton fans may recall, however, and as this Deadline article notes, Grafton famously stated she was adamant that her books would never be turned into movies or TV shows. "I will never sell [Kinsey] to Hollywood...I have made my children promise not to sell her. We’ve taken a blood oath, and if they do so I will come back from the grave."

L.A. Law has taken a major step in its TV comeback, with ABC handing out a pilot green light to a new incarnation of the iconic Steven Bochco legal drama. The project, which had been in the works at the network since December, is headlined by Blair Underwood, reprising his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins in addition to executive producing. In the new series, the law firm of McKenzie Brackman reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases. Underwood’s Jonathan Rollins has gone from idealistic to more conservative as he clashes with millennial JJ Freeman to decide the best path forward for the firm to effect political and legal change.

Poldark star, Aidan Turner, is set to play a doctor with a dark side in a new ITV drama from Bodyguard and The Pembrokeshire Murders producer, World Productions. The five-part adaptation of Michael Robotham’s novel, The Suspect, will also star Shaun Parkes, Sian Clifford, Camilla Beeput, Adam James, and Anjli Mohindra, and is being written by Gangs of London writer Peter Berry. It follows Doctor Joe O’Loughlin (Turner) who appears to have the perfect life – a devoted wife, a loving daughter, successful practice as a clinical psychologist, media profile and a publishing deal. But when a young woman is found in a shallow grave in a West London cemetery, investigators begin to question whether Joe's work as a clinical psychologist has allowed him to develop a criminal mindset or worse.

USA Network’s two-hour film, Nash Bridges, has been given a Thanksgiving weekend premiere date, Saturday, Nov. 27. The movie brings back original cast members Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as elite investigators for the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit. If the movie does well, it could launch a Nash Bridges series revival. In addition to Johnson and Marin, the film brings back original cast member, Jeff Perry. They are joined in the cast by new additions Joe Dinicol, Diarra Kilpatrick, Angela Ko, Paul James, Alexia Garcia, and Bonnie Sommerville.

ITV has commissioned the four-part psychological thriller, Without Sin, starring Vicky McClure and written by screenwriting newcomer, Frances Poletti. The story explores the relationship which develops between a grieving mother (McClure) and the man she believes murdered her daughter (Johnny Harris).

Netflix’s Painkiller has added Taylor Kitsch, Ana Cruz Kayne, Tyler Ritter, John Ales, Sam Anderson, Carolina Bartczak, Jack Mulhern, and Ron Lea to its cast. (Previously announced cast members include Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, West Duchovny, Dina Shihabi, and John Rothman.) The limited drama series chronicles the origins of the opioid crisis and the role of Purdue Pharma.

Jessica Biel has replaced Elisabeth Moss (who had to depart the series over scheduling conflicts) in Hulu’s upcoming scripted series about Candy Montgomery. The project, which is titled Candy, centers on Montgomery, the infamous Texas murderer, and her victim, Betty Gore. Here is the logline for the series: "In 1980 Texas, Candy Montgomery (Biel) seemingly had it all – loving husband with a good job, a daughter and a son, a nice house in the brand new suburbs – so why did she kill her friend from church with an ax?"

CBS Studios has partnered with Syrreal Entertainment and ARD Degeto on an "elevated genre-drama" to be broadcast via the latter’s online platform ARD Mediathek. Titled Oderbruch, the series begins with the discovery of numerous murder victims in the eponymous region in Germany. Ex-cop Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch) and detective Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) will be brought together after more than 20 years of separation to examine the case, which becomes a personal one for Maggie as it is connected to the mysterious death of her brother many years before.

NBC has opted not to proceed with its drama pilot, Getaway. Written and executive produced by JJ Bailey and Moira Kirland, Getaway centered on a destination wedding at an isolated luxury resort that quickly descends into chaos after a group of dangerous criminals takes the island hostage. The small group of guests, led by a fearless female Army vet (Annie Ilonzeh), will do everything they can to stay alive. As Deadline reports, two other leads in the now-abandoned project, Manifest's Matt Long and All Rise's Marg Helgenberger, are now potentially free to return to their other shows, although there's been no official word from either of those productions.

The first back orders for new fall 2021 series have gone to CBS's NCIS: Hawai’i and FBI: International. Both NCIS: Hawai’i and FBI: International are supported by strong lead-ins as they follow the mothership series of their franchises, NCIS, and FBI, respectively

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring the mystery short story, "The Last Customer," written by John Gaspard and read by actor Parker Forrest Lewis. It is set in a magic store, perfect for Halloween season.

Robert Justice interviewed Patricia Raybon for the Crime Writers of Color podcast. Raybon is an award-winning author who has written memoirs and articles set at the daring intersection of faith and race, who is releasing her debut crime novel, All That is Secret, a 1920s murder mystery series about a young Black theologian—a fan of Sherlock Holmes—solving crime and murder in Colorado’s dangerous era of the Ku Klux Klan.

Eric Rickstad (I Am Not Who You Think I Am) joined Eric Beetner as co-host of Writer Types and interviewed fellow authors John Copenhaver (The Savage Kind); Dennis Palumbo (Panic Attack); and Alverne Ball (Blue Religion).

Book Riot's Read or Dead podcast chatted about mystery releases you may have missed in 2020 and 2021.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed David McCloskey to discuss Damascus Station, his debut thriller set against the ongoing conflict in Syria. The novel introduces CIA officer, Sam Joseph, who has fallen for a source, which is strictly forbidden, and the deadly double crossing that ensues.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with author and physician, Ian K. Smith. He's best-known for his expert health and fitness advice on national broadcasts and in his bestselling nonfiction books, but his crime novels have taken critics and fans alike by storm.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Rebecca Rosenberg to discuss her true crime book, At Any Cost.

My Favorite Detective Stories chatted with David Swinson, who grew up in Washington, DC, Beirut, Mexico City, and Stockholm as the son of a foreign service officer. He is a retired police detective from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, having been assigned to Major Crimes. Swinson is the author of The Second Girl, Crime Song, Trigger, and City on the Edge.

Clay Small's The Forger's Forgery was on the book menu at the Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast. The book follows a visiting professor to Amsterdam, Henry Lindon, who discovers that notorious Dutch art forger, Han van Meegeren, and secrets of the art world may hold the key to settling old scores and putting a predator away for good.

Crime Time FM aired its monthly magazine show, Heads Togther, with a discussion of upcoming TV shows; NDAs; Bloody Scotland; and the latest podcasts. The special guest was Craig Sisterson, a crime fiction critic who writes for a number of publications and is the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards in his native New Zealand

Cozy Ink Podcast host, Leah Bailey, focused on the first installment of a multi-part discussion of "Cozy Mysteries in the Midwest."

THEATRE

The Broadway revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell, and Darren Criss – postponed from 2020 due to the Covid shutdown – will open at Circle in the Square Theatre on Wednesday, April 14, 2022, two years to the day after its original target. American Buffalo, which concerns three small-time hustlers who want a bigger cut of the American dream, premiered on Broadway in 1977, receiving the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play.

Mystery Melange

 

Debut author Clare Whitfield has been awarded the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2021 for People of Abandoned Character, a thrilling and atmospheric take on the Jack the Ripper story (published by Head of Zeus). It follows the perspective of the newly married Susannah, who begins to wonder whether her abusive and volatile husband might be responsible for the Whitechapel Murders. Whitfield won praise from the judging team, calling her story "a thoughtful and compelling exploration of the endless violence faced by women of all walks of life."

During an online live event this week, The Strand Magazine announced the winners of the 2021 Strand Critics Awards, recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing. The winners include Best Mystery Novel: Snow, by John Banville; Best Debut Novel: When No One Is Watching, by Alyssa Cole; and Lifetime Achievement Awards: Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Alexander McCall Smith. Josh Stanton of Blackstone Publishing was chosen to receive the 2021 Publisher of the Year Award.

The Bloody Scotland hybrid festival, which ran from September 17-30, had a record-breaking attendance this year, with 16,000 visitors (both in person and online) from over 30 countries. Organizers are so encouraged by this, they are already making plans for Bloody Scotland 2022, the event's 10th anniversary, increasing the in-person event to run for four consecutive days. Founding chair, Jenny Brown, is stepping down and handing over the reins to publisher and TV presenter, James Crawford, who added "This is a festival that has a very strong identity and a clear and ambitious vision for the future, and I am very much looking forward to helping shape the plans for its 10th anniversary in 2022." There's no word yet on whether next year's event will be once again a hybrid affair, but I'm assuming more word on that will be forthcoming, depending upon the state of the pandemic at that time.

New England Crime Bake is scheduled to take place live at the Hilton in Dedham, Massachusetts from November 12-14. The planning committee is weighing many considerations right now, but the good news is that Crime Bake 2021 will happen no matter what. A subcommittee has planned a virtual event, Crime Bake: Online, Plugged-In and Exclusive, that will take place from November 14 – 19, even if the live event does not happen as planned. Registration is separate from the in-person event, and folks from far-flung locations will be able to join in from the comfort of home. It will offer different programming from the in-person Crime Bake, which is currently still on. (HT to Brenda Buchanan)

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal, with a theme of Lone Star Mysteries, is out and available in print. You can catch some sneak previews online with the essays, "The Basis for The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale"; "My Grandfather and Samuel Craddock" by Terry Shames; and "Just the Facts: A Ranger Hall of Fame" by Jim Doherty.

The American Comparative Literature Association has issued a call for papers for their upcoming meeting in June of 2022. The symposium is titled "Global Histories of Crime Fiction: Redefining a Popular Genre," and organizers would like to see papers dealing with any aspects of world crime fiction and the historiographical challenges it presents. Abstracts must be received by Sunday, October 31.

The Melville House blog reminded us that a recent study at Yale University, which was reported on in a Washington Post article, showed "book readers experienced a 20 percent reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow-up compared to non-book readers." The data was obtained from a longitudinal Health and Retirement Study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. The study looked at 3,635 subjects, all older than 50, whom the researchers divided into three groups: those who didn’t read books, those who read up to 3.5 hours a week and those who read more than 3.5 hours a week. The findings were remarkable: Book readers survived almost two years longer than those who didn’t crack open a book.

A team of more than 40 retired and amateur investigators claim they have identified the Zodiac Killer, up to this point an unnamed serial killer that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s. The team, calling themselves The Case Breakers, which consists of former law enforcement officials, DNA experts, and journalists, believe they have identified the Zodiac Killer as Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. But the FBI and police in California say, "Not so fast."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Private Enterprise" by Harris Coverley.

An Avalanche of (Non-Charity) Anthologies

Yesterday, I took note of some recent anthologies for charity, but there are many more anthologies based on other themes and events that have come through the publishing pipeline recently. Here are some of those titles:

Under the auspices of New York City’s The Mysterious Bookshop and its affiliated Mysterious Press, Lee Child has selected twenty short crime tales as the Best Mystery Stories of the Year. The award-winning Mysterious Press senior editor, Otto Penzler, brings his decades of anthologist experience to this new annual publication, each of which will feature a different bestselling author to serve as guest editor. The inaugural edition includes tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, Doug Allyn, Jim Allyn, Michael Bracken, James Lee Burke, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Jacqueline Freimor, Alison Gaylin, Sue Grafton, Paul Kemprecos, Janice Law, Dennis McFadden, David Marcum, Tom Mead, David Morrell, Joyce Carol Oates, Joseph S. Walker, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

Meanwhile, Steph Cha is taking the helm of the Best American Mystery and Suspense series (formerly edited by Penzler), with best-selling crime novelist Alafair Burke joining her as the first guest editor. Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York’s gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places. The lineup of featured authors includes Jenny Bhatt, Christopher Bollen, Nikki Dolson, E. Gabriel Flores, Alison Gaylin, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ravi Howard, Gabino Iglesias, Charin Jones, Aya de Leon, Preston Lang, Laura Lippman, Kristen Lepionka, Joanna Pearson, Delia C. Pitts, Eliot Schrefer, Alex Segura, Brian Silverman, Faye Snowden, and Lisa Unger.

This Time For Sure is the latest Bouchercon Anthology, edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan and available from Down & Out Books. What would you do if you had a second chance? A do-over? How far would you go to get back at the one who got away, the one who did you wrong, the one who tricked you, manipulated you, ignored you? Twenty-two brilliant skilled authors now offer their journeys into revenge, revealing how they would even the score, turn the tables, make things right. One used a map. One a tape recorder. A decoy. A disguise. A lie. One even used a banana. Featured authors include Craig Johnson, Gabriel Valjan, Kristen Lepionka, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Karen Dionne, Clark Boyd, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Elizabeth Elwood, Damyanti Biswas, Martha Reed, Lucy Burdette, Sharon Bader, Alexia Gordon, Alex Segura, Edwin Hill, Steve Shrott, Elisabeth Elo, Alan Orloff, G. Miki Hayden, Charles Todd, Heather Graham, and Ellen Clair Lamb.
 

Midnight Hour, edited by Abby L. Vandiver and published by Crooked Lane, showcases 20 mystery and suspense stories written by people of color, each with a pivotal moment set at midnight. Highlights include Callie Browning’s twisty "Dead Men Tell No Tales, which centers on the murder of the prime minister of Barbados; Christopher Chambers’s clever "In the Matter of Mabel and Bobby Jefferson," in which Shane, an English major now working the night shift at an insurance company call center, wearily concludes, "It’s going to get funny tonight," but he doesn’t know the half of it; Tina Kashian’s unsettling "Cape May Murders," Sona and Priya, both mothers of young daughters, go away for a relaxing weekend at the Jersey Shore and wind up sharing their B&B with a murderer; and Sanjay, the Hindi Houdini, finds his séance spinning out of control in Gigi Pandian’s droll, "The Diamond Vanishes."
 

Untreed Reads recently released Monkey Business, featuring a Who's Who of award-winning crime writers paying homage to the Marx Brothers in fourteen short stories, each inspired by one of the brothers' studio films. Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Duck Soup, Animal Crackers...over the two decades between 1929's The Cocoanuts and 1949's Love Happy, the Marx Brothers-Groucho, Harpo, Chico (and sometimes Zeppo) entertained movie-goers around the world with their madcap antics, rapid-fire dialogue, and prowess on the piano, the harp, and in song. Authors with stories here include Donna Andrews, Frankie Y. Bailey, Jeff Cohen, Lesley A. Diehl, Brendan DuBois, Terence Faherty, Barb Goffman, Joseph Goodrich, Robert Lopresti, Sandra Murphy, Robert J. Randisi, Marilyn Todd, Joseph S. Walker, and editor Josh Pachter.

The stories in Murder by the Glass: Cocktail Mysteries, also from Untreed Reads, infuse this collection of deadly deeds with a variety of potent potables from light-bodied puzzles to edgier tales with bitter consequences. This anthology includes works by Allie Marie, Betsy Ashton, Frances Aylor, Mary Dutta, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Diane Fanning, Debra H. Goldstein, Libby Hall, Maria Hudgins, Teresa Inge, Maggie King, Kristin Kisska, Allie Marie, K. L. Murphy, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Shawn Reilly Simmons and Heather Weidner.
 

So West: Love Kills is the latest anthology from Sisters in Crime Desert Sleuths Chapter. From the wilds of Arizona’s Rim country to its dusty lowland deserts, you’ll find it all within the pages of So West: Love Kills. Bonds forged and broken. Covenants kept and cast aside. Love nurtured and left to rot. Not everything is as it seems. Not everyone can be trusted. But one thing is for certain—love hurts. Sometimes it even kills! Contributing authors include Shannon Baker, Mysti Berry, Meredith Blevins, Patricia Bonn, Lauren Buckingham, Susan Budavari, William Butler, Patricia Curren, Meg E. Dobson, Beverly Forsyth, Denise Ganley, Roberta Gibson, Katherine Atwell Herbert, Tom Leveen, Susan Cummins Miller, Charlotte Morganti, Julie Morrison, Claire A. Murray, Kris Neri, Karen Odden, R K Olson, D.R. Ransdell, Kim Rivery, Elena E. Smith. 

Stores in the Capitol Crimes 2021 Anthology, Cemetery Plots of Northern California (with a foreword by best-selling author Catriona McPherson), delve into the creative minds of Capitol Crimes members. The setting: Northern California. The theme: that place we all finally must visit, the cemetery. The plots and characters are as diverse as the authors. And their stories will touch your spirit where adventure and fear intersect. The featured stories are from Donna Benedict, Melissa H. Blaine, Jenny Carless, Chris Dreith, Eve Elliot, Elaine Faber, Kenneth Gwin, Kim Keeline, Virginia Kidd, Nan Mahon, Jennifer Morita, Karen Phillips, Richard Schneider, Terry Shepherd, and Joseph S. Walker.

Another Sisters in Crime chapter, SinC NY-TriState, has published the anthology, Justice for All: Murder New York Style 5. Injustice may lurk inside a swanky Manhattan apartment, a high school classroom, a Soho art gallery, a Madison Avenue church, the waters traversed by the Staten Island ferry, turn-of-the-century Lower East Side, or the Brooklyn suburbs. The crime committed may involve homophobia, xenophobia, child abandonment, sexual abuse, white privilege, ageism, or literary snobbery. Regardless, these tales are designed to both enlighten and delight readers of suspense who seek out a bit of fairness and integrity in the city that may never sleep but does often rectify its wrongs. Participating authors include Lori Robbins, Catherine Siemann, Cathi Stoler, Anne-Marie Sutton, D.M. Barr, Roz Siegel, Kathleen Marple Kalb, Ellen Quint, Mary Jo Robertiello, Catherine Maiorisi, Nancy Good, Nina Mansfield, Susie Case, Stephanie Wilson-Flaherty, Nina Wachsman, and Elle Hartford.

There's also Death by Cupcake, edited by Jess Faraday. A cupcake sounds so innocent, but these cupcakes aren’t always sweet. In fact, many lead to a sticky end. But only for those who truly deserve it. Featured stories include "The House Next Door" by Lee Mullins;" Sweet Anaphylactic Revenge" by Meg Candelria; "Tea & Misery" by Tracy Falenwolf; "Hello Goodbye Cupcake" by Mark Hague; "Cupcakes and Emeralds" by Maggie King; "The Third Act" by Gay Toltl Kinman; "Up a Pole Without a Paddle" by JoAnne Lucas; and "Little Miss Cupcake" by Korina Moss.
 

Bristol Noir has published two new anthologies: Tainted Hearts & Dirty Hellhounds, featuring Alpheus Williams, Andrew Davie, Anthony Neil Smith, B.F. Jones, Ben Newell, Blake Johnson, Bobby Mathews, C.W. Blackwell, Curtis Ippolito, David Tromblay, Don Stoll, F.J. Romano, Gabriel Hart, Graham Wynd, Ian Ayris, Jason Butkowski, J.B. Stevens, and John Bowie; and Savage Minds & Raging Bulls, with stories from John Bowie, M.E. Proctor, Mark Atley, Mark McConville, Max Thrax, M.Jack Hall, MJ Newman, Nathan Pettigrew, Paul D. Brazill, Phil Hurst, Richard Barr, Russell Day, Scott Cumming, Stephen J. Golds, Tom Leins, William R. Soldan, Wilson Koewing, and Zakariah Johnson.
 

Murderous Ink Press has just published Crimeucopia - Careless Love. Is love ever perfect? Or is it an obsession that remains rather than just a passing phase? And who’s to say that Revenge isn’t, in fact, a dish best served hot from the flames of passion? Fifteen writers tell us about affairs of the heart – some with humor, some with a darker intent, and others that are never quite exactly what they seem. There are stories from Steve Sneyd, Ange Morrissey, James Roth, Michael Wiley, Gustavo Bondoni, Matthew Wilson, Peter W. J. Hayes, Wil A. Emerson, Brandon Barrows, Bern Sy Moss, Michael Anthony Dioguardi, Russell Richardson, Robert Petyo, Sam Westcott, Bryn Fortey, and Vicky LaPerso – all of whom take us on roller coaster rides through a fictional Tunnel of Love. 
 

One of Down & Out Books' latest anthologies (with a release date of October 11) is Trouble No More. Turn on any classic rock station, and you’ll hear Southern Rock tunes that will make you stomp your foot and sing along to. The hard-rocking pioneers of the genre left behind a legacy of hard living that endures today. The stories in Trouble No More celebrate those pioneers. Find ramblers, gamblers, swindlers, and double-dealers within these pages, all striving to survive more than the Southern humidity. There are twenty-one stories of heartbreak, murder, robbery, and barnyard brawls from Bill Baber, C.W. Blackwell, Jerry Bloomfield, S.A. Cosby, Nikki Dolson, Michel Lee Garrett, James D.F. Hannah, Curtis Ippolito, Jessica Laine, Brodie Lowe, Bobby Mathews, Brian Panowich, Rob Pierce, Joey R. Poole, Raquel V. Reyes, Michael Farris Smith, J.B. Stevens, Chris Swann, Art Taylor, N.B. Turner, and Joseph S. Walker.