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

Nadine Crocker is on board to direct the psychological thriller, Hallow, which is also written by Crocker along with Chris Tardio. Shooting is scheduled to begin in early 2022 in New York and New Jersey. The film follows an event that unearths hidden secrets of corruption in a small East Coast town and forces a priest to look at his past and the trauma that he’s long shut out. He grapples with what kind of man he will become: a man of forgiveness and faith, to which he has dedicated his life, or a man of revenge and justice.

Christina Ricci has signed on to play a supporting role in The Dresden Sun, a cyberpunk indie from writer-director Michael Ryan that also stars Samantha Win. The film is set in motion by a heist that goes south when a brilliant, principled mercenary with a traumatic past works with an insider to steal a valued asset from Peredor Corporation called "the sphere." Meanwhile, a financial analyst finds himself caught in the middle between deadly corporate rivals, financial fraud, and technological espionage, and is ultimately forced to run from the most psychopathic military contractor in the world.

Showtime has unveiled the first trailer for its feature follow-up to the Ray Donovan series starring Liev Schreiber, and announced the release date as Friday, January 14. The movie comes almost exactly two years since the season seven finale aired on the premium network. The film picks up where season seven left off, with Mickey, played by Jon Voight, on the run and Schreiber’s Ray determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. It will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey’s origin story from 30 years ago. Original cast members reprising their roles include Eddie Marsan as Ray’s brother Terry, Dash Mihok as Ray’s brother Bunchy, Pooch Hall as the Donovan’s half-brother Daryll, Kerris Dorsey as Ray’s daughter Bridget, Katherine Moennig as Lena, along with Kerry Condon as Molly Sullivan.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan are set as the leads in The Night Agent, Netflix’s political conspiracy thriller series created by Shawn Ryan and based on author Matthew Quirk’s 2019 New York Times bestseller. The story centers on a low-level FBI agent, Peter Sutherland (Basso), who works in the basement of the White House manning an emergency hotline for American spies that never rings—until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.

NBC announced that Anthony Anderson will reprise his role as Detective Kevin Bernard on the revival of Law & Order, becoming the first series alum to officially return to the show. Fellow original star, Sam Waterston, who was also approached early on about returning, is still in discussions. A new franchise addition, Hugh Dancy, has been added to the cast in a lead role playing an assistant district attorney, joining the other previously announced series newcomer, Jeffrey Donovan, who will be playing an NYPD detective.

Jurassic Park star, Sam Neill, is set to lead Foxtel’s Australian TV drama series, The Twelve, which is due to begin production next week. Neill will be joined by Marta Dusseldorp, Kate Mulvaney, Brooke Satchwell, and Hazem Shammas in the 10-part series, which is adapted from the Belgian crime drama of the same name. The Twelve follows 12 jurors—ordinary Australians with struggles of their own—who are tasked with deciding the case of a woman (Mulvaney) accused of killing a child. Neill will play a lawyer involved in the case, while Satchwell and Shammas form part of the jury.

Zuleikha Robinson, Louis Ozawa, and Okieriete Onaodowan have been tapped as series regulars opposite John Krasinski on the upcoming fourth season of the Amazon Prime Video series, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Additionally, Derek Cecil and Nancy Lenehan have been cast in recurring roles in the drama series. Production recently wrapped on Season 3 which finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time. Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction that he has uncovered, Jack is forced underground, crisscrossing Europe, trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, interviewed author Iain Parke, creator of the British Biker Noir themed "The Brethren MC" series.

The Red Hot Chili Writers welcomed Mikhail Sen, star of the recent A Suitable Boy adaptation, to talk about his acting life; the audiobook of The Shadows of Men; and to take a Hollywood great quotations quiz.

Author Chris Offutt chatted with Crime Time FM host, Paul Burke, about his latest book, The Killing Hills, featuring a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent. Also discussed:  land and culture; spy fiction; and photography.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Mark Edward Langley about his Arthur Nakai mystery books set in the American Southwest.

The featured guest on Wrong Place, Write Crime was Sarah Gailey, talking about her new book, The Echo Wife (and also killer hippos).

The latest podcast from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine featured Jeff Cohen's "The Question of the Befuddled Judge" from the May/June 2020 issue, read by the author. Jeff Cohen is the author of the humorous Double Feature and Aaron Tucker mystery series. As E.J. Copperman, he writes the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, the Agent to the Paws series, the Mysterious Detective series, and the Samuel Hoenig series.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club had a True Crime Round-Up for 2021.

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

The Irish books of the year were announced yesterday, including Crime Fiction Book of the Year, which was awarded to 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard. The other finalists in that category include All Her Fault by Andrea Mara; April in Spain by John Banville; The Dark Room by Sam Blake; The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh; and The Killing Kind by Jane Casey.

Another award, however, doesn't have similar good news to share as word comes that the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been put on indefinite hold. The honor, sponsored by the University of Alabama School of Law, was created in 2010 and had been "awarded annually to a published work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change." (HT to The Rap Sheet)

D.C. Noir at the Bar returns on December 5 in a virtual event online hosted by E.A. Aymar. Authors scheduled to participate with readings from their books include Yasin Angoe, Amy Grech, Silvio Moreno-Garcia, Glen Erik Hamilton, Eliza Nellums, with music via Sara Jones and a custom cocktail from Chantal Tseng. The event is in support of partner store, One More Page Books.

Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the National Centre for the Written Word in South Shields, England, is offering an online version of its exhibition, "Investigating Detectives," (which will be on display until March 2022). The virtual exhibit investigates the greatest fictional detectives and their authors, profiles the best known on-screen detectives, studies crime-busting techniques, and examines the enduring appeal of literary and on-screen detective stories. Some of the sleuths included are Inspector Bucket, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple. Also included are children's mysteries, subgenres such as hardboiled and Nordic noir, and forensic history. (HT to The Bunburyist)

The Winter Issue #170 of Mystery Scene Magazine is out with Kevin Burton Smith's annual "Mystery Scene Gift Guide"; a cover feature of Patricia Cornwell, whose debut Postmortem first appeared in 1990; Craig Sisterson makes the case that the origins of the current gritty Golden Age of television started before The Sopranos with NYPD Blue; John B. Valeri talks to Rhys Bowen about her historical mysteries; Jon L. Breen takes a look at an unlikely sleuth: Edna Ferber, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Showboat and Giant among other works, who's been reimagined by author Ed Ifkovic as solver of mysteries; and Oline Cogdill interviews writer-director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and many more).

The Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast has a bonus Thanksgiving mystery short story, "The Chicken Pot Pie Fiasco," written by Sandra Murphy and read by actor Duncan Hoge.

Kings River Life has some food mysteries for your Thanksgiving feast and a chance to enter to win a copy of all 5 books.

Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare blog has an updated list of crime fiction with a Thanksgiving theme.

The writers over at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog have shared some Thanksgiving recipe ideas for you including No-Churn Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream, courtesy of Peg Cochran; Libby Dodd's Fresh Cranberry Relish; Cornish Hen via Maya Corrigan; and much more.

This is something law enforcement are probably thankful about this year: a hire-a-hitman website that isn't exactly what it seems.

And I would be personally astonished, if not grateful, to discover a secret passageway in a 500-year-old house, like Freddy Goodall of Brighton, England did recently.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "The Devil Has Gone Home" by Sharon Waller Knutson.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Joy Castro, the award-winning author of the post-Katrina New Orleans literary thriller, Hell or High Water, which received the Nebraska Book Award; Indie Crime Scene interviewed Bobby Nash, author of the SNOW series and more; and NPR's Fresh Air spoke with Ryan Busse, a former gun industry insider who explains why he left to fight for the other side, in his new book, Gunfight.

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

Searchlight Pictures has optioned E. Nicholas Mariani’s script, The Defender, which George Tillman Jr. will direct with three-time Emmy-winning actor, Sterling K. Brown, set to star as heroic lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones. Jones was a courageous attorney who risked his life and career to defend 87 men wrongfully accused of murder in the wake of the Elaine, AR massacre of 1919, when a group of Black sharecroppers meeting in a church about unionization were attacked by a posse organized by white landowners.

Mel Gibson, who starred in the first four Lethal Weapon movies, is in talks to star in and direct the fifth installment. Gibson played cop Martin Riggs in all four films since 1987 (the last was released in 1998). Gibson would be stepping in for the late Richard Donner, director of the first four films in the franchise, who was developing the fifth movie prior to his passing in July. Richard Wenk, best known for writing Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer, penned the latest draft of the script.

Amber Sealey has signed on to direct McFarland Entertainment’s Nod If You Understand. The thriller will tell the true story of heroic stewardess, Tina Mucklow, and the mysterious hijacker known as DB Cooper, perpetrator of the only unsolved case of air piracy in the history of commercial aviation. When Cooper boards NWA Flight 305 with a bomb on Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, Mucklow must cleverly negotiate his demands and the conflicting objectives of the FBI and airline, to save 42 lives. After extorting $200,000 in ransom and demanding the crew return him to the stormy skies with a series of very specific and life-threatening flying instructions, Cooper does the unthinkable, parachuting out of the aircraft with the money. Despite an extensive manhunt and FBI investigation, Cooper has never been located or conclusively identified.

A reboot of the 1992 hit Steven Seagal action movie, Under Siege, is underway at Warner Bros. with Timo Tjahjanto directing and Umair Aleem penning the script. The movie is being planned to stream on HBO Max. There’s no word yet if Seagal will reprise his role as Casey Ryback, the ex-Navy Seal turned cook who was the only person in that movie to stop a group of terrorists from taking control of a U.S. battleship. The movie, directed by Andrew Davis, also starred Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey and spawned a 1995 sequel Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Mario Bava’s cult crime movie, Rabid Dogs, is getting an English-Language remake from scribes Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore. The original 1974 feature, an adaptation of Michael J. Carroll's short story, "Man and Boy," followed the bungled robbery by three violent criminals and the hostages they take—including a young woman, a middle-aged man, and his child—as they attempt to make a clean getaway from the police. The new production team has been working out the original film’s sexist tones to reimagine the film as a present-day thriller and the first in a trilogy.

Carrie Coon, Alessandro Nivola, and Chris Cooper are set to join Keira Knightley in 20th Century’s Boston Strangler, written and directed by Matt Ruskin. Based on the infamous Boston Strangler murders, the project tells the true story of Loretta McLaughlin, 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 1960s to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer and work tirelessly to keep women informed. Loretta pursued the story at great personal risk and uncovered corruption that cast doubt on the true identity of the killer.

Daniela Melchior and François Arnaud are the latest to join Liam Neeson in the movie thriller, Marlowe, which is currently filming in Ireland and Spain. Melchior and Arnaud will play the brother and sister, Lynn and Nico Peterson. The movie follows private detective Philip Marlowe (Neeson), who is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. It looks like an open and shut case, but Marlowe soon finds himself in the underbelly of Hollywood’s film industry and unwittingly drawn into the crossfire of a legendary Hollywood actress and her subversive, ambitious daughter. Also starring are Diana Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Ian Hart and Colm Meaney. William Monahan’s script is based on the novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde, by John Banville, with Oscar winner Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) aboard to direct.

In case you're still leery of watching a movie in theatres, Daniel Craig's No Time To Die has been given an official Blu-Ray release date of December 21st, which is just in time for the holidays. The Blu-Ray will include several Bond Special Features, including director Baillie Walsh’s documentary Being James Bond: The Daniel Craig Story (but only on the 4K UHD version).

A trailer was released for Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley, a noir psychological thriller starring Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett, which follows a charming but down-on-his-luck man (Cooper). After ingratiating himself with a clairvoyant (played by Toni Collette) and her mentalist husband (played by David Strathairn), he learns new grifting skills that grant him a ticket to mingle with the ultra-wealthy of 1940s New York. This puts him in conflict with a mysterious psychiatrist played by Cate Blanchett and a dangerous tycoon played by Richard Jenkins, all while a virtuous young woman named Molly (Rooney Mara) is at his side.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

An adaptation of Caitlin Rother’s true-crime book, Death On Ocean Boulevard: The Coronado Mansion, is in the works as a scripted limited series. Published by Kensington in April 2021, Death On Ocean Boulevard chronicles the harrowing story of Rebecca Zahau, who was found dead on the morning of July 13, 2011, at the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property owned by her boyfriend, a powerful pharmaceutical tycoon. When authorities arrived, they found the cryptic message SHE SAVED HIM CAN YOU SAVE HER scrawled on a door near the victim. Was this a suicide note, or a killer’s taunt? Rebecca’s death came just two days after her boyfriend’s son took a devastating fall while in Rebecca’s care. Authorities deemed Rebecca’s death a suicide resulting from her guilt, but her family insists she was murdered. But who would stage a suicide or a murder in such a bizarre, elaborate way?

The serial killer novel, Dog Rose Dirt, from writer Jen Williams is to be adapted as a drama series by Gaumont UK. The psychological thriller, published earlier this year, follows a young woman whose dead mother’s secret past comes to light through a series of letters to a serial killer.

Alex Wolff has signed on to star opposite the previously announced Kiersey Clemons in Sophie Kargman’s feature directorial debut, Susie Searches. The project is based on Kargman's 2020 short film of the same name, in which she starred alongside Delon de Metz, Sam Lerner, Gabriel Notarangelo, and Alison Rich. The darkly comic thriller follows Susie (Clemons), an awkward college student who seizes the opportunity to bolster her popularity—and her overlooked true-crime podcast—by solving the disappearance of a classmate. But as her investigation proceeds, we realize that the truth and Susie aren’t at all what they seem. Wolff will play Jesse, the charismatic college kid whose disappearance sparks Susie’s investigation.

USA Network’s The Sinner, led by Bill Pullman as Det. Harry Ambrose, will air its final episode on Dec. 1, after the network announced the show's cancellation. Along with Pullman, Season 4 stars Frances Fisher, Alice Kremelberg, Neal Huff, Cindy Cheung, Ronin Wong, Jessica Hecht, and Michael Mosley. In Season 4, still reeling from the trauma of a previous case a year ago, the now-retired Harry Ambrose (Pullman) travels to Hanover Island in northern Maine for a recuperative getaway with his partner, Sonya (Hecht). When an unexpected tragedy occurs involving the daughter of a prominent island family, Ambrose is recruited to help the investigation, only to be thrown into a mystery of mounting paranoia that will turn this sleepy tourist island, and Ambrose’s life, upside down.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

NPR's Book of the Day podcast featured two thrillers, including astronaut Chris Hadfield speaking about his novel, The Apollo Murders, with former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro; and in a rebroadcast from 2015, Robert Siegel chatted with author Anthony Horowitz about his James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, and what it's like giving a classic a 21st century twist.

Read or Dead's Katie and Nusrah discussed read-a-likes for some favorite and popular authors and recommended contemporary works similar to them to make your holiday shopping easier.

Over at the Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast, the second part of the mystery short story, "Harvey and the Redhead," written by Debra H. Goldstein and read by actors Ariel Linn and Sean Hopper, is up. You can listen to Part 1 here. 
 

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Abir Mukherjee about The Shadows of Men, the fifth installment in Mukherjee’s series set in post-World-War I Calcutta featuring Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Suran Banerjee. Banerjee has been accused of murdering a Hindu scholar in a same-as-it-ever-was story of political and religious tension.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Yasmin Angoe, a first-generation Ghanaian American who received the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime, about Yasmin’s debut, Her Name is Knight; the long hard road to getting published and almost giving up; writing a high-octane thriller that embraces her Ghanaian roots, and a lot more.

Wrong Place Write Crime chatted with Dana Stabenow about her Kate Shugak series, her Liam Campbell books, and a lot about Alaska. Plus Lance Wright from Down & Out Books was on hand to profile some new releases, and there were additional book recommendations from Sebastien Fitzek, Rebecca Rosenberg, Matt FitzSimmons, and William Kent Krueger.

My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, interviewed Colin Conway, the author of The Cozy Up series which pushes the envelope of the cozy genre. Conway is also the creator of The 509 Crime Stories, a series of novels set in Eastern Washington with revolving lead characters, and co-authored The Charlie-316 political thriller series.

All About Agatha spoke with Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver about his new book, The Savage Kind, in which two lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes—and an even greater desire to commit them.

John Copenhaver also appeared on the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast to talk about his novel, his favorite femme fatales, and the future of queer crime.

CrimeTime FM welcomed Heather Young to discuss her debut psychological thriller, The Lost Girls, and to talk about storytelling, domestic abuse, ancient lands, and family.

Mystery Melange

The 6th Annual 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize honoring mid-career authors in fiction announced the longlist last week in a private virtual ceremony. The $50,000 prize will be awarded to an author of fiction in the middle of a burgeoning career. Finalists are expected to be named in early March 2022, followed by a winner named in April 2022. Among the thirty-seven author finalists are several who write crime and suspense fiction, including Megan Abbott (The Turnout), Dan Chaon (Sleepwalk), Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Plot), and Jonathan Lethem (Feral Detective).

Hannah Brown has won the 2021 Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award for her historical suspense novel, My Name Is Emma. Each year, editors at Sphere choose the best novel by a graduating student, with the winner receiving £3,000. For the first time, judges also awarded a highly commended prize to Duality – a Russian in Osaka by Denise Kuehl, a Japanese-set procedural with near-future touches. The 2020 winner was Emma Styles, whose No Country for Girls will be published by Sphere.

At the recent New England Crime Bake conference in Dedham, Massachusetts, Joseph S. Walker was awarded the annual Al Blanchard Prize for his story, "Herb Ecks Goes Underground," which will be published in Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories.

The Crime Fiction Lover website solicited nominations for its first ever Crime Fiction Lover Awards and have announced the finalists in the various categories. Readers can vote on their favorites via this link.

The end-of-the-year "best" lists keep coming, including Kirkus Reviews, where editors have chosen their favorite mysteries and thrillers of the year; and Amazon, which also compiled a list of its picks for best mysteries and thrillers of 2021.

Martin Edwards offered up a tribute to John Malcolm (the pen name of John Malcolm Andrews), who passed away recently. John wrote an antiques-themed mystery series as well as nonfiction works and also served as Chair of the Crime Writers' Association.

I think this should be the model for river towns everywhere: the legendary Bouquinistes boxes that have been lining the banks of the River Seine in Paris since the 16th century. (Booksellers take note: it seems there are some vacancies.) (HT to Shelf Awareness)

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "In Midair" by Toby Widdicombe.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Lori Rader-Day about her new novel, Death at Greenway, which is based on the true events of a group of children evacuated out of the Blitz during World War II—to Agatha Christie's holiday estate, Greenway House; Mystery Tribune chatted with Nick Kolakowski, whose newest work, Love & Bullets, is being released by Shotgun Honey books on November 26; Lisa Haselton interviewed Weldon Burge about his debut thriller, Harvester of Sorry, the first in the planned Ezekial Marrs series; and Indie Crime Scene spoke with J.L. Doucette, author of Unknown Assailant (Book 3 of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries).

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

Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in a remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie, Road House, with Doug Liman also in discussions to direct. In the original film, Swayze played Dalton, a tough bouncer with a mysterious past who is hired to clean up one of middle America’s rowdiest bars and ends up taking down one of its most corrupt individuals in the process. It is currently unknown if Gyllenhaal would be playing Dalton or a new character.

Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Ian Hart, and Colm Meaney have joined Liam Neeson in the noir thriller, Marlowe, which is now filming in Ireland and Spain. The script from William Monahan is based on John Banville's novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde (a continuation of the Raymond Chandler iconic series featuring Philip Marlowe) with Oscar winner Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) aboard to direct. In Marlowe, when private detective Philip Marlowe (Neeson) is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress, it looks to be open and shut case. But Marlowe soon finds himself in the underbelly of Hollywood’s film industry and unwittingly drawn into the crossfire between a legendary Hollywood actress and her subversive, ambitious daughter.

Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment have co-acquired North American rights to The Forgiven, a thriller written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, which premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival. The Forgiven is based on the novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne and centers on wealthy Londoners David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo Henninger (Jessica Chastain), who are involved in a tragic accident with a local teenage boy, after speeding through the Moroccan desert to attend an old friend’s lavish weekend party. Arriving late at the grand villa with the debauched party raging, the couple attempts to cover up the incident with the collusion of the local police. But when the boy’s father arrives seeking justice, the stage is set for a tension-filled culture clash in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Paramount+ has handed a series order to Happy Face, a crime drama series based on a hit podcast that tells the story of a notorious serial killer who was infamous for drawing smiley faces on letters to the media and prosecutors. The project centers on Melissa Jesperson-Moore, who at age 15 discovered that her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was the serial murderer known as the Happy Face Killer. As an adult, Melissa changed her name, guarded her secret, and cut off all ties to her father, who is currently serving life in prison. The scripted series will tell Melissa’s true-life story as her father contacts her to take credit for another victim, which pulls Melissa into an investigation of her father and his crimes.

The Apple TV+ limited series, The Last Thing He Told Me, has had a major recasting with Jennifer Garner taking over a role originally set for Julia Roberts, who had to depart due to scheduling conflicts. The Last Thing He Told Me is an adaptation of the bestseller of the same name by Laura Dave and follows a woman who forms an unexpected relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared.

Jeff Wilbusch is set to star in David E Kelley’s The Missing for NBC's Peacock streaming service. The adaptation of Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s The Missing File focuses on the unusually named Avraham Avraham, an NYPD detective with the 77th precinct whose belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. Guided by a deep sense of spirituality and religious principles, Avraham is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down.

Lizzy Caplan will star in a Fatal Attraction TV series at Paramount+, playing the role of Alex that Glenn Close made famous in the 1987 movie. Described as a deep-dive reimagining of the classic psychosexual thriller and '80s cultural touchstone, the new series "will explore themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control." As in the movie, Caplan’s Alex becomes obsessed with her lover after a brief affair. That role, which was played by Michael Douglas, is currently being cast.

Peter Greene, Ayomide Adegun, and Jeremy Bobb are set as leads opposite Colin Woodell and Mel Gibson in Starz’s The Continental, the prequel to the Keanu Reeves/John Wick film series. The Continental will be presented as a three-night special event and explore the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins, which increasingly has become the centerpiece of the John Wick universe. This will be told through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (Woodell), who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind.

Ruth Wilson is teaming with Lena Dunham and Dennis Lehane for an HBO limited series based on the Stitcher podcast, Mob Queens. Wilson will play Anna Genovese (Wilson), the second wife of infamous crime boss Vito Genovese and a fixture in the Village’s drag bar scene in the 1930s who later broke Cosa Nostra law—when she spilled the illegal dealings of her husband in divorce hearings.

Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) is set to star in and executive-produce the thriller series, Ballistic. Lihi Kornowski and Bosch's Jonathan Ohye will also star in the six-part series about a secret operative (Carpenter) who, after a mission is compromised, is forced into a psychological game of cat and mouse with her own mind while being hunted down by the very program that created her. Series creators Spenser Cohen (Moonfall) and Anna Halberg (Distant) will serve as showrunners and executive producers.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up featuring Part 1 of the mystery short story, "Harvey and the Redhead," written by Debra H Goldstein and read by actors Ariel Linn and Sean Hopper. (Part 2 will go up next week.)

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with H.Y. Hanna, who writes fun cozy mysteries "filled with humor, quirky characters, clever twists—and cats with big personalities."

On the Crime Writers of Color podcast, Midnight House anthology editors Abby Vandiver, Marla Bradeen, Steph Cha, and Alafair Burke were interviewed by Robert Justice; plus Carolyn Wilkins and Alex Segura read from their included short stories.

The Spybrary podcast welcomed the former director of the CIA’s Technical Service, Robert Wallace, to discuss his time in the CIA and the various non-fiction books he has co-authored since leaving the agency.

The Red Hot Chili Writers interviewed spy thriller writer, Charles Cumming and discussed his latest book, Judas 62; they also chatted with Vic Watson and Simon Berwick about the upcoming Bay Tales festival.

Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with S.F. Kosa about her most recent book, The Night We Burned.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Det. Adam Richardson, talked about how police deal with teenagers as missing persons and as suspects in a murder.

Crime Time FM chatted with Dominic Nolan about his new novel, Vine Street; 1930s Soho; obsession; history versus the past; and believing in your work.

Mystery Melange - Veteran's Day Edition

Today is Veteran's Day in the U.S., and Janet Rudolph has some resources for crime fiction related to veteran themes. (Note that she references an older post of mine on the topic, which you can find here.) Even more poignantly, today marks the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

The An Post Irish Book Awards announced the 2021 shortlisted titles, including those in the running for Crime Fiction Book of the Year:  56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard; All Her Fault by Andrea Mara; April in Spain by John Banville; The Dark Room by Sam Blake; The Devil’s Advocate by Steve Cavanagh; and The Killing Kind by Jane Casey.

Some of the UK’s top thriller, mystery and crime fiction authors have contributed to an anthology timed with World Kindness Day on November 13 to raise money for charity. All proceeds will go to Shelter, a charity that campaigns to end homelessness and support those affected. Everyday Kindness: A collection of uplifting tales to brighten your day, edited by LJ Ross, is being published via Dark Skies Publishing.

The Guardian profiled a new book by mortuary technician, Carla Valentine, which examines how advances in crime-fighting made their way into Agatha Christie’s novels.

CrimeReads held an online roundtable on the topic of class and social division in crime fiction, with participating authors Adrian McKinty, Laura McHugh, Angel Luis Colón, Julia Dahl, Joe Ide, and Lisa Levy.

The Wordsworth Edition website feautured the latest in an occasional series on profiles of classic crime authors, including detective fiction pioneer, Wilkie Collins, and Irish author, J.S. Le Fanu, who is credited with inventing the "locked-room mystery" with his story, "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess," published in 1838 (three years before Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"). (HT to The Bunburyist)

The Page 69 Test blog featured two crime fiction authors this week: Tara Laskowski, whose debut suspense novel, One Night Gone, won the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award and was a finalist for the Lefty, the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark, the Strand Critics, and the Library of VA Literary awards; and Alison Gaylin, an Edgar and Shamus Award winner. Laskowski's new novel is The Mother Next Door, while Gaylin's latest is The Collective.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "State Prison, 1976" by Henry Stimpson.

In the Q&A roundup, Rachel Howzell Hall talked with CrimeReads about longhand, loves, office supplies, and one magical story about a lost manuscript; Deborah Kalb chatted with author Jean Hanff Korelitz about her new thriller novel, The Plot; Kalb also spoke with Gabrielle St. George about her new novel How to Murder a Marriage, the first in her Ex-Whisperer Files series; plus E. B. Davis interviewed Susan Van Kirk about The Witch’s Child, her fourth Endurance mystery, and chatted with V. M. Burns about Killer Words, her seventh Mystery Bookshop Mystery; and Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Tony J Forder about his latest novel, The Huntsmen.

 

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:

AWARDS

The 46th annual Saturn Awards were presented October 26. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, which skipped 2020, extended the Saturn Awards eligibility period to allow works released from July 15, 2019-November 15, 2020. There were actually several crime dramas included, most notably Knives Out, which won for Best Thriller Film Release, Best Supporting Actress in a Film (Ana De Armas), Best Film Editing (Bob Ducsay), and Best 4K Film Release. Best Fantasy Film Release was won by Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (more of an alternate timeline than pure fantasy); Best Action/Thriller Television Series was Better Call Saul; and Best Film Presentation on Streaming Media went to Enola Holmes (Netflix).

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Ryan Phillippe, Kate Bosworth, and Ving Rhames are set to star in the thriller, The Locksmith. The project follows Miller, an expert locksmith fresh out of prison after a job gone bad. Back home, he tries to work his way back into the life of his daughter and his ex-girlfriend, Beth, who is now a police detective. Determined to make a clean start, he is forced to use the only skills he has as a gifted locksmith, but things soon get complicated after an unexpected kidnapping. The current target release date is September, 2022.

Lionsgate bought Simon Kinberg's spec script (i.e. a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay), titled Wayland, which Jessica Chastain will produce with Michael Showalter set as director. Wayland is described as "an ensemble drama thriller that has shades of A Simple Plan and Knives Out." There's no word as to whether Chastain herself will star in the project, although plans are still in the preliminary stages. This is only the second spec Kinberg wrote in the last 20 years since he broke on the scene with his first such attempt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, although he's since gone on to write several commissioned blockbusters such as Sherlock Holmes and installments in the X-Men series.

Roberto Urbina, McCaul Lombardi, Julieth Restrepo, Kendal Rae, Luis Chávez, Julio César Cedillo, Manuel Uriza, and Chris Mulkey star in Deadland, an indie thriller from director Lance Larson, with filming in Oklahoma and Texas. The story centers on border agent Angel Waters (Urbina), who is called to investigate a man who walks the harsh plains of the South Texas desert—but what should be a routine apprehension quickly turns into his worst nightmare.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Former Burn Notice star, Jeffrey Donovan, has been tapped as a lead in NBC’s upcoming Law & Order revival, playing a new character, an NYPD detective, on Season 21 of Dick Wolf’s venerable crime drama. The new season is expected to also feature several alums from the original series, with Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson believed to be in talks to return. The new installment of Law & Order, from Wolf and writer-showrunner Rick Eid, will continue the classic bifurcated format and will once again examine “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.”

Denzil Meyrick's DCI Daley series will be adapted for television, and will star Game of Thrones actor, Rory McCann, in the lead role. Rights to the books have been secured to adapt and produce the series by Ocean Independent, the production arm of talent agency Emptage Hallett, together with Fudge Park, award-winning producer of The Inbetweeners. The series will be written and directed by leading Scottish playwright and screenwriter, Anthony Neilson. 

Bodyguard star, Nina Toussaint-White, is to lead a Channel 5 thriller playing Jodie in Witness No.3, a single mother who runs a hairdressing salon. One day at work, Jodie momentarily glances out of the window and in a split second her life descends into freefall. What she notices seems innocuous—two men walking on the opposite side of the road—but she’s actually witnessed a killer and his victim moments before a murder. Joining the ensemble cast are Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne, Ruaridh Mollica, and Sue Johnston.

Jenna Dewan has been promoted to a series regular for the current fourth season of ABC's cop drama, The Rookie. Dewan plays firefighter Bailey Nune, "fun and unpredictable with a subversive sense of humor," who was asked out by Nolan (Nathan Fillion) after a meet-cute in the Season 3 finale. Dewan has appeared in four of the first six episodes thus far.

The Amazon drama series, Hannah, will end its run with its upcoming third season. The action thriller, which comes from showrunner David Farr, is based on the 2011 feature film directed by Joe Wright and follows the journey of Hanna (played by Esmé Creed-Miles), an extraordinary young woman who was created by the sinister organization Utrax and trained to be an assassin. Hanna is now secretly trying to destroy Utrax from the inside to free herself from its grasp, all with the help of her previous nemesis, former CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos). Together, they have coerced high-ranking Utrax agent John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) into aiding their mission. But her fellow young assassins, Sandy (Áine Rose Daly) and Jules (Gianna Kiehl), and new foes are starting to suspect Hanna’s plot.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Read or Dead discussed mystery and suspense works by Native American authors in honor of National Native American Heritage Month.

Alison Gaylin stopped by Speaking of Mysteries to discuss her latest psychological suspense thriller, The Collective, which was recently optioned by Yellow Bird UK for development into a TV series.

The latest guest on Wrong Place, Write Crime was author Adam Bregman, talking about his new novel, Angelino Heights, a gritty thriller set in Los Angeles.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Caroline Mitchell, an Irish author and former police detective. Her crime thriller, Truth And Lies, is a New York Times best seller and has been optioned for TV by Awesome Media. The book is the first installment in the DI Amy Winter series.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Robbie Bach about her latest novel, The Wilkes Insurrection, a contemporary thriller of "anarchic obsession and heroic ambition."

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's podcast featured Marilyn Todd's historical mystery short story, "Long Slow Dance Through the Passage of Time," as read by actor Mandie Davis.

On Crime Time FM, Joanne Harris chatted with host, Paul Burke, about her novel, A Narrow Door, and about being a schoolteacher, misogyny, and more.

THEATRE

Oscar nominee and two-time Emmy winner, Greg Kinnear, will make his Broadway debut as Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, beginning January 5 at the Shubert Theatre. He succeeds Tony nominee and Emmy winner, Jeff Daniels, whose final performance is January 2. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the play resumed performances October 5—after being shuttered by the pandemic—with the return of two of its original stars: Daniels as Finch and Celia Keenan-Bolger in her Tony-winning performance as Scout Finch. To Kill a Mockingbird will also launch its national tour March 27, 2022, at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y., starring Richard Thomas, while on the other side of the Atlantic, performances will begin in London at the Gielgud Theatre March 10, 2022, starring Rafe Spall.

Mystery Melange

The winners of New Zealand's 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards for crime, mystery, and thriller fiction and non-fiction were announced in conjunction with WORD Christchurch Festival. Best Novel went to Sprigs, by Brannavan Gnanalingam; Best First Novel: For Reasons of Their Own, by Chris Stuart; Best Non-fiction: Black Hands: Inside the Bain Family Murders, by Martin van Beynen; Best YA/Kids Book: Katipo Joe, by Brian Falkner. To see all the finalists in the four categories, follow this link.

The winner of the 2021 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year is: To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi, translated from the Swedish by Deborah Bragan-Turner and published by MacLehose Press. As well as a trophy, Mikael Niemi receives a pass to and a guaranteed panel at CrimeFest 2022. This is the first historical crime novel to have that award. To check out all the finalists, head on over here.

The 2021 shortlists have been revealed for the Staunch Prize’s unpublished flash fiction and short stories without violence to women, while the original book prize is on hold until 2022. In the short story category, the shortlist features "My Flood Book" by Greg Beatty; "Swine Tags" by Tom Leins; "The Toll Bridge" by Arendse Lund; "Like Glue" by Kimberly Shaw; "Tremor" by writer Katrina Moinet. In flash fiction, "Cornered" by Moinet is pitted alongside "Serial killers" by Adele Evershed; "Two Faced" by M J Harbottle; "Pale on the Gatepost" by Alison Ringrose; and Ros Thomas' "How To Leave Your Childhood Behind." (HT to The Bookseller)

The shortlist for Waterstones' Book of the Year has 13 titles in the running for the prize, with books nominated by Waterstones booksellers. The sole crime fiction title among them is The Appeal by Janice Hallett, in which law students Charlotte and Femi investigate a mystery in the sleepy town of Lower Lockwood, dealing with everything from an amateur dramatic society’s disastrous staging of All My Sons to a dodgy charity appeal for a child’s medical treatment. Buyer Bea Carvalho said it had been a "real word of mouth hit" for the UK’s largest book chain.

Another "best of" list was recently released, this one courtesy of Publishers Weekly. The titles run the gamut from The Anatomy of Desire by L.R. Dorn to Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews. Follow this link to see the complete list of twelve recommended books.

Ian Fleming fanatic, Kim Sherwood, who is known for her debut novel, Testament, has been tapped by the Fleming's estate to pen a new series of "audacious, pacey, sexy" spy stories in the James Bond universe, becoming the first female to do so. The author struck a deal with HarperCollins to write three contemporary thrillers set in the world of James Bond but where the original 007 is missing, presumed captured or even killed. The series is set to launch in September 2022.

There's a call for papers destined for a book-length publication in the bilingual collection Book Practices & Textual Itineraries (published at Université de Lorraine, France) which traces evolutions in the production, transmission and reception of books and texts over time and across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. If that all sounds a bit puzzling, check out the details here.

Penguin recently announced their intention to buy publisher Simon & Schuster in a $2.2 billion deal. However, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit in the US district court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, saying the deal would let Penguin Random House "exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work." The Authors Guild, a writers’ organization, has said it opposes the acquisition because there would be less competition for authors’ manuscripts.

Just why are we so drawn to the "old book smell?" In a new book by Jude Stewart, the author says it "stems from their slow chemical decomposition...Books are largely paper, and paper is largely plants. But the materials from which books are made have shifted over the centuries—and those shifts, in turn, have influenced how different generations of books, smell." Stewart also provides a scientific explanation of how a book’s scent adapts to and blends with both the scent of the room in which it is placed and the people who occupy it.

Here's an fun crime headline: "Lego trafficking scheme of stolen sets worth thousands busted 'brick by brick,' Seattle police say."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Little Red Corvette" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Irish-born Jane Casey, author of the new novel, The Killing Kind, and also the Maeve Kerrigan series; Alison Gaylin (Never Look Back) chatted with Deborah Kalb about Gaylin's new novel, The Collective; and E.B. Davis interviewed Susan Van Kirk about The Witch’s Child, her fourth Endurance series 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

Chinese filmmaker, John Woo, will return to Hollywood to direct Silent Night, his first film since 2003. According to The Wrap, Woo is conceptualizing the film, which follows a father (Joel Kinnaman) into the underworld in order to avenge his son’s death, to be without a single word of dialogue.

Ana de Armas is in talks to take the lead role in the anticipated John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, about a young female assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family. The character made a fleeting appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. As previously revealed, Len Wiseman (Underworld) is aboard to direct the action-thriller from a script by Shay Hatten (who also penned John Wick: Chapter 3). It's unclear whether Keanu Reeves will make an appearance in the movie, though there is a hope that he and Anjelica Huston may provide cameos.

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in Fast Charlie, a hitman thriller from director Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger), which is scheduled to enter production in January. Based on Victor Gischler’s Edgar Award-nominated novel, Gun Monkeys, the story centers on Charlie Swift (Brosnan), who has worked for his aging mob boss, Stan, for twenty years, skillfully operating as a prolific fixer and efficient hitman. When a rival boss moves to eliminate Stan and his entire team, he fails in wiping the team clean. Now on his own, Charlie will stop at nothing to avenge his friend, and has no plans to leave anyone alive.

Daisy Ridley will star in a thriller set in the near future called Mind Fall, from director Mathieu Kassovitz. Written by Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) the project follows Ridley as a drug trafficker whose much sought-after black market "drug" involves memories that can be removed from one person’s brain and implanted into another. She’s forced to try to solve a mystery after being accused of murdering one of her clients, all while battling her own addiction and inability to tell her real memories from the implanted ones.

Martin McDonagh has nabbed big-name actors Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, and Oscar Isaac for his next movie. Few details are known about the currently untitled script, although McDonagh is known for writing quirky thrillers with a comedic touch like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and as Deadline adds, "we hear that this is a killer script from a writer-director well known for his killer scripts." Apparently, the project has generated enough excitement that it's already attracted four studio offers.

The movie Role Play, starring Kaley Cuoco, has landed French filmmaker Thomas Vincent (the director of Bodyguard) and are planning to begin production in May 2022. Based on an original idea by George Heller, Deadline calls the project, "a stylish action thriller with a franchise-able hook, about a young married couple whose life is turned upside down after secrets are revealed about each other’s past."

Dolph Lundgren is set to direct and star in the action picture, Wanted Man. Lundgren has also penned the script with Michael Worth (Killing Cupid). The film's story is set in motion when a cartel shooting leaves several DEA agents dead, and an aging police officer must retrieve an eyewitness and escort her across the border. But when he learns that the attack was executed by American forces, he must decide whom to trust.

Liam Neeson is set to star in the Ireland-set thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which will re-team the actor with The Marksman director, Robert Lorenz. Set in a remote Irish village, Neeson will play a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. Ciarán Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) also stars.

Melissa Leo and Emma Roberts are in final negotiations to topline the thriller, Returns. The story follows a young woman who returns to a fractured home twelve years after her mysterious disappearance to find that family secrets and old grudges haunt her joyous homecoming. The film is set to be directed by George Ratliff from a script by Matthew A. Gossett.

Leven Rambin, Jake McLaughlin, Shane West, Sohvi Rodriguez, and Dee Wallace will star in Homestead, a thriller from writer-director Marcos Efron (And Soon the Darkness), which is currently in production in Knoxville, Tennessee. The film centers on a young couple (Rambin and McLaughlin) who have fled the city in search of peace and serenity in the mountains, but subsequently find that they must contend with myriad dangers—both close to home, as well as on a much larger scale.

Dermot Mulroney and Justin Furstenfeld have joined Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and Ryan Kwanten in the action movie, Section Eight. Based on an original screenplay by Chad Law and Josh Ridgway and directed by Christian Sesma, the movie charts the story of a former soldier who, after avenging the murder of his family, is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.

Kevin Dillon and Sam Asghari are set to co-star in the action thriller, Hot Seat, joining the previously announced headliner, Mel Gibson. James Cullen Bressack directs the tale of an ex-hacker who is forced to break into high-level banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson plays the man who must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the ex-hacker (Dillon) off the hot seat.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO is developing Londongrad, a limited series based on Alan Cowell’s book, The Terminal Spy, about KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, with Benedict Cumberbatch set to star as Litvinenko. Written by David Scarpa, Londongrad tells the true story of the former KGB agent who was poisoned by the radioactive isotope Polonium-210 in 2006 in England.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to The Missing, an eight-episode crime drama series based on Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s international bestselling novel, The Missing File, from David E. Kelley, Keshet Studios, and Universal Television. Written by Kelley, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer, The Missing tells the story of NYPD Detective Avraham, whose belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. Guided by a deep sense of spirituality and religious principles, Avraham is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down.

Wyatt Oleff has been cast as the male lead in City on Fire, an Apple TV+ drama series inspired by Garth Risk Hallberg’s novel of the same name. The story centers on an NYU student, Samantha Cicciaro, who is shot in Central Park on the Fourth of July, 2003, with no witnesses and very little physical evidence. As the crime against Samantha is investigated, she’s revealed to be the crucial connection between a series of mysterious citywide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep. Oleff will play a friend of Samantha’s who stops at nothing to unravel the mystery of what happened.

Legendary Television is developing a true-crime drama series about the relationship between novelist Norman Mailer and killer Jack Henry Abbott, with Boyd Holbrook slated to star. Set in 1981, the series follows one of the most scandalous events in New York City history, when Mailer helped get Abbott (Holbrook) paroled from prison, leading to Abbott killing again, a nationwide manhunt, and the "trial of the century" in New York.

NBC has given a pilot commitment to Blank Slate, an hour-long drama from The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and The Blacklist producer Davis Entertainment. Written by Georgaris, Black Slate is a high-concept procedural about a government agent who may not be what he seems.

Lindsey Morgan, the female lead opposite Jared Padalecki on the CW’s Walker, will be leaving the hit drama series during its current second season for "personal reasons." The reimagining of the popular CBS drama, Walker, Texas Ranger, centers on Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a widower and father of two with his own moral code who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years. Morgan’s Micki Ramirez is Walker’s new partner, one of the first women in Texas Rangers history. In their joint statement, the CW and CBS Studios hinted that Morgan could return to the series for guest appearances.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

NPR's Book of the Day podcast delved into why Hillary Clinton wanted to write a political thriller about her greatest nightmare.

Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast is back with a look at "Three Famous Poisoning Cases."

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer Anne Laughlin, author of six crime novels, including her latest book, Money Creek, for The Crime Cafe.

On Writer Types, bestselling authors, Lee & Andrew Child, talked about the latest Jack Reacher novel, Better Off Dead. Wanda M. Morris also discussed her debut novel, All Her Little Secrets, and William Boyle talked about his latest novel, Shoot The Moonlight Out.

Diego Ornelas Tapia stopped by the Wrong Place, Write Crime podcast to talk about his novel, To Dame a Dame.

Writers Detective Bureau returned this week with host, Detective Adam Richardson, translating a bit of legalese; he also discussed the crime of discharging a laser at an aircraft; and how police use warrants to take down multiple gang locations at the same time.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with Clare Whitfield, winner of the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Prize, whose debut re-imagines the Jack the Ripper murders; they also discussed the fate of the PG Tips tea chimps; and investigated awkward plurals.