Mystery Melange

 The 2024 recipient of the George N. Dove Award for contributions to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction is British author, editor of Crime Time magazine, essayist, journalist, and commentator Barry Forshaw. The Dove Award, named for mystery fiction scholar George N. Dove, is presented by the Detective/Mystery Caucus of the Popular Culture Association. Past Dove recipients include Frankie Y. Bailey, Martin Edwards, Douglas G. Greene, P. D. James, Christine Jackson, H. R. F. Keating, Maureen Reddy, Janet Rudolph, J. K. Van Dover, and Elizabeth Foxwell. (HT to Foxwell's The Bunburyist blog)

Lambda Liberary announced the finalists in 26 categories for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, the "Lammys." The finalists were selected by more than 70 avid readers, critics, and literary professionals from more than 1,300 submissions and represent outstanding LGBTQ+ literature from 2023. Those finalists in the Mystery Category include: Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes Books); Don't Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark); The Good Ones by Polly Stewart (HarperCollins Publishers); Transitory by J. M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books); and Where the Dead Sleep by Joshua Moehling (Poisoned Pen Press). The 2024 Lammy Awards ceremony will be held the evening of June 11, 2024 at New York City’s Sony Hall.

Mystery Writers of America is making the 2024 Symposium Panels featuring the 2024 Edgar Nominees available via ZOOM. All panels are also live-streamed via the MWA YouTube channel and will be archived there. The 78th Annual Edgar® Awards banquet with the announcement of winners will be celebrated on May 1, 2024, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

Janet Rudolph has posted her updated annual listing of Easter Crime Fiction, along with some Good Friday mysteries. And Mystery Lovers Kitchen has shared some Easter recipes and reads, including Fancy Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows by Libby Klein; Armenian Sweet Bread via Tina Kashian. 

Iceland has its Jólabókaflóð or "Christmas book flood," in which publishers release new titles in time for the holidays so people can give books as gifts and spend Christmas Eve reading. Not to be outdone, Norway has its own book tradition of celebrating crime fiction books over the Easter holiday. As Science Norway explains, to understand why, we need to go back to the 1920s.

The Guardian reviewed The Russian Detective by Carol Adlam, a new "exquisitely illustrated celebration of early crime fiction." The project results from work that Adlam, an associate professor in the Nottingham School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University, and Claire Whitehead, a reader in modern languages at the University of St Andrew’s, have been doing together on the Lost Detective Project: a collaboration that draws on the work of long-forgotten writers of crime fiction who were contemporaries of Dostoevsky.

The latest Mystery Readers Journal features Southern California Mysteries, with articles, reviews, and author essays on the topic, as well as the usual columns and other mystery related material. The issue is now available for purchase, and you can catch some samples via the online features, "Los Angeles Ninja Lily Wong" by Tori Eldridge, "Los Angeles: City of Dreams" by Lee Goldberg, and "Through a Lens Brightly" by Gary Phillips.

In the Q&A roundup, Paul Burke welcomed Neil Lancaster to Crime Time to discuss The Devil You Know, the third Max Cragie installment of the gritty police procedural series set in Scotland; Author Interviews chatted with Heather Gudenkauf, the Edgar Award nominated author of ten novels including Everyone Is Watching; and Lisa Haselton spoke with thriller author Matt Cost about the new installment in his Clay Wolfe/Port Essex Mysteries series, Pirate Trap.

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

Hot on the heels of his Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA wins for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy is set to reprise his starring role in Peaky Blinders for a follow-up film to shoot in September, according to series creator Steven Knight. Originally airing on BBC before eventually moving to Netflix, Peaky Blinders takes its name from the Birmingham gang whose exploits it chronicles in the aftermath of World War I. Murphy led the popular British crime drama series as gang leader Tommy Shelby, with the show running for six seasons between 2013 and 2022.

The 1999 cult favorite film, The Boondock Saints, is set for a "universe expansion" of the action film franchise about the fraternal twin Irish brothers who raise holy hell to rid their Boston hometown of all criminals. Both films starred The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery as the MacManus brothers, with Billy Connolly playing their father. Reedus and Flanery will reprise their roles, and the search is on for a new director after Troy Duffy stepped away from that role. Duffy plans to write a series of books about the Saints, continuing their story that way.

Ilfenesh Hadera has been tapped to star opposite Denzel Washington in High and Low, Spike Lee's English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller. Loosely based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom, written by Evan Hunter under the pen name Ed McBain, the original High and Low watches as a shoe company executive becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom. It’s unclear how closely Lee’s film will hew to the original storyline, and there’s no word yet as to the role Hadera will play.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Peacock has picked up The Good Daughter, a limited series psychological suspense thriller starring and executive produced by Jessica Biel. Based on Karin Slaughter's bestselling novel and with the author writing all episodes, the series centers on sisters Charlotte (Biel) and Samantha Quinn, who have spent the last twenty-eight years trying to piece together the lives that were fractured by a single night of violence. When another attack splinters the small town of Pikeville, Charlotte is the first witness on the scene. Now a lawyer like her father, she’s forced to confront her own demons as the case twists through one shocking revelation after another. In the end, both she and Samantha find themselves wondering if the price of being the good daughter was worth it after all.

Netflix is teaming up with Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø, whose Harry Hole crime novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, for a new "Next on Nordic" noir series, Harry Hole (working title). The project is based on Nesbø’s novel, The Devil’s Star, about the series' titular detective, with Nesbø also writing the script. The story is set In the heat of a sweltering Oslo summer, when a young woman is found murdered in her flat—with one of her fingers cut off and a tiny red star-shaped diamond placed under her eyelid. An off-the-rails alcoholic barely holding on to his job, Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with Tom Waaler, a hated colleague whom Harry believes is responsible for the murder of his partner. When another woman is reported missing five days later, and her severed finger turns up adorned with a red star-shaped diamond ring, Harry fears a serial killer is at work.

Netflix also unveiled other "Next on Nordic" programs including its first Nordic period drama, The New Force, set in 1958 and focused on Sweden's first female police officer graduates. Ridiculed by the public, belittled by the media, and scorned by their colleagues, the pioneering officers are placed in Sweden’s most crime-ridden district, in Stockholm, where they realize their biggest problem isn’t the criminals but resistance from colleagues and their own families. There will also be a standalone sequel to the Danish series, The Chestnut Man, based on a Søren Sveistrup novel, with Danica Curcic and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard starring as detectives Mark Hess and Naia Thulin investigating crimes of a violent murderer who stalks victims before killing them. Plus, Netflix announced a second season of Barracuda Queens, which follows a group of girls who engage in an escalating series of robberies, this time set in the art world.

Narcos creator Chris Brancato is developing a Peaky Blinders-style series about Irish gangs in New York, with the working title, The Westies. Deadline reported that the project is in early development for MGM+, and will focus on "fearsome Irish gangs" with a starting point of the late 1970s.

Maggie Q is set to headline Prime Video's untitled Renée Ballard series, a Bosch spinoff about the LAPD’s Cold Case Division. Based on the work of bestselling author Michael Connelly, the drama follows Detective Renée Ballard, who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold-case unit — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. Ballard approaches these frozen-in-time cases with empathy and determination. When she uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life.

Murder In A Small Town, Fox’s psychological crime drama starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk, has expanded its cast with new additions James Cromwell (Succession), Stana Katic (Castle), and Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica). Based on the "Karl Alberg" books by L.R. Wright, Sutherland stars as Karl Alberg, a detective who moves to a quiet coastal town in search of peace of mind but finds the paradise has more than its share of secrets. Kreuk plays Cassandra, a local librarian who becomes Alberg’s muse, foil, and romantic interest. Douglas plays Sergeant Sid Sokolowski, Alberg’s second in command, with Cromwell and Katic appearing in guest star roles.

CBS's NCIS: Origins has found its young Mike Franks. Kyle Schmid has been cast as a lead opposite Austin Stowell and Mariel Molino in the CBS Studios-produced Young Gibbs drama, a prequel to the venerable procedural, which has a straight-to-series order for the 2024-2025 broadcast season. Origins begins in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS, and follows Gibbs (Stowell) as he starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks (Schmid).

CBS has picked up NCIS: Sydney for a second season. The procedural will also return for a second year on Paramount+ Australia. NCIS: Sydney marked the first international expansion of the franchise and was the No. 1 new series of the fall and currently ranks as the No. 3 new series of the 2023-2024 season, behind Tracker and Elsbeth.

NBC has renewed all three One Chicago series—Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D.—for the 2024-25 season. The trio of shows returned in January following a long break due to the dual writers' and actors' strikes with shortened seasons. New episodes are released on Wednesdays and are currently the top three shows of the night this season in total viewers. Replays are available the following day via Peacock.

Netflix has set April 25 as the premiere date for its upcoming dark YA genre series, Dead Boy Detectives. Based on the comics of the same name by Neil Gaiman and part of The Sandman Universe, Dead Boy Detectives follows Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), the "brains" and "brawn" behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts…who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell, and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast, Shane Whaley interviewed Michael Frost Beckner, the writer of the movie Spy Game. They discussed Michael's Spy Game book series including a new novella called Kaleidoscope and how it fits into his Spy Game trilogy.

On Crime Time FM, Graham Bartlett chatted with host Paul Burke about his new police thriller, City on Fire, the third Jo Howe novel; Brighton and policing in a modern city; dialing up the drama; Brighton's rebel soul; meeting readers; and supporting 150+ writers with policing matters.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed Ron Corbett, a former radio host and newspaper columnist, whose first book of fiction was Ragged Lake, the debut novel in the Frank Yakabuski mystery series, and an Edgar Award nominee for Best Original Paperback. His latest novel, Cape Rage, features undercover agent, Danny Barrett who is in the rugged landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where he is caught between a family of criminals and the psychopath who is tracking them down.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode is up, featuring the mystery short story, "Charity Begins At Home," by Herschel Cozine, read by actor Sean Hopper.

The Cop and Writers podcast, hosted by Patrick J. O'Donnell, welcomed Rebekah Strong, an active member of law enforcement for over twenty years, working her way up from patrol to Crime Scene Investigator. She also writes crime novels under the pen name of R.J. Strong, including two books in the Luke Marshall series and her latest, Perimortem, the first novel in the Elloree Holt Forensic Crime Thriller Series.

Crime fiction and true crime writer Amanda Lamb joined Debbi Mack on the latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed European mysteries and thrillers.

Mystery Melange

The shortlists for the British Book Awards were announced, including those in the category of Best Crime and Thriller: The Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas; The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman; None of This is True by Lisa Jewell; Damascus Station by David McCloskey; The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith; and The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. The British Book Awards, also called the Nibbies, "celebrate the intimate connection between the books, their makers and their audience." Winners will be honored on May 13, 2024 through both a livestream and at Grosvenor House in London. You can see all the finalists here, which include a few extra crime titles in the Best Audiobook Fiction and Best Children's Fiction categories.

Winners of the inaugural Libby Book Awards, chosen by a vote from over 1,700 librarians and library workers across North America, have been announced, including winners in categories of interest to crime fiction fans: Best Mystery, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto; Best Thriller, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; Best Debut Author, The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes; and Best Audio Book, I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makka.

Submissions have opened for a new honor sponsored by the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the McDermid Debut Award for new writers. Named in recognition of world-famous crime writer, Val McDermid, who co-founded the Festival in 2003 and whose dedication to fostering new voices in crime fiction through the New Blood panel is legendary, this new award seeks to continue her legacy, celebrating and platforming the best debut crime writers in the UK. The McDermid Debut Award is open to full-length debut crime novels by UK and Irish authors published for the first time in hardback or paperback original between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024, with submissions closing on March 21. A shortlist of six titles will be announced on June 13, and the winner presented at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Awards event on Thursday, July 18.

International Thriller Writers announced the 2024 scholarship winners, who will each receive a full-access pass to ThrillerFest in addition to $1,000 for travel expenses: Gabbie Hanks, Emi Macuaga, and Karabi Mitra. Their entries stood out amongst the many accomplished submissions and were made possible by the Scholarship Program sponsors, including Douglas Preston, Michael Mayo, Vicki Montet, and Karin Slaughter. ThrillerFest is a five-day conference made up of five different events—a Master Class (May 28), CraftFest (May 29-30), QueryFest (May 29-31), PitchFest (May 30), and ThrillerFest (May 31-June 1), which culminates with a fun-filled Awards Banquet on the evening of June 1.

The inaugural Montreal Mystery/Montréal Mystère Festival takes place March 24-25, bringing together English and French language writers for a weekend dedicated to the mystery and thriller genres in celebration of the blend of languages, cultures, and the timeless appeal of mystery fiction. Authors scheduled to take part include Lilja Sigurðardóttir, J. L. Blanchard, Robyn Harding, Catherine Lafrance, Shari Lapena, Nicole Lundrigan, Catherine McKenzie, Marcie R. Rendon, Robert Rotenberg, Amy Stuart, Steve Urszenyi, and Tessa Wegert.

Writers of short crime fiction are often overlooked at the various festivals and workshops, and a new conference hopes to rectify that. ShortCon, billing itself as "The Premier Conference for Short Crime Fiction Writers," is scheduled to be held in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday, June 22, 2024. It will offer the opportunity to join acclaimed and award-winning crime fiction professionals for an immersive, one-day event and learn how to write short crime fiction, get your stories published, and develop and sustain a long-term career writing short. It includes three hours of in-depth instruction on how to craft short crime fiction from New York Times bestselling novelist and multiple-award-winning short-fiction author, Brendan DuBois; an insider look at the world’s leading mystery magazines by Senior Managing Editor Jackie Sherbow of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; career lessons from short-fiction legend and author of more than twelve-hundred short stories, Michael Bracken; and a wrap-up discussion led by short crime fiction rising star, Stacy Woodson.

Speaking of Michael Bracken, he was recently elected to the Texas Institute of Letters, a distinguished honor society established in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievement. The membership includes winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prizes in drama, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as prizes awarded by PEN, and dozens of other regional and national award and grant-giving institutions.

When Art Taylor took over "The First Two Pages" blog after the passing of its founder, B.K. Stevens in 2017, his first guest was Robert Lopresti, who wrote about his story, "The Chair Thief," in the November/December 2017 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Seven years later, Rob returns to the blog with a story that came out a few weeks ago in Black Cat Weekly, the cover story of that issue. "The First Two Pages" hosts craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work.

The Clues: Journal of Detection's Teaching Forum is seeking submissions of short essays that address the uses of crime fiction to teach both foreign languages and cultures in the classroom. Contributions of 750 to 1,000 words are sought for vol. 43, no. 1 (2025), and accounts from all classroom spaces (high schools, post-secondary institutions, prisons, etc.) and instructors at all stages of their careers are welcome. Submissions are due September 1, 2024.

In the Q&A roundup, Chris Nickson, a music journalist and author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, eight highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series, and six Simon Westow mysteries, applied the Page 69 Test to The Scream of Sins, the newest Simon Westow mystery; and Tana French spoke with Crime Reads about embracing discomfort, Irish wit, and "chosen family" in her new thriller, The Hunter.

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

In a competitive situation, Colombia Pictures has acquired the rights to Teddy Wayne’s upcoming dark thriller, The Winner, with Wayne adapting his own book for the big screen. The story follows law school graduate Conor, who takes a job as a tennis pro in a gated community near Cape Cod, only to find himself torn between an arrangement with a sharp-tongued divorcée and falling in love with her outspoken daughter. He manages to find a way through this tangled web until he makes one irreversible mistake.

Jennifer Garner is set to star with fellow Golden Globe winner Paul Walter Hauser in the movie, Fruitcake. Max Winkler (Flower, Jungleland) is directing the true story about Sandy and Kay Jenkins, a seemingly upstanding middle-class couple who went on to embezzle millions from popular Texas-based business Collin Street Bakery. Hauser will play Sandy, an unassuming accountant who was funneling large sums of money into his accounts and credit card bills to support a lavish lifestyle, with Garner set to play his wife, Kay. The project is based on the Texas Monthly article, "Just Desserts" by Katy Vine, who will serve as a consultant.

Grantchester actor Tom Brittney, Corestar Media, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel author Deborah Moggach are adapting the true story of Mavis Eccleston, who was accused of murder after entering into a suicide pact with her terminally ill husband. The feature, Goodnight Darling, will follow how the 79-year-old Mavis was arrested and tried for murder, only to be unanimously found not guilty, and then began a campaign with her family to change the law to allow people to take the choice of assisted dying. Moggach, whose mother served time in prison in an assisted dying case, is writing the script.

Noir City Hollywood 2024 is headed to the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles March 22-31. The festival, which is co-presented by the Film Noir Foundation, celebrates its 25th anniversary at the American Cinematheque with a killer lineup of twenty-three films. Alongside its classic lineup, the festival will present a series of allegorical double features, pairing international films with more familiar English-language ones. Hosted by the Foundation’s Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode, the event will include twelve 35mm prints (including a "glorious" Nitrate print) and special guests for a splashy, sinister trip back in time, beginning with a duo of suspense stories from the pen of Cornell Woolrich, Never Open That Door (Argentina, 1952) and The Window (USA, 1949).

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Steven Lightfoot has been tapped to develop a series adaptation of bestseller Brad Thor's Scot Harvath series. Kicking off with The Lions of Lucerne in 2002, the book series is fast approaching over 20 million copies sold worldwide. The novels follow ex-Navy SEAL and intelligence operative, Scot Harvath, as he protects the United States and the world through any means possible. Of the 23 books, 20 are New York Times bestsellers with several debuting at #1, as well as being voted Best Book and Best Thriller of the Year.

Emmy nominee Jurnee Smollett is set to lead the new Apple Original drama series, Firebug, loosely inspired by events surrounding notorious California arsonist John Leonard Orr. She will star alongside Taron Egerton in the project, which is being developed, written, and executive produced by author Dennis Lehane. Firebug will follow a troubled detective and an enigmatic arson investigator as they pursue the trail of two serial arsonists. Orr, the inspiration for the podcast, worked for the Glendale Fire Department in Southern California as a fire captain and arson investigator who later was convicted of being a serial arsonist and mass murderer.

Amanda Peet is set as a lead opposite Jon Hamm in Your Friends and Neighbors, Apple TV+’s upcoming drama series from Warrior creator Jonathan Tropper and Apple Studios. Craig Gillespie (Physical) is set to direct the first two episodes and executive produce. Based on an original idea by Tropper, the project stars Hamm as Coop, a recently divorced hedge fund manager who, after being fired, resorts to stealing from the wealthy residents in his tony upstate New York suburb in order to keep his family’s lifestyle afloat. These petty crimes begin to reinvigorate him until he breaks into the wrong house at the wrong time.

Amazon Prime Video has greenlit the psychological thriller series, Fear, starring Anjli Mohindra and Martin Compston. Excited to make a fresh start away from London, Martyn (Compston) and Rebecca (Mohindra) move into a beautiful house in Glasgow with their two young children. At first the new home seems idyllic, but when neighbor Jan (Solly McLeod) makes unnerving comments to Rebecca, it turns out to be the start of something far more intimidating.

DeVon Franklin, the founder of Franklin Entertainment, is developing the detective drama, Grace, for CBS. Grace follows a true-blue detective, known for his brash, cynical style, and a passionate community-focused pastor who wears her heart on her sleeve. They reluctantly partner to solve complex crimes as they debate their divergent beliefs while attempting to ignore their growing chemistry. It is being written by Devon Greggory and Corey Moore, who has written for series including NCIS: New Orleans.

Jessica Plummer, Richard Armitage, Lenny Henry, Steve Pemberton, Paul Kaye, Samantha Spiro, Lisa Faulkner, and Mary Malone have joined the cast of Netflix‘s Harlan Coben adaptation, Missing You, currently filming in the UK. Missing You tells the story of detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) who stumbles across her estranged fiancé on a dating app, forcing her to delve back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder, uncovering long-buried secrets from her past.

Unforgotten, the critically acclaimed crime drama created and written by Chris Lang, has started filming a sixth season. Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar reprise their roles as DCI Jess James and DI Sunil "Sunny" Khan as their dynamic on-screen partnership returns to investigate emotionally charged cold cases from the past, unraveling secrets and unearthing buried truths along the way. The new season will be directed by Andy Wilson (Ripper Street, Spooks) who has been the sole director for each of the previous 30 episodes across five seasons of the successful drama.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Linwood Barclay (No Time for Goodbye) talked about the art of writing crime fiction on the CBC Books: Why I Write series.

Amina Akhtar, author of Almost Surely Dead, was interviewed by Robert Justice on Crime Writers of Color.

On Crime Time FM, Tess Gerritsen chatted with Paul Burke about her new spy crime thriller, The Spy Coast; Maggie Bird; living in a CIA retirement town; MK Ultra; standing up for older characters; and British TV.

The latest episode of The Red Hot Chili Writers featured a chat with barrister and thriller writer Tony Kent, as well as a discussion of great legal thrillers, and a peek into the world's most famous courtroom at the Old Bailey.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Frank Zafiro welcomed Gabriel Valjan to discuss his multiple series – Shane Cleary, The Company Files, and Roma – as well as his fascination with history and relationships.

The Pick Your Poison podcast took a look at the favorite poison of Agatha Christie, which is also used as a performance enhancer; and a compound used as rat poison and also in doping during the Tour de France.

Mystery Melange

Janet Rudolph has updated her list of St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction over at Mystery Fanfare, and you can enjoy reading those titles while showing down on recipes from Mystery Lovers Kitchen, including Fully-Loaded Irish Colcannon from Cleo Coyle; Bubble and Squeak, Santa Cruz Style via Leslie Karst; and Gluten-Free Cinnamon Irish Soda Bread by Libby Klein.

The Spur Award winners from Western Writers of America were announced this past weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books. The Longmire Defense (Viking), Johnson’s 19th installment of his Walt Longmire mystery series, won for Best Contemporary Western Novel. The other finalists include: Calico by Lee Goldberg (Severn House) and Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane Books).

With an announcement coinciding with Women's History Month, the longlist for this year's Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was announced. The honor rewards "creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States." Of the fifteen titles under review are two books that may be of interest to crime fiction fans, the psychological thrillers, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, and I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makka. The shortlist will be announced on April 9, and the winner on May 13. The unusually well-endowed contest will offer the winner $150,000 and a residency at Fogo Island Inn, with the four finalists each receiving $12,500.

Congratulations to Philip Wilson, winner, ("A Recipe for Stovies") and also to runner-up Elisabeth Ingram Wallace ("The Strange Sheep of Greshonish"), in the annual Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story Competition. Glencairn Crystal, the maker of Glencairn Whiskey Glass and sponsor of the McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime writing awards, also sponsors this contest that seeks crime short stories in collaboration with Bloody Scotland and Scottish Field Magazine. This year’s theme was "A Crime Set In Scotland."

Mystery Writers of America-New York are hosting the panel discussion, "Criminal Tendencies: What makes a 'good' villain?" at Harlem Public Library in New York City, March 21, 2024. Moderator Elizabeth Mannion will be joined by panelists Catherine Maiorisi (the NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mystery series), Charles Salzberg (Swann's Last Song), and Cathi Stoler (Murder On the Rocks Series).

Virginians are fortunate to have two crime fiction conferences coming up: The Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival this Saturday, featuring special guest Donna Andrews interviewed by Art Taylor, as well as author panels and signings, and the Virginia Book Festival Crime Wave held in Charlottesville next weekend, March 22-23, with authors Sarah Weinman, Aggie Blum Thompson, Steve Weddle, Meagan Jennett, Polly Stewart, Peter Malone Elliott, Patti McCracken, Jennifer Sutherland, Yasmin Angoe, Cara Black, Alma Katsu, Victoria Gilbert, Laura Sims, and Ashley Winstead.

In forensics news that's out of this world, a new study by Staffordshire University and the University of Hull highlighted the behavior of blood in microgravity and the unique challenges of bloodstain pattern analysis aboard spacecraft. Bloodstain expert Zack Kowalske is a Crime Scene Investigator based in Atlanta, USA, and led the study as part his PhD research. He added, "Studying bloodstain patterns can provide valuable reconstructive information about a crime or accident. However, little is known about how liquid blood behaves in an altered gravity environment. This is an area of study that, while novel, has implications for forensic investigations in space."

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series "The First Two Pages," hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series relocated to Art Taylor's website after B.K.'s passing in 2017, and Art's latest guest is Charles Ardai, the Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author and founder of Hard Case Crime. Ardai is publishing the first collection of his short stories, Death Comes Too Late, and his contribution to First Two Pages is an essay on his Edgar Award-winning story, "The Home Front." 

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with thriller author Liz Crowe about her new domestic suspense, Cul-de-Sac, and also with Jack Lowe-Carbell about his new thriller, Arlya; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Loreth Anne White, author of the new novel, The Unquiet Bones, inspired by the true-life 1976 murder of 16-year-old Rhona Duncan.

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

Emmy nominee Mckenna Grace (Handmaid’s Tale) will star in and executive produce the new psychological thriller, Straight Lies, with Alex Kalymnios set to direct. Written by Ren Trella and inspired by true events from Trella's life as a teenager, the script was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting. The story is set in 1990 and follows a teen girl falsely accused of drug use, who's held against her will and must escape a cult-like drug rehab that is backed by the US Government. Meanwhile, her covert CIA agent father becomes so lost in political influence that he is unaware of the danger his daughter is in.

Karl Glusman (Civil War) has been set as the male lead opposite Samara Weaving in the 20th Century Studios heist thriller, Eenie Meanie, from writer-director Shawn Simmons (The Continental: From the World of John Wick). Produced by the Deadpool franchise’s Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the film follows Edie (Weaving), a former teenage getaway driver who is dragged back into her unsavory past when a former employer offers her a chance to save the life of her chronically unreliable ex-boyfriend. Glusman plays Edie’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, John.

Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me) is in talks to star in New Regency's Watch Dogs, an adaptation of the popular UbiSoft hit video game. The film is being directed by acclaimed French genre director Mathieu Turi from an original screenplay written by Christie LeBlanc, known for writing the Netflix original sci-fi thriller, Oxygen. While plot details haven't been released, the popular game is set in fictionalized versions of real-life cities at various points in time and follows different hacker protagonists who, while having different goals to achieve, find themselves involved with the criminal underworlds of their respective cities. The antagonists are usually corrupt companies, crime bosses, and rival hackers who take advantage of a fictional computing network that connects every electronic device in a city together into a single system and stores personal information on most citizens.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Bestselling author Laura Dave is teaming with her husband Josh Singer, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter currently nominated for Maestro, to adapt Dave's forthcoming novel, The Night We Lost Him, into a feature for Netflix. The pair also collaborated on another of  Dave's novels, The Last Thing He Told Me, Apple TV+’s hit limited series adaptation starring Jennifer Garner. The Night We Lost Him watches as the patriarch of a famed hotel empire dies under suspicious circumstances. Thereafter, his daughter and her estranged brother join forces to find out what happened, unraveling a larger mystery about who their father really was.

Austin Stowell (Catch-22 TV series) has been cast as young Jethro Gibbs in CBS's new drama NCIS: Origins, a prequel to the venerable procedural, which has a straight-to-series order for the 2024-2025 broadcast season. Narrated by Mark Harmon, who played the character in the original series, the prequel begins in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS. In the series, Gibbs (Stowell) starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks. Mark Harmon and his son Sean Harmon, who portrayed Gibbs in flashbacks on NCIS and was a driving force behind the prequel, executive produce alongside David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal who are co-writing the premiere episode and serving as co-showrunners.

MGM+ has given the green light to the mystery thriller, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue. Eric McCormack (Will & Grace, Perception) is the first actor to be cast, playing one of the leads in the six-part ensemble limited series written, created, and executive produced by Anthony Horowitz (Magpie Murders). The story follows nine strangers who find themselves lost in a remote Mexican jungle after their small plane traveling from Guatemala to the U.S. crashes. One by one, the survivors are murdered, leaving the remaining passengers to solve the terrifying mystery before they, too, fall victim to the killer. McCormack will play Kevin, a former doctor who has been purchasing medical supplies in Guatemala.

Tracker, the first new broadcast drama to premiere this season, is also the first freshman scripted series to land a renewal for a second season. Boosted by its premiere behind the Super Bowl, Tracker ranked as the #1 most watched show on television. The series is based on the bestselling novel, The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, and stars Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country as a reward seeker, using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries while contending with his own fractured family.

The BBC has bought Viaplay's Rebus reboot. Set in Edinburgh, the series stars Richard Rankin (Outlander) in the title role, playing a young John Rebus as a detective sergeant, who is drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal when his brother Michael, a former soldier, crosses the line into criminality. The show, based on the novels by author Ian Rankin (no relation to the actor), had originally been slated for Viaplay’s UK service but will instead run exclusively on BBC Scotland, BBC One, and BBC iPlayer this spring. The original Rebus series aired on BBC rival ITV between 2000 and 2007.

Netflix has picked up Homicide: New York, a true-crime docuseries from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, set to debut on the streamer on March 20, and also released a trailer. It will be followed by Homicide: Los Angeles later this year. Both installments consist of five episodes each. Each "Homicide" mini-series tells the stories of a city’s most notorious murder cases by following the detectives and prosecutors who cracked them.

A trailer was released for the new Netflix limited series Ripley, set to premiere on April 4. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling Tom Ripley novels, Andrew Scott portrays the titular character, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York. Ripley is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Ripley’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS released a trailer for the third and final season of Guilt, beginning Sunday, April 28th, and running through four hour-long episodes. The award-winning TV series is a darkly comic Scottish thriller hailed by The Guardian as "Scotland’s answer to Fargo," and follows polar opposite brothers: unscrupulous lawyer Max McCall (Mark Bonnar, Shetland) and his softer-hearted brother Jake (Jamie Sives, Annika) as they get into and out of trouble. Guilt’s cast also includes Emun Elliott, who plays long-suffering private eye Kenny Burns, Phyllis Logan as Maggie Lynch, a formidable presence in Edinburgh’s crime underworld, and Sara Vickers as Erin Lynch, the daughter trying to distance herself from the family business.

Apple TV+ has released the official trailer for Sugar, featuring Oscar nominee Colin Farrell as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried. The first two episodes of Sugar's eight-episode season will drop Friday, April 5 on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Debbi Mack's guest for the latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast was Southern Gothic mystery writer Faye Snowden, author of A Killing Fire and A Killing Rain, named by CrimeReads as one of the best Southern Gothic mysteries of 2022.

Spybrary Spy Book Podcast host Shane Whaley, author Paul Vidich, and Spybrarian David Craggs discussed Paul Vidich's latest spy thriller, Beirut Station: Two Lives of a Spy, a novel "pulsating with emotional depth and geopolitical intrigue."

On the latest edition of Crime Time FM, Barry Forshaw, Victoria Selman, and Paul Burke chatted about new books, SS Van Dine's Philo Vance on screen, writing to trend and branching out within the genre, the Oxford Literary Festival, and more.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed some of their underrated favorites and covered some recent crime fiction news and awards.

The Infinite Monkey Cage, a podcast hosted by Robin Ince and physicist Brian Cox, delved into the murky world of historical poisonings with the help of Hugh Dennis, chemist Andrea Sella, and Agatha Christie aficionado and former chemist Kathryn Harkup.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured Twist Phelan's reading of "Judge Not," her story of a local judge who faces a serious ethical dilemma, from EQMM's May/June 2023 issue.

THEATRE

Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal are slated to star in Othello on Broadway in spring 2025. The production, which will see Washington in the title role and Gyllenhaal as Iago, will be directed by Kenny Leon, who previously directed Washington in A Raisin in the Sun and Fences, opposite Viola Davis. The new production of the classic Shakespeare tragic drama, scheduled to open at an as-yet unnamed Shubert theater, follows Iago, a junior officer, as he grows jealous about being overlooked for a promotion and seeks revenge on his general, Othello.

Mystery Melange

This week, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners of the 2024 Audie Awards during a ceremony in Los Angeles for the 27 categories of prizes. Best Mystery went to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto, narrated by Eunice Wong (Penguin Random House Audio). The Best Thriller/Suspense honor was snagged by All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby, narrated by Adam Lazarre-White (Macmillan Audio). You can check out all the finalists in those categories as well as the other genres via this link.

If you're in the Washington, DC, area this Saturday, March 9, join global bestselling Icelandic authors Ragnar Jónasson and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, known as the Queen and King of Icelandic crime fiction, for a conversation at the Beverly Snow about their novels and the literature festival they run as a side hustle. Ragnar Jónasson will be discussing Reykjavík, a crime novel he co-authored with Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir will discuss The Legacy, the first book in the Huldar and Freyja series.

It's always good news to hear about the advent of a new bookstore, and this week it was Criminally Good Books, an independent book store specializing in crime writing that opened its doors for the first time in Colliergate, York, in the UK. Owner Isla Coole said she "hoped to promote the best of the genre but also help publicise great books which perhaps did not benefit from a publisher's marketing budget and so might fall under the radar of readers." A range of events are already planned for the store including author book talks and signings.

The last major appearance of Dick Tracy in other media outside of comic books was the 1990 Dick Tracy feature film directed by and starring Warren Beatty. This year, Alex Segura, Michael Moreci, and Chantelle Aimée Osman, the holders of the Dick Tracy comic book rights, are looking to change all that with the launch of an all-new, ongoing Dick Tracy series from Mad Cave Studios. The book, written by Segura and Moreci and featuring art by Geraldo Borges, launches in April and will be a noir-tinged "Year One" approach to the famous trench coat-clad, fedora-wearing, intrepid police detective. Moreci noted, "This Dick Tracy is more complex, more modern, and a bit darker than what he's been before. But, and this goes to my second point, longtime Tracy readers will find plenty to love here."

Speaking of Alex Segura, he'll be joined by fellow authors Cassandra Khaw (The Salt Grows Heavy) and Cynthia Pelayo (Forgotten Sisters) for the genre author panel, "Mystery! Horror! Mayhem!" on Thursday, March 21 at Kew and Willow Books in Kew Gardens, New York.

Short Story Wednesday is a loosely organized group of bloggers who feature classic short stories each week (something I've been wanting to participate in, but haven't found the time just yet). Among this week's offerings are "Scab Painting" by Yoka Ogawa via Patti Abbott; The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories: Part XXXVII, via George Kelley; "Black Winter," by Ellen Gilchrist, via Todd Mason; and three Captain Leopold stories by Edward D. Hoch via Tracy K.

Jeff Pierce over at The Rap Sheet blog has an embarrassment of riches with a list of crime fiction titles being published March through May of this year in both the U.S. and the U.K. I'm still waiting for my reading clone to help me get through all of these, but they're certainly going to make a lot of ereaders and bookstores very happy.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton interviewed thriller author Piper Bayard about her new thriller co-authored with Jay Holmes, The Caiman of Iquitos, the second full-length novel in the Apex Predator series featuring retired CIA officer John Viera and his network of former military and intelligence operatives; and Cara Black, author of the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series and two World War II-set novels featuring American markswoman Kate Rees, spoke with Writers Read about what's on her reading list right now.

Author R&R with Brianne Sommerville

Canadian author Brianne Sommerville studied English literature and theatre at Queen’s University before entering the world of public relations and marketing. She writes news releases and key messages by day, and fiction by night after her three kiddos under five have gone to sleep. Brianne has always been drawn to mysteries and suspense, particularly domestic suspense and psychological thrillers. In 2018, while on maternity leave with her eldest child, Brianne was feverishly scribbling in her notebook, confiding in its pages about her darkest fears as a new mother. It was the infinite days and sleepless nights fraught with anxiety that ended up laying the groundwork for her debut novel. What began as her sleep-deprived stream of consciousness evolved into If I Lose Her, a universal story of a new mother whose mind may or may not be unraveling

About If I Lose Her: The pregnancy podcasts warned Joanna Baker about the baby blues, but when a near-fatal mistake places the first-time mom under the watchful eye of Child Protective Services, she receives a serious diagnosis: postpartum depression. Jo hears the words, yet they don’t make sense. Nothing does. Her blackouts are increasing, and she can’t recall events she’s been accused of. As she fights to keep her daughter, she discovers cracks in her neighborhood, family, and her own home. With the support of her sisters, she attempts to piece together her traumatic past and uncover who is truly in control. Jo must battle her faltering mind to save what’s most important—her daughter.

Brianne Sommerville stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

With a communications background, sharing the truth is always top of mind but I gravitate towards writing fiction where I can use my imagination and provide escapism for my readers. While my works are largely fictional, I still want my stories to be believable and as authentic as possible, which is why research is still important to my process.

Research usually doesn’t come until I have a strong understanding of where I’d like to take my story. I often begin with my personal experience (write what you know, they say), which was the case with my debut novel.

During the first few months of new motherhood, I was experiencing postpartum anxiety. We had a scare during delivery and a code pink was issued due to my daughter’s slow heart rate. After that, I had a hard time shaking concerns about her health. I found solace in confiding in my journal about the fears I was hesitant to share with friends and family. Those diary entries ended up inspiring the novel and I think it helped with the relatability of my main character Joanna Baker. I wrote the first drafts during the early days of motherhood over two maternity leaves, so my experiences were fresh and uninhibited. Research was easy when I could draw from my own immediate experiences. I’m taking a similar approach with my sophomore novel What She Left Behind, which features a sixteen-year-old diary point of view. I dug out my old teenage journal to help create an authentic teen voice.

Once I have my story shaped (I’m a plotter versus a pantser), then the drafting begins. If I encounter something in the plot that I want to learn more about, I usually put a placeholder in or I’ll take some time to do initial internet research. Like most thriller writers, my search history is alarming. I’d share some examples here but then I would be giving away major spoilers!

I consider myself a visual learner, so sometimes reading about a subject doesn’t cut it. Recently, I spent an hour watching YouTube videos of a dashcam in a snow plough so I could experience what it is like to drive one as I have a character in What She Left Behind who clears snow. That same novel involves renovations of a century home. To prepare, I watched many episodes of This Old House, a longstanding home-improvement show. It is on those days that my writing progress looks minimal but really, spending the time on that research helps ensure I am creating authentic characters and a realistic situation.

I also lean on friends and family who have experience or backgrounds in areas that I want to tap into. For example, I recently picked my sister’s brain who studied art therapy, to ensure a scene depicting a dementia patient’s therapy session was realistic. If I Lose Her references pharmaceuticals, so I consulted my father-in-law who has a pharma background.

A lot of the themes I explore involve mental health and other sensitive topics that require a level of research to ensure characters and their situations are represented appropriately. For If I Lose Her, I drew on my own experience with postpartum anxiety so that the additional research I engaged in complemented my firsthand experience.

 

Connect with Brianne on Instagram, Twitter/X, Goodreads, and TikTok, or visit her website to learn more about If I Lose Her, which arrives on March 5 in e-book, paperback and audio, wherever books are sold.

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

Paramount announced several new release dates last week, including the Naked Gun reboot starring Liam Neeson, which is set for July 18, 2025. Akiva Schaffer will direct and executive produce the project, which is based on the Naked Gun movies and Police Squad! movies starring Leslie Nielsen. The new film follows the misadventures of Detective Frank Drebin's son, Frank Drebin, Jr. and is said to be a sequel to 1994's Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult."

Among Paramount's news about upcoming release dates was also a note about the action thriller, Novocaine, slated for March 14, 2025. The film is from Robert Olsen and Dan Berk and follows a sheltered bank executive (Jack Quaid) with a rare genetic condition that prevents him from feeling pain. When his bank is robbed and one of his co-workers (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, he is forced to act and turn his greatest liability into his greatest strength.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

CBS Studios is expanding its ever growing NCIS franchise by bringing back two fan favorite characters from the mothership series: Tony DiNozzo, played by Michael Weatherly, and Ziva David, portrayed by Cote de Pablo, who will reunite on screen for the first time in a decade. Paramount+ has given a ten-episode series order to the spinoff currently nicknamed NCIS: Europe. Via the logline: "After Ziva’s (de Pablo) supposed death, Tony (Weatherly) left the NCIS team to go raise their daughter. Years later, Ziva was discovered alive, leading her to complete one final mission with NCIS before she was reunited with Tony and their daughter in Paris. Since then – and where we find them in the new Paramount+ original series – Tony and Ziva have been raising their daughter, Tali, together. When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, trying to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after."

The Donovans, a new series loosely based on Showtime’s popular drama Ray Donovan, is set at Paramount+, with Guy Ritchie attached to direct and executive produce. The Donovans follows two generations of gangsters, the businesses they run, the complex relationships they weave, and the man they call upon to fix their problems.

NBC has handed a series order to The Hunting Party, a high-concept crime procedural from JJ Bailey, The Endgame co-creator Jake Coburn, and Universal Television. The Hunting Party is about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist.

MASTERPIECE on PBS announced that Kate Phillips will return as Miss Eliza Scarlet for a fifth season of investigations, and the series will be retitled Miss Scarlet. Stuart Martin, who played William "The Duke" Wellington in the previous four seasons will not return for Season 5. Miss Scarlet will welcome back many cast members from previous seasons, including Evan McCabe as Detective Fitzroy, Cathy Belton as Ivy, Felix Scott as Patrick Nash, Paul Bazely as Clarence, Simon Ludders as Mr. Potts, and Tim Chipping as Detective Phelps. Series creator Rachael New says, "We will miss our Duke but there is so much in store for Eliza – new crimes, new friends, new foes and new romance. We will be keeping her very busy!"

Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser and Malpractice's Ella Maisy Purvis will play a detective duo in the six-part PBS drama series, Patience. Fraser will play Detective Bea Metcalf, who forms an unlikely duo with Purvis’s young autistic police archivist, Patience Evans. Patience works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire Police, cataloguing and filing the evidence produced during major cases, and is a brilliant, self-taught criminologist with an instinctive eye for crime scenes and a passion for problem-solving. Metcalf is the first person to spot and utilize Patience’s talent, which opens a door into a whole new world for the archivist. Neuro-diversity will play a thematic role in the series, with all neuro-divergent characters within the series to be played by neuro-diverse actors — including Purvis.

Paramount+ has also picked up the UK thriller series, Curfew. Starring Sarah Parish, Mandip Gill, Mitchell Robertson, and singer Alexandra Burke, Curfew is set in a society where all men live under "The Women’s Safety Act," meaning they are bound by a strict curfew from 7PM to 7AM every night, with their movements tracked by an ankle tag 24 hours a day. When a woman’s body is discovered, brutally murdered during curfew hours and left on the steps of the Women’s Safety Centre, veteran Police officer Pamela Green believes that a man is responsible. But in a world where men are bound by the curfew system, her theory is rejected.

Diego Boneta is set to lead the newly greenlit bilingual series, El Gato (w/t), based on the comic book series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez. In El Gato, Boneta will play Frank Guerrero, the black sheep of his family, who finds himself at the center of a vast conspiracy when he discovers his father was the titular ‘70s vigilante, El Gato. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot.

Great American Family network is launching Great American Mysteries, a movie franchise that aims to rival Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. The first movie in the Great American Mysteries series is The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker starring Candace Cameron Bure and Aaron Ashmore. Adapted from bestselling novelist Candace Havens’s book of the same name, the project follows Ainsley McGregor (Bure), a former Chicago criminologist who returns to her hometown of Sweet River, Texas. She has chosen to trade full-time crime work to open Bless Your Arts, a market for artisans to sell crafts and wares. But Ainsley cannot deny her first love is crime solving and accepts a position teaching a criminology class at the local community college. Her skills quickly become a major asset to the quaint town, when a murder occurs at a winery owned by her friend, who now stands accused of the crime.

Professor T, the crime series starring Ben Miller (Bridgerton) and set in and around Cambridge University, has been greenlit for a fourth season by ITV and PBS Distribution. In the brand new season, Frances de la Tour, Juliet Stevenson, and Barney White will reunite once more with Professor Tempest (Miller) as he uses his unique insight and analysis to help the police. It returns six months after the shocking finale of Season 3, and the team must overcome their grief to tackle a dangerous crime wave. This time, the gloves are well and truly off for Professor T in his lectures and a new musical pursuit, romance is very much alive for his mother Adelaide Tempest (De la Tour), and the lines between professional and personal become blurred for therapist Helena Goldberg (Stevenson). Meanwhile, DI Maiya Goswami (Sunetra Sarker) takes charge of the police force with series favorite DS Dan Winters (White) fiercely at her side.

John Simm's ITV crime drama Grace, based on the novels by Peter James, has been renewed for a fifth season. The renewal comes ahead of the crime thriller's season four premiere, with the fifth outing set to be made up of four feature-length films each expected to be about two hours long. Specific plot details are being kept under wraps ahead of season four, however, the episodes are reported to be based on the novels Dead If You Don't, Dead at First Sight, Need You Dead, and Find Them Dead.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On CrimeTime FM, Tara Moss chatted with Paul Burke about The War Widow; plus modeling, traveling, human rights activism, CRPS, journalism, post-war Sydney, and more.

The latest episode of the Red Hot Chili Writers featured an interview with bestselling crime writer BA Paris about her new novel, The Guest; plus, a discussion of Arabian Noir and a crime anthology set in the Gulf.

The latest episode of Dr. D.P. Lyle's Criminal Mischief podcast featured a Q&A with Tulsa, OK PD Homicide Detective Lt. Brandon Watkins.

The Pick Your Poison podcast looked at a leaf that can cause symptoms of an opioid overdose and another that has resulted in liver transplants and also causes a rash called crocodile skin.