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

Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Ben Kingsley are set to star in The Thursday Murder Club, with Chris Columbus attached to write and direct. The film is an adaptation of British TV host and producer Richard Osman's novel of the same name from Steven Spielberg‘s production house, Amblin Entertainment. The story follows a group of geriatric friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. Mirren will play ex-spy Elizabeth, Kingsley will play ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim, and Brosnan will play former union activist Ron. Negotiations for an actress to play the fourth member of the group, Joyce, are ongoing.

Pierce Brosnan has also signed to star in the romantic thriller, In The Wind, from Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures. The production is the feature directorial debut of Simon Barry, whose previous credits include creator and showrunner on the Netflix fantasy show Warrior Nun as well as Syfy show Ghost Wars. The film (fka A Spy’s Guide To Survival) centers around a reclusive, retired spy who is brought out of hiding by his enigmatic new neighbor, digging up both of their secrets in the process.

Clue is set to get another remake after Sony Pictures landed the TV and film rights to the board game that was turned into the iconic 1985 movie. Starring Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, the film centered around a group of strangers invited to a secluded mansion where things go wrong and also featured Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Colleen Camp as French maid Yvette, and Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy. Produced by Debra Hill, it infamously featured a number of different endings. Other potential film and TV adaptations have come and gone in the years since, but none has yet seen the light of day.

Emmy nominee Adam Scott (Severance) is set to star in and direct his first feature, Double Booked, alongside Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), and Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus). The story follows a successful self-help writer (Scott) and his heavily pregnant wife (Beetz) who organize a weekend away at a secluded lodge, only to encounter another couple (Brown and Daddario) at their cabin when they arrive. With a blizzard moving in they are forced to spend the night together, and what seems like an innocent system error turns into a chilling battle of deceit with deadly consequences.

A trailer was released for Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut, Blink Twice, a thriller about a waitress (Naomi Acke) being invited to the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), which is a far more sinister trip than it first appears. Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, and Kyle MacLachlan also star. Blink Twice is in theaters from August 23.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Adler Entertainment Trust (AET), the production company dedicated to adapting the works of Warren Adler, is partnering with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Todd Lieberman (The Fighter) and his production company, Hidden Pictures, on an initial two-project production deal: an untitled Fiona Fitzgerald Detective Series, based on Adler's eight-book Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery books set in the streets of Washington DC and its political backrooms, where Fiona Fitzgerald, born into an illustrious family of DC insiders, abandoned her obvious path in favor of becoming a full-time detective within the DC Metro PD; and Trans Siberian Express, an epic cold-war thriller based on Adler’s best-selling book by the same name, which follows an American cancer specialist secretly sent to Moscow to save the Soviet Politburo Chief, where he overhears a sinister plan to nuke China.

ITV's longest-running drama series, Vera, is coming to an end after 14 seasons. Based on the crime novels by Ann Cleeves, the drama stars Brenda Blethyn as the retired detective who plods along in a disheveled state but has a calculating mind, and, despite her irascible personality, cares deeply about her work and colleagues. Blethyn won the Rose d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award for her portrayal of the detective in 2021. 

Deadline reported that CBS has picked up a fifth season of The Equalizer, starring and executive produced by Queen Latifah, for 2024-25. But fans of another CBS crime drama series, NCIS: Hawai’i, aren't so lucky, as the network canceled the franchise’s first female-led (Vanessa Lachey) series after three seasons. It will also be the first series in the franchise not to get a proper sendoff after a brief run, compared to its predecessors.

NBC's Law & Order: Organized Crime, is finalizing a deal for a 10-episode Season 5 renewal, relocating from NBC to sibling Peacock, with the new season streaming exclusively on the platform. The move gives the NBCUniversal streamer an original Dick Wolf drama series to go with the Wolf library and next-day runs of the company’s remaining NBC series Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, which are among the platform’s most viewed titles. Organized Crime follows SVU's Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in his return to the NYPD to work on the Organized Crime Task Force.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with journalist, broadcaster, and crime writer, Stig Abell, about his new novel, Death in a Lonely Place; working at the Press Complaints Commission; and the phenomenon of bits falling off satellites and back to Earth.

On Crime Time FM, author David Hewson chatted with Paul Burke about Baptiste: The Blade Must Fall; Venice; Shakespeare; Audible; writing the official prequel to a hit television show, and more.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers nominated for the 2024 Edgar Awards.

Agatha Ascendancy

 

At the awards banquet held as part of the annual Malice Domestic conference last night, the winners were announced for the 2024 Agatha Awards in six categories. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Best Contemporary Mystery Novel: The Weekend Retreat, by Tara Laskowski (Graydon House)

Also nominated:

• Wined and Died in New Orleans, by Ellen Byron (Berkley)
• Helpless, by Annette Dashofy (Level Best)
• A Case of the Bleus, by Korina Moss (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)

Best Historical Mystery Novel: The Mistress of Bhatia House, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Also nominated:

• Death Among the Ruins, by Susanna Calkins (Severn House)
• Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, by Celeste Connally (Minotaur)
• I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, by Amanda Flower (Berkley)
• Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

Best First Mystery Novel: Crime and Parchment, by Daphne Silver (Level Best)

Also nominated:

• Glory Be, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus)
• The Hint of Light, by Kristin Kisska (Lake Union)
• Dutch Treat, by Josh Pachter (Genius)
• Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon (Morrow)

Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery Novel: The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary, by K.B. Jackson (Reycraft)

Also nominated:

• Myrtle, Means and Opportunity, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Algonquin Young Readers)
• Araña and Spiderman, by Alex Segura (Marvel Press)
• The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle, by Taryn Sounders (Sourcebooks Young Readers)
• Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose, by Nancy Springer (Wednesday)

Best Mystery Short Story: "Ticket to Ride," by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski (from Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles, edited by Josh Pachter; Down & Out)

Also nominated:

• "The Knife Sharpener," by Shelley Costa (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2023)
• "A Good Judge of Character," by Tina deBellegarde (from Malice Domestic 17: Murder Most Traditional, edited by Verena Rose, Rita Owen, and Shawn Reilly Simmons; Wildside Press)
• "Real Courage," by Barb Goffman (Black Cat Mystery Magazine, October 2023)
• "Shamu, World’s Greatest Detective," by Richie Narvaez (from Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West; Down & Out)

Best Mystery Non-fiction:  Finders: Justice, Faith and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, by Anjili Babbar (Syracuse University Press)

Also nominated:

• Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder, by David Bordwell (Columbia University Press)
• A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Mark Dawidziak (St. Martin’s Press)
• Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Robert Morgan (LSU Press)

Criminally Good Canadians

 

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the shortlists for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 29th, 2024. Congrats to all the honorees!

2024 Grand MasterAward:  Maureen Jennings

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel

• Robyn Harding, The Drowning Woman, Grand Central Publishing
• Shari Lapena, Everyone Here is Lying, Doubleday Canada
• Scott Thornley, Middlemen, House of Anansi Press
• Sam Wiebe, Sunset and Jericho, Harbour Publishing
• Loreth Anne White, The Maid's Diary, Montlake

Best Crime First Novel

• Jann Arden, The Bittlemores, Random House Canada
• Lisa Brideau, Adrift, Sourcebooks
• Charlotte Morganti, The End Game, Halfdan Press
• Amanda Peters, The Berry Pickers, Harper Perennial
• Steve Urszenyi, Perfect Shot, Minotaur

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada

• Gail Anderson-Dargatz, The Almost Widow, Harper Avenue/HarperCollins
• Renee Lehnen, Elmington, Storeyline Press
• Cyndi MacMillan, Cruel Light, Crooked Lane
• Joan Thomas, Wild Hope, Harper Perennial/HarperCollins
• Melissa Yi, Shapes of Wrath, Windtree Press

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery

• Gail Bowen, The Legacy, ECW Press
• Vicki Delany, Steeped in Malice, Kensington Books
• Vicki Delany, The Game is a Footnote, Crooked Lane Books
• Nita Prose, The Mystery Guest, Viking
• Iona Whishaw, To Track a Traitor, TouchWood Editions

Best Crime Short Story

• M.H. Callway, "Wisteria Cottage," Wildside Press (for Malice Domestic)
• Marcelle Dubé, "Reversion," Mystery Magazine
• Mary Keenan "The Canadians," Killin' Time in San Diego, Down & Out Books
• Donalee Moulton, "Troubled Water," Black Cat Weekly, Wildside Press
• Zandra Renwick, "American Night," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

The Best French Language Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

• Jean-Philippe Bernié, La punition, Glénat Québec
• Chrystine Brouillet, Le mois des morts, Éditions Druide
• Catherine Lafrance, Le dernier souffle est le plus lourd, Éditions Druide
• André Marois, La sainte paix, Héliotrope
• Jean-Jacques Pelletier, Rien, Alire

Best Juvenile/YA Crime Book

• Kelley Armstrong, Someone is Always Watching, Tundra Books
• Cherie Dimaline, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Tundra Books
• Rachelle Delaney, The Big Sting, Tundra Books
• Clara Kumagai, Catfish Rolling, Penguin Teen Canada
• Kevin Sands, Champions of the Fox, Puffin Canada

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime  

• Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin, The Survivor: How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Michael Lista, The Human Scale, Véhicule Press
• David Rabinovitch, Jukebox Empire, Rowman & Littlefield
• Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen, Cheated, ECW Press
• Carolyn Whitzman, Clara at the Door with a Revolver, UBC Press, On Point Press

Best Unpublished Crime Novel

• Tom Blackwell, The Patient
• Craig H. Bowlsby, Requiem for a Lotus
• Sheilla Jones and James Burns, Murder on Richmond Road: An Enquiry Bureau Mystery
• Nora Sellers, The Forest Beyond
• William Wodhams, Thirty Feet Under

Theakston Delights

The longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 was announced today. Readers are now invited to vote for their favorite novels to reach the shortlist, to be announced on June 13, with the winner revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, July 18. The Award is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and Daily Express, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024.

The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2024 longlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is:

• The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus; Little, Brown Book Group)
• In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Close by Jane Casey (Harper Fiction; Harper Collins)
• The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan)
• Fearless by M W Craven (Constable; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Baskerville; John Murray Press)
• Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Zaffre, Bonnier)
• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell (Century; Cornerstone)
• Conviction by Jack Jordan (Simon & Schuster)
• A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason (riverrun; Quercus)
• Past Lying by Val McDermid (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group)
• Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland)
• The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan Macmillan)
• The Last Goodbye by Tim Weaver (Michael Joseph; Penguin Random House)
• You Can Run by Trevor Wood (Quercus)

 

Mystery Melange

Ivy Pochoda has won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category for her novel, Sing Her Down. The story takes place in the shadows of L.A.’s homeless camps, run-down motels, and dark alleys, following women who have turned — for various reasons — to a life of crime. As noted in the LA Times, the judges, including Alex Segura, Wanda Morris, and mystery fiction critic Oline Cogdill, wrote, "Pochoda brilliantly explores her characters and this setting, while sifting through myriad literary tropes, including allusions to Macbeth, mythology, even a bit of a Greek chorus." The other finalists in this year's competition in that category included Dark Ride, by Lou Berney (Morrow); Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland); All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron); and Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton).

The Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans announced winners of the annual Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, established in 2012 for women writers to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley (1952-2012), a longtime crime fiction columnist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune. The Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work, which honors an established woman writer who has created a significant body of work in crime fiction, was awarded to Alafair Burke. Margot Douaihy was also honored with the 2023 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for Scorched Grace, while Sascha Rothchild is the winner of the 2022 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for her first book, Blood Sugar.

I previously noted the longlists that were announced this past weekend for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, but the CW also announced the longlist for this year’s Margery Allingham Short Mystery competition. Stories must be under 3,500 words and follow the spirit of Allingham's rule that "The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it."  

Noir at the Bar Edinburgh takes place this evening at the Canon Gait Pub, 232 Canongate,Edinburgh, from 6:30-8:00 pm (2:30-4pm ET). Authors scheduled to read from their works include Doug A Sinclair, Alex Nye, Brian Stewart, Ken Lussey, Michael Mackenzie, Fiona Veitch Smith, Jess Faraday, and Traude Ailinger.

Ashley Audrain and Conor Kerr are among the authors announced for this year's MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival, presented by the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA). The event will take place June 7 to 9, 2024 at Harbourfront Centre and online. Other notable writers in attendance are American Canadian writer Linwood Barclay and Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings. Kicking off MOTIVE, there will be a special pre-Festival "in conversation" with best-selling British author Clare Mackintosh on April 29 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

The estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has approved a new novel from thriller writer Gareth Rubin that will focus on Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes's greatest nemesis, endorsing Rubin’s book, Holmes and Moriarty, as a worthy successor. "Gareth has drawn these characters very well, including Colonel Moran, who is key to this story," said Richard Pooley, Conan Doyle’s step-great-grandson. "Moran was once described by Holmes as ‘the second most dangerous man in London’, and he tells half of this new mystery. As Moriarty’s right-hand man, he only crops up in a couple of original Holmes stories, I believe." Pooley suspects that Moran, "a young guy," could now spawn his own series, adding that there is potential too, in the other Doyle character Professor Challenger, as well as in the boxer, Stone.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed James M. Jackson about Hijacked Legacy, his eighth Seamus McCree novel, for the Writers Who Kill blog; novelist Kirsten Weiss chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new metaphysical mystery, Legacy of the Witch; and Publishers Weekly welcomed Stacey Lee, who returns to her historical YA roots with the new murder mystery novel Kill Her Twice, which takes place in 1932 Chinatown Los Angeles.

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

Sony’s 3000 Pictures has set Justin Kuritzkes to adapt City on Fire, the first of a bestselling novel trilogy by Don Winslow that is being developed as a star vehicle for Austin Butler. Winslow’s swan song trilogy – the final installment City in Ruins is just landing on the bestseller lists after being published by William Morrow – is a modern retelling of the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and Greek tragic dramas set in the world of contemporary crime. Kuritzkes will start at the beginning, a struggle between two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of New England, until a modern-day Helen of Troy tears them apart and starts a brutal war. Butler will play the main character, Danny Ryan, who is forced to grow from a street soldier into a ruthlessly efficient leader to protect his friends, his family and the home he loves.

Park Chan-wook is developing his acclaimed film Oldboy for the first time as an English-language series in partnership with Lionsgate Television. Park, who directed and co-wrote the original film, is set to produce the series alongside producing partner Syd Lim. The 2003 feature was an adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name written by Garon Tsuchiya and follows Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a man taken off the streets and imprisoned in a cell that resembles a hotel room for fifteen years, without knowing the identity of his captor or his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence as he seeks revenge against his enigmatic captor.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Noah Jupe, who is starring opposite Michael Douglas in the Apple TV+ Benjamin Franklin biopic, is leading a TV drama adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s cult classic, Engleby. Jupe will play the titular character, an enigmatic outsider who graduates from 1970s campus life to 1980s Fleet Street and beyond – haunted all the while by an unsolved mystery involving a friend and fellow student from his university days. The six-part drama is described as a "quintessential British murder mystery meets acute psychological character study, with a healthy dose of dark wit." Michael Keillor, who is helming the upcoming BBC/Netflix drama on the Lockerbie disaster, is directing, and Channel 4-backed production outfit Freedom Scripted is producing, although no network is attached as of yet.

Miss Scarlet wasn’t left alone for long, after Stuart Martin, who played William "The Duke" Wellington in the previous four seasons of the historical crime series, Miss Scarlet and The Duke, opted not to return for season five. Tom Durant Pritchard (The Crown) has joined the cast of the MASTERPIECE drama, playing Alexander Blake, a handsome former soldier and respected detective inspector who joins the force at Scotland Yard after Wellington's departure. He’s not particularly shocked by a woman working as a private eye, so Eliza takes this to mean she’ll be given more cases. But their relationship gets off to a rocky start since Blake has decided not to allow private detectives to aid in his investigations. As Blake and Miss Scarlet cross paths at various crime scenes across London, they can’t help but develop mutual respect for one another, and perhaps even an attraction.

ABC has renewed the Nathan Fillion drama, The Rookie, for a seventh season. Nathan Fillion stars as John Nolan, a man in his forties, who becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department. Other cast members include Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Wade Grey, Melissa O’Neil as Lucy Chen, Eric Winter as Tim Bradford, Jenna Dewan as Bailey Nune, Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers, Tru Valentino as Aaron Thorsen, and Lisseth Chavez as Celina Juarez. The Rookie airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC, and streams next day on Hulu.

CBS has renewed the freshman series Elsbeth for the 2024-2025 season. The series follows the titular Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), who first appeared in The Good Wife and later in The Good Fight spinoff, an "astute but unconventional attorney who utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD following her successful career in Chicago." Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson round out the series' regular cast as Captain Wagner and Kaya Blanke, respectively.

One show that won't be returning is CSI: Vegas, with the network giving the drama the axe after three seasons. A follow-up to the 2000 CSI series, CSI: Vegas launched with original cast members William Petersen and Jorja Fox reprising their CSI roles in Season 1. The sequel’s current cast includes fellow original star Marg Helgenberger, who joined in Season 2, Paula Newsome, Mandeep Dhillon, Matt Lauria, Ariana Guerra, Jay Lee, and Lex Medlin.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! released its first trailer for the ninth season of Grantchester, which premieres Sunday, June 16 at 9/8c ET. The new season is set in 1961 and sees the poignant departure of Rev. Will Davenport (Tom Brittany) and the arrival of Rev. Alphy Kotteram (Rishi Nair).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Juiie Anderson chatted with Paul Burke about her latest thriller, The MIdnight Man, the first book in a new historical crime series; Whitehall machinations; the birth of the NHS; the Clapham Literary Festival; The South London Women & Children's Hospital; the locked room mystery; and old British movies.

This week's episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Len Joy to discuss his novel, Dry Heat, and other writings.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Brian J. Morra, who spent his career in intelligence and national security, about his series, "The Able Archers," including the latest installment, The Righteous Arrows.

The Cops and Writers podcast traveled to San Francisco and the home of Fisherman’s Wharf, The Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and of course, Alcatraz, to chat with the City of San Francisco Police Sergeant and bestselling author, Adam Plantinga.

TG Wolff and Jack Wolff, the hosts of Mysteries To Die For Podcast, stormed the Wrong Place Write Crime studios and took over for an episode. Check out their interview with a mystery guest you may know.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed mysteries and thrillers nominated for the 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

The Pick Your Poison podcast took a look at the animal called the most venomous in the world, discussed if pee is an effective antidote, and how pantyhose makes swimming safer.

CWA Dagger Awards Longlists Announced

The 2024 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger Awards, which honor the very best in the crime-writing genre, were announced last night at the CWA annual conference in Brighton in the UK. The shortlists will be revealed on May 10 at Crimefest, with winners announced on July 4 at the Daggers Dinner. (HT to Ayo Onatade via Shots Magazine). Congratulations to all!

 

Gold Dagger

• Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans (Headline)
• Dead Man’s Creek, by Chris Hammer (Wildfire)
• A Bitter Remedy, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
• Night Will Find You, by Julia Haeberlin (Michael Joseph)
• The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
• The White Lie, by J.G. Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Death of a Lesser God, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Abacus)
• Tell Me What I Am, by Una Mannion (Faber and Faber)
• Homecoming, by Kate Morton (Mantle)
• Black River, by Nilanjana Roy (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Sutanto (HQ)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

• Simply Lies, by David Baldacci (Macmillan)
• The Lie Maker, by Linwood Barclay (HQ)
• All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Headline)
• Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor (Headline)
• The House Hunt, by C.M. Ewan (Macmillan)
• Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Faber and Faber)
• The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka (Harvill Secker)
• Gaslight, by Femi Kayode (Raven)
• 77 North, by D.L. Marshall (Canelo)
• Drowning, by T.J. Newman (Simon & Schuster)
• After That Night, by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins)
• The Man in the Corduroy Suit, by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press)

ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger

• A Most Unusual Demise, by Kathryn Black (Bloodhound)
• In the Blink of an Eye, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Golden Gate, by Amy Chua (Corvus)
• Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Murder by Natural Causes, by Helen Erichsen (Muswell Press)
• The Maiden, by Kate Foster (Mantle)
• The Golden Spoon, by Jessa Maxwell (Penguin)
• West Heart Kill, by Dann McDorman (Raven)
• Obsessed, by Liza North (Constable)
• Go Seek, by Michelle Teahan (Headline)
• The Other Half, by Charlotte Vassell (Faber and Faber)
• The Tumbling Girl, by Bridget Walsh (Gallic)

Historical Dagger

• Clara & Olivia, by Lucy Ashe (Magpie)
• The Lock-Up, by John Banville (Faber and Faber)
• Flags on the Bayou, by James Lee Burke (Orion)
• Murder in the Bookshop, by Anita Davison (Boldwood)
• After Midnight, by Louise Hare Harlem (HQ)
• A Bitter Remedy, by Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
• Viper's Dream, by Jake Lamar (No Exit Press)
• The Winter List, by S.G. MacLean (Quercus)
• The Murder Wheel, by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus/Aries)
• Scarlet Town, by Leonora Nattrass (Viper)
• Voices of the Dead, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
• Lady MacBethad, by Isabelle Schuler (Raven)

Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger

• The Snow Girl, by Javier Castillo, translated by Isabelle Kaufeler (Penguin)
• Red Queen, by Juan Gómez-Jurado, translated by Nick Caistor (Macmillan)
• The Girl by the Bridge, by Arnaldur Indriðason, translated by Philip Roughton (Vintage)
• The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa (Vintage)
• The Sins of Our Fathers, by Åsa Larsson, translated by Frank Perry (Maclehose Press)
• Thirty Days of Darkness, by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan E.Turney (Orenda)
• Nothing Is Lost, by Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis (Europa Editions UK)
• The Murder of Anton Livius, by Hansjörg Schneider, translated by Astrid Freuler (Bitter Lemon Press)
• The Consultant, by Im Seong-sun, translated by An Seong Jae (Raven)
• Not Russian, by Mikhail Shevelev, translated by Brian James Baer and Ellen Vayner (Europa Editions UK)
• The Prey, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton)
• My Husband, by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan (Hutchinson Heinemann)

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction

• The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel (Simon & Schuster)
• G-Man J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage (Simon & Schuster)
• The Many Lives of Mama Love A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing, by Lara Love Hardin (Endeavour)
• No Ordinary Day Espionage, Betrayal, Terrorism and Corruption—The Truth Behind the Murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by Matt Johnson with John Murray (Ad Lib)
• Chasing Shadows A True Story of the Mafia, Drugs and Terrorism, by Miles Johnson (Bridge Street Press)
• The Snakehead An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador)
• Devil’s Coin My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen, by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson (Ad Lib)
• No Comment What I Wish I’d Known About Becoming a Detective, by Jess McDonald (Raven)
• Seventy Times Seven A True Story of Murder and Mercy, by Alex Mar (Bedford Square)
• How Many More Women? The Silencing of Women by the Law and How to Stop It, by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida (Endeavour)
• Ian Fleming The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare (Vintage)
• Murder at Home How Our Safest Space Is Where We’re Most in Danger, by David Wilson (Sphere)

Short Story Dagger

• “Three Ways to Die,” by Rachel Amphlett (from Thrill Ride No W.W.M., edited by M. L. “Matt” Buchman (Buchman Bookworks)
• “Safe Enough,” by Lee Child (from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens; Rivertree)
• “The Last Best Thing,” by Mia Dalia (from Bang! An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook; Head Shot Press)
• “Slap Happy,” by Andrew Humphrey (from Bang! An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction)
• “The Also-Rans,” by Benedict J. Jones (from Bang! An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction)
• “The Divide,” by Sanjida Kay (from The Book of Bristol, edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks; Comma Press)
• The Spendthrift and the Swallow, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
• “Drive By,” by D.G. Penny Drive (from An Unnecessary Assassin)
• “Best Served Cold,” by F.D. Quinn (from An Unnecessary Assassin)
• “Revenge Is Best Served Hot,” by Robert Scragg (from An Unnecessary Assassin)

Dagger in the Library

• Louise Candlish
• M.W. Craven
• Lucy Foley
• Cara Hunter
• Anthony Horowitz
• Vaseem Khan
• Angela Marsons
• Kate Rhodes
• L.J. Ross
• Diane Saxon

Publishers’ Dagger

• Bitter Lemon Press
• Canelo
• Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)
• Harvill Secker (Penguin Random House)
• Headline (Hachette)
• Joffe Books
• Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House)
• Pushkin Press
• Raven (Bloomsbury)
• Simon & Schuster

Debut Dagger

• Burnt Ranch, by Katherine Ahlert
• Unnatural Predators, by Caroline Arnoul
• Vilomah, by Matt Coot
• Good Criminals, by Judy Hock
• Vigilante Love Song, by J.R. Holland
• Bluebirds, by Alan Jackson
• Makoto Murders, by Richard Jerram
• Long Way Home, by Lynn McCall
• Not a Good Mother, by Karabi Mitra
• The Last Days of Forever, by Jeremy Tinker
• A Politician’s Guide to Murder, by James Tobin
• The Blond, by Megan Toogood

Mystery Melange

International Thriller Writers (ITW) are presenting Jeffery Deaver in conversation with Isabella Maldonado to discuss "Secrets of Suspense." This online Zoom event takes place today at 2pm. It's free, and you don't have to be an ITW member, but interested participants need to register via this link.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine announced that the 2023 EQMM Readers Award winner is David Dean, for "Mrs. Hyde" (March/April 2023). In second place was Richard Helms with "Spear Carriers" (Nov/ Dec 2023), and Paul O’Connor. took third place with "Teddy’s Favorite Thing" (Sept/Oct 2023), the first published fiction by the author. For the rest of the finalists in the top ten, check out this link.

The Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime is sponsoring "An Afternoon of Thrills & Suspense" at the Braden River Library from 2-5:00 on Saturday, April 27th. The event will feature a panel discussion on thriller, suspense, and crime writing moderated by Gwen Mayo, author and publisher at Mystery and Horror, LLC. The panelists include Lisa Malice, Gayle Brown, Tanya Goodwin, and Sheila McNaughton. The event, which is free and open to the public, will include book sales, and drawings for prizes, including copies of the chapter’s anthology, Murder in Paradise.

After a year's hiatus, Noir at the Bar Toronto returns April 25 from 7-9pm at the Duke of Kent pub. The event is hosted by Rob Brunet and Madeleine Harris-Callway and will feature readings and book signings from Ryan Aldred, Andrea Brellick, Peter Pontsa, Jeffrey Pound, Eric Shynal, and Sylvia Warsh.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards, in association with Auckland Libraries, is sponsoring "Blood by the Beach" at the Takapuna Library on Wednesday, April 29. Authors scheduled to participate include debut author and former Auckland detective Cristian Kelly, joining 2023 Ngaio finalists Fiona Sussman (also a past Ngaio winner) and Simon Lendrum, and past Ngaio Best Kids/YA finalist Eileen Merriman. Moderated by author Kirsten McKenzie, the panel will discuss crafting compelling storylines and memorable characters, and the impact of place and real-life themes.

Joffe Books will celebrate its tenth anniversary on May 23 with a "fabulous garden party at the Royal Over-Seas League in London for authors, agents and all those who have contributed to our incredible journey over the past decade." Joffe Books was founded in 2014, when Jasper Joffe agreed to publish his mother’s much-rejected romance novel and turned it into a bestseller. But the roster has primarily focused on crime fiction, with award-winning authors and New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestsellers including Simon Brett, Faith Martin, Joy Ellis, Robert Goddard, Stella Cameron, and Helen Forrester. Joffe Books won Trade Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards in 2023, was shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards for the last five years. The company also founded the Joffe Books Prize, the largest prize in the UK for crime fiction by under-represented authors.

In the Q&A roundup, Anthony Horowitz spoke with Crime Reads about giving himself a new role in his latest mystery; Kara Thomas joined Deborah Kalb to discuss her new suspense novel, Lost to Dune Road, inspired by the Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island; and Author Interviews chatted with Karen E. Olson, a Shamus Award finalist and author of the Annie Seymour mysteries, the Tattoo Shop mysteries, and the Black Hat thrillers.

Crème de la CrimeFest

CrimeFest, the crime writing convention in Bristol, UK, has announced the 2024 shortlists for the annual awards honoring the best crime books released in the UK in the last year. Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and also the winning titles, which will be presented at the convention Gala Awards Dinner on May 11, 2024.

 

Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award

• Stig Abell for Death Under a Little Sky (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)
• Jo Callaghan for In The Blink Of An Eye (Simon & Schuster)
• Megan Davis for The Messenger (Zaffre)
• Jenny Lund Madsen for Thirty Days of Darkness; translated by Megan Turney (Orenda Books)
• Natalie Marlow for Needless Alley (Baskerville)
• Alice Slater for Death of a Bookseller (Hodder & Stoughton)

Edunnit Award (Ebooks)

• Rachel Abbott for Don’t Look Away (Wildfire)
• Jane Casey for The Close (HarperCollins)
• Martin Edwards for Sepulchre Street (Head of Zeus)
• Christina Koning for Murder at Bletchley Park (Allison & Busby)
• Laura Lippman for Prom Mom (Faber & Faber)
• Craig Russell for The Devil’s Playground (Constable)

Last Laugh Award (Humorous Crime Novels)

• Mark Billingham for The Last Dance (Sphere)
• Elly Griffiths for The Great Deceiver (Quercus)
• Mick Herron for The Secret Hours (Baskerville)
• Mike Ripley for Mr Campion’s Memory (Severn House)
• Jesse Sutanto for Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (HQ)
• Antti Tuomianen for The Beaver Theory (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. Keating Award (Biographical/Critical)

• M, J, F & A Dall’Asta, Migozzi, Pagello & Pepper for Contemporary European Crime Fiction: Representing History and Politics (Palgrave)
• Lisa Hopkins for Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction (Palgrave)
• Kate Jackson for How To Survive a Classic Crime Novel (British Library Publishing)
• Steven Powell for Love Me Fierce In Danger: The Life of James Ellroy (Bloomsbury Academic)
• Nicholas Shakespeare for Ian Fleming: The Complete Man (Harvill Secker)
• Adam Sisman for The Secret Life of John Le Carré (Profile Books)

Thalia Proctor Memorial Award For Best Adapted TV Crime Drama

• Dalgliesh (series 2), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
• Reacher (series 2), based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child (Amazon Prime)
• Shetland (series 8), based on the Shetland books by Ann Cleeves (BBC)
• Slow Horses (series 3), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple)
• The Serial Killer’s Wife, based on the Serial Killer books by Alice Hunter (Paramount+)
• Vera (series 12), based on the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves (ITV)

Best Crime Novel For Children

• A.M. Howell for Mysteries At Sea: Peril On The Atlantic (Usborne Publishing)
• Lis Jardine for The Detention Detectives (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Beth Lincoln for The Swifts (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Marcus Rashford (with Alex Falase-Koya) for The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Ghoul in the School (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2: The Body in the Blitz (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• J.T. Williams for The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison, illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)

Best Crime Novel For Young Adults

• Jennifer Lynn for Barnes The Brothers Hawthorne (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Nick Brooks for Promise Boys (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Ravena Guron for This Book Kills (Usborne Publishing)
• Ravena Guron for Catch Your Death (Usborne Publishing)
• Karen M. McManus for One of Us is Back (Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
• Elizabeth Wein for Stateless (Bloomsbury YA)

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

Oscar-nominated Colin Farrell is set to star in Netflix's The Ballad of a Small Player, with Edward Berger directing. Rowan Joffe will adapt the script that is based on the 2014 novel by Lawrence Osborne. The story follows a corrupt English lawyer and high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.

Sony’s 3000 Pictures has preemptively acquired film rights to the Clare Leslie Hall (aka Clare Empson) romantic suspense novel, Broken Country, set to be published March, 2025. Broken Country follows a married woman whose first love unexpectedly comes crashing back into her life and changes everything in an instant. His presence unravels her world as she weighs all that could have been, against the life she has made for herself since. Passion proves dangerous, ultimately leading to a murder and unearthing a web of secrets that she always intended to leave buried in the past.

Artists Equity is set to adapt Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on the 1993 Broadway musical, which in turn was inspired by Manuel Puig’s landmark 1976 novel. Diego Luna and Tonatiuh will star in the adaptation as Valentin Arregui and Luis Molina, respectively, joining Jennifer Lopez, who was previously announced in the titular role. The musical is set in an Argentinian prison in 1981, against the backdrop of what is historically referred to as the Guerra Sucia ("Dirty War") waged by the military dictatorship. Molina is a department store window dresser serving an eight-year sentence after being entrapped by police for allegedly corrupting a minor. To escape the horrors of imprisonment, he imagines a movie starring classic silver screen diva Ingrid Luna (Lopez) as both fashion editor Aurora and the Spider Woman, who kills her prey with a kiss. Molina’s life is upended when forced to share a cell with Marxist revolutionary Valentin, with whom an unlikely bond is formed.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Sherlock star Mark Gatiss is writing and will star in the British TV drama, Bookish, a six-part series about a bookshop owner who helps police solve crimes. Set in post-war London in 1946, the series will follow Gabriel Book (Gatiss), an "erudite and unconventional" sleuth who cracks mysterious cases from his antiquated bookshop, using the thousands of books that line his shelves to provide him with the knowledge that he needs. Around him are a gathering of "loveable, damaged misfits who he informally protects, cajoles and mentors." Starring alongside Gatiss is Polly Walker (Bridgerton), who plays Book’s colorful wife Trottie. She is charismatic and adventurous, owns a wallpaper shop next door and loves Book deeply but not physically, as they share a "lavender marriage," which helps conceal Book’s sexual orientation at a time when it was illegal to be gay.

The BBC and new co-production partner Amazon have given an order for two additional seasons of the John le Carré adaptation, The Night Manager, with Tom Hiddleston returning to lead, Hugh Laurie coming back as executive producer, and a new director in Georgi Banks-Davies. The Night Manager Season 2 will begin filming later this year and will pick up with Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine eight years after the explosive finale of Season 1, going beyond the original book, which was written by the celebrated British writer in 1993. Additional plot details are being kept under wraps and there is not yet confirmation as to whether Hugh Laurie’s Richard Roper, who was last seen in the back of a paddy wagon driven by arms buyers who were not pleased with him, will return to star.

Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), AnnaSophia Robb (The Act), and Ben Rappaport (For the People) are set as leads in Grosse Pointe Garden Society. The NBC drama pilot follows four members of a suburban garden club — three of them played by Fumero, Robb, and Rappaport — all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom. Fumero plays Birdie, a successful author whose memoir is a bestseller. Robb plays Alice, a high school English teacher whose best dreams are crashing down on her, while Rappaport plays Brett, who put his own dreams of starting a car restoration business on hold so his wife (now ex-wife) could finish law school.

After bringing back CSI: Crime Scene Investigation with CSI: Vegas, CBS is looking to revive another Jerry Bruckheimer Television-produced crime procedural from the 2000s. According to Deadline, the network is in negotiations with Warner Bros. TV for a reboot of Cold Case, which aired on CBS for seven seasons from 2003-2010. Set fifteen years after the original series’ final episode, the untitled Cold Case reboot would follow a new team of tenacious detectives who investigate cold cases across the Southwest, which would be a new location as the original Cold Case was set in Philadelphia. The original series follows Detective Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris), a homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department specializing in cold cases, who was partnered for the majority of the show’s run with Detective Scotty Valens (Danny Pino).

CBS renewed Dick Wolf’s trio of FBI dramas, FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, which follows the announcement by NBC that it's renewing Wolf’s other trio of "Chicago" shows. CBS is also renewing NCIS, a top 20 series for 18 of its 20 full seasons and the No. 1 drama for the last five consecutive seasons.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The podcast Science Vs tackled "Science Vs Murder in the Ivory Tower." It’s 1849, and a gruesome murder has just happened at Harvard. As body parts turn up, the science of the day is put to the ultimate test to find out who committed this brutal killing. Professor Paul Collins tells us how this morbid mystery unfolds.

Spybrary was joined by Jonna Mendez, a former CIA operative with an enthralling tale of espionage, covert operations, and the very human aspect of intelligence work.

The latest Mystery Rat's Maze podcast featured the mystery short story, "Squashed to Death" by Charlotte Morganti, as read by actor Donna Beavers. This story was first published in Seeds, the Texas Gardeners newsletter.

The Red Hot Chili Writers chatted with historical and thriller writer Erin Young, discussing her gold kitchen, banned trousers, and Christianity's oldest religious book to ever go on sale, the Crosby-Schøyen Codex.

On Crime Time FM, Stig Abell chatted with Paul Burke about his new crime novel, Death in a Lonely Place; rural idyll as vest of Vipers; writing a series; love of genre fiction and how crime fiction is a tonic for the soul.

The Fingerprint Awards

The London-based crime fiction convention Capital Crime has announced the shortlists for this year’s Fingerprint Awards. Mystery fans are invited to vote for the winners here, and the winners will be announced May 30th at the convention. (HT to The Rap Sheet) Congratulations to all, and let the voting begin!

Overall Best Crime Book of the Year

The Murder Game, by Tom Hindle (Century)
None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell (Century)
The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Baskerville)
In the Blink of an Eye, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
Strange Sally Diamond, by Liz Nugent (Sandycove)

Thriller Book of the Year

Fearless, by M.W. Craven (Constable)
The Silent Man, by David Fennell (Zaffre)
The Rule of Three, by Sam Ripley (Simon & Schuster UK)
The Only Suspect, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster UK)
The House Hunt, by C.M. Ewan (Macmillan)

Historical Crime Book of the Year

Death of a Lesser God, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Square of Sevens, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle)
The Murder Wheel, by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus/Aries)
The Good Liars, by Anita Frank (HQ)
The House of Whispers, by Anna Mazzola (Orion)

Genre-Busting Book of the Year

Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs (Century)
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, by Janice Hallett (Viper)
Killing Jericho, by William Hussey (Zaffre)
Murder in the Family, by Cara Hunter (HarperFiction)
The Looking Glass Sound, by Catriona Ward (Viper)

Debut Crime Book of the Year

Death of a Bookseller, by Alice Slater (Hodder & Stoughton)
The List, by Yomi Adegoke (Fourth Estate)
Geneva, by Richard Armitage (Faber and Faber)
The Bandit Queens, by Parini Shroff (Allen & Unwin)
Thirty Days of Darkness, by Jenny Lund Madsen (Orenda)

True Crime Book of the Year

No Ordinary Day: Espionage, Betrayal, Terrorism and Corruption—the Truth Behind the Murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by Matt Johnson (Ad Lib)
My Girl: The Babes in the Woods Murders. A Mother’s Fight for Justice, by Michelle Hadaway (Penguin)
Vital Organs: A History of the World’s Most Famous Body Parts, by Suzie Edge (Wildfire)
Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey, by Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC (Doubleday)
Order Out of Chaos: A Kidnap Negotiator’s Guide to Influence and Persuasion, by Scott Walker (Piatkus)

Audiobook of the Year

The Running Grave, by Robert Galbraith, narrated by Robert Glenister (Oakhill)
The Blackbird, by Tim Weaver, narrated by Joe Coen, Brendan McDonald, and Anjili Mohindra (Penguin Audio)
The Bedroom Window, by K.L. Slater, narrated by Clare Corbett (Audible)
Conviction, by Jack Jordan, narrated by Sophie Roberts (Audible)
Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans, narrated by Maz Evans (Headline)

 

Lefties Lead the Way

The annual Left Coast Crime convention held this weekend in Bellevue, Washington, announced the winners of this year's Leftie Awards. Congrats to all the winners and finalists!

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel:  Wendall Thomas, Cheap Trills (Beyond the Page Books)

The other finalists:

• Jennifer J. Chow, Hot Pot Murder (Berkley Prime Crime)
• Lee Matthew Goldberg, The Great Gimmelmans (Level Best Books)
• Leslie Karst, A Sense for Murder (Severn House)
• Catriona McPherson, Hop Scot (Severn House)
• Cindy Sample, Dying for a Decoration (Cindy Sample Books)

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel:   Naomi Hirahara, Evergreen (Soho Crime )

The other finalists:

• Cara Black, Night Flight to Paris (Soho Crime)
• Bruce Borgos, The Bitter Past (Minotaur Books)
• Susanna Calkins, Death Among the Ruins (Severn House)
• Dianne Freeman, A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder (Kensington)
• Cheryl A. Head, Time’s Undoing (Dutton)
• Naomi Hirahara, Evergreen (Soho Crime)

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel:   Nina Simon, Mother-Daughter Murder Night (William Morrow)

The other finalists:

• Lina Chern, Play the Fool (Bantam)
• Margot Douaihy, Scorched Grace (Gillian Flynn Books)
• Josh Pachter, Dutch Threat (Genius Book Publishing)
• Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines (Dutton)

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel:   Tracy Clark, Hide (Thomas & Mercer)

The other finalists:

• S.A. Cosby, All the Sinners Bleed (Flatiron Books)
• Matt Coyle, Odyssey’s End (Oceanview Publishing)
• Jordan Harper, Everybody Knows (Mulholland Books)
• James L’Etoile, Face of Greed (Oceanview Publishing)
• Gigi Pandian, The Raven Thief (Minotaur Books)

Mystery Melange

Friends of Mystery, a non-profit mystery organization based in Portland, Oregon, announced at their meeting on March 28 that Breakneck, by Marc Cameron (Kensington Books) is the 2024 Spotted Owl Awrd winner as the best mystery book written by the Pacific Northwest writer published in the previous year. The winning novel is the fifth one featuring Arliss Cutter, a U.S. marshal. (HT to The Gumshoe Site) Previous winners of the award include Robert Dugoni, Mike Lawson, Chelsea Cain, and more.

Left Coast Crime heads to Seattle beginning today and running through Sunday. Toastmaster Wanda M. Morris will be joined by Special Guests Megan Abbott and Robert Dugoni, along with a full lineup of panels, interviews, book signings, a silent auction, and the Lefty Awards banquet. There will also be a launch party and signing of this year's conference short story anthology, The Killing Rain.

Coming up Saturday, Apr 20 from 11am to 12pm, The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will include the panel, "Welcome to the Underworld: Crime, Gangsters, and Hitmen." Authors scheduled to participate include Susan Straight, Gary Phillips, Lou Berney, Joe Ide, and Tod Goldberg. Later that day at 1:30, a panel on "Small Towns, Big Crimes in Noir and Crime Fiction," will include Jeffrey Fleishman, Brian Panowich, Jahmal Mayfield, and S. A. Cosby, and at 3:30, "Hell Hath No Fury: Powerful Women in Crime Fiction" will feature Amina Akhtar, Jessica Knoll, K.T. Nguyen, Karin Slaughter, and Natashia Deón. On Sunday, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Jordan Harper, Rachel Howzell Hall, Ivy Pochoda, and David L. Ulin will participate in "City of Fallen Angels: L.A. Noir" at 2pm, and "Crime Fiction: Series Sleuths" at 3:30 will feature Gregg Hurwitz, Eriq La Salle, Daniel Weizmann, Tracy Clark, Lee Goldberg, Seeley G. Mudd. For more details and ticket information, follow this link.

The Capital Crime conference in London coming up later this spring has a fun event scheduled for May 30th. "The Anatomy of a Crime: From Crime to Conviction" is a factual but entertainment-driven account of the timeline from crime to conviction presented by specialists in their field live on stage. Participants can experience crime scene briefings leading to a bite-size trial and have their say in whether the accused is guilty or should walk free. Participating author-actors will get to execute their real-life "day jobs" of Senior Investigating Officer, Detective, Crime Scene Investigator, Judge and Barristers. (HT to Shots Magazine)

Harrogate International Festivals has announced that Peter James will join the roster of Special Guests for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival taking place July 18-21. He joins authors Chris Carter, Jane Casey, Elly Griffiths, Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan, Dorothy Koomson, Shari Lapena, Abir Mukherjee, Liz Nugent and Richard Osman in an all-star lineup curated by 2024 Festival Chair Ruth Ware. James is a globally bestselling author and the creator of the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a smash-hit ITV drama starring John Simm. James will be celebrating his milestone twentieth Roy Grace book at the Festival with an exclusive preview of One Of Us Is Dead, published by Pan Macmillan in September 2024.

Sisters in Crime New York is presenting a "License to Thrill" panel on April 17 from 6:30-8:00 pm via Zoom. Moderator (and SinC-NY Co-President) Lori Robbins will be joined by authors T. M. Dunn (Her Father's Daughter), television sports reporter turned crime fiction writer Elise Hart Kipness (Lights Out), Tim Maleeny (Cape Weathers series of mysteries), and Jodé Millman (Queen City Crimes Series). You can register in advance via the following link.

The latest adaptation (a TV series starring Sherlock's Andrew Scott) of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley books is once again generating interest in the crime author's works. The Guardian has a survey of where new readers to the author's work should begin, noting Highsmith’s skills "as an expert writer of guilt, ambivalence and moral dilemmas at odds with reality."

From the department of real-life horror and mysteries reflected in the annals of publication, Harvard announced it will remove binding made of human skin from 1800s book. The first owner of the book—a 19th-century French treatise on the human soul—took the skin from a deceased female patient without consent. After years of criticism and debate, the university announced that it had removed the binding and would be exploring options for "a final respectful disposition of these human remains." Although using human skin for book binding used to be less rare, especially among "gentlemen doctors," the practice fell out of favor in the early 20th century.

In the Q&A roundup, The Guardian spoke with Garry Disher about his sixty crime novels, surviving decades of "cultural cringe" and genre snobbery to make finally a decent sort of living, and also finding fame in his 70s; and Patricia Dunn, who writes under the pen name T.M. Dunn, chatted with Jill Amadio about her debut psychological thriller, Her Father’s Daughter.

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

Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to The Wasp, a psychological thriller starring Academy Award nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones). Adapted from the play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and directed by two-time BAFTA nominee Guillem Morales (Inside Number 9) in his English-language debut, the film will be released in theaters this summer. In The Wasp, Heather (Harris) and Carla (Dormer) agree to meet after having not spoken in years. Over tea, Heather presents a very unexpected proposition that will change their lives forever, in a plot "evoking such classic cat-and-mouse thrillers as Sleuth and Deathtrap."

Netflix's film division has preemptively acquired a pitch for an untitled law school thriller from Holland, Michigan screenwriter, Andrew Sodroski. While plot details are unknown at this time, the pitch is said to be described as a contemporary spin on The Firm meets The Wolf of Wall Street.

Production has wrapped on Bring the Law, an action-thriller that marks the directorial debut of actress Scout Taylor Compton (2007’s Halloween). The film stars Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Peter Facinelli (Twilight), Nicky Whelan (The Flood), Danielle Harris (Halloween), Brendan Fehr (Roswell), and Leah Pipes (The Originals). The film follows a grieving homicide detective who is chosen to lead a task force in Los Angeles to stop a criminal organization. He soon unravels a conspiracy involving corruption in his own department.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

In a competitive situation, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television acquired the rights to Matthew Blake‘s debut crime thriller novel, Anna O, which is in the process of being set up at Netflix for development. The story follows Dr. Benedict Prince, an expert in sleep-related homicide, as he investigates the inexplicable case of Anna O, who murdered two people in cold blood four years ago and hasn’t awakened since. The tabloid press dubs her "Sleeping Beauty," but as Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Dr. Benedict must determine what really happened that night and whether or not she should be held criminally responsible for her actions when she finally wakes up.

Captain Marvel writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are set to direct the first four episodes of Prime Video's Criminal, a drama based on the award-winning graphic novel series created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Brubaker, who penned the pilot script, co-showruns with crime fiction author Jordan Harper (Hightown). The TV show is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories, or as Brubaker explained to Deadline, "Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past."

Amid strong ratings, ABC has renewed the procedural drama Will Trent, starring Ramón Rodríguez, for a third season. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling novels, the series follows the titular special agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now, Will uses his unique point of view to pursue justice and has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

MGM+ has dropped a teaser trailer for the 1970s crime thriller, Hotel Cocaine, and revealed its remaining cast. The premiere of the 8-episode series will be available on June 16 on MGM+, with new episodes airing on Sundays until August 4. Hotel Cocaine tells the story of Roman Compte (Danny Pino), a Cuban exile and general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, the glamorous epicenter of the Miami cocaine scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The Mutiny Hotel was Casablanca on cocaine; a glitzy nightclub, restaurant, and hotel frequented by Florida businessmen and politicians, international narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars, and musicians.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Don Winslow to talk about City in Ruins, the third and final installment of his Danny Ryan trilogy, in what he says is his final crime fiction novel.

Author Philip Gwynne Jones chatted with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke about his thrillers, The Venetian Candidate and The Venetian Sanctuary; Venice; honorary consuls; and Italy.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Dana Perry, an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City where he has had a long career as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. The first three novels in his new Nikki Cassidy series, starting with The Nowhere Girls, were published this month.

The Cops and Writers podcast featured the conclusion of an interview with Louis Ferrante, a former member of the Gambino Crime Family who is now an international bestselling author, television producer and director, and Vic Ferrari, podcaster, author, and a retired NYPD detective.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed some books with a perfect sense of humor.

The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast episode featured a celebrated story from the March/April 2022 issue, Anna Scotti's "Schrodinger, Cat," a Macavity Award nominee and third place finisher in the EQMM 2022 Readers Award poll.

THEATRE

The eighth annual Leeds Opera Festival in the UK will feature the first ever operatic adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and The Sign of Four, a brand new opera by award-winning composer Liam Paterson. The overall theme for this year's festival is crime and adventure and will also include an interactive mystery show for children.

 

Mystery Melange

Mystery Writers of America announced the 2024 recipients of the Barbara Neely Grants: Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier and Audrea Sallis. The grants program is named after the late Barbara Neely, author of one of the first crime fiction series to feature a Black woman as the protagonist, and is awarded annually to two Black crime fiction writers, one already published and another just getting started in publishing. The grant comes with a $2,000 award to assist each recipient with any aspect of their career as they see fit.

Meanwhile, each year, Sisters in Crime awards researchers grants of up to $500 for the purchase of books to support research projects that contribute to our understanding of the role of women or underrepresented groups in the crime fiction genre. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of scholars familiar with scholarship on the genre. The deadline for submissions is April 30, and for more information and to apply, follow this link.

The deadline is fast approaching for submissions to the Danger Awards 2024 sponsored by the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. Applicants must be living Australian citizens or permanent residents, and all books must have been first published (traditionally or self-published) between January 1 and December 31, 2023 to be eligible. Four awards will be presented: one for best crime fiction, one for best crime fiction debut, one for crime non-fiction, and thanks to the generous sponsorship of OverDrive Australia, a People’s Choice award will be presented covering all three categories. Interested parties must fill out the online submission form no later than 5pm on May 6, 2024. The shortlist will be announced July 30, with winners announced September 14.

As part of the Oxford Conference for the Book in Oxford, Mississippi, there will be a closing special event, "Noir at the Bar: A Gathering of Crime Writers and Music Makers," this Friday, April 5, at the Ajax Diner, 118 Courthouse Square. Authors scheduled to take part include Ace Atkins, William Boyle, Colin Brightwell, Tom Franklin, Derrick Harriell, Max Hipp, Lisa Howorth, David Joy, Tyler Keith, Clair Lamb, Tobi Ogundiran, Bea Setton, and Michael Farris Smith, with music by Kell Kellum and Bark.

On Friday, April 15 at 7pm, you can tune in for a lively conversation with Lisa Gardner (Still See You Everywhere), Robert Dugoni (A Killing on the Hill), Anne Hillerman (Lost Birds), and Carter Wilson (The Father She Went to Find), with Lisa Black serving as emcee. Although participants must register, the event is free and includes the chance to win one of the authors' novels. Be among the first 100 in the Zoom room, and you’ll have the opportunity to personally debrief the authors, or you can catch them on Facebook Live and interrogate them via comments. As an added treat, you can also sample each author’s favorite snack and drink, with their notes and recipes, with dining and drinking commencing at the start of the show. To check out the event, the recipes, and to register, follow this link.

Book publishing deals are generally too many to cover on a regular basis, but this one is a bit unusual: Antony Johnston, co-creator of The Coldest City/Atomic Blonde, Three Days in Europe, Wasteland, and the Dog Sitter Detective books, had five publishers bid on his new crime novel. The premise of the book is also unusual, an interactive solve-as-you-go-along conceit, or as Johnston explains, "Throughout the book the reader chooses who to interview and which leads to follow, taking notes and looking for clues before finally deciding who to accuse. Every decision the reader makes has consequences. If you remember 'gamebooks' (Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy, etc) you'll recognise the concept for Can You Solve the Murder? It's a game in which you play a detective solving a crime… but also a murder mystery novel, with plot twists and great character."

In an instance of crime meets art, artist and ink-maker Thomas Little uses an unexpected source for colors to make his scenes even more potent: The pigments are made from the chemical compounds of guns, taken out of circulation and dissolved in Little’s workshop. As CNN reported, "for more than five years, Little has performed this kind of alchemy, purchasing handguns and automatic rifles from pawn shops and dissolving the iron-heavy parts in acid to form iron sulfate, the basis for writing inks and artists’ pigments in deep blacks, rusty reds and warm ochres. As the son of a gunsmith, this practice is something of a birthright for him, but entirely subversive as he transforms objects of violence into materials for expression."

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery author Dana King about his new private eye crime fiction, Off the Books, and also with mystery author Phyllis Gobbell about her new amateur sleuth novel, Notorious in Nashville; Holly Jackson spoke with The Guardian about her young adult series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which has sold millions of copies worldwide, and is currently being made into a BBC TV series; and Crime Reads interviewed SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee, co-authors of The Murder of Mr. Ma, which introduces a Holmes and Watson inspired dynamic duo consisting of two semi-fictionalized Chinese historical figures—Judge Dee Ren Jie from the 7th century, whose valorous spirit has been mythologized in countless stories, and the 20th century academic and novelist Lao She—who work together (if reluctantly, at first) to track down a serial killer targeting Chinese immigrants in post-WWI London.