Shamus Awards for 2024

This year's finalists for the 2024 Shamus Awards, which are handed out by the Private Eye Writers of America, have been announced. (Note: PWA has apparently decided not to award in the Best Debut Novel category this year.) Winners will be revealed at the Bouchercon Opening Ceremonies in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, August 29th from 6:30 to 8:00pm (Delta Ballroom A, floor 2) at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Congrats to all! 

BEST PI HARDCOVER

Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen (Minotaur Books)
Go Find Daddy by Steve Goble (Oceanview Publishing)
The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen (Forge Books)
Heart of the Nile by Will Thomas (Minotaur Books)

BEST ORIGINAL PI PAPERBACK

Drums Guns ’N’ Money by Jonathan J. Brown (Down & Out Books)
Gillespie Field Groove by Corey Lynn Fayman (Konstellation Press)
The Truth We Hide by Liz Milliron (Level Best Books)
Bring the Night by J.R. Sanders (Level Best Books)
Liar’s Dice by Gabriel Valjan (Level Best Books)

BEST  PI SHORT STORY

“Errand for a Neighbor” by Bill Bassman (January/February 2023, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
“Beyond Belief” by Libby Cudmore (May 2023, Tough)
“The Soiled Dove of Shallow Hollow” by Sean McCluskey (January/February 2023, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
“Imperfect Data” by Bob Tippee (January/February 2023, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
“Making the Bad Guys Nervous” by Joseph S. Walker (2023, Black Cat Weekly #102) 

The Private Eye Writers of America thanks this year's panel of judges: 

David Bart
O’Neil DeNoux
Lori Duffy Foster
Gay Toltl Kinman
Andrew McAleer
Paul McGoran
Patrick H. Moore
Richie Narvaez
Jim Nesbitt
Stephen D. Rogers
Kevin Burton Smith
Rosalie Spielman

Mystery Melange

Each year, the Bouchercon Crime Fiction Conference Board selects a recipient of the 2024 David Thompson Special Service Award to honor the memory and contributions to the crime fiction community of David Thompson, a much beloved Houston bookseller who passed away in 2010. Winners are lauded for their "extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the crime fiction field." This year's recipient(s) are Crime Writers of Color, and its founders, Kellye Garett, Walter Mosley, and Gigi Pandian. The award presentation will be part of the Bouchercon 2024 Opening Ceremony in Nashville August 28-September 1, 2024.

Winners of the 2024 Colorado Book Awards were announced, including those in the Mystery and Thriller categories. Best mystery was won by Blood Betrayal: A Detective Inaya Rahman Novel by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Minotaur Books). The other finalists were Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane Books) and Take the Honey and Run: A Beekeeping Mystery by Jennie Marts (Crooked Lane Books). The thriller winner was No Child of Mine by Nichelle Giraldes (Sourcebooks). The other thriller finalists include Once Upon a Lie by Rebecca Taylor (Ophelia House) and The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens (Joffe Books).

Applications are open for Sisters in Crime's SinC Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, which includes a grant of $2,000. Interested applicants need to submit an unpublished work of crime fiction that may be a short story or first chapter of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words, a resume or biographical statement, and a cover letter that gives a sense of the applicant as an emerging writer in the genre and briefly states how the award money would be used. (Writers submitting work should have published not more than ten pieces of short fiction or up to two self-published or traditionally published books.) One year after their win, the award winner will be asked to share thoughts on the impact the award has made, and also will be asked to serve as a member of the award selection committee for the year after their win, alongside volunteer judges. For more information, check out the official SinC award website.

The crime fiction festival "Murder Most Yorkshire" is headed to Harrogate in the UK from July 4-6. This is a free event with author panels, interviews, book signings, writing workshops, open mic, and writing challenges. Over a dozen authors are scheduled to attend and participate in such panels as "Tea and Trenchcoats," "Crime by Degree," "Not so Line of Duty," and more.

Kronos Records has scheduled a July release of the soundtrack to the film noir, Cop Hater (1958), the film based on the first 87th Precinct novel by Ed McBain (1956) featuring Robert Loggia, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, and Vincent Gardenia. The music was written by composer Albert Glasser (Motorcycle Gang; The Big Caper; The Cisko Kid Returns, and various others), and is rich in both big orchestral moments and jazzy and big band swing style tunes. The CD is strictly limited to 300 copies. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell at The Bunburyist)

Craig Sisterson offers up "13 fresh, exciting antipodean crime writers to try" if you're interested in checking out crime fiction from Aussie and New Zealand authors.

If you're a fan of both science fiction and crime fiction, Reactor Mag has one list of "5 Underrated Weird Mysteries" and another titled "Five Murder Mysteries Featuring SFF Authors and Fans."

Think you're an expert at femme fatales in crime fiction? Then try your hand at this quiz via Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

In April 2015, B.K. (Bonnie) 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. After Bonnie's death in November 2017, the blog series relocated to Art Taylor's website. This week and next, he'll be hosting Julie Hastrup and Kevin Tipple, both contributors to the new anthology, Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery and Suspense, edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, which was published this past week.

In the Q&A roundup, E. B. Davis interviewed Molly MacRae for Writers Who Kill, about Come Shell or High Water, the first book in MacRae’s Haunted Shell Shop mystery series; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with British author Tracy Buchanan about her latest crime novel, Venom in the Blood, which features the forensic entomologist Dr. Vanessa Marwood; and Shots Magazine spoke with Kia Abdullah, whose 2019 debut crime novel, Take It Back, was critically acclaimed, and whose third novel, Next of Kin, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.

McIlvanney Prize Longlist

Organizers of the Bloody Scotland international crime writing festival announced the longlist for the 2024 McIlvanney Prize, named after author William McIlvanney, the "Godfather of Tartan Noir," who passed away in 2015. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of the festival, September 13. Congrats to all!

 

• A Divine Fury, by D.V. Bishop (Pan Macmillan)
• The Cracked Mirror, by Chris Brookmyre (Sphere)
• Kennedy 35, by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)
• The Girl in the Loch, by Andrew James Greig (Storm)
• The Collapsing Wave, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• The Winter List, by S.G. Maclean (Quercus)
• Past Lying, by Val McDermid (Sphere)
• Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage)
• The Trials of Marjory Crowe, by C.S. Robertson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Spy Like Me, by Kim Sherwood (HarperCollins)
• Blood Runs Deep, by Doug Sinclair (Storm)
• The Hollow Mountain, by Douglas Skelton (Polygon)

 

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

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are attached to star in the thriller, RIP, with Joe Carnahan writing and directing. The plot details are being kept under wraps other than it being described as a crime thriller and that it will begin shooting this fall. No stranger to crime thrillers, Carnahan has made a name for himself over the years with such films as Narc and Smokin’ Aces (which Affleck also appeared in).

David Tennant (Doctor Who), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes), Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), Daniel Mays (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget), and Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Killing Eve) are joining The Thursday Murder Club, based on Richard Osman’s 2020 novel of the same name. They join the all-star cast of Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie. Chris Columbus is writer-director on the crime-comedy, which will follow a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun, but find themselves caught in a real case. The four members of the club will be played by Mirren (ex-spy Elizabeth), Kingsley (ex-psychiatrist Ibrahim) Brosnan (former union activist Ron) and Imrie (ex-nurse Joyce).

Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Magicians) and Riley Dandy (Things Will Be Different) are set to star in Abigail Before Beatrice, a slow-burn psychological thriller marking the sophomore feature of writer-director Cassie Keet. The film follows an isolated woman who must confront her past when a fellow former cult member reaches out with news that their leader has been released from prison early.

Producer Dominic Barlow has teamed up with writer-executive producer Brendan Foley on The Angolan Clan, based on a series of four bestsellers by author Christopher Lowery. The project is an action-drama thriller series centered on two women in their 30s: an English widow and a Spanish-Angolan housekeeper who unexpectedly inherit a Spanish villa and ownership of a clandestine diamond company from the English woman’s father-in-law, who was also the Spanish woman’s employer. Together, they delve into the mystery of their shared inheritance, unraveling its origins amidst present-day London and Spain.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Masterpiece on PBS has ordered a 10th season of the mystery series, Grantchester, with stars Robson Green and Rishi Nair set to return as DI Geordie Keating and Reverend Alphy Kottaram, respectively. Grantchester airs on Masterpiece on PBS in the U.S. and on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK. In addition to Green and Nair, other returning cast members include Al Weaver as Leonard Finch, Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs. C, Kacey Ainsworth as Cathy Keating, Oliver Dimsdale as Daniel Marlowe, Nick Brimble as Jack Chapman, Bradley Hall as DC Larry Peters, and Melissa Johns as Miss Scott.

Patrick Dempsey has signed on as a series regular on Showtime's Dexter: Original Sin, playing Aaron Spencer, a Miami Metro Homicide Captain with a long history with the titular serial killer’s (Patrick Gibson) adoptive father, Harry Morgan (Christian Slater). The series also stars Molly Brown as Debra Morgan, James Martinez as Angel Batista, Christina Milian as Maria LaGuerta, Alex Shimizu as Vince Masuka, and Reno Wilson as Bobby Watt. Per the logline: set in 1991 Miami, Dexter: Original Sin follows Dexter as he transitions from student to avenging serial killer. When his bloodthirsty urges can’t be ignored any longer, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness. With the guidance of his father, Harry, he adopts a code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.

Britain's Channel 4 has picked up the detective series Patience, starring Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser, about a neurodivergent self-taught criminologist. Fraser plays Detective Bea Metcalf, the first person to spot the talents of Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis), "who works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire Police, cataloguing and filing the evidence produced during major cases. A young autistic woman, she craves routine and order, relishing the solitude and structure her job provides, but she yearns for more." Neurodiversity will play a thematic role in the series, with all neurodivergent characters within the series played by neurodiverse actors — including Purvis.

Sam Neill (Jurassic Park; Apples Never Fall) is set to star opposite Eric Bana in Netflix's limited series Untamed. Written by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, Untamed is a mystery-thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Bana), a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Neill will play Paul Souter who has been the chief park ranger in Yosemite for half his life. He’s a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend to Turner (Bana), who's comfortable in all facets of his job, whether it’s dealing with crime inside the park or with the bureaucracy around it.

Michael Chernus (Dead Ringers) has been tapped for the title role in Peacock’s limited drama series Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. True crime veteran Patrick Macmanus serves as writer, executive producer, and showrunner on the scripted series, inspired by the 2021 Peacock original docuseries of the same name. It chronicles the harrowing crimes of one of America’s most notorious serial killers and the investigation that ultimately brought him down. From 1972-1978, thirty-three young men were kidnapped, murdered, and buried in a crawl space beneath the house of their killer, Gacy, who went undetected for years because he was charming and funny, had a good, all-American job, was a community leader, and even volunteered to entertain sick kids… while dressed as a clown.

Apple TV+ released a trailer for its upcoming adaptation of Lady in the Lake, a seven-part limited series based on Laura Lippman's lauded 2019 novel, which was inspired by the real disappearances of Esther Lebowitz and Shirley Parker in 1960s Baltimore. Natalie Portman plays Maddie Schwartz, a Jewish woman who wants to become an investigative journalist and explore her potential beyond her home, and Moses Ingram plays Cleo Johnson, a Black woman who's trying to provide for her family while enduring the racism of 1960s America. When Cleo is found dead by Maddie in a lake, Maddie becomes obsessed with what happened to her as well as a missing young girl, and she inserts herself into the police investigation — but there's much more to the story than it seems.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers, Australian thriller writer Michael Robotham and British crime writer MW Craven discussed their latest books, Storm Child and The Mercy Chair, as well the recent rise of Aussie Noir.

Crime Time FM featured a National Crime Reading Month special with Antony Johnston introducing Steve Cavanagh, Ilana Berry, Shawn Cosby, and Stuart Neville; Stu Cummins chatted with CL Taylor and TM Logan; and Paul Burke, Barry Forshaw, and Victoria Selman threw in a few reads of their own.

Author R&R with Chris Coppel

Chris Coppel was born in California and has since split his time between the USA and Europe, living in California, Washington DC, Utah, Spain, France, Switzerland and England. Chris has held senior operations positions for both Warner Bros. and Universal Studios. Chris also held the position of Director of Operations for UCLA’s Film School where he also taught advanced screenwriting. Chris and his wife Clare spent many years helping animal rescue with Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Before joining Best Friends, Chris was President and Managing Director of the Home Entertainment Division of Testronics in Los Angeles. Following in his father’s footsteps (Alec Coppel wrote Vertigo among many other successful movies) Chris has written numerous screenplays as well as the novels Lifetimes, Lingering, Logistics, Double Down (as C.J. Axelrod), Liner, Lucy, Lakebed, Legacy, Lodge, and Luck. Chris is also an accomplished drummer and guitarist.

His new book, Latency, just released today, is a riveting blend of police procedural and supernatural thriller. Up until now, the only monsters the LAPD had ever seen were of the human variety. When two down-on-their-luck detectives are forced to work together on a series of cold cases, they slowly begin to uncover a common thread that may hold the key to solving some of their town’s grizzliest unsolved murders. Little do they know that the same key will unlock secrets from a different dimension; one filled with monstrous creatures that should never be disturbed…

Chris stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about his writing process:

First, a little about me and my writing.

I wrote my first book, Lucy, thirty years ago, then managed to not write another word for over twenty-five years. Now I write a minimum of one book a year. While my original novel was a gentle tale (or tail) revolving around a Golden Retriever that gets stolen and has to, along with other fine hounds, escape their capturers and find a way home, most of my other works have been in the horror – ghost genres. Why do I choose to weave tapestries of dark and cloying fear? I have no idea. What I can say for certain is that I have always enjoyed a good horror story. Before I go on, I think I need to point out the sort of tale that I DO NOT define as good horror. I am not a fan of gratuitous orgies of blood and gore that start on page one and maintain that same sordid level until the very end without any benefit to the story or the setting. I find that type of horror to be the genre-equivalent of the bottom shelf romance novels that are all written according to a preordained script that dictates content, romantic interaction timeline and conclusion. Having said that, those books sell in the billions every year, so that just shows how much I know.

Horror for me must be original. I don’t find an axe wielding psychopath targeting young sorority girls to be clever or worthy of even a sample read on Amazon. I like subtlety in my horror. I also like a dash of humour, a drop of pathos and most importantly, I want the feeling of discombobulation. I want the reader to feel the same emotions as the characters. To date, I feel that my books have encompassed all those criteria.

I was questioned about how I deal with research. Firstly, the need for in depth research beyond what my imagination can provide, varies from book to book. In Lucy and in Lingering, for example, I didn’t see the need for any research at all except for a little Google map work seeking out a few locations in Southampton. In Luck and Legacy, I needed quite a lot of science, armament knowledge, Native American lore etc. I found that the internet was all the tool I needed. I also learned not to grab the first data chunk from the landing page and then think that I was, at that point, highly knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Look deeper! For example, I needed to know about sniper rifles from the 1990s. I found that by digging deeply in the Google mine then branching into YouTube for some hands-on visualisations, I was able to get a good understanding of the weapon I needed for the story.

The only book I have written that required in-person research was the one I am editing at this moment. Titled Lusas Naturae, it is set in a small coastal town in England that is close to what was one of the biggest coal mines in England. In addition, the town sits atop a plethora of subterranean tunnels that were used by pirates and smuggles hundreds of years earlier. As my knowledge of tunnels and mines is on a par with my knowledge of quantum physics, I chose to meet local historians as well as volunteer tour guides at the local mine museum. The depth (literally) and breadth of knowledge that these individuals were able to impart to me was priceless and enabled me to add a layer of texture that couldn’t have been achieved otherwise.

You can read more about Chris and his writing via his website and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Latency is now available via all major booksellers and via publisher Cranthorpe Millner.

Mystery Melange

Since 1986, the Netherlands has awarded an annual "Gouden Strop" ("Golden Noose") to the year's best Dutch-language crime novel and the "Schaduwprijs" ("Shadow Prize") to the best debut crime novel. Three years ago, they also introduced the "Zilveren Strop" ("Silver Noose") for the best Dutch-language short story, and last year that award was renamed the Goeken Prize (after Paul Goeken, who wrote six novels under his own name and nine as Suzanne Vermeer before he passed on in 2011). This year's winners of the Golden Strop and the Shadow Prize were announced late last month at the Neude Library in Utrecht, including Mathijs Deen, who won the Golden Strop 2024 with The Diver, and Lex Noteboom, who was awarded the Shadow Prize 2024 for his thriller, The Man with a Thousand Faces. The Silver Noose winner was revealed online yesterday as "Doodweer" ("Dead Weather") by Jolanda Treffers. The other four finalists (with titles translated into English) were "The Execution" by Marius van Bruggen; "A Short Frenzy" by Josh Pachter; "Walk with Premeditation" by Mark Posma; and "Mise-en-scene" by Patricia Bouwhuis-Ooyevaar. (HT to Josh Pachter via social media)

Noir at the Bar heads to Elaine's, 208 Queen Street, Alexandria, VA, this Friday, June 21, at 7:00 pm. The event will feature award-winning authors reading their eight-minute short stories, including Brendan DuBois, Jackie Sherbow, LynDee Walker, Joe Walker, Stacy Woodson, Adam Meyer, and Tom Milani. On the other side of the Pond, Noir At the Bar, Edinburgh celebrates National Crime Reading Month on Thursday, June 27, at Canons' Gait Pub, with a lineup featuring Guy Hale, Ann Bloxwich, Cristine Tait, Adrian Searle, Rob Briggs, Fiona Quinn, Sandra Ireland, Gillian Duff, and Daniel Aubury.

As part of Dallas-Forth Worth Smith Public Library's summer theme of Only Murders in the Library, there will be a Crime Time Author Panel & Book Signing this Saturday at 2 pm. You can hear mystery and thriller authors talk about the howdunit in whodunits, ask your burning questions about the life of a writer, and help out the library at the same time, with book sale proceeds to benefit the Friends of the Library. The event also includes giveaways and a book signing afterwards with in-person authors Sara Rosett, L. A. Starks, Liese Sherwood-Fabre, and Leanne Kale Sparks. Other authors appearing "virtually" are Carolyn Haines and Carmen Amato.

Details about the upcoming UK Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in July continue to be rolled out, with Orion announcing that its immersive events space, The Incident Room, will be returning to the festival on Friday, July 19th for its eighth year. The space will deliver exclusive events for festival attendees including a celebration of the publication of Murder in Harrogate, a collection of crime short stories edited by Vaseem Khan, publishing with Orion in July. There will also be an Agatha Christie quiz, a live Crime Writers Room and an in-conversation event with Julian Clary about his crime fiction debut, Curtain Call to Murder. The line-up will also include M J Arlidge, Julia Crouch, Steph Broadribb, Vaseem Khan, Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, M W Craven and Mark Billingham, alongside other Orion authors. Orion will also provide a limited Harrogate at Home exclusive package for those unable to attend The Incident Room in-person.

Bookselling giant Barnes & Noble is set to become the next owner of Denver bookstore Tattered Cover, marking the end of its 53-year run as an independent business. Tattered Cover filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October and was due to hold an auction last Wednesday to hear bids to buy the bookstore and its assets, but it canceled the event at the last minute. A source familiar with the matter told Denverite last week that Tattered Cover has received three serious bids of varying amounts, but Barnes & Noble won with a bid of $1.8 million to obtain Tattered Cover’s five existing locations and its inventory. Under the agreement, Barnes & Noble will continue to operate the stores under the Tattered Cover moniker and will continue to employ "substantially all" of its current employees. The store has hosted and supported many crime fiction authors through the years, including most recently, Craig Johnson and Elin Hilderbrand.

"Murder Takes a Holiday," the latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal, is out on virtual newsstands. Each quarterly thematic review contains articles, reviews, and author essays on a specific theme, as well as special columns and other mystery related material. You can read the table of contents and learn about subscriptions via this link. There are also a couple of free sample articles from the issue there, including "Please Proceed to Your Gate—To Begin Your (Murderous) Journey" by Cathy Ace; "How I Learned to Write More Than Thirty Pages" by Simon Brett; and "Have Pen, Will Travel" by Tom Straw.

Writing for CrimeReads, James Queally has a retrospective on the late, great crime fiction magazine, ThugLit, and its founder, Todd "Big Daddy Thug" Robinson. The 'zine, self-described as "best damn crime fiction on the planet," lasted for eleven years and was the launching pad for some of the biggest names in crime fiction today.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with Justine Pucella Winans about her YA mysteries; Author Interviews also spoke with Rob Hart, author of the Ash McKenna crime series, a novella with James Patterson, and more, about his latest novel, Assassins Anonymous; E.J. Copperman (aka Jeff Cohen), applied the Page 69 Test to the second installment of his light-hearted cozy mystery series, Same Difference, which sees private investigators Fran and Ken Stein on the trail of a missing nineteen-year-old trans woman; Alex Michaelides chatted with the Hindustan Times about his books, screenwriting, and crime fiction in general; and the Irish Examiner interviewed Jo Spain about her latest novel, The Trial, a big-pharma medical thriller with a different kind of trial.

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

Higher Ground, the media company started by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has extended its creative partnership with Netflix. As part of the deal, Higher Ground will have a multiyear first-look deal with Netflix for all of its film and TV projects. Among those are S.A. Cosby’s bestselling crime thriller, All the Sinners Bleed, which Higher Ground is developing with Amblin Entertainment; and Dyersville, a highly sought after Chicago-set crime thriller inspired by real life events, directed by Grant Singer. Higher Ground is coming off a succession of critically acclaimed and award-winning film and TV productions, including the Will Forte crime drama series, Bodkin, which spent three weeks on the Netflix global Top 10 list.

Black Bear announced the supporting cast for its Matthew McConaughey film, The Rivals of Amziah King: Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Cole Sprouse (Lisa Frankenstein), Owen Teague (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Scott Shepherd (Killers of the Flower Moon), Rob Morgan (Mudbound), Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jake Horowitz (Bones and All) and newcomer Angelina LookingGlass. The plot is being kept under wraps, though the project is described as a character-focused crime thriller set against the backdrop of rural Oklahoma. The feature is the second from writer-director Andrew Patterson on the heels of The Vast of Night, a sci-fi mystery distributed by Amazon that won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature in its Slamdance debut before going on to win Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

USA Network handed a series order to The Rainmaker, based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel, to be written and executive produced by Code Black creator Michael Seitzman. The official logline for the series is as follows: "Fresh out of law school, Rudy Baylor goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond as well as his law school girlfriend. Rudy, along with his boss and her disheveled paralegal, uncover two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of their client’s son." Grisham’s novel was published in 1995 and subsequently adapted into a 1997 action movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Claire Danes, and Jon Voight.

Amazon MGM Studios has launched development on The 500, a series adaptation of the novel from The Night Agent author, Matthew Quirk, with Andrew Sodroski (Manhunt) serving as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. The show follows a former con artist who is plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to become an associate at Washington’s most high-powered consulting firm. Quickly pulled into a seductive, dangerous web of power and corruption, he struggles to find his way out. Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2014, The 500 marked the debut novel from Quirk, as well as the first in his Mike Ford series.

MGM+ has given an eight-episode series order to The Institute, a thriller based on the 2019 Stephen King novel. Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone) and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) are set to lead the drama from director/executive producer Jack Bender (Lost; Mr. Mercedes), writer/executive producer Benjamin Cavell (Justified; The Stand) and MGM+ Studios. The story follows twelve-year-old genius Luke Ellis, who is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did, and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson (Barnes) has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide. Parker will play Ms. Sigsby, the charming but iron-willed director of the Institute and a true believer in its awful mission, who is convinced history will come to see her as a hero.

Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) and Jo Joyner (The Wives) will lead an adaptation of Little Disasters, Sarah Vaughan’s novel of the same name, for Paramount+ UK & Ireland. The pair will play friends Jess and Liz in the six-part psychological thriller, which also stars Shelley Conn (Alex Rider) and Emily Taaffe (The Beast Must Die). The four actresses play four friends who were thrown together while expectant mothers with little in common apart from their due dates. "When Jess takes her baby daughter to hospital with a head injury she can’t explain, close friend and on-duty A&E doctor Liz is forced to make the excruciating decision as to whether to call social services on her friend. The decision sets of a chain of events that show how a moment can fracture and nearly destroy families and friendships."

The book When the Night Comes Falling by Howard Blum, which tells the inside story of the mysterious murders of the four University of Idaho students in 2022, is being developed as a scripted series. Village Roadshow Television is working up the adaptation of the book, which is set to be published by HarperCollins on June 25. Bryan Christopher Kohberger has been charged with four counts of murder after Kaylee Concalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. Blum has been covering the case from the start and the series will see him go behind the scenes of the police manhunt that uncovered not only the suspected killer, but also larger questions connected to the tragedy.

In a new five-part documentary series, iconic Poirot actor David Suchet will replicate an international expedition that crime writer Agatha Christie took in the 1920s. In Travels with Agatha with Sir David Suchet, the actor will retrace Christie’s journey, which spanned former British Empire territories Canada, Hawaii, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia as part of a trade mission. Each episode will feature one of the five countries, with filming set to begin this summer toward a release date sometime around the end of the year. Suchet noted, "Having spent a quarter of a century personifying Agatha Christie’s iconic character of Hercule Poirot, I now feel so honoured to embark upon a journey around the world, as myself — in the footsteps of possibly the greatest crime writer of all times...I feel that she will be sitting on my shoulders at every moment urging me on to share her passion for knowledge, travel, archeology, and of course, mystery."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The Spybrary Spy Book Podcast welcomed Merle Nygate for a deep dive into her latest espionage novel, Honour Among Spies, the highly anticipated sequel to The Righteous Spy.

Crime Time FM host, Victoria Selman, is joined by authors Melanie Golding (Little Darlings) and Jim Hewitt (The Perfect Village), who use folklore as inspiration for their novels.

The latest episode of the MysteryRats Maze podcast featured the first chapter of Murder at the Oasis by David S. Pederson, as read by actor Sean Hopper.

The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated how the lack of smell might kill you and the lethal poison that routinely kills rescuers, yet is made in your body.

Theakston's Old Peculier & McDermid Debut Award Shortlists

 

Harrogate International Festivals announced this year's finalists for the Crime Novel of the Year and the inaugural McDermid Debut Award for new writers. The winners will be revealed on Thursday, July 18, at the opening evening of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. Congrats to all the finalists!

 

Crime Novel of the Year:

• The Last Dance by Mark Billingham (Sphere; Little, Brown Book Group) 
• In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK) 
• 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) 
• Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Sandycove; Penguin Ireland) 

 

McDermid Debut Crime Novel of the Year:

• Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (Orenda Books) 
• Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey (Harper Collins) 
• Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (Bantam, Transworld) 
• Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu (Harper Collins) 
• The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere, Little Brown) 
• Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books) 

 

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, now in its 12th year, is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones and the Daily Express, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024. The Awards Academy chose the longlist, and a public vote helped to determine the shortlist. The winner will receive £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.

 

The shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award was selected by an academy of established crime and thriller authors, with the winner determined by a judging panel of industry experts, including literary, broadcasting and media figures, with no public voting component. All shortlisted authors receive a full weekend pass to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, where the winner will be announced and receive a £500 cash prize.

Mystery Melange

The winners of the Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys," were announced at Sony Hall in New York City, including the winner of the LGBTQ+ Mystery category, A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes Books). The other finalists include: 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). Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, and established the Lambda Literary Awards, which recognize the best LGBTQ books published in a given year across dozens of categories, in 1989

Registration is open for the International Thriller Writers' Online School. Participants will learn from the masters, bestselling authors and industry professionals, and gain insights into pacing, dialogue, character development, setting, twists, and more. The court covers seven weeks and 13 individual sessions (nine classes, three Spotlight Interviews and one bonus panel) during a live Zoom session and will offer live Q&A with the attending students. Featured presenters include Sara DiVello, K.J. Howe, Steven James, Andrea Johnson, Angie Kim, Mary Kubica, Jean Kwok, Tosca Lee and Nina Sadowsky. Spotlight interviews will include Lisa Gardner, Heather Graham, Charlaine Harris, Gregg Hurwitz, and Jerri Williams, with Bonus panel discussion via Jeneva Rose, Karen Dionne, and Wanda Morris, as moderated by Sam Octavius. For more information and to register, follow this link.

Mystery Writers of America also has an online learning opportunity via MWA-U 2024, to consist of six online classes taught by top-notch crime writers with live Q & A. Take your writing to the next level by attending these informative classes – free to MWA members (offered to nonmembers for $20/session). Tracy Clark will discuss writing characters; Meg Gardiner will tackle plot; Donna Andrews, dialogue; Daniel Stashower, setting; Jeffery Deaver, writing a commercial thriller; and Sheri Lewis-Wohl will speak on forensics.

Mystery Fanfare has a list of crime fiction and mysteries themed around Father's Day (Sunday, June 16th in the U.S.).

Can you identify these opening lines of classic mystery and crime novels? Test your knowledge with this quiz via Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Catriona McPherson, author of the Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, and contemporary standalone novels, about her new release, Deep Beneath Us; James Lee Burke chatted with CrimeReads about Hemingway, Orwell, and a new chapter in the American battle against fascism; and Ruth Ware was also interviewed by CrimeReads, talking about her new thriller set on a tropical Indonesian paradise that quickly turns into nightmare, One Perfect Couple.

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

The Peaky Blinders movie is officially moving forward, with Netflix giving the go-ahead to a feature film that will star Oscar winner Cillian Murphy in a return to the iconic role of street gang leader Tommy Shelby. Plot details and further casting are being kept under wraps, although Peaky creator Steven Knight has previously told Deadline a movie story would be set during World War II. The original BBC television drama series premiered in September 2013 and presents a fictional story in which the Peaky Blinders (an actual street gang from early 20th century) contend in the underworld with the Birmingham Boys and the Sabini gang in post-World War I Birmingham's Small Heath area.

The murder investigation of Scott Johnson, which highlighted a slew of homophobic killings in Australia in the 1980s, is to be explored in a new feature film. Nicholas Verso (Boys In The Trees) is writing and directing The Surface of Venus for Fremantle and Invention Studios. Scott Johnson, a young gay American man who had recently moved to Australia, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff near Sydney in 1988. Although the case was initially ruled a suicide by Australian police, Scott’s brother Steve didn’t believe it – and spent the next 35 years on the quest for justice for Scott and the truth behind his death. This exposed a massive and decades-long cover-up and a guilty conviction for the man who pushed Scott off the cliff only last year, in 2023.

Germany’s ZDF Studios has teamed up with Iceland’s ACT4 to develop the Nordic crime thriller, Big Brother, based on the award-winning debut novel, Stóri Bródir, by Icelandic author Skuli Sigurdsson. A tale of revenge and justice, Big Brother centers on a mysterious figure in black who, every full moon, viciously attacks a person before vanishing into the night. The victims, all unpunished sexual offenders, are carefully selected. A detective and an investigative journalist team up to solve these crimes, while the story also unfolds from the perspective of this enigmatic assailant, who sees himself as an agent of justice for the victims failed by society.

Netflix is developing a feature adaptation of None of This Is True, the psychological thriller novel from bestselling author Lisa Jewell, with Eleanor Burgess (Perry Mason) tapped to pen the script. The story follows popular podcaster Alix Summer, who has a chance meeting with Josie Fair on their shared birthday. Since she was a teenager, Josie has been controlled by a husband nearly thirty years her senior, while Alix has hit a creative roadblock with her popular podcast amid frustrations with her husband's drinking. Alix decides to feature Josie's story on her podcast, but the more Alix hears, the darker the story becomes and the closer that darkness nears her own doorstep.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

The BBC and BritBox International have signed Oscar-winner Anjelica Huston to lead the cast of their latest Agatha Christie adaptation, Towards Zero, with Huston playing the aunt of lead character Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). The three-part series concerns a murder mystery surrounding a recently divorced British tennis player holidaying at his aristocratic aunt's house on the south coast of England in the 1930s. Huston joins a cast that includes Jackie Clune (Motherland), Grace Doherty (Call the Midwife), Jack Farthing (Rain Dogs), Khalil Gharbia (Mary & George), Adam Hugill (Sherwood), Mimi Keene (Sex Education), Clarke Peters (The Wire), Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Oliver Award-winner Anjana Vasan (Black Mirror: Demon 79).

James Rollins’s bestselling Sigma Force techno-thriller novels are getting the small screen treatment. A television adaptation of the book series is in development from Absentia creator Matt Cirulnick, Amazon MGM Studios, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, Oakhurst Entertainment and Talaria Media. Sigma Force is a globe-trotting thriller series centered around a top secret U.S. Government program made up of Special Forces operatives They leverage expert military and scientific training to handle global counter-terrorism efforts and investigate scientific matters that could pose a threat to the United States.

Prime Video has greenlit Countdown, a thriller drama series from One Chicago veteran Derek Haas, with Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles attached to star. The project, from Amazon MGM Studios, has received a 13-episode order, somewhat rare for a streaming series. Countdown starts following a suspicious murder in broad daylight, which leads to LAPD officer Mark Meachum (Ackles) being recruited to join a secret task force of undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement to investigate. But as the truth of a more sinister plot comes into focus, the team must overcome their conflicting personal agendas to unite and save a city of millions.

Rochelle Aytes is set for a series regular role on Watson, based on Dr. John Watson of the Sherlock Holmes universe. Aytes will play Dr. Mary Morstan, one of the best surgeons on the East Coast, and the Medical Director of the hospital. She is equally adept at being a voice of reason for and serving reality checks to her ex-husband, Dr. Watson (Morris Chestnut). She has great respect for Watson and, while she appreciates his sleuthing when it comes to medical mysteries, she can also become irritated by his unorthodox approach to the business of medicine. Aytes previously starred in S.W.A.T. and may recur next season.

Succession star Sarah Snook will lead the cast of All Her Fault, based on the novel of the same name by Andrea Mara, which has been greenlit at Peacock. The official logline for the series states, "Marissa Irvine (Snook) arrives at 14 Arthur Avenue, expecting to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school. But the woman who answers the door isn’t a mother she recognizes. She isn’t the nanny. She doesn’t have Milo. And so begins every parent’s worst nightmare."

Max series Tokyo Vice has ended after two seasons. Ansel Elgort played a western journalist who works for a newspaper in Tokyo and winds up taking on one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses. Tokyo Vice creators J.T. Rogers and EP/director Alan Poul said, "We know there is more story to tell. Of course we’ll see what the future holds, but we are indeed grateful to have been able to share this story on Max until now.”

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Ben Pastor chatted with Paul Burke about her new literary historical crime novel, The Venus of Salò; Martin Bora; totalitarianism; Rome; writing in English; growing up in a divided world; and Shaun the Sheep.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with author Jo Callaghan, discussing her crime thrillers featuring an artificial intelligence policing hologram, and debating the transformative impact of new technologies and the possibility of AI Armageddon.

Mystery Melange

At the recent Maine Literary Awards presentation, bestselling author Tess Gerritsen (author of the Rizzoli & Isles series) received an award for distinguished achievement for "exceptional and steadfast contributions to the Maine literary arts." Katherine Hall Page also won the Crime Fiction category for her novel, The Body in the Web. The other finalists in that same category included Barbara Burt for Dissonance: A Novel of Music & Murder; and Bryan Wiggins (with Lee Thibodeau) for The Corpse Bloom.

On June 8, both in-person and online, the Friends of the Ferguson Library and the Mystery Writers of America's New York Chapter are sponsoring CrimeCONN, Connecticut's annual mystery writer and mystery fan conference. This year's theme is History, Headlines and Heroes, and Reed Farrel Coleman will start off the proceedings with a writing workshop and also appear later in the day in a conversation with Megan Abbott. In addition to other writing panels, forensic scientist Michelle Clark and Detective Tammy Murray will explain how real-life cold cases are tracked down and solved. Follow this link for more information and registration.

Goldsboro Books is launching a crime-themed subscription service, the Goldsboro Crime Collective, in September. The London-based shop, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, said of its latest subscription box: "Goldsboro Crime Collective introduces an original concept, offering subscribers meticulously curated selections of beautifully designed, signed first-edition crime novels." Priced at £20 a month, members will receive exclusive access to upcoming releases, chapter previews, giveaways, and a discount on crime fiction books at Goldsboro. Each monthly pick, chosen by the store’s team of booksellers, will also be accompanied by exclusive author content.

As posted on CrimeReads, Curtis Evans, who wrote the introduction to S.S. Murder by Q. Patrick (American Mystery Classics), profiled one of the great, underappreciated writers of the Golden Age, "Q. Patrick," who was not just one author, but four. The pen name was launched in 1931 by thirty-year-old Philadelphia pharmaceutical executive Richard “Rickie” Wilson Webb, who also partnered with Hugh Wheeler to write under three pseudonyms, Q. Patrick, Patrick Quentin and Jonathan Stagge, producing "some of mystery fiction’s finest crime novels."

In Sarah Weinman's latest crime fiction column for The New York Times, she made note of two legendary fictional detectives taking their final cases, with Jacqueline Winspear retiring Maisie Dobbs, and Susan Elia MacNeal bidding farewell to Maggie Hope. The Comfort of Ghosts is the 18th outing for Dobbs, the "plucky and resourceful British investigator and psychologist" whom Jacqueline Winspear introduced in 2003, and The Last Hope is the 11th installment for Maggie Hope, once Winston Churchill’s secretary and now "a capable and shrewd spy." Winspear also paid tribute to her literary creation in her newsletter on her website.

In the Q&A roundup, Catriona McPherson, author of the Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, and more, applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Deep Beneath Us; Deborah Kalb interviewed author Lori Roy about her new novel, Lake County; Jill Amadio chatted with Michael Finkel, author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa; debut crime fiction author Angela van Breemen spoke with Lisa Haselton about her new paranormal novel, Past Life’s Revenge, the first book in the David Harris and Emma Jackson mystery series; Crime Time interviewed Mark Billingham about leaving Tom Thorne behind – albeit temporarily – and starting a new series; and crime writer Paul Cleave chatted with the New Zealand Herald about taking part in Cunard’s inaugural Literature Festival at Sea voyage.

Author R&R with John David Bethel

John David Bethel was a speechwriter to Cabinet Secretaries at the Departments of Commerce and Education during the Bush 41 and 43 administrations. He also served as a press secretary and speechwriter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Additionally, Bethel worked as a communications strategist for a number of national and international public relations firms, including Burson Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. Bethel is also an award-winning author whose novels include Evil Town, Hotel Hell, Unheard Of, Holding Back the Dark, and A Washington Trilogy, and he's been published in popular consumer magazines and respected political journals.

His latest crime novel is Mapping the Night, in which FBI Special Agents Eileen Prado and Ira Fisher are inserted into the investigation of the Upper East Side serial murders at the instigation of forces working within government who want the identity of one of the victims kept quiet. Their partners in the NYPD have their own agenda: they are hiding the true identity of the man known as The Uptown Savage.

John David Bethel stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

 

My novels are drawn from true crime.

Mapping the Night is introduced with the scene of a boy kneeling beside the body of his mother, trying to revive her by applying a bag of frozen vegetables across her forehead. He explains to the police officers who discover him that this is how “she made me feel better when I was sick.” That haunting scene came straight from a New York City police report of the murder of a single mother. It was the first of many victims of the same killer.

The modus operandi of the perpetrator was consistent – as was his choice of victims. All were single mothers of young boys; all raped and strangled; all the murder scenes were immaculately cleaned beyond what would be necessary to erase evidence.

Having written about serial murderers in other novels, for which I did extensive research, I had a handle on the antagonist in Mapping the Night; however, I had not written about this particular type of offender. There are four types of serial killers: thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary killers and power/control seekers. In this novel, the offender is mission-oriented, meaning he justifies his murders as necessary to rid the world of people he considers undesirable. I went to work researching this particular deviant behavior and found that mission-oriented serial killers are organized, stable and clear thinkers. They can hold jobs, sometimes very coveted positions in respected fields, and they plan and commit their crimes quickly and efficiently.

With these details worked out, I needed a protagonist – other than law enforcement – who would enable the reader to identify with a “citizen” central to the action. Someone with a reason to be in the right place at the right time, meaning on the streets of New York in the middle of the night. That became Warren Winston who suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum. Translated it means he is allergic to light.

Winston lives in the dark, only leaving his apartment in the Plaza Residences on the toney side of town in the middle of the night. He wanders the upper East and West sides of the city, as well as Central Park, and knows the history and geography of these neighborhoods intricately – a vehicle to introduce and educate the reader about Uptown New York. It also puts Winston in a position to encounter the Uptown Savage.

After establishing the location for the novel, I also had to do some research on how and who from law enforcement would be handling events. That required understanding how the city is divided into precincts, who directs these precincts, and how the detectives operate within them. Special agents from the FBI would also have a role which meant research was needed to understand their involvement. There is also a political element in Mapping the Night that allowed me to mine my career in politics to add a dash of realism to that aspect of the plot.

I do my research as needed when I am writing. I do not write from an outline nor do I prepare background on the characters until I create them. Many writers work from an intricately prepared outline and prepare elaborate backstories for their characters. This provides a strong foundation that takes them from the first sentence of their novel to the final one knowing where they are going and how they are going to get there. I tried that approach but found it took the fun out of writing for me. I want to be write the way I read; being surprised about what is around the corner; how characters will react to the situations they encounter.

Long story short, I write by the seat of my pants and conduct research when it is needed to inform the plot. In some ways, this is easier and more efficient than information gathering in anticipation of what might be required to write a believable story. Oftentimes, I think writers who deep dive on research feel the need to include every bit of what they find in the novel. That can take the life out of the story. I am a minimalist.

I jump into my writing without a parachute but manage a soft landing.

 

You can learn more about J. David Bethel and his writing on his website and follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Mapping the Night is available for now via Amazon.

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

Barry Keoghan is in negotiations to join the Amazon MGM Studios adaptation of Don Winslow’s novella, Crime 101. He will co-star with Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth, who also is in talks to produce alongside his producing partner Ben Grayson. The original story by Winslow follows high-level jewel thefts that are taking place all along the Pacific Coast, which police have linked to Colombian cartels. Detective Lou Lubesnick has other ideas, and he zeroes in on one perp, a thief looking for a final score.

Director Rian Johnson announced just last week that Knives Out 3, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, was in the works, and the project is already adding star power. In addition to Daniel Craig, who returns as detective Benoit Blanc, the sequel will boast the likes of Glenn Close and Sherlock's Andrew Scott, as well as Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and the most recent addition, Jeremy Renner. Production kicks off this month, with the film to launch sometime in 2025.

The NOIR CITY: Boston celebration returns to its home at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 14-16. This year's lineup pairs English-speaking noirs with films from other countries similarly themed. Film Noir Foundation board member and Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties author, Foster Hirsch, will introduce the five double features at this year's festival. There will also be a non-hosted bonus screening of the 1958 French film, Elevator to the Gallows on Monday, June 17. The full schedule and program notes are available here.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Prime Video has handed a series order to Young Sherlock, inspired by Andy Lane’s critically acclaimed Young Sherlock Holmes book series, with Hero Fiennes Tiffin set to star in the title role and Guy Ritchie to direct. Young Sherlock is touted as an irreverent, action-packed origin story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective in an explosive re-imagining of this iconic character. At age 19, Sherlock Holmes is disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed, when he finds himself caught up in a murder mystery at Oxford University which threatens his freedom. Diving into his first-ever case with a wild lack of discipline, Sherlock manages to unravel a globe-trotting conspiracy that will change his life forever.

Netflix has launched development on They’ll Never Catch Us, a series adaptation of the bestselling thriller novel by Jessica Goodman. Published by Razorbill in July 2021, the book revolves around a small town high school women’s cross-country team and the secrets unleashed when its star runner is murdered. A New York Times bestselling author, Goodman’s debut novel, They Wish They Were Us, is currently being adapted by Sydney Sweeney’s production company, Fifty-Fifty Films.

ITV News anchor Tom Bradby is working with the UK commercial broadcaster to adapt his book, Secret Service. The 2019 spy thriller follows Kate Henderson, head of the Russia desk for British intelligence service MI6, who gathers evidence that a UK politician is possibly a Kremlin asset. When a young woman is brutally murdered with an election looming, Kate races against time to discover the identity of the asset. Her reputation and family are on the line as the clock is ticking.

Andrew Koji (Warrior) has been tapped for a major recurring role in Haven, Prime Video's heist thriller series starring Sophie Turner, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, and Archie Madekwe, with crime novelist S.A. Nikias penning the script in his series writing debut. Haven is a contemporary, high-octane thriller about the heist of the century and the ordinary office worker, Zara (Turner), who finds herself at the heart of it.

Charlie Hunnam will star in the new Prime Video series, Criminal, which is based on the acclaimed graphic novel series by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips. The Sons of Anarchy actor will lead the drama series as Leo, who is described as "a brilliant master thief who sees all the angles, and specializes in plans with no guns and no violence." Hunnam joins Criminal, which is structured as an interlocking universe of crime stories, alongside previously announced cast members Richard Jenkins, Adria Arjona, and Kadeem Hardison.

Diego Calva (Narcos: Mexico) has been cast as a lead in the BBC and Prime Video series, The Night Manager for Season 2. He joins previously announced stars Tom Hiddleston and Camila Morrone. Inspired by the characters in John le Carré’s best-selling novel, the upcoming second season of The Night Manager will once again be written by show creator David Farr and helmed by BAFTA-winning director Georgi Banks-Davies. Details regarding whom Calva will portray and the season’s plot are under wraps.

AMC Networks’ streamer Acorn TV and Germany’s ZDF have ordered a third season of the mystery drama series, The Chelsea Detective, with Adrian Scarborough (Killing Eve) and Vanessa Emme (Dublin Murders) reprising their roles as Detective Inspector Max Arnold and Detective Sergeant Layla Walsh, respectively. Filming has begun in and around London on four feature-length episodes in which the duo explore murky crimes such as "the tragic death of a 2000s poster, the impenetrable world of the U.S. Embassy, the splendor of Kew Gardens, a classic music academy, and a climate scientist found dead in a supercar."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke talked to Simon Toyne and Jane Casey about the 5th Slaughterfest in London on June 11, 2024, curated by internationally bestselling author, Karin Slaughter.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Susan Elia MacNeal, author of the bestselling Maggie Hope mystery series.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze podcast is up featuring an excerpt from Take The Honey and Run by Jennie Marts, read by actor Ariel Linn.

The latest Pick Your Poison podcast investigated the common way people are exposed to the chemical causing lung damage in microwave popcorn workers; what vitamin might be toxic for your lungs; and how you can inhale heavy metals without welding.

Capital Crime's Fingerprint Awards

The London-based crime fiction convention, Capital Crime, revealed the winners of this year’s Fingerprint Awards. Mystery fans were invited to vote for their favorites after the shortlists were announced in April, with the top vote-getters celebrated at this past weekend's conference. The event's organizers also handed out the Thalia Procter Lifetime Achievement Award to Lynda La Plante. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

Overall Best Crime Book of the Year:  None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell (Century)

Also nominated:

The Murder Game, by Tom Hindle (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: The Only Suspect, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster UK)

Also nominated:

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

Historical Crime Book of the Year:  The House of Whispers, by Anna Mazzola (Orion)

Also nominated:

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)

Genre-Busting Book of the Year:  Killing Jericho, by William Hussey (Zaffre)

Also nominated:

Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs (Century)
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, by Janice Hallett (Viper)
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)

Also nominated:

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)

Also nominated:

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:  Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans, narrated by Maz Evans (Headline)

Also nominated:

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)

Killer Thrillers

The International Thriller Writers unveiled the winners of the 2024 ITW Thriller Awards at this weekend's ThrillerFest XIX, held at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

 
Best Hardcover Novel:  S.A. Cosby – All The Sinners Bleed (Flatiron Books)

Also nominated:

• Robert Dugoni – Her Deadly Game (Thomas & Mercer)
• T. Ellison – It's One Of Us (Harlequin – MIRA Books)
• Mick Herron – The Secret Hours (Soho Crime)
• Joe Ide – Fixit (Mulholland Books)
• J. Tudor – The Drift (Ballantine Books)

Best Audiobook:  Gregg Hurwitz – The Last Orphan (Macmillan); Narrated by Scott Brick

Also nominated:

• S. Berry – The Peacock And The Sparrow (Atria); Narrated by Pete Simonelli
• Freida McFadden – The Housemaid's Secret (Bookouture); Narrated by Lauryn Allman
• James Patterson, Mike Lupica – The House Of Wolves (Hachette Audio); Narrated by Ellen Archer
• Emma Rosenblum – Bad Summer People (Macmillan); Narrated by January LaVoy

Best First Novel:  I.S. Berry – The Peacock And The Sparrow (Atria)

Also nominated:  

• Amy Chua – The Golden Gate (Minotaur)
• Margot Douaihy – Scorched Grace (Zando)
• Kerryn Mayne – Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder (Bantam Books
• Steve Urszenyi – Perfect Shot: A Thriller (Minotaur)

 
Best Paperback Original Novel:  Luke Dumas – The Paleontologist (Atria)

Also nominated:

• Tracy Clark – Hide (Thomas & Mercer)
• Tess Gerritsen – The Spy Coast (Thomas & Mercer)
• Lisa Gray – To Die For (Thomas & Mercer)
• Jonathan Maberry – Cave 13: A Joe Ledger And Rogue Team Novel (St. Martin's Griffin
• J. Todd Scott – Call The Dark (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Short Story:  Lisa Unger – Unknown Caller (Amazon Original Stories)

Also nominated:

• Chris Bohjalian – Slot Machine Fever Dreams (Amazon Original Stories)
• T. Ellison – These Cold Strangers (Amazon Original Stories)
• Smita Harish Jain – An Honorable Choice (Wildside Press)
• Richard Santos – Rush Hour (Akashic Books)
• Stacy Woodson – One Night In 1965 (Down & Out Books)

Best Young Adult Novel:  Elizabeth Wein – Stateless (Little, Brown & Co.)

Also nominated:

• Sorboni Banerjee, Dominique Richardson – Red As Blood (Wolfpack Publishing LLC)
• Darcy Coates – Where He Can't Find You (Sourcebooks Fire)
• Courtney Gould – Where Echoes Die (Wednesday Books
• Andrea Hannah – Where Darkness Blooms (Wednesday Books)

Best E-Book Original Novel:  Robert Swartwood – The Killing Room (Blackstone Publishing)

Also nominated:

• Jeff Buick – The Vulture Fund (Self-published)
• Rona Halsall – The Bigamist (Bookouture)
• Matt Phillips – A Good Rush Of Blood (RunAmok Books)
• Lisa Regan – Close Her Eyes (Bookouture
• Laura Wolfe – The In-Laws (Bookouture)