Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Night the Gods Smiled

Eric Wright was born in London, England in 1929 to a poor working-class family, an experience he later detailed in his memoir, Always Give a Penny to a Blind Man. When he was 22, he immigrated to Canada and eventually became an English professor, chair of the English department, then Dean of Arts at Ryerson Institute of Technology in Toronto.

Wright penned dozens of stories, many of them crime fiction, and served as editor of Criminal Shorts: Mysteries by Canadian Crime Writers, published in 1992. He also created not one or two, but four different detective series including police officer Mel Pickett; Lucy Trimble Brenner, who inherits a Toronto private detective agency; and part-time community college English teacher named Joe Barley, who also works part-time as a private eye.

His most popular literary creation, however, is Charlie Salter, a Toronto cop suffering from middle-aged depression when he's first introduced in The Night the Gods Smiled, the author's debut novel in 1983. The book won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, the Crime Writer's Association's John Creasey Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award.

At the start of the story, Salter's doldrums are compounded by police politics that have left him working what's essentially a desk job. When he's offered the first interesting case to come along in awhile, he jumps at the chance. David Summers, an English professor at a local college, has been murdered in a Montreal hotel room during a conference. Initially, the only clues are a lipstick-marked glass and a whisky bottle used to crush Summer's skull, but Salter soon realizes he has a long list of potential suspects, including a prostitute, mistresses, the victim's bitter wife, his squash partner, his stock-broker and assorted colleagues and students.

Salter is an engaging character, self-righteous, outspoken, and happily married, albeit with an undercurrent of cultural/class friction between his police officer status and his wife's wealthy family. His mid-life crisis sees him taking up squash after meeting the victim's playing partner, and developing a crush on Summer's favorite student, a free-spirited young woman named Molly.

Wright is known for his "lucid and agreeably laconic style," as one reviewer put it, while Kirkus adds that "the balance between sleuthing and gentle character-comedy is maintained beautifully throughout—with superior dialogue, intriguing Canadian specifics, and not a single cliché in sight." There were eleven Salter books in all, first published in hardcover until the series was dropped by Signet. A few reprints are available, including an omnibus of the first three novels in the series, published by Dundurn.

Happy Booksgiving

 

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

Thriller author James Patterson and Bookshop.org are launching a literary award called the James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize. The first place winner will receive $15,000 while the runner-up will receive $10,000, with both titles promoted on Bookshop.org and by participating indie bookstores. Indie booksellers from qualifying stores will be able to nominate titles and vote for the longlist, shortlist, and final winners. Nominations will open on January 5, 2026, with the ten-book longlist scheduled to be announced on February 9, the five-book shortlist announced on March 16, and the winner on April 6.


More "Best of 2025" lists have been released lately for your reading and/or holiday shopping pleasure. Audible compiled its favorite audio mysteries, and the Chicago Public Library system revealed its top print mystery selections (via Deadly Pleasures Magazine).


Janet Rudolph has updated her list of Thanksgiving-themed mysteries over at the Mystery Fanfare blog, including a few titles for younger readers.


The authors at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen blog are on hand to provide some Thanksgiving recipes and reads, including Roast Turkey Breast (perfect for a small Thanksgiving dinner) from Vick Delany; Impossible Pumpkin Pie from Peg Cochran aka Margaret Loudon; a trio cranberry delights via Leslie Budewitz (Cranberry Fig Compote, Cranberry Coffee Cake, and Cranberry Whipped Goat Cheese); Sweet Potato Biscuits by way of Molly MacRae; plus many more.


In the Crime Reads essay, "Murder, with a Dash of Nutmeg: Why Food and Mystery Pair So Well in Fiction," Carmela Dutra explained why "There’s something wildly satisfying about following a trail of cookie crumbs that leads to a killer, especially if you can pause for a pun and some pie along the way."


Mysteryrats Maze podcast via Kings River Life has a thanksgiving story titled "The Shocking Assault Upon Sophronsia Morgan’s Cranberry Aspic" by Erica Obey.


Although Thanksgiving is primarily an American tradition, it's also celebrated on various dates in October and November in Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, the Australian territory of Norfolk Island, and unofficially in countries like Germany, plus there are other harvest festival holidays around the world at this time of year. So perhaps it's fitting we don't neglect international crime fiction and crime fiction in translation. Crime Reads featured a look at "The Best Fiction in Translation of Fall 2025"; Publishers Weekly listed some new "Mysteries & Thrillers in Translation"; and PW also profiled "New Crime Fiction from Belgium, France, and Quebec."


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Whips" by Fatimah Akanbi.


In the Q&A roundup, Ayo Onatade spoke with Abir Mukherjee for Shots Magazine about the writing of his award-winning novel, Hunted, and his return to his Wyndham and Banerjee series; The Guardian interviewed Sophie Hannah, author of the Agatha Christie Poirot continuation novels, about discovering Agatha Christie’s alter ego, Frances Farmer’s life-changing story of survival, and Hannah's favorite self help books; and Lisa Haselton spoke with both M. Jayne LaDow about her new spicy cozy novel, A Pilgrimage of Whispered Truths, and Austin Camacho about his new action-thriller, True Target.

Author R&R with Emily Hanlon

Emily Hanlon was raised in Texas, educated in Boston, and now lives in New York. She worked as a personal injury litigator for many years, first as a plaintiff’s attorney presenting the stories of injured clients, then changing sides and telling the stories of clients accused of causing those injuries. Finally ending up as an arbitrator, she publishes over fifty decisions a year that seek to unravel the truth behind those always contradictory versions. A life of listening to witnesses and sifting through facts has prepared her well for creating the complex entanglements of murder mysteries. Having converted late in life after watching the joy that faith brought to her husband and three sons, she, like her sleuths in the Martha and Marya mysteries, is a eucharistic minister, active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and a card-carrying Church Lady. Through her books, Emily shares her love of the Church and of a good “whodunit.” 

The Martha and Marya mystery series began with Who Am I to Judge in 2023 and A Cloud of Witnesses in 2024, with the latest release this fall, The Wagers of Sin. When an elderly billionaire businesswoman drops dead during her wedding to a much younger golden boy at the very moment of the “I dos,” her improbable bridesmaid, Marya Cook—the lavender-clad, Bible-quoting octogenarian sleuth known to the locals as the Purple Pest—cries, “Murder.” Marya’s sensible sidekick, Uber driver Martha Collins, sees her to-do list balloon as she juggles her sleuthing with police politics, money problems, and maybe…just maybe…romance.

Join Martha and Marya on a cruise to the Greek Isles and back to Pequot Bays, New York, waterfront home to the wealthy and those who serve them. They meet the rich victim’s hopeful heirs, shady servants, and of course, the frustrated fiancé, as Marya combines her eye for “the little things” with her own peculiar logic to sift through the multitude of murderous motives, means, and opportunities in search of the killer—gambling against the odds at high-stakes roulette…and murder. 

Emily Hanlon stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching her books:

One of the reasons I set my books in contemporary time is that I didn't want to do the extensive research necessary for historical fiction. I have had to do considerable research in my career as a lawyer, and I wanted the freedom to write fiction, not research facts. 

 But of course, some research is necessary. My mysteries start with the murder. How it is done informs everything else—who would die that way, and who would kill that way.  So, the most important research for me is the manner in which the murder is committed. Fortunately, I know an expert I can consult--my primary care doctor. He's come up with some unique ideas on how to kill someone at my annual examinations or in the emails I pepper him with while I am writing my books. He's been so influential that he has become a character in my most recent book. In the first two books, Marya Cook, my octogenarian sleuth known around town as the Purple Pest, would consult her "Dear Dr. Stokes," and inform the reader what he had told her about, say, a poison or the side effects of a medication. But for my third book, the real Dr. Stokes had come up with such a unique and effective method of murder, that I had the doctor, himself, make an appearance in the book to explain the deadly details directly to the reader. 

Early on, an editor (not my current editor/publisher) advised me to add a dog or a recipe to my story—that readers like that kind of thing.  I like dogs better than cooking, but I haven't had a dog since I was 12, so that required some research. Rather than undertaking comprehensive research about dog habits and behaviors, I contacted a dear friend who is a dog person. I would ask her basic questions like what would a dog do when they meet someone they don't like—say a murderer? Or what would a dog do if they came upon a pile of rocks with a dead body under it? And she was able to answer my questions. She owned a chocolate Lab named Quincy, and now, my assistant sleuth Martha Collins owns a chocolate Lab named Quincy. 

I also use the internet—a lot. I cannot imagine how authors wrote before computers. I even use it for little things. I recently learned that I have aphantasia—I can't visualize objects in my mind's eye like most people do. So, for example, if I want to describe a house in an expensive seaside community but can't picture what a typical rich person's house on the water would look like, I pull up a picture from the internet. 

 

You can learn more about Emily Hanlon via her website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram. The Wagers of Sin is now available via Chrism Press and all major bookstores.

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

Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) is set to star in the action-thriller, The Good Samaritan, directed by Pierre Morel (Taken) and based on an original screenplay from Rambo: First Blood screenwriter, Matthew Ian Cirulnick. The synopsis reads: “When successful entrepreneur Dr. Rosalind Carver (Ridley) and her husband Matt rescue a wounded man drifting off the coast of Indonesia, they believe they’re saving a life – not stepping into a deadly conspiracy. Within hours, their yacht vanishes, Matt is abducted, and paradise turns into a trap. Hunted by pirates and imprisoned by corrupt officials, Rosalind’s only hope lies in Sean Fuller, a private military contractor whose motives are as mysterious as his past. Together, they must navigate a maze of deceit and violence in a land where no one can be trusted.” Production is being lined up for spring 2026 in Brisbane, Australia on the Gold Coast.


Christian Bale is in talks for a major role alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Michael Mann's Heat 2, based on a script Mann co-authored with Meg Gardiner. It was not immediately clear which role Bale will play. The 1995 heist movie Heat starred Al Pacino as Detective Vincent Hanna, Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, and Val Kilmer as Shiherlis. Heat 2, the book, was penned by Mann and Gardiner but not as a novelization of the film—instead telling the story of everything that happens to the principal characters before and after. The book jumps between two time periods: one following Shiherlis and Hanna, trying to evade the LAPD following the bank robbery gone bad; and a second, which takes readers back to Chicago in 1988, when McCauley, Shiherlis, and their high-line crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the U.S.-Mexico border, and in the Windy City.


Director and cinematographer, Gabriel Beristain, will helm the psychological thriller, Mia: See Clearly. Golsa Sarabi’s Golsa Enterprises will produce, with Sarabi in the title role. The story follows Mia, a brilliant but disillusioned former intelligence operative, who becomes entangled in a vast surveillance conspiracy. She uncovers a syndicate capable of manipulating perception itself. As events unfold, Mia is pursued across Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans as she races to expose the truth. Along the way, she faces her ultimate adversary: an AI-created doppelganger who has all of her knowledge but none of her humanity.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

OneGate Media bought the international rights to the crime thriller, Blind, which is based on Swiss author's Christine Brand’s bestselling Milla Nova series of novels. The upcoming TV drama adaptation is much anticipated—so much so that Swiss broadcaster SRF is developing a second season of the TV adaptation ahead of the launch of the first season next year. The plan is for a returning drama, with each season based on one of Brand’s books. Blind follows Nathaniel, a visually impaired bartender who claims a pregnant woman was kidnapped from his bar. Investigators find signs of a struggle but no trace of the victim, and Inspector Bandini identifies Nathaniel as the prime suspect. Determined to prove his innocence, Nathaniel finds an ally in investigative journalist Milla. Together, they uncover a web of lies, secrets, and hidden connections.


In a bidding war, Netflix has nabbed Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) with a straight-to-series order. The action crime drama, which has been picked up for eight episodes, comes from writer Harrison Query (Heads of State), director Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge), A24, and producer Joe Hipps (Ozark). Trigger Point follows a group of former Tier One Special Forces Operators who sell their elite skills to the criminal underworld behind the front of a private military contracting firm — and the FBI agent who’s hunting for them. Edgerton will play the lead, Red, an ex-Tier One Operator-turned-criminal.

Lupin creator George Kay is penning the thriller, Gone, for ITV starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Eve Myles (Keeping Faith). Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private school, a foreboding forest, and the quiet sprawl of Bristol, Gone follows local Headmaster Michael Polly (Morrissey), who becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance. An upstanding member of the community, Michael is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life, but then he encounters gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy (Myles), and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth. The series is inspired by the career and work of a former Detective Superintendent for Gloucestershire Police, Julie Mackay, and ITV Crime Correspondent Robert Murphy, and partly inspired by their book, To Hunt A Killer.


The BBC announced the third series of Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning hit drama, Time, set in a young offenders' institution. The three-part drama will be led by new addition to the cast, David Tennant (Dr. Who, Thursday Murder Club) as Prison Officer Bailey, with Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley, Out of the Dust) reprising her role as Marie-Louise, a prison chaplain.


NCIS: New Orleans alumna Necar Zadegan is returning to CBS as a series regular on the network’s upcoming drama series, CIA, headlined by Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss. Zadegan will play one of the leads in the FBI offshoot, the Chief of Station role originally played by Michael Michele, who departed the series earlier this month.


CBS has unveiled its 2025-2026 midseason lineup which features the series premieres of FBI offshoot CIA; Harlan Coben’s Final Twist; and the returns of Watson, Tracker, the NCIS franchise and more. CIA, initially scheduled for a fall premiere in the Monday 10 PM slot, was moved to midseason amid a showrunner change and will now premiere on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m., following mothership FBI at 9 p.m. Meanwhile, Watson is moving back to its original night, premiering its second season on Sunday, March 1 at 10 p.m. It follows Tracker, which shifts to a new 9 p.m. time slot. The new true-crime series Harlan Coben’s Final Twist debuts Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 10 p.m.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On the latest Poisoned Pen podcast, Barbara Peters was in conversation with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their new thriller, The Grave Artist.


On Crime Time FM, Abigail Dean (Girl A) and Jennie Godfrey (The List of Suspicious Things) discussed true crime, second book syndrome, and what it's like to have a smash hit debut.


Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with crime writer Alexandra Benedict, dubbed the "Queen of the Christmas Thriller" about her latest book, The Christmas Cracker Killer, on the latest episode of Murder Junction.


Twin brothers Allen and Brian Manning stopped by Meet the Thriller Author to discuss their John Stone action-thriller series.


Authors on the Air welcomed Peggy Townsend to talk about her new mystery, The Botanist’s Assistant, which features Margaret Finch—six feet tall, fiercely organized, lover of schedules, and proud inhabitant of a tiny cabin in the woods. Her obsessive attention to detail makes her indispensable in her university botany lab… and it may also put a target on her back when she decides a recent death is no accident.


The Get to Know podcast spoke with Mary Anna Evans, author of two nonfiction books on Agatha Christie, as well as the Justine Byrne Historical Mysteries and the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries.


Criminal Mischief chatted with Robert T. Kelley, who spent 30 years in the technology industry, as well as publishing the quarterly literary journal, The Maine Review, and blogging for Maine Crime Writers, about his debut novel, the technothriller, Raven.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser profiled a toxin that has killed thieves robbing houses and what pesticide is so poisonous it depletes the ozone layer.

Scarlet Stiletto Selections

Sisters in Crime Australia announced winners of their 32nd Scarlet Stilleto Awards at a gala dinner held on Friday night (November 21) at the William Angliss Institute in Melbourne. The award was created in 1994 for crime fiction short stories written by Australian women and featuring a strong female protagonist. The organization also sponsors the annual Davitt Awards for crime novels by Australian women. This year's winners, who competed for a total of $13,050 in prize money, include:

Scarlet Stiletto Award First Prize:  Dr. Sandra Thom-Jones, "Der Hölle Rache." 

The Simon & Schuster Second Prize: Nette Hilton, "Without A Word"

Sun Bookshop & Fremantle Press Third Prize:  Jacqui Horwood, "Rebel Girl"

Echo Publishing Award for Best Young Writer: Amber Woodburne, "A Midnight Murder"

Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Award:  Julia Harris, "Return or Die"

Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Runner-Up Award: Natalie Conyer, "The Ghost Detective"

HQ Fiction Award for Best Thriller: Tegan Huntley for "Vanish"

Clan Destine Press Award for Cross Genre: Alyssa Mackay, "Nan and Lila Investigate a Murder"

Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award: January Gilchrist, "The Art of Letting Go"

ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award: Sally Ross, "Reasonable Doubt"

Bolton Clarke Award for Best Art and Crime Story: Linda Brandon, "The Spanish Connection"

Every Cloud Productions’ Phryne Mystery with History Award: Liz Filleul, "A Time for Crime"

Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue: Sarah Mayo Tighe, "Franklin Has Questions"

Writers’ Victoria Crime and Punishment Award for the most satisfying retribution: Laree Chapman, "Capeweed"

Highly commended framed certificates also went to:

• Lara Bailey (Diamond Creek, VIC) for ’Game Face’
• Alison Birrane (Floreat, WA) for ‘Bill Came Due‘
• Sue Clapton (North Lake, WA) for ‘One Wrong‘ [Absent from ceremony.]
• Natalie Conyer (Mosman, NSW) for ‘Here for You’
• Kathryn Errey (Halifax, SA) for ‘The Spinster Who Came Down off the Shelf’
• Dawn Farnham (Yokine, WA) for ‘Requiem for the Innocent’ [Absent from ceremony.]
• Kath Harper (Port Fairy, VIC) for ‘Cat and Mouse’
• Megan Heyward (Booker Bay, NSW) for ‘Small Treacheries’
• Julia Miller (Adelaide, SA) for ‘The Prize’
• Merryl Parker (Takone, Tas) For ‘Dingo’
• Alison Pascoe (Banora Point, NSW) for ‘The Boss That Wasn’t’
• Helen Richardson (Anna Bay, NSW) for ‘Washed Up’
• Bridget Robertson (Strathdale, VIC) for ‘The Outsider’
• Vicki Skidmore (Essendon, VIC) for ‘A Friend in Need’
• Nikki Thompson–McWatters (Blackheath, NSW)for ‘Why?’
• Katrina Watson (Balaclava, VIC) for ‘Affairs in Order’
• Jennifer White (Sandford, VIC) for ‘The Last Chapter’

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: I'll Sing you Two-O

Anthea Mary Fraser (born 1930) was inspired by her novelist-mother to be a writer, but her own first published novel had to wait until 1970. The 1974 paranormal novel Laura Possessed was her first break-through success, followed by six other books in a similar vein and some romantic suspense titles before she turned to crime fiction.

She created two series, the first with Detective Chief Inspector David Webb of the Shillingham police, totaling 16 novels in all from 1984 to 1999. The second is a series Fraser debuted in 2003 featuring biographer/freelance journalist Rona Parish, with the last of six books published in 2008. Fraser also served the crime fiction community as secretary of the Crime Writers' Association from 1986 to 1996.

The first twelve in the DCI Webb series all take their titles from the lyrics to the English folk song "Green Grow the Rushes-O," including I'll Sing you Two-O from 1991, the ninth entry in the Webb roster. The case is set in motion when clothing store owner and part-time town magistrate Monica Tovey finds a van abandoned outside her home. But when the van's gruesome contents—the bodies of the football-mad, window washing, petty-thief White twins—are discovered, unsettling events disturb the serenity of the English town of Shillingham, and Monica suddenly finds her own life in danger.

DCI Webb begins to suspect that recent town burglaries, near-riots among soccer fans, low-flying airplanes and mysterious phone calls may not be unrelated to the case. Webb is also an accomplished artist, and he frequently calls upon his skills to record his impressions and hone in on the murderer, as he does here.

Fraser has taken some heat in the past for creating unconvincing and/or unlikely killers but also collected frequent praise for her rendering of small-town settings, with Publishers Weekly noting that "Fraser's rendering of an English community is again impeccable, enabling a reader not only to take pleasure in the mystery itself...but also to feel part of the life of a small, worried town," and Kirkus adding that it's "...enhanced by sensitive probing of snarled relationships and a nicely drawn small-town ambiance."

PW also once characterized Fraser's writing as "succinct," with "her plots developed quickly, her prose straight to the point, with neither narrative nor character suffering from this brevity." And the book does fly along at a fairly clipped pace, in a very dialogue-heavy manner, although the investigation and procedural elements often take a back seat to character interactions.

It's interesting to read words the author gave to one character that "We lead container lives nowadays, bound up in our own concerns. It doesn't make for neighborliness." Those words feel even truer today than in 1991, when thanks to technology, we likely know more about some distant celebrity than we do the people on our own street, and people are glued to cellphones even when out "socializing" with others.

Mystery Melange

The UK's Historical Writers Association revealed the winners of the 2025 HWA Crown Awards. The Debut Crown Award was given to A Poisoner’s Tale by Cathryn Kemp (Bantam). Ayo Onatade, chair of the Debut Crown judges, said: “The winner of the HWA Debut Crown not only evoked a profound sense of place and intrigue but the geography, local culture and historical period all intertwined to produce this well written and inseparable tragedy based on a true crime.”

The winner of this year's (German-language) Swiss Book Prize is Die Holländerinnen by Dorothee Elmiger, which had already won the German Book Prize and the Bavarian Book Prize, making her the first author to receive the triple honor. Elmiger's novel is based on a true story about a criminal case that remains unsolved to this day: in the spring of 2014, two Dutch tourists mysteriously disappeared during a hiking tour in Panama. The writer-narrator of the novel joins a theatre group on its journey into the deep interior of the jungle in preparation for a play that would reconstruct the case.

Some 69 titles nominated by 80 libraries from 36 countries have been announced as contenders for this year's Dublin Literary Award, one of the most lucrative literary prize in the world for a single work of fiction. Judges will name a longlist of up to 20 titles on February 17, with a shortlist to follow on April 7, and the winner crowned on May 21. There are some crime fiction and crime-adjacent titles on that list, including The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Rämö; Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma; Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner; Leading Ledang by Fadzlishah Johanabas; Murder at the Castle by David Safier; Red Water by Jurica Pavičić; The Brittle Age by Donatella Di Pietrantonio; The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman; and Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet


Mystery Fanfare reported on the sad news that retired librarian turned mystery author Triss Stein passed away this week. She was the author of the Erica Donato mysteries set in Brooklyn and the Kay Engels mystery, Murder at the Class Reunion,  


The Washington Post's book editors released their list of the Best Mystery Novels of 2025 and a separate list of the Best Thrillers of 2025. It's behind a paywall, but Deadly Pleasures re-posted the mystery list here and the thriller list here.


Andrew McAleer is resurrecting Crimestalker Casebook, which ran as a semi-annual crime fiction publication from 1998-2006. Founded by Andrew McAleer and John McAleer, it was originally titled Austin Layman's Crimestalker Casebook and featured traditional mystery short shorts and P.I. stories. The first issue, due next month, will feature short fiction from Barb Goffman, John Floyd, Libby Cudmore, Michael Bracken, Gay Totle Kinman, Stephen D. Rogers, Shawn Reilly Simmons, John McAleer, Janet Rudolph, and Art Taylor.


Writing for The Conversation, Soohyun Cho, Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts & Humanities at Michigan State University, studied the rise of the autistic detective and why neurodivergent minds are at the heart of modern mysteries.

 
On Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog feature, Neil Plakcy contributed an essay on his story, “The Missing Delegate,” from the anthology, Private Dicks and Disco Balls.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Harvard's Unofficial Copy of Magna Carta is Actually an Original" by Robert Cooperman.


In the Q&A roundup, debut thriller author Forest McMullin chatted with Lisa Haselton about his novel, Shooting at Shadows; Haselton also welcomed thriller author Mark A. Hill to discuss his new organized crime novel, Mitchell Rose and the Bologna Massacre; Suzanne Trauth spoke with Deborah Kalb about her new novel The First to Die; and Emma Stonex applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Sunshine Man, about a woman who seeks revenge on the man who killed her sister, after he is released from prison.

Author R&R with Colin Brush

Colin Brush was born in Scotland and raised on the Channel Island of Jersey. After studying geology in Glasgow, he moved to London and worked as a bookseller, stock controller, proofreader, copyeditor, quarterly zine publisher, catalogue and advertising copywriter and, currently, a jacket copy writer at a UK publisher. Over the last quarter century he has written the cover copy for over 5,000 books. He lives with his partner and their daughters on the southeast coast of England, a few miles from Dungeness, the sea-shaken, pebble-beached wilderness that is the inspiration for his first novel, Exo.

Exo is a sci-fi mystery set on an Earth that has become toxic for its citizens, leading many to eke out lives in orbital habitats and moon colonies. Over hundreds of years, Earth's oceans have transformed into an annihilating liquid entity—the Caul. Every living creature approaching its shores is irresistibly compelled to enter. . . and is never seen again. Scientists, some of the few inhabitants left, work in facilities seeking to understand and stop the Caul.

Savenging the shores are the penitents—those who resist its siren lure. Among them is Mae Jameson, who encounters Siofra, a mute girl, wandering alone by the shore and returns her home, only to discover the girl's father, rogue scientist Carl Magellan, hanging from a noose. He's been murdered. Unwilling to leave the matter in the hands of the facility Carl abandoned years ago, Mae takes Carl’s journals, which detail his obsession with the Caul and its mysteries, and sets about investigating a dangerous conspiracy where someone believes they can use the secret of the Caul to shape humanity's future—and aren't afraid to kill to keep control of it.

Colin stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the novel:

My novel Exo is a science-fiction murder mystery inspired by a real-world setting. This meant that there were four key areas that had to feel as authentic as possible and required a mixture of research and speculative imagination to help me bring them alive in both my mind and, hopefully, in the minds of my readers. 

These four aspects were the future Earth I’d created (the science fiction), how a person is killed and how someone goes about investigating a crime (the murder), the big science-fictional idea that drives both the story and the murder (the mystery), and, lastly, the location that had inspired my novel in the first place (the real-world setting). Each of these aspects required rather different research methods, though, of course, research in one area was bound to bleed into others. 

Science fiction

My story takes place a thousand years from now on a ravaged and dangerous Earth that humanity abandoned centuries ago. As a former geology student, I have some sense of deep time, though a millennium isn’t even a geological eye blink. And though I officially gave up any academic relationship with science over thirty years ago, I’ve continued to read widely across popular science literature, being an avid subscriber to New Scientist magazine. Pre-dating all this was the science fiction and fantasy bug I caught as a child (thanks, Star Wars!). Over the decades, I’ve read hundreds of books and short stories in these genres, which have not only provided so much reading pleasure, but also – amidst the sense of wonder and enchantment inherent in both genres – plenty of food for thought. Being immersed in the science of the day and speculations about the future gave me a ready-made, pick-and-choose toolkit as I set about building my future world. How was the future to differ from the past? How had those changes come about? How did politics work? Who was in charge? What had we done to the Earth? Not only did thinking about this stuff help bring the world alive, but this background work also started to shape and inform my story and plot. If Earth was dangerous and had been long abandoned, who were the people left on it, and what were they doing here? What was driving them? Why were they still around? To my mind, the best science fiction and murder mystery stories aren’t just about the science or the crimes but about the struggles of the characters who live in these worlds.
 
Murder

This was the area I was the least sure of, though I’ve read many classic and contemporary crime stories over the years. It was not just that I knew only the basics about how the criminal justice system worked. In my story the criminal justice system of the future had fundamentally changed – working under the auspices and with the permission of powerful interplanetary corporations – and I was setting it on an abandoned Earth where there was no law enforcement because there weren’t supposed to be any people there. My protagonist Mae is in her eighties. She had once been a Service agent – a kind of policewoman – but she’d abandoned that long ago. I was left with a series of questions. What happens when you find a body? How do bodies decay? How do you work out how someone was killed without forensics? Who decides who should investigate? What happens when people disagree over what to do? How do you go about investigating a crime? The specific details that had not changed – forensics, decay – I could use the internet to research (I was astonished by the specific resources available for crime writers!). My other questions became fundamental to the story and characters, in helping to reveal their world and, crucially, their behaviour and motivations. Who was helpful? Who was obstructive? Whose was acting suspiciously? Mae had to find out why.

Mystery

Because I was writing a science fiction murder mystery, I had two mysteries – a whodunnit and a what is it? Science fiction often features a big, dumb object. Something to give the reader the ‘wow’ factor they’re looking for. Mine was weird. It was the Caul – the deadly entity into which the oceans had slowly transformed: get too close and you’re irresistibly compelled to enter; enter, and you are instantly annihilated. This was why a few scientists were still on Earth, studying it, but it was also why others lived by the shore. These were called penitents – like my detective, Mae – and they somehow resisted the urge to enter the Caul. The Caul had also birthed strange hyperdimensional objects called clusters. Both the Caul and the clusters were mathematical in nature. To write convincingly about them I had to research topology – the mathematics of multi-dimensional shapes. I read a number of books, both non-fiction and fiction. Some were technical. The maths itself was utterly beyond me, but the ideas were breathtaking. Perhaps the most famous book about exploring other dimensions is Edwin Abbott’s Flatland. This book became folded into my story

 

Setting

Exo was inspired by a visit to Dungeness, on the southeastern coast of England. This small triangle of pebbled wilderness juts into the sea and is often shrouded in fog. It has a road running along it with a few small houses, lots of shacks, a couple of lighthouses, a number of decaying (as well as still used) fishing boats and, at the road’s end, a now decommissioned nuclear power station. It was the juxtaposition of all these elements that brought to mind my abandoned future Earth. I first visited in 2004 and I’ve visited numerous times since, my explorations giving me further ideas and inspiration. The decaying fishing boats became rusting rockets. The old lighthouse became a temple long abandoned by its worshippers. The wooden huts became the shacks of the few, last inhabitants eking out a living on a dangerous shore. The power station became a research facility studying what had happened here. The shingle headland and the sea itself became zones of danger and distrust, where a murder could happen beside a frightening annihilating entity and only a stubborn former policewoman could be trusted to solve it.

 

Science fiction. Murder. Mystery. Setting. The four fundamental keys to Exo, and all requiring a combination of research and inspiration, the one dependent on the other.

 

Colin Brush posts about writing and copy as colinthecopywriter at his website and on Instagram and Bluesky. Exo is now available via all major booksellers.

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

Idris Elba will reprise his role as Detective John Luther in a film follow-up to 2023’s Luther: The Fallen Sun for Netflix. Dermot Crowley will also return alongside Elba in the sequel, playing DSU Martin Schenk, as will Ruth Wilson, playing Alice Morgan. The television show launched in 2010 to run for five seasons, centering on Elba’s titular detective. Wilson’s Morgan started out as a research doctor hiding her murderous plans, but she worked with Luther in three of the five installments. Crowley’s Schenk also started out as an office antagonist for Luther, but the pair worked out an arrangement where Crowley could help from within the police force. The Fallen Sun also starred Cynthia Erivo as Odette Raine and Andy Serkis as David Robey, and featured the now-disgraced detective breaking out of prison to hunt down a serial killer wreaking havoc in London.


Vertical has acquired the psychological thriller, Stone Creek Killer, by director Robert Enriquez (Cash for Gold), starring Clayne Crawford (Lethal Weapon) and Lyndon Smith (National Treasure: Edge of History). The movie, which was set and filmed in Minnesota, follows a small-town police chief (Crawford) who pursues a serial killer, helped by a psychic's (Smith) visions, while fighting to prove his own innocence. The ensemble cast includes Britney Young (Glow), Vincent Washington (Young King), Andrew J. West (The Walking Dead), and Adam Hicks (Zeke and Luther). Vertical will give the film a limited theatrical and on-demand release in the U.S. on November 28.


Ed Helms  (The Hangover franchise) is set to star in and produce The English Tutor, a spy thriller from director Gaz Alazraki (Father of the Bride), to be financed and produced by the Madrid-based Zeta Studios. Michael LeSieur (I Work at Macy’s) wrote the film, described as a character-driven espionage thriller set in Mexico City. Further details as to the plot are under wraps, but the film will shoot next year — principally in Mexico City, with additional photography in Spain.


Magnolia Pictures has acquired all North American rights for the Nordic thriller, Operation Napoleon – Tears Of The Wolf, which is currently shooting in Finland, Iceland, and Germany. The movie is a sequel to the international hit Operation Napoleon, adapted from Arnaldur Indridason’s eponymous bestseller, which starred Vivian Ólafsdóttir as Kristin, a young lawyer who is inadvertently caught up in a plot to cover up a World War II secret. The new English-language adventure reunites Ólafsdóttir (It Hatched) with Jack Fox (Riviera), and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Severance, True Detective), under the direction of Jyri Kähönen (Trackers, Bordertown). The intrigue follows Kristin and her team on a high-stakes hunt for the legendary “Tears of the Wolf”— a cache of Nazi diamonds hidden during WWII. After witnessing a murder, Kristin uncovers clues that lead to encrypted codes and lost musical notes, propelling the trio across Iceland, Finland, and Germany toward a dramatic showdown in Helsinki’s underground bunkers and the Finnish Archipelago.


Colin Farrell will star in the action-thriller film Ordained, based on the upcoming comic book from publisher Bad Idea. He will star as Father Roy Craig, who performs last rites on a mob boss. The mob boss survives, and having confessed his crimes to the father, puts gangsters, hitmen, and corrupt cops on his trail to silence him for his knowledge. Father Roy has a violent past that prepares him for the onslaught, though he adheres to the sixth commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” John Wick writer Derek Kolstad penned the script and will produce along with Bad Idea’s Dinesh Shamdasani and Benjamin Simpson.


Almost three decades after they graced screens with the wild action feature, Face/Off, movie legends John Woo and Nicolas Cage are teaming up again on the crime biopic, Gambino, about notorious New York crime kingpin Carlo Gambino. The movie will follow Oscar winner Cage’s Carlo Gambino, a butcher’s son from Sicily, who rules New York’s underworld with quiet authority. But when his death sends shockwaves through the city, Pulitzer-winning journalist Jimmy Breslin follows the trail he left behind to uncover the man beneath the legend. Through the voices of those who loved him and those who feared him, Breslin peels back the composure that masked Gambino’s ruthlessness, revealing how this outsider rose to redefine power, loyalty, and the American dream.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Cheo Hodari Coker, the creator of Netflix’s Marvel series, Luke Cage, is adapting Ace Atkins’s novel, Don’t Let The Devil Ride, for Tomorrow Studios. The thriller tells the story of Addison McKellar, who thought she knew the man she married – charming, successful Dean McKellar – until he vanished. Fearing the worst, she hires private investigator Porter Hayes, an old friend of her father’s and a legend in Memphis. As Hayes starts pulling at loose threads, Addison’s entire life unravels. Her easy, affluent lifestyle is funded by blood money from Dean’s shadowy international mercenary firm – and she doesn’t even know his real name. 


Stana Katic is set to star in Entangled, a drama project created by Will Pascoe, who served as executive producer and showrunner on Season 3 of the Prime Video/AXN thriller drama, Absentia, that also starred Katic. Entangled is inspired by the story of real-life CIA intelligence officers Meredith and Freddie Woodruff, one of the Agency’s first undercover husband-and-wife teams, who conducted their overseas covert operations while also raising a family. Working across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, they tracked down international terrorists, recruited and handled spies, and survived a sudden and violent coup in one of the countries they were stationed in. The TV series follows married couple Abby (Katic) and Jim Sullivan, deep-cover CIA officers who must juggle their responsibilities as spies and parents while stationed overseas in one of the world’s most dangerous countries.


Station 19 star Jaina Lee Ortiz is returning to ABC as a series regular on the network’s upcoming hourlong series, RJ Decker, headlined by Scott Speedman. The project, from Elementary creator Rob Doherty and based on the 1987 novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen, is slated to premiere in midseason. The drama centers on the eponymous RJ Decker (Speedman), a disgraced newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-filled world of South Florida. The series follows him as he tackles cases that range from slightly odd to outright bizarre with the help of his journalist ex, her police detective wife, and a shadowy new benefactor, a woman from his past who could be his greatest ally… or his one-way ticket back to prison. Ortiz will play Emi Ochoa, the shrewd-if-unpredictable daughter of a very powerful, very corrupt state senator with ties to RJ’s past. In addition to Speedman and Ortiz, the series regular cast includes Kevin Rankin as Aloysius "Wish" Aiken, Adelaide Clemens as Catherine Delacroix, and Bevin Bru as Melody "Mel" Romero.


Peacock has decided not to renew Poker Face for a third season, but that may not signal an end to the series. Creator Rian Johnson is shopping the show to other broadcasters for a two-season commitment, with a twist:  Peter Dinklage will take over the role of Charlie (played originally by Natasha Lyonne), the sleuth whose superpower is an innate ability to detect liars. Poker Face was designed as a Columbo-like murder mystery of the week, with Lyonne playing a former casino employer whose value for being able to call bullshit got overshadowed by witnessing a crime and needing to go on the lam from a casino boss. Traveling the country in her 1969 Plymouth Barracuda, Charlie puts her superpower to use solving homicides everywhere she stops, while she stays on the run. Poker Face finished Season Two as one of Peacock’s most-watched series, but the show is expensive, and the ratings were down a bit from a first season, which was filled with critical raves and Emmy nominations. In the long term, Johnson’s hope is for the franchise to evolve with a new actor to play the lead character every two years.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Debbi Mack's latest guest on the Crime Cafe podcast was award-winning crime writer, Victoria Selman, author of five thrillers, including her popular Ziba MacKenzie series.


Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, spoke with Michael A. Black about his years as a police officer from the Chicago area and his writing career penning various genres including mystery, thriller, sci-fi, western, horror, and sports.


In a special episode of Meet the Thriller Author, host Alan Petersen recorded the show live from the floor of Author Nation 2025 in Las Vegas, interviewing thriller author Daniel Pelfrey about the release of the first book in his brand-new Nathan Calloway Thriller Series


On Crime Time FM, Phoebe Morgan (with Simon & Schuster) and Jack Butler (with Little Brown) discussed the trends coming out of the Frankfurt Book Fair.


On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester recommended books for their annual holiday gift guide.

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: She Shall Have Murder

Delano Ames (1906-1987) was born in Ohio to a newspaperman father. In 1929 Ames married Maysie Grieg, who later became a highly successful author of lighthearted romances, and the duo settled in Greenwich Village where Ames published his first novel, a philosophical look at the Greek gods entitled A Double Bed on Olympus. When the couple divorced, Ames moved to England where he remarried and worked for British intelligence during the second World War.

After the war, according to his tongue-in-cheek autobiography, he "translated an erudite history of keyboard instruments from the French, and believes that at least 100 copies were sold." Fortunately, his later efforts were more successful, beginning with in 1948 with She Shall Have Murder, the first in what was to become a 12-book series featuring the British husband-and-wife sleuthing team of Jane and Dagobert Brown. Ames produced a Brown book every year until 1959 when he moved to Spain and switched to writing a four-book
series featuring Juan Llorca of the Spanish Civil Guard.

She Shall Have Murder, made into a movie on British television in 1950, introduces Jane Hamish, a pretty young executive in the law firm Daniel Playfair and Son, and Dagobert Brown, Jane's lover and a researcher/writer who is so absorbed in the thriller he and Jane are concocting around the law firm's staff, that he is astonished when the wrong victim dies. Said victim is Mrs. Robjohn, the least favorite client of the firm, thanks to her frequent calls, letters and visits and unwavering paranoid belief that the mysterious "they" are out to get her.

She Shall Have Murder was labeled as "Detection with Wit" when first published in 1948, an apt description of the characters of Jane, always the common-sense, down-to-earth narrator, and her other half Dagobert, whose eccentricities and passing fads often leave Jane alternatively delighted and driven to despair ("Dagobert is my hero, but he persistently refuses to behave like one.") One of Dagobert's primary pursuits is amateur sleuthing that he puts to good use as he resorts to bluffs, disguises, charm and insightful detection in his efforts to prove Mrs. Robjohn was murdered.

Jane makes a delightful narrator, as in this bit about her thoughts on her potential novel-writing career at the start of the story:

"On the other hand, thrillers have nowadays become an accepted art-form; bishops and minor poets read practically nothing else, and the New Statesman reviews them....The beginning of a book is always the tricky part. It should arrest. A shot should ring out in the night, or if you prefer, a rod should cough or a Roscoe belch forth destruction. Personally, I like to meet my corpse on page one, and I like him (or her) to be very dead."

In Peter Walker's foreword to the Black Dagger edition of She Shall Have Murder, he notes that the novel is a time capsule of post-World War II life, with utility clothing, conscription, rationing, listening to the wireless, putting lavender in the clothes closet, feeding gas meters with shillings and girls who resemble Rita Hayworth. But the writing sparkles over 60 years later and is far from dated in its ability to entertain.

Mystery Melange

Winners were announced for the 2025 Will Rogers Medallion Award, which recognizes excellence in Western literature and media, in a recent ceremony in Oklahoma. The Western Mystery category winners included Gold Medal winner, Knife River, by Baron Birtcher (Open Road Media); the Silver Medal winner, First Frost, by Craig Johnson (Viking); and the Bronze Medal winner, Tooth and Claw, by Craig Johnson (Viking).


It's time once again to vote on the Goodreads Readers' Favorite Awards. You can view all the twenty opening round nominees in the Mystery & Thriller category here and vote for your favorites through November 23. The final round of voting for the finalists is slated for November 25-30, with the winner announced on December 4.


Noir at the Bar heads to Richmond, Kentucky at the Apollo Pizza & Beer Emporium on Friday, November 21 from 7 to 9 pm with a second event the night following in Louisville's 3rd Turn Brewing. Authors reading from their writings at the Richmond event include S.A. Crosby, Silas House, Gwenda Bond, Eryk Pruitt, Wes Browne, Archer Sullivan, James D.H. Hannah, Carrie Mullins, Josh Boldt, Mandi Fugate Sheffel, and Chris McGinley, with Victor Puente offering up hosting duties. The Louisville lineup will include S.A. Cosby, J.T. Ellison, Eryk Pruitt, J.H. Markert, J. Todd Scott, Archer Sullivan, Scott Sullivan, Mindy Carlson, James D.F. Hannah, Rob D. Smith, and Wes Browne, with Fallon Glick serving as host. To register for these free events, follow this link.


Noir at the Bar also returns to Edinburgh, Scotland, November 27 from 7:45 pm to 10:30 pm for a night of crime, cocktails, and captivating reads. The list of crime fiction authors currently scheduled to appear and read from their works includes Jackie Baldwin, Rupa Mahadevan, Alex Kane, Chris Black, Andrew James Greig, Val Penny, Angela Nurse, Claire Wilson, and Daniel Aubrey.


As the Rap Sheet blog notes, a couple of additional "Best of" lists for crime fiction titles published in 2025 have been recently released, including 11 books that made the Kirkus List, as well as the Waterstone Bookstore's picks for Best Detectives & Cosy Crime and Best Thrillers & Espionage.


The International Crime Fiction Association will hold their thirteenth Captivating Criminality conference from Thursday, June 25 to Saturday, June 27, 2026 in Bamberg, Germany and has issued a call for papers on the theme of "Crime Fiction, Conflict, and Representation."  Abstracts dealing with Crime Fiction past and present, true crime narratives, television and film studies, and other forms of new media such as blogs, computer games, websites and podcasts are welcome, as are papers adopting a range of theoretical, sociological and historical approaches. For more information, follow this link. Submissions are due January 15, 2026.


This week commemorated Veteran's Day in the U.S., and I compiled a list a few years ago of Veteran-themed or related crime fiction, which you can check out here. Janet Rudolph also has some additional titles here.

 
This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Get Out" by F.I. Goldhaber.


In the Q&A roundup, James M. Jackson was interviewed by E. B. Davis about Unleashed, the second novel in Jackson’s Niki Undercover Thriller series featuring federal agent Ashley Pendergast Prescott; Author Interviews spoke with former Spanish teacher, Allison Brook (AKA Marilyn Levinson), who writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for young readers, about her new novel, Death on Dickens Island, the series debut of the Books on the Beach Mysteries; and Deborah Kalb chatted with Courtney Psak, author of the new psychological thriller, The Tutor.

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

Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver are teaming up to star in Useful Idiots, a New York-set thriller from director Joseph Cedar, Fifth Season, and Black Bear. The story follows Diane Castle (Streep), a veteran journalist who covers the New York luxury property market. She’s disillusioned with writing puff pieces about the wealthy elite and regretful she might not have lived up to her potential. When a record-breaking sale of a new penthouse hits her desk, Diane’s questions about the buyer’s identity lead to what could be the story of a lifetime. At its center is a mysterious oligarch whose influence stretches across Manhattan and beyond—protected by a network of fixers, enablers and a brilliant young strategist. Out of her depth, Diane digs deeper into the investigation, her determination to uncover the truth revealing a web of corruption and danger at the highest levels, ensnaring Diane, her family, and all those around her. Cedar also co-wrote the script with 60 Minutes producer Shachar Bar-On. Weaver's role in the project has not yet been disclosed.


A remake of the hit 1974 United Artists action-comedy, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, is in the works at Amazon MGM Studios with Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Ryan Reynolds looking to star and produce under his Maximum Effort banner. Shane Reid is making his feature directorial debut. The original dark-comedy heist movie was written and directed by the late Michael Cimino in his own feature helming debut. The original project followed a bank robber (Clint Eastwood) and his irreverent sidekick (Jeff Bridges) who reassembled their old posse for a daring new heist.


Aggregate Films and August Night are producing the true crime film, Evil Genius, with Patricia Arquette and David Harbour starring and Courteney Cox directing. Inspired by the acclaimed true-crime documentary series by Barbara Schroeder and Trey Borzillieri, the script was penned by WGA Award nominee Courtenay Miles. The project explores the story of the infamous “pizza bomber” case —that delves into the more deeply human story of deception, desperation, and the line between victim and villain. Also joining the cast are Michael Chernus, Garrett Dillahunt, Danielle Macdonald, Tom McCarthy, Gregory Alan Williams, Ryan Eggold, Owen Teague, and Harlow Jane. 


Lucas Bravo (Emily In Paris) has been set to star opposite Emma Roberts (We’re the Millers) in A Murder Uncorked with Ari Sandel (When We First Met) directing and Vincent Newman (We’re the Millers) producing from a script by Legally Blonde screenwriter Karen McCullah. Bravo will play the handsome Derek, who has recently inherited a prestigious Napa Valley winery and meets Nikki, a recently fired TV actress working as a waitress in a restaurant where he's dining. With sparks immediately flying, Derek offers Nikki a dream job working at the winery. But when a murder rocks the winery, the police suspect Derek and it is up to him and Nikki to find the real murderer and keep their budding romance alive. The project is based on the seven-book murder mystery romance series by author Michele Scott.


Visit Films has sold Keep Quiet, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and won the German Independence "Spirit of Cinema" audience award, to Saban Films for distribution in the U.S. and Canada. The film is directed by Vincent Grashaw, known for his work on What Josiah Saw and Bang Bang. The story follows a weathered tribal cop and his new trainee, who must find a ruthless fugitive after his return to their rural Indigenous reservation exposes its darkest secrets and could ignite a violent gang war. The thriller stars Lou Diamond Phillips (Longmire), Nick Stahl (Sin City), Dana Namerode (Bang Bang), Elisha Pratt (True Detective), Irene Bedard (Pocahontas) and Lane Factor (Reservation Dogs).


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Luke Evans is leading an ITV adaptation of the political thriller, The Party, based on a novel from Elizabeth Day, the host of the hit How to Fail podcast. Sarah Solemani (Him & Her) is penning and starring in the adaptation, which also features Joanna Scanlan (Riot Women), Tom Cullen (House of the Dragon) and Lydia Leonard (Wolf Hall). The 2017 novel follows Martin Gilmour (Evans), a journalist shaped by his lifelong friendship with the wealthy and charismatic politician Ben Fitzmaurice (Cullen). Having met at an elite boarding school, Martin and Ben have an unbreakable bond. Three decades on, Martin is invited to Ben’s lavish birthday party at the Fitzmaurice’s country estate, but Martin fears that the publicity of Ben’s bid for Conservative leader will dredge up secrets of their past with tragic consequences. 


Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) and César Award nominee Raphaël Personnaz (The French Minister) are leading an Apple TV series about a French president whose life is turned upside down when an eight-year-old girl goes missing. In the race-against-the-clock seven-episode series, the French President (Personnaz) searches for a girl who is his illegitimate daughter, born of a secret affair unknown to his wife and confidante Nora (Kruger). When the kidnapping becomes a matter of state, the entire French government apparatus intervenes to find the little girl. Kruger and Personnaz star alongside Sami Bouajila (Ganglands), Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) and Fanny Sidney (Call My Agent!). 


Leila George has joined the cast of Netflix's All the Sinners Bleed. She joins the previously announced leading cast of Murray Bartlett, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, John Douglas Thompson, Nicole Beharie, Daniel Ezra, and Andrea Cortes. From Joe Robert Cole, who adapted S.A. Cosby’s novel of the same name for TV, All the Sinners Bleed follows Titus Crown (Dìrísù), the first Black sheriff in a small Bible Belt county. Haunted by his devout mother’s untimely death, he must lead the hunt for a serial killer who has been preying on his Black community for years in the name of God. George will play the role of Marlow Stoner.


A trailer was released for Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials. Helena Bonham Carter stars in Netflix‘s new Christie adaptation, which premieres on January 15, 2026. Bonham Carter plays Lady Caterham alongside Mia McKenna Bruce (How to Have Sex) as Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent; Martin Freeman (Sherlock) as Battle; Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte) as Gerry Wade; Ed Bluemel (Killing Eve) as Jimmy Thesinger; and Nabhaan Rizwan (KAOS) as Ronnie Devereux. The story is set in 1925 at a lavish English country house party, where a practical joke appears to have gone horribly, murderously wrong. It will be up to the unlikeliest of sleuths—the fizzingly inquisitive Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent—to unravel a chilling plot that will change her life and crack open wide the country house mystery.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crimetime FM, RWR McDonald chatted with Craig Sisterson about his new novel, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace; child narrators in adult stories; fictionalizing a small town in Otago, New Zealand; teaching creative writing, and more.


On Murder Junction, podcast host Abir Mukherjee discussed his latest bestselling Wyndham and Banerjee mystery, The Burning Grounds, and there was also a look at the true crime case of the Tri-State Cemetery Scandal.


The Poisoned Pen's podcast featured recent interviews with Alex DeMille, who took over the family crime fiction reins after his father Nelson DeMille passed away, to discuss his latest book, The Tin Men; and Jesse Kellerman, who also has a father-crime fiction connection, co-writing books with his father, Jonathan Kellerman, discussed his latest title, Coyote Hills.


Authors on the Air spoke with Sylvia Mercedes, who writes cozy mysteries with a fairy tale twist, about her new book, The Seventh Champion; coziness versus darkness; plotting versus pantsing; and the romantic power of foam noodles.


On the Spybrary podcast, Sam Guthrie, ex-Australian trade envoy and senior government official, sat down with award-winning journalist Tim Shipman to discuss The Peak, a gripping, character-driven espionage novel set across Hong Kong, Beijing, and Canberra.

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Last Vanity

Leopold Horace Ognall (1908-1979) was a prolific author with close to 90 novels under his two pseudonyms, Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. Thus it is rather surprising that it's so difficult to find anything about the author or his books.

He was born in Montreal, educated in Scotland and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. His primary series characters under the Harry Carmichael name are insurance assessor John Piper and crime reporter Quinn. The main focus of his Hartley Howard line are Philip Scott, head of a successful toy company and secretly the head of a British spy unit, and the New York private eye Glenn Bowman. The author once declared thirty-eight year old Bowman to be "the toughest wise-cracking private eye in the business."

One of the earliest Bowman novels is The Last Vanity from 1952, the third in that series. The novel opens with Edwin Newsome, a man worried about the health of his brother, Harold, fearing he may be the victim of steady poisoning by his brother's new—and much younger—wife, Moira. Edwin hires P.I. Glenn Bowman to investigate, and Bowman poses as an ex-con to get himself hired as a second chauffeur in the Harold's household. He soon discovers many under-currents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, much more than a scheming young wife after her husband's wealth.

Hartley Howard's style is solidly in the Golden Age era, with the British author trying valiantly to emulate the American hard-boiled detective writing of Raymond Chandler and the others who followed in Chandler's footsteps. Still, there are a few British-isms that creep in here and there, which is fun. The novel doesn't rise to Chandler's level, but it's still entertaining and Bowman's character sympathetic and engaging.

Although Ognall/Howard's books were apparently never published in the States and weren't even all that easy to find in the U.K. The Thrilling Detective site notes that Howard at some point moved to Italy during the Sixties and his Glenn Bowman private eye books were very popular among Italian readers during that period. They apparently did well in Germany, where almost his entire output was translated.

Both Leopold Horace Ognall and his books appear to be largely forgotten (save perhaps his novel Assignment K, made into a movie starring Stephen Boyd as spy Philip Scott), but the author's son Harry became a high court judge and conducted the hearings regarding former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.

Mystery Melange

The shortlists were revealed for the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards, and now it's time for readers and fans to vote for their favorite among these finalist titles. Winners to be announced on November 27. This year's eight contenders for Crime Fiction Book of the Year include:

• Burn After Reading, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam)
• Fair Play, by Louise Hegarty (Picador)
• It Should Have Been You, by Andrea Mara (Bantam)
• The Killing Sense, by Sam Blake (Corvus)
• The Secret Room, by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press)
• The Stolen Child, by Carmel Harrington (Headline Review)
• The Stranger Inside, by Amanda Cassidy (Canelo Crime)
• Two Kinds of Stranger, by Steve Cavanagh (Headline)

The next virtual Mystery Writers of America University (MWA-U), titled, "So You’ve Written a Novel? 10 Things Bestselling Authors Do to Make Their Manuscripts Sing," is scheduled for November 18. It will be led by bestselling author Alex Finlay, who interviewed nearly 100 bestselling writers – Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Lisa Gardner, among others – about their “rules” of writing. Along the way, he realized that many literary legends identified some of the same rules. This course on Zoom distills those bestsellers’ rules into 10 practical tips, including things you can do to immediately improve your manuscript. You can register via this link.

A new bookstore, Thrillerdelphia, is opening on Main Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The "thrilling" store will offer horror, psychological thrillers, detective fiction, and true crime books. It will also host various literary events, author book signings, true crime talks, and book clubs. Although the shop had a soft opening over Halloween, the Grand Opening is scheduled for November 15th with special giveaways. Owners Tina and Anthony Long also own and operate the romance-themed bookstore, Cupid's Bookshop.

Northern California Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal, volume I, is now available. This new issue includes reviews, articles, and author essays, a couple of which are available for free online, including "Highway 49 Revisited by Taffy Cannon"; "Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay" by Glenda Carroll; and "Why Sacramento?" by James L’Etoile. Editor Janet Rudolph is still seeking submissions for volume II, so if you have a potential contribution to the Northern California mysteries theme, there's still time to submit.


On Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog feature, Twist Phelan stopped by to discuss her new story for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, “Authorized Treatment.”


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Hideout" by Robert Plath.


In the Q&A roundup, author Annette Dashofy was interviewed by E. B. Davis about The Devil Comes Calling, her third book in the Detective Honeywell Mystery series; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Abir Mukherjee, who won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and British Book Award Crime Thriller of the Year awards in 2024 for Hunted; and Author Interviews spoke with multiple award-winning British author Martin Edwards, whose novels include the eight Lake District Mysteries and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, about his new book, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.