Media Murder

 

Today is National Radio Day, an appropriate date for the latest roundup of crime fiction in the world of broadcast media. 

As befitting Radio Day, I'll start off with radio tidbits first. Author Lee Lofland (Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide For Writers) recently joined Clint Van Zandt, former FBI agent and behavioral scientist-turned author, on NPR's Talk of the Nation program, discussing the ethics of criminal investigations.

George Pelecanos continued the media blitz for his new novel Turnaround with a interview on Weekend Edition.

NPR's "Morning Edition" and its Crime in the City feature most recently profiled author Colin Cotterill and his Dr. Siri books, a series of mysteries that follows a 70-something Laotian country coroner.

CBC Radio's Words at Large program asked the question of whether a pair of century-old mystery novels (The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton and The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan) stand the test of time.

Although a little late, NPR's Book Tour in July profiled author Alan Furst who writes historical spy fiction, including his latest, Spies of Warsaw. Asked whether he plots his novels, he replied, "I can't plot. If I try to write a plot it comes out sounding like a plot ... my stories are all true. You want a novelist? Try history."

Director Barry Levinson is boarding Train, an L.A. Confidential-style noir based on Pete Dexter's novel. Another of the journalist-turned-crime writer Dexter's novels, The Paperboy (a Florida-set mystery that takes place in the 1960s) is already in the works with Paul Verhoeven and Jan de Bont.

Robert Randisi's Rat Pack mysteries are also hitting the big screen. Randisi sold the film rights to his first Rat Pack mystery Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime to Sandy Hackett, son of the late Buddy Hackett. Randisi will also pen the screenplay, with production due to get underway in 2010.

In the UK, TV3 is inaugurating its new Crime Thriller Awards with six weeks of specially commissioned documentaries profiling six crime writers, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, PD James, Lynda La Plante, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell. Viewers of ITV3 will then be able to vote between these authors to select the author who will win the first ITV3 Award for Classic TV Crime Drama.

Mystery Melange

Benjamin Franklin altered book by Dawn Morehead

 

The shortlist for the 2025 McIlvanney Prize has been announced. The prize recognizes excellence in Scottish crime writing and is named in memory of William McIlvanney, often described as the godfather of Tartan Noir. This year's finalists include: The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani; The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney; Paperboy by Callum McSorley; The Good Liar by Denise Mina; and Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin. The winner of the prize will be announced on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling on September 12.

The Barry Awards were part of the slate of awards handed out at this past weekend's Bouchercon Conference (I previously reported on the Shamus Awards, Anthony Awards, and Derringer Awards). The Barrys were created by Deadly Pleasure Magazine in honor of f Barry Gardner, who was "arguably the best fan reviewer on the planet," and celebrate the best crime fiction titles of the previous year. (HT to the Gumshoe Site.) This year's winners include: Best Mystery Novel - The Waiting by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown); Best First Mystery Novel - Ordinary Bear by C.B. Bernard (Blackstone); Best Paperback Original Novel - Double Barrel Bluff by Lou Berney (Morrow Paperbacks); and Best Action Thriller - Hero by Thomas Perry (Mysterious Press). For a list of all the finalists, head on over to this link.

As part of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival in the UK, there will be a panel titled, "Red Wine and Bloody Murder" on Sunday 12th October 2025 4:30PM. The event features Graham Barlett, an ex-policeman who writes crime novels and advises other crime writers, award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards, and Vaseem Khan, creator of the popular Malabar House series, in a lively debate chaired by Angela Buckley.

The San Francisco Literary Festival is including a Murder at the Museum event on Sunday October 19, 2025, featuring award-winning crime fiction writers Cara Black, Marcie Rendon, Domenic Stansberry, and Jody Weiner, all spinning murderous tales starring dramatically different protagonists. Tickets include entry to the Counterculture Museum located at the corner of Haight and Ashbury.

On Saturday, October 25th at 1pm, Eastford Public Library in Eastford, Connecticut, will host a Murder Mystery Mania author event with a panel to include Sarah Stewart Taylor, Tessa Wegert, Sarah Strohmeyer, and Lucy Burdette talking thrillers, suspense, crime fiction, and cozy mysteries. Book Club On the Go will also be on hand for sales and signings.

The Mystery & Detective Fiction Area of the Popular Culture Association invites proposals for papers for the 56th annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, April 8-11, 2026, to be held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. They're seeking proposals from researchers, academics, graduate students, and independent scholars for scholarly discussions on all aspects and periods of mystery and detective fiction. If you're interested, you can submit a 250-300 word abstract via this link. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2025. (Note that you must be a member of PCA in order to submit.)

In honor of CrimeCon, which was held in Denver, Colorado, this past week, McFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic and general-interest nonfiction books, is running a sale on its true crime titles Use coupon code CRIMECON25 to save 20 percent through the end of September. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Fumata Bianca - Surrender" by Kevin Scheepers.

In the Q&A roundup, Ken Jaworowski, an editor at The New York Times as well as being a playwright and an amateur boxer, applied the Page 69 Test to his new crime novel, What About the Bodies; Peter Colt, an Army Reserve veteran and police officer, also applied the Page 69 Test to Cold Island, the first in his thriller novel series featuring Massachusetts State Police detective Tommy Kelly; Slow Horses author Mick Herron spoke with The Guardian about false starts, surprise inspirations, and why he never looks inside Jackson Lamb’s head; thriller author Karen Charles chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new psychological thriller, A Glimpse Too Far; and Hank Phillippi Ryan spoke with Deborah Kalb about Ryan's new novel All This Could Be Yours.