Shamus Superiority

The finalists for 2026 The Private Eye Writers Of America Shamus Awards, for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2025, have just been announced. The winners will be announced at the 2026 Bouchercon's Opening Ceremonies in Calgary, Alberta. Congratulations to all!
 

Best P.I. Hardcover

• The Big Empty by Robert Crais (G.P. Putnam’s Son)
• Photograph by Brian Freeman (Blackstone Publishing)
• Hatchet Girls by Joe R. Lansdale (Little, Brown and Company)
• Gray Dawn by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown and Company)
• Mirage City by Lev AC Rosen (Minotaur Books)
  
  

Best First P.I. Novel

• Chase Harlem by Elise Burke Brown (Rising Action Publishing)
• Miles in Time by Lee Mathew Goldberg (Wise Wolf Books)
• Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski (Datura Books)
• Shadow of the Eternal Watcher by Josh Mendoza (Inkshares)
• The Witch’s Orchard by Archer Sullivan (Minotaur Books)
  
  

Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel

• The Hook and the Eye by Raymond Benson (Ian Fleming Publications)
• Sunday or the Highway by Cindy Fazzi (Thomas & Mercer)
• City Lights by Claire M. Johnson (Level Best Books)
• Midnight Streets by Phil Lecomber (Titan Books)
• Catch Me on a Blue Day by M.E. Proctor (Shotgun Honey Books)
  
  

Best P.I. Short Story

• “The Roosevelt Affair” by Adam Meyer (Crimeucopia: Not So Frail Detective Agency)
• “The One Cry” by F.H. Batacan (Accidents Happen, Soho Crime)
• “Dr. Bones” by Libby Cudmore (May/June 2025, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
• “Hours on the Phone” by Gregory Fallis (July/August 2025, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
• “The Shadows” by Charles John Harper (May/June 2025, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Mystery Melange

I missed this bit of award news back in March, but at the annual Krimimessen (Crime Fair) in Denmark, four crime honors were revealed, including the Palle Rosenkrantz prize (best foreign crime/thriller novel), won by Carl-Johan Vallgren for Din tid kommer. Also announced were the Harald Mogensen award (best Danish crime/thriller novel), won by Dennis Nørmark for Harare; the Debut Prize, Kim Hundevadt for Porcus; the The Lasse Holm diploma (historical crime novel of the year), which went to Jacob Jonia for Troldmanden; and the Tage la Cour Diploma (best non-fiction book) was given to Ulrik Skotte for Paraplymordet. Hopefully, we'll see all of these works in English (and other) translations soon.


The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers announced the finalists for the 2026 Scribe Awards, which acknowledge and promote those working in this often overlooked and underrepresented area of publishing and the entertainment industry. The crime fiction nominees in the Original Novel – General category include Murder, She Wrote: Snowy With a Chance of Murder by Barbara Early; Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins; The Hook and the Eye by Raymond Benson; and Murder, She Wrote: The Body in the Trees by Terrie Farley Moran. IAMTW President Jonathan Maberry will announce the winners at this month's San Diego ComicCon.


Joseph RG Demarco, a retired librarian, prolific novel and short story author, and editor or co-editor of Mysterical-E and two Sisters in Crime NY anthologies passed away recently at the age of 88. He was best known for his Marco Fontana, and Doyle and Kord detective mystery series, the Vampire Inquisitor books, and many stories, articles, essays, and columns about LGBTQ+ life in Philadelphia,


In more sad news, as reported by Mystery Fanfare, Gail Bowen, a Canadian crime writer, passed away this week at age 83 after a brief bout with cancer. Bowen, whose Joanne Kilbourn mystery series garnished multiple awards, also gave back to the literary communities, serving as writer-in-residence at the Toronto Reference Library, Calgary’s Memorial Park Library, and the Regina Public Library, and was a member of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Apocalypse Now" by Jennifer Lagier.


In the Q&A roundup, former investigative reporter Caitlin Rother chatted with Deborah Kalb about her new novel, Staged, featuring Katrina Chopin and Ken Goode; Canadian Eva Gates, also known as Vicki Delany who writes four cozy mystery series, applied the Page 69 Test to Whose Body in the Library, the latest in her Lighthouse Library mystery series; Peter Colt, author of the Detective Tommy Kelly series and the Andy Roark Mysteries, also applied the Page 69 Test to his latest Kelly novel, novel, The Driftwood Bones; and Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman spoke with Deborah Kalb about their new novel The Kings of Vegas, where a prodigal daughter of a Las Vegas casino empire returns to take over her family business, only to discover she’s up against the Mob, the Feds, and her own brothers.

A Bloody Good List

 

Bloody Scotland revealed the longlist for the 2026 McIlvanney Prize, to be judged by author and broadcaster, Sally Magnusson, radio and podcast presenter, Nicola Meighan and crime blogger, Gordon McGhie.

The finalist titles will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland until the Friday, September 18, when the winner will be announced in the Church of the Holy Rude on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival and interviewed on stage by BBC presenter, Bryan Burnett. They will then lead a procession to the Albert Halls alongside guest programmer, Denise Mina.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

• The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper)
• 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell (S&S)
• Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus)
• A Bad, Bad, Place by Frances Crawford (Bantam)
• Unknown by Heather Critchlow (Canelo Crime)
• Solitary Agents by David Goodman (Headline)
• We Know What You Did by Kirsty Lockwood (Orion)
• Rat Race by Callum McSorley (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Diary of Lies by Philip Miller (Polygon)
• The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill)
• The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Viper)
• Liar Thief by May Rinaldi (Black Spring Crime)

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

Natalie Burn (Foster) is set to star in the cartel action-thriller, Dead Weight. Filming is being lined up for this fall in Guatemala with Andrés E. Díaz aboard to direct from a script by Dane Larsen. The film will follow a pregnant woman (Burn) trapped in the Guatemalan wilderness after a violent cartel ambush. As she races to escape the killers on her trail, she begins to uncover the dark secrets her husband has kept hidden from her. Additional casting is underway.


Panoramic Pictures has started filming the action thriller, Panic Button, starring Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin, Emmy winner Jeremy Piven (Entourage), David A. R. White (God’s Not Dead), and Leven Rambin (The Hunger Games, True Detective). The film, which is directed by Juan Boffill and written by Matthew Eason and Tommy Blaze, follows a meticulously cautious security chief (White) who wakes up one day to find a dead woman lying beside him. Framed for murder, he races to clear his name while evading relentless FBI agents (Baldwin and Rambin) and a ruthless Russian mob led by a character played by Steven Bauer. He's aided by his loyal friend and business partner (Piven) and his daughter (Ocean White), who join him in unravelling the case.


The Western crime drama, Blood On The Promontory, has added 5 actors to its growing cast: Kevin Rankin (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Noel Fisher (Dark Winds), Tokola Black Elk (Happy’s Place), Dallas Roberts (3:10 to Yuma), and Spencer Jarman (The Promised Land). They join the previously announced cast, which includes Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney, Jack Quaid, Jaeden Martell, and LaMonica Garrett. Directed by Ray Mendoza and written by Evan Cooper, Blood On The Promontory finds five convicts trying to escape through the mountains following a violent train robbery, while shackled together by foot.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour, who both starred in the Netflix drama Stranger Things, are reuniting for the streamer in an upcoming spy drama series from Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne and A24. The drama follows disgraced FBI agent-turned-security expert Matt Wolfe (Harbour) who is drawn back into the world he left behind when his estranged daughter, Rebecca (Brown) — now an FBI agent determined to follow in his footsteps — vanishes on a mission, forcing him to return to a field that has evolved beyond him.


Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy) has joined Prime Video's Cross for Season 3. In a recurring role, Perlman will portray Herschel Zamora, who is a cop first and everything else second. Following a series of troubling work-related incidents, Officer Zamora is referred to Dr. Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) for therapy. As Cross digs deeper, he realizes Zamora may be concealing something far more troubling than PTSD. Cross is based upon characters created by James Patterson and follows Alex Cross (Hodge), a brilliant homicide detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the minds of serial killers in order to identify and catch them. Season 2 followed Cross in pursuit of a ruthless vigilante who is hunting down corrupt billionaire magnates.


An upcoming ITV drama based on a devastating true story has added more stars to the cast. The project is toplined by Jill Halfpenny (EastEnders), Dame Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey), and Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones). Titled Mavis Eccleston, the upcoming four-part series looks at the case of Mavis and Dennis Eccleston (Wilton and Pryce), a couple who agree to die by suicide — only for Mavis to survive and be charged with her husband's murder. The new cast additions include Blue Lights' Sian Brooke and Slow Horses' Chris Reilly, who will play Dennis and Mavis's children, Joy and Kevin. Jill Halfpenny and Darrell D'Silva take on the roles of Tracey and Kenton, the partners of Kevin and Joy. Black Mirror's Rhashan Stone and Waterloo Road's Emma Stansfield round out the central cast as Barrister Alex Wyatt and Joy's close friend, Paula.


BBC Daytime has unveiled first-look pictures and announced further casting for The Hairdresser Mysteries. Infused with an upbeat 1970s spirit, the nostalgic crime drama stars Sally Phillips as hairdresser, Lily Petal, who opts out of the competitive city scene to buy a small village hairdressing salon at the top of a cobbled street. Everyone tells their hairdresser everything and soon she becomes the hub of her new village’s secrets and revelations. Using her own brand of uncannily developed intuitition, empathy, and understanding, Lily begins to solve the mysteries of the village. Charlotte Jordan (Coronation Street) plays Clary Coombs, Lily’s bright and analytical assistant and the Watson to her Shear-lock Holmes. Ben Castle-Gibb (You) plays PC Adam Watson, an eager young copper in the local village who falls head-over-heels for salon assistant Clary. Sunetra Sarker (Ackley Bridge) plays Wincey Evans, the village’s local chit-chatter with a reputation as a known gossip. Clive Rowe (The Addams Family UK Tour) plays Lonnie, the flamboyant manager of the local charity shop and Guy Henry (Holby City) plays Race Runard, the local village’s eccentric antiques dealer with a penchant for priceless teacup and saucer sets.


Taiwan’s PTS Taigi TV station has started production on Gunshot, an eight-part police drama starring Kent Tsai (The Teenage Psychic), Chan Tzu-Hsuan, Cheng Chih-Wei, Golden Horse Award-winning actor Lu Hsiao-Fen, and Singaporean Golden Horse winner Mark Lee. Set against the intersection of policing, social media, and public accountability, the series explores the challenges facing modern law enforcement in an increasingly connected world where social media influence, performance metrics and public opinion increasingly shape law enforcement. Partly inspired by real-life experiences shared by police officers, the series is co-directed by acclaimed Taiwanese director Hsiao Li-Hsiu (Wake Up) and creator-director Chang Kai-Chih. The story follows three police officers with conflicting views of justice trying to navigate a system that rewards visibility over virtue, forcing them to confront what it truly means to be a good cop.


Marble Hall Murders premieres September 6 at 9/8c on PBS MASTERPIECE Mystery! Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan return for the third and final installment of the Susan Ryeland series based on the novels by Anthony Horowitz. In Marble Hall Murders, editor Ryeland is pulled into a new literary puzzle when she’s hired to work on a continuation novel in the Atticus Pünd series, penned by a troubled young writer. But when the assignment draws her into another very real murder case, Susan soon finds herself cast as a suspect. Meanwhile, within the world of the novel, the enigmatic detective Atticus Pünd travels to the Isle of Corfu where he becomes embroiled in the murder of Lady Margaret Chalfont.


A gripping new Swedish crime thriller series from George Kay (Lupin, Hijack) premieres on August 20 on Netflix. Blood Sacrifice stars Jakob Oftebro (Hamilton, Stenbeck) as lead investigator Thomas, and Peter Andersson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays his father, former detective Alfred. The series follows the estranged duo as they’re forced into an uneasy alliance to hunt down a brutal killer targeting the police—before time runs out.


Acorn TV and ITV have picked up the cozy crime drama, Blue Murder Hotel, for broadcast in the U.S. and UK. The series follows married couple Vinny and Cole, who leave their cop careers behind to run a motel in a sunny beachside New Zealand town, only to have events take an unexpected turn when a dead body is discovered. That sets the tone, as the retired detectives find themselves drawn into investigating crimes, with a new case in each episode. Blue Murder Motel was created by Kate McDermott (Step Dave), and its directors include Lucy Lawless. Michala Banas (McLeod’s Daughters) stars as Vinny and Brett Tucker (The Americans) as Cole. The cast also includes Jayden Daniels, Stephanie Tauevihi, and Jaime McDermott. A second season is in production.


Peacock has opted not to renew its espionage thriller, Ponies, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, for a second season. Set in 1977 Moscow, Ponies follows Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson), two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest) working as secretaries in the American Embassy who become CIA operatives after their spy husbands are killed in the USSR under mysterious circumstances. The series, co-created and executive produced by David Iserson and Susanna Fogel who spent seven years on it, ended on several cliffhangers, leaving many loose ends that now won’t be tied up.


NBC unveiled fall premiere dates for its returning programs and new series, which you can see via this link. The newly announced slate sticks mostly to what NBC revealed ahead of its upfront in May, with the One Chicago drama trio anchoring Wednesday nights and the veteran Law & Order duo on Thursdays.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke chatted with Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger Winner, Mark Billingham, about agitprop, Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, standup comedy, TV writing, taking control with fiction, and much more.


A couple of podcasts noted some milestones, including Spybrary, which celebrated its 300th episode; while Wrong Place Write Crime host Frank Zafiro announced the podcast would be taking an indefinite (and hopefully not permanent) hiatus.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser investigated how someone goes from completely normal to unconscious in minutes with nothing around them; which drug was deemed too dangerous for medical use but is now a drug of abuse; and what new way contraband is being smuggled into prisons.

Sunday Music Treat

In honor of the Fourth of July next weekend, I thought it would be nice to showcase some American music, and I dug around for footage of George Gershwin himself playing his own music.Thanks to the YouTube gods, I found this clip of Gershwin playing "I Got Rhythm" in 1930:

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Death Watch

Author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is a British writer born in 1948 in the Shepherd's Bush area of London. While studying English, history and philosophy at the University College of London in 1972, she wrote her first novel which won the UK's Young Writers Award. She toiled away in the business world as her day job, but continued writing on the side which finally paid off in 1979 with what has become her best-selling series about the Morland Dynasty. She's written over 60 novels in three different genres since then.

She turned to crime fiction in 1991 with Orchestrated Death, the first in her series featuring Detective Inspector Bill Slider, which has grown into 12 novels thus far, with the 13th due out in 2011. Slider is middle-class, middle-aged and, according to his partner Jim Atherton, menopausal, or as reviewer Bill Ott said, "Slider is a beleaguered Everyman, immersed in the dailiness of life." Atherton, on the other hand, is out of place in the Met because he's a gourmand, fancy dresser and womanizer. The give-and-take between the two men is one of the elements that anchors the series.

On the subject of how she came up with the idea for Slider, the author says

"When I originally embarked on ORCHESTRATED DEATH, the first of the Bill Slider books...I had no thought then of having it published. With no preconceived notions of how to write a detective novel, I started with a corpse; and, in order not to make it too easy, I made it a totally naked corpse in a completely empty flat – a clue-free zone! I didn’t have to invent a detective - Bill Slider walked into my head the first day, complete in every respect. Don’t ask me where he came from: he’s not like anyone I know, at least not consciously; but from the first moment I knew everything about him – how he looked, where he lived, where he’d been to school, what he liked and disliked. So Bill and I started investigating our first case. I had no more idea than he did who the corpse was, let alone who had murdered her or why, so we had to work it out as we went along –  not the recommended method for writing a mystery..."

But Harrod-Eagles was apparently a quick-study, thanks to a lot of research spending time with police detectives, reading police in-house magazines, doing legal and forensic studies, as well as reading newspaper reports of real crimes. The result has been a series worthy enough that she's been likened to John Harvey and Ian Rankin.

The second book in the series, Death Watch from 1992, follows Slider and Atherton when they respond to an arson at the Master Baker Motor Lodge and that led to the death of a loudmouthed lothario salesman, Dick Neal, who leaves behind a bitter wife and a bevy of mistresses. Despite the fact that the victim had ligature marks around his neck and trusses on his genitals, Slider's superiors are hoping it's just a suicide, due to budget constraints—but then Slider uncovers a possible link between the death and what is happening to the members of the "Red Watch" who manned the Shaftesbury Street Fire Station in the 1970's.

As Slider digs deeper into the case, he at first loathes then envies the dead man his adulterous life, finding parallels between the victim and Slider's own extramarital affair with a concert violinist. When Slider notes the victim "Seems to me to have been a a sad, pathetic creature," it's as much an indictment of his own situation as it is Neal's. But lest one get the impression that Harrod-Eagles' books are more in the noir vein, she also peppers her writing with wit, a bevy of puns and intelligent dialogue, as well as effective pacing and clever plot twists.

Mystery Melange

At the recent Literacy Partners Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner, crime fiction author Patricia Cornwell received the Lifetime Achievement Award "for her extraordinary career as an award-winning author most famous for her forensic thrillers." To date, over 120 million copies of her books have been sold in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries.


There will be a Noir at the Bar at the Kensington Club on Adams Avenue in San Diego on July 11, with seven featured authors reading from their latest books. Authors scheduled to appear include Marc Carlos, Jonathan Maberry, David Putnam, Caitlin Rother, Terry Shames, Michael Stetz, and Jamie Parker Stickle. The event is scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.


The new bookstore, Once Upon a Crime (not to be confused with the Minnesota store of the same name), opens June 27th in downtown Smithfield, North Carolina. The independent bookstore will specialize in thriller, suspense, mystery, and crime fiction while also offering titles across a variety of genres. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 25, ahead of the grand opening.


Residents of the UK can register to win £200 worth of crime books, choosing from bestselling authors including Lisa Jewell, Richard Osman, Lee Child, Claire Douglas, Tim Weaver, Shari Lapena, and many more. To enter, fill out the form on the following link by midnight Sunday, 19 July 2026.


Ian Rankin (of the Inspector Rebus novels) will be the featured guest at the Malta Book Festival from November 4-8, 2026. Attendance to the Festival and to all of its events is free of charge. Now in its 47th edition, last year's event drew 40,000 visitors to its workshops, author talks, family activities, and more.


An episode of the podcast Another Shirt Ruined (focusing on Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody Emerson series) featured Ava Dickerson, an archivist at IU Bloomington's Lilly Library, who catalogued the papers of Peters (aka Barbara Michaels and Barbara Mertz). She discussed aspects of the collection, some fans who wrote to Peters, challenges in cataloguing, and more. (HT to The Bunburyist)


Now that it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere, apparently readers in Australia and New Zealand, readers are curling up with crime fiction, with Kobo reporting thriller reading surging nearly 1,500%. Psychological thrillers led the way, followed closely by mystery novels, police procedurals, and suspense novels.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Debra H. Goldstein discussing her story “Musicians of Bremen" from the new anthology, Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson,


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


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Stig Abell, author of the new novel, A Twist in the River, the latest in his Jake Jackson mystery series; Kalb also chatted with Lee Huber about her new novel, A Bitter Cut, the latest in her Lady Darby Mystery series; British crime author Saima Mir stopped by Crime Fiction Lover to discuss her trilogy featuring Jia Khan, an antihero noir with a Muslim woman leading a crime syndicate; and John Connolly was interviewed by The Gloss about his family and writing career.

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

Bradley Cooper is in talks to star in Sean Penn’s next directorial effort, an untitled film that chronicles the early life of a police officer who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Described as an unexpected story about friendship, the film is not specifically a Jan. 6 movie, although it does cover the life of a police officer who was there, and whose identity is being kept under wraps for now. It also marks the first major feature film tied to the Jan. 6 riots to be made at a Hollywood studio. Penn wrote and will direct the movie, but filming won’t begin until 2027 due to Cooper's busy schedule with the upcoming Ocean’s Eleven prequel film for Warner Bros.  


Speaking of that Ocean's Eleven prequel, recent Oscar nominee Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) is in talks to join the project alongside Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Robbie appeared via video at CinemaCon to confirm she and Cooper will play the parents of Danny Ocean (portrayed in the Steven Soderbergh “Ocean’s” trilogy by George Clooney). Robbie also noted that the movie follows a heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix. “Before Danny Ocean ever stepped [sic] foot in Vegas, two masterminds taught him everything he knows: his parents,” Robbie said. “You’ll see them in all their prime in our new movie, pulling off an epic heist.” The film is currently set to release on June 25, 2027.


Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place franchise) has co-written and will star in the crime thriller, Grace. From filmmakers Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu, who co-wrote the script, Grace centers on a deaf teenager who unravels the violent secrets of her family’s buried past. A passion project they’ve been developing alongside Simmonds for three years, the project marks their follow-up to directorial debut All Fun and Games, a 2023 horror flick starring Asa Butterfield and Natalie Dyer.


TELEVISION/STREAMING

After Peacock's successful series, All Her Fault, based on Andrea Mara‘s bestselling novel, the streamer is set to adapt another of the author's thrillers, Such a Nice Girl. In the story, best friends Siobhan and Grace go to wake their 24-year-old daughters the morning after a glamorous luxury wedding. Opening the door to their shared room, they find a smashed lamp, an abandoned phone, and blood on the carpet. Over the next few days, the truth unravels and tests Siobhan and Grace’s friendship to its limits. As secrets and lies begin to come to light, they realize the girls were not best friends. In fact, they weren’t really friends at all. And now, it looks like one of them is dead and one is a killer. But whose daughter is guilty of murder?


ABC is in development on A Forgotten Kill, a TV adaptation of Isabella Maldonado's 2024 novel of the same name. The show is centered on ex–Army Ranger Dani Vega, now a dauntless FBI Special Agent whose specialty is breaking codes and detecting patterns. As part of a task force, Dani is partnered with NYPD Detective Mark Flint. Their clashing styles give them an edge in solving crimes and expose an undeniable chemistry, but Dani is haunted by a secret: a family tragedy in her past that comes back to put her career and life at risk. Maldonado is a retired police captain and bestselling author of numerous suspense and thriller series. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in her department, she spent over two decades on the force before her final post as the commander of Special Investigations and Forensics.


Grace Gummer (Love Story) has inked a deal to join Dakota Fanning in Apple TV‘s new thriller series from Alex Cary (A Spy Among Friends, Homeland) and Sony Pictures Television. In the untitled series, Fanning stars as an undercover Treasury agent in a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, with world-changing political and criminal tentacles. She becomes conflicted between her mission and a belief that her principal target, the heir apparent to all that corrupt power, is at his core a good man and worthy of her love. Gummer will play the series regular role of Juliana, the oldest child of Stellan Skarsgård’s Brant, who heads up the conglomerate. Daryl McCormack is also set to star.


The first trailer for the MGM+ crime drama, The Westies, has been released. The drama is set in the early 1980s, when the construction of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on the Westies’ home turf in Hell’s Kitchen promises a financial windfall for the Irish-American organized crime gang. Despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the Five Families of the Italian mafia, the Westies’ legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente. However, internal conflict between the brash younger generation and the old-school leadership threatens to set a match to this powder keg, which will sweep the Westies into the FBI’s ever-deepening investigation into the Italian mafia. Oscar winner J.K. Simmons co-leads the 8-episode series as Eamon Sweeney, the charismatic but ruthless leader of The Westies, while Tom Brittney is Simmons’s co-lead, playing the role of James “Jimmy” Roarke, the fiercely loyal, streetwise leader of the younger generation of Westies.


Netflix released the first images from its Dutch crime series, The Perfect Life, based on the bestselling novel, The Dinner Club, by Saskia Noort. The drama will be  available worldwide from September 10, 2026. The leading roles are played by Loes Haverkort, Teun Luijkx, Remko Vrijdag, Rifka Lodeizen, Charlie-Chan Dagelet, Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Noortje Herlaar, and Edwin Jonker. The story follows Karen (Loes Haverkort), who moves with her family to Bergen, where they are warmly welcomed into the dinner club, a seductive group of friends who fully indulge in an extravagant and hedonistic lifestyle—until one of the luxurious villas goes up in flames, their friend Evert is killed, and his wife and children barely survive. Karen soon discovers their close friendship is held together by lies, where everyone has something to hide, and nothing is what it seems. Karen sets out in search of the truth, but at what cost?


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Time FM interviewed five authors shortlisted for CWA Daggers in the run up to Awards Night announcements on July 2, including Nicci Cloke, Victoria Goldman, Rob McInroy, Michael Wood, and Noelle W Ihli.


On the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast, Barbara Peters was in conversation with Jaclyn Goldis, author of The Last Time We Saw Her.


Killer Women interviewed Hilary Davidson about her new standalone thriller, Every Lie I Told.


Debbi Mack's latest guest on the Crime Cafe podcast was Clay Stafford, author and founder of the Killer Nashville Conference.


House of Mystery Radio welcomed Gregory Stout to talk about Goodbye is Forever, his new novel with Nashville PI Jackson Gamble.


On the Outliers' Get to Know podcast, Kathleen Antrim and DP Lyle spoke with John Dingle, author of the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series.


On Criminal Mischief, host DP Lyle MD led a fun discussion of one of the most common questions he receives from crime writers: Is there a drug that will cause a heart attack?

 

Sunday Music Treat

Brazil's most famous composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959), was quite prolific, with over 2000 orchestral, vocal, and chamber works, many inspired by Brazilian folk music mixed with European traditions, most notably Bachianas Brasileiras, a series of nine suites written for various combinations of instruments and voices.

Here's Festa no Sertão ("Party in the Country"), played by Brazilian-born pianist Clelia Iruzun:

And here's arguably the composer's best-known work, "Aria" from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, sung by Anna Moffo:

 

Quote of the Week

 

Capital Crime's Fingerprints

 

Last evening, the Capital Crime festival announced the winners of its annual Fingerprint Awards, which champion the very best in crime writing from the past year across the globe. The shortlists were selected by the festival’s board members from a longlist carefully curated by the Tastemakers Committee, a panel of leading independent bloggers and reviewers, who championed their standout titles across each category.  Readers were then invited to vote for their preferred winners in each category. Congrats to this year's winners and finalists!

Audiobook of the Year:   Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell 

Other finalists:

• King of Ashes by  S A Cosby
• We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
• Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver

True Crime Book of the Year:  Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts-Guiffre 

Other finalists: 

• Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold
• Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
• A History of Modern Britain in Twenty Murders by Prof. David Wilson
• A Flower Travelled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland  

Debut Crime Book:  Deadline by  Steph McGovern 

Other finalists: 

• Broken by Jón Atli Jónasson
• Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall
• The Day of the Roaring by Nina Bhadreshwar
• This is Not A Game by Kelly Mullen

Genre-Busting Book:  Kill Them with Kindness by Will Carver 

Other finalists: 

• Little Red Death by A. K. Benedict Book
• Blood Like Ours by Stuart Neville
• Small Fires by Ronnie Turner
• Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy  

Historical Crime Book of the Year:  Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee

Other finalists: 

• The Art of A Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
• The Rush by Beth Lewis
• Dangerous by Essie Fox
• Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz 

Thriller Book of the Year:  Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell 

Other finalists: 

• The Chemist by A A Dhand
• Human Remains by Jo Callaghan
• The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
• Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins

Overall Crime Book of the Year:  The Final Vow by M W Craven

Other finalists: 

• The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani
• Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan
• The Good Father by Liam McIlveney
• We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough
  
  

Thalia Procter Lifetime Achievement Award:  Trisha Jackson

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Rising of the Moon

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (1901–1983) taught English, Spanish, history and games in various schools in and around London and was a lifelong student herself, interested in poetry, archaeology, medieval architecture, Freud, and witchcraft (thanks to the influence of her friend, author Helen Simpson), and she was also a member of the British Olympic Association. She penned sixty-six detective novels under her own name, published between 1929 and a posthumous book in 1984, all featuring Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley. She also wrote another series of detective stories under the pseudonym Malcolm Torrie (with architect Timothy Herring), as well as historical and children's books. 
 
One of the earliest members of the British Detection Club, along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Mitchell is often compared to the other two Grande Dames and included on lists of the brightest lights of the Golden Age of detective fiction. But with 76 books to her credit, critics like to point out that quantity didn't always mean quality in her novels, something the author addressed in an interview published in the Armchair Detective in 1976:  "I know I have written some bad books, but I thought they were all right when I wrote them. I can't bear to look at some of them now...The books I dislike most are Printer's Error and Brazen Tongue—a horrible book." That may be, but her beloved protagonist Mrs. Bradley still stands as one the most unusual and memorable in detective fiction.

The thrice-married Mrs. Bradley is a medical practitioner, psychiatrist, criminologist and consultant to the Home Office. She herself is an author, including A Small Handbook of Psychoanalysis and articles in psychological journals, specializing in the psychology of crime. In the nonfiction book Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Michele Slung wrote that Mrs. Bradley's "detecting methods combine hoco-pocus and Freud, seasoned with sarcasm and the patience of a predator toying with its intended victim." Mrs. Bradley is variously described by other characters in the books as being "dry without being shrivelled, and bird-like without being pretty," "a hag-like pterodactyl," and "Mrs. Crocodile." She is an accomplished player at bridge, pool, snooker, darts and throwing knives, and a dead shot with an airgun.

Although Mitchell always denied she included much blood and violence in her stories, there's plenty of poisoning to be found (such as deadly nightshade grafted onto to a tomato plant) with horrific side effects, lots of throat-cutting, and one victim was even minced into sausages and hung from hooks. The main premise of 1945's Rising of the Moon, one of Mitchell's personal favorite books, involves a a Ripper-like killer wreaking havoc on the streets of the small village Brentford by mutilating young women and slitting their throats when the moon is full.

Reminiscent of the precocious narrator of Alan Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie over sixty years before that book's publication, Rising of the Moon is told through the eyes of 13-year-old Simon Innes, who teams up with his 11-year-old brother Keith, becoming junior Hardy Boys trying to solve the bloody crimes. Their task becomes even more urgent when they spy the potential murder weapon at a local junk shop run by their friend—an eccentric old lady who has a "rag and bone man" as a lodger—then realize the knife may belong to their older brother/guardian and worry he'll be accused of murder.

In that same Armchair Detective interview referenced above, Mitchell remarked Rising of the Moon recalled much of her own Brentford childhood, she being Simon in that story and her "adorable brother Reginald" the model for Keith. That may be one reason Mitchell doesn't patronize her young protagonists, painting them as curious, clever and witty in their matter-of-fact observations, such as "All detective work is sneaking. That's why only gentlemen and cads can do it," or Simon's solemn thought after one almost-disastrous attempt at sleuthing:

In this innocent belief, our progress back to the high street was robbed of much of its terror. The moon was now flooding the sky. Her image reflected in the water was no longer a thing of murky terror, for we were vain-glorious; we were heroes. We had been under fire. We had been suspected of being murderers. We had filled some female heart with excessive terror. We felt we had been blooded, and were men.

In Mrs. Bradley they find a sympathetic ear and are immediately put at ease by her confidence in them, as she becomes their greatest ally and supporter. She in turn offers up little insights into life as part of their education, as in "These bestial realities must sometimes be faced...Life is inclined to be sordid. Our friends are not always what they seem." Mrs. Bradley's role in Rising of the Moon is important, although she actually only appears half-way through the book, with the heart of the story carried by the winsome Simon.

The book is at turns darkly tongue-in-cheek, eccentric, warm and ultimately charming. Though the plotting is a bit muddled and disjointed at times, if you're willing to put that aside, the endearing narration and almost dreamy setting pull you in and make you feel a little like you've become immersed in a surrealistic painting. That may be why Christopher Fowler said in the Independent that Mitchell's works are "more interesting than Christie's, if more problematic."

Radio adaptations for the BBC were made of two of her books with Mary Wimbush starring as Mrs Bradley, and five of Mitchell's novels were loosely adapted for the 1990s television series The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries featuring Diana Rigg (Rising of the Moon was one, although the plot barely resembles the novel). One critic groused that the latter turned Mrs. Bradley into a glamorous Miss Marple, but it may have helped rekindle some interest in the author.

Mystery Melange

Best-selling author Peter James has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in His Majesty The King’s 2026 Birthday Honours List, in recognition of his services to literature and to charity. Best known for his DSI Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama, Peter James is the author of over 40 novels, which have been translated into 38 languages. He is also a supporter of many of charities including the Sussex Police Charitable Trust, the RSPCA, the Samaritans, and as an ambassador for The Reading Agency and National Year of Reading 2026.


Lambda Literary revealed the winners of the 38th Annual Lambda "Lammy" Awards for excellence in LGBTQ+ books. The winner of the Best LGBTQ+ Mystery was A Queer Case by Robert Holtom (Titan Books). The other finalists include: Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter by Samantha Crewson (Crooked Lane Books); Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron Books); Mirage City by Lev AC Rosen (Minotaur Books); and The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler (Kensington Publishing Corporation).


The One More Page bookstore in Arlington, Virginia, is hosting a panel on "Queer Characters in Crime Fiction" on Thursday, July 9th at 7pm. Authors scheduled to take part include Aggie Blum Thompson (The Neighbors are Watching), John Copenhaver (Hall of Mirrors, Crime Ink), Diana DiGangi (Last Chance Chicago), and Stephen Spotswood (Dead in the Frame).


The Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) named Rosalie Spielman as the 2026 Writer of the Year. The award recognizes Rosalie's "outstanding body of work and her remarkable contributions to the military writing community through her acclaimed series of cozy murder mysteries, each of which has earned MWSA recognition." The Writer of the Year award is MWSA's highest honor, presented annually to an author whose work the organization says exemplifies the values of excellence, integrity, and service that define the military writing community. Rosalie writes the Hometown Mysteries series starring a US Army veteran who returns to her Idaho hometown. The award will be presented during MWSA's annual awards banquet in October.


The Agatha Christie estate publishing house, Agatha Christie Limited, has released a new Ultimate Mystery Edition of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. With the final solution sealed in an envelope at the back of the book, this edition of Agatha Christie's much-loved mystery arrives just in time for the 100 year anniversary of its publication. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was Agatha Christie’s first book to be published by William Collins in the spring of 1926. William Collins became part of HarperCollins and are still Christie’s publishers today. The story formed the basis of the earliest adaptation of Christie’s work Alibi (adapted by Michael Morton), which opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London in 1928 and successfully ran for 250 performances.


In February of 2027, Hard Case Crime and Titan Book will be re-releasing Cop Out, a novel by Ellery Queen (the pseudonym for Brooklyn cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B Lee). Originally published in 1969, the book hasn’t appeared in print in nearly 50 years. Cop Out is an anomaly in the Ellery Queen bibliography, being one of only two novels by Ellery Queen that don’t feature a detective named Ellery Queen. Included in this 272-page binding will be two bonus stories: "Child Missing!" and "The Case Against Carroll."


Writing for CrimeReads, Scott Adlerberg reconsidered Norman Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance fifty years later (although it's more like 42, since the book was published in 1984). At the time, Mailer’s attempt at a hardboiled-style murder mystery elicited mixed reactions.


I missed this bit of news back in February, but it appears one literary mystery has been solved. Matthew Vaughn’s latest cinematic offering, Argylle, had obscured the source novel’s author, spending weeks teasing the real identity behind the pseudonym of "Elly Conway." Although many people speculated the real author was among the likes of Taylor Swift or J.K. Rowling, the co-authors have been revealed as Terry Hayes and Tammy Cohen.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Rudy Giuliani Mutters During His Last Rites" by Chad Parenteau.


In the Q&A roundup, author Hilary Davidson (author of the Lily Moore series and Shadows of New York series) applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Every Lie I Told; and Deborah Kalb spoke with Claudia Gray, author of the new novel, The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield, the latest in her Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney mystery series based on Jane Austen's classic novels.

Peculier Talent

 

Harrogate International Festivals today announced the shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2026, one of the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction awards. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday, July 23.

The six books shortlisted for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026, now in its twenty-second year, showcase works from Tariq Ashkanani, Abigail Dean, Alice Feeney, Elly Griffiths, Mick Herron, and Vaseem Khan, who will compete for the coveted award. The winner, who receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved oak beer cask provided by T&R Theakston Ltd, will be selected by a panel of seven expert judges, with the public vote representing the eighth judge. 

Readers are now invited to vote for their favorite book to win via this link, with voting closing on Thursday, July 16 at 23:59 GMT. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival at a special awards ceremony hosted by Steph McGovern.


The 2026 shortlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is:

• The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani (Profile Books, Viper)
• The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (HarperCollins, Hemlock Press)
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney (Pan Macmillan, Pan Fiction)
• The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Books)
• Clown Town by Mick Herron (John Murray Books, Baskerville)
• Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan (Bonnier Books, Zaffre)

Awesome Aussies

Sisters in Crime Australia unveile the 2026 Davitt Awards Longlists, culled from 126 books entered across four categories. The judges of the 2026 Davitt Awards have selected a longlist of 28 books that reflect the excellent quality and maturity of stories written by Australian women crime writers. Ruth Wykes, Davitt Awards Judges’ Chair, said the 2026 entries that stood out "were the ones that entertained, challenged, taught us, and stayed with us long after we had read the final chapters. Stories that were bold and brave, or beautifully nuanced." 

Judging continues for the Davitt Awards’ shortlist which will be announced in July, with winners announced in August/September. Voting for the Kerry Greenwood Readers’ Choice Award will commence at another time.

Adult Fiction

• Shaeden Barry, At Café 64, (Echo Publishing)
• Jane Caro, Lyrebird, (Allen & Unwin)
• Shankari Chandran, Unfinished Business, (Ultimo Press)
• Pip Fioretti, Skull River, (Affirm Press)
• Sara Foster, When She Was Gone, (Harper Collins Australia)
• Susan Francis, Revelation Beach, (Wild Dingo Press)
• Zeyneb Gamieldien, Learned Behaviours, (Ultimo Press)
• Fiona Hardy, Unbury The Dead, (Affirm Press)
• Sally Hepworth, Mad Mabel, (Macmillan Australia)
• Elise Janes, The Canvas Killings, (JETT Books)
• Joanna Jenkins, The Bluff, (Allen & Unwin)
• Angie Faye Martin, Melaleuca, (HQ Fiction) Debut
• Laura McCluskey, The Wolf Tree, (Harper Collins Australia) Debut
• Fleur McDonald, The Prospect, (Harper Collins Australia)
• Tanya Scott, Stillwater, (Allen & Unwin) Debut
• Patricia Wolf, Nemesis, (Echo Publishing) 

Non-Fiction

• Sonia Orchard, Groomed, (Simon & Schuster)
• Lucy Sussex & Megan Brown, Outrageous Fortunes, the biography of Mary and Geroge Fortune, (Black Inc Books)
• Kate Wild, The Red House, (Allen & Unwin) 

Young Adult

• Amy Doak, What Have They done to Liza McLean?, (Penguin Randon House Australia)
• Kate Emery, A Murder Is Going Down, (Allen & Unwin)
• Carla Salmon, We Saw What You Started, (Pan Macmillan Australia) Debut 

Children's Books

• Sarah Armstrong, Run, (Hardie Grant Children’s)
• Jacqueline Harvey, The Girl and the Ghost, (Penguin Randon House Australia)
• Amelia Mellor, Oceanforged: The Wicked Ship, (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Gisela Ervin-Ward, True South, (Midnight Sun) Debut
• Jessica Townsend, Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow, (Hachette Children’s)
• Sue Whiting, Promises and Other Lies, (Walker Books)

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

Maggie Gyllenhaal will be teaming up once again with Warner Bros. to adapt the Rachel Kushner novel, Creation Lake, with the filmmaker serving as writer, director, and producer. Creation Lake follows a spy who is hired to disrupt a farming collective in France run by environmental activists. But along the way, she begins to question not just her mission but her direction in life in a tale that is described as a philosophical thriller. Released in 2024, Creation Lake was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.


U.S. production outfit Storiesbound is gearing up to shoot the psychological thriller The Degrees Of Pain with Luna Fujimoto (The Shadow's Edge), Show Kasamatsu (Tokyo Vice), and Takehiro Hira (Shogun) joining the cast. Directed by Donie Ordiales, the project is scheduled to film entirely in Japan by cinematographer Takuro Ishizaka, whose credits include Hikari’s Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, which also recently filmed in Japan. The cast of The Degrees Of Pain also includes starring roles for Japanese actress Rila Fukushima and veteran actor-director Naoto Takenaka. The story follows an American writer who travels to Tokyo to be reunited with an actress he’s fallen in love with, only to become entangled with her powerful family and their gatekeepers.


Ryan McParland (Say Nothing), Alfie Allen (Game Of Thrones), Ben Hardy (The Conjuring: Last Rites), and Stacy Martin (The Brutalist) are joining Vincent Cassel and Felicity Jones in the Agatha Christie film Eleven Missing Days. Per the synopsis, "In December 1926, at the height of her fame, Agatha Christie became front-page news when she vanished in bizarre circumstances from her home. In a case of life imitating art, this whodunnit explores the investigation behind her disappearance, strangely resembling an Agatha Christie novel itself where everyone in her life became a suspect." Jones stars as Christie, and Cassel plays a retired Belgian police detective — in an echo of Christie’s most famous sleuth Hercule Poirot — who is drawn into the mysterious real-life case of the Brit author’s disappearance. Bertie Ellwood (Silo) is directing from a screenplay by Ernesto Foronda (Better Luck Tomorrow), based on the book, Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, by Christie scholar Jared Cade.


Miles Teller (Paper Tiger) has signed on to star in Copperhead, a new thriller from King Ivory helmer John Swab and Black Label Media. Written by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, Copperhead‘s story is set into motion when an undercover drug deal explodes into violence in West Texas. A veteran detective is then forced to team with a young federal agent to unravel the conspiracy within their elite task force.  


TELEVISION/STREAMING

Netflix is developing Hit Man, a series inspired by the 2024 AGC Studios feature that was co-written, produced, and headlined by Glen Powell and co-written, directed and produced by Richard Linklater. Powell and Linklater will executive produce the potential series, which is written by You’re the Worst creator, Stephen Falk. Details about the series haven't been disclosed, but it will likely follow the general premise of the movie about an unassuming police contractor — in this case a college professor — who uses elaborate disguises and develops different characters to pose as a fake hitman and expose suspects looking to get someone killed. The premise is somewhat reminiscent of J.J. Abrams’ ABC spy drama Alias, whose protagonist assumed different identities.


Peacock has picked up The Break-In, a mystery based on the novel of the same title by Katherine Faulkner. The show comes from writer and executive producer Megan Gallagher and Carnival Films, who brought All Her Fault to life last year. The Break-In tells the story of Alice Rathbone, who is the victim of a home invasion. She refuses to accept that the tragic event was simply random and soon finds a trail of dark secrets that spiral closer to home than she ever could have imagined.


Hugh Laurie (House, The Night Manager) has landed a mystery role in his second John le Carré adaptation, the BBC and MGM+’s Legacy of Spies. The series is one of the BBC and MGM+’s biggest budget bets in recent years and is based on 1963’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies, which itself is a prequel and sequel to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Laurie joins an ensemble cast including Matthew Macfadyen as legendary spymaster George Smiley, Dan Stevens as the enigmatic Bill Haydon, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt, and Agnes O’Casey, who reprises her Spy Who Came In From The Cold West End role of Liz Gold. With a third season of Night Manager in the works, this puts Laurie in the rare position of starring in two separate adaptations of an author’s work that could land around the same time.

Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building will be heading to London for it upcoming sixth season, and has booked several English actors as guest stars, including two Doctor Whos, two Harry Potter stars and a Bridgerton standout. Joining Season 6 are David Tennant, Nicola Coughlan, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent, Richard Ayoade, Adrian Lukis, and Kathryn Hunter. They join recently announced recurring cast Jennifer Saunders, Sean Teale, Simone Ashley, Amar Chadha-Patel, Rhea Norwood, Matthew Beard, Sharon Horgan, Martin Freeman, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Jamie Demetriou, Anjana Vasan, Jane Horrocks, Derek Jacobi, and Lesley Nicol. This marks the first time the comedy mystery series has ventured outside of the U.S., as the crime-solving trio of Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) leaves New York City to investigate London’s newest mystery.


The fourth season of The Night Agent  will find Peter Sutherland and Rose Larkin together again. Luciane Buchanan, who played Peter’s (Gabriel Basso) charge-turned-partner and love interest, Rose, in the first two seasons of the Netflix action drama, will reprise her role in the series finale, although the extent of her presence is unclear. Fans were left disappointed when Buchanan, the female lead opposite Basso in Seasons 1 and 2 of The Night Agent, was not invited back for Season 3, though showrunner Shawn Ryan, who explained the decision with creative reasons, left the door open for her to return in future seasons.


Rupert Everett has signed on to star in the Australian crime drama, Fortitude Valley. The series will be a six-part crime thriller set in Brisbane that "explores family secrets, the corrupting force of power, and the complicated truths behind lies." Everett, recently seen in the Disney+ show Rivals, stars alongside Hunter Page-Lochard (Reckless) and Kat Stewart (Five Bedrooms).


Ryan Murphy's anticipated new series, The Shards, based on Bret Easton Ellis‘s prep school thriller novel, will premiere August 5 on FX and Hulu, as well as Disney+ internationally. The Shards is a dark coming-of-age tale with semi-autobiographical facets for Ellis. Per the official logline: Set against the vivid backdrop of 1980s Los Angeles, the series follows a group of privileged high school seniors at an elite prep school as they navigate identity, sex, jealousy, obsession, and the dangers lurking beneath the surface of American adolescence." Igby Rigney stars as Bret, an aspiring writer and keenly observant teenager whose reality begins to unravel with the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic new student, Robert Mallory (Homer Gere). Transferring in just before his senior year, Robert’s appearance coincides with the growing terror of The Trawler, a serial killer targeting teenagers across the city.  


The BBC has released a first-look trailer for the second season of Ludwig, the cozy crime series starring David Mitchell as a reclusive puzzle-setter-turned detective. Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin return to the drama, while Mark Bonnar (Guilt) and Sian Clifford (Fleabag) join the cast as series regulars. Also returning are Dylan Hughes as Henry Betts-Taylor, Dorothy Atkinson as DCS Carol Shaw, Ralph Ineson as Chief Constable Ziegler, and Karl Pilkington as DI Matt Neville. John Taylor (Mitchell) is a reclusive puzzle maker who publishes puzzle books under the pen name "Ludwig." His identical twin brother, James Taylor, is a successful detective chief inspector in the Cambridge police force. James has gone missing, and his wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), a childhood friend of both brothers, enlists John's help to solve the mystery. Pretending to be his brother, John infiltrates the local police station to investigate; inadvertently, he becomes embroiled in solving other cases.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO

Tim Shipman welcomed Brad Thor to Spybrary to discuss Choke Point, the 25th Scott Harvath thriller, and the evolution of Scott Harvath from post-9/11 counterterrorism operator.


In the latest Murder Junction episode, Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee chatted with spy fiction and SF writer David Goodman about his multi-award-winning novel, A Reluctant Spy, and its follow-up, Solitary Agents.

 
On the Outliers' Get to Know podcast, hosts DP Lyle and Kathleen Antrim were in conversation with bestselling Jonathan Santlofer, author of The Death Artist, Color Blind, The Killing Art, The Murder Notebook, and Anatomy of Fear.


House of Mystery Radio interviewed Caitlin Rother about Staged, in which investigative reporter Katrina Chopin returns to uncover the secret leaders of a deadly cabal, assisted by the insightful surfing detective, Ken Goode.


My Bookcase Slays welcomed former archaeology student and lifetime history buff, Connie Berry, as she digs into the backstory of her protagonist in the Kate Hamilton Mystery Series.


Bestselling author Robert Bailey stopped by Authors on the Air to discuss his twisty new legal thriller, The Mediator.


On the Pick Your Poison podcast, Dr. Jen Prosser investigated a toxin that has been killing workers since Paleolithic times—and is hiding in modern kitchens. The ancient Romans called it a widow-maker…because husbands died so quickly, some women had as many as seven.

Sunday Music Treat

If you watch a lot of movies and TV, you've probably heard the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and didn't even know it. The Russian composer was was one of the giants of 20th century classical music. Despite his tortured life that pitted him against the Soviet Union, his music lives on in ways he probably couldn't even have imagined (although one of Shostakovich's songs was sung by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin over the radio from his spacecraft to Mission Control down on earth). You can check out this list of movies/shows that have used his music.

Here's the watlz from the Second Jazz Suite, which was used in Stanley Kubrick's movie Eyes Wide Shut:

And here's the composer himself playing the Andante movement form his Piano Concerto #2, excerpts of which were used most recently in the Cold War film Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks:

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Shroud of Canvas

Isobel Mary Lambot (1926-2001) was from a family of readers in Birmingham, England, but she didn't turn to writing until 1960. She served first in the Women's Royal Air Force then as a teacher before marrying in 1959 a Belgian engineer whose work took him to Third World countries. That was the launching point for Lambot's travels around the world, experiences that would later turn up in her writing—including her Russian-exile Commissaire Orloff who appeared in two novels and was inspired from a period spent in France. In fact, Lambot's very first crime novel was written in Jamaica, and although never published, it connected her with her literary agent.

In all, she published some 20 crime novels, including police procedurals, political thrillers and standalone detective stories based in such locations as Ceylon and the Congo, translated into German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish under the Lambot name or the pseudonyms Daniel Ingham and Mary Turner. She also had a nonfiction book, How to Write Crime Novels, published in 1992, taught creative writing, lectured to writers' groups and presented "Whodunit" evenings.

She was definitely of her time and the social mores of the day, once saying, "My aim is to entertain, not to preach, but certain moral values underlie my work all the same. I prefer old-fashioned virtues, such as Crime Does Not Pay, while obviously in real life it does! I don't like the permissive society, and make sure my heroines get decently married at the end. If any of my characters leap into bed with each other, it is essential to the plot, and they usually regret it." But she also understood the writing process well, adding that "People write because they want to. It is an inner compulsion. Crime writers write to entertain, to give a little relaxation in a world of stress. It is very hard work." 

Sadly, late in life as a widow she had rapid onset of Alzheimer's disease and after being moved to a nursing home, left one day and was last seen walking into the countryside. As a family member noted, the author's final mystery was like her novels, as a massive search operation was set up with police and volunteers until her body was found against a tree in Yeld Wood. But she probably would have appreciated the funeral—allegedly, as the hearse drove from the Church in Kington to the Crematorium in Hereford, a lone buzzard flew over the coffin and screeched.

Her novels, such as the 1967 Shroud of Canvas, use a plain straightforward style to good effect, weaving character sketches and interpersonal relationships to help build suspense. The main POV protagonist in "Canvas"  is Rosalind, a young widow with a daughter, who had cut all ties with her family during her first disastrous marriage and has recently married a man she's only known for six months, Geoffrey Lennard, founder of a plastics company.

When Rosalind receives a telephone call from Geoffrey's former fiancée whom Rosalind knew nothing about, it sets in motion a series of mysteries and deaths beginning with the murder of the ex-fiancée in the Lennard garden. As evidence and suspicion begins to mount against Geoffrey, Rosalind's newfound happiness is in jeopardy even as she unwaveringly believes in the innocence of her husband. With the help of a surprising ally, Detective Sergeant Barry Thornley, and his boss, Superintendent Longton, Rosaline pursues the truth, dodging the whispers and doubts from the local community admid a backdrop of industrial espionage and power struggles.

And yet...Rosalind does wonder, as this excerpt indicates, although it also shows Lambot's effective sparse style and how she creates conflict:

There was a nightmare sense of repetition. Was she doomed to sit at the breakfast table each morning waiting for an explanation that never came?...She had wandered round the silent house all evening, waiting for the sound of Geoffrey's car, wishing one moment that Sally was not away for the night, glad at another that she was not there to witness her mother's anxiety.

One in desperation, she had phoned the office but there was no reply. Not that it meant anything. Geoffrey could have told the switchboard not to leave him connected with an outside line, so that he could get on with his work in peace...

But the previous evening he had gone to meet Anne...

Shroud of Canvas may date from the late 60s, but it follows true British Golden Age tradition, filled with skillfully placed clues and red herrings alike and ending with a closed circle of suspects gathered together to hear the revelation of the murderer's identity. And of course, in the end, Crime Does Not Pay.

Mystery Melange

Foreword Reviews announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards, celebrating outstanding books published in 2025 by small, independent, and university presses, including mysteries and thrillers. The Gold Medal Winner in the Adult Mystery category was A Murder in Zion by Nicole Maggi (Oceanview Publishing). The other finalists include: Silver Medal to Garbage Town by Ravi Gupta (Greenleaf Book Group Press); Bronze Medal to Killer Tracks by Mary Keliikoa (Level Best Books); and Honorable Mention to Dying Cry by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane). The Gold Medal Winner in the Adult Thriller category was The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Creature Publishing); Silver Medal to The Art of Greed by Hans Peter Brunner (Greenleaf Book Group Press); Bronze to Novel Threat by Traci Hunter Abramson (Shadow Mountain Publishing); and Honorable Mention to The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor (Severn House).


Submissions for the 2026 PRIDE Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers are open from June 1 to July 31. Any crime writer can submit their work as long as you have not published more than ten short pieces of fiction OR two novels and you do not use generative AI to write, research, or brainstorm the work. Submissions should include an unpublished work of crime fiction, aimed at readers from children’s chapter books through adults, which may be a short story or first chapter(s) of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words. For more information, follow this link.


On their YouTube channel, Crime Fiction Lover recommended 10 cozy mystery series to read for people who love The Thursday Murder Club, and now they're offering a chance to win the first book from each of these series. The entry form is located here. You’ll need to subscribe to their weekly newsletter and answer a cryptic clue question. You can enter until midnight BST on June 30, 2026, with the drawing taking place on July 1.  


If you'll be in the area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 10th, mark your calendar for Hillsborough, North Carolina’s Noir at the Bar, hosted by Tracey Reynolds. Yonder Bar will be the setting for raffles, drinks, and short readings from Eryk Pruitt and more.


Moonstone Press has reissued the books of UK author Dorothy Bowers, once donned the "Queen of the Detective Novel," who published five acclaimed novels before her untimely death from tuberculosis aged 46 in 1948. A Moonstone spokesperson said: “Despite being the only author inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1948, and seen by many contemporary critics as the logical successor to Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy Bowers’ early death resulted in her books becoming out of print for decades. We are delighted to reissue them.” Writing in The Independent in its Forgotten Authors series, modern critic Christopher Fowler described her as "one of the most skillful wielders of the red herring."


Houstonia Magazine profiled the Houston, Texas independent bookstore, Murder by the Book, which has hosted some of the biggest names in crime fiction for more than forty years. Current owner McKenna Jordan says she never planned to buy a bookstore, but “Both my parents were Houston police officers, so crime was kind of all around” and reading was big in her family. Jordan purchased the store in 2009 and in the 17 years since, she and her team have weathered hurricanes, a pandemic, the rise and fall (and rise) of big-box bookstores like Barnes & Noble, the e-reader craze, and Amazon.


Speaking of "weathering," it's heartening to see the people of Ukraine rallying to go about their normal lives as best they can under the constant threat of air raids and bombs. As The Guardian reported, this includes Kyiv's recent literary festival. Visitors flocked to the Kyiv Book Arsenal, and "dressed in their considerable best, they clutched their bags of books bought directly from publishers’ stalls and stopped to hug their friends." Patrons were encouraged to donate books to soldiers, where a donation box had offerings including Ukrainian translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, plus a volume by the contemporary poet Halyna Kruk and a recent work about life on the frontline, Please Don’t Be Afraid, by Pavlo “Pashtet” Belyanskiy.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Tom Milani discussing “The Briar Patch,” from the new anthology Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Ice Solves the Line Delay Dilemma at Major Airports" by Robert Cooperman.


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb interviewed Danielle Postel-Vinay (who has written previous books under the name Danielle Trussoni, including The Puzzle Box) about her new novel Murder Most Delicious; Howard Lovy spoke with Michael Maloof about turning his global adventure and tech experience Into award-winning thrillers, including the  Kate Preacher series; Deborah Kalb chatted with Kate Khavari, author of the new novel A Botanist's Guide to Tradition and Treachery, the latest in her Saffron Everleigh mystery series; Writers Who Kill talked to  M. A. (Mary) Monnin, author of the Traveler Mystery series, with books set in Greece, Italy, Bermuda, and soon, Egypt; and Crime Fiction Lover interviewed Robbie Munroe about his series of legal thrillers featuring retired Scottish criminal defense lawyer, William McIntyre.