Author R&R with Jane Brookwood

Jane Brookwood writes cozy mysteries steeped in tarot symbolism, intuition, and the quiet magic that lingers in small towns. Though she lives just outside the fictional Pineridge Hollow, she knows its back roads and hidden corners by heart. Its shop windows, whispered rumors, and moonlit secrets inspire much of her work — and often feel as real to her as any place on a map. Jane has always been drawn to the moment when an ordinary day tilts into something strange, meaningful, or unexpected. She writes to capture that shift — the sense that something powerful is moving just beneath the surface, waiting for the right person to notice. When she’s not writing, she’s reading tarot, wandering through forests, visiting cafés that remind her of The Velvet Fig, or sharing quiet evenings with her cat, Rosie, who insists on chiming in whenever a mystery gets tense. Jane lives in British Columbia, where Pineridge Hollow grows a little more vivid with every sunrise.

The Hanged Man centers on Fiona Miller, who runs a metaphysical gift shop in Pineridge Hollow. She reads tarot, sells crystals, mixes tea and generally minds her own business. Until she can't. When the son of her long-lost best friend Maggie turns up dead, Fiona has decided she's getting to the bottom of it before she's even aware of the decision. What stops her cold is the timing — moments before the call, she pulls The Hanged Man tarot card on the heels of a monster zoomie rampage by her cat and familiar Rosie.

Maggie's son, found hanging in an eerie echo of the boy on the card. Two blond young men, gone too soon. Accident? Suicide? Murder? The town has already decided. Fiona's tarot deck isn't so sure. In her little corner of nowhere, with only her tarot to guide her through the stickier situations, Fiona is making her way blindly with little or no technology to guide her. The cat though...

Rosie brings some much-needed intuitive skills along with the Chief, who brings something else. With her Pineridge Hollow crew and Rosie at her side, Fiona follows the cards into buried grudges, old money, and secrets the town spent decades hiding. On top of everything, The Hanged Man keeps making himself known. Flip it on its head, he whispers. Look...really look, and then, be prepared to wait. You just might be surprised...

Jane Brockwood stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book: 

 

Standing on the Shoulders of the Greats: How Tarot and Jung Unlocked My Mystery Voice

By Jane Brookwood

The research for my books, or the true seed of the idea, came from Sara Donati’s Queen of Swords from her Into The Wilderness series. In fact, all my writing comes from every book I’ve ever read. Everything I’ve learned about writing has come from standing on the shoulders of the greats; Dickens, Auel, Sheldon, Bronte, Austen, King and Tolkien, to name a few.

Donati’s book was the spark. She wrote into being an irresistible character who reads Tarot cards, taking the narrative from the card and unspooling it into her immediate circumstances. She used tarot cards to cajole, prompt, needle, and motivate other characters—which was immensely satisfying to me. Her book came a good fifteen years into my own research and study of Tarot. Maybe it was the Catholic school upbringing which gave the cards their own delicious taboo, but I think it has more to do with their symbolic nature. My brain works better with pictures than words, and when I connect a card with a lived situation, the understanding hits harder, in a more visceral way than explanation on its own ever could.

Beyond Fortune Telling: Moving into the Consciousness

Angeles Arrien’s The Tarot Handbook was the first time I’d come across a book which extended beyond the reach of mere fortune-telling. She expanded my view of tarot as a method to peer into consciousness itself, which led me to Carl Jung and his exploration of the shadow self.

The trigger to write came from recent cataclysmic changes in my life which left me without work for a year. I’d moved to a small town from the big city and had nothing but time on my hands. And, of course, there was a cat. It was this specific confluence of events which brought me to the precipice of the idea for this book, but I didn’t know how to write a novel. So, I just began—and, in the writing, I found it. My voice.

Casting the Archetypes from the Inside Out

I’m a Gen X kid raised with television as my babysitter. When I write, I need to find the character first. I look at him or her from the inside out. I put my casting director’s hat on and find the actor who would play them. I write until I can hear their voice and see their motivations, and when I get stuck, I pull the cards.

Tom, one of my long-lost characters from revision four (of six) of The Hanged Man, was a complete puzzle to me. Nothing I wrote felt anywhere close to the truth; there was just no juice in the squeeze. I knew Tom as a bombastic man who needed to oversee everything, but I didn’t understand his internal motivations. Why was this man hiding the truth?

So, as I do with all unanswerable questions in my life, I pulled the cards. They answered with the Wheel of Fortune reversed, the Devil, and the Five of Pentacles. In other words: Tom has a gambling problem, he owes money to the wrong people, and he’s got nothing left to lose. Once I understood him, he came alive, and I was caught in the flow once more.

The books come from a career built from behind a cash register and then a desk, watching people responding to their internal motivations. Maybe it’s enough.

You can learn more about Jane Brookwood via her website and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and Goodreads. The Hanged Man 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

The Arena production studio has preemptively acquired a Keanu Reeves-led adaptation of Oliver Lowe‘s upcoming novel, Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller. The book is the first installment in a forthcoming thriller series centered on Jon Hendricks, a burned-out CIA officer who is pulled back in to avenge the protégé he trained and lost. Offering a globe-spanning, edge-of-your-seat action thriller about shifting alliances and the race for the world’s most precious and valuable assets, the first novel from Lowe is slated for publication by Zando in May 2027.

Paul Feig (The Housemaid) is potentially gearing up for a new take on The Italian Job. The filmmaker is in early talks with Paramount Pictures to direct a follow-up film to the studio’s 2003 action hit that starred Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, and Jason Statham, and is looking for a writer for the project. F. Gary Gray’s 2003 heist film was inspired by 1969’s original The Italian Job that starred Michael Caine. The 2003 version centered on Wahlberg as Charlie Croker, a master thief who sets out on a revenge mission that involves rounding up his motley team to track down a cache of gold. 

Black Label Media has added Jason Momoa, Tenoch Huerta, Adria Arjona, and Kiefer Sutherland to the cast of its thriller, Copperhead, starring Miles Teller, although character details are being kept under wraps for the new hires. Written by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, Copperhead‘s plot is thrust in 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. The movie was set to begin filming in Oklahoma in late summer.

Laura Linney is set to star alongside Michael Keaton and Morgan Freeman in Rode to Ruin, the Western thriller that Keaton will also direct. Set in the Old West, the thriller follows a retired U.S. Marshal (Keaton) whose 40-year search for his wife’s killer leads him to an aging outlaw losing his memory (Freeman), and to a buried truth neither man may survive. Linney’s character, Hedda Tessman, is "a frontier trader who works the territory alone, all grit and composure, and the one person the aging outlaw has allowed close in years. When violence rides in on both men, she proves to be the reckoning neither of them saw coming."


Paramount Pictures is said to be developing a film version of the '60s TV series Hawaii Five-O, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day helmer Destin Daniel Cretton set to direct and Chris Bremner (Bad Boys for Life) writing the script with Noah Oppenheim (Jackie). Created by Leonard Freeman, the 1968-80 CBS series starred Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, the no-nonsense lawman who headed a state police task force in Hawaii. There have been previous attempts to adapt the show into a film, but lawsuits with CBS and rights issues instead led to the hit 2010-20 CBS TV series remake that starred Alex Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim, and Grace Park.


Fresh off his casting as Cyclops in Marvel’s new X-Men movie, Kit Connor has inked a deal to star opposite Diana Silvers (Booksmart) in PRƎPPY, a true-crime film to be directed by Janicza Bravo. Based on an original screenplay by David Levine and Rose Lichter-Marck, PRƎPPY explores events in the summer of 1986 leading to the murder of recent high school graduate Jennifer Levin at the hands of Robert Chambers, a former Manhattan private-school student, in New York’s Central Park. The shocking crime — in which Chambers was dubbed the “Preppy Killer” — captivated a generation and put privilege, class, and sex on trial.   

Miramax is developing a feature adaptation of Everything We Never Said, the YA romantic thriller novel from Sloan Harlow, with Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer aboard to adapt the screenplay. Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2024, Everything We Never Said follows Ella Graham, who, in the wake of her best friend Hayley’s death, finds herself falling for Hayley’s boyfriend, Sawyer. But when Ella sorts through her late friend’s belongings and uncovers her diary, she’s rattled by the secrets Hayley kept and learns she might be walking into something much darker than she realized.

 
TELEVISION/STREAMING

AMC and French broadcaster Canal+ have greenlit a series based on the iconic Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves surf heist thriller, Point Break. The TV series is set in the present day, over thirty years after the events of the film, and centered on a new heist crew with ties to the notorious Ex-Presidents gang, while the FBI must rely on a mysterious ex-pro surfer with a checkered past to infiltrate them. The eight-part series will go into production early next year. The original movie, which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by W. Peter Iliff, starred Reeves as rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah, who infiltrates the Ex-Presidents, a gang of Southern California surfers led by Bodhi (Swayze), who wear masks of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon B. Johnson as they rob banks.


Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead franchise) is the latest to join the series-regular cast of Apple TV‘s Disavowed, the upcoming action-thriller created by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Uncharted). Details regarding who Reedus will play are under wraps for now. Disavowed follows legendary CIA Case Officer Brad Griffin (James Marsden), who is abruptly fired in the middle of a global hunt for an elusive assassin responsible for killing his colleague. Disgraced and outcast from the world of intelligence, all bets are off when Brad decides to go after the $15 million federal bounty on the assassin’s head. Since the series has yet to go into production, no premiere date has yet been announced, although it's unlikely to premiere before 2027.


The BBC revealed first-look photos for Tall Tales & Murder, a dark comedic drama adapted from the novels by Caimh McDonnell. The story mixes a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style adventure with an 8th Century tall tale of monks, Vikings, buried treasure, and a priceless holy book. The series stars Ella-Lily Hyland, Casey Walsh, Philippa Dunne, Brian Doherty, Aisling O'Sullivan, Aidan Gillen, and Packy Lee. The nine-part series premieres September 27 on BBC One Northern Ireland and later in the fall on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.


Netflix finally announced the premiere date of November 5 for the second season of the espionage thriller, Black Doves, starring Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire. Season 2 sees Helen (Knightley) still betraying her nation’s secret to the covert organization she serves, known as the Black Doves. After last Christmas’s misadventures, though, and her husband Wallace’s (Andrew Buchan) preparations to become Prime Minister, Helen’s carving an even more treacherous path. Meanwhile, Helen’s handler, Mrs. Reed (Lancashire), is ensnared in a plot to undermine her position in the Black Doves, and Helen is reunited with her best friend, Sam (Whishaw). As the pals search for answers, their loyalties are tested, and trust is shattered as they fight to protect their loved ones.

The Gemma Arterton-led spy drama Secret Service has landed a U.S. home and will stream on MGM+ after the streamer picked up rights for North America, Latin America, and Italy. The five-part series is based on a book by Tom Bradby, a news anchor who hosts the British broadcaster’s News At Ten. The drama stars Arterton as senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, who's involved in a covert investigation and uncovers evidence a high-ranking UK politician may be working as a Russian asset. Rafe Spall and Alex Kingston also star alongside Mark Stanley, Roger Allam, Amaka Okafor, Aoife Hinds, Avi Nash, Alma Prelec and Khalid Abdalla. The premiere date has not yet been announced.


The BBC has released the first trailer for season 4 of Blue Lights. Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control. Meanwhile, the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a dangerous and long-buried secret that leads to chaos both inside the police and across the criminal underworld. The BAFTA-winning crime drama returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in autumn 2026, with a six-episode fourth series. For viewers in the United States, Blue Lights Season 4 is expected to stream on BritBox.


CBS released first-look photos for NCIS: Origins Season 3, which will see the return of Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs for a season-long arc beginning with the show’s premiere on Tuesday, October 6. Fans will reunite with Gibbs in the premiere episode titled “Don’t You Forget About Me.” Set in the present day, ghosts from the past of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Harmon) finally catch up to him, shattering his peaceful retirement in Alaska. In 1992, the team races to rescue a kidnapped Randy (Caleb Foote) while Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Lala (Mariel Molino) deal with the aftermath of their kiss. 

The cozy crime franchise, Trivia Night Mysteries, is expanding and has wrapped production on its second and third installments, Fit for a Murder and A Fatal Lesson. The Trivia Night Mysteries series follows freelance fact-checker and team trivia champion Sara Keane (played by Morgan Bradley), whose exceptional trivia knowledge and instinct for finding the right answer make her an unlikely but highly effective amateur detective. She works closely with charming, new-to-town lawyer Reid Taggart (Alex Trumble), who becomes her increasingly close partner in crime-solving. The first movie in the franchise, Trivia Night Mysteries: A Question of Murder, makes its TV and streaming premiere in 2027. You can view a trailer via this link.


The Behavioral Analysis Unit will have run-ins with two familiar faces in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution. Wayne Brady and Selma Blair are both set to guest star in the eighth episode of Season 20 when the BAU investigates a series of murders in Los Angeles targeting people tied to the skincare industry. Starring Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Zach Gilford, and RJ Hatanaka with Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds: Evolution follows the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, a team of profilers tasked with analyzing and capturing the country’s most dangerous criminals, before they strike again.


Starz has released the trailer for the S.W.A.T. spinoff, Exiles, ahead of its September 25 premiere. Shemar Moore returns from the mothership to reprise his role as LAPD S.W.A.T. Sergeant Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson. S.W.A.T. Exiles revolves around Moore’s Hondo, who spent his career proving that discipline and loyalty can be built, not just born. But after a botched raid ends in the death of a young operator Nico Reyes, Hondo is forced to walk away from the only life he’s known. Until his old commanding officer, Robert Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit), offers him one last shot at redemption: start up a brand-new S.W.A.T. unit, built from LA’s most talented rejects.

Channel 4 has released the first trailer for Pierre, a new six-part crime drama starring Sherwood's David Harewood as the title character, a West London duty solicitor and a force of nature: charming and funny, juggling the pressures of his job, a fragile personal life and just keeping his head above water financially. His resilience is tested when he begins investigating the suspicious death of a young black client whom the police portray as a criminal, leading Pierre to a chilling web of institutional corruption.

ITV confirmed the air date for the new crime drama, The Blame, which is based on the novel of the same name by Charlotte Langley, for September 20th. The story follows DI Emma Crane (Michelle Keegan) and DI Tom Radley (Douglas Booth), who dig deeper into a tragic death that sends shockwaves through the town of Wakestead, only to have their murder inquiry soon spiraling into a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups, and moral compromise. As the clock ticks and trust fractures, Crane must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team. The series also stars Ian Hart (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), Nathan Mensah, Nigel Boyle (Peaky Blinders), Joe Armstrong (Black Mirror), Matilda Freeman (How to Get to Heaven from Belfast), Gavin Spokes (House of the Dragon), Josh Bolt (Masters of the Air), and Ceallach Spellman (Cheaters).


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO/SHORTS

An unusual short-form scripted format from New Zealand is headed to MIPCOM. Alibi is a seven-part, 15-minutes-per-episode crime series in which the same story is told from multiple perspectives. The story is set in the fictional town of Awatahi in New Zealand, where 17-year-old Jodie Hunter is found dead. The six main suspects then give then versions of events to provide their alibi, with each followed over an episode. The first six episodes can be watched in any order, with the seventh and final one revealing the truth. The ensemble cast includes Madeleine Adams (Dealbreakers), Joel Tobeck (Avatar: Fire and Ice), Xavier Horan (Westside) and Melanie Vallejo (All Her Fault).


Criminal Mischief host DP Lyle MD had a fascinating discussion of violent crime and serial killers with Dr. Adam Lankford, a criminologist with expertise on mass shootings and targeted violence. His findings have been cited by The White House, by every major media outlet in the United States, and by international media from over 40 countries.


On Spybrary, Shane Whaley was joined by Swedish historian and author Johan Wennström to uncover the extraordinary story of Sweden’s secret Stay Behind resistance network — a clandestine organization created in 1949 to operate behind enemy lines in the event of a Soviet invasion — which he details in his new book, The Stay Behinds: Sweden's Cold War Guardians.


THEATRE

Alex Winter, who costarred with his old Bill & Ted partner Keanu Reeves last year in the Broadway revival of Waiting For Godot, will return to the New York stage next year in an Off Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s 1964 play, Incident at Vichy. Winter will both star in and produce the one-act play, expected to open in spring 2027. Kanika Asavari Vaish will direct, with additional casting, production dates and venue to be announced. First staged on Broadway in 1964 with Harold Clurman directing a cast that included Hal Holbrook and Tony Lo Bianco, Incident at Vichy was set in 1942 and focused on a group of men undergoing “racial inspection” by German military officers and Vichy French police and examines how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust with so little resistance.

Sunday Music Treat

I want to thank a couple of readers of Played to Death who pointed out something that seemed to be an error but was more a miscommunication on my part. It's a good case in point of how sometimes the vision in a writer's mind doesn't make it to the page in a coherent way.

In Played to Death, Scott Drayco says that the first time he sat at a piano when he was a small child, he picked out Count Basie's "Take the A Train." Now, the classic jazz piece was composed by Billy Strayhorn, who played piano and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington's band. But what I didn't point out was that Drayco had heard the piece in the later Count Basie version. My grandfather was a drummer in a Dixieland band, and Basie was also a drummer, so that seemed fitting. Plus, Basie learned how to play the piano from his mother, just like Drayco did.

Anyway, here's the original Duke Ellington version, followed by Count Basie's version and finally Oscar Peterson's solo piano version, which would be more like what Drayco played (in fact, it's fun to image a young Drayco, his feet not able to reach the floor, playing this piece):

 

 

Quote of the Week

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Dancing Man

Philip Maitland Hubbard, better known as P.M. Hubbard (1910-1980) studied at Oxford where he won the Newdigate Prize for English verse in 1933.  From Oxford he moved into the Indian Civil Service in northwest India, returning to England in 1947 to work for the British Council. Hubbard then turned to freelance writing — at first, short stories and poetry for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, some articles and, oddly, Parliamentary reports to Punch magazine, before finally focusing on writing novels full time. He penned 16 suspense/mystery titles from 1963 to 1977 with modest success, although one of his novels, High Tide, was adapted for television as part of the ITV network's Armchair Thriller series in 1980.

Hubbard's work is particularly known for his settings, mostly small rural villages or lonely isolated houses in places like secluded woods, along the coast, or in the Highlands. Hubbard once wrote that "As to my planning of a book, the plain answer is that I don't. I have some general theme in my head, and I marry that to a place (always imaginary, but imagined to the last detail and compass-point). The place is generally in fact the principal character in the book, because, again, places mean more to me than people. However, I start with the one or two characters necessary to carry the theme, and then I just start writing and see what happens."

His writing style is direct, minimalist and terse, which Anthony Boucher once noted: "Avoiding clichés as much as possible, interested in people yet devoid of sentimentality, without even any overt physical action, Hubbard can suggest untold horror in a few deft passages." Some may find this type of writing to be slow by today's standards, as Hubbard draws out the suspense quietly and gradually, like slowly playing out a guide rope until it suddenly snaps.

Hubbard didn't create any series characters or detectives, using only three or four main characters in each story, with little dialogue and large chunks of interior monologue narration from the POV character.  The Dancing Man, from1971, is what Tom Jenkins of Mystery File noted was the epitome of Hubbard's style:  a limited cast of characters, his sparse dialogue, and his plot complexities, all woven into the settings of an isolated Victorian house in Wales, a ruined Cistercian abbey and a Neolithic ring larger than Avebury and older than Stonehenge.

The lead character of The Dancing Man is Mark Hawkins, engineer, cynic and loner, who has always resented his adventurer-archaeologist brother, Dick. Then Dick vanishes, allegedly dead in a climbing accident. A reluctant Mark starts investigating the site his brother was excavating, a Cistercian monastery, and meets three strange souls who were the last to see his brother alive — gruff professor Roger Merrion, who has more than an academic interest in the ruins, his fearful young wife, and his enigmatic virginal sister, whom Mark starts to fall for.  The Dancing Man of the title is a pornographic carving at the ancient ruins that begins to exert an influence on Mark, but is it witchery, as a mysterious old man he meets tells him, or is something altogether real, but equally sinister? And why was his brother working at an 11th-century monastery, when his specialty was Neolithic archaeology?

It's definitely not the type of novel for fans of more modern, fast-paced punchy fiction, but if you're in the mood for a dark psychological story, then you can allow The Dancing Man to reel you in slowly as you become immersed in the almost claustrophobic pull of the protagonist's frame of mind as he gets closer to a murderous secret.

Mystery Melange

Bloody Scotland revealed the shortlist for the 2026 McIlvanney Prize. The finalist titles will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland until the Friday, September 18, when the winner will be announced on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival. This year's finalists include The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper); 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell (S&S); A Bad, Bad, Place by Frances Crawford (Bantam); The Diary of Lies by Philip Miller (Polygon); and The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Viper). (HT to Shotsmag Confidential)

The longlist for this year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction books was recently announced. Several crime-themed titles were among the honorees, including Murder in Paris ’68: A True Story of Death and Glamour by Edward Chisholm (Bloomsbury); The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World by Bojan Pancevski (Penguin Random House); Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre (Penguin Random House); London Falling: and A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe (Penguin Random House). The winner will receive £50,000, with the shortlist of six announced on October 1, and the winner on November 4.

The California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) presents the Golden Poppy Awards in recognition of the most distinguished books written and illustrated by creators who have made California their home. Committees for each category are made up of booksellers throughout the state tasked with developing a list of five finalists and one winner. This year's finalists in the Mystery category include A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper (Mulholland Books); Get Lost by Justin Halpern (Cardinal); The Cormorant Hunt by Michael Idov (Scribner); The Tree of Light and Flowers by Thomas Perry (The Mysterious Press); and The Haul by Gary Phillips (Soho Crime).


This weekend, from September 12-13, Herne Bay in southeast England will host its first-ever literary festival, Crime by the Sea, bringing renowned authors, lively discussions and literary events to venues across the town. Presented by The Herne Bay Literary Festival and The Little Green Bookshop, Crime by the Sea will celebrate crime, mystery and thriller writing with special guests including Sophie Hannah (continuation author of Agatha Christie's Poirot series); Jess Kidd (Nora Breen Investigates series); Ian Moore (the Follet Valley cozy crime series); Louise Doughty (Apple Tree Yard and Platform Seven); Cathy Rentzenbrink (The Agatha Christie Cure); Julie Wassmer (Whitstable Pearl mysteries); and Lucy Strange (the Mulberry Hill Murders series). More information, including registration, can be found here.


Also opening this week, from September 12-26, is the annual International Agatha Christie Festival, in Torquay, UK. Highlights will include a special event benefiting the British Red Cross and the Agatha Christie Festival Charity entitled, "What Agatha Did in the Great War." It offers a rare opportunity to step inside the historic Assembly Rooms at Torquay Town Hall, where Agatha Christie served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment for the British Red Cross during WWI. Plus, there will be a performance of The Mousetrap as part of the play's 75th Anniversary Tour, with other events focused on "The Forensic Fashion of Agatha Christie"; "A Century of Agatha Christie on Screen"; "Agatha the Photographer"; Roger Ackroyd Day, in celebration of 100 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's classic novel; and lots more.

The Desert Sleuths chapter of Sisters in Crime is presenting WriteNOW! 2026, Friday-Saturday, September 18 & 19. This virtual mystery/crime writers conference for authors, readers, and enthusiasts welcomes writers from all genres. Registration for the CraftNOW! workshop with Clay Stafford, the EditNOW! workshop with Terri Bischoff, Jay Hartman and Anne Rainbow, and the PitchNOW! sessions with Elizabeth Guthrie and Gina Panettieri closes on September 16, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.


Clues: A Journal of Detection has a call for papers on mid-twentieth century American women's crime writing. Guest editors Erin A. Smith (University of Texas at Dallas) and Clare Rolens (Palomar College) welcome proposals for the themed issues that focuses on fostering scholarship on the lesser-known women writers from the 1940s to the 1960s. Potential authors might include (but are by no means limited to) Charlotte Armstrong, Leigh Brackett, Vera Caspary, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Dorothy Cameron Disney, Doris Miles Disney, Helen Eustis, Leslie Ford, Patricia Highsmith, Dolores Hitchens, Dorothy B. Hughes, Shirley Jackson, Margaret Millar, Helen Nielsen, Ann Petry, Evelyn Piper, Craig Rice, and Elisabeth Sanxay. Of interest are inter-sectional analyses of how gender/sexuality, social class, and race/ethnicity are represented in these works. Also welcome are explorations of how these writers navigated various historical traditions of crime writing (noir, the cozy, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century domestic detective fiction, the gothic, etc.) and how they remade or reworked these forms. Proposals are due January 15, 2027, with full essays of 5,000 to 6,000 words due August 1, 2027. Elizabeth Foxwell over at The Bunburyist has more information.


For more news about the latest in short mystery fiction this week, check out Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats blog, the Short Mystery Fiction Society blog, and also Art Taylor's The First Two Pages blog, which includes the latest features from Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder! edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley. Plus, catch the latest crime poem, "But Was It Murder?" by Robert Donohue, over at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly.


In the Q&A roundup, Crime Fiction Lover had three recent interviews: they spoke with DS Butler about Lie to Me, that latest in her series featuring Karen Hart, a detective sergeant with the Lincolnshire Police; they also chatted with Christopher Harris about his new novel, Pound Foolish, his second novel to feature Mouse Morrison, an NFL pro who is now a detective; and they interviewed Teresa Solana, whose newly translated crime novel, The Butterfly House, featuring the half-Catalan, half-British police detective, Norma Forester, will be released on September 12. Plus, Promoting Crime Fiction welcomed British author Dave Sivers, whose books include the Archer and Baines contemporary crime novels, the DI Nathan Quarrel series, and the Lowmar Dashiel crime fantasy novels.

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

Michael Keaton is set to direct and star opposite Morgan Freeman in Rode to Ruin, an original Western thriller written by R. Dean McCreary. Keaton will portray retired Marshal Henry Tillman, and Freeman is a wanted outlaw named Joseph Mulberry. The U.S. Marshal searched forty years for his wife’s killer, and the cold trail finally heats up and leads him to an aging outlaw losing his memory – and to a buried truth neither man may survive. Their reunion marks the first time in nearly four decades that the two acclaimed actors have shared the screen (they did Clean and Sober together in 1988).


Florian Zeller’s upcoming psychological thriller, Bunker, starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, is set to world premiere in competition at the Venice International Film Festival on September 8. The film, which Zeller wrote, produced and directed, follows the emotional and moral challenges faced by a couple in an increasingly uncertain world. Bardem plays Miguel, a successful London architect, who considers a prestigious offer to build a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire. The project causes his wife Sofia (Cruz) to question their relationship of seventeen years as they are drawn deeper into a life of extreme wealth, paranoia, and fear. The intrusion of an unsettling neighbor becomes another source of anxiety.

A first trailer was released for the action-thriller film, Father Joe, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Al Pacino, and teen Ever Anderson, daughter of Milla Jovovich and filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson. Sutherland plays “a man of faith who wages a violent war against Manhattan’s criminal underworld, putting him on a collision course with a powerful mob boss while guiding a young woman caught between danger and redemption.” As with the thriller Bunker, referenced above, the film is premiering this week at the Venice Film Festival.


Principal photography has just completed in and around Norfolk, Virginia, on the dark thriller, America’s Favorite, starring Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Maddie Hasson (Malignant), Paul Roffman (Girl), Greg Kinnear (Black Bird), and Dennis Quaid (Reagan). The film will follow Peter Bale (De Haan), a reporter-turned TV host who tries to revive his career by investigating a series of murders during a live broadcast, only to uncover a deeper conspiracy tied to a powerful media mogul. 


TELEVISION/STREAMING

ABC is developing The Undertaker, a police procedural based on the Swiss series, Der Bestatter, from writer Gabriel Garza (The Winchesters, The Flash), director Hanelle M. Culpepper (Paradise, Star Trek: Picard), 20th Television, and Elevate Entertainment. The Undertaker will follow Luke Conrad, a former police detective who takes over his family’s funeral home business and can’t resist investigating the deaths that come through the door. Garza will serve as writer and executive producer, with Culpepper directing and executive producing.


CBS's Elsbeth is gearing up for its Season 4 premiere on October 8 with the first list of guest stars, including Nicole Scherzinger (The Masked Singer), Nicholas Braun (Succession), New York Knicks star OG Anunoby, and Jemima Kirke (Girls). Carrie Preston returns as Elsbeth Tascioni, the brilliant yet unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD, led by her boss, Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce), to track down New York’s most entitled murderers utilizing her unique, intuitive point of view. Scherzinger will appear in the Season 4 premiere as Serena Collyer, a popular and highly paid relationship counselor whose torrid affair with an old love leads to murder.


CBS unveiled the first trailer for Season 2 of the procedural, Marshals, which stars Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton. Marshals returns on October 4, and the show has some new cast members, including Marque Richardson as Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Burns, while Morgan Lindholm’s role as Maddie, the bartender at the local watering hole Bullet ’N Barrel and daughter of Cal, is being expanded.


Paramount+ has officially renewed MobLand for a third season ahead of the crime drama’s Season 2 premiere on Sept. 18. Also confirmed is the return of Tom Hardy as the Harrigan family’s loyal fixer Harry da Souza, alongside Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren as the crime family’s patriarch and matriarch, Conrad and Maeve Harrigan. MobLand was renewed for a second season last year but temporarily derailed by a behind-the-scenes drama involving Hardy, who seemed to be on his way out after friction between him and the series’ writer, executive producer, and showrunner Jez Butterworth. Season 2 also stars Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Lara Pulver, Anson Boon, Mandeep Dhillon, Jasmine Jobson, Teddie Allen, Emmett J. Scanlan, Johnny Flynn, Ophelia Lovibond, Janet McTeer, and Toby Jones.


David Zayas is returning to his fan-favorite role of Angel Batista for the second season of Showtime's Dexter: Resurrection. However, it is unknown how Batista will be brought back after his tragic Season 1 demise. In the second season of the series, Dexter is caught between two killers – one notorious and the other terrorizing New York in ways no one ever anticipated – all while battling his greatest enemy yet: a midlife crisis. Meanwhile, Dexter's son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), continues his own pursuit of justice as father and son face their darkest chapter. Brian Cox stars as The New York Ripper; Dan Stevens as The Five Borough Killer; and Gabriel Luna as Ray Ballard, who operates under the name The Sleepy-Eyed Stranger.


Production has officially begun in Prague on the new Netflix TV series adapted from the Dan Brown novel, The Secret of Secrets, featuring Morgan Spector as Robert Langdon. In addition to Spector, the series regular cast includes Rebecca Hall as Katherine Solomon, Cherry Jones as Heide Nagel, Corey Stoll as Everett Finch, Rob Delaney as Jonas Faukman, and Abbey Lee as Sasha Vesna. Additional casting was announced this past week, including Mamadou Athie, who recurs as Michael Harris, and Ben Levi Ross as Alex Conan, also in a recurring role. They will be joined by Anamaria Marinca, who will play Dr. Gessner; Richard Sammel, who will play Karl Muller; and Elena Saurel, who will play Susan Housemore. In Brown’s novel, symbologist Robert Langdon races against ancient forces and time to rescue a missing scientist and her groundbreaking manuscript whose discoveries have the power to forever change humanity’s understanding of the mind.  


Ireland’s RTÉ will explore one of the most talked-about murders of recent Irish history in the drama series, The Murder of Mr. Moonlight, which has been pre-bought by the BBC. Malcolm Campbell (What Richard Did) is adapting Catherine Fegan’s book of the same name, with Meadhbh McHugh and Paul Howard also writing. The series focuses on the disappearance and murder of Bobby Ryan, known locally as "Mr. Moonlight," and the events that would lead to one of Ireland’s longest-ever murder trials. Brendan Coyle (Toxic Town) stars as Bobby Ryan, with Owen McDonnell (Killing Eve) as Patrick Quirke, who was ultimately found guilty of the killing and sentenced to life imprisonment.

USA Network's The Rainmaker is kicking off promotions for Season 2 with first-look photos of Merle Dandridge and Richard Kind, both new additions to the legal drama, which will return with new episodes in October. Based on the John Grisham novel of the same name, The Rainmaker follows Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) who, fresh out of law school, goes head-to-head with courtroom lion Leo Drummond (John Slattery) and his law school girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman). In Season 2, Rudy, Deck (P.J. Byrne), and Bruiser face old adversaries and new ones in a case where the lives of hundreds of children hang in the balance, and where winning might be just as dangerous as losing. In addition to Dandridge and Kind, Austin Nichols has been announced as joining the cast in Season 2.


PODCASTS/RADIO/AUDIO/SHORT FORMS

Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa will star in UnderGround Zero: 9/11 & The Mob, a podcast series recounting the untold story of how the New York Mafia made millions in the aftermath of the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Two more alums from The Sopranos, Ray Abruzzo and Arthur Nascarella, also star. Stephen Kronish (The Kennedys, 24) is the writer of the drama, which is based on real events. It bowed on iHeartPodcasts and audio platforms this weekend. 


On the Poisoned Pen Bookstore podcast, Barbara Peters was in conversation with Jennifer Hillier about her latest psychological thriller, Heart of Glass, in which a woman must confront her traumatic past after a body washes up on the shores of her seaside town and a serial killer recants his long-ago confession regarding a string of murders.


Barbara Peters also spoke with Tess Gerritsen and her publisher and editor, Gracie Doyle, about Gerritsen's latest novel, The Shadow Friends, the third installment in the tight-knit band of former spies known as the Martini Club who investigate when a renowned disease expert and Russian defector dies mysteriously during a global affairs conference in Purity, Maine.


On the Femmes Detectives podcast, host Sue Hinkin spoke with Nichelle Seeley about her book, A Vision of Violence, featuring former cop-turned private investigator Audrey Lake, who reluctantly teams up with the public defenders’ office and gets drawn into a murder case in Oregon.


The Writers Journey interviewed Dervla McTiernan, author of award-winning novels including What Happened to Nina? and The Murder Rule, both New York Times thrillers of the year, about her latest psychological thriller, Three Reasons for Revenge.

Sunday Music Treat

Mars has been in the news a lot lately, with the movie The Martian based on Andy Weir's book, as well as continued missions such the continuing work of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. In honor thereof, I think it's fitting we hear the "Mars" section from The Planets by Gustav Holst, always one of my favorite pieces, played here by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Sir Charles Mackerrras:

 

 

Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Speaking of Murder

We owe many thanks to Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg for the variety of collections and anthologies they've edited through the years. I looked at bibliographies and counted at least 53 edited by Ed Gorman, and one source said Greenberg had edited over a thousand books. Ed is also one of the regular contributors to the Friday's Forgotten Books feature, as well as being an accomplished, award-winning author in his own right.

One of the Gorman/Greenberg collaborations were two books of interviews with well-known crime fiction authors, Speaking of Murder: Interviews with the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, published in July 1998, and Speaking of Murder II, which came out the following year.

I don't have the second volume, but the first is introduced by Ed, who tells the story of how a Chicago talk show producer once told him that writers made dull guests. Ed allowed as how he agreed, since "compared to cross-dressing prostitutes, mothers who sleep with their daughter's boyfriends, and UFO abductees who have mysteriously started to dress like Elvis, I guess most of us writers do lead pretty uneventful lives." He goes on to add that writers are interesting because they're quiet and introspective.

The 21 interviews in volume one include some of the best-known names in the genre, Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, Ed McBain, Elizabeth George, Marcia Muller, Mickey Spillane, Ian Rankin, Tony Hillerman Sue Grafton, Anne Perry, each offering up insights into their inner world as well as their personal take on the writing process.

I'm always particularly fascinated by the early stages of a writer's career before they were successful, because that's the "danger time," the period when a writer is most likely to get discouraged and give up. From Carolyn G. Hart we learn that despite having 13 books published ("nothing exciting happened with any one of them") and teaching journalism, she was depressed and felt like an enormous failure. One agent told her no one was buying mysteries, but after a Mystery Writers of American seminar, she decided she was going to write the mystery she wanted to anyway, the result being her wildly popular Death on Demand series.

Tony Hillerman worked as a journalist for 17 years and taught for 21 years, writing a lot of nonfiction. One day he decided he wanted to write the great American novel and decided to start with a mystery because he didn't know if he could do characters or plotting well. He knew he could do descriptions, though, and chose the most beautiful setting he could think of so the readers would at least enjoy the background. He wrote it off and on, thinking it wasn't good enough to be published, until he finally got tired of it and sent it off to an agent. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Other random tidbits: From Bill Pronzini, "Critical, editorial and/or peer misunderstanding or dismissal of my work only makes me more determined to hang around."

From Mickey Spillane: "If you are a writer and you do a scene ten times, the last one probably will sound like the first one, and you're not going to get any better as you revise. The best stuff you put down comes right off the typewriter, bam! ... I don't have a big garbage problem."

From Ian Rankin: "I remember an early attempt at research (at Leith Police Station)...They asked me what the book was about, I said a child killer. What I hadn't realized was that a child had just been abducted in Leith and a murder room had been set up. So they took down my details and added me to their computer. I became suspect number 350 and spent more time answering their questions than they did mine."

From Sharyn McCrumb: "Storytelling was an art form that I learned early on. When I was a little girl, my father would come in to tell me a bedtime story, which usually began with a phrase like, 'Once there was a prince named Paris, whose father was Priam, the king of Troy . . . .' thus I got the Iliad in nightly installments, geared to the level of a four-year-old's understanding."

From Sue Grafton:  "I love mystery; it is my favorite form. It is sublimely difficult, and for my money, it encompasses everything that is interesting about writing because you need a strong story, strong characters, and mood and atmosphere. It is also the perfect vehicle for social commentary. Mysteries are about the psychology of crime and the psychology of human nature. It is a form so difficult that I know I'll never conquer it. So it's the perfect place to keep throwing myself into the abyss."

Mystery Melange

This weekend, from September 4-6, St. Hilda's Mystery & Crime Conference returns to Oxford, England. The 33rd Crime Fiction Weekend explores "Bad Apples," the dark core of these characters, and discusses why we love them – or love to hate them – so much. The Guest of Honor is Andrew Taylor, winner of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger (for lifelong excellence in the genre), whose works include The American Boy, the Roth Trilogy (filmed for TV as Fallen Angel), and the Lydmouth detective series set in the 1950s. Other speakers scheduled to appear include Jo Callaghan, Ajay Chowdhury, Abigail Dean, Vaseem Khan, Remi Kone, Simon Mason, Ayo Onatade, Hallie Rubenhold, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Sarah Vaughan, and Martyn Waites. The full program is available via this link.


On Thursday, September 10, the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco, California, is hosting a panel of historical fiction mystery authors featuring Cara Black (the Aimée Leduc series), Rob Osler (Harriet Morrow series), and Naomi Hiraha (Mas Arai mystery series), moderated by Gigi Pandian (Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries). The event kicks off with a murder mystery themed cocktail hour at 5:30, followed by the panel at 6:30 pm. For registration, follow this link.


Murder & Mayhem is sponsoring a giveaway where three lucky winners will receive a set of all nine of Mick Herron’s novels in his Slough House Series, which inspired the Apple TV series Slow Horses. Enter with email address by September 7, 2026, at 11:59:59 pm ET. (The Sweepstakes is open to all legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington, DC, who are 18 years of age or older.)


When Dolly Parton passed away last week, her family asked for donations to Parton's Imagination Library rather than flowers in her memory. Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to encourage a love for reading and learning among the children of Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was raised. But between its founding and her death, it grew into something much bigger, giving away over 330 million books through five different countries. The Dollywood Foundation said in a statement that her legacy will continue "when a child opens a book addressed especially to them; when a parent and child read a favorite story together; and when a young person begins to imagine a future bigger than the circumstances into which they were born." For more information and to donate, you can visit the official website.


Bookshop.org has officially surpassed $50 million in donations to independent bookstores. The site was founded in January 2020 with the goal of bolstering independent bookselling as many stores struggled to stay afloat, and when the pandemic hit two months later it became a lifeline, with 80 percent of its profit margin going to independent bookstores. “We’re so excited to announce that we’ve officially raised $50 million for independent bookstores, supporting their ability to thrive, grow, and keep their doors open for the communities that love them,” the site said in a statement. “We know that bookstores don’t just sell books: They take care of their neighbors, provide a safe space for anyone who needs it, and cultivate a sense of curiosity and a love of reading within their doors. We can’t thank you all enough for supporting bookstores over billionaires.”


This coming Monday is Labor Day in the U.S., and Janet Rudolph has a list of mysteries set on or around that holiday, as well as some crime fiction with a labor union theme.


Art Taylor's "The First Two Pages" blog featured Pat Remick with an essay on her story, "Screaming Jenny," from the new anthology, Hooked on Urban Legends—And Murder!, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley.


Kevin Tipple's Thursday Treats blog has news of new short crime fiction via The Yard, Pistol Jim Press, the anthology, Mystery, Crime and Spring Break, and much more.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "The People - The Unnamed Ex-Con" by J.H. Johns.


In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Kate Westbury to talk about her new novel, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies; James R. Benn. author of the Billy Boyle World War II spy novels, applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Ninth Circle, the twenty-first installment of the Boyle series; ALLi's Howard Lovy spoke with David Barbur, a former law enforcement officer who now writes wilderness mysteries inspired by his interests in hiking, tracking, survival skills, and the natural world; and Deborah Kalb chatted with Hank Phillippi Ryan about her new psychological thriller, Mother Daughter Sister Stranger.

Author R&R with D. Anton Stelzig

D. Anton Stelzig worked as biochemist, studying—among things—the fungus that caused the 19th century Irish potato famine, before he retired to open an art gallery in Morgantown. That kickstarted his writing hobby into high gear, resulting in his debut novel, Brotherhood, a political thriller set against the backdrop of power, secrecy, and betrayal at the highest levels of government.

Brotherhood follows Joe Angotti, who built a following by exposing the truth on his political blog. But when he announces the existence of a shadowy terrorist cell calling itself Brotherhood, he becomes the story. Kidnapped, tortured to discover how he learned about Brotherhood, and nearly killed by his captors, Joe escapes—only to find himself on the run from ruthless extremists,who want him dead and from a bumbling cop, who wants to send him to prison for crimes he didn't commit.

With his memory shattered, his name smeared, and people he loves in the crosshairs, Joe must piece together the truth before the clock runs out, because Brotherhood thugs aren't just hunting him; they're planning something far more sinister. And the closer Joe gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes.

Joe's troubles become complicated when the terrorists snatch both his girlfriend and a rookie FBI agent he has befriended, who they vow to kill unless Joe surrenders to them. Innocent citizens have died because of Joe's carelessness. Adding two more to his conscience is not an option, especially when the two are people most dear to him. But he has no idea how to find the terrorists, let alone what to do if he did—and he has less than twenty-four hours to come up with a plan.

D. Anton Stelzig stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the novel:

I don’t particularly enjoy writing.

That may be an odd admission from someone who has just published a novel, but I’ve never been one of those authors who says he writes because he has to. I write because I can. For me, writing is a lot like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a lot of work, but the finished product can be pleasing. And once in a while, while rewriting my rewrites, I come up with a phrase or a sentence, on a really good day an entire scene, that pleases me.

That’s enough to keep me going.

For most of my professional life, the writing I did was scientific. I was a biochemist at West Virginia University, and much of my research involved plants and plant disease. I wrote papers for scientific journals, and the people reading them didn’t give a damn about my life or the lives of my graduate students. They wanted to know what we did, what happened, and what the evidence showed.

I suspect some of that followed me into fiction.

My chapters tend to be short. I like action. I want the plot to move. I spend time developing characters, of course, but probably less than a lot of writers do. If something happens, I want to know what happens because of it. And then what happens next.

That way of thinking came in handy when I wrote Brotherhood.

The novel begins when a young political blogger, Joe Angotti, gets an anonymous tip about a terrorist organization called Brotherhood operating in Washington, D.C. Joe publishes what he knows. Brotherhood wants his source. Unfortunately for Joe, he doesn’t have one.

They kidnap him anyway.

Joe eventually escapes, but he’s been tortured, shot, and nearly frozen to death. He wakes in a hospital with no idea who he is or what happened to him. Then the police start finding evidence that makes him look less like a victim and more like a criminal.

That’s where the puzzle really begins.

Except when you write a novel, you have to make the puzzle pieces before you can put them together.

A scientist deals with something similar. You collect information. Some of it turns out to be important. Some doesn’t. Sometimes a small detail becomes much more important later. And sometimes what you find tells you that what you thought was happening couldn’t possibly be right.

In Brotherhood, Joe is found shot, handcuffed, barefoot, and almost frozen to death. Then there’s a damaged Mercedes. Blood. A gun. Fingerprints. Stolen license plates. The police draw conclusions from what they find. Some are right. Others aren’t.

I enjoyed putting all that together.

Not the torture, terrorism, and people shooting one another, obviously. The problem solving.

My years in science taught me to pay attention to evidence. If you think something happened one way and the evidence says otherwise, you’d better reconsider what you think happened. You don’t get to change the evidence because it’s inconvenient.

A thriller writer shouldn’t either.

I knew where I wanted Brotherhood to go, but I still had to get everyone there in a way that made sense. If Joe does one thing, there has to be a reasonable consequence. If the police find a piece of evidence, they have to react to what they know at that moment, not what I know as the guy writing the book.

My background helped in some more obvious ways too. Chemistry gave me a foundation for some of the forensic and technical details. And after a tour in the Navy, I know my way around a ship well enough to keep the maritime portions of the story grounded in reality.

But I think the biggest influence of my earlier life is simpler than that.

I spent a lot of years asking questions, looking at results, and trying to figure out what they meant. Now I make up the questions, the results, and usually a few people trying very hard to keep anyone from figuring out what they mean.

I’m not sure that makes writing less tedious.

But it does make for a pretty good puzzle.

And every once in a while, when all the pieces finally fit, I have to admit that I enjoy it.

 
You can learn more about D. Anton Stelzig and his writing via his website and follow him on Facebook and Goodreads. Brotherhood is now available via Amazon.

Author R&R with Lauren Johnson

Lauren Johnson is an American author who believes that life begins at menopause — not conception. Setting out to create a narrative to help women stop judging and start loving themselves, Lauren is releasing the first cozy mystery in The Lizi Cleverly Midlife Badass Detective Series this week. A debut as light and delicious as soufflé, The Soufflé Also Rises follows Lizi Cleverly, an American divorcée d’un certain âge, on her quest to find her inner midlife badass in Paris, amid jewel heists, mob bosses, and lots of pastry. Lauren lives in Oak Park, Illinois with her three kitties: Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, and Johnny Winter. The Soufflé Also Rises is her first novel.

It’s 2008 and Lizi Cleverly just can’t catch a break. On the heels of a nasty divorce and a paltry settlement agreement—barely enough to reload her Starbucks card—Lizi is laid off from her job during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Flat broke, Lizi takes a job at Whole Foods where she meets Frankie, a twenty-seven-year-old artist half her age whose overly simplistic worldview is exactly what Lizi needs to get on with her life. 

But after an unfortunate incident involving her ex-husband, his pregnant girlfriend, and a carton of cage-free eggs, Lizi finds herself, once again, out of a job. So what does a fifty-four-year-old woman with no money, no job, and no prospects do? She sells all her possessions and goes to Paris in search of her long-lost dream: to write her first novel. But when the airline loses her luggage and offers her a meal voucher for the famed Hotel Jolie, Lizi pounces on the opportunity while unwittingly setting off a chain of events which land her at the center of the notorious Harry Winston jewel heist. And when her young partner-in-crime joins her in Paris, the two must outrun the Serbian mafia while trying not to trip over the dead bodies left in their wake.

Lauren Johnson stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

Writing What You Know

When I began writing The Soufflé Also Rises, the first of my Lizi Cleverly Midlife Badass Detective Series, I assumed research would be the easiest part. It was lighthearted fiction, after all, written in first-person present, and Lizi and Frankie were inspired by my twenty-seven and fifty-four-year-old selves—hardly two women requiring extensive exploration. Lizi’s just trying to muddle her way through her second act—while Frankie’s still trying to figure out her first.

So, aside from the expected factual research, what more did I need to know? After all, I’d dated assholes like Lizi’s ex, been betrayed by a best friend, been fired, divorced, and generally screwed over. I had a lot of material to work with.

Easy peasy, right?

Emotional Research

But here’s the kicker: I believed I was writing what I knew. Turns out, however, I didn’t know what I thought I knew nearly as well as I thought I did. Yes, I knew my stories. I’ve told them a thousand times. But there’s a difference between remembering and reliving.

I expected the factual research. Every good novelist understands that. What surprised me, though, was how much I had to research myself.

Take Frankie, for example. Now I’m the first to admit that I still have a lot of Frankie left in me, so some of the things that come flying out of her mouth wouldn’t be unusual coming from my own mouth today. Still, I’m not twenty-seven anymore. And that’s where the research comes in. Emotional research.

In order to get myself into Frankie’s head, I had to remember what it was like being twenty-seven, not what it was like to be twenty-seven. I didn’t need to remember the facts. I needed to remember the feeling.

So, I journaled through the eyes of my younger self. Not to recount the stories of my youth, but to remember what was behind them. I started by asking myself: What kinds of things were going on in my life at twenty-seven? Who were my friends? What were my hangups? How did I view the world? By asking myself these questions and taking the time to look beyond the facts, I was able to summon feelings I’d long since forgotten—which ultimately served as the foundation for Frankie’s character.

And while I didn’t have to reach quite so far into the past for Lizi as I did Frankie, I still had to ask questions in order to better understand who Lizi is. Just because we’re both muddling through menopause doesn’t mean I can write about her experiences with emotional authority. For example, if I wanted to turn “Lauren’s hot flash story” into “Lizi’s hot flash story”, I could simply tell the same story I’ve told for years, only from Lizi’s perspective: One sub-zero winter day, after hours of drenching hot flashes, I threw on my winter coat and headed to Walgreens in search of relief: Black Cohosh. I wasn’t in the store more than two minutes before another hot flash nearly took me down. I quickly peeled off my heavy wool coat and, much to my mortification, looked down to find my white tank top plastered to my breasts, summoning long-forgotten memories of spring break in Fort Lauderdale.

While “Lauren’s hot flash story” has always been a reliable party story, simply recounting it from Lizi’s perspective wouldn’t have been enough. I had to understand what was happening beneath the mortification. It wasn’t just about the absurdly cinematic and inconvenient hot flash. It was also about vulnerability, embarrassment, and the powerlessness I felt over my own body. Those are the feelings I want my readers to recognize in themselves.

Mark Twain was right when he said to write what you know. What I didn’t realize was that knowing my own stories wasn’t enough. I had to understand the emotions beneath them. That turned out to be the hardest research of all.

You can learn more about Lauren Johnson via her publisher site. The Soufflé Also Rises is now available via Rising Action Publishing and all major booksellers.