In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

Book art by Emma Taylor

The 37th Annual Publishing Triangle Awards were held at The New School in New York City last week with a celebration of LGBTQ+ literary excellence. With ten categories, this year’s ceremony spotlighted some of the most powerful voices in queer literature published in the previous year, including Margot Douaihy, winner of the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ Crime Writing. Previous winners of the Hansen Award (established in 2023), recognizing an outstanding work of crime fiction or nonfiction, include Val McDermid in 2023 and J.M. Redmann in 2024.

The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold Rush Literary Awards Contest is accepting submissions. The awards are a way to offer encouragement and opportunity to all writers in a variety of ways and also to support diverse and marginalized voices. If you are an unpublished writer of commercial novel-length fiction, this is your chance to win a prize, get quality feedback, and have your work seen by literary agents and editors. The submission deadline is May 19. Last year's Mystery/Thriller winner was The Almost Death of Silla Foster by Becky Munyon.

A quartet of great crime fiction conferences will happen this weekend on both sides of the Atlantic. On the European side, we have the Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival in Aberystwyth, Wales, with various panels, a Noir at the Bar, and the presentation of the CRIME CYMRU First Novel Prize in both English and Welsh; plus Skulduggery in Stowmarket in the UK will feature talks by six best-selling and award-winning crime and thriller novelists. On the U.S. side, the West Coast hosts the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books with several crime fiction-themed panels and the announcement of the 2025 Book Awards winners; while the East Coast has Malice Domestic in Bethesda, Maryland, with a weekend of author panels and the unveiling of the Agatha Award winners.

Our Friday, June 13th, a Women In Noir event will be held at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, New York, featuring an immersive multimedia program with readings by acclaimed bestselling crime and thriller fiction writers Margot Douaihy, Jode Millman, and Julia Dahl, in conversation with NYC Writers Studio’s Cynthia Weiner, and TownSquare Media’s Jackie Corley.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby turns 100, Chistopher Chambers makes the case for reading Gatsby as noir crime fiction.

This week, we celebrated Earth Day, and Janet Rudolph posted some environmental/ecological mysteries on the Mystery Fanfare blog.

An exhibition is on display in the Upper Reading Room of New College Library in Oxford, UK, about a leading figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and one of New College’s most popular authors, Cyril Hare (1900–1958).

If you find yourself in Paris, France, the Galerie du Montparnasse is hosting the rather macabre Serial Killer Exhibition (although in addition to exploring the workings of crime, there is an effort to pay tribute to the memory of the victims). Billed as "the world's largest collection of original artifacts belonging to serial killers," the exhibition includes over 1,000 original artifacts - such as Jeffrey Dahmer's glasses and Armin Meiwes's refrigerator - as well as recreations of infamous crime scenes like those of Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer and documents and drawings of the most famous killers made by themselves.

Also in the true-crime realm, the True CRIME Museum in White Rock, Hastings in the UK is featuring a talk on May 11 by the Curator, Joel Griggs. The True CRIME Museum is dedicated to the history of crime and punishment with even more macabre artifacts from the criminal world (and yes, more serial killers), including a step back into Victorian London with stories of Jack the Ripper, and a glimpse into the mind of a killer through Richard Ramirez’s haunting love letters.

Was Edgar Allan Poe a time traveler?

In the Q&A roundup, Julie Mae Cohen took the Page 69 Test to her new romantic thriller, Eat, Slay, Love; the Seattle Times interviewed Matthew Sullivan about his latest novel, Midnight in Soap Lake, set in a small Washington town; and Norwegian crime fiction author Jo Nesbø reflected on writing, characters, and the shadow of Harry Hole with The Iceland Monitor.

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

Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga is set to star in the Cold War thriller, Billion Dollar Spy, opposite Russell Crowe and Harry Lawtey. Adapted from the acclaimed book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David E. Hoffman, Billion Dollar Spy follows Adolf Tolkachev (Crowe), who in real life risked everything to pass thousands of pages of top-secret Soviet intelligence to the U.S. Despite repeated rejections by a wary CIA, Tolkachev persisted, embodying the courage to stand against a regime that betrayed its own people. Finally finding an ally in CIA agent Tom Lenihan (Lawtey), Tolkachev was able to shift the balance of power, proving that true patriotism lies not in blind allegiance, but in the willingness to challenge a government when it strays from its ideals. Farmiga will play Natasha, Tolkachev’s wife. BAFTA winner Amma Asante is directing.

Netflix and AGBO’s adaptation of the Alex North novel, The Whisper Man, is adding Michael Keaton to the ensemble cast of Robert De Niro, Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, John Carroll Lynch, Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, and Acston Luca Porto. James Ashcroft is set to direct, with Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer adapting the script. Based on North’s New York Times bestselling novel, The Whisper Man revolves around a widower crime writer who, after his 8-year-old son is abducted, looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as "The Whisper Man."

ITN Distribution has acquired North American rights to Salvation, a new feature described as a "southern gothic thriller" starring Thomas Jane and Skeet Ulrich alongside Ashley Moore. The film follows a troubled foster child who is given a final chance to make good when she is sent to live with a kind couple in rural Tennessee. But she soon learns that her foster family is not quite what they seem as she is drawn into their world of snake-handling worship, where even holy people can do evil things. Theo Rossi, Devon Bostick, and Claire Forlani round out the key cast. Mackenzie Munro directed the film from Alex Runnels’ screenplay.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Laura Lippman’s series of books following private investigator Tess Monaghan may soon hit the small screen after Tomorrow Studios (The Better Sister, One Piece) has acquired the series. Lippman, a New York Times bestselling author, will co-write the television series with Edgar-winning author Megan Abbott, whose own novel, Dare Me, was adapted by the USA Network in 2019. Lippman's series follows the investigative pursuits of Tess Monaghan, a former reporter turned private investigator in Baltimore, with each book exploring intricate plots and intriguing characters in Baltimore’s diverse neighborhoods.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Dexter: Original Sin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has come on board to star in and executive produce Bad Summer People, a TV series adaptation of the bestselling novel by Emma Rosenblum. Cara DiPaolo (No Good Deed) will write and executive produce the project. Bad Summer People, which has drawn comparisons to The White Lotus, is set in the idyllic fictional town of Salcombe, Fire Island, and follows a sequence of life shattering events when a body is discovered off the side of the boardwalk. The series will be centered on frenemies and master manipulators, Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker. They, alongside their husbands, childhood friends Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island for years, but this summer everything will come to a head as lifelong grudges and secrets are unearthed.

Lindsay Lohan has joined Count My Lies, a drama series in development at Hulu based on the novel of the same name, as star and executive producer. The project is being written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, best known for their work on NBC’s This Is Us. If greenlit, Count My Lies will mark Lohan’s first lead role in a TV series, as she plays wealthy mother Violet. The official logline for the series reads, “When compulsive liar Sloane Caraway fibs her way into a nanny position for the gorgeous and charismatic Violet and Jay Lockhart, it seems she’s finally landed her dream job. But little does Sloane know, she’s just entered a household brimming with secrets that are about to explode — with potentially catastrophic consequences for all."

Apple released a first look at Smoke (fka Firebug), the upcoming crime drama series from creator Dennis Lehane, starring and executive produced by Taron Egerton. The nine-episode series premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, June 27 with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode every Friday through August 8. Inspired by true events, Smoke follows troubled detective Michelle Calderon (Emmy-nominated Jurnee Smollett) and enigmatic arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Egerton) as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists. The cast also includes Rafe Spall, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Hannah Emily Anderson, Emmy-nominated Anna Chlumsky, Adina Porter, Oscar and Emmy-nominated Greg Kinnear and Emmy winner John Leguizamo. The fictional series is inspired by truth.media’s acclaimed Firebug podcast, which was hosted by the Oscar and Emmy-winning Kary Antholis,

Citadel spinoffs Honey Bunny and Diana have been canceled after one season each at Amazon MGM Studios. Rather than continuing as individual series, the shows, which are based in India and Italy, respectively, will be woven into the mothership series’ upcoming second season, which will premiere in the second quarter of 2026. Per its logline, Season 2 of Citadel will take place one month after the events of Season 1, following the spies underground as they’re being hunted by Manticore agents around the world. They’re pulled out of hiding to join forces with a new team of unconventional spies when Manticore’s Brazilian billionaire Paulo Braga threatens to unleash a cataclysmic piece of technology, built by Citadel’s own Bernard Orlick, into the world. Citadel stars Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas and features Lesley Manville and Stanley Tucci.

Noah Emmerich (The Big Cigar), Kathleen Wilhoite (Yellowstone), and Tommy Dewey (Saturday Night) have signed on to Hulu's upcoming limited series about the Murdaugh Murders. They join previously announced Jason Clarke as Alex Murdaugh, Patricia Arquette as Maggie Murdaugh, J. Smith-Cameron as Marian Proctor, Johnny Berchtold as Paul Murdaugh, Will Harrison as Buster Murdaugh, and Brittany Snow as Mandy Matney. The true crime drama series comes from showrunner Michael D. Fuller, who co-created the project with Erin Lee Carr. The as-yet untitled series is based on the true story of Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s "stranger-than-fiction family drama," drawn from reporting by journalist Mandy Matney, creator of the Murdaugh Murders Podcast, and insider knowledge from years spent following the case. Emmerich will play strait-laced Randy Murdaugh, the antithesis to his wild card younger brother Alex in life and in the legal profession. Wilhoite portrays Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaughs’ loyal and doting housekeeper for decades, while Dewey will portray Mark Tinsley, a prosecutor who’s an old hunting buddy of Alex’s.

PODCASTS/RADIO

The latest guest on the Inspirational Indie Author Interview podcast was Ali Steed, an accomplished journalist, writer, editor, and broadcaster, who has worked for most of the UK’s national newspapers, as well as the BBC, Channel 4, and local TV and radio stations. Her debut novel, All It Takes, the first book in the DCI Caroline Cramer series, won the BIBA Suspense/Thriller 2024 category.

On The Magic Book podcast, Rebecca Josephy (Oakland University) talks about the collection she edited, Magic, Magicians and Detective Fiction: Essays on Intersecting Modes of Mystery (McFarland, 2025), on the use of magic and magicians in mysteries, including discussion of impossible crimes and supernatural elements. It analyzes this subgenre's nineteenth-century roots and features reflections on writers such as Canadian-born author Grant Allen (An African Millionaire), Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo, and American magician-author-editor-illustrator Clayton Rawson. (HT to The Bunburyist)

On the Crime Cafe podcast, writer Ed Zuckerman joined host Debbi Mack to talk about his work as a freelance journalist for Rolling Stone, Spy, The New Yorker, Harpers, Esquire, and many other magazines. He has written two nonfiction books, The Day After World War III and Small Fortunes, then moved into writing for television drama, including more than 50 episodes of the original Law and Order, Blue Bloods, and Law and Order SVU. His debut novel is the financial thriller, Wealth Management.

Award-winning writer and screenwriter, Michael Idov, joined Shane Whaley on Spybrary to discuss his debut spy novel, The Collaborators. Raised in Soviet-era Riga and a creative force behind Deutschland 83, Idov brings a razor-sharp perspective to the spy genre. In this conversation, he opens up about weaving real-world intelligence events — from the Ryanair Belarus "hijacking" to OSINT — into gripping fiction, and how he bridges the gap between literary espionage and cinematic thrills.
 

Georgina Clarke chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her new historical mystery, Viper in the Nest; Lizzie Hardwicke; and Georgian England.

Murder Junction hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with journalist, literary critic, and novelist Lucy Atkins about her latest book, Windmill Hill, and her love of pony fiction.

Suspense Radio host Tracey Devlyn interviewed Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie about their newest collaboration, Desperate Deadly Widows, an Amazon Audio Original bestseller. In 1987 Providence, four unforgettable widows are back—and when a honey-pot scheme goes sideways, they’re thrust into a scandal involving the city's sleaziest mayor, buried secrets, and explosive betrayals.

Host Dr. Jen Prosser of the Pick Your Poison podcast investigated which poisoning is often mistaken for an allergic reaction; what you risk by eating barracuda; and what causes Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Mystery Melange

It's been a sad time recently in the crime fiction community. As I previously noted, we lost Irish author Ken Bruen (the Jack Taylor series) on March 29 and Australian author Kerry Greenwood (the Miss Phryne Fisher series) on March 26. This past week we lost another crime fiction icon when British author Peter Lovesey passed away at the age of 88. Lovesey published over 40 novels and short story collections, including a series featuring Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London; a series with Bertie, the Prince of Wales, as an inept amateur sleuth; a series with Hen Mallin, a female Chief Inspector; and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. The long-running Diamond series has won two Silver Daggers and a number of other awards, including the Anthony, the Barry and the Macavity, and Lovesey's work has been adapted for radio, TV and film. We also saw the loss of another bestselling crime fiction writer, Andrew Gross, who had been battling from cancer for some time, at age 72. Best known for his collaborations with suspense writer James Patterson, Gross also penned several bestselling solo novels, including the Ty Hauck series. And last but not least, Kathy Harig has passed away. Kathy and her husband Tom have been tireless supports of the mystery community via their Maryland bookshop, Mystery Loves Company, which was the 2007 recipient of the Raven Award, presented by MWA for "outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing."

The British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) this week announced the longlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, honoring the best in the crime-writing genre in eleven categories. The CWA Dagger shortlists will be announced later in the year on May 29, with the winners revealed at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 3. Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: "Once again our independent and rotating judging panels have come up with surprises galore, highlighting the impressive efforts of both major authors and newcomers, with a convincing demonstration of how diverse and talented the crime, mystery and thriller field is at present. A wonderful embarrassment of outstanding titles."

Winners were announced for the The Florida Book Awards, an annual award since 2006 that honors and celebrates the literature by Florida authors and books about Florida published in the previous year. The four winners in the Popular Fiction category were all crime-themed novels, including the Gold winner, Terra Incognita by Steph Post; Silver winner, Edison’s Last Breath by Patrick Kendrick; Bronze winner, Diamond Cut by Thomas B. Cavanagh; and Honorable Mention, Murder of a Dead Man by Holly Newman.

The winners of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Readers Choice Award were announced via the Short Mystery Fiction Society's newsgroup and were also published in the May/June 2025 print edition. The top three included "Shall I Be Mother?" by David Dean; "Jennifer's Daughter" by Doug Allyn; and "Double Parked" by Twist Phelan.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) announced the finalists for the 37th annual IBPA Book Award, honoring the best independently published books of 2024. The three finalists in the Mystery/Thriller category include Bone Pendant Girls by Terry S. Friedman (CamCat Books); Hazardous Lies by Stephen J. Wallace (River Grove Books); and Sing for the Red Dress: Smokey River Suspense Series by Joseph M. Marshall III (Lucid House Publishing). Gold winners will be revealed on May 16, 2025, during the IBPA Book Award ceremony at the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Independent publisher Joffe Books has acquired publisher The Book Folks from previous owner Erik Empson. Founded in 2014, The Book Folks specializes in crime fiction, and Joffe will be taking over the list of around 400 books and 40 authors, as well as continuing to publish existing authors under The Book Folks imprint. In good news for staffers, all members of The Book Folks personnel will be retained.

Iceland has its Christmas Book Flood, but Norway has its own celebration for Easter called Påskekrim, or Easter Crime, a long-standing and uniquely Norwegian tradition that goes back almost 100 years. During the Easter holiday break, Norwegians love to consume crime fiction in books, TV, movies, and even radio. I say we adopt both of those literary traditions around the world!


In the Q&A roundup, Suspense Radio host Tracey Devlyn sat down with New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose to chat about her new cozy mystery, The Maid's Secret; and Lisa Haselton spoke with mystery author Laury A. Egan about her new crime fiction novel, Fair Haven.

Author R&R with R. John Dingle

Author R. John Dingle was born and raised in New England. In fact, despite extensive travel, a move to Australia represents his only bragging right for actually residing outside the six-state area. John and his wife currently call a small island in Mid-Coast Maine "home," both living, writing, and boating from their restored 200-year old house (which they continually assure their three adult children is not haunted). The psychological thriller, Karma Never Sleeps, is John’s first novel and the first in the Gus Wheeler FBI Series.

In Karma Never Sleeps, a quintessential New England small country town is home to a group of women ("the posse") who spent their adolescence at the top of the food chain. But, now as adults, a secret from their past comes back to haunt them. When one of them is found murdered they’re all-too-comfortable chalking it up to a random act of violence. But when a second woman from their group is found dead, FBI agent and profiler Gus Wheeler and his partner are called in to determine if this is a serial killing. He’s intrigued by a clue hidden on the body: a memorial picture of a teen who died 25 years ago. Instead of helping with the investigation, the long-term friends stonewall the agents. But Gus can smell fear beneath their calm masks, fake smiles, and politely vague answers. Digging deeper, he discovers they are being terrorized by cyberstalking, spying, threats, and mysterious break-ins. When a third member is hospitalized after a brutal attack, Gus suspects someone in the posse is the hunter instead of the hunted.

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

 

I was amazed at how much research was involved in writing a commercial thriller / mystery novel. Someone told me early on it’s the details that matter and, oh how she was right. Jumping in, I found I really enjoyed doing that behind-the-scenes work to get those details right. And I quickly found that I’d find that tiny, unseen nugget I could use as either a breadcrumb to lead the reader along or as the actual kernel of the plot I was looking for. Oddly, that entire process is part of what I find so satisfying in writing mysteries – finding that one detail that’ll trick the reader until the end.

For Karma Never Sleeps, I had research to do in so many areas it was both exciting and daunting. The story revolves around a group of women being targeted and psychologically tormented, someone anonymously providing the investigators with clues along the way, and the FBI investigating it all. So, for starters, I needed to research the FBI on several fronts – how their profilers operate in real life, how their investigative process works and even when they are / are not called into a town to investigate. I read articles, blogs and official documents released from the FBI to tie it all together. I then had to dive into crime scenes and how they’re processed and for that I read everything from ‘Crime Scenes for Dummies’ to forensic articles on blood splatter and where and how a fingerprint could be lifted.

Next, as the story progresses the FBI begins to get anonymous messages they cannot trace providing them clues. Fortunately, I was able to find an expert in cyber security that helped me with the details in so many areas – encryption methods, computer servers and bouncing connections among them, etc. And, finally, I wanted the suspect to be able to paralyze their victims while also allowing them to still feel pain. I’ve always been intrigued with the concept of creating medicines from nature – a younger me watching The Serpent and the Rainbow and being fascinated by the concept has always stuck in my mind. So I researched medicines created from nature, pain blockers, etc. and honed in on what I wanted. I then found an expert in that specific field and contacted them and they helped enormously. As an aside, I’ve always found that experts in most fields generally like talking about that field, their passion.

So, with all of that, I had to temper what I included in the story to provide the right balance of details, while also propelling the story along at a fast pace to keep it engaging. And, once that was accomplished, Karma Never Sleeps was born.

The second book in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series (now in editing) presented different research challenges. Where the first story is based in a small country town, the second is based in a mid-sized, downtrodden former textile New England city so has a very urban vibe. In this story, the killer abducts his victims and appears to disappear without a trace from crowded music clubs. For this book I had to research the textile industry and its evolution in New England, Prohibition-era architecture and building practices and processes for mapping vast cave networks and communicating within them. I did most of this through reading historical accounts of that time period, watching videos of Prohibition-era speakeasies and the many methods used for hidden rooms where they’d store the alcohol. I also spoke with experts in the area of cave networking mapping technologies and learned the differences between high and low-frequency sound waves. All very technical, yet used properly lays the groundwork for some pretty cool nefarious activities (I hope!).

Also, while my agent was shopping Karma Never Sleeps to publishers, I wrote a stand-alone thriller based on a group of misfits that solve a string of murders through using online sleuthing and social media. For this story, I relied on the cyber security expert previously consulted to teach me about online hacking, how remote communication devices work and how crowd-source technology works in tracking devices and how it could be easily hacked and used for bad purposes. I then consulted experts in each of the more popular social media platforms – namely, Reddit, blogs, Instagram and X. All this, combined with getting on these platforms and learning by using, gave me all the research I needed.

I’m now just beginning the 3^rd book in the Gus Wheeler FBI Thriller series and the story revolves around a fanatical religious church and its congregation in a remote area of upper Maine. Having just completed the initial research and backstories of the characters, I can already tell I’ve just scratched the surface of the research I’ll need to do on the Old Testament and many other aspects of Christianity.

So, as you can see, I’ve learned the devil really is in the details but also in not letting those details cloud or bog down an otherwise great story with engaging characters.

 

You can learn more about John Dingle and his books via his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. Karma Never Sleeps is now available via Tule Publishing and 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

Following the conclusion of Severance's hit second season, John Turturro has come aboard to star in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a new crime thriller that Noah Segan wrote and is directing for MRC and T-Street, with the former financing and the latter producing. Currently in production in New York City, the film follows Harry (Turturro), a career pickpocket who is forced into a desperate, high-stakes race against time through the streets of his city.

Paramount Pictures is moving forward with Man of War, a Western set to star Academy Award nominee Samuel L Jackson and directed by Tim Story. Jackson will play a venerated, recently retired general who goes back to his rural Georgia hometown following his wife's passing. He soon discovers that his community is grappling with corruption, the pressures of gentrification, and deep-seated racism. Drawing upon his extensive military training and strategic acumen, the general will fight the forces exploiting the town. The screenplay is by Sheldon Turner, who previously received an Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay for the George Clooney-led Up in the Air.

Warner Bros is setting up a remake of The Bodyguard, the 1992 romantic drama thriller that teamed Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. The original plot centered on Costner’s former Secret Service Agent Frank Farmer, who takes a job as bodyguard to famous R&B star Rachel Marron, played by Houston at the height of her pop-star fame. Drama, romance and a thriller plot ensue as Frank tries to sniff out a dangerous stalker. No casting has been set, but director Sam Wrench (Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour) is on board, with Jonathan A. Abrams (Juror No. 2) penning the script.

Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) and Jefferson White (Yellowstone) have joined the cast of the JFK thriller, November 1963, in the roles of Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. The film delves into the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, based on firsthand accounts including exclusive insights from the Giancana family, particularly Sam Giancana. As the boss of the Chicago Outfit, one of the most powerful Italian-American criminal organizations in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s, Giancana became widely known for his connections to the Kennedy family during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and presidency. Also starring in the project are John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Mandy Patinkin (Homeland), and Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), with two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields) serving as director.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Netflix's hit legal drama, The Lincoln Lawyer, has added Kyle Richards (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), Jason Butler Harner (Ozark), and Scott Lawrence (Paradise) to its Season 4 guest cast. The storyline was teed up at the end of the Season 3 finale when Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) was pulled over and arrested when the body of a client was found in the trunk of his Lincoln. Next season will see Mickey defending himself as he goes on trial for murder, facing off with the prosecutor on the case, Dana Berg (Constance Zimmer), who has ties to his first ex-wife, Maggie (Neve Campbell). Richards will play Celeste, described as Beverly Hills fabulous, who comes to Haller & Associates looking to hire them as a divorce attorney. Butler Harner will play Det. Drucker, a seasoned robbery-homicide detective with many years of investigations under his belt, who proves to be an especially determined adversary for Mickey. Lawrence will play Judge Stone, a former prosecutor known for his prickly attitude and tough sentencing. The season is based on the sixth book in The Lincoln Lawyer series by Michael Connelly, The Law of Innocence.

Jermaine Fowler has been tapped for a recurring role on the upcoming fifth season of Hulu’s hit comedy series, Only Murders in the Building. He is the latest big-name recurring cast addition for Season 5, joining previously announced Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, Téa Leoni, Keegan-Michael Key, and Logan Lerman. Returning series regulars include stars/executive producers Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, as well as Michael Cyril Creighton. Production on the new season, which will be solving Lester’s murder, is underway in New York.

The BBC has acquired the German four-part series, The Black Forest Murders, from Studiocanal. Written by Robert Hummel and Martina Mouchot, and based on the non-fiction Walter Roth book, SOKO Erle, the series follows a 2016 police investigation into the mysterious murders of two young women in the south of Germany. Senior Detective Barbara Kramer (Nina Kunzendorf) of the Lauburg police and her team, including Thomas Riedle (Tilman Strauß), begin the search for the perpetrator in the case, which has parallels to a similar case in Austria that occurred four years earlier. The cast also includes Aliki Hirsch, Božidar Kocevski, Atrin Haghdoust, David Richter, Liliane Amuat, Florian Hertweck, Markus Krojer, Katja Bürkle, Sophia Schober and Mira Huber.

PODCASTS/RADIO

On Crime Writers of Color, Glenn Parris, Gar Anthony Haywood, Gary Phillips, Christopher Chambers and Gloria Browne-Marshall all joined Robert Justice to talk about their contributions to Marvel’s Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson—a revolutionary new anthology from Black American writers.

Write Place, Wrong Crime host Franz Zafiro spoke with Cindy Goyette about her career and her books, which range from parole/probation officer procedurals to cozies with dogs.

Raymond Benson chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about writing James Bond (6 novels, 3 novelizations and 3 short stories); fantasy spy fiction; Tom Clancy; favorite Ian Fleming and his legacy, and more.

Authors on the Air welcomed Matt Goldman, author of the Nils Shapiro series and his latest standalone thriller, The Murder Show, in which television showrunner Ethan Harris goes back to his childhood home while he tries to find an idea for his next show. An unsolved murder from the past and reclaimed relationships might give him the story he’s looking for—if it doesn’t kill him first.

Mystery Melange

Australian author Kerry Greenwood, who wrote the Phryne Fisher historical detective series, has died following an illness at age 70. Greenwood published the first Phryne Fisher novel, Cocaine Blues, in 1989 and went on to write 22 novels featuring the glamorous 1920s detective. An ABC TV adaptation of the series, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012), starred Essie Davis in the lead role and ran for three seasons. A spin-off set in the 1960s, Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries, and a 2020 feature film, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears, followed. Greenwood, who was also known for the Corinna Chapman mysteries, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2020. Greenwood's latest novel, Murder in the Cathedral — number 23 in the Phryne Fisher series — is due out late in 2025.

On Thursday, April 24, a "Not-Just-Noir at the Bar" hits Elaine's, at 208 Queen Street in Alexandria, Virginia. Get ready for a night of dark, mysterious and sometimes funny live storytelling from a group of talented crime fiction writers: E.A. Aymar, Chris Chambers, Tara Laskowski, Adam Meyer, Tom Milani, K.T. Nguyen, Art Taylor, and Stacy Woodson, hosted by Alan Orloff. This event is free and open to the public.

Between 2013 and 2020 Penguin (UK) published new translations of the 75 Maigret-novels by Georges Simenon, as well as some of the romans durs, with many also made available in the US market. Now Picador is bringing out the whole Maigret set in US editions. As Publishers Weekly noted, Picador (the paperback imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux) will largely use the translations published by Penguin, though some titles will receive new translations. Reissues of thirty of his standalone psychological noirs — which Simenon himself called romans durs, or "hard novels" — will follow beginning in winter 2026. Picador is working closely with John Simenon, the late author’s son, whom FSG president and publisher Mitzi Angel called "a wonderful partner with us in thinking about how we might present the work, who we might involve, how to describe the work." Simenon, who died in 1989 at the age of 86, is one of the bestselling authors of the 20th century, and was extraordinarily prolific in his lifetime. His oeuvre, consisting of more than 200 novels, has been translated into dozens of languages, with some estimates placing worldwide sales of his books at around 600 million print copies. (HT to M.A.Orthofer at the Literary Saloon)

In honor of National Library Week in the U.S., Janet Rudolph compiled a listing of library-themed mysteries for her Mystery Fanfare blog. (Since my mother was a librarian, this is a topic near and dear to my heart.)

Although I'm always a bit skeptical of such studies, researchers at Cloudwards scoured Google Trends data to determine which genres captivate readers most across different states, showing a geographical breakdown for each state's #1 most popular genre. According to their tally, romance tops the list in 22 states, while mystery fiction is only king in one single state—California.

In the Q&A roundup, Leslie Karst applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Waters of Destruction, the second in the Orchid Isle mystery series; Crime Fiction Lover spoke with Nick Quantrill, author of the Joe Geraghty novels, about his new title with a new protagonist – a young journalist called Yaz Moy; and Writers Who Kill interviewed Michael Rigg, whose debut novel, Voices of the Elysian Fields, features Jonathan Gray, M. D., Chief Deputy Coroner for Orleans Parish.

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 John Wick franchise is growing with three new movies in addition to director Len Wiseman’s Ballerina starring Ana de Armas (set to arrive on the big screen in summer). The biggest surprise is John Wick: Chapter 5, since (spoiler alert!) Keanu Reeves’s John Wick seemingly died at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4, with the final scene featuring Ian McShane's Winston Scott and Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King standing over the character’s grave. The second project is the spinoff, Caine, starring fan favorite Donnie Yen, with a plot set after the events of Wick 4 and the titular protagonist earning his freedom from the sinister assassin organization known as the High Table. The third movie is an untitled animated prequel movie that will tell the story of the legendary Impossible Task that Keanu Reeves’ character completed so that he could leave the assassin life behind and live a life of peace with his wife.

TELEVISION/STREAMING

Brooke Shields is set to star in and executive produce Allie & Andi, a six-episode murder mystery series from Robin Bernheim (Star Trek: Voyager) at AMC Networks' Acorn TV. The project reunites Shields and Bernheim who first worked together on Netflix’s Mother of the Bride. Set in a quaint New England colonial town, Allie & Andi follows a best-selling novelist (Shields) who forms an unlikely alliance with an aspiring writer to find the killer of a close friend. The series, a co-production between AMC Studios and Dynamic Television, will go into production this fall and air in 2026, exclusively on Acorn TV.

Two months after launch, CBS has renewed Watson, for a second season. Watson, inspired by the characters from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries, takes place six months after the death of the titular character’s friend and partner Holmes at the hands of archenemy Moriarty. It follows the detective as he turns his attention from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries. Morris Chestnut stars as Dr. John Watson, who resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders.

Grantchester returns to MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS with a new season on Sunday, June 15 at 9/8c, and PBS shared first look photos from the series. As DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) and Reverend Alphy Kottaram (Rishi Nair) continue to work together as a crime-solving duo in scenic Grantchester, they must also support each other through changing times and family struggles. This season, Alphy feels like he's found a home but is forced to confront secrets he's kept close to his chest. Will he be able to let anyone fully in, or must he confront truths about himself first?

Jonathan Tucker (Echoes) has joined the cast of Netflix’s I Will Find You. In a pivotal role in the limited series, based on Harlan Coben’s bestselling 2023 novel of the same name, the actor will play Police Sergeant Adam Mackenzie. The character is the closest friend of lead Sam Worthington’s David Burroughs, an innocent man behind bars for life for the murder of his son. When David finds out his child may actually be alive, he decides to bust out of prison. Tucker’s Mackenzie is right there to help his pal in any way he can, for better or worse.

Sophina Brown (Kindred), Jeff Pierre (Walker) and Cedric Joe (Space Jam: A New Legacy) round out the series regular cast of Nemesis, a crime drama created by Courtney A. Kemp and Tani Marole, described as an action heist series in the vein of Power. It's set in Los Angeles, where the new series will film. They join the previously announced cast of Matthew Law, Y’Ian Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Tre Hale, Domenick Lombardozzi, Jonnie Park, Ariana Guerra, Gabrielle Dennis, and Michael Potts. Nemesis is the story of two men on either side of the law, the tale of what happens when an unstoppable force, expert criminal Coltrane Wilder (Noel), meets an immovable object in the brilliant police detective, Isaiah Stiles (Law).

ABC's hit police drama Will Trent has been renewed for a fourth season, which will consist of 18 episodes. Ramón Rodríguez, will return as the titular GBI detective with a complicated personal life and an adorable sidekick, his dog Betty. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling "Will Trent" series, Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now, he uses his unique point of view in the pursuit of justice and has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

Nathan Fillion will get another turn in The Rookie, which has been renewed for Season 8. The show, which is expected to have 18 episodes, follows John Nolan (Fillion), once the oldest rookie in the LAPD, who has used his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20 years his junior. Now recovering from a gunshot wound and feeling the effects of his age, John and the team welcome two new rookies and continue the hunt for two dangerous escaped prisoners who have very personal vendettas.

A first look was released with Bosch alum Titus Welliver in an upcoming episode (April 20) of The Equalizer, where his character, which will lead a potential spinoff, will be introduced. Welliver and Juani Feliz have been tapped as the two leads of the spinoff, which has not yet received a series order. Welliver will play Hudson Reed, a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robyn McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor. Feliz plays Samantha Reed who has been trained by her father to be a weapons expert, skilled martial artist, and true chameleon all while hiding a mysterious past. A re-imagining of the classic series, The Equalizer stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to help those with nowhere else to turn.

PODCASTS/RADIO

Murder Junction welcomed broadcaster Jeremy Vine to discuss his crime debut, Murder on Line One; relive an intriguing anecdote about Nelson Mandela; and briefly look at Ted Bundy, serial killer.

Authors on the Air chatted with Samantha Shannon, author of The Bone Season series, The Priory of the Orange Tree, and A Day of Fallen Night.

Spybrary host Shane Whaley was joined by Valerie Plame—former CIA covert operative, bestselling author, and an iconic voice in the world of intelligence and espionage—to share her Spybrary Dead Drop 5: the five spy books she’d rely on during a covert operation behind the Iron Curtain.

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke reviewed new crime fiction for April 2025.

On Read or Dead, Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books from their never-ending backlist or crime fiction TBRs.

The latest episode of the Mysteryrats Maze podcast featured the mystery short story, "Pleasant Drive," written by Chelle Martin and read by actor Sean Hopper. "Pleasant Drive" appeared in the Small Crimes anthology edited by Michael Bracken.

Capital Crime Fingerprints

Capital Crime Festival has announced eight shortlists for the 2025 Fingerprint Awards. Readers and fans will have the chance to vote for their favorites online through midnight on Saturday, May 31, with winners revealed at the festival on Thursday, June 12, at the opening party.

Audio Book of the Year

Holmes, Margaret And Poe, by James Patterson
Close To Death, by Anthony Horowitz
The Dream Home ,by TM Logan
The List Of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey
The Wrong Sister, by Claire Douglas

True Crime Book of the Year

The Siege, by Ben Macintyre
The Murder Of Judith Roberts: The Mark Of Peter Sutcliffe, by Chris Clark & Tanita Matthews
Getting Away With Murder, by Lynda La Plante
The Peepshow, by Kate Summerscale
The Umbrella Murder, by Ulrik Skotte

Debut Crime Book of the Year

The List Of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey
Knife Skills For Beginners, by Orlando Murrin
Deadly Animals, by Marie Tierney
Isolation Island, by Louise Minchin
Five By Five, by Claire Wilson

Historical Book of the Year

Holmes And Moriarty, by Gareth Rubin
House Of Shades, by Lianne Dillsworth
The Burial Plot, by Elizabeth Macneal
City Of Destruction, by Vaseem Khan
White City, by Dom Nolan

Genre-Busting Book of the Year

Blood Like Mine, by Stuart Neville
Breaking The Dark, by Lisa Jewell
The Last Murder At The End Of The World, by Stuart Turton
The Examiner, by Janice Hallett
The Gathering, by CJ Tudor

Thriller Book of the Year

One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware
A Violent Heart, by David Fennell
The Woman On The Ledge, by Ruth Mancini
Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee
The Missing Family, by Tim Weaver

Overall Best Crime Book of the Year

Murder On Lake Garda, by Tom Hindle
All The Colours Of The Dark, by Chris Whitaker
Midnight And Blue, by Ian Rankin
The Mercy Chair, by MW Craven
Nightwatching, by Tracey Sierra

Publisher of the Year for Best Crime Campaign

Simon & Schuster UK, for Ruth Ware:  One Perfect Couple
Orion, for Chris Whitaker:  All the Colours of the Dark
HQ, for Louise Candlish:  Our Holiday
Transworld, for Andrea Mara:  Someone in the Attic
Cornerstone, for Jennie Godfrey:  The List of Suspicious Things

 

Mystery Melange

Very sad news this week, via the Connacht Tribune in Galway, noting the passing of Irish crime writer Ken Bruen, who has died at the age of 74. Bruen wrote some 50 books in total including the Jack Taylor crime series, was a past winner of the Shamus Award for best crime novel of the year, and also won the Macavity Award, the Barry Award, and the Edgar Award. His 2001 novel, London Boulevard, became a 2010 film starring Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell, and nine of Bruen's other novels were adapted into a long-running TV series in 2010, starring Iain Glen and Killian Scott.

Marion Brunet has won the 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), a prestigious honor bestowed by the Swedish government and named after Astrid Lindgren, who passed away in 2002, to increase interest in children's and young adult literature worldwide. Brunet has previously won the crime fiction prize Grand prix de littérature policière (2018), and her novel, Summer of Reckoning, translated by Katherine Gregor and published by Bitter Lemon Press, was shortlisted for the 2020 CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger. Ironically, the French author's books have been translated into English, Spanish, Catalan, and Russian, but not Swedish.

Spring brings the cherry blossoms to the D.C. area, but it also marks the flowering of the crime fiction conference season. Coming up this weekend is Southern Fried Con in Eatonton GA (presented in partnership with the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and the Georgia Writers Museum), with Keynote Speaker, Wanda Morris. On the other side of the Atlantic, the 21st Quais du Polar returns to Lyon, France, with panels and talks by 100+ international authors, including Linwood Barclay, James Ellroy, Lisa Gardner, Paula Hawkins, Arnaldur Indriðason, Attica Locke, Deon Meyer, Bernard Minier, Douglas Preston, and more.

The London crime fiction conference, Capital Crime, has announced the full program for 2025, returning to the Leonardo Royal Hotel, on June 13th and 14th June, with the Fingerprint Awards revealed on the 12th. Authors scheduled to attend include Michael Connelly, Adele Parks, Vaseem Khan, Andrew Child, Steph McGovern, Louise Minchin, AA Dhand, Linwood Barclay, Karin Slaughter, Richard Armitage, Dorothy Koomson, Ruth Ware, Chris Chibnall, Lisa Jewell and Nick Harkaway.

Noir at the Bar returns to Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Fine Wine, located at 114 W King Street in the heart of historic Hillsborough, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on April 10th. Hosted by Tracey Reynolds, the event will feature eight celebrated crime authors reading short excerpts from their work: Eryk Pruitt, Robert Gipe, Wes Browne, Morgan Sullivan, Sarah Smith, Meagan Lucas, Russell Johnson, and Chris Holaday. Noir at the Bar events are free to attend and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to arrive early for optimal seating, as these events typically draw a standing-room-only crowd.

Crime fiction fans in India had a reason to celebrate recently with the debut Kolkata Crime Writers’ Festival, an event that flew under my radar until now. The idea of the festival was conceived by Storyteller Bookstore owner Mayura Misra and author Amrita Mukherjee, when they realized there isn’t anything happening in the city specifically dedicated to this genre. Leading up to the festival, they also organized an online short story competition in the crime-thriller genre for young authors. Here's hoping the event returns again next year.

Mystery Readers Journal received so many articles and reviews for its London-themed submission call, they had to divide the material into two issues. The second of those editions, London Mysteries II is now available as a PDF and hardcopy. There also two contributions you can read online, including an article by Aubrey Nye Hamilton, "The Lost Rivers of London," and the Author Author essay, "Why I Write About London" by Rhys Bowen.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews spoke with Bryan Gruley, the Edgar-nominated author of six novels, who is also a journalist, sharing in The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks; and mystery author Lee Upton chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new novel, Wrongful, about a famous novelist goes missing at the festival devoted to celebrating her work.

Short and Sweet

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—named after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. Finalists for the 2025 awards, recognizing outstanding stories published during 2024, were announced today, with results of membership voting scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2025. Congrats to all!

 

FLASH

• Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell (Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
• Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile (Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
• La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman (Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
• Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone (Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
• Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson (Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)

SHORT STORY 

• "Skeeter's Bar and Grill" by Julie Hastrup (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• "The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
• "The Heist" by Bill Pronzini (Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
• "The Last Chance Coalition" by Judy Penz Sheluk (Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
• "The Kratz Gambit" by Mark Thielman (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

LONG STORY

• "How Mary’s Garden Grew" by Elizabeth Elwood (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
• "Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano (Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)
• "Putting Things Right" by Peter W. J. Hayes (Thrill Ride - The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
• "Motive Factor X" by Joseph Andre Thomas (Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
• "Cold Comfort" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)

NOVELETTE

• "A Band of Scheming Women" by Joslyn Chase (Thrill Ride - The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
• "Christmas Dinner" by Robert Lopresti (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
• "Barracuda Backfire" by Tom Milani (Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
• "Her Dangerously Clever Hands" by Karen Odden (Crimeucopia - Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
• "The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson (Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024)

ANTHOLOGY (Previously Announced)

• Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024 Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books
• Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books
• Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press
• Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books
• New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6 Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books
• The 13th Letter Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing