In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday and a new list of the latest crime drama news, minus the Oscar nominations, which won't be announced until tomorrow. But I'll have a special edition addendum at that time.

AWARDS

The Producers' Guild of America held its annual awards ceremony this weekend. Crime drama winners were mostly on the television side, with The Americans winning Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama, and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story winning Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television. If you're wondering who won the PGA's equivalent of "Best Film Drama," that honor went to Green Book (set in the 1960s about a a world-class African-American pianist and his white bodyguard/chauffeur). In its 29-year history, the PGA Awards have forecast the Best Picture winner on 20 occasions.

THE BIG SCREEN

John Boyega will executive produce the South African crime-thriller, God Is Good, described as being in the same vein as Prisoners and City Of God. Boyega is also launching a record label, UpperRoom Records, which will oversee the film’s soundtrack. Set in Cape Town’s Cape Flats, the English-language film will follow a reformed gangster-turned-pastor and a volatile detective who cross paths after an act of brutal violence sets them on collision course with a heinous gang lieutenant.

Oscar-winner Gary Oldman will co-star with Olga Kurylenko in the British action-thriller, The Courier, set to start shooting next month in London. Kurylenko will play a courier whose daily deliveries are interrupted when she discovers that her latest package is a bomb aimed at killing a witness who is about to testify against a ruthless crime lord (played by Oldman).

Corey Stoll and Billy Magnussen have been added to the cast of the much-anticipated Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, joining Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, and Alessandro Nivola. It's unclear what roles Stoll and Magnussen will play in the film, although it was previously announced Nivola will play Dickie Moltisanti. Likewise, details for the project are being tightly withheld, but producers say that fans of the series can expect some of the beloved characters to appear in the project, which is set during the Newark riots in the 1960s when the African-Americans and the Italians of Newark were at each other's throats.

Christopher McQuarrie has signed on to write and direct the next two films in the popular Mission: Impossible franchise, according to Variety, which also reported that both films would be shot back-to-back, with the first premiering summer 2021 and the second in summer 2022. Sources confirmed that Tom Cruise would return as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, but a potential surprise is that Christopher McQuarrie is considering having Henry Cavill and Alec Baldwin reprise their respective roles in one or both movies. Since their characters died in the previous film, it is assumed the appearances would be through flashbacks.

A trailer was released for Red Joan, about 87-year-old Joan Stanly, a widow, devoted mother, and KGB spy (played by Judi Dench). The film is inspired by the real-life story of the life of Melita Norwood, a British civil servant who supplied Russian spy agencies with state secrets.

John Wick and his dog are back in the trailer for the third installment in the action franchise, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, in which Keanu Reeves’ namesake killer is excommunicated from the secret society of assassins after the events of the second John Wick film. With a $14 million bounty on his head, Wick has to allude assassins trying to collect that sum. But this time, Wick has some help from Halle Berry, who joins the cast and brings with her a pair of attack dogs of her own.

A trailer was also released for the upcoming adaptation of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, starring Sophia Lillis as the titular teenage detective. The project is directed by the award-winning Katt Shea and based on a script from the screenwriting team of Nina Fiore and John Herrera (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Vampire Diaries). The film hits theaters in March.

 

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

NBC has handed a pilot order to Lincoln (f/k/a The Bone Collector), based on the bestselling book series by Jeffery Deaver that was previously adapted into the 1999 movie of the same name starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Lincoln follows legendary forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme, who was seriously injured during his hunt for the diabolic serial killer known as the Bone Collector. Called back into action when the killer re-emerges, Lincoln forms a unique partnership with Amelia Sachs, a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD.

Bill Skarsgard (It) and Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects) will star in Antonio Campos' adaptation of The Devil All the Time, which Netflix has acquired for distribution. Skarsgard and Scanlen join an all-star cast that includes Tom Holland, Chris Evans, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, and Tony Award-winner Gabriel Ebert. The story is based on Donald Ray Pollock's novel and is set in a place called Knockemstiff, Ohio, a forgotten backwoods where a storm of faith, violence and redemption brews. Netflix describes it as "a midwestern gothic involving a serial killer couple, a faith-testing preacher, and a corrupt local sheriff."

HBO's long-simmering Perry Mason drama is officially moving forward with the signing of The Americans' Matthew Rhys to star in the title role, taking over from Robert Downey Jr. Based on the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, HBO's Perry Mason will follow the character at a time in his life when he is living check-to-check as a low-rent private investigator. Mason is haunted by his wartime experiences in France and is suffering the effects of a broken marriage.

After an extensive search, young British actor Fabien Frankel has landed the lead role of Theo Sipowicz in ABC’s pilot NYPD Blue, a follow-up drama to the iconic cop drama that aired from 1995-2005. The sequel revolves around Theo (Frankel), the son of Dennis Franz’s Detective Andy Sipowicz character from the original series, who tries to earn his detective shield and work in the 15th squad while investigating his father's murder. Like the original series, the follow-up revolves around a core group of 15th Precinct police officers/detectives that also includes Detective Nicole Lazarus (Alana Tal) and Detective Craig Pettibone (Rick Gomez). Additionally, two cast members from the original series, Kim Delaney and Bill Brochtrup, will reprise their roles as Diane Russell and John Irvin, respectively.

Peter Sarsgaard is set for the lead role in Interrogation, CBS All Access’s true-crime drama. The project is based on a true story that spanned more than 30 years, in which a young man was charged and convicted of brutally murdering his mother. Each episode is structured around an interrogation taken directly from the real police case files. The first nine episodes of the series will be available to watch in any order, with the conclusive season finale to be released at a later date.

Producer Ryan Murphy is rounding out the cast for Ratched, his new Netflix series starring Sarah Paulson as a younger version of the diabolical Nurse Ratched. The stellar list includes Sharon Stone, Cynthia Nixon, Finn Wittrock, Jon Briones, Charlie Carver, Judy Davis, Harriet Harris, Hunter Parrish, Amanda Plummer, and Corey Stoll. Ratched is an origins story beginning in 1947, which will follow Ratched’s journey and evolution from nurse to full-fledged monster, tracking her murderous progression through the mental health care system. Ratched scored a two-season, 18-episode, straight-to-series order.

Unsolved Mysteries is back after Netflix revived the long-running true crime and paranormal franchise that was hosted by Robert Stack and ran for over 500 episodes between 1987 and 2010. The new 12-part show will use re-enactments in a documentary format to profile real-life mysteries and unsolved crimes, lost loves, cases involving missing persons, and unexplained paranormal events.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about mystery books written by Native and Indigenous authors.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Matthew Quirk about his new thriller, The Night Agent, featuring FBI Agent Peter Sutherland.

In this week's Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, the topics included "Water-Related Deaths, Bail for Murder, Here comes the Judge, nd Researching the News."

THEATER

The Vertigo Theatre of Calvary, Canada's Mystery Series will stage a production of Ira Levin's classic play, Death Trap, from January 26 to February 24. The play centers on Sidney Bruhl, who is languishing in his Connecticut home, struggling to overcome a bout of writer's block that has seen his Broadway success turn to near bankruptcy. But the answer may have just arrived when Sidney receives a fantastic script written by his former student, Clifford Anderson. Anderson just wants his old mentor's opinion, but Sidney will do whatever it takes to get back on Broadway.

The Milton Keynes Theatre in the UK is producing The Girl on the Train from January 23-26. Adapted from Paula Hawkins’ novel, the story follows Rachel Watson (played by Samantha Womack) who lives vicariously through the train window every day by spying on a seemingly happy couple in their home. When Rachel learns that the woman she’s been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated. This is the first stop in a tour of the production that will take it throughout the UK through July.

Following his stage successes of Not Dead Enough, The Perfect Murder, and Dead Simple, best-selling author Peter James is back with a new spine-tingling world premiere play, The House on Cold Hill. Actor Joe McFadden and EastEnders' Rita Simons are joined by Charlie Clements and Persephone Swales-Dawson in the ghostly story of the Harcourt family, who move into the house of the dreams that has been empty for the last forty years. However, their dream home quickly turns into the stuff of nightmares as they begin to wonder whether they may not be the only residents at Cold Hill. This production is also heading on a UK tour, with the first stop at the Dartford, Orchard Theatre from January 23-26.

Mystery Melange

The Left Coast Crime conference announced the nominees for the annual Lefty Awards, to be presented on March 30, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron
Hollywood Ending by Kellye Garrett
Nighttown by Timothy Hallinan
Death al Fresco by Leslie Karst
The Spirit in Question by Cynthia Kuhn
Scot Free by Catriona McPherson

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday by David Corbett
Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
A Dying Note by Ann Parker
It Begins in Betrayal by Iona Whishaw

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel

Broken Places by Tracy Clark
Cobra Clutch by A.J. Devlin
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman
What Doesn’t Kill You by Aimee Hix
Deadly Solution by Keenan Powell
Give Out Creek by J.G. Toews

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel

November Road by Lou Berney
Wrong Light by Matt Coyle
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day
A Reckoning in the Back Country by Terry Shames
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin

Forensic anthropologist and thriller writer Kathy Reichs was named an honorary member of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her academic work and her 19 novels featuring anthropologist/sleuth Temperance Brennan. Reichs, an American citizen, lives in Montreal and in North Carolina.

The New Edinburgh University Press issued a call for papers for the first issue of their brand-new journal, Crime Fiction Studies. The editors are seeking abstract submissions of 400 words (with finished articles of 7,500 words) that provide thought-provoking, innovative answers to the question "why crime fiction today?" The deadline is July 1. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

Another call for papers was issued by the Solent University, Southampton UK conference on Agatha Christie, to be held September 5-6, 2019. The conference will investigate the significance of the Queen of Crime and her writings within academia and popular culture and further extend Christie Studies as an academic discipline, across and beyond the humanities. Organizers are inviting 300-word proposals for 20 minute papers, as well as creative presentations and panel proposals. The deadline is March 31. (HT also to Shots)

The latest issue of Flash Bang Mysteries is out, which you can read online via this link. Edited by B.J. Bourg, the January edition features new flash crime stories from Jacqueline Seewald, Barb Goffman, R. T. Lawton, Patricia Dusenbury, and yours truly.

J. Kingston Pierce shared his appreciation for Dell's Murder Ink and Scene of the Crime line of paperbacks that made mysteries into jigsaw puzzles. (An editorial note: I took this same inspiration for my Elegy in Scarlet book cover.)

If you're a book cover geek, check out Paul D. Marks' posting on the 7 Criminal Minds blog. Wondering if you *can* judge a book by its cover, he compared different covers of classic crime fiction titles from the 20th century.

Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction: The New Yorker's Jake Halpern profiled the French burglar who pulled off one of the greatest art heists of all time. Skilled climber and thief Vjeran Tomic, whom the French press have dubbed "Spider-Man," has described robbery as "an act of imagination," spurred on by Tomic's aesthetic desire.

Art Taylor made the case for reading books that "make you uncomfortable."


The power of the bestselling author in action: When the largest daily newspaper in Maine decided it was going to stop publishing regional book reviews, it caused an uproar among local writers — including Stephen King, who complained about the move on Twitter. The newspaper, The Portland Press Herald, promptly responded with a challenge: If Mr. King could get his followers to buy 100 digital subscriptions, it would bring back the local reviews.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Wie Viel ist Genug?" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Niklas Natt Och Dag about his debut, The Wolf and the Watchman, which centers on a hideous murder in 1793 Stockholm; The Killing creator Soren Sveistrup chatted with iNews about his first novel,The Chestnut Man, and the enduring success of Scandi Noir; Vera writer Ann Cleeves opened up to Chronicle Live about bringing her hit novel series to life on TV.

Media Murder for Monday

Welcome to Monday and a new list of the latest crime drama news:

AWARDS

The British Independent Film Awards (BAFTA) nominations were announced last week and include a few crime dramas. BlacKkKlansman was nominated for Best Film (with Spike Lee snagging a Best Director nod), while the psychological thriller dramas Beast and You Were Never Really Here were recognized in the Best British Film category. On the Best Actress side, the nominees include Melissa McCarthy for her role in the forgery drama, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and Viola Davis for the heist film Widows. To see all of the nominees in the various categories, check out the official BAFTA website.

THE BIG SCREEN

Amblin Partners has acquired the female-driven thriller The White Room, written by Bryce McGuire and directed by Rod Blackhurst, which takes place over the course of one night in the off-season of the remote Adirondack Mountains. When a mysterious young woman goes missing and it is up to a hardened local widow to find out the truth behind the disappearance.

Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan has signed on to topline the action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, written and directed by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (Big Bad Wolves). Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the project is described as being in the assassin genre with a story that spans multiple generations and featuring an all-female cast centered on Gillan's character.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Al Pacino is in talks to make his episodic television debut in a 10-episode season of Amazon’s The Hunt, a vengeance-driven Nazi hunting series executive produced by Oscar-winning Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele. The Hunt follows a diverse band of Nazi Hunters living in 1977 New York City who've discovered that hundreds of high ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. Logan Lerman plays Jonah Heidelbaum, who sets out to track the killer of his grandmother only to find himself swept up in the mysterious organization known as The Hunt, while Pacino will play the Nazi hunter who mentors him.

CBS TV Studios is developing a TV series project based on Michael Chabon’s alternative history book, Yiddish Policemen’s Union. The story follows Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Europe who found unlikely refuge on the Alaskan panhandle. In the present day of this world, Homicide Detective Meyer Landsman must overcome the shambles of his broken life and marriage to solve a mysterious murder with profound political and religious ramifications.

NBC has kicked off its pilot season orders with green lights to two dramas, Prism and Bluff City Law. Written and directed by Daniel Barnz, Prism is inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa, and is described as a provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved. Bluff City Law, written by Dean Georgaris, is a character-driven legal drama that follows the lawyers of an elite Memphis law firm that specializes in the most controversial landmark civil rights cases. Led by legendary lawyer Elijah Strait and his brilliant daughter, Sydney Keller, they take on the toughest David-and-Goliath cases while navigating their complicated relationship.

NBC also greenlighted the mystery drama pilot Emergence. It's described as "a character-driven genre thriller" that centers on a sheriff who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what happened. The investigation draws the sheriff into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.

Criminal Minds, one of the longest-running scripted series currently on television, is coming to a close with a shortened season 15 of ten episodes. There are hopes that some of the memorable bad guys from the past 14 seasons will make an appearance in addition to the return of several stars who have departed over the years, including original lead Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, and Shemar Moore.

Black Mirror star Maxine Peake is set to headline the British drama Reasonable Doubt, the true story of Ann Ming’s battle to change an 800-year-old double jeopardy law in the UK after her daughter Julie Hogg was killed by Billy Dunlop in 1989. She subsequently wrote a book, For The Love Of Julie, about the experience.

Netflix released a trailer for its upcoming thriller Polar (based on the Dark Horse graphic novel Polar: Came from the Cold by Victor Santos), which stars Mads Mikkelsen as the world’s top assassin, Duncan Vizla, a/k/a The Black Kaiser, who's settling into retirement when his former employer marks him as a liability to the firm who must be silenced at all costs. The film also stars Vanessa Hudgens, Katheryn Winnick, Matt Lucas, Johnny Knoxville, and Richard Dreyfuss.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

On Novel Suspects, bestselling thriller author Michael Connelly discusses his latest book, Dark Sacred Night, his new Murder Book true crime podcast, and his Amazon original series, Bosch.

The latest Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode features the first chapter of the mystery novella Ice Blonde by Elaine Viets as read by Julia Reimer.

Kristy Ramsey, the owner of Blue Lamp Books, a mystery novel and crime bookstore in Edmonton, talked to The Londoner about her love and passion for mystery and crime stories.

Suspense Radio welcomed Andrew Grant to talked about his latest thriller, Invisible, and Caesar Rondina, author of the three-part "Life Through A Mirror" murder mystery series.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with author, screenwriter, and creator of television drama, Peter May, about his latest book, Snakehead, the fourth installment in May's China Thrillers.

D.P. Lyle, host of Criminal Mischief: The Art and Science of Crime Fiction, took on "rattlesnakes and murder."

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed "Coffee Mugs, Double Jeopardy, the Hiring Process, and Arrest Warrants."

THEATER

From January 16 to February 3, West Hartford, Connecticut's Playhouse on Park will stage Murder For Two, written by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, with Kyle Metzger directing. Everyone is a suspect in this musical murder mystery with a twist: One actor investigates the crime, the other plays all of the suspects. And they both play the piano!

The Irving Community Theatre in Las Colinas, California, is presenting Ravenscroft: A Thrilling Mystery written by Don Nigro and directed by Andi Allen. On a snowy night, Inspector Ruffing is called to a remote house to investigate the headlong plunge of Patrick Roarke down the main staircase. Five alluring and dangerous women lead him through a bewildering labyrinth of contradictory versions of Patrick's demise and that of the late Mr. Ravenscroft. The production runs from January 18 to February 2.

GAMES

More than five years after Breaking Bad ended, fans of the show will be able to dive back into the meth-filled underbelly of New Mexico with the upcoming mobile game Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements. Criminal Elements will be a free-to-play mobile game with a strategy-focused offering that tosses players into the deep end of Vince Gilligan's absorbing, morally ambiguous universe.

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Man Who Didn't Fly

Scottish author Margot Bennett was born in 1912 and worked first first as a copywriter in the UK and Australia and then as a nurse during the Spanish Civil War before turning to writing. Her output in crime fiction was relatively small, yet successful: The Man Who Didn't Fly was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and was runner-up to Charlotte Armstrong's A Dram of Poison for Best Novel at the Edgars in 1956, and she won the Gold Dagger two years later in 1958 with Someone from the Past. She was also chosen to contribute a short story to the second CWA anthology, Choice Of Weapons, edited by Michael Gilbert.

But thereafter, a bit of mystery regarding Bennett herself began. She essentially stopped writing crime fiction, something discussed by Martin Edwards both on his blog and in the foreword he wrote for the Black Dagger Crime Series edition of The Man Who Didn't Fly. Bennett only wrote for television for awhile—including the early 60s UK adaptation of the Maigret novels by Simenon—with the exception of two non-mystery books (one of which had the intriguing title The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation), before abandoning writing altogether in 1966. She died in 1980 at the age of 68.

In The Man Who Didn't Fly, four men are scheduled to take an ill-fated chartered flight to Dublin that crashes into the Irish Channel. Although the bodies can't be recovered, it becomes evident that only three men were on board the plane, yet all four are reported as missing. Inspector Lewis and Sergeant Young have their work count out for them trying to coax clues out of unreliable witnesses including the Wade family, Charles and his daughters Hester and Prudence.

The lives of the Wades intersected with all four of the missing men: Harry Walters, a desperate poet, who was in love with Hester Wade; Joseph Ferguson, a businessman who wife was more interested in Harry; Morgan Price, a nervous guest of the Wades; and Maurice Reid, something of a family friend. Slowly but surely, Lewis and Young piece together the details of the days leading up to the flight, finally uncovering the name of the missing man. But that just sets up a new problem: what happened to him and why?

Bennett's artful plotting was enough to capture the attention of the producers of NBC's Kraft Television Theater who created an episode in 1958 based on The Man Who Didn't Fly starring then 27-year-old William Shatner, Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith of Lost in Space) and Walter Brooke (guest star in just about all TV series in the 60s, 70s, and 80s). The book was also chosen by Julian Symons as part of his 1958 "100 Best Crime Stories" for the London Sunday Times.

Mystery Melange

Noir at the Bar moves to Seattle tonight at the Alibi Room from 8-10pm. The lineup features Renee Patrick (Design for Dying), Bethany Maines (Bulletproof Mascara), Reb MacRath (The Big Bopper), Ashley Erwin (A Ballad Concerning Black Betty), Brian Thornton (Suicide Blonde), G.G. Silverman (The Redvale Zombie Prom series), Scotti Andrews (Blind Date), and Nick Feldman (Asshole Yakuza Boyfriend).

Stuart Turton has won the Costa First Novel Award for his debut, The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle. The crime novel has been sold in 20 territories to date and has been optioned for TV. The Costa Book Awards honor some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.

In association with the Newcastle Noir Festival, bestselling thriller author LJ Ross has established The Lindisfarne Prize, a crime writing award worth £2,500 to celebrate the North East region of the UK. Recognizing outstanding writing in the genre of crime or thriller fiction, the award is open to all new writers who are from, or whose work celebrates, the North East, and who have not previously had their work published in any form. Entrants must submit a short story of up to 10,000 words or the first two chapters and a synopsis of their work in progress, to be considered. Entries close on March 31.

There's a bit of sad news this week as we say goodbye to crime writer Brian Garfield, who began writing westerns then switched to contemporary crime fiction with a western flavor. His best-known books include Death Wish, which was adapted into a film starring Charles Bronson, and Hopscotch, a Cold War espionage thriller that won the Edgar for Best Mystery Novel and was adapted for a film starring Walter Matthau. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

Writing for Forbes, Adam Rowe took a look back at publishing industry insights from 2018 revealed by a list of the U.K.'s top 100 print bestsellers and based on data from The Guardian's John Dugdale and analysis from author Chris McCrudden. McCrudden noted that "In fiction in 2018 there were crime thrillers, and then there was everything else." As the article notes, the analysis only extends to print sales in the UK since the data didn't cover the extensive ebook market.

Now that 2018 is history, it's time for a look ahead. Crime Fiction Lover, The Real Book Spy, Dead Good, and The Rap Sheet all offer up their takes on the most hotly awaited crime novels of 2019.

Author and Polis Books founder Jason Pinter discussed his publishing company's new crime imprint, Agora Books, with The New York Post. Agora Books was established to promote diversity in crime fiction, and the first three titles will come out in fall 2019 under the direction of editor Chantelle Aimée Osman, former editor-in-chief of RT Book Reviews Magazine. As Pinter stated, "There are authors out there who don’t feel welcome because of a lack of representation in the crime-fiction genre. And with this [new imprint] we’re saying, ‘Not only are you welcome, you are needed.'"

Adding a bit more to the topic of diversity, Writers Digest took a look at the changing face of crime fiction, profiling "6 Writers of Color on Writing Mysteries, Crime Novels and Thrillers."

Publishers are trying new marketing ploys to lure in readers, with one example being #taken by Tony Parsons. The sixth and final installment in the author's DC Max Wolfe detective series is being serialized online by British GQ ahead of the novel's publication with Century in April 2019.

Writing for the Washington Post, thriller author Brad Meltzer examined how a deadly plot against George Washington merely became a historical footnote.

Agatha Christie's missing 11 days in December 1926 are being made into a new film commissioned by Britain's Channel 5, and author Andrew Wilson took a look at other projects (including his own novel) that have taken on the subject of Dame Agatha's real-life mystery.

Wondering how to become a bestselling crime writer? Val McDermid, Sophie Hannah, and Stella Duffy weighed in on the topic for Marie Claire magazine.

It may be too late for Christmas, but anytime is a good time to try out some of these crime fiction board game recommendations from Criminal Element.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Borderline: An Elegy" by Robert Weibezahl.

In the Q&A roundup, James Lee Burke was one of the latest "By the Book" subjects for the New York Times; Louise Penny was taped speaking before a live audience at Sandwich High School and chatted about her new book, Kingdom of the Blind and other books in the Inspector Gamache series; and Publishers Weekly interviewed Harlan Coben about his new novel, Run Away, which he calls "the classic Hitchcockian dilemma of the “ordinary man/woman in an extraordinary situation."

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all with the latest roundup of crime drama news from stage to screen:

AWARDS

The Golden Globes were handed out last night in Beverly Hills. Although there weren't any crime drama winners on the film side, television nods went to The Americans for Best TV Drama Series, while The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story won for Best Limited Series. Patricia Arquette also won Best Actress (Limited Series) honors for her role in Escape at Dannemora and Darren Criss won Best Actor (Limited Series) for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. In the regular drama series category, Sandra Oh won Best Actress (Killing Eve) and Richard Madden Best Actor (Bodyguard).

The Producers Guild of America announced its 2019 award nominees, including several small-screen crime dramas. The Americans, Ozark, and Better Call Saul will compete in the Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama category, while The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Escape at Dannemora, and Sharp Objects will square off in the Outstanding Producer of Limited Series Television division.

THE BIG SCREEN

Writing for Deadline, Peter Bart noted that gangster movies will return in a big way In 2019, awakening the genre "from its Hollywood dirt nap." At the top of the list are the two most anticipated 2019 releases, from Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) and Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).

The official U.S. trailer was released for the Mads Mikkelsen action-adventure thriller Arctic, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Mikkelsen plays a man stranded in the Arctic after an airplane crash who must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or embark on a perilous trek through the unknown in hopes of making it out alive.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Mark R. Harris’ Los Angeles-based production shingle, The Harris Company, has optioned the crime series Darby Holland from veteran tattoo artist and crime novelist Jeff Johnson for six-figures in a bidding war that took place over the holiday. The project is set in the gritty urban wilds of Old Town Portland Oregon and follows fixer Darby Holland, who runs a venerable tattoo parlor and "leads his talented crew of misfits into battle against hellish art dealers, criminal real estate developers and the creeping doom of gentrification.”

Hulu is in early development stages on a series based on "Simultaneous," a short story by Arrival and Bird Box screenwriter Eric Heisserer. The streaming company struck a six-figure penalty deal in order to pick up the project, which is described as a cerebral detective thriller involving regenerative past lives.

BBC America has slotted an April 7 premiere date for the second season of its critically praised thriller series Killing Eve. In Season 2, Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer reprise their roles as Eve (Oh), an MI6 operative, and psychopath assassin Villanelle (Comer) in this story of two women bound by a mutual obsession and one brutal act.

Netflix released a trailer for season 2 of its series The Punisher, the high-caliber vigilante saga based on the popular Marvel Comics crime-fighting commando, which will return on January 18. The new season finds the Punisher, a.k.a. former marine-turned-vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), as a nomad living on borrowed time.

Netflix debuted a trailer for the adrenaline-fueled action thriller, Close, directed by Vicky Jewson (Born of War; Lady Godiva). Close stars Naomi Rapace as bodyguard and counter-terrorism expert Sam, who takes a job protecting Zoe, a rich young heiress. Neither party is keen on the arrangement until a violent kidnap forces them to go on the run.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham looked ahead to the 2019 mysteries and thrillers that they are most excited about.

The Writer's Detective Bureau, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, focused on "Line of Duty Death Notifications, Escaping Your Identity, and Bank Robberies."

The Edmonton Journal spoke with Kristy Ramsey, the owner of Blue Lamp Books, a mystery novel and crime bookstore in Edmonton, about her love and passion for mystery and crime stories.

THEATER

The Long Beach Playhouse will stage a production of Agatha Christie's Spider's Web from January 12 - February 9. Christie wrote the play at the request of English actress Margaret Lockwood (who wanted to play a character that was neither sinister nor wicked), and came up with a work that parodied the mystery genre including her own works. It opened in London in 1954 and was her second longest-running play, next to Mousetrap.

FFB: Emily Dickinson is Dead

In memory of Jane Langton, who passed away last month, I'm re-posting a previous FFB about one of her best-known works, Emily Dickinson in Dead.

Author Jane Langton (1922-2018) didn't come to mystery novels in any traditional sort of way. She studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan and received graduate degrees in art history at the University of Michigan and Radcliffe College. But turn to writing, she did, and in 1962 started penning YA novels (her book The Fledgling is a Newbery Honor book) and 18 adult mysteries which won her Bouchercon's 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award.

All of her mysteries focus on the same two protagonists, Homer Kelly, a distinguished Thoreau scholar and ex-lieutenant detective for Middlesex County, and his wife Mary. As the author herself once said, "Mary is the sensible one, but I confess I like Homer's rhapsodic flights of fancy." Most of the settings are in the author's home state of Massachusetts although she's sent her heroes to more exotic places like Florence, Oxford and Venice.

Langton also illustrated many of her novels with her own drawings, explaining it this way:

One of the greatest pleasures has been illustrating my adult books with drawings of the real places where my fictional events happen. I've loved setting up my folding stool in Harvard Square, or standing on my own back porch trying to get down on paper the look of the pants and shirts on the laundry line, or leaning against cars in Florence with sketchbook in hand to draw some architectural wonder. Conditions have not always been salubrious, as when my feet were submerged while I sketched the house of Tintoretto in Venice during the season of high water.

Her 1984 Homer Kelly novel, Emily Dickinson is Dead was nominated for an Edgar Award and received a Nero Award that year. It was inspired, no doubt, by the author's own interest in Dickinson, having written a text about the poet for the collection Acts of Light. The action in Langton's novel takes place at a symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of the death of poet Emily Dickinson, where one attendee disappears and another is found murdered in the poet's former bedroom.

Langton's trademarks are all here in the novel, her memorable and descriptive settings, eccentric characters, a sly humor that pokes fun at the pompous academics and Amherst townsfolk alike. As the New York Times Book Review added, "Miss Langton is a sensitive and even elegant writer, one who deals with literate, intelligent people..." 

Homer Kelly is more of a peripheral figure in this particular novel, but he sums up the essence of his philosophy—and probably that of the author—and the book quite nicely:

Homer Kelly, too, was enchanted with the afternoon. It wasn't the justice of the women's cause that had diverted him; it was the everlasting melodrama of human souls in conflict. It was the handfuls of gritty sand that were forever being sprinkled into the machinery of daily life, grinding the ill-fitting cogs against each other, warping the sprockets, jamming the mismatched teeth. It was always so fascinating, the way people went right on being so outrageously themselves, and therefore so eternally interesting.

Although not so much a mystery as a wry study of human hubris and self-delusion, the book's character studies, snippets of poetry, Langton's illustrations, and even some details about the workings of dams and reservoirs, make Emily Dickinson is Dead an entertaining read.

Happy New Year!

Media Murder for Monday - Final 2018 Edition

Monday greetings to all! I hope you had a lovely holiday season, and I wish each of you the best for the New Year! Now, on to the latest crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

At the launch of Season 5 of the crime series Luther in London, the show’s star Idris Elba confirmed that a movie version of Luther is moving forward, with writer-creator Neil Cross working on the script. Elba added, "Luther has all the ingredients to echo those classic [neo-noir] films of the 90s like Seven and Along Came a Spider, and I think what we would like to do is use that blueprint to create Luther the film." Season 5 may serve as a "segue" to a movie version, if it all comes together.

Breaking Glass Pictures has acquired North American rights to the mystery thriller and noir feature film Naples in Veils from writer/director Ferzan Ozpetek, which will get a theatrical release in the first half of 2019 in English with Italian subtitles (followed by a DVD/VOD release). The story centers on a woman is at a party who meets a confidant and attractive young man, and they spend the night together. Little does she know, however, that she is about to become involved in a crime that will pull her into the center of the investigation.

British born Guyanese actor Jacob Scipio and Mexican actress Paola Nuñez have been signed for significant roles in Sony’s Bad Boys sequel, Bad Boys for Life, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The new installment centers on the Miami PD and its elite AMMO team’s attempt to take down Armando Armas (Scipio), head of a drug cartel. Nuñez will take on the role of Rite, the tough and funny criminal psychologist who is the newly appointed head of AMMO and Mike’s (Smith's) former girlfriend. It was previously announced that Alexander Ludwig, Vanessa Hudgens, and Charles Melton have also joined the project in supporting roles as members of a modern, highly specialized police unit.

Frank Adonis, who appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Casino, has died at the age of 83. Known for his many tough-guy roles, Adonis also guest-starred on TV series including The Sopranos, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, New York Undercover, and The Equalizer.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Ahead of Ray Donovan’s Season 6 finale, Showtime has ordered a seventh season of the hit drama series starring Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight, with production beginning this spring. Season 6 focused on Ray's (Schrieber) journey to New York where he deals with a new ally in a Staten Island cop named Mac (Domenick Lombardozzi), while also trying to save the mayoral campaign of Anita Novak (Lola Glaudini), and dodge Mickey (Voight) who's on a mission to hunt down Ray and seek revenge.

CBS’s Elementary will come to an end with its upcoming seventh season. Although no premiere date has been set for the Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu-led drama’s final batch of episodes, it was announced that the modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes and Watson is coming to a "predetermined and natural conclusion" with those final installments which have already been filmed. Elementary will be the second long-running series on CBS to conclude in 2019, joining sitcom The Big Bang Theory which wraps after its 12th season in the spring.

Amazon released the trailer for Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, which Amazon has slotted to premiere February 1 on Prime Video. Written and executive produced by Sarah Phelps (The Casual Vacancy, The Crimson Field), the three-part limited series stars John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot is the second of three dramatic series adaptations from Agatha Christie Limited for Prime Video in the US.

Wondering when your favorite shows will return in 2019? Deadline has a list of all the midseason TV premiere dates.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Crimetime Pod celebrated its 100th episode with the latest book reviews and news to ring in the new year.

The latest Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by Police Detective Adam Richardson, discussed "Privileged Communications, Autopsies in the 1930s, and Law Enforcement Mutual Aid."

On the latest Spybrary podcast, Spybrarian Jason King joined host Shane Whaley to share his 5 favorite spy books for 2018.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham ran down their favorite mystery, thriller and true crime books of the year.

On the Crime Cafe, host Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer K'Anne Meinel, who has 100 published works including short stories, novels, and novellas.