In Reference to Murder

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 his Oscar for Best Foreign Film (All Quiet On The Western Front), director Edward Berger may have found his follow-up project with one of the biggest action heroes of the past few decades. Deadline reported that Universal Pictures is in early development stages of a new installment in the Jason Bourne franchise, and Berger is in negotiations to direct. The report also noted that Matt Damon, who starred as Bourne in four of the five films, would be first approached to return in the iconic role once a script is finished.

New Regency's Jeff Nichols-directed crime drama, The Bikeriders, which was at 20th Century Studios, is getting acquired by Focus Features. Focus is taking global rights to the pic, re-teaming them with New Regency (with whom they partnered on 2022’s The Northman), and is planning a 2024 theatrical release. The movie, which made its world premiere at Telluride, was also written by Nichols and stars Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy, and follows the rise of a Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.

After the settlement of the recent Hollywood strikes, the cast has now been set for the erotic thriller, Babygirl. Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory), and Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw) lead an ensemble that also includes Sophie Wilde and Jean Reno. The film, written and directed by Halina Reijn, follows a successful CEO who begins an illicit affair with her much younger intern.

Netflix has shared a first-look photo of Eddie Murphy's return to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise as Axel Foley. Murphy returns to reprise the Axel role nearly 30 years after the premiere of Beverly Hills Cop 3. Mark Molloy directs the sequel, which also stars Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Taylour Paige, along with Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot reprising their characters from previous installments. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley is set to be released in 2024.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Peaky Blinders producer, Caryn Mandabach Productions (CMP), has optioned P.D. James's Cordelia Gray novels, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin, which were penned in 1972 and 1982 respectively by the celebrated British author. Gray’s character at the time was hailed for being a pioneering protagonist in the rise of feminism. The first novel sees her hired to investigate the death of a young university student who is found hanged under mysterious circumstances, while the second book is set in a Victorian castle and centers around actress Clarissa Lisle, who has been receiving death threats. James, who died a decade ago, only wrote two Gray novels and was best known for her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, which have recently been adapted by Channel 5, starring Bertie Carvel.

Happy Valley and Grantchester actor James Norton has been set to lead an ITV adaptation of JP Delaney’s bestselling novel, Playing Nice. Norton will star in the four-part limited series alongside Niamh Algar (Mary and George), James McArdle (Mare of Easttown), and Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey). Norton, a BAFTA nominee who has been on the list of actors in the running to play James Bond, also serves as executive producer. The series follows two couples who discover their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up. Set against the sweeping backdrop of Cornwall, they face an agonizing dilemma: do they keep the son they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child? Pete (Norton) and Maddie (Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple: Miles (McArdle) and Lucy (Brown Findlay). All four agree to a solution, but it becomes clear that hidden motives are at play.

The upcoming 14th season of CBS's venerable cop family drama, Blue Bloods, will be its last. The popular series starring Tom Selleck is getting an extended farewell with a two-part final season which will consist of 18 episodes. The first 10 will air this coming midseason, premiering on CBS Feb. 16 and streaming live on Paramount+; the remaining 8 will run in fall 2024. Blue Bloods follows multiple generations of the Reagan family working in New York law enforcement. The cast also includes Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, Len Cariou, Marisa Ramirez, and Vanessa Ray.

NBC has announced its midseason premiere dates, which include mid-January returns for Wolf Entertainment’s three "Chicago" dramas (Chicago Med, Fire, and PD) and the three "Law & Order" dramas (Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Organized Crime). The "Chicago" trio will premiere on Wednesday, January 17, and the "Law & Order" set will debut on Thursday, January 18. That is a month before dramas on the other major broadcast networks are set to return with new episodes and a couple of weeks before any scripted series elsewhere come back. Previously announced shows that have yet to be dated include the remaining episodes of this season’s Quantum Leap and Magnum P.I.

The cancellations continued ahead of the holiday weekend. Amazon axed a trio of scripted series from its Prime Video service, including The Horror of Dolores Roach and Harlan Coben’s Shelter. The Horror of Dolores Roach starred Justina Machado as a woman released from prison after 16 years and returns to a severely gentrified Washington Heights with $200 and the clothes on her back. Harlan Coben’s Shelter, which premiered in August, is a mystery drama based on Coben’s 2011 YA novel. The series starred Jaden Michael, Constance Zimmer, Abby Corrigan, and Adrian Greensmith.

Fox is looking to the beginning of March for the return of its scripted slate, unveiling its midseason schedule that includes the return of The Cleaning Lady (Tuesday, March 5 at 8pm), Alert: Missing Persons Unit (Tuesday, March 5 at 9pm), and Animal Control (March 6 at 9pm). Fox had already pushed 9-1-1: Lone Star to the 2023/24 fall schedule alongside new series, Doc and Rescue Hi-Surf, which had previously been eyed for a 2022/23 launch. There are no signs of the second season of Accused, however.

Reid Scott has joined the upcoming season as a new series regular on the NBC police procedural, Law & Order, portraying an as-yet unnamed NYPD detective. Scott will fill the void left by former series regular Jeffrey Donovan, who recently exited the show over creative differences. The Law & Order cast also includes Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, The Path) as senior prosecutorial assistant Nathan Price, and Camryn Manheim (The Practice) as Lt. Kate Dixon. Law & Order premieres its 23rd season on January 18, 2024.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

CBS News spoke with James Ellroy, the author of L.A. Confidential and over a dozen other novels, about his new book, The Enchanters, which focuses on a private investigator looking into the death of Marilyn Monroe.

The latest episode of The Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with David Swinson, a former D.C. Police Department detective and author of the Frank Marr Trilogy and two stand-alone crime novels, including his latest, Sweet Thing.

On Crime Time FM, Tom Benjamin chatted with Paul Burke about Last Testament in Bologna; British private eye Daniel Leicester; the porticos of the ancient city, Giallo; AirBnB and tourism in a university town.

The Red Hot Chili Writers talked with crime writer Susi Holliday and discussed female serial killers, before Susi took a stab at explaining the meaning of Diwali.

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

The Irish Book Awards today announced the winners of the various categories including Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year, awarded to Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. The other finalists included The Lock-Up by John Banville; The Close by Jane Casey; Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh; No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara; and The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard.

NPR compiled a listing of "Books We Love" for 2023, including mystery and thriller titles. You can check out the forty-plus novels on that list via this link.

Janet Rudolph has updated her growing list of Thanksgiving crime novel and short stories, which includes a wide-ranging mixture of cozy, noir, and traditional whodunits.

That list can only help with Jenn over at Jenn's Book Shelves, where she is hosting her annual Thankfully Reading day, or innstead of braving the crowds and shopping this weekend, spend time curled up with a book. Anyone wanting to participate can tag her on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using the #thankfullyreading hashtag.

The Black Friday sales in the U.S. will be hitting the stores on Friday, and book lovers should have their pick of items to choose from. You can add volumes in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series to that list. Editor Elizabeth Foxwell notes that there's a 40-percent off sale on all McFarland books running through November 27, 2023 (use coupon code HOLIDAY23).

This weekend also sees the annual Small Business Saturday celebration in the U.S., a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. When you're doing your holiday shopping this weekend, be sure and stop by your local indie bookstore. To help, Indie Bound has a handy store locator for your zip code.

Kings River Life posted a free Thanksgiving mystery short story, "It’s Only Fair," by Jane Limprecht.

The authors over at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have some Thanksgiving recipes and reads for you, including Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes with Butter Pecan Syrup from Cleo Coyle; Butternut Squash and Fried Sage Casserole from Lucy Burdette; Green Beans with Toasted Almonds and Oranges by way of Leslie Budewitz; Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Syrup-Brown Butter Glaze by Leslie Karst; Pumpkin Streusel Muffins via Peg Cochran (aka Margaret Loudon); Gluten-Free Cannoli, courtesy of Libby Klein; and the notorious Turducken by Maya Corrigan.

Have you ever wondered about the mystery of how the astronauts on board the space station make Thanksgiving dinner? NASA sent up cosmic culinary delights on an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, including oranges, apples, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. Dana Weigel, NASA's deputy manager for the space station, added, "Because we're in the holiday season, we've got some fun holiday treats for the crew like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccinos, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce, and mochi." Starbucks? Yep, and the crew even has a special sci-fi space cup for drinking them.

It's hard to believe, but A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving turns 50 this year.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with cozy mystery novelist, Catherine Dilts, about her new amateur sleuth title, The Body in the Cornfield; Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davis interviewed Annette Dashofy about her new mystery, Keep Your Family Close; and The New York Times spoke with spy thriller author, Mick Herron (the Slow Horses series), about why he relates more with failures, but after millions of his books sold and the third season of the series airing next month, how he may have to wrap his head around success.

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

As expected, the end of the actors' and writers' strikes is creating a flood of announcements about new projects and the resumption of ones that were stalled. Amateur, the 20th Century terrorism thriller starring Rami Malek, will be among the first studio shoots to resume filming in London next month. Amateur, which also stars Rachel Brosnahan and Laurence Fishburne, was halfway through production when the feature’s hundreds of cast, crew, and contractors were put on hiatus in July. Amateur is directed by James Hawes (whose debut feature was the critically acclaimed Anthony Hopkins vehicle One Life) and follows a CIA cryptographer who, after his wife is tragically killed in a London terrorist attack, demands his bosses go after them. When it becomes clear they won’t act due to conflicting internal priorities, he blackmails the agency into training him and letting him go after them himself. Based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, it was adapted by Ken Nolan.

The end of the strikes has also shifted the movie and TV release schedule quite a bit. Universal Pictures is pushing back the release of The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, originally set to premiere on March 1, 2024, which will now move to May 3, 2024. The Fall Guy revolves around Gosling’s Colt Seavers, a battle-scarred stuntman who, having left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health, is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie—being directed by his ex, Jody Moreno (Blunt), goes missing. Also starring in the film are Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, and Stephanie Tsu. The film is inspired by the 1980s ABC series created by Glen A. Larson that starred Lee Majors as Colt Seavers.

Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) and Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason) have entered production overseas on Hallow Road, a new psychological thriller, which Babak Anvari (Under the Shadows) is directing from a script by William Gillies. Commissioned and developed by London Film & TV, the film follows two parents who enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.

The first trailer has been released for Fast Charlie, which features Pierce Brosnan as a violent fixer attempting to identify a headless victim in order to prove he completed a hit job. The action thriller also stars Morena Baccarin, and, in his final performance, the late James Caan.

A trailer was released for Role Play, a comedic action spy thriller starring Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo, which will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on January 12, 2024. Cuoco plays the role of Emma, a woman who is seemingly living the perfect life alongside her loving husband and two kids in the suburbs of New Jersey. When the couple decides to spice up their love life by doing a little role-playing, things go haywire when her husband David finds out his wife leads a secret life as an assassin for hire. Thomas Vincent directed the film written by Seth Owen. Bill Nighy and Connie Nielsen also star in the film which was mainly shot in Berlin, Germany.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

The Bosch universe is expanding, with Prime Video giving a 10-episode series order to an untitled Renée Ballard project, a Bosch spinoff about the LAPD’s Cold Case Division. The newly greenlighted series is one of two projects in the works at Amazon MGM Studios inspired by the novels of bestselling author Michael Connelly. The other, the Untitled J. Edgar project, remains in development, and follows Harry Bosch’s former partner, Detective Jerry Edgar, who is tapped for an undercover FBI mission in Little Haiti, Miami. The Renée Ballard project is centered on Detective Ballard, who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division—a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. When she uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch, to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life.

Gato Grande, an Amazon MGM Studios company, has optioned the rights to Ana Reyes’ bestselling novel, The House in the Pines, for television development. The psychological thriller revolves around a woman, armed with only hazy memories from witnessing her friend’s sudden death years ago, who sets out to track down answers even though she's spent her lifetime trying to forget. The House in the Pines was on the New York Times Bestseller list for over two months, and was a pick for Reese’s Book Club when it was published in January 2023.

Mad Men alum Jon Hamm and producer Shawn Ryan (S.W.A.T., The Night Agent) are teaming on a live-action television series adaptation of the podcast American Hostage, with Hamm set to reprise his role from the audio series. American Hostage is described as a "psychological thriller that tells the harrowing true story of Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter who is thrust into the middle of a life-or-death crisis when hostage-taker, Tony Kiritsis, demands to be interviewed on his popular radio news program." Ryan envisions the series as an anthology, which will focus on a different hostage case each season.

Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) and Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects) have landed the lead roles in the BBC's upcoming crime drama, Dope Girls. Umi Myers, Eilidh Fisher, and Geraldine James have also landed major parts in the series. Dope Girls has been described as "a spiritual successor to Peaky Blinders," and is set in London’s Soho in the early 20th century when female gangs ran the clubs, drugs, and moonshine. Nicholson will play Kate Galloway, a single mother who establishes a nightclub amidst the hedonistic uproar of post-World War I London, embracing a life of criminal activities with the dedicated aim of providing for her daughter. Scanlen will play Violet Davies, one of the first wave of female officers for the Metropolitan Police, who is assigned to go undercover and investigate the illicit world of underground Soho nightclubs.

CBS has announced its winter schedule for the end of 2023 and start of 2024 with some variations from its previously announced lineup. Premiere week will start right after the Super Bowl, with new episodes of NCIS; NCIS: Hawai’i; FBI; FBI: International; FBI: Most Wanted; S.W.A.T.; Blue Bloods; The Equalizer; and CSI: Vegas. The new action-adventure drama, Tracker, starring Justin Hartley, will still air following the Super Bowl on February 11. CBS will air another new program, Elsbeth (a spinoff of The Good Fight) starring Carrie Preston, on February 29. However, another new CBS show, Matlock, originally scheduled to premiere during the 2023-2024 fall season, has been pushed back to the 2024-2025 season

ABC also revealed its midseason lineup, with crime dramas Will Trent and The Rookie returning with new seasons on Feb. 20 at 8-10 p.m. ET, while 9-1-1 and Station 19 premiere March 14 beginning at 8 p.m. The previously announced new series, High Potential, will debut during the 2024-2025 broadcast season.
 

Law & Order star Jeffrey Donovan, who starred as Det. Frank Cosgrove, will not be returning to the NBC procedural for its 23rd season. According to TVLine, who first reported the news, the former Burn Notice star exited the show due to creative reasons. The main cast, including Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, Hugh Dancy as senior prosecutorial assistant Nathan Price, and Camryn Manheim as Lt. Kate Dixon are expected to return.

Prime Video has set a revised winter release date for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, its re-imagining of the 2005 action comedy film that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. All eight episodes will drop on February 2, 2024, exclusively on Prime Video. In this version, two lonely strangers (Donald Glover and Maya Erskine) land jobs working for a mysterious spy agency that offers them a glorious life of espionage, wealth, world travels, and a dream brownstone in Manhattan. The catch? New identities in an arranged marriage as Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Smith. Now hitched, John and Jane navigate a high-risk mission every week while also facing a new relationship milestone. Their complex cover story becomes even more complicated when they catch real feelings for each other. What’s riskier: espionage or marriage?

Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) and BAFTA winner Francesca Annis (Flesh & Blood) are among the stars boarding season 2 of Ben Richards’s BBC legal drama, Showtrial. The pair are joining the previously announced Adeel Akhtar, Nathalie Armin, and Michael Socha in the five-part season from Line of Duty maker World Productions. Dempsie will play DI Miles Southgate, while Annis will play a character called Dame Harriet Kenny. Other high profile cast members include Nina Toussaint-White (Bodyguard) and Fisayo Akinade (Heartstopper).

A new trailer dropped for the six-part television series, Monsieur Spade, set in the South of France in 1963 in which Dashiell Hammett’s dashing private investigator, Sam Spade (played by Clive Owen), is forced out of a quiet retirement and is back on the case to solve murders. Monsieur Spade will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on January 14.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Tim Shipman, the chief political commentator at the Sunday Times, interviewed author David McCloskey on the Spybrary podcast. The interview delves into the complexities of modern espionage, as well as themes of betrayal, love, loyalty, and vengeance in the clandestine war between the West and Moscow.


The new episode of the Crime Cafe features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Kathleen Kaska and how she got the inspiration to write the Sydney Lockhart mysteries, a series set in the 1950s featuring a young woman trying to make it as a private detective in a man's world

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Lee Goldberg about his book, Malibu Burning, the first in his new series featuring arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker.

The Crime Time FM podcast featured the Christmas Debate in which eight top critics and writers picked their best reads of the year.

Read or Dead's Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester discussed books perfect for holiday gifting.

The Pick Your Poison podcast delved into such topics as a risky behavior that often targets pregnant women and children; a type of drug that requires surgical intervention after an overdose; and what exactly is a drug loo and where can you find one?

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Blood Lines

Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) is an author who needs very little introduction, having created the popular Chief Inspector Reginald "Reg" Wexford series under her own name and many other books under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, as well as having been nominated numerous times for Dagger and Edgar Awards. But the very first Edgar she ever won was in 1975 for a short story, "The Fallen Curtain" from a book by the same name (she won another short-story Edgar in 1984). Following that success, she had nine short story collections published, the latest a compilation in 2008.

One of her collections, Blood Lines, dates from 1995 and includes ten shorter stories and one novella. Most of the stories are familiar Rendell territory including the villages of Kingsmarkham and Stowerton, which are the stomping grounds of Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant Mike Burden. The duo is featured in the initial story. "Blood Lines" which finds Wexford and Burden solving a bludgeoning death that Wexford doggedly pursues despite the fact everyone else thinks it's a mere robbery gone bad. In the end, they piece together a picture of infidelity, spousal abuse, and betrayal.

"Lizzie's Lover" takes a new and literal twist on a Browning poem that comes to life; "Burning End" explores the difficult relationships between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law and what it takes to push someone over the edge; the accidental discovery of a poisonous mushroom in a garden leads to a game of culinary Russian Roulette by a mad man in a supermarket, in "Shreds and Shivers"; "Clothes" is the only story not to deal with death but rather peers inside an unusual obsession that drives a woman to emotional collapse.

The longest story, the novella, "The Strawberry Tree," was one of seventeen televised feature-length adaptations of Rendell's work which aired on ITV in the UK and on some PBS stations between 1987 and 2000, under the title Ruth Rendell Mysteries, which Acorn Media later released in a DVD boxed set. It was apparently intended as a sketch for a Barbara Vine novel, a foreboding and atmospheric tale of lost innocence embedded in a lonely young woman's deep desire for love and friendship on the island of Majorca.

Rendell (and alter ego Vine) is known for her exploration of the darker human impulses forged out of society’s moral codes. Passion, jealousy, anxiety, guilt, shame, rage are the colors she uses to paint psychological portraits as she allows the reader to delve into the minds of her characters. If you haven't read a Rendell novel (and you should!), stories such as these make for a fine introduction.

Mystery Melange

Laura Lippman and Denise Mina have been announced as the Featured Guests at CrimeFest, one of Europe’s biggest crime fiction conventions. Canadian mystery writer, Cathy Ace, will be the Gala Dinner’s "Leader of Toasts," and the convention has also announced a homage to PD James, known as the "Queen of crime fiction," who is the creator of the Adam Dalgliesh series. CrimeFest, sponsored by Specsavers, is hosted from May 9 to 12, 2024 at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel in Bristol. Up to 150 international authors are scheduled to appear in over 50 panels, and the convention also features the annual CrimeFest Awards. (HT to Shots Magazine)

There has been concerning news recently about a possible volcanic eruption on Iceland which prompted the island nation's government to declare a state of emergency and evacuate residents. The annual Iceland Noir conference is scheduled for this weekend, November 16-18, and there was some confusion and concern about that event's status in light of the situation. But organizers posted on Twitter that the conference is still on since Reykjavik is sixty kilometers (roughly 37 miles) away from the potentially affected towns. However, they did encourage participants from outside the country to check on their airline status, just in case there are cancellations of certain flights. This year's special guests include Richard Armitage, Dan Brown, Neil Gaiman, Lisa Jewell, Louise Penny and Hilary Clinton, C.J. Tudor, and Irvine Welsh.

Also being celebrated this weekend is Perth Noir, jointly hosted by Perth’s two publishing companies, Rymour Books and Tippermuir Books. The one-day event will take place Saturday November 18 at the Subud Centre, St Leonard’s Bank. If you happen to be Downunder and have the weekend free, register via this link.

Next up for Noir at the Bar is at 3rd Turn Brewing in Lousiville, KY, on November 18 at 7:00. Authors scheduled to read from their works include S.A. Cosby, Wesley Browne, Ashley Erwin, James D.F. Hannah, David Joy, JH Markert, Bobby Mathews, Eryk Pruitt, and J. Todd Scott.

The Grolier Club in New York City is set to explore a history of detective stories and murder mysteries in the exhibition Whodunit? Key Books in Detective Fiction. On view from Nov. 30 to Feb. 10, Whodunit features more than 90 detective novels from the 19th and early 20th centuries by Francois Vidocq, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Anna Katherine Green, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Rare items include a four-volume set of the Newgate Calendar (1824), a sensationalist publication on criminal activity; the first American edition of The Memoirs of Francois Vidocq (1834), the world’s "first" detective; the first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories (1892); and Agatha Christie’s first novel, featuring the debut appearance of "the little Belgian," Hercule Poirot (1920).

Fans of thriller writer David Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, may have despaired they'd seen the last of George Smiley when the author died in 2020. But the beloved spy is set to return next autumn, this time penned by Cornwell’s son. Penguin Random House announced a currently untitled novel by Nicholas Cornwell, who writes as Nick Harkaway, set during the decade that passes between the end of le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the beginning of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. "Smiley is woven into my life," Harkaway said. "Tinker Tailor was written in the two years after I was born and I grew up with the evolution of the Circus, so this is a deeply personal journey for me, and of course it’s a journey which has to feel right to the le Carré audience." Though this is the first time anyone has sought to continue le Carré’s work posthumously, Harkaway was involved in bringing his father’s book Silverview to publication in 2021, a novel that le Carré had completed before he died.

The Crime Fiction Lover Awards has posted the finalists for the third annual event, where readers get to nominate and vote on the winners. There are six categories including Crime Book of the Year, Best Debut Crime Novel of 2023, Best Crime Novel in Translation of 2023, Best Indie Crime Novel of 2023, Best Crime Show of 2023, and Best Crime Author of 2023. Voting closes at noon GMT on Monday December 4, 2023.

Likewise, the Goodreads Choice Awards is now open for you to vote on the best mysteries and thrillers of the year, with the opening round for the top sixteen continuing through November 26. The final round will commence November 28 through December 3, and the finalists will be announced on December 7.

The yearly Crime Time debate on the best crime fiction of the year featuring the critics of the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Express, Shotsmag, and the Financial Times (Barry Forshaw), took place at Waterstones Islington on November 9. As Forshaw noted, there was healthy agreement and healthy disagreement as usual, with the top six and individual choices listed on Crime Time's website.

Over at The Rap Sheet blog, Jeff Pierce has been keeping track of the dizzying release of other end-of-the-year "best" crime fiction lists, which are almost too numerous to follow. (Thanks, Jeff! And also a HT to George Ester of Deadly Pleasures magazine). Here's one from the London Times (with 44 titles!); the Washington Post for both thrillers and mysteries; Kirkus Reviews; and Amazon.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton spoke with cozy mystery author Emma Dakin about her new novel, Shadows in Sussex, book 5 in the British Book Tour Mysteries series; and Writers Who Kill's E.B. Davids interviewed Lisa Malice about her psychological thriller, Lest She Forget, in which a woman with amnesia is haunted by a forgotten past and hunted by a ruthless killer with no one to save her but herself.

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

Conclave, the latest from Oscar-winning director Edward Berger, has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Focus Features. Berger’s follow-up to Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front remake stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Carlos Diehz, Lucian Msamati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Merab Ninidze, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini. Based on Robert Harris’s novel, the film centers on a secret papal conclave as they go about electing a new Pope — and a conspiracy amid rival factions, self-serving political ambitions, and secrets held by the former Pope.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Andrée A. Michaud’s novel Boundary is being developed as a thriller series to be known as Boundary Pond. Louis Choquette (19-2; Mafiosa) is attached as showrunner and director, and the project will come to market in coming weeks. The story is set amid the idyllic cottage life and warmth and familiarity of Boundary Pond’s forests, which turn treacherous after a mysterious death rocks the normally peaceful lake community where outsiders keep summer cabins, and locals struggle through the winter. When a second body turns up, murder is suspected.

MGM+ has given the green light to the true crime docuseries, The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood, a four-episode series based on Michael Connelly’s Audible podcast of the same name. The project explores the notorious Wonderland murder case, which took place in Los Angeles in the 1980s when four people were discovered severely beaten to death in a suburban home in Laurel Canyon on Wonderland Avenue. As the description notes, “From a bought-off juror to the biggest porn actor of his generation, an alleged corrupt federal agent and a kind of Zelig of Hollywood’s dark underbelly, much about the case remains unresolved, and there are people who got away with murder."

The BBC will air Return to Paradise, an Australia-set spin-off of the long-running drama, Death in Paradise. Filming next year, the six-part series follows Australian ex-pat Mackenzie Clarke, the seemingly golden girl of the London Metropolitan police force, who is suddenly forced to pull up stakes and move back to her childhood home of Dolphin Cove. When a murder takes place in the idyllic beachside hamlet, Mack can’t help but put her inspired detective brilliance to good use.

The Rookie: Feds has been canceled after one season at ABC. The drama series stars Niecy Nash-Betts as former guidance counselor Simone, who becomes the oldest rookie in the agency as she joins the FBI as an agent. As Simone hones her skills and trusts her intuition, she proves her skeptics wrong, including Special Agent Matthew Garza, played by Felix Solis. Created by Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, who also served as showrunner for the freshman show, The Rookie: Feds rounded out its cast with Frankie R. Faison, James Lesure, Britt Robertson, and Kevin Zegers.

In more fallout from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, ABC has also opted not to proceed with The Good Lawyer, its planned legal spinoff from The Good Doctor that was going to be toplined by Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman. ABC had planned to launch The Good Lawyer this coming spring, but the broadcasting networks are running out of shelf space as they try to accommodate all of their popular returning scripted series.

A trailer was released for the second season of the hit show Reacher on Prime Video. Based on Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in Lee Child’s global best-selling series, the story begins when veteran military police investigator Jack Reacher (played by Alan Ritchson), receives a coded message that the members of his former U.S. Army unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations, are being mysteriously and brutally murdered one by one.

A trailer also dropped for Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie, in which everyone’s favorite germaphobic detective (played by Tony Shalhoub) is tasked with solving a murder for his stepdaughter Molly (Caitlin McGee) a journalist who is getting ready for her wedding. Shalhoub reunites with stars from the original series that ran from 2002-2009, Ted Levine, Traylor Howard, Jason Gray-Stanford, Melora Hardin, and Hector Elizondo. The cast is also joined by Caitlin McGee and James Purefoy. The movie premieres Dec. 8 on Peacock.

Masterpiece Mystery released a trailer for season 4 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke, which premieres Sunday, January 7, 2024 at the special time of 8/7c. The series follows Eliza Scarlet, Victorian London’s first-ever female detective, who spars with Scotland Yard Detective Inspector William Wellington, a.k.a., The Duke. In Season 4, Eliza is running a London-based detective agency. Things are not going entirely smoothly, although help comes from some familiar sources. Outside work, her relationship with William (The Duke) builds towards a looming decision that will shape both their lives.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The second season of Moriarty dropped this week on Audible. This nine-episode audio performance, subtitled "The Silent Order," is inspired by Sherlock Holmes, but Charles Kindinger’s script offers a moral scrambling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories. In the latest Moriarty installment, six months after surviving near death at Reichenbach Falls, Professor James Moriarty tracks down the woman he loves in New York City, where she is trapped in the web of The Order – an evil organization that stretches beyond Britain and the Crown. When his attempts to break her free lead to tragedy, Moriarty returns home, determined to bring down the entire global organization. But before he can strike, he makes another shocking discovery: Sherlock Holmes is alive and shares his goal. Moriarty and Holmes must set their animosity aside and join forces to stop the assassination of the American president and a devastating world war.

On the Crime Writers of Color podcast, Robert Justice interviewed Shelly Ellis, author of over a dozen novels including the "Three Mrs. Greys" series and Not So Perfect Strangers.

Norwegian crime writing legend, Gunnar Staalesen, chatted with Crime Time FM's Craig Sisterson about his new hardboiled thriller, Mirror Image; Varg Veum and Bergen; crime fiction as social commentary with humor; Joe Biden, PI; and wolves in a sanctuary.

The Red Hot Chili Writers spoke with crime writer and former journalist, Fiona Cummins, about her momentous meeting with George Clooney. They also discussed new research showing the range of cats' facial expressions, and dissected the case of the Aussie mushroom poisoning.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed mysteries set in Colonial America.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring the first chapter of Steadying the Ark by Rebecca K. Jones, read by actor Shauna Dolin.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: A Country Kind of Death

 

Mary McMullen (1920-1986), a/k/a Mary Reilly Wilson, had an interesting writing pedigree. Her mother was the distinguished and prolific mystery writer, Helen Reilly, which brings up interesting comparisons between them and the mother/daughter duo, Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. Mary McMullen, however, also had a sister, Ursula Curtiss, who was a suspense author, and her uncle James Kieran wrote mystery fiction (yet another family member, John F. Kieran, was a sportswriter and long-time panelist on the1940s radio program Information Please).

McMullen had early success in 1952 when she received the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Stranglehold, but didn't publish another novel for over two decades until 1974. Then, in a flurry of activity, she cranked out 18 additional mysteries in just 12 years.

Her stories often drew on the advertising and fashion worlds she was familiar with and her settings included sleepy hamlets, but her writing was neither cozy nor noir, a hybrid which reviewer Steve Lewis called "domestic malice" with a lot of bite. A Country Kind of Death from 1975 starts out as an idyllic summer for the young daughters of the Keane family who pass the two months their mother is off in Europe inventing murder stories, not surprising since their father is a crime writer. But when the stories become all too real, everyone including the police wants to believe a mysterious death was an accident, since the alternative is an unthinkable crime committed by someone in their midst.

McMullen's writing is filled with details that evoke a distinctive sense of place and she also possessed a wry, ironic humor and enjoyed poking fun at pretentious people. The Keane family is a semi-Bohemian clan and neighbors to the unfortunate Mrs. Mint, who

"did not allow the Keanes or her stepchildren or any but the most honored visitors to use the front way, as the door opened directly into her living room, a perfect marvel of cleanliness, cretonne, tautly pinned-on antimacassars, rubber plants so dusted and oiled as to seem artificial, china figurines, tapestry-covered footstools, and fat hard upholstered furniture. There were no books, no magazines, newspapers, or ashtrays in the room and it was always kept dark, the cretonne curtains drawn, the shades down, so that the sun couldn't fade its splendors."

Patrick Keane, brother of the crime-writer father and a successful playwright, plays a crucial role in the denouement and has his own wry observations about the literary and entertainment circles the Keanes run in:

"The dinner party had gone predictably, from the shrimp dip to the cold sliced ham and turkey to Elaine Bonner attacking him fiercely with hot gray eyes and half-bared breasts whenever her husband's back was turned, to the local bon vivant who probably told the same long anecdotes at every Bedford party to the three women who told him they adored his plays to Johnny Coe, urged finally to the piano, and singing, 'Oh Oh Oriole' and 'Pray Forget Me,' this last bringing tears and a meaning look at Patrick to Elaine's eyes."

The strength of this particular novel by McMullen is less in the whodunnit and police procedural aspects which are minimized and more in the characterizations and how human failings and foibles knit closely together to create tragedy.

All of McMullen's books are out of print, although several of her works were included in The Detective Book Club subscription series of 3-in-1 (and some 2-in-1 and singles) reprinted novels by various authors distributed from the early forties onward by publisher Walter J. Black.

Mary McMullen (1920-1986), a/k/a Mary Reilly Wilson, had an interesting writing pedigree. Her mother was the distinguished and prolific mystery writer, Helen Reilly, which brings up interesting comparisons between them and the mother/daughter duo, Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. Mary McMullen, however, also had a sister, Ursula Curtiss, who was a suspense author, and her uncle James Kieran wrote mystery fiction (yet another family member, John F. Kieran, was a sportswriter and long-time panelist on the1940s radio program Information Please).

McMullen had early success in 1952 when she received the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Stranglehold, but didn't publish another novel for over two decades until 1974. Then, in a flurry of activity, she cranked out 18 additional mysteries in just 12 years.

Her stories often drew on the advertising and fashion worlds she was familiar with and her settings included sleepy hamlets, but her writing was neither cozy nor noir, a hybrid which reviewer Steve Lewis called "domestic malice" with a lot of bite. A Country Kind of Death from 1975 starts out as an idyllic summer for the young daughters of the Keane family who pass the two months their mother is off in Europe inventing murder stories, not surprising since their father is a crime writer. But when the stories become all too real, everyone including the police wants to believe a mysterious death was an accident, since the alternative is an unthinkable crime committed by someone in their midst.

McMullen's writing is filled with details that evoke a distinctive sense of place and she also possessed a wry, ironic humor and enjoyed poking fun at pretentious people. The Keane family is a semi-Bohemian clan and neighbors to the unfortunate Mrs. Mint, who

"did not allow the Keanes or her stepchildren or any but the most honored visitors to use the front way, as the door opened directly into her living room, a perfect marvel of cleanliness, cretonne, tautly pinned-on antimacassars, rubber plants so dusted and oiled as to seem artificial, china figurines, tapestry-covered footstools, and fat hard upholstered furniture. There were no books, no magazines, newspapers, or ashtrays in the room and it was always kept dark, the cretonne curtains drawn, the shades down, so that the sun couldn't fade its splendors."

Patrick Keane, brother of the crime-writer father and a successful playwright, plays a crucial role in the denouement and has his own wry observations about the literary and entertainment circles the Keanes run in:

"The dinner party had gone predictably, from the shrimp dip to the cold sliced ham and turkey to Elaine Bonner attacking him fiercely with hot gray eyes and half-bared breasts whenever her husband's back was turned, to the local bon vivant who probably told the same long anecdotes at every Bedford party to the three women who told him they adored his plays to Johnny Coe, urged finally to the piano, and singing, 'Oh Oh Oriole' and 'Pray Forget Me,' this last bringing tears and a meaning look at Patrick to Elaine's eyes."

The strength of this particular novel by McMullen is less in the whodunnit and police procedural aspects which are minimized and more in the characterizations and how human failings and foibles knit closely together to create tragedy.

All of McMullen's books are out of print, although several of her works were included in The Detective Book Club subscription series of 3-in-1 (and some 2-in-1 and singles) reprinted novels by various authors distributed from the early forties onward by publisher Walter J. Black.

Author R&R with Thomas Locke & Jyoti Guptara

Thomas Locke is an award-winning novelist whose works have sold over eight million copies in twenty-six languages. Locke divides his time between Florida and the UK, where he is Writer-In-Residence at Oxford University. Jyoti Guptara dropped out of school at age 15 to write his first bestseller. An executive coach and business storytelling strategist, Jyoti has helped leaders on five continents experience more success with less stress. Together, they are as international, inter-generational, inter-racial writing duo and recently released their first mystery novel, Roulette.

About Roulette: When a new and dangerous substance suddenly appears on the rave scene in Gainesville, Florida, former special agent Eric Bannon is sent to investigate. The inquiry must be kept quiet, but why are senior government officials turning a blind eye to such a dangerous drug? The drug is called Roulette because there’s no way of knowing what kind of ecstasy awaits—a rollercoaster ride through any one of seven heavens—or straight to hell. Along with county hospital senior ER nurse, Carol Steen, and snobbish new doctor, Stacie Swann, Eric pinpoints the drug’s origin to clandestine operations within a university's student body and uncovers a terrifying truth: these young people both finance the production and facilitate the human trials of the world’s most exciting new high, with a purpose so heinous it will rewrite not just history, but the human genome.

Locke & Guptara stop by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about the new book. In this conversation, Jyoti gleans invaluable insights from seasoned master storyteller Thomas Locke, who is four decades his senior. Thomas reveals one of his secrets to penning four books every year: the right kind of research.

 

JYOTI GUPTARA:

Thomas, Roulette is the second mystery you and I co-authored. I’ve always been impressed with how quickly you write great first drafts – right down to the details that would take me ages to get right. How did you develop your approach to research, especially in genres that need a lot, like your historical fiction (published under ‘Davis Bunn’) and your technothrillers?

THOMAS LOCKE:

My first mystery was also my first breakout opportunity.  I was offered the chance to move to a major house, have a big event-style release, if I had an idea big enough to fit the bill:  To The Ends Of The Earth was my response - a murder mystery taking place in the fourth century, a few weeks after the death of Emperor Constantine, six months before civil war broke out.

My wife was doing her doctorate at Oxford University.  I fearfully approached the head of her college and asked if I might get some help with the research.  After being quizzed about my concept, the head granted me a one-year position as Visiting Member of the Senior Commons Room, which is something normally handed out to visiting professors.  He also arranged for me to be tutored by a friend of his, the head of Oxford's theology department, a world-renowned specialist in late Roman empire, and the Orthodox Bishop of England.

No pressure.

We met, the Bishop and I, and he assigned me a ton of reading, plus two classes I needed to take.  A week later, when we next met, I admitted defeat.  To say I was overwhelmed didn't go far enough.  I felt like the minnow swimming in a tank of whales.

The Bishop responded with advice I still apply to this day.  My job is not to become an expert.  My research task, with this book and all those to come, is twofold.  First, I have to determine which questions are necessary in order to write a good story.  Second, I must find one answer to each question.  No more.  Soon as I reach that singular milestone, I move on.  Everything else must wait.

The most important lesson garnered here is just how easy research can become an excuse for not actually writing.  Added to that is the risk is how extra research can become a barrier to the story's flow.  The temptation is to write what might impress an expert.  This in turn can damage and, at times, destroy the novel's appeal to a more general readership. 

Determine the right questions.  Find the one good and necessary answer. 

Write the story.

JYOTI GUPTARA:

This approach is so liberating! I wish I’d learned this lesson sooner.

When you and I started working on our first joint thriller, I was serving as writer-in-residence at a United Nations partner organization in Geneva. I had unparalleled access to experts from the UN, WEF, WTO, UNESCO and other prestigious institutions. It was a goldmine for a writer…

And goldmines can be deadly if you get lost.

In Geneva, the potential for research was boundless. But with every expert I met, every piece of insider information I gathered, I found myself being pulled in a new direction. The allure of having such access was intoxicating. I envisioned a novel that would weave in intricate details from these global institutions, a story that would be both enlightening and thrilling.

I failed.

To use Thomas’s words, it was too easy for research to become an excuse for not actually writing. My biggest challenge was not having a clear vision for the story. That’s where a different kind of research comes into play: reading, travel and dialogue for inspiration. Say, your next book. Not the one you’re actively writing.

We could say there are two very different types of research: farming versus hunting.

Farming: This is the phase of exploration and discovery. A farmer tills the soil, plants various seeds, and waits to see what grows. Similarly, in the farming phase of research, we allow ourselves the freedom to meander. We dive into topics without a clear agenda, seeking inspiration and letting our curiosity guide us. It’s a time of soaking in information and seeing what resonates. An open-ended process. There's a certain beauty in not knowing exactly what you’ll find.

Hunting: After the season of exploration comes the phase of targeted pursuit. This is the hunting phase. Here, we’re no longer wandering aimlessly. We are going after known information holes with the focus and intentionality of an Inuit spearfishing through a hole in the ice. There are a million other fish under your frozen feet, but your only concern are the ones that swim under your hole. That’s what you, Thomas, described so vividly.

THOMAS LOCKE:

Well put, Jyoti. The trap is to confuse these two very different categories.

One tip is, don’t even think of the ‘farming’ phase as research. You’re simply looking for ideas and inspiration.

Again, the goal is to lock into a solid concept. And start writing.

 

You can learn more about the authors and the book via their website and Down & Out Books. Roulette is now available via all major booksellers.

Mystery Melange

Capital Crime, the crime and thriller festival led by Goldsboro Books’ co-founder and managing director David Headley, has announced that it will be returning in 2024 to its new home of the Leonardo Royal Hotel in London, May 30-June 1 2024. Authors and speakers confirmed so far include Ian Rankin, creator of Inspector Rebus; Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh; Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera and Shetland series; author and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz; U.S. crime fiction author, Kellye Garrett; author and barrister, Rob Rinder; Elly Griffiths, creator of the Ruth Galloway series; Silo creator, Hugh Howey; Alex Michaelides, author of the global bestseller, The Silent Patient; and Paula Sutton, the "queen of cottage-core" and the face behind Hill House Vintage. Also returning are the festival’s Fingerprint Awards and the social outreach initiative, which aims to demystify the industry for young state-school Londoners considering a career in publishing. Early bird weekend tickets for next year are on sale now at www.capitalcrime.org. (HT to Shots Magazine)

As part of the Texas Book Festival Lit Crawl, the Vintage Bookstore & Wine Bar in Austin is hosting a Noir at the Bar on Saturday, November 11, with a round of hip, hard-boiled, nitty-gritty noir readings by crime fiction authors. Participants will include Chandler Baker, David McCloskey, Mike McCrary, Amanda Moore, James Wade, and Ashley Winstead.

The Real Book Spy founder and author of the Matthew Redd thriller series, Ryan Steck, has signed a two-book deal with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, to continue the Lord Alexander Hawke series following the sudden passing of author Ted Bell earlier this year. Bell, the famed, award-winning adman who conquered the world of advertising before retiring in his 50s and launching a career as a novelist, published Hawke, the first of twelve globe-trotting adventures starring MI6 super agent Alex Hawke, back in 2003. An instant New York Times bestseller, Hawke—who was described as "a secret agent who takes you into the danger zone with a ballsy wit" by author Vince Flynn and as "the new James Bond" by James Patterson—quickly became one of the genre’s most recognizable names, read by millions around the world. Steck, who was close friends with Bell, will release the first new Hawke thriller, Monarch, in 2025.

After a spate of bookstore closings, it's always welcome news to hear of a new store opening. Criminally Good Books is headed to York, Pennsylvania, next year and will stock all kinds of crime fiction, such as historical crime, cozy crime, thriller, mystery, police procedural, and detective fiction, as well as true crime books, special editions, book-related gifts and mystery-themed items. In addition to stocking crime books, Criminally Good Books will have special themed events like author signings and fingerprint classes, as well as incorporating a recording studio for podcasters. Owner Isla Coole said that "York has a proud history linked to books, printing, and publishing. We want to continue and support the tradition of books in York, promote literacy, and support our community."

In less happier news, another bestseller list bites the dust. Book coverage in the mainstream media has been on the decline for the past several years, and the latest to fall is the Wall Street Journal's weekly bestseller lists. The paper ran a total of six fiction and nonfiction lists, as well as a hardcover business list, all powered by Circana BookScan. Paul Gigot, editorial page editor at the WSJ said that all other aspects of the paper’s book coverage will "continue as usual," although with literary and arts coverage declining at a rapid rate, it remains to be seen how long that will last.

Good kitty! In a bit of fun forensic news, it turns out almost every cat has a unique DNA mutation detectable in their hair, which is offering CSI detectives an almost sure-fire way to put criminals at the scene of their crimes or their homes, provided there was a cat there.

In the Q&A roundup, Jacqueline Seewald Interviewed author Daniella Bernett about Betrayed By The Truth, the latest book in her Emmeline Kirby-Gregory Longdon mystery series set in London and Switzerland; Lisa Haselton chatted with cozy mystery author Catherine C. Hall about her latest novel, Secrets Laid to Rest, which she describes as "the Golden Girls meet the Ghostbusters in small-town Sutter, Georgia"; and Tess Gerritsen spoke with Parade Magazine about her new book, The Spy Coast, and living among spies in Maine.

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

Universal has closed a deal on an action thriller based on the unpublished 43-page short story, "Run For Your Life," by Aaron Jayh. Designated Survivor creator David Guggenheim is attached to adapt the script, and Sam Hargrave (who helmed the Chris Hemsworth action films Extraction and its sequel for Netflix) is in talks to direct. The story centers on a groom marked for death on his wedding day.

Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) is set to direct the thriller, Ice Fall, with production set to start in early 2024 and casting to get underway shortly. The film was written by George Mahaffey (Chief of Station) and centers on a young Indigenous game warden who arrests an infamous poacher only to discover that the poacher knows the location of a plane carrying millions of dollars that has crashed in a frozen lake. When a group of criminals and dirty cops are alerted to the poacher’s whereabouts, the warden and the poacher team up to fight back and escape across the treacherous lake before the ice melts.

Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Grace Caroline Currey (Fall) have joined Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring), Tim Blake Nelson (Captain America: Brave New World) and Simon Rex (Red Rocket) in the true-crime biopic feature, The Leader, based on the 1997 mass suicide of the religious group known as Heaven’s Gate. Michael Gallagher (The Thinning) is directing from his original screenplay. The Leader will chart the memorable true story of the 39 members of the UFO cult known as Heaven’s Gate who committed the largest mass suicide ever on American soil. The film tracks Bonnie Nettles (Farmiga) and Marshall Applewhite (Nelson) as they develop the religion, build a devout following, and face unforeseen conflict when the spaceship they foretold fails to arrive and take them away. Hall will play a key devotee: a wealthy addict who attempts to win favor with Applewhite by financially supporting the cult with his trust fund. Currey will play an Oregon-based boutique owner who drops out of society in the late 1970s to join the cult — leaving her family and fiancé behind.

Josh Duhamel (Transformers franchise) and Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) are set to lead the cast in the action-thriller, Off The Grid. In the film, a scientist (Duhamel) steals an experiment and hides off the grid in Europe to prevent it from becoming weaponized. His former research partner (Kinnear), along with an extraction team, is sent in to find him and locate the missing experiment. Directed by Johnny Martin (Hangman), the film, which has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, is currently in pre-production with a shoot scheduled for January.

A trailer dropped for the action-thriller, The Fall Guy, a big-screen adaptation of the 1980s TV series that starred Lee Majors. Directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train), The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as stunt man Colt Seavers. He's fresh off a nearly career-ending accident, and his next gig just happens to be a film directed by his ex, Jody Moreno (played by Emily Blunt). But Colt's efforts to rekindle their romance take a turn when the movie's mega-action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing. Now, Colt has to perform some of the most dangerous stunts of his career and try to solve the mystery of Tom's disappearance. The Fall Guy hits theaters March 1.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Joe Pickett will not return for a third season, as Paramount+ has canceled the series starring Michael Dorman. Based on the novels by CJ Box, Joe Pickett followed a dedicated game warden (Dorman) and his family as they navigated the shifting sociopolitical climate of a small rural town on the verge of economic collapse. The cast also starred Julianna Guill, David Alan Grier, Sharon Lawrence, Mustafa Speaks, Paul Sparks, Skywalker Hughes, and Kamryn Pliva.

Production company Impossible Dream Entertainment is developing a series adaptation of Twenty Years Later, the 2021 bestseller from author Charlie Donlea. A mystery thriller in the vein of Big Little Lies, True Detective, and Gone Girl, Twenty Years Later follows Avery Mason, TV host of American Events, who knows her latest story – a murder mystery laced with sex, tragedy, and betrayal – is ratings gold. With new technology, the New York medical examiner’s office has made its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim in question, Victoria Ford, had been accused of murder at the time of her death. As Avery goes into investigative overdrive, she starts to unwind an intricate puzzle of Victoria’s life, as well as a much darker mystery. But there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own past — one she has kept secret from the world, her bosses, and her audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried.

A fan favorite series, Prison Break, is poised for a comeback. Hulu is in early development on a new incarnation of the Fox drama to be written and executive produced by Mayans M.C. co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner, Elgin James. Described as a new chapter, the new installment is set in the world of Prison Break, although further details are being kept under wraps. It is not expected to involve the characters who were at the center of the original series and its followups on Fox, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). The original series aired on Fox for four seasons followed by a made-for-TV film titled The Final Break which aired 12 days after the Season 4 finale in 2009 to wrap things up. A 2015 Prison Break sequel limited series starring Miller and Purcell, also on Fox, served as a fifth season.

BBC dropped first images from its two-part Agatha Christie adaptation, Murder Is Easy. On a train to London, Fitzwilliam (David Jonsson) meets Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton), who tells him that a killer is on the loose in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe. The villagers believe the deaths are mere accidents, but Miss Pinkerton knows otherwise – and when she’s later found dead on her way to Scotland Yard, Fitzwilliam feels he must find the killer before they can strike again

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writers David Bushman and Mark T. Givens about their new book, Murder at Teal's Pond.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club visited with an old friend, Lou Berney, award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway, about his new book, Dark Ride.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Tess Gerritsen, who is launching a new series featuring retired CIA operative Maggie Bird and her fellow former intelligence officers, all of whom now reside in Purity, Maine.

Femi Kayode spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new Nigerian crime thriller, Gaslight; Philip Taiwo; Light Seekers; and eduction addiction.

The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured "The Picardy Third" by Jacqueline Freimor, originally published in the Jan/Feb 2023 issue, in which a murder strikes close to Private Investigator Jeannie Tannenbaum's granddaughter's music class.

The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated a poison that causes pathological shyness and is historically associated with being mad as a hatter; and also what causes dancing cat fever and might have contributed to the death of John Wilkes Booth.