In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Writer/director Dito Montiel's crime drama The Son of No One seemed to have the right pedigree with Montiel at the helm (he was also behind the award-winning 2006 Sundance crime drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) and its all-star cast of Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche and Katie Holmes. Unfortunately, it didn't do well at its Sundance screening, although it may still see life via the right marketing and distribution.

Brian De Palma is going to direct a remake of 2010 Gallic psychodrama Crime d'amour (Love Crime), to be newly titled Passion. The plot centers on two feuding corporate execs, one of whom is driven to murder the other. De Palma told Variety, "Not since Dressed to Kill have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spellbinding cinematic experience."

David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) is preparing a film adaptation of the PlayStation 3 noir thriller game Heavy Rain, which spans four days of the search for a murderer. Known only as the Origami Killer, due to his calling card of leaving behind folded paper shapes at crime scenes, he kills his victims four days after kidnapping them. Although there's not much in the way of detail about the film script, the game's cast of character include a father, a photographer, an FBI agent "with a special skill set," and a retired cop turned private investigator. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

TV

CBS has added a new crime drama titled Hail Mary, a buddy P.I. show centered around a suburban single mom in Atlanta who teams up with a street-wise hustler to solve crimes. 

Oscar-winning filmmaker Stephen Gaghan, who also served as a writer for TV's The Practice and NYPD Blue, is returning to the small screen with S.I.L.A., an hour-long drama "weaving together stories about crime, law enforcement, and politics in a multi-layered style not unlike Traffic." Sources close to the project say it boasts the same twists and deep plot scructure as The Wire, but with a more broadly accessible plot making it better suited for broadcast TV.

Edgar Allan Poe, P.I.?  ABC has approved an hour-long drama pilot titled Poe, "a crime procedural that follows Edgar Allan Poe as the world's first detective, using unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 19th-century Boston."

Jim Kouf (Angel) and David Greenwalt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are behind a pilot mixing fantasy with a crime drama recently picked up by NBC. Grimm is described as a "dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales exist."

From Omnimystery/Variety:  "House" executive producer Greg Yaitanes may be developing a crime drama for ABC based on The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz, which centers on 28-year-old Isabel Spellman, who comes from an eccentric family of private investigators.

Almost two months after TNT announced The Closer's upcoming seventh season would be its last, comes word the network is looking at ways to keep the lucrative franchise going, even without star Kyra Sedgwick. One option: extending the final season from 15 to 21 episodes. Another: continuing the series with a new lead or launching a spinoff.

Actor Jack McGee (Rescue Me) has joined the cast of the USA drama pilot Common Law, about two mismatched cops: Michael Ealy as jeans-wearing, unshaven Travis Marks, and Warren Kole as tailored suit-wearing, clean-cut Wes Mitchell. The duo are sent to therapy by their ex-marine boss (McGee) for "couples counseling."

PODCASTS/RADIO

From Brian Lindemuth at Spinetingler, a trio of online goodies: free Hitchcock films for viewing; the 1940s radio series The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, free for listening; and an interview with author R.J. Ellory on New Zeland Television.

Gumshoes, Giftbags and Good-byes

If you happen to find yourself in or around Los Angeles tomorrow (Monday), head on over to say goodbye to the Mystery Bookstore. They'll be open all day with bargains throughout the store, but at 6:00 p.m., it's the official farewell party. You can enjoy what they're billing as "one last evening with us – and with the many authors who have promised to drop in to join us in celebrating the fun we've had and perhaps to shed a tear or two. Food, libation, good company, and great books – new, back stock, and collectibles – on sale."  For every $25 that you spend, you'll be given a ticket for a drawing to win one of nine gift bags, which include hand-picked books by owners Kirk Pasich and Pamela Woods and other staff, Robert Crais collectibles and Michael Connelly limited editions.

Friday's Forgotten Books - Thorne in the Flesh

Rhona Petrie was the pen name of British author Eileen-Marie Duell Buchanan, who also wrote under the name Clare Curzon. Born in 1922, she didn't start her  literary career until the 1960s, with the publication of Death in Deakins Wood, the first installment in a series featuring Police Inspector Marcus Maclurg. She went on to publish over forty novels, and the most successful was her series focusing on Detective Superintendent Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley Serious Crime Squad, some 24 books in all.

Her numerous books weren't just throw-away quickies, either. Guilty Knowledge (1999), the first book in the Stakerly Series set in 1900s London and featuring Lucy Sedgewick, was short-listed for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger in 2000. It actually won an award in that same year, the Herodotus Award for Best First International Historical Mystery.

Perhaps it was the author's studies in French and psychology at King's College, London, that culminated in the publication of Thorne in the Flesh in 1971, a standalone suspense/political thriller novel. Just about every page is heavily laced with the philosophical musings of the protagonist, and there's a strong Francophile-oriented angle, as well.

The titular protagonist of the book, Ellis Thorne, is a dedicated London schoolmaster living a fairly quiet life renting a single room whose entrance is crammed between Express Dairy and the launderette. One day, out of the blue the police arrive with word that a great uncle whom Thorne knows only by name, Sylveste Aury, has been seriously injured in a car crash that at first glance appears to be an accident. Thorne makes a promise to his dying relative who tells him "No accident—all yours now—you'll find—in the file—you'll take it over?"

As Thorne digs deeper into his great-uncle's business, he's pulled down into a seamy world of strippers, a squatter's siege, 1960s counterculture and anarchism, muggings, and the high-profile kidnapping of a politician that sets off riots. With pressure on all sides from thugs, the police and the intelligence service, he soon decides he's had enough and almost turns his back on the whole lot. But he can't seem to tear himself away from Tina, one of the night-club employees, and the responsibility he feels for the unlikely-named Katte Mandu, an African girl Aury was taking care of, as well as Millie, the oversized English sheepdog that came with Thorne's apartment.

The writing and subject matter is still relevent today, and Petrie manages to weave some fanciful turns of phrase and wit along with the dark atmosphere:

His mind, he'd prided himself, was a tidy one. Now it was ransacked, its contents churned and pawed over like a room that had been pillaged. He had thought he'd known what it contained and where everything was kept. Now he wasn't sure. Hidden prejudices were brought to light, the junk stuffed away behind furniture.

and

A girl took off her clothes and danced, and the audience watched serpents of light wriggle and coil over her limbs, saw stardust powder the upward curves of her pagoda body.  But from where Thorne had sat, without neophiliac needs, he had seen the mechanics, recognized not spangles but sweating flesh, seen on the nakedness the sad little marks of tight elastic, pubic stubble and bitten nails. Things that on a loved body would be endearing, but here were pathetic.

and

. . . before them the muffled sounds of people boxed up inside the building—water running, a child's fretful crying, voices raised in angry dipute, a woman suddenly screaming abuse from only a few yards distant; the sound of fist on flesh and a moment's silence, then moaning and sobs of something subhuman, pleading and hating and desperately needing.

Marie Buchanan a/k/a Rhona Petrie only died just last year at the age of 87, and even though her last novel, Devil in the Detail (part of the Yeadings series), was published as recently as 2010, she isn't all that widely known, especially in the U.S. Fortunately, several of her books are still available in paperback and hardcover, worth seeking out for a first, or second, look.

While Patti Abbott is traveling, Kerrie Smith is hosting Friday's Forgotten Books on her blog Mysteries in Paradise today. Last week, Evan Lewis did the honors.

Lincoln Lawyer Giveaway

 

On March 18th, the film The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the book by Michael Connelly, debuts in theaters nationwide. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who represents lowlife types and operates out of the back of his Lincoln sedan.  Also in the all-star cast are Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Pena and Bryan Cranston, with Brad Furman directing.

Forbes magazine said of the book, "Master mystery novelist Connelly has created one of the most memorable characters in modern American literature, defense attorney Mickey Haller, who narrates this tale. Haller is cynical and ethically challenged (he describes how he bribes bail bondsmen to steer good cases his way), and a negligent (divorced) dad to his daughter from his first marriage. But he comes across as a sympathetic, multidimensional character in whom still lurk idealism, humanity, conscience and a desire to do better by his child, even while he exemplifies almost every stereotype of the ambulance-chasing, publicity-seeking, rule-bending defense lawyer."

For an excerpt from the book, check out this link, and you can also visit the movie's Facebook page here, as well as two movie trailers on Michael Connelly's site.

In advance of the film's release, you can be one of five lucky winners to receive a copy of The Lincoln Lawyer novel, as well as a movie poster. Just send along your name and e-mail address to [email protected] (your information will be kept private) and put "Lincoln Lawyer Giveaway" in the subject line. The winners will be drawn at random and posted here on the blog February 1st. 

 

To E or Not to E, That is the Question

The Digital Book World 2011 conference and expo is currently underway in New York City. Galley Cat and the LA Times Jacket Copy are among those blogs offering up dispatches from the heart of it all. If you're on Twitter, you can follow via the hashtag #dbw11. Nervous authors, publishers and booksellers are there, some 1,250 registrants, more than double that of last year.

Many more authors are jumping on the digital bandwagon with stories and books. L.J. Sellers is among those who have divorced their publishers and decided to go it alone. In L.J.'s case, it's been mostly positive, as she notes on the Sisters in Crime blog. Others haven't had quite as much success, and many more will choose to stay with the traditional agency model.

The pace of change is making matters overwhelming for many, and I suspect that will continue for some time to come. A look at the topics to be discussed at Digital Book World will give you some idea of what everyone involved with publishing is facing. From "Author Royalties for Ebooks: What the Agents and Publishers Say Is the State of Play" to "Cost-Effective Development of Enhanced Content: How to Display on Multiple Platforms Without Multiple Headaches."

You can find advice and tips for authors all over the Internet, but some good places to start are Jane Friedman's There are No Rules, JA Konrath and Digital Book World.

Hot Off the Press

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal has just been published. Themed around Hobbies, Crafts & Special Interests, there are reviews and columns, as well as close to three dozen articles, everything from "Camp Follower for the Weekend? by Suzanne Adair to "Matryoshka Dolls Inspire a 'Nested" Mystery'" by Joyce Yarrow. There are some web-available features, too, including

• Is It Real or Is It a Dollhouse? by by Camille Minichino 
• Constructing Crossword Puzzles by Parnell Hall
• Brewing Up Murder by Cleo Coyle
• Mystery Seen: Detectives with Hobbies by Kate Derie

Editor Janet Rudolph is also looking for fodder for upcoming issues including London Mysteries I, London Mysteries II, Animal Mysteries, Shrinks (and other mental health professionals), so if you're an author and want to write an Author! Author! essay, or have an article or review idea, send her an email.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

James Gray has signed on to direct The Gray Man, an adaptation of the thriller novel by Mark Greaney scripted by Adam Cozad (of the Jack Ryan franchise). The film follows a former CIA operative-turned assassin as he fights his way across Europe and past special forces in order to save the life of his handler and the handler's family. Gray doesn't want it to turn out like the Bourne films and envisions it as having more "emotional stakes."

Hannibal Lechter as Alfred Hitchcock? Actor Anthony Hopkins is rumored to be in talks to play the legendary director in an adaptation of the non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by author Stephen Rebello. Black Swan screenwriter John McLaughlin wrote the script, and Sacha Gervasi is in talks to direct.

TV

Larisa Oleynik (The Secret World of Alex Mack and 10 Things I Hate About You) will play a recurring role on Hawaii Five-0 as Jessica Kaye, an ex-CIA analyst and Harvard graduate. Kaye assists McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) pursue his arch nemesis, Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos), who was also responsible for the murder of Jessica's fiancé, a CIA field agent.

Law & Order: Los Angeles has not only lost three of its main stars in a cast shakeup, now comes word it won't be returning to the NBC schedule any time soon. The last episode aired on December 1st, and the series was expected to return February 8th, but it's been pulled  from the schedule indefinitely. 

Michael Clarke Duncan has been cast in Fox's untitled spin-off from its popular series Bones. Walter "The Locator" Sherman (based on a character created by Richard Greener), was first introduced in the 2006 thriller The Knowland Retribution, and Duncan will protray Sherman's friend and investigative partner in the series. The character of "The Locator" has yet to be cast.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

NBC has ordered a pilot from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) for a police policedural titled District 17 that's been dubbed "Harry Potter for grown-ups." District 17 will follow a group of policemen working in a magical town called Excelsior. No cast or crew information is currently available.

CBS has picked up Rookies, the cop drama from actor Robert De Niro and Richard Price, a police procedural about six newbie officers sent into high-risk areas.

And from another actor, we have the pilot Exit Strategy, just picked up by Fox. It's co-created by Ethan Hawke, who will play Eric Shaw in the action-drama about a CIA extraction team

PODCASTS/RADIO

The New Criminologist reports that on January 27 at 9 p.m., the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network will launch "Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the Darkside," a weekly hour-long radio program. Guests will include ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, entertainers, informants, prisoners, drug dealers, victim advocates, politicians, crusading reformers and more. You can access the program by going to www.artistfirst.com Thursdays at 9. The show is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. The initial program features Jack Garcia, former FBI agent and best selling co-author of Making Jack Falcone, the story of how Garcia took down a Mob family.

THEATER

This Wednesday, January 26th at 7 p.m. at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in New York, Anika Noni Rose (star of the Dreamgirls and Tony winner for Caroline, or Change) and Stephen Lang (Avatar) will perform stories from the new anthology Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat.

Friday's Forgotten Books - Lonelyheart 4122

Colin Watson (1920-1983) was a British author who started out in life as a journalist, first as a reporter for the Boston Guardian and later as an editorial writer, theater critic and book reviewer. In 1958, while still working for newspapers, Watson published the first Flaxborough novel, Coffin, Scarcely Used, a book that Cecil Day-Lewis (who also wrote mysteries as Nicholas Blake) called "a great lark, full of preposterous situations and poker-faced wit."

Following the publication of the second book in the series, Watson retired to write full time and published a dozen mystery novels between 1958 and 1982. His mystery series came to known as The Flaxborough Chronicles, set as they were in Flaxborough, a fictional East Anglian city, population 15,000, loosely based on the Lincolnshire area of Boston where Watson worked as a journalist. The lead character in the series is Inspector Walter Purbright, assisted by his somewhat naive sidekick, Sergeant Sidney Love, and the Chief Constable, Harcourt Chubb. Watson's third book in the Chronicles, Hopjoy Was Here, won him a Silver Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association in 1962, and five years later he won a second Silver Dagger with Lonelyheart 4122.

Jeffery Ewener, a fan of Watson's work, wrote for the Mystery Magazine Web that in Watson's fictional world, "you find this...combination of superficial blandness deceptively concealing an uproar of animal spirits - like a hymn book hollowed-out to hold a hip flask. Watson gives us geriatric gentlemen patting bottoms, matronly housewives jumping into orgies, MI5 agents running up huge unpaid bar bills for reasons of National Security, austere solicitors blackmailing the local gentry."

As an example of what Ewener is referring to, take this excerpt from Lonelyheart 4122:

"Well, they didn't seem very pleased to see me, sir. Singleton wouldn't come out of the garden. He was going up and down with a lawn mower all the time. I had to ask each question as he went by one way, and try and catch the answer when he passed on the way back."

"Very trying for you, Sid."

"Not really. The answers were all very short. And him being so busy made it easier to get the writing samples. I just pinched three or four of the labels on his rose bushes. Of course," Love added, nodding at the file,  "I trimmed them down a bit and mounted them properly."

"So I noticed. Most neat. Now I understand why I couldn't make much sense out of "Peace Mrs. Pettifer Brevvitt's Pride Lancashire Ascending."

Lonelyheart 4122 introduces us to the character of Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime, who subsequently appeared in all Flaxborough novels save one. In this outing, Inspector Purbright's investigation into the disappearance of two respectable middle-aged women leads him to a matrimonial bureau where he meets another client, Miss Teatime, whom Purbright fears may also be in danger. But Miss Teatime doesn't want anything to do with his protection, and neither Miss Teatime nor her shady beau, a retired naval officer, is what they appear to be.

Four of The Flaxborough Chronicles were filmed for the BBC's  "Murder Most English" program, including Lonelyheart 4122. For a review of the TV episode based on the novel, check out Martin Edwards's estimable blog.

Mystery Melange

From Peter Rozovsky at Detectives Beyond Borders, comes word about the publication of The Cultural Detective: Reflections on the Writing Life in Thailand by Christopher G. Moore. Moore is the author of the Vincent Calvino crime novels about an American private investigator in Bangkok, as well as various other books about Thailand, where Moore lives. Rozovsky provides the intro to the book and will have a chance to win a copy on his blog soon.

Janet Rudolph sent along a reminder that there's still time to sign up for Left Coast Crime, to be held March 24-27 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If you register now, you can also nominate books for the awards categories. Guests of honor this year are Margaret Cole and Steven Havill, and there will also be day trips available to the spectacular Sante Fe cultural and scenic sites.

Editor Kate Stine notes that Mystery Magazine has some special web-only features during the month of January. Contributor Oline Cogdill shares some of her favorite group author blogs, Gary Phillips takes a look at how e-media is changing the landscape for writers and readers and Lawrence Block is scheduled to talk about his one-man backlist blitz. To kick off the new year, Mystery Scene has set a goal of 1000 Twitter followers, and on the day they reach that target, they'll celebrate by giving away five one-year subscriptions to five lucky Twitter followers drawn at random.

Last week, the crime fiction community was in mourning when news came that the Mystery Book Store in Los Angeles was closing. Now it appears there may be a potential buyer in the wings, according to a report in the UCLA Daily Bruin. Bookstore co-owner Kirk Pasich said a publisher has made an offer, but Pasich will only sell if the new owner agrees to keep it as a bookstore and maintain its character.

Congratulations to crime novelist Peter James, who was named the new Chair of the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) in the UK, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Ian Rankin, Dick Francis and Lady Antonia Fraser.

I Hear a Podcast

Are you itching to take advantage of that new smartphone (or tablet or other audio-playing device) you got for Christmas? Here are some links to podcasts, both audio and video, that you can stream, featuring stories, author interviews, news and tips on writing.

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Podcasts
Each month , AHMM will post a reading of a story from their archives, supplemented with author interviews and interesting tidbits.

Authorlink
Interviews with writers about books, writing, and publishing.

Author Marketing Experts Inc.
Book marketing podcasts on topic such as Getting on Radio, Striking Internet Gold, Successful Press Kits, Find Your Niche.

Authors on Tour — Live!
Authors on Tour is a series of live podcasts made possible by the Tattered Cover Book Store, a premiere independent bookstore with three locations in Colorado.

Barbara Peterson Interviews
Barbara Peterson runs the with Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona and regularly interviews mystery authors who come in for book signings. Many of these are archived on the You Tube link above.

Behind the Black Mask: Mystery Authors Revealed
Writers of hard-boiled, pulp, mystery, and suspense novels reveal secrets about their fiction and the writing life. No longer posting new shows, but the archives is still there.

Booked TV
Podcasts feature interviews with crime fiction writers and real crime scene investigators.

Classic Mysteries
brief reviews of classic mystery novels by Les Blatt.

CrimeWav
A podcast series of crime stories created by Seth Harwood and featuring various authors reading from their stories.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Podcasts
A companion feature to the print magazine, featuring monthly readings and dramatizations of stories by the world's leading writers of suspense chosen from the magazine's archives.

Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Library Podcasts
Featuring author interviews, primarily in the D.C. area, but also others, as well.

I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere
The podcast for those interested in the life and times of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, where it is always 1895.

KQED:  The Writers Block
KQED's weekly reading series featuring writers and performers of all stripes reading the latest short fiction, non-fiction, theater and poetry.

Litopia
Lotipia has two podcasts for writers, the oldest of which is “Litopia After Dark,” which takes a look at the publishing industry, as well as interviewing authors. The newer podcast is a daily feed and is titled “Litopia Daily.” It’s also interactive, in that writers can submit press releases or other relevant information that can be considered for the show.

Netdrag
Interviews With Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, and Crime Fiction Authors And Their Fans.

New York Times Book Review Update
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review, discusses this week's issue.

Noircast
Podcasts about film noir and the fiction that inspired it.

NPR Books
NPR book reviews, news and author interviews — for people who love to read. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs.

The O Line Mysteries
This is a comedy/mystery podcast, a cozy, called "The O Line Mysteries.” It’s a cross between "Friends" and "Murder, She Wrote",  set on a small island in the San Francisco Bay, and told in the old time radio drama fashion.

Reading and Writing Podcasts
Interviews with authors and writers about their books, their writing habits, their favorite novels, and how they got started writing.

Writers on Writing
Interviews with new and best-selling authors.

The Writing Show
Every week or so, they offer a new podcast designed to shed light on some aspect of writing, writers, publishing, and other topics of interest to people who write. They also post articles and other resources to help writers craft their works, get published, market their material, and just feel inspired.

If you have other favorites not listed here, pass them along, and I'll add them to the list!