In Reference to Murder

Pen In Hand

E-books may be gaining in popularity while more bookstores seem to be closing every week, but there are still many indie bookstores supporting the crime fiction community and authors. Here are some of the upcoming signings and events in April where you can see some of your favorite writers in person, including rare tours by Sweden's Camilla Läckberg and Henning Mankell (with only 5 stops in the U.S.) and Venice, Italy-based author Donna Leon:

Aunt Agatha's, Ann Arbor, MI:  Libby Fischer Hellmann & Cara Black, D.E. Johnson, Rhys Bowen

Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA: Kate Atkinson, Camilla Läckberg, Henning Mankell

Booked for Murder, Madison, WI: Tony Hays

Book 'Em, South Pasadena, CA:  Carola Dunn

Centuries and Sleuths, Forest Park, IL: Cara Black, Donna Leon, Richard Davidson, Alex Matthews, Jeanne M. Dams,

M is for Mystery, San Mateo, CA:  Kate Atkinson, Carola Dunn, Janet Dawson and Teresa Grant, Camilla Läckberg, Linda Reid, Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, Joyce Carol Oates, Manuel Munoz, Henning Mankell, Rhys Bowen, Cara Black, Russell Hill, J.A. Jance, Charles Baxter, Meg Waite Clayton, Jason Goodwin, Jayne Ann Krentz, Luanne Rice.

Murder by the Book, Houston, TX:  Susan Wittig Albert, Susan Rogers Cooper, Michael Connelly, Cara Black, Libby Fischer Hellman, Leann Sweeney, Lisa Lutz & David Hayward, Diane Mott Davidson, Greg McCarthy, Rita Mae, Brown, Jason Goodwin, Michael Lee West, Phillip Kerr, Joe Lansdale, Michael Haskins, Dan Wells, Amanda Stevens, Martha Wells

Murder on the Beach, Delray Beach, FL: Wendy Dingwall

Mysteries to Die For, Thousand Oaks, CA:  Camilla Läckberg, Judi McCoy, Lisa Lutz & David Hayward, Jason Goodwin

Mysterious Bookshop, New York City: Nathan Larson, Persia Walker, Jessica Speart

Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego, CA: Carol Costa, Brett Battles, Susan Goldstein, Linda Wisdom, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, Carola Dunn, Lisa Lutz & David Hayward, Nancy Holder, Cindy Pon, Dr. Linda Reid, Thomas Matthews, John Vorhaus workshop, Ronald E. Feist, Peter Orullian, Dan Wells, Linda O. Johnston, J.A. Jance, Jason Goodwin, John Flanagan

Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmond, PA: Nancy Martin, Hallie Ephron, Lisa Scottoline, Stuart Woods, and the authors of stories in Pittsburgh Noir

Mystery on Main Street, Brattleboro, VT:  Ken Wishnia

Once Upon a Crime Books, Minneapolis, MN: Write of Spring IX - Meet four dozen local authors, purchase the latest new crime fiction, and meet special guests, Jon & Ruth Jordan; also Libby Fischer Hellmann, Camilla Läckberg, Virginia Lowell, Larry Millett, Philip Kerr, Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, Lisa Scottoline

One More Page, Falls Church, VA: Beth Groundwater, M.L. Malcolm

Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, AZ: C.J. Box, Michael Connelly, Jean Auel, Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, Brett Battles, Don Winslow, Ridley Pearson, Jason Goodwin, Philip Kerr, Joe R. Lansdale, Daniel Abraham, Lisa Scottoline, Diane Mott Davidson, Stuart Woods, Brent Ghelfi, Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

Politics and Prose, Washington, DC:  Jacqueline Winspear, Henning Mankell, Louis Bayard, Donna Leon, Anthony Horowitz

Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Seattle, WA: Kate Atkinson, Jacqueline Winspear, Camilla Läckberg, Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, Mary Daheim, Amanda Quick, Kevin O'Brien, Carola Dunn

Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore, Minneapolis, MN: Doug Hulick, Dan Wells, Larry Correia

Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA:  Camilla Läckberg, John Vorhaus, Jacqueline Winspear, Lauren Willig, Lisa Lutz and David Heyward, Philip Kerr, Jason Goodwin

Remembering an Icon

Crime fiction author, editor and critic H.R.F. Keating has died at the age of 84. There are many notices and tributes already up on the Web, including the Rap Sheet, Mike Ripley for The Guardian, Mystery Fanfare, Shots Magazine and The Telegraph. I had featured his novel Is Skin Deep, Is Fatal just a month ago for Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books. Keating is also known for his listing of personal favorites in Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books (through 1986), a fine list indeed of books you should seek out (an update in 2000 was created jointly with Mike Ripley).

Although Keating didn't include his own novels on that list, while you're adding his suggestions to your TRB pile, add some of the titles in Keating's series featuring Indian policeman Inspector Ganesh Ghote. If you want to start at the beginning of the Ghote saga, look for The Perfect Murder, which won the CWA Gold Dagger and was made into a film in 1988. 

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

The remake of The Thin Man, based on Dashiell Hammett's classic novel with Nick and Nora Charles, appears to be full steam ahead, with author and screenwriter Jerry Stahl hired to craft the script. Johnny Depp is the driving force behind the project, as both producer and star.

A film adaptation taken from Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is looking more and more likely, too, as Connelly is in talks with Yellow Bird, the same Swedish film company behind the Stieg Larsson crime novel trilogy.

Katherine Heigl's film portrayal of bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is still in the works, but the studio is moving the premiere from this summer to January 2012. The story is taken from the 1994 novel One for the Money by author Janet Evanovich. (Hat tip to Omnimystery.)

Robert De Niro will star in the upcoming cop drama Freelancers, directed by Jessy Terrero. Joining him in the cast is Curtis Jackson, playing the son of a slain NYPD officer who joins the Police Academy and is taken under the wing of his father's former partner Captain Vic Sarcone (De Niro), only to be pulled into a rogue street vice task force. Actor Forest Whitaker is also in talks to join the production.

TV

The Sheriff Longmire series by author Craig Allen Johnson being adapted for a TV pilot has added Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) to the cast. She'll play a deputy opposite Wyoming Sheriff Longmire (Matrix actor Robert Taylor), to be joined by fellow castmates Lou Diamond Phillips, Bailey Chase (Saving Grace) and Cassidy Freeman (Smallville).

Shots Magazine has more information on the two-part ITV dramatization of Sophie Hannah's Point of Rescue (retitled Case Sensitive), premiering May 2-3 in the UK. Olivie Williams stars in the lead role of DS Charlie Zailer, with Darren Boyd playing DC Simon Waterhouse. Rounding out the cast are Rupert Graves and Amy Beath Hayes. BBC Worldwide has picked up international distribution, so look for it to appear in the U.S. at some future date.

Elizabeth Foxwell makes note of a new series on Canada's Showcase TV titled Endgame, which features an agoraphobic chessmaster as sleuth. She includes links to a trailer and review, and points out some other chess ties to crime fiction.

Rizzoli and Isles has a new recurring cast member. Chris Vance from Prison Break will play Sgt. Major Charles "Casey" Jones, an old flame of Rizzoli's (Angie Harmon) who comes back into her life just as she's struggling to recover from being shot and nearly killed in the line of duty. The season two opener is scheduled for July 11th.

The Canadian drama Rookie Blue, a summer hit for ABC last year, also returns for a second season, beginning June 16th. The show follows the professional and personal lives of five rookie cops as they navigate their first years on the job, and stars Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith, Charlotte Sullivan, Enuka Okuma, Travis Milne, Ben Bass and Eric Johnson.

TNT has renewed critically the acclaimed drama Southland for a 4th season, ordering 10 new episodes. The network also greenlighted 10 episodes of a new drama, Perception, starring Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) as Dr. Geoffrey Pierce, an eccentric neuroscientist who helps the federal government crack difficult cases. The cast includes Rachael Leigh Cook (She's All That), as FBI agent Kate Rossi, Pierce's former student and the person responsible for recruiting him to work for the government, and Kelly Rowan (The O.C.) as Natalie Vincent, Pierce's best friend and his intellectual equal. The show is expected to premiere in 2012.

PODCASTS/RADIO

WGVU interviewed Harlan Coben, with the author discussing his latest Myron Bolitar novel, Live Wire.

Ian Rankin was one of the authors chosen to talk about the craft of writing for The Guardian, and admits he's "really not in control at all of what I'm writing. It's almost as though before I start writing there's a shape sitting there that I've not seen yet, and when I start to write the novel the shape will reveal itself to me, the novel will decide which way it wants to go."

THEATER

Agatha Christie—in Chinese! Two institutions in Shanghai, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and the Shanghai Mousetrap Drama Studio, have been authorized to produce a total of 19 Chinese stage versions of various Christie novels.

Mystery Week!

Mayor Bloomberg is declaring the week of April 25th as Mystery Week in New York City, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Edgar Awards presented by the Mystery Writers of America. Some of the events already scheduled include:

Monday, April 25th
8–10pm - FREE - Bar 82 at 149 2nd Avenue
Bar 82 Literary Series presents writers from Mystery Writers of America's NY Chapter who will read from new books. Featured authors include Megan Abbott, Peter Blauner, Jane Cleland, Stefanie Pintoff, Charles Salzberg, Persia Walker

Tuesday, April 26th
6-8pm - FREE - The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren St.
Mystery Writers of America launch party for their newest anthology, The Rich and the Dead, edited by Nelson DeMille. 

Wednesday, April 27
All day - Lighthouse International, 111 E 59th St, advance registration required
2011 Edgar Week Symposium: "65 Years of Edgar: The Past, Present and Future of Mystery Writing"

Thursday, April 28
Reception: 6:30 -7:30 pm • Dinner & Awards 7:30-11:00pm
The Edgar Awards - 65th Gala Banquet at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, East 42nd at Lexington Ave.
The annual black tie gala celebrating the best and brightest in crime fiction, non-fiction, plays and television.

Friday's Forgotten Books - Wycliffe and the Three Toed Pussy

For all the writers out there who are getting a late start in life, the author of my FFB pick for today should be an inspiration. W.J. Burley started his career as an engineer before going back to college to study zoology and becoming head of the biology department at Newquay School in Cornwall. But he'd always wanted to write, and finally saw his first novel published when he was 51.

He said his intention was "to write interesting detective fiction which did not exploit extreme forms of violence or sex and was relatively free of four-letter words. In doing this I thought I might help fill a gap that was left in the market by the gradual disappearance of the traditional whodunnit." His first effort, Wycliffe and the Three-Toed Pussy, was published in 1968, but it's clear Burley continued in the traditions of the Golden Age of detective fiction from the decades preceding.

The Wycliffe of the title is Detective Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, a man who admits he'd never really felt like a policeman and often wondered why he joined, hating discipline, regimentation, and sometimes order—although he hates violence more. He also loses confidence in himself at the beginning of a case, "avoiding his subordinates for fear of earning their mute criticism, and, forced into their company, he became agressively dictatorial. Those who knew him shrugged. 'He'll be all right when he's run in.'"

Many of the Golden Age hallmarks are present in the novel: fair play, a rural country setting, a whodunnit-style murder, a small, closed group of suspects and the denouement at the end with Wycliffe gathering the prime suspects together. True to Burley's philosophy, there are no four-letter words and no extreme violence or sex, although sex does play a starring role in the form of the titular victim, Pussy Wells, both by her lifestyle and the double-entendre of her name.

The book opens with Wycliffe examining the body of Wells, an attractive 26-year-old who writes crossword puzzles for a living. She's been shot, and only one of her shoes and stockings removed, revealing a deformed foot with three toes. It doesn't take long in the investigation for Wycliffe to discover that Wells was a very complicated and troubled young woman, intelligent but manipulative and cruel. She was also quite promiscuous, using men as her puppets, thereby creating a ready pool of suspects in the small village of Kergwyns. As Wycliffe digs deeper, he links another murder, an attempted murder and an alleged suicide to Pussy's death, all leading to the ultimate resolution and one which leaves "a deeper impression on the superintendent than any in his experience."

Burley went on to publish another seventeen Wycliffe books, as well as six other books including one sci-fi title that Martin Edwards has mentioned in his blog (where he aptly refers to Wycliffe as the "English Simenon").  In 1993, one of the Wycliffe stories was made into a television pilot starring Jack Shepherd, and proved successful enough to inspire 37 episodes over the next five years. Unfortunately, as Edwards notes, people tend to remember Shepherd and his portrayal of Wycliffe, yet have largely forgotten W.J. Burley.

A Mini Mystery Melange

Elizabeth Foxwell, the editor of Clues: A Journal of Detection, tells us that the latest issue has just been published. Articles in Volume 29, No. 1 include  Maria Hebert-Leiter on detecting crime after Hurricane Katrina, via James Lee Burke and New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith; Stephen Knight on the work of Australian author Peter Temple; Linda S. Maier on similarities between Jorge Luis Borges and Wilkie Collins; Rachel Schaffer on sources of moral authority in Julia Spencer-Fleming's series; and Emanuela Gutkowski's explanation using linguistic theory of just how Agatha Christie fools the reader regarding the murderer's identity in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. And more...

From Craig Sisterson over at Crime Watch comes word of a new "definitive" biography on John le Carré by Adam Sisman, planned for release in 2014 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Sisman says: "David Cornwell (John le Carré's real name) is a rich subject for a biographer. His writing is intensely personal, and permeated by strongly-held values. From the moment when his identity became public, readers around the world have speculated about the degree to which he has drawn on his own experiences in his fiction, in particular on his career with the intelligence services. His semi-autobiographical novel A Perfect Spy provided tantalising clues to his extraordinary childhood."

From the Book Bitch: Karin Slaughter's recent campaign "Save the Libraries" has garnered the author the 2011 Silver Bullet Award to be presented at ThrillerFest in July. In addition to ThrillerMaster R. L. Stine, 2010 ThrillerMaster Ken Follett, and Spotlight Authors Diana Gabaldon, John Lescroart, and Robert Crais, this year's conference includes AgentFest, the largest event of its kind in the world with over 55 agents.

Jane Friedman posted an interview with Lawrence Block that originally appeared in the October 1982 issue of Writer's Digest magazine. It ran under the headline "Crockpot Macramé" and explains why the author believes writing can be learned, but it can't be taught.

The Night Season

There haven't been quite as many books about violent female serial killers as there have been males, one reason Chelsea Cain's Portland-based series featuring the "Beauty Killer" Gretchen Lowell, has intrigued readers and reviewers alike. Of course, female serial killers do exist in real-life, e.g. Eileen Wuornos, Amelia Dyer, Belle Gunness, but the standard FBI profile is more likely to include a middle-aged white male psychopath.

Cain ups the ante in her series by creating a twisted and disturbing physical and emotional relationship between Gretchen and the detective she captured and tortured, Archie Sheridan, leaving him with a valentine-shaped scar she carved into his chest with an X-Acto knife and even worse psychological scars. The New York Times Book Review's Kathryn Harrison called the first book, Heartsick, a "dizzying novel. Lurid and suspenseful with well-drawn characters, plenty of grisly surprises and tart dialogue," and Stephen King placed both it and its follow-up, Sweetheart, on his ten best books of 2008 list.

Cain says her interest in serial killers all started with the Green River Killer. "He was our local serial murderer. They found his first victims in 1982. I was ten years old. He went on to kill dozens of women, mostly prostitutes, many of them teenagers. It was the first time that I was aware that there was that sort of danger in the world—That you could go out one day, and they might find you the next day, dead, naked in a river. His main killing ground was about an hour and half from the town I grew up in. But I still thought about him when I was walking my dog alone at night. I followed the stories in the newspaper and I knew that there was a task force assigned to catch him. I liked that idea—a team of professionals who were working really hard to keep me safe from the bogeyman."

In addition to Gretchen and Sheridan, the third character fleshing out the A-list cast in Cain's series is journalist Susan Ward, who takes over a primary narrative role in the latest installment, The Night Season. Sheridan is still part of the action, but Gretchen is present more in Sheridan's psyche than in person, locked away as she is behind bars. Night Season starts with a flashback to 1948 when the railroad town of Vanport, Oregon, is washed away when a dike breaks. After a skeleton is found 60 years later in present day Portland during new flooding of the Willamette River, Susan believes it may be related to the historic Vanport flood.

Detective Archie Sheridan is called in to investigate when a new body is found on a carousel in an amusement park, apparently drowned and then dragged from the river to the park. A brown puncture wound is discovered on the woman's palm, which leads to the realization that this drowning and two others are actually murders caused by a rare poison with an unusual delivery method. Soon, the recent murders, the Vanport skeleton and a young boy rescued from the raging river by Sheridan all become part of the same case. Sheridan and Susan work together to track down the culprit, all the while dancing around their growing  feelings for each other.

Cain says with this book she decided to write a page-turner...with less stabbing. "It's a little different than the others, but still loads of fun (maybe even more fun), and you get to see the characters doing stuff they don't usually do." However, she hastens to reassure fans of the first three books that the beautiful, complicated and twisted Gretchen will be returning to full force in book five, or as Gretchen herself says to Sheridan, "we're not done yet."

What About the Afterlife?

What do the above have in common? They're all 1,000 years old or older (in the case of the Cuneiform stone, close to 4,000 years old). As the publishing world breathlessly awaits the latest eDevelopment, I find myself wondering about the future of today's books. I embrace digital technology every day, enjoy eBooks and believe they have a variety of uses and loads of potential for readers and writers.

However. Ask my audio engineer hubster how easily it is to get music or audio off an old 8-track tape or cassette. How many times has he tried to rescue something from a reel-to-reel tape, only to have it disintigrate? How many records has he painstakingly restored with a laser turntable, to find some parts just can't be decoded? DAT tape? Hardly anyone has DAT players anymore. CDs certainly aren't permanent.

Even in today's eBook realm, not every book can be read on every device due to the differences in software, hardware and formatting (.azf? .opf? tr2? chm? PDF?). Will our ancestors a thousand years from now have the technology to scan these binary bits when our current technology seems as ancient as a stone and chisel?

What do you think? How permanent are today's books—digital or print (those not published on acid-free or high-quality paper)?

Media Murder Update

Just in:  Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes is teaming up with director Neil LaBute for a film adaptation of Agatha Christie's standalone novel Crooked House, which the author said was one of her favorite novels. Fellowes is also the creative force behind ITV's current hit period drama Downton Abbey. Filming is scheduled to start in London later this year.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Samuel L. Jackson  (due to start shooting The Avengers) has signed to on to star in the indie crime movie The Samaritan as a man who leaves prison after two decades only to find himself caught up in a life of crime again. Director David Weaver said the project is inspired by British crime thrillers such as Sexy Beast, The Crying Game and Mona Lisa. Previously signed actors include Luke Kirby (Law and Order) and Ruth Negga (Misfits).

Tyler Perry was already cast as Alex Cross in the upcoming thriller I, Alex Cross, based on the James Patterson character and novels. Now, Matthew Fox (formerly of Lost) has signed on to play the villain, Michael Sullivan, also known as "the Butcher of Sligo," a man who kills for both money and thrills. Mark Moss wrote the script that he and director Rob Cohen have changed "to include twists that weren't in the novel."

Oliver Stone's adaptation of the Don Winslow novel Savages is close to a distribution deal. Stone is looking at actors Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson to portray the two Laguna-based pot growers arm-twisted into working for a Mexican cartel when they kidnap O, the free spirited best friend of the growers. Selma Hayek is in talks to play the cartel matriarch, "an iron-fisted beauty who becomes intrigued and practically maternal over the kidnapped gal."

Now that Liam Neeson and Luc Besson have worked out scheduling problems for Taken 2, Neeson is apparently close to signing  a deal to reprise his signature role as Bryan Mills, the retired government operative who took on the Paris underworld to free his kidnapped daughter. Production may start by the end of this year or the beginning of 2012.

TV

Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) will play the lead in CBS' untitled Ed Redlich/John Bellucci pilot, to be directed by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Niels Arden Oplev. The pilot centers on Carrie Wells (Poppy Montgomery), a former detective and now nursing-home volunteer, with the special ability to remember everything. Walsh plays Detective Al Burns, the chief of a crack team of NYPD detectives, who used to partner with Carrie both professionally and romantically, but when her unique ability destroyed their relationship, he got engaged to another woman. When Carrie's neighbor is murdered, he finds himself once again enlisting her help as a consultant.

Grant Show has landed a recurring guest star role on USA's Burn Notice, playing a CIA operative named Max opposite Jeffrey Donovan's Michael Westen. He'll appear in the fifth season premiere, titled "Company Man," as well as in two more episodes. USA hasn't announced a premiere date for the new season of Burn Notice, although the prequel film is scheduled for April 17th.

Former Numb3rs star Alimi Ballard and ex-NFL'er Matthew Willig have been cast as two recurring NCIS agents who join the regular team in the hunt for a psychopath called the Port-to-Port Killer. Willig plays Special Agent Simon Cade, a hulking but friendly federal agent with a photographic memory who has an Ivy League education to go along with his intimidating presence. Ballard plays Special Agent Gayne Levin, a weathered, well-traveled federal agent who's just happy to be back in Washington.

Jimmy Smits has bounced back quickly from his recently short-lived Outlaw drama on NBC, signing to star in Special Investigations L.A. The pilot/series looks at Los Angeles through multiple perspectives, including law enforcement, the justice system, city hall and the criminal underworld, with Smits playing Alfonso Morales, the ambitious Los Angeles mayor who created the Special Investigations Unit.

The video-rental company Netflix is making Hollywood nervous in many ways, not the least of which is the announcement it's acquired the political thriller drama series House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey. The deal marks Netflix's first foray into original programming to be distributed exclusively via the company's Internet subscription service. Originally written as a novel by former U.K. Conservative Party Chief of Staff Michael Dobbs, House of Cards explores the ruthless underside of British politics at the end of the Thatcher era.

Art imitates life for Law & Order: Los Angeles (which the network is shortening to LOLA), with an episode loosely based on the murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen. LOLA's take on the story centers on the murder of a Hollywood stylist in what appears to be a random robbery gone bad, although the team soon learns that it was a murder for hire, with dark family secrets from the past as the motive for the killing.

PODCASTS/RADIO

If you hurry, you can still catch the first episode on BBC Radio 7 online of PD James' A Taste for Death with poetic Commander Adam Dalgliesh's new unit investigating an unlikely double murder in a London church. The radio drama stars Richard Derrington. There are currently six episodes available, although the end date for Part One happens later today.

Jim Widner's Radio Detective Story Hour continues its look at spy-detective series, with Part Three showcasing Bulldog Drummond from 1941. In the beginning it starred George Coulouris, then later Ned Wever as this decidedly British spy-detective moved to America for radio adventures.

Frank Calabrese Jr. talks to NPR on the show "Fresh Air" about his role in the sting that brought down his father, one of the central figures in the Chicago mafia, and 14 other mafia members. He's written a new memoir, Operation Family Secrets.