In Reference to Murder

Quote of the Day

Happy Thanksgiving

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture "The Old House" by Su Blackwell

Frances's oldest and most coveted literary prize the Goncourt Award has been given to 62-year crime writer Pierre Lemaitre for his lost-generation novel Au revoir la-haut (Goodbye Up There), about people displaced during the First World War.

Bestselling crime authors Michael Connelly and Martin Cruz Smith "will reveal how they've kept readers at the edge of their seats for decades" at a talk in New York on December 4. For ticket information, check out the New York Public Library information page.

One of the remaining "Big Five" publishers, Randon House (or "Random Penguin," as many like to call it), is pulling together crime fiction-related titles from across its various publishing divisions to create the website Dead Good. The site "creates one crime brand for all of Random House" and will cover film and TV as well as books.

The British Library is going to publish two more rare Golden Age novels. They are the first two published detective stories by John Bude, one of the founders of the Crime Writers' Association, and will feature introductions by author Martin Edwards.

To commemorate the winner of the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2013, Malcolm Mackay's How a Gunman Says Goodbye, Deanston Single Malt Scotch Whisky is offering a bottle of 12 year old whisky by all the nominated authors. (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)

The Q&A roundup this week includes Jeffery Deaver talking with fellow author Declan Burke about Deaver's latest book, The Kill Room; Carolyn Hart joined the Femmes Fatales for a discussion about "classic mysteries"; and Carolyn Mulford stopped by Writers Who Kill to chat about her "Show Me" series.

Stumped about what to serve up for your Thanksgiving dinner? The Mystery Lover's Kitchen has a few recipe ideas including this one for Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing. Or, how about some pumpkin French Toast for Thanksgiving morning?

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Colin Firth has signed on to star in the adaptation of French author Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel Three to Kill. Firth will play a salesman whose quiet life is shattered when he's attacked while on vacation. Bewildered, he goes on the run, communicating with his family by telegram while he tries to track down his mysterious pursuers.  (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

Simon Pegg ("Scotty" in the Star Trek reboot) has signed on to reprise his role as IMF resident computer/gadget whiz Benji Dunn for Mission Impossible 5.

Vulture unveiled the first trailer for the film based on the non-fiction book Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. Based on the true story about three murdered boys and the controversial trial that followed, the project stars Reese Witherspoon, playing one of the mothers of the murdered boys, and Colin Firth as a detective dedicated to making sense of the bizarre clues of the murder case. 

A trailer was also posted for the film Sabotage, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The project was originally tited Ten (loosely based on Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians mystery novel) and follows a DEA taskforce who start getting picked off one by one after a successful raid on a drug cartel's safehouse.

TELEVISION

How Sherlock Changed the World is a two-hour special airing on PBS Tuesday, November 26, 9:00-11:00 pm ET. It explores the impact of the fictional crime detective on real forensic techniques.

Also on Tuesday, the 26th, TMC's A Night at the Movies airs a new documentary looking at how cops and robbers have played an important part of film history. Crime authors/editors appearing on the show include James Ellroy, Heywood Gould, Otto Penzler, Chuck Hogan, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Don Winslow, Joseph Wambaugh, Randy Jurgensen, Philip Kerr, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Karin Slaughter, and Robert Daley.

FX is developing a mini-series about one of the most dangerous gangs of the Old West, the Dalton Brothers. The project is titled Desperadoes and is based on the 1979 novel by Ron Hansen.

The CW network is developing Painted Girls, a historical series set in 1880s Paris. Based on the book by Cathy Marie Buchanan, the story follows "the turbulent and exciting world of La Belle Epoque – decadence, poverty, sex, drugs and a serial killer running rampant throughout the city."

Fifteen years ago, actor Laurence Fishburne starred n an HBO movie as Socrates Fortlow, based on the character and novels by Walter Mosley. Now, Fishburne will be playing the character again, only this time it's for an HBO series titled The Right Mistake. Mosley's Fortlow is an ex-convict seeking redemption after serving 27 years in prison

Good news for Foyle's War fans:  ITV has ordered an eighth season of the post-WWII procedural. Michael Kitchen will return as Christopher Foyle, who continues to be immersed in the dangerous world of espionage as a Senior Intelligence Officer for MI5. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

CBS has promoted Chi McBride to a show regular on Hawaii Five-0, playing SWAT Captain Lou Grover (a character from the original series).

The HBO movie about real-life Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff appears to be picking up some steam. Robert De Niro was already signed to play the disgraced financier, but HBO recently hired Lie To Me creator Samuel Baum as the new writer, and HBO also optioned a second book, Truth And Consequences: Life Inside The Madoff Family by Laurie Sandell to use as material in the project.

BBC One will show the Australian Doctor Blake Mysteries, featuring Craig McLachlan as Doctor Lucien Blake, airing daily  Monday to Friday, beginning today.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
 
The Crime and Science Radio program coming up this weekend on November 30th is "Private investigators: Who are these guys?" with special guest David Corbett

THEATER

A stage production of Strangers on a Train, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, opened at the Gielgud Theater in London. It runs through February 22 and stars Laurence Fox and Jack Huston.

The whodunnit musical Murder for Two is currently playing off-Broadway at New World Stages. The two-man play features Brett Ryback as up-and-coming detective Marcus and Jeff Blumenkrantz as close to a dozen characters, while the two accompany each other on piano.

Quote of the Day

FFB: A Gentleman Called by Dorothy Salisbury Davis

Dorothy Salisbury Davis (who turned 97 in April 2013) is considered as one of the Grand Dames of crime fiction, but she didn't start out as a writer, working first in advertising and as a librarian. She published her first novel in 1949, The Judas Cat, and has since authored 20 novels and received seven Edgar Award nominations. She's been a big influence on the crime fiction community, serving as Myster Writers of America grandmaster in 1985 and on the initial steering committee for the formation of Sisters in Crime (along with Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, Betty Francis, Sara Paretsky, Nancy Pickard and Susan Dunlap).

By her own account, Davis is an "odd fit" in crime fiction, unhappy with her perceived inability to create a memorable series character and uncomfortable with violence and murder. But she's very happy creating villains, and has often commented that villains are much more fun to write about than heroes. Her themes trend more toward psychology than out-and-out detection and religious tensions are often found in her work, not surprising considering her own background (as a Roman Catholic who left the church).

A Gentleman Called from 1958 was nominated for an Edgar in 1959 and included in The Essential Mystery Lists by Roger Sobin. It features characters who were to be featured in three books, including attorney Jimmie Jarvis and his housekeeper, Mrs. Norris, and the District Attorney's chief investigator, Jasper Tally.

The story starts off revolving around middle-aged bachelor Theodore Adkins, who is slapped with a paternity suit. Adkins is also from a wealthy family who are old clients of Jarvis' law firm, which prompts Jarvis to take the case. At the same time, Jasper Tally is involved in an investigation into the strangulation of wealthy Arabella Sperling and the theft of her diamond pin. Eventuallly, the two plots converge around several other unsolved murders involving matrimony-minded women, which threatens to ensnare Mrs. Norris and put her own life in danger.

Salisbury is adept at characterization and using dialogue to flesh out her characters. The psychological underpinnings of A Gentleman Called are as important, or really more so, than the whodunnit aspect, but it's entertaining to follow her characters through their interactions or, as Kirkus noted, enjoy the "Insidious indirection which gives the novel a crafty glint."

Mystery Melange

Book sculpture by J.Cloutier

The Romantic Times Book Reviews announced the finalists for its 2013 Reviewers’ Choice Awards, including five categories of mystery and thriller works (contemporary, historical, suspense/thriller/first mystery, and amateur detective). For all the nominees, check out the RT website link above.

Thanks to Pulp Curry for pointing out that Contrappasso, an Australian magazine of international writing and poetry, has a noir issue out. Focusing on both noir fiction and film, there are essays on The Maltese Falcon, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Dashiell Hammett, Charles Willeford and Walter Mosley.

Lee Lofland, author, former law officer, and the driving force behind the Writers' Police Academy, annnouced that the 2014 WPA guest of honor will be Michael Connelly. More information about the conference and registration will be posted on the website soon, including the Saturday night banquet, "An Evening With Michael Connelly."

The next issue of Mystery Readers Journal (Volume 29:4) will focus on Medical Mysteries. Editor Janet Rudolph is looking for articles, reviews and "author! author!" essays between 500 and 1,500 words. The deadline is January 5.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Above Suspicion" by Ken Tufford. Editor Gerald So also put out a call for love-themed crime poems to be published in February 2014.

Chris Rhatigan, Editor of All Due Respect, took the "Six Question" quiz and revealed some changes to the magazine, including a new featured author section in each issue, where an elite crime fiction author will contribute a short story and an interview. There will also be reviews, editors' choices for new and classic books, and other non-fiction.

The University of Gdansk and the State School of Higher Professional Education in Elblag are presenting their 2nd International Postgraduate Conference September 11-13, 2014. The topic: Crime Fiction: Here and There and Again. The aim of the conference is to discuss crime fiction across national borders, across cultures, across languages, across genres, across arts and across different media. They are currenty accepting papers that deal with one or more points related to the theme, which Ayo Onatade has listed on the Shots Magazine blog.

The new specialty publisher 221B Baker Street Press LLC is soliciting submissions. The company publishes only Sherlock Holmes pastiches in both digital and paperback formats, whether it's novels, novellas, short story collections, oranthologies. For more information and guidelines, check out the link here.

For your next vacation: the New York Times featured literary-minded hotels, adding that "many new hotels aim to distinguish themselves with old-fashioned pages that guests can actually turn, housing libraries that range from historic collections to trendy ones."

Fair is Fair

The international Miami Book Fair is taking place this week, up through Sunday, November 24th, with headliner guest Dan Brown. Crime fiction events include a panel at noon on Saturday, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America, which includes Libby Fischer Hellman (Havana Lost); Miriam Auerbach (Dirty Harriet), Deborah Sharp (Mama Gets Trashed), and Fausto Canel (Dire Straits). Then on Sunday at 11 a.m.,  there's a panel with Jeff Lindsay (Dexter’s Final Cut), Peter de Jonge (Buried on Avenue B); Tim Dorsey (The Riptide Ultra-Glide); and Bill Petrocelli (The Circle of Thirteen).

Across the Pond, there are two other terrific events taking place this weekend, including:

November 22-23, 2013
Irish Crime Fiction Festival
Trinity College, Dublin
Scheduled authors include Declan Burke, Jane Casey, Paul Charles, John Connolly, Conor Fitzgerald, Alan Glynn, Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt, Kevin McCarthy, Brian McGilloway, Eoin McNamee, Niamh O’Connor, Louise Phillips, Peter Quinn, Michael Russell and Stuart Neville; and Michael Connelly will be interviewed by John Connolly.

November 21-24, 2013
Iceland Noir
Reykjavik, Iceland
This inaugural Iceland crime fiction event is designed to be "informal" with free admission and the chance to rub elbows with authors like Iceland's Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jonasson, Sigurjón Pálsson; British authors Quentin Bates and Michael Ridpath, who write crime series set in Iceland; and visiting authors, including Ann Cleeves and Susan Moody.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

DreamWorks is tapping director Scott Waugh for an untitled film said to be an international heist project involving a man who needs to pull of a seemingly impossible job and recruits his "off the rails" brother.

Via Omnimystery News: Crime author Jason Statham is set to star in a new film adaptation of the book Viva La Madness by J. J. Connolly, with Connolly writing the adapted screenplay. The main character in the film was first portrayed by Daniel Craig in the 2004 film Layer Cake.

Bill Kennedy is in negotiations to write the script for the snowbound thriller Cyberstorm, based on Matthew Mather’s self-published e-book. The story centers on an average New York family trying to survive as society comes crashing down both online and off, and New York is cut off from the rest of the world.

2013's White House action thriller Olympus Has Fallen is getting a sequel. Stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett and Radha Mitchell all return, although the plot moves to London, where the President, his trusted Secret Service bodyguard, and an English MI6 agent are the only ones who can stop a plot to take down London during the Prime Minister's funeral.  

The British/American writing team of Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani have sold the thriller script From Here To Albion to Participant Media. Set in a coastal English town, the story follows the aftermath of a tragic accident and the malevolent stranger seeking revenge on the perpetrators and the detective who covered it up.

Tony Winner Ellen Barkin, Jim Parsons and Isla Fisher are in talks for the thriller Visions, which centers on a pregnant woman who joins her husband at his vineyard home and begins to have "unsettling visions."

A trailer was released for the upcoming American Hustle, starring Christian Bale as a con artist and Bradley Cooper as an FBI agent who go head-to-head in the crime drama, based on the FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mission Impossible: 5 has been given a Christmas 2015 release date.

TELEVISION

The co-creators of Homeland and Heroes are bringing an action adventure event series to USA Network. The six-episode miniseries Dig centers on an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem who uncovers a conspiracy 2000 years in the making that threatens to change the course of history.

Netflix announced it ordered a fourth and final season of the drama The Killing. AMC has canceled the show twice, and Netflix will pick up six episodes to officially wrap up the direction of the show.

Paramount Television is adapting the 1990 film Ghost for a series. Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner will co-write the pilot script (based on the original screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, which won an Academy Award). The plot follows the ghost of a murdered man whose spirit doesn't die and teams up with a pyshic to avenge his death and offer closure for his fiancée. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)

The CBS procedural The Mentalist promoted actress Emily Swallow to a series regular. She makes her debut in the December 1st episode as Kim Fischer, a mysterious woman who will have an influence on Jane's life. Other cast changes include the exits of Amanda Righetti and Owain Yeoman, with Rockmond Dunbar, who will play FBI Supervisory Agent Dennis Abbott, becoming a regular on the show.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Bestselling author Patricia Cornwell joined WTVR to talk about her Kay Scarpetta series.

NPR's Diane Rehm Show welcomed John Grisham to discuss his latest legal thriller, Sycamore Row.

Coming up this weekend on Suspense Radio, November 23rd:  Kevin Finn, Susan Sloate and Beth Groundwater. On November 24th: Lesley Diehl. On Crime & Science Radio, Jan Burke interviews Cat Warren.

THEATER

The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles is currently staging a production of Play Dead, written by Todd Robbins and the magician Teller (of "Penn & Teller" fame). Teller also directs Robbins in the play, described as "a mesmerizing and terrorizing look at life, death and the horrific wonder between. Weaving together storytelling, illusion and telepathy proves that there is nothing more arousing than unholy resurrection and we're never so alive as when we’re scared to death."

Quote of the Day