In Reference to Murder

Happy 25th Birthday to Mystery Loves Company

 

Mystery Loves Company Booksellers in Oxford, Maryland, will celebrate its 25th birthday this year, which owner and co-founder Kathy Harig is commemorating with a party and book signing on July 4 reaturing author Fran White. The store, which opened in 1991 in Baltimore before moving to its present site in 2006, offers books on the Eastern Shore’s history, flora and fauna, and fiction for all ages, as well as an in-depth collection of mysteries, both new and gently used in hardback and paperback. The store also supports mystery authors throughout the mid-Atlantic with signings and by sponsoring special mystery events, as well as offering a monthly email newsletter of events, recommendations and new mystery titles. Even if you can't make it to the store in person, it recently added an online ordering system, so order a book today as a thank you and birthday tribute.

 

Mystery Melange

The Bouchercon Board of Directors announced that Otto Penzler is the recipient of its 2016 David Thompson Special Service Award for "extraordinary efforts to develop and promote the crime fiction field." Penzler is the proprietor of New York City’s The Mysterious Bookshop, the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975), and has edited numerous anthologies. He also published The Armchair Detective, a quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, in addition to many other contributions to the crime fiction genre. (HT to Mystery Fanfare.)

Foreword Reviews announced the IndieFab Award winners for 2016, including those in the Mystery and Thriller/Suspense categories. For both winners and finalists, check out the official IndieFab link.

The Ngaio Marsh Awards and Reykjavik City Library are offering booklovers a special Ngaio Marsh Awards edition on June 30 of the Library's popular "Dark Deeds" summer walking tours. The walks are centered on dark deeds of various kinds in Icelandic fiction, happening in or around Reykjavík, and give a taste of Icelandic crime fiction, ghost stories and history.

Crime Fiction Lover decided it was time to celebrate UK crime fiction rather than add to the Brexit debate with a listing of "12 Great British Cities, 12 Great British Novels."

Barry Forshaw penned an essay for The Independent adding more fuel to the literary fires that have burned lately for the feminine side of crime fiction. The piece, titled "Are we in a new Golden Age of women crime writers? The five new crime novels you must read," takes a closer look at novels by Ruth Ware, Megan Abbott, Sharon Bolton, Cecilia Ekbäck, and Helen Callaghan.

The New Yorker profiled James Renner’s book True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray and tackled the "serious problem" of internet sleuths, with a profile of amateur efforts at investigating crime, from Truman Capote to the podcast Serial. The essay noted that many such efforts are drawn to the most dramatic possibilities and ignore more tedious solutions.

Another New Yorker piece reviewed The Annals of Murder, a new reference work they called an "indispensable guide to early American murder," with its inventory of more than two hundred years of homicide. Reference lovers will appreciate "the bibliographies of all the pardon-seeking confessions, moralizing execution sermons, self-justifying stories crafted by law enforcement, tell-alls seeking pardons for the accused, and salacious trial transcripts revised and revisited by printers across multiple editions."

In a Q&A for Electric Literature, authors Emelie Schepp and Joakim Zander talked about what it means to be part of the "Nordic noir" literary legacy of Sjöwall, Mankell, and Larsson, about their writing influences, and about how they weave issues of immigration, refugees, ISIS, poverty and radicalization into the contemporary nordic landscape.

Barnes & Noble is betting on physical bookstores to improve profits and boost its bottom line, with a twist: it's opening new stores with cafés that serve beer and wine. Of the company’s four new prototype stores, the first will open in Eastchester, N.Y., in October with additional concept stores, whose footprint will be about 20%–25% smaller than a typical B&N superstore, planned for Edina, Minnesota, Folsom, California, and Loudon County in Virginia.

The Bookshy Books blog compiled "Six More Crime Novels by African Women Writers to Add to Your List."

Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy created a list of  "Top Boston crime novels" for The Strand Magazine.

Apparently, a Taylor Swift-themed graphic novella mystery is in the works, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign. The story is being penned by Larissa Zageris, with illustrations by Kitty Curran, and is envisioned as a modern-day Nancy Drew project.

The new weekly crime poem at the 5-2 is "Big Brother is Still Watching You" by Tonia Kalouria, and the latest monthly story at Beat to a Pulp is "Neighbors" by Mel Odom.

In the Q&A roundup, Omnimystery News welcomed Andrez Bergen to talk about his new crime noir, Black Sails, Disco Inferno; Criminal Element held a Q&A with Spencer Kope, author of Collecting the Dead; and Catherine Bruns stopped by Writers Who Kill to discuss her series with real estate agent Cindy York.

Blood on the Bayou

I was thrilled to learn one of my short stories was chosen for the upcoming Bouchercon Anthology. Here's the official press release for the book:

Bouchercon will be invading New Orleans for its annual world mystery convention this September where every year readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and other lovers of crime fiction gather for a weekend of education, entertainment, and fun! It is the world's premiere event bringing together all parts of the mystery and crime fiction community.

In conjunction with this year's event, Down & Out Books will be publishing BLOOD ON THE BAYOU: Bouchercon Anthology 2016 edited by Greg Herren.

"I am honored to have the opportunity to edit this outstanding collection of stories," said Herren, an award-winning author of mystery and suspense novels. "It demonstrates the deep appreciation each of the contributing authors has to their craft."

"This is the third year that we have had the privilege of publishing Bouchercon's official anthology," added Eric Campbell, publisher of Down & Out Books, "and I share in Greg's enthusiasm for these stories."

Nearly 100 authors blindly submitted a story for consideration by three industry professionals, who had the incredibly difficult task of narrowing the list down to just 22 stories. Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O'Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Mike Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey and Elaine Viets were chosen to have their stories included in the anthology. New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham will write the introduction.

Each of the selected authors contributed their stories to the anthology and the Bouchercon Committee and Down & Out Books have agreed that all proceeds from the sale of BLOOD ON THE BAYOU will go to support the New Orleans Public Library system and by extension readers and writers everywhere.

Founded in 2011, Down & Out Books (DownAndOutBooks.com) is an independent publisher of crime fiction based in Tampa, Florida.

Media Murder for Monday

Top o'the week means it's time once again for a quick look at news from the crime drama scene:

MOVIES

Two different movies based on the life of Agatha Christie are in the works, although they have to require approval from the Christie estate before going ahead. The Sony project is in talks with Alicia Vikanderto play a proto-feminist Christie uninterested in a traditional wife role (instead she intersects with the likes of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill). The Paramount version is eyeing Emma Stone to play the British literary icon, with the story postulating what happened to Christie during the 11 days she went missing in 1926.

Nordisk Film has acquired the remaining Danish language adaptation rights to Jussi Adler-Olsen’s bestselling "Department Q" book series. When finished, the  series will comprise ten volumes, and Nordisk Film expects to produce up to six films from that lineup.

Eli Roth is set to direct Death Wish, the MGM/Paramount remake of the 1974 hit, with Bruce Willis playing the reluctant vigilante made famous by Charles Bronson. Roth takes the job after the exit early last month of Big Bad Wolves helmers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, who left over creative differences when they wanted changes in a script Willis had signed off on.

Actor and Golden Globe nominee Michael Sheen is making his feature directorial debut with Green River Killer and will also star in the film. The movie is based on real-life serial killer Gary Ridgway (who was convicted of 49 murders in the Seattle area in the 1980s and 1990s) and the police detective Tom Jensen, who spent 20 years looking for the notorious killer. Sheen is adapting the project from the graphic novel Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jensen’s son Jeff Jensen and artist Jonathan Case.

John Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VIII and the Pacific Rim sequel), has been cast in Kathryn Bigelow’s next as-yet-untitled film, a crime drama written by Mark Boal for Annapurna. The picture that shoots this summer is set against the backdrop of Detroit in 1967 amid the city’s devastating riots that took place over five summer days.

Ben Affleck's next standalone Batman film is returning to its noir detective roots. According to the actor, "the world's greatest detective aspect of Batman is more present in this story (Justice League) than it was in the last one and it would probably be expanded upon further in the Batman movie that I direct. All great Batman stories are, at their heart, detective stories, almost noir movies in a way. It feels like The Maltese Falcon."

The new Inferno trailer was released, with Tom Hanks once again starring as the symbologist Robert Langdon from Dan Brown's novels who must solve a deadly puzzle to avert a global plague.

TELEVISION

Netflix and Canadian broadcaster CBC have teamed up to greenlight Alias Grace, a six-hour miniseries inspired by the true story of convicted murderer Grace Marks and based on Margaret Atwood’s titular novel.The story follows Grace Marks, a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer and his housekeeper in 1843. James was hanged while Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment. Grace became one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of 1840s Canada for her supposed role in the sensational double murder, and was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail.

BBC One announced they are adapting Agatha Christie's The Witness for the Prosecution, which was originally a short story before being adapted into a play and later a 1957 movie starring Marlene Dietrich. Set in 1920s London, the story focuses on the murder of an heiress and the main suspect, the man set to inherit the family fortune should she perish, who believes he can prove his innocence. 

Hulu announced the premiere date of Hugh Laurie's new ten-part psychological thriller Chance, set for Wednesday, October 19.  Laurie will star as forensic neuropsychiatrist Dr. Eldon Chance, who is dragged against his better wishes into an extremely dangerous world of corrupt cops, mistaken identities and mental illness. The cast also includes Gretchen Mol as Jaclyn Blackstone, the abused wife of a detective (Paul Adelstein) whose possible dissociative identity disorder causes big problems for the doc. Chance was created by Desperate Housewives and Bates Motel writer/director Alexandra Cunningham and author Kem Nunn, who wrote the novel that the show is based on.  

Graceland alum Vanessa Ferlito has signed on to CBS’ NCIS: New Orleans as a new series regular for the upcoming third season. Ferlito will play a sexy, tough and acerbic FBI Special Agent who is sent down to New Orleans from DC to investigate the NCIS team. A by-the-book bureaucrat, she’ll bring a completely different way of doing things (as well as a mysterious past) to New Orleans, which will put her at odds with both the team and the town.  

Regina King, who won an Emmy for the first season of ABC’s American Crime, is the first cast member to sign on for the upcoming third installment of John Ridley’s critically-acclaimed anthology series. In the first two seasons, the drama tackled such tough issues as race and class though the prism of crimes committed, although the story line for the third outing has yet to be announced. Fellow stars Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton have yet to sign, but they too are expected to return in new roles.  

The Good Wife alumna Archie Panjabi has been tapped for a major recurring role in Season 2 of NBC’s thriller drama Blindspot. She will play the head of a secret division of the NSA that has been tracking the case of Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander), the tattoo-covered woman whose mysterious past forms the basis of the show.  

NCIS co-stars Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray, Rocky Carroll and David McCallum have all signed new two-year deals to continue on CBS’ flagship drama series, which returns for Season 14 in the fall. Harmon inked a new 2-year pact in February, triggering a two-year renewal for NCIS. The new contracts for Perrette, Murray, Carroll and McCallum assure that NCIS is set for Seasons 14 and 15 with its core cast on board. (The rest of the series’ cast members, Brian Dietzen and Emily Wickersham, are on a different contract cycle.)  

USA announced that Mr. Robot will be getting some extra add-ons. Season 2 of the computer hacker drama, which premieres July 13, has had two episodes added to its running order, bringing its Season 2 total to 12. In addition to the expanded order, the season premiere will get a live special aftershow called "Hacking Robot" that will complement the documentary special called Mr. Robot_dec0d3d.doc, exploring the authenticity and social impact of the show.  

Gracepoint vet Virginia Kull is set for a recurring role opposite Giovanni Ribisi on the upcoming Amazon drama series Sneaky Pete, which centers on Marius (Ribisi), a con man who after leaving prison takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his cellmate, Pete. He moves in with Pete’s unsuspecting family and is roped into the family’s bail bond business. In order to keep the charade up, he plays the part of a skip tracer, taking down criminals worse than himself — and discovering a family life he’s never had. Kull will play Katie Boyd. who used to run cons with Marius until she went straight.

Hawaii Five-0's Catherine (Michelle Borth) didn't return for the season 6 finale, but according to showrunner Peter Lenkov, "She's still a part of our show. ... The idea is to push that story line until next year."  

Dexter star Aimee Garcia has joined the cast of Fox’s comic book-themed drama Lucifer as a new series regular for Season 2, playing Ella Lopez, the department’s new forensic scientist. Her mutual belief in both faith and science proves a point of interest to Lucifer (and the rest of the department) as they get to know and love her quirky ways. The show recently added another key recurring actor, Tricia Helfer, as Lucifer’s mom.  

After kicking off the 2015-16 TV season with the two-hour CSI movie/finale, CBS again is opting for event programming in September, scheduling its three-part, six-hour unscripted true-crime limited series Case Closed (which revisits the JonBenet Ramsey murder on its 20th anniversary), for the Sunday before the start of the season.  

If you've got a little extra time on your hands, The Wrap has a slideshow of photos for "61 Fall TV Shows: Every New and Returning Series."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Basketball star-turned writer Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and author Walter Mosley chatted at the flagship Shwartzman Building on Fifth Avenue in a conversation about writing, craft and music.

The It's a Mystery to Me podcast with Stacy Verdick Case welcomed Edgar Award winning author Lori Roy to discuss her latest release Let Me Die In His Footsteps.

Anthony nominee Brian Panowich (Bull Mountain) and his tour partner author J. Todd Scott (The Far Empty) stopped by Authors on the Air to discuss their latest work.

Noir on the Radio presented Dames in the Dark, a no-holds-barred flash fiction throw down, hosted by Greg Barth and featuring Vicki Hendricks, Dharma Kelleher, Amanda Gowin, and S.L.Coney.

If you're a fan of true crime stories, check out Mashable's list of "nine true-crime podcasts you should listen to now."

Blood on the Keys

Back in my piano days, I played a piece called "Lotus Land" by English composer Cyril Scott (1879-1970), which utilized what was then (1905) a novelty - glissandos on the black keys. Those glissandi were almost my undoing, as I kept leaving a trail of blood on the piano afterward. But it's a lovely, ethereal little piece, and here is the composer himself playing it:

 

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Singing Spider

Angus MacVicar (1908-2001) was a Scottish author of crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction and nonfiction. His first novel The Purple Rock was a bestseller, but his career was interrupted by an illness and then service in World War II with the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

He also later turned his hand to screenwriting, and his young-adult sci-fi novel series The Lost Planet was made into television and radio versions. (A side note: MacVicar's father was a Presbyterian minister in the Church of Scotland and the author's books often had snippets of Christianity in them, so it's interesting that The Lost Planet was the first science fiction series ever translated to Hebrew, and allegedly had considerable impact on the development of that genre in Israel.)

MacVicar's suspense novel The Singing Spider from 1938 was set against the backdrop of Mussolini and impending war with Italy. It follows young Archie Campbell, an intelligent, scrupulously honest and brave young man who is offered a job as a secret agent by Sir Robert Vanburgh, who is the Secretary for Diplomatic Affairs and also a friend of Archie's dead father. Archie's job is to visit the quiet little fishing port of Bennachie in order to uncover the secret that was discovered by another murdered agent, known as D7—who was also Sir Robert's son.

Archie takes the job hoping to find redemption following a scandalous love affair that left him a broken man and a drunkard, and soon finds himself immersed in the picturesque village of Bennachie playing the not-too-far-off role of a recovering invalid. Archie tries to uncover the identity of the Singing Spider—an Italian spy and master of disguise thought to be behind D7's murder—with the help of an American Professor, a local rogue who's also seeking redemption, and a lovely young minister's daughter. But first Archie has to find out how the Singing Spider is tied to a puzzling phrase that translates as "The Pit of Baal" and the mysterious red lights at the Bennachie stone, an artifact the Professor believes dates back to the ancient Phoenicians.

It's definitely a novel of its time, thematically and stylistically, but there's a good rendering of the Scottish setting that was so similar to areas MacVicar knew well and to its characters. There's also a bit of naive sweetness to it that you don't often find in spy-themed suspense novels, no doubt a nod to the author's Presbyterian roots and his young-adult writings. It's definitely a G- or PG+ type of plot. The Singing Spider was made into a radio program for BBC Scotland in 1950, although I couldn't find any traces of it online. Endeavor Press has recently undertaken new digital editions of several of MacVicar's works, including The Singing Spider, released in May of this year.

Mystery Melange

Sisters in Crime Australia and Booktopia announced the longlists for the 16th annual Davitt Awards that celebrate excellence in Aussie crime writing. A short list will be announced mid-July, and the Davitts Award ceremony and presentation of winners will take place on August 22.

The UK's Dead Good Reader Awards are back this year, and the public can vote on the shortlists. Over 2,000 DGR readers nominated their favorite books and authors for the awards.

The July 1 deadline for entering the Golden Donut Short Story Contest is fast approaching. But you only need to write 200 words (exactly 200 words) to enter, with the top 12 entries sent along to final judge, best-selling author Tami Hoag, to choose a winner. The winning entry will receive free registration for a 2017 Writers' Police Academy event. For more information on how to enter, follow this link.

First Monday is a new monthly crime fiction/thriller night held in Central London at the College Building of City University. The upcoming July 4th event, sponsored by Killer Reads, will feature award-winning authors Andrew Taylor, Stephen Booth, Anna Mazzola, and Beth Lewis. The evening will be chaired by Claire McGowan, bestselling author of the Paula Maguire series and senior lecturer on the City University Crime Writing MA course.  (HT to Shots Magazine.)

Last week, we received the sad news that the Mystery Writers of America 2015 Grand Master award recipient Lois Duncan had passed away (April 28, 1934 - June 15, 2016). Duncan was an American writer of children's books, best known for young-adult novels of suspense, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted into the 1997 film. Mystery Fanfare, Writers' Digest, and NPR are among the many tributes that have paid their respects.

In the New Yorker, true crime writer Skip Hollandsworth (The Midnight Assassin) explained why he feels people are fascinated with serial killers. He asserts that serial murder has a special appeal to writers for fairly simple reasons:  "Serial killers create better chronological narrative," and the structure lends itself to drama.

New Zealand's Stuff entertainment magazine profiled New Zealand crime fiction - after looking at the depth and talent of the country's writers, why aren't New Zealanders as supportive of their home-grown talent as readers in other countries? That's one reason Craig Sisterson set up the Ngaio Marsh Award in 2010 to celebrate Kiwi noir.

Terrence Rafferty's essay in The Atlantic made the case for women writing the best crime novels. He posits they don’t seem to believe in heroes as much as their male counterparts, which in some ways makes their storytelling a better fit for the times, with Gone Girl and Girl on a Train only scratching the top of the surface. "Their books are light on gunplay, heavy on emotional violence. Murder is de rigueur in the genre, so people die at the hands of others—lovers, neighbors, obsessive strangers—but the body counts tend to be on the low side."

Not to neglect the male half of the species, Lisa Levy wrote an profile of James Sallis for Lithub, an author she feels should be taking his rightful place alongside his American contemporary paranoids and peers, Don DeLillo (b.1936) and Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937).

A play by Henning Mankell about a Swedish couple struggling to understand the Africa where they have lived for more than a decade is being published in English for the first time in the new issue of Index on Censorship’s quarterly magazine. Best known for his crime novels about Inspector Wallander, Mankell was also a dramatist, with more than 30 plays to his name.  

Writing for The Strand Magazine, William Lashner listed "Ten Things to Learn from Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett."

Sherlock Holmes fans will appreciate an infographic about some of the surprisingly sophisticated scientific methods Holmes used to crack his cases.

The June issue of Yellow Mama features the hit man story "Flint Hills Express,” by Kenneth James Crist, a procedural from Tendai Huchu, “The Best One Can Do, Under the Circumstances,” and other new stories by Jim Wilsky, Ciro DiLorenzo, Richard Godwin, Dr. Mel Waldman, and Lee Todd Lacks. There's also new poetry from Phillip J. Ammonds, Marc Pietrzykowski, and Judith Partin-Nielsen.

The featured weekly crime poem at the 5-2 is "Obama Responsible for Flint: A Patriot News Television Exclusive" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup this week, the Mystery People were busy, busy people, lassoing Timothy Hallinan to discuss King Maybe, his latest novel featuring L.A. burlgar Junior Bender, as well as Lisa Sandlin chatting about new novel The Do-Right, and Laura Lippman talking about her latest, Wilde Lake; Omnimystery News welcomed authors Amy Metz (Rogues & Rascals in Goose Pimple Junction) and Jody Wenner (Painting the Lake); and Patti Abbott stopped by Dana King's blog to discuss her newest novel Shot in Detroit, from Polis Books.

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Paramount has secured the rights to the book series The Saint by Leslie Charteris, which has previously served as the basis for several radio dramas, films, and a 1960s TV version starring future James Bond, Roger Moore. The Saint is the story of Simon Templar, a Robin-Hood-like smart, quick-witted man who goes after corrupt politicians, war profiteers, drug runners, and other evildoers to benefit his country (the UK) and the greater good. Paramount is currently in the process of working out production deals, but it appears that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Brad Krevoy and Robert Evans will server as producers in what the studio hopes will become a franchise success.

Action thriller Smart Chase: Fire & Earth has signed Orlando Bloom to star and co-produce the film through his newly launched BlissBloom Productions. Bloom will play a washed-up security agent who is ambushed as he attempts to escort a pricey Chinese antique out of Shanghai.  

Sicario was a critical and commercial success, but the in-development Sicario 2 won't be a standard sequel. According to the director of the new film, Stefano Solima, the follow-up, titled Soldado, will be another chapter in the lives of a couple of the same characters and be "something you can catch and enjoy even if you haven't watched the first one."

Netflix has picked up the detective comedy Handsome, directed by actor-comedian Jeff Garlin. Part mystery, part comedy, the film stars Garlin as the titular Gene Handsome, a Los Angeles homicide detective trying to figure out his life while he solves crimes. The film boasts an all-star cast of comedians and actors including Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Leah Remini, Steven Weber, Eddie Peppitone, and Christine Woods. Garlin is set to produce alongside David Miner and Vern Davidson.

Jack Quaid is the latest actor to join the growing ensemble of Steven Soderbergh's heist film Logan Lucky. The all-star cast includes Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Hilary Swank, Daniel Craig, Katherine Heigl as well as Soderbergh regulars Channing Tatum and Riley Keough. The story centers on two brothers who attempt a crime during a NASCAR race.  

The first trailer for the Jack Reacher 2 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, was released. In this story, based on the Lee Child's book Never Go Back, Reacher (Tom Cruise) heads back to Virginia where he once served as a military investigator to help out a woman named Susan (Cobie Smulders) who he really only knows from various phone conversations.

TELEVISION

A&E has passed on the hip-hop crime drama pilot The Infamous, from A+E Studios, although the project’s producers are shopping the pilot starring Bokeem Woodbine and Jason O’Mara elsewhere. Written by Joshua Zetumer and directed by Anthony Hemingway, The Infamous is set against real events in turbulent 1990s Los Angeles leading up to the L.A. Riots and revolves around two complicated men on a collision course: an ambitious reformed gangster (Woodbine) poised to break out of South Central and the LAPD detective (O’Mara) hell-bent on taking him down.

Rowan Atkinson will return as Maigret in two new TV movies on ITV, reprising his role as the detective in 2017. The TV films will see Atkinson return to the lead role as Georges Simenon's sleuth Jules Maigret, often called a French version of Sherlock Homes.

Wilmer Valderrama has joined the cast of veteran CBS drama NCIS as a series regular for the upcoming Season 14, playing a once grounded NCIS field agent who accepted a deep cover assignment years ago and never resurfaced. Many agents don’t know he’s still on the job or that he’s even alive. Now, he’s back and his dedication to job and country has left him an unpredictable, charismatic loose cannon.

NBC has tapped Scott Ellis to direct their live adaptation of Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, originally performed as a Broadway play before it was adapted into the film starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore.  The story revolves around the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyers as they prepare a case to defend their clients.

Nicole Kidman is re-teaming with Portrait Of A Lady director, Jane Campion, for the second season of the BBC thriller Top Of The Lake. The story will see Detective Robin Griffin (Elizabeth Moss) investigating the case of an unidentified body which washes up on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. As previously reported, the second installment also features Game Of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie in a major role.

Justin Hires (Rush Hour) is returning to CBS to co-star opposite Lucas Till and George Eads in the network’s new fall series MacGyver, a reimagining of  the 1985 show about a resourceful and ingenious agent who improvises his way out of sticky situations using everyday items like rubber bands, chewing gum and a Swiss Army knife.

Many of the original cast of American Crime Story‘s debut season, The People V. O.J. Simpson, are expected to reassemble for the next chapter in the Ryan Murphy-produced anthology show. Producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson confirmed that writers went to New Orleans last week on a research trip for Season 2, which will tell of the American response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Jennifer Lopez-starring NBC drama Shades of Blue is adding Breaking Bad alum Anna Gunn for the second season of the cop drama, playing a city councilwoman who has has her eye on the Mayor's office. She also happens to be a former member of the crew of dirty cops that Jennifer Lopez's character, Harlee, is a part of, as well as a former protege of Wozniak's (Ray Liotta) who's gone on to bigger and better things than taking protection money off of drug dealers and thugs.

BBC America’s hit series Orphan Black will have a fifth and final season set to premiere in 2017. The series follows a streetwise hustler who's pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her. The show stars Tatiana Maslany as protagonist Sarah Manning, in addition to Ari Millen, Jordan Gavaris, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Skyler Wexler, Kevin Hanchard, Evelyne Brochu, Kristian Bruun, and Josh Vokey.

CSI and its various spinoffs may have ended their run on American television (for now), but they are hardly forgotten. The mothership series was once again named most watched drama series in the world at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival, a sixth win for the series, more than any other show by a mile.

NBC revealed the premiere dates for their fall schedule which will begin mid-September, including returning crime dramas Law & Order: SVU, Chicago P.D. (and its spinoffs Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago Legal), The Blacklist, and new series Timeless.

Fox also released their fall schedule premiere, including Gotham, Lucifer, Lethal Weapon, and Rosewood.

The CW's announced fall schedule doesn't include much in the way of crime dramas, with the exception of the new series Frequency, in which Detective Raimy Sullivan discovers she can speak to her deceased father Frank Sullivan by ham radio. They forge a new connection and work together on an unresolved murder case.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR had a remembrance of Lois Duncan, "The Queen Of Teen Suspense," who died last week at the age of 82.

Laura Lippman spoke with Boston's public radio station WBUR about her latest crime fiction title, Wilde Lake, her twenty-first published novel.

The Orange County Register posted a video of Michael Connelly speaking at the Register Book Club in The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, talking about his journalism days and his Bosch book/TV series.

Authors on the Air featured Todd Robinson, the creator and Chief Editor of the multi-award winning crime fiction magazine Thuglit and a writer himself of countless published short stories and the novels The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade.

Beyond The Cover hosts John Raab and Jeff Ayers spoke with author Boyd Morrison about the latest book he co-authored with Clive Cussler, The Emperor's Revenge.

THEATER

Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois' Drury Lane Theatre has revived Deathtrap, the play by Ira Levin that was later made into the 1982 American thriller film starring Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon and Christopher Reeve. The revival, which runs through August 14, centers on a Broadway playwright who makes murder part of his plan to take credit for a student's script.

The Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, California, is presenting The Mousetrap through July 3 in a production directed by John Eslick, who also designed the elegant sets. Elite's production stars Brittany Danyel and Peter Vandehei as manor house owners Mollie and Giles Ralston and Eric McGowan as Christopher Wren. The classic Agatha Christie made its debut in London's West End in 1952 and is still produced around the world 60+ years later.

GAMES

Mashable reviewed the indie game "Beat Cop," which centers around Officer Jack Kelly. Formerly a detective, he’s been demoted and shunned by his colleagues after being framed for murder, his ex-wife is demanding alimony, his new boss hates him, and on the first day of his new beat, another cop takes a bullet meant for him. He’s got 21 days to figure out who’s trying to kill him and why he’s being framed. Jack Kelly’s going to get his old life back or die trying.

Your Sunday Music Treat

I was working at a radio station when the Challenger shuttle disaster happened. A fellow announcer programmed "Nimrod" from the Elgar's Enigma Variations by way of a memorial, and I couldn't help but think of that tune again this past week during yet another American tragedy, the shootings in Orlando. And the recording below of this music by an English composer, played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Baremboim, who holds passports from Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, seems to sum up the universality of music to share our joys and sorrows with one another: