In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

Top o'the week means it's time for the latest news from the world of crime dramas, including the 89th Oscars:

AWARDS

The Academy Award nominees included a few crime/thriller/mystery-related dramas such as Elle, Hell or High Water, Nocturnal Animals, and Arrival, although none won in their categories. The big winners were the coming-of-age film Moonlight (Best Picture) and La La Land, which won several awards. For all the nominees and winners, click on over to the official Oscars website.

MOVIES

Charlize Theron will star in and produce Universal's adaptation of the CIA thriller novel Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland. The story centers on a young wife and mother who works as a CIA analyst, who searches through databases in hopes of unmasking a Russian sleeper cell in the U.S. but makes a shocking discovery that threatens her job, her family and her life. 

The domestic thriller novel Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris is being adapted into a film with a script by Melissa London Hilfers. The project follows a woman whose dream husband suddenly becomes her worst nightmare immediately following their wedding day.

Captain Fantastic writer-director Matt Ross has been tapped to direct Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a futuristic crime thriller based on Tom Sweterlitsch’s 2014 novel. The story follows John Dominic Blaxton, who lives in Pittsburgh — which actually is the Archive, a virtual reconstruction of the city’s buildings, parks and landmarks as well as the people who once lived there. He investigates mysterious deaths from before Pittsburgh’s destruction and becomes obsessed with a woman who apparently was murdered.

Daniel Kaluuya has signed on to star in Widows, the Steve McQueen-directed film from New Regency, joining Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo in the cast. The plot centers on the aftermath of four armed robbers killed during a failed heist, and their surviving widows join forces and resolve to pull off the raid themselves. McQueen and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn penned the script which is based on the 1983 British miniseries.

Sienna Miller and Giancarlo Giannini have joined The Catcher Was A Spy, the Ben Lewin-directed drama that stars Paul Rudd, Guy Pearce, Paul Giamatti and Jeff Daniels and is based on Nicholas Dawidoff’s bestselling book that tells the true story of Moe Berg, a major league ballplayer who was an important spy against the Nazis in WWII. Miller will play Estella Huni, the main character's love interest, while Giannini plays Italian physicist Professor Eduardo Amaldi. 

Corbin Bernsen is set to star in suspense thriller The Russian Bride, co-starring with Russian actress Oksana Orlan and 11-year-old model Kristina Pimenova. The indie project follows a reclusive billionaire (Bernsen) who brings a young woman and her daughter to the U.S. from Moscow with the promise of giving them both a better life. They soon discover his motives are extreme, and mother and daughter find themselves fighting for their lives.

Netflix has acquired streaming rights to The Irishman, Martin Scorsese's next project starring Robert De Niro. The Irishman is based on the 2004 novel I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt and will star De Niro as the title character, Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a contract killer who murdered Teamster Jimmy Hoffa in the 1970s. 

Rachel Bloom and Adam Pally are set to star in Most Likely to Murder, a mystery-comedy acquired by Lionsgate. Dan Gregor will direct from a script he co-wrote with Doug Mand that's described as "Rear Window for stoners."

Universal released a promotional poster for Atomic Blonde, the spy thriller starring Charlize Theron as MI6’s most lethal assassin who is sent alone into Berlin to deliver a priceless dossier out of the destabilized city and partners with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy).

The release date for the Liam Neeson starrer The Commuter has been pushed back to January 12, 2018. Also starring Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Jonathan Banks, the action-thriller sees Neeson playing an insurance salesman in the midst of his daily commute who is forced by a mysterious stranger (Farmiga) to uncover the identity of a passenger before the train’s last stop.

TELEVISION

CBS has yanked its midseason series Doubt from its lineup after only two episodes. The series, which marked Katherine Heigl's second recent attempt to return to primetime and the first major network role for Laverne Cox, was greeted by so-so reviews and a low 0.8 rating among adults ages 18-49. The network will instead schedule the second season of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders into Doubt's slot going forward.

Marg Helgenberger has been cast in the Fox pilot Behind Enemy Lines. The former CSI actress will star as Bobbie Decker, a Navy Admiral and the most powerful woman in the military. The pilot, loosely based on the 2001 Owen Wilson movie of the same name, is a military soap thriller wherein a group of U.S. soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines.

Matthew Broderick is heading to New Orleans to star in Katrina, the second season of Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story anthology. Broderick will star as Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown, who was in charge of the federal disaster response to Hurricane Katrina, and joins four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening in the anthology series.

Daniel Ings has booked a key series regular role in Instinct, CBS’ drama pilot based on the upcoming book by James Patterson and Marc Webb. Instinct centers on Dylan, a former CIA operative (Alan Cumming) who has since built a normal life as a gifted professor and writer but is pulled back into his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer on the loose. Ings will play Tracy, Dylan’s "all-American" husband of one year. The network also announced that Lost alum Naveen Andrews has snagged a lead role in the pilot, playing Dylan’s old friend from the CIA who rivals Dylan in brilliance and wit. 

Former Cold Case star Kathryn Morris has been cast opposite Sarah Shahi in NBC’s drama pilot Reverie, from the Extant team of creator Mickey Fisher and Amblin TV. Penned by Fisher and directed by feature director Jaume Collett-Serra, Reverie is a thriller about Mara (Shahi), a former detective specializing in human behavior who is brought in when the launch of an advanced virtual reality program has dangerous and unintended consequences. Morris will play Monica Shaw, a Department of Defense official who has a vested interest in Alexis Barret’s (Jessica Lu) virtual reality project called Reverie. NBC also tapped Dennis Haysbert (The Unit, 24) as the male lead, playing a former police chief who used to be Mara's boss and enlists Mara's help stopping Reverie.

Filming has begun on the BBC's adaptation of Wilkie Collin's classic The Woman in White, long thought to be one of the first-ever psychological thriller novels. Former EastEnders star Ben Hardy takes on the lead role of a Victorian era school teacher who stumbles on a strange mystery as he encounters what appears to be a female spirit dressed completely in white, an obsession that leads him into a dangerous world of forbidden romance and possible insanity. 

Former Haven star Emily Rose has booked a series regular role opposite Reba McEntire in ABC’s untitled Marc Cherry drama pilot. The project stars McEntire as Ruby Adair, the sheriff of colorful small town Oxblood, KY, who finds her red state outlook challenged when a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent is sent to help her solve a horrific crime. Rose will play Vonda Jean, County Coroner for the small town and former pageant runner-up.

Lenny Platt (Quantico) will take on a starring role in CBS pilot Perfect Citizen, a legal drama written and executive produced by former Good Wife executive producer Craig Turk. The plot centers on the former general counsel for the NSA who, after his involvement as a whistleblower in an international scandal, embarks on a new career at a storied law firm in Boston. Platt will play Felix, the self-proclaimed "Alpha Associate" at the firm.

USA Network has set three stars for its upcoming drama pilot Unsolved, which will examine the murders of rap legends Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Josh Duhamel, Bokeem Woodbine, and Jimmi Simpson have all joined the series as the real-life detectives investigating the murder. 

Hope Davis (Allegiance), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Chicago Hope) and Regé-Jean Page (Roots) have joined the series-regular cast of ABC’s untitled pilot.The legal drama is set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, aka "The Mother Court," and follows brand-new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases in the country.

Jason Ensler has been tapped to direct the drama pilot Redliners, about a pair of former spies living in suburbia who are reactivated when a failed hit on one of them leaves the assassin dead. The project is based on Small Kingdoms by Charlaine Harris.

J.R. Bourne has snagged a roleon the upcoming drama Somewhere Between as Tom Price, "Laura's (Paula Patton) powerful yet sensitive husband who is also the state's district attorney."

Rob Huebel has been cast in the drama pilot Unit Zero, about a brilliant, but unassuming CIA engineer and single mom, Jackie Fink (Toni Collette), as she leads a team of CIA underlings who are thrust into the field as first time spies. He'll play Phineas Bog, an off-beat CIA computer genius.

Austin Stowell (Whiplash) is the first to board the drama pilot Controversy, playing the Junior Counsel of a prestigious Illinois university who must deal with an out-of-control scandal when a young co-ed accuses several star football players of sexual assault.

J.D. Pardo has landed the lead role on the Sons of Anarchy spin-off, Mayans MC, playing the gifted son of a proud Latino family, whose American dream was snuffed out by cartel violence and whose need for vengeance drives him toward a life he never intended and can never escape.

The death of Bill Paxton (who died this weekend from a stroke following heart surgery), came just four episodes into the run of what will be his final series, CBS’ Training Day. Production on the midseason drama, a reboot of Antoine Fuqua’s acclaimed movie, wrapped in December, so all 13 episodes from the show’s first-season order have already been filmed. The TV series begins 15 years after the events in the feature, and centers on an idealistic young police officer (Justin Cornwell) who is appointed to an elite squad of the LAPD where he is partnered with a seasoned, morally ambiguous detective (Paxton). There's been no word on the fate of the remaining episodes, but Training Day executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer said, "I am truly devastated at the passing of my friend Bill Paxton. He was a tremendously talented actor and a wonderful man."

Lethal Weapon was renewed for a second season by Fox, having done well enough to secure a spot as one of the top new TV shows of the year. 

FX announced that April 19 will be the premiere date for Season 3 of its Emmy-winning limited series Fargo. The new installment is set in 2010 and features Ewan McGregor (in dual roles), Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and David Thewlis. 

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) will launch the noir-themed programming block Noir Alley every Sunday at 10 a.m. Hosted by Film Noir Foundation Founder and President Eddie Muller, the lineup stars off with The Maltese Falcon on March 5. (HT Mystery Fanfare)

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The second episode of Writer Types features interviews with authors Joe R. Lansdale, Reed Farrel Coleman, and Jess Lourey, as well as short fiction from Erik Arneson.

Bestseller M.R. Carey joined host Alex Dolan on Thrill Seekers to talk about his book The Girl With All The Gifts (the film version of which comes out in theaters this month) and Fellside, among other titles. He's also a legend in the comic industry, as the creator of the Lucifer and Hellblazer series

Red River Radio's No Limits podcast with host Barbara M. Hodges welcomed Gwen Mayo, Sarah E. Glenn and Eleanor Kuhns. Mayo is the author of the Nessa Donnelly mysteries and co-wrote another series with Glenn; and Eleanor Kuhns is the 2011 winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel.

Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, hosts of Two Crime Writers and a Microphone, discussed Jack the Ripper, Patricia Cornwell, and the forgotten victims; Liz Barnsley of LizLovesBooks, had reviews and recommendations; and the special guest was Keshini Naidoo, Associate Publisher at Bookoutre.

This week's guests on Suspense Radio were authors Andrew Grant (the David Trevellyan series) and and Tracy Weber (the Downward Dog Mysteries).

Noir on the Radio host Greg Barth welcomed Crime Fiction author Dharma Kelleher, whose debut thriller Iron Goddess was published by Alibi in June 2016. Her work has also appeared in Shotgun Honey.

Authors on the Air reported live from Sleuthfest and had interviews with author Jane Cleland and G.P. Putnam's Sons associate publisher and Editor in Chief Neil Nyren.

Climate of Fear & a Giveaway!

Fred Vargas (the pseudonym of Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau) is one of France's most acclaimed crime writers, although she didn't start out that way. In fact, her day job was an archaeologist specializing in epidemiology, which is why she was so surprised when she became famous for her hobby, writing romans policiers – "rompols," she calls them. Her series, which is set in Paris and features the adventures of Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg and his team, has won four International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association for best translated crime novel of the year, along with her translator, Sîan Reynolds.

In his latest outing, Climate of Fear, Commissaire Adamsberg is back with a murder investigation that takes him through French Revolution history and Icelandic folklore. When a woman is found dead in her bathtub, her murder made to look like a suicide with a strange symbol drawn near her body, the Commissaire and his team investigate. Soon, a second victim is discovered and a pattern begins to emerge: both victims had been part of a tragic expedition to Iceland ten years earlier. But how are these deaths, and rumors of an Icelandic demon, linked to the secret society based on the writings of Maximilien Robespierre? And what does the mysterious symbol signify?

Kirkus said of the book, "It delights with its interesting characters, engaging dialogue, and infectious sense of curiosity about the lives of others," while Publishers Weekly added "Captivating … Vargas keeps introducing unexpected, fascinating new plot elements, even as the action totters on the brink of absurdity."

The publisher has offered up one print copy of Climate of Fear for one lucky winner from readers of In Reference to Murder (U.S. addresses only this time). To enter, hop on over to this Rafflecopter page and enter your email address through March 1 midnight ET. (NOTE: You'll need to enter your email address twice, once to "log in" and once to enter.)

For more information about Vargas and the book, check out her author page from Penguin Random House. Climate of Fear is available from all major online and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

FFB: Widows Wear Weeds

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889 – 1970) was an American lawyer and author best known for the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories that spawned a series of Hollywood films of the 1930s, and then a titular radio program, which ran from 1943 to 1955, then finally a long-running CBS-TV series starring Raymond Burr in the title role.

But Gardner also wrote some shorter pieces and numerous other novels including a two-part series with amateur detective Gramps Wiggins, a two-parter with freelancer Terry Clane, and a longer series with DA Doug Selby. His longest non-Perry Mason series were the thirty novels featuring the mismatched private detective team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, written under the pen name of A. A. Fair. A TV pilot was aired in 1958 by CBS, starring former jockey Billy Pearson as Lam and Benay Venuta as Cool, although it was never developed into a series.

Cool is a 60ish, overweight widow who opened her detective agency after the death of her husband in 1936. She has white hair and "greedy piggish eyes," with all the novels agreeing she is extremely avaricious and miserly and isn't overly concerned with ethics, or, as she freely admits, "I'll handle any disbarred lawyer."  Her employee, Lam, is a recently suspended attorney who is a bit on the short side (about 5'6", weighs 130 pounds soaking wet) and is a "cocky little bastard" (Gardner once said he was modeled after his literary agent).

Widows Wear Weeds dates from 1966 and is the twenty-seventh installment in the Cool and Lam series. It starts out with Lam and his secretary, Elsie Brand, enjoying a coffee break when restaurant owner Nicholas Bafflin approaches Lam and wants to hire him to pay off a man who is blackmailing a famous movie star. Lam meets the blackmailer, Starman Calvert, gets the photo negatives and a receipt for the money (a confession), and leaves. Baffin thanks Lam by giving them a free meal, and he invites Sergeant Frank Sellers to join them.

But during the meal, Lam is called to the phone and on his way back to the table has to back up into the curtain for booth 13 in order to let a waitress with a full tray pass him. Soon afterward, when a waitress discovers a murdered man in booth 13, Sgt. Sellers vamooses because he'd been drinking champagne and was on duty, and two eyewitnesses claim they saw Lam exit the murder booth. When the victim is discovered to be the blackmailer, Lam is left as a suspect without Sellers to back him up. As Cool and Lam dig deeper, they aren't entirely sure what Baffin's game really was other than the blackmail scheme was a set up. But why? And why would a man risk his marriage by pretending to be having an affair and being blackmailed? The list of suspects turns out to be pretty long, including desperate waitresses, corrupt politicians, one frantic cop, and the deceased's missing widow.

The book is a fast-moving, quick read, with a lot of humor and snappy, sharp dialogue, or as Kirkus Reviews noted, "Tried and true and tricky."

A fun little note:  Erle Stanley Gardner had an amazing sales record: at the height of his popularity in the mid-1960s he was selling an average of 26,000 copies of his novels a day, making him one of the world's best selling author's, easily outstripping at the time Agatha Christie and Barbara Cartland combined.

Mystery Melange

Author and former CBC Radio Noon host Louise Penny became part of the Order of Canada Friday in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Penny is a New York Times bestselling author whose work includes the award-winning Armand Gamache series of murder mysteries. The Order of Canada has been celebrating exceptional Canadians for 50 years as the country's highest civilian honor.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, crime fiction author Val McDermid was among those named as one of 60 new Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).

The latest Literary Salon courtesy of Mystery Readers NorCal will feature author Deborah Crombie on February 23. Crombie is the bestselling author of the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series set in England, and her novels have received Edgar, Agatha, and Macavity Award nominations. For information and to RSVP, visit the Mystery Fanfare site.

On February 25-26, the annual Whidbey Island Mystery Weekend in Langley, Washington, returns to offer up a murder mystery. The entire town participates, and they invite visitors to join in to take on the role of sleuth and see if they can find the guilty character. 

The NYC Center for Fiction's "Women in Crime Fiction" panel was so successful, they've scheduled a second installment of the wildly popular event for March 16, 2017. Featured authors who will celebrate contemporary women writers of crime, mystery and thriller genres include Susan Isaacs, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Lisa Lutz and Laura Joh Rowland with moderator SJ Rozan.

The CrimeFest conference in the UK has established two new awards this year, adding Best YA (ages 12-16) and Best Children's (ages 8-12) Crime Novel categories to their regular slate of the Audible Sounds of Crime award, eDunnit award, Last Laugh award, and the H.R.F. Keating Award. The  convention is held annually in Bristol and draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world. (HT to EuroCrime)

BookRiot is giving away a haul of 10 excellent mysteries and thrillers, including a new collection of Arthur Conan Doyle’s gothic tales, Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10, and more, as part of a promotion for their new mystery/thriller newsletter, Unusual Suspects. Interested folks can enter through February 26.

Mystery Scene's Winter Issue #148 features an interview with Belinda Bauer, a writer who vaulted onto the UK's crime scene with her first novel, Blacklands; a discussion between Craig Sisterson and E.O. Chirovici whose first English-language thriller created a publishing feeding frenzy; Jon L. Breen has an overview of recent legal thrillers; Andy Martin interviews bestselling Scottish author Ian Rankin, who was originally fated for a career in accounting; Oline Cogdill has a profile of April Smith about how she rode with cowboys, branded a cow, and attended cattle auctions and barbecues at ranches to research her latest novel; Lawrence Block ponders the possibilities of becoming a successful writer - without writing a thing; and Mystery Scene's critics shared their annual "Fave Raves," a roundup of 2016's very best.

The latest edition of Yellow Mama is also out as it celebrates the ezine's 10-year anniversary with five anniversary reprints, as well as new stories and poems.

Devil in a Blue Dress, the 1990 mystery novel by Walter Mosley, will be the "One Book, One Michiana" selection for 2017 for South Bend, Indiana. Community residents will be encouraged to read the book, and participate in a series of related discussions, lectures, film screenings and other events this spring. Devil in a Blue Dress was Mosley’s first published book and focuses on black war veteran Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins and his transformation from a day laborer into a detective. The story is set in 1948 in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

You probably think you know the legend of the Lone Ranger from radio, television and graphic novels. The real "Lone Ranger," it turns out, was an African American man named Bass Reeves, although many aspects of his life were written out of the story, including his ethnicity. The basics remained the same: a lawman hunting bad guys, accompanied by a Native American, riding on a white horse, and with a silver trademark.

Readers who enjoy learning more about true crime tales might check out Bustle's list of "9 books for true crime nuts who just can't get enough," ranging from the contemporary (Trayvon Martin) to a murder mystery in the Arctic dating from 1941.

The New York Post profiled the history of the "controversial test could cost you your job or your kids," a/k/a the Rorschach test, and how it has influenced culture, including forensic settings, evaluating patients in custody disputes, personal-injury lawsuits and competency to stand trial, even noir movies. Psychiatrists also used them to study Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials.

Would you like to help solve an astronomical mystery? You might be able to soon, with the help of your cellphone.

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Mister Bellamy" by Charles Rammelkamp, and the latest pulp story at Beat to a Pulp is "I Love a Sunburnt Country" by Kieran Shea (with Cameron Ashley).

In the Q&A roundup, Debbi Mack interviewed Paul D. Brazill for the Crime Cafe podcast about his writing and latest novel, Too Many Crooks; the Mystery People welcomed Sarah Pinborough to discuss her new genre-bending tale of psychological suspense, Behind Her Eyes; the Hull Daily Mail spoke with Jane Harper about the surprising roots behind her new bestseller The Dry (which was optioned by Reece Witherspoon's production company); and The Book People snagged Joe Lansdale to talk about his latest Hap & Leonard works, including Rusty Puppy, as well as a novella, and an installment that takes the characters back to their early years.

Author R&R with Michael Mayo

Michael Mayo has written about film for the Washington Post and the Roanoke Times. He was the host of the nationally syndicated radio programs Movie Show on Radio and Max and Mike on the Movies. He is the author of American Murder: Criminals, Crime, and the Media, as well as VideoHound’s Video Premieres, Horror Show, and War Movies.

His first novel, Jimmy the Stick, which was published in 2012, initiated the Jimmy Quinn series set in the bloody days of Prohibition. From the bar of his quiet little speakeasy, this limping tough guy serves drinks to every hood in Manhattan—at least until the bullets start to fly. Publishers Weekly said of the series, "Mayo persuasively portrays such real-life mobsters as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano in a tale sure to appeal to fans of Max Allan Collins’s gangster historicals."

The latest installment of Jimmy Quinn's adventures is Jimmy and Fay, set right as King Kong is premiering at Radio City Music Hall, and Fay Wray is about to become the most famous actress on earth. So what’s she doing hanging around a rundown Manhattan speakeasy? This Hollywood scream queen has come to see Jimmy Quinn after a blackmailer has pictures of a Fay Wray lookalike engaged in conduct that would make King Kong blush. Jimmy tries to settle the matter quietly, but stopping the extortion will cut just as deeply as Fay’s famous scream, ringing from Broadway all the way to Chinatown.

Michael Mayo stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about writing a Prohibition-era setting:

 

Prohibition New York – Greatest. Setting. Ever.

Prohibition really was the Golden Age for American crime. With the passage of the Volstead Act which in 1920 prohibited the possession, sale and transportation of beer, wine and spirits, bad guys became good guys to anyone who simply wanted to buy a drink. Big city cops and elected officials certainly didn’t believe in the new law. They saw it as something forced on them by appleknockers from the sticks. Sure, all the saloons closed down, but speakeasies opened right up, and the Twenties were ready to roar.

New York was already undergoing a massive transformation. The economic boom just beginning to power up Wall Street. Thousands of young men were returning from World War I, and thousands of young women were moving from the hinterlands to work in offices. All of them wanted to have some fun.

That’s the city that I write about in the Jimmy Quinn novels. It’s equal parts Warner Bros. movies, Dashiell Hammett and Damon Runyon stories, the photographs of Berenice Abbott and Margaret Bourke White, and the paintings of Reginald Marsh and John Sloan. During those years, America became the country we recognize today. Men quit wearing high stiff collars and long coats. Their tailored suits are essentially unchanged. Young women had just thrown off the heavy drapery of Victorian clothes and were experimenting with fashion. The cars may never have been so cool.

 At the center of everything was money.

As the famous madam Polly Adler put it, “In the world of the Twenties, as I saw it, the only unforgiveable sin was to be poor—Money was what counted… Everybody had an angle, everybody was raking in the chips, there was no excuse not to have money—and along with everybody else, I was right there, with my feet planted firmly in the trough.”

New York was (and is) a city that ran on money, alcohol and sex, and Prohibition brought those three together in an important new way. The saloon had been an all-male enterprise. A woman who was not a prostitute or a temperance crusader wouldn’t think of setting foot inside one. Speakeasies, however, were open to everyone. And Prohibition added another exotic element; it made alcohol forbidden fruit to the newly liberated “flappers,” a generation of young women who were eager to break old rules and to try new things. Collectively these guys and dolls were referred to by their disapproving elders as “flaming youth.” Hubba-hubba.

And it wasn’t only the patrons of speakeasies who were young. Many of the mobsters who made their fortunes in bootlegging were surprisingly youthful. When Prohibition began, “Lucky” Luciano was the old man of his group at 23. Meyer Lansky was 18; their friend Ben “Bugsy” Siegel was 14. These guys had grown up on the streets and were experienced beyond their years. By the time Prohibition was repealed, they were millionaires.

Of course, there was considerable violence, too, as there is with any extremely profitable, extremely competitive illegal enterprise. Particularly in the early days, Luciano, Lansky and Siegel were ambitious and ruthless. But as long as gangsters were shooting gangsters, nobody got too upset about it.

In short, Prohibition-era New York was young, stylish, sinful and unrepentant. Could a crime writer ask for anything more?

 

You read learn more about Mike, his books, and Jimmy and Fay via his website or check out a recent interview with Mystery Scene Magazine. His books are available via most online and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

 

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings, and welcome to another wrap-up of the latest crime drama news:

AWARDS

The Writers Guild of America handed out their annual awards this weekend, including Moonlight for Best Original Screenplay and the sci-fi mystery Arrival for Best Adapted Screenplay. The spy program The Americans also was honored as Best Drama Series, and The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story won for Best Adapted Long Form.

MOVIES

DreamWorks Pictures is adapting the upcoming murder mystery novel Into the Water from The Girl on the Train author Paula Hawkins. The story is set in a town where a single mother and a teenage girl were found dead in a river within a few months of each other, and follows a 15-year-old girl who has been left parentless while caring for her mother’s sister — a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from.

Jared Leto will make his feature film directorial debut with Paramount's crime thriller 77, which is based on an original screenplay by author James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential). Set in politically charged 1974 Los Angeles, the story centers around two police officers who team up to recover kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst while simultaneously investigating the brutal murder of a fellow officer. They uncover not only relentless corruption and crime, but a dark and violent conspiracy as well.

Universal Pictures has optioned City Of Saints & Thieves, the bestselling debut novel by Natalie C. Anderson, with Will Packer Productions and Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street production company in negotiations to produce. The protagonist is Tina, a girl who has been living on the streets of Kenya since her mother’s murder. Recruited by a gang of orphans and street kids, Tina gets closer to exacting revenge for her mother’s death, but soon discovers that she may not have all the facts. This is the second book that Scandal star Washington has come involved in following on The Perfect Mother, a thriller novel by Aimee Molloy that will be crafted as a star vehicle for Washington, who'll produce with Amy Pascal.

North American rights to Roman Polanski’s thriller Based on a True Story have been sold to Sony Pictures Classics. The French-language thriller stars Emmanuelle Seigner as a Parisian author with writer’s block who discovers a mysterious woman — played by Eva Green — at a book signing. Olivier Assayas and Polanski adapted the movie from Delphine de Vigan’s novel of the same name.

Screenwriter Andrea Berloff will direct and adapt the female-driven mob drama The Kitchen, marking the directorial debut for the Academy Award-nominated Straight Outta Compton screenwriter. The story is based on the comic book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle and is described as "a classic gangster story told from a fresh POV. When a group of Irish mobsters are sent to prison, their wives take over their jailed spouses’ organized crime operations, subverting gender tropes to become the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in 1970’s Hell’s Kitchen."

TELEVISION

Mystery Productions has teamed up with Truenorth for the new series, The Valhalla Murders, an international detective drama that follows a displaced detective who, against his will, is ordered to leave his life in Denmark to investigate a series of murders in Iceland. Dark parts of his past will be brought back to the fore as he is forced to battle his own demons as well as the island nation’s first serial killer. The two production companies have also recently acquired a number of dark detective stories from Iceland’s enormously popular author Stefan Mani, hoping to develop them into a series beginning with the novel Black Magic.

Finland-U.S.-based Snapper Films has unveiled a new TV series, Sherlock North. It's based on a Conan Doyle short story where Sherlock Holmes travels to Scandinavia after faking his own death and is on the run from nemesis Professor Moriarty. Under a false identity – an explorer named Sigerson – Holmes settles in dark and cold Lapland, in northern Finland, sparking a culture clash between the upper-class, fast-talking and eccentric Brit and the down-to-earth Nordic characters.

The CBS S.W.A.T reboot has just cast Bond girl Stephanie Sigman in a starring role in the pilot, which is based on the movie of the same name. The project follows a locally born and bred S.W.A.T. lieutenant who is torn between loyalty to the streets and duty to his fellow officers when he’s tasked to run a highly-trained unit that’s the last stop for solving crimes in Los Angeles. Sigman will play Jessica, who’s described as ambitious and fastidious, and has earned her high rank at S.W.A.T. headquarters.

Versace: American Crime Story has signed the Bourne Ultimatum's Edgar Ramirez to play fashion designer Gianni Versace and Glee alum Darren Criss to play serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the third installment of Ryan Murphy's FX crime anthology series. The story will explore the July 1997 assassination of legendary designer Gianni Versace, whose killer, Andrew Cunanan, committed suicide eight days later as Miami Dade police were on the verge of capturing the serial killer behind five slayings. 

Britne Oldford (Syfy’s Hunters), Ben Rappaport (The Good Wife), and veteran Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie) are set to star in an ABC legal drama pilot from Shondaland and ABC Studios. The project is set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, aka "The Mother Court," and follows brand-new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases in the country

BBC America has hired Kevin Smith to write, direct and executive produce a series based on the Sam And Twitch comic book series about big-city homicide detectives who face a series of super grizzly crimes that are connected to the occult.

Amazon has renewed Goliath, its legal drama starring Billy Bob Thornton, for a second season. Clyde Phillips, who oversaw Dexter as showrunner through its first four seasons, will take over as boss. Playing disgraced alcoholic lawyer Billy McBride, Thornton won the best actor in a TV drama Golden Globe this year for the role. 

Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games) is to star as English headmistress Hester Appleyard in Foxtel’s six-part drama Picnic at Hanging Rock. The project is a "re-imagining" of Joan Lindsay’s novel, which was inspired by the mysterious disappearance of three schoolgirls and a teacher on Valentine’s Day in 1900 in Australia. The teachers of Appleyard College for Young Ladies will be played by French actress Lola Bessis, Yael Stone, Anna McGahan, and Sibylla Budd.

Jessica Biel is making her return to television a memorable one, starring in and executive producing the new USA anthology crime thriller The Sinner, which just released its first trailer. Based on a novel by Petra Hammesfahr, the show stars Biel as a young mother named Cora who commits a horrific crime in full view of her family and public bystanders. It's a seemingly inexplicable act for she claims she has no motive, which puzzles the lead investigator (Bill Pullman).

Wondering which of your favorite shows are going to be renewed and which aren't? TV Guide published a list of a 2016-2017 TV Scorecard.

PODCASTS/RADIO/VIDEO

NPR's Scott Simon interviewed Tom Rosenstiel (who is also the executive director of the American Press Institute) about his debut novel Shining City, which focuses on Washington D.C. politics, power brokers, spin doctors, compromise, and the press.

The mystery of Ireland and writing were some of the topics discussed with Lisa Alber, author of the County Clare mystery series, on the Authors on the Air podcast.

Swedish novelist Christoffer Carlsson, who's written five novels, won Sweden's top award for crime fiction, and has a PhD in criminology (all under the age of 30), spoke to Kate Evans on Radio National about his writing career and his novel Master, Liar, Traitor, Friend, the third in a series about a cop named Leo Junker.

Picking apart three of her favorite pieces of crime fiction, Nicola Davis sat down in the studio for the Guardian Books podcast with Dr. Kathryn Harkup, a chemist, science communicator, and author of A Is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie.

Seattle's KUOW radio featured arts and culture reporter Marcie Sillman and librarian Nancy Pearl talking about thrillers, with a few recommendations.

THEATER

A new production adapted (by Simon Brett and Antony Lampard) from one of Ruth Rendell's most celebrated novels is on tour in the UK, visiting 26 venues through December of this year.  The story follows Eunice, a woman struggling to fit in, and when she joins a wealthy family as their housekeeper, the very reason for her awkwardness, long hidden and deeply buried, leads inexorably to a terrible tale of murder in cold blood – on Valentine’s Day.

Houston's Theatre Suburbia will present Sherlock Holmes: John Watson's Body from February 24 to March 25, 2017. The play was penned by C.P. Stancich and starts with Dr. Watson investigating the disappearance of a family's priceless emeralds, but when he finds and then loses a body, it draws Holmes and friend Oscar Dove into a web of murder, larceny and intrigue.  

I caught this piece almost too late, but from Feb. 8 to 26, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Company (RMTC) is honoring Agatha Christie at the 17th annual Master Playwright Festival, an event that takes on a selected number of works from a celebrated artist. The festival provides opportunities for artists from a variety of organizations to produce work under the umbrella of a larger festival, and  also provides patrons with an opportunity to thoroughly immerse themselves in the works of a renowned playwright. Agatha Christie is only the second woman to be honored by the RMTC Festival and the first mystery writer.  

GAMES

Ink Spotters 1: The Art of Detection is a new app written by NY Times best-selling author Sean Stewart that creates a new Sherlock Holmes adventure. Players can follow Sherlock from Victorian London's high society to its rank underbelly as they breeze through the game's comic-like pages. By typing in key words, players unlock more pages that lead to the rest of the story. The more clues you find, the more pages you unlock.

Your Sunday Music Treat

Classical music may seem staid to today's younger generations, but in its day, it was often revolutionary. Beethoven's famous Egmont Overture is a perfect example. Egmont celebrates the life and heroism of the Dutch nobleman, the Count of Egmont, in his fateful opposition to Spanish tyranny. Beethoven penned the overture in part to express his opposition to Napoleon’s having crowned himself Emperor in 1804 (and it later became the unofficial anthem of the Hungarian revolution of 1956). Here's Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic:

Quote of the Week

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Death of a Mystery Writer

The theme for Patti Abbott's Friday's "Forgotten" Books today is "children gone wrong"; although the children in the book I'm highlighting in my post are grown, they are nonetheless all fairly nasty and all suspects in a dastardly murder puzzle that centers around the death of their despised father and a rather lucrative inheritance.

Robert Barnard (1936-2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer, whose first crime novel, Death of an Old Goat (1974), was written while he was teaching in Australia, followed shortly after by A Little Local Murder (1976) penned while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories and was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association and the Malice Domestic Award for a lifetime of achievement.

He had several series protagonists including policemen Perry Trethowan, Idwal Meredith, and Charlie Peace, even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, either under his given name or the pen name Bernard Bastable. He once said that favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie and published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie in 1980. This is likely why his stories are primarily of the traditional British detective story school, with the author himself once referring to his style as "deliberately old-fashioned."


Death of a Mystery Writer, published in 1978 (and received an Edgar Award nomination for Best Novel), follows that "old fashioned" theme, centering around Sir Oliver Fairleigh-Stubbs, an overweight and overbearing man who revels in stirring up trouble, after he collapses and dies at his birthday party. He left behind a family who was relieved to be rid of him, especially since he'd amassed quite a fortune as the author or best-selling detective novels.

To the family's surprise, Sir Oliver left most of his estate to his eldest son who openly hated his father, while the long-suffering wife, calculating daughter, and unpleasant younger son are each to receive the income from one carefully chosen book. But the manuscript of the unpublished volume left to Sir Oliver's wife—a posthumous "last case" that might be worth millions—has disappeared, and the author's death is beginning to look less and less like an accident.

The spirited Welsh Inspector Meredith, who in some respects resembles Sir Oliver's fiction hero, steps into the picture to look into the proceedings. It doesn't take long to discover the old man had been poisoned, his favorite after-dinner liqueur spiked with nicotinic acid, and that there are plenty of suspects. Meredith also begins to suspect that the clever murderer is taking his scheme from the plot of Sir Oliver's missing novel.

Barnard's trademark charm and wit are evident here, as in the passage:

"Oliver Farleigh sank into a mood of intense depression: he gazed at the cutlet as if it were a drowned friend whose remains he was trying to identify at a police morgue. He picked up a forkful of mashed potato, inspected it, smelled it, and finally, with ludicrously overdone reluctance, let it drop into his mouth, where he chewed it for fully three minutes before swallowing. Conversation flagged."

Kirkus Reviews added, "Sir Oliver is so robustly, vitally hateful that the story sags ever so slightly after his removal from the scene; but the denouement is neat, the pace brisk, and the satisfaction almost total—proof positive, once again, that the Olde English Detective Story can still, in the right hands, be an un-dusty delight."

After Barnard's death in 2013, several of his fellow crime fiction authors paid tribute and offered up fond remembrances via online posts, including Mike Ripley in The Guardian and Martin Edwards, who recalled Barnard's "sharp and mischievous sense of humour."

Mystery Melange

The longlist for the Crime Writers Association 2017 Dagger in the Library was officially announced last week. The Dagger in the Library (a prize for a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admire) is one of the most prestigious crime writing awards in the UK. This year's finalists include Alison Bruce; Kate Ellis; Chris Ewan; Tana French; Mari Hannah; Brian MacGilloway; James Oswald; C J Samson; Andrew Taylor, and Nicola Upson.

The Audio Publishers Association announced the finalists for the 22nd annual Audie Awards, which recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment, and include Best Mystery and Best Thriller categories.

The Open University/Institute of English Studies Contemporary Culture of Writing Seminars are presenting a Spring Seminar Series On Detective and Crime Fiction, beginning April 21 at the Senate House in Malet Street, London. Speakers at these free events will tackle such topics as how crime novels reflect contemporary politics and culture; have advances in psychology, neuroscience and digital technology changed the fictional landscape; is there a gender divide in the type of crime fiction written by men and women; who are the victims – and who are the perpetrators; and does the crime always have to be solved?

The Golden Age of Crime Weekend at Essex Book Festival will take place on March 11-12 in Southend-on-Sea. This year's line-up includes Sophie Hannah. who will talk about writing the first Poirot novel since Agatha Christie's death; Frances Fyfield, Jill Paton Walsh and former CWA chair and Detection Club president Simon Brett will celebrate the long-lasting legacy of Dorothy L Sayers; debut crime writers join the "Fresh Blood" panel; there's a Golden Age of Crime Quiz Night; Charles Beck will share insights into Dennis Wheatley's life and work; Sheila Mitchell will profile HRF Keating; and CWA member Isabelle Grey will host a crime-writing workshop.

At the other end of the country, also in March on the 25th, the Deal Noir conference on crime fiction at The Landmark Centre in Deal will feature CWA members Susan Moody, Barry Forshaw, Katerina Diamond, Sarah Ward, Susi Holliday, Guy Fraser-Sampson speaking on crime fiction in all its forms from dark psychological thrillers through police procedurals to light-hearted romps and Interactive sessions where you have chance to put your questions to the panel and join in the debate.

The 2017 Edgar Week activities in NYC were recently announced, kicking off with an evening featuring members of Mystery Writers of America, the 2017 Edgar Award nominees, bestselling authors, and publisher representatives at the Mysterious Bookshop. There's also an all-day writers' symposium, and, of course, the annual Edgar Awards banquet.

There is a blog-centered Mystery Thriller "Week" (it's actually 11 days) that runs through February 22, with  220+ authors from over a dozen countries represented. You can follow the links to dozens of book reviews, author Q&As, guest posts, and giveaways via this website calendar.

Academics, authors and fans of the "Queen of Crime" will gather at Cambridge University to discuss Agatha Christie's legacy. Lucy Cavendish College will host Agatha Christie: A Reappraisal in June as "fans and fellow writers coming together to try and unravel the mysteries behind some of the best-loved crime fiction of all time."

One sad bit of news to report: Canadian YA writer Norah McClintock has died at the age of 64 from the effects of ovarian cancer. McClintock published over 60 books, including the popular Robyn Hunter mysteries, Chloe & Levesque mysteries, and the Mike & Riel mysteries. She won five Arthur Ellis Awards for crime fiction for young people, and her books have been translated into 16 languages. In addition to books for young adults, McClintock has published two graphic novels, I, Witness with Mike Deas and Tru Detective with Steven Hughes.

San Diego's Fleet Science Center just opened a new interactive exhibit titled "Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery."  You can catch it through early June and try your hand at solving the mystery as you walk through several settings such as a carnival sideshow, a séance room and a caretaker's room, searching clues amid all the red herrings. When you think you know the name of the murderer, you'll enter the study to be questioned about your conclusions, and the mystery will be solved in a dramatic finale.

Another new exhibit coming up in April in Philadelphia will tackle "Clever Criminals and Daring Detectives," taking a historical look at criminals and detectives in fiction. Materials on display will include the earliest account of an American multiple murderer, the original manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Empty House" and reflections on mystery collecting of Ellery Queen. Visitors willl also have a chance to test out their own sleuthing skills.  (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

As filming gets underway for another series of ITV dramas featuring Rowan Atkinson playing Inspector Maigret, Penguin continues to publish its new translations of Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels at a rate of one a month. Of the 76 novels in the series, 63 take place in Paris, and because of that close relationship to setting, Crime Fiction Lover took a closer look "at the man and his city, with photography to depict the locations and the mood that the author established throughout the novels."

EuroCrime's Karen Meeks noted the publication of three new Agatha Christie-related crime fiction titles including a couple where the author herself stars as the sleuthing protagonist.

While much has been made about Agatha Christie's contribution to mysteries especially during her recent 125th anniversary celebrations, Criminal Element and Kristen Lepionka reminded us of other groundbreaking women in crime fiction.

A statistical analysis by Peking University Library showed that when its student body isn't reading course-assigned books about economics and politics, they are showing a preference for Japan's top thriller and mystery writer, Keigo Higashino. According to the report, Higashino's thriller Mysterious Night is the library's third-most borrowed book for 2016, and Higashino is also credited as having written the two most reserved books in Peking University Library, The Miracle in the Grocery Store as well as Journey Under the Midnight Sun.

Ever wonder how Sherlock Holmes got his name? Writing for LitHub, Michael Sims looks into the early history of the iconic detective's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sarah PInborough, author of new book Behind Her Eyes, compiled a list of the "Top 10 unreliable narrators From Edgar Allan Poe to Gillian Flynn" for The Guardian.

Fans of young adult crime fiction (or those of you who have family members who are) should check out this list of "5 YA Crime Families You’ll (Almost) Wish You Could Join" on the Barnes & Noble blog.

I'll bet this is one event commemorating Agatha Christie you haven't heard of - pancake day races in Wallingford featuring an Agatha Christie-themed challenge on Tuesday, February 28, with competitors dressed as villains and investigators. Even RAF Benson has agreed to send a team along to take part in the adult race.

Cracked profiled "20 Mysteries That Absolutely No One Can Solve" (although "no one" seems to be a bit of an exaggeration), fascinating real-life puzzles culled from historical events. (HT to Bill Crider)

This week's featured crime poem at the 5-2 is "Inquest: A Missing Person" by Daniel D'Arezzo.
 
In the Q&A roundup, Omnivoracious snagged author Louise Penny to interview author Deborah Crombie about the the latest in her very popular Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series; the Mystery People spoke with author Robert Knott, who took over Robert B. Parker’s Old West law duo Hitch and Cole; Chris Bell took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview" challenge about his latest story collection; the Mystery People also chatted with KJ Howe, Director of ThrillerFest, who is making her fiction debut with Freedom Broker; and author/reporter Betty Webb was the Q&A subject for Huffington Post, talking about her Lena Jones mysteries.