In Reference to Murder

Quote of the Week

Mystery Melange

Left Coast Crime 2018, "Crime on the Comstock," awarded four Lefty awards at the 28th annual LCC convention at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno/Sparks, Nevada. The Leftys are for books published in 2017:

• Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Ellen Byron, A Cajun Christmas
• Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial) for books covering events before 1960: Rhys Bowen, In Farleigh Field
• Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Kellye Garrett, Hollywood Homicide
• Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): William Kent Krueger, Sulfur Springs
  
  

The winner of the annual Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award this year is Brendan DuBois for his short story "Flowing Waters." In second place was Doug Allyn, with his story "Tombstone," and Dave Zeltserman took third with a new entry in his Shamus and Derringer Award winning Julius Katz and Archie series (a Nero Wolfe homage), "Cramer in Trouble." (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

We've been losing too many bright lights in the crime fiction community recently, and there was another sad milestone this past week as we mourned the loss of Philip Kerr, author of the historical crime fiction series featuring Bernie Gunther, an investigator with the Kriminalpolizei who must carry out his work during the political turbulence of 1930s Germany. Kerr wrote thirteen Gunther books, eventually evolving the character into a private detective in post-War Germany. Kerr's bestselling and beloved novels won many crime fiction honors during his too-short career, including the British Crime Writers' Association's Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award. Several sites are offering up tributes, including Shots Magazine, Crime Fiction Lover, and The Guardian.

Join the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, on April 3 at New York City's KGB Bar for another thrilling night of chilling crime fiction read by some of the chapter's talented members. The lineup includes R.G. Belsky, Laura K. Curtis, L.R. Hieber, Tim O’Mara, Thomas Pluck, Alex Segura, Carrie Smith, and Walllace Stroby. Hosted by Scott Adlerberg, this event is free and open to the public.

A few days later, on April 6, Missoula, Montana's indie bookstore Shakespeare & Company will present an evening of crime fiction featuring readings from authors Gwen Florio, Alec Cizak, and Russell Thayer.

On April 10, Portland, Maine's Rising Tide Brewing will host a "Cozy Mystery Author Palooza" featuring twelve authors talking about and signing books. The event is co-sponsored by Print: A Bookstore and Kensington Publishing.

The one-day symposium "Crime and the City" at the University of London on Friday, June 22, has put out a call for papers. The urban city is one of the most characteristic settings of crime fiction, from nineteenth-century Newgate Novels to late-Victorian detective stories, from twentieth-century noir and hard-boiled fiction to recent police procedurals. This one-day symposium brings together crime fiction critics and writers to examine the relationship between crime writing and the city, and organizers are seeking proposals for 20-minute papers or for conference panels on any aspect of urban crime writing from any period.

In addition to Mystery Fanfare's annual list of Easter-themed crime fiction, the blog also has a list of Passover-themed crime stories. This year, the two observations coincide on the calendar, with Passover spanning March 30-April 7, and Easter falling on April 1.

The latest issue of Noir City, the publication of the Film Noir Foundation, has a "blonde" themed issue, with a "troika of fair-haired silver screen goddesses for you to (re)consider."

Pittsburgh's NPR affiliate, WESA-FM, profiled Gloria Stoll Karn, a 94-year-old Pittsburgh artist who was one of the few women – let alone teenagers – in the field of pulp novel illustrators in the 1940s. Stoll went on to create more than 100 full-color covers for both romance and mystery magazines.

While we're on the subject of pulp fiction, did you know there is a database for the genre? Open Culture took readers into the Pulp Magazine Archive featuring over 11,000 digitized Issues of classic sci-fi, fantasy, and detective fiction.

Just in time for all those summer vacation trips to Florida, Crime Reads has a "guide to the madness" that often characterizes Sunshine State crime fiction.

Also great for beach vacations are quick reads, and the Crime Reads blog has a listing of "25 classic crime books you can read in an afternoon."

My own bucket list of travel destinations keeps growing longer, and this DreamTrip of Malmo and Southern Sweden notes that among the many other highlights of the tour, you can "Use your free time in Ystad to walk the streets of this town that helped put Nordic Noir crime fiction on the map."

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Working Backwards" by Charles Cline.

In the Q&A roundup, Alex Segura took Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Sharp Interview," talking about prepping for the launch of Blackout, his fourth Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery; Tripwire returned the favor, interviewing Brazill about his writing career and what it’s like being a Brit in Poland; and Ruth Downie chatted with Ruth Downie, the author of the new mystery novel Memento Mori, the latest in her Gaius Ruso series set during the Roman Empire.

Author R&R with Charles Salzberg

Charles Salzberg is a novelist, journalist, and acclaimed writing instructor. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series, including Swann’s Last Song which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel and Devil in the Hole, which was named one of the best crime novels of 2013 by Suspense magazine. He has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer’s Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, and GQ. He lives in New York City.

In Salzberg's critically-acclaimed literary thriller Devil in the Hole, detective Charlie Floyd was obsessed with catching an abominable murderer. In the sequel, Second Story Man, Floyd is not-so comfortably settled into being recently retired when he's abruptly drawn back into the game by Cuban-born Miami police detective Manny Perez, who is on a mission to catch a notoriously elusive thief. Working together as an unlikely team, Perez and Floyd act on a rumor that Hoyt is about to depart the wealthy homes of Florida to begin a string of robberies in the northeast. Confident they are hot on their prey's trail, the two detectives embark on their quest only to have Hoyt elude their grasp time and time again.

Salzberg stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

 

Unlike most of my novels, Second Story Man began with research as opposed to beginning with a character or plot. In the past, I’ve relied heavily on interviews with experts, which is where my experience as a magazine journalist kicks in. For instance, for Swann Dives In, which takes place in the world of rare books, I interviewed a rare book dealer. But this time around, I found it more useful to rely on the Internet for my research.

Years ago, I read an article in The New Yorker about a burglar named Blane Nordahl. Nordahl was a master at his chosen trade: breaking into the homes of the very wealthy and stealing only their valuable silver. No plated trays for him. Only the good stuff, especially if it had a provenance, like something made by Paul Revere. Nordahl was acknowledged as one of if not the best in the business, and with good reason. He rarely left forensic “footprints,” and in a long career the clever, athletic thief racked up a number of memorable heists, including, as I recall, Ivana Trump’s silver. The article also told the tale of the lawmen who were obsessed with bringing him to justice.

The first step in my research was finding and rereading that article. By the time I finished, an idea for a novel begin to take form.

For some time, I’ve been fascinated (and disturbed) by Americans’ need to be the best and to win, often at all costs. Perhaps, I thought, I can base create a master burglar and use him to examine this obsession with winning.

I knew very little about breaking and entering (this is a good thing, right?) so I began to research the subject, using Google to find newspaper and magazine articles. Along the way, I read about a fellow named Alan Golder, another master burglar, but with a twist. He only hit at dinner time, when he knew his victims would be home (along with all of their valuables) and most likely having dinner downstairs, while their jewelry and other items of value, sat upstairs, unguarded. Like Nordahl, Golder was also a master at what he did, also making him extremely difficult to catch.

As a result of my research, I was able to create Francis Hoyt, a very loose combination of Nordahl and Golder, adding, of course, a healthy dose of imagination (the character’s backstory and actions are completely made up).

I needed someone to pursue Hoyt, someone just as obsessed with “winning.” Here, I cheated a little by “borrowing” two characters from a previous novel, Devil in the Hole, which was based on a true crime: a man named John List who murdered his three children, wife, mother and the family dog and disappeared into thin air. For that novel, most of my research centered around the actual crime, especially how the bodies were found, since several weeks passed before anyone knew they were dead and List was on the lam. This led to going back to my own earlier novel to research the two other characters, Charlie Floyd and Manny Perez. Floyd was a major character, a cocky Connecticut State investigator, while Manny Perez, a Cuban-American Miami police detective, was so minor he only appears briefly in one chapter of the book. These two men, I decided, would team up to bring down Hoyt. I reread Devil, so I could make sure Floyd would be consistent with his earlier self (for the new novel, I had him as recently retired from his job), while with Perez, I had a little more leeway, since very little was known about him.

Once I had my three major characters, I set out to research the art of burglary. Using articles I found on the web, I learned how to bypass alarm systems (if someone checks my browser history they could make a pretty good case tagging me as a burglar in training), as well as other handy burglary tips. I also used a book called, 400 Things Cops Know, paying special attention to the things pertaining to breaking and entering.

The novel takes place primarily in and around Miami, Florida, as well as in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Obviously, being a native New Yorker, I didn’t need much help there. Ditto with New Jersey and to a lesser extent Connecticut, since I fictionalized Floyd’s hometown of Sedgewick. But still, I needed help with specific places. For instance, the opening scene takes place at the Fountainbleu Hotel, where I’d briefly visited once in my early 20s, but I needed to check it out on the web to get a good picture of what the hotel was like now. And then, on his bus journey from Miami to New York—you’ll have to read the book to find out why a bus rather than a plane, train or car—Hoyt stops in Charleston, S. C., a place I’ve never been. And so, back to the web, where I found maps and descriptions of the city—and even watched a news feature on Charleston, so I could fix in my mind how parts of the city and area looked. I also checked on local bus routes, since Hoyt makes a “special” tour of the city before he continues his trip north.

 

You can find out more about Charles Salzberg and Second Story Man via his website or Down & Out Books, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Second Story Man is available via all major bookstores in both print and ebook formats.

Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday again, folks, which means it's time for your weekly crime drama roundup:

MOVIES

Birth of a Nation filmmaker Nate Parker is attached to direct Black & Blue, a feature inspired by the life of decorated LAPD detective Ralph Waddy and based on a script originally penned by Jim McGrath. Black & Blue will revolve around Ralph Waddy’s life, a true hero at the LAPD, during what was the most racially charged period in the city’s history as it dealt with the Watts riots, Robert Kennedy’s assassination at the Ambassador Hotel, the rise of the Black Panthers, the capture of the Skid Row Slasher, and the Manson Murders (which Waddy connected to Charles Manson and his followers). 

The production company Studio 8 has acquired the action/thriller Champion about two American brothers, wrongly sentenced to prison in Thailand, who are then forced to compete in Thai boxing for a chance to win their freedom. No director has been attached to the project just yet.

UK production company Working Title (The Darkest Hour) has optioned the slasher satire My Sister, The Serial Killer with a view to turning the upcoming book into a feature. The debut novel of Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite follows a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has an inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. The darkly comedic story, buzzed-about in publishing circles, was previously snapped up by U.S. publisher Doubleday as part of a significant five-figure advance and is set to hit shelves stateside later this year

It was recently reported that Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe would team for filmmaker Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's thriller Villains, playing amateur criminals who get more than they bargain for when they meet a couple homeowners with a disturbing secret. This past week, the project's producers announced that Emmy-winning actor Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice have also been cast as the homeowners, who will do anything to keep their secret.

Actor Michael Landes has been cast in the next installment in the Olympus Has Fallen film series, Angel Has Fallen, which has Gerard Butler returning as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning as well as Morgan Freeman as President Trumbull. Landes will play Sam Wilcox, the Chief of Staff to President Trumbull in the Ric Roman Waugh-directed sequel. This time, Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President and must elude his own agency and the FBI as he tries to uncover the real threat.

Craig Di Francia (Power) will appear in Martin Scorsese’s Netflix film The Irishman starring Robert De Niro as Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a reputed hitman suspected of involvement in the 1975 disappearance of the Teamsters leader. The pic is based on Charles Brandt’s novel, I Heard You Paint Houses, which Steve Zaillian adapted for the screen. No word on a release date yet for the project that also includes Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel in the stellar cast.

STXfilms and Lakeshore Entertainment have set a release date of September 7 for the Jennifer Garner action-thriller Peppermint, which is the weekend following the Labor Day stretch. Directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, The Gunman), Peppermint tells the story of young mother Riley North (Garner) who awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack on the family. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerilla as she methodically delivers her personal brand of justice.

Hunter Killer has also gotten its release date of October 26. The Donovan Marsh-directed action thriller stars Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Michael Nyqvist in the story of an untested American submarine captain who teams with Navy SEALs to rescue the Russian president, who has been kidnapped by a rogue general.

A trailer was released for David Robert Mitchell's contemporary fever-dream thriller, Under The Silver Lake, which stars Andrew Garfield in the neo-noir story of a man searching for the truth behind the mysterious crimes, murders, and disappearances in his L.A. neighborhood. 

The Warner Archive Collection has released new restorations in 1080p transfers of Paul Newman starring as P.I. Lew Harper in the movies Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975), based on Ross Macdonald's novels featuring hardboiled P.I. Lew Archer. Virginia-Pilot contributor Kay Reynolds profiled the new color-rich restorations.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The BBC has ordered four new dramas for BBC One, including the spy surveillance thriller The Capture, the brainchild of writer-director Ben Chanan (Cyberbully). The project begins with the unjust arrest of an innocent man and escalates into a multi-layered conspiracy of manipulated evidence, and has been described as "research based but with huge flair in its storytelling. The Capture shines a light on surveillance culture and asks what happens in a world where we can no longer trust the evidence in front of us."

Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald is set to star in another BBC One project, the legal drama The Victim, created by The Man In The High Castle writer Rob Williams. Macdonald will play Anna Dean, a Scottish mother whose nine-year old boy was murdered fifteen years ago by a 13 year old. Years later, having campaigned to be told of the killer’s new identity, she is accused of revealing his new name online. James Harkness plays Craig Myers, who is attacked after Macdonald’s Dean accuses him of being the child killer, while John Hannah (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) plays D.I. Steven Grover, the detective in charge of the case. 

Another new BBC program, Elizabeth Is Missing, combines a mystery plot line with a tough look at a woman’s struggle with dementia. When her best friend Elizabeth goes missing, Maud is convinced that something terrible has happened and sets out to solve the mystery. But with her dementia worsening, Maud’s search takes on a poignant urgency. Based on the best-selling novel by Emma Healey, the drama is written by Andrea Gibb (Swallows And Amazons) and made by STV Productions.

Amazon Prime Video has booked the Mexican crime drama Falco, a remake of German procedural The Last Cop. The 15-part series will star Michel Brown and is directed and showrun by El Chapo’s Ernesto Contreras. The drama, which is set in 1994, follows a policeman with a promising future and a young family who must rebuild his life in 2018 after he wakes up from a 24-year coma after being shot in the line of duty.

Former Major Crimes star Kearran Giovanni has landed a lead role opposite Derek Luke, Jeri Ryan, and Paula Newsome in NBC’s drama pilot, Suspicion. Based on the book by Joseph Finder and directed by Brad Anderson, Suspicion is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. After Danny Goldman (Luke) accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, he gets a visit from the FBI and learns that the decision is one he will regret for the rest of his life. Coerced to work as an informant for the FBI to earn back his freedom, Danny is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption while trying to protect his family. Giovanni will play Lucy Fletcher, a psychotherapist.

Stephen Hill (Law & Order: SVU) is set as a series regular opposite Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot, the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series. The show will feature the same central quartet of characters as the original, but instead of four guys, it consists of three men and a woman, with Jonathan Higgins reconceived as Juliet Higgins (Weeks). Hill will play Theodore "TC" Calvin, a former Marine Corps chopper pilot and one of Magnum’s group of loyal friends who bonded when they were all POWs in Iraq.

Another fan favorite recurring character from The Good Wife is returning to the CBS legal drama’s sequel series on CBS All Access. Mike Colter is set for a guest arc on the upcoming second season of The Good Fight, reprising his role as Lemond Bishop, a powerful Chicago drug lord who was a controversial major client of Lockhart/Gardner. He first appeared toward the end of the first season and quickly grew into a major recurring character, appearing in 21 episodes of the series’ first six seasons. Bishop’s Good Wife story left off with him in prison; it will now be picked up on The Good Fight, which stars The Good Wife’s Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo.

CBS has set the finale dates for some of your favorite shows including its many crime dramas.

Meanwhile, USA Network announced premiere dates for summer series including Queen of the South (June 21), which tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), a woman who is forced to run from the Mexican cartel and seek refuge in America, and Shooter (June 21), which follows the journey of Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe), a highly decorated veteran who must confront a nemesis from his past in order to return to a life of normalcy.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Meet the Thriller Author podcast host Alan Petersen welcomed David Banner, an author living in the Coastal Southeast who "spends way too much time playing catch on the sand with his Airedale terrier." Banner is the author of the Dangerous Waters thriller series set in the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Spybrary spoke with Joyce Wayne about her spy novel Last Night of the World, which isn't set in the usual spy-centric settings of Berlin, DC, London or Moscow but rather in Ottawa, Canada, and how it's based on true events and real people.

The Crimetime podcast had reviews of "lying" crime fiction as well a profile of the Lucifer television series.

THEATER

The rarely-seen Love From A Stranger, by Agatha Christie, is coming to The Marlowe Theatre in Canberbury with a run from Tuesday April 3 to Saturday April 7. The story tells of Cecily Harrington's whirlwind romance with a handsome and charming stranger. Swept her off her feet, she recklessly abandons her old life to settle in the remote and blissful surroundings of a country cottage. However, Nigel Lawrence, her newfound love, is not all that he seems. This edge-of-your-seat drama has been rediscovered in a new production by Lucy Bailey and adapted by Frank Vosper, drawing on both Agatha Christie's short story "Philomel Cottage," and Christie's own recently discovered stage adaptation of the same short story, The Stranger.  

Quote of the Week

FFB: Black Caesar's Clan

Albert Payson Terhune (1872–1942) had several careers, eventually settling into journalism and writing. He and his wife also bred collies at their Sunnybank Kennels in  New Jersey, and Terhune based most of his writing in the 1920s and 30s on dogs. His first published works were short stories in magazines about his collie Lad, and he collected a dozen stories into the novel Lad: A Dog. That 1919 work has been reprinted over 80 times and was made into a feature film in 1962.

Although not known for writing mysteries, he did pen the novel Black Caesar's Clan: A Florida Mystery Story, published in 1922. The title comes from the 18th century African pirate Black Caesar, who raided ships around the Florida Keys and served as a chief lieutenant for Captain Blackbeard. One of the only surviving crew from Lieutenant Robert Maynard's attack on Blackbeard in 1718, Caesar established a base on Elliot Key.

Terhune's novel is set in and around what is now known as Caesar's Creek, where the descendants of Caesar and his crew chase off treasure hunters looking for Caesar's lost fortune. It was part of a wave of treasure-hunting fiction around the Great Depression, when desperate times called for desperate measures. The plot starts off with a fight between Gavin Brice and a beachcomber over a homeless collie (yes, this wouldn't be a Terhune novel without a collie).

Gavin Brice at first appears to be a down-on-his-luck transplant to Florida looking for work. However, he has a hidden agenda for "accidentally" getting himself attached to the shady Rodney Hade and his employee Milo Standish (defending him from an attack with his 'jui-jutsu' skills), in their hideaway plantation. Brice is close to succeeding in his quest until the innocent but beguiling Claire, Milo's younger sister, makes him question the secrets he's been hiding.

Terhune infuses his tale with quite a bit of humor, including this statement by Brice to a young woman who pulled a gun on him in a case of mistaken identity:

"Oh, please don't feel sorry for that!" he begged. "It wasn't really as deadly as you made it seem. That is an old style revolver, you see, vintage of 1880 or thereabouts, I should say. Not a self-cocker. And, you'll notice it isn't cocked. So, even if you had stuck to your lethal threat and had pulled the trigger ever so hard, I'd still be more or less alive. You'll excuse me for mentioning it," he ended in apology, noting her crestfallen air. "Any novice in the art of slaying might have done the same thing. Shooting people is an accomplishment that improves with practice."

Terhune apparently was conflicted about the mystery genre, as indicated in his Foreword where he talks about "mystery and romance and thrills to be found lurking among the keys and back of the mangrove-swamps and along the mystic reaches of sunset shoreline," but then adds, "Understand, please, that this book is rank melodrama. It has scant literary quality. It is not planned to edify. Its only mission is to entertain you and—if you belong to the action-loving majority—to give you an occasional thrill."

Terhune is sometimes criticized by contemporary critics for his racist depictions of minorities and "half-breeds." In Black Caesar, Brice even refers to his former Japanese martial arts instructor as "monkey faced." But Terhune was a product of his time, and still has many fans of his dog-based stories, while Sunnybank, the estate he shared with his wife and Lad and all the other Collies he raised and trained, is now a state literary monument attracting thousands of visitors each year.

Mystery Melange

Colin O'Sullivan's debut novel Killarney Blues (Foreign Novel) and Franz Bartelt's The 'Hôtel du Grand Cerf (French Novel) were awarded the 2018 Prix Mystère de la critique in France. The award was established in 1972 by the magazine Mystère, making it one of the oldest French awards for a detective novel, and continues to be awarded each year by its founder, Georges Rieben and a jury of reviewers.

The British Book Awards unveiled the nominees for 2018, including those in the Crime & Thriller category: J P Delaney's The Girl Before; Lee Child’s The Midnight Line; Jane Harper’s The Dry; Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes; Mick Herron’s Spook Street; and Erin Kelly’s He Said/She Said.

The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) unveiled nods for their annual Ben Franklin Awards for best novels of the past year, including Mystery/Suspense: Death on West End Road: A Hamptons Murder Mystery by Carrie Doyle; Full Service Blonde: A Copper Black Mystery by Megan Edwards; The Old Cape Hollywood Secret by Barbara Eppich Struna; and The Ploy by Marilyn Jax.

Foreword Reviews also announced the Foreword Indie Awards finalists in various categories, including Best Thriller/Suspense and Best Mystery.

Editors Sandra Ruttan and Brien Lindenmuth, formerly of Spinetingler Magazine, are starting up a brand-new publication titled Toe Six Press. They will be accepting submissions soon for short crime fiction, and in the meantime, they have some Author Snapshots up on the website.

Open Road Integrated Media has acquired U.S. ebook rights to 27 titles by the iconic British journalist-novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991), whose works have never before been published in ebook format in the States. The first three are among Graham’s most recognized works: The Quiet American, The Power and the Glory, and The End of the Affair. On April 10, The Heart of the Matter, Brighton Rock, Travels With My Aunt, and other titles will be released, with more than 15 titles to be added during the year.

Jeffery Deaver will be headlining a series of workshops for the Mystery Writers of America titled "Writing Commercial Fiction." In each case, the award-winning author will lead groups in a morning session and will be joined in an afternoon session (on publishing options and a Q&A) with a panel of other authors. Coming up next is Newton, Massachusetts, where the New England Chapter of MWA will host the workshop on March 24, and then the Rocky Mountain Chapter will sponsor the event in Denver on April 7.

If you're a writer who wants to attend a conference but has a hard time traveling, the Writers Digest University is offering its annual mystery/thriller online workshop April 6-8. Participants will spend the weekend learning techniques for honing their craft from bestselling authors and then pitch their novel via query letter to a literary agent specifically looking for material in the mystery or thriller genre.

The 2018 Bay Area Book Festival on April 28th and 29th in Berkeley, California, will include panels of interest to mystery readers, several sponsored by Mystery Writers of America, Northern California Chapter. Among the highlights will be Catherine Coulter being interviewed by Laurie R. King; a panel titled "Insider, Outsider: Do PIs or Cops Do It Better?" with Cara Black, Candice Fox, Matt Goldman, and Rachel Howzell Hall, moderated by Bill Petrocelli; and "Women Plot the Crime" with Sara Blaedel, Anne Holt, and Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, moderated by Cara Black. There will also be a Noir at the Bar event on the 28th. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

It’s March Madness season, and Writers' Digest got in on the action, writing style, with "Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers."

Ruth Downie is the author of a series of mysteries featuring Roman Army medic and reluctant sleuth, Gaius Petreius Ruso, including the newly released Memento Mori. Downie applied the Page 69 Test to Memento Mori and reported the results.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Dogs to the Chain" by John Patrick Robbins.

The annual Malice Domestic conference is coming up April 28-29, and The Stiletto Gang posted interviews with all of the nominees for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

In other Q&A roundup items, the Mystery People's Matthew Turbeville interviewed Bob Kolker about his true-crime book Lost Girls; Crime Fiction Lover chatted with Robert Goddard, whose crime novels across the UK and around the world, including his latest and 27th book, Panic Room, a contemporary thriller based in Cornwall; and Writers Who Kill blogger E.B. Davis spoke with Shawn Reilly Simmons as they discussed Simmons' Murder On The Rocks, the fifth Red Carpet Catering Mystery

Media Murder for Monday

MOVIES

Amma Asante has been set to direct the upcoming film adaptation of David E. Hoffman’s drama thriller The Billion Dollar Spy, which tells the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Hoffman is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and contributing editor to The Washington Post, who won the Pulitzer in 2010 for his book about the arms race The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. The film adaptation, scripted by Ben August (Remember) will be produced by Walden Media and Akiva Goldsman. 

Four-time Oscar nominee Ridley Scott is in talks to direct 20th Century Fox’s spy thriller Queen & Country, based on the award-winning graphic novel by Greg Rucka that follows a British female intelligence agent used as bait to lure the mastermind behind a terrorist attack in London out of hiding. Queen & Country: Operation Broken Ground won the 2002 Eisner Award for Best New Series.

French actress/director Melanie Laurent is putting her Gallic spin on the feature adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto’s noir novel Galveston. The project follows Roy (played by Ben Foster), a New Orleans ex-con who is intended to go down in a set-up by his kingpin Stan (Beau Bridges); however, he comes up the survivor with some valuable documents in hand alongside call girl Raquel (Elle Fanning). They flee Louisiana and wind up in the latter’s hometown of Galveston, where he plots his revenge as he is slowly dying.

Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren have been cast in The Good Liar, a Bill Condon-directed thriller set up at New Line Cinema to be adapted from Nicholas Searle’s debut novel. The pic reunites McKellen and Condon from their collaborations on Gods and Monsters and Mr. Holmes. Jeffrey Hatcher wrote the script, which is about career con artist Roy Courtnay (McKellen), who can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Mirren) online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.

The Josh Trank written and directed Al Capone biopic, Fonzo, is boosting its cast with the addition of Matt Dillon (Wayward Pines), Linda Cardellini (Bloodline), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Katherine Narducci (The Sopranos, HBO’s Wizard Of Lies). They join previously announced Tom Hardy as the title character of iconic Chicago gangster Al Capone, who sees dementia rot his mind after a long incarceration as his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. Cardellini will play Capone’s long-suffering wife Mae; Dillon is his closest friend Johnny; MacLachlan plays his doctor Karlock; Narducci plays Rosie, one of his sisters.

Oscar-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri has signed on for the indie film Vault, joining Theo Rossi, Clive Standen, and Samira Wiley, and Don Johnson in Verdi Productions’ crime drama directed by Tom DeNucci. Inspired by true events, the pic is about a group of small-time criminals, who in 1975 attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia. Palminteri will play Raymond Patriarca in the film, which is slated to begin filming this month in Rhode Island.

Abi Morgan, the playwright and screenwriter whose big-screen credits include The Iron Lady, Shame and most recently Suffragette, has been set to adapt Tangerine, the upcoming Christine Mangan debut psychological thriller novel (due March 28) that Imperative Entertainment scored rights to in November 2016. The drama is set against the simmering political climate of 1950s Morocco and follows two female characters, once inseparable roommates, who after an unexpected encounter in Tangier attempt to rekindle their friendship only to find their dark, tangled backstory reemerges, and quickly devolves from obsession to madness. 

20th Century Fox has chosen Scott Frank to rewrite The Force, the adaptation of the bestselling NYPD corrupt cop thriller novel by Don Winslow. James Mangold has been developing to direct, and this reunites him with Frank after they shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination with Michael Green for Logan, Hugh Jackman’s farewell to his signature X-Men character Wolverine. The book tells the story of a corrupt detective in the NYPD’s most elite crime-fighting unit, Sgt. Denny Malone, who is forced to choose between his family, his partners and his life.

Harry Shum Jr. and Shiloh Fernandez have signed on for key supporting roles in the Mike Gan written and directed thriller Plume, joining previously announced cast Josh Hutcherson, Suki Waterhouse, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey. The film follows a lonely, unstable gas station attendant Melinda (Cobham-Hervey), tired of being overshadowed by her more confident, outgoing co-worker Sheila (Waterhouse). When the gas station is held at gunpoint by Billy (Hutcherson), a desperate man in need of quick cash, Melinda finds an opportunity to make a connection with the robber, regardless of who gets hurt. Shum Jr. will play Officer Liu, a wholesome local police officer subject to the obsessive affections of Melinda. Fernandez plays Perry, Sheila’s boyfriend who finds himself unwittingly enmeshed in Melinda’s dangerous games.

Will Sasso has booked a role in Boss Level, the action thriller starring Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo from writer-director Joe Carnahan. The film follows a retired Special Forces veteran (Grillo) who is trapped in a never-ending loop resulting in his death. To end his suffering, he must figure out who is responsible and stop them. Gibson is Col. Clive Ventor, the powerful head of a shadowy program. Sasso will play Brett, Ventor’s confident, arrogant and a touch sadistic second-in-command.

TELEVISION

Epix will air the eight-episode espionage drama Deep State in the U.S. The project stars Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Game of Thrones' Joe Dempsie, and is described as a "grounded, visceral thriller, moving between the deeply personal story of a family man fighting to escape his past and the violent, dark excesses of government and global corporate power."

Nicole Kidman is reuniting with Big Little Lies showrunner David E. Kelley for another HBO limited series. The actress is set to star in and executive produce The Undoing, an adaptation of the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz that follows Grace Sachs, a successful therapist who’s on the brink of publishing her first book when a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations.

Frequency's Peyton List has been tapped as the female lead opposite Joseph Morgan in Fox’s untitled drama pilot based on the best-selling book Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. Laysla De Oliveira also has been cast as a series regular in the project, from 20th Century Fox TV and Miramax, which was behind the 2007 movie adaptation directed by Ben Affleck. Written by Black Sails co-creator Robert Levine and directed by Phillip Noyce, the untitled project centers on private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Joseph Morgan) and Angela Gennaro (List) who, armed with their wits, their street knowledge and an undeniable chemistry, right wrongs the law can’t in the working-class Boston borough of Dorchester. 

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Ten Days in the Valley) is set for a lead role opposite Robin Tunney and Adam Rayner in the ABC drama pilot, The Fix. Described as "part legal thriller, part confessional, and part revenge fantasy," The Fix is written by Marcia Clark, Elizabeth Craft, and Sarah Fain and directed by Larysa Kondracki. After losing the biggest case of her career and being shredded by the media, former prosecutor Maya Travis (Tunney) has left Los Angeles for a quiet life in rural Oregon. Eight years after her devastating defeat, the murderer strikes again, forcing Maya to return to L.A. to confront him one more time. Akinnuoye-Agbaje will play Steven "Sevvy" Johnson, a charismatic Oscar-winning actor who was accused of murdering his wife and another woman. 

Soon-to-be-former Grey’s Anatomy cast member Sarah Drew has been tapped as co-lead Cagney in CBS’ Cagney & Lacey drama pilot, with Blindspot alum Michelle Hurd already cast as fellow co-lead Lacey in the reboot of the iconic 1980s police procedural. Written by Bridget Carpenter and directed by Rosemary Rodriguez, the new Cagney & Lacey will follow the two female police detectives and friends who keep the streets of Los Angeles safe. 

Former Rookie Blue star Missy Peregrym will lead the cast of F.B.I., Dick Wolf’s upcoming 13-episode CBS drama series that chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Peregrym will play the female lead, FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell, who engages immediately and commits deeply to the people she works with and is protecting. Maggie came to New York with conviction – and is working incredibly hard not to let a recent personal tragedy derail her new life, personally or professionally. 

Damnation's Sarah Jones is set as a female lead in the CBS drama pilot L.A. Confidential, based on James Ellroy’s classic noir novel that follows three homicide detectives, a female reporter (Alana Arenas), and a Hollywood actress (Jones) whose paths intersect as the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950s Los Angeles. Jones’s Lynn is a sharp Veronica Lake-like beauty, an aspiring Hollywood actress – and not one to compromise her principles. When she finds a best friend brutally murdered and Jack Vincennes (Walton Goggins) unexpectedly at the scene before she’s had time to call the police, Lynn knows she has something on the LAPD detective – and decides to use it to help solve the horrible crime. The role of Lynn was played by Kim Basinger in the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential, earning her an Oscar.

Happy Endings alum Zachary Knighton is set as a lead playing Rick Wright, opposite star Jay Hernandez and Perdita Weeks, in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot. Directed by Justin Lin, the reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series follows Thomas Magnum (Hernandez), a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. With help from fellow vets Theodore "TC" Calvin and Orville "Rick" Wright, as well as that of disavowed former MI-6 agent Juliet Higgins (Weeks), Magnum takes on the cases no one else will, helping those who have no one else to turn to.

Former Wings star Steven Weber is set for a key series regular role opposite Kylie Bunbury, along with Lisseth Chavez (The Fosters) and Dennis Oh (NCIS: New Orleans) in Get Christie Love, ABC’s reboot drama pilot. The new Get Christie Love is an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. Weber will play Steve, Christie’s law school teacher a decade ago, and now serves as her mentor and day-to-day confidant. 

Good news for fans of Netflix's The Sinner:  a second season is on the way. Picked up from the USA Network, the first season (adapted from a book by German writer Petra Hammesfahr) followed Jessica Biel, playing Cora Tannetti, a mother and wife who was raised in an incredibly religious family who commits a murder for what appears to be no reason. The second season would follow Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) who is called back to his hometown in distant rural New York to assess a disturbing new crime: an 11-year-old boy's horrific double-homicide and his seemingly inexplicable motive. As Ambrose comes to realize there's nothing ordinary about the boy or where he came from, his investigation leads him straight into the hidden darkness of his hometown and pitting him against those who'll stop at nothing to protect its secrets.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The Joined Up podcast welcomed psychological thriller writer, Sam Carrington, to talk about her work and how her background in UK's prison service as an Offending Behavior Facilitator informs her writing.

Gillian Flynn shared details on Windy City Live about her next novel and an HBO series she's working on with Amy Adams.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host Luca Veste was joined by bestselling crime writer Angela Clarke to talk about book releases, the Staunch prize, infamous people and what they were reading, and much more, including special guest Katerina Diamond.

Suspense Radio welcomed Laura Childs, to talk about the latest in her Tea Shop Mystery series, and also Dennis Palumbo, discussing the fifth book in his Daniel Rinaldi mystery series.

Writer Types chatted with authors Alison Gaylin, Owen Laukkanen, Peter Swanson, and Dharma Keller, and the weekly "Unpanel" featured contributors to the anthology "novel in stories," Night of the Flood.

Book Riot's Read or Dead podcast hosts Rincey and Katie flailed over the potential of new Gillian Flynn books, discusssed the new Obama/Biden buddy mystery, and talked about some great mystery comics.

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Crimson Blind

Frederick Merrick White (1859-1935) was an English author who wrote a number of novels and short stories under the name Fred M. White, including the six "Doom of London" science fiction stories about various catastrophes that afflict the British capital. Although he apparently didn't start publishing his work until the age of 43, over the next 30+ years, he wrote approximately 90 novels and short-story collections and is considered by some to be a pioneer of spy stories.

In 1905's The Crimson Blind, set primarily in the coastal city of Brighton, bestselling detective novelist David Steel finds himself in dire financial straits. He's contacted by a mysterious young woman who tells him she will pay his debt in exchange for helping her concoct a plan to get out of a sticky situation. After a late-night meeting to seal the deal, with the woman's identity kept hidden from Steel, the author returns to his home to find it's been broken into, and a near-dead man has been left bleeding on the floor of his conservatory.

The police suspect Steel, thanks to an incriminating cigarette case that points to Steel as the culprit. As Steel battles to clear his name, he falls in with Dr. Hatherly Bell, "a small, misshapen figure, with the face of a Byron—Apollo on the bust of a Satyr," a man possessed of marvelous intellectual powers and a secret past, who also happens to have a personal connection to the mysterious woman and offers to help Steel.

The investigation soon leads to the benevolent millionaire philanthropist Gilead Gates and his right-hand man, the villainous Reginald Henson, who aspires to become a member of Parliament. The myriad subplots and plot twists involve a faked death, a missing ring, blackmail, dog attacks, a decaying country estate and a stolen Rembrandt. White pens some passages of evocative writing, such as the opening lines:

David Steel dropped his eyes from the mirror and shuddered as a man who sees his own soul bared for the first time. And yet the mirror was in itself a thing of artistic beauty—engraved Florentine glass in a frame of deep old Flemish oak. The novelist had purchased it in Bruges, and now it stood as a joy and a thing of beauty against the full red wall over the fireplace. And Steel had glanced at himself therein and seen murder in his eyes.

He dropped into a chair with a groan for his own helplessness. Men have done that kind of thing before when the cartridges are all gone and the bayonets are twisted and broken and the brown waves of the foe come snarling over the breastworks. And then they die doggedly with the stones in their hands, and cursing the tardy supports that brought this black shame upon them.

Overall, The Crimson Blind is a decent and entertaining Victorian mystery, which just happens to be available free via Project Gutenberg.