In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

This Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and Mystery Fanfare has a roundup of all St. Patty's related crime fiction for you.

Mystery Fest Key West (set for June 22-24) has announced a call for entries for this year’s Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. The winner will claim a book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, free Mystery Fest Key West 2018 registration, airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights, meals and a Whodunit Award trophy to be presented at the 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 22-24 in Key West, Florida. But you'll need to hurry - the submission deadline is no later than April 15, 2018.

Via Janet Rudolph and her Mystery Fanfare blog, I learned of the deaths of three bright lights in the crime fiction community, two of whom passed away on the same day: Kate Wilhelm, who wrote the Barbara Holloway legal mystery series and Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn private eye/psychologist series, as well as various short stories and standalone mystery/suspense novels (Wilhelm was married to Damon Francis Knight, an American science fiction author whose story "To Serve Man" became an iconic adaptation for The Twilight Zone); Peter Temple, who became the first Australian writer to win the British Crime Writers’ Gold Dagger Award and is perhaps best-known for his Jack Irish novels (adapted for television with Guy Pearce as the titular lead); and Robert S. Levinson, creator of the Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner series of mystery-thrillers and also a Shamus award nominee and prolific short-story writer who won an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award winner three consecutive years.

Sad news also from Spinetingler Magazine: although they'd recently resurrected the print 'zine after being online-only for some time, the recent resignation of founder Sandra Ruttan means the publication will cease sometime this spring. We certainly wish all those involved the best and thank them for years of service to the crime fiction community.

Writing for the Washington Post, Sarah Weinman profiled a new biography, A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson, and the book's take on Agatha Christie’s life, which rivaled the immortal mysteries she created.

The Guardian featured Belfast's No Alibis bookstore, which specializes in mystery and detective fiction.

When Emma Hardy and Grace Harrison noticed the trend of true-crime podcasts and TV series, while working for a magazine publisher in London, they hatched the idea for a periodical on the subject. The result is the quarterly Foul Play, which proposes to "satiate our fascination with real life murders without resorting to sensationalism."

Although print books still rein supreme in general, a new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that one in five Americans have listened to an audiobook, and one in four have read an ebook.

Here's something for your Bucket List: plan on visits to the "10 Most Famous Bookstores in the World."

Are these "23 of the Oldest Words Ever Spoken"?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Poor Afrikka Hardy Did Not Die in Vain" by Joseph S. Pete.

In the Q&A roundup, Murder and Mayhem in Chicago conference co-founders Lori Rader-Day and Dana Kaye discussed Chicago’s Vibrant Crime Fiction Scene; Criminal Element quizzed Sebastian Rotell, author of Rip Crew; The Rap Sheet's Jeff Pierce chatted with author Max Allan Collins - 2018 marks the centennial of Mickey Spillane's birth, and Collins discussed his experiences continuing Spillane's Mike Hammer series; Richard Godwin took Paul D. Brazill's Short, Sharp Interview challenge about new sci fi dystopian thriller Android Love, Human Skin; Omnimystery News welcomed mystery author Leslie Karst to discuss her latest book to feature restaurateur Sally Solar, Death al Fresco; and the Jungle Red Writers' Ingrid Thoft chatted with Mike Lawson, winner of a Spotted Owl Award for the Best Mystery by a Pacific Northwest Writer, whose latest book, House Witness continues the adventure of Joe DeMarco, a fixer for a corrupt politician.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all! Looks like it's time for another roundup of crime drama news:

MOVIES

David Chase is returning to the New Jersey turf of his iconic television creation, The Sopranos, with a prequel titled The Many Saints of Newark that's set in the era of the Newark riots in the '60s. Some of the beloved characters from the award-winning series will appear in the film, and although no stars have been announced yet, the time period could make room for Tony Soprano’s father, Giovanni "Johnny Boy," the former captain of the Soprano crew (played in flashbacks by Joseph Siravo), and a younger version of his wife Livia (played in the show’s first season by Nancy Marchand), and Tony’s uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese. Chase will serve as producer as well as co-writer, and he will be involved in selecting a director.

20th Century Fox has won the rights to Christian Cantrell’s short story "Epoch Index", hiring Justin Rhodes (writer of the upcoming Terminator reboot and remake of Fantastic Voyage) to adapt Cantrell’s story to the screen, and San Andreas director Brad Peyton to direct. Cantrell self-published "The Epoch Index" in 2010, generating interest from various studios for the story that follows CIA analyst Quinn Mitchell as he tracks down an assassin with victims that seem random - but each victim has a numbered tag attached to them.

Tom Shepherd has been hired to pen Matt Helm, a film adapted from Don Hamilton’s spy novel series that has been in the works at Paramount with Bradley Cooper attached to star. George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are serving as executive producers, and Steven Spielberg is also involved in some form. There are 27 published Matt Helm novels that Hamilton wrote from the 1960s to the 1990s, with four of the books made into films starring Dean Martin. Hamilton’s original Helm character was a U.S. special agent/assassin during World War II who left the life to raise a family in Santa Fe but is forced to return to his former life.

eOne and Mark Gordon have tapped Oscar-nominated Ralph Fiennes and Matthew Good to join Keira Knightley and Matt Smith in the thriller Official Secrets, directed by Gavin Hood. The project tells the true story of British intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun (Knightley), who, during the immediate run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US.-U.K illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council.

Actor Don Johnson has been cast in director Tom DeNucci’s Vault, joining co-stars Theo Rossi, Clive Standen and Samira Wiley. Inspired by true events and written by DeNucci and B. Dolan, Vault follows a group of small-time Rhode Island criminals who in 1975 attempt to pull off the biggest heist in American history, stealing more than $30 million from the mafia.

Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe are set to star in Villains, a darkly comedic thriller to be directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, based on their screenplay which made the Black List in 2016. Villains follows a pair of amateur criminals who, after breaking into a suburban home, stumble upon a dark secret and two sadistic homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.

Robert Downey, Jr. recently told Entertainment Weekly that he has a slew of projects in the works, including the rumored Sherlock Holmes 3. Although falling short of an official announcement, it indicates the actor is still planning on doing another film in the franchise.

A trailer dropped for the upcoming latest installment in the Mission Impossible series, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, once again starring Tom Cruise in the lead role of U.S. government operative Ethan Hunt.

TELEVISION

Netflix has picked up the action-thriller Close from West End Films for streaming in the United States, the UK and Australia. Close is a female-led action-thriller starring Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) that was produced under West End’s female-based WeLove brand, which develops and produces female-specific content and promoting female talent. Vicky Jewson (Born of War) co-wrote the script with Rupert Whitaker and directed the film, in which Rapace plays a character based on Jacquie Davis, one of the world’s top female bodyguards, who's tasked with protecting a young heiress (Sophie Nelisse).

TNT has opted not to renew The Librarians for a fifth season, but fans can take heart in the fact that series executive producer Dean Devlin announced on Twitter that he will be launching an effort to find a new home for the adventure drama. The fourth season finale, and now the TNT series finale, aired February 7.

Law & Order's Jeremy Sisto is reuniting with Dick Wolf for a starring role opposite Zeeko Zaki in F.B.I., Wolf’s upcoming 13-episode CBS drama series that chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sisto will play FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, whose ability to relate and engage easily to subordinates and superiors makes him "good glue" and sets him up as the nerve center of the office.

Former CSI star Jorja Fox is returning to CBS and reuniting with former CSI executive producer Carol Mendelsogn for a starring role in the drama pilot Chiefs. Fox has been tapped as one of the three leads opposite Alana De La Garza and Aunjanue Ellis in the pilot that explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful but very different women (De La Garza, Ellis, Fox) who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. Fox will play Vicky, the Santa Monica Chief of Police, a role which was reworked for her.

Khandi Alexander (Scandal) is set to co-star opposite Kylie Bunbury in ABC’s Get Christie Love reboot drama pilot inspired by the cult 1974 blaxploitation-themed TV movie and subsequent series. The new Get Christie Love centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African American female CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. Also recently cast in the show is Juan Javier Cardenas (Snowfall), playing Jonas, the oldest member of the counterintelligence unit.

The Wire alum Wood Harris has been cast as a lead opposite Lynn Collins in ABC’s cop drama pilot The Mission. Written by Jason Richman and directed by Michael Offer, The Mission chronicles the colorful, complicated lives of cops on and off the beat as we follow them into harrowing, emotional and often humorous situations. It centers on Oriana "Ori" Cloverfield (Collins), who gave up a legal career to become a rookie cop — or so it seems. Harris plays Sgt. Frank Griffith aka Griff, Ori’s training officer, a veteran cop whose lackluster enthusiasm for the job rankles her. Also previously cast in the pilot are Aasif Mandvi, Kris Lofton, Josh Randall, Vannessa Vasquez and Alexander Karim.

Body of Proof star Jeri Ryan has been tapped for a leading role opposite Derek Luke 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 Goodman (Luke) accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, Tom Canter, 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. Ryan will play Tom Canter’s wife, Celina.

Noah Wyle is returning to television in Red Line, which will focus on the racial issues surrounding police shootings, offering different perspectives on the aftermath of the shooting. Wyle will star as Daniel Calder, described as "a dedicated high school teacher who is mourning the loss of his innocent African-American husband," meaning there will also be an interesting LGBTQ component built in to the story.

Marc Blucas (Underground) has landed a series-regular role in ABC drama pilot The Fix, described as part legal thriller, part confessional and part revenge fantasy. After losing the biggest case of her career and being shredded by the media, former prosecutor Maya Travis 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. Blucas will play Riv, Maya’s (yet to be cast) partner on the farm in Oregon.

The West Wing alum Kathleen York and Derek Webster (NCIS: New Orleans) are set for key series-regular roles opposite Perry Mattfeld in the CW pilot In the Dark, from CBS TV Studios and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Written by Corinne Kingsbury and directed by The Big Sick helmer Michael Showalter, the show centers on Murphy (Mattfeld), a flawed and irreverent young woman who just happens to be blind and is the only "witness" to the murder of her drug-dealing friend, Tyson. York will play Murphy’s mother, Joy.

Peter Gallagher (Covert Affairs) has been tapped for a co-starring role opposite Bokeem Woodbine and Timothy Hutton in CBS’ legal drama pilot Main Justice. Written by Sascha Penn and inspired by the life and work of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Main Justice centers around Miles Blair (Woodbine), the recently sworn-in U.S. Attorney General. Gallagher will play President Whitbeck, The President of the United States, who feels good about newly sworn-in Attorney General, and is happy to finally have a real cop in the position. However, when Miles makes some unorthodox decisions that have far-reaching effects on the President’s domestic and international agendas, he begins to have some reservations about his pick for AG.

Emily Althaus (Orange Is the New Black) has booked a series-regular role opposite Charity Wakefield, Will Patton, Toby Kebbell and Jim Belushi in the ABC drama pilot Salvage from writer-producer Don Todd and ABC Studios. Salvage centers on ex-cop Jimmy Hill (Kebbell), who just wants to be left alone after moving back home to rural Florida. But when a local murder is linked to the sunken treasure of a lost Spanish galleon, he’s drawn into the investigation by an idealistic deputy and pitted against the powerful town patriarch, outside criminal agents and his own father. Althaus will play Missy Hill, Jimmy’s little sister who loves her brother to death and always meant to leave their town of Bel Grove, but has been too busy making poor decisions to get around to it.

Deadline reported that Michael Beach has joined ABC’s Holmes drama pilot, and Justin Johnson Cortez has joined Staties. Holmes explores the lives of five African-American sisters, all officers in the NYPD, with Beach playing Langston Graves, husband to one of the sisters, Sgt. Ella Kendrick Graves (Amirah Vann). Staties centers on a hard-charging NYPD detective (Annie Ilonzeh) who’s banished to the boonies after a high-profile mistake and is paired with a new partner, Oregon State Trooper Sam King (Andy Karl), with Cortez playing Richard Spruce, the cop in charge of a robbery at the River Run Tribal Gaming Casino.

HBO has set an April 6 return date for Season 6 of Vice, its Emmy-winning weekly news magazine that this season will include 35 episodes, a boost of five over last year. The new season will continue the series’ commitment to under-covered global stories with exclusive reports from Iraq, Russia, the Central African Republic and China. Domestic issues covered in the new season will include gun laws, immigration, economics, education, civil rights and "America’s place in the world."

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

USA Today's geek culture podcast, MotherShip, welcomed best-selling author and comic-book writer Brad Meltzer to chat about his newest thriller, The Escape Artist. And on that theme, he and the rest of the crew broke down their favorite pop-culture escapes from our increasingly crazy real world.

The Story Blender featured special guest Carter Wilson to discuss his latest chiller Mister Tender’s Girl, inspired by the Slender Man attacks.

Sarah M. Chen stopped by Authors on the Air Radio passes through the Corner to discuss The Night of the Flood, a "novel-in-stories" from Down & Out Books, which she co-edited with E.A. Aymar.

Crime Friction chatted with Naomi Hirahara whose final book with amateur sleuth Mas Arai, Hiroshima Boy, is out tomorrow.

Meet the Thriller Author's latest guest was Philip Donlay, a pilot who has combined his passion for flying and writing including his latest novel, Speed the Dawn, a breakneck thriller featuring pilot Donovan Nash.

The Writers Digest podcast spoke with James Scott Bell, a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the #1 bestselling author of Plot & Structure.

THEATER

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas is presenting a production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution March 13-31. The story centers on Leonard Vole, who's on trial for the grisly murder of esteemed London socialite Emily French. While facing these vicious allegations, only one thing stands between Leonard and the end of a rope ... his wife. Will she come to his defense even though she is a witness for the prosecution?

The UK's Belgrade Theater in Coventry is presenting a psychological drama by the bestselling author of the Alex Rider series and the brain behind BBC shows Foyle’s War and New Blood. Anthony Horowitz's Mindgame tells the story of true crime writer Mark Styler and his efforts to gain an interview with a notorious serial killer. But in order to reach the man and claim his prize, he must first find a way to get past Dr. Farquhar (Michael Sherwin), the quixotic head of the Fairfields asylum where Easterman is being kept. The production runs from Wednesday, March 14 until Saturday, March 17.

Montville, New Jersey's Barn Theater is presenting the Alfred Hitchcock spoof, The 39 Steps, with performances through April 7. The entire cast consists of four actors, one who plays Richard Hannay, a man caught up in a web of international intrigue, while an actress plays three different women who enter Hannay’s life, and all the other characters are played by two people who take on series of rapid costume changes. Director Ron Mulligan describes it as "Monty Python meets Hitchcock meets Benny Hill and The Carol Burnett Show."

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Plot Thickens

Collecting and publishing mystery short stories in anthologies to benefit a charity is pretty common these days, no doubt due to the rise of ebooks - prior to the new digital era, print short story anthologies were considered a hard sell.

One of the earliest such charitable enterprises I could find was The Plot Thickens, edited by Mary Higgins Clark back in 1997 to benefit the adult literacy organization Literacy Partners. Contributing authors include Lawrence Block, Edna Buchanan, Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, Lauren and Nelson DeMille, Janet Evanovich, Linda Fairstein, Nancy Pickard, Ann Rule, Donald E. Westlake, and Walter Mosley. Each story had to include a tale that features a thick fog, a thick book, and a thick steak, although everything else was fair game. Here's the all-star lineup:

• "How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block is a conversational story set in a restaurant where a woman is interviewing a man she want to hire to intimidate her ex-boyfriend who says she owes him money;
• "Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan centers on the autopsy of an Egyptian mummy that reveals the supposedly thousand-year-old corpse was a murder victim with the same fingerprints as an infamous gang member;
• "Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark is about an aspiring young actress in a steak sauce commercial where a series of puzzling accidents start happening on the set around her;
• "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark finds a young woman kidnapped by her creepy neighbor, who happens to be a serial killer, via a shared basement;
• In "Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille, a woman entrusts her prized autobiographical manuscript to an old college friend-turned literary agent, but doesn't take his criticism too well;
• "The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich is a story featuring the author's iconic bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, who's on the trail of a peeping tom exhibitionist, only to have her discover the man's dead, naked body—which promptly disappears;
• "Going Under" by Linda Fairstein focuses on an ambitious young policewoman who goes undercover as a dental patient to catch a molesting dentist;
• In "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley, the author once again manages to pack a complicated mix of colorful characters like gangsters, pimps, prostitutes, and two friends in trouble into a tight tale;
• "Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard is a fictionalized timeline of events surrounding the fatal fire and murders at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin studios in Wisconsin;
• "The Road Trip" by Ann Rule follows a new divorcée on a road trip hoping to get away from her jealous ex-husband for awhile, only to find herself face to face with an infamous serial killer;
• "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake is an example of the author's trademark humor and charm, in which a hapless FBI agent on a stakeout is sent to get food for the team from the local Burger Whopper and strikes up a conversation with the man next to him in line, which takes a strange turn.

Both "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark and "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake were chosen to be in the Best American Mystery Stories 1998, edited by the late Sue Grafton.

Mystery Melange

Michael Connelly has been chosen by the British Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) to receive this year’s Diamond Dagger award for sustained excellence in the crime fiction-writing field and will be presented with the award during a ceremony in London on October 25. Connelly joins a distinguished list of previous Diamond Dagger recipients that includes Dick Francis, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, P.D. James, Peter Lovesey, Sara Paretsky, Andrew Taylor, Ian Rankin, and last year’s recipient, Ann Cleeves.

The finalists for the Hammett Prize were just announced and include The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne; The Tragedy of Brady Sims by Ernest J. Gaines; August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones; and Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis. The awards are handed out annually by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author.

Finalists for the 30th annual Lambda Literary Awards that "identify and celebrate the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the year and affirm that LGBTQ stories are part of the literature of the world," have been chosen in 23 categories, including

Lesbian Mystery

• A Quiet Death, Cari Hunter
• Fever in the Dark, Ellen Hart
• The Girl on the Edge of Summer, M. Redmann
• Huntress, E. Radley
• The Last First Time, Andrea Bramhall
• Murder Under the Fig Tree: A Palestine Mystery, Kate Jessica Raphael
• Odd Numbers, Anne Holt
• Repercussions, Jessica L. Webb

Gay Mystery

• Boystown 10: Gifts Given, Marshall Thornton
• Long Shadows, Kate Sherwood
• Love is Heartless, Kim Fielding
• The Mystery of the Curiosities, C. S. Poe
• Night Drop, Marshall Thornton
• Ring of Silence, Mark Zubro
• Street People, Michael Nava
• Tramps and Thieves, Rhys Ford

Winners will be announced June 4 at the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York City.

This month, Literary Hub is launching CrimeReads, a new website dedicated to showcasing the best writing from the worlds of crime, mystery, and thrillers, "a literary culture that’s more robust than ever, but diffuse." The site will publish a daily slate of features, excerpts, interviews, reading lists, critical essays, and news from around the crime fiction community, including articles from authors including Laura Lippman on the transgressive legacy of James M. Cain, Val McDermid on the birth and boom of Tartan Noir, and Jason Overstreet on spy fiction and the black American experience. CrimeReads is partnering with publishers, booksellers, journals, author organizations, festivals, librarians, and critics, and is advised by a board of distinguished authors, including Megan Abbott, Lee Child, Carl Hiaasen, Walter Mosley, Attica Locke, Ruth Ware, and Daniel Woodrell. The Masthead also includes Senior Editor: Dwyer Murphy; Associate Editor: Molly Odintz; and Contributing Editors: Lisa Levy and Sarah Weinman.

The selected stories for the 2018 Bouchercon conference anthology Sunny Places, Shady People were announced this week, with many familiar names on the list in what promises to be a fantastic lineup of short crime fiction. Editor Greg Herren added that "we had a record number of submissions, and choosing from this embarrassment of riches was a monumental task."

The new Scandi noir? Korea is reinventing the thriller, emerging as a surprising literary force when a novel by the ‘Korean Henning Mankell’ bags a six-figure deal and sparks a global bidding war.

The New Zealand Herald profiled author Stella Duffy, who was commissioned by the Ngaio Marsh estate to complete Marsh's unfinished 1940s manuscript Money in the Morgue, about how she went about approaching the task of maintaining Marsh's style while incorporating modern sensibilities. Less troublesome was Marsh's signature character gentleman detective Roderick Alleyn, who Duffy describes as a "really juicy interesting character" to write.

Author Brad Meltzer discovered a surprising - and rather touching - secret tied into the 9-11 attacks while researching his latest thriller.

Nancy Drew, the teenage detective who first entered American fiction in 1930, will return to the page in comic book form. Publisher Dynamite Entertainment will be releasing the book in June, with writer Kelly Thompson and artist Jenn St-Onge attached to the creative team, and in fact, the entire project is being led by an all-female creative team (with the exception of editor Nate Crosby). In the new take on the iconic character, Nancy hasn’t aged a day over seventeen and returns to her hometown to crack a case involving people from her past — her childhood friends and enemies. In true mystery-noir fashion, the story involves someone who is trying to end Nancy’s career as an amateur sleuth … as well as her life.

From the "forensics of the (near) future" department comes this news nugget: "Crime happens, and there is a witness. Instead of a sketch artist drawing a portrait of the suspect based on verbal descriptions, the police hook the witness up to EEG equipment. The witness is asked to picture the perpetrator, and from the EEG data, a face appears." New research from the University of Toronto Scarborough has brought that scenario one step closer to reality by using EEG data ("brainwaves") to reconstruct images of faces shown to subjects. In other words, they’re using EEG to tap into what a subject is seeing.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Alexander Berkman: Deported by God" by Charles Rammelkamp, and the latest story at Beat to a Pulp is "Cold Turkey" by Keith Rawson.

In the Q&A roundup, Omnimystery News welcomed Michael Niemann, whose third novel in his series of international thrillers featuring Valentin Vermeulen, Illegal Holdings, was just released; the Weekly Standard snagged an interview with 63-year-old first-time novelist Stephen Mack Jones to discuss second careers, Detroit, and his protagonist, August Snow; and the CBC had eight authors quiz fellow scribe Nathan Ripley about his debut thriller Find You in the Dark.

Author R&R with Patti Abbott

Patti Abbott is no stranger to this blog and its readers, since IRTM has been a participant in Patti's Friday's "Forgotten" Books features on her blog for some time. In addition to being a blogger, Patti is an outstanding author of short crime fiction and has published over 125 stories online and in print journals in various anthologies, winning a Derringer for her story "My Hero." She's also published two print novels, Concrete Angel (2015), nominated for an Anthony and Macavity Award, and Shot in Detroit (2016), nominated for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award in 2017. She's also authored two ebooks, Monkey Justice and Home Invasion, and co-edited the anthology Discount Noir. 

Her latest literary endeavor is a collection of twenty-six of her stories, titled I Bring Sorrow: And Other Stories of Transgression, published by Polis Books, which Publishers Weekly called "A sparkling collection from Edgar-finalist Abbott...This brilliant collection is sure to boost the author’s reputation as a gifted storyteller." From a daughter who finds a way to save a mother who no longer knows her name, to a father who eases his grief through an act of kindness that few will judge kindly, to an uxorious husband who finds the limits of his love, the collection promises to take you "into the deepest, darkest corridors of the heart."

Patti stops by In Reference to Murder today to talk about one of the stories in that collection and how it came to be:

 

"Um Peixe Grande"

From I BRING SORROW AND OTHER STORIES OF TRANSGRESSION

Early in my writing career, such as it is, I wrote a story for a specific challenge. The instructions were to choose a fairy tale or a myth and base a crime story on the tale. I chose Hansel and Gretel (along with half of the eventual entries) and wrote a story about two city kids whose mother is pretty much the witch. I had fun doing it and resolved to try my hand at it again.

So a few years later, I chose Grimm’s story "The Fisherman and His Wife" to update. And my first attempt pretty much followed the story’s structure. In the tale, a fisherman sets a caught flounder free and when he returns home his wife tells him he should have demanded a prize for his good deed. He returns to the water and demands a prize, which he gets, and the demands and the prizes escalate until it spins out of control.

I wasn’t happy with my story. It turned out to be too much about the harridan wife. It seemed like a cliché-filled short story when I was done. So my story eventually became more about the fisherman and the fish. The fish becomes a crime boss and the lakes of Maine a scene for certain sorts of crimes. I made the fisherman Portuguese, which felt authentic. His wife’s role is largely trying to persuade him to work for a fish farm. I was pretty happy with this story and happier still when PLAN B who published it had it read online by a fellow who perfectly got the voice that had only existed in my head. Incidentally, a certain B.V. Lawson has a story in the same collection. Thanks to Bonnie for hosting me.

 

You can follow Patti on her popular blog, or on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. I Bring Sorrow and Other Stories of Transgression is available now via Polis books and all major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for the latest roundup of crime drama news, including some Oscar results:

AWARDS

Although the winners were fairly evenly spread out among the various films at the Academy Awards last evening, crime dramas made a showing via Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri for Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Supporting Role (Sam Rockwell). For the full list of nominees and winners, head on over to the Academy's website.
 

MOVIES

Universal Pictures is developing a new take on Fear, the 1996 thriller that starred Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg, and has set Oscar-nominated Straight Outta Compton co-scribe Jonathan Herman to write the script. In the original film, Witherspoon met Wahlberg’s character in what seemed to be a perfect love match — until his darker side emerged and it all went off the rails. William Peterson and Alyssa Milano co-starred in the original, which was produced by Brian Grazer, who will return to produce again for Imagine Entertainment. Although the "new take" aspect of the pic is being kept under wraps, it will apparently be told from a female perspective.

Greg Silverman’s Stampede Ventures pre-empted the unpublished female-driven thriller This Red Fire from author Nicolina Torres (via Inkshares and The Launch Pad Competition). This Red Fire, which as been compared to Insomnia, is a story set in Calliope, Nebraska, and follows small-town sheriff Evie Hartley who arrives to find the entire town murdered—save for two children, missing young siblings. As federal authorities swoop in to search for the perpetrators, the sheriff—herself recently having lost a child—sets off after the missing kids. 

Tina Mabry, a writer-director-producer on OWN’s drama series Queen Sugar, has been set to adapt Code of Silence, a feature film in the works at MWM Studios. The project is based on a four-part 2016 article by Jamie Kalven in The Intercept and tells the true story of Chicago police officer Shannon Spaulding’s experience as a whistleblower and how she, along with her partner and the community, exposed corruption and a cover-up within the Chicago PD.

The Will Smith-starring action thriller Gemini Man has added Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) to the cast as production has officially begun. Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is at the helm of the project, which follows Henry Brogan (Smith), an elite assassin who suddenly is targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative who seemingly can predict his every move. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Clive Owen co-star in the film, which is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison.

Actors James Badge Dale (Only The Brave) and Brian Geraghty (The Alienist) have been tapped to star in the indie drama, The Incident At Sparrow Creek Lumber from writer-director Henry Dunham. The story is described as having a locked-room paranoia in a Reservoir Dogs vein with the gritty intrigue of classic espionage fiction. It follows reclusive ex-cop Gannon (Dale), who’s forced out of retirement after he realizes a mass shooting at a police funeral was committed by a member of the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in the remote lumber mill where he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer.

Andrea Riseborough is eyeing a role in Sony’s remake of The Grudge with Nicolas Pesce aboard to direct and rewrite for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. It’s a new take on the 2004 pic (itself based on the 2002 Japanese original Ju-on), which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse in Tokyo who is afflicted by a curse that created uncontrollable homicidal rage. Riseborough is eyeing the role of a detective and young single mother.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Apple has ordered a 10-episode straight-to-series order for an untitled half-hour psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan and British TV writer Tony Basgallop. Plot details for the series are being kept under wraps for the project, which was created by Basgallop (24, To The Ends of the Earth).

Bobby Cannavale (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and Dallas Roberts (Dallas Buyers Club) have joined the cast in key roles for the noir thriller Motherless Brooklyn, which is filming in New York City. Cannavale plays Tony Vermonte and Roberts plays Danny Fantl, both characters from the book by Jonathan Lethem. Edward Norton, who is directing the film, will also play the Tourette-stricken private eye protagonist Lionel Essrog, who tries to solve the murder of his only friend, Frank Minna. The pic is set in 1950s New York, and the case leads Essrog from gin-soaked jazz clubs in Harlem to the hard-edged slums of Brooklyn and, finally, into the gilded halls of New York’s power brokers.

The Originals star Joseph Morgan has landed the lead role in the TV adaptation of Gone Baby Gone, playing private eye Patrick Kenzie, the role played by Casey Affleck in the original 2007 film. Based on the book by Dennis Lehane and adapted for television by Black Sails co-creator Robert Levine, Gone Baby Gone follows Boston detectives Kenzie and Angela Gennaro who investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally. 

Toby Kebbell is heading to the small screen and has landed the lead role on Salvage, an ABC drama pilot that follows ex-cop Jimmy Hill (Kebbell), who just wants to be left alone after moving back home in rural Florida. But when a local murder is linked to the sunken treasure of a lost Spanish galleon, he’s drawn into the investigation by an idealistic deputy and pitted against the powerful town patriarch, outside criminal agents, and his own father. Kebbell joins the previously-cast Charity Wakefield, who plays Jimmy’s ex, Gwen.

Battlestar Galactica alum Michael Trucco is set as a series regular opposite Aunjanue Ellis and Alana De La Garza in the CBS drama pilot Chiefs, from David Hudgins and Carol Mendelsohn. Written by Hudgins and directed by Zetna Fuentes, Chiefs explores the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful but very different women, who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County. Trucco will play Detective Keele, who works closely with Chief of Police Kendra Downes (Ellis) and is sharp as a tack and devoted to the job. 

Dexter alumna Luna Lauren Velez and Pallavi Sharda (Pulse) have booked series-regular roles opposite Michael Chiklis and Teyonah Parris in CBS' drama pilot Murder, from Lin Pictures and Warner Bros. Written by Amanda Green and based on the British miniseries, this new take on the investigative drama explores crime through the unique and often-conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family. Shot like a true-crime documentary, the series centers on Detectives Mason Garrity (Chiklis) and Ayana Lake (Parris), with Velez playing Capt. Lili Alvarez, a trailblazing leader for women in the NYPD who is a strong and supportive squad boss, and Sharda portraying Dr. Parvati Agrawal, a meticulous forensic pathologist who sees herself as the final doctor for each homicide victim. 

Also boarding the Murder train are Leonard Roberts (Major Crimes) and Australian actress Andrea Demetriades (Pulse). Roberts takes on the role of Assistant District Attorney Malachi Sandel, a talented, charismatic homicide prosecutor whose persuasive skills and charm extend from the courtroom to his active social life, and Demetriades will play Raquel Bennett, a Legal Aid defense attorney, who’s both highly skilled and deeply passionate about advocating for her clients. 

Former Daytime Divas star Camille Guaty has been cast as a series regular opposite Kylie Bunbury in ABC’s Get Christie Love reboot drama pilot, an action-packed, music-driven drama that centers on Christie Love (Bunbury), an African-American CIA agent who leads an elite ops unit. She transforms into whomever she needs to be to get the job done, especially when it’s down to the wire and the stakes are life and death. Guaty will play Juana, Christie’s best friend and closest female confidante. Also joining the Get Christie Love reboot is Thomas Cocquerel (Table 19), who will play Adam, one the youngest team members of Christie’s counterintelligence unit who is young, smooth, and just a bit cocky.

In his first series regular role, Zeeko Zaki (Valor, Six) is set as the male lead in F.B.I., CBS’ upcoming 13-episode drama series from Dick Wolf, boss of the Law & Order and Chicago franchises. The series chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Zaki will play FBI Special Agent OA, who made it from Bushwick to West Point, and has both the confidence – and the will – of someone who’s had to fight every step of the way. After spending two years undercover, the DEA abruptly ripped him out, and he was cherry-picked by the FBI. 

Andrea Riseborough is in talks to join the Amazon-Sky miniseries Zero, Zero, Zero, set to air on Canal Plus and Sky Network in the UK, Italy, Germany and other European regions. The project is based on a book by Gamorrah author Roberto Saviano set in the world of international cocaine trafficking. Riseborough would play Emma Landry, the no-nonsense operations manager of her family’s financial empire.

British actress Perdita Weeks is set as the female lead opposite Jay Hernandez in CBS’ Magnum P.I. pilot. The reboot of the classic 1980s Tom Selleck series 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), the "majordomo"for the large Hawaiian estate of writer Robin Masters, for whom Magnum (Hernandez) ostensibly works security and lives in his guest house. She is commanding, confident, tough, uses sarcasm to deflect emotion and is hard to get to know – but it’s worth it in the end.

Former Fear the Walking Dead star Mercedes Mason has booked a series-regular role in ABC’s straight-to-series light crime drama The Rookie, starring and executive produced by Castle alum Nathan Fillion. Written by former Castle executive producer/co-showrunner Alexi Hawley and directed by Liz Friedlander, The Rookie stars Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. At an age where most are at the peak of their career, Nolan cast aside his comfortable, small town life and moved to L.A. to pursue his dream of being a cop.

Alexander Sokovikov (House of Cards) has joined the series regular cast of ABC’s drama pilot Staties, from Matt Partney & Corey Evett, Maniac Productions and ABC Studios. Written by Partney and Evett and directed by Rob Bowman, Staties centers on Eliza Cortez (Annie Ilonzeh), a hard-charging NYPD detective who’s banished to the boonies after a high-profile mistake and is paired with a new partner, Oregon State Trooper Sam King (Andy Karl). Sokovikov will play Senior Trooper Yuri Kinbote, a gruff Russian trooper who’s skeptical of the new statie in town.

In her return to series television almost two decades after a breakout starring turn in Fox’s Dark Angel, Jessica Alba has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Gabrielle Union in NBC’s untitled Bad Boys spinoff drama pilot. The project centers on a free-spirited former DEA agent (Union) who has a fresh start in her new job as an LAPD detective. She’s partnered with Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom who can’t help but look at Syd’s freedom with some grass-is-greener envy. These two have totally different lifestyles and approaches, but they both are at the top of their fields in this action-packed, character-driven procedural. 

Paula Newsome (NCIS) is set as a series regular in the NBC drama pilot Suspicion, based on the book by Joseph Finder, which is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. After Danny Goldman 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. Newsome will play Agent Peters. With a calm demeanor, Agent Peters still makes Danny uneasy despite her efforts to be honest and straightforward.

SundanceTV has given the green light to No One Saw A Thing (working title) a true crime docuseries from Blumhouse Television, with Israeli filmmaker Avi Belkin attached to direct and executive produce. The six-episode series examines an unsolved and mysterious death in the American Heartland and the corrosive effects of vigilantism in small town America. The case garnered international attention in the early 1980s after a resident was shot dead in front of almost 60 townspeople who deny having seen anything, to this very day. 

PBS announced it has acquired the North American distribution rights to Kimberly Reed’s documentary Dark Money which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which won the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award, follows a Montana-based reporter’s investigation of one of the greatest present threats to American democracy—the influence of corrupt money on our elected officials. A century ago, secret money swamped Montana’s legislature, but citizens rose up to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — which allows unlimited, anonymous money to pour into elections nationwide — Montana is once again fighting to preserve open and honest elections.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The new official Crime Syndicate Magazine podcast, hosted by Editor Michael Pool, plans to feature readings, interviews, and book reviews from crime fiction authors and other industry professionals. The debut episode featured a live interview with crime fiction author Eryk Pruitt, and the most recent installment welcomed Canadian crime fiction author Sam Wiebe to discuss the second in the PI Dave Wakeland series, Cut You Down.

Another new podcast that's near and dear to my heart since it features music mysteries (and my own Scott Drayco mystery series has a music component), is Classic FM's Case Notes that delves into the darkest mysteries and murkiest stories from the history of music. Topics will cover such unusual cases as Haydn’s missing head that was taken from his grave by one of his best friends and a composer who was so obsessed with black magic his friends feared for his life.

Episode 14 of Writer Types features guests Hilary Davidson, Andrew Nette, Ivy Pochoda, and Scott Adlerberg, with special visits from Hollie Overton and Tod Goldberg. Plus, the Malmons go to Planet ComicCon in Kansas City and the show's Unpanel this week is all about anthologies.

Debbi Mack welcomed mystery author Richard Helms on Crime Cafe to talk about the latest installment in his series with Police Chief Judd Wheeler set in tiny Prosperity, North Carolina.

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone regular host Luca Veste was joined by guest host Stuart Neville. The duo tackled the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, music, scary taxi drivers on US book tours, ebooks, and writing controversial articles around book publication dates.

2nd Sunday Crime with host Libby Fischer Hellman welcomed Melanie Benjamin to discuss her latest, The Girls in the Picture, set in 1914 Hollywood.

Read or Dead hosts Katie and Rincey chatted all about all things noir: what’s considered noir, classic noir and more modern noir books.

THEATER

The Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple in the UK is presenting a new production from Bill Kenwright’s Classic Thriller Theatre Company. Edgar Wallace’s The Case of the Frightened Lady, which opens with a week-long run on Monday, March 12, features a star-studded cast including TV favorites Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street); Rula Lenska (Doctor Who, EastEnders); Denis Lill (The Royal); Charlie Clements (EastEnders); Philip Lowrie (Coronation Street); April Pearson (Skins); Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier); and Glenn Carter (Jesus Christ Superstar). The story follows Inspector Tanner as he's called in to investigate a ruthless murder at the grand ancestral home of the Lebanon family, quickly discovering that nothing is quite as it seems.

The Vertigo Theater of Calgary's Mystery Series will present The Lonely Diner beginning March 10 with a run through April 8. Written by Beverley Cooper and directed by Kelli Fox, the story is set in a quiet little rural Canadian diner where Lucy yearns for the glitz, glamour and excitement of America’s roaring cities. Prohibition has just been lifted in Ontario, but across the border mob bosses battle for the illicit trade of alcohol. Lucy’s husband, Ron, and her daughter, Sylvia, seem content to live their quiet life, but an infamous gangster - and his stolen whiskey - is about to bring Lucy’s far-off dreams into sharp, dangerous focus.

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Mystery Of The Hidden Room

It is rare that I can't dig up something on an author for a Friday's "Forgotten" Books feature. I came across a book online by Marion Harvey (quite possibly a pen name), who was reported to have been born in 1900. There aren't any biographies or obituaries as near as I can tell, but due to early publication information and some performance data, the author appears to be American and the author of several mystery novels and plays, including:

The Mystery of the Hidden Room (E.J. Clode, 1922)
The Vengeance of the Ivory Skull  (E.J. Clode, 1923)
The House of Seclusion (Small & Maynard, 1925)
The Arden Mystery (Brentano's, 1925)
The Dragon of Lung Wang (E.J. Clode, 1928)
The Clue of the Clock (E.J. Clode, 1929)The Clue of the Clock (E.J. Clode, Inc., 1929)
The Inner Circle. A Mystery Thriller in Three Acts (New York 1930)
Footsteps: A Breath-taking Mystery Play by Marion Harvey & Nancy Bancroft Brosius (Fitzgerald Pub., 1931)


At least three of these works, Hidden Room, Ivory Skull, and Inner Circle, feature Graydon McKelvie, a Sherlock Holmes-worshiping detective. In addition to noting that the criminal device employed in Hidden Room is noteworthy,  SS Van Dine once noted (in The Great Detective Stories, 1927), "The deductive work done by Graydon McKelvie is at times extremely clever."

The Mystery Of The Hidden Room is told from the viewpoint of Carlton Davies, whose former fiancee Ruth Darwin was blackmailed into leaving him by the man she ultimately married, powerful banker Phillip Darwin. When the husband is murdered and Carlton finds Ruth standing over him with a gun in her hand one night, she is promptly arrested, tried, and packed off to prison.

Carlton never lost his love for Ruth and is steadfast in believing her innocent of the crime, but the New York City police don't share his convictions. He decides to do his own investigating, but since his butler happens to work with Graydon McKelvie, Carlton begs for McKelvie's help, and the chase is afoot. It doesn't take long for McKelvie to learn that practically no one involved with the case is being honest about their activities on the fatal night and several of the bit players are AWOL.

The hidden room of the title makes its appearance relatively early in the story, thus it's not much of a spoiler for it to be headlined in the title. The room in which Darwin was killed appears to be a locked room scenario, with burglar alarms on the windows, but even after the secret room is discovered, there remain many mysteries to solve, including a stoneless ring, a new Will naming a mystery woman as the beneficiary, Darwin's missing nephew, and puzzling sachets sprinkled along the investigative trail. McKelvie also has to solve the mystery of a second bullet that can't be found and a lamp that seems to turn on by itself.

Harvey's writing is de rigueur for her day, with dialog tags now considered passe and a bit comical ("'Well, I'll be hanged!' I ejaculated"), and hints of racism regarding a black servant and some "chink" goons. But the story runs along at a relatively jaunty clip and, although the eventual culprit isn't a huge surprise if you've been paying attention, the journey to the unveiling is entertaining.

If anyone can find more biographical details about this mystery (and I mean that literally) author, please feel free to add them. I did find newspaper accounts of Harvey's plays being performed in New York, Alabama and Pennsylvania in the 1930s, but very little details beyond 1935. 

Mystery Melange

Walter Mosley will be the Central Keynote Speaker at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference August 10-12 in New York City, it was announced yesterday. Mosley is best known among the crime fiction community for his popular historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Tickets are on sale for New Zealand's first ever crime fiction festival, Rotorua Noir, on the 26th and 27th of January 2019. Appearing as international guests of honor will be Alex Gray, Lilja Sigurðardóttir. Kati Hiekkapelto and Michael Robotham along with a host of Kiwi authors in panel discussions, interviews and an insight into the life of the criminal mind.

In honor of World Book Day, the UK's True CRIME Museum Hastings is sponsoring a book swap March 2-4. Anyone who arrives at the Museum with a crime-related book to donate can visit the museum for free. All the books collected from the event will be sold through the year and all proceeds go directly to the Museum’s supported charity, Victim Support.

Editor Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers Journal says the next issue will focus on Gardening Mysteries, and she's seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays (first person, about yourself, your books, and the 'Gardening/Garden' connection). The deadline is April 1, and you can read more about the call here.

Some sad blogging news and some happy blogging news: First the sad, which is the news that Bernadette Bean, who had been writing the Reactions to Reading blog ever since 2008, has passed away suddenly. Fellow bloggers Jeff Pierce and Margot Kinberg have posted more details and remembrances. In happier news, congratulations go to the Type M 4 Murder blog, which is welcoming its one-millionth visitor this month. Rich Blechta has all the details.

Here's a little-known fact via the Paris Review: Of the ten thousand books in the library of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II, two thousand were detective novels. During the Sultan's reign (1876-1909), more than fifty mystery novels were translated into Turkish. Abdülhamid also went on to create the first secret service and sent spies across the empire to report to him.

Writing for The Guardian, Olivia Laing looked at "Sex, jealousy and gender: Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca 80 years on," and how the author's bestselling novel reveals much about the author’s fluid sexuality – her ‘Venetian tendencies’ – and about being a boy stuck in the wrong body.

Hollywood Reporter noted that one of the projects in the works for the 100th anniversary in 2018 of the birth of crime writer Mickey Spillane is Titan Comics' comic book series featuring his signature creation, private eye Mike Hammer. The four-issue series is actually based on a story by Spillane himself, "The Night I Died," originally written in the 1950s as an unproduced screenplay.

If you're an aspiring crime fiction author but scared of rejection, take heart: Michael Bracken posted his submission history, and it turns out, he's been rejected 2,552 times. But, on the flip side, he's also had 1,582 acceptances, which is a ratio of one acceptance for every 1.61 rejections; not a bad record at all.

Chris Rhatigan picked "5 Crime Fiction Titles with a Strong Sense of Place" for the Criminal Element blog.

With the imminent premiere of the fourth season of Amazon's Bosch series, you can vote in a poll for your favorite Michael Connelly book, the author whose works inspired the Amazon series.

Ever find yourself hungry for some decadent fare from killer cookbooks? You're in luck.

Sometimes, crime does pay, as with this list of "10 Lifelong Criminals Who Became Successful Authors."

Want to train to be a spy?


This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Soulmate Mountain" by David S. Pointer.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sleuth Sayers' Brian Thornton chatted with Vancouver author Sam Wiebe about his new novel, Cut You Down, the second installment in his series featuring Vancouver PI Dave Wakeland; Criminal Element's John Valeri spoke with John Hart, the only person to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, about his latest book, The Hush; Craig Sisterson welcomed London-based Karin Salvalaggio to discuss her Detective Macy Greeley series set in Montana; and Gregg Hurwitz was interviewed by Gulf Shore Life (ahead of an appearance at the Friends of the Library of Collier County’s Nick Linn Lecture Series) about his Orphan X books, recently picked up for film by Warner Brothers to star Bradley Cooper.