In Reference to Murder

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to you! Here's your latest roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Gary Oldman is joining Amy Adams in Fox 2000’s The Woman in the Window, reuniting the actor with his Darkest Hour director Joe Wright. The film will be an adaption of the A.J. Finn novel of the same name, which follows a child psychologist who suffers from extreme agoraphobia and hasn’t left the house in months. Spying on her neighbors, she witnesses a murder when a new family moves in across the park — but no one will believe her. Oldman is set to play the father of the family.

Naomi Scott, who stars as Jasmine in Disney's upcoming Aladdin remake, and British newcomer Ella Balinska are set to join Kristen Stewart in Sony's new Charlie's Angels reboot. Elizabeth Banks, who is directing the project, will also take a role in front of the camera, playing Bosley, the face of the enigmatic and never-seen owner of the detective agency, Charlie Townsend. The new story takes the detective agency premise of the original 1976-1981 TV series and 2000 and 2003 movies global, with the Townsend Agency now a security and intelligence service that has teams around the world. The movie will focus on one of those teams and the next generation of Angels.

Cara Santana has been tapped to star in The Detective, an indie drama written by John Burd and directed by Michael Feifer. Santana will play Jeanie who, after her best friend is attacked by an intruder, starts to secretly investigate the LAPD officer at the center of the investigation who may know more then he is letting on.

The first trailer has dropped for the film Hunger Killer, based on the 2012 novel Firing Point from Don Keith and George Wallace and starring Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman in the tale of a Russian President kidnapped by a rogue general, and the U.S. Navy SEALs who come to the rescue working alongside the Russians to bring him back.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

RLJE Films has acquired the U.S. rights to Melanie Laurent’s Galveston, starring Elle Fanning and Ben Foster, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Galveston is based on the novel of the same name by True Detective author Nic Pizzolatto, and centers on Roy (Foster), a criminal enforcer and mob hitman who becomes involved in a double-cross scheme. He discovers Rocky (Fanning) after the crime and reluctantly takes her with him on his escape, and they try to find sanctuary in Galveston, hiding from his boss and their pasts.

The producers behind two popular Netflix overseas drama series, the UK's The Crown and the Spanish La Casa de Papel (aka Money Heist), have teamed for a new show, White Lines, which has received a series order by the streaming service. The story follows the discovery of the body of a legendary Manchester DJ, who is discovered twenty years after his mysterious disappearance from Ibiza. His sister returns to the beautiful Spanish island to find out what happened, and her investigation will lead her through a thrilling world of dance music, super yachts, lies and cover-ups, forcing her to confront the darker sides of her own character in a place where people live life on the edge.

Shelley Conn (Liar) and James D’Arcy (Homeland) are set for key recurring roles opposite Emma Greenwell, Joely Richardson, and Olivia Munn in Starz’s upcoming spy thriller series The Rook, based on the novel by Daniel O’Malley. The project stars Greenwell as Myfanwy Thomas, a young woman who wakes up in a London park suffering total amnesia and pursued by shadowy paranormal adversaries. Grappling with supernatural abilities of her own, she must fight to uncover her past and resume her position within Britain’s secret service, the Checquy, before the traitors who stole her memory can finish what they started.

Better Call Saul has been picked up for a fifth season. The Breaking Bad prequel spin-off stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, and Giancarlo Esposito and has garnered a 2018 Peabody Award, 23 Emmy nominations, three Golden Globe nominations, two Writers Guild Awards, three Critics’ Choice Awards, a Television Critics Association Award and two AFI Awards.

The global organized crime thriller McMafia is set to return to AMC for a second season. In May, BBC One ordered an eight-episode second season of the Russian crime series, but AMC hadn't indicated a desire to carry the additional season until this past week. McMafia was inspired by Misha Glenny’s best-selling book of the same name and charts Alex Godman’s (James Norton) journey as he is drawn deeper and deeper into the world of organized crime. 

Lifetime is renewing its psychological thriller You for a second season, a move that comes ahead of the series premiere set for September 9. Adapted from the novel by Caroline Kepnes by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, You follows the brilliant bookstore manager Joe Goldberg (Badgley) who becomes obsessed with an aspiring writer (Elizabeth Lail) and quietly and strategically removes every obstacle – and person – in his way. Season 2 of the series will be based on Kepnes's follow-up novel, Hidden Bodies. 

AT&T Audience Network has renewed Condor, based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady and the screenplay Three Days of the Condor by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel. Season 1 of Condor follows a young CIA analyst (Max Irons) who stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant plan that threatens the lives of millions. The series also stars William Hurt, Leem Lubany, Angel Bonanni, Kristen Hager, with Mira Sorvino and Bob Balaban. Brendan Fraser guest stars. 

HBO’s Perry Mason reboot is looking for a new actor for the lead role. Robert Downey Jr., who was originally planned to take on the iconic role, will remain Executive Producer, but Downey's schedule leaves him no time to act in the project. Perry Mason reimagines Erle Stanley Gardner’s classic character, an unorthodox investigator/defense attorney, who has been featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, a radio series and six feature films in the 1930s, a comic strip in the early 1950s, an Emmy-winning TV series starring Raymond Burr that ran from 1957-66, the short-lived New Perry Mason TV show from 1973-74, and more than 20 made-for-television films that aired during the 1980s and ’90s.

Teen superspy Alex Rider is heading to the small screen after Sony’s international production and distribution divisions teamed up to greenlight an eight-episode series. The television adaptation does not currently have a broadcaster attached, although British commercial broadcaster ITV was previously involved. Based on Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz's YA novels, the project charts the adventures of a reluctant teen superspy on his missions to save the world. The twelfth book in the Alex Rider series, Nightshade, is due to be published in 2019.

Former CSI: NY star Sela Ward is returning to CBS with a co-starring role on the network’s upcoming drama series FBI, from Law & Order and Chicago chief Dick Wolf, which chronicles the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ward replaces Connie Nielsen who co-starred in the pilot, although this is not a straight recasting as Ward will play a new character that will be introduced in Episode 2. There are no details yet on Ward’s character, Dana Mosier, but she is expected to be in a similar position as Nielsen, who played the team’s boss.

Code Black alumna Moon Bloodgood is set as a series regular and Billy Miller (Suits), Brett Cullen (Narcos), and young actor Hunter Doohan (Westworld) will recur opposite Octavia Spencer and Lizzy Caplan in Apple’s thriller drama series Are You Sleeping. Spencer stars as Poppy Parnell, a relentless investigative reporter who looks to uncover the truth behind a decades-old questionable murder verdict through her new podcast.

Amy Hill has signed on for a recurring role with a series regular option in Magnum P.I, CBS’ reboot of the classic 1980s show. The reboot follows Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez), a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, re-purposes 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, Magnum takes on the cases no one else will, helping those who have no one else to turn to. Hill will play the charming and irreverent Kumu, the cultural curator and de facto “house mom” of Robin’s Nest.

The first trailer was unveiled at Comic-Con for season 2 of Get Shorty, the Epix series based on Elmore Leonard's novel and the 1995 film adaptation. Deadline reported that in the new season, Miles Daly (Chris O'Dowd) "struggles to reconcile his ambitions as a filmmaker and a family man with his skill set as a career criminal. His progress in Hollywood is jeopardized when the washed-up producer (Ray Romano) with whom he partnered in Season 1, agrees to wear a federal wire. Miles faces off with criminal financiers and with a Hollywood power-broker who could be the most dangerous of all." 

The first look trailer for Tony Danza’s new series The Good Cop was unveiled at the Television Critics Association, showcasing the actor as a lovable but not exactly honorable former NYPD officer who never follows the rules. He becomes unofficial partners with his roommate and son, Tony Jr. (TJ), played by Josh Groban, a brilliant, straight-laced NYPD detective who makes a point of always following the rules while solving Brooklyn’s toughest cases. 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Crime writer, filmmaker, and podcaster Eryk Pruitt was on the Menu at The Blue Plate Special as host Terri Lynn Coop chatted with him about his short films, which have won several awards at film festivals across the US, and his fiction writing. Pruitt was a finalist for the Derringer Award for his short story "Knockout,"  and his third novel, What We Reckon, has been nominated for an Anthony Award.

The CBC interviewed author Linwood Barclay on how he always loved mysteries and thrillers before he ended up writing them full-time, becoming the bestselling author including his latest book, A Noise Downstairs.

Quote of the Week

Friday's Forgotten Books - The Singing Spider

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

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

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

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

It's definitely a novel of its time, thematically and stylistically, but there's a good rendering of the Scottish setting that was so similar to areas MacVicar knew well, and to its characters. There's also a bit of naive sweetness to it that you don't often find in spy-themed suspense novels, no doubt a nod to the author's Presbyterian roots and his young-adult writings. It's definitely a G- or PG+ type of plot. The Singing Spider was made into a radio program for BBC Scotland in 1950, although I doubt any traces of it exist. As a matter of fact, there is very little about the author of this book on the Web, and unless you can find his works at your local library, you may find it difficult to get your hands on them except for a few recent ebook editions by Endeavour Media.

Mystery Melange

Stav Sherez has won the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier award for crime fiction with his novel, The Intrusions. The book, a 2017 Guardian and Sunday Times book of the year, was dubbed "A Silence of the Lambs for the internet age" by Ian Rankin. Now in its fourteenth year, the award is considered one of the most coveted crime writing prizes in the UK. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

Also announced during the Theakston conference were the 2018 Dead Good Reader Awards, sponsored annually by the British crime-fiction book site Dead Good. The Holmes and Watson Award for Best Detective Duo went to Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson, created by Elly Griffiths; The Whodunnit Award for the Book That Keeps You Guessing went to the novel Let Me Lie, by Clare Mackintosh; The Cabot Cove Award for Best Small-Town Mystery: The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor; The Wringer Award for the Character Who’s Been Put Through It All: Jack Reacher, created by Lee Child; The House of Horrors Award for Most Dysfunctional Family: Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell; and The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book: The Dark Angel, by Elly Griffiths

Cynthia E. Tobisman has won the 2018 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for her second published novel, Proof. The Harper Lee Prize is awarded by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law each year to a novel-length work of fiction that best that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.

The Crime Writers Association (CWA) Dagger shortlists were announced last evening. It was already announced in March that Michael Connelly was to receive the 2018 CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing. The Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year finalists include The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh; London Rules, by Mick Herron; Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane; Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke; A Necessary Evil, by Abir Mukherjee; and Resurrection Bay, by Emma Viskic. For all the other categories, head over to the CWA Dagger information page.

The winners of the 2018 RITA Awards included The Fixer by HelenKay Dimon in the Romantic Suspense category. For the list of all of the finalists in that category (as well as the other romance categories), follow this link to the official Romantic Writers Association website.

The Vermont Historical Society will present Claire Meldrum with the Weston A. Cate Fellowship award for her research project Anna Katharine Green: A Biography. Meldrum’s book is a biography about nineteenth century American detective fiction author, Anna Katharine Green, a seminal figure in American crime fiction, whose books helped give shape to the genre during its formative decades. 

The Naoki Prize for popular fiction in Japan has been awarded to writer Rio Shimamoto for First Love, a mystery novel centering on a female university student arrested for allegedly killing her father.

A panel on "Crime Science versus Crime Fiction: exploding the myths" is scheduled for August 30 at the Royal Society in London. The event will explore how closely crime fiction mirrors the realities of police investigation and how far modern science is able to help in the fight to reduce and prevent crime. Jointly organized by one of the world's top crime research departments, UCL Jill Dando Institute, and one of the world's foremost crime writers' organizations, the Crime Writers Association, the panel will include authors Val McDermid, Elly Griffiths, Barry Forshaw, Vaseem Khan (who also works at works at UCL's Department of Security and Crime Science), Imran Mahmood (who is also a barrister), and professors Ruth Morgan and Richard Wortley.

The noir comic book series Lodger is set to debut in October as IDW Publishing’s Black Crown imprint — created and headed by former DC Vertigo executive editor Shelly Bond — is expanding with the brand-new series from the creators of the critically acclaimed crime comic Stray Bullet.

Although I missed National and International Private Investigator Day on July 24, the Writing PIs blog (headed up by Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman), offered a brief "History of the Private Eye."

More news from the world of forensics: Could brain scans determine guilt or innocence in court? Lie detection using a functional MRI machine, which measures and creates an image of brain activity, is a topic of controversy among legal and neuroscience experts and has yet to land on the courtroom floor.

In honor of the recent 130th anniversary of Raymond Chandler’s birth, Anthony Dean Rizzuto tells us about "Eight Things You Didn’t Know About Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep."

If you're still searching for a book that's as gripping as Gone Girl, Cosmopolitan tapped Catriona Harvey-Jenner and Dusty Baxter-Wright to choose 26 of the best psychological thriller books to add to your reading list.

An oak tree in Devon that provided shade for the crime writer Agatha Christie when she watched and scored cricket matches has collapsed in the heatwave there. Known locally as the Agatha Christie Oak, the tree had become a site of pilgrimage for the author’s fans and was used by the Barton Cricket Club as its badge logo.

Atlas Obscura solicited readers to send in some of the best marginalia from used books they'd ever found. The results were fun and surprising, such as the note written next to "The Greek Interpreter" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that said simply, "difficult and boring."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "1956 Packard (Nebraska)" by Ken Meisel.

In the Q&A roundup, Crimespree interviewed Linda Castillo about the tenth book in her series featuring Painter Mills police chief Kate Buckholder; Karin Slaughter, whose thriller Pieces of Her will be published in August, took the "By the Book" interview challenge for the New York Times; and the Mystery People chatted with Rob Hart about the latest in his series featuring unlicensed private detective Ash McKenna, Potter's Field.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to you! Here's your weekly roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

RLJE Films and UMC have acquired the North American rights to the Jeremy Ungar-directed thriller Ride starring Bella Thorne (Famous in Love), Jessie T. Usher (Shaft), and Will Brill (The OA). Ride is the feature debut for Ungar, who also wrote the script, and follows James rideshare driver James (Usher) and passenger Jessica (Thorne). When they pick up a charismatic but manipulative Bruno (Brill), a night out in L.A. becomes a psychological war for survival.

Actress Cinthya Carmona (Hulu’s East Los High) has been cast in David Ayer’s crime thriller The Tax Collector, joining Shia LaBeouf, Bobby Soto, and Chelsea Rendon. Not much is known about the plot other then it hearkens to Ayer’s earlier gritty crime thrillers Training Day and End of Watch. Production is set to being this summer in LA.

MGM’s Operation Finale, which follows a team of secret agents in their pursuit of Holocaust Nazi architect Adolf Eichmann 15 years after World War II, is moving up from its Sept. 14 opening to August 29, the Wednesday before the four-day Labor Day holiday. Chris Weitz directed the project from Matthew Orton’s script, which stars Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Nick Kroll, Melanie Laurent, Lior Raz, Joe Alwyn, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Aronov, Ohad Knoller, Greg Hill, Torben Liebrecht, Mike Hernandez, Greta Scacchi, and Pepe Rapazote.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The team behind the Netflix and ITV hit Marcella snagged TV rights to Elizabeth Macneal's thriller The Doll Factory, which landed a publishing contract for 2019 after a bidding war. The thriller is set in 1850s London and follows Iris, an aspiring artist who works in a doll-making shop, and Silas, a reclusive collector. They meet by chance in London’s Hyde Park during the construction of The Great Exhibition of 1851, which is the start of Silas’ increasingly dark obsession with Iris.

Netflix has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to Hit and Run, an espionage thriller drama from Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, creators of the praised Netflix series Fauda, and Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, creators of the Amazon comedy Z: The Beginning of Everything. Created and written by Issacharoff, Raz, Prestwich and Yorkin, Hit and Run centers on a happily married man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit and run accident.

Charter Communications is in advanced discussions to pick up the Discovery crime drama Manhunt from Lionsgate for two seasons of the series, each planned to feature a different infamous criminal. The second season would be a dramatized account of the hunt for Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber who targeted the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Manhunt was originally set at Discovery Channel with its first installment, the 2017 Unabomber, marking the cable network’s first limited scripted series and starring Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany. But Discovery opted to get out of the scripted arena and focus on its core unscripted business, therefore not proceeding with a second installment of Manhunt.

The acclaimed Italian crime series Gomorrah, which is currently working on its fourth and fifth seasons, has sold to 190 markets and is Sky Italia’s flagship show at home where it even outperforms Game Of Thrones. The first two seasons were picked up In the U.S. by Sundance TV and then showed on Netflix, although as Deadline reported, the former is not yet on board for the third season so the show could soon have a new home. The series, which was created and produced by Roberto Saviano and based on Saviano's book of the same, tells the story of Ciro di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), a member of the Savastano clan, headed by Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), a high-ranking drug lord. Ciro aims to navigate the dangers of the criminal world, while also fighting a brutal civil war.

Global has picked up a 13-episode third season of suspense drama series Ransom for premiere next year on Global in Canada and CBS in the U.S. Created by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) and David Vainola, Ransom is inspired by the professional experiences of crisis negotiator Laurent Combalbert, who, along with his partner, Marwan Mery, are among the top negotiators in the world. They travel the globe to help multinational corporations and government agencies with complex negotiations and conflict resolution.The principal cast includes Luke Roberts, Nazneen Contractor, Brandon Jay McLaren and Karen LeBlanc.

Deborah Ayorinde (Girls Trips) is set to recur opposite Mahershala Ali in the third season of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO crime anthology series True Detective. Series newcomers Carmen Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Scoot McNairy, Mamie Gummer and Ray Fisher also star in the next installment, which tells the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods. Ayorinde will play Becca Hayes, the estranged daughter of retired Arkansas State Police detective Wayne Hayes (Ali). She joins previously announced recurring cast Michael Greyeyes, Jon Tenney, Rhys Wakefield, Sarah Gadon, Emily Nelson, Brandon Flynn, Michael Graziadei, Josh Hopkins and Jodi Balfour.

Anne Heche is returning to NBC for a guest arc on the upcoming sixth season of Chicago P.D. She'll play Dep. Superintendent Katherine Brennan, who is "smart, to the point and political, but often self-serving. A cunning and formidable opponent, she always keeps her wits about her."

Diona Reasonover, who guest starred in three episodes on CBS’ veteran crime drama NCIS last season, has been promoted to a series regular for the upcoming 16th season. Reasonover was first introduced as Ducky’s (David McCallum) new graduate assistant, Kasie Hines, in Episode 17 and was then brought in by NCIS boss Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in the aftermath of Abby’s (Pauley Perrette) departure as a forensic scientist to help out on a case.

Netflix released a first look at Michael Pena and Diego Luna in Narcos: Mexico, as the streaming services' drug trafficking drama heads to Mexico for its fourth season. Luna is set to play Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo but he goes by only one name: Felix. He is the leader of the Guadalajara cartel, one of the biggest narcos in the history of Mexico and the founder of the modern Mexican drug trade. Pena will play Kiki Camarena, a family man and an undercover DEA agent who garnered valuable intel through a series of informants around Félix and his newly minted Guadalajara cartel.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

In a special bonus episode of the New York Times' Book Review podcast, best-selling thriller writers Lee Child, Megan Abbott, Meg Gardiner, Lisa Gardner, and Lisa Scottoline discussed the tricks of their best-selling trade.

Wallace Stroby, an award-winning journalist and the author of eight novels, four of which feature professional thief Crissa Stone, discussed his writing and crime fiction on Authors on the Air.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack interviewed crime fiction author Phillip Thompson, a self-described writer of "redneck noir."

THEATER

Australia’s favorite comedy psychic detective will make his Scottish premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 2-26. The performance of 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick – A Dirk Darrow Investigation is part stand-up comedy, part mentalism, part magic, part story-telling, and all gritty retro film-noir described as "Sam Spade meets Naked Gun meets Penn & Teller."

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

British author Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1841-1910) wrote many short stories and some 14 novels between 1877 and 1894, before she essentially gave up writing in favor of marriage and animal charity work (she and her husband helped found the National Canine Defence League). She is best known for her stories featuring female detective Loveday Brooke, with the first such tale published in Ludgate Monthly magazine in 1893. The Loveday Brooke stories were compiled into the volume The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective in 1894, which was to be the author's last published book.

Loveday Brooke was one of the more popular female detectives among the explosion of mystery stories that followed the success of Sherlock Holmes, and the character is said to be the first female detective penned by a female author. Unlike other female detectives of the day (mostly those created by men), Loveday is a professional business woman, around thirty years of age, who is "not tall, she was not short, she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly. Her features were altogether nondescript." Her main weapon is her intellect and capacity for using logic and observation a la Holmes, which helps her solve cases that have stumped the male police forces. She works for Ebenezer Dyer, head of a detective agency in Lynch Court, off London's Fleet Street, but he isn't involved in her cases and simply dispatches her to do her own thing.

Loveday's cases are mostly robberies and burglaries, which might sound on the surface like the author was avoiding more violent crimes that would be too much for a woman's "delicate constitution." However, Pirkus imbued her detective with a feminist (for the day) viewpoint, with the female characters often struggling to escape patriarchal tyranny. There is a religious underpinning to the stories, although it is minimized in favor of the puzzles, which, as Mike Grost of MysteryFile notes, often have three stages: stage one, the establishment of the mystery; stage three, the resolution; and the middle stage, an often elaborate and complex scheme whereby Loveday meddles in the lives of the culprits to trick them into their ultimate capture.

Loveday is notable for her role in blazing a trail for the modern female fictional detective, but Pirkis's writing isn't as pathbreaking. There is a dependence on dialogue, a wealth of coincidences, a lack of clues, and many instances of the lack of "fair play." Some Loveday stories were later dramatized as BBC radio plays, including "The Redhill Sisterhood," where Loveday Brooke takes on the role of an undercover agent as she investigates nuns who appear to have forsaken their vows and taken to burglary.

Mystery Melange

The International Thriller Writers announced the winners of the 2018 Thriller Awards this past weekend during the annual ThrillerFest in New York City. Best Hardcover Novel went to Final Girls, by Riley Sager; Best First Novel: The Freedom Broker, by K.J. Howe; Best Paperback Original Novel: Grievance, by Christine Bell; Best Short Story: “Charcoal and Cherry,” by Zoë Z. Dean (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May/June 2017); Best Young Adult Novel: The Rains, by Gregg Hurwitz; Best E-Book Original Novel: Second Chance, by Sean Black. (HT to Mystery Fanfare)

The International Association of Crime Writers announced the winner of this year's Hammett Prize for literary excellence in the field of crime-writing, as reflected in a book published in the English language in the US and/or Canada. August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones, edged out the other finalists which included The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne, The Tragedy of Brady Sims by Ernest J. Gaines, and Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis.
 

Strand Magazine announced the winners of its annual awards for the best in the previous year's crime fiction. Best Novel went to Wonder Valley, by Ivy Pochoda; Best First Novel, The Lost Ones, by Sheena Kamal; Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jonathan Gash (aka John Grant), British creator of the antiques-focused Lovejoy mysteries, and J.A. Jance, best known for her J.P. Beaumont series and her Joanna Brady series; and Publisher of the Year Award goes to Tom Doherty of Tor/Forge books. (HT to the Rap Sheet)

Ellen Hart and Marcie Rendon are the recipients of the 2018 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction, named to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley. Hart won the Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work for her thirty-two novels in two series, one featuring Jane Lawless, a lesbian restaurateur and her best friend, Cordelia Thorne, the other being the Sophie Greenway series. Marcie Rendon, a member of the White Earth Nation, and a playwright, poet, and freelance writer, won the Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel for her book Murder on the Red River.

Via Martin Edwards comes the sad news of the death of Jessica Mann, the distinguished crime writer, broadcaster and reviewer. She penned a series featuring archaeologist Tamara Hoyland among several other novels as well as nonfiction such as Deadlier than the Male, an excellent study of female crime writing. She also served on committees for the Crime Writers Association and the Detection Club.

Here's something to put on your bucket list, especially if you find yourself in Europe his summer: high atop the Austrian Alps sits the new James Bond Museum, 007 Elements, an immersive installation celebrating Bond's cinematic outings past and present. The museum neighbors the glacial ice Q restaurant featured in "Spectre" - both buildings are on Gaislachkogl mountain in Sölden. The museum, which opened July 12, can be reached via the Gaislachkoglbahn cable car.

Stephen Knight, the author of Australian Crime Fiction: A 200-Year History, took a look at the history of Aussie crime writing for The Conversation magazine, from brilliant exotics to the richness of the tradition as a whole.

Ahead of ThrillerFest in New York City, CrimeReads assembled a panel of authors for a roundtable conversation on the state of the thriller. Joining in the discussion were Don Chaon, Layton Green, Jeff Gunhus, K.J. Howe, Gregg Hurwitz, Alan McDermott, Caroline Mitchell, Gin Phillips, Lori Rader-Day, Riley Sager, Rysa Walker, and Diana Rodriguez Wallach, all of whom were nominated in various categories for this year's Thriller Awards.

The latest issue of the Film Noir Foundation’s magazine includes a no-holds-barred conversation between FNF master of ceremonies Eddie Muller and novelist James Ellroy that took place after the FNF handed out its second Modern Master Award to Ellroy (the first last year was director Stephen Frears). Ray Banks also has an essay on Britain’s first neo-noir Nowhere to Go (starring Maggie Smith); Eddie Muller talks about the silent Japanese proto-noir Policeman (1933); Sara Smith has an appraisal of forgotten Swedish master Hasse Ekman; and much more. (HT to Vince Keenan)

Here's a fun fact for fans of both books and the films upon which they're based: movies based on books take 44% more at the box office in the UK and 53% more worldwide than original screenplays, according to research from the Publishers Association.

Be careful what you take to the Antiques Roadshow: on a recent installment of the popular program (the UK version), Jude Hooke showed the resident specialist a printed score of the "Enigma Variations" with annotations and pasted-in corrected passages of music in Elgar’s own hand. Imagine the surprise of the Elgar Foundation: that very score had gone missing in 1994 – at which time, it turns out, Ms. Hooke’s late husband was an attorney at the same firm as the Foundation’s former vice-chairman.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Tiger Watching at Yorkshire Animal Park" by Alyson Faye.

In the Q&A roundup author Ruth Ware (The Woman in Cabin 10) stopped by the Keep It Kassual blog; Tonya Kappes (a/k/a Maymee Bell) was a guest at Lesa's Book Critiques to talk about the first book in her new Campers & Criminals mystery series, Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries; Writers Who Kill snagged V.M. Burns to discuss her book The Plot is Murder, nominated for a Best Debut Novel in the Malice Domestic Awards; the Mystery People sat down with Megan Abbott to talk about falling in love with your mysteries; the MPs also chatted with Ace Atkins, whose novel The Sinners continues his southern crime fiction series with Afghan war vet and Mississippi sheriff Quinn Colson.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday greetings to all and a big welcome to the roundup of the latest crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Constantin Film is adapting German author Ferdinand von Schirach’s international legal thriller bestseller The Collini Case. German actor Elyas M’Barek stars as an attorney who takes on a defendant accused of the vicious murder of a respected elderly businessman. In researching the case, the young lawyer comes across one of the biggest judicial scandals in German history and a truth that nobody wants to face. The project is being directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner from a screenplay by Christian Zuebert, Robert Gold and Jens-Frederik Otto, and was inspired by the author’s own family history.

Julianne Moore is in negotiations to join Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window, Fox 2000’s adaptation of the book by A.J. Finn. Joe Wright (The Darkest Hour) is directing the thriller, which sees Adams portraying a child psychologist with severe agoraphobia and a penchant for mixing alcohol with her medication who hasn’t left her house in months. The woman believes she witnessed a horrible crime involving a new neighboring family but no one, including the police, will believe her. Moore will play the mother of a mysterious young boy who moves in across the street. It was also announced last week that Wyatt Russell has been cast as David, the tenant who lives in Anna’s basement.

Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba have joined the cast of the thriller Killers Anonymous, from producer Goldfinch Studios. The cast also includes Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy), Sam Hazeldine (Mechanic: Resurrection), Rhyon Nicole Brown (Empire) MyAnna Buring (Ripper Street), Tim McInnerny (Game of Thrones), Michael Socha (Svengali), Elizabeth Morris (Let’s Be Evil), Elliot James Langridge (Northern Soul), and Isabelle Allen (Les Misérables). Martin Owen (Let’s Be Evil) is directing from a script co-written by Owen, Elizabeth Morris and Seth Johnson. The story revolves around an unusual support group for killers -  but the failed assassination of a senator and the brutal and professional demise of his attempted assassin causes the very fabric of the group to unravel as one layer of betrayal leads to another.

Fresh off his turn as King T’Challa aka Black Panther in Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, Chadwick Boseman is reteaming with Joe and Anthony Russos to produce and star in the action thriller 17 Bridges from STXfilms. Brian Kirk (Luther, Game of Thrones) has signed on to direct from a script by Adam Mervis that follows a disgraced NYPD detective (Boseman) who, after being thrust into a citywide manhunt for a cop killer, is given a shot at redemption.

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has signed on to direct a new installment of the RoboCop series for MGM called RoboCop Returns. The project is a long-dormant sequel that had been planned by the original 1987 film’s screenwriters Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, but was cancelled when director Paul Verhoeven declined to direct the project and a WGA strike in 1988 followed. Justin Rhodes, who is also attached to write the upcoming Terminator reboot and the DC film Green Lantern Corps, will rewrite Neumeier and Miner’s script.

Geneva Robertson-Dworet is set to adapt Artemis, an adaptation of the novel by The Martian author Andy Weir that Phil Lord and Chris Miller will direct. Artemis is described as an adrenaline-charged crime caper that features smart, detailed world-building based on real science. It centers on Jasmine Bashara, aka Jazz, a twentysomething living in a small town named Artemis — and it’s the first and only city on the moon. Her budding career as a smuggler isn’t exactly setting her up as a kingpin, so when the chance at a life-changing score drops in her lap, she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.

Quentin Tarantino has rounded out the large cast for his upcoming crime drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, bringing Spencer Garrett, Martin Kove, James Remar, Brenda Vaccaro, Nichole Galicia, Mike Moh, Craig Stark, Marco Rodriguez, Ramon Franco and Raul Cardona on board. They join the already cast stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Burt Reynolds, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Scoot McNairy and Al Pacino. Once Upon a Time takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippie Hollywood era ... and the Charles Manson murders.

Jeremy Renner has been set to star alongside Jamie Foxx in Spawn, the Blumhouse film that marks the directorial debut of Todd McFarlane from his scripted adaptation of his comic book creation. It was announced back in May that Foxx would play the title character, Al Simmons, a member of a CIA black ops team who is twice betrayed: after being set up by his cohorts to be murdered with his corpse set aflame, Simmons is then double crossed in Hell.  Spawn turns his rage on street scum and revenge and enlists the aid of Detective "Twitch" Williams (Renner), an unconventional detective whose intelligence and intuition compliments Spawn’s power and will help Spawn win his war.

Steve McQueen's crime drama Widows is set to open the 2018 London Film Festival. The thriller is co-written by the Oscar-winning director with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn and unites a group of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo star.

On the 30th anniversary of the iconic film Die Hard starring Bruce Willis and the late Alan Rickman, The Telegraph profiled the genesis of the movie, which was actually based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 thriller novel Nothing Lasts Forever.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Television Academy announced the nominees for this year's Emmy Awards. The spy series The Americans was among the nods for Best Drama Series, and Best Limited Drama Series included the outlaw project Godless, the psychological thriller The Alienist, and The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The Americans also snagged Best Actor and Best Actress nods for Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, and Sandra Oh was nominated for her role in the thriller Killing Eve. For all of the various categories and finalists, head on over to the official Emmys website.

Karin Slaughter’s upcoming thriller novel Pieces of Her is being developed for television by Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content, with Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Mad Men) attached to direct and Charlotte Stoudt (Homeland, House of Cards) to pen the adaptation. Pieces of Her asks: What if everything you thought you knew about your quiet, middle-age mother was wrong? What if she has spent the past 30 years hiding in plain sight? What if, when violence erupts at your local mall and a shooter goes on a rampage, the person who stops him, dead, is your mother? Pieces of Her follows Andrea, a woman who thought she knew everything about her mother, Laura, until the moment she realized she didn’t, and their world unravels.

Another novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty is headed to Netflix. EveryWhere Studios has optioned the rights to Moriarty’s Three Wishes for a series adaptation written by playwright/TV writer Lila Feinberg (Younger). Three Wishes follows three wildly different sisters as their lives intertwine and unfold around their glamorous Manhattan wedding weekend that ends in a shocking tragedy. When a scandalous secret emerges, the tight-knit bond among the sisters is tested as they unravel a mystery that ripples throughout each of their lives.

Netflix has set Michael C. Hall, Cleopatra Coleman and Bokeem Woodbine to join Boyd Holbrook in the cast of the crime drama In The Shadow of the Moon. The Hap and Leonard helmer Jim Mickle is directing the movie from a script by Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock. Holbrook plays a Philly police officer who struggles with a lifelong obsession to track a mysterious serial killer whose crimes defy explanation.

Former Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll alums Elaine Hendrix and Denis Leary are reuniting for USA Network’s thriller Erase pilot. Created by the Rescue Me veteran and Alex Cary, Erase focuses on a once rotten to the core character (Leary), a ill cop who changes his stripes after a life altering revelation and decides to bring down his corrupt superiors in the department. Leary’s O’Neal also has to strive against time to fix the family he almost destroyed in his old ways and keep everyone alive too. Hendrix will portray Bella Tanner, a fun, loving and true problem solver.

Ben Affleck will join Anne Hathaway in Dee Rees' Mudbound follow-up, The Last Thing He Wanted. Based on Joan Didion's 1996 novel, the movie will center on a hardscrabble journalist, Elena McMahon (Hathaway), who inherits her father's position as a dealmaker — an arms dealmaker. She soon finds herself on dangerous ground as the Iran-Contra Affair's arms-for-drugs plot reaches its tipping point. Toby Jones, Rosie Perez and Edi Gathegi are also joining the cast of the Netflix feature, which is currently filming in Puerto Rico.

Nashville star Charles Esten has booked a new series gig in the form of a season-long recurring role on TNT’s upcoming thriller drama Tell Me Your Secrets. Created and written by Harriet Warner, Tell Me Your Secrets is a thriller that revolves around a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: Emma (Lily Rabe), a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer, John (Hamish Linklater), a former serial predator desperate to find redemption, and Mary (Amy Brenneman), a mother obsessed with finding her missing daughter. Esten will play Mary's husband, Saul Barlow, a grieving father who has coped with the disappearance of his daughter by walking away from materialism and trying to move on from the loss. This has severely strained his relationship with his wife who refuses to give up the search.

Nic Bishop (Covert Affairs), The Sopranos star Annabella Sciorra, Molly Hagan (iZombie) and Tami Roman (When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story) have been cast as recurring opposite Octavia Spencer and Lizzy Caplan in Apple’s thriller drama series Are You Sleeping. Created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and based on the true-crime novel by Kathleen Barber, the provides a unique glimpse into America’s obsession with true-crime podcasts and challenges its viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage.

Fresh on the heels of news that Netflix has picked up a Bollywood crime drama from India comes the report that the streaming service has also signed two international crime dramas from Argentina and Brazil. The Argentine drama is titled Puerta 7 and follows one woman’s attempt to cut through the male-dominated world of football hooliganism to cleanse one club of its corruption and criminal element; the Brazilian thriller, The Faction, is set in the 90s and centers on Cristina, an honest, dedicated lawyer who finds out her missing brother has been jailed for years and is a leader of an ascendant criminal faction and is forced to become an informant and work against her brother.

Netflix will explore the true crime genre again in 2019 with a show based on the controversial case of the Central Park Five, boys who were accused of and then convicted of a rape they did not commit. The four-part series, which is created, directed, and written by Ava Duvernay, just announced the signing of Michael K. Williams, best known for his iconic role as Omar on The Wire, to play Bobby McCray, the devoted father of one of the teenage boys who lost valuable years of his life while incarcerated. Also joining the cast are John Leguizamo, who will play the father of one of the other accused teens, and Vera Farmiga of Bates Motel fame who plays Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lederer, the lead prosecutor for the case.

Rosario Dawson is set as the lead of USA Network’s crime drama pilot Briarpatch, from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. Written by Andy Greenwald and based on the Ross Thomas novel, Briarpatch centers on Allegra "Pick" Dill (Dawson), a tenacious and highly-skilled investigator working in Washington, DC for a young, ambitious Senator. When her ten-years-younger sister, a homicide detective, is killed by a car bomb, Allegra returns to her corrupt Texas hometown. What begins as a search for the murderer becomes a fraught and dangerous excavation of the past Allegra has long sought to bury.

George Newbern has booked his first post-Scandal TV series role, taking on a recurring character in Law & Order: SVU. Newbern will play Dr. Al Pollack, a charming, handsome and very wealthy doctor who is a past and future love interest to Detective Rollins (Kelli Giddish). They’ve had a tumultuous relationship in past and he has a bit of a wandering eye, but when they reconnect, things might be different this time — or not.

CBS released its fall schedule lineup, including returning series Bull, the NCIS franchises, SWAT, MacGuyer, Hawaii Five-O, Seal Team and Criminal Minds, as well as new shows Magnum PI and FBI.

Acorn TV, North America’s largest streaming service for British and international TV, announced its August slate featuring exclusive U.S./Canada Premieres. The roster includes the new drama series Mystery Road, called "Australia’s answer to True Detective" and starring multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Judy Davis and AFCA winner Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish) as detectives in this outback noir; and also the return of the female-driven British police procedural No Offence.

A trailer was released for the fourth season of Better Call Saul, which sees Bob Odenkirk as unemployed, casing joints, and sporting a purple tracksuit as he begins to transform into Saul Goodman.

The new trailer for Season six of Orange is the New Black shakes things up at Litchfield Penitentiary.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Radio New Zealand spoke with Robin Burcell about her life as a cop, a forensic artist and how she pours all that experience into her writing, including her latest novel, The Grey Ghost.

Writer Types welcomed authors Caroline Kepnes and Rob Hart for a chat about their various writing projects. The show also brought back the "5 Questions With..." segment featuring Ronald Colby, author of Night Driver. Plus an Unpanel of current and former law enforcement members and authors told us what writers get wrong about writing the police, with J. Todd Scott, Patricia Smiley and Paul Bishop

Spybrary featured a round table discussion on the life and books of spy writer Frederick Forsyth.

Destination Mystery spoke with attorney, author, and anti-trafficking advocate Pamela Samuels Young, often called "John Grisham with a female twist," about her legal thrillers, sex trafficking, and what she's working on next.

THEATER

Spokane, Washington's Stage Left is bringing the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None to the stage through July 29th. Bryan Durbin directs the classic tale of eight strangers on a deserted island who are being picked off one by one.

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