In Reference to Murder

Mystery Melange

The UK Crime Writers Association announced winners of the annual Dagger Awards for excellence in crime fiction, including:

Diamond Dagger, Lifetime Achievement: Michael Connelly
Gold Dagger: The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh
Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
John Creasey Dagger: Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love
International Dagger: After the Fire, by Henning Mankell, translated by Marlaine Delargy
Historical Dagger: Nucleus, by Rory Clements
Short Story Dagger: “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit,” by Denise Mina (from Bloody Scotland; Historic Environment Scotland)
Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction: Blood on the Page, by Thomas Harding
Dagger in the Library: Martin Edwards
Debut Dagger (unpublished writers): The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon, by Bill Crotty

The finalists in the AN Post's Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year were also announced this past weekend. The public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the Irish Book Awards website - voting runs until Friday, November 23rd. The finalists include:

Skin Deep – Liz Nugent
A House of Ghosts – W. C. Ryan
The Confession – Jo Spain 
One Click – Andrea Mara 
The Ruin – Dervla McTiernan 
Thirteen – Steve Cavanagh

Publishers Weekly announced their "Best Of 2018" lists including mysteries and thrillers. For a slideshow of all 12 of the selected books, follow this link.

Award-winning author Ann Cleeves will be featured in an exhibition launch tonight in North Shields in the UK. Cleeves won crime-writing’s Gold Dagger award for her novel Raven Black in 2006, and has seen her books transformed into hit series with ITV shows Vera and Shetland. She'll kick off the Find Your Voice exhibition, which features pictures of female crime writers taken by local professional photographer Donna-Lisa Healy, as well as excerpts from the authors’ novels. Cleeves will take to the stage to talk about her writing exploits and take questions from crime fans.

The Noir at the Bar series is heading to Boston on Thursday, November 8, at the Trident Booksellers & Cafe. The evening's lineup of readings and signings will be hosted by Rusty Barnes and include doungjai gam, Ed Kurtz, Rick Ollerman, Clea Simon, E.F. Sweetman, and JM Taylor.

Three of Chicago's "Mavens of Crime Fiction," Sara Paretsky (Shell Game), Libby Fischer-Hellman (High Crimes) and Lori Rader-Day (Under a Dark Sky), will read from and discuss their most recent books on Wednesday, November 14, at Women & Children First.

There were two conference headliner news items this past week: It was announced that bestselling writer Jeffery Deaver, author of the popular Lincoln Rhyme series that includes The Bone Collector and The Cutting Edge, will deliver the keynote address at the 2019 Washington Writers Conference. Also, top US thriller writer James Patterson has been signed to headline next year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Patterson has sold more than 375 million books and has been the most-borrowed author of adult fiction in UK libraries for the past 11 years.

The Captivating Criminality Network announced its sixth conference will be held in Abruzzo, Italy, from June 12 to 15, 2019. Metamorphoses of Crime: Facts and Fictions will examine the ways in which Crime Fiction as a genre incorporates elements of real-life cases and, in turn, influences society by conveying thought-provoking ideas of deviance, criminal activity, investigation and punishment. Scholars, practitioners and fans of crime writing are invited to participate in this conference that will address these key elements of crime fiction and real crime, from the early modern to the present day. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots)

A crowdfunding campaign by Texas public defender Amalia Beckner has been raising money to buy books for inmates at the Harris County Jail in Houston. For years, Beckner had been bringing her clients books from her own collection but the jail would only allow five books at a time per “pod” of more than two dozen inmates. The Harris County Jail and others have been in the news lately for a crackdown down on access to books, although public outcry and efforts like Beckner's have led to changes in some of those policies.

The CBC posted a list of "25 things you might not know about Lee Child and his bestselling Jack Reacher series."

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "Thank You, Mr. K" by Nancy Scott.

In the Q&A roundup, Craig Sisterson chatted with British-Australian thriller writer LA (Louisa) Larkin, whose storytelling has been likened to Michael Crichton by The Guardian and Alistair MacLean by The Times; the Mysteristas welcomed Mark Stevens, author of the Allison Coil mysteries, the latest of which is The Melancholy Howl; Lynda La Plante spoke with the Irish Independent about her rookie days mixing with gangsters and her four-decade career in crime fiction; and the latest victim of Paul D. Brazill's "Short, Shart Interview" challenge is Tom Pitts, whose new book about the Northern California pot business is titled 101.

Author R&R with J.L. Abramo

If you believe in omens, J. L. Abramo's crime-writing career was launched the day he was born in Brooklyn on Raymond Chandler’s fifty-ninth birthday. Abramo later earned a BA in Sociology at the City College of New York and a Masters Degree in Social Psychology at the University of Cincinnati and is a long-time educator, arts journalist, film and stage actor and theatre director. He is the author of Catching Water in a Net, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Private Eye Novel, and the subsequent Jake Diamond private eye mysteries Clutching at Straws, Counting to Infinity, and Circling the Runway, which won the Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback Novel of 2015 presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Abramo's latest novel, American History, is both a historical novel and an epic crime novel and a multi-generational saga of loyalty and deceit, law breakers and enforcers, and families torn apart or bound together in a one-hundred-year battle for survival. The book follows the Agnello and Leone families and their stories that parallel the turbulent events of the twentieth century in a nation struggling to find its identity in the wake of two world wars.

Abramo stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R about researching and writing American History:

 

WHEN YOU TITLE A NOVEL AMERICAN HISTORY—EXPECT A LOT OF HOMEWORK

During my last visit here, I spoke of the importance of location in my work—and the essential need to be accurate in depicting settings which are critical elements in the narrative.  I also spoke of the importance of being precise in describing time period, particularly with regard to Chasing Charlie Chan where most of the action took place nearly twenty years before I began writing the book, and a good deal of the action concerned historical events going back to the nineteen-forties. 

Rather than cover the same ground, I refer you to the earlier discussion as a prelude to my talking here of the greater challenge—and of the wealth of knowledge gained and enjoyment experienced—in doing the research for American History. 

American History is set in a number of locations in both Europe and the United States, and the story spans a time period of nearly 100 years. 

The saga of the Agnello and Leone families—perennial enemies—begins in Naro, Sicily.  I chose this small town in Agrigento province because my grandfather and father were born there and also because it gave me good reason to explore my heritage.   I had learned, from the memories of family members who emigrated to America, about what life was like for them in the old country—it was a rocky, infertile land with little promise of a better future for their children.  I came to understand the conditions which inspired these and millions of other immigrants to journey across the ocean—by way of western European ports such as Liverpool and Belfast—to an unknown land with alien customs and language.  And I came to appreciate the courage it required.  I complimented this anecdotal knowledge with academic research—reading books such as Sicily by Guy De Maupassant, The Peoples of Sicily by Louis Mendola and Jaqueline Alio, and The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.  Giuseppe Agnello came to America in 1915.  Nearly thirty years later, his son, Louis, served on a U.S. Navy ship during the allied invasion of Sicily.  Fifty years later still, Louis’ grandson visits Naro to learn more about his ancestors.  Same places, different eras. There was more homework to do.

Most of the action in American History is set in New York, San Francisco, and Denver.  I set my Jake Diamond series, from Catching Water in a Net through Circling the Runway, primarily in San Francisco, and I have set Gravesend and Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn.  I have lived in those places, and in Denver, and rely on my personal experiences.  But I always need to double-check any specific landmarks, business establishments, and street intersections to avoid glaring geographical errors.  In American History, I had the added responsibility of accurately depicting nine decades of change in these settings.

I also touch upon actual events in the narrative, and did extensive reading about historical figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt; Fiorello LaGuardia; William Sebold, a German working as a double-agent for the FBI during World War II; organized crime figures like Paul Castellano and John Gotti; and many others.  I also had need to research historical events—the ocean crossings in the 1910s, World War I, the Spanish Flu of 1917, prohibition years, the illegal importation of goods in the 1920s and beyond, early transcontinental railroad travel, World War II in the Mediterranean, and also learned about a number of prisons from coast to coast.

I tried to be as accurate as possible with regard to the changing political and social climate of America over the decades.  I read books, both non-fiction and fiction, illuminating life in America during the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties.  Last Call by Daniel Okrent, The New Yorker Book of the 40s, and The Fifties by Davis Halberstam were particularly helpful.  I also borrowed from my own reminiscences of the sixties and seventies.

Like much of my work, American History is heavily centered on family.  Family loyalty, family honor, hierarchy and dynamics.  Personal experience, and books including The Italian Americans by Luciano J. Iorizzo and Salvatore Mondello, The Italian Americans: A History by Maria Laurino, and The Urban Villagers by Herbert Gans were equally valuable.

Finally, there was the language.  These immigrants, particularly in their first years in American, would naturally have spoken to each other exclusively in their native tongue—but that would have been impractical.  I did feel, however, that including a sprinkling of foreign words and phrases—primarily in the early portions of the novel—might help the reader imagine that the characters were actually conversing in their native language.  For that purpose, I studied the language and I received invaluable help from my sister Linda, who is a much more proficient translator.

The road I traveled and the research I employed to write American History was—for me—enlightening, surprising, exciting, and a good time.  Hopefully, the reader will enjoy following the epic journey of these two warring families—spanning a continent and a century in America.  

 

American History is available from Down & Out Books and all major booksellers. You can find more about J.L. Abramo via his website or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Media Murder for Monday

Monday means it's time for a new week and a new roundup of the latest crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Martin Scorsese has been attached to direct and Leonardo DiCaprio to star in the feature adaptation of the New York Times bestselling David Grann book, Killers of the Flower Moon, with Eric Roth writing the script. The project is based on a true story and set in 1920s Oklahoma when the Osage Nation were the richest people per capita in the world, after oil was discovered under their land. And then they were murdered, one by one. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case and unraveled a chilling conspiracy and one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.

Chris Pratt is in talks to star in director Taylor Sheridan’s next project, tentatively titled Fast. The plot is mostly under wraps, but it centers on a black ops team that goes after drug dealers who are being protected by the feds.

Jamie Lee Curtis is joining the cast with Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, and Lakeith Stanfield in director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out. The project is still somewhat mysterious but has been described as a modern-day murder mystery in the classic whodunit style.

David Tennant and Emily Watson are set to star in Quicksand, a thriller that will mark the feature directorial debut of Humans and Troy: Fall of a City TV director Mark Brozel. The story centers on British couple Dan (Tennant) and Sarah (Watson) who are living out their dream in the Mediterranean. But their paradise comes to an abrupt end when their visiting son is murdered by a local youth. Dan, grief stricken, is offered a chance at revenge by a dangerous stranger who won’t take no for an answer, but the price of revenge is one more murder.

Academy Award winner Geena Davis and Joan Chen have joined Jessica Chastain’s drama Eve, with Tate Taylor directing. Colin Farrell, Common, John Malkovich, and Diana Silvers are also set to star in the project. Although plot details are murky, Chastain is portraying the title character, who works for a black ops organization led by Farrell’s character. Common will portray her ex-fiance.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Blackbox Multimedia is developing The Last Cop and also Murder in Time, the latter of which is based on a series of time-traveling crime thrillers by U.S. writer Julie McElwain. McElwain’s three "Murder in Time” books, published by Pegasus, revolve around tough FBI agent Kendra Donovan who goes rogue in London in an effort to assassinate the man who killed her team, only to end up in England in the 1800s. The Last Cop is described as a crime procedural set in an alternative present/near future in which there is no crime due to implanted crime inhibitor chips that detect violent impulses in the brain. Against this backdrop, a reluctant former police detective is taken out of retirement to solve a murder, the first in 17 years.

Broadchurch star Elen Rhys and Pagan Peak's Julian Looman will star in the BBC drama The Mallorca Files. The ten-part series is created by Dan Sefton and is set among the expat community on the sunny Spanish island that features a British and German detective clashing over their very different approaches to policing the island.

Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Shannon Tarbet have been cast in Season 2 of BBC America’s breakout drama series Killing Eve, joining previously announced new cast members Nina Sosanya, Edward Bluemel and Julian Barratt and series stars Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw. Killing Eve centers on two women; Eve (Oh) is a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade security services operative whose desk-bound job doesn’t fulfill her fantasies of being a spy, and Villanelle (Comer), an elegant, talented killer who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her. These two fiercely intelligent women, equally obsessed with each other, go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse.

True-crime hub Investigation Discovery (ID) has renewed Breaking Homicide for Season 2, and production is already underway. Breaking Homicide follows veteran police detective and private investigator Derrick Levasseur in his pursuit of cold cases around the nation.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Author Novoneel Chakraborty's thriller novel Black Suits You is to be developed into a web series by Ekta Kapoor's OTT platform. The story of Black Suits You follows Kiyan Roy, a reclusive author of a bestselling erotica trilogy, who is stalked by obsessed fan. Soon, he falls for her charms and gets sucked deeper and deeper into a dark and twisted love affair until his life and career slowly begin to unravel.

Crime Cafe host Debbi Mack welcomed author David Malcolm to discuss his novel, The German Messenger, a historical espionage story.

Suspense Radio Inside Edition chatted with authors Tasha Alexander (Uneasy Lies The Crown), JJ Hensley (Record Scratch), and Daniella Bernett (A Checkered Past).

Beyond the Cover's latest special guests were Jeff Abbott (The Three Beths) and Julie Hyzy (Vitural Sabotage).

Writer Types' Halloween episode featured horror writers Paul Tremblay (The Cabin At The End of the World) and Amy Lukavics (Nightingale). Plus, some scary book recommendations from the Malmons.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean and Rincey Abraham talked about a very cool program Stephen King runs and some of the upcoming releases that they are very excited about.

THEATER

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is staging a production of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, as adapted by Ken Ludwig, through November 11. Directed by Sheldon Epps, the cast features Tony Amendola as Christie's iconic detective, Hercule Poirot. 

Sunday Music Treat

This is the third in my Halloween-themed music selections for the month; the first two used the "Dies Irae" chant (Liszt's Totentanz and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique). Here's a different piece but still spooky enough for Halloween, the Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. It's based on a literary poem by Henri Cazalis and deals with the French superstition that says Death comes out at the stroke of midnight each Halloween, summoning the dead to join in a dance.

Quote of the Week

FFB: She Shall Have Murder

Delano Ames (1906-1987) was born in Ohio to a newspaperman father. In 1929 Ames married Maysie Grieg, who later became a highly successful author of lighthearted romances, and the duo settled in Greenwich Village where Ames published his first novel, a philosophical look at the Greek gods entitled A Double Bed on Olympus. When the couple divorced, Ames moved to England where he remarried and worked for British intelligence during the second World War.

After the war, according to his tongue-in-cheek autobiography, he "translated an erudite history of keyboard instruments from the French, and believes that at least 100 copies were sold." Fortunately, his later efforts were more successful, beginning with in 1948 with She Shall Have Murder, the first in what was to become a 12-book series featuring the British husband-and-wife sleuthing team of Jane and Dagobert Brown. Ames produced a Brown book every year until 1959 when he moved to Spain and switched to writing a four-book
series featuring Juan Llorca of the Spanish Civil Guard.

She Shall Have Murder, made into a movie on British television in 1950, introduces Jane Hamish, a pretty young executive in the law firm Daniel Playfair and Son, and Dagobert Brown, Jane's lover and a researcher/writer who is so absorbed in the thriller he and Jane are concocting around the law firm's staff, that he is astonished when the wrong victim dies. Said victim is Mrs. Robjohn, the least favorite client of the firm, thanks to her frequent calls, letters and visits and unwavering paranoid belief that the mysterious "they" are out to get her.

She Shall Have Murder was labeled as "Detection with Wit" when first published in 1948, an apt description of the characters of Jane, always the common-sense, down-to-earth narrator, and her other half Dagobert, whose eccentricities and passing fads often leave Jane alternatively delighted and driven to despair ("Dagobert is my hero, but he persistently refuses to behave like one.") One of Dagobert's primary pursuits is amateur sleuthing that he puts to good use as he resorts to bluffs, disguises, charm and insightful detection in his efforts to prove Mrs. Robjohn was murdered.

Jane makes a delightful narrator, as in this bit about her thoughts on her potential novel-writing career at the start of the story:

"On the other hand, thrillers have nowadays become an accepted art-forom; bishops and minor poets read practically nothing else, and the New Statesman reviews them....The beginning of a book is always the tricky part. It should arrest. A shot should ring out in the night, or if you prefer, a rod should cough or a Roscoe belch forth destruction. Personally, I like to meeet my corpse on page one, and I like him (or her) to be very dead."

Mystery Melange

University of East Anglia creative writing student Femi Kayode has won the £3,000 Little, Brown Award for crime fiction for his "shocking and emotional story, Lightseekers. It’s the second year the publisher has run the award in partnership with the UEA Creative Writing crime fiction MA. Last year's winner, Merle Nygate, won the award with the novel, A Righteous Spy.

The International Crime Fiction Association has announced a new annual book prize to recognize ingenuity, innovation, and scholarship in the academic study of crime fiction and crime writing in its widest sense. Monographs and edited collections can be nominated by publishers, members of the association, and authors. There will be one winner who will receive £100 plus a write-up from the independent judges which can be used for publicity purposes. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

For a very Halloween-y literary conference, try the Bram Stoker festival in Dublin, Ireland, from October 26-29. Stoker, the author who gave us Dracula, is celebrated through performances, workshops, theater, live music, podcasts, audio tours, film screenings, and parades. One of the most inventive events of the weekend may be the festival’s NYsferatu: Symphony of a Century. Taking place at St. Anne’s Church – the Church where Stoker married Florence Balcombe in 1878 – this reimagining of the classic 1922 horror film Nosferatu is instead an animated interpretation, accompanied by a live score that was specially composed for the festival by Irish musician Matthew Nolan.

The deadline for the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers is fast approaching, on November 1. Writers must not have published a book, short story, or dramatic work in the mystery field, either in print, electronic, or audio form. Candidates must submit a letter of application, short bio and short synopsis and three consecutive chapters of the writer’s Malice Domestic genre work-in-progress. Each grant may be used to offset registration, travel, or other expenses related to attendance at a writers' conference or workshop within a year of the date of the award. You can read all the details here.

A "Mystery Author Extravaganza" rolls into Maryland's Howard County Library (Miller Branch) on Saturday, November 3rd, where sixteen authors from the Sisters in Crime Chessie Chapter will be speaking about their new books and short stories published this year. Those scheduled to appear include Donna Andrews, Mary Ann Corrigan (Maya Corrigan), Barb Goffman, Sherry Harris, Mary Ellen Hughes, Maureen Klovers, Sujata Massey, Alan S. Orloff, Susan Reiss, Colleen Shogan, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Karen Neary, Lane Stone, Robin Templeton, Cathy Wiley Stegmaier, and Rebecca York.

The Bible in Crime Fiction and Drama one-day conference heads to the University of Edinburgh on January 8, 2019. This conference brings together multi-disciplinary scholarship from the fields of biblical interpretation, literary criticism, criminology, and studies in film and television to discuss international texts and media spanning the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The Keynote Speaker is Professor Liam McIlvanney, University of Otago and author of The Quaker, winner of the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018.

The Morgan Library and Museum in NYC is commemorating all things Frankenstein on this 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's classic tale. Exhibits include a digital interactive version of Shelley’s annotated book, as well as the actual physical manuscript; Gothic artifacts that inspired the horror elements, including paintings and illustrations; movie and theater posters; comic books; and even what are possibly fragments of P. B. Shelley’s skull. If you can't make it in time for Halloween, don't despair - the exhibit runs through January 27, 2019. (HT to Book Riot)

Criminal Element is sponsoring a Halloween sweepstakes to enter for a chance to win a copy of The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, plus a bookplate signed by the author. Entries will be accepted through October 31st.

Continuing a long tradition begun with the publication of Ian Fleming's short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity," in the March 1960 issue, James Bond will again appear in the pages of Playboy Magazine this fall. The brand new short story—in comic book form—is written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Bob Q. It takes place in March 1941 when "James is dropped off the coast of Belgium to help a Resistance cell take out a supply train that's important to the Nazis."

We marked another passing this week, as the Rap Sheet noted: author Tom Kakonis, who published six crime novels before retiring for over a decade, then resumed fiction writing with the novel Treasure Coast, has died. He was often called the heir-apparent to Elmore Leonard and the “master of the low-life novel," and Kirkus Reviews lauded his "exhilaratingly tough yet deeply humane storytelling."

As the Express notes, Agatha Christie learned about the properties of everything from cyanide to strychnine by working in a hospital dispensary in wartime, as her newly released volunteer service card reveals.

Writing for the Daily Beast, Allison McNearney looked at the "haunting mystery" of Edwin Drood that Charles Dickens left behind, and how various authors and productions have tackled the unfinished novel through the years.

Speak of the Dickens, here are some "Spooky Charles Dickens Quotes for Halloween."

Erica Wickerson delves into the reasons people still love a good whodunnit.

Kings River Life ezine has a couple of online Halloween mystery short story for you, "The House of Screams" by Guy Belleranti, and "The Yard Police Meet Their End."

Although I mentioned it last work, Mystery Fanfare's list of Halloween-themed crime fiction bears repeating, because have you seriously been able to read all of those books in just one week?

Mystery Lovers Kitchen has holiday-themed recipes for you, including Spider Donuts, via author Daryl Wood Gerber, and Pumpkin Apple Cake from Krista Davis.

The latest poem at the 5-2 crime poetry weekly is "He Likes His Beer" by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozabal.

In the Q&A roundup, The Daily Mail profiled John Grisham and got his take on the death penalty, Hollywood, and writing in the era of Trump; Deborah Kalb interviewed Webb Hubbell about the latest in his Jack Patterson thriller series, The Eighteenth Green; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lyndsay Faye discussed Arthur Conan Doyle, Mycroft, and the world of Holmes pastiches for Crimereads; and Karin Slaughter spoke with Molly Odnitz of Crimereads on the evolution of the thriller genre and its treatment of women.

Author R&R with J.J. Hensley

J.J. Hensley is a former police officer and former Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service. He's the author of the novels Resolve, Measure Twice, Chalk’s Outline, Bolt Action Remedy, and Record Scratch. He graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Administration of Justice and has a M.S. degree in Criminal Justice Administration from Columbia Southern University. Hensley’s first novel, Resolve, was named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Suspense Magazine and was named a Thriller Award finalist for Best First Novel.  

Record Scratch (due out this week) is the second installment of the series featuring private eye and former secret service agent Trevor Galloway and centers on a woman who wants to hire Galloway to not only solve her brother’s homicide, but recover a vinyl record she believes could ruin his reputation. He doesn't want or need the case, but when the potential client closes the meeting by putting a gun under her chin and pulling the trigger, his sense of obligation drags him down a path he may not be ready to travel. 

As Galloway pieces together the final days of rock and roll legend Jimmy Spartan, he struggles to sort through his own issues which include having the occasional hallucination. He’s not certain how bad his condition has deteriorated, but when Galloway is attacked in broad daylight by men he assumed were figments of his imagination, he realizes the threat is real and his condition is putting him and anyone nearby at risk. The stoic demeanor that earned Galloway the nickname The Tin Man is tested as he reunites with an old flame, becomes entangled in a Secret Service investigation, and does battle with old enemies.

Hensley stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R talking about "Research, Records, and Receipts":

 

I like Vince.

Vince is a nice guy. Vince runs Galaxie Electronics in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and happens to be an encyclopedia of information about record players, turntables, and vinyl albums. Vince and I spoke at length with the understanding I might use both him and his shop as references in a novel I was planning to write. I did make it clear I couldn’t guarantee the safety of the semi-fictional character nor the store that I ended up naming Planetary Electronics. Vince was more that okay with that arraignment. Poor, sweet, innocent, Vince.

 

Hopefully, Vince will still speak with me and he’ll understand how incredibly valuable he was to the creation of Record Scratch. Vince is one of many people who have saved me from making horrible errors over the years and allowed me to plug in details readers find interesting. I’m often amazed when writers make basic mistakes that could have been avoided by not only conducting simple online research but by making a few phone calls or going out an interviewing people face-to-face. It’s amazing how many people are excited to help an author get the details right and most aren’t even offended, and sometimes may be flattered, if some thinly-veiled version of himself ends up getting massacred in chapter seven.

Over the past few years, I’ve researched blacksmithing, sniper rifles, the sport of biathlon, and several other specialized topics I wouldn’t have taken the time to learn about if it were not for writing. It’s fairly easy to get motivated to become educated on specialized material because it’s new and exciting. However, many errors are made in novels because of the presumption of knowledge. Much of this comes from television where we have spent decades hearing criminal suspects and lawyers claim that Miranda rights must always be administered to a suspect or watching cops chamber rounds into weapons that in real life would have already been ready to fire. Many authors assume this information is true and think certain “facts” aren’t worth researching. Unfortunately, that is when basic errors occur, especially in crime fiction. Thanks largely to the indoctrination we receive from Hollywood productions, writers have to be careful when making assumptions as to what constitutes reality. Even when we have experience in a certain area, the research never ends.

Case in point, I have an extensive background in law enforcement. However, methodologies and technologies change and many of the tools used on the job today weren’t available to me (garble garble) years ago. I narrowly avoided making an error in one of my books when I was writing a scene that involved pepper spray. I was going to have an officer carry a specific type of spray that I happened to know was extremely effective because not only had I carried it when I was a police officer, I’d been sprayed with it in the academy. Trust me. It was effective. Anyway, something made me think I should check with a friend who is still active in my former department to see if they still carried that brand of spray.

“Oh, no!” he told me.

I asked why not.

“It turns out it’s a bit flammable when used with Tasers.”

Good to know!

Well, back when I was a police officer in Virginia we didn’t have Tasers. The technology had changed and I nearly made a silly error in a novel. Now you might be thinking that nobody would have noticed that kind of mistake. Someone…always…notices. And although many writers have better luck getting organ donations rather than Amazon reviews, it will be THAT individual who will write multiple scathing online reviews pointing out the writer’s complete lack of knowledge and total abundance of laziness. That’s just the way it works.

These are some of the reasons I conducted so much research for Record Scratch. Vince was kind enough to help me with the mechanics surrounding equipment not many people understand or appreciate. My brother, who happens to work in the music business, gave me a crash course on recording studios, soundproofing, and an assortment of other items. The chief of a police department in Pennsylvania met with me to explain various training requirements in the state and the sharing of jurisdictional resources. And I may have purchased a turntable, speakers, and several vinyl albums in the process. Research. It’s all about the research. You hear me, IRS?

Note:  Always keep receipts for your research.

 

J.J. Hensley's Record Scratch is on sale this week via Down & Out Books and all major booksellers. You can learn more about Hensley and his books through his website and blog and follow him Facebook and Twitter.

Media Murder for Monday

It's Monday again, which means it's time for the latest roundup of crime drama news on screens both big and small:

THE BIG SCREEN

Michael B. Jordan will star in and produce Lionsgate’s film adaptation of assassin story The Silver Bear. A director has not yet been attached to the project, announced last week. The film is based on the book series by Derek Haas (the screenwriter for Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma) and centers on an assassin named Columbus — called the Silver Bear by some — who tracks a powerful politician with presidential aspirations.

IFC Films has picked up the U.S. distribution rights to Out Of Blue. The crime drama, written and directed by Carol Morley, had its premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and will be released in theaters sometime next year. Patricia Clarkson (The Green Mile), Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom), James Caan (Misery), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Mamie Gummer (End Of Tour) star. Based on the novel by Martin Amis, the story follows a New Orleans homicide detective Mike Hoolihan (Clarkson) as she investigates the shooting of leading astrophysicist and black hole expert Jennifer Rockwell (Gummer). As she gets deeper into the case, her quest for the truth completely shakes her view of the universe, and ultimately herself.

Liam Hemsworth and Vince Vaughn are heading to Arkansas, Clark Duke’s feature directorial debut that Duke wrote and will also star in. Arkansas follows a pair of low level drug runners in the Dixie Mafia, Kyle (Hemsworth) and Swin (Duke), who live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin Frog (Vaughn), whom they’ve never met. But when a deal goes horribly wrong, deadly consequences are soon to rattle the duo’s routine lives.

Eve, the upcoming crime drama starring Jessica Chastain, has added Joan Chen and Academy Award-winner Geena Davis to its cast. The plot for the film is being kept under wraps, but the production companies on the project, Voltage Pictures and Freckle Films, describe it as" a character-driven action-drama."

Don Johnson and Blade Runner 2049 actress Ana de Armas are set to join Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, and Michael Shannon in writer-director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out. Shooting is due to begin next month on the modern-day murder mystery which will see Craig star as a detective, although the plot and character details are largely being kept under wraps.

After co-starring in last year’s successful Murder on the Orient Express, Tom Bateman is set to return as Bouc in the 20th Century Fox feature adaptation of Death on the Nile, which will now be released October 2, 2020, instead of December 20, 2019. The latest Agatha Christie film also will see the return of Kenneth Branagh as director and in the role of Hercule Poirot, and Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer also attached to star.

Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, and Henry Czerny have come aboard Fox Searchlight’s Ready or Not thriller, which is being directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, with Samara Weaving and Andie MacDowell previously announced to star in the film. The plot centers on a young bride (Weaving) as she joins her new husband’s (O’Brien) rich, eccentric family (Brody, Czerny, and MacDowell) in a time-honored tradition that turns into a lethal game with everyone fighting for their survival.

A trailer was released for Destroyer, starring an unrecognizable Nicole Kidman as LAPD detective Erin Bell who was placed undercover as a young cop with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to reckon with the demons that destroyed her past.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has put in development the cop drama Ranger, inspired by James Patterson’s recently released best-selling novel, Texas Ranger. The project hails from American Sniper writer Jason Hall, and centers on a Texas Ranger and his cantankerous father move to South Florida where the Ranger becomes a homicide detective and searches for his brother’s killer.

ABC has landed Wolfe, a crime drama from former Bones producer Kathy Reichs and executive producer/co-showrunner Michael Peterson, who also serves as writer on the project. Wolfe centers on veterinarian Dr. Charles Wolfe, who has a unique perspective on homicide, believing murder is a primal, animalistic act, and killers are animals. After getting elected coroner of Boulder, CO, Wolfe partners with his mirror opposite, FBI profiler Kristin Faulk, who is confident Wolfe is dead wrong and that it is nurture, not nature, that leads a person to murder.

Fox has given a script commitment plus penalty to an hour-long female-focused FBI drama from former Queen Sugar showrunner Monica Macer, Thruline and 20th Century Fox TV. Written by Macer, the Untitled FBI Women Project (aka The Tribe) is inspired by journalist and author Doug Stanton’s interviews of women in law enforcement. It is a character-driven drama set inside the New York City field office of the FBI featuring the stories of three female agents as they struggle to balance their professional and personal lives. 

NBC has given a put pilot commitment to Emergence, a mystery drama from Kevin (Probably) Saves The World creators/executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, director Paul McGuigan and ABC Studios. Written by Fazekas and Butters, Emergence centers around a sheriff who takes in a young child that she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.

Shades of Blues star/executive producer Jennifer Lopez has teamed with co-star Vincent Laresca for a new cop drama, which has been put in development by NBC. The project, Blood Ties, hails from former The Mentalist executive producer Tom Szentgyorgyi, who also serves as screenwriter. Blood Ties is a procedural crime show in the vein of NYPD Blue, in which convicted homicide detective Steve Horvath is exonerated and given his job back but finds he now has unconventional insight about the criminals he faces. Teaming up with an unexpected rookie who has a secret agenda of his own, Horvath must learn to adapt to life outside of prison while trying to figure out who framed him and why.

Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak is teaming with Red Arrow Studios International and Universal Television to develop a U.S. version of popular German series The Last Cop (Der Letzte Bulle). The Last Cop tells the story of Mick Briggs, an alpha male detective, who wakes up from a 25-year coma and struggles to find his identity as a man, husband and father in a world he neither recognizes nor understands.

British producer Synchronicity Films is lining up the next project from The Cry author Helen FitzGerald, which the author is still writing and will be released in 2020. The BBC One drama is said to be a domestic disaster noir story set in a small town. The Broadchurch-style tale explores small-town secrets in an action-packed thriller format that features a devastating bush fire and its impact on a community. 

Another classic series is coming back to television without rebooting its entire universe—in fact, it's killing off a major character. NYPD Blue is getting a revival but the premise revolves around the death of original series protagonist Andy Sipowicz (played by Dennis Franz). The new show would be based on Theo Sipowicz, who followed in his father's footsteps and pursued law enforcement. His goal is to earn his shield as a detective and investigate crime out of his dad's old 15th precinct, including using his NYPD resources to investigate his dad's murder.

Doubt creators Joan Rater and Tony Phelan have sold two dramas to NBC including Trust, based on the French-language format Banking District, which is described as part thriller, part family drama. It follows psychology professor Michaela Murphy as she unexpectedly takes over her family’s banking business when her brother suspiciously falls into a coma. In order to save her brother’s life, the bank and her family’s legacy, Michaela must contend with her estranged family and in doing so begins to uncover a host of long-buried secrets.

Fox is developing the police drama Deputy from David Ayer and former LAPD detective Will Beall. The project is being made with the full cooperation of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and centers on Deputy Bill Hollister, a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors and utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the LA County Sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff of Los Angeles County, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West.

Martin Freeman will star in the six-part drama, A Confession, for UK’s ITV. Written by Jeff Pope, the series tells the story of how Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, played by Freeman, deliberately breached police procedure and protocol to catch a killer, a decision that ultimately cost him his career and reputation. 

The Scorpion and X-Files star Robert Patrick is boarding Steven Soderbergh’s Netflix drama, The Laundromat, taking on the role of Captain Perry. He joins an ensemble cast of Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, David Schwimmer, and Will Forte in the story that centers around one of the largest money laundering schemes ever, "The Panama Papers," documents that linked money laundering to politicians and powerful higher-ups such as U.S. President Donald Trump.

Oscar-nominated actress Catalina Sandino Moreno is set for a leading role opposite Sophia Bush in CBS’ drama pilot Surveillance. The project is described as a complex and timely spy thriller centered around the head of communications for the NSA (Bush), a charming operative who finds her loyalties torn between protecting the government’s secrets and her own. Sandino Moreno will play Natalie, who oversees all active operations at the NSA, the first woman to do so – and she’s excellent at her job. She is fiercely loyal to Maddy (Bush), her close colleague and longtime friend, and the two are like sisters.

Enrico Colantoni is set to join Kristen Bell in Hulu’s eight-episode Veronica Mars revival. He will reprise his series regular role from the original of Keith Mars, Veronica’s (Bell) father and head of Mars Investigations. The hour-long limited series, slated to premiere in 2019, hails from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, who will pen the first episode. In the revival, spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. 

After finding huge success in the United Kingdom, Bodyguard will make its way stateside on October 24 when it debuts on Netflix. Bodyguard tells the story of David Budd (Richard Madden), a heroic, but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty and Specialist Branch (RasP) of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, could he become her biggest threat?

CBS has handed back-orders to three more freshman series, including Magnum P.I, the reboot starring Jay Hernandez. Although the show got off to a modest ratings start, it improved its programming block by fifty percent-plus over last season’s low-rated comedies.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

The latest episode of Two Crime Writers and a Microphone is titled "Would a Crime Writer Lie to You!," and recorded in front of a live audience at the Bloody Scotland crime festival. The featured authors include Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Abir Mukherjee, Denise Mina, Sarah Pinborough, Will Dean, Mark Billingham, Stuart Neville, and Howard Linskey.

Suspense Radio Inside Edition welcomed Marnie Riches (The Girl Who Wouldn't Die) and Reavis Wortham (Gold Dust) to the show.

James Scott Bell, a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for his novel, Romeo’s Way, and the #1 bestselling author of books on the craft of writing, was the latest featured guest on Meet the Thriller Writer podcast.

D.P. Lyle's podcast, Criminal Mischief: The Art & Science of Crime Fiction, focused on "Writing Modern Crime Fiction."

Kings River Life Magazine Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast featured the mystery short story, "The Mercy Killer," written by mystery author Merrilee Robson and read by Kingsburg actor Thomas Nance.

Self-Publishing Journeys spoke with UK indie thriller writer Nathan Burrows about his trilogy of dark comedy thrillers based in Norfolk.

Sunday Music Treat

Last Sunday, I featured Franz Lizst's Totentanz, which includes the iconic Dies Irae chant melody, as part of the "spooky music" theme for October. This week, here's another use of the same Dies Irae chant, this time in the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, the last movement which is titled "Witches Sabbath":