In Reference to Murder

Quote of the Week

FFB: Rising of the Moon

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (1901–1983) taught English, Spanish, history and games in various schools in and around London and was a lifelong student herself, interested in poetry, archaeology, medieval architecture, Freud, and witchcraft (thanks to the influence of her friend, author Helen Simpson), and she was also a member of the British Olympic Association. She penned sixty-six detective novels under her own name, published between 1929 and a posthumous book in 1984, all featuring Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley. She also wrote another series of detective stories under the pseudonym Malcolm Torrie (with architect Timothy Herring), as well as historical and children's books. 
 
One of the earliest members of the British Detection Club, along with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, Mitchell is often compared to the other two Grande Dames and included on lists of the brightest lights of the Golden Age of detective fiction. But with 76 books to her credit, critics like to point out that quantity didn't always mean quality in her novels, something the author addressed in an interview published in the Armchair Detective in 1976:  "I know I have written some bad books, but I thought they were all right when I wrote them. I can't bear to look at some of them now...The books I dislike most are Printer's Error and Brazen Tongue—a horrible book." That may be, but her beloved protagonist Mrs. Bradley still stands as one the most unusual and memorable in detective fiction.

The thrice-married Mrs. Bradley is a medical practitioner, psychiatrist, criminologist and consultant to the Home Office. She herself is an author, including A Small Handbook of Psychoanalysis and articles in psychological journals, specializing in the psychology of crime. In the nonfiction book Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Michele Slung wrote that Mrs. Bradley's "detecting methods combine hoco-pocus and Freud, seasoned with sarcasm and the patience of a predator toying with its intended victim." Mrs. Bradley is variously described by other characters in the books as being "dry without being shrivelled, and bird-like without being pretty," "a hag-like pterodactyl," and "Mrs. Crocodile." She is an accomplished player at bridge, pool, snooker, darts and throwing knives, and a dead shot with an airgun.

Although Mitchell always denied she included much blood and violence in her stories, there's plenty of poisoning to be found (such as deadly nightshade grafted onto to a tomato plant) with horrific side effects, lots of throat-cutting, and one victim was even minced into sausages and hung from hooks. The main premise of 1945's Rising of the Moon, one of Mitchell's personal favorite books, involves a a Ripper-like killer wreaking havoc on the streets of the small village Brentford by mutilating young women and slitting their throats when the moon is full.

Reminiscent of the precocious narrator of Alan Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie over sixty years before that book's publication, Rising of the Moon is told through the eyes of 13-year-old Simon Innes, who teams up with his 11-year-old brother Keith, becoming junior Hardy Boys trying to solve the bloody crimes. Their task becomes even more urgent when they spy the potential murder weapon at a local junk shop run by their friend—an eccentric old lady who has a "rag and bone man" as a lodger—then realize the knife may belong to their older brother/guardian and worry he'll be accused of murder.

In that same Armchair Detective interview referenced above, Mitchell remarked Rising of the Moon recalled much of her own Brentford childhood, she being Simon in that story and her "adorable brother Reginald" the model for Keith. That may be one reason Mitchell doesn't patronize her young protagonists, painting them as curious, clever and witty in their matter-of-fact observations, such as "All detective work is sneaking. That's why only gentlemen and cads can do it," or Simon's solemn thought after one almost-disastrous attempt at sleuthing:

In this innocent belief, our progress back to the high street was robbed of much of its terror. The moon was now flooding the sky. Her image reflected in the water was no longer a thing of murky terror, for we were vain-glorious; we were heroes. We had been under fire. We had been suspected of being murderers. We had filled some female heart with excessive terror. We felt we had been blooded, and were men.

In Mrs. Bradley they find a sympathetic ear and are immediately put at ease by her confidence in them, as she becomes their greatest ally and supporter. She in turn offers up little insights into life as part of their education, as in "These bestial realities must sometimes be faced...Life is inclined to be sordid. Our friends are not always what they seem." Mrs. Bradley's role in Rising of the Moon is important, although she actually only appears half-way through the book, with the heart of the story carried by the winsome Simon.

The book is at turns darkly tongue-in-cheek, eccentric, warm and ultimately charming. Though the plotting is a bit muddled and disjointed at times, if you're willing to put that aside, the endearing narration and almost dreamy setting pull you in and make you feel a little like you've become immersed in a surrealistic painting. That may be why Christopher Fowler said in the Independent that Mitchell's works are "more interesting than Christie's, if more problematic."

Radio adaptations for the BBC were made of two of her books with Mary Wimbush starring as Mrs Bradley, and five of Mitchell's novels were loosely adapted for the 1990s television series The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries featuring Diana Rigg (Rising of the Moon was one, although the plot barely resembles the novel). One critic groused that the latter turned Mrs. Bradley into a glamorous Miss Marple, but it may have helped rekindle some interest in the author. Several novels have been recently re-issued and Isis Soundings has plans to produce two Mrs. Bradley books as audiobook recordings.

Author R&R with Robert McCaw

Robert McCaw grew up in a military family traveling the world. After graduating from Georgetown University, he served as a lieutenant in the US Army before earning his law degree from the University of Virginia. Thereafter he practiced as a partner in a major international law firm in Washington, DC, and New York City, and maintained a home on the Big Island of Hawai’i. McCaw brings a unique authenticity to his Koa Kāne Hawaiian mystery novels in both his law enforcement expertise and his ability to portray the richness of Hawai’i’s history, culture, and people.

In Off the Grid, released this month, a scrap of cloth fluttering in the wind leads Hilo police Chief Detective Koa Kāne to the tortured remains of an unfortunate soul left to burn in the path of an advancing lava flow. For Koa, it’s the second gruesome homicide of the day, and he soon discovers the murders are linked. These grisly crimes on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island could rewrite history―or cost Chief Detective Koa Kāne his career as the CIA, the Chinese government, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, attempt to thwart Koa’s investigation and obscure the victims’ true identities.

Undeterred by mounting political pressure, Koa pursues the truth only to find himself drawn into a web of international intrigue. While Koa investigates, the Big Island scrambles to prepare for the biggest and most explosive political rally in its history. Despite police resources stretched to the breaking point, Koa uncovers a government conspiracy so shocking its exposure topples senior officials far beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Robert McCaw stops by In Reference to Murder today to take some Author R&R and talk about writing and researching his novel:

For me research is a way of life. I’m always in research mode, whether walking the streets of New York or the beaches and villages of Hawaii, eating out in restaurants, online, in libraries, or even in the shower. Research for me is like street photography; it’s about seeing and capturing the moment. But we “see” with more than our eyes, and optimizing the value of our time spent researching, we must use our intellect to process information from multiple sources using all our senses to tease out the informative moment. That moment may be geographic as in the setting for a scene or personal as in transforming acquaintances or strangers into fictional characters. It can also be linguistic as in fashioning dialog or atmospheric as in describing sounds and smells. Often it is intellectual as in remembering a thought or emotion provoked by the immediate company or surroundings.

The seed that grew into the Koa Kāne mystery thriller series sprouted while I was on a star-gazing trip atop the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. In addition to visiting the Keck telescope, the largest optical telescope in the northern hemisphere, I saw quarries where centuries ago ancient Hawaiians manufactured stone tools from particularly hard lava found on the upper slopes of the 14,000-foot mountain. Fascinated by the contrast between the ancient and the modern, I set out to learn everything I could about both.

With respect to the quarries, I hit the Bishop Museum and the UH Manoa libraries, bought archaeological texts, searched online, and, of course, made a trip to the quarries. I studied stone tool-making, examined adzes in museum collections, and traced some of the far-flung places where implements from Mauna Kea have been recovered. In my research, I discovered a mystery the archaeologists have yet to solve: Why after centuries of production did the ancients abandon the Mauna Kea quarries, probably in the sixteenth century, long before the first western contact with the islands? And therein lies one of the central themes just beneath the surface of my first Koa Kāne mystery thriller, Death of a Messenger.

Astronomy is the career I didn’t pursue, and fascinated by the cutting-edge technology of Mauna Kea’s huge Keck telescope, I immersed myself in text books, magazine articles, and observatory websites, delving into segmented mirror technology, adaptive optics, artificial guide stars, and exciting modern discoveries about the cosmos. I visited observatories and talked to astronomers. Standing on the platform at Keck’s prime focus is a form of research that inspires imagination.  From these research moments emerged a whole cast of fictional characters, animated by professional jealousies, populating action scenes atop Mauna Kea in Death of a Messenger.

Newspaper research also yields great fonts of information. Dozens of news stories about a significant international event underpin the plot of Off the Grid, the second in the Koa Kāne series of mystery thrillers. Google maps and satellite views provide useful details. Tourist books often spark ideas about locations, offering brief insights into the history or significance of places that provoke follow-up research. Advertisements can reveal details about vehicles, communications gear, spy equipment, guns, explosives, and other implements of the thriller trade. Sirchie holds itself out as the global leader in criminal investigative solutions, and its catalogs and websites are full of information on forensic equipment and practices. Google images are a great sources of pictures of potential characters, their clothing, and jewelry.

Police and legal procedures differ widely from one jurisdiction to another, and Lee Lofland’s Writers’ Police Academy is a fabulous resource. At these annual conferences, federal, state and local law enforcement officers teach the basics of police work, including fingerprinting, ballistics, undercover operations, hand-to-hand combat, canine unit activities, drug interdiction, warrant execution, traffic stops, bomb disposal, and numerous other police activities. These seminars account for many authentic details in my novels.

The Big Island of Hawaii is a writer’s gold-mine of decisive moments, a place where one researches with one’s eyes, ears, and heart. Hours walking around Hilo, Hawi, Honakaʻa, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and the Green Sand beach lend visual and atmospheric authenticity to scene after scene in my novels. Watch hot lava creep across a barren landscape and it’s not hard to imagine it covering a body as in Off the Grid. Go to dinner at a local favorite restaurant only to find it closed because the law caught up with the owner, a fugitive from justice, and imagine other fugitives hiding out in a remote rain forest as in Off the Grid. Seek out an artist to commission a painting, and get a primer on how real people do in fact live off the grid.

Life is research if you open all your senses to it.

You can read more about author Robert McCaw and his books via his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Off the Grid is now available via Oceanview Publishing and can be purchased via all major book retailers.

Mystery Melange

The Force by Don Winslow has won this year’s Falcon Award, presented by Japan’s Maltese Falcon Society annually to an outstanding work of crime fiction. This is Winslow's fifth Falcon Award in addition to Missing: New York (no English version); The Winter of Frankie Machine; The Power of the Dog; and A Cool Breeze on the Underground. Other previous Falcon recipients include Roger Hobbs, S.J. Rozan, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Michael Z. Lewin, Joe Gores, James Crumely, and Robert B. Parker. (HT to The Gumshoe Site)

The longlist titles were announced for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, awarded annually to an outstanding work of contemporary fiction in any genre. Crime fiction books on the list include Our House by Louise Candlish; Memo from Turner by Tim Willocks; The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven; The Poison Bed by Elizabeth Fremantle; Snap by Belinda Bauer; and The 7 ^1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. (HT to Ayo Onatade at Shots Magazine)

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association has scheduled a July 21 walking tour of areas in South Berkeley, California, that are associated with mystery/sci fi author, editor, and critic Anthony Boucher (a/k/a William Anthony Parker White). The walk will be guided by Randal Brandt, a librarian who curates the California Detective Fiction Collection at the University of Southern California at Berkeley's Bancroft Library. The tour will also cover sites associated with Boucher’s fellow mystery writer Mary Collins, the California Writer’s Club, pioneering film critic Pauline Kael, and others. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

A set of "extremely rare" photographs showing crime writer Agatha Christie as a child is to go on public display in conjunction with the annual International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay in September. The pictures, taken between 1895 and 1898, show Christie at her childhood home of Ashfield in Torquay, Devon, where the author spent much of her life.

Lola Okolosie has won the inaugural Novel Studio scholarship from City University for her novel-in-progress, Returnees. The award, sponsored by thriller writer and course alumna Harriet Tyce, was set up to support a talented writer from a low-income household. The Novel Studio is part of City University’s programmes of short courses and has been running since 2004. Each year, the Novel Studio takes on 15 students, who are helped to develop their novels by professional writers and editors.

Up-and-coming authors are being given the chance to take to the stage and share their work with international bestselling crime authors during the Granite Noir festival in February 2020 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Applications have now opened for the "locals in the limelight" program, and those interested in applying should send an extract of their work, a one-paragraph biography and their contact information by noon on September 2.

Clitheroe is now home to one of only two specialized crime bookshops in the UK. Number 10 on Castlegate was recently opened by crime fiction buff Zoe Channing, who has 30 years' experience working in arts development. Number 10 - in the shadow of the castle - will specialize in contemporary and classic crime fiction, murder mysteries, and thrillers. Channing is a Scandi noir fan and is also looking at introducing a new wave of European crime writers to readers, as well as planning to arrange author events ranging from book signings to talks. 

Crime writers didn't react positively to claims from organizers of the Staunch Prize, launched last year to award crime books with no violence against women, that their books could bias rape juries and trials. As Kaite Welsh added in an opinion piece in The Guardian, "I can’t write about a world without rape – because I don’t live in one," adding that women read and write crime fiction as a way to understand real experience. In more fallout, Staunch Prize founder Bridget Lawless defended the prize to The Bookseller, even as authors like Angela Clarke doubled down by saying "Though the original intentions may have been good, it now feels like this prize and their repeated vocal attacks on the crime writing community are yet another way to silence women and not let them talk about the things we suffer and face. It feels like censorship." 

Summer is the time for travel, and CrimeReads has "6 Mysteries That Capture the Essence of England's Capital" as well as crime fiction from Dubai.

Of course, if you're like Clea Simon, you might think that "political chaos and international threats create too much anxiety to make summer thrillers enjoyable."

Life imitates crime fiction: Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn has spoken out about her novel being used as a sensationalized motive in the disappearance of Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos, who vanished after dropping her kids off at school on May 24. Flynn said she was "absolutely sickened" that lawyers for Dulos’s estranged husband and his girlfriend are using the book as a potential explanation for the disappearance. Both suspects have been charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution in the case and have pleaded not guilty.

More life imitates crime fiction: The suspect in the gruesome slaying of Utah college student Mackenzie Lueck self-published a novel about a teenager who witnessed his friend and his neighbor burn to death, and began advertising the story one year before Lueck was killed.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Denkmal" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, the Sydney Morning Herald spoke with Mick Herron about his six Slough House spy thrillers and what it's like being compared to John le Carre; the Mystery People's Scott Butki chatted with Christina Alger, about her new novel, Girls Like Us, inspired by the real-life Gilgo Beach murders; Crime Fiction Lover welcomed Mike Craven, who had careers in the army, social work, and as a probation officer before turning his hand to a series of books about Cumbrian DI Avison Fluke; and Mark Billingham joined a Q&A with the Sunday Post, discussing how a chilling letter from killer Ian Brady sparked the idea for Billingham’s latest novel.

Author R&R with Sheryl Browne

Author Sheryl Browne writes psychological thrillers and contemporary fiction, and her works include two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies as well as nine novels. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and previously writing for award winning Choc Lit, Sheryl also obtained a Certificate of Achievement in Forensic Science and – according to readers – she makes an excellent psychopath.

In Browne's suspense thriller, The Babysitter, Mark and Melissa Cain are thrilled to have found Jade, a babysitter who is brilliant with their young children. Having seen her own house burn to the ground, Jade needs them as much as they need her. Moving Jade into the family home can only be a good thing, can’t it?

As Mark works long hours as a police officer and Melissa struggles with running a business, the family become ever more reliant on their babysitter, who is only too happy to help. And as Melissa begins to slip into depression, it’s Jade who is left picking up the pieces.

But Mark soon notices things aren’t quite as they seem. Things at home feel wrong, and as Mark begins to investigate their seemingly perfect sitter, what he discovers shocks him to his core. He’s met Jade before. And now he suspects he might know what she wants. Mark is in a race against time to protect his family. But what will he find as he goes back to his family home?

Sheryl Browne stops by In Reference to take some Author R&R about her writing process and research:

 

I’m often asked what prompts me to write psychological thriller. I’ve always been fascinated by what shapes people and I like to strip away the layers and, hopefully, share with readers a little of what lies beneath the surface. A writer’s mind thrives on exploration. Every scenario, every face, every place tells a story. A walk through a cemetery or a glimpsed situation – an argument between a couple, for instance - and I have my stimulus for a book. Once I have an idea of the story I want to tell, I find the character tends to lead me. There are many facets to the human character; no one can be truly good or irretrievably bad. Or can they? The driving force linked to most murders, I’m reliably informed by a former DCI, is humiliation. How many of us haven’t felt humiliated at some point in our lives? Who hasn’t wished for revenge? In writing psych thriller, I’m exploring the darker side of human nature, looking at the nature vs nurture conundrum. Is badness in the genes? Is it brain function or childhood experience that creates a monster? A combination of all three?

In The Babysitter, we have Jade, whose childhood experiences definitely shaped her. Revenge plays a big part in the story, but is she fundamentally bad? I’m always interested to hear readers’ feedback on the subject. This wasn’t the easiest story to write as it does touch on subjects that some might find difficult to deal with, loss and mental issues. Having been a carer to someone struggling with mental illness and therefore very aware of the nightmare that finding the right balance of medication can be, I suppose you could say I’d already done my research. Even then, though, talking to people about their experience is important in order to write about such issues sensitively and honestly.

Similarly, The Affair deals with a particularly sensitive subject: that of the loss of a child. Without going into detail, again this is an area I am familiar with. In the writing, I felt Alicia’s every emotion. I struggled to live them alongside her. I’m not sure this is the right place for a dedication, but I’d like to leave one anyway: to any mother who has had to grieve the loss of a child at any stage from pregnancy and beyond. When the daily pace of life takes over, a short life lived and lost is often grieved silently. That life though, grown inside you, is never forgotten. The Affair obviously isn’t my story, but that was the nucleus that set the story in motion.

So, am I ‘writing what I know?’ To a degree, yes. In writing about people, you do draw on experience, but personally I find it terribly stifling. We have a world of information at our fingertips nowadays. We can travel anywhere. We don’t need to shy away from writing about a character’s job, era, or a situation that might challenge our experience of it. We can research it. The internet is a massive boon to writers nowadays, you can access some fascinating case studies and headline news stories which can spark an idea – I dread to think what my browsing history looks like. All that said, becoming a writer is a learning curve and I honestly think the best tool you have at your disposal is reading. The fact is, Stephen King is so right, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write”. Other authors can show you how to weave a story and they can be a massive inspiration for your own writing.

 

In regard to location, we have Google Earth, of course. You can’t quite get the real flavour of a place, though, I find. I may have to take a little holiday, therefore. All in the name of research, of course.

Just before I set off, for anyone needing info on story structure (and going cross-eyed on googling it), Into the Woods by John Yorke is a brilliant study of story construction. If you’ve ever had any issues with plotting and the development of your ideas then research no more. This was a subject covered on my MA course, but Into the Woods simplifies it beautifully.

Happy writing and reading all!

 

You can find out more about Sheryl Browne, The Babysitter, and her other writing via her website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The Babysitter and the author's other books are available via all major book retailers.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:

THE BIG SCREEN

Media entrepreneur and producer David Haring has picked up the rights to NYT bestselling author Kat Martin’s Texas Trilogy book series, with plans on developing the first book, Beyond Reason. Released in 2017, Beyond Reason centers on Carly Drake, a woman who has recently moved home to take over her grandfather’s trucking company but is soon stalked by danger.

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired world sales rights for Blood On Her Name, a Southern gothic thriller directed by newcomer Matt Pope and starring Bethany Anne Lind (Ozark), Will Patton (Remember The Titans), and Elisabeth Röhm (Joy). The neo-noir feature centers on a single mother and her panicked decision to cover up an accidental killing, a choice that spirals out of control after her conscience compels her to return the dead man’s corpse to his family.

Sam Claflin, perhaps best known for playing Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games films, is the latest to sign on to Legendary’s Enola Holmes movie, based on The Enola Holmes Mysteries books series by Nancy Springer. He'll be joining star and producer Millie Bobby Brown, as well as Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Fiona Shaw, and Adeel Akhtar.

Nigerian-British actress Susan Wokoma has also landed a role in the Harry Bradbeer-directed Enola Holmes adaptation, which follows the adventures of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes’ much younger sister, Enola, a highly capable detective in her own right.

The first trailer for Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was released, and it shows a wild take on whodunits that Johnson says is a tribute to Agatha Christie. The film stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Katherine Langford, Noah Segan, Edi Patterson, Riki Lindhome, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Agatha Raisin producer Free@Last TV and Cold Courage writer Brendan Foley are developing a TV detective drama based on Freeman Wills Crofts’ classic Inspector French novels. Wills Crofts (1857-1957), a railway engineer turned author, was a peer of Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler and was thought to be highly regarded by these writers. Set in 1920s Ireland, Scotland and England, Inspector French is a dogged world-class detective banished from Scotland Yard to post-partition Northern Ireland where he battles to introduce modern policing techniques to a reluctant force.

There's to be another remake attempt at Lovejoy, the Ian McShane-starring British television comedy-drama mystery series based on the novels by John Grant (under the pen name Jonathan Gash), which ran from 1986-1994 on BBC1. Blue Sky Pictures acquired the rights to the original novels with plans to "update it for the 21st century for both the millions who followed the original and a whole new generation of viewers." The series centers on roguish antiques dealer Lovejoy, who has a reputation for recognizing exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antiques from fakes.

Paramount Television has put in development Lock Every Door, a thriller drama based on Riley Sager’s just-released novel. The description reads "No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich, famous, or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s oldest, most elite and secretive buildings in the Upper West Side. When a fellow apartment sitter goes missing, Jules begins to dig into the Bartholomew’s mysterious history, discovering sordid secrets hidden within its walls and that her fate may already be doomed like those that came before her."

The Kaley Cuoco-led adaptation of The Flight Attendant has been picked up by WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service. Based on Chris Bohjalian’s New York Times bestseller of the same name (for which Big Bang Theory alum, Cuoco, bought the rights in October 2017), the thriller follows Cassandra Bowden, a flight attendant who wakes up hungover in a Dubai hotel room…with a dead body next to her. Instead of informing the police, she joins her fellow crew members on a flight to NYC, where she is met by FBI agents with a few questions about her recent layover. Unable to piece together what happened, Cassandra begins to suspect that she might be the killer.

Covert Affairs’ Kari Matchett and True Blood’s Stephen Moyer are set to star in the Canadian spy drama, Fortunate Son. The series, which is set in the social and political chaos of the late 1960s, the Vietnam War, and the anti-war protest movement, follows a woman who helps smuggle Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders across the Canadian border. What she doesn’t know is how these actions will unfold and who is watching her.

Amazon is finalizing a third season renewal of the thriller series, Absentia, starring and executive produced by Castle alumna Stana Katic. Created by Gaia Violo and Matt Cirulnick and based on a pilot script originally written by Violo, Absentia centers on FBI agent Emily Byrne (Katic), who had disappeared without a trace and was declared dead after hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers.

The suspense drama series Ransom, which has aired on CBS in the U.S., Global in Canada and TF1 in France, will not be getting a fourth season. Ransom follows crisis and hostage negotiator Eric Beaumont (Luke Roberts) and his elite Crisis Resolution team who work to balance the demands of their personal lives with their careers as negotiators who handle high-pressure kidnappings and hostage situations.

Shortform video streaming platform Quibi won't launch until spring 2020, but the venture founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg has already lined up a long list of programming including: El Señor de Los Cielos, a three-hour series that will tell the origin story at of the drug lord at the center of Telemundo's top-rated telenovela; #FreeRayshawn, about a young, black Iraq War veteran who is set up by New Orleans police; the comic murder mystery, Mapleworth Murders; Wolves and Villagers, described as a "Fatal Attraction-esque story"; and an untitled Liam Hemsworth thriller.

ABC has set premiere dates for its fall TV series, including the premieres of the mystery-themed thriller drama Emergence, and Stumptown, about a sharp-witted army veteran who becomes a private investigator in Portland, Oregon. Returning crime drama shows also include How to Get Away with Murder and The Rookie.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club podcast welcomed Susan Elia MacNeal, the bestselling author of the Maggie Hope mystery series.

Writer Types hosts Eric Beetner and S.W. Lauden chatted with Owen Laukkanen, Stephanie Gayle, Greg Herren, and Carter Wilson.

Read or Dead, hosted by Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham, talked about a new seven-figure film deal, as well as Stranger Things and all things Nancy Drew.

Alison Gaylin was the featured guest at Speaking of Mysteries, discussing Never Look Back, her new mystery in which the decades-old murder spree being investigated by Quentin Garrison for Closure, his true-crime podcast, is personal.

The Writer's Detective Bureau podcast, hosted by veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of "Mass Shooting Aftermath, Partners, [and]Inside a Detective Office."

THEATER

LA's Geffen Playhouse has extended the run of Mysterious Circumstances through July 22. Inspired by The New Yorker article "Mysterious Circumstances: The Strange Death of a Sherlock Holmes Fanatic" by David Grann, the play focuses on Richard Lancelyn Green, the world's foremost scholar on Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is found dead in his London apartment. With multiple suspects and competing motives, Green's death raises questions that may be answered only by Holmes himself.

St. Paul, Minnesota's Park Square Theatre is presenting Rule of Thumb, three one-act murder mysteries by Agatha Christie, beginning July 12 with a run through August 25. In The Wasp’s Nest, Hercule Poirot comes between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder; in The Rats, adulterous lovers find themselves lured to a flat, only to be trapped like rats and framed for murder; and completing the triple bill is a tense thriller about a woman who is hospitalized after seemingly falling from her balcony in The Patient.

The Theater at Monmouth in Maine has two crime-themed productions: the musical mystery dramedy Murder for Two (running through August 16), in which one actor investigates the crime, the other plays all of the suspects, and both play piano; and a staging of Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, from July 11 through August 15.

Quote of the Week

FFB: Death of a Busybody

In her 67 years, California author Elizabeth Linington wrote some 82 crime fiction novels, published between 1955 and 1990, under her own name as well as the pen names Anne Blaisdell, Lesley Egan, Egan O'Neill, and Dell Shannon. She started out writing radio and stage dramas in the 1940s, switched to historical novels and finally to mysteries in 1960, winning three Edgar Award nominations almost back to back, in 1960, 1962, and 1963.

Perhaps it was due to her own family's 19th-century Irish immigrant background that many of her protagonists had strong ethnic identities, including an Italian rose-fancier, Glendale police Detective Vic Varallo; New England Sergeant Andrew Clock of the LADP and his sidekick, the Jewish lawyer and amateur detective Jesse Falkenstein, who quotes the Talmud; and Sergeant Ivor Maddox, a Welsh bachelor assigned to Hollywood's Wilcox Avenue station.

Her most successful creation was written under her Dell Shannon name—the dapper Mexican-American LAPD Lieutenant Luis Mendoza, who first appeared in Case Pending, as well as one of her other Edgar-nominated works, Knave of Hearts. Sometimes called the "Queen of the Procedurals," Lininger/Shannon among the first women to write in the police procedural genre, as well as one of the first to feature a Latino police officer.

Some critics have pointed out that Linington/Shannon's earliest works were her best, with more attention to detail and craft, but as she started cranking out as many as four books a year, the quality began to suffer, throwing in more cliches and pot-boiler touches. George N. Dove, author of such nonfiction books as The Reader and the Detective Story, pointed out that Linington/Shannon eventually settled down into a formula characterized by a remarkable number of storylines representing the number of cases on which her police officers like Mendoaza are employed (as many as 24 in Spring of Violence), with one main case surrounded by the other unrelated ones in various stages of investigation.

Mendoza is a single detective, just shy of middle age, when he makes his first appearance in Case Pending, but his character is developed throughout the thirty-eight books published over twenty-seven years. He has an inexplicable attraction to women, since he's not unusually handsome, and often finds their attention to be a personal and professional nuisance. He grew up poor and became a gambler to survive before he ultimately joined the police and was surprised by inherited wealth from his miser grandfather. He has a fondness for racy cars, high-stakes poker, and his Abyssinian cat, Bast, eventually settling down to marry Alison Weir in the early novels (Shannon wasn't shy about killing off characters, so suffice it to say, the cast of characters surrounding him tends to change).

In Death of a Busybody (first published in 1963, but reissued as a Mystery Guild selection by Doubleday in 1988), Margaret Chadwick is the snoop in question, a serious flaw for someone who had money and a pedigree. When she turns up dead, no one seems to care, something Mendoza begins to understand more clearly as he realizes the extent of the damage this one women did—pitting husbands against wives, children against parents, and sewing seeds of jealousy, suspicion and hatred like other people sew tulips and daffofils. But when a second body turns up, killed on the same night in the same way, things get a little murkier. Unlike her later "formulaic" novels, Busybody focuses on one case only, and even has Mendoza pull the main players together at the end for the "reveal," deciding he "wants to handle it the way they do in the detective novels."

Shannon may have been called the "Queen of the Proceedurals" and compared to masters such as Ed McBain and John Creasey, but by her own admission, she based her knowledge of police routine and law not on direct experience but on the basic texts used by police departments themselves and took plots from detective magazines. By today's standards, that makes for a more genteel investigation, but she manages some interesting character development and snappy dialogue. It's interesting to see her multi-layered handling of racial, gender and sexual prejudices and roles, themes that are just as prevalent and volatile today as they were back when she was writing this, almost fifty years ago in 1962-63.

Happy Fourth!

Mystery Melange

Organizers of this year’s Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival (September 20-22) announced the books nominated for two 2019 McIlvanney Prizes. There are 13 works vying for the main McIlvanney Prize and five shortlisted for the inaugural Debut Prize (two titles, by Claire Askew and M.R. Mackenzie, are on both lists). Three years ago the Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney who is often described as the Godfather of Tartan Noir.

There will be a Murder Mystery Panel at Hooray 4 Books in Alexandria, Virginia, on Saturday, July 6 from 2-3:00 p.m. Four mystery authors, including Maya Corrigan (Five-Ingredient Mystery series), Sherry Harris (Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series), Con Lehane (42nd Street Library Mystery series), and G.M. Malliet (Max Tudor Mystery series) will discuss what makes a compelling mystery and also sign their books. 

Janet Rudolph has compiled a listing of Fourth of July crime fiction just in time for the holiday.

Stuck inside for the Fourth? TV Guide has options for broadcast marathons, including a few crime dramas.

Writing for CrimeReads, Michael Gonzales compiled a "brief history of the heroes of black pulp."

Also on CrimeReads, a look at how "Charles Dickens Was Obsessed with Detectives, Too."

And as Camille Leblanc points out, this year marks the single greatest arrival of works into the public domain since before the start of the digital age, including "an injection of classic mysteries."

Over at the Do Some Damage blog, David Nemeth assembled a group of authors, including Jason Beech, author of City of Forts; Beau Johnson, author of The Big Machine Eats; and Tom Leins, Repetition Kills You, to discuss the indie crime scene with a focus on noir.

The Live and Deadly blog had an impassioned defense of crime fiction after a recent newspaper writeup that disssed the genre and took the Edinburgh Book Festival to task for including too many crime fiction events (or any at all, apparently).

Writing for the Washington Post, Radley Balko asked the question, "We need to fix forensics. But how?" This after the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific studies have found that expert witnesses had been vastly overstating the significance and certainty of their analyses.

The much-loved and much-parodied mystery board game, Clue, is turning seventy, and Mental Floss compiled ten facts you might not know about Clue.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "America" by Thom Young.

In the Q&A roundup, Ed Brubaker and Megan Abbott discussed comic conventions and criminals and Hollywood for Paste; the Mystery People chatted with Denise Mina about her new novel, Conviction, which is something of a departure for the author; and the Los Angeles Review of Books spoke with Tim Hennessey, editor of the upcoming Milwaukee Noir anthology.