In Reference to Murder

Quote of the Week

FFB: The Six Men

Edwin and Mona Augusta (M.A.) Radford were a husband and wife writing duo — Edwin, a journalist on Fleet Street for 45 years and member of the Savage Club (gentleman's club) in London, and Mona a writer of children's verse and stage plays. Both voracious readers, Edwin was particular fond of Richard Austin Freeman, a Golden Age of Detection writer known for his fictional creation and amateur sleuth, Dr. Thorndyke.

There is surprisingly little information available about the Radfords and their works. Their first book, Inspector Manson's Success, was published in 1944 and followed up by no less than 37 murder mysteries, the last published in 1972 (Edwin died in 1973). Their primary series character was Inspector Manson, hero of their first effort and many to come. The only book they wrote that appears to still be in print, or at least more readily available, is their collaboration The Encyclopedia of Superstitions.

Another curiosity: The Six Men was originally published in 1958, but there appears to have been a British made-for-TV movie by that title and written by the Radfords that was broadcast in 1951, starring Harold Warrender (who once played Lord Peter Wimsey in 1947), Peter Bull (Tom Jones, Dr. Strangelove) and comic actress Avril Angers. Bull later said in his memoirs the film had a shooting schedule of ten days. I'm guessing the screenplay came first and the novel followed, unless the Radfords found a time machine.

The plot of The Six Men is seemingly simple enough; six criminals, each a specialist in his field form a gang and within six months have hauled in 250,000 pounds (close to $1 million today) in jewels and bank notes. Scotland Yard is baffled until the gang suffers its first casualty when the youngest member is shot dead by the head of the operation, known only as The Chief. Detective Inspector Holroyd is frustrated by the fact that he knows the identities of most of the gang, but they always have unbreakable alibis. He takes it upon himself to trail the gang's members, marking their habits and pecularities. Slowly but surely he plays a game of divide and conquer as he rounds them up one by one, leading himself closer and closer to The Chief.

Edwin Radford's idol, R. Austin Freedman, is often credited as being the inventor of the inverted mystery, where the reader knows the identity of the culprit. There is a  bit of that in this story, too, although the Radford team employs a twist at the end (which is nonetheless fairly well telegraphed—from the viewpoint of a modern reader, at least). It's not so much a police procedural in the traditional sense, and not just because that genre was still relatively new around 1950; perhaps "procedural suspense" might be an appropriate description, with elements of the lone-wolf policeman, smatterings of Holmes, bits of George Simenon and a hint of the hard-boiled cop fiction that was to come.

Mystery Melange

The finalists for the Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Awards were announced this week. The fan awards, chosen by registered members of the Left Coast Crime convention, include the Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel, Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel, Lefty for Best Mystery Novel, and the Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel. For all the nominees in the various categories, check out this list from the Left Coast Crime conference's official website.

John le Carré has been named the latest recipient of the $100,000 (£76,000) Olof Palme prize, an award given for an “outstanding achievement” in the spirit of the assassinated Swedish prime minister. In announcing Le Carré’s win, the prize organizers praised the 88-year-old author (whose real name is David Cornwell), “for his engaging and humanistic opinion-making in literary form regarding the freedom of the individual and the fundamental issues of mankind,” calling his career “an extraordinary contribution to the necessary fight for freedom, democracy and social justice.” Le Carré said he would donate the winnings to the international humanitarian NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.

The National Book Award finalists were announced and include The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, based on the horrific events that transpired at the real-life Dozier School for Boys, in the Best Fiction category. The Best Nonfiction category nods include Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe and No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder.

Coming up this weekend, Baltimore will celebrate the 211th birthday of the inventor of the detective novel and an early master of the horror genre, Edgar Allan Poe. Festivities include the free PoeZella Birthday Bash with food and a display of Poe-themed photographs (courtesy of the Baltimore Camera Club); a free Edgar Allan Poe House Literary Landmark Dedication; and the Edgar Allan Poe Birthday Celebration at Poe’s final resting place, Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, with the Poe Project’s “Poe-pourri!” staged adaptations of three of Poe’s works: “The Coliseum,” “Eldorado” and “The Raven.”

The Virginia Festival of the Book announced its full schedule this week including the annual Crime Wave. In addition to previously announced author Ian Rankin to be featured at the Crime Wave Brunch, mystery author Cara Black (Murder in Bel-Air) will be on hand, along with fellow crime writers Deborah Crombie (A Bitter Feast), Joe Ide (Hi Five) and many more. Check out the full schedule on March 20-21 here.

Ian Rankin is going to one busy fellow this year, as it was also announced he'll serve as the programming chair for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival July 23-26 at Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel, the venue synonymous with the 1926 disappearance of crime writing icon, Agatha Christie. Festival manager Helen Donkin noted that "the Programme Chair, which changes each year, is responsible for the various themes the discussion panels debate, as well as which authors sit on them. And by having a different chair each year this helps keep the festival fresh and exciting."

Capital Crime has launched a digital festival to showcase crime and thriller writers and offer readers can't attend the physical event an opportunity to connect with authors. The digital festival comes just three months after the success of the inaugural event in London, with Ian Rankin scooping two awards at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards. Capital Crime co-founder Adam Hamdy said: "The Capital Crime Digital Festival is packed with fascinating video content. It features authors talking about themselves and their work, writing tips and book recommendations." The digital festival will features sessions with Mark Edwards, Claire McGowan, and Winnie M Li. Available is free to view worldwide.

The Debut Dagger deadline is fast approaching. The Crime Writers Association's Debut Dagger competition is open to anyone who has not had a full-length novel published by a traditional publisher and who, at the time of the competition closing on the last day of February, has not got a contract with a publisher or literary agent. Submissions are judged by a panel of top crime editors and agents, and the shortlisted entries are presented to publishers and agents. Entries should include the opening of a crime novel not exceeding 3,000 words and a synopsis of up to 1,500 words.

As I previously reported, after a seven-year hiatus, the All Due Respect zine is back with plans to release one story each month that will also be published in an anthology later this year. The vision remains the same as always: crime fiction from the perspective of the criminal. The very first story of the year is "Mad Dog" by Stephen D. Rogers, who's been a fixture in the short mystery fiction community for years, publishing more than 800 stories and the collection, Shot to Death.

The famous muscle car that Steve McQueen drove in the classic 1968 mob movie, Bullitt, gave birth to the modern-day car chase scene, but the 1968 Mustang GT also became a legend for another reason - it disappeared from the public for decades. Now, it's resurfaced in Kissimmee, Florida, where the rusted, dented highland-green car just sold for $3.4 million at auction.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "I Died a Thousand Times: Death #556" by Richie Narvaez.

In the Q&A roundup, Jacqueline Seewald interviewed mystery author Jan Christensen about the latest in her Paula, PI series; over at the Do Some Damage blog, David Nemeth chatted with Matt Phillips about his new novel, You Must Have a Death Wish; Crime Fiction Lover quizzed Dreda Say Mitchell, a CWA New Blood Dagger award winner in 2005, about her latest psychological thriller, Trap Door; Jo Nesbø, author of the Harry Hole detective series, spoke with The Guardian about Tom Jones, the "Nordic noir" label, violence against women in fiction, and his soft spot for a crime cliché; and Peter May discussed Scottish crime fiction with the Press and Journal, offering up appreciation for William McIlvanney's influence in spurring an interest in crime writing in that country.

Media Murder for Monday

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

AWARDS

The nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards were revealed early this morning. Crime dramas are represented by Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (Best Picture; Best Director: Quentin Tarantino; Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino); Best Actor: Leonardo DiCpaprio); Joker (Best Adapted Screenplay: Todd Phillips & Scott Silver); Best Picture; Best Director: Todd Phillips; Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix); The Irishman (Best Picture; Best Director: Martin Scorsese; Best Supporting Actor: Al Pacino and Joe Pesci; Best Adapted Screenplay: Steve Zaillian); and Knives Out (Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson).

The British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) nominations (easy at-a-glance list here) were announced last Tuesday amidst some controversy over the lack of diversity. The nods for crime dramas included most of the same entities that have swept the other awards thus far, including The Irishman (Best Director, Best Supporting Actor), Joker (Best Director, Best Actor), and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor). One new addition is Margot Robbie, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Rian Johnson (Knives Out) and Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood) also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay, and Steven Zaillian (The Irishman) and Todd Phillips, Scott Silver (Joker) for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Crime dramas honored by the Writers Guild of America in their list of nominations for the year's best films include Knives Out, written by Rian Johnson for Best Original Screenplay and The Irishman (screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based upon the book, I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brand) and Joker (written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver, based on Characters from DC Comics) for Best Adapted Screenplay. Because of WGA rules, the Quentin Tarantino-penned Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood wasn't eligible for Original Screenplay.

The Directors Guild Award television nominations included Ava DuVernay (When They See Us), and Vince Gilligan (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) in the Movies for TV and Limited Series category.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Writer-director Rian Johnson is already working on a follow-up to his hit original whodunit, Knives Out, lining up a potential franchise for Lionsgate. Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter at a Lionsgate's pre-Golden Globes party that he was developing a sequel centered on Daniel Craig's Southern detective Benoit Blanc investigating a new case. The filmmaker added that he was eager to make the pic quickly, ideally in the next year.

The X-Men's Nicholas Hoult will join Tom Cruise in the upcoming Mission: Impossible sequel, according to director Christopher McQuarrie via Instagram. His exact role is unknown, but Hoult is expected to play a villain. Cruise is reprising his role as the globe-trotting secret agent, Ethan Hunt, in the seventh and eighth follow-ups, while McQuarrie is writing and directing both (and plans to shoot them back-to-back).

Protagonist Pictures has boarded world sales on Sundance-bound drama-thriller, Surge, starring Ben Whishaw. The film sees Whishaw as a man trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, he unleashes a wilder version of himself and is propelled on a reckless journey though London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has closed a deal for Clarice, a crime drama series project based on the iconic Thomas Harris character, Clarice Starling, which is set after the events in The Silence Of the Lambs. The project, written and executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, has received a "big series commitment" and is described as "a deep dive into the untold personal story of Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C."

Synchronicity Films has optioned Craig Russell’s "Lennox" book series and will adapt the period Scotland-set thrillers for TV, with Robert Murphy (DCI Banks, Inspector George Gently, Vera) attached to handle the adaptation. The series is set in tough inner-city Glasgow in the 1950s where the titular Lennox is a private eye billed as "a damaged man in a hard city at a hard time" who finds himself caught between three Glasgow crime bosses.

Legendary Television has closed a deal to develop the Jonathan Lethem novel, Gun, for a TV series. Johan Renck, coming off his Emmy-winning work on the acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, has been set to direct and will also serve as executive producer with David Flebotte (The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire), who’ll be the showrunner.

The first trailer dropped for Season 4 of Fargo on FX featuring Chris Rock as the head of a 1950s-era crime syndicate in Kansas City. It was also announced last week that Yellowstone's Kelsey Asbille has also recently been added in a key role in the upcoming fourth installment of the network’s anthology series.

FX has also set premiere dates for the spring, including the limited series, Devs (March 4), about a young software engineer who investigates her boyfriend's apparent suicide only to discover a technology-based conspiracy that could change the world, and Fargo’s much-anticipated return for a fourth installment on Sunday, April 19 at 10 p.m.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone hosts, Steve Cavanagh and Luca Veste, featured their annual look at the Bad Sex Awards (previous nominees have included Stephen King, George Pelecanos, and Lee Child).

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover featured Tosca Lee to chat about A Single Light, book two in the "Line Between" series.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Frank Zafiro, welcomed Libby Klein to talk about her Poppy McAllister series and cozy mysteries in general.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Det. Adam Richardson, offered up a tip on a great new forensic science resource and answered questions about getting a warrant signed by a judge and the realities of knock and notice.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Bella Ellis, author of the recently released novel, Vanished Bride. The story sets Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë as detectives investigating the disappearance of a young wife and mother.

THEATRE

The Good Company Players are presenting Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure on stage at the 2nd Space Theatre in Fresno, California. The Steven Dietz adaptation of the 1899 William Gillette play (which introduced the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” which was not in the original stories) blends a lot of the Irene Adler story of "A Scandal in Bohemia” with the schemes of the nefarious Moriarty from "The Final Problem." (HT to Kings River Life)

A production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is heading to the Court Theater in Chicago on January 16. The classic tale centers on a group of strangers - one of whom is a murderer - stranded in a boarding house during a snow storm.

The Genesian Theatre Company in Sydney, Australia will stage The Ladykillers with opening night on January 18. Adapted by Graham Linehan from an Ealing comedy-mystery film, the play centers on a sweet little old lady, alone in her house, pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing.
 

The New Wimbledon Theatre is the latest stop for a touring UK production of the John Kander/Fredd Ebb/Rupert Holmes musical mystery, Curtains, opening January 14. Local detective, Frank Cioffi, is called in when Jessica Cranshaw, star of the new Broadway-bound musical, Robbin Hood, has been murdered on stage on opening night.

On January 14 at the Richmond Theatre in London, Dial M for Murder will have its opening night. Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s world-renowned film of 1950, the drama centers around a husband who plans "the perfect crime" when he suspects his wife of being unfaithful.

FFB: The Midnight Plumber

British author Maurice Proctor (1906–1973) worked faithfully as a Police Constable in Yorkshire for nineteen years, with part of his time spent on motorcycle patrol. He was also involved in the investigation of the Halifax Slasher in 1938. All during his time on the force, however, he harbored a secret desire to write crime novels and kept his hobby hidden from his colleagues until his first book was due to be published, when he promptly resigned.

Being the first British author to specialize in police procedurals would have been enough to make him stand out in the crowd, but his background led an air of credibility and authority to his works that made them popular. His first series didn't appear until 1951 with two back-to-back titles featuring Chief Inspector Philip Hunter, but he reached his peak with a fourteen-book series begun in 1954 with Hell Is a City and ending with Hideaway in 1968, all featuring Chief Inspector Martineau.

Proctor invented cities and towns for settings, chiefly the city of Granchester, likely a stand-in for Manchester or Liverpool. Granchester is an inland port called the "Metropolis of the North," a police force 1,100 strong with its own forensic experts that believes they can hold their own with Scotland Yard. Martineau's superintendent realizes his man is a born detective better at solving cases than merely supervising others, something Martineau puts to the test most of the time.

The Midnight Plumber is the second outing with Inspector Martineau and puts Martineau and his men, including the normally-stalwart Detective Sergeant Devery, in the position of having to track down a swift and ruthless gang of burglars whose leader is known only as "The Plumber." But the police have a problem finding leads among the usual police informants who don't want to get involved for fear of getting killed for their troubles, something The Plumber has already demonstrated he's more than willing to do. Martineau's substantial skills are put to the test, and his patience, too, as he deals with Devery's affair with a criminal's wife on top of everything else.

Proctor uses his work background to good effect in his novels, weaving in procedural tips and insights (from a 1950s UK point of view), although his methods may seem unusual at times, like going undercover as a gypsy. In his foreword to the Black Dagger reprint, author/blogger Martin Edwards noted that although this may seem outlandish at first, Proctor is careful to point out in the story that Martineau is taking his cues from the police handbook by Dr. Hans Gross, Criminal Investigation. Proctor also manages to maintain a tight pace even after the identity of The Plumber is revealed by using a technique he'd turn to often, the POV reversal: switching back and forth between criminal in flight and the police, leading to what Edwards called "a splendid, savage irony" in the very last sentence of the novel.

Although this particular novel wasn't made into a movie or TV program, a few of Proctor's novels were, including the first Martineau work, Hell is a City, released in 1960 and starring Stanley Baker, Billie Whitelaw and Donald Pleasence. Interestingly Procter's works are collected and available for inspection at the Howard B. Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Massachusetts, as part of the Sam Wanamaker Collection that contains the actor/director's manuscripts, correspondence, and production files.

Mystery Melange

The Audio Publishers Association announced that they will be presenting bestselling author Stephen King with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Audie Awards in March in New York City. King is known for his horror novels such as The Shining and Carrie but also for his crime novels, the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch), The Outsider, The Colorado Kid, and Joyland.

One of the judges for this year's Booker Prize is to be best-selling thriller writer Lee Child, author of the 24 Jack Reacher novels. He will be joined by author Sameer Rahim, writer Lemn Sissay, and classicist Emily Wilson, with publisher Margaret Busby as chairperson. The selection of a commercially successful author like Child is something of a departure for the Booker Prize Foundation, although Lee himself has been openly critical of the snobbery in the world of literature shown towards popular crime novels.

If you're in the UK, you might want to check out some of these upcoming Crime Fiction Bookish Events on the handy list from Ayo Onatade via Shots Magazine, including several book signings, panels, and the York Literature Festival. Although I don't have a corresponding list in the U.S., as a reminder, this blog does have an Upcoming Conferences link I try to keep updated.

The second volume of The Mystery Readers Journal's two-part series on private eyes is out and available as a PDF or hardcopy, featuring essays by Kevin Burton Smith, Reed Farrel Coleman, Alison Gaylin, and dozens more. The next issue (Volume 36:1) will focus on mysteries featuring Environmental & Wildlife Mysteries, and editor Janet Rudolph is seeking reviews, articles, and Author! Author! essays.

Writing for The Guardian, Alison Flood takes a look at the women who are breaking into publishing’s long established boys’ club in espionage fiction. Following on the work of previous pioneers such as Helen McInnes (1907-1985), the new school includes authors Stella Rimington, Manda Scott, and Charlotte Philby.

The Page 69 test featured J. T. Ellison's new thriller, Good Girls Lie, in which Ash Carlisle leaves the U.K. after the death of her parents to attend a prep school for young women located in a small Virginia town that is a stepping stone to the Ivy League. Initially unprepared for the mean girls and the hazing, things get worse when students start dying...and suspicion falls on Ash.

The BBC profiled Dundee University's MLitt in Crime Writing and Forensic Investigation, which was launched in 2017 and is the first course of its kind in the UK.

As a six-year reissue project of George Simenon's Inspector Maigret book series reaches completion, Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet explains why Simenon’s Parisian sleuth still matters, 90 years after his first case

Last week, I mentioned the coin the Royal Mint produced in 2019 in honor of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and this week brings news that the new year's batch of coins will include one honoring Dame Agatha Christie. The £2 piece will mark 100 years since her first crime novel was released and will include illustrations of a handgun and a bottle of poison framed against a missing puzzle piece. As designer David Lawrence explained, "At the heart of every Agatha Christie Mystery there is a missing component – a missing piece to the puzzle – which, when finally and ingeniously deduced, completes the picture and brings resolution.”

Love out of the way, unusual bookshops? Nicknamed Bookseller’s Row, Cecil Court is a hidden gem in the heart of central London. Packed with twenty-odd secondhand bookshops and antiquarian booksellers, it's paradise for literature lovers only moments away from the hustle and bustle of Leicester Square.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Oklahoma's Open Carry Law" by Robert Cooperman.

In the Q&A roundup, Punk Noir Magazine chatted with Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter Series and his latest standalone novel from Down & Out, Skunk Train; the Writers Who Kill welcomed Barbara Ross to chat about the eighth installment in the Maine Clambake mystery series; and the Book People interviewed Jay Brandon about his new legal thriller, From the Grave, once again featuring Edward Hall, a one-time hotshot Houston lawyer.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out the Golden Globe Awards last evening. Crime drama winners include Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood (Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy; Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical or Comedy; and Best Screenplay); and Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Joker. On the TV side, Patricia Arquette won the Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for The Act, based on the real life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

The American Society of Cinematographers on Friday revealed its nominees in the Theatrical and Spotlight categories for the 34th ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards. The nods include crime dramas The Irishman (Rodrigo Prieto) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Robert Richardson).

Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman also won Best Picture at the 24th annual The International Film Festival in Italy. The Netflix mob epic scored six overall wins at the just-ended festival, tied for the most with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino won Best Director at the fest, which also awarded Joe Pesci (The Irishman) Supporting Actor.

The Woman in the Window, adapted from the bestselling novel by AJ Finn, has experienced a few bumps during the production process. Most recently, Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor, and his creative partner Atticus Ross were on board to score the film until negative test screening reactions led to extensive reshoots and "the filming becoming something brand new altogether." Danny Elfman (Batman, Dumbo) has apparently taken over scoring duties on the project, which is directed by Joe Wright and stars Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore, Brian Tyree Henry, and Wyatt Russell.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Emmy-, SAG-, and Golden Globe-winning thriller series, Killing Eve, has been renewed for a fourth season, months before the third season premieres this spring on BBC America. The fourth iteration will continue the show's tradition of passing the torch to a new female showrunner each season — from Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Season 1, to Emerald Fennell in Season 2, to Suzanne Heathcote in Season 3, and to a writer still to be determined in the fourth. Killing Eve stars Sandra Oh as MI5 agent Eve Polastri and reigning Best Actress Emmy winner Jodie Comer as assassin Villanelle, a duo who get caught in an obsessive cat-and-mouse pursuit. Season 3 is adding Dame Harriet Walter, Danny Sapani, and Gemma Whelan to the cast, among others

Amazon has released the official trailer and set Friday, February 21 for the premiere of Hunters, its highly-anticipated conspiracy thriller series starring Al Pacino and executive produced by Jordan Peele. Created by David Weil (Moonfall), Hunters follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. "The Hunters," as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.


PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham celebrated the new year on the Read or Dead podcast by talking about some of the books they are excited to pick up in the first half of 2020.

A new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is a special bonus episode featuring the first chapter of "Ghost Busting Mystery," the first book in the Shady Hoosier Detective Agency series by Daisy Pettles. The program was a shared recording of the first chapter from the new podcast, Daisy Pettles Crime Comedy, which features the entire book.

On season five, episode sixteen of Crime Cafe, Debbi Mack interviewed Cathi Stoler, author of the Laurel and Helen New York Mysteries.

Meet the Thriller Writer welcomed New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, who broke into television writing with a freelance script sale to Spenser: For Hire and has since penned numerous TV programs and more than thirty novels, including Killer Thriller and True Fiction.

The latest Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast episode featured "The Engineer’s Thumb" by Terence Faherty, who is the author of two popular novel series, the Edgar-nominated Owen Keane mysteries and the multiple Shamus Award-winning Scott Elliott private eye series.


THEATRE

The UK's Cambridge Arts Theatre will present My Cousin Rachel from January 13 to 18. The adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's psychological thriller sees feverish passion battling reason in a classic Gothic romance set in the wild, rock-ribbed landscape of the Cornish coast.

The Ken Ludwig adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express will ride into the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January 14. Detective Hercule Poirot has to solve a murder on a snowbound train where all the passengers are suspects.


The Long Beach Playhouse will stage another Agatha Christie play, The Unexpected Guest, beginning January 11. Lost in the fog, a stranger seeks refuge in a nearby house, only to find a man shot dead and his wife standing over him with a smoking gun. Remarkably under the circumstances, the police suspect a man who died two years previously, leading to a tangled web of lies that reveals family secrets and chilling motives.

The Off-Broadway TBG Mainstage in New York will present 17 Minutes January 10 through February 15. In the aftermath of a school shooting, Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Rubens must come to terms with the choices he made during the tragedy.

FFB: The Grand Babylon Hotel

English novelist Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) began his working life employed by his father, engaged in the joy of rent collection. He managed to work in a little journalism in his spare time out of boredom, but his breakthrough didn't come until he moved to London and won a literary competition in 1889 in Tit-Bits magazine (no, no porn; a weekly features magazine, albeit with a focus on drama and sensation).

He was ambitious and hardworking, and—like the future King George VI—had to overcome a stammer. When Bennett became assistant editor of the periodical Woman and noticed the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine wasn't terribly good, he wrote his own serials, one of which turned into The Grand Babylon Hotel.

Novels came next, and plenty of them, one to two per year, as well as various nonfiction books, articles, essays, some short stories and plays, even during the outbreak of World War I. He once allegedly admitted he often wrote out of financial considerations, saying "Am I to sit still and see other fellows pocketing two guineas apiece for stories which I can do better myself? Not me. If anyone imagines my sole aim is art for art’s sake, they are cruelly deceived."

But he eventually developed enough of a reputation that Charles Masterman, the head of the War Propaganda Bureau, asked twenty-five leading British authors to a meeting to discuss how to promote Britain's interests during the war. Bennett joined the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, G. M. Trevelyan and H. G. Wells. Bennett also served on the British War Memorial Committee and was appointed Director of British Propaganda in France.

He wasn't particularly known for crime fiction per se, but his second fiction work, the 15-part serial Grand Babylon Hotel was in that vein (written in 15 days, purchased for all of 100 pounds) and first appeared in The Golden Penny in 1902, which described it as "the most original, amusing, and thrilling serial written in a decade." On the other hand, another of his quasi-detective-themed novels, Teresa of Watling Street, drew reviews such as "It is a farrago of improbable detective adventure that the merest tiro might write" and "readable trash." He also wrote a column, entitled "Books and Persons," that included his criticism and analysis of the detective novel at the end of the 1920s.

The plot of Babylon centers around Theodore Racksole, a rich American multi-millionaire, who buys the luxurious Grand Babylon Hotel in London on a whim after his 23-year-old daughter wants a steak and a beer, but is refused. Racksole soon finds there are strange goings on in his new hotel:  first, a German prince is supposed to arrive but never turns up; a hotel clerk disappears; then the body of a retainer sent to prepare for a visit by Prince Eugen is found murdered, but that body also disappears. Aided by his independent revolver-wielding daughter Nella (this is 1902, remember) and another German prince, Racksole sets out on an international hunt to solve the mystery that includes early archetypes of evil villains, physical danger, kidnapping, plot twists and even secret passages.

It's a fluffy read the author subtitled "a fantasia on modern themes" and Mike Grost referred to as "a Nancy Drew story for adults" that you can read for free via Project Gutenberg, perhaps while munching on an "Omelette Arnold Bennett" that the Savoy Hotel in London created for the author. He liked it so much, he had it prepared wherever he traveled, and the Savoy officially named it the "Omelette Arnold Bennett," and has been serving it ever since.

Mystery Melange

It's never enjoyable to start off a new year with sad news, but readers should delight in the many books of author MC Beaton (Marion Gibbons) even as they mourn her passing on December 30th at the age of 83. Beaton penned the popular Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mystery series, both of which have been adapted for TV. Her publisher Little, Brown noted that "Success came to her later in life but she made up for lost time - since 2011 she had been the most borrowed UK adult author in British libraries and her M C Beaton titles have sold in excess of 21 million copies worldwide."

Crime novelist Richard Price is set to receive the Writer Guild of Americ East's Ian McLellan Hunter Award. The author of nine novels, Price also wrote the original screenplay for Al Pacino’s 1989 New York City-noir film Sea of Love; 1993’s crime-comedy Mad Dog and Glory; 1994’s Kiss of Death; and 1995’s Clockers, which he adapted from his novel, with co-writer/director Spike Lee. The award is named after longtime WGA East member Ian McLellan Hunter, who fronted for Dalton Trumbo during the Hollywood Blacklist before he was blacklisted himself.

The Famous Author Lecture Series at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers will feature Alex Segura on Monday, January 13, with a lecture and lunch followed by a writing workshop titled "The Elements of the Private Eye." Segura is the author of the Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery novel series, which has been nominated for an Anthony Award, and also co-writes the Letal Lit podcast.

The Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama, which takes place in London on March 15, will offer exclusive early bird day tickets on sale as of January 1. Early bird tickets are available only to Killer Women Club members, but anyone can join the club for free. Special guests will include Ann Cleeves, Sarah Hilary, Erin Kelly, and many more authors, along with experts from various law enforcement disciplines.

There are certainly plenty of others things to look forward to in 2020, including the extensive list of upcoming new book releases, which the Shots Magazine blog has been covering over the past few weeks, organized by publisher.

Linda Landrigan, editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, will serve as judge for the 2020 Golden Donut 200-Word Short Story Contest, part of the annual Writers Police Academy. Conference director Lee Lofland encourages all writers and even nonwriters to "sharpen your pencils, warm up the erasers, and be ready to trim your twisted tales into a mere 200 words." And he means exactly 200 words, including the title. For more information, head on over to the official WPA page for general information to get you started since the submission open period doesn't start until February.

True crime afficionados will want to take note of mystery novelist Denise Mina hosting a series on BBC Radio 3 focusing on famous legal cases in Scottish history. The latest episode is on Madeleine Smith, accused of poisoning a former suitor and placed on trial in 1857. (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell via the Bunburyist blog)

And in a life-imitates-art-imitates life kind of thing, one Dutch police department has created its own true-crime podcast to solve a 1991 murder case.

Book Riot's ongoing United States of a Mystery headed to the southern coast for "Essential Louisiana Crime Fiction."

Archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old "Book of Two Ways" — a guide to the Egyptian underworld, and the earliest copy of the first illustrated book.

Speaking of things "old," caveat emptor on eBay, as this article attests regarding a bogus sale for a "rare" Sherlock Holmes coin. However, 2019 did indeed see the Royal Mint printing a real Sherlock Holmes 50p coin timed to coincide with the 160th anniversary of Arthur Conan Doyle's birth and designed by textual artist and designer Stephen Raw, a longtime fan of the fictional detective.


This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Alembic" by Bruce Robinson.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People welcomed Matt Coyle to discuss Lost Tomorrows, the latest novel to feature Coyle’s haunted San Diego private detective, Rick Cahill; Cleo Coyle, the husband-and-wife writing team of Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini, were interviewed for Forbes about writing their bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery Series together; and the Washington Times chatted with Craig Johnson, author of the Sheriff Walt Longmire series (adapted as a TV series first on A&E then Netflix).

Happy New Year!