In Reference to Murder

FFB: The Last Vanity

Leopold Horace Ognall (1908-1979) was a prolific author, with close to 90 novels under his two pseudonyms, Hartley Howard and Harry Carmichael. Thus it is rather surprising that it's so difficult to find anything about the author or his books.

He was born in Montreal, educated in Scotland, and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. His primary series characters under the Harry Carmichael name are insurance assessor John Piper and crime reporter Quinn. The main focus of his Hartley Howard line are Philip Scott, head of a successful toy company and secretly the head of a British spy unit, and the New York private eye Glenn Bowman. The author once declared thirty-eight year old Bowman to be "the toughest wise-cracking private eye in the business."

One of the earliest Bowman novels is The Last Vanity from 1952, the third in that series. The novel opens with Edwin Newsome, a man worried about the health of his brother, Harold, fearing he may be the victim of steady poisoning by his brother's new—and much younger—wife, Moira. Edwin hires P.I. Glenn Bowman to investigate, and Bowman poses as an ex-con to get himself hired as a second chauffeur in the Harold's household. He soon discovers many under-currents beneath the surface involving family and staff alike, much more than a scheming young wife after her husband's wealth.

Hartley Howard's style is solidly in the Golden Age era, with the British author trying valiantly to emulate the American hard-boiled detective writing of Raymond Chandler and the others who followed in Chandler's footsteps. There are a few British-isms that creep in here and there, although they're relatively minor. The novel doesn't rise to Chandler's level, perhaps, but it's still entertaining and Bowman's character is sympathetic and engaging.

Although Ognall/Howard's books were apparently never published in the States and weren't even all that easy to find in the U.K., the Thrilling Detective site notes that Howard at some point moved to Italy during the Sixties and his Glenn Bowman private eye books were very popular among Italian readers during that period. They apparently did well in Germany, where almost his entire output was translated.

Both Leopold Horace Ognall and his books appear to be largely forgotten (save perhaps his novel Assignment K, made into a movie starring Stephen Boyd as spy Philip Scott), but the author's son Harry became a high court judge and conducted the hearings regarding former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.

Mystery Melange

Congrats go to author, critic, and crime fiction historian Martin Edwards, who has been named the 2020 recipient of the Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing, as presented by the UK's Crime Writers’ Association. The award is given to those whose careers have been marked by sustained excellence and who have made a significant contribution to crime writing published in the English language. Edwards joins such icons and past recipients as Ruth Rendell, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, PD James, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, Lindsey Davis, Peter Lovesey, and John Le Carré.

But we had some sad news this week, too, with the loss of Clive Cussler, who passed away at the age of 88. Cussler published more than 80 books, including the thrillers starring his protagonist Dirk Pitt, a marine engineer, government agent and adventurer. An enthusiastic underwater explorer himself, Cussler also helped discover more than 60 shipwreck sites with his organization, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, named after the fictional agency that employs Pitt. Tributes continue to pour in from various news organizations as well as friends and colleagues on Twitter and Facebook. Here are links to profiles from Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian.

Janet Rudolph, over on her Mystery Fanfare blog, also reported on the death of mystery author Walter Satterthwait who passed away Sunday at the age of 73. Satterthwait penned six novels featuring Santa Fe private detective Joshua Croft, as well as other series, standalone titles, and short stories. His novel, Escapade, was an Agatha Award nominee in 1995.

There are several Sherlockian groups around the world, and if you're in Anacortes, Washington, you can catch up with the Anacortes Sherlock Holmes Society, which meets every first Monday at 5 p.m. at the WheelHouse. Coming up on March 3 is a discussion of "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor." If you're looking for a Sherlock-themed event near you, check out this Sherlockian Calendar list or check this list of Sherlockian societies around the world.
 

Registration has opened for the MurderCon/Writers' Police Academy. The 2020 lineup includes all new classes and hands-on workshops with material that's typically offered only to law enforcement investigators. Plus, attendees will get the chance to "solve" a murder. This year's Guest of Honor is David Baldacci, with Special Guests pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek, TJ Mitchell and Ray Krone, death row exoneree and co-founder of Witness to Innocence.

In honor of the late Mary Higgins Clark, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's blog had a guest post by Kevin Mims who discussed Clark’s career in the context of publishing trends and changing social dynamics for women writers in the 1970s.

The latest issue of Mystery Scene magazine is out with a feature profile of Nick Petrie and his new series with Peter Ash, a veteran struggling with PTSD; Michael Mallory gives us a cast list in "Ready for a Close-up: Crime Writers Caught on Camera"; Mystery Scene critics offer up their "Fave Raves of the Year," and much more.

Was Edgar Allan Poe murdered? One of the most mysterious aspects of Poe’s legacy is his untimely death at the age of 40 after being found delirious and in "great distress" on the streets of Baltimore. Many believe that the author’s death was suicide, but researchers at Lancaster University are challenging the notion that Poe killed himself. The study’s authors performed a computational analysis of his writing and concluded that Poe’s "psychological markers" of depression just aren’t consistent with someone interested in taking their own life. 

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Scarlet flies on white" by Duane Spurlock.

In the Q&A roundup, the Mystery People's Scott Montgomery chatted with Don Bentley about his debut novel, featuring Matt Drake, a former ranger pulled back into a mission for The Defense Intelligence Agency; the MP's Scott Butki also interviewed Kathleen Barber about her second thriller, Follow Me; E.B. Davis interviewed Agatha nominee Annette Dashofy, for the Writers Who Kill blog; and the LA Review of Books spoke with Wendy Heard about her latest gritty crime novel, The Kill Club, which follows a young woman caught in the middle of chaos and involved with a murder club.

Author R&R with Margaret Mizushima

Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves on the board for the Rocky Mountain chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected the 2019-2020 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She lives in Colorado on a small ranch with her veterinarian husband where they raised two daughters and a host of animals.

Her Timber Creek K-9 mystery series features Deputy Mattie Cobb, her K-9 partner, Robo, and veterinarian, Cole Walker. Her fifth novel in the series, Tracking Game, has two brutal murders, a menacing band of poachers, and a fearsome creature on the loose in the mountains plunging Mattie Cobb and Robo into a sinister vortex. Kirkus Reviews called it "Part family drama, part animal-infused mystery, part ongoing exploration of the troubled heroine’s psyche."

 

Margaret stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching the series:

 

Researching the K-9 Mystery

Many folks think that hands-on, in-person learning is the best way to assimilate knowledge. I happen to agree when it comes to digging up information about how working dogs and their handlers interact and partner. After deciding to write a novel featuring a K-9 patrol team, I was fortunate to discover several terrific consultants who were willing to let me shadow them. But there are many ways to gain information about K-9 work, and here is a list of a few that I’ve found particularly helpful.

Consultants. I’ve connected with several K-9 officers and narcotics detection dog handlers, both on active duty and retired, who’ve not only let me shadow them while they trained their dogs but who’ve also been eager to share stories about their dogs’ prowess. One K-9 trainer invited me to observe a group of officers who were training together and afterward we sat around a picnic table and they answered all my questions about rookie K-9 handlers, which was what my protagonist, Deputy Mattie Cobb, was up against when she was paired with her new partner, Robo, in Killing Trail, the first episode in my Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Consultants are also eager to answer questions when I get stuck in a gray area and am asking, “Can a dog do this?” Most of the time, the answer is yes, and the real life handlers can tell me exactly how the dog can do it.

Hands-on Experience. Some counties have teams that train for search and rescue together. Long before I had the idea to write my series, my husband and I took two of our dogs through search and rescue training with our county group. I learned about nose work, training dogs to scent humans, scent tracking on the ground, and trailing by air-scent. It was an invaluable experience that created a foundation on which to build Robo’s abilities. And the group provided an excellent opportunity to observe a wide variety of doggie behavior and skills.

K-9 Trials. K-9 handlers get together to compete with each other in K-9 trails, drawing officers from around a region to demonstrate their dogs’ skills. They typically compete in categories such as obedience, agility, tracking and apprehension, narcotics or explosives detection, and others. It’s a great way to observe many different breeds, their energy levels, and their responsiveness to their handlers.

Reference Books. I also use several reference books written by experts in training patrol dogs and search and rescue dogs. One of my consultants had written a patrol and protection dog training book that I’m fortunate to be able to use as my handbook, because it’s not widely distributed. I also found a book on narcotics detection training that gave me definitions for many unfamiliar terms and the basics in training and handling narcotics detection dogs. These reference books are particularly useful for terminology.

Observing dogs that share my life is another huge benefit when it comes to writing K-9 stories. After decades of dog observation, it’s handy to be able to put to use those behavioral details that I’ve catalogued in my mind. Nothing beats living with a dog, in more ways than one!

 

To learn more about Margaret Mizushima and her books, head on over to her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Tracking Game and the other books in the Timber Creek K-9 series are available via all major booksellers.

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

Gerard Butler is set to star in the action thriller, Remote Control. He'll play Michael Rafter, a former war correspondent turned corporate security consultant, whose life is overturned when he receives a mysterious phone call from an unknown source. Intrigued by the caller’s intent, Rafter investigates and soon uncovers the threads of a global conspiracy, finding himself drawn into a fight for his life and pursued by the 212, a powerful shadow organization.

Fellow action-hero actor Liam Neeson is also in a new film, Honest Thief, which recently had UK and Irish rights snapped up by Signature Entertainment. Neeson stars as a bank robber who tries to turn himself in after falling for a woman (Kate Walsh) who works at the storage facility where he’s stashed his money. Complications ensue when his case is turned over to a corrupt FBI agent (Jai Courtney) and he must go underground to save both himself and the woman he loves.

The busy Neeson is also set to star in Memory, an action-thriller from Casino Royale director Martin Campbell. The project is based on the 2003 Dutch film, The Memory Of A Killer, with Dario Scardapane (The Bridge) writing the screenplay for the English-language version. Neeson will play an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision who refuses to complete a job for a dangerous criminal organization and must go on the hunt for those who want him dead.

Not to be outdone, Bruce Willis is taking on his own action-thriller project, joining Jesse Metcalf in Open Source. The story follows a billionaire tech CEO (Willis) who hires a team of fearless mercenaries to protect a piece of technology that, if exposed, could destroy the world. Their mission becomes even higher risk when the CEO’s daughter is kidnapped by an extremely dangerous terrorist group who will stop at nothing to obtain the tech.


Westworld actress Thandie Newton will headline Julian Higgins’s feature directorial debut, God’s Country, based on James Lee Burke’s short story "Winter Light." The neo-Western thriller is set in the bleak winter landscape of the Mountain West where Newton plays a college professor living on her own at the edge of a national forest. One day she confronts two hunters trespassing on her land, triggering a battle of wills with dangerous ramifications.

Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris are set to star in the Australian crime drama, The Unknown Man, based on a real-life Australian sting operation. Two men who meet on a plane strike up a conversation that turns into friendship. For Henry Teague (Harris), worn down by a lifetime of physical labor and crime, this is a dream come true, and his new friend Mark (Edgerton) becomes his savior and ally. What Henry doesn’t know is that Mark is a seasoned undercover officer – working to convict Henry for an unsolved murder committed years prior.

Shooting is set to begin in Canada on the thriller Cold Providence. Star Trek's Karl Urban will play a novelist with writer’s block and a mysterious bag of cash who finds himself on the run with a woman (Rampage star Malin Akerman) who has some troubling secrets of her own. Co-directors Bill Jones and Ben Timlett describe the project as having "the propulsive momentum of a road movie, the bleak violence and sexual trappings of a neo-noir and the dark humor of the best black comedies."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

In a competitive situation involving multiple bidders, Hulu has landed The Holdout, a legal thriller from Oscar-winning writer Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) based on his latest novel. The story centers on Maya Seale who served on a jury in the decade’s most sensational murder trial ten years ago. Now an attorney, she reunites with the other jurors for a true crime docuseries about the crime…and when one of her fellow jurors is murdered, Maya must prove her own innocence by getting to the bottom of a case that’s far from closed.

Julia Roberts is reuniting with Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail on another podcast adaptation, starring alongside Sean Penn, Armie Hammer, and Joel Edgerton. The remake of Slate’s Watergate scandal audio series, Slow Burn, has Roberts playing Martha Mitchell, wife of Richard Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell.

Legendary Global has acquired the rights to Robert Whiting’s book Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan, with Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Terence Winter set to write and executive produce the adaptation. It tells the true story of Nick Zapetti, a streetwise 25-year-old Italian-American GI who relocated to war-ravaged Japan in the aftermath of World War II to become the undisputed king of the underground black market in Tokyo.

Tate Donovan is set as the male lead and Oscar winner Melissa Leo as the female lead in Fox’s drama pilot Blood Relative, a forensic genealogy-themed crime drama. Based on James Renner’s 2018 article "Beyond the Jungle of Bad: The True Story of Two Women from California Who Are Solving All the Mysteries," it follows Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick and Dr. Margaret Press, who have combined their genealogy expertise to push the boundaries of forensic science and help law enforcement identify Joe and Jane Does and track down serial killers.

Golden Globe, Tony and Olivier Award winner Janet McTeer (Ozark) has been cast as a lead opposite David Oyelowo in The President Is Missing. The Showtime drama pilot is based on the novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson and is being shepherded by producers Christopher McQuarrie and Anthony Peckham. McTeer will play Carolyn Brock, President Stroud’s Chief of Staff.

Angus Sampson is set as a series regular opposite Kiele Sanchez in the CBS drama, The Lincoln Lawyer, based on Michael Connelly’s series of bestselling novels. Sampson will play Cisco, a former biker gang member who now serves as the title character's investigator, friend, and when necessary, bodyguard.

The X-Files alum Mitch Pileggi is set as a series regular in Walker, a reimagining of CBS’s long-running 1990s action/crime series Walker, Texas Ranger. Keegan Allen also was also recently added to the cast, joining titular star Jared Padalecki and previously announced Lindsey Morgan. The project centers on Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a widower and father of two with his own moral code, who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years and finds unexpected common ground with his new partner, played by Morgan, (one of the first women in Texas Rangers’ history), while growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.

Bebe Neuwirth is set as a recurring cast member in HBO Max’s thriller drama series, The Flight Attendant, starring and executive produced by Kaley Cuoco. The Flight Attendant is a story of how an entire life can change in one night. Cassie, a flight attendant (Cuoco), wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea of what happened. Neuwirth will play Diana Carlisle, a senior partner at the law firm where Cassie's best friend, Annie (Zosia Mamet) works. 

Vicky McClure has been hired to star in a bomb-squad drama for ITV. Trigger Point is a six-part thriller that follows counter terrorism policing and the terrifying work of the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad in London.

Jill Halfpenny, Jonas Armstrong, and Rupert Penry-Jones are to star in an identity thriller for British broadcaster Channel 5. The Drowning starts when Jodie (Halfpenny) catches sight of a teenage boy, Daniel, and is convinced she's found her missing son. Whether she is right or not, in that moment her spark of hope is ignited and she commits to a dangerous and transgressive path that will take her to the edge of reason.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

NPR's Ari Shapiro spoke with Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI, a book about Edward Oscar Heinrich, an early, great forensic scientist.

The latest guest on Speaking of Mysteries was Heather Chavez, talking about her debut, No Bad Deed.

Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover welcomed Bryan Gruley to talk about his latest book, Purgatory Bay (Bleak Harbor book 2).

Criminal Mischief, with Dr. DP Lyle, featured the second part in a series on Toxicology.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host Frank Zafiro chatted with "Big Daddy Thug" Todd Robinson about Boo and Junior, Thuglit, France, and the publishing industry.

The Writer's Detective Bureau host, veteran Police Detective Adam Richardson, took on the topics of things that police work teaches cops about daily life, prosecuting a serial killer when not all of the victims have been found, and how someone on federal supervised release would be wanted by the US Marshals.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club spoke with Oklahoma author Donis Casey about her debut novel, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming.

THEATRE

Sydney, Australia's Genesian Theatre is presenting Sherlock Holmes and the Death on Thor Bridge from February 29 through April 2. The story follows a bored and weary Holmes who takes on the case of Grace Dunbar, an intelligent and independently minded governess, who is chief suspect for the murder of her employer's volatile and passionate Brazilian wife.

The John Golden Theater in New York is staging Hangmen beginning February 28, following two sold-out engagements in London and the Atlantic Theater Company. Olivier and Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) is back with his seventh brilliant and wickedly funny new play set in 1965 England. What is Britain’s (second most) famous executioner to do now that hanging has been abolished? The simple answer is a lot more than he bargained for.

The Portland Center Stage at the Armory is tackling The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which opens February 29. Fifteen-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain; he is exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and a journey that will change his life forever.

FFB: Murder on the Run

Mary Higgins Clark (who passed away on January 31) and fellow author Thomas Chastain founded the Adams Round Table in 1982, a monthly meeting where author members discussed the writing craft, plotted a few literary murders and shared writing experiences.

The group expanded to include other authors, and in addition to the over one hundred novels members published individually, the Round Table also published at least five anthologies of stories, beginning with Missing in Manhattan in 1986. 

Murder on the Run dates from 1998 and features, as you might expect, stories in which the criminal is on the lam or a travel theme is otherwise tied in. There are a few familiar series characters, as well as some standalone creations. The series contributions include Mary Higgins Clark (Alvirah and Willy) where a lottery millionare returns to her humble neighborhood roots to solve a murder, in "Lady Sleuth! Lady Sleuth! Run Away Home," while Lawrence Block chips in with a tongue-in-cheek story titled "Keller's Choice" about Block's workaholic hitman with too many choices and an ethical dilemma.

Other stories include Dorothy Salisbury Davis's tale of a young man who flees the scene of an accident, titled "The Scream," and Judith Kelman's "Morphing the Millenniun," which chronicles a phobic toy inventor's rise, fall and revenge. Warren Murphy's "Another Day, Another Dollar," is particularly touching, in which a black assembly-line worker sets about to solves her brother's murder.

Author R&R with Patricia Gibney

 After Irish native Patricia Gibney's husband died in 2009, she turned to art and writing, self-publishing a children's book entitled Spring Sprong Sally. Gibney then started writing crime fiction and created her first novel in that genre, 2017's The Missing Ones, which eventually led to further novels, an agent, and book contracts with Bookouture (now part of Hachette).

The second of those crime novels, The Stolen Girls features Gibney's series protagonist, Detective Lottie Parker, who begins to believe she's after a serial killer as girl after girl goes missing just to turn up dead. Can Parker and her team find the latest victims before it's too late?

Gibney stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing The Stolen Girls:

 

When I started writing The Stolen Girls, I knew I wanted to include something in relation to the Kosovo war. My late husband Aidan was a sergeant in the Irish Defence Forces and had served two six-month tours of duty in Kosovo under the NATO flag. He was stationed there straight after the conflict ended. His first time was in 1999-2000 and his second time was in 2001. He died in 2009 after a short illness, aged 49 years. His death plunged me into the darkest period of my life and I only escaped the darkness through writing very dark themed stories.

Aidan returned from Kosovo with stories and photographs of the aftermath of the war. Ordinary families with their homes shelled and bombed. Frightened wide-eyed children. Shoeless and broken. Houses without a roof or a door. I had seen the Balkan war unfold on television and was horrified by the acts of genocide. I read further into the conflict, and because Aidan had served in Kosovo, I wanted to include it in some format in The Stolen Girls.

I always loved history as a subject when I was in school and I am an avid reader, so the first place I go to find my sources for research is my local library. It is a fantastic resource for my community. I borrowed a book called, A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power. The section in the book on Kosovo opened my eyes to even more of the horrors which had occurred during the conflict. I was astounded by the human organ trafficking. I read more about it online and it formed the basis for part of the plot of The Stolen Girls.

Ireland has a Direct Provision Service for asylum seekers. The system has come in for a lot of criticism by human right organisations, branding it inhuman and degrading.  There was talk at one time of a Direct Provision Centre being located in my home town. It was to be situated in the Army Barracks that had closed down a number of years previously. However, it did not come to pass, but I used the army barracks as a fictional Direct Provision Centre in The Stolen Girls and this provided me with a link to the Irish Defence Forces time in Kosovo.

I find that researching a subject nowadays can be like falling down the proverbial rabbit hole. You go online to look up one thing, and three hours later you raise your head from the screen following a marathon swim through an ocean-like swathe of information, usually bearing no relation to the subject you started out researching. So it is important to approach research, particularly online research, in an organised and methodical way. Otherwise there is a danger you will have gathered so much new information that you will want to write it all into your novel. Be careful. These are the sections that readers skip. Most readers of crime fiction want to get on with the story, they want it to be pacy and page turning. They want to solve the mystery! So my advice is to be sparing in the amount of historical/research information you include. Use it to advance the plot not to hold it up.

The plight of the young women in The Stolen Girls, is a universal problem. They come to a new country to possibly escape wars or the poverty of their own countries, and because some of them are already vulnerable they become ripe pickings for those who want to take advantage of them. This leads to young men and women, and children, being used and abused, and in turn they become even more vulnerable. They become victims all over again. The research for this part of the story, I found in documentaries on television. Even though they did not deal specifically with asylum seekers and refugees, the programmes I watched provided me with enough information to allow me to get inside the heads of the characters I was creating. For me it is important to feel and see what my characters experience. This can be difficult when I have never been in the situations in which I put my characters.  But by reading books and watching documentary programmes, I can achieve a general sense of the hopelessness of the circumstances they find themselves in.

I think location in my crime novels is very important. I created a fictional town of Ragmullin, loosely based on my home town of Mullingar in the Irish midlands. It is a town stoked in history and legend, surrounded by beautiful and mystical lakes. I find walking the shores of the lakes gives me inspiration and allows my brain to breathe. I use the lakes in a lot of my work, both as a meditative tool and as a location device. They are beautiful and wild, surrounded by old houses and castles. The lakes are inspirational and provide me with a myriad of creative ideas. I find that a walk along the lake shore, or along the canal, very soothing but at the same time, it helps in awakening dark and mysterious themes for my books. Therefore you will find the lakes and canal feature in The Stolen Girls.

I am new to writing. I can only tell you what works for me and with regards to research my advice therefore is to research with diligence and write it with restraint. Only use the information you need in order to enhance the story you want to tell.

 

You can learn about Patricia Gibney and her books via her website and following her on Facebook and Twitter. The Stolen Girls is available via all major online and brick-and-mortar booksellers.

The LA Times Prime Crime

The Los Angeles Times announced the finalists for the 40th Annual Book Prizes, with winners in the various categories to be announced on Friday, April 17th, at 7pm. The Robert Kirsch Award winner for lifetime achievement this year is Walter Mosley. Mosley is the author of more than 43 books including his 14-volume series featuring detective Easy Rawlins, a Black private detective living in South Central Los Angeles.

The nods in the Mystery/Thriller category include:

• Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay (Ecco)
• Michael Connelly, The Night Fire (Little, Brown and Company)
• Jane Harper, The Lost Man (Flatiron Books)
• Laura Lippman, Lady in the Lake (William Morrow)
• Attica Locke, Heaven, My Home (Mulholland Books)

Congratulations and best of luck to all!

Mystery Melange

The University of Otago's Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies announced two new fellowships that will be open to writers of Irish or Scottish birth, residence or affiliation. The inaugural CISS Scottish Writers Fellowship will be held jointly by Scottish crime writer Craig Robertson (the bestselling author of The Photographer and Murderabilia) and American-Scottish novelist and screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff (author of the bestselling Huntress/FBI series). Robertson and Sokoloff will take up their Fellowship in September 2020.

The Guardian profiled Georges Simenon, creator of the Inspector Maigret series, and why the killer ("the most boring part") didn't matter to Georges Simenon. This is particularly evident in Maigret and the Man on the Bench where identifying the culprit is "of scant concern to a writer preoccupied with deeper secrets."

Jeannette Cooperman pondered "What Trends in Crime Fiction Tell Us About Ourselves" for The Common Reader.

The Venetian Vase blog featured the sixth installment in Jason Carter’s series exploring the connections between James Ellroy and the true crime history of Wisconsin.

Crimereads offered up reading recommendations for this month, including the first, "5 Psychological Thrillers You Should Read in February," followed by "February's Best International Crime Fiction," and including "Six Nonfiction Books You Should Read This February."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported on "Five authors of Korean thrillers you should be reading."

Susan Cook made the case for "How Charles Dickens Presaged the Rise of True Crime Podcasts."

Elizabeth Foxwell noted on her Bunburyist blog that the Library of America is featuring an early Continental Op short story. "The Tenth Clew" (1924), by Dashiell Hammett. The Op finds that his client, who told him that his life had been threatened, has been murdered. He wonders about the young woman who intended to marry the dead man.

Mary Kubica, bestselling author of The Good Girl, Pretty Baby, Don't You Cry, Every Last Lie, and When the Lights Go Out, took the Page 69 test for her latest thriller, The Other Mrs.

In a life-imitates-art meme that's been the buzz of the Interwebs recently, "Did a 1981 Dean Koontz novel predict the Wuhan coronavirus?"

How do you stop a burglary at a bookstore?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Darulaman Murder Mystery" by Steven Croft.

In the Q&A roundup, Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez series, stopped by the online Annie's Book Stop of Worcester to discuss her new book, The Long Call; Mark Billingham chatted with The Scottish Sun about writing 20 books in 20 years and his latest Tom Thorne crime novel, Their Little Secret; Shots Magazine had a Q&A with Sam Lloyd, author of the new thriller, The Memory Wood; and thriller author Harlan Coben explained to Variety what it's like having your novels adapted for television.

Author R&R with Laura Elliot

Dublin, Ireland-based author Laura Elliot has worked as a journalist and magazine editor and published books and stories for children and young adults (under the name June Considine), some published in anthologies and broadcast on radio. Her ventures into crime fiction have produced the psychological thrillers, The Wife Before Me, The Thorn Girl, Stolen Child, Fragile Lies, The Betrayal, Sleep Sister and The Prodigal Sister.

In her novel, The Wife Before Me, Elena Langdon is grieving the loss of her mother when she meets Nicholas Madison, who is grieving the loss of his wife whose car slid off a pier, her body never found. Elena moves in with Nicholas, but she doesn't really know him, what he's capable of, or what really happened to Amelia. Until the day she discovers the torn page of a letter, and the words she reads chill her to the bone. Elena must find the person who wrote these letters if she is to save herself.

Laura stops by to take some Author R&R today about writing and researching her book:

 

Herstories That Can Never be Forgotten

Sometimes, when I have finished a book, I struggle to remember what inspired me to write it. The original idea that drew me to the blank page will have been condensed into the writing process, distilled in the struggle with plot, character, time frame, location and the other elements that bring a narrative to its conclusion. Not so with The Wife Before Me. The roots of this novel were planted long ago when I—a young, impressionable teenager with a belief in happy-ever-after love stories—saw the bruises on a woman’s arms, her swollen face. This is my first encounter with violence and it will leave a lasting impression on me.

The year is 1965, and a young mother, on returning from a visit to the local school to collect her two children, discovers that the locks have been changed on her front door. The family house has been sold by her husband, which, under Irish law, he has the power to do. All this will change with the Family Home Protection Act of 1976, but, until then, a man is free to sell the family home without the consent or even the knowledge of his wife.   

Before this latest betrayal by the partner who vowed to love and cherish her, Brenda (not her real name) has been beaten mercilessly by him from the early days of their marriage. She has been made to feel worthless and deserving of his brutality. This final act, selling the home they have made together, is the ultimate expression of his control.

Somehow, finding the courage to defy him, she refuses to leave the house. She knows that if she does so, she and her two children will be made homeless. The new owner, unable to move in, grows increasingly angry at the delay. He has her under surveillance and when she leaves to collect her children, he takes advantage of her absence to seize possession of what is now his property. With the help of his friends, he dumps all her possessions onto the avenue outside and she does not have the means of redressing this terrible wrong.

Fast forward half a century to 2015. Much has changed for women in Ireland, yet some things remain the same. A young woman is returning to her home after a night out with friends. Her ex-partner and the father of their two children waits in the shadows. By the time he has finished punching and kicking her, he has fractured her eye sockets, face and skull, and left her unconscious. Unknown to him, the assault is being recorded on CCTV which she has installed to prevent him breaking a barring order that was granted against him. When he is finally charged for his assault on her, the court decides he will not be tried for attempted murder and he is jailed for only two and a half years.  

These two stories—and others with a heart-breaking similarity—are the inspiration for my novel, The Wife Before Me.

Over the years I lost touch with Brenda, but she is the reason I become involved with a group that specialises in advising women on their legal rights. These are the early days of the feminist struggle in Ireland and much in society needs changing.  I begin to write for their magazine, a decision that leads me on to a career in journalism. I cover many issues over the years that follow, and Brenda comes immediately to mind when I conduct a group interview with women who have fled violent relationships and sought sanctuary in a refuge centre. They all carry the same scars but each person’s story is unique.

Mary’s husband doesn’t lay a hand on her until he is made redundant. Joan’s partner first shows his violent tendencies on their honeymoon when the effort of keeping that side of his personality hidden results in an attack on her that sets the pattern of their marriage. Rita’s husband only uses his fists after their first child is born. Women describe how their partner’s addictions ferments their violence. Other describe psychological abuse that leaves them feeling worthless and deserving of their partner’s brutality. All speak about the conflict of emotions they experience before making the decision to flee their family home.

All their experiences coalesce in my mind when I decide to explore the theme of domestic violence in The Wife Before Me. I read reports, absorb statistics that ground my narrative in the reality of our times. I set my story in Ireland where I’ve lived all my life but the same facts would be comparable, no matter where I locate my story.

The National Crime Council Research (2005) estimate that over 213,000 women in Ireland are experiencing severe domestic violence, and that only 7% of victims ever reach out to a helpline like Women’s Aid (the national domestic violence frontline support organisation) for support. A 2019 survey from Women's Aid state that they were contacted over 19,000 times in 2018 for support and claim that this is just a fraction of the women who are experiencing abuse in their own homes.

In Britain, one incidence of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute. Findings from nearly 80 population-bases studies indicate that between 10% and 60% of women who have ever been partnered have experienced at least one incident of physical violence from a current or former partner. [Ellsberg & Heise, 2005, WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence].

On average in the United States, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner, and it is estimated that more than ten million people experience domestic violence each year.

Eventually, I have to stop reading statistics, surveys and studies. I find myself buried under their weight and they are steering me in too many different directions. I take time out to allow my thoughts to settle. I have a book to write and need to merge all those stories and statistics into a work of fiction.

The Wife Before Me is an exploration of physical and psychological abuse but is also about women who find the courage to make their own decisions to pull free from the domination of a controlling partner. It is also about the strength of female friendship. Since writing my book, I have been receiving letters from women who find that my characters Elena and Amelia have touched a nerve with them. They tell their stories to me. I’m shocked but also amazed at their courage to carve for themselves a new life, free from brutality, control, and fear. 

For Brenda, justice is never avenged. She is eventually housed by the local authority and moved into a flat complex. It is located not far from her original address and she can see the residential, tree-lined avenue where she once lived from her fifth story window. This could distress her, but she is free from harm and this is her liberation.

Jessica, the young woman whose CCTV system captured her ex-partner in action as he violently assaults her, now helps other women to leave abusive relationships. She is a survivor, gifted with courage and wisdom, but she could all too easily have been a victim who never lived to tell her story.

 

You can read more about Laura and her books via her website, and follow her on Twitter and Facebook. The Wife Before Me and her other novels are available via all major booksellers.

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

James Bobin is in talks to direct Clue, the live-action feature adaptation of the Hasbro board game in the works at 20th Century Studios with Ryan Reynolds aboard. The Disney-run studio had previously been in talks with Jason Bateman to direct and act in the movie, but that is no longer the case. Reynolds remains attached to Clue via his production company, and it remains a possible starring vehicle for him.

After winning last year’s Tony for Best Direction of a Musical for Hadestown, Rachel Chavkin is making her feature film directorial debut on Paramount’s psychological thriller Shrew’s Nest, a remake of the 2014 Juanfer Andres-Esteban Roel Spanish movie. The project is said to be in the same vein as Oscar-lauded pics as Misery and Black Swan.

Samuel L. Jackson has been tapped to play a retired hitman in a currently untitled feature, which will be directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. Jackson will star as Morris Stokes, who is not your typical retiree. Once the trusted hitman for a mob boss, he’s got more kills under his belt than he can count and has earned his time out of the game. When his nephew, Leslie, makes a stupid mistake, Morris gets a call from his old boss and must negotiate one last job: either help the kid recover the lost money, or put a bullet in him.

Noomi Rapace is attached to star in the thriller, O2, with Franck Khalfoun (Amityville: The Awakening) directing. The project centers on a woman who wakes up in a cryogenic medical pod, alone, with no memory, and no way out. All she knows is that she has 90 minutes of oxygen left and must figure out how to save herself, while discovering who she really is, who put her there, and most importantly – why?

Megan Fox and Bruce Willis are joining Emile Hirsch in Randall Emmett’s directorial debut, Midnight In The Switchgrass. Set in 2004, the film will follow an FBI agent (Fox) and a Florida State officer (Hirsch) who team up to investigate a string of unsolved murder cases. Willis will play Fox’s FBI agent partner.

Y’lan Noel (Insecure, The First Purge) has signed to star in A Lot Of Nothing, the directorial debut feature from Mo McRae. The Mansa Productions thriller, which was co-written by McRae and Sarah Kelly Kaplan, follows a couple living in a Los Angeles suburb who are compelled to take dangerous actions when they discover their next-door neighbor is the police officer that just murdered an unarmed motorist.

FilmNation has picked up distribution for The Good Nurse, starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, based on the book by Charles Graeber and scripted by 1917 scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt) is set to make his English-language feature directing debut. The project tells the true story of the pursuit and capture of Charlie Cullen (Redmayne), a nurse who is regarded as one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Now called "Angel of Death," Cullen has been implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients over 16 years, spread across nine hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Minka Kelly has joined Harvey Keitel, Sam Worthington, and AnnaSophia Robb in the cast of Eytan Rockaway’s upcoming biopic, Lansky, about the infamous gangster Meyer Lansky, a contemporary of Bugsy Siegel. As previously announced, Keitel plays the notorious Lansky.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The end of Bosch is in sight. Amazon renewed the Titus Welliver-led series, based on the best-selling books by Michael Connelly, for a seventh season but announced it will be the show's last (Season 6 is set to premiere later this year on Amazon Prime Video). Connelly stated, "I’m proud of what we have accomplished with Bosch and look forward to completing the story in Season 7. It’s bittersweet, but all good things come to an end, and I am happy that we will be able to go out the way we want to."

Fleabag producer Two Brothers Pictures is making the cat-and-mouse thriller, The Tourist, for the BBC and Australia’s Stan. The six-part series is set in the Australian outback, where a British man is pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road. An epic cat and mouse chase unfolds and the man later wakes in hospital, hurt, but somehow alive, except he has no idea who he is. With merciless figures from his past pursuing him, the man’s search for answers propels him through the vast and unforgiving outback.

Saban Films has acquired North American rights to Calm With Horses, the Irish crime drama from Nick Rowland (Ripper Street) in his feature film directing debut. The Joe Murtagh-penned script is set in darkest rural Ireland, where ex-boxer Douglas "Arm" Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) has become the feared enforcer for the drug-dealing Devers family, while also trying to be a good father to his autistic 5-year-old son. Torn between these two families, Arm’s loyalties are tested when he is asked to kill for the first time.

CBS is mulling a CSI event series to mark the 20th anniversary of the original series’ October 2000 premiere. The idea is for new installment, from writer Jason Tracey (Elementary), CBS TV Studios, and Jerry Bruckheimer TV, to be set in Las Vegas and be a sequel to the mothership CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The hope is that the new incarnation would feature original cast members including William Petersen and Jorja Fox, although sources stress planning in the very early stages.

Netflix is in talks with Warner Bros. Television to extend the supernatural procedural, Lucifer, beyond the previously announced (and forthcoming) fifth and "final" season, although neither Netflix nor Warner Bros. has yet to comment officially. The series stars Tom Ellis as the Devil who partners with Los Angeles homicide detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German).

James Lesure has been cast as a series regular opposite Katey Sagal in Rebel, ABC’s drama pilot inspired by the life of activist Erin Brockovich. Rebel centers on Annie "Rebel" Bello (Sagal), a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree and a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. Lesure plays Benji, a corporate lawyer who was Rebel’s second husband, and joins recently cast John Corbett who plays Rebel’s third husband.

A major new character is coming to CBS’s long-running series, Hawaii Five-O. Lance Gross is joining the crime drama as a guest star in the final two episodes of Season 10, with a series regular option pending renewal. Gross will play Lincoln Cole, a decorated war hero and ex-Marine Gunnery Sergeant with the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team. Lincoln’s actions as an anonymous good Samaritan now have him in the cross-hairs of some very dangerous people, and McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Five-0 are determined to protect him at all costs.

Paul Adelstein (Scandal), Medina Senghore (Happy!) and Gina Gallego (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) have been cast as series regulars opposite David Oyelowo in The President Is Missing, Showtime’s drama series adaptation of the novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson.

John Carroll Lynch (American Horror Story) is set to co-star in The Big Sky, ABC’s straight-to-series drama created and executive produced by David E. Kelley. The project, based on The Highway, the first book in C.J. Box’s Cassie Dewell series of novels, is a procedural thriller in which private detective Cassie Dewell (played by recently cast Dedee Pfeiffer) partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana.

Orange Is The New Black’s Adrienne C. Moore and Meredith MacNeill are to star in the detective drama Lady Dicks for Canada’s CBC and NBCUniversal International Studios. The pair will play two radically different female detectives in their early 40s in the ten-part series co-created by Rookie Blue exec producers Tassie Cameron and Sherry White.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

Bonnier Books UK is launching a new podcast series, Listening to the Dead, with bestselling crime author Lynda La Plante and former Met detective Cass Sutherland. The series will explore the secrets of today’s real CSIs and will launch in late February.

The Guardian Books podcast welcomed Sophie Hannah to talk about taking on Agatha Christie’s mantle for three Poirot novels, impossible premises, the secret of great crime fiction and why it’s such fun to step into Christie’s shoes.

The new episode of Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast features the mystery short story, "Sand Dollar Secrets," by Maggie Toussaint read by actor Leigh Ratliff.

Special guest co-host Meg Gardiner (the Unsub thrillers) joined regular Writer Types host Eric Beetner to talk with thriller writers Brad Taylor (Hunter Killer) and Dana Haynes (St. Nicholas Salvage and Wrecking). Plus an Elevator Pitch from Glen Dyer.


Self-Publishing Advice spoke with Chris Calder, a writer who discovered his writing voice later in his 70s after a cancer diagnosis and has since penned five thrillers starting with Payback, which features a brilliant designer of electronic controllers for anti-burglar systems.

Read or Dead hosts Katie McClean Horner and Rincey Abraham picked out some mysteries with a romantic element to them to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Beyond The Cover asked, "Where is Jack Reacher?" with special guest Andrew Child.

Meet the Thriller Author spoke with Matt Coyle, the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels.

Criminal Mischief: Episode #33 with Dr. D.P. Lyle featured the second part of his series on "Toxicology." (Transcript is here.)

Wrong Place, Write Crime hosts Frank Zafiro and Colin Conway chatted with Deborah Coonts about her successful Lucky O'Toole series, mystery conferences, the publishing world, fast cars and first lines.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club welcomed Canadian Vicki Delany, author of three cozy mystery series: the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, Year Round Christmas mysteries, and, as Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series.

THEATRE

The Gothic thriller, The Woman in Black, continues its UK tour at King's Theater in Glasgow, February 18-22, and moves to the Cambridge Arts Theater February 24-29.

The King's Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland is presenting Dial M for Murder February 24-29. Tom Chambers stars in this brand-new production as the charismatic and manipulative Tony Wendice, a jaded ex-tennis pro who has given it all up for his wife Margot, performed by Sally Bretton. When he discovers she has been unfaithful his mind turns to revenge and the pursuit of the "perfect crime."

The Theatre Royal Plymouth, UK will stage Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap February 24-29. The scene is set when a group of people gathered in a country house cut off by the snow discover to their horror that there is a murderer in their midst. Who can it be?