In Reference to Murder

Triumphant Thrillers

The International Thriller Writers announced the finalists for the 2021 Thriller Awards this morning. The winners will be announced on Saturday, July 10, 2021 during Virtual ThrillerFest.

 
BEST HARDCOVER NOVEL
 
S.A. Cosby – BLACKTOP WASTELAND (Flatiron Books)
Joe Ide – HI FIVE (Mulholland Books)
Richard Osman – THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB (Penguin)
Ivy Pochoda – THESE WOMEN (Ecco)
Lisa Unger – CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45 (Park Row)

BEST FIRST NOVEL
 
Jasmine Aimaq – THE OPIUM PRINCE (Soho Press)
Don Bentley – WITHOUT SANCTION (Berkley)
Kyle Perry – THE BLUFFS (Michael Joseph)
Francesca Serritella – GHOSTS OF HARVARD (Random House)
David Heska Wanbli Weiden – WINTER COUNTS (Ecco)
 
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL NOVEL
 
Alyssa Cole – WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING (William Morrow Paperbacks)
Layton Green – UNKNOWN 9: GENESIS  (Reflector Entertainment)
John Marrs – WHAT LIES BETWEEN US (Thomas & Mercer)
Andrew Mayne – THE GIRL BENEATH THE SEA (Thomas & Mercer)
Benjamin Stevenson – EITHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT (Penguin Random House Australia)
 
BEST SHORT STORY
 
Steve Hockensmith – "The Death and Carnage Boy" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Laura Lippman – "Slow Burner" (Amazon Original Stories)
Alan Orloff – "Rent Due" (Down & Out Books)
Elaine Viets – "Dog Eat Dog" (Untreed Reads)
Andrew Welsh-Huggins – "The Mailman" (Down & Out Books)
                     
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
 
Demetra Brodsky – LAST GIRLS (Tor Teen)
Andrea Contos – THROWAWAY GIRLS (Kids Can Press)
Kit Frick – I KILLED ZOE SPANOS (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Lily Sparks – TEEN KILLERS CLUB (Crooked Lane Books)
Heather Young – THE DISTANT DEAD (William Morrow)
 
BEST E-BOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL
 
Sean Black – AVENUE OF THIEVES (Sean Black)
Jeff Buick – A KILLING GAME (Novel Words)
Diane Capri – FULL METAL JACK (AugustBooks)
Jake Needham – MONGKOK STATION (Half Penny)
Kirk Russell – NO HESITATION (Strawberry Creek)

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

In a bidding war, Neon has acquired the North American rights to The Actor, a film noir based on Donald E. Westlake's bestselling book, Memory. Directed by Duke Johnson, the project is set in the 1950s and stars Ryan Gosling as Paul Cole, who has been stranded in Ohio after a brutal attack. As he finds himself suffering from severe memory loss, he struggles to find his way back to his life in New York and reclaim what he has lost.

Netflix has acquired Corey Mead’s true crime article, "The Poet," for a feature film adaptation. The article tells the story of Ruth Finley, who escaped a murderer as a teen, only to find herself on the run again decades later as the killer terrorizes her hometown. With a team of police investigators and her devoted husband intent on saving her, the identity of her tormentor is too chilling to believe.

Guy Pearce and Monica Bellucci are set to co-star opposite Liam Neeson in the indie crime thriller, Memory (not related to the Neon/Westlake project above). The project is based on the book, De Zaak Alzheimer, by Jef Geeraerts as well as the Belgian film, The Memory of a Killer, directed by Erik Van Looy. The story follows Alex Lewis (Neeson), an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision. When Alex refuses to complete a job for a dangerous criminal organization, he becomes a target and must go on the hunt for those who want him dead. Veteran FBI agents Vincent Serra (Pearce), Linda Amistead (played by Taj Atwal), and Mexican intelligence liaison Hugo Marquez (Harold Torres) are brought in to investigate the trail of bodies, leading them closer to Alex, but also drawing the ire of local tech mogul Davana Sealman (Bellucci).

Killers of the Flower Moon has added four more to the cast: Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, and Scott Shepherd have joined Martin Scorsese’s film based on David Grann’s bestseller. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, the long-in-the-works Killers of the Flower Moon depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Previously announced cast members include stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, as well as Indigenous actors, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, and Jillian Dion.

Likewise, the cast of the film adaptation of Delia Owens's book, Where the Crawdads Sing, has recently increased with the additions of Garret Dillahunt, Michael Hyatt, Ahna O’Reilly, Sterling Macer Jr., and newcomer Jojo Regina. Set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century South, the story centers on a young woman named Kya who, abandoned by her family, raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight, instantly branded by the local townspeople and law enforcement as the prime suspect for his murder

Renegade Entertainment, the production company co-founded by Courtney Lauren Penn and Thomas Jane, has optioned Chuck Hustmyre’s feature screenplay, Relentless, and will develop and produce the project as a starring vehicle for Jane. The action thriller follows a former U.S. Army Green Beret who gets caught between warring crime gangs as he fights to save the life of a young girl. Screenwriter Hustmyre spent 22 years in law enforcement and retired as a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). During his career he specialized in violent crime, narcotics, and fugitive investigations.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress, Jane Seymour, will star in and exec produce the Irish mystery thriller, Harry Wild, for Acorn TV. Seymour will play a recently retired English professor who cannot help but take an active interest in the criminal cases assigned to her police detective son, Charlie. She displays her flair for investigation by interfering in her son’s baffling murder case, noticing the murderer has followed a pattern from a well-known play. When she successfully catches the killer by putting herself at great risk, she finds a new lust for life.

NBC has greenlighted two pilot orders, a wedding island disaster thriller exec produced by The Blacklist duo of John Davis and John Fox, and a bank heist drama exec produced by Julie Plec. Getaway centers on a destination wedding at an isolated luxury resort that quickly descends into chaos after a group of dangerous criminals takes the island hostage. The small group of guests, led by a fearless female Army vet, will do everything they can to stay alive. The second untitled project is described as "a high-stakes two-hander featuring two women – a recently captured brilliant criminal mastermind who orchestrates a number of coordinated bank heists for a mysterious purpose, and the principled, relentless and socially outcast FBI agent who will stop at nothing to foil her ambitious plan."

Disney+ has unveiled a slate of UK scripted originals, teaming on projects with the producers behind Killing Eve, Gentleman Jack, and The Night Manager. Two of these have crime-related themes including The Ballad of Renegade Nell, which follows Nell Jackson who is forced into a life of highway robbery, along with her two orphaned sisters Roxanne and George. Aided by a plucky little spirit called Billy Blind, Nell realizes that fate has put her on the wrong side of the law for a reason, "a reason much bigger than she could’ve ever imagined, a reason that goes right up to Queen Anne and beyond, to the struggle for power raging across the battlefields of Europe." The other project is titled Culprits and described as a "whip smart thriller" that follows what happens after a heist when the crew have gone their separate ways but are being targeted by a killer one-by-one.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

James Ellroy, the "Demon Dog" of American literature, is teaming up with the podcast firm, Audio Up, for a five-part podcast series to launch in August. The author of L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia will produce and narrate the podcast, titled Hollywood Death Trip, which takes listeners on a nocturnal tour of murder and mayhem in Los Angeles with period music, archival radio, and cinematic sound design.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the first chapter of Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston, read by actor Julie Lucido.


Complicit is a new true-crime anthology podcast that follows the story of 29 year old Lauren Dumolo, who vanished from her home in Cape Coral, FL, on June 19, 2020. Her disappearance has baffled her family, friends, and even the police investigating her case. When Lauren's belongings mysteriously begin appearing in a nearby park, the investigation is escalated, and the community rallies to search for the missing woman.

Writer Types host, Eric Beetner, and guest co-host, Erica Ruth Neubauer (Death At Wedgefield Manor), spoke with the creator of the Maisie Dobbs series, Jaqueline Winspear; debut author and criminal defense attorney, Nadine Matheson; and thriller writer, Ell Marr.

Meet the Thriller Writer welcomed author, Frank H Jordan. Trained in martial arts, and an ex-weekend warrior (Army reservist) with the Australian Defence Force, Frank showcased his interests in combat and all things military in the high-action Jo Modeen series.

The featured guest at Queer Writers of Crime was Joseph R.G. De Marco, author of the Marco Fontana Mysteries including the latest installment, The Vermilion Pursuit.

Wrong Place, Write Crime heard from Tennessee author Sandra Wells; super reader and blog reviewer Colman Keane; and Hawaii-based author Scott Kikkawa, whose Kona Winds is set in the islands' pre-statehood era. There were also book recommendations from Joe Reid, Ryan Sayles, and T.G. Wolff, and Lance Wright had an April update on new releases from Down and Out Books.

My Favorite Detective Stories podcast host, John Hoda, spoke with screenwriter Simon McCleave about his bestselling DI Ruth Hunter crime thriller series.

E.A. Barres (a/k/a E.A. Aymar) stopped by It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club to talk about his most recent thriller, They're Gone. Two women's husbands are murdered on the same night in the same way, and the investigation the women undertake to find answers uncovers a terrifying connection.

Anthologist, novelist, and historian, Nick Rennison, spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about the latest anthology of short stories in the rivals to Sherlock Holmes series, American Sherlocks.

NPR's David Bianculli took a look at Mare of Easttown, the new mini-series starring Kate Winslett as Mare Sheehan, an office police investigator in a small Pennsylvania town, who investigates a brutal murder as she tries to keep her life from falling apart.

Forensic psychiatrist and author of The Mind of a Murderer, Dr. Richard Taylor, was featured on the podcast All in the Mind.

Quote of the Week

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Johnny Under Ground

Patricia Pakenham-Walsh (1923-1977) was born in Dublin, the daughter of a father who served in the Indian civil service, retiring as a high court judge in Madras. Patricia joined the WAAF in 1939 during WWII as a a flight officer, experience which led Peter Ustinov to hire her as a technical assistant on his film Secret Flight in 1946.

She was Ustinov's personal assistant for eight years and penned her own screenplay, School for Scoundrels in 1960 (made into a film with Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, and Alastair Sim). She married John Moyes in 1951, and although they divorced and she later remarried, she kept her married name of Patricia Moyes as the pen name for novels featuring C.I.D. Inspector Henry Tibbett and his cheerful Dutch wife, Emmy.

The Tibbett duo appeared in 20 novels, beginning with Dead Men Don't Ski in 1958 and wrapping up with 1993's Twice in a Blue Moon. The sixth entry in the series, Johnny Under Ground from 1965, further put the author's WWII training to use via the plot and Emmy Tibbett's background, with Emmy uneasily planning to attend her twentieth Royal Air Force reunion. Emmy had been a naive nineteen year-old auxiliary officer at Dymfield Air Base during the war, when she fell in love with the handsome RAF hero pilot Beau Guest. She was later devasted when Guest seemingly committed suicide by deliberately crashing his plane into the North Sea.

When Emmy attends the reunion, she learns Guest's widow wants to publish a book about the history of her husband's former military unit, which Emmy reluctantly agrees to help research. That isn't the only surprise in store—Emmy is shocked to find out she was the very last person to see Beau Guest alive, and that everyone connected with the fatal flight seems to have something to hide. Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett gets drawn into the mystery and realizes his wife has stumbled onto something sinister. But Emmy is determined to dig into the past, even after the other collaborator on the book is murdered and anonymous letters make it clear someone won't hesitate to kill in order to keep old secrets buried.

Although the Tibbett series technically falls into the police procedural category, the crimes are off-stage and the feel is more of a "cozy" or traditional mystery. As The New York Times Book Review noted, Moyes "handles indecorous events with a minimum of violence and fuss and makes drug dealing seem more like bad manners than bad morals.''

Mystery Melange

The 2021 winners of West Coast Crime's Lefty Awards were presented virtually this past weekend. Top nods included Best Humorous Mystery Novel: Ellen Byron, Murder in the Bayou Boneyard; Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970: Catriona McPherson, The Turning Tide; Best Debut Mystery Novel, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Winter Counts; and Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories), Louise Penny, All the Devils Are Here. For a list of the finalists in the various categories, check out the conference's official website.

The Crime Writers Association today unveiled the longlists for the 2021 Dagger Awards, the premier literary crime-writing awards in the United Kingdom. Entries to the various categories are nominated by publishers and/or librarians (with the exception of the Debut Dagger) and judged independently of the CWA by industry professionals. For all the highlights of this year's slate, check out this wrap-up from Ayo Onatade at the Shots Magazine blog.

The finalists for the Bony Blithe/Bloody Words Light Mystery Award were also announced for the conference/award's tenth season celebrating Canadian crime fiction on the lighter side. As the website states, "Pandammit or no pandammit, Canadian crime writing is thriving." The 2021 honorees include Vicki Delany, There’s a Murder Afoot; Candas Jane Dorsey, The Adventures of Isabel; Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings; Thomas King, Obsidian; and Iona Wishaw, A Match Made for Murder.

The finalists for this year's Hugo Awards for best sci-fi and speculative fiction were also announced, and as usual there are some crime-themed crossovers such as Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun and Martha Wells' latest Murderbot novel, Network Effect.

There's a call for papers for Edinburgh Conan Doyle Network Conference, "Conan Doyle and Storytelling," December 10-11, 2021, at Birkbeck, University of London. Organizers welcome proposals for 20-minute papers, which consider Conan Doyle’s writing in all wider contexts, and they offer up some suggested themes you can check out via the Shots Magazine blog. Interested writers should send along abstracts of 200–300 words together with a brief biography by July 31. 

The spring issue of Suspense Magazine is out, featuring interviews with J.A. Jance, Jonathan Kellerman, Don Bentley, Dietrich Kalteis, and Greg F. Gifune; new short fiction by Julia Shraytman, Dan A. Cardoza, Megan Towey, Bailey Day Simpson, Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Martha Reed, and Tom Halford; a detailed look at the TV mini-series, Harper's Island; book reviews and more.
 

The mystery of Harry Houdini's mystery: Joe Notaro is reproducing The Zanetti Mystery (1925), featuring the "genius faker and arch-rogue" Zanetti, with future blog posts to have additional chapters. The tale was published under Houdini's name, but Notaro believes it was ghostwritten by Fulton Oursler, a/k/a mystery author Anthony Abbot. (HT Elizabeth Foxwell at the Bunburyist blog.)

Over at the Kill Zone blog, Debbie Burke takes a look at "Eugene Francois Vidocq and the Origins of Criminology."

If you're a fan of graphic novels and also Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation, Book Riot has "5 Sherlock Holmes Comics for You to Investigate."

Featured at the Page 99 Test this week: Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wrong. The book details a powerful investigation into a grisly political murder and the authoritarian regime behind it in Rwanda.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 is "Power Murder Ballads" by Scott Cumming.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews welcomed Karla Holloway to discuss her debut novel, A Death in Harlem, a mystery set during the Harlem Renaissance, and they also spoke with Adam Mitzner about his new thriller, The Perfect Marriage; CrimeReads chatted with Alan Parks, author of the Harry McCoy novels, about drugs, noir, and Glasgow in the 1970s; Shots Magazine spoke with crime writer Claire McGowan about her new true-crime audiobook project, The Vanishing Triangle, which shines a light on the unsolved disappearance of at least eight women from mid-nineties Dublin; and Erica Wright spoke with Marilyn Stasio, the recently retired crime fiction critic for The New York Times, about how she got her start, how crime fiction got taken seriously, and what she's reading now.

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 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) were handed out this past weekend. Crime drama winners included an Outstanding British Film nod for Promising Young Woman, which also won for Best Screenplay (Emerald Fennell); and a Best Supporting Actor win for Daniel Kaluuya for his role in Judas And The Black Messiah.

The Directors' Guild of America also announced winners for their annual awards. Although there weren't many nominees in the crime drama vein, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic TV Series went to Lesli Linka Glatter for the Homeland episode, "Prisoners of War" (Showtime).

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

BAFTA winner Simon Russell Beale (The Hollow Crown) and BAFTA-nominee Nikki Amuka-Bird (NW) have joined the cast of screenwriter Graham Moore’s directorial debut, The Outfit. The crime drama follows Leonard (Mark Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he ends up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters.

It's a bit difficult to keep up with the revolving door on all of the movie schedulings and reschedulings due to the Covid pandemic. The latest to be hit (again) is Mission: Impossible 7, which was slated to be released on November 19. The new plan is for the Top Gun sequel to take Mission: Impossible 7’s November release date, while the next entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise will move to May 27, 2022. Subsequently, Mission: Impossible 8, which is shooting back-to-back with its predecessor, will come out on July 3, 2023 rather than November 4, 2022.

A trailer was released for Those Who Wish Me Dead, the upcoming action thriller starring Angelina Jolie. Adapted from Michael Koryta's novel of the same name, the film follows Jolie's character, Hannah Faber, who is a fire warden and wilderness survival expert assigned to a lookout tower in Montana. Faber is still reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save in a fire. But her life becomes even more complicated when she crosses paths with a young boy being pursued by assassins.

A trailer was also released for The Woman in the Window, the film based on the novel by A.J. Finn, which stars Amy Adams as a shut-in who feels safest when she’s watching the world from behind her window...until she witnesses a possible murder.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

House and The Night Manager star, Hugh Laurie, has signed up to write, direct, and executive produce an adaptation of Agatha Christie novel, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, for BritBox in North America. The three-part limited series represents the BBC Studios and ITV-owned streamer’s biggest U.S. commission to date. Laurie has apparently been enamored with Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? since he was a child. The book, first published in 1934, tells the story Bobby Jones and his socialite friend Lady Frances Derwent, who discover a dying man while hunting for a golf ball. Jones and Derwent turn amateur sleuths as they seek to unravel the mystery of the man, who has the picture of a beautiful young woman in his pocket, and, with his last breath, utters the cryptic question that forms the series’ title. The amiable duo approach their investigation with a levity that belies the danger they encounter.

Netflix has landed The 39 Steps, a limited-series star vehicle for Benedict Cumberbatch. The project is an update of the classic thriller novel by John Buchan that was famously turned into the 1935 film classic by Alfred Hitchcock. The producers describe the series as "a provocative, action-packed conspiracy thriller series that updates the classic novel for relevance in contemporary times. An ordinary man, Richard Hannay, becomes an unwitting pawn in a vast, global conspiracy to reset the world order: 39 Steps that will change the world as we know it, with only Hannay standing in the way."

The CBS action drama, MacGyver, has been cancelled after five seasons. The reboot of the 1985 series will conclude with a series finale to air Friday, April 30, in the show’s regular 8 pm time slot. The show stars Lucas Till as Angus "Mac" MacGyver, an agent for a clandestine organization within the U.S. government, where he uses his extraordinary talent for unconventional problem-solving and vast scientific knowledge to save lives. The series also features Tristin Mays, Justin Hires, Meredith Eaton, Levy Tran, and Henry Ian Cusick. Original co-lead George Eads left in Season 3, and his character was subsequently killed off.

USA Network’s Nash Bridges revival is getting closer to reality. Series star, Don Johnson, confirmed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he's in "heavy prep" on the revival, reprising his title role in the project, which has been in development since 2019 as a two-hour movie/backdoor pilot. The actor also confirmed on The Talk in 2019 that his longtime co-star, Cheech Marin, would return for the revival in his role as Inspector Joe Dominguez. The original Nash Bridges series ran on CBS from 1996 to 2001.

The Killing Times reported that ITV has commissioned a third series of the detective drama, McDonald & Dodds. Starring Tala Gouveia as the wildly ambitious Detective Chief Inspector McDonald and Jason Watkins as the shy and enigmatic Detective Sergeant Dodds, the third series will comprise three new murder mysteries for the pair to solve.

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine has been tapped for a major recurring role opposite Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in The Lincoln Lawyer, Netflix’s drama series based on Michael Connelly's bestselling novels. Written and executive produced by David E. Kelley and showrunner Ted Humphrey, The Lincoln Lawyer revolves around Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist, who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the city of Los Angeles. Ntare will play Detective Raymond Griggs, a character created specifically for the series who develops a wary working relationship with Haller.

Jennifer Jason Leigh has joined Amazon Prime Video’s Hunters for the drama’s upcoming second season. Hunters follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City who have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the United States. The first season starred Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and Jerrika Hinton. As of now, Lerman and Hinton will be returning, but there’s no word yet on if Pacino will be back.

Michelle Veintimilla and Sebastian Roché are set for recurring roles on David E. Kelley’s hit freshman ABC drama series, Big Sky. The crime thriller series follows private detective, Cassie Dewell (played by Kylie Bunbury) and ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick), who join forces to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Two Crime Writers and a Microphone host, Luca Veste, was joined by guest host, CL Taylor, to discuss Locked Up Festival 2, the news, and one star reviews.

Crime Cafe host, Debbi Mack, interviewed intellectual property attorney, Kathryn Goldman, editor of the legal blog, Creative Law Center, a "must-read for writers, artists and other creative people."

Read or Dead hosts, Katie and Nusrah, discussed the Edgar Award Nominees and recommended books for you to prioritize from the list.

Jacqueline Winspear was the featured guest on Speaking of Mysteries, discussing The Consequences of Fear, the 16th installment of Winspear’s series with WWII-era detective and frequent intelligence asset, Maisie Dobbs.

Suspense Magazine's podcast welcomed author Mark Greaney as he talked about his latest Grey Man series book, Relentless.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Michael Kaufman about his new novel, The Last Exit, a near-future thriller where the secret to eternal life is closely guarded by people who will do anything to protect it, even if it means destroying everything in their path.

Wrong Place, Write Crime spoke with Dick Wybro‪w‬ about Past Life, the newest installment of his paranormal mystery series featuring Painter Mann.

Queer Writers of Crime welcomed Michael Nava, the author of an acclaimed series of eight novels featuring gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios, who The New Yorker called "a detective unlike any previous protagonist in American noir."

Crime Writers of Color interviewed Alexia Gordon, a physician by day and award-winning crime novelist by night, about her mystery series with Gethsemane Brown, an African-American classical musician and expatriate to an Irish village who solves murders and encounters a snarky ghost.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club discussed Daniel Pyne's Water Memory, the first in a new series with Black Ops specialist, Aubrey Sentro.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's podcast selected a private-eye story for the latest episode, "All Shook Down," from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. It’s the first contribution to the magazine by Libby Cudmore, author of the highly acclaimed novel, The Big Rewind.

The latest episode of Lynda LaPlante's forensic podcast, Listening to the Dead, tackled the topic of "Cause of Death – Unknown."

CrimeTime FM host, Edward Wilson, talked to Paul Burke about his new spy novel, The Portrait of the Spy as a Young Man.

Quote of the Week

FFB: Death and the Sky Above

Paul Winterton (1908-2001), the son of a journalist and member of Parliament, was educated at the London School of Economics and London University and received his B.Sc. in political science and economics in 1928. He was on the staff of The Economist for four years and worked for fourteen years for the London News Chronicle as reporter and foreign correspondent. He served in the Moscow office from 1942 to 1945, where he was the correspondent of the BBC's Overseas Service.

After the war, he turned to full-time writing of detective and adventure novels and produced more than fifty books and numerous short stories under the pen names of Roger Bax and Paul Somers, although the majority were published under his Andrew Garve pseudonym. His work, translated into over twenty languages and adapted for TV, included varied backgrounds from his many travels such as Russia, newspaper offices, the West Indies, sailing, the Australian outback, politics, mountaineering and forestry. Dr. Robin Winks, Yale historian and an expert on detective fiction, once wrote ''Garve's sense of place is uncanny."

Garve was also known for never repeating a plot, and 1953's Death and the Sky Above follows the plight of Charles Hilary, the henpecked husband of the bitter, alcoholic and vindictive Louise who won't grant Charles the divorce he wants so he can be free of his marital prison. One fateful day, he leaves for a cricket match and makes plans to be with Kathryn Forrester, a successful news reporter who loves Charles so much she's willing to leave her career and move to France to be with him.

But when Louise is found murdered and Charles' many letters pleading for a divorce are discovered, he's arrested for her murder and scheduled to be executed by hanging. A prison fire enables him to escape with Kathryn, but in their attempt to cross the Channel, their boat capsizes and Charles is recaptured. Resourceful journalist Kathryn works feverishly to prove his innocence as the clock ticks away toward her lover's last day on Earth, but no one will listen...

Several of Garve's novels were adapted for the screen, including Megstone Plot, made into the 1959 movie A Touch of Larceny starring James Mason and George Sanders, and one of the author's pseudonymous Roger Bax books became the 1953 movie Never Let Me Go with Clark Gable and Gene Tierney. Death and the Sky Above was made into an installment of NBC's "Kraft Mystery Theater" in December 1961 starring Peter Williams, Petra Davies, and Ursula Howells and directed by Robert Lynn.

Winterton/Garve also served the crime fiction community in another important role, as a founding member and first joint secretary of the Crime Writers' Association, along with Elizabeth Ferrars.

Mystery Melange

Europe's venerable crime writing convention, Crimefest, announced the shortlists for its annual book awards. The in-person event was rescheduled for May 12-15, 2022, but organizers decided the annual awards must go on. The categories feature the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award, the winner of which receives a £1,000 prize, with a further £1,000 prize also awarded to the Audible Sounds of Crime Award, sponsored by Audible. Other categories include the H.R.F Keating Award for best 2020 biography or critical book related to crime fiction; The Last Laugh Award for best 2020 humorous crime novel; the eDunnit Award for best 2020 crime ebook; Best Crime Novel for Children (ages 8-12); and Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (ages 12-16). Shots Magazine has a roundup and list of all the finalists, with winners to be announced online in May or June.

The Portland, Oregon-based fan group, Friends of Mystery, recently announced the winner of this year's Spotted Owl Award, given annually to what its members determine is the "best mystery written by an author whose primary residence is in the Pacific Northwest." The Last Agent by Robert Dugoni came out on top, and Dugoni (A Cold Trail) was also in a tie for second place with Percentages of Guilt by Michael Niemann. The Rap Sheet blog has a listing of all the other finalists.

Writers' Police Academy Online will present the workshop, "Forensic Psychiatry, Murder, LAPD Lipstick, and Memorable Characters," on April 24, featuring Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels; former LAPD Senior Lead Officer, Kathy Bennett; former detective sergeant and award-winning author, Bruce Robert Coffin; and perinatal psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman. Registration is open, and you can follow this link to reserve your spot at this day-long seminar. Registration is also open for the Writers' Police Academy virtual Murder Con, August 6-7, and each registered attendee will receive a Sirchie fingerprint kit to be used during an interactive class (delivered to your home in advance).

A new online exhibition from the University of Delaware Library, Museums, and Press is titled "Agatha Christie's Poirot" and draws from collections of materials on the iconic Belgian detective. It's presented in conjunction with the Resident Ensemble Players' radio productions of Christie's "King of Clubs" (freely available until May 21) and "The Cornish Mystery" (freely available starting April 23). (HT to Elizabeth Foxwell)

The magazine Narratively featured a profile of Aphra Behn, the first Englishwoman ever to earn a living writing...who was also a spy. She traveled to the Low Countries and Suriname on missions for King Charles II, and she took up writing to support herself because he never paid her. She later went on to become one of Restoration London’s most popular, and most controversial, playwrights and poets.

Tasha Alexander, author of the New York Times bestselling Lady Emily mystery series (and the daughter of two philosophy professors), applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Dark Heart of Florence, the 15th Lady Emily mystery.

Who knew that reading "Bullet Journals" was a thing?

The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "The Thief Came In" by Michael A. Arnzen.

In the Q&A roundup, Author Interviews chatted with attorney turned author Adam Mitzner about his new domestic thriller, The Perfect Marriage; and the New York Times spoke with Paula Mcclain, about her first suspense novel, When the Stars Go Dark, which forced her to face her own demons.

Author R&R with Michael Kaufman

Photo credit: Paola Kudacki

Michael Kaufman is the author of three novels but over the past decades his focus has been on engaging men to support women’s rights, end violence against women, and positively transform the lives of men. His work as an adviser, educator, and activist with the United Nations, governments, women’s organizations, NGOs, universities, companies and trade unions has taken him to fifty countries. He is the author of The Time Has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution. His first mystery, The Last Exit, came out in January. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was named number four in the “22 greatest mysteries and thrillers of 2021” by the influential PopSugar.com.

The Last Exit is the first of the Jen B. Lu series. It’s Washington, DC. 2033. Bad things are happening in the nation's capital, but, then again, you just might say that about the last few years. Climate change is hitting hard, fires are burning, unemployment is high, and a longevity treatment is only available to the very rich. Enter resourceful police detective, Jen B. Lu, and her 'partner', Chandler, an experimental SIM implant tucked into her brain. He's a wannabe tough guy, with a sense of humor and his own ideas about solving crimes. Jen catches wind of a counterfeit version of the longevity drug and the bizarre outbreak of people aging almost overnight. Soon, she puts her own life on the line to stop the people pushing this. The Last Exit is true crossover: a police procedural; a near-future mystery; a novel of political intrigue; a story of personal heroism and change. And page-turning fun.

Michael stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching his new mystery:

How do you research a mystery set twelve years in the future? Given, as the lame joke goes, that my time machine was in the shop, I did what any writer would do: I realized that I was actually writing about the present. My shift into the future was merely so I could sharpen my focus on things that are already happening around us. It would allow me to create drama, excitement and fun by throwing my protagonist, Jen B. Lu, into a situation that doesn’t yet exist but feels completely familiar and possible.

I did not want to write a grim, dystopian future. In part, I’ve gotten sick of those—you know, the utter hopelessness; the fog-bound, puddled streets reflecting neon; the total decimation by war or dictators or climate change. And in part because I really feel that the best way to confront the very real problems that we face—climate change, stark economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, political dysfunction, war, and the incursion of AI and the virtual world into our lives—is by sensing that we as humans can create positive alternatives.

One funny outcome of extrapolating from the present is that it recently led a movie producer to ask me if I wrote or rewrote it during 2020. After all, there’s a virus affecting millions; there are fires sending smoke into a major city; and there is, as part of the backstory, an uprising similar to Black Lives Matter. I had to assure him that it was written in 2018 and 2019.  And, in fact, I actually felt I had to change one thing as I wrote:  In the opening pages, Washington DC is filled with smoke from the Great Shenandoah Blaze. In an early draft, I wrote, “Jen slipped on her N95.”  When I was revising it in late 2019, I thought few readers will know what the hell an N95 is. So I edited it to make it clear she was putting on a mask. How things have changed in the past year.

There’s that old saw that mysteries are plot driven. Up to a point that’s true and, writing The Last Exit (and now its first sequel), I love the discipline that comes with that. There is no room (as there is in a straight-ahead novel) for page long, gorgeous descriptions or for things to happen just because they’re fun or cool. Things need to drive the plot.

At the same time, without a strong and interesting protagonist, what reader will care deeply about what happens? And when I say “strong” I don’t mean a fearless, emotionless, superhero who saves the world. I mean a character who lives and breathes, changes and evolves both in the course of this book and in the series to follow.

In other words for me, and I think for the mystery/thriller writers who I love the most, what creates compelling books is the interplay between plot and character. If plot takes over, you create cartoon page-turners; if characters take over, you create books where the reader might well stop turning the page because it seems that nothing is happening. What’s key is not simply the balance of the two, but the dialectic between the two in the sense that what’s happening (the plot) is challenging and pushing the character; that in turn causes crises and challenges for the protagonist; and her/his/their response further drives the plot.

I’ll let readers decide if I got that right! But so far, I’ve been thrilled with the response I’ve been getting.

 

You can learn more about Michael Kaufman via his website and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. The Last Exit is now available via all major booksellers and from Penguin Random House.