In Reference to Murder: March 2022

Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) was born in Kingsbury, England, the daughter of a doctor and the sister of nuclear physicist John H. Fremlin. She studied classics at Somerville College, Oxford, but after her mother died in 1931, she was expected to look after her father. Instead of being content to just stay at home, she took jobs in domestic service, which was unusual for a middle-class woman at that time. She said it was to "observe the peculiarities of the class structure of our society," and those experiences later found their way into her later writing.

Much later, in her sixties, she began to take long walks at night by herself all over the back streets of London, partly for research and partly to prove a point. Her conclusion was that to make the dark streets lose their terror, "We don’t need more policemen on the beat. We need more grandmothers." Those experiences were compiled into a TV program about challenging people’s fears of urban streets at night and many observations also wound up in her books.

Her life may have seemed like domestic bliss on the surface, but it was filled with its share of tragedy that would be at home in any crime novel: Not only did she lose her mother at age 17, but her youngest daughter committed suicide, as did Fremlin's husband rather than live a disabled life after a heart attack. She also outlived her second husband and her other two children, and went slowly blind in her later years, spending her last days in a nursing home, which was a bit ironic, considering she became an advocate for euthanasia late in life.

Fremlin's first mystery novel was The Hours Before Dawn from 1958 which won the Edgar Award for Best Novel and established her style of mystery/horror set mostly around the lives of married women in the 1950s. Some feel that The Long Shadow was an equally fine work, and H.R.F. Keating even included it in his 1987 listing of the 100 best crime and mystery books. It's the story of the Imogen Barnicott, third wife of a celebrated, cruel and egocentric professor, who, despite her unhappy marriage, had never plotted her husband's murder—yet after his supposedly accidental death, she receives a mysterious phone call accusing her of that very thing. Add to that strange happenings like new messages left lying around in his handwriting, work on an unfinished manuscript of his that continues to be written, and shadowy figures seen in the house, and Imogen not only begins to doubt her husband is dead at all, she begins to believe she just might take his place.

Celia Fremlin used to say that she wrote the sort of book she wanted to read, in which a mysterious threat hangs over someone and escalates chapter by chapter; or as, H.R.F. Keating recalled her saying, "to put a plot that is exciting or terrifying against a background that is domestic, very ordinary, humdrum." She used this to great effect in The Long Shadow and others, slowly building an atmosphere of suspense and terror out of the excruciatingly mundane, using the contrasts as a literary canvas like Dali and his surrealistic art.

Her character observations managed to be cutting and yet have a touch of dark humor, as well, as this passage from Imogen's experience at a party a well-wishing friend had encouraged her to attend:

Worst of all, perhaps, was the apparently unending procession of people who, incredibly, still hadn't heard, and had to be clobbered with the news in the first moment of meeting. Had to have the smiles slashed from their faces, the cheery words of greeting rammed back down their gullets as if by a gratuitous blow across the mouth. There they would be, waving from across the road, calling "Hi!" from their garden gates, phoning by chance from Los Angeles, from Aberdeen, from Beckenham...One and all to have their friendly overtures slammed into silence, their kindly voices choked with shock. One after another, day after day, over and over again: sometimes Imogen felt like the Black Death stalking the earth, destroying everything in her path.

Fremlin's books are filled with astute perceptions that no doubt bear the imprint of her first-hand research into human behavior, as Imogen's stepson Robin advises her about taking on boarders:

I'd choose Depressions rather than Anxiety States...From the point of view of a landlady, Depressions are good because they lie in bed until midday and don't eat breakfast. Whereas Anxiety States want grapefruit—All Bran—the lot."

In addition to her 20 novels and nonfiction books, the last dating from 1994, she wrote short stories, poetry and articles and was a member of the Crime Writers Association for many years. The Long Shadow, The Hours Before Dawn, and her other fiction certainly deserves a closer look.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 25, 2022 at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 24, 2022

Mystery Melange

The application deadline for Sisters in Crime's Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award is fast approaching. The annual grant of $2,000 for an emerging writer of color helps fund activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the submitted work. To learn more about submission requirements, follow this link, but materials are due by March 31st.

Alex Segura, the writer of the Miami-based Pete Fernandez mystery series, will discuss his latest thriller, Secret Identity, a literary mystery set in the world of comic books, in a virtual program hosted by the Mark Twain House & Museum on March 29 at 6 p.m. The talk is free, but registration is required.

The next Noir at the Bar Dallas is back with "more dastardly tales of crime and debauchery read live" at The Wild Detectives on March 31 from 7-9 p.m. Authors scheduled to appear include Jim Nesbitt, Sean C. Wright Neeley, Rod Davis, Opalina Salas, Carlos Salas, Eryk Pruitt, Kathleen Kent, Kevin R. Tipple, Sanderia Faye, and Harry Hunsicker.

The Friends of the Fairfield Public Library are hosting a star-studded evening on April 7 with best-selling authors of psychological thrillers, including Greer Hendricks, Liv Constantine, and Wendy Walker. Award-winning podcaster/publisher Zibby Owens will take on moderating duties.

Coming soon to bookstores near you (in April in the UK and in June in the U.S.) is a new reference book, This Deadly Isle: A Golden Age Mystery Map, created by author Martin Edwards with illustrations by Ryan Bosse. The work provides a map and guide to more than 50 locations from Golden Age mysteries from authors such as Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley Cox, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers. The Golden Age map joins similar works like Agatha Christie's England by Shedunnit's Caroline Crampton, and The Hardboiled Apple by Jon Hammer and Karen McBurnie. (HT to The Bunburyist.)

The latest edition of Mystery Readers Journal, titled New England Mysteries I is now available as a PDF and hardcopy. Editor Janet Rudolph received so many articles, reviews, and author essays for this edition that she decided to split the topic into two issues, with the second, New England Mysteries II, coming out this summer. You can subscribe and read a few sample articles online including "Why New England?" by Edith Maxwell / Maddie Day; "How I Became a Resident Mystery Writer" by David Handler; and "From Narrative Nonfiction to a Fictional Narrative" by Ben Mezrich.

Fans of John le Carré might want to take note of a collection of letters by the late novelist set to be published later this year. A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré 1945-2020 spans almost eight decades, from the author’s childhood in wartime Britain to just days before his death in 2020. It contains letters to le Carré’s family and friends as well as to high-profile fans such as Hugh Laurie, Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Fry, Alec Guinness, and Tom Stoppard.

Slash Film took at look at the "Surprising Way The Maltese Falcon Influenced World War II."

Yorkshire brewery T&R Theakston has launched a limited-edition label for its Old Peculier beer, ahead of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival later this year.

If you have a spare thirty million dollars lying around, you might be interested in buying a luxurious Carmel, California beachfront estate that was featured prominently in the HBO crime series, Big Little Lies, as well as the thriller film, Basic Instinct. It's a bargain, too: three years ago, the asking price was $52.4 million.

From the life imitates crime imitates life department comes this unlikely tale: True crime author Paul Harrison claimed he'd interviewed the world's most infamous murderers – only to be exposed as a fraud and scammer.

This week's timely crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Putin On The Blitz" by Tony Dawson.

In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery writer HS Burney about her new thriller, The Lake Templeton Murders, a Fati Rizvi private detective murder mystery; Deborah Kalb interviewed Nancy Allen about her new novel, Renegade, the first in her Anonymous Justice series; E. B. Davis spoke with Korina Moss for the Writers who Kill blog about her debut cozy mystery, Cheddar Off Dead; and over at The Stiletto Gang, Lois Winston grilled suspense author Donnell Ann Bell about researching and writing her Cold Case crime series.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 24, 2022 at 10:27 AM in Mystery Melange | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 21, 2022

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

Jonathan Majors is set to star in The Man In My Basement, the film adaptation of Walter Mosley's novel of the same name, with Nadia Latif making her directorial debut on the film. The novel follows Charles Blakey, an African American man living in Sag Harbor, who is stuck in a rut, out of luck, and about to lose his ancestral home when a peculiar white businessman with a European accent offers to rent his basement for the summer for $50,000. This lucrative proposition leads Charles down a terrifying path that takes him to the heart of race, history, and the root of all evil.

Two-time Oscar winner, Dianne Wiest, is joining the cast of the thriller, Apartment 7A, from production companies headed by John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) and Michael Bay (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan). Natalie Erika James is attached to direct and also co-wrote the latest script, with Christian White, based off a draft by Skylar James. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the film is being described as a psychological thriller. It is also unknown who Wiest will be playing in the project.

Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold have been cast in lead roles in the dramatic-thriller, The Passenger, directed by Carter Smith. The film follows Randolph Bradley (Berchtold) who is perfectly content fading into the background, but when his coworker Benson (Gallner) snaps and goes on a violent killing spree, he’s forced to face his fears and confront his troubled past in order to find a way to survive. Liza Weil also has a key role as Randall's former teacher who gets dragged into Benson’s destructive mission.

The NOIR CITY film festival, a Bay Area cultural institution since 2003, returns from COVID hiatus March 24-27 for a four-day festival at a new venue, Oakland's historic Grand Lake Theatre. Produced, programmed, and hosted by Eddie Muller, this year's edition, subtitled "They Tried To Warn Us!", showcases twelve movies from mid-20th century Hollywood likely to resonate with contemporary viewers. "Film noir is revered for its incredible sass and style," Muller noted, "but many of the films were also warning flares about issues that still plague our culture more than seventy years later."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Filming has commenced for Wales on Wolf, a major new six-part crime thriller for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, based on the late Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery novels and written and adapted by Megan Gallagher. Ukweli Roach has been cast in the lead role of DI Jack Caffery, obsessed with the neighbor he believes murdered Caffery's 10-year-old brother in the 90s. Meanwhile, in an isolated house in Monmouthshire, the wealthy Anchor-Ferrers family find themselves trapped and terrorized by a psychopath’s cruel games. When the two narratives collide, it’s a nail-biting and deeply disturbing race against time. Also joining the ensemble cast are Sacha Dhawan, Iwan Rheon, Sian Reese-Williams, Juliet Stevenson, and Owen Teale.

HBO is working on a fourth iteration of True Detective, a "new take" on the crime drama, tentatively titled True Detective: Night Country. The show, which was created and written by Nic Pizzolatto, ran for three seasons (2014 and 2019), with the first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the second with Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, Rachel McAdams, and Vince Vaughn, and the third featuring Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff.

Amazon Studios has given a series order to the YA action-thriller pilot, Harlan Coben’s Shelter, an adaptation of Coben’s Mickey Bolitar novels, with Jaden Michael starring as Bolitar. Shelter tells the story of high school junior, Mickey Bolitar (Michael), as he navigates his new life with a mom in rehab, a dead father, an annoying aunt, and a new school in New Jersey. When a creepy old lady who may or may not be a ghost tells Mickey his father isn’t dead, Mickey is sure he’s losing his mind on top of everything else. He finds a grounding force in Ashley Kent, another new student who’s lived through her own tragedy. But then Ashley goes missing, and as Mickey searches for her, he learns that everything she told him was a lie—and that he is in serious danger unless he gets to the bottom of what happened to her and his father. The cast also includes Constance Zimmer, Adrian Greensmith, Abby Corrigan, Sage Linder, and Brian Altemus.

Doug Liman has found his next TV project, set to direct a timely series adaptation of Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice, which explores the author’s real-life fight against a corrupt Russian government under Vladimir Putin. Browder is an American hedge fund manager who made his fortune in Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Red Notice tells the story of his rise from nothing as he and his ragtag team battle and expose kleptocratic oligarchs, endemic corruption, and the depravity of the Putin regime – culminating in a thriller as Browder faces off against the villainy of the Russian leader. The series, which is described as part financial caper and part crime thriller, is being shopped to streamers and independent studios with the hope of a spring 2023 launch.

ABC has handed a pilot order to its untitled national parks project which originally had Kevin Costner attached as writer and executive producer until the network passed on the project. Rashad Raisani (9-1-1: Lone Star; Burn Notice), is writing and exec producing a brand new take on the procedural that revolves around the tangled, messy lives of the agents who work for the ISB — an elite law-enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in America's 81,000 square miles of protected land.

Amanda Warren has been tapped as the lead in the CBS drama pilot, East New York. Co-written by William Finkelstein and Mike Flynn, the project centers on Regina Haywood (Warren), the newly promoted deputy inspector of East New York, an impoverished, working-class neighborhood at the eastern edge of Brooklyn. She leads a diverse group of officers and detectives, some of whom are reluctant to deploy her creative methods of serving and protecting during the midst of social upheaval and the early seeds of gentrification.

Belfast star, Ciarán Hinds, is joining the Netflix spy drama, Treason. Hinds, who scored a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in the Kenneth Branagh-directed film, will star alongside Olga Kurylenko, Oona Chaplin, and Charlie Cox in the six-part series, which comes from Bridge of Spies screenwriter, Matt Charman. The drama follows Adam Lawrence (Cox), trained and groomed by MI6, whose career seems set. But when the past catches up with him in the form of Kara, a Russian spy with whom he shares a complicated past, he is forced to question everything and everyone in his life. Hinds will play Sir Martin Angelis, Adam's boss and mentor.

Squid Game's breakout star, Hoyeon (who has previously gone by Jung Ho-yeon, sometimes Westernized as HoYeon Jung) has boarded writer-director Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming thriller, Disclaimer, for Apple TV+. Based on the novel by Renee Knight, the project stars Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful TV documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kevin Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story she'd hoped was long buried in the past, one that reveals her darkest secret. Hoyeon plays Kim, who believes that working for Ravenscroft is going to be her big break. The series also stars Sacha Baron Cohen and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Philemon Chambers is set as a series regular opposite Matt Barr in CBS Studios’s CW pilot, Walker: Independence, executive produced by Jared Padalecki. Walker: Independence, a prequel to the CW/CBS Studios series, Walker, is set in the late 1800s and follows Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams. Chambers will play Augustus ("Gus"), the deputy sheriff in Independence. Katie Findlay was also added as a series regular playing Kate, a burlesque dancer, who is in fact a federal agent in town to investigate the secret workings of Independence

Frankie Faison is joining ABC’s proposed spinoff from The Rookie, adding to the starring quartet of actors that also includes Niecy Nash, Kat Foster, and Felix Solis. The yet-untitled project will expand beyond the current Los Angeles Police Department to the FBI, although it will follow the premise of The Rookie, which stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD. The four actors will feature in a two-episode arc in the current fourth season of The Rookie, which serves as a backdoor pilot for the potential spinoff.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

It Was a Dark and Storm Book Club featured The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard. Mitchard’s first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was named by USA Today as one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years.

Speaking of Mysteries spoke with Stewart O’Nan about his new noir novel, Ocean State, which isn’t so much a "whodunit" as a "why-dunit" story of the murder of a teenage girl and the ripples the crime and its aftermath cause in a small town and to the families who live there.

Queer Writers of Crime featured an encore presentation of an interview with Richard Stevenson Lipez, author of the Donald Strachey Mystery Series, which began in 1981. Lipez, 83, died peacefully in his sleep on March 16, 2022 after a short bout with cancer. The last novel in his series will be published by ReQueered Tales in the fall of 2022.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed Susan Wingate to discuss her eclectic catalog, her new book When You Leave Me, living away from the city, her podcast Dialogue, and more.

Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, Josh Cybulski.

My Favorite Detective Stories chatted with Jeffrey James Higgins, a former reporter and retired supervisory DEA special agent, who writes thriller novels, creative nonfiction, short stories, and essays.

Crime Time FM featured an episode with the contributors to the anthology, Alternative Ulster Noir: NI Crime Stories Inspired by NI Music.

The Red Hot Chili Writers chatted with CWA Chair, Maxim Jakubowski, about the new anthology, The Perfect Crime.

Listening to the Dead welcomed forensic fibers expert, Dr. Ann Priston, to discuss her memories of analyzing the evidence that linked the prime suspects to the bombs they had built during a foiled 1996 IRA bombing campaign.

THEATRE

The cast is set for Busman's Honeymoon, a whodunnit with thrills and humor by Dorothy L. Sayers and Muriel St. Clare Byrne, directed by Brian Blessed at the Mill at Sonning Theatre in the UK. It will run for nine weeks from April 28 to June 25. Acting legend, Brian Blessed, has directed several Agatha Christie mystery thrillers at The Mill at Sonning but this year he turns his hand to Christie's equal in crime novelists, Dorothy L. Sayers. The story follows upper crust sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey who has married his lovely fiancee, Harriet Vane. But his honeymoon bliss is shattered when the dead body of the house's previous owner turns up in the cellar. The cast features James Sheldon as Lord Peter Wimsey, Kate Tydman as Harriet Vane, Joanna Brookes as Mrs. Martha Ruddle, and George Telfer as Mervyn Bunter, along with Christian Ballanytne, Helen Bang, Luke Barton, Chris Porter, Iain Stuart Robertson, Noel White, and Duncan Wilkins.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 21, 2022 at 10:30 AM in Media Murder | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 19, 2022

Quote of the Week

Posted by BV Lawson on March 19, 2022 at 10:00 AM in Quote of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 18, 2022

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Plot Thickens

Collecting and publishing mystery short stories in anthologies to benefit a charity is pretty common these days. I think it's a terrific idea, but when I searched back through the years, I didn't find that many such anthologies available. The recent boom is no doubt due to the rise of ebooks, since prior to the new digital era, print short story anthologies were considered a hard sell.

One of the earliest I could find was The Plot Thickens, which was edited by Mary Higgins Clark back in 1997 to benefit the adult literacy organization Literacy Partners. Contributing authors include Lawrence Block, Edna Buchanan, Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, Lauren and Nelson DeMille, Janet Evanovich, Linda Fairstein, Nancy Pickard, Ann Rule, Donald E. Westlake, and Walter Mosley. Each story had to include a tale that features a thick fog, a thick book, and a thick steak, although everything else was fair game.

"How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block is a conservational story set in a restaurant where a woman is interviewing a man she want to hire to intimidate her ex-boyfriend who says she owes him money;
"Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan centers on the autopsy of an Egyptian mummy that reveals the supposedly thousand-year-old corpse was a murder victim with the same fingerprints as an infamous gang member;
"Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark is about an aspiring young actress in a steak sauce commercial where a series of puzzling accidents start happening on the set around her;
"The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark finds a young woman kidnapped by her creepy neighbor, who happens to be a serial killer, via a shared basement;
In "Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille, a woman entrusts her prized autobiograhical manuscript to an old college friend-turned literary agent, but doesn't take his criticism too well;
"The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich is a story featuring the author's iconic bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, who's on the trail of a peeping tom exhibitionist, only to have her discover the man's dead, naked body—which promptly disappears;
"Going Under" by Linda Fairstein focuses on an ambitious young policewoman who goes undercover as a dental patient to catch a molesting dentist;
In "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley, the author once again manages to pack a complicated mix of colorful characters like gangsters, pimps, prostitutes, and two friends in trouble into a tight tale;
"Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard is a fictionalized timeline of events surrounding the fatal fire and murders at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin studios in Wisconsin;
"The Road Trip" by Ann Rule follows a new divorcée on a road trip hoping to get away from her jealous ex-husband for awhile, only to find herself face to face with an infamous serial killer;
"Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake is an example of the author's trademark humor and charm, in which a hapless FBI agent on a stakeout is sent to get food for the team from the local Burger Whopper and strikes up a conversation with the man next to him in line, which takes a strange turn.

Both "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark and "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake were chosen to be the Best American Mystery Stories 1998, edited by Sue Grafton.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 18, 2022 at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2022

Mystery Melange

The organizers of Crimefest have announced the shortlists of nominees for awards in seven different categories of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction, including the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award; Audible Sounds of Crime Award; eDunnit Award; H.R.F. Keating Award (for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction); Last Laugh Award (for the best humorous crime novel); Best Crime Fiction Novel for Children (aged 8-12); and Best Crime Fiction Novel for Young Adults (aged 12-16). The winner of this year’s Specsavers Debut Crime Novel will receive a £1,000 prize, while a £1,000 prize fund is also awarded to the Audible Sounds of Crime Award, sponsored by Audible. The winners will be presented at the CrimeFest conference on Saturday, May 14.

The Western Writers of America announced the winners of the annual Spur Awards. There are some crossover mystery stories among them, including C.J. Box’s Dark Sky: A Joe Pickett Novel, which won Best Contemporary Novel, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden's short story, "Skin," published in Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color, which won Best Short Fiction. Check out all the finalists via this link.

The Lambda Literary organization announced the finalists for their annual book awards. The finalists this year in the LGBTQ Mystery category include Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon; Finding the Vein by Jennifer Hanlon Wilde; Lies With Man by Michael Nava; Murder Under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood; and The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver.

The Glencairn Glass, which has celebrated Scottish crime writing talent over the past two years as headline sponsor of the prestigious McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime-writing prizes, announced the winners of its inaugural short story competition. The contest invited writers from around the blog to submit stories based on the theme "A Crystal-Clear Crime" in no more than 2000 words. The winner is "Halmeoni’s Wisdom" by Brid Cummings of South Australia, with the runners up including "Teardrops" by Jennifer Harvey, a Scottish author based in Denmark, and "Auld Bride" by Judith O’Reilly of the UK. The winning entry will be published in the May issue of Scottish Field Magazine, and the runners’ up stories on the magazine's website. (HT to Shots Magazine.)

St. Patrick's Day figures in many mysteries, and Janet Rudolph has accordingly updated her ever-growing St. Patrick's Day Crime Fiction list.

Mike Ripley's latest Getting Away with Murder column reported on two debut crime novels—published on the same day—by former UK Chief Superintendents of Police, John Sutherland and Graham Bartlett; looked at French spy novelist Pierre Boulle (1912-1994), best known for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Monkey Planet; noted a new statue of statue of Dick Francis, champion jockey and champion thriller writer; highlighted a symposium on the development of the thriller taking place March 31st at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and more.

In 2013, the British Library recruited novelist and crime fiction historian Martin Edwards to consult on an exhibition titled "Murder in the Library: An A–Z of Crime Fiction," and as a result of that effort, British Library Crime Classics launched in the U.K. in 2014 (and the following year, Poisoned Pen Press brought the line to the U.S.). As Publishers Weekly noted in a profile, to date, there are nearly 100 books in the series. Forthcoming releases include the 1944 locked-room mystery Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr (Aug.); 1962’s Due to a Death, a work of suspense by Mary Kelly (May); and the anthology Guilty Creatures (June), a golden age showcase of mysteries involving animals.

Writer Valerie Stivers set out to make the four-course dinner from Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers and reported her results in The Paris Review.

Speaking of poison, Kathryn Harkup of Chemistry World Magazine took a look at how Agatha Christie used her chemical training in her detective novels.

Books against bombs: The Guardian reported on how Ukrainians are using literature to fight back. Meanwhile, the literary auction to raise funds for Ukrainian relief is still open through March 20.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Ready, Aim" by Charles Rammelkamp.

In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Judy Foreman, author of the medical thriller, CRISPR'd; Kate Parker stopped by the I Read What You Write blog to discuss Deadly Broadcast, the eighth in the Deadly Series, which revolves around the world of the BBC Broadcasting House in the winter of 1939/1940; and Lisa Haselton chatted with mystery author, Norm Harris, about his Spider Green Mystery Thriller series.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 17, 2022 at 09:30 AM in Mystery Melange | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 14, 2022

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

Neal McDonough has signed on to produce and star opposite Dermot Mulroney in The Warrant: Breaker’s Law, a sequel to his 2020 film, The Warrant, which will see him reprise his role as Civil War hero and Sheriff John Breaker. The original film saw Breaker and his son reunite to arrest former Union Army friend, "The Saint," who became a fierce gang leader and whose raids threatened to bring the country back into conflict. In the new film set in the 1870s, Breaker is now a Federal Marshal, setting out with his loyal best friend, Deputy Marshall Bugle Bearclaw, on a mission to deliver a warrant for Henry Bronson, aka Dead-Eye, estranged twin brother of the notorious outlaw, Yule Bronson. Brent Christy is returning to direct the sequel, with Shea Sizemore returning as screenwriter.

Frank Grillo (Captain America; Cop Shop) is set to headline the thriller, Dirty, from Wonderfilm. Nick Vallelonga is directing the project, which is based on a script he wrote, although the plot details are being kept tightly under wraps. The film is currently in pre-production in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with principal photography to begin April 11. Vallelonga is best known for winning two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for Original Screenplay and Best Picture for Green Book. He also directed the film, Stiletto, in which the seemingly random killings of an assassin puzzle her former lover, a wealthy Greek crime boss, as well as the detective following her rising body count.

Emmy-nominated actress Michelle Dockery is set to join the action thriller, Boy Kills World. The film already stars Bill Skarsgård, martial arts master Yayan Ruhian, Jessica Rothe, Andrew Koji, and Isaiah Mustafa. Moritz Mohr is set to make his feature directing debut on the project. The screenplay was written by Arend Remmers and Tyler Burton Smith and is described as "a dystopian fever dream action film that follows Boy, a deaf mute with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, he is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death."

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Hulu has given a series order for the new mystery drama, Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem. Starring Violett Beane, Lauren Patten, Rahul Kohli, Angela Zhou, Hugo Diego Garcia, Pardis Saremi, and Mandy Patinkin, the show centers around solving a murder in a "post-fact world." According to the logline, the murder solving will be attempted while "sailing the Mediterranean on an ocean liner filled with the wealthy and powerful. Everyone on board is hiding something … but is one of them a killer? That’s what the world’s once greatest detective, Rufus Cotesworth (Patinkin), and his protégée (Beane) aim to discover."

Netflix has given a series order to the Shondaland murder-mystery drama, The Residence. Inspired by Kate Andersen Brower’s book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, the eight-episode series is described by the streamer as "a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion." Viewers can expect to see the following key elements: 132 rooms. 157 suspects. One dead body. One wildly eccentric detective. One disastrous State Dinner.

Oscar winner Geena Davis has been tapped as the co-lead for a CBS untitled mother-son legal drama pilot from Scott Prendergast, who wrote the script and executive produces. In the drama, despite their opposing personalities, a talented but directionless P.I., who is the black sheep of his family, begrudgingly agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his overbearing mother (Davis), a successful attorney reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage.

Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad; Better Call Saul) is set to lead The Driver for AMC. The series is a remake of the BBC One miniseries starring The Walking Dead’s David Morrissey. The six-part AMC project stars Esposito as a taxi driver whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffer a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports. The 2014 British series similarly followed Morrissey as cabbie whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to be the driver for a criminal gang.

The Good Fight is getting another high-profile cast addition. Emmy winner André Braugher, coming off an eight-season run on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is set as a series regular in the upcoming sixth season of the Paramount+ legal drama. Now in production, The Good Fight is slated to return this summer on the streaming service. Braugher, who also starred in Homicide, will play Ri’Chard Lane, a showman lawyer and rainmaker who is forced on Liz (Audra McDonald) as a new name partner. A force of nature, Ri’Chard is a wild mix of brilliance, geniality, religion, and joyful hedonism. In short, he’s a handful.

The Good Wife alum Alan Cumming is also headed to The Good Fight in a reprisal of his Eli Gold role. Cumming will appear in two episodes in Season 6 as Gold assists his daughter Marissa (Sarah Steele) when she embarks on her new career as a full-fledged lawyer.

Jill Eikenberry is set to guest star in ABC's drama pilot, L.A. Law, a revival of the iconic Steven Bochco legal drama, reprising her role as Ann Kelsey. Eikenberry starred on all eight seasons of the original NBC series as Kelsey, Associate/Partner in the firm, but in the pilot, Eikenberry’s Kelsey is now a judge. In the revival, the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman — now named Becker Rollins — reinvents itself as a litigation firm specializing in only the most high-profile, boundary-pushing, and incendiary cases. The pilot stars Blair Underwood and Corbin Bernsen, who are reprising their respective roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, as well as fellow new series regulars Hari Nef, Toks Olagundoye, Ian Duff, John Harlan Kim, Kacey Rohl, and Juliana Harkavy.

Greg Hovanessian will star alongside Matt Barr as a series regular in The CW’s Walker: Independence pilot. The new, one-hour project is a Walker origin story set in the late 1800s that follows Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams. The newfound family will struggle with the changing world around them, while becoming agents of change themselves in a town where nothing is what it seems.

FX’s true crime thriller, Under the Banner of Heaven, has been given a premiere date of April 28 on Hulu. Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black created the series, inspired by the true crime bestseller from Jon Krakauer. It follows the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter in a suburb in Salt Lake Valley, Utah. Per the logline: As Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) investigates events that transpired within the Lafferty family, he uncovers buried truths about the origins of the LDS religion and the violent consequences of unyielding faith. Starring alongside Garfield and Edgar-Jones are Sam Worthington, Denise Gough, Wyatt Russell, Billy Howle, Gil Birmingham, Adelaide Clemens, Rory Culkin, Seth Numrich, Chloe Pirrie, and Sandra Seacat.

A new trailer was released for the spinoff, Bosch: Legacy, premiering Friday, May 6 on Amazon’s free streaming service, IMDb TV. With Titus Welliver, Madison Lintz, and Mimi Rogers reprising their roles as Harry Bosch, his daughter Madeline, and top-notch attorney Honey "Money" Chandler, the offshoot follows Bosch as he embarks on the next chapter of his career as a private investigator and finds himself working with his one-time enemy Honey. His first job calls him to the estate of ailing billionaire Whitney Vance, where Bosch is tasked with finding Vance’s only potential heir. Along the way, Bosch finds himself clashing with powerful figures who have a vested interest in the heir not being found. Meanwhile, Maddie is following in her dad’s footsteps as a rookie patrol officer and grapples with what kind of cop she wants to be.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring an excerpt from Mimi Gets A Clue by Jennifer J. Chow, read by actor Reese Herron.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer Karin Slaughter.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club highlighted books that feature strong women for Women's History month.

Read or Dead discussed short reads to meet your reading goals, reading during lunch, and everything in between.

On the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast, hosts Kristen and Layne welcomed Kellye Garrett to discuss her new domestic suspense novel, Like a Sister.

Wrong Place, Write Crime had a double feature with AB Patterson, noir author and former cop in Australia, followed by Oregonian and eclectic author, Bill Cameron.

All About Agatha interviewed Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient and The Maidens, about his books, his passion for Agathie Christie, and the craft of writing mysteries.

Listening to the Dead profiled the investigation into the case against murderer Colin Pitchfork, the first case where DNA screening was used.

Crime Time FM welcomed Robert J. Lloyd to chat about his philosophical historical crime novel, Bloodless Boy, scientist/detective Robert Hooke, and getting published with a helping hand from Christopher Fowler.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 14, 2022 at 10:00 AM in Media Murder | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 11, 2022

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Malcolm Sage, Detective

British author Herbert George Jenkins (1876-1923) spent several years as a journalist and then worked for the publishing company The Bodley Head, before founding Herbert Jenkins Ltd., which published many of P. G. Wodehouse's novels. Although Jenkins himself is best known for his light fiction, his first book was a biography of George Borrow. He was also an admirer of poet and visual artist, William Blake, writing a book on him in 1925 after conducting research into his trial for high treason and the location of his lost grave. Jenkins's most popular fictional creation as an author was the Cockney Mr. Joseph Bindle, who first appeared in a humorous novel in 1916.

Jenkins penned a number of short stories about Detective Malcolm Sage, which were collected into one book in 1921. The stories feature Sage, with his bald, conical head, "determined" jaw, and protruding ears. He first worked as an account, but after uncovering shady practices at high levels of the British civil service, he was appointed to the mysterious "Department Z." After the end of the First World War, his old chief from division Z (whose life Sage once saved) set Sage up in his own private detective agency.

Sage has been compared to Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes for his style of detective work—with his methods fairly high tech for the time, using such newfangled tools as telephones, photography, and medical evidence. However, as the detective himself notes, he is often more interested in setting traps for the villain than in detecting his original crime. Jenkins also doesn't necessarily play fair with the reader, introducing clues at the end that weren't shown during the story.

Mike Grost at GA Detection notes that the techniques and traps Sage uses often involve considerable social comedy. Although Sage is also a bit on the haughty side, his staff, composed of a secretary, an assistant, a chauffeur and an office boy (himself a devout reader of detective fiction) also provide comic foil to Sage's overbearing attitude. As Grost also notes, Sage's work can be compared to that of R. Austin Freeman.

Since Malcolm Sage, Detective is in the public domain, it's not easy to find in print, but there are several eBook versions you can read online, including Google Books. One fun note: two of his novels and several of his short stories were made into short films, including a couple of silent movies. Some of the Bindle stories made it to the "talkies" phase, including a 1966 film titled Bindle (One of Them Days) directed by Peter Saunders and starring Alfie Bass.

Posted by BV Lawson on March 11, 2022 at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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