In Reference to Murder

CWA Dagger Shortlists Announced

The 2022 shortlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honor the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced at a reception hosted at CrimeFest today. Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century. The Dagger awards ceremony will be held at the Leonardo City hotel in London on 29 June, coinciding with National Crime Reading Month, which takes place throughout June.

GOLD DAGGER

• Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz (Little, Brown; Sphere)
• Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)
• Razorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group; Headline)
• The Unwilling, John Hart (Bonnier Books UK Ltd; Zaffre)
• The Shadows of Men, Abir Mukherjee (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
• The Trawlerman, William Shaw (Quercus; riverrun)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

• Find You First, Linwood Barclay (HarperCollins; HQ)
• The Pact, Sharon Bolton (Orion)
• The Devil’s Advocate, Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• Razorblade Tears, SA Cosby (Headline Publishing Group)
• Dead Ground, MW Craven (Little, Brown; Constable)
• Dream Girl, Laura Lippman (Faber)

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

• Welcome to Cooper, Tariq Ashkanani (Thomas & Mercer)
• Repentance, Eloísa Díaz (Orion Publishing Group; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Mash House, Alan Gillespie (Unbound; Unbound Digital)
• The Appeal, Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper Books)
• Where Ravens Roost, Karin Nordin (HarperCollins; HQ)
• How to Kidnap the Rich, Rahul Raina (Little, Brown)
• Waking the Tiger, Mark Wightman (Hobeck Books)

HISTORICAL DAGGER

• April in Spain, John Banville (Faber)
• Sunset Swing, Ray Celestin (Pan Macmillan; Mantle)
• Crow Court, Andy Charman (Unbound)
• Not One of Us, Alis Hawkins (Canelo)
• Edge of the Grave, Robbie Morrison (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan)
• A Corruption of Blood, Ambrose Parry (Canongate Books)

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

• Hotel Cartagena, Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)
• Bullet Train, Kōtarō Isaka translated by Sam Malissa (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
• Oxygen, Sacha Naspini translated by Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions UK Ltd; Europa Editions)
• People Like Them, Samira Sedira translated by Lara Vergnaud (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)
• The Rabbit Factor, Antti Tuomainen translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

SHORT STORY DAGGER

• ‘Blindsided’ by Caroline England in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
• ‘London’ in The Jealousy Man and other stories by Jo Nesbⱷ edited by Robert Ferguson (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
• ‘With the Others’ by TM Logan in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)
• ‘Flesh of a Fancy Woman’ by Paul Magrs in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
• ‘Changeling’ by Bryony Pearce in Criminal Pursuits: Crime Through Time edited by Samantha Lee Howe (Telos Publishing)
• ‘When I Grow Up’ by Robert Scragg in Afraid of the Shadows edited by Miranda Jewess (Criminal Minds)

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

• The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, Dr Gwen Adshead & Eileen Horne (Faber)
• The Dublin Railway Murder, Thomas Morris (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
• The Unusual Suspect, Ben Machell (Canongate Books)
• The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice, Julia Laite (Profile Books)
• Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe (Pan Macmillan; Picador)
• The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire, Julie Kavanagh (Atlantic Books; Grove Press UK)

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

• Cath Staincliffe
• Edward Marston
• Lin Anderson
• Mark Billingham
• Susan Hill

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

• Faber & Faber
• HarperCollins; Harper Fiction
• Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph
• Pushkin Press; Pushkin Vertigo
• Titan Books
• Profile Books; Viper

DEBUT DAGGER Sponsored by ProWritingAid

• Henry’s Bomb, Kevin Bartlett
• Holloway Castle, Laura Ashton Hill
• The 10:12, Anna Maloney
• The Dead of Egypt, David Smith
• The Dieppe Letters, Liz Rachel Walker

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: One Night's Mystery

May Agnes Fleming (1840-1880) was one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction, reportedly earning $10,000 a year, a princely sum at the time. Her work became so popular that many of her novels were re-issued under different titles, often due to piracy. Her first book was published in her adopted state of New York in 1963, titled Erminie or The Gypsy's Vow: A Tale of Love and Vengeance. Using several pen names, including Cousin May Carleton and M.A. Earlie, she published several serial tales in the New York Mercury, the New York Weekly, the Boston Pilot and the London Journal (and set several of her books in England).

She wrote somewhere around 40 novels and would have written more if she hadn't died prematurely from Bright's Disease at the age of 39. Despite her literary success, she struggled in her personal life, separating from her alcoholic husband and ultimately excluding him from her will and the upbringing of their four children. This misfortune didn't break her but rather may have inspired the many strong female characters in her novels, both good and evil.

One Night's Mystery follows the lives and loves of three young women: Cyrilla Hendrick, the daughter of handsome, penniless, scoundrel; her best friend, Sydney Owenson, a naive heiress; and Dolly De Courcy, a spirited actress. Both Cyrilla and Sydney are engaged, although things aren't as they seem in either case. Sydney's gold-digging fiancé is besotted with Dolly, while Cyrilla's is arranged through her aunt, whom Cyrilla calls "the crossest, spitefulest old woman on earth." The one night's mystery of the title refers to the disappearance of Sydney's fiancé the day before her wedding, but did he run off with Dolly or was he murdered?

One Night's Mystery was first serialized in New York Weekly and the London Journal before being published in book form by G.W. Carleton in 1876, toward the end of Fleming's life. It is a prime example of the type of work Fleming wrote, romantic suspense with a few Gothic elements thrown in. Her writing style is direct, her characters simple but reasonably well fleshed out, and the complicated relationships between the characters thorny and entertaining, if a tad melodramatic.

Despite the melodrama, Fleming does insert moments of poetic descriptions that are especially effective with settings, such as this one about the grim street that houses the dull and respectable Demoiselles Chateauroy school for young ladies (where Cyrilla and Sydney met):

There were no shops, there were no people; the houses looked at you as you passed with a sad, settled, melancholy mildew upon them; the doors rarely opened, the blinds and curtains were never drawn; prim little gardens, with prim little gravel-paths, shut in these sad little houses from the street; now and then a pale, pensive face might gleam at you from some upper window, spectre-like, and vanish.

Mystery Melange

Warren Easley was announced as this year's recipient of the annual Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award, for his book, No Witness (Poisoned Pen Press). The Spotted Owl Award was established in 1995 and is given to the best mystery novel of the year by an author who lives in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, British Columbia, Canada, Idaho, Oregon or Washington). Previous winners have included Bill Cameron, Robert Dugoni, Earl Emerson, G.M. Ford, Dana Haynes, Mike Lawson, Phil Margolin, and Jon Talton. The other finalists this year were (in order) Robert Dugoni, Martin Limon, Dana Haynes, John Straley, Valerie Geary, Michael Niemann, Marc Cameron, Dana Stabenow, and Amy Stewart.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has announced the list of finalists for the 2022 Maine Literary Awards. This list was derived from over 400 submissions featuring the work of Maine authors, either full-time or part-time seasonal residents. The winners will be announced at a ceremony held at 7 p.m. on May 24 at SPACE in Portland. The contenders in the Crime Fiction category this year include Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn; Jule Selbo,10 Days: A Dee Rommel Mystery; and Caitlin Wahrer, The Damage.

If you happen to be in Dallas tonight, check out Dallas Noir Fest, which kicks off with a panel discussion tonight, moderated by Robert Wilonsky and featuring authors Johnathan Brownlee, Harry Hunsicker, Steve Stodghill, and Paul Coggins. There will also be showings of iconic noir films like Chinatown, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and more, including Reservoir Dogs with special guest Michael Madsen, who played the unforgettable sadistic ex-con in the film but is also a talented producer, director, writer, photographer, and poet.

Capitol Crimes is sponsoring an in-person Killer Workshop this Saturday, May 14 in Rancho Cordova, California. The keynote speaker is Gregg Hurwitz. Other special guests include: authors Dr. Ellen Kirschman, Cara Black, Simon Wood, Eileen Rendahl, Claire Booth, Kris Calvin, James L'Etoile, and Quan Huynh; Ryan Nickel, Crime Scene Lead from the Sacramento Crime Lab; Cover Artist Karen Phillips from Phillips Covers; and District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who will be live streaming about closing the groundbreaking 40-year-old Golden State Killer case using genetic genealogy. The registration deadline for this event is today, which you can do so via this link.

On May 21 from 6.30pm-8pm, Barnet Libraries Literary Festival in the UK will present an evening with four bestselling female crime fiction authors including Erin Kelly (The Poison Tree); Heidi Amsinck (My Name is Jensen); Caz Frear (Sweet Little Lies); and C J Tudor (The Chalk Man) discussing their most recent books. There will also be a Q&A session and book signing to follow.

In honor of the Crime Writers Association's National Crime Reading Month in the UK, Louise Phillips, Dublin’s CWA National Crime Reading Month Ambassador, will be in conversation on June 1 with bestselling author of the Lottie Parker series, Patricia Gibney. There will also be readings from Fiona Sherlock, EV Kelly, and Paul McNeive.

Dean Street Press is republishing the works of golden age crime novelist, Alice Campbell, beginning June 6th. They'll be reissuing the first ten of her mysteries initially, with the remainder to follow next year. As the publisher noted, the novels are "not merely excellent detective stories, but atmospheric works of suspense, many set in France." This is their first time these novels have been in print for over seventy years, and are prefaced by an introduction from crime fiction historian, Curtis Evans. Campbell (1887-1955) came originally from Atlanta, Georgia, where she was part of the socially prominent Ormond family, before she moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and quickly became a socialist and women’s suffragist. She later moved to Paris, marrying the American-born artist and writer, James Lawrence Campbell, and ultimately to England just before World War One. Campbell wrote crime fiction until 1950, though many of her novels continued to have French settings. She published her first work (Juggernaut) in 1928 and published nineteen detective novels during her career.

Climate change is bringing a whole host of problems that countries and local jurisdictions will have to deal with, but there's another strange side effect: as water levels drop to historic levels in Lake Mead near Las Vegas, bodies in barrels are being found in the reservoir. Geoff Schumacher with The Mob Museum in Las Vegas predicts more bodies will be found and some may be linked to organized crime. "A barrel has a signature of a mob hit," he said.

Speaking of crime, this is the definition of karma.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "The Purge" by Rena J. Worley.

In the Q&A roundup, Connie Berry spoke with E. B. Davis about her fourth Kate Hamilton mystery, where American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton uncovers a dark secret buried in Victorian England; Kirstyn Petras chatted with Lisa Haselton about her new political thriller, The Next Witness; Joanna Penn interviewed Angela Marsons about writing a successful crime thriller series; Chris Holm, author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, the Michael Hendricks thrillers, and thirty-odd short stories in a variety of genres, stopped by Author Interviews to talk about his new standalone biological thriller, Child Zero; and D V Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo series set in Florence (shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize and longlisted for both the CWA Gold Dagger and Historical Dagger), spoke with Shots Magazine's Ayo Ontade.

Author R&R with Brian Lebeau

Brian Lebeau was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, home of the infamous Lizzie Borden. After being awarded an "A" in high school English once and denied a career in music for "lack of talent" repeatedly, he taught economics at several colleges and universities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island before moving to Fauquier County, Virginia, to work as a defense contractor for two decades. In his debut psychological thriller, A Disturbing Nature, Mr. Lebeau merges three key interests: a keen fascination with everything World War II, a morbid curiosity surrounding the motivations and mayhem of notorious serial killers, and a lifelong obsession with the Red Sox. 

A Disturbing Nature is set in the summer of 1975, when FBI investigator Francis Palmer believes that after the Vietnam War ended, so did his troubles. But the serial killer who strikes a southern New England town is like nothing he's ever seen. Mo Lumen—a young man perpetually stuck with the mental and emotional capacity of an 11-year-old due to a childhood accident—is the main suspect. Abandoned by the Great Society and sheltered from the counter-cultural revolution, he'd been forced to leave Virginia under the shadow of secrets and accusations. But as Palmer digs deeper, their intertwining lives blur the lines between fact and conjecture, truth and justice, man and monster. In war, you can identify your enemy. At home, it could be anyone.

Sitting down with In Reference to Murder for a little Author R&R (Reference and Research), Brian discusses the challenges and unique aspects of conducting research for a psychological thriller about a fictional serial killer from nearly fifty years ago.

 

My novel, A Disturbing Nature, is a psychological thriller in the strictest sense—with questions swirling around, and inside the minds of, a mysterious young man who arrives in Rhode Island just before the killing begins, raising suspicion that he may be the predator lurking in the woods, and an equally enigmatic FBI Chief Investigator tasked with hunting the monster down. While the primary storyline concerns a serial killer, and many significant serial killers from that time (called mass murderers before 1980) are referenced, the mystery unfolds with reduced emphasis on graphic violence and explicit sex, relying more on the resultant trauma. Yes, the story involves sexual themes, and, yes, there are violent crimes committed, but these unfold in such a way as to explore the psychological impact on the chief investigator and the newly arrived young man as they are drawn irresistibly together, though neither fully understands why.

The central theme concerns the thin line between man and monster, so I focused primarily on the psychological profiles of the hunter and hunted and the evolution of their thought processes as they react to distractions and disturbances. In addition to a long-time interest in true-crime documentaries, I leveraged heart-to-heart discussions with family and friends throughout my years as a professor of economics, a defense contractor, and CEO of a mid-sized firm. I also spent a great deal of time researching psychological profiling from the early-to-mid 1970s, as well as modern psychological studies. Combining all this with deep introspection into the darkest recesses of my own mind, I was able to develop a cast of fictional characters that couldn't be further apart intellectually, socially, or professionally. This afforded me an opportunity to explore the human psyche at the extremes and all the space in between. The result is a mystery with very realistic characters—individuals that could be living next door in your rural community, urban high rise, or even college townhouse. Compelling the audience to witness the transformation of a character's thoughts is intentional, evoking empathy and inviting the reader to speculate how similar circumstances in their past might have altered their mindset and motivations—the hallmark of a psychological thriller—because the scariest monsters usually hide in our own closets. 

Historical accuracy is paramount in a period piece. Having A Disturbing Nature unfold in late summer and early fall 1975 created several challenges, including: weaving in significant social, political and cultural events, infamous serial killer investigations, accurate weather, and sports-related history. Fortunately, gathering historical information today is much easier than back in 1975, so my team and I allocated countless hours to online research, scouring websites like farmersalmanac.com, baseball-reference.com, and vault.fbi.gov, among many others. There's no doubt that online information is an author's first source of data, though the information can vary a great deal, so verifying through multiple sources, when possible, is required. 

But online information only provides statistics and landmark references. It does not provide the ambience, flavor or authenticity associated with actually experiencing the locations and extrapolating backwards to the past either through experience or second-hand knowledge. I was eleven when the Red Sox and Reds battled in the 1975 World Series and saw the world through the eyes of an idealistic youth teetering on the edge of puberty. Raised in Fall River, where Massachusetts nestles along the Rhode Island border, I lived in several locations between my hometown and Worcester, Massachusetts while attending graduate school in my mid-twenties, so I'm very familiar with the geography, even back to that time. Additionally, I taught at Bryant College, now Bryant University, in Smithfield, Rhode Island—a key setting in A Disturbing Nature. Using old family photographs and a historical postcard collection of the area allowed me to put together a strong overall picture of central Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts at that time. 

In the novel, A primary location for flashbacks and memories is Fauquier County, Virginia, where I lived for a dozen years while working in the D.C. area. During that time, I engaged in the small, rural community by managing youth baseball, coaching grade school basketball and joining civic organizations. I got to know the people—their joys, sorrows, and fears—and I visited the places—from the beauty of the countryside vistas to the hardship of natural disasters—experiencing perfect summer days and blessed fall foliage, along with historic snowstorms and a flood of biblical proportions. Along the way, I uncovered some of the past in the hallowed battlefields, haunted meadows, and historic town centers, finding, as with any community, if you scratch the surface, you'll unearth dirt (maybe red clay) as anywhere else. In truth, Fauquier County is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, an almost idyllic environment that compels one to wonder what well-kept secrets are masked in the landscape and what proverbial sins are washed away by the waters of the Rappahannock River.

Armed with history, geography, and first-hand experience, I dusted off a shoebox full of memories and self-medicated with an appropriate dose of cynicism before finally sitting down to write A Disturbing Nature. After selling my interest in a company to enjoy an early, if premature, retirement, I assembled a small team under the label "Tangent Inspired Stories" to assist with story layout, research, and editing. Now, a little more than four years later, we have nearly a dozen novels in the works, and we expect to release two per year starting in 2023. Our four-person Tangent team has been together from the company's inception, and has made a number of research trips for A Disturbing Nature, its sequels, and future novels. Destinations have included: China, Australia, Belize, Guatemala, much of New England, Virginia, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

While the countless hours of online research and extensive travel are crucial to make a story accurate and plausible, nothing enables a writer to transport the reader quite like personal experience. Specifically, for A Disturbing Nature, I found tapping into childhood memories and emotions through the disenchanted eyes of an adult proved both challenging and cathartic. But writing in the psychological thriller genre demands a heightened awareness of one's own psyche via extensive internalized research and introspection. For, only when we become familiar with the beast inside ourselves, do we have less to fear from the demons that haunt us.

 

To find out more about Brian Lebeau, you can visit his website and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. A Disturbing Nature is available via Books Fluent and can be purchased through Amazon in print, eBook, and audio formats, or directly from brianlebeauwriter.com.

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

Michael Keaton is set to star in and direct the noir thriller, Knox Goes Away, which was written by Gregory Poirier. The film follows a contract killer who, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.

State Street Pictures has optioned Assassin & Son, a graphic novel created and written by the late Shad Gaspard and Marc Copani, for development as a film. The story centers on Donovan Braddock, a one-man killing unit who works with a team of covert assassins known as "The Horsemen." When Braddock finds love, and makes a family of his own, he attempts to leave that life of violence behind. But he discovers that his old life still torments him when his wife is murdered in front of him and his young son. Now, with nothing to live for, this tragic event sends father and son on an epic journey of revenge and consequence.

Actress, model and singer, Bella Thorne (Midnight Sun), has been set to star in the thriller, Saint Clare, co-scripted by Guinevere Turner (American Psycho) and Mitzi Peirone, who will also serve as director. The project follows Clare Bleecker (Thorne), a quiet catholic college student with a divine vocation for killing. The story is based on the novel, Clare At 16, by Don Roff, with its sequel due out in 2023.

Jack Huston (House of Gucci) has signed on to star alongside Isabelle Fuhrman and Don Johnson in Andy Tennant’s thriller, Unit 234, which is currently in production in the Cayman Islands. In the film penned by Derek Steiner, a lone employee at a remote storage facility (Fuhrman) discovers an unconscious man locked inside Unit 234, chained to a gurney and missing a kidney. She must then fight to survive a ruthless gang, dead set on retrieving their precious cargo…at any cost.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Titus Welliver returns as Michael Connelly's ex-cop Harry Bosch to crack more cases on Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDb TV). Amazon's ad-supported streaming service announced the pickup of Season 2 of Bosch: Legacy, a spin-off of the series, Bosch, that ran for seven seasons on Prime Video. Bosch: Legacy follows Welliver’s title character—a retired LAPD homicide detective turned private investigator—as he fights to work cases without the authority his former job provided. Meanwhile, attorney Honey "Money" Chandler (Mimi Rogers) struggles to maintain her faith in the justice system after surviving an attempted murder, and Harry’s daughter, Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz), discovers the challenges of being a rookie patrol cop on the streets of L.A.

Peacock will become the U.S. home of ITV’s thriller, Trigger Point. The high-pressure drama stars Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester as frontline officers who must risk their lives during a terrorist campaign in the heart of London and find out who is behind the bombings before fatalities escalate.

Jake McLaughlin (Quantico) and Iantha Richardson (American Soul) are set as leads opposite Ramón Rodríguez and Erika Christensen in ABC’s drama pilot, Will Trent. Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling book series, Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. McLaughlin will play Michael, a former Army vet and now a Detective with the APD. Richardson will play Faith, Will Trent's partner.

Scoot McNairy (Narcos: Mexico), Jack Reynor (Midsommar), and Emily Browning (American Gods) are set to lead the cast in the psychological thriller, Brightwater. The story follows a big-city architect who travels to an isolated Maine island with plans to build a sprawling luxury resort. But when his girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he embarks on a desperate search across the unforgiving landscape and into his own psyche. Currently in pre-production, the project is written and directed by Lance Edmands, whose debut feature, Bluebird, was invited to the Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Andrea Savage will play an ATF agent going up against Sylvester Stallone’s mob boss in Paramount+’s upcoming Taylor Sheridan series, Tulsa King. Savage’s character, Stacy Beale, is an ATF agent who transfers from the anti-terror team in New York to an Oklahoma bureau targeting local militia groups. Stallone stars as mob boss Dwight "The General" Manfredi, who must assemble a new crew after being exiled by his mob family following his release from a 25-year prison sentence.

Oderbruch (working title) has added four cast members including André Hennicke, Alix Heyblom, Winfried Glatzeder, Robert Glatzeder, and Jan Krauter. The eight-part series follows Detective Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) on a serial murder case after numerous victims shock the Oderbruch region of Germany. His former colleague and childhood sweetheart, Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch), joins the police investigation when her family comes under immediate suspicion. The project is from CBS Studios who has partnered with Syrreal Entertainment and ARD Degeto on the "elevated genre-drama" for the latter’s online platform, ARD Mediathek.

B-Reel Films, the Swedish banner behind Midsommar, is set to produce a thriller series based on Jonas Bonnier’s true crime novel, The Helicopter Heist, and has attached Ronnie Sandahl (Borg vs McEnroe) as writer. Rights to the novel were previously acquired by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories banner in 2016 where it was being developed as a feature, but the project fell through. The eight-part series is based on the true story of four young Swedes who orchestrated one of the most spectacular daylight heists of all time in 2009. They used a stolen Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter to land on the roof of a G4S cash service depot building in Stockholm and stole more than $4 million in cash.

CBS has renewed its hit drama, The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, for two more seasons (3 and 4). The series features Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background, who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. The character was previously portrayed in the original 1980s TV series by Edward Woodward and in the 2014 film starring Denzel Washington.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast posted its 100th episode this week, which features the first chapter of Maximum Rossi, a Las Vegas Noir Mystery novel by Paul W. Papa, read by actor Sean Hopper.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features Debbi Mack's interview with crime writer, screenwriter, and producer Sascha Rothchild, who just released her debut novel, Blood Sugar.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Harini Nagendra about The Bangalore Detectives Club, her debut historical crime fiction novel that takes place in 1921 and follows a recently married headstrong young woman who witnesses the aftermath of a murder at a club where the cream of Indian society can socialize with members of the British Raj.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Justine focused on one of the Lambda Literary Award Mystery nominees, Murder Under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood.

My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Julie Hennrikus, who writes the Clock Shop Mystery series under the name Julianne Holmes and the Theater Cop series as J.A. Hennrikus. She also uses the pen name Julia Henry for the Garden Squad Series, with her fifth installment due out this fall.

Chris Rickaby and Barney Thompson, aka Ben Creed, chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about A Traitor's Heart, their new historical thriller set in post-WWII Leningrad and featuring detective Revol Rossel.

Wrong Place, Write Crime welcomed author Stephen Burdick to discuss his novellas set in Florida.

To introduce the May/June 2022 issue, the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast featured Smita Harish Jain's reading of her latest story, "The Manglik Curse."

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club attended the recent Malice Domestic conference and snagged several authors for mini-interviews, including Ang Pompano, Raquel V. Reyes, Elaine Viets, S.C. Perkins, and Karen Neary Smithson.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Port of London Murders

Josephine Bell (1897-1987), the pen name of Doris Collier Ball, was born in Manchester, educated at Cambridge, and became a University College Hospital of London physician. She married a fellow physician who died at a young age in 1936, which is when Bell turned her hand to writing, even as she maintained her medical practice.

She was a co-founder of the Crime Writers' Association, serving as its chair in 1959, and also became a member of the Detection Club. She eventually closed her medical practice at age 57 but continued to write full time until she was 85, creating numerous sleuths in her more than 40 crime novels (at the rate of two a year), such as Amy Tupper, Dr. David Wintingham, Dr. Henry Frost, and Scotland Yard Inspector Steven Mitchell.

Not surprisingly, her novels often feature a strong medical component, not the least of which were two of her doctor-protagonists. She also featured poison and other unusual methods of murder prominently in her plots. Bell and her family were experienced sailors, and the author drew upon this knowledge, too, using many vivid passages in her books that relate to the water and to various nautical details.

Water is certainly at the heart of the setting in Bell's novel The Port of London Murders from 1938, specifically as the title suggests, the port area of London's River Thames. It's a tough neighborhood, but the death of one Mary Holland is still a bit of a shock, even though it appears at first to be a suicide by Lysol poisoning. Tell-tale needle marks on the victim's arm lead Detective Sergeant Chandler to suspect murder tied into a drug ring—which seems even more chillingly apparent when Chandler disappears shortly after he starts to investigate, right before he's due to testify at the inquest. It's up to Inspector Mitchell of Scotland Yard to unravel the layers of deception and addiction that are exploiting rich and poor alike in a way that hasn't changed much in the seventy years since the book was written.

Bell is particularly good with settings, even the squalid ones that pop up in the novel, no doubt witnessed first-hand in her role as a physician who saw people from every walk of life. Her take on the state of medicine in her day was often somewhat bleak, as in this passage from the book—again, as true today as it was in 1938:

For the great majority of these cases, too poor to have a doctor of their own, there was little he could do...Dr. Freeman could encourage them with a bottle of medicine and help them with a pint of milk a day, but it was not in his power nor that of anyone else to effect a lasting cure of their complaints. There were others, too, not old, but equally hopeless, who attended the dispensary as regular visitors; those struck down in youth or middle age by tuberculosis, rheumatism, heart trouble, and a number of more rare diseases. They had come to the end of their resources, their insurances, and their capacity for earning. The hospitals could do nothing more for them, but they still lived, in the worse possible surroundings, and the Public Assistance saw to it that they did not die too soon.

Longlist Revealed for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

The longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022 has been revealed with debut authors and literary icons vying for the UK and Ireland’s most coveted crime fiction writing award. The award, now in its 18th year, is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and recognizes the best crime novels published in the UK and Ireland in paperback over the past year. Readers can vote online for their favorite book among the listed titles, with voting closing on May 26.

 

 

 

Mystery Melange

 

The Welsh crime fiction conference, Crime Cymru, announced the winners of the inaugural Crime Cymru First Novel Prize in English and in Welsh. Writers were asked to submit the first 5,000 words of a crime novel with an accompanying synopsis of the complete plot. Gwyneth Steddy won top honors for her novel, Do Sleeping Dogs Lie. The other finalists were Dyffryn ap Gwilym for A Mortal Occupation and Joanna Masters for Secrets. Steddy wins a year of mentoring from a Crime Cymru member plus a four-night stay in Nant, the writing retreat on the grounds of Ty Newydd, Wales’s national writing centre.

Bestselling writers Thomas King, Shari Lapena, and Kathy Reichs are set to headline the inaugural Motive Crime & Mystery Festival, a new Toronto-based literary event for crime and mystery writing. Run by the Toronto International Festival of Author, Motive takes place June 3 to 5, 2022 at Harbourfront Centre. Nearly 100 writers will be featured at the event, including English novelist Mark Billingham, Norwegian writer Thomas Enger, American authors Kellye Garrett and E. Lockhart, Scottish writer Val McDermid, Canada's former chief justice Beverley McLachlin, Murdoch Mysteries creator Maureen Jennings, and debut Toronto novelist Nita Prose. Some authors, including American authors Harlan Coben, Walter Mosley and others, will be joining at virtual events. (HT to the CBC)

This year, PulpFest will celebrate its 50th anniversary from August 4 - 7, 2022, in Pittsburgh, PA. Fifty years ago, there were no organized gatherings specifically geared toward pulp fiction and the magazines in which it appeared. That all changed when Ed Kessell, Earl Kussman, and Nils Hardin founded Pulpcon in 1972, now called PulpFest. This year's special guest will be Robert J. Randisi, whom Booklist call  "one of the last true pulp writers." PulpFest 50 will also honor the centennial of Fiction House, the pulp magazine and comic book publisher. Additionally, PulpFest will salute the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Publications’ "Dime" line of pulp magazines, particularly Dime Western and Dime Mystery. Both magazines debuted in 1932 and played a major role in the evolution of popular fiction.

On her Mystery Fanfare blog, Janet Rudolph compiled a list of books for Cinco de Mayo, which is traditionally celebrated on the 5th Of May, and commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. She's supplement the list with Mexican mystery writers and books set in Mexico and on the Mexican-American border. 

A previously unpublished script for Ian Fleming’s James Bond screenplay, Moonraker, reveals a very different 007, as well as no Moneypenny, and no "M." As The Guardian reported, the finished movie could not be more different from the author’s own version of the film. The undeveloped screenplay has come to light as part of a major collection of Bond material amassed by two leading antiquarian bookshops in London, Peter Harrington and Adrian Harrington Rare Books, where Jon Gilbert is the resident Fleming expert. Gilbert noted that the screenplay is "much more serious" than the 1979 film, which reflects the time when it was created with Cold War and nuclear threats.

A study from Clever Real Estate analyzed publicly available data from Libraries.org, IndieBound, the National Center for Education Statistics, Publishers Weekly, and Google Trends to rank the 50 most populous metro areas in the U.S. from the best to the worst cities for book-lovers. Did your city make the list?

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Duper's Delight" by Carolynn Kingyens.

In the Q&A roundup, Writers Who Kill spoke with Linda Norlander about her Cabin by the Lake Mystery series and her soon-to-be-released book, Death of a Snow Ghost; Tom Mead chatted with Publishers Weekly about his new novel, In Death and the Conjuror, in which he gives magician sleuth Joseph Spector three impossible crimes to solve; and Esquire sat down with Lauren Beukes, who novel The Shining Girls is now an Apple TV+ series, to discuss why she no longer believes in "the fairy tale of justice," and the murder that haunts her.

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

Netflix is adapting bestselling author Don Winslow’s novels, The Dawn Patrol and The Gentlemen’s Hours, for a feature adaptation. Charlène Favier is aboard to direct, with Chernin Entertainment and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno producing. The project is said to be "out to high level writers to script the film." Published in 2008 and 2011, respectively, both books focus on Boone Daniels, a San Diego ex-cop-turned-investigator and his motley crew of colleagues who make up the Dawn Patrol, a close-knit group of surfers.

Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth are teaming up for the action thriller, Land of Bad, to be directed by Underwater filmmaker, Will Eubank. The project will kick off principal photography in September in Australia. Crowe plays Reaper, an Air Force drone pilot supporting a special ops extraction mission in the South Philippines. When the field team is joined by Kinney (Hemsworth), a green Air Force JTAC, the ground mission suddenly turns upside down after the team is discovered by the enemy. With no weapons and no communication other than the drone, Reaper becomes the young operator’s only ticket out.

Meghan Leathers (Don’t Look Up) and Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Undoing) have signed on for roles in Paramount+’s crime thriller, Finestkind, from Academy Award-winning writer-director Brian Helgeland. They join an ensemble that also includes Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, Jenna Ortega, Aaron Stanford, Scotty Tovar, Tim Daly, Lolita Davidovich, and Clayne Crawford, as previously announced. Set in America’s biggest commercial fishing port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Finestkind tells the story of two brothers (Foster and Wallace) from opposite sides of the tracks, who are reunited as adults over one fateful summer. When desperate circumstances force them to strike a deal with a dangerous Boston crime syndicate, a young woman (Ortega) finds herself caught in the middle. Along the way, sacrifices must be made, and bonds between brothers, friends, and a father (Jones) and his son are put to the test. Leathers will play Tom’s (Foster) former girlfriend, Kathy. Cordova will play Costa, a fisherman, dad, and Tom’s best friend.

Mo McRae (The Flight Attendant), Brian Geraghty (Gaslit), Chapel Oaks (The First Lady), Kenneth Miller (12 Strong), and Nicholas Logan (I Care a Lot) are the final additions to the cast of Ian and Eshom Nelms’s action-thriller, Red Right Hand, which is in production in Kentucky. The actors join an ensemble that also includes Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell, Scott Haze, and Garret Dillahunt, as previously announced. Red Right Hand finds Cash (Bloom) trying to live an honest and quiet life with his widowed brother-in-law Finney (Haze) and niece, Savannah (Oaks), in the Appalachian hills of Odim County. When the sadistic Queenpin Big Cat (MacDowell), who runs the town, forces him back into her services to pay off Finney’s debts, Cash will use any means necessary—even killing—to protect his town and the only family he has left. As the journey gets harder, Cash is drawn into a nightmare that blurs the lines between good and evil. McRae will play Deputy Duke Parks, with Geraghty as Sheriff Hollister. Miller and Logan will portray Big Cat’s henchman, The Buck and The Doe.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The true-crime story of the Murdaughs, which includes money, power, family drama, corruption, local politics, drugs, and murder, is set to be the subject of a drama series in development at UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group. Michael D. Fuller (Locke & Key) and Erin Lee Carr (Britney vs Spears) will create, write, and executive produce the series based on journalist Mandy Matney’s popular Murdaugh Murders Podcast. The series aims to be the definitive account of Alex Murdaugh’s stranger-than-fiction family drama, based on countless hours of reporting by Matney as well as exclusive, insider knowledge from privileged sources.

Y’lan Noel (The First Purge), Mikey Madison (Better Things), and Brett Gelman (Stranger Things) are set as leads opposite Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o in Lady In The Lake, Apple TV+’s adaptation of Laura Lippman’s book, created and directed by Alma Har’el (Honey Boy) and produced by Endeavor Content. The limited series, which has started production, takes place in 60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother, Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Chad Lowe, Rob Lowe’s real-life sibling, will guest star in the May 2 episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star as Owen’s half brother. The firefighter captain returns to Los Angeles when their father is hospitalized and the visit stirs up painful childhood memories. Robert Pine, star of 1970s cop show CHiPs, who is also the father of actor Chris Pine, will play their dad. Chad previously directed two episodes of the Fox drama, but this will be his first appearance on camera.

Steven Pasquale of Rescue Me has been cast as a recurring guest star in Peacock’s upcoming crime-drama series, The Missing. Stephanie Szostak (A Million Little Things) and Tony Curran (Your Honor) will also recur. The series, which is based on the bestselling novel, The Missing File, by Israeli author Dror A. Mishani, is produced by David E. Kelley, alongside Keshet Studios and Universal Television. Barry Levinson has been tapped to direct multiple episodes and executive produce the series. The Missing follows Detective Avraham (Jeff Wilbusch), an NYPD detective with the 77th precinct who is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down. The rest of the previously announced cast includes Juliana Canfield as NYPD rookie detective Janine Harris, Karen Robinson as no-nonsense Captain Helen Davies, and Michael Mosley as veteran cop Detective Earl Malzone.

CBS has renewed Blue Bloods for season 13. The network handed the long-running cop drama the renewal after star and exec producer, Tom Selleck, closed his deal to return. The series has been a rock-solid performer at 10 p.m. on Fridays, where it is currently the No. 4 series on broadcast television. Blue Bloods follows the Reagans, a family of New York City cops. Selleck plays Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, Donnie Wahlberg plays Detective Danny Reagan, Bridget Moynahan plays ADA Erin Reagan, Will Estes plays former Sgt. Jamie Reagan, and Len Cariou plays former Police Commissioner and Frank’s father, Henry Reagan.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with Jeremy Scott, a writer and entertainer from Nashville, TN. He is the co-creator and narrator of CinemaSins, a YouTube channel dedicated to movie-related comedy that has amassed over 9 million subscribers. His debut book was a YA novel about teenage superheroes with disabilities who save the world through teamwork. When the Corn is Waist High is his first thriller.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed author and editor, Elaine Isaak, whose stories have appeared in anthologies ranging from Warrior Women to Fantasy for the Throne. She also writes The Bone Guard series of thrillers featuring former special ops intelligence officer Grant Casey.

On the latest episode of Queer Writers of Crime, Jeffrey Round, Mark McNease, and Mikel J. Wilson chatted with host, Brad Shreve, about books they recommend.

In two separate interviews on the latest CrimeTime FM, authors Heather Young (The Distant Dead) and Peter Murphy (To Become an Outlaw) discussed their new novels.

The latest Red Hot Chili Writers featured a discussion with 2022 British Crime and Thriller book of the year nominees, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Abigail Dean. 


THEATRE

Canada's Vertigo Mystery Theatre announced their 2022-23 season, which will feature both the return of the legendary Agatha Christie, whose work will be represented by Murder on the Orient Express (Nov. 12 – Dec. 17), and The Extractionist (Jan. 28-Feb.26) a world premiere presentation by Calgary's Michaela Jeffrey. The season opens with Misery, a theatrical adaptation of the film written by William Goldman from a novel by Stephen King (Sept. 10 to Oct. 15) and will also feature Gaslight, by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson, and Nevermore – the Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.

Derringer Masters

 

The Short Mystery Fiction Society has announced the winners of the Derringer Awards for 2022 voted on by the members of the organization. First awarded in 1998, the Derringer Awards consider any mystery or crime stories that first appeared in English in the past year. Congratulations to all of this year's winners!

 

FLASH FICTION

John M. Floyd. "Tourist Trap." Pulp Modern Flash.

SHORT STORY

Trey Dowell. "Yelena Tried to Kill Me." Mystery Weekly Magazine. August 2021.

LONG STORY

Michael Bracken. "The Downeaster Alexa." Only the Good Die Young.

NOVELETTE

Stacy Woodson. "Two Tamales, One Tokarev, and a Lifetime of Broken Promises." Guns + Tacos: Season Three.

EDWARD D. HOCH MEMORIAL GOLDEN DERRINGER FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

S.J. Rozan 

HALL OF FAME

G.K. Chesterton