In Reference to Murder

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

Anjelica Huston, who made her John Wick franchise debut as "The Director" in 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, is joining the Ana de Armas-led spinoff movie, Ballerina. Huston is the second John Wick actor to be officially announced for Ballerina, as Ian McShane is also on board to reprise Winston, the manager of The Continental’s New York branch. It’s also been reported that Keanu Reeves’s John Wick will appear in the spinoff, but Lionsgate hasn’t confirmed if that is indeed the case.

Emma D’Arcy has dropped out of the feature thriller Anna about fearless Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya due to a scheduling clash and has been replaced by Naomi Battrick (The Postcard Killings). The project stars two-time BAFTA nominee, Maxine Peake (Black Mirror), in the title role and is directed by Broadchurch’s James Strong from a screenplay by Eric Poppen. Politkovskaya was a world renowned journalist and human rights activist who went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin. She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence and was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats. Battrick will play Politkovskaya’s daughter, Vera, in the cast that also includes Ciaran Hinds, Jason Isaacs, Harry Lawtey, and Ellie Bamber.

Teresa Palmer is set to join Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the cast of Universal’s The Fall Guy, which has a March 1, 2024 release date. The film is inspired by the 1980s series of the same name and will be directed by David Leitch. Drew Pearce, who worked with Leitch on Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, wrote the script and serves as executive producer. Although plot details are still unknown, the original TV series starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas as Hollywood stunt performers who moonlight as bounty hunters.

Sony has rounded out its cast for The Equalizer 3, with Eugenio Mastrandrea, Remo Girone, Sonia Ammar, Daniele Perrone, Andrea Scarduzio, and Andrea Dodero boarding the project. The actors join an ensemble led by Denzel Washington which also includes Dakota Fanning, and Gaia Scodellaro, as previously announced. While the film’s plot is being kept under wraps, it’s the third in an action series centered on Washington’s vigilante character, Robert McCall, from director Antoine Fuqua.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Night Manager producer, The Ink Factory, is creating a TV version of John Le Carré’’s A Most Wanted Man almost a decade after making a feature film version, with Snabba Cash writer, Oskar Söderlund, serving as showrunner. No broadcaster is attached as of yet, although Söderlund’s version is said to be updated to a modern day European context. One of Le Carré’s best known works, A Most Wanted Man follows a young Chechen ex-prisoner who arrives illegally in Germany with a claim to a fortune held in a private bank. It was written against the backdrop of George W. Bush’s policy of "extraordinary rendition" and inspired by the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz.

Red Planet Pictures has struck a deal with Louise Candlish, upon whose book ITV’s Our House was based, to develop another two books by the author, 2016’s The Swimming Pool and the upcoming thriller, The Only Suspect, the latter of which will be adapted by Simon Ashdown. The Red Planet team also acquired the rights to Will Dean's novel The Dark Pines, the first in a contemporary Nordic Noir series about a hearing-impaired bisexual detective, and are working with Orphan Black showrunner, Aubrey Nealon, and Amber Alexander on a major adaptation that is close to being greenlighted in Canada.

Felix Herngren, director and writer of Oscar-nominated The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, is creating and directing an adaptation for the Viaplay streaming service of Emelie Schepp’s novel, Jana – Marked for Life. Herngren is pairing with Henrik Björn (Jordskott) on the six-part adaptation, which tells the story of public prosecutor and former child soldier, Jana Berzelius. During an investigation into the murder of a high-ranking official at the Swedish Migration Agency, the main suspect is also found dead, and Jana immediately recognizes something on his scarred body. To understand her own traumatic past, Jana must reach the killer ahead of the police.

Disney+ has unveiled its debut Nordic original, an adaptation of Swedish author Mikael Niemi’s To Cook a Bear. The six-parter takes place in the mid-nineteenth century in the northern Swedish village of Kengis and centers on a runaway Sami boy, Jussi, who develops a deep relationship with Laestadius, the Lutheran revivalist preacher and naturalist. When the body of a shepherd girl is found in a bog, the villagers set out in search of the killer bear they think is on the rampage, but Laestadius believes a worse, and more human, monster is at work. Swedish screenwriter Jesper Harrie is penning the adaptation, and Anagram Sweden is producing.

The BBC's award-winning murder mystery drama, Shetland, will have a new lead actor when it returns next year. Ashley Jensen will star as DI Ruth Calder, a native Shetlander who returns to the isles after 20 years working for the Met in London. The Scottish actor takes on the lead detective role left vacant by the departure of DI Jimmy Perez, played for seven series by Douglas Henshall. Jensen joins series regulars Alison O'Donnell (DS Alison "Tosh" McIntosh), Steven Robertson (Sandy), Lewis Howden (Billy), and Anne Kidd (Cora).

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Writers of Color welcomed Delia C. Pitts, a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat, about her crime fiction writing, which includes Murder My Past and Murder Take Two, the fifth and sixth books in her contemporary noir mystery series. She also has an upcoming novel featuring small town African American private investigator, Vandy Myrick, to be published by Minotaur in 2024.

Spybrary host, Jeff Quest, chatted with Benjamin Cunningham, author of The Liar: How a Double Agent in the CIA Became the Cold War's Last Honest Man, a book the publisher calls "the Cold War meets Mad Men in the form of Karel Koecher, a double agent whose shifting loyalties and over-the-top hedonism reverberated from New York to Moscow." Quest also chatted about the Prague Spring, declassified documents, and interviewing difficult subjects.

Six Days of the Condor author, James Grady, spoke with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke about his latest thriller, This Train; the Condor series; the US mid-terms; gauging the pulse of the nation; realism, rebellion and redemption; and enjoying life and art to the fullest.

In the latest episode of Red Hot Chili Writers, hosts Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee spoke with Kate Mosse and debut thriller writer, Greg Mosse, discussing historical fiction; the Cathars; climate grief; eco-terrorism; women pioneers; the Matilda Effect; the Tibetan Joan of Arc; and Granny Rosie.

The new episode of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's podcast features Merrilee Robson's tale, "Tired of Bath," from the March/April 2022 issue, which imagines what Jane Austen would experience when transported to the current day, and tracks two friends — an English teacher and a filmmaker — as they handle the situation.

THEATRE

Agatha Christie’s stage thriller, The Mousetrap, a London theater staple for 70 years, is finally heading to Broadway at an as-yet-undisclosed venue sometime in 2023. The play, a West End institution and popular tourist destination since 1952, has been performed in the U.S. before but never on Broadway or in New York. Although a new Broadway cast will be assembled for the production, some physical elements of the long-running London staging will make the crossing, according to the producers: "New York audiences will be able to see and hear some of the original sights and sounds from the production as it has appeared in London since 1952. The set will be a loving recreation of Anthony Holland’s design, and for a truly authentic touch, the only surviving piece of the original set — the mantelpiece clock — will be loaned from the London production for the Broadway run. The unique backstage wind machine, imprinted with the original producer’s name and still used today, will also be shipped across the Atlantic."

Happy Booksgiving

Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition

Crime Reads featured an essay by D.M. Rowell about her path to writing a Native American mystery novel, Name the Dead. As a child, Rowell was heavily influenced by her traditional Kiowa Grandfather, C. E. Rowell. He was an artist, master storyteller, recognized Tribal Elder, and one of the last readers of the Sai-guats, winter count deerskin calendars that chronicled a hundred years of Kiowa history. Her grandfather’s stories, memories, and art instilled a deep respect and love for her Kiowa culture and traditions within Rowell. She’s also an award-winning and nominated producer/writer on several documentaries, including Vanishing Link: My Spiritual Return to the Kiowa Way seen on PBS, and winner of TrailDance 2007 Best Oklahoma Documentary.

Salon profiled the Francis writing family who have kept a horse-racing themed thriller series going for 60 years, thanks to the efforts of a talented lineage. The series, which started with Dick Francis's Dead Cert in 1962, was continued by Dick's son, Felix, after his father's retirement and eventual passing (in 2010). But Dick's wife, Mary, also played a large role in the success of the series as a researcher and editor, so much so that some critics often thought she deserved co-writing credit.

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast episode is up featuring the Thanksgiving mystery short story, "They Shoot Pumpkins Don't They?" by Margaret S. Hamilton, as read by actor Donna Beavers.

Janet Rudolph has a running list of Thanksgiving-related mysteries on her Mystery Fanfare blog to keep you busy while you're recovering from gorging on your Thanksgiving feast.

Speaking of Thanksgiving reading, Jenn's Bookshelves will once again be hosting Thankfully Reading Weekend, November 23-27 (Wednesday through Sunday). There are no rules to the weekend, just a pledge to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meet some of your reading challenges and goals for the year. You can sign up to participate via Jenn's blog and share your reading progress via your own blog or by using the hashtag #thankfullyreading on social media sites.

The authors over at Mystery Lovers Kitchen have plenty of Thanksgiving recipes and reads for you, including Pumpkin Ginger Mousse from Leslie Budewitz; Easy Roasted Thanksgiving Vegetables via Lucy Burdette; and Cocoa Coffee Cake, courtesy of Vicki Delaney. Janet Rudolph also has an alternative to pie over on Mystery Fanfare, Chocolate Pecan Pie Truffles.

While we're on the subject of Thanksgiving fare, did you know that eels almost became the traditional Thanksgiving food instead of turkey?


This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "Kitchen Peril" by Amy Ralston Seife.

In the Q&A roundup, since Thanksgiving weekend has always been a big one for Hollywood, I thought it would be appropriate to share a link to an interview at The New Yorker with Rian Johnson, director of Knives Out and the sequel, Glass Onion, which premieres in cinemas for one week only from Wednesday, November 23 - Tuesday, November 29. In the Q&A, Johnson explains that he's been an Agatha Christie fan since he was a kid and decided to set his movies in modern-day America to engage with the culture of today, something Christie did herself.

Author R&R with Gregor Pratt

Greg "Gregor" Pratt is a former Ohio attorney who retired after 40 years of general practice focused on litigation in the Cincinnati area. But he always wanted to be a fiction writer, and with the winding down of the practice of law, found time over the last several years to write his first novel, Ebola Island, drawing on his experience as a trial lawyer. Ebola Island is the first in a series featuring class action lawyer, Jack Gamble, who is thrust into the middle of a pandemic on an island with a cast of dynamic characters who must grow to trust each other in their dire circumstances if they want to survive.

Pratt's second novel in that series is Dragon's Eye, in which Jack's wife Maddy, a teacher, goes missing. The police think Maddy has run off with one of her students even though there are no clues—she’s simply vanished. When the police and other agents of the New Zealand government begin to pull back the veil on hidden evidence, Jack and friends embark on a harrowing journey to rescue Maddy from the grips of the Chinese government. But how do private citizens challenge an overreaching totalitarian government with limitless resources and connections?

Greg stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching the novel:

 

Each author and each novel are different. Like most authors my very first novel is still in a box under my desk. It needs so much work! Researching it was great fun and I mention it because the research process was so much different than my later novels.

Since most of my first took place in Newport, Kentucky, which was close to my home at the time I was able to go there and see the streets and some of the buildings for myself. Of course that meant I had to separate out the new buildings. Focus was on the buildings that were there in the 1960s when the Kennedy Justice Department investigated Newport, which had been a vice hot spot since the Civil War. But buildings and streets are just a start. What was life like? I read a number of books about Newport in those days. One that I remember is Razzle Dazzle, which described the lives of people back then and how the legal operations were used to mask the illegal ones. Razzle Dazzle was a dice game where the player often appeared about to make a big win and somehow they never did. I was lucky to have an acquaintance whose father had been quite the gambler. He played cards regularly with a character named Sleep Out Louie, who got his nickname because he would sleep out a few hands in his chair while the game went on around me. The shared stories were invaluable. For instance Louie and my friend’s father would play gin for stakes so high that major league baseball players who were in town would come by to watch the action. They would keep score but would not play. And one of my brothers in law had an ancestor who was a member of “the mob” in Newport. The real life touches of those “true” stories helped give feeling to those chapters of the book and helped define the characters and their interactions.

On my second and third books which were actually published I was not so well placed geographically. Ebola Island (2019) takes place largely in Madagascar and Dragon’s Eye (2022) takes place in New Zealand and Vanuatu. Not only does my budget not allow travel to far away places like that , when I was writing Dragon’s Eye New Zealand was not admitting visitors due to COVID. So I had to come up with other methods to develop the background for my stories.

Ebola Island is a pandemic novel and as you have likely guessed the island reference is to Madagascar. The conditions of the people the island in my novel are wholly a product of my imagination: the physical attributes of the island itself I gleaned or tried to from Google Earth and online research. What routes would my characters travel? What is the terrain like? What landmarks would they see or cross? How far could they be expected to travel in a day/how many days would an overland journey take? What were the flora and fauna like? What creatures inhabit those lands? How available is water? What does the countryside look like if viewed from a mountain’s edge? These are all items I want to represent as accurately as possible. From Google Earth I could travel visually across the island from one identifiable place to another and the terrain changed as the journey went on just like it would if we were really traversing the island. Flora, fauna, creatures and water were all subject to research. Before I started writing I purchased several books on Madagascar , read them and went back to them for reference while writing. In that fashion the big issues were largely correctly represented and hopefully realistic with some specific areas crafted to fit the story. This is fiction after all.

The locale for Dragon’s Eye was predetermined at the end of Ebola Island when Jack announced that after he and Maddy married they were going to New Zealand. In 2019 I was hoping to go to New Zealand, research locations and specifics and then start writing. And I planned to do a little sightseeing and some fly fishing while there.

That didn’t exactly work out. Ebola Island is a pandemic novel published just weeks before we heard of COVID for the first time. And I am proud to say I got a number of things right in that scenario. And some not, for instance I did not anticipate face masks. And I definitely did not anticipate New Zealand being essentially closed to visitors. So here using Google Earth again I visited Nelson, New Zealand remotely and I was able to identify Jack and Maddy’s house, the school their children would attend and walking routes to get there as well as many other physical attributes that played into my novel. I find the satellite view most helpful.

Other facts needed research. For instance, how long does it take to fly a small plane from Tauranga, New Zealand to Port Vila, Vanuatu,? Is there an airport there? What is the name of the airfield in Port Vila and what is its condition? What are the politics, economy, population of Vanuatu? What nations are they friendly with? Are there any ongoing international issues? For issues like that I prefer to start with the CIA World Factbook or just World Factbook sites for each country. These sites are very comprehensive and are attributed to the CIA. They are readily accessible online. By way of example the World Factbook site for New Zealand has twelve sections identified covering such things as Geography, People and Society, Energy, Military and Security. It is often a good place to start to get to know a new and remote area. And it can even spark additional issues or twists and turns for your novel or perhaps just accurate historical references to give your work more gravitas. That type of site will give you ideas on what to explore in more detail. It can help you spell place names correctly and alert you to historic and cultural issues. And best of all, it fits right in our budget.

 

You can learn more about Greg and his writing via his website and follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can find the ebook version of Dragon's Eye via Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, with print versions available via most major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news, which is a little on the light side due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.:

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

The directing team known as Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez and Chad Villella) will helm the reboot of Escape From New York for 20th Century Studios. Original filmmaker, John Carpenter, will serve as executive producer of the project. The 1981 film was set in the then-near-future world of 1997 in a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum-security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned. The film also starred Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dean Stanton.

Steven Spielberg has found his Frank Bullitt, according to Deadline. Bradley Cooper has closed a deal to play the no-nonsense San Francisco cop in the new original Bullitt story centered on the classic character famously played by Steven McQueen in the 1968 thriller. Cooper will also produce the movie along with Spielberg and his producing partner, Kristie Macosko Krieger (marking their second collaboration after Maestro), with Josh Singer on board to pen the script. Steve McQueen’s son, Chad, and granddaughter, Molly McQueen, will exec produce the new movie. Sources are adamant this is not a remake of the original film but a new idea centered on the character. In the original film, Frank Bullitt is on the hunt for the mob kingpin that killed his witness. Considered one of McQueen’s more iconic roles, the film delivers one of the most famous car-chase scenes in cinema history.

Christian Gudegast (Den of Thieves) has been hired to direct the thriller, Crown Vic, for MadRiver Pictures. Crown Vic, which is based real events, is described as a "too-insane-to-be-true crime story" set in the early 1980s San Fernando Valley — a world where L.A. cops, mythologized by TV shows from Dragnet to CHiPs, were rock stars who operated with unchecked power. Its protagonists are Richard Ford and Robert Von Villas, two Vietnam War heroes turned superstar LAPD cops, who parlayed their positions to get rich, while cozying up to Hollywood’s biggest TV stars. The duo went on to build an underground criminal operation as thieves, gun runners, and murderers for hire, until their unwilling business partner risked everything to bring them down. Alec Ziff (Narcos: Mexico) conceived the original story with Gudegast and is penning the screenplay.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

ABC has reversed course on the drama series, Avalon, opting not to move forward with the show despite giving it a straight-to-series order in February. Avalon hailed from David E. Kelley and executive producer Michael Connelly, with the show based on a short story Connelly wrote. Per the official logline, the show takes place in the main city of Avalon on Catalina Island, where LA Sheriff Department Detective Nicole "Nic" Searcy (Neve Campbell) heads up a small office. Catalina has a local population that serves more than 1 million tourists a year, and each day when the ferries arrive, hundreds of potential new stories enter the island. Detective Searcy is pulled into a career-defining mystery that will challenge everything she knows about herself and the island. A+E Studios is said to still be bullish about the project and are weighing options on how to proceed.

The BBC and Amazon Freevee have commissioned Boat Story, a six-part thriller written by Harry and Jack Williams and produced by award-winning All3Media and Two Brothers Pictures (The Tourist, The Missing, Fleabag). Boat Story will premiere in the UK on BBC One and iPlayer, and in the US on Amazon Freevee. When two hard-up strangers, Janet (Daisy Haggard) and Samuel (Paterson Joseph), stumble across a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat, they can’t believe their luck. After agreeing to sell it and split the cash, they quickly find themselves entangled with police, masked hitmen, and a sharp-suited gangster known only as "The Tailor" (Tcheky Karyo). The project is described as having "off-beat humour [that] contrasts with high-octane action sequences against the spectacular backdrop of the beautiful, windswept Yorkshire coastline."

Amazon Prime Video’s conspiracy thriller drama series, Hunters, created by David Weil and executive produced by Jordan Peele, will end after the upcoming second season. The first season followed a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. The Hunters, as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the United States. Season 2, to be focused on a worldwide search for Adolph Hitler (played by German actor Udo Kier), will begin streaming on January 13. Al Pacino, Logan Lerman and Jerrika Hinton star in Hunters, along with Josh Radnor, Kate Mulvany, Tiffany Boone, Greg Austin, Louis Ozawa, Carol Kane, Saul Rubinek, Dylan Baker, and Lena Olin. In addition to Kier, Oscar nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh has joined Season 2, along with Emily Rudd and Tommy Martinez, who recur.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The All About Agatha podcast discussed Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, an anthology of short stories published this fall.

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Elly Griffith to talk about her newly published crime fiction novel, Bleeding Heart Yard. The story is set around a high school reunion where London police officer, Cassie Fitzherbert, has to determine if she's experiencing buried memories of having killed someone years ago.

On Crime Time FM, Georgina Clarke chatted with Jenna Gordon about her new historical crime novel, The Dazzle of the Light; the post WWI landscape in 1920; the Forty Thieves; historical accuracy; reflecting on the present through the past - the role of women, class & inequality; dressmaking; and Halloween cocktails.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Lonelyheart 4122

Colin Watson (1920-1983) was a British author who started out in life as a journalist, first as a reporter for the Boston Guardian and later as an editorial writer, theater critic and book reviewer. In 1958, while still working for newspapers, Watson published the first Flaxborough novel, Coffin, Scarcely Used, a book that Cecil Day-Lewis (who also wrote mysteries as Nicholas Blake) called "a great lark, full of preposterous situations and poker-faced wit."

Following the publication of the second book in the series, Watson retired to write full time and published a dozen mystery novels between 1958 and 1982. His mystery series came to known as The Flaxborough Chronicles, set as they were in Flaxborough, a fictional East Anglian city, population 15,000, loosely based on the Lincolnshire area of Boston where Watson worked as a journalist. The lead character in the series is Inspector Walter Purbright, assisted by his somewhat naive sidekick, Sergeant Sidney Love, and the Chief Constable, Harcourt Chubb. Watson's third book in the Chronicles, Hopjoy Was Here, won him a Silver Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association in 1962, and five years later he won a second Silver Dagger with Lonelyheart 4122.

Jeffery Ewener, a fan of Watson's work, wrote for the Mystery Magazine Web that in Watson's fictional world, "you find this...combination of superficial blandness deceptively concealing an uproar of animal spirits - like a hymn book hollowed-out to hold a hip flask. Watson gives us geriatric gentlemen patting bottoms, matronly housewives jumping into orgies, MI5 agents running up huge unpaid bar bills for reasons of National Security, austere solicitors blackmailing the local gentry."

As an example of what Ewener is referring to, take this excerpt from Lonelyheart 4122:

"Well, they didn't seem very pleased to see me, sir. Singleton wouldn't come out of the garden. He was going up and down with a lawn mower all the time. I had to ask each question as he went by one way, and try and catch the answer when he passed on the way back."

"Very trying for you, Sid."

"Not really. The answers were all very short. And him being so busy made it easier to get the writing samples. I just pinched three or four of the labels on his rose bushes. Of course," Love added, nodding at the file,  "I trimmed them down a bit and mounted them properly."

"So I noticed. Most neat. Now I understand why I couldn't make much sense out of "Peace Mrs. Pettifer Brevvitt's Pride Lancashire Ascending."

Lonelyheart 4122 introduces us to the character of Miss Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime, who subsequently appeared in all Flaxborough novels save one. In this outing, Inspector Purbright's investigation into the disappearance of two respectable middle-aged women leads him to a matrimonial bureau where he meets another client, Miss Teatime, whom Purbright fears may also be in danger. But Miss Teatime doesn't want anything to do with his protection, and neither Miss Teatime nor her shady beau, a retired naval officer, are what they appear to be.

Four of The Flaxborough Chronicles were filmed for the BBC's  "Murder Most English" program, including Lonelyheart 4122.

Mystery Melange

Six crime novels have been shortlisted for the 2022 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year in translation (either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia) published in the UK in the previous calendar year. The winning title will be announced on Thursday, December 8, and both author and translator of the winning title will receive a cash prize. This year's shortlist includes: Maria Adolfsson (Sweden) - Fatal Isles tr. Agnes Broomé; Helene Flood (Norway) - The Therapist tr. Alison Cullough; Ruth Lillegraven (Norway) - Everything is Mine tr. Diane Oatley; Anders Roslund (Sweden) - Knock Knock tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel; Lilja Sigurðardóttir (Iceland) - Cold as Hell tr. Quentin Bates; and Antti Tuomainen (Finland) - The Rabbit Factor tr. David Hackston.

The Crime Bake conference in Maine held this past weekend awarded the annual Al Blanchard Short Story Award to "The Bookings" by Jason Allison. The Honorable Mentions were "Robin's Hope" by Avram Lavinsky; "Steer Clear of the Devil" by Kim Keeline; "The Tattletale Tattoo" by Karen Whalen; and "Seven Women" by Eleanor Ingbretson. (HT to Joseph S. Walker, one of the judges of this year's contest.) The Award is named after Blanchard, who in addition to being a writer himself served as President of MWA-NE Sisters in Crime and co-created the Crime Bake conference.

Over on the other side of the Atlantic on November 27, there's a crime wave in Torquay (the home of Agatha Christie) via Crime at the Coast: A SW Crime Writers’ Convention. Authors from the Crime Writers’ Association South West Chapter, will be talking about crime writing and the secrets of getting published at a special day-long event in support of the Torquay Museum. Participating athors will include Stephanie Austin, Margaret Barnes, Sam Carrington, Jane Corry, Helena Dixon, Elizabeth Ducie, Richard D Handy, S M Hardy, Michael Jecks, K J Maitland. Special guests also making an appearance include Ian Hobbs of the Devon Book Club, and the book blogger Cherry Smith of the Crimepedia podcast.

As we near the end of 2022, it's time for the inevitable "best of the year" lists to start bubbling up. One of the earliest is Amazon's Best mysteries and thrillers of 2022, with Don Winslow's City on Fire chosen as the best of the best. To check out the list of all twenty selected titles, click on over here.

Mystery Readers Journal has a call for articles (500-1,000 word), reviews (50-250 words), and author essays (500-1,000 words) about mysteries set in Africa. Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "African Mystery" connection. The deadline is January 5, 2023: Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor, [email protected].

The Guardian reported on The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, the next installment in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series and the first written by a woman. Swedish author Karin Smirnoff takes the reins from David Lagercrantz in continuing the late author's vision for a 10-book series. The first three books — The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest — were written by Larsson and published posthumously after his sudden death in 2004. The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, which continues the adventures of hacker Lisbeth Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, was published in Swedish as Havsörnens Skrik last week, but Sarah Death’s English translation will not be out until August of next year.

The former New Forest retreat of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has come on the market for just under £3-million. Bignell Wood, a sprawling rural mansion just outside of Cadnam, was owned by Sir Arthur until his death in 1930, and was a birthday present for his wife Jean. Sir Arthur is buried in nearby Minstead, which also featured in his 1891 historical series set in the 14th century, the White Company. The current owner, interior designer Jane McIntyre of Jane McIntyre Design, bought Bignell Wood in 2006 and has restyled the interior.

This week's crime poem at the 5-2 weekly is "It's the Husband" by Sharon Waller Knutson.

In the Q&A roundup, Publishers Weekly spoke with Benjamin Stevenson about his novel, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, where members of a family of killers gather at an Australian ski resort; and Jane Harper, bestselling author of The Dry, was interviewed by Australia's ABC News about exiles, writing in a pandemic, and the rural noir renaissance.

Author R&R with Penny Goetjen

Award-winning author Penny Goetjen writes murder mysteries where the milieus play as prominent a role as the engaging characters. A self-proclaimed eccentric known for writing late into the night, transfixed by the allure of flickering candlelight, Goetjen embraces the writing process, unaware what will confront her at the next turn. Fascinated with the paranormal, she usually weaves a subtle, unexpected twist into her stories. After writing a three book mystery series set on the coast of Maine and two books set in the Caribbean islands, her latest crime novel, The Woman Underwater, is set in her home state of Connecticut.

The Woman Underwater centers on Victoria Sands, whose husband disappeared without a trace seven years ago. In the years since, no witnesses have stepped forward and no credible evidence has been collected, not even his car. The few tenuous leads the police had are now ice cold. He simply vanished on a field trip with the private boarding school where he taught behind stone walls, the same school their son now attends. But someone has to know what happened. And that someone may be closer to Victoria than she realizes.

Penny stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching her books:

 

What goes on before a writer sets pen to paper or fingertips to a keyboard?

Research is a malleable term. Writers each have their own definition of what that means to them in their work.

Honestly, I don’t spend a lot of time researching my novels before I sit down at my laptop to launch into a new manuscript. I write about locations I know intimately and have already fallen in love with, so there’s not much to research about the setting. But situations come up as I delve into each story that do require further investigation.

My most recent release, The Woman Underwater, a contemporary suspense set in New England, features a tension-filled helicopter scene. I didn’t know much about whirlybirds before I got to that development in the story, so I Googled certain parts of the craft and what the inside of helicopters looks like. Fortunately, I was writing from a laywoman’s perspective so she didn’t have to know technical terms, but I needed an understanding of what she would be seeing and experiencing. Once I was finished writing the chapter I ran it by a friend of mine, an airline pilot and former helicopter pilot, to test its validity. With only a single word tweaked, it sailed through with his nod.

In the second book in my Olivia Benning Series, Over the Edge ~ Murder Returns to the Caribbean, I needed to understand how the currents ran along Peterborg Peninsula on St. Thomas in the U.S.V.I.—particularly if “something” was dropped into the water on the bayside versus the oceanside of the peninsula. So, I reached out to a friend who is a seasoned captain there. He was very helpful, providing maps and regaling stories about how dangerous it can be on the point and the fate of the unfortunate who have stood in the wrong spot on the rocks at the wrong time.

In the third book of my coastal Maine mysteries, Murder Returns to the Precipice, I needed to get into the background of a certain coin that plays a key role in the story. What is referred to as the 1933 Double Eagle had an abbreviated stint in circulation when President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalled all gold, in an attempt to end the bank crisis of the 1930s. The few coins that were not returned soared in value but were deemed illegal to possess. I found it fascinating digging into this unique coin’s history, often uncovering varying versions of the story.

So for me, research isn’t visiting the local library or reading tombs of historical or technical information before I start a rough draft. Most of what I use is what I’ve experienced living or visiting in colorful locales. As the story develops, however, and as the need arises, I turn to Google or an expert in a particular field.

You can learn more about Penny Goetjen and her books via her website and also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Goodreads. The Woman Underwater is now available via all major booksellers.

Media Murder for Monday

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

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Keanu Reeves is negotiating a deal to reprise his role as the hitman, John Wick, in Ballerina, a new spin-off to his hit action franchise for Lionsgate, joining an ensemble cast led by Ana de Armas. As was also announced last week, Ian McShane will reprise his role as The Continental Hotel manager, Winston, which he’s played since the original John Wick film. Ballerina will center on a young female assassin (De Armas) who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family — as Wick has against those who have done him wrong. Production on the spinoff is now underway, with Len Wiseman directing from a script by Shay Hatten.

Oscar and Emmy winner, Viola Davis (The Woman King), will produce and star in the upcoming feature G20 from Amazon Studios and MRC Film. The action-thriller helmed by director, Patricia Riggen (The 33), sees terrorists overtake the G20 Summit, with American President Taylor Sutton (Davis) then bringing all her statecraft and military experience to defend her family, her fellow leaders and the world. Noah and Logan Miller (White Boy Rick) wrote the script, with revisions by Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss (The Red Lion).

Netflix released a full trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, only two weeks away from its theatrical release. Set in Greece this time around, Glass Onion will see Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) head out to the private island of billionaire tech genius Miles Bron (Edward Norton) where murder is afoot. Previous footage has introduced fans to the colorful cast of suspects and potential victims as they solved their puzzle boxes, claimed their invitations, and made their way to a mixer in paradise full of more head-scratchers to solve. Upon arriving, however, they realize it is no mere game when a death occurs on the island, putting detective Blanc on the case.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO and A24 have named the leads for The Sympathizer, a drama series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, produced by and co-starring Robert Downey Jr. The five series regulars, Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le, and Alan Trong, all of Vietnamese descent, were cast following an extensive search in a worldwide online open casting call. The Sympathizer is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy (Hoa Xuande) during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States. Downey Jr. is set to play multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists, all of whom represent a different arm of the American establishment. It was previously announced that Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Kieu Chinh (Dynasty), and Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen (Paris By Night) are also set for key recurring roles.

Disney is actively looking to develop an Indiana Jones TV show for Disney+. Because the studio is still looking for a writer to take on the project, no plot details are available. The move to potentially develop an Indiana Jones show comes as Harrison Ford has stated he is done playing the character after the fifth film, which is due out in 2023. Disney is currently exploring a number of options to keep the franchise going, which could mean a series, new films, other media, or a combination. Should a series move forward, it would mark the second show about Indiana Jones to make it to air, following The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that aired on ABC in the 1990s. Ford made a cameo appearance in one episode, but the show focused primarily on the early years of the character, with Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier playing him at different times in his life.

CBS is developing the drama series, Manner of Death, from writer and executive producer Emily Silver. Manner of Death tells the story of by-the-book Medical Examiner Amanda Bowman who, while fleeing her mysterious past, clashes with maverick Sheriff Luke Parker igniting a complex professional and personal relationship as they solve murders together. Amanda will also tackle how to do her job with the deck stacked against her. Silver also worked as a writer on various seasons of Fox’s Bones, led by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz.

Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) is the latest addition to the cast of the drama series, Sinking Spring, at Apple TV+. Mulgrew will star alongside previously announced lead, Brian Tyree Henry, as well as Michael Mando, and Marin Ireland. The series is based on the book, Dope Thief, by Dennis Tafoya. Per the official logline, the series "follows long-time Philly friends and delinquents who pose as DEA agents to rob an unknown house in the countryside, only to have their small-time grift become a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard." Mulgrew will play Theresa Bowers, described as Ray’s (Brian Tyree Henry) de facto mother who steps in to raise him as if he were her own child.

The networks have begun to announce their mid-season premiere dates. NBC, which picked up Magnum PI from CBS after that network decided to cut it loose, slotted the return of the series on February 19 at 9pm ET, followed by the new missing-persons drama, Found. The network also scheduled the three Law & Order series back-to-back on January 5. Meanwhile, ABC has lined up The Rookie and The Rookie Feds at new times on Tuesday beginning January 3, followed by the series premiere of Will Trent, based on the novels of Karin Slaughter. And Fox's lineup includes series premieres in early January of Alert, a procedural drama about the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Person’s Unit, and Accused, based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, in which each episode opens in a courtroom on the accused without knowing their crime or how they ended up on trial.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Crime Time FM's Paul Burke spoke with Stuart Macbride about protagonists and antagonists and his latest chilling thriller, No Less the Devil.

Red Hot Chili Writers chatted with American crime writer, Kellye Garrett, discussing why women should rule the world, and investigated weird and wonderful laws in small town America.

Jason Wong, who starred alongside Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, and Charlie Hunnam in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentleman, is exploring Hong Kong’s most notorious gangster in a new narrative podcast series. The actor is hosting Bad Money, a six-part series that charts the life of Big Spender, otherwise known as Cheung Tze-keung.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Katie Tallo, an award-winning screenwriter and director, whose thriller debut, Dark August inspired the 2022 sequel, Poison Lilies.

It Was a Dark And Stormy Book Club featured Gregg Olson discussing American Mother, the chilling true-crime story of Stella Nickell — a mother and wife who did the unthinkable and the unforgiveable.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Murder Among Friends

Elizabeth Ferrars (1907-1995), born Morna Doris MacTaggart, was a British crime writer and founding member of the Crime Writers Association who received a special Silver Dagger for lifetime achievement in 1980. Her Golden Age books totaled over 70 in all, written over a period of six decades, from 1932-1995. Her first crime fiction novel, Give a Corpse a Bad Name, led to a successful career as a mystery author in both the U.K. and in the U.S., where her publishers issued her books under the name "E.X. Ferrars."

It's been argued that her popularity hasn't survived well into the late 20th and early 21st centuries due to the lack of a solid series character. Her first attempt was with freelance journalist Toby Dyke (a Lord Peter Wimsey type) and his companion, George, a former criminal whose surname is never revealed. She wrote five Toby Dyke novels over a two-year period, which may be why she suddenly ended the series, adding that she did so because she "got to hate him so much." In the 1970s and 1980s she created a series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer, and another with retired botanist, Andrew Basnett. She also penned short stories centering on an elderly detective called Jonas P. Jonas. 

Her writing was in the "cozy mystery" vein, and as the Mysterious Bookshop noted, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine described her as the "writer who may be the closest of all to Agatha Christie in style, plotting and general milieu," while the Washington Post described her as "a consummate professional in clever plotting, characterization and atmosphere."

Murder Among Friends, from 1946 (published in the U.S. as Cheat the Hangman), is one of her 50 standalone novels, and was included by H.R.F. Keating on his 100 best crime fiction books list. The story begins with a party thrown by Cecily Lightwood for her literary and artistic friends, including guest of honor, playwright Aubrey Ritter, who lives in the flat above Cecily's. The group is determined to have a fun evening despite the ever-present danger of air raid wardens looking for blackout infringements in war-time London.

But where is the guest of honor? After he's found murdered upstairs and one of the party-goers arrested and later sentenced to murder, another guest, mousy Alice Church, finds herself so obsessed with the crime and doubting the verdict, that she sets about playing detective. With the help of Alice's scientist-husband Oliver, she puzzles her way through to discover the real murderer, thanks to her quiet, persistent insight and her husband's eye for detail.

By today's crime fiction (and even cozy) standards, Murder Among Friends seems to be a fairly genteel psychological study of complicated, intertwined relationships, which might be considered quaint in its depiction of sexual attractions. Yet, as Keating tells it, in 1946, Ferrars's regular publishers refused to publish the book because "detective stories couldn't be this steamy."

Although she's said to have based many characters and situations on people she knew and things she'd experienced in real life, it's not known to what degree that plays a role here. But with the long character portraits Alice extracts from her questioning of the key players, it wouldn't take much of a leap to guess that Ferrars's emphasis on the emotional makeup of her characters was drawn from a keen eye of observation; or, as a character in her book The Small World of Murder puts it, "Murder's generally an intimate sort of thing. It happens in a small world, a little shut-in world of violent feelings."