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

Universal has closed a deal on an action thriller based on the unpublished 43-page short story, "Run For Your Life," by Aaron Jayh. Designated Survivor creator David Guggenheim is attached to adapt the script, and Sam Hargrave (who helmed the Chris Hemsworth action films Extraction and its sequel for Netflix) is in talks to direct. The story centers on a groom marked for death on his wedding day.

Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters) is set to direct the thriller, Ice Fall, with production set to start in early 2024 and casting to get underway shortly. The film was written by George Mahaffey (Chief of Station) and centers on a young Indigenous game warden who arrests an infamous poacher only to discover that the poacher knows the location of a plane carrying millions of dollars that has crashed in a frozen lake. When a group of criminals and dirty cops are alerted to the poacher’s whereabouts, the warden and the poacher team up to fight back and escape across the treacherous lake before the ice melts.

Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Grace Caroline Currey (Fall) have joined Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring), Tim Blake Nelson (Captain America: Brave New World) and Simon Rex (Red Rocket) in the true-crime biopic feature, The Leader, based on the 1997 mass suicide of the religious group known as Heaven’s Gate. Michael Gallagher (The Thinning) is directing from his original screenplay. The Leader will chart the memorable true story of the 39 members of the UFO cult known as Heaven’s Gate who committed the largest mass suicide ever on American soil. The film tracks Bonnie Nettles (Farmiga) and Marshall Applewhite (Nelson) as they develop the religion, build a devout following, and face unforeseen conflict when the spaceship they foretold fails to arrive and take them away. Hall will play a key devotee: a wealthy addict who attempts to win favor with Applewhite by financially supporting the cult with his trust fund. Currey will play an Oregon-based boutique owner who drops out of society in the late 1970s to join the cult — leaving her family and fiancé behind.

Josh Duhamel (Transformers franchise) and Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) are set to lead the cast in the action-thriller, Off The Grid. In the film, a scientist (Duhamel) steals an experiment and hides off the grid in Europe to prevent it from becoming weaponized. His former research partner (Kinnear), along with an extraction team, is sent in to find him and locate the missing experiment. Directed by Johnny Martin (Hangman), the film, which has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, is currently in pre-production with a shoot scheduled for January.

A trailer dropped for the action-thriller, The Fall Guy, a big-screen adaptation of the 1980s TV series that starred Lee Majors. Directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train), The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as stunt man Colt Seavers. He's fresh off a nearly career-ending accident, and his next gig just happens to be a film directed by his ex, Jody Moreno (played by Emily Blunt). But Colt's efforts to rekindle their romance take a turn when the movie's mega-action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing. Now, Colt has to perform some of the most dangerous stunts of his career and try to solve the mystery of Tom's disappearance. The Fall Guy hits theaters March 1.

TELEVISION/SMALL SCREEN

Joe Pickett will not return for a third season, as Paramount+ has canceled the series starring Michael Dorman. Based on the novels by CJ Box, Joe Pickett followed a dedicated game warden (Dorman) and his family as they navigated the shifting sociopolitical climate of a small rural town on the verge of economic collapse. The cast also starred Julianna Guill, David Alan Grier, Sharon Lawrence, Mustafa Speaks, Paul Sparks, Skywalker Hughes, and Kamryn Pliva.

Production company Impossible Dream Entertainment is developing a series adaptation of Twenty Years Later, the 2021 bestseller from author Charlie Donlea. A mystery thriller in the vein of Big Little Lies, True Detective, and Gone Girl, Twenty Years Later follows Avery Mason, TV host of American Events, who knows her latest story – a murder mystery laced with sex, tragedy, and betrayal – is ratings gold. With new technology, the New York medical examiner’s office has made its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim in question, Victoria Ford, had been accused of murder at the time of her death. As Avery goes into investigative overdrive, she starts to unwind an intricate puzzle of Victoria’s life, as well as a much darker mystery. But there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own past — one she has kept secret from the world, her bosses, and her audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried.

A fan favorite series, Prison Break, is poised for a comeback. Hulu is in early development on a new incarnation of the Fox drama to be written and executive produced by Mayans M.C. co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner, Elgin James. Described as a new chapter, the new installment is set in the world of Prison Break, although further details are being kept under wraps. It is not expected to involve the characters who were at the center of the original series and its followups on Fox, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). The original series aired on Fox for four seasons followed by a made-for-TV film titled The Final Break which aired 12 days after the Season 4 finale in 2009 to wrap things up. A 2015 Prison Break sequel limited series starring Miller and Purcell, also on Fox, served as a fifth season.

BBC dropped first images from its two-part Agatha Christie adaptation, Murder Is Easy. On a train to London, Fitzwilliam (David Jonsson) meets Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton), who tells him that a killer is on the loose in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe. The villagers believe the deaths are mere accidents, but Miss Pinkerton knows otherwise – and when she’s later found dead on her way to Scotland Yard, Fitzwilliam feels he must find the killer before they can strike again

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe featured Debbi Mack's interview with crime writers David Bushman and Mark T. Givens about their new book, Murder at Teal's Pond.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club visited with an old friend, Lou Berney, award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway, about his new book, Dark Ride.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Tess Gerritsen, who is launching a new series featuring retired CIA operative Maggie Bird and her fellow former intelligence officers, all of whom now reside in Purity, Maine.

Femi Kayode spoke with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about his new Nigerian crime thriller, Gaslight; Philip Taiwo; Light Seekers; and eduction addiction.

The latest Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine podcast featured "The Picardy Third" by Jacqueline Freimor, originally published in the Jan/Feb 2023 issue, in which a murder strikes close to Private Investigator Jeannie Tannenbaum's granddaughter's music class.

The Pick Your Poison podcast investigated a poison that causes pathological shyness and is historically associated with being mad as a hatter; and also what causes dancing cat fever and might have contributed to the death of John Wilkes Booth.

Friday's "Forgotten" Books: A Bleeding of Innocents

Author Jo Bannister (b. 1951) is a former journalist born in Rochdale, Lancashire, who currently lives in Northern Ireland. She's the author of over 30 novels and has received recognition from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Press Awards and garnered an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Readers' Award in 1988.

She has several series including the Castlemere books, the very first of which was titled A Bleeding of Innocents, published in 1993, featuring a trio of police detectives. The story opens at a funeral for a dead policeman, soon followed by a case handed to Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro, who has brought in the ambitious DI Liz Graham to take over after the policeman's death.

The dead policeman's partner, Sgt.Cal Donovan, tries to get over the guilt surrounding his partner's murder, which he blames on a local crime baron. The case they're given is that of a young nurse shot in her car, but it's soon followed by the death of a surgeon who used to work with the murdered nurse. Making things worse, a third member of the same operating-room team, the anaesthetist, seems to be next in line, pointing to a serial killer. Then there's the matter of who killed Cal's partner adding to the mix.

Bannister is particularly known for her skillful plotting and convincing characterization. (The New York Times Book Review said "Jo Bannister scores high on character with her persuasive insights into the psychological responses to pain").

In an interview with Gerard Brennan via his blog Crime Scene NI, the author talked about her writing:

"I used to be a lot more disciplined about writing than I am now – working 8 to 12 and 7 to 9 six days a week. One of the advantages of getting older is that you no longer feel the need to do everything yesterday. When I’m in the middle of a book I aim at producing a thousand words a day. Sometimes I struggle; sometimes I’m on a roll and produce a lot more. But I don’t beat myself up if nothing much is happening, just keep trying until it does. There are more than thirty of my books on the shelves: if the next is a little late, people can read one of the earlier ones while they’re waiting."

She also discussed her worst writing experience involving a heavy-handed editor: "She was a zealot. And she thought...that she could improve something on just about every page," and gave her very sage advice for writing greenhorns:  "Do it for your own pleasure. There are easier ways to make a living."

Bannister's other novels include several standalone police procedurals and other non-Castlemere series:  Brodie Farrell who runs Looking for Something?—an eclectic problem-solving agency in Dimmock, England; a series with Gabriel Ash, ex-British Government Investigator and police recruit Hazel Best (the last published in 2018); a series with Dr. Clio Marsh and her husband, Detective Harry Marsh; a series with photojournalist Mickey Flynn; and a series with Rosie Holland, a newspaper advice columnist.

Author Jo Bannister (b. 1951) is a former journalist born in Rochdale, Lancashire, who currently lives in Northern Ireland. She's the author of over 30 novels and has received recognition from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Press Awards and garnered an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Readers' Award in 1988.

She has several series including the Castlemere books, the very first of which was titled A Bleeding of Innocents, published in 1993, featuring a trio of police detectives. The story opens at a funeral for a dead policeman, soon followed by a case handed to Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro, who has brought in the ambitious DI Liz Graham to take over after the policeman's death.

The dead policeman's partner, Sgt.Cal Donovan, tries to get over the guilt surrounding his partner's murder, which he blames on a local crime baron. The case they're given is that of a young nurse shot in her car, but it's soon followed by the death of a surgeon who used to work with the murdered nurse. Making things worse, a third member of the same operating-room team, the anaesthetist, seems to be next in line, pointing to a serial killer. Then there's the matter of who killed Cal's partner adding to the mix.

Bannister is particularly known for her skillful plotting and convincing characterization. (The New York Times Book Review said "Jo Bannister scores high on character with her persuasive insights into the psychological responses to pain").

In an interview with Gerard Brennan via his blog Crime Scene NI, the author talked about her writing:

"I used to be a lot more disciplined about writing than I am now – working 8 to 12 and 7 to 9 six days a week. One of the advantages of getting older is that you no longer feel the need to do everything yesterday. When I’m in the middle of a book I aim at producing a thousand words a day. Sometimes I struggle; sometimes I’m on a roll and produce a lot more. But I don’t beat myself up if nothing much is happening, just keep trying until it does. There are more than thirty of my books on the shelves: if the next is a little late, people can read one of the earlier ones while they’re waiting."

She also discussed her worst writing experience involving a heavy-handed editor: "She was a zealot. And she thought...that she could improve something on just about every page," and gave her very sage advice for writing greenhorns:  "Do it for your own pleasure. There are easier ways to make a living."

Bannister's other novels include several standalone police procedurals and other non-Castlemere series:  Brodie Farrell who runs Looking for Something?—an eclectic problem-solving agency in Dimmock, England; a series with Gabriel Ash, ex-British Government Investigator and police recruit Hazel Best (the last published in 2018); a series with Dr. Clio Marsh and her husband, Detective Harry Marsh; a series with photojournalist Mickey Flynn; and a series with Rosie Holland, a newspaper advice columnist.

Mystery Melange

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) announced two new award categories that will be added to their annual Dagger Awards slate for excellence in crime fiction. The Twisted Dagger is aimed at psychological and suspense thrillers, while the Whodunnit Dagger covers cozy crime, traditional mysteries, and Golden Age crime. Eligible books for the CWA Twisted Dagger are psychological thrillers (set in any period), suspense thrillers, and domestic noir, and those that "celebrate dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail." Eligible books for the CWA Whodunnit Dagger include cozy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age mysteries, which focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery and often revolve around quirky characters. Entries open in early 2024 on the CWA website, with the inaugural awards to be presented at the annual Dagger awards ceremony in 2025.

Dallas Noir At The Bar returns to The Wild Detectives on Sunday, November 5th from 7-9 pm. Authors scheduled to read from their writing include Sean Wright Heeley, Kevin R. Tipple, Jim Nesbitt, Keith Lansdale, Opalina Salas, Graham Powell, Harry Hunsicker, Trang Quynh Thi Vu, and Danny Trest.

The organizers of the Newcastle Noir conference announced it will return to Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, December 6-9, with panels, talks, and signings. Highlights include Ann Cleeves in conversation with Marsali Taylor and Mari Hannah & Kate London as they offer up a deeper understanding of police work from their novels. Last year's conference which was an in-person and hybrid event featured authors David Baldacci, Lisa Gray, Sarah Hillary, Chris Merritt, and other Northeast UK crime authors, and previous years have included Val McDermid, and Stuart MacBride. For more information and registration, follow this link.


Glencairn Crystal, maker of the "world’s favourite whisky glass" – and sponsor of the McIlvanney and Bloody Scotland Debut crime writing awards - is once again seeking crime short stories in collaboration with Bloody Scotland and Scottish Field Magazine. As with the 2023 contest, the theme will be "A Crime Story Set In Scotland," and short stories must be unpublished and 2,000 words or fewer. First prize is £1,000, and the Runner Up will receive £500, with both winners also snagging a set of six bespoke engraved Glencairn Glasses and publication of their stories in Scottish Field Magazine and online. The competition is open to all writers worldwide who are over 16 years old by October 23, with a deadline for submissions of midnight on Sunday, December 31, 2023.

As The Guardian reported:  Billed as "one of the greatest rarities of English literature," a signed copy of William Butler Yeats’s first play, Mosada, is on display this weekend for the first time since 1956 – and its £125,000 price tag is all thanks to a message from beyond the grave.


In the Q&A roundup, Lisa Haselton interviewed cozy mystery author Diane Bator to chat about the third book in a series, All that Shimmers; Shots Magazine's Ayo Onatade spoke with Maxim Jakubowski about his new novel, Just A Girl With a Gun, featuring a stripper who is recruited for her hidden talents and becomes an unlikely assassin; and Author Interviews welcomed Elise Hart Kipness, a former television sports reporter turned crime writer, whose debut mystery, Lights Out, is based on the author’s experience in the high-pressure, adrenaline-pumping world of live TV.